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