FELIZ NAVIDAD A LA MEJOR FAMILIA DEL MUNDO!!! Dec. 22, 2014

FELIZ NAVIDAD A LA MEJOR FAMILIA DEL MUNDO!!! Hey guys I love you so much and can't wait to see you in a few days!! Won't waste time on the small talk, we´ll have time for that. I will be calling you guys around 930 am YOUR time if that is alright. Cant wait!!
Oh my heck....This week has been one of the most amazing weeks of my entire life! Like you know, Tuesday at 4:30 in the morning our zone of 28 missionaries heading down to montevideo and we got there at about noon. Super fast actually. But when we got there we had a training from President Smith about fasting and personal covenants, which absolutely enlightened me. Something that I honestly didn't know too much about and that helped me understand so much better. After that we went and had a huge amazing american lunch prepared in the mission home and stuffed ourselves to begin our fast for the next day. After lunch Elder Toledo and I gave our training for the zone which I felt like went very well. We are really just trying to help the missionaries here get working like never before! After us, the APs trained as well, so it was basically an information overload. During the APs, we had interviews with President Smith, and it honestly always blows me away when I can talk to him and I learn a ton and come out ready to take on the whole world. At the end of the day we were committed to use our fast to make a personal covenant with God. Something between Him and me. It was a great experience and I felt immediately the answer for me. We stayed the night in the Hostel, and it was really nice to sleep with AC, I enjoyed it thoroughly;) Then early in the morning we went into the temple as a zone and all went to do the work for our ancestors. Everyone had one name, and it was honestly one of the most spiritual experiences ever. Elder Toledo did the baptism for me, then turned around and I did the baptism for him. Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery style. Then we did the confirmations for each other as well. President Smith baptized all the Hermanas, and then we helped with the confirmations. Being able to participate with temple ordinances is one of the best things ever. We were then able to go do the other ordinances for our ancestor. We were in the temple for probably seven hours, and it was absolutely amazing to be able to participate in the work of salvation, and the Temple truly is the house of the Lord. How lucky we are to have one so close. We left the temple and had another huge lunch and saw the zone of Colonia where Dio is still ZL and it was awesome to see him and Elder Harbold! After lunch we had a little Christmas meeting with presidents family where there was a gift exchange, and we sang songs, then at the end each got a big ol stocking from President Smith and his wife, that we can't open until Christmas, but I'm really pumped for it! Then we rode seven hours back home. But honestly the best trip of my life!! 

So because of that trip there wasn't much time for work this week because we were also had practices for our Christmas program for Sunday. We have been working on this choir for over a month and it was going so good. We went to the two major plazas to sing and invite people, and one of the people in charge of the city was out there and invited us to the Rivera Christmas choir night which is tomorrow I think and we are still waiting to hear a final word on that one, but would be sooo awesome!! But anyway right in the middle of this beautiful week, on Saturday afternoon we were hit by a huge storm that wrecked some serious damage here. It was nearly tornado like winds and rain for about thirty minutes straight, and we were fighting the water flooding into our house. I was outside soaked trying to unclog the pipe that drains the water out of our back patio while Elder Adasme that lives with us was pushing the incoming flood of water outside. We eventually got it figured out, but it was really a crazy little phase. We called all the missionaries who were fine thank goodness, then put on service clothes and went around checking up on everyone and making sure they were fine and helping them out with anything. On the main road into Santa Isabel there are huge trees and three were completely blown over cutting the power lines up to the neighborhood and the water for some people as well. It was all thankfully taken care of very quickly, and at the end of the night we had light again. In the morning we had church without light, and then we went and had almost everything that could have gone wrong go wrong while we were getting ready for the program that Elder Toledo and I were in charge of, but like usual, everything went through alright. It was a great program and everyone loved it!! Really felt such a strong Christmas spirit! 

With all of that finally done, today was our Pday to watch movies, and we watched Frozen! One year later I was finally able to see it and I loved it!!!! This week Elder Toledo had a type of MRI in Brazil, today he goes back to another doctor, and next monday goes back to another MRI. The system here is absolutely terrible. I feel so bad that it is so hard to get this taken care of. The poor guy is suffering every day but still works like a champ. This week is going to be great and I cant wait to see you guys!!! We are going to be with a couple of families Christmas eve and Christmas day, so we will be well taken care of. I cant wait to see you guys!!!!!!!!

Todo mi amor,

Elder Degn.

Guitar playing missionaries! Dec. 15, 2014

Hey guys thanks for the fun fotos of the week, everyone is looking so old and I am getting a little bit nervous to really seeing you guys in two weeks! Just let me know what time you guys need me to call on Christmas. It will most likely be Christmas day, and the hour I can arrange with a member here, so let me know what hour for you guys works best. SUPER PUMPED!!!!! Today has been a really chill pday, my comp is in pretty bad shape because he broke his leg before the mission really bad, and recently he has had some major problems. He is in a lot of pain, but he has been a example to me because once we leave the house I never hear a word about it and he works like nothing happened. However we have been to multiple doctors offices and the system here is terrible, but we finally have a big appointment set up in Brasil this week, so hopefully he can get the help he needs. This morning we went and got hair cuts and the old guy that cuts our hair is also a musician and Elder Toledo was in a rock band before, so he pulled out his guitar to play while he cut my hair, then he passed it to me when he went to cut his hair, and I just strummed some of the chords I remembered from high school, and then a brazilian guy walked in, told me in really closed portuguese that he sang in his church and wanted me to play a song for him to sing. So I just played some good chord patterns while he sang about Jesus and love and peace. Not a bad contact at all....wasn't Hotel California, but still got the job done:) 

This week has been awesome though! Right when most of our investigators started hitting the wall, a couple of new ones just popped right up and gave us the boost we needed to keep worked hard. I really am learning a ton from Elder Toledo, and I almost feel like I am being trained again. But anyways, the daughter and boyfriend of a member in the ward all of sudden have a ton of interest and have been to church two weeks in a row and we went over and taught them the plan of salvation this week and it went super good! They had a friend there with them and so we were partially correcting his evangelical doctrine, but it was great because it all made sense to him too! Later in the week we went and contacted that guys house and his brother was there and they both are super solid guys with religious backgrounds but aren't completely glued to their pastor and are open to new things and we also had a really good charla with him. They are like two Uruguayan rednecks. Beards, tractors, accents, and good ol´religious hospitality. Ernesto is also doing great! He is learning tons and loving every minute of it! This week is going to be a really big week for us, we leave tonight/tomorrow morning (4 am)  to go to Montevideo to do Temple work for our ancestors and have interviews with President Smith! Im super pumped and kinda nervous because it will also be my first zone capacitation right there in front of president and the APs, but it will go well. We are gonig to be there until Wednesday, so these last couple days of this week are going to be working like crazy! We have our ward party on saturday and on sunday the missionary fireside that we are working really hard on. All the missionaries in Rivera are forming the choir, and we have been practicing for over a month and we are inviting everyone so it is going to be sooo good!!!! 

Well kiddos have a good week and enjoy the cool temps! THis week was not too hot, but this one right now is getting really warm already, luckily we are going to Montevideo where it is cooler, and to see ELDER BENTLEY!!

I love you guys soo much and cant wait to talk to you soon! THank you for everything!!
Con amor,

Blazing hot December--Dec. 8, 2014

Hey guys, happy blazing hot December!! Thanks a lot for sending the video, it was awesome!! I cant wait to talk to you guys soon! This past week was one of the craziest of my whole mission, just for all the stuff that we had to do as the zone leaders. I sent poor little Bentley off to the cold harsh real-life world of the offices on Tuesday night, slept the night with the missionaries there, then the next day we were going back and forth between Brasil and Rivera picking up and sending off missionaries all day. My comp Elder Toledo is a boss! He is 20 and has about 20 months in the mission and works like a mad man! After he got here we had a last minute special change the next day so we were running around the bus terminal, then we had to go house shopping for some Elders in the zone, and some other really fun stuff like that:) Really just crazy to think that now I am in charge of getting all that kind of stuff taken care of. It is also sweet because a ton of my friends from earlier on in the mission are here, so it is awesome to be with them and work with them as well. So we finally had a little bit of time to work in our area, and Toledo and I are really trying to get a lot of things moving. We are trying to focus on getting the members to go out and work with us, because really that is the best most effective way to get the work here done. Every member a missionary is taken literally. We are starting to see a lot of light in people that before wasn't really there, and the desire starts to form in them. Something interesting to me is how every person progresses in their own way at their own pace. Everyone goes through the same process but maybe at a different pace. That is why we just help them come to Christ, it is the only way. This time of year is getting intense here with the heat (SOOO HOT) and with the parties and crazy shopping that goes on, and we are trying really hard to spread the word on the ¨He is the Gift¨ pitch of the church. It is awesome and so fun and easy to talk about and share with people. We literally invite almost ten people everyday to look it up, check it out, and spread it. I hope that you guys of looked it up and spread it with those whom you associate. In a place where there aren't a fair missionary to member ratio, we need you guys to help us out. Besides, the real spirit of Christmas is to give anyway right? We ended the week really well though with the confirmation of Ernesto. I was honored to have done the ordinance, and can't wait to help him progress even more!

So with that as our focus, we are trying to get our zone here fired up to get some big ol´ work done in Rivera! We also met with the stake president yesterday and set things up with him, and he said that he has been waiting for this place to explode, and that time is now! HOY ES EL DIA EN RIVERA! 

Today we went for a zone waterfight at the lake we went to a couple of weeks ago, and had a blast! Im still just damp because even with the heat, the humidity makes it hard to dry...

I love you guys so much and cant wait to talk to you soon!!! Thanks for everything!
Con amor,

Elder Degn

Bye Elder Bentley!! Dec. 4, 2014

Hey guys I'm glad to hear that you guys had a good Thanksgiving! Everyone looked good and it sounds like you had a fun time with the family. Congrats to Matt for being invited to Florida, that is sooo sick! Sounds like Dad and Josh are also going to be having a good stay there in nice sunny Florida...sorry mom;) 

This past week has been absolutely crazy though!! We knew for sure that this was going to be our last week together because President already told Elder Bentley he was going to the offices two weeks ago, so we were basically just sitting here waiting to hear who was going to be my new comp. On Friday President called me and said that the area of the zone leaders in Rivera was changing to Santa Isabel Bis, and I was like, thats my area, and he was like, I know, you and your new comp are going to be the zone leaders in Rivera. Haha I hope that President couldn't tell how shocked I was but he told me who my new comp is, Elder Toledo from Chile. I new him before in the mission and he is an awesome guy that is getting close to ending the mission, so I'm really glad that he will be able to help me out. I'm freaking out a little bit to be honest but I'm super excited at the same time!! Tonight I go at midnight to drop off Elder Bentley to go to Montevideo, and then I have to stay in Centro all day to get missionaries to the bus terminal and help them get where they need to be, go to the Brazilian bus terminal to pick up my comp, back to the Rivera terminal to welcome all the new guys coming in, go home for a minute, and then come back at midnight again to pick up the people in our zone that are went to montevideo to pick up the new misisonaries they are training. 

So apart from the fact that I am staying in the same place but getting my world flip upside down, this week was awesome! We were getting Ernesto all set for his baptism, and he was so stoked! The only thing that kinda startled us was that two days before he dyed his hair jet black. Just cause. Apart from that though, he showed up to church, enjoyed the clases and then afterward we had the baptisimal service and he and Elder Bentley did a great job! Elder Bentley made me so proud getting in there and performing the baptism flawlessly! Ernesto came out and wanted to do it again, it was awesome! I was so glad that everything worked out because we spent a ton of time working on the font in our church to make it clean and use clean water, and for a minute it looked like it wouldnt work, then worked out good in the end. I love Ernesto so much!! He is such a good guy and after his baptism he shared his humble testimony that he wants to keep learning and now that he is on the path, he is never leaving it!!

Also, this Sunday was the last day of  the national elections in Uruguay that is mandatory for all citizens, so our church attendance took a pretty bit hit. It was tough because we had been growing so well and everything was going up beautifully, and then we had a tough day for that. But luckily now we can move forward with no obstacles like elections! Haha we also got home from our choir practice sunday night, after it had rained all afternoon super hard, and we were just going to relax mi and Bentley alone, but we walked in to half our home with half a inch of standing water. We just looked at it, changed our clothes, and worked for about the next two hours getting all the water out and scrubbing all the floors. Luckily, carpet doesnt exist here, so we just used squigies(?) to do everything on our tile floor. Just getting a head jump on our cleaning day:) 

Lastly, I want to shout out to my boy Elder Bentley!! He is such a boss and has been an awesome companion and has helped me out so much and he gets serious work done! Santa Isabel and Elder Degn really are going to miss this kid, but he is truly going were the Lord needs him to be.

I love you all so much, thanks for everything!!
Elder Degn

He is the Gift. 

El es la Dadiva