Hey Everyone!
Well, I am in my new area! Salto is on the western border of Uruguay. I took the bus down to Montevideo and then back up and over to Salto. When I got here, I was not sure what to expect but the area is good. The main roads in Salto are paved, but the side roads are dirt. It is more flat here than in Rivera. We are in a house here instead of an apartment and it is super dirty. The ground is super dusty and we have a couple of rats that we chill with, and some peachy spites!! The ward here is about the same size as in Rivera. The members are solid and I think we will be able to get a lot of work done! The bishop of the ward is a solid dude, and I like the ward mission leader. We are finding people to teach and that’s great! We had seven new people at church on Sunday. We have a baptism on Saturday and one on next Wednesday. We are working really hard! My companion, Elder Fernandez, is REALLY focused and intense! Our goal on a typical day is to try and contact at least 18 people. I think that is good, but he always wants more! He has been here about one transfer longer than me. His Spanish is really good! I guess that is one advantage of already speaking Portuguese! My Spanish is coming along. I am finding that I can understand and speak some of the different dialects better than others. Some here say my Spanish is great and some say it needs a little work. So I’m somewhere in between. I don’t speak any English during the week-only when I talk to my family on pday. So that could get interesting.
I think Salto will be good for me. There is lots of walking…again..but that’s okay it is good for me. My calves are ripped! So it’s all good. I will need to work on my companion’s sense of humor. I love to laugh and find humor in life and he is very focused.
Since being here in Uruguay, I am mostly over the culture shock. Learning Spanish has been good. I can understand more than I speak, but it is coming along well. I thought the food would be better than it is. But I have found some things that I like. We eat a lot of spaghetti with tomatoes. It may sound good, but it is very bland. Cannelonnes are super solid. The alfajores (cookie type dessert) are good. Milk is in a bag here and is spoils in a few days. It is not as good here. As for the meat. Yes, they eat beef, but it seems like it is everything but the good part of the cow-not steaks. They eat testicles, brain, tongue and liver. I like the chicken dishes. Milanesa is good. Most of the members on the records here are inactive. We try to visit them, but we work mostly with the new contacts we make. The people here are super chill and very nice. For the most part, they believe in God. They are Catholic and Evangelist (evangelicos).
Our mission president, President Olson, is leaving at the next transfer and we will be getting a new one. President and Sister Olson are AWESOME! President is a SAVAGE! It stinks that we won’t be having a mission conference with the whole mission before he goes, but we are having zone conference on Thursday. He will be giving a blessing to every missionary in the zone before he leaves!
There is a lot of missionary work to do here in Uruguay! A new area opened at Christmas that had never had missionaries before. Since then, the missionaries have baptized between 30 and 40 people! Pray for the people here! They are ready and need the blessings of the gospel!
I love you guys! Thank you for all of your letters and support!
-Elder Alsop