Arise from the dust, my sons, and be men: 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