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