March 30, 2015

Hey guys whats good?!? Thanks for the updates, glad to hear that everyone is still doing great and keeping up with everything that you guys have to do! Sounds like a crazy/fun week with the boys traveling, good luck to all everyone in their tournaments! And you girls, Semper fi. I'm super pumped for conference and really cannot believe that it is already here again! The last one I was chilling in Rivera with Elder Bentley just living it up, where does the time go? Enjoy easter as well, here it is La semana santa for the Catholic church, but it is funny because it is also la semena de turismo, or basically a fall break type thing, Paysandú is famous for this week because here is the Urugayan headquarters of a beer company that has a couple big factories in my area and this week is la semana de la cervesa (beer week). Basically a weeklong party down by the beach with tons of beer and concerts. Funny how the world keeps sliding away from God, even when we need to remember the most important event in the history of the world! But oh well, I will try to resist all the free beer;) Also this week we basically changed to Fall all at once, really just one day to another it was really cold, and has stayed nice, really relief of the heat. It was just nuts how suddenly it happened, but Im really glad its here!

This week has been awesome though! We worked on wednesday in Montevideo, and it was awesome for me to work in Cerro again, really close to my old area. I was working with Elder Goold from Idaho, and it was awesome because a year ago we were in the same district in cerro and were both junior comps. Time just goes by too darn fast. It was a great day though despite the cold and rain that we were not prepared for, but we had a amazing experience and I learned a lot as well! We are also on the stake activities committee and this week we had a stake talent show and it was super fun! My house did a syncronized swimming spoof, and it was hilarious and really gave the show the comic relieve that it needed. Everyone loved it though and it was super fun as well! 

We were feeling so good going into this week as well with our investigators too, and we were really able to make good progress with most of them, and we also found a couple of awesome new people as well! We found out that our number one investigator isn't married and doesn't want to either, so we invited her to pray about it and we are also praying that she has a change of heart. They have been together for 31 years for crying out loud, just tie the knot!! 

On Monday night of last week though I had such an amazing experience with Elder Luke, an elder that stays the night at our house because they live far away, so we were on divisions and went to a part of the area I didnt know yet to find new people, but turns out that there is absolutely nothing there, just an army base. We walked for a really long time without seeing everyone, and I realized why we had never gone there before, but then we went back to the other part of the area to talk to some people before the night was over, and we went to a house that I had wanted to visit before because their kids always said hi to us when we walked by, so we went to try to find the parents home, and they were, and they were so....normal. It was amazing, they are both police officers, have two kids, work a lot, run the kids around, and believe in God, we had a great conversation with them out front, and then we had to leave and I asked if we could say a prayer with them and she said yes and invited us in to do it. I don't know why it still shocks me so much when that happens, but it was amazing and we shared a great moment together, and they invited us to come back whenever we like. I love this work!! It is so amazing! I know that Christ LIVES. Not that he lived or will live, but that he lives NOW. I know that He is at the head of this, HIS work, and that He is the one doing all the heavy lifting. Its an honor to be on his team and meet the people that He is preparing to recieve the gospel. 

I love you guys so much, have a great week!!
Elder Degn

ps. Me and Elder Goold on their house in cerro, right beneath the forteleza.

 Uruguayan Synchronized Swim Team!!