New Area Assignment and New Pictures

Note from Dad: This week marked John's six month anniversary in the mission. March 3rd was the official six month date.

March 9, 2009

Dear family,

Well, I’m so excited. I finally got changed! I’m currently in Tres Cruzes in Montevideo Uruguay. My new companion is named Elder Malluf. He’s from Paraguay and he speaks perfect English. I’m so happy!!!!!! So far he seems to be awesome and I’m looking forward to this change and working with him. My new area is called Miñas. It’s up north from Montevideo and it’s much bigger than Sarandi Del Yi. I will be living in a house with three other missionaries; Elder Haws, who was the old assistant to the president, and his oro and my companion. My old comp elder Rostaing is with a new missionary who is super obedient and I'm so happy. And I hope he can change him. I had a really rough last week with Elder Rostaing. I'm hoping that he gets better and they can see some success in Sarandi Del Yi.

I'm really glad to hear that your choir trip was so successful and I’m even happier to hear about all of your referrals. If I had referrals like that here I think I would die, because that's unbelievable. Congratulations.

I just met Hermana Walton who is now going to be in my same zone. I'm really looking forward to going to my new zone, Maldonado. I hear there are zone conferences on the beach.

I had a really strange experience the other day. My first baptism, Luis Zaidan hasn't been to church in about a month. Because of my surgery and everything, I haven't seen him in a while. We were working and walking up the street and we saw Luis. He walked up to me and I could tell he was drunk and he had been drinking. He was covered in blood, and he looked like he just got into a fight. I asked him what happened. He started to cry, and told me his wife beat him up. He had all of his stuff with him, and told me that he was never going to go back to his wife. He then pulled out a picture of his baptism. He thanked me and told me this was the happiest he had ever felt in his life. It put tears in my eyes, and after that I had a hard time working the rest of the day. It made me sad to see him like this. Besides all of this, I hope that he can somehow get over it and get back to church.

The assistants called me the other night and told me that I have two packages that just came in. So, just so you know, I should have my camera. They said they're waiting for me in Miñas.

Well, it was good to hear from ya. Another week down. It's crazy how fast time is going. I'm having so many experiences, and I'm going to really miss Sarandi Del Yi. I hope that you all have a good week; you need to know that I'm doing good and my health is returning back to normal. Thanks for everything.

Love your son,
Elder Sluder

P.S. Here some pictures taken yesterday before I left Sarandi.

Sarabdi Del Yi town sign

Another ward family and Elder Rostaing

Looks like an old train car... John and trains.

Not sure who this is...

Bishop Barreto and family

The Ward Building

Sermon on the mount???

This is my favorite picture so far (Dad).