December 12, 2011

A warm hug to Bro and Sis Riding... Thank you for your letter and message!!! I truly believe that what you shared with me is true, and it is happening to me.

I will go ahead and answer your question really quick about what Argentines do for Christmas. First of all, it´s blazing hot down here... So what they do to celebrate is they light off fireworkds. A lot of fireworks. All the celebrating is on the 24th, the 25th is a chill day where no one does anything. About presents? I have no idea, I will tell you when I find out how they do that part! There are hardly any lights in the city, on the roofs, in the pine trees... It makes me a little sad. Haha, I never thought the Christmas lights would affect my feelings... Sniff, Sniff. If I were to walk around the city right now, I would hardly recognize that it´s Christmas time, it´s way different than in the U.S. But almost every one has... Da Da Da... Asado!!!!!!! WHOOO!!! I love Asado!!! Hahahahahahahahaha! MEAT! CARNIVORE!!! DINOSAUR!!! Ahem... Excuse me for the outburst.

 

Now about the life of the missionary...

 

First of all, I´ve been learning lesson after lesson here as a missionary and as a person. I can´t even tell you the amount of things that I learn as a missionary. It is incredible. The life of a missionary is so jam-packed with lessons that if I wasn´t a missionary, I´d be all lessoned out!!! But I love it. I have learned so much about what I want my life to be like after the mission. How I want to work afterwards, who I want to spend my time with, what I will NOT do with my life. How I can best treat my family, friends, acquaintences. Things like that. I could write all day about the lessons I´ve learned, but I don´t want to. Ha.

 

I´m going to talk about Mirta, Ramón, Claudia and Dana first... They´re wonderful. They are such a chosen, special family. I can´t even express the feeling of love I have for this family. We go by them every Sunday, Tuesday and Friday night. A week ago we had them read 1 Nephi 18 and switch "ship" for "family". Do it. We were with a member couple while we talked about the chapter, and then we put the goal for them to be married on the 23rd! And they accepted wholeheartedly!!! We were so happy! Now comes the sketchy part. We have to get the birth certificate of Ramón from Buenos Aires before the 23rd of December. If he doesn´t have that, he can´t be married, a.k.a can´t be baptized the 24th, a.k.a. No White Christmas. I am now calling Operation PRAY HARD. I need you all to dedicate your prayers to this family. Think of the blessings that you and your family have received by the Gospel and the Church... Now think of the need that this family has to share these blessings... How better to celebrate the birth of Christ than with a covenant that we will always follow Him? I can´t think of anything better. And so I call Operation PRAY HARD, also Operation FAST LONGER, and I´m going to throw in a little bit of Operation PRAY AGAIN AFTER PRAYING. Get the hint? This family deserves it. We then went by their house on Friday and spoke about the Word of Wisdom. They had a little bit of beer and wine for meals occasionaly, but they quickly gave it all up and said, we are ready, willing and able to follow this commandment! Mirta was LOVING the commandment! She LOVES THE CHURCH! We went away that night, so happy. Content... feeling so blessed. Sunday we waited for them in the chapel, but they never came. Family from Bariloche had come in the morning, and they couldn´t make it. Sigh........ Oh well. They still know the church is true. We went by yesterday night to check up on them and we found them. We decided to watch with them a little segment of the movie Special Witnesses of Christ. A movie by the church that has the testimony of all the apostles and prophet. When we stopped it, we asked them to share their feelings, they loved it. Ramón and Mirta both exclaimed... You can FEEL that they´re men of God. I just... KNOW they´re men of God. We then testified a little more about them, then when Ramón said they last prayer, he exclaimed to Heavenly Father... "I want to testify to you, Heavenly Father, that I know that this is true... " I silently smiled to myself during the prayer, almost breaking out into tears for the joy that came to me for hearing that one sentence in that heart felt prayer. I need to send you pictures of them. We will probably spend Christmas night with them and bake some United States brownies or something, so I´ll have pictures... Remember the Operations!!! PRAY HARD, FAST LONGER and PRAY AGAIN AFTER PRAYING.

 

The weather is a nice 100 degrees here right now. Grandma and Grandpa would love it here, why don´t you two come down here and spend a few months in San Martín? Heh! You´d love it.

 

I want you to know that I love you all so much. We have found a lot of new people this week, Licandro and Miguerina... We haven´t found them. That´s the only problem I have with missionary work... Is that I´m working with things that have a thing called a brain. It´s pretty frustrating sometimes. Marta Carmona is fighting with her faith. She has finally found work and it doesn´t let her come to church on Sunday. We have testified, read scriptures, prayed and tried to help her see that she needs to find out what her HF wants her to do.

 

Remember these names in your prayers, I feel the prayers every single day, because we are having wonderful success here in Argentina. I can´t wait to talk to my family!!! Enjoy this Christmas with your family. They are the greatest gift God has given us. XOXO

 

E. Cuthbert 

December 5, 2011

I ask myself sometimes if we will ever stop with what we´ve got... But no, we don´t.  The most funny part is that we have so many investigators, future investigators, contacts and baptismal dates that it´s humanly impossible to actually visit everyone!! We have to sort out the priorities, and do our teaching and visits according to that. At the end of Sunday night, the count of baptismal dates was a good, juicy 19. Haha! Answering your question about the siestas... Yes, EVERYTHING closes. It is the most annoying thing in the entire world. If you´re trying to buy something between 1:30 and 5:00... Good luck. It doesn´t help that the stinkin´ lady president of this country just made up holidays so they would have a holiday in every single month. Holidays are terrible for missionary work. Enough said.

 

Can you get me E. Adam´s (Holden) address in his mission? It´s been too long since I´ve heard from that kid. Happy birthday to Omi!!! I love you, and I hope you had a good one! 70 years young! You still look a good... 48... ;) Heh! I love you, Omi. That´s really good to hear that E. Carter is doing well. Makes me very happy to hear that. I miss the Bishop. I know he´ll be reading this, so I´ll just say it again. Thank you Bishop for all you did for me and my family. I owe you A LOT. I work for the Lord, and you had a small part in making that come about. You will be very happy to know that I CAN use Skype! I was going to ask you guys to buy a web cam for Christmas so I could talk to you guys!!! Let´s plan on it! That makes me SO happy! I´ll probably be calling in the morning (For you guys) There´s a 4 hour difference right now (I think) for you guys, but we´ll organize this a little better in the coming weeks.

 

Now, news. You will be happy to know that the pictures I thought I had lost on my 32GB card were saved!!! I took it to a members house, a Stud named Alberto Di Stefano, and he had installed a program on his computer that reads the internal memory of the card, even if all things have been deleted. He saved a good 400 pictures!

 

Now the real news. I will end with the best... We have found A LOT of people. A LOT of people want the Gospel. If it´s not the Gospel they want in this moment in time, it´s because they just don´t know it yet. They want what they FEEL. E. Calvache and I are good companions. We have a way of testifying and teaching in a way that every person can SEE and FEEL that what we are doing is something important. A good example would be Daniel and Miriam that we found this past week. They´re an older couple that were never religious, but in talking to us, they quickly began to see the light and feel the Spirit. They have never gone to church and don´t like the idea, but at the same time, want to hear our message, because they know it´s sent from God.

 

Next, Licandro and Miguerina. Now this is a couple that needs your prayers. All of you. We found them about 2 weeks ago and taught them about the Restoration and Joseph Smith. Everything seemed good and dandy when we left, but then we couldn´t find them for a good week and a half. FINALLY we found them and when we got in, only Licandro the husband would listen to us. The wife was giving us a cold shoulder, and didn´t want anything to do with us. We asked her to join us, and she said no. That She was SICK of all the missionaries from different religions coming to her house and telling her what to do. What had happened was after we had went to their house, their house became bombarded with Evangelicals, Christians, and ... Oh goody... Jehovah´s Witnesses. They are the biggest Apostasy I have ever seen. They came to their house and told them they couldn´t celebrate their daughters birthday, donate blood, or crap like that. From all these missionaries, she was fed up with it, confused and hurt. She began crying in relating all of this to us. We felt terrible. We agreed that all of what was happening to her and her family was difficult, and we understood that all she wants is the best for her family. We gave her the challenge to read the Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11 and then ask Heavenly Father if we were sent from Him to help her family. If yes, we would continue, if no, we wouldn´t come back. We set up a time to come back, and when we returned... Weren´t there. Pray that we can find them and rescue them.

 

Miriam and Justino. They´re a couple that we found last week also, we have quickly became their friends, and Miriam and her two daughters, Yennifer and Karen (yes, Jennifer starts with a Y in Argentina) came to church with us yesterday! They loved it! Including, MIriam cried, loved it, and said she wants to get baptized. She and Justino her husband need to get married first... Grr.. But they´re awesome.

 

Now the grand finale. We have found another GOLDEN family. Names? Mirta, Ramón, Claudia and Dana. Mirta and Ramón are not married, but have been living together for 5 years with their daughters Claudia (10 yrs. ) and Dana (almost 3). We found them last week and from the beginning, we knew they were hungry for Gospel. We taught them about the Plan of Salvation and then asked Ramón to pray at the end, hesitantly, he did it and at the end Mirta was crying - I will tell you why she was crying in a little bit. The next time we went by, they were anxiously waiting for us and we taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ - Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost and Endure to the End. There was a friend there, and he was, of course, a Jehovah´s Witness. He began trying to fight with us during the lesson! "Hey, I heard that you guys have a guy that you worship, equal to Christ! Hey, is it a sin to drink coffee? Hey, you don´t need to get baptized! Hey, I already have Jesus Christ in my heart, I don´t need to do anything else!" We calmly and patiently ignored him and taught the lesson, inviting them to ask Heavenly Father if what we teach is true. They accepted, greedily. The next time we came by, we went by with Alberto Di Stefano and his wife, Evelina. We taught them about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. They loved Alberto and his wife, and loved everything about the prophets and Joseph Smith... Oh, what a family. Then we asked them to come to church, they said that they would love to! And so on Sunday, we waited anxiously for them to come... and finally, we saw them round the corner and walk up to the doors!!! It was incredible! Church was amazing, they loved every second. I was by their side the entire time to answer questions about the Sacrament or some word they didn´t understand. Later that night, we went by their house to check up on them. Amazing. We had the most amazing lesson. We had been planning to ask them to be married, because they need to be married to be baptized. We watched the movie Together Forever from the church and began talking about the importance of the family for them. In the end, we asked them if they would be married to bless their family, and follow God. They said yes. We have a goal for the 23d of December, one day before the baptism! Now we need to help them get the papers and everything ready so they can do it. Pray and fast for them, please. They are incredible. When the lesson was almost over, I bore my testimony of the faith that they had and the Spirit I´d felt. Then Mirta burst out crying, and began relating to us of her experiences for the last 3ish years. She had been having pains in her head that doctors could not explain, and one time she was in the hospital for 7 days, she had a dream that she was searching for something in the hospital, but could never find it. Then she found a room that turned into the church we have here in San Martín. She said that the church she went to yesterday, was exactly like it was in her dream! She then began explaining how her story was exactly like Joseph Smith´s and how she had prayed that God would send her someone to help her find the way. And what do you know? That same week, we knocked their door. I NEVER thought I would be one of the missionaries with the miracle story of someone praying for God to send them someone, and then we knocked on the door. I am blessed beyond... Ah. I love the Gospel. And the church is true. They are a very special family. I have seen miracles. My testimony is stronger than ever. I love you all. Pray for our investigators. I pray for you all, and hope you´re doing well.

 

E. Cuthbert

November 28, 2011

It makes me so happy to read your letters. :) I know you love me, and I love you too.

 

Well, since you`re DYING to know if E. Calvache left or not... No. He didn`t. We have 6 more weeks of baptizing to do before he leaves GORGEOUS San Martìn to somewhere else in the mission. I think I told you a couple emails ago that he`s from Columbia, but maybe not. Columbia, the oldest brother in his family. 27 yrs. old... Never knew his father, baptized when he was 19 yrs. old, Catholic before that... Really good with the scriptures... Hmm, I think that`s about it. Really good guy. We get along well, and we`ve had some major success this past week.

 

Well, on Monday after I wrote you guys, we went to Familia Larrea`s house for an Asado. They were planning on leaving San Martìn to move to Eldorado, Misiones in Argentina way up North. They have been a family that has helped us in MANY things in the missionary work here in San Martìn, and they wanted to have us over for a party to celebrate the success and the memories. So we got there and they had a HUGE Asado going. There was so much meat... It was a sight. The smell was so good, I thought I was going to die. When we began eating, the only thing I could think was that I was back at home, sitting at Tucanos having the most delicious cuts of meat in the entire world. I have some incredible pictures of the Asado... It was amazing. When we were halfway through the feast of cow... I said, Hahaha! My grandma would be SO mad at me right now! She was so happy that I was going on a mission, because she thought that I`d for sure be going to a place that only has food I don`t like! If ONLY she could see me now, with this cornacopia of beef!!! Haha, it was very funny. I laughed very hard to myself. The meat was cooked to perfection. Argentines really know how to cook their meat.

 

This week we have found many new people to teach. The most investigators I had found in a week before this week was 19. This week we smashed that with 25 new investigators. Many of them are happy and wanting to change their lives, more focused on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and be baptized! We have many baptismal dates, and are working hard so that every person can reach their goal. We have three couples with their children that need to get married before... I swear... The two biggest stumbling blocks of missionary work here in Argentina is 1) People not married and 2) Sleeping!!! I would be baptizing millions if people would just get married and stop sleeping! It`s a little frustrating, but what are you going to do? The agency of the person is something that I can not steal from them, however much I would like to sometimes.. hehehe. Anyway, we are working very hard here in San Martìn, and are hoping for some baptisms in the coming weeks.

 

Marta Carmona will be posponed for a little while... We found out that she has a problem worshippng the Gauchito Hill and the Virgin Guadalupe... Don`t ask me, I have NO CLUE who they are and what they did for my salvation!!! ;) But we keep praying and visiting, helping her to understand the importance of everything that her Heavenly Father asks her to do. She has made outstanding progress with cigarettes. The last week she only smoked one, and that`s incredible.

 

I will relate to you ONE experience of some of the types of people we meet here in Argentina. I have an experience like this, almost every day... But I will tell you... People here in Argentina are weird, and lost... We were knocking doors the other day, and we found a guy named Rolando. He invited us into his house and we tried to begin talking about Christ and the Gospel. He then cut us off and then began to elaborate on this story about how he had been building this temple for 30 years for the Eternal Children. I don`t know where this temple is, but he told us that he wasn`t allowed inside, only the Eternal Children were allowed inside its holy walls. Supposedly he worked on the electrical and all that fun stuff. Then, trying to reign in the lesson a little bit, I asked him why Jesus Christ was important to him. From there, he whipped out a little match box, and began to tell us... "Do you know what I`m grateful for? Fire. Because with this little stick and box... I can create civilizations..." Ah! The lesson and Spirit was lost, I was quickly falling asleep because of the drag in his voice, so as my final attempt to save the lesson I said... "The Gospel... is like Fire. It shines about in a dark world, and directs us to our Heavenly Father..." It was SOOO FUNNY!!! What a terrible attempt at trying to save the lesson... We left laughing our heads off.

 

We have two kids named Luis and Mikaela that we found this week. Luis is 14 and the son of a return missionary, although he left the church a long time ago. He loves talking to us, and wants to be baptized. Mikaela, his cousin is 16 and a little more timid. She too, wants to be baptized, and we are working with the both of them. They came to church with us yesterday, and Luis loved it! Matius Gori, our recent convert who`s 15 has really helped out with Luis to make him feel accepted. What a stud!!!

 

Thanksgiving... Familia Larrea, they know a guy. His name is Julio. He lives in the mountains. He is rich. He speaks English. He invited us over for a turkey Thanksgiving dinner... Turkey doesn`t exist here. He invited us over for a United States of America holiday... And we didn`t go. This was Thursday night. Larrea Family was leaving the next morning, and they invited us over to their house to say the last goodbyes. In the end, we chose to visit them, even though this Thanksgiving turkey dinner was a once in a mission time chance. We got to their house, and they had a very humble dinner of bread and deli meat for sanwiches. We said the prayer, but before we started eating, E. Campos and I, who are from the U.S., said STOP! We have to go around the table and everyone has to say 5 things they`re thankful for. Everyone was laughing at first, because they had never done it, and it was something strange to them. But by the end, every person at the table had tears in their eyes, and we felt a Spirit so strong... That shows those Argentines, Chileans and Columbians what an American holiday will do to your emotions!!! ;) In my testimony of what I was thankful for, I thanked them all for everything they had done, and said: Right now, I would not accept all the turkey in the world if it meannt I was away from this table, enjoying this time with you all. The material doesn`t matter. It is the relationships, the family, friendships and love that will always stay with us. Not turkey. I had a great Thanksgiving.

 

Thank you so much for the Christmas package. I do not deserve your love. I am doing fine. I am feeling better than ever before, and am taking care of myself. I wash in between my toes every morning, and take my vitamins.. ;) I love you all. I can`t wait for the call on Christmas. Write me, I love the letters.

 

Amor,

E. Cuthbert 

November 21, 2011

Thanksgiving??!! Wha?! Already? HOLY COW, the time flies down here! When`s Thanksgiving, Friday? Huh, I guess we`ll have to celebrate doing something... Haha.  It`s a little cold here in San Martìn, the weather can`t decide if it wants to rain or not. Lot`s of wind. About Thanksgiving and the turkey... No. Argentines do not eat turkey. I don`t understand it. Who ARE these people?? ;) There is not one turkey gobbler in all of Argentina. Some people don`t even know what it is! And so no, I will not be having turkey. Maybe I`ll buy a chicken and do the same thing.. We`ll see. 

About Christmas, ties and more socks are the only things I`m in need of right now. So you guys can just use your wonderful imaginations and get me something that will make me smile! Haha! I need a flippin` watch. Maybe I`ll treat myself to a watch for Christmas... Grandma is going to fly down and kill me when she reads that part!! I`m sorry Grandma!! 

Pday today we are having an Asado. I`ve been having a lot of Asado lately! Haha, I love MEAT! You`re all laughing or rolling your eyebrows right now... How did Jordy get sent to a place that throws cows on a spit and throws them over a pile of coals?? HEHE! ;) Anyway, we`re doing an Asado because a good family that has helped us a lot with missionary work is leaving for Misiones, Argentina. They were key in the converting of Miguel and Ruth, and so we`re going to have an Asado with them and help them pack up the house to leave. 

Wow, things this week have been crazy. We`ve quickly baptized all of our investigators, and are left with nothing! So we`ve been spending a lot of time knocking and trying to find news through the members and our own efforts. We found one lady named Marta Carmona. She is the sister of a less active member who has recently started coming back. We`ve been teaching her for the last week and a half. She`s progressing very well with the Book of Mormon. Reads every thing we ask and understands it too! She wants to get baptized, but there`s one problem... She smokes and drinks. That`s something we found out yesterday. She has her baptismal date planned for this Saturday. We`re going to need a lot of faith for it to happen! Also, our Branch President doesn`t like it if we baptize someone that`s never been to a Sacrament meeting, so she will probably be baptized in the coming weeks. 

We have another lady named María. She is the daughter of a recent convert. She smokes a lot, has a 5 yr. old daughter, and never had an interest in the church. Until Wednesday. We had been planning to put a date with her for a baptism, and it was all based on Faith in Jesus Christ. She needed to know that through Jesus Christ, she can have a better life, and also for her daughter. Ether 12:4 says that He who believes in God might hope for a better world. She had a Broken heart and an Contrite Spirit, and said, yes, I need to be baptized. She FINALLY had the excitement to be baptized!!! We were so happy, put her date for this Saturday... And then the tragedy happened. She is looking for work, and couldn`t find anything here in San Martìn, so she had to leave her daughter and mom and go to Neuquèn to harvest cherries... She won`t be back till the first of January. Nooooo!!! She finally wanted to be baptized, and then had to leave! We have been searching for work for her so she can come back, and found something that looked promising. We`re going to found out today if she will be coming back. Because then we could help her come unto Christ. 

We went by the house of a member family and they were having the birthday party of the dad who isn`t a member. They were having a GIANT Asado with a complete sheep on a cross roasting over a fire, the haunch of a cow doing the same thing, and 3 chickens roasting on a grill. All done with the coals from the giant bonfire they had. We were going to stay to try it, but it got too late and we had to get to the apartment. They gave us some in a tupper, I had lamb for the first time! It was delicious! 

Sunday we had to get up at 3:30 in the morning and get ready for the Stake Conference in Zapala, Argentina. It was a 3 hour bus ride there, we got there and had a wonderufl conference with the president of the mission and Miguel and Ruth, and Matius our converts. They all loved it! On the way back, I was out like a light. We got back to San Martìn and went to work right away. I was starving and VERY tired. It was a hard day yesterday. 

This is the last week in the transfer, E. Calvache might be leaving, might not. We`ll see next Monday if I have a new companion! Thank you so much for all the support, for always writing me and helping me. I love you all, and hope you all have an incredible Thanksgiving. Say hi to all of the family for me. I`m doing great. Pray for my investigators!!! Send letters please!! I miss you all, and love hearing from you. Brady, Bryson and Bethers family... I wrote you guys a letter about 3 months ago, but it never got sent!!! Please don`t think that I have forgotten about you guys! I love you all, and hope you`re doing incredible. Go to church! Jared, always be a good example! Melyn, I love you and Jordan and pray for you often. Dad, I miss you more than anyone else, and am paciently waiting for the Christmas call to talk to you! I love you! 

E. Cuthbert 

November 14, 2011

I had to include these couple pics, he looks truly happy!  His companion is the guy sitting next to him on his right in the pic taken on the boat.  

The weather is HOT. Not even as hot as it´s going to be getting... It´s like 70- 80 here right now, and going to get hotter. It´s very fun in slacks and a shirt and tie! Heh, but it´s fine, I´m fine! I am very happy right now. I love the mission. Yesterday, I finally realized that I´ve adapted completely into the mission, that now, I like doing whatever it is we´re doing. I´m a missionary. :)

 

E. Calvache is a great Elder, and we get along great. He is great with the scriptures, and although is very old, is very easy to work with. He´s got a gfriend at home, and not afraid to say it. He never knew his father, His family is all converts, with his younger brother being baptized just a month ago! It´s a good companionship. 

Here are some pictures of the baptism from last week and this week! I´ll tell you what happened with this miracle story... I have seen so many miracles...

 

Ruth Vivanco is the wife of Manuel Henriquez, a recent convert for a month and completely blind. He was baptized the week before I got to San Martín. His wife never took the step to be baptized, because she has had a very difficult past, and to forgive the people who hurt her as a child was "Impossible", how she put it. We´ve been fighting and fighting to help her understand the importance of baptism, and how it will HELP her to forgive and repent, but she never seemed to understand. So things were at a stand still with her. She knows everything, just won´t get baptized. Until last Monday. Last Monday night after I emailed you guys and went about doing my Pday stuff, we got dressed and got on the bus to visit families in a different part of the city. But halfway there, I said to E. Calvache, We need to go to Miguel and Ruth. He said, I was thinking the same thing. We headed over to their house and found Miguel all calm, ready to talk. Ruth on the other hand was very busy with their 4 yr. old child Sol, getting her bathed, and then she took a shower. But neither E. Calvache or me moved. We were staying there until she came and spoke to us. at 8:45 she came in, FINALLY ready to talk. We spoke about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the miracle of forgiveness, and the help the Holy Ghost gives to those who receive him into their lives to forgive and forget. After only 10 minutes of sharing, we threw the question... "Ruth, when would you like this help?" "As soon as possible," she said. "Will you be baptized this Saturday?" "Yes!" WITH A SMILE!!! In 15 minutes, we helped a daughter of God, realize her worth, and realize that she needed the help of her big brother, Jesus Christ. She was baptized on Saturday!!

 

One more story I want to tell, just because it´s funny... Last night we were knocking doors and found this adult couple. The husband was blabbering all night about how he only believes in God and scriptures, churches and prophets don´t mean a thing. The wife snapped at him and told him to shut up! Then she said, I want to hear this... We testified about Jesus Christ, our faith and testimony in the love He has for us, and how through Him we can live with our families forever. She cut us off... "You two really FEEL what you´re saying... Don´t you?" We said: YES. She asked how old I was, I said 19. She then started flipping out how I´m so young and yet so far away doing something so big and scary as she put it. She said, You´re like my son!!! Hahahaha, it was a very interesting experience, but hey... I guess there´s nothin´ I can do about bein´ such a Cutie!!! ;) JUST KIDDING!!! HAHAHA that was my joke for the week. I love you all, I have to go, But I want you to know that I´m happy, doing well... We´re going on a hike right after this. Thank you for all the support!

 

Amor,

E. Cuthbert

November 7, 2011

This week was VERY good here in San Martin. I love this place, and never stop to appreciate its beauty. This last week, we baptized Roberto and Matius Gori, Father and Son. It was such a special experience. I loved it!!! It marked 3 weeks since Matius had met us. I have been so blessed... I don´t understand why my Heavenly Father lets me have all of this success. I could be so much better. My potential is so much more... But more on that later. This week has been very interesting. Every morning is a P90X workout, so I´m always up and sweating, ready to go. Haha. Studying has been very good, too. I decided to read the BoM for the 3rd time so far on the mission, but in Spanish this time. I had tried right when I got to Esquel, but my comprehension was so little that I decided to wait till I understood more. I now understand everything, and it´s incredible!! I need to read the BoM so much more... The lessons, verses, POWER that are in its pages is incredible. I know that book comes from God. On Thursday we traveled on a 4 hour bus ride to Zapala for Zone Conference. The movie Battle: Los Angeles was playing. Our president lets us watch movies on bus trips because it would be impossible to watch us all on bus trips... So we all had a fun time watching it. But I have to admit, I felt guilty inside for watching a movie. Zone Conference was incredible. We spoke mainly on Repentance, and the wonderful gift it is. Focusing mostly on the talk D. Todd Christofferson gave during Gen. Conf., we learned a lot on how to best help our investigators repent. On the return journey Friday night, we watched a different movie, and at the end of the trip, I was sick of it. I said a prayer during Sacrament meeting, repented of watching the movies, and covenanted with my Lord and Savior that I will not watch another movie, no matter the movie, for the rest of my mission. This is not a mission rule, this is MY rule. In the MTC I learned a lot about Sacrifice from my teacher Hmo. Maxwell. Heavenly Father will bless us even more when we sacrifice even more. This is what I want. I have thought of some other things that I can take out of my missionary life that prohibit me from becoming the best I can be. During Zone Conference, E. Smoot and I were talking about it and he said, This is you... (pointing at the bottom of the floor) And this is what you, me, every missionary can be...(Pointed to the ceiling) He wasn´t saying I was dirt, or anything, But a good example of the amount of potential we have as Sons and Daughters of God is incredible... Also a little scary. Am I ready to take on the responsibility and be a real Soldier of my Heavenly Father? I´ve done well so far, but do I have what it takes to take it farther? Go all the way? Become a Dedicated, Sanctified, Consecrated servant of God? Good question... I hope so. I start now. I have been very successful as a missionary so far, but I have also lacked in many, many ways. I need to repent, I need to change. I want to be a scriptorian when I get back. I want to know that Book of Mormon backwards. So many things I want as a missionary... So little time to do them.

Anyway, we had the baptism, and it was AWESOME!!! Roberto was baptized first by E. Calvache. You´ll see in the pictures next week how big Roberto is compared to E. Calvache, he had to baptize him 4 times to get it right!!! I had to come in on the fourth and push Roberto down into the water with Calvache, HA!! Then I baptized Matius, my 15 yr. old STUD!!! I´m getting that boy on his mission!!! Roberto has a girlfriend in the branch, I´m going to get them married in the temple! (If it´s what they want)

I thought you might want to know that while you were sailing on a cruise ship... I too, was sailing on a boat!!! Ha, this Pday, we got permission from Pres. Peterson to get on a ferry on Lake Lacros and go to Quila Quina... The MOST GORGEOUS PLACE ON EARTH!!! I´ll have pictures next week, but MAN! It was incredible... The lake is beautiful, and the views from the beach were incredible. I was sent to paradise. It makes it even better to be able to preach the gospel here.

Well, I have to go. Got some work to do!!! I love you, Mom! Have a great week, and I will talk to you all next week! Oh, THANK YOU AUBREY, GMA, KATHERINE and MELYN for writing me!! It´s been awhile without a letter, Haha! Aubs, he has a Yamaha R6??!! That´s what I wanted!!

I have a testimony that this is the true church. I know it. The Book of Mormon is true, SO TRUE.

E. Cuthbert

October 24, 2011

This week has been very fun and crazy... I will try and see if I can relate everything.

 

So I left Esquel a week ago... It was hard. We spent the day packing, then we got together with the other Elders and bought some icecream. Then it was off to the terminal to wait for the bus! While we were there, we began taking pictures and enjoy the last few moments together. I was JUST about to get onto the bus when the Colque family who we baptized all came RUNNING from the parking lot, trying to get there before I left. They made it! We took pictures, and said our last goodbyes... It was very hard to say goodbye to that family. They´re so special to me... I love them so much. I must return someday. I got on the bus, and Chao Esquel! It was such a strange experience... But right when I left, and was on the road out of Esquel... My entire 6 months of time there flashed before my eyes like lightning. Starting with the day I got there, nervous, not being able to understand Argentine spanish... All of the experiences, the good times with E. Slaugh, the bad times with E. Rojas, the successful times with E. Sharp... It all flashed past so quickly, I all of a sudden felt so... I don´t know how to explain it. The time I have is so short... I felt like I lived 6 months in about 6 seconds... I can just imagine getting on a plane in Buenos Aires for the U.S.A... How I will feel... Leaving home. Being a missionary is a one of a kind experience. And it´s one I will never forget.

 

Monday night, I stayed with... (Drum roll please...!!!) E. ALLSOP!!! Haha! I stayed in his apártment with his companion, it was VERY fun! In the morning, they saw me off to San Martin. I got there at 2 o´ clock and met my companion, E. Calvache. He´s very short, Columbian, 27 yrs. old (The oldest in the mission) and has the most annoying laugh, EVER!! Haha! My first day was AWESOME! San Martin is GORGEOUS!! Pres. Peterson must love me, because I thought Esquel was beautiful! San Martín is THE Spot. It´s got a lake right next to it, there´s trees EVERYWHERE, the people are very nice for the most part, and the city is incredible. I love it.

 

So the first few days were spent in me getting to know the members, the investigators, and basically everyone. Our apartment is incredibly perfect. I love it to death... I´m just a spoiled little missionary... Aren´t I? Haha! I can´t help but laugh to myself, but at the same time, I am very humbled to be this blessed. It is an incredible opportunity to be two years in the Patagonia. But that isn´t even the best part. In the first week I´ve been here, We´ve put about 7 baptismal dates with the other 4 they had before, so we´re already at my record of 11 baptismal dates. We have a kid named Gino, (12yrs) who will hopefully be baptized on the 29th. The only thing that would impede him is his dad. His dad is less active, and doesn'´t want to baptize him. But Gino wants desperately that his dad can baptize him. So they are having a little chat today, and we´ll find out tomorrow if we´re waiting a little longer for his dad to prepare himself, or baptize him anyway on the 29th with someone else doing the ordinance. We´ll see how it goes...

 

Roberto is the boyfriend of a member who was listening to the missionaries before I got here. He if a very tall Chileno, has cancer, and is as stud. He´s probably about 50, but anyway.. We had a date for him for the 19 of November, But then he told us that he has kids... I asked him if he would bring them with him to our lessons, he said ok. We had an AWESOME lesson with Roberto and his two kids, Matius (15) and Mikaela(11) We ended up asking them all to be baptized on the 5th of November. They all said yes!! It´s awesome!!! I´m so happy for them. I´m already seeing incredible blessings here in San Martin. It is an area that is completely ready to explode with baptisms.

 

On Sunday I bore my testimony and presented myself to the branch. It is a lot bigger than the Esquel branches.. About 110 members come every Sunday. We have some incredible members! They´re all very kind and willing to help us. The church building is gorgeous. It´s the only one in the Patagonia with 2 floors and an elevator! Haha. Anyway, as you can see, I´m a very happy boy.

 

Now, I´m pretty tired, this morning we got up and with the first counselor of the Bishopric and another member who is a mountain guide, we went on a hike to the top of the Volcano Colorado. It was a very fun hike, the only problem was the ash... The ash from the volcano that erupted back in June in Chile is still in the air here in San Martin. Sometimes it´s very clear... But days like today, it was terrible. We got to the top, and couldn´t even see the base of the mountain because of all the ash, but it´s all good. It was a fun hike, and at the top, we cooked hamburgers with a little propane burner and skillet! Haha! E. Calvache likes to kid and joke around a lot, it´s a little annoying, but the patience I learned from E. Rojas has helped me to be much more calm about things. It doesn´t bother me like it would have before... Anyway, that´s me for this week! I´m extremely happy, the work is AMAZING, I feel extremely blessed, and I know that my Heavenly Father lives. I have no doubt in my mind that He is always watching out over me. . . Thank you all for the kind and loving support you give me, I will see you next week! 

 

Amor, 

E. Cuthbert

October 17, 2011

What a week it`s been!!! Holy cow... The mission is about the craziest thing that`s ever happened to me!!! I will just throw it out now... I`M LEAVING HOME!!! Ha, I`m being transferred. A little later on I´ll tell you where and everything. This week has been very busy. 

So this week we`ve been very busy in preparing the Colque`s and Alicia Tapia for their baptisms on Sunday. We had to plan them for Sunday because Franco Colque is the chef for the military base here in Esquel. Argentina`s Mother`s Day is on the 16th of October, so on Saturday he was cooking all day for a party for all the mother`s in the military. So we couldn`t do it on Saturday, so then we planned for Sunday. It`s been a very, very exciting but bumpy ride with these baptisms. Like I`ve always said, the temptations always come at the last week before the baptism. We went by every night to teach the kids and talk to Franco and Cecilia. They`ve been so happy and excited lately. I know that the gospel blesses the lives of everyone, because I could see the difference in their attitudes towards their children, and everything was just... Better. Ah, a missionary can`t even describe the joy and love he feels for his wonderful investigators... I can`t tell you the love I feel for that family. They are precious. Alicia, also, has been incredibly excited. We can`t go by every night, because her husband Pascual is a little stingy at times and doesn`t like a lot of visitors. Hahaha. But we taught her everything, and she was ready! Something I have learned as a missionary is that once you have put a baptismal date, you need to PROTECT IT. Hmo. Maxwell in the MTC taught me that. Where´s my letter Cliff??! ;) But that`s exactly what we`ve been doing. Everyone in the Branch was a little doubtful that we were going to get all the baptisms, because they`d never seen 5 people get baptized at the same time... We were determined to show them up!

So, I don`t even have to say that this week has been exhausting. I don`t know what happened to us, but we were so sleepy, ALL the time!!! It was frustrating at times, because if you`re not 100% awake, it`s very hard to stay motivated. But we did alright, even though every morning, it was a literal battle to get out of bed and begin the day, we did it, because our baptisms are much more important than our own sleep. Work this week was hard, other than with our baptismal date investigators... We`ve lost a lot of investigators, and it`s been very hard to find new ones. If one doesn`t have investigators, the work is very slow. So we put extra emphasis trying to find news, but still with the focus on the baptisms. 

We had lunch on Friday with a family where the mom had been gone working for about a month on the coast. She had brought back giant bags of seafood, so for lunch she cooked us a GIANT vat of seafood, rice, chicken and potatoes! It was DELICIOUS!!! Such a good family. But anyway, I have way too much to talk about, and no time to say it... 

The baptismal interviews... The night before the interviews, we went over to the Colque family and taught them the last minute details, went over the interview questions, and practiced baptizing. It was a very fun night. The kids were nervous, thinking it would be some giant, hard thing.. But we assured them that it was nothing and that everything would turn out perfect. The next day, we got to the church and waited for E. Barton our D.L. to get there and Alicia/Fma. Colque. They all showed up on time, and E.B. started with Alicia. She passed!!! Then it was Cecilia`s turn. I love Cecilia, she`s the whole reason this family was even at the church, waiting in line to have a baptismal interview... She`s an ANCHOR. She wants the best for her family, and she wasn`t letting anything get into the way of it! She had an awesome interview with E.B... He was very impressed. :) :) :)  Then Franco went. He passed with flying colors... I don`t know what HAPPENED  to him!!!! He`s such an incredible stud, who wants the best for his family. And he`s doing just that. Then came Franco, the kid... He didn`t pass. E.B. came out and asked for Franco the dad to go in and talk to him for a second. We found out later that Franco didn`t want to be baptized because to be baptized you have to follow the Law of Chastity... And this cute lil` 12 yr. old thought that that meant no kisses!!! What`s he doing kissing girls anyway?! But his dad just looked at him and said: What`s wrong with you??! He explained what it all meant, and from that moment on, Franco passed! Then went Nicolas and he passed with flying colors.. WE HAD THE BAPTISMS ALL READY!!! It was such a hilarious experience with little Franco, Haha! I loved it. 

Saturday, we went over to Alfredo`s house, our other convert from Conference weekend. I spoke with them about my testimony, we read some scriptures, and I told him to continue onward. I`m going to miss that kid... He needs to go on a mission, and I hope that he will choose to do that soon. It is the hardest thing saying goodbye to Investigators, but I didn`t have to really say goodbye until Sunday after church. (The picture with E. Sharp and me with a kid and his goatee... That`s Alfredo. He totally needs to shave that thing!! ) So... Saturday night... We bought some empanadas for delivery, and waited for the Transfer call... We got it. I found out I was finally leaving Esquel, my home for 6 months. I`m going to miss this place, for it`s mountains, the beauty... Everything. There aren`t many places like Esquel in my mission. It`s one of maybe 4 areas out of 20-30 areas that are gorgeous. So.. Where am I going? The MOST gorgeous place in the mission!!! What a lucky duck I am!!! Haha! I`m going to San Martín de los Andes... It`s supposedly the most beautiful place in all of the Patagonia. I`m SO excited. My companion, an Elder Calvache... I`m a little apprehensive about him. From my first latino companion, I`m a little... Ah, I need to give this guy the benefit of the doubt. But, I have heard he`s very hard headed... But it`s ok, he`s about to meet someone a lot harder in the head when it comes to the rules! So I leave today at 4pm for San Martin. I`ll get there tomorrow at noon... And I`m very excited... It is going to be great. 

Last thing I`m going to talk about... The baptism!! IT HAPPENED!!! They all came, and it was GOURGEOUS to see 8 people in white!!! For Alicia, we had to put a chair into the water, because she`s so old, and her husband, Pascual doesn`t have the strength to baptize her by herself. After 3 tries to get her completely submerged, I was called in to help. I went down in the water and helped him say the baptismal prayer. After he said Amen, I grabbed Alicia by the stomach and legs, and just shoved her as forcefully as I could down into the water, because she had been fighting every single time!! It was so hilarious! It was probably the most irr-reverent baptism I`ll ever have. I literally had to fight her in getting her completely under, but then we got it and she was happy. Then I baptized Franco the dad, and little Franco. E. Sharp baptized Cecilia and Nicolas. It was INCREDIBLE!!! I have to go soon, so I can`t talk more about it, but I want you all to know that the work is TRUE!!! I LOVE IT!!! I`m very anxious, sad, and happy to leave... It`s going to be very hard to leave my home, but I can`t wait to see what`s waiting for me in San Martín. I love you all, 

E. Cuthbert 

October 10, 2011

Well Hello!

My... What a week it´s been. Honestly, it was a hard week. The numbers we had were, for lack of a better term, pathetic. Sometimes you have slumps like that, but that´s no excuse. It´s us who make the slumps! Anyway, I´m a very happy boy right now, we´ve had a lot of miracles....

I will tell you first that... Cecilia and her family did not get baptized. BUT. The prayers you have all been praying have been answered. Franco has had the biggest change I´ve ever seen. I don´t know if I told you last week about his story, how the first time we went into their house to meet them and teach them, he wouldn´t even look at us. As time went on, his curiosity got stronger and stronger. Before you know it, he was listening to us. He always kept saying: But I´m just going to let you know... I´m NEVER going to be baptized. Hahaha! On Monday we went over there, and taught Cecilia and Franco, Franco and Nicolas (The 12 and 13 yr olds) together. We spoke of their family. We spoke about Jesus Christ and His Atonement. We spoke of Baptism. We put baptismal dates for the rest of the family for this coming Saturday, the 15th. Never in my wildest dreams did I see such a big, miracle coming our way!! This family is wonderful. I have obviously never baptized an entire family, and this will be my first one! I´m so sorry I don´t have any pictures of them... Thanks to that dang SD card, I don´t know if I´ll be able to save the pictures on that card. Anyway, we´re going 110% with this family, and giving them every oportunity to grow and strengthen their small but incredibly tough testimonies. On Thursday, we watched the Testaments. I´ve never seen a man so into a movie as Franco (The dad) was. He was on the edge of his seat, nodding his head whenever something incredible or spiritual happened... And at the end when Christ heals Helam from being blind, he began CRYING!!! The military man began CRYING!! He went into the other room and dried off his tears then came back in. We spoke about the movie, and the message it contains. Honestly... I don´t know how any of this happened... We are so blessed, really. The missionaries were teaching this family for a year and a half and never got anywhere with them. Heavenly Father knows when people are ready to hear the Gospel, and when their hearts are soft enough to accept the Atonement. We didn´t do anything. We´re two gringos who stumble our way along in a foreign language... And Heavenly Father still works miracles through us. How lucky we are... Really. I´m a very blessed person, I know it. I feel like I don´t deserve such love and help for the terrible servant I am. There´s always so much more that we can do. It´s truly humbling... So yeah, I have my first incredible, INCREDIBLE miracle story. Well, not yet. After this weekend, I´ll have it! Hahaha. Franco works for the miilitary, so he can´t be baptized on Saturday. So what we´re going to do is baptize them after church on Sunday. We have another baptism, Alicia Tapia... The wife of a recent convert. We´ll baptize her on Saturday, then the Colque family on Sunday afternoon. It will be a White Weekend. :) I HAVE A REQUEST FOR ALL: PLEASE pray for Franco, Cecilia, Franco and Nicolas. Pray that their testimonies can be strengthened. That they can make good decisions, that when temptations and doubts come this week (AND THEY WILL COME THIS WEEK), that they can rely on their Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to help them through it till Sunday afternoon. PLEASE do this for me. I don´t want your prayers right now, I need them all for my investigators!!

Well, another transfer has come and gone. We will find out on Saturday night if one of us is leaving Esquel, or not. I will probably be leaving... Sadly, I have been here for 6 months, and that is the general time limit on any given area. My situation is a little bit more rare in that I´m technically not IN my old area. This is technically my second area, but still... The chances that I will stay in my beloved home - Esquel - are slim. If I do leave, it will be perfect to leave with a BANG, the 5 baptisms. It will be incredible. 

We´ve really been faltering on finding new people to teach. It´s become increasingly harder and harder to find people, and that puts a drag on the work... We need your prayers that the hearts of the people will be softened enough to allow us to teach them the wonderful message of the Gospel and Restoration. As we pray and fast, the windows of heaven will be opened, and we will find people!!! It is so crucial that we have new people to teach. 

I´ve become increasingly tired as the weeks go on. Two nights ago, I laid on my bed for a few minutes while E. Sharp was writing on his journal, I put myself in the most uncomfortable position possible so I wouldn´t go to sleep... And the next thing I knew, the alarm was going off at 6:10... What the...?? E. Sharp got a video of me sleeping. I was completely OUT. 

Well, sorry I don´t have a ton of things to say this week... It was slow, as I said before. Just a heads up, your picky eater now likes oranges, raveoli´s, spaghetti (WITH THE SAUCE), squash, and things like that. Please don´t say I told you so!!!!!... ;) I love missionary work. Every one who is reading this, who is a guy and is coming to the age of the mission... DO NOT MISS YOUR CHANCE TO GO!!! GO!!!! You will find INCREDIBLE blessings and experiences here in the mission field. Christian Andrew Springer, I´m still waiting on that call. 

Love you all, 

Amor, 

E. Cuthbert 

October 3, 2011

Well hello my wonderful family!! :) Man, today has been a good day! And SOOO much has happened!! 

First of all... WE HAD A BAPTISM!!! HAHAHA!!! I bet you weren`t expecting that one! Ha, I feel really bad for leaving it out of my emails, I completely forgot! We had been teaching a 19 yr. old kid named Alfredo for about 3 weeks, and he entered the waters of baptism between Conference sessions on Saturday!! We were so happy!! I got pictures of his face all soaking wet, but there was a huge smile on his face, and we all knew that he felt the Spirit. It was an incredible experience. It is going to help his family a lot, because his mom is 6 years in-active, and seeing her boy get baptized, she began crying, saying to the members that she was so happy for what we had done for him because it´s given him more purpose in life! Great, great day. Oh... And about the pictures... Something´s wrong with my SD card in my camera that has about 4 months of pictures on it, and I´m a little worried that they´ve all been deleted... I´m praying I can save them! So forgive me for not having the pictures of the baptism, or our wonderful Pday adventures... :( 

The Colque family... I LOVE THEM!!!! What happened with the Sister Missionaries??! They´re so ready! Cecilia is always so excited, and if ever we leave the house without giving her and the family homework, something to read, stuff like that... She teasingly scolds us! Hahaha, we have some incredible blessings here in Argentina, Esquel! On Wednesday, we went to their house that night and Franco, the husband who has always stayed away from us, made us and the family Empanadas from Salta, Arg. (Way up north). They were the most INCREDIBLE things I´d ever eaten!!!! While he was making them, we threw on the Restoration movie, and he almost forgot about the empanadas, he was so focused on watching the Joseph Smith story! I have a picture of him trying to roll out dough while his eyes are plastered to the screen. We had an incredible time with them. On Friday, we invited them to a dance that the two branches were putting on... They came, and had a blast with all the members! We are inviting Cecilia, and the rest of the family to be baptized this next Saturday tonight. I pray that they will have the courage to do what they know they feel is right. It is especially hard for Franco, because his entire family is Catholic, and they would reject him. I´m hoping for one of the miracle stories that happens when missionaries have A LOT of faith that their investigators can receive their answer, and take a leap of faith... Because it would be super hard to be rejected by your entire family!! But, I am so grateful for that family, and I know they will be baptized. 

General Conference was such a spiritual FEAST!!!! I loved it! My favorite talks were by Pres. Uchtdorf about knowing that we ALWAYS have our Dear Heavenly Father with us... That he NEVER abandons us, and even in our darkest hours, He will always be there to be our Light. I have such a testimony of His presence in my life. I know that He loves me, and that He watches over and cares for every one of us. He is our loving Heavenly Father... Our FATHER. My other favorite talk was in the Sunday morning session by Elder Callister about the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I have become the biggest fan of the Book of Mormon in my mission, I know it´s from God, and I know that no one could have made it up. The Book of Mormon has a Spirit about it. It´s words touch the soul in the way a normal man talking could never do. I HAVE A TESTIMONY IN THAT BOOK. I KNOW it´s true. I challenge every one that is reading this email, to try the promise written in Moroni 10:4-5. It is true. Joseph Smith did not write it. He translated it from divine power from Heaven. I encourage all to read that book, meditate and PONDER the message, and pray to Heavenly Father to know if it is true. I know that He answers. Always. 100%. Wow... Look at Jordy... He´s turned into a missionary... ;) HAHA! The mission really changes people. I know it´s going to be the best thing for my entire life. I´m learning things that are invaluable. Jared... Don´t do ANYTHING that will prohibit you from going. As your big brother, I EXHORT you... Be a good boy. I love you, and care for you as the little brother that you are to me. You are my only brother, and I want the best for you. It is through the scriptures, church and a mission. Plan on a mission. You will never regret it. Yes, it´s brutally hard. But through the Refiner´s Fire... We come out as Gold. I´m not saying I´m gold, I never will be... But I do know that Heavenly Father has the power to shape us into the people that He wants us to become. The Sons of God. Through the tribulations... We become stronger. It´s like a muscle. If you want it to grow and become stronger, you need to work it out, and tear it up. Through this process, it repairs itself, and comes back even stronger than before. I love you, Bud. You are such a driving force for me in my mission. Keep up the good work. 

E. Rojas left very urgently for a medical emergency. We as a district have been together, the 5 of us, since Saturday. We have had a ton of fun, including going to Los Alerces, a national park with a lake, and gorgeous views!!! We went there today, it was such a blast. I have a few pictures from it... 

Well, I love you all! The work is INCREDIBLE!!! I LOVE being a missionary!! WOOHOO!! Bring it on! It´s incredible that I´m already past the 6 month mark. The last month has gone by SO FAST!!! I want you all to know that I´m happy, healthy... And I´ve got an incredibly terrible farmers tan on my neck and arms from my white shirts... Oh well... ;) It´s getting hotter every day, but we´re only in Spring! We´ve long since left the suit coats at the apt, and go in just white shirts and ties. Esquel is as gorgeous as ever... And we might go paintballing for Pday next week... ;) ;) ;) 

AMOR PARA TODOS!!!

E. Cuthbert 

September 26, 2011

What a week its been!!! Last Monday, we hard our interviews with President Peterson. We had a very good, spiritual conversation about the Atonement, and our work here in Esquel. He asked me the question, How many are you going to baptize here, Elder? I told him: At least 4... He then told me... Elder Cuthbert, there is someone in Esquel ready to be baptized this Sunday. (WHAT???!!!) Thats what was going on in my head when he told me that. We spoke more about it, and he encouraged me and E. Sharp to take the matter up to fasting and prayer... Later that day, we went on Divisions with the Assistants. Remember E. Smoot? The most STUDLY, spiritual missionary ever. Kind of like an Hmo. Maxwell or Douglas... ;) Ha! Well, we went to a families house of investigators and had a very good chat with Cecilia, the mother. It was a very spiritual conversation, focused on the Atonement and Baptism. We placed a baptismal date for the next Sunday! It was incredible. From that point on, E. Sharp and I have had some extremely crazy blessings... Right now we have 9 baptismal dates... Thats 9 people that have baptisms planned before the 17th of October! We began working more with Cecilia last week, only to find out that the sister missionaries before us... Had never taught her or the family the Law of Chastity, Tithing, or the Word of Wisdom!! Surprise!!! :/ Her husband also left for the mountains with the army for a week, and she didnt want to be baptized without him there to see it. A lot of prayer and fasting over the situation, we decided that she should be put back to the 8th of October so that her two sons could be baptized with her. At church yesterday, we had a Gospel Principles class with her, a recent convert who has been fellowshipping Cecilia, and us two Elders. We spoke about Heavenly Father, who he is, and what he wants for us. It was a good lesson, and at the end, we asked if Cecilia could say the closing prayer. She began the prayer, normal but halfway through, began crying... She choked through tears while she pleaded to her Heavenly Father to bless us, the missionaries, for helping her get to church, to know that this is the true church, and to help her get to a baptism! She poured out her whole soul in that prayer! When she ended it, the Spirit was so strong. The recent convert was in tears, Cecilia was in tears, and I was about ready to jump out the window with all the happiness that a missionary can feel! I then testified about baptism, and that the church was true. We then asked if she would be baptized on the 8th. She said: Sí!!! YES!!! WAHOO!!!! She is an incredible person, and her family will make incredible members of the church. 

General Conference is this weekend!!!! WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! I AM SO EXCITED!! Its hard to think that its already been 6 months since the last one in the MTC! WOW! Anyway, I cant wait, and none of you should be able to wait, either! We get to hear the words of God through our Prophet. What a priviledge it is that we have. I was going to make scones and honeybutter for the Sunday session, but everyone here makes scones and gives them to us, so Im sick of them! We are going to make Cinnamon rolls instead... ;) ;) 

I love you all. My testimony is stronger than ever. 

Amor, 
E. Cuthbert  

September 12, 2011

(Sorry for dropping the ball a bit on posting Jordan's letters!  I promise to post them as soon as they're emailed. - Melyn)

Thank you mom so much for the oreo recipe! Haha, that makes me happy! Before I forget... There was a piano song at the MTC that I LOVED, that I need to learn for Sacrament meetings and things like that. It was called : Oh How Lovely Was The Morning. There´s probably a ton of songs called that, but it´s just straight piano, and it´s GORGEOUS. Wow.. It´s been such an interesting week here in Esquel!

So Tuesday morning we had to get up really early like always to meet our new companions! E. Sharp was with me in the new area, and E. Syddall with E. Rojas. I was so ready to get to the terminal to meet E. Sharp, but E. Rojas had to go the the bathroom... In the new house, there was a problem with the bathroom door, and I had told him not to close it all the way, or else he´d be locked into the bathroom and wouldn´t be able to get out. Guess what he did? ..... Yeah, he got stuck in the bathroom. Dang kid!! So after 20 minutes of helping him squeeze through a tiny little window in the back of the bathroom... We got to the terminal to see our new comps waiting for us. E. Sharp is tall, not as tall as me, but tall enough. He´s a distance runner... Blegh!... ;) And likes a lot of the same things I do. I was SO happy to see my new comp, and turn E. Rojas over to E. Syddall, because however you look at it... 3 months with him was enough. Ha. So we took all of his stuff to the new apartment where the Hermana missionaries were living, then we went to the house and grabbed all my stuff. It´s exactly like you said it, Mom... It was such a pain to pack up everything that I had just unpacked. :/ Haha. But, anyway.. We got to the apartment and had to clean it up a little bit.. I´m seriously disappointed in the sister missionaries... It was a pig sty! We were cleaning until lunch time, finding long girl-hairs in every crook and cranny, throwing away the extra tampons they had..( Oh PLEASE!!!) Stuff like that. It was terrible. But, we got it all into order and went to lunch. The problem is that the apartment is very small... I didn´t have any space to put my suit cases! So for the first few days.. They were sitting in the kitchen, on the floor. Anyway, we began to explore the new area on Tuesday. It was very, very interesting, because usually at least one of the Elders knows the area, the investigators, members, etc. E. Sharp and me? Nope! It didn´t help either that in all the information the hermanas left us, there were hardly any addresses! I´ve "Whitewashed" an area before, and I´ve been wondering why Pres. Peterson put a new missionary in a whitewash, but whatever. Cliff Maxwell, did you whitewash as a missionary at all? It´s... interesting. This first week has just been finding everything. Even when we have the address for someone, the system here is all names and neighborhoods, not numbers. So even if we found neighborhood Baden 1... Where the heck is that?! Haha! I´ve never asked so many people for directions in my life... It´s such a hit on the pride... ;) Ha! 

We decided to go meet our Branch President and let him know that we´re here to work and help him build the Branch. We had a good meeting with him. He´s very short, is 26 yrs. old, married, has a fohawk, and huge coke bottle glasses that magnifies his eyes really big. He´s such a stud! Haha, His name is Pres. Russo. We will work well together, because he went on the mission, and so he understands exactly what it is we do and how to help us do it. So he gave us a bunch of names of people to visit, and directions... After that, his brother in law took us for a tour of the area in his car. Our area is about 2 and a half times the size of my first area, it´s HUGE! I´m so happy, because there´s a lot more beautiful things in this part, more people, more houses... A lot more potential. After the tour began the fun week of walking... and walking... and walking! We both bought ourselves personal maps, and I´ll bet it was so odd for so many people to see these two men in suits on a street corner, their heads buried in big sheets of paper! Ha! 

The members are very nice, they help out a lot. We´ve got lunch every day like in the other area which is a definite bonus... E. Sharp and I on Friday were knocking doors and this guy named Leandro opened up to us. He said: I was just studying the Bible... Want to come in? We had a lesson about the BoM, prophets, and the Restoration. He took the BoM and accepted a baptismal date for the 8 of October! We put it so late because we haven´t met the wife, don´t know if they smoke or drink.. Things like that. He´s got three boys. One that´s 7 months, 1 yr. 7 months, and 7 yrs. old. Good guy. I´m excited to begin working with him and his family so he and his wife can make the date for the 8th! 

Oh! Something I forgot to say... The first night in the new apartment, we got ready for bed. E. Sharp chose the bottom part of the bunk bed, so I had the fun opportunity to have the top. Obviously, as someone like me who can jump, Oh so High... ;) I decided to jump onto the top part of the bunk bed to go to sleep! Bad Choice. I snapped the supporting beam... And slept on the floor that night, and the next three nights... Hahaha! Also, we were talking to a sister member out on the street, when a guy on a motorcycle drove by, screaming at the top of his lungs... SATAN SATAN SATAN!!!!! It was so funny!!! Haha, we laughed about it as "Mormons"... Ha.  Sunday was a tough day. Sundays are usually the worst, because people are either sleeping, or not at home, or don´t want to talk to anyone that´s not family. After lunch... We walked. That was our entire day, basically. We went to every less active, every investigator, and every person we could think of, and we didn´t get into anything. We were DEAD by the time we got to the apartment. I don´t know how far we walked, but it was far. I wish I had a pedometer to know how much I walk a day, it would be interesting to see! 

E. Sharp is a very good companion. We get along great. He´s from Arizona, was born in Alaska... He likes working out, eating... He´s got a sarcastic attitude which makes good for some fun jokes, something I couldn´t do with E. Rojas because Spanish jokes and English jokes just aren´t the same. He´s a little fidgety, and doesn´t like to get into peoples way, but that´s why he´s got me! Haha. I´ll probably only be here in Esquel 1 for one transfer... After that I´ll prob be transferred somewhere else and leave behind good ól E. Sharp. Sorry I didn´t send any pictures... I really didn´t take many this week. I´ll get betta! ;) 

Well, life as a missionary is as fun as ever. It´s exhausting, but rewarding. I began to see a lot of the good I had did in the other branch, because now whenever I see any of the wonderful members from that branch, they come up and are so happy to see me. Nicol, my stud who was baptized, he saw me in the street yesterday, and BOOKED it to me and gave me a huge hug. The same happened the day before with his little sister Emily. She ran as fast as those little legs could carry her and hugged my legs... It puts such a smile on my face to know that I´m not a burden for these wonderful people. I love the people here... I´ve fallen in love already with this country and the people. They´re incredibly kind, and always smiling. I love the mission. I´m so excited for this transfer with E. Sharp. We´re going to do good things here, I know it. Please continue to pray for me... I need every prayer I can get. I read the BoM in 3 weeks... I LOVE that book! I have such a testimony about it... I´ve started D&C, and am very excited to learn more about it. Keep sending the letters... I love you all. 

E. Cuthbert 

September 5, 2011

WOW.... WHAT A WEEK!!! I can´t even BEGIN to tell you guys the amount of stress, events, and just all around craziness we´ve had here in Esquel... Here it goes... 

I´ll just get it out of the way... Diego? No. He disappeared for a little while, and with some very interesting events that happened over the week, we didn´t have the opportunity to go find him. And so, regrettably... No, he was not baptized. Probably won´t for awhile now, but more on that later. 

Now, last Monday, after writing you guys, E. Rojas got VERY quiet. He put a big amount of distance between us, and ignored me whenever I spoke. We went back to the pension and I began writing some letters. He was still very quiet. We usually leave at 6pm on Pday to go teach, but I could tell he was angry with me, and so I told him that when he was ready to talk to me, then we could leave. He wouldn´t say a word until 7:00. He then began explaining to me that his feelings were hurt, because I apparently said that he didn´t have the faith or love necessary for investigators or members. I had only told him that he needed to work on his faith/love with Diego... But he took it a little bit to the extreme. Because of this, he had been crying in his bed when I was writing letters. I hadn´t even known what was wrong, and I was SO happy that I said I wasn´t leaving the pension until he opened up and told me what was wrong. We sorted it out, and then at 8:00 went and taught a lesson. 

Tuesday, in the morning we had District Meeting. Halfway through the meeting, we received a text from Lidia saying: Elders, I need your help. I have nothing to give my kids to eat, and they went to school hungry. I was so angry... We finished out the meeting, and then E. Rojas and I ran to the pension and ransacked our own fridge with all the food we had for Lidia and her kids. We had been talking with the Branch Pres. to get her a box of food for 3 weeks, and they went twice, only asking if she needed anything. Very vaguely offering help. Lidia, being very shy and not trusting them just yet, had said no both times, but then we received the text from her saying that she needed food. We went with our own food, and called the Pres. on the way there asking him to do something about this Now. He got angry at E. Rojas, and hung up the phone, saying he was going to call the Mission president... Bla bla bla. Anyway, after we dropped the food off, I went to Trevelin with E. Menghini, E. Barton´s companion for divisions. We got there and had a lesson with a guy named Gustavo. I was there a month and a half ago when they found him. He´s a heavy smoker, and loves gringos! We had a good lesson on the importance of not smoking, and he promised to stop. Also in Trevelin, we had a meeting with the ward mission leader in Trevelin. He´s LDS... but acts and speaks and pretty much is an Evangelical. Gosh dang it, he tried to teach me about the fact that we as people, because we know right from wrong.... Don´t have agency. Uh huh, right. I was counter_arguing him, backing up my side with scriptures and everything, but he kept ranting off about the fact that I was completely mistaken and didn´t know anything as a missionary. I almost exploded. But, we cut the meeting there, and left and taught some great families. Got back to Esquel on Wednesday and visited Vanesa Greniel, this lady with her two daughters. She is very open with us about her situation, which is a toughy. They have a hard time making ends meet, and I know exactly why! Vanesa drinks a lot on the weekends. A LOT. A TON. HUGE AMOUNTS OF BEVERAGES. Have you ever seen a pitcher? Yeah... a pitcher comes into the story in a little bit. Anyway, we had a good lesson about the BoM, and the importance of Baptism. She finally accepted a baptismal date for the 24 of September. We are going to help this family!!! 

Thursday morning was very slow. We had gathered all the addresses people had given us in the streets in a particular part of the city, and went to visit every single one. Turns out that every single direction that people gave us... Was fake. Hahahahahahaha, Oh, the life of a missionary. It´s ok though... I saw the most hilarious experience of my life... Walking down the street, we came upon a man staggering up the middle of the road. COMPLETELY DRUNK. This guy was just drowned in beer. He was staggering the whole width of the street, laughing, yelling, waving his arms... It was pathetic. He came to the sidewalk, and then began the real battle... The attempt of climbing the flippin´ CURB to keep walking down the road. He was swaying back and forth as he made many attempts to climb the curb, when finally.... He CRASHED to the ground, in a great, pathetic, drunken stupor. I almost DIED of laughter, only because he was so drunk, and even when he fell, his mouth wouldn´t stop yelling and shouting. It was hilarious. But also extremely sad... THAT is what I have to protect people from. Alcohol. It is vile, it is cruel, it is evil. I´ve seen children scared of their fathers because of it, I´ve been ridiculed in the streets because of it, and I´ve lost a baptism because of it. Alcohol is evil. Period. 

Anyway, we´ve been looking for a new apartment for a long time now, because the owners of our apartment have just jumped the price from $1,150 pesos every month to $1,500 every month. It´s ridiculous!!! So we´ve been looking for the last 2 weeks for a new place, but it´s so difficult, because we want to teach, and the search for a new apartment draws away from our time to teach! On Friday morning, E. Rojas says to me: Gosh, Elder!!! I can´t even study... We NEED to find a new apartment! Not 3 seconds later, we get a call from a member saying they had one for us! We went that morning to look at it. It was HUGE. It´s owned by a member, but she´s living down in Comodoro right now, and wanted to rent it out. It´s pretty much a house, E. Rojas and I were sold. The best part is that we´re only paying $1,300 for it, and it´s almost 3 times the size of our old one!!! We ran back to our apartment and began packing everything, cleaning... stuff like that. It reminded me of when we moved from Mapleton to ... Mapleton, Ha. Later on that day, we stopped packing and went to an appt. we had with Greniel and family to make the filling for Empanadas... We got there, knocked... And no one answered. We said we would wait for 5 minutes. About 2 minutes later, Greniel answers the door... half drunk. Oh no. She invited us in, and we... very cautiously, entered. She began saying she was so happy that we were there to help her make empanadas, but first she needed a blessing. She was feeling terrible, obviously because of the PITCHER of beer on the table that she had been drinking out of. Gosh flippin´ dang it! I gave her a blessing, then she told us of her experience with praying to HF to know if the message we had brought was true. She told us that after that prayer, she had seen only us in her head, and she said: I know HF answered my prayer... And that he sent you two here, to help me and my family.¨ YES, she was half drunk, but it wasn´t to where she would say just any random thing. She still had her wits about her and could relate things and communicate well. And so yes, she has had her answer and is anxiously waiting for the 24th... We made empanadas with a drunk woman... cutting onions, crying while doing it... Yeah... It was a very... Interesting day. I didn´t know what to do. I realized that although I feel ready to take on much more responsibility as a missionary, there are still experiences that I look to E. Rojas for.. because of his experience. But yeah. 

Saturday morning, the Elders from Trevelin came to help us clean up everything and move to the new house. We didn´t have a moving truck... And we were going to be moving in 4 hours!!! I said to E. Rojas... Che! Tenemos que flippin´ encontrar un flete!!! Dude! We need to flippin´ find a moving truck! Not 2 seconds after I said that, a Flete or Moving truck rounded the corner. I waved it down, and we scheduled the guy to come help us move. How LUCKY IS THAT?? Anyway, we got everything into the truck, and took it all to the house. The Trevelin Elders are so jealous of it. We got everything in, and then began to unpack and organize. It was too late to teach anyone that night, so we ran to a store and bought a bunch of beef and had an asado as our last night as companions... (supposedly)... ;) That night we got the call... No one was leaving Esquel. That never happens! Every single person in Esquel and Trevelin was staying where they were. How weird! I was happy, because it meant I would have time to enjoy the new house! An hour later, we get a call from the sister missionaries... An emergency transfer had happened, and the two of them were leaving Esquel. We were thinking that night, how weird!! Who´s going to replace them in their area, not knowing the members, investigators, or anything?? We found out the next morning who was going to replace them... 

Sunday morning, I got my shower interrupted with a call from E. rojas saying: District leader has called... you need to hear this! I listened through the bathroom door to hear that I, ME, ELDER CUTHBERT, was being transfered to the other half of Esquel as my next area... WHAT??!! I was in shock. My new companion, E. Sharp, gets here on Tuesday morning. I´m have very ... mixed emotions about everything. I´m very excited to get a new companion, and from what I´ve heard, E. Sharp and I will get along great. But we are both like aliens in the area. We don´t know ANYTHING about what´s been going on. Our first week will just be finding the Investigators, members, and getting to know the area. It´s a very interesting situation... But I´m excited, also. So yeah... I´m being transfered!! But not out of Esquel... Hahaha! This has NEVER happened before. It´s called a Whitewash... When the missionaries from an area leave, and it´s replaced with two that don´t know anything. It´s going to very strange for the next few days. So yeah. 

I´m in love with the Book of Mormon, I love teaching, mornings are as hard as ever, I love working out, missionary work is awesome, I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I want you all to know that I´m doing great. Jordan, My bro in law... Thank you for the letter! It was a lot of help. Jared... If you´re going to get that ´81 Camaro... You have to promise me that you´ll ONLY race on Saturdays... ;) Simon! Kill it in football, Man! Mom, I love you more than ever. Melyn... I was thinking about before the mish when you and I drove back from the Temple and had that long talk... I miss my Sis. Ha. Dad... I love you so much. I hope you´re doing incredibly well, and that work is treating you well. Good luck on the house!! 

Send the letters... I´m letter hungry! Haha! Love you all... 

E. Cuthbert