Family Baptism and Other Adventures

April 12, 2010

Dear Family,

Wow, another week has now gone by and I have had quite the week too. It was pretty much just the typical busy week, but it’s definitely gone by super fast. There are several things I want to mention so here it goes. First of all, last P-day we went to a place called Pan de Azucar. In Pan de Azucar, there is a cerro (hill) with a huge cross on the top.

It’s about 16 stories tall and you can climb up inside of it. From there you can see the ocean and all of the Uruguayan country side. I included pictures of it. If you want to know more, just look it up on the internet; but I have now been there and done that.

Today we went up to the horse statue Artigas which like you said is the biggest horse statue in the world. I also took pictures so I hope you enjoy them also. So all of that’s been really cool.

On Friday we went on an interchange with the zone leader to Maldonado and wow that place is ghetto! Have I told you guys how much I hate dogs here in South America? While in Maldonado, we had a meeting with the Hermanas and I spoke with Hermana Walton for a while. It was pretty cool. We talked a whole lot about the people in Las Vegas that we both knew. Weird huh? We got back to Miñas on Saturday.

My companion and I have now reactivated several families in the branch here. One of our families named Incuralde has identical twin 8 year old sons who really wanted to be baptized. So on Saturday night we baptized them. It was really cool. They were not convert baptisms, but I still felt good about it. I hope that they can continue to make good choices in their lives and have success. We had a full chapel on Sunday! It was so awesome and we are seeing miracles. We hope to be able to reactivate and baptize the few good investigators that we have. Well besides that, all is been good.

Mom and Dad, one other thing… Here in Uruguay, the missionaries use handmade leather cases for their scriptures called tappa. An artist usually draws an image on every side. They protect your scriptures and are kind of a cool remembrance of the mission. I’ve priced them out all over Uruguay, but everywhere I go they are all upwards of $200-$300 dollars American. I didn’t want to spend that much. When I went to Maldonado the other day, they have a recent convert there named Walter Del Puerto (look him up on the internet) who makes them. I asked how much and he quoted me at $100 dollars. (Three different cases, one for my Bible, one for my BOM and one for my hymn book, all with an image drawn in the leather of my choosing) Can I get them? It was an awesome price. I will probably receive them right around my birthday in June and it would make for an awesome birthday gift. Tomorrow he is coming to our zone conference to talk with the missionaries about what they want. I did make a plan to get them from him and I kinda placed an order. He did tell me though that because of all the work, he will not start on mine until the first week of May. If I need to cancel, it would be fine. Anyway, let me know. I will finish putting in my order and getting everything situated with him tomorrow, but let me know if that’s alright with you in your email next week.

Thanks for all you do. I love you all and I love the new horse, she looks great!

Love your son,
Elder Sluder