Feliz Pascua!

Hey guys, glad to hear you all had a good time out there in SoCal! I
would be pretty jealous if I hadn't gone to the beach today myself. We
headed out to a pretty secluded place out away from the main part of
Cerro and it was super nice because it was just a super tranquilo
little pueblito that had a really nice beach. It is pretty cold so
there was literally no one else there so it was just nice to relax
because we are both getting over being sick and this week really wore
us out. It was really nice, even if it wasnt cali.
This week was amazing though! One of the best weeks of my mission
hands down! Jesus is doing awesome preparing to be baptized this week,
and it has been so amazing to see the changes he has made in his life.
He is even starting to stick up for our standards with his contruction
buddies too, really a stud. This week we also had two other people
commit to baptism which is going to be super awesome and also very
interesting to see how it goes gettig them on the right road. The Lord
has really put the people in our path this week too. We almost have
too many people than we can visit in our week! It is crazy! Just this
past week we found a handful of people that are really interested in
the gospel! Our area is super humble, and it is definitely easier to
accept the gospel when we have been humbled like many of these people
have, but I keep thinking about the scripture that says how much more
blessed are we if we are humble without having to be made humble.
One of the huge highlights of my week was when we were sitting at a
bus stop late at night and a twelve year old kid came over and started
talking with us. He said he met the missionaries for the first time
earlier that day in his aunts house in a different area. He told us
that no one believes him, but one day he is going to be a missionary
like us. It almost made me cry. He lives in the part of our area that
is prohibited by the mission president, but we are going to see what
we can do about going in there sometime this week. It was amazing!
I love you all soo much! Thank you for everything you do for me! You
guys are amazing!
All my love, Elder Degn
ps. Tell the Jacksons thank you for their birthday package and that I
used the cake for a birthday party for a girl in our area that is
getting ready for the mission. It turned out super good and they loved
it!

Sunday Swag...4Americans, 1 Canadian & 1 Peruvian...got to love it!

 

A lot of walking...which is good!

Zach--Hey guys, yeah I'm super jealous that you guys are on your way to Cali right now. Have fun and tell Matt good luck. That is a fun tournament and I hope they do well! I got the package from Gaby, so thank you very much for that! The goodies were very well appreciated and the socks too. The new shoes were great but they blistered up my feet super bad. I wore them for two days than could barely walk so I went back to the old ones. Maybe it isnt a good idea to walk five miles in your first day with new shoes and ten the next, so I don't know, but it hurt pretty bad but the blisters are all healing up pretty good now. Its the thought that counts right?

Today has been pretty sweet! We went in to cuidad vieja a little bit and looked around and then went bowling with the six elders that live in our house. It was super fun and I also had Micky-Ds for the first time in seven months. Not too bad but still not quite as good as I remembered it. Pretty fun day riding buses and not really knowing where we were going.

This week was awesome though! WE have been working working a lot with the less actives and we had some great lessons with them this week and had just about all of them commited to go to church but then there was a huge rainstorm on Sunday so none of them ended up coming because they have to walk a bit to get to the chapel and when it rains a lot of people don't come. This week we´ll get em though!
We also had an awesome experience with our investigator Jesus this week! We went to visit and taught him the law of chastity (which is kinda his problem) We read about 15 verses from Alma 39 without stopping and explaining anything and afterwards he was just quiet for a few seconds and then just was like 'alright fine, you came to me with hard words, and I can't deny the word of God!' We were both a little bit in shock and we didn't really have to tell him much else. He just took it and we have got him back on track for his baptism in two weeks!

We also have an awesome old guy in our ward that goes out and works with us for a little bit every week and this week we were in a chat with a woman that just chooses not to believe in God, and he just pulled out his book of mormon and said 'God, I dont believe in you.' then opened his book and read the first thing on the page, it was the chapter heading of Alma 31 and it really hit her. It was crazy. The Lord comes through when we act with faith like that.

And yeah it is getting really cold here. I sleep with my chargers blanket and the big blanket that the mission gives us when we first get here. I like it a whole lot more than the heat though, so I won't complain.

I love you all sooo much! Thank you guys for everything!!

The church is true yall!!
Mucho Amor.

Elder Degn

Me and elder davis went to the almacen del oobispo too this week. Pretty impressive.

 

 Fun times at the Bowling Alley!

 

Conference in Cerro

Hey fam, how is it going! Im so glad to hear that you all like conference so much because we loved it here!! We went to the Stake Center and all the gringo missionaries watched it in English in the conference room and it was pretty darn sweet! I feel bad that just recently I have been paying so much attention to the Conferences because I learn so much! We also invited like crazy for everyone to go and we had a pretty good turnout. We had a less active woman we recently met that was baptized a year ago and went inactive shortly after and is really just looking for comfort in her life and when we invited her the only question was if she could take her daughter. She went to the Sunday morning and it was awesome to see her happy. There are miracles that happen through the conference, remember that. I also got a little homesick for Utah, but other than that it was awesome!

The talks we amazing as always! I really did like Elder Holland as well but we were all laughing a little bit because we would love if people only threw mashed potatoes at us, doesn't hurt quite as much as rocks. But it really inspired me to never let any of what happens get me down.

We also really liked the talks about missionaries working with members because that is something we are really trying to apply here. And working with members is awesome! It really makes a big difference and we have done some of our best work with members. Their testimonies are so strong it helps the people feel the spirit so strong. But seriously, the spirit is real.

We have been working with our investigator Jesus, but we have found some new challenges that we need to work past but he is such a solid guy. He knows the church is true and he wants to get baptized but he just says that he cant get baptized when he knows he will do something bad afterwards. He is taking it so seriously and it is amazing to hear him talk about Christ. I've never heard anyone say that they don't want to be baptized until they know they can 100% commit to God. It was really a humbling and cool experience. We are still working with him and he is still learning more and more about how Christ can help him.

I am also going to try to start doing what Elder Ballard said about sharing our experiences with PME. My favorite part is Attributes of Christ. I have learned so much from there about the person I want to be and how it helps us develop. Love it.

Well guys, thank you for everything you do and for your prayers. We need them and I have felt them. I hope everyone has a great week!

Todo mi amor,

Elder Degn

Same old Uruguay, whole new world...

 Woman´s conference looked awesome and the girls look great! Just seeing Salt Lake is amazing. It really is the place everyone in the church love. We have members that have pictures of that temple in their house just because of how much it means. But hey, Cerro is amazing!! It is soo different but I love it so much! We are in a WARD with six missionaries! It is the sketchiest part of the mission and we are the sketchiest area. Remember how I said how beat up it looked from the freeway? That's my area. Missionaries have been robbed and we just get harrassed all the time by the gang here. Somedays they are our friends, some days not. Ha my first day walking around they threw a softball sized rock at me and missed by a foot. That's just the daily norm though. Luckily I am with Elder Davis too who is huge! I really just feel super safe just walking around with him too. He is twenty and has been out for a year and a half and is from Livermore California I think. He is such a stud and I have really learned a ton from him so far. Maybe one day I will get a picture for you guys but we literally cannot take anything valuable with us. We can only walk around with a clear ziplock bag with our books in it so you can see what we have. But it definitely makes it fun. Our house is huge though!! We live with all the missionaries of our ward for now, but the other two are moving to their own house in a week. But it is basically like a bomb shelter. We have to go through two blast doors just to get to the house that is surrounded by a huge concrete wall with barbed wire on top. And the counselor to the bishop guards our house every night just to be sure. CRAZY!!!!

But the best part is how strong the ward is! Yesterday I went to church with over one hundred people!! I didnt know what to do! There are just tons of people I dont know but that are just super nice. I have also eaten at a members house every day since I got here and it is AMAZING! I love it so much. It is crazy to see how strong some of these members are and for how long they have been members of the church.

Also my second day here we went to our investigator Jesus and committed him to be baptized in two weeks! It was soo awesome! We asked him if he would, and he was like, ´yeah, I want to, I need to be baptized.´ It was so crazy, and we are going to work a lot with him this week. We are also really working with the convert that got baptized a month ago and she is super capo. She was super sad when the other missionary left but he gave her hymns on CD so she listens to them to really make her feel better and it was wierd to just be walking through this area and just hear hymns blasting on here speakers. She is doing really good though and is awesome to talk to.

Lets just say I still feel like a little country boy that has been getting slapped around by the city these days. Haha I wont even start on the buses here, always an adventure. Just picture some crazy Uruguayan driving the trax train after the Bingham games at the U. Something like that.

Well, just know that the Lord is with us, I have seen it already, I know He protects us and gives us the strength we need. I love you all so much! Thank you for everything you do for me!

Todo mi amor,

Elder Degn