A Greenie No More

Elder Nielsen's Farewell Party

Hey everyone!!

Wow, the last couple days have been pretty crazy, and there is going to be quite a few changes coming. To start, I received a call today about my new companion for next change! His name is Elder Good- a gringo! My zone leaders told me he only has 5 months on the mission (and I have just 4)! So this is going to be very interesting haha. Elder Moss, another Elder in my zone, came over to our appartment today with some other missionaries and apparently Elder Moss was CCM companions with Elder Good, so he told me about him and I am really excited. They are the group of missionaries who came in right before my group. But I have heard only good things about Elder Good. Elder Moss said he is obedient and really likes to work. He is from Ephraim, Utah and really likes sports. Elder Moss and Elder Chatwin (who was also in his CCM group) told me that we are actually pretty similar and will get along really great so I am super excited! Elder Good is serving way up in the zone Salto right now and is coming to Flores, while Elder Moss is going up to his area in Salto. Anyways... we also recieved some crazy news concerning the changes of the other missionaries we live with last night. First, Elder Maxfield is going near the top of Uruguay to be a zone leader in Salto. And, Elder Pettit who is in my group, currently being trained by Elder Maxfield..... is going to be a trainer next change!!! So that is absolutely crazy. I also heard that Elder Wright from my CCM group will be a trainer next change too! Apprarently President Olsen is making a lot of changes and we have a super young mission, so now some fairly new missionaries will already be training. 

Anyways this week has been great. We taught [...] the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity this week and he is keeping them both! He even gave up alcohol and coffee, so that is fantastic. We were actually just informed that we are having stake conference the weekend of his baptism, so we are probably going to have to push his date to December 10th instead.

Yes, I have heard about Donald Trump winning the election haha. I will admit it was a big surprise for me. Our ward mission leader told us the results on Wednesday morning, and since then we hear about Trump from everyone! It is all over the news here and everyone asks us about it haha. The states are a really big deal in Uruguay. Anyways, Wednesday was really cool because we went to sign residency for those of us ´oros´ and so I was able to see my whole CCM group again. It was super awesome to see and hear from them again. They are all doing awesome. 

Some more big news is that Elder Rasband from the quorom of the 12 Apostles is coming this week on Thursday!!! I am so excited. It is kind of a bummer for Elder Neilsen though as he leaves Wednesday afternoon and is going to miss it. I think that I will be in a trio with Elders Maxfield and Pettit for part of Wednesday and Thursday. The conference with Elder Rasband will be for both missions in Uruguay so I believe over 400 missionaries will be there! Afterwards, we will go to our stakecenter and split off with our new comanionships there. But I am STOKED to here from an Apostle! And am am also really excited to meet Elder Good!

Today our ward mission leader, Runco, took us over to Ciudad Viega in Montevideo, about 30 minutes from here, because Elder Neilsen wanted to get some souveniers before he left. It was really cool. We drove by the ocean (which is actually kind of dull) and also a US embassy. I got a couple of  little souveniers as well so it was fun.

So yeah, it has been an eventful week. We have visited a bunch of members for Elder Neilsen to say goodbye, and it is wierd to think I will be out of training in a couple of days. I still cannot believe that my next comanion only has 5 months and that Elder Pettit is training! Our zone is going to look a lot different next change from what I have heard. But only good things are ahead! I miss and love you all! Until next week :)

Elder Layton