The Book of Elder Eliason

(my letter this week is scripture!!!!!!!:D)

chapter 3 (change 3)

58. and it came to pass that in the middle of the first year of the reign of President Cook, the time of Elder Eliason in Maldonado drew to a close.

59. The final day of this age was spent packing and singing the song of redeeming love with the saints of zion. I FREAKIN LOVE THOSE GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for if thou lookest in the pictures that will follow, the story of a glad Noche De Hogar (family home evening) will be brought forth among the readers of this letter. 

60. And he who looketh upon these photos with there might, the same layeth up in store, and is disappointed not, but will learn of the wonderful night spent with the some of the coolest people in the world.

61. But first, I would exhort you to try a test. Try to balance 11 nails on top of one other. Like all of our lives, it is difficult to do, but if you balance it all between going to church, reading the scriptures, and praying (OLA) it all falls into place:D (yes, parenthesis and smiley faces are now scriptural terms. Im pretty sure I can find an emoji somewhere in the book of mormon;D)

62. As the night drew to a close, the children of Israel watched the mission call opening of Elder Eliason on you tube, ate great food (EMPANADAS AND TORTAS FRITAS!!!!!!!!), sang, read scriptures, and bid farewell. 

63. And so ended change three in the land of our inheritance

chapter 4

1. I FREAKIN LOVE MY NEW AMAZING COMP ELDER SIMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D 

for he has proven to be a doppelganger in personality (they are a lot alike) of Elder Eliason. However, he has ADHD. 

2.Great joy has been found in teaching, preaching, spreading the gospel of Christ, telling stories of glad times, and quoting all movies from strange brew to Elf. From the Three musketeers (the one with charlie sheen) to Mobsters and Mormons. From the Avengers to Baptists at our Barbeque.

3. It has come forth that he finds great joy in the fabelhaven series, nerf sword fights, telling stories, and spreading the word of God.

4. Also, he is overly hyperactive, positive and amazing, but can be incredibly spiritual and personal when the occasion demands.

5. For behold In the second day upon entering the land of Varela, many cows were seen. The country spreading far and wide about the small pueblo brought great peace to the minds of the servants of our lord.

6. And it came to pass that in that day (literal day) many people were visited, Chicita being one of them.

7. This soft voiced, kind, 91 year old lady brought forth the brightest smile that Elder Eliason had ever seen. Her love and kindness set forth an example of what I really want to show forth to all here in this beautiful land. Helping us to teach one of her great friends in the old folks home brought joy to the soul of this young missionary. 

8. It has also been interesting to see the blessings and hand of the lord. Just before Elder Eliason arrived in Varela, some things fell right into place, in preparation of the Companionship of Elder Sims (THE COOLEST MOST AMAZINGEST PERSON EVER!!!!!!!!!) One of which being a sudden spiritual high in two menos activos to the point of asking to accompany the missionaries on visits.

9. There have been many great lessons and experiences this week, but the time given to Elder Eliason to write draws nigh.

10. to close, he would just like to express gratitude to the lord for helping him deliver his first spanish sacrament talk to a branch of 18 people this past sunday. 

11. Through slightly broken spanish (Its a ton better than it was, but Im still working on it), the spirit helped others to understand his message.

I love you all so much,

La Iglesia es verdadero,

Elder Eliason

If you have seen the studio c on photo bombing, you will understand

The land of city and water draws to a close

yes. It is true. The time has come that a young missionary by the name of Elder Eliason (haha though ana still insists on calling him tanner) must leave the land of his birth (your first area in the mission is where you are "born") and head inland to the strange country of varela. In the department/zone of trenta tres, all he know about the area is that it is a poor country pueblo, that varies greatly from the ocean side land of maldonado. With this, he will probably be heading to a branch and working there for a good deal of time. His new companion can be found by the name of Elder Sims (dont know much about him, but Im assuming he's a greengo), and has been there a while.

Although he has a bit of heartache leaving the family he has found here in maldonado, he is super stoked for cambios tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Anyways, thats all for tomorrow. now! Stories from this week.

 

Fabricio: this is a pretty sweet gangsta dude that found us pretty miraculously. The sisters in centro were out proselyting one day when they contacted him on the street and passed him their number. Not super intrigued, he headed home. days later, he found his thoughts wandering back to the pass along card the sisters had given him, and knew he had to send them a message. These sisters (pretty much the coolest sisters ever (Hermana Mendosa and hermana Hawley)) learned that he lives in our area and gave us the contact. We were finally able to contact him this past week and have two really good charlas with him. In the last one, we brought Fabian (a reacent RM in our ward who is super cool) to help us teach and so he can have friendly faces at church. Man I learned a ton from Fabian!!! I would love to just watch him do missionary work for one day and see what he does. That was a really cool lesson.

 

A Recent Convert that im not going to name: That was a interesting contact. I felt like I was watching a beautiful mind listing to her story. I really hope my comp can help her.

 

Maria Gloria: We actually have two stories with her. First, the contact. She is a menos activo that hasnt been to church in a while. The secretary of the ward asked us to go visit her and to see how she is. The moment we clapped her house, we saw a face appear in the window and begin to sing "Ye Elders Of Israel." The first thing she said to us upon exciting was " Ok, who sent you? Sonia or Amanda?" I died laughing. It is soooo true. Thats what I call amazing members. People who visit the menos activos enough that the menos activos know who they are, and how much they want to help them. We quickly assured her that we hadnt been sent by either, but that we were there for her. It turned out to be a super cool charla/contact. Yesterday we found ourselves at her house again, but this time she was really sick (the water here, due to a plane that crashed somewhere, has become toxic, and many people have fallen ill). WE were able to give her a blessing and listen to more of her story. She told us of an Elder that 10 years ago changed her life forever. Elder Pratt. She said his name many times, and testified to us of all the amazing, kind things he had did for their family (for example: Help her ill and dieing husband eat, and bath. Visited them in the hospital. Brought the spirit to their home. Had the light of Christ in his smile. She had many stories of the service he rendered). This elder is now one of my roll models. I pray that I can gain a small part of his willingness and love.

 

Im also just going to say how Im grateful to the lord for protecting us in sketchy places at night.

 

I love you all so much, and pray for you,

La Iglesia es verdadero,

Elder Eliason

P.S. These are pictures from the service project we had a while back of laying the foundation of the house

 

AWWWWW!!!!! Im going to miss Gabriela, Sonia, and Amanda

Can I just say....... Yah. Im iron man

 

Muchos Muchos Menos Activos!!!!!!!!!!!!

¡en serio! This entire week has pretty much revolved around menos activos and recent converts....... sooooooooooo..... let the stories begin!

Menos Activo numbero 1 = Maria Periera

Can I first just say that the lord knows when and where we are needed way more than we do. Maria Periera. I have heard the name many times since I came to this area. I believe 3 different members referenced her as someone we needed to visit. One problem.... She was never home. Literally I tried visiting her house 3 times with Elder Mendenhall and 3 other times with Elder Cervantes with no luck. Then one dark, breezy night we found ourselves in the Marias (the name of the neighborhood). In our plans we had written to leave for an other, but my comp felt differently. This was the first time that I finally met Maria. What was interesting was the timing. The night we visited was a really rough one for her. She was kind of at a low in every aspect of the word. WE were able to have a super spiritual moment with her where she acknowledged the presence of the holy ghost. Any time before this would not have yielded the same results. Now we're visiting her more regularly and she has the goal of going to the temple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She's amazing.

 

Second Menos Activo = Sonia Calbete (Grandma of Gabriela)

Honestly this is the person that I am the most excited for right now. By helping us teach her granddaughter Gabriela, she has completely reactivated. The best moment was Saturday when she announced to us that she had permanently switched her work schedule to accommodate church on Sunday (something that is super difficult here). She too Is hoping to go to the temple soon. This week at church she asked us for help paying her tithing so she could fully become temple worthy!

 

I really enjoy visiting her and Gabriela

 

Third Menos Activo = Marcela

Actually, the purpose of our visit was originally to teach her nonmember son-in-law Marcelo, but she was there too, so it was a super cool visit. haha, actually there were a bunch of people there. When we first walked up to the house, a man came around the corner  even before we clapped. After quickly walking up to us, he introduced himself, we introduced ourselves, and he asked us "You guys are missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints right?" After affirming his question he continued "I have a friend who is part of your church. He gave me a book of mormon a while back, I read it and had a super spiritual experience. Ive been looking for you guys because I want to get baptised. Can you help me?" We stood in a frozen shock for a second and then started saying things like "of course!!!!" To this he busted up laughing  and said "Im just kidding. Im a member. hows it going brother." Not cool. It was pretty funny though. The guy is in the other Maldonado ward and is a stud. He is the brother in law of Marcelo and is active. That day we ended up helping them cut wood and reinforce Marcelos roof. (I felt like I was back at home helping dad build the basement all over again).

 

Last menos activos story =Shirley and Silvia

The Lord knows where we need to be. These are two references of a different missionary that use to work in this area. We had been trying to visit them for the past few weeks (they live right next to each other), but to no avail. However, one lovely Thursday night a super solid lesson with a member and her nonmember husband fell through. That was kind of weird. After that we tried a different referral that had been given us. At this house, the light was on, the doors and windows open, a curtain covered the door, so they couldnt see who we were, and we could hear them talking. With this combination. it is highly unlikely for no one to answer the door when we clap. Well, what happened. We did 4 sets of claps to an empty door frame. Walking away a little confused, we headed over to Shirley and Silvia. Both of them were home. We had been trying to contact them for forever and both of them were there. we had a super good contact with them that night, had a great lesson Saturday night, and...... Shierly came to church yesterday!!!!!!!! That was a super cool moment.

 

Ok, Ive written a lot. Hope you guys have a fantastic week,

Write ME!!!!!!!!:D

 

LOVE you all

Elder Eliason

La Iglesia es verdadero

 

CHILI

Family home evening!!!! Tons of people and with two other elders (thank you Elder Bekker for the peace sign)

haha, my comp building his own ark reactor!!! I need a pic of this once it works

Popcorn. Man this reminds me of home

SONIA CALvETE

The Restoration. Pretty much a work of genius on the part of elder sircalbe

 

¡BAMORRIBA!!!!!!!!

Really the phrase is Vamos Arriba, buuuuuut we're in Uruguay!:D haha this is a phrase I hear pretty much every day that pretty much just means "Hey. your cool. guess what. Im cool too. Lets go up:D" yah, I think first today Im just going to make a list of things here in uruguay that make me smile.

1)First off, theres a difference between agua and agua agua. If you ask for agua, 90% of the time you will recive some fruity flavor of tang. However if you ask for agua agua you get water:D  (or agua con gas.............. (carbonated water. I dont know why, but everyone here loves it))

 

2)If youre at a lunch and the member of menos activo youre eating with asks you if you want more food, it is polite to take more. This shows that you like it. however you need to specify how much you really want. There have been many occasions where either my comp r i have been bloated, asked only for a little bit more, and received 9/10s of what we originally had. Now dont get me wrong, Im extremely grate full for these lunches we receive, but they lead to some funny stories for us walking home.Dont worry mom, I am well fed in this area;)

 

3) Okay, this one made me die laughing. I was talking with a menos activo family the other day about the states (MERICA!!!!!!!), when I discovered that they knew quite a bit about Louisiana. As such I had to ask if they had seen Duck Dynasty. OHHHHH yah they had. Even better though was directly after this discovery when they petitioned me as to if they have weird accents in english too. Bwahahahahahhaha apparently in the dubbed spanish version of the show they still speak in southern accents.

 

4)The weather brings interesting stories. Upon leaving a charla this past week, we found ourselves looking to the sky as a solid wall of black slowly creeped towards us. Man I wish i had my camera for that. It was literally a wall of night and day. I looked at my companion and we took of running for the house. Upon arrival, we grabbed all the laundry that was drying out side and  closed all the windows, Immediately after doing so one heck of a rain storm commenced. Thank you mom and dad for the rain jacket:D

 

5)MATE!!!!!!!!!!!! EVERYONE here drinks and loves it. It can be triple digits (farenheit) here and people will be outside with their thermoses drinking away.

 

6) Crazy drivers. Im getting really good at a life size version of the game leapfrog:D

OK thats all I want to put in that list:) the only other thing I want to share is how excited I am for Sonia cavete (different sonia than the amazing member). This sonia is the menos activo grandmother of Gabriela (the girl we baptised two saturdays ago). We actually found Gabriela by working through her. Anyways, slowly but surely she is reactivating.This is the coolest thing to watch and be a part of. She has assisted church the past two weeks with her granddaughter, Is talking with the missionary that baptised her 20 years ago on facebook (that was a really cool experience finding him again. especially because his cover picture on his timeline is a picture at the baptism of his youngest son. We had just baptised Gabriela two days before), Is reading and praying again, and (as we discovered from a member yesterday) by herself set up a temple recommend interview with the bishop for this tuesday. That last part was the best of all.

 

Thanks guys for everything. If you can,go to the temple this week. It will bless you in ways you cant imagine.

La Iglasia es verdadero,

 

Elder Eliason

man I wish you could see the other side of that cloud.

Thank you mom and dad for the jacket!!!!!

 

In my last interview with president, I learned that as long as I dont pass around the bombisha (the straw thing) I can drink mate. WHOOO HOOOOO!!!! I am determined to learn to like this stuff

man I wish you could see the other side of that cloud.

Thank you mom and dad for the jacket!!!!!

This is how Elder Cervantes and I help each other learn each others language (Pictionary)

 

A Long Time Ago (well... more or less this past week) In a Galixy (close enough) Far Far Away (from the nearest Taco Bell)

March 2, 2015

Seriously, I dont know why, but I have been craving Taco Bell this past week.

Oh, and I know Im a week late on saying this, but CONGRATULATIONS TYLER ON GETTING ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!!! Thats so amazing!!!!!!!!

 

So..... This week!

First off I just have to say how much I love my companion. Elder Cervantes Ive decided is a weird mixture of Austin Lopez, Kai Johnson, and Mikayla Beaty.......... From Peru......... In other words......I freakin love the guy!!!!:D Lets just say that when someone compares my spiritual side in charlas to being in the Avatar state (Avatar the last Airbender Reference)........... That both made my day and left me laughing for the next block. 

 

WOAH!!!! A ton happened this week, sooooooooooo..... Like last week Im just going to start telling stories.

 

First off............. wait for iiiiitttttttt........... GABRIELA GOT BAPTISED!!!!!!!:D That was a super cool and special experience. It was really interesting. Given my other experiences with the opposition to the other baptisms I was a part of, a couple days before the one present I found myself worried. Gabriela was a Golden Investigator. She was excited for the gospel, she loved having charlas with us, she didnt have any problem with any of the commandments (word of wisdom, chastity, etc.), and she remembered everything we told her. Ill admit that I was wondering where the opposition was. Well, if they truly are ready, thats one thing you dont need to worry about. On the night of her baptism everything went wrong for her. First off, her mom (her ride to the service) was late getting off work. When they finally started to head to the church, the motorcycle (everyone here drives them) broke down and they had to turn back. Then there was one other thing that I didnt understand because they were speaking super fast spanish. Finally they had to wait for a taxi. In the end they were an hour late to the service. Exactly one hour! to the minute! Well, after that it all went well. I did feel bad for making the members wait, but it was worth it. It was a super spiritual experience for not only her, but also her inactive mother and grandmother who were both touched by the spirit. Im excited to see what happens in the future. Being able to confirm her the next day in church was a spiritual experience for me.

 

Also, WE GOT TO LISTEN TO A MEMBER OF THE Quorum of the 70 This past week!!!! Elder Viñas came and gave us a devotional that really helped a lot of missionaries. My favorite part was when he asked the missionaries present to voluntarily stand and tell how the atonement had helped them during the mission. For the next 40 minutes missionaries stood and bore testimony of the strength of our Savior. That was powerful.

 

Ummmmm I dont want to write a ton more this week, but I do want to tell one of my favorite stories.

Once upon (apon?) a time, there were two missionaries who clapped a house. At first the inhabitant didnt want to talk much and had hardened their heart. However, as the discussion progressed, the spirit did its work and by the end of the discussion, not only did the inhabitant of the house feel calm and better, but she was willing to let the missionaries come back a different day.

The end.

 

I love when that happens. I have had some really cool things here that I am blessed to be apart of.

Thanks guys for everything! I love you all very much and am so glad that you are part of my life. Thanks for reading my long letters. WRITE ME :D

 

La Iglesia es Verdadero,

Elder Eliason

 

P.S. Yes I heard about the disturbing news. Saturday as we were filling the font, president cook stopped by and told me. For those who know what Im talking about, just know that my heart and prayers are right with yours at this moment.

 

74 doughnuts we made on P-day (not all are in the pic)

baptism of Gabriela

Elder Cervantes

First 4 Agendas

gabriaelas baptism again

hair cut!!!!!