April 29, 2013

Dear Family,

I am proud. Why did everyone start doing cool stuff right after I left? This is getting ridiculous. Congratulations to everyone for their incredible deeds. Ellie sounds like a star player, rachel sounds like she ruled the school, and mom sounds about as awesome as usual. And bekah is cool too. We can't forget about her. 

Well, we had our week of opposition. Our two amazing investigators did amazing all week, Sunday showed up and it was raining, which is devastating in Uruguay. I don't know why, but these people just do not do anything in the rain. So at eight fifteen sunday morning, I gave them both a call to see if they were gonna make it. Cristian said he was going, he doesn't care about rain. Apparent victory. Then I called Luis, and he told he couldn't come because his friend died in a motorcycle accident. I'm telling you, this man is going to be the strongest convert when he actually gets baptized. He's seen so much change in his life. And then Cristian didn't show up anyway. Soooo yeah. But the awesome thing that happened is that we reactivated a legendary inactive guy here. We told the ward council we were working with him and they basically scoffed at us. Except the bishop. He's awesome. And then our boy came to church. I was pretty dang happy. Everything is going according to the plan of the Lord. I'm still kind of adjusting to this area, it's pretty nuts. We have to take a bus everywhere. It's expensive. But yeah. Just gotta keep working, and everything will turn out fine.

Well, have a good week, everyone! Love you all pilas!

Elder Pyper

Here's a picture of me pointing to the ocean. Haha I missed montevideo.

Elder Pyper and Elder Ve'e

April 22, 2013

Dear dad, 

Doing wonderful. Seriously, me and Elder Ve'e are rocking the boat. This man is a beast. He has great desires to serve, so we're seeing a lot of miracles. Our second night here, we found a guy named Luis, a pretty well off guy in his fifties, married, three kids, and I just answered a question he had about the bible, gave him a BOM, and he has transformed into a different person. In only a week, too! The man was so prepared, and the Lord, through our random wanderings in a dark Montevidean night, put us right on his doorstep. But we had no clue where we were. Totally lost. But he's progressing right toward his baptism in two weeks.

Yeah, I think I'm doing ok with the training, I'm just trying to show him what's important in the mission, and he's getting it immediately. The guy's a stud. But yeah, we only speak spanish in the streets. He'll survive. If we speak english, he just starts making your mom jokes... Haha but I love it. I actually was very well prepared by the Lord to train. I feel the responsibility, but not the weight of the burden. He gave me all kinds of experiences that I'm drawing on now to be able to do this. But I've got a long way to go. Regardless, we absolutely destroyed our area last week. This place has so much potential, and with a couple young guns like us just trying to follow the spirit, we saw miracles left and right.

I am so excited for you guys and your missionary opportunities. They bring more joy than anything. I have never been so happy in my life as I am now.

I am way happy to come home to OK. I was hoping for that.

All right, have a great week! Love you all!

April 15, 2013

Dear Family,

I totally bore my testimony too this week bekah! The bishop got up and said, Since we have three new missionaries, they're going to start off the testimony meeting. Elder Ve'e is my new companion, he's an awesome guy from California, of Samoan descent. He did super good introducing himself to the ward in spanish, haha. I like that Bekah keeps saying I'll see you in two years, because that's how I need to think, haha. Sometimes it freaks me out that I already am about to hit 8 months!! Can you believe it? So crazy. The time is going by way too fast, but I'm starting to learn to not waste it so much.

I'm not gonna lie, the new assignment is very challenging. Montevideo is very different from my other areas. I watch airplanes take off and land all day, I have to take a bus to get anywhere, and people freak out and think you're gonna rob them at night when you contact them. Probably just because my companion is a massive polynesian. But the work is way different here. I am still figuring things out, but we're slowly and surely building the new area. The members are cool. The bishop is amazing. The area is gigantic. It has so much potential. If we work our hardest, the sky is the limit here. I would love for my comp to have that as his first area, just baptizing all the time. We'll make it happen.

Sorry dad! I totally forgot to bring my camera, I've got the pictures of the moment when I picked up Elder Ve'e, I'll have to send them next week.

I am just dead tired. Opening an area is ridiculously hard. My brain is dead. I think I'm losing hair from all the stress. Good thing my comp is a stud. He's already a good missionary, just gotta pick up the language. So... yeah. 

The mother's day call, we'll definitely be able to skype. I'll let you more know when I know. But there's a member here with a nice computer that I've got my eye on. Haha I am having a blast here though. I love when the Lord gives me the chance to just work. That's the only secret to missionary work, it's true.

So have a great week everyone! Good luck in all your musicals and stuff!

Love you all!

Y acuérdense, cuando somos débiles, entonces somos fuertes.

Elder Pyper

April 9, 2013

I'm doing great! We had a really good week, and yesterday we had the best day I've ever had in my mission! We helped to reactivate a guy who didn't want to come back to church, and he said he felt really

happy and different. I told him he looks different now, that he has a light that he didn't have before, and right as he started to bear his testimony about the blessings of returning to church, his brother and sister in law walked in with a book of mormon, they both sat down and said, we want to get baptized. So that's awesome. And almost the same thing happened with a sister in the branch, her niece and like four kids want to get baptized. BUT... I'm leaving. Tomorrow. Elder Kempton is training and I'm training and opening an area?!?!?! Aeroparque. Right in the heart of montevideo. Basically as far away as you can get from where I am right now. I'm kind of freaked out because I'm going to have an oro and have no clue about the area. But the Lord qualifies who he calls. So vamos arriba.

Also, here's some pictures of the highlights of this change.

Andy's companion, Elder Kempton, and the mystic goat

Elder Pyper and the mystic goat.

Baptism of a little girl in their ward

So I'm off to another adventure. It's gonna be crazy. And Elder Kempton and his oro are gonna baptize like six people this change because of the solid foundation we built!

Yeah, I really don't know what to say. Except are the states going to war? Uruguayos keep telling me that.

Ok, love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Pyper

April 1,2013

Dear Dad and everyone...

I am well. I totally had no clue it was easter till that morning, actually, because that week was the craziest of my life. But we'll get to that.

We are also making a tournament bracket here actually. We're making it of our zone, which is pretty crazy. But Emilie just threw a wrench in the works by giving me insider information. I don't know if I ever told you this, but among the first words President Armstrong ever said to me were, "Do you have a girlfriend? Cause I think she's talking to my daughter." I had no clue what to say to that, but apparently it's true.

I'm proud of Ellie, the enid ward, everybody back home. Here's a cool message for jory, I went on an exchange to the border of brazil last week, and people were speaking portuguese to me all day. I could understand about half. It's super weird. But it sounds like an awesome language.

So here's the crazy noche blanca story. Two weeks ago, we had two baptisms lined up for it. One was a teenage girl who finds great comfort in the gospel, and the other was this awesome little girl who´s the daughter of an active member and an inactive member. But within the very week, they both fell through. I knew Satan was running around, buscando a quien devorar, so me and Elder Kempton did not die like dogs. We fought like lions. So we went nuts and basically did everything possible to find someone that can get baptized that night. The night before the noche blanca, we run into a less active lady with an unbaptized son of nine years. SOOOO we chased him down, pinned him in a corner and taught him two lessons worth of material in like an hour. Then, in the most stress filled day of my life, he totally didn't show up to the noche blanca, after a day of mysteriously malfunctioning cellphones (his mom's), awful, awful sickness (mine), and running through the city looking in various chapels (me and elder kempton). So we almost killed ourselves, but now we see how that was all in the lords hands, because we are set up to have a stellar few weeks. If I don't leave next week, that is. I hope not.

Anyway, happy easter (of the resurrection, as they say in spanish.)
Love you all!
Alma 29:4
1Nephi 11:10
Enos 1:12

¿Què deseas tù?

Elder Pyper



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March 25, 2013

Dear Family,

Sounds like an awesome spring break. I´m kind of sad I wasn't there, but I think I probably had more fun here. Sorry, haha. I hope you guys will get home ok! 

Oh yeah, so I have covenanted with God and everyone to have the greatest week of my whole mission. So I'm pretty pumped. La noche blanca is this saturday, the classic uruguayan bishopric got a little overwhelmed with that announcement in sacrament meeting, so they just called me up and had me do it. So we had two baptisms lined up for that night from us, and there was like thirteen more in the zone. But then... opposition struck. So now one of our investigators can't get baptized this saturday and we're thinking about dropping her for a few weeks to help her realize that the gospel is more important than she thought it was. But the other one is basically a guaranteed baptism, EXCEPT for the fact that she got sent to her grandma's house for bad behavior, haha, so we had to beg the hermanas that live in that area to teach her the charlas until she comes back. And we might have to leave our area to teach her this week, but she's the daughter of an active lady, so she's basically already in the water. Our only other firm investigator is a seventeen year old kid named federico, who is in dire need of the gospel. He needs a lot of direction in his life, he's just kind of doing whatever comes up right now, and spends like 12 hours a day playing Call of Duty. But he recognizes the feeling of the spirit and loves God, so I think he'll put his life in line as he begins to excercise faith.

Yeah, and also we had the craziest sunday ever yesterday, couldn't even begin to tell you about it, but the highlight was that Elder Kempton and I had a really cool spiritual experience where I was able to give him a pretty special blessing. It just reminded us both that God really knows us. He watches over us and worries about our problems just like we do. The only difference is that he helps us to solve our problems and bear our burdens.

Oh yeah, it's starting to get quite chilly at night. And the cereal was divine. Everything disappeared really fast from that package, because I live with four elders now, so all the Christlike sharing really makes stuff disappear quick. 

I totally forgot to bring my camera with me, but Elder Kempton and I have been on this quest to get a picture with this legendary goat that lives in our area. And I got some really funny ones, so I'll send them next week. But that goat is sharp. It already knows what we're thinking. So most of the pictures are of me chasing it around, trying to be in the frame with it.

I got a letter from Halmoni today, but nothing from grandpa yet, I think she said that he wrote one...

Ok, so I had my interview with the president this week. I asked what his plans are for me. He gave me a bunch of confused ramblings. Well, he wasn't confused, but I was after listening to it. But the zone leaders got the lowdown. They say there's three options for me. 1)Elder Kempton leaves and trains somewhere else. I train here. 2)Elder Kempton stays for this next change, then he goes home and I train. 3) I go to the offices and become a secretary this change, and Elder Kempton trains. So...yeah. It'll be interesting, whatever happens. And I'm basically pumped and ready to go now. The language is flying, I've kinda caught the vision of the mission. I'm pumped to work. I would love to train someone, cause honestly i just love helping people. And this saturday is my seven month anniversary! Woo!

Ok, love you all, bye!

P.S. Read alma 32 and think about how many times he says that faith is not a perfect knowledge and also when he says it. Pretty interesting. 

March 18, 2013

Dear Da,

I hope you caught the irish accent i threw in for you there. This week was just great. As a zone and stake, we've been working on this thing called la noche blanca, where we're putting on a big old baptismal service the thirtieth, with all the missionaries in melo working the lights out to get a bunch of people. As expected, there was opposition. Elder Kempton and I were working with 4 people to get baptized that day, and not a single one decided to come to church. Even though we went to all their houses and woke them up. So...yeah. We're still gonna have maybe two baptisms that day from us, and the future looks very bright. The members love us, and they keep giving us well prepared friends to teach, so this area is just golden.

It is very good to hear news from home, as always, and good work Thunder. Tell aunt trisa that I just barely got a letter from them and it was very motivating! I am so excited for James, Jory, Jake, Ethan and all these other guys that are about to leave. They are going to have the time of their lives. Especially James. He's going to discover the legend of the Mate. Uruguayans and Argentinians run around all over the place with a thermos of hot water stuck under their armpit and a cup of mate, which looks and smells pretty weird. But they all drink it. Every single one. It's like pouring a bit of hot water into some fragrant grass, then drinking it through a strainer. Kinda gross, but I'm probably bringing some home.

So here we go, answering questions! My health is finally awesome! I'm good to go. But all the toe injuries took their toll. I'm weighing in pretty heavy, like 178. But I've been doing so many pushups and pullups, so a lot is muscle. I look pretty different now. I was just fat before I got to melo. I was weighing about 186, yikes. But I've been steadily losing weight for three weeks now, so the future is brilliant. Sleep has been getting easier for me. For the first six months, I was like I always was at home, just taking forever to fall asleep. But I've just been getting more and more tired through the course of my mission, so now I get knocked right out. And not being cold cause i'm in a toasty sleeping bag helps too. I definitely feel the Lord strengthening me all the time, because I am just exhausted every day. It's so mental too, because I just spend all day worrying about people. And spiritual experiences wear you out. And last night we found a new investigator at like 7:52, taught him a lesson, and then we sprinted home to be there by eight, so that made me pretty tired.

As to opportunities to teach, I teach. And we solve problems. I'm getting so much new experience here, and the best part is that the language issue is all but gone, so I just talk with people. I have really grown to love talking to literally everyone I see. It makes me feel like I'm not gonna miss any opportunity that the Lord would give me. Bearing testimony to random strangers and feeling the spirit touch them is so cool. So thanks for all the prayers, everyone, because I got soooooo much help learning spanish.

Elder Kempton and I do work. We get along great, almost too well, haha. I love working with him too. He's a great missionary, a real example of diligence. I just hope I'm not ruining his discipline too much!

Ok, last bit of news, basically all the email restrictions are gone. So anyone can send me emails now, and I can answer! But keep sending letters, I like those too.

LOVE you all!

Remember Ether 12:28

Love, Elder Pyper