Week 35 Continued…

ok the best one for some reason i can't sent to you because it is too big! but this little video is after the race the winners ran around the ring while holding the pig and this is a small part of it with pictures of gauchos and what the criolla looked like!

and by the way i'm going to call on mother's day around 6-8 o'clock my time in Uruguay i'll try to give you a more exact time next email!!

love ya,

elder Atkinson

Week 35!

¿Como estan todos?

how's life going?  HAPPY EASTER!!!!  it sounds like your guys' easters went amazing!!!  mine was very nice as well! i went to church, had lunch with the family of the branch president, and tried to work all night and talking to lots of new people.  but first i got to start with the beginning of the week. on Tuesday it rained a CRAP TON!!!  like it was terrible how much it rained, streets were filled in muddy water.  but we were working at about 7:30 at night (it's pitch BLACK) still pouring rain, and we pass by this house that two big dogs were sitting outside in front of the door.  one stands up and starts barking at me, so i kiss at it to get it to stop, but instead of stopping it starts walking towards me, it starts getting close so i pretend to pick up a rock (usually when that happens they run away and try to hide) but when i fake pick up a rock IT FLIPS OUT!!!!  and starts running, barking, and groweling at me.  it comes to like try to attack me and Elder Fikus squeals like a little girl and hides behind me haha.  so all of the suddel i had a huge surge of adrenalin go through my body and my first responce and to get mad right back at the dog, so i like start running, yelling, and groweling right back at the dog. haha for like a whole minute we had like a groweling and yelling showdown haha and finally elder Fikus gets up his nerves to do something and wave his umbrella at the dog and eventually the dog leaves.  hahaha that was one of the craziest moments of this week haha yeah there's more to tell you guys!!!  so i told you guys how this last week there was like a rodeo type thing in vichadero.  it's called "la criolla" and it went on all day through the whole week.  one day one member told us how there was an activity the la criolla did called the soaped pig, we thought that it was going to be a gaigantic pig covered in soap and a bunch of guys had to wrestle it.  we really wanted to go so we asked what time it's at and the lady said around 3:30 (one of the worst times ever to work in uruguay because of the siesta) so we decided that we would go there just for the one event then go back to work really quick.  so we went to la criolla and it totally wasn't what we thought it was going to be.  what it actually ended up being is a relay race while holding the pig, but the thing is that they had to hold the pig with one hand, while riding a HORSE!!!  hahaha it was so freaking hilarious!!!  it was more just crazy because of how illegal it would be if it was in North America because of how many animal rights people would have complained about it.  haha after this email i'll try to email you a video that we took of it!!!  i was crying i was laughing soo hard.  but right after that event we left and went back to work.  no joke within 30 minutes of being back at work it starts raining, HARD!!!  not only that but also it was reported that they har 90+ km/hr wind and everything.  it was like a stinking hurricane came in or something.  we hid underneath an old house's front porch to try to wait it out.  after about 15 minuted of consistant hurricane weather an old Gaucho on a horse comes out of the darkness and stops at the house.  we found our later that the house was his and we had a super nice lesson with him after!!!  he's a super nice guy and he said that no matter what, we're always welcome at his house. and he told us that he leaves hid front door open and everything, that guy ended up being one of the nicest men i've met here!!!  we were truly greatful for his easterly hospitality!!!

hey thanks for everything, the emails, love, letters, packages and everything!!!

love,

Elder Atkinson

Week 34!

¿Què tal todos? ¿Todo tranquilo?

 

hey we're in Vichadero for this P Day!!!  haha the first time in like a month! hahahaha these last couple of days have been filled with rain rain and more rain!!!  but it's all good!!! :) haha so after emailing you last we worked in Rivera all Wednesday and left home for Vichadero on thursday after district meeting.  once we got back here we had a family home evening with a part member family.  the mom (Erika) is an active member who was baptized like a year and a half ago, her husband (Marcos) is a non active member who was baptized like 8 months ago, and they have two sons (Andrew and Nauhel) ages 13 and 7 in who both are not baptized.  we decided to read the Family: A Proclamation to the World message and talk to them about the importance of the family in our lives and how it is the center on the gospel.  during the night he told us that he's been innactive for about 6 months or so and the he wanted to come back to church and that he would come this week to church!!! and guess what? HE ACTUALLY DID COME!!!  yeah we were both super excited to see Erika Marcos and Nauhel.  the 13 year old Andrew didn't show and i asked Erika after church where he was, and she said that he's at home.  and i said alright i guess we can only get one at a time huh? haha and she laughed and she said she'll try to get him next week.  this next week me and Elder Fikus want to visit them again and keep in touch on a weekly basis. well this whole week from today till sunday here is called the "Semana Santa" or the "Holy Week" if you will.  it's a HUGE week off from EVERYTHING!!! schools are closed, banks are shut down, and everyone goes to this huge carnival type thing in the center of the town.  there's all types of stuff like a ferris wheel, marry go round, stuff like that.  there's also a HUGE Rodeo, big competitions, dances, and a big place to buy little nic nacs and stuff!  it's super cool and everyone goes to it and stay there the whole day (which isn't that fun for us but we'll get through it some how) haha.  yesterday we also found out that one of our best investigators named Matias who's 17 years old left today to Montevideo to go work...  so we're probably not ever going to see him again...  but oh well.. i hope he'll get on opportunity to listen to the missionaries down there.  but yeah, thanks for all your love and emails,

love you tons,

Elder Tyler Atkinson

 

P.S. i have no idea when i'm able to call for mother's day... but i'll try to know for this next week.

Week 33!

hey there my good old family,

how's lifw going in colorado, utah, washington, and wherever anyone else is living that is reading this?  in case you're wondering me and Elder Fikus are staying together in Vichadero for another 6 weeks!  yeah we get along pretty well and we work super hard.  we're here in Rivera once again because we have to come in for the first district meeting of every change.  but we had a great time today playing soccar, having an asado and recieving zone T Shirts.  this week has been another interresting week in Vichadero.  we realized that someone has been breaking into our house and stealing money! not to worry, it was only like 50 pesos ($2.50) that they stole and nothing more.  but we've been on a hunt trying to find our who it is because we ALWAYS lock our doors and have our windows closed so we don't know how they are getting in.  but oh well,  this last sunday was Elder Fikus' 21st birthday!!!  we made some chocolate chip cookies because his mom sent him some brown sugar (they don't have brown sugar down here, and if you find it it's super expensive and doesn't taste the same) so we made cookies and a cake!  the next day (Monday) we went over to the Bishop's house and had a family night with them and made s'mores with them because edler fikus was also sent marshmellows because there isn't any down here either and they absolutely LOVED them and kept saying stuff like "you guys must really miss your food back there" because they loves the s'mores and we also brought some chocolate chip cookies and they had NEVER tried any of those before.  haha oh yeah this last sunday we were walking down a street like at 7:30 or so at night and we passed a tiny evangelical church like literally probably 6 feet by 12 feet where a guys was just going nuts so we started walking slower to try to hear what he was saying and a lady came out and invited us into the meeting so we went in for a little bit.  he was one of those pastors that was saying like one HUGE prayer  and didn't take a little break in between words, it was also in portuguese so it was even harder to understand.  but while praying he goes up to a lady in the front row (first row out of the three rows in the room) and puts his hand on her head and from what i could tell from the VAST AMOUNT of portuguese i know (Joke) said stuff like "be filled with the spirit! let the light of Christ fill you! keep filling! FILL UP! MORE! MORE!" while he was saying stuff like that she started shaking and like moving her head really weird.  haha it was definitely a different expirience that i've never been able to see! hahaha after like 5 or 6 minutes we left, while we were talking after we both were saying stuff like how weird the atmosphere was in there.  like we could literally tell the difference in spirit in there.  but besides all of that stuff happening we really didn't have anything else...  we've been just trying to find new people to teach.  we really need to find some new people to teach...  so we'll see how this next week goes :)  hey these two pictures are of my zone in Rivera!  it's tied for the biggest Zone in the mission! 13 companionships! 26 MISSIONARIES!

thanks for the emails and the love!

Elder Atkinson

Letter to the Butikofers-March 2011

Pictures to the Atkinsons

In Paysandu with Elder Segura (from Peru) on a 'wishing well', but it's just filled with stinking trash.

Me & Elder Segura with a giantic Mate! Livin' it up!

Paysandu is famous for this flower! I don't know what it's called.  All I know is it's famous and cool looking!

Week 32—additional pictures!

here's some more pics the first is me, my comp our branch president, and Jorge the guys who we push to church in the tricycle.  the second pic is of the birthday we had for jorge a couple weeks ago. the other is a blury picture of me with a vichadero sign. and the last is a pic from us doing servivio for a lady in our ward. we were chopping wood in a olg shack that was probably 100+ degrees in there

love you tons

Week 32!

hey there my good ol' family!!!

just letting you know, on last tuesday i got your easter package! i definitely wasn't expecting it!  considering i got it like a month early!  but i thank you guys a stinking TON, also Elder Fikus says thanks for the tie and the M&Ms that you sent him!  haha but general Conference was stinking INSANE!!!  because we couldn't see it in our church in Vichadero we had to come back to Rivera again this weekend, therefore we were only in our area for 3 full days this last week...  which is super bad...  but there's honestly nothing we could do.  but the actual General Conference was super GOOD!!!  i thought that all sessions were so stinking good!  i especially liked the Priesthood session again!  hey you want to know something???  the choir for the priesthood session was a BYU-I choir and the Quesadilla Guy was in it!!!  yeah no joke the guys that made the HEAVENLY Quesadillas was in the choir and i saw him!!!  too freaking funny! oh another thing!  Saturday when we ate lunch, a was eating hot dogs and ANOTHER bird pooped on me!!!  yup this is the third time that a stinking bird has pooped on me in Uruguay, this time it was only on my shirt but it was my White church shirt...  yeah that was a little disappointed after lunch.  but for General Conference we watched the lives sessions here and 1 o'clock and 5 o'clock and we had to wait till sunday morning to watch the priesthood session because the priesthood session started at 11 that night.  but it's super nice because for all the normal sessions the church lets us have an English room so that we can get more out of it.  it's not that we don't understand what they are saying in spanish, because we understand it perfectly, but it's just soo much better hearing their voices and the spirit and tone in their voice is soo much better.  but because we recorded the preisthood session we watched it in spanish.  but oh man, the Prophet's talk in priesthood session was AWESOME!!!  it was amazing to hear him "drop the cane".  you know what else was awesome???  hearing how they plan to have a new temple in Ft. Collins!!!  that was super suprising for me!  but super AWESOME!!!  but NEXT WEEK IS CHANGES ALREADY!!!  time is going by super duper fast, but just a FYI/reminder, i'm not going to be able to email till tuesday because of changes.  but i'm pretty sure that we're both going to stay together for this next change.  but i think that if one of us leaves i think that it's going to be me because president heaton wants senior comps to stay in the same areas for longer periods of time.  but we'll see what's going to happen.  hey now that i have the capability to send pictures through the internet i'm going to do it!!!  the first one is of my zone at a BBQ that we did like four weeks or so ago.  the other pic is of me and some ostrich feet; one of our investigatores had a problem with their little daughter running out of the gate at their house so he created the idea to chop off Ostrich feet and hang them to the gate because she's scared of them so she won't touch the gate and leave! haha i hope you enjoy!

love you guys lots,

Elder Atkinson


*Elder Atkinson also sent some pictures that I need to crop before adding them to the blog, so check back in the next couple of days to see them!