Where has the time gone? I am going to turn 21 in April!! I cant believe it. My companion always says that she is old now that she turned 20 in December. That makes me feel older because I am about to turn 21. I know we are stupid :) 

This week we had divisions with our sister leader trainer. Her name is Sister Olson and she is from Vegas. She is a vocalist. She has a career and everything. I love her songs. Anyway she was actually my companion's trainer back 6 months ago. This week when I went out with her to teach she had such a way to grab peoples attention. A lot of times when I talk they start talking over me. I need to learn how to do what she does. She did say that I did a great job and that she wanted me for her next companion....that would be awesome! The people here talk alot and about alot of random subjects and it is dificult to get them to listen and think about what you are saying. She said that I was good at getting them back on schedule. Really I had a lot of practice with some of our investigators in Salto and I get bored easily by their randoms stories. Well yay for talents. 

I only have one more week of this transfer and then I may get a new companion and stay here which is most likely or I may leave or stay here with Hermana Valverde. It is kind of sad but also kind of fun to have changes. 

Our front door is Uruguayan. The other day we were talking to this woman, trying to find someone that used to be an investigator that lived in her house. She said that she couldnt open the door because it was stuck so she talked to us through her window. She called her door uruguayo. :) Since then I call our door uruguayan as well. It wont open, takes us, no really Hermana Valverde, 20 minutes to open it. After one day of rain, I decided to use the back door. We always hide a key back there and it is much easier to open. When Hermana Valverde leaves we probably will never use the front door again. I hate that door, the lock destroys our thumbs. 

Good things. We are had a primary activity the other night for all the kids in the ward and their parents and families. It was a blast. They rented those plastic jumping things and trampolines. The kids had fun and the parents bonded. We had quite a few people we have been working with there. Then this last sunday, one of the inactive sisters that came to the party came to church. She was a little nervous and her children are monsters but I think it was a good experience. During Sacrament meeting we were siting next to her and helping her. We have this joke between Hermana Valverde that whenever we visit her the number of children that my companion wants goes down. She used to want 8 then after a lesson with this lady she wants 1 or 0. So after sacrament meeting, I looked at her and I was like. I am never having children. Haha I wasnt feeling really great and so I had so little patience with them. 

So I have been reading the Bible from the beginning. It has been interesting. I dont know how I feel about all the weird stuff that happens in Genesis. I learned though, the importance of the law of chastity and word of wisdom and that family is important. Exodus is next...... :)

I love you all and pray that the Lord will bless each and every one of you. :) Be happy, pray, and do what you should. 

Love,

Krista

(next week)

How are you? I am good. I am a little wet. This morning we had a water balloon fight as a zone and it was fun! It is super hot here but yesterday we had a nice storm. It cooled off for a couple hours. During a lesson there was thunder and I was talking. It was kind of cool like the power of the heavens but at the same time it was kind of distracting. We are working on making sure everyone is reading their book of mormons. Everyday. Hermana Valverde read a scripture a couple weeks ago that said that if we dont read it we are condemned. We decided to read everyday :) I dont want to be condemned. It was a little hard because I was reading in spanish. It was hard to get much out of it. Now somedays I read in spanish and others in english.

Well the work is not going really great. None of our investigators have baptismal dates. Two sets of them have to get married first. Fun. One of them is got divorced many times and doesnt want to make the decision to marry again. It is so hard for them. In Salto we had many youth who did not want to get married because they had such bad examples. Sad. 

Another fun tidbit my last companion is was in Salto with me wrote me and told me that they are closing her area in Salto. My area....that is so weird. I guess they have a reason. Alot of sisters in salto got sick a lot and had to go to the hospital in montevideo. I never got that sick and I am grateful for that. 

We had lunch this week with some missionaries from brazil. There is a sister in our ward that works with us and them. So we all got together and had lunch. It was a little crazy because everyone was speaking in english except my companion and I. One of the sisters is from california so we talked a little in english :)

Enjoy the pictures!

Krista

Dear Family and Friends,

This next week is very special it is my 7 month anniversary in the mission :) WOW! where has the time gone? 

So last Tuesday we went to the bus terminal at 11:30pm with my cortoplaso and Hermana Valverde. She went to Montevideo. Waited until her bus left. Sad, I will miss her she is so funny. Then we went to sleep at the house of the sisters that live nearby. "slept" for 5 hours and then got up and went back to the terminal to pick up my new companion. A cortoplaso is a youth that fills in for a missionary so we are not alone or so that we can do more work. It is just in some areas I think. 

Anyway I got a new companion! She is awesome her name is Hermana Lopez from Guatemala. She went to byu for 3 years so she is pretty much americanized :) We have a lot of fun but she is more obedient than some of my other companions. It is good, we have a good balance. We worked alot this week but we got lost a couple times. The problem is that none of the streets have signs. Well some of them do, but not very many. Unless we count the streets we get lost. But most of the time we start talking and forget to count. An awesome thing about her is that she just finished training a missionary from the states so she thinks that my spanish is good. Haha it was nice to hear. :) We talk in spanish most of the time and it helps. 

The first two days with her it rained pretty hard and the streets were filled with water. Little rivers :)

Yesterday was fun..... We went to church like normal. In sacrament meeting, the first week with a new missionary, usually they introduce themswelves and bear their testimonies. So I was expecting that Hermana Lopez was going to do that but I didnt have to do anything. I also gave a talk last month and Hermana Valverde didnt have to so I was thinking that it was one at a time. So after the sacrament they announced the talks. So noone here can really say my name. So when they said hermana Beatie I didnt understand. We waited, and waited a little more....I looked up at the stand and they were looking at me. I was like "me"? Si! Well I grabbed my book of mormon and walked up to the stand, with no idea of what to say or anything. I said something about how I didnt know I was supposed to give a talk. I flipped through my scriptures and then I remembered the night before we had a family home evening and we talked about the armour of god. I flipped to dyc 27 and started to talk about that. It wasnt actually that bad. I realized that I was supposed to be talking about missionary work halfway through so I applied it. It actually worked pretty well. If you were in lord of the rings and had all your armour and your friend was there with you and he didnt have anything to protect him. He is going to die. Yep! We cant share our armour or our conversion, protection of God but we can share where we got it from and then they can find their own armour. We really are in a battle. Good against evil! My talk turned out alright. My heart was beating so fast!

Then after weekly planning we went to talk to a family. They dont know that they are investigators :) We shared The Restoration video with them. The mom really liked it and she went and got her bible and book of mormon that other missionaries had given her. She said that she was going to pray that night and ask to know if Joseph Smith saw God. Later we went to their neighbors who are members and talked to them for a minute. The father of this family was like you are wasting your time. That is stupid because if we only wanted perfect people to be baptized then no one would be in the church. The family that we watched the movie with is a little bit more of the world than others but every person needs the opportunity to accept or reject the gospel. 

I am happy to be here in Uruguay, sharing this message. The gospel really changes lives. It is not for perfect people, it is for those of us that are imperfect and need a lot of help. 

I have to go but I will let you know more of my stories next week. 

Love,

Krista 

Hola!

Well here´s some news........ I got transferred. I will tell you that I was hoping for Montevideo or somewhere more south of Salto for the heat but I got a great Christmas gift this year! haha Estoy en Rivera. There is only one department that is hotter than Rivera. I am up by Brazil. Literally. I am going to go shopping today in Brazil. Apparently it is cheaper to go there because as foreigners we get better prices. I dont really understand but yeah... It is going to be my first time in Brazil! How exciting no?

So I am in Rivera, Uruguay. I moved on Sunday night and hung out in a bus terminal for 4 hours in Paysandu and then took a 5 hour ride to Rivera. Man was I beautiful that morning! My companion's name is Hermana Valverde and she is from Ecuador. I actually know her from before. When my first companion and I went to Montevideo to go to the doctor we spent the rest of the time with Hermana Valverde and her companion when they were working in Montevideo. We had lunch with them and it was fun! So when I found out she was my companion I was pretty happy. The only real problem is that she speaks english as well. Every single one of my companions have been english speakers. No wonder my spanish is not very good. No that is just an excuse, my spanish is getting better though. Oh and we have a house instead of an apartment. That is a little weird. 

So Christmas was interesting. Christmas Eve was a little boring. They dont really do much for parties here except eat and drink and chat. So we were invited to 2 houses for Christmas Eve and so we went to the first one and they werent really started yet so we said we would come back.We went next door to the other party. That wasnt awkward at all. We just sat there and ate some empanadas. And talked a little. My companion painted her fingernails and then we decided to go back to the first one. When we got back the party wasnt that much better. We helped make sandwiches and talked a bit. Hermana Fereira de De Sousa is a hout. She has so much personality and sass that just ebing around her is fun. She was my mother here. When I was sick one day she took care of me. I slept on her couch for the whole day. She brags that her food was what made me better.....I dont know about that. :)

We stayed up and make orange julius.Or we tried. Our blender wasnt very good so we tried to crush the ice but it pretty much just melted. So it was kind of a milk orange drink.:) Then we sat out on our balcony and wached the fireworks. Then went to bed. In the morning we had PRESENTS!

I was so blessed this week to get 2 boxes from my family. ALL intact. I opened them with my companion Hermana Christensen and took pictures. I have so osososooso many pictures. I loved all of them. They are so sweet. I LOVE MY FAMILY. Me amo mi familia! Then after our special morning we went to lunch. Our missionary mom here. Hermana Silvia made us Christmas Lunch. Then I got to skype my family at around 2 my time. It was so great to see them all. We talked for about an hour and then we had to say goodbye. Not going to lie. I cried a little bit to see them go. But I know that what I am doing is good and right and my family is going to be blessed. Hermana Silvia wanted to sing Families can be together forever for our families. It was sweet and I know that my family is sealed together forever. What a blessing!

Well I was kind of sad to leave Salto Cerro. We had some good times there. The last two changes I was ready to leave but in this last one I didnt want to go. I dont know how much good I did there but I hope I touched someones heart and made their life a little brighter. 

I also got to do something kind of cool. My aunt Heather served her mission here 30 years ago , I think. She gave me some names of people that she worked with that she wanted me to look up and report on. So my last week in salto there was one of the people that was on the border of my area. Really not in my area but it was acrross the street so we went and visited her. She is so strong in the church. She didnt understand us very well but I could see from her house and her eyes that she loved the Lord and was doing her best. I took pictures and I am going to send them to my aunt. It is great how the gospel can change someones life forever. 

Today is the 31st and the last day of the year. Which means Resolutions! What resolutions have you made this year? I am going to be more obedient and happy. Maybe these go hand in hand? hahaha

Well I have much to learn about Rivera Chico 1 (nuestra area) so wish me luck!

Peace and Blessings,

Hermana Krista Beatie

pictures

Christmas morning with my FREAKING SQUIRREL NECKLACE!

Merry Christmas!   

I get to talk to my family in 2 days!

Today we watched two movies. Real movies. Haha we saw Monsters University and Remember the Titans. A Christmas from our Mission President but they werent very Christmassy... Haha We watched Monsters University with subtitles in english so that was good but Remember the titans we didnt. It was hard to understand because it was about football and they were yellling alot. Which makes it a bit difficult to understand. It is all good. After we finished watching them at the stake center we walked out on the street and it was like....Oh yeah we are in Uruguay. We forgot for a couple hours.

 On Christmas we are going to be working like normal. Maybe we will go visit some members and see if any of our investigators want to talk to us. Apparently there is a lot of drinking on Christmas and people stay up late and eat at midnight a big bbq. We are allowed to stay out on christmas eve until 10:30pm. We have plans to visit 2 families in the evening and spend a couple of hours with them.

We made Christmas cookies the other day. They are pretty good. There are pictures. Not my best picture but I thought I would share anyway. Hna Christensen is really into decorating for Christmas and that is good but it doesnt really feel like Christmas here. It is both a good thing and a bad thing.

This week we had 1 investigator that came to church. He came to all primary but left after the sacrament. arrhhg. We didnt used to have a primary but now it is doing good! I am so happy for our ward. The ward went to the temple in Montevideo the capital this weekend and I think it was really good for them. They had 3 sealings of couples and I hope that it brings the ward closer. One of our recent converts went. She is 12 and it was her first time but I think it went well. She was a little tired whenthey got back. The next day for church she didnt come because she had to work with her grandma at her store thing. I was kind of sad, I was hoping that she would be much more committed to the gospel now but I think it was a good experience and maybe they have a little more unity in the ward. Also on Sunday one of the young women opened her mission call. She is going to Mexico!!! She is pretty awesome so I am so excited for her. There is also a reurned missionary in our ward and they are friends. I think they should get married but apparently "he has a girlfriend". hahaha I am so thankful to have a temple here that members can go to and share in the blessings. I wish I could have gone. We didnt know we could have gone until afterwards but maybe next time. 

What are your christmas traditions? People ask sometimes and I would like to know what other people do. 

Here they have these little trees if they have one at all and the fireworks are big. The kids really like those. They dont have any presents under the tree. I gave a gift to one of my girls and she waited 3 days before she opened it. I guess it is not normal to have presents under the tree. 

Well I am doing well, I just need to pray for my investigators more. They dont want to progress, really. Oh well we will keep working. 

I have a testimony of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. I know they are true. I have been studying the book of mormon in spanish every day. I know that it is from God for us in our day. I make sure that I read at least a verse every day. I challenge each and everyone of you to make it a goal to not go a day without reading the book of mormon. If you dont know what it is than we can talk.... :) 

I know that Christmas is when we remember our Savior. He died for us so that we might live. Remember Him at this time. His Birth. 

Love,

Krista

photos of me walking down the road, me and Guadelupe (recent convert) I am wearing a moto helmet. and me and our cookies. 

Hello Amigos y Familia,

It has been a little hot here. I dont know how we are going to survive it when it gets hotter. I hear that this is ony the beginning. Our electricity is broken in our room so we had to change rooms so we could sleep with the fan on. We are also being eaten by mosquitos :) For some reason our blood is just soo sweet :)

Our Mission President said that we are not going to be in one area for more than two changes now (except for training). Which means that I am most probably moving in 3 weeks. I am excited but I am going to miss a lot of the friends that we have made here.

Our investigators are not really progressing except for Marcelo. He is a 8 or 9 year old boy who comes to church with his cousin who is a member. We visited him twice now. Our lessons have been a little long and they (we have been teaching his brother as well) get a little restless. We need to work on making them fit for children and only the important stuff. His brother Ramiro was at first really interested and he and his brother came to church every sunday without their parents and this was before we met them. We heard from their mother that the kids at school had been mean to him and called him a huevo. I am not sure exactly what that means but he seems to be avoiding us a little bit. We are sad because there is not much we can do to help. Except pray I guess.

Last week we thought we had a new investigator. We were really excited to go teach them but we didnt have a lot of time and they just had so many stories to tell and things to say. Either people dont say much or they just want to talk forever. I know they have faith but it is hard to teach when they dont want to listen. The other day we had divisions and my companion talked with this one man who is menos activo and she told me that he talked the whole time and it was frustrating. We went to go see him and this time we decided we were going to take charge of the visit right away. It kind of worked. We did get to teach about the book of mormon but he did get off topic a bit but we were good about bringing it back after a while. He said that he is going to start reading so that is good right? 

It is so different here, there is no cold weather or festive hot drinks. The other day we were talking to a group of boys and asked them why we celebrate Christmas, they didnt know. It was so sad! They thought it was to spend time with their familiies and have presents and have peace. I was so glad that we got to share that it was a celebration of the birth of our Savior. 

We have a problem with the young women. They are having a hard time feeling comfortable at church because there are some young women that are not very nice and a little judgemental. They dont want to come to church or activities because they think that they have to be like these 2 young women to be a good member of the church. I dont know what to do. If you are reading this letter, please be accepting of everyone that comes to church, it is hard sometimes and it is even harder when the people there are judgemental or unkind. Lets make the church a place of peace and friendship!

For my spanish, I think it has improved but I would really like a spanish only companion next time. Hna Christensen and I speak english most the time and I think that both of our spanish has gotten worse. Oh there was a baptism this weekend at the church for a member's son. It was great, very well done. We gave the L1.1 (the prayer) while they were getting changed after the baptism. There were quite a lot of people and I got a little nervous. I didnt do very well, but we did feel the spirit. It was a great time. 

Love,
Hna Beatie

Pictures are of our Christmas tree :) Credit goes to Hermana Christensen. And our hats!! I wasnt a hat person before but people seem to really like our hats! Score :)

The other one is of me and one of the recent converts in our area. Her name is Yuliana, she is sweet but not very good at getting up in for church haha 

Dear Family and Friends of Mine!

I am happy to write to you on this very rainy day in Salto, Uruguay. I was actually kind of hoping to change areas this transfer but I am here at least for another 6 weeks! I know that this assignment is from God so I am going to be okay and I have a new companion Hermana Christiansen. I havent met her yet but I hope she is awesome. Although I am staying I will have a new companion and my companion (Hermana Nielson) from the ccm is being transferred to salto and is going to be companions with Hermana Petien. I missed Hermana Nielson so I am happy that I will get to see her again. I guess I would have been sad too if I was transfered out of Salto right when Hmna Nielson was transfered here. haha.

I had some setbacks this week. We had temporary companions from the young women in Obelisco for a day. It was nice of them to come. I was a little overwhelmed to be in charge of what we were going to teach and where to go but that went alright. The problem was that my spanish is not very good. I have been working on it and Hna Gordillo and I make an effort to speak only spanish outside the house. I thought it was getting better and I felt more confident about speaking. I think that my companion for the day was trying to be helpful but she would repeat what I would say in better spanish to the members or investigators and I felt a little sad. The worst part was when she would joke about how she couldnt understand anything with some of the members. I felt so tired and useless. I cant really argue with her or anything so I just smiled and prayed that the day would be over soon. That morning at church we had given talks in sacrament meeting, mine was about the atonement and hna gordillos about the love of God. When hermana gordillo told people that she was leaving and that I was staying and Hermana Christiansen was coming, they were all like "I hope she can speak better spanish because we cant understand Hna Beatie at all" Well isn't that a nice compliment. My language problems are a weakness for me and kind of tender. I just felt like everytime someone would ask about Hna Christiansens spanish or laugh about how they couldnt understand me I felt like they were stabbing me in the back. I know what I need to do but it sure is hard huh? It is easy to teach others about forgiveness but it is another thing to have to do it yourself when your heart hurts. Well I am working on it and I hope to love this people once more. 

Everyday I have a better or at least different experience. Sunday night we took a bus to Montevideo which is 6 hours away. Hna Gordillo needed to visit the doctor there. We arrived on Monday morning and we thought we were going to be able to go to the temple but it turns out it was closed. I also loved being in montevideo! I am a city girl at heart so I loved it. We worked with the sisters in Flores and they were really nice to us. I was a little tired but the more people we talked to the more I felt the spirit and that we were helping people. 

The work here in Salto is slow and has some progress but in other places a decrease. We have this fairly new investigator Marcos. He doesnt have muscles in his legs and he is in his bed most to all the time. He is really honest and is progressing so well. Usually at the beginning of the lesson we ask our investigators who they want to say the opening prayer, he always says that he wants to say it! He has a wonderful heart and a great desire to learn and accept the doctrine but his body is weak.Sometimes I wish he could just change bodies. There is this idea that God doesnt have a body, he is only a spirit. He did have a problem one time with the fact that heavenly father is a man with flesh and bones and not just a spirit. I wasnt there for the next lesson because I was sick (I think the combinaiton of rain, not much sleep and stress and working hard was too much for my body and I was down for a day) but Hna Gordillo said that they taught him and he had a really spiritual experience about Heavenly Father. 

Apparently here at Christmas time the attendance at church goes down because people have parties and stuff. Our President asked us to think of ways that we can help. I guess I want to help by sharing the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of our Savior and the reason why he is our Savior. The atonement is the most wonderful event in the World!  Also I will share the promise to help people be focused on helping their friends come to know about the gospel. The promise from Elder Ballard from the last conference. He says"We are not asking everyone to do everything. We are simply asking all members to pray, knowing that if every member, young and old, will reach out to just “one” between now and Christmas, millions will feel the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a wonderful gift to the Savior." I love that last line, what a wonderful gift for Jesus Christ at His birthday. I invite you all to look up the talk by Elder M. Russell Ballard entitled Put your Trust in the Lord. 

Peace and Blessings to you and your family,

Hermana Beatie

Photos: Mi companera Hna Gordillo y Yo

Dear Friends and Family,

So I realize that I have been thinking rather negatively lately and I need to be more positive, so this is my positive letter.

I am in a ward with hermanas and elders and this last saturday we were planning to have a water balloon fight for the noche de hogar del barrio. I was really excited to plan it because it has been really hot and I wanted to do an activity that people would want to come to and have fun. Well the last week it rained most of the week and was cloudy. We prayed that the weather would change and we would have good weather for the activity and that people would come. We even made invitations and gave them to investigators and members. Well Saturday came and it rained in the morning but by evening it still was cloudy and drizzly. We were kind of sad because we worked on spreading the news and promoting this activity and we thought no one would come. It started out small but by the time we started the mtg there was a good group. Hermana Gordillo had a great idea to share the mormon message about service from President Monson and then do a service project together: cleaning the church. We didnt know how it was going to go but we did it. People didnt leave! Not everyone helped a lot but they all stayed. At the end we took a picture and had food. We had so many people that we needed more food, the elders went and bought one of those fake pizzas. Anyway this experience helped me to recognize that people want to serve and sometimes they need a little push. I used to get frustrated with my mom in her calling because she would always ask people to do things that I knew they didnt really want to. It is amazing to me to hear that they all are thankful for the opportunity to serve afterwards but sometimes they need to be helped to serve. I am thankful for Hermana Gordillo and this great opportunity to serve, I know that the water balloon fight would have been fun but there is no better way to bring people together than service. I hope we continue to have better weather and so can have the fight this saturday.

Hermana Gordillo makes this cake in the microwave in 8 minutes, it is good but it is always a little dry. So we didnt have anyone to eat lunch with this week so we decided to have cake for lunch. I wanted to try to make it with a smashed banana inside and bananas on the top with dulce de leche. It was heaven! We just so happened to have a senior couple missionaries come to our apartment to do cleaning checks and we shared it with them. It was great and they loved it and wanted to the recipe.

We teach this one less active woman whose name is Laura. Laura is sweet and old and has trouble hearing. During our lessons we have to speak really loud in her one ear that works to have her understand. She is sweet but loves to talk as well so it is kind of hard to have a lesson. I dont know what is wrong with me but everytime someone talks to her really loud I start laughing. I am able to laugh without making much sound but it probably isnt very reverant. Anyway I take it as a blessing to be able to have a good laugh :) Just thinking about it makes me smile. haha

Yesterday at church was so good, we had 92 people in the chapel for sacrament meeting. After the sacrament some people left but overall they stayed. I was so happy. We also had one of the families that is less active and we have been teaching came to church with their family to have their new baby blessed. I think one of the reasons people were on their best behaviors was because we had company. I wish we could be like that every week. Not everything is better but this last week the spirit was definitely there.

We have had some troubles with one of our investigators. She is 15 and was our one investigator with a baptismal date and progressing. This week she and her mom and 3 siblings left and moved to another place in town. It was all sudden people have different stories about what happened or what is the truth. It is hard to know what to do or say. We had really come to love their family and the rest of the family is still here and a little hurt by their actions. There are some accusations of her father and her having a relationship and that is why he is in jail. We are trying to just show how the gospel of Jesus Christ can help everyone. We are also sad that she is not in our area anymore. We were trying to help her have a testimony of the gospel and not just be friends with us so I am not sure if she will continue searching for the truth. One thing that breaks my heart is that her little sister that is with them, she was my first baptism here. She is sweet and diligent when others in her family are not. They left so quickly that Yennifer, little sister, didnt take her book of mormon. I know that it would help so much in this time of dificulty but she doesnt have it.

Every morning we study and it goes by so quickly. I wish we could do more in less time. We have good intentions to practice the lessons but it takes me a long time to figure out what I want to say. We are getting better, though, I think at asking inspired questions. We have been giving the restoration lesson to all of our recent converts and less active people and it is really good. Alot of times people dont remember simple things like what a prophet is or what the priesthood is. I guess after you dont go to church for a while you start to lose the knowledge that you gain. I am glad for the opportunity to share the restoration.
.
Love,
Krista

ps. these pictures are of my apartment. when I first got here I thought that it was terrible and a ghetto apartment. Then we have people say that it is so nice. I really dont know. Maybe I will send the picture of the bathroon next week! Be excited :)