So many things have happened in the last 8 weeks, sometimes I feel like I didn´t actually have a real life before the mission! I will start with some things about my area:
I am serving in Montevideo, and by that I mean downtown, about 30 minutes from the Mission Home! Tall buildings, taxis everywhere, buses, people galore, tons of apartment complexes, expensive prices, tons of members, and noise day and night....
My area is called Flores and I love it! We have a huge stretch of beach, which is absolutely gorgeous! Unfortunately it also makes it super cold! These last few days we have gotten some crazy wind and super wierd, thick fog! I didn´t think that the cold would be too bad, but I find myself wearing jackets, scarves, gloves, and hats, day and night (although that could have something to do with the fact that people don´t believe in heating their houses...)
One of the things that I did not expect is that everything is very European here. The people are almost exclusively fair skinned and with brown hair (although blue eyes are still something of a rarity). All of the plugs are the same as the ones in Europe (for those who want to know (Mom!)) and people dress fairly similar to Europeans. I feel more like I am in the US sometimes than a South American country...The funny thing is that the whole mission is not like this, just the three areas in Montevideo. I have heard that the interior (the center of Uruguay) is much more like Ryan´s mission, than this progressive European lifestyle in Montevideo.
One of the hard things about it is that people don´t seem to have a lot of time to talk with the missionaries. We do a lot of street contacting and clapping doors, to try and find people to teach! It has been really great! I have already gotten to help teach lessons (in my interestingly, broken Spanish) and even given some commitments (that I am pretty sure the Investigators understood :))! In some great news, we found a promising, new investigator this last week named Silvana! She is 21 and she was a contact that the missionaries before us found! She stood out in the cold and talked to us for 30 minutes about the gospel. She seemed really interested and agreed to come to church...then Saturday night rolled around...she called and said that she couldn´t come because she was leaving town to visit her family. It was pretty disappointing, but we are supposed to teach her a lesson this week and she agreed to come to church next week! Pray that she is receptive to the lessons that we teach!
In other news, my Spanish is coming along great! I actually understand the gist of pretty much everything that is said (except for viajitos, of whom I understand pretty much nothing). I know so many words now, but it is really hard for me to put them all together! In order for me to want to say something, it has to be of real importance! I think I have talked less in the last two weeks, than I would normally talk in a couple days! But I am learning!
Interesting food of the week: I ate something at a member´s house that had the consistency and color of sand and tasted only slightly better! I cannot remember the name, but I would highly suggest avoiding it if at all possible!
Sorry my letter was so boring this week, I will try to have some super interesting stories to tell next week!
Love,
Hermana McMurray
p.s. I challenge all of you to find a good reference for the missionaries in the next week! That is the main way that people have an interest in listening to the gospel (through the members)!
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