Week One in Miñas

March 15, 2010

Dear family,

Well… Wow!!! I’m doing great. I love my new area and I love my new companion even more!

I went to Montevideo this morning because I had to sign some paperwork with immigration. Anyways I took 500 pesos out of my account, which is like 25 dollars American. I was expecting my reimbursements this week, but because of all the changes, it’s going to be another week to get them. Today is P-day and I’m in need of a haircut and I really need to buy a bar of soap. My companion says I can use his for as long as I want, but I figure since I have been using his soap for a week, I should just buy a bar of my own. Today being P-day is the day to buy stuff like that and I really don’t want to go another week without it. I’m sorry. For now I’m about 98% sure that I won’t need to take any more money out for a while. I’m expecting reimbursement of 2500 pesos to come next week. Then the next week after, I will get paid my gyro of 3100, so I should be more than fine. I plan to put some money away into an emergency fund so I no longer need to use my account. If I can slowly build up my reimbursements, I will have plenty from here on out. Sorry for this inconvenience.

Miñas is awesome!!!! I live with three missionaries as you know. It has been the best time ever and I’m loving every minute of it. My new companion Elder Maluff is amazing and this past week we have had some success and plan to work hard and be obedient to the rules! So far so good and we are accelerating and doing wonders in only our first week together. It’s really strange, we get along really well. He speaks English perfectly, so that’s been nice. When I have a question or don’t understand a word, I can ask him what it means and he can tell me. I feel like I’m a missionary now. I had a rough month in February, but now I feel incredibly blessed and it has been wonderful.

Miñas is divided into two areas, Miñas 1 and Miñas 2. Before I came here, there were only two sets of missionaries. Sister missionaries are usually assigned to Miñas 1 area. The mission president split Miñas 2 area, so now we have 3 sets of missionaries in the branch. Now that we have more missionaries here, the mission president has set a goal to turn Miñas 2 and eventually Miñas 1 into wards. I know it’s possible and I know that we were all put here by inspiration from the Lord to get this done. I was given the half of the city to work that has the countryside and I will once again be working in the country going from farm to farm. Miñas is beautiful. It is the only place in Uruguay that has mountains. It’s awesome and it kinda reminded me of home… kinda!

Last week I did receive two packages. I got my package from you with my camera! It rocks to have a camera again; thank you so much!!!!!! And I also got a package from grandma. I loved it and I felt so blessed I can’t even tell you!!! I still have my bike. I brought it with me from Sarandi Del Yi.

Dad, you tried sending me those photos but my email won’t accept them… I would love for you to send me the photos from the family reunion that we had back in august. I need photos for lessons to share about families. I can just print them off here in the cyber cafe for like 5 pesos apiece.

Lots of things in our new home are broken, so I have been busy fixing them. My comp says I’m Mr. Fix it and he too offers my help to people who have problems on the side of the road. He tells them, “Hey, my companion is a really good mechanic; he´ll fix it for you for free”. I think I have now fixed more crappy cars on my mission than before. Unfortunately I can’t drive any of them and I’m just stuck walking for now.

It’s now starting to get cold here. It’s kinda weird; I’m not really looking forward to the cold here. It’s been over a year now since I have experienced winter. So this next one is going to be kinda interesting

Well I've got to go. I love you all and I’m alive and safe. I’ll keep you all in my prayers.

Love, Elder Sluder and ELDER MALUFF