The Man from Sunny River

November 9, 2015

Haha, Well this was a week of....... adventures to say the least:)

Tuseday and Wedness day I went on divisions with some Boss members!!!!!!! I LOVE THESE PEOPLE HERE!!!!!:D then Thursday night after we awoke to the cell phone ringing. Haha I dont know why, but your heart always starts pounding when you see the asistents to president calling you. I answered and just started talking with Elder Olivera (super nice guy). After a bit, he asked us when the earliest we could pack up my comps things and be on a bus to Montevideo. Well, that lead to a fun night of little sleep and a lot of packing. What we thought was the earliest bus (4:30) only passes on Mondays, so we sat in the terminal for a bit and hopped the 6, to find ourselves in a hour and a half long bus ride. Fun stuff:D

Well we got there, changed comps, I said good bye to Elder Taylor (Im gonna miss that guy) and said hi to ............ ELDER VEGA!!!!!:D An Argintinian that has 6 months in the Mission.

Well, we began to bring the area back to life, and now we're just pumping along. Sunday Fernanda, Alvaro, and Ismael all came to church. Sabrina (the no longer less active member) now has a temple recomend!!!!!!!!!!:D and is continuing to help us teach her son (Ismael) 

We have had a few really good charlas with Angela, but for some reason she didnt make it this week to church.... (that kind of was sad). WE'll work with Hermana Alba and see if she can help out.

Well I dont have a ton of time this week, but just want to say that I love yall and that I hope yall have a great week.

Lots of love,

Elder Eliason

P.S.These are two of my favorite pics I took with Elder Taylor. Ill send pics of Elder Vega and Me next week

P.P.S. Oh and Elder Vega is the Man from Sunny river because where he is from in Argentina, it reaches 50 degrees celcious and is near the Rio Negro. Man that is HOT

A bitter sweet symphony

November 2, 2015


man. 

This has been an interesting week.

Im sad but glad. 

My Son is going home.

It's okay he didnt do anything bad, its for health problems.

to put it short: When he was in 8th grade he got injured playing American Footbal. this lead to years of just random headaches that only got bad when he got stressed. Welcome to the mission. We went hard the first few days and he just pushed through them, but come sunday, he couldnt take it anymore and told me. Since then, it has only gotten worse. Wednesday we could only leave the house for a small time. Thursday through sunday we we're trapped in a 10 feet by 15 feet block of darkness (light hurt his head) praying that the migraines would stop. Well they didnt. we ended up talking to the area medical doctor, area mental health doctor, president, and (haha Im glad she's a good sport, because near the end we were calling here every other hour) the mission nurse (hermana Paul). 

so bitter (my son's going home) but sweet (he's going to get the help he needs)

Man It's been crazy and hard to watch but we have both learned so much. Im not going to go much more into it, but it suficeth me to say that given a few circumstances we were unable to do divisions, and all work this week was done over cell phone. Well we've got some great people to work with this comming week and Im excited to visit them. I just dont know who will be my new comp.

When president came out here to tell my comp the news (today) we were actually in the middle of playing beach vollyball with the zone, and we were able to convince him to play with us. That was pretty funny.

Anyways, Ill have better news next week

The real son of Eli

October 26, 2015

MAN I LOVE THIS GUY!!!!! So my new comp:

Elder Taylor. He's from a place called kaysville, Utah (about 20 min north of Salt lake city), and is the best. Honestly, I dont feel like Im training. Im learning way more from him than he is from me, and its great. Haha only problem: Ive finally found someone who says sorry as much as I do...... Now I understand what everyone was talking about. Haha And mom, I have found someone who gets as cold as you do.  Throughout all of it, I can honestly say that this has been the most spiritual, but weird, week of my mission. It's really interesting: Being in the mission a year, you kind of just start falling into a pattern of how to go about doing things. Everything has been flipped upsidedown in a good way. My comp just keeps throwing in these ideas that make me think "....yah, we can do that.... That actually would really help..... why have I not thought of that before." I love this guy. Let the traditions of the Father begin! (#broomstick lightsaber wars (pictures coming soon in the following weeks))

Even though my comp doesnt speak perfect spanish, its still pretty darn good, but we have had to plan things out a lot more. In the past we (my old comps and I) have just said, "Okay, lets talk about the plan of salvation with (so and so) today." This doesnt fly now. We have been forced to plan out each lesson a bit more specifically so that my comp can have a good amount to say going in. This has caused me to think a lot more about every individual person that we're helping, and feel the spirit stronger and stronger. I love this guy!

We found a new investigaor, Angela, this week that seems pretty promising. Pray for her!:D thankfully she speaks perfect English, so my comp just turns into a Spanglish boss in Charlas with her. Im really enjoying this;D

We've also been able to help Ismael progress more and more, as his mom become firmer. 

Alvaro has made visible progress on his fight with the cigarette (Elder Taylor and I have both just decided that this wicked drug is the devils tool).

Speaking of which, Darwin has begun only smoking one or two a day during extremely stressful moments. He's doing some service right now helping out (as a lawyer) a member family thats passing through a rough time. Unfortunately thinking about it a lot makes him stress a bit and fall.

I love you guys so much! Pray for us, especially for my companion please.

You guys are the best,

Elder Eliason

IM GONNA BE A DAD!!!!!!!!!

October 20, 2015 

Man Im a little nervous but super stoked right now, yep, Im training:D And in pretty much the ideal spot that I could have chosen. We already have a few great investigators that are doing pretty well, the ward loves us, I flippen love the area, Im pretty much just all round excited right now.

I forgot to say the week back, but 

I HIT A YEAR IN THE MISSION!!!!!!! 

This has been the fastest year of my life. It's weird. Every week I think ahead to the next week and realize that before I know it, that day will already have arived. I have never seen time go by so fast...... Its kind of weird.  Mom asked me last week though If I did anything for my year mark.... yep, It is tradition here in the mission to burn a shirt when you hit a year (see pictures below). WE also ate a TON of Pizza and Darwin hooked us up with a bunch of coke and other snacks. It's been great.

Its been a good day. Im just waiting for tomorrow to come already so I can travel to Montevideo and find out who my son is going to be. This is going to be the best change/transfer ever!!!!!!!

haha Elder Shurtz and I have been laughing a bit. He's a bit trunky and his new area has in it the international, Uruguayen airport that he will be flying out of to go home in 4 and a half months. He'll probably be there up until the end of his mission. President has a good sense of humor.

People wise, Im pretty happy. We started to teach Ismael (Sabrina's 9 year old son) this week. He is a highly intelegent kid who remembers pretty much everything we teach him. And Guess what!?!?!?! Sabrina is now officially active!!!:D She has come to church three weeks in a row (including all the sessions of conference).

Alvaro is still stopping smoking little by little. There is progress, but it's just a little slow.

Darwin came to church this week and had an interview with bishop. he was able to go 6 days in a row without smoking last week. He just needs a bit more of a push and he'll be there.

Also, we've begun visiting this girl named Helena. She was baptised when she was 15, left the church due to a boyfriend, moved to mexico for 5 years of college, and is now, at the age of 24, a fully liscensed doctor. oh, and she speaks fluent english (we had 2 charlas already in english.... haha it was really weird to not be teaching in spanish) anyways, we found her while buying snacks for weekly planning. Her mom walked up to us, introduced herself and said that her daughter is Mormon. we got to talk, Helena walked up, and it went from there. She is really cool, and we're hoping that through reactivating her, we can also begin teaching her non-member mom. I love this place.

Anyways, Ive got to go. Hope yall have a fantastic week,

Elder Eliason

1) Familia Desuña

2) burning a shirt on my year mark

oh it's gonna be a gooooood life, a good good life

October 12, 2015

Man I really love Piriapolis. I have really enjoied myself here and feel like we've been able to help a bunch of people. There are also a bunch of members who we've become really good friends with and families I have come to love. For example, The Delgado family. Today for most of Pday, we headed out with Hermano Delgado and his son Bruno (going on his mission in 2 months) to go fishing. They're such bosses!

Anyways, Its been a really good week. For Darwin we're finally able to get the exciting moment: He stopped smoking!!!!!!:D Honestly. When we first started visiting him about a month and a half ago, he smoked about 60 cigarettes a day. Since the morning of Saturday, he hasnt touched a single death stick. Im really excited for him. He should be having an interview soon with the bishop to see when he can take the sacrament.

Sabrina too is fighting. One more week and she'll be considered active again. She just needs to go one full week clean to take the sacrament (litterally in the last 2 weeks she has smoked 3 1/2 cigarettes.... SO CLOSE!!!!) Really its just a huge fight of will power. We have begun teaching her 9 year old son Ishmael too. he's a boss:D

Alvaro also is slowly but surely giving up that horrible addiction. By cutting down little by little, he has gotten to 7 a day, but it's been hard on him. He is in every other sense ready for baptism, but just needs to kick this horrible habbit.

Smoking is a really common problem here that is HARD to beat. I am so glad I never had to overcome that. I have many times found myself counting my blessings for things as such.

Cynthia's a boss! She brought her less active husband (well, almost husband..... also a common problem) back to church yesterday!!!!! That got us really stoked:D

Yep, the De Leon family Is becoming more and more firm (We're hoping they can soon get callings:D), We're still working with Fernanda (I) and Edwardo (MA), but they just need to act a little more.

The times arent always just sunshine and daisies, but I will say that when I step back and look at the whole, I feel like Im in the luve (that musem in france where the mona lisa is).

Love you all a ton,

Elder Eliason