2022 Already?

 What's poppin? I cannot believe that it's already 2022. It's weird that it's a new year. I also think my wallet was surprised too because it jumped out of my pocket in a taxi and I haven't seen it since. I guess the old saying "New year new wallet" is coming into play. Later that same day we found the same taxi and same taxi driver and everything and the wallet wasn't there. My guess is that whoever got a ride from the same taxi took the wallet and either turned it into some lost and found thing or they just took my wallet. Either way it's funny to think some random person in Rocha Uruguay has the only United States guy's drivers license.

Other than that it was a pretty epic week of finding. Now that we can hunt people down and talk to them in the streets, we have found quite a bit of new people to teach. One lady named Luci we found by the next lesson said she wanted to be baptized so that was easy. One problem is that she can't read so that's a little difficult. She is cool though and wants the big tall guy to baptize her. Last night we talked to an 8 year old kid that took us over to his family house and we taught his whole family and it was pretty lit. Also they sang happy birthday to me and it was really adorable. Nobody can really pronounce Clegg over here. People get thrown off by the double g. They are also giving us cake or something today so that's pretty lit. Oh yeah, it's also my birthday today so I want: a Lamborghini, 3.5 million dollars, a ski resort, and colder weather here in Uruguay because it's hot. 

I'm doing pretty good though and hope y'all are having a good time wherever you are. I want to wish you all a splendid new year and merry birthday to all and to all a good night. The work also is starting to pop off here. I know that to be true because we are all out of Books of Mormon now and need more but, the mission doesn't have more. We will see what happens. Love you bye. 

-Love Elder Clegg

🎄🎅Merry Christmas 2021 🎅🎄🤟

 

I'm happy to report that I got nothing for Christmas from good ol Santy Claus. I'm not sure why he didn't get me anything though because this was the year I think I was on the best behavior. I was a missionary this whole year. Maybe I was a bad one?🤔 Nah, that can't be it. I think he's just jealous because I serve God and don't succumb to worldly things as easily anymore. It's also getting really hot here. I have had 3 summers in my mission all with lots of heat.🔥 On the brightside I have lost 30+ on my mission thanks to the heat. Now I fear exceedingly that I might sweat into non-existence.

Folks, it's a Christmas miracle: we can now go street contacting! I've missed street contacting since being here but, oh boy do I feel like a noob again.😂 Street contacting is one of those things you have to continue to do or you kind of lose confidence. Plus it's in Spanish. Something that happened that was interesting was that we walked past a guy by his house and he gave us a Book of Mormón. It's usually the other way around. The dude said that the Book of Mormón he gave us has been sitting in his house for 40 years. We tried to see if he would read it but he wasn't interested at all. He was also crazy. For whatever reason all the crazy people live by the Cemetery here. I also saw a Gringo this week that wasn't a missionary. We were walking down a road and a guy drove past and was like "What's up" with his window down. I was a little confused and then while he was driving off he was like "I'm a gringo too!" I shouted back "Let's go!" It was pretty epic, not going to lie. It was also by the cemetery.

This year because I wasn't receiving anything I decided to give instead. We bought presents for the Diogos who are a Senior Couple in the town where we live. I got Hermana Diogo a matte cup that says Rocha on it and I got Elder Diogo a couple ties because he has like three. To be honest I think giving might be funner than getting so that's cool, also the Diogos are super dope.

I had a cool experience last night. We were at the Diogos for Christmas dinner last night and I was just chilling on the couch and my heart was full of gratitude and I reflected on life and thought about so many things I'm grateful for. I thought about my mission, my family, Jesus Christ, the Gospel, my friends, about all of you that take the time to read my goofy emails, and a lot more things. Life is good. Even in the heat of the refiner's fire, life is still good. I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and his Atonement for all of us. I'm grateful because he suffered all he did even so that he bled from every pore. He died on the cross and he was resurrected again so that we won't have the sting of death and the grave has no victory. I've never realized how extensive his Atonement was. It's infinite. It covers us from before the beginning of time and on forever and ever. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. 

Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and remember the reason for the season. I love you all and hope the best for you all. Love you bye!

-Love Elder Clegg

WEEK 71 It's Getting Hotter

 

It was a pretty good week this week I'd say. The funny part is people have been kind of making fun of my Spanish so that's funny. The awkward part is that I understand them most of the time on what they are saying but, I don't know how to defend myself so I'll just live in ignorance. It's also getting hotter over here. That's right One mission 3 summers!

We did walk around a lot this week searching for those that are less active. That might be one of my favorite activities right now is inviting less active members to repent. There was this one lady in we were looking for named Fabiana and there was a dude outside so we asked if Fabiana lived there and he went to get Fabiana and when she came out we asked if she was Fabiana and she said no even though The spirit of discernment told me she was Fabiana or maybe it was other context clues. Anyway, she finally admitted that she was Fabiana and she kind of made fun of me for being from the United States. I don't know how people keep figuring out I'm from the U.S.🤔.I'm just going to start saying I'm from Montevideo. Fabiana wasn't interested at all in coming back to church. There's also a lot of people we look for that are currently in the spirit world so that's cool. We were looking for this one lady and the neighbors told us that we were too late and that she died and said, and I quote "a thousand years ago". I didn't know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was on the earth a thousand years ago in Uruguay. The more you know! 

Another thing to note is that I read the Pearl of Great Price in Spanish and as you would imagine it blew my mind and I've never read it in English. Another cool thing that happened this week is I caught a fish! That's right! I was once a fisher of fish, then I was a fisher of men and now I'm a fisher of fish and man. We also ate the fish so I think my Grandma will be proud! Hopefully Jesus will be proud too. I also read about Alma and Amulek's adventures in Ammonihah and the moral of the story is don't be like Nehor otherwise your whole city will be destroyed by Lamanites. You could probably figure out how that can apply to you.

Love, Peter...I mean Elder Clegg

WEEK 70 Dogs? 🐕🦮🐕‍🦺

This week we had too many experiences with dogs and they are everywhere. For some reason they always want to eat me. I mean I know I'm a snack but, now I'm kind of scared of dogs. One of the incidents is when we went past somebody's house there was a big ol dog with a chain on and it was in a yard and this dude charged me and freaking broke the chain. It scared the crap out of me and it also scared the crap out of the dog because it just ran in circles. There was also another incident when we tried to knock on this less active ladies door but, these two stupid dog were freaking guarding the place. We couldn't get too close otherwise the dogs would try to eat us. I think the dogs were possessed by the devil but, who knows. There was also another time when a bunch of dogs started charging us out of a yard but, luckily the owner stopped them before they got too close.

On a different note we were in Montevideo to go to a conference with one of the 70s named Elder Costa and I could understand the whole conference. I was kind of shocked the whole time. I think the reason I could understand was because they were trying to go slow and also the Spirit helped a ton. I also got to see my MTC district which was cool and also got to see a fellow Sin City missionary named Elder Hickman so that was cool. We went to McDonalds after the conference in Montevideo and it is like a 5 star restaurant here compared to the ones in the US. It was tasty homeland food. 

We got in contact with a bunch of less active members this week which is always great. We also had a lesson with this guy named Federico who is in a part member family. He's really dope. The thing that might hold him back is the things that have happened in Rocha in the church (I think I explained it in my last email) so that's kind of rough. It does show there are consequences for every action and shows a butterfly effect so that's cool I guess... 

I hope you all are going to have a good week this week. My Spanish has been improving but, sadly, it's not there yet. Who knew it was hard to learn a language? Those lucky missionaries before the Tower of Babel incident could always talk and teach in their own language. I wonder what would happen if the tower of babel was never built?  On that note Love you bye!

-Love Elder Clegg

WEEK 69 SOY URUGUAYAN

Yes, you heard it here! I'm now officially an Uruguayan and you are probably wondering how you do such a thing. Well it's actually quite simple... Just pee in a cup! That's at least what I did this week. We went to Montevideo the capital of Uruguay for a few days and had a pretty epic Mission Conference. We can't have zone conference because there are not enough missionaries yet. Don't worry you guys ((Who??)-inside joke) there was a translator named Elder Merrill to translate the meeting into English for those that struggle with Spanish(that's me). The person talking would talk in Spanish a sentence or two and Elder Merrill would say it in English. You could say we had a two for one. It was really good. We talked about the spirit and I felt the spirit! Funny how that works. We also talked about Christlike attributes which is always important.

We did a lot of walking this week! I'm pretty sure it the most walking I've done on the mission. We have been looking for the less active members that inhabitant the land of Rocha and I also figured out some interesting stuff about Rocha. There used to be a freaking Stake here and way more active members and there were two branches. Now there is one struggling branch here. Evidently the leaders of the church in Rocha messed up big time and did some big sins. That's at least what I picked up with my Spanish. I guess it's our job to clean up a bunch of stuff? Who knows. 

It was also Thanksgiving this week so that's cool. I totally forgot about it though so I'm grateful that I remember now. Now that Thanksgiving is gone we can all look forward to the next best Holiday! New Year's!!!! The year Elder Clegg goes home. Join in next time when Elder Clegg remembers Christmas!

-Love Elder Clegg 

P.S. It rained here these last few days more than it did my last over a year in Vegas.

WEEK 68 Just Another Week in Uruguay con Elder Clegg

Good Morning Gamers! This is your boy Elder Clegg typing an email from South America! This week was full of: you guessed it: Spanish. The language I still can't really understand except in lessons when I actually need it the most but, for other situations like streaming Sacrament meeting on YouTube I have no idea what they want me to do. Another interesting thing that happened is we tried to go to church in Castillos but, nobody showed up for church so that's always awkward. What can you do? You can't force people to go to church right? Right?

Another thing that happened is that we have been running into this bearded lady so that's interesting. I'm pretty sure she can grow more facial hair then I can, which to be honest isn't that hard. Another funny thing that happened is we ran into some teenage girls and they would look at us and giggle and stuff. They asked me where I'm from and why I'm here and all that stuff. We got their number to share the gospel with them and it was funny because my companion kept telling members and stuff about these youth that are interested in the Gospel but, I'm pretty sure they were just interested in me. Let's pray and hope they're interested in the Gospel!

In our Area we have Rocha and a ton of smaller towns in our area so on Thursday the Senior Couple we serve with, the Diogos, took us to a bunch of these towns in our area to find members and teach lessons and stuff. It was really cool! All these little towns are really cool! We went to: Castillos, Punto del Diablo, Aguas Dulces, La Paloma and ect. There was this one old guy in Castillos named José who has a hard time hearing. We taught him the Restoration so I would try to teach him but he could not hear a word I said. I would just give Elder Romero scriptures to read and such. José was a cool dude. In Aguas Dulce we found this lady named Liliam who is really cool! We talked with her and she's really cool. The problem is that she lives like 20 minutes by car away from the nearest chapel so yeah, she doesn't have a car and that might be a little difficult. When there's a will there's a way I guess.

It was a good week this week! Here's the link to Sacrament if you want it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n60egziP2SE

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-Love Elder Clegg, Your Friendly Neighborhood Clegg

The pictures tell a story. Figure out what it is.

WEEK 67 SLEEPING IN A SUITE = NO BEUNO

I did it! I made! What was the price? I had to sleep in a suit on the plane. 10/10 would not recommend. 

I had a good few days in Las Vegas! I went to the Temple and did all the stuff I needed to. I probably got a combined time of 2 hours of sleep that week lol. Now I'm in a different country adjusting to a different time period. It crazy to think sometimes that I'm in South America. I saw Vegas then Atlanta then the interior of a plane then boom South Africa. It's funny to think that I haven't said a full sentence in English in over a week. Take that... those that think they are better at taking English fasts then me.

I'm in a place called Rocha Rocha, Uruguay! Yes the place so great they named it twice! My companion is named Elder Romero and is from Tacuarembó, Uruguay and you guessed it: he doesn't know a lick of English. He's pretty cool and nice and likes animae so that's a plus. Our apartment is pretty nice for an foreign country. The shower has hot water and I have had colder showers in the United States than here. Sadly the shower isn't really "Clegg" sized. The people are really nice with me and bear my Spanish even though it sounds like I threw a bag of chips in the Garbage disposal or in other words "Gringo". I also think they are nice to me because I am tall and white and stick out worse then a sore thumb on the streets. I've caught a few people staring at me.

Another thing to note is that there is actual greenery around here. I'm starting to understand Spanish a little better but, can't really speak it as well. The tip that people always give me is to speak Spanish! Why have I never thought of that. 

President Escobar is really cool! He's from Chile and he's hilarious. He's funny even when I can't really understand what he's saying. He decided to make me a District Leader so that's good. Do you know what's harder than being a District Leader? Being one in Spanish! It should be pretty interesting.

We called this lady named Gladys and she was pretty cool. She said she has been reading the Book of Mormón. We talked some more and she wants to be baptized on Christmas. This was the first time we have ever talked to her at all. We put her on date! This must be South America! 

I'm getting adjusted down here little by little. Now I'm getting up 5 hours earlier then I did in Vegas and actually using Spanish. I hope you all have a wonderful week and remember when it's getting colder for most of you it's getting hotter for me

-Love your boy Elder Clegg