We're Here!

We are finally here in the beautiful country of Uruguay. The people here are very nice and the missionaries have been especially helpful in teaching us what we are supposed to be doing. We were not able to have a very long orientation with the old mission presidente. Our flight was delayed and we were not able to fly directly to Montevideo. We arrived by way of San Paulo and Porto Alegre Bazil and arrived at 3 pm and the Petersons had to leave by 5 pm. We have had several days of "walking in the dark" you might say. The Lord will help us. He parted the clouds so we could arrive in Dallas to catch our flight to Brazil, which luckily had also been delayed as we arrived after the flight was supposed to have left. We were set apart on the 22nd of June by Elder Holland and Elder Gonzales, who is from Uruguay. It was a special experience. All our children except Andrew, who had to go back to Louisiana and the grandchildren 7 and up were able to come. The boys got to stand in the circle when Elder Gonzales set me apart. We spent a wonderful five days at the MTC. Elders Holland, Oaks, Nelson, Anderson and Packer spoke to us. Elder Hinkley also spoke to us as well as President Eyring, Uchdorf and President Monson. We also had Elder Perry and Elder Bednar and Ballard and many of the seventy there. We learned more than our old minds could grasp about missionary work. The spirit was very strong. We welcomed Troy to the MTC and met his mission President and wife. We saw him after one of his lunches. They fed us at a different time than he had his lunch so we went into the dinning room to see if by chance he would be there and he was just leaving. We also saw him at the sacrament meeting. He got to pass the sacrament. He is going to be a great missionary. We have shed many tears as we left our wonderful family. Our hearts have literally been ripped out, but we are in the Lord's work and we have been promised that our family will be blessed eternally. We have also just adopted 196 missionaries to the family. They seem to be great young elders and sisters. I only wish I were a doctor or nurse right now. We have had 8 health related problems in the past 2 days and there is no area doctor in Buenos Aires right now so we are just guessing what to tell each of them. Today we went to get our health check ups and saw some parts of the city in the daylight. Everything is very interesting. We love all of you and want to encourage you to read and study your scriptures in your homes and families. We want you to pray for us. We are praying for you all. Our home is nice and in a very nice part of Montevideo. We had our first experience in la tienda. love MOM