See it. Own it. Solve it!

Hey folks, don't worry, I'm almost home too!!! Haha just kidding but enserio, it will be a lot nicer to get my personalized letter from everyone again, no offense to Hannah, just I'm tired of feeling like I'm going home in a week. It honestly is hard for me to believe that we have reached this point in time, and I cannot believe that Hannah will be home in a week and a half!! Honestly blows my mind! I am SO, SO grateful that the mission for me is two years, but I think that the Lord had it planned that way. I cannot imagine going home right now, I'm in my prime!!! We have got work to do!! Speaking of which, our area is exploding!!! We saw so many milagros this week that it wasn't even funny! We first off found an awesome young family that has little kids and that has had a couple of people pass away recently in the family and that really opens the door to a lot of really good questions that we just so happen to have the answers for. We basically taught the plan of salvation right there and set something up to come back and teach some more which they accepted!! On top of all of that, they are already married!! Vamo arriba!! That was honestly an awesome find! The next day we were working in a part of the area that we haven't worked very much before and a group of teenage boys playing soccer in the street yelled something quite charming about missionaries, *cough* and so we went over and started talking to them and it started out a little rough with about five of them, and then a few of them went and called their friends over and before long we were sitting there on the ground on the jimmy rigged futbol field talking about God and such with about 17 kids, it was awesome!! There were a couple that were very geniunely interested and on Saturday we went back and taught a little smaller group, but the ones that were interested were still there. Especially a 19 year old kid named Lucas had a bunch of questions and genuine concerns, and we had a great lesson with him there and taught him how to be forgiven for everything bad he has done, invited him to church and to be baptized and he accepted both, and went to church with us yesterday!! It was amazing! We were a little worried at first because the atmosphere in the chapel was a little bit cold for a new person, but slowly it got better and better and we ended with a super spiritual sacrament meeting that  just put the bow on it all. He loved it and is going to help us invite his other friends too!! Love it so much!! The work here in Paysandú is really starting to take off after a long time being super tranquilo. That is what we are here for, elevate your vision and get it done!! See it. Own it. Solve it. Do it! PAYSANDÚ ES NUESTRA! 

Paysandu! Semana 2--January 26, 2015

Hey guys sounds like you are all doing really well, enjoying the winter blues:) Just kidding, but enjoy it while you've got it. It is getting pretty hot here still, but at least the nights are cooling down a little bit. I also got our family Christmas card this week, and dang, we look good. Just saying, even though I miss not having mom and dad in there. I also get a little sad looking at Disneyland every day, but oh well, over it. 

This week was awesome though! I love opening area so much! This week we went the both of us to do a special divisions with a companionship that is opening an area in Young, (pronounced shune) about an hour away. We went to give them just a full day working with two companionships in their area to find a bunch of new people. It was honestly an awesome experience because we found a bunch of sweet people for them to teach and really fortified our own testimonies about finding more people. It was really probably the first day that I did not sit down for a long time. A whole bunch of contacting. Definitely worth the effort though. Our own area is doing great as well! It honestly has so much potential! We have two families of investigators that we are really working really hard with, one is very new that we found last week, and the other has talked with the missionaries for three years, but never really took any desicions. With the new family they are very excited to talk to us and are great people and live super close to the church! They are religious but don't go to any church(miracles!) and are really open to learn more. With the other family it is a little more complicated, it is a woman and her granddaughters, and they all seem like members already. It is nuts I swear. They have been to church once in these three years with missionary visits but we had a great lesson with them where we really just were very clear with them saying right now is the time to act! Hoy es el dia!! And they took it super well and committed to going to church this next week! Really got our fingers crossed for both of them. That is just the top two of a big group, we have been finding a bunch people, and going through for the second time really to the promising ones. 

Then come the menos activos....probably half of the people in our area are baptized, it is ridiculous. Almost every house has someone that is a member it feels like. They just all stay home. But we have found a bunch of them and there are three big families that have shown a bunch of potential and desire to come back to church! They are really such good people and just need more help and motivation to help them stay steady for awhile and get their own firm testimony. It was just sad because none of them made it to church because they couldn't get up in time. Darn old habits... But they will get there! We are super excited for these guys! Half of our area is made up of two pretty sketchy neighborhoods, sketchy to everyone here, but not that bad really, just crazy teenagers. It doesn't bother us that much because we were both in Cerro, I'm bigger than all of them, and my comp is from the favelas in Brazil. Lets just say he knows how to handle the situation...no one has messed with us yet. Ha but the other day I had my wallet on me because we had to travel(usually never have it), and I just had it in my pocket still, and we were on our way out of the area to catch the bus, and two kids both probably younger than twelve passed by on a motorcycle and the one on the back grabbed my wallet in on the outside of my pants and let go just as the drove by, just trying to send the message. Message accepted:) So yeah, we are loving our area and loving the work! We just talk to everyone and it is awesome!! 

Thank you guys for everything you do, I love you tons!!!

Lo melhor,

Elder Degn
ps, this is the front balcony of our house overlooking the main street, 18 de julio. Yes, we do have a 20 ft TV...

 Cooking in our cute kitchen

 Bridge to Argentina!!!