City Girl goes Country in Artigas

So I am in a new area. With a new companion, new ward, new everything.

It was a blessing having such a great start in my first area, I learned a lot of great things that I know will help me now and throughout. I guess most of all I learned to love and be happy and just work really hard.

On Wednesday I took an eight hour bus ride from Montevideo, the very bottom tip of Uruguay, up to Artigas, the very top of Uruguay. It was fun to actually see the miles of miles of country side passing by. In the city, I never saw the agriculture so much.

I am definitely in a different world. Everything is new and different and completely opposite than how it was in Pocitos. The streets are unpaved, the houses are made out of cinderblocks. Motorcycles are the preferred type of transportation. Grocery stores are the living rooms of the neighbors, dogs and horses roam wild and unclaimed through the town. Plus there’s a lot of heat and a lot of hills!

Haha, but life is good. The ward is great, and very large. There are a lot of inactive members, but also members who are eager to help out in whatever way possible.

My new companion and I are trying to get the area figured out and where to best put our efforts.

Since I had met a lot of the members at the temple sealing just a few weeks ago, I received a huge welcome on Sunday! Not that they remembered my name, but they were excited to see that ¨That one¨ had come. = ) My new companion is great, Hermana Murdock. She is from Cedar Hills, Utah, has six months in the mission, and we both have high goals for this area. Plus here’s the best part ... She Loves Oatmeal! and dried fruit ! and fiber! and every morning makes me the best bowl of maple banana oatmeal deliciously that one could imagine! = ) = ) yea! The Lord loves me.

I help her with the Spanish so we have a good trade off.

Next Sunday is Mother’s Day! And apparently in the mission we are able to receive phone calls from our family that day??

But here’s how it has to work, I will give you my cell phone number and you (mother) need to call me 6:30 MY TIME. You need to obtain a phone card and the Uruguay area code (because I don’t know it)

It should work, I hope, and I’m not sure what the time change is for you guys, but it needs to be 6:30 my time and again I am in Artigas, Uruguay, if that helps.

I asked my companion if other family members besides my mother can call me, she said she wasn’t sure but thinks that it is ok, if like Karie or RCJMGG or whoever wanted to talk to me that couldn’t be at the house. Or we could try the phone to phone to me way again too, however you all like.

So hopefully that will be fun next Sunday, maybe you should all think of specific questions to ask me just so we can use the time in the best way possible.

I am still brushing my teeth every day, my shoes are holding up, I inherited a lot of sweaters from Hna Allphin so I think I’ll be OK in the cold.

P.S. it is super hot here.


Love you all tons


Hna Suswha


Pictures

Us with the grandmother and aunt of Victoria, who was baptized on the 24th.

picture perfect oatmeal

pics of the country in Artigas