May 19th, 2014

hello family 

this week we had zone conference and we had a 70 that came to talk to us so we had half the mission there. there was a lot of people. they had us fast before it so it could be more spiritual.  we had to wake up at 3 in the morning to get on a bus to go to ticuadombo. it was about a 3 hour drive. i tried to sleep the whole way and maybe got an hour. so when i got there i was a little hungry and tired and thirsty and it was 5 straight hours of capasitacion. that is a bad combo for a zone conference and for me to understand everything. but i tried my hardest.  dad i had to use what you did as a bishop and keep one leg in the air and rotate legs. but i learned a ton in this zone conference. it was fun to see everyone from my group there was 8 out of the ten from my group there.

  also this week we got our helmets we are gonna look a little rediculus cause they are small so the are like bubble tops on our heads but it will be good.

we ran out of gas in our heater so we were with out heat for sunday and this morning until we could get a new tank of gas. the heater that we have just spits out heat it is really nice. it came with the house and it is awesome.

adriana just finished the libro de mormon in one month exactly. we promised here brownies if she did so we proudly made here brownies. she has been working hard to gain a deeper testimony of the gosple.

this week we found out that one of out part member invesdtigater wasnt married so we got to get that done. that is a huge probnlem here no one gets married. kinda like guatamala.

me and my comp are working really hard and are trying to reactivate all 578 members in our ward.

also the wrestler in our house taught me and my comp some wrestling moves so we had to try them out on each other. so we were going and we both slammed each other. but dont worry we got our extra matresses out. bad news they slide around and they are never in the spot were you fall.

also this week the priesthood had a activity it was like our fathers and sons except it was just a asado night the only problem was it was the night that we were fasting so we couldnt eat it. 

the boarder for bazil is getting beefed up for the cup they have tanks and military and cameras there all day and everyday now. everyone is gettinmg really excited here for the cup. it is really cool to see how big the cup really is. it is bigger then the super bowl.

but adam i remeber you said that you could get tickets to the cup just getting there would be hard. just come here to artigas and walk across the bo

rder it is really easy and the military there dont stop anyone they are just drug controll. but we are about 5 hours on bus to the clostest stadium. you could get there real easy.

congrats to laura and the baby that is awesome.

congrats to alisa knowels as well for getting baptised.

Love Elder Pulsipher

MAy 11, 2014

this week i got to skype my family which was really fun and good  to see them. i need to only speak english with them and not spanglish sorry family. minus andrew and adam. (aubrey you to your in spanish in high school)

i got a new comp his name is elder el-bakri and he is a running back from byu. it is relly  fun to be comps with him and i am loving it here. 

so for change niight all the changes are done in the middle of the night so we do not miss any work days. so i had to go to the termanal at 12 to send people off and pick people up because i live with the zone leaders. and then i had to be up again at 4 to pick people up so basically i got no sleep that night and the whole mission doesnt get any either. but the next day everyone goes out and works.

i have been eating aton of bananas lately. like 7-8 a day they are really good here. we just pound through them. 

we are playing a ton of soccer every morning and i am getting better at it. my favorite position is still the defender and just go after the ball when people are playing up againts the wall. i always win that battle. 

my spanish is doing alot better i have talked alot more and thinking alot in spanish it  is really good.

i dont have much time this week but i am doing great and loving the work. 

Love Elder Pulsipher

May 5, 2014

this week was a really rough one until the weekend. it rained everyday in the morning and at night right at 920 so when we were on our way home. and also everything fell through even our normal menos activo visits. we had about one maybe 2 visits a day that we actually taught and then also no hours with member and no references. the members wouldnt answer there phones nothing was going our way. but me and my comp decided to keep working hard and being exactly obedient with everthing.

so the week had no success until saturday. we decided to visit this guy we had visited once before but he wanted nothing. he is a member was very active and had about 15 years in a young mens presidnecy. so something we said got through to him and he asked for a blessing that he could have the mental strength and ability to be active again. he asked to go out with us and we went out with him that night for three hours and went to 3 investigators. and he went to church the next day that was one but not the best one.

the best one was the familia fulco. it was 8 on saturday and we had nothing to do we decided to go there and no one was home so at this time it was 830 then we thought ok lets go home its about to rain and its a 20 minute walk. but they passed us and we said ok lets go. so we went there and we found out they just got back from the hospitle. there 9 year old daughter had some issues today when she was playing soccer she had nevers and had some kind of seizer. so we were able to give her blessing and it said she would be healed and she would be able to draw nearer to christ. we had a great little discussion about how the blessiongs work and they offered us food. we were fasting and then that brought up that and the mom taught her daughter that and she said i want to do that.

so that was great they said they were going to church they hadnt gone in 2 years it was a personal reason why they stopped but she was a super strong member relief society president and all.

so on our way home of corse it poored and we had 5 minutes to get home so we ran

then the next day it was raining so people dont go to church. we texted to invite every one and she responded with this.

sí, estamos preparados spiritualmente para ir. no vamos por ustedes, vamos por lo que dios nos izo sentir y que sal por boca de ustedes. ¨HOY ES EL DIA¨ i dont know if there is a better text you can recive. it was such a miracle and the whole family of 4 went and they havent been in 2 years and we have worked with them 2 times aweek for the last 18 weeks (my comp for 6)

i have learned the hard way when it rains the water is bad. i had 5 attacks yesterday were we had to run home. and my comp as well and he threw up as well. but it was good we still had 5 lessons yesterday. 

i got a call for changes i am staying and my new comp is some one i have heard of. elder el-backri. he is also a football player. i know all calls are inspired but i think this one just might be for fun. two byu football players as comps. he was also elder staffiereis and finnegans comps in the ccm so there might just be something that God wants me to learn from the three of them. 

today we had a zone activity and we had an asado. it was really good and fun. i will show you how to have one when i get home. here you go to the carnasaria and tell them what peice you want and they cut it on the bandsaw. and give it to you. then we also had chureso. its sassage but it comes in 1 kilo chains. its about 2 and a half feet and you make it into a spiral whenyou cook it it is really good.

also last week we got invited to a mega asado. i dont know how or why we got invited but we got a text and a bunch of calls so we went. they had a pig and they said yeah its about three months old we killed it this morning. we had three butt the dogs ate two of them. 

it was really good

also at that i was at a table with my comp and 10 others they all spoke portunoul. its a mx of spanish and portogus. so one was talking to me and i was kinda getting it then two then three. and then i all of them at one time i just laughed and said si si si. then told my comp in english yeah im not understanding a thing right now.and we both laughed alot. the pig and carne was amazing though.

i love you and will send all the pics next week. 

Love Elder Pulsipher.

April 28th 2014

this week we started  using the bikes every other day. we got alot of leg work. so i am on a beach cruiser with no gears and my comp is on a bike that the gears are stuck on the easiest 3  gears so i am sucking wind and can hardly get up the hills and he has to pedal like a mad man to keep up on the down hills but he still cant keep up cause the gears are slow.

we were able to go out into the compo of our area we road for 45 minutes out to make a visit. there is not much out there. we rode for 20 minutes with out seeing a single person.

also this week i had divisions 2 times. one i was in a nother house i am told my comp yeah we have the cleanest house in the zone. we clean it every p day. and scrub it we all have chorse and we rotate them. 

this week also we did a visiters center at the stake center. and we took people on tours of the church and had people from the stake explain each organization. it was a good easy way to teach people about the church and to get them in. we would walk to the plaza and invite people to go and they would come with us. 

on the days we had bike s we were abole to double the number of lessions that we had. 

also we were able to go on splits with the bishop and with the 1 counsler that day we had 4 hours with member and 4 lessions with member when we normally would only get maybe 2 lessions and nothing more. we were able to double the work with more productive work as well.

we only had 84 in the church and the whole zone was low aswell. living in the house of the zone leaders you hear all that goes on in the zone.

love Elder Pulsipher.

April 21, 2014

this week we moved into the new house. it is very nice and very big. i went from a small house to one of the nicest in the mission. and it is super clean. no mold or anything.

it was easter. that means no school all last week all the families come in town and no investigaters wanted to meet with us. we had a lot more menos activo visits. 

since catolic is the dominant religion all the traditions for semana santa happened.

no red meet on friday so we ate fish at the members house and a tradiotional desert.

next we had 100 people in church again us 6 missionaries in our ward are working hard. we are working with members we are averaging 10 hours a week for companionship but we need more. we need 35 so we still have more work to do with that.

we are playing soccer everymorning in the church and to get our work out in we play four on four. and if you get scored on you have to do 10 push ups it is alot more work that way cause we normally score 15 goals each team in the hour that we play. 

we have finally found bikes and are using them. my legs are getting a workout from that all day. 

i am doing really good. my spanish is coming along and i am able to understand alot with out intensly trying to understand. it is good, and i am using more spanish. 

in our house we speak about 75 percent spanish so that is helping too.

Love addi

April 14, 2014

this week was a good week i am able to speek more and more spanish. i am learning alot and i have put my training wheels(english scriptures for personal study) away and hvent touched them for the last two weeks. 

this week we had a nother noche de hogar and we had these alfahores but they were like chalk i your mouth. so for a competition we had to eat one as fast as we could. and it is like eating saltine crackers. it was imposible and it was like a past coving your entire mouth. 

i went on divisions and i stayed in my area. so i had o be the senior comp and run the area. i was pretty good at it. like knowing where everything is. and elder finnegan had prepared me well to do it. i know my area really well and where everyone lives its huge but i got a good sense of  it.

this week we played soccer at the church 3 times. so we would wake up at 550 say our prayers and then run to the church and get there at 610 it is a good little run. the first time was alittle hard and after soccer running and walking all day my legs were a little sore. but after that first time it isnt bad. 

it hasnt been very hot at all. t has been really cold. a couple of the days it didnt get over 10 degrees celcious. so we just bundle up and keep warm all day.

we are working hard and i am loving it out here.

Love Elder Pulsipher

 me and the zone leader traded sweaters.

my bed and the dog that always come to visit us. and  i sleep every night bundled up in the sleeping bag now.

thsi was last week it was really hot so we planned out side.

we did a bbq in the back of staffieris house 2 weeks ago. and we made a huge fire and we only had hot dogs to cook. and we cooked them on sticks from the tre. untill the sticks kept breaking. so we got a tyle from the ground cleaned it off tossed it on and fried the hot dogs on there with alittle oil.

this is food from a lady in the ward we were at here house at 8 and teaching here. she asked have you every tried lamb. and we said not for a long time so she brought this over to us wonce we left it was really good.

April 7, 2014

this week was conference and it was really good.

it is a different experience watching it as a missionary with your notebook out and constantly taking notes.

you get alot more out of it by taking notes. 

this week i also had interveiws with the president, and afterwards i was able to go out and work with president. we went to the taylor family and she has been to the temple and he has not. they are about 60 he is a semi-active and has a problem with smoking. president has taught this man once before and has a strong bond with him. he told him, i want to see you come down to montivideo and i want to see you and your wife get sealled together. i could tell it hit him deeply and he wants to but struggles at times. he is a great man. there are pictures of us on presidents Facebook page. (ask my family if you dont know where or what that is.) but it was then my turn to bear my testimony in that lession. i expressed my deep gratitude for my parents examplñe to me to be married in the temple and make temple attendece such an important part of our lives. and to have us go as a family when we can. it is different to express this in english. but it was very powerfull in spanish. and for the love i have for my family. and for the ability to live with them forever.

we have been working really hard out here. i am working now on applying the things that i learned in conference. 

it is crazy that Heavenly Fathers Royal army on the earth right now is over 83000 that name was used by many appostles in past conferences. but with a Royal army needs a royal suport team and that is the wards. they too have to do there part. and each individual has to do there part in forwarding the work weather you are nursurly leader or stake president or a high counsel man you have the responsibility to work as the support team of Gods royal army. 

we have been challenged to work 7 hours a day with members. right now we are stugling to get 5 a week. so to everyone work with the missionaries.

we watched conference in a small secrataries closet and huddled around the computer. it was that or watch in spanish. 

Love Elder Pulsipher