Happy Thanksgiving!

Man it is so crazy to think that it is this time of the year already. Congrats to Matt and have fun on that team with good ol Scotty. Also, props to my man Josh for rocking the tux and having a super fly date too;) You kids have fun out there in Erie PA. And to everyone! It sounds super fun and this is definitely a super fun time, so enjoy all the good food for me!

This week has been a whirlwind, mostly because of the preparation for our investigator Carlos. He has had a really rough time getting to baptism and we have had to have some really crazy charlas with him. We had a charla with him on Friday with our branch president Presidente Rodas and it was super good. We really never have member lessons because there are so few. But it really makes a difference. We covered just about everything with him and Carlos felt really good about everything. So we thought. On Saturday our ZLs came and gave him a formal interview that lasted about a hour and fifteen minutes and came out saying we should wait. We went in and talked with Carlos and realized that he was struggling with tithing. Its understandable for these people to have this doubt because they have nothing. Carlos litterally does not make hardly anything. We had already made all the arrangements for his baptism, so this was hard for us to take. We left him with a commitment to read and pray and ponder during the sacarament about what he should do. On Sunday morning when we got him to the chapel, he talked with Presidente Rodas for a little bit and after sacrament he said he wants to get babtized, so we went on as planned! It is just a crazy roller coaster sometimes, and he was feeling up and down all week, but felt like a million bucks after the baptism. It was awesome to just be a part of everything that happens here.

Also on saturday we spent about six hours working in our capilla with our presidente cleaning and working in the back. Its not a legit capilla so there is a little bit of a back yard that had been overgrown and was like a little jungle. It took awhile but it really looks better now, and we wont have to worry about it for awhile now.

This week was the first of this new change and we had an awesome capacitacion de zona to get it started. Colonia is the only zone that is not a stake in Uruguay, and this is the goal of the Presidente Smith. Since there is no stake president here, he has the keys for Colonia and the goals he sets for us are really high but it is what is needed to get the work moving faster here. We are already seeing the progress all over Colonia. We are still the smallest branch, but it is gettting better every week.

Also, yeah, its getting supa hot. Not just hot, but humid too. Almost everyday I can just feel sweat on me. I dry off after my shower and it basically starts then. It can cool off a little bit, but the humidity just kills yeah. Its not even full blown summer here. And I am in the coolest area of the country. Its going to be a nice fun summer for sure.

Well kids, I know it isnt too much this week, the baptism took a lot of our time this week becasue we had to pretty much prepare everything. But everything is going pretty darn well. Me and my padre made a goal to speak spanish to each other a lot more this change to really help me so I can get my spanish up there to be able to get by on my own after this change. I cant wait because I always feel like I learn something after everytime I speak because I do something wrong and get corrected, then never forget what I did wrong. Its coming for sure.

Thanks for everything you guys do for me. I am so grateful to have come from our family and for the love and support we have for one another. Everynight I thank the Lord for all your love and support. Gracias por todos. Les amo muchisimo. Espero que ustedes disfrutan este semana con todo nuestras familia!

I love you all,

Elder Degn