May 14, 2012

Tell grandpa that I miss him... A lot. He`s been such an example in my life, tell him that I am so proud of him, his son; my father, and all that he has taught the both of us. The same goes for Grandma, Omi and Buppi and all the rest of the family.

 

I totally didn`t want to use Skype until I saw your face. :) Then I was a converted person. I was so happy that I was able to give you that present. I know you loved it, Mom. I love you so much. Once again, Happy Mothers Day. Thank you for everything that you have done for me in my life. For all the sacrifice, all the hard work. I realize now the amount of love and devotion you have dedicated into the lives of your children in such a short year and 2 months. And I know that as I get older, that appreciation will just continue to grow. Anyway, I wanted to ask Jared to send me some of his photography. From what I saw on the cam it was REALLY good! And it`s got awesome views of our view of the mountains. People here have never seen such big mountains, so Jared, send me some good pictures of our gorgeous mountains that you`ve done, and other things around the house. I would love to show more about my own life to them.

 

So the move went smoothly. We moved Monday night, and got everything organized, going to bed at 11:30, exhausted after a good Pday and lots of moving furniture. The new pench is much bigger than the old one, and in a much safer location. Just last week we had people throwing rocks at us right in front of our pench! Glad we moved!! Haha! Anyway, finding new people to teach this week was hard. I`m not understanding why it`s so hard to find people, but I know that they will come, if I Trust in the Lord, like you said, Mom, I know that we will be guided to the people looking for the truth. Wednesday night, we held a little 6 month anniversary for E. Wagstaff. I made him pizzas and chocolate chunk cookies that you sent me, Mom. If you ever send me more of the cookie mixes... I want that one... And nothin` else! Hahaha! SOOO good, and they reminded me of home. I can`t wait to try your brownie dessert pizza or whatever it was you made for dinner for Mothers day!

 

Thursday I had the coldest and most cruel wind and icicle´-like raindrops pound and rip apart my face for what seemed like an eternity. I`ve never been colder. The wind threw the rain into our faces, and it literally felt like someone throwing little daggers one by one into our flesh... Charming, but extremely fun experience! Haha! What we do for the Lord and the people here in Comodoro... We had an incredibly crazy lesson with Carla and Gabriel, the lady who forgot everything about the church. Gabriel pretty much denied himself eternal life. Saying that he was aware of the decisions he was making, and if he were to die tomorrow, he would be fine with going to hell. All I could say was... Sad. So, Sad. We begged them to read the BoM and pray about it, knowing that`s the only way he can get a testimony of everything. He is someone who dedicated himself to the Bible for 15 years, and he knows a lot. But every time he tried to counterargue something with a statement from the Bible, I whipped it back in his face with something from the Book of Mormon, or his own precious Bible. It surprised me at just how much I have learned, and the knowledge I have gained by both books. It has put the promise made by the prophets fulfilled when they said that with the Bible and Book of Mormon, you will be able to confound all men who come against you. I know that is true. And how powerful I felt to be able to testify of that fact to him. What a testimony I`ve gained... I love this church, I love this Gospel, I love my Savior.

 

It has been a while since I bore my testimony. I was thinking about what I`ve learned over the past year here in Argentina, and I know I am not the same person. Like Grandpa said to you, Mom, I know as well that the mission is changing everything about me. I sure hope that I am not like I was before the mission, and knowing that I`m not, I hope that I will never return. I know who I am now. I know what my purpose as a person is. I am so much happier, I don`t doubt about my life, and what I`m going to do. I know that as long as I trust in the Lord, He will direct my paths. I love this Gospel with all of my heart, and I know that it is a priviledge to suffer whatever it is that I suffer as a misisonary for two years if it means I can pay back even a little part of what The Savior of the World suffered for me. I know that without His example, His suffering, the giving of His life, we would not have the opportunity, the chance, or the blessing to see each other after this life, but because of it, I know that He conquered the death, and that we, as families can live together again after we have parted from this earthly life. I want everyone within the sound of my voice to know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church of God. There was a true church of God when Jesus Christ was on the Earth. And it is back on the earth again because a loving Heavenly Father answered the curious prayer of one who only wanted to know which church to join. Joseph Smith really saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. Of that I bear witness and testimony. And with all the complaints, all the false theories, all the lies, the persecution, the hatred, and the excuses that people will exclaim to me and my family about how Joseph Smith is a liar and a man destined to reign in Hell with Satan himself - To them I say they are wrong. And if they will not take on the promise made by Moroni, an ancient prophet from this American continent who promised that every single soul on this earth, male or female that wanted to know the truth of the Book of Mormon and the reality of the Truth of the Church of Jesus Christ, would only have to get on their knees and pray to their Maker, asking Him if these things are true... If they will not do that, it is because they do not have faith. I admonish, beg and exhort all to read the Book of Mormon and ponder its message. I love that book, and know it is the word of God. The Church is true, it`s important, and it`s NECESSARY to receive life eternal with our families. I love my family. And will fight every day of my life, until I can say at the end of my life as Paul said of old: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course..." I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I know that any person that will abide His teachings... Will be saved in the Kingdom of God. Of these things I testify, asking God Himself to seal my testimony in heaven as well as here on Earth, and I do it in the name of His Son, the Son of God, even Jesus Christ, Amen.

 

I love you all, Happy Mother`s Day.

E. Cuthbert 

December 19, 2011

I GET TO CALL YOU GUYS IN LESS THAN A WEEEEEEK!!!!!!

It sounds like things back home are awesome. People are coming back home from their missions, you´re having parties left and right, and Buppi is... Not doing well... :( Tell him from me to rest it up and not do anything stupid! Since he can´t drive now, he might as well give up the keys to the RS6. It´s only fair. ;) Haha.

 

Haven´t received any Christmas packages yet, we haven´t even received the pouch mail from the mission home for 2 weeks. It´s probably all there in the mission home, they just need to send it! But I´m grateful for anything I get, thank you so much.

 

Well, the situation with the Birth Certificate. It should have been made today and sent by bus from Buenos Aires to get here tomorrow or Wednesday. I am praying so hard, and we have been fasting every single weekend for the past month for that birth certificate to get here and that the wedding and baptism can go through on Friday and Saturday. We REALLY want a White Christmas, and if I can´t have snow... It HAS TO BE  A BAPTISM!!! Gosh Dang it!! It´s been too long without a baptism, and this family deserves and wants it! We were with Mirta and Ramón yesterday night and she said, "Gosh, I just want to get BAPTIZED already! I am willing to do whatever it takes, follow whatever commandment and do... whatever to get baptized!!" We love them, and they´re a family that was always ready. Keep the prayers going, we need them.

 

We had a great time this Saturday with MTC for a Day with all the young men in the Branch. We got up early in the morning to be there at 7: 00 am to study with them and then teach them about being missionaries! After lunch we took them all out to work! It was very fun, they were so tired at the end of it, and it reminded me of my first week in the MTC... Exhausting!

 

Well today was exhausting as well. We got up early and went on an AWESOME hike with a member who works as a guide for rich people here in San Martín. He took us on a hike that was SO STEEP and VERY long. At the end, though... Was a volcano crater with a crystal clear blue lake in the middle... It was gorgeous. The wind was SO strong. Even though it´s summer right now, it was freezing up there. I´ve got some pretty awesome pictures. San Martín really is the most gorgeous place in the Patagonia. I´m so lucky to be spending Christmas and my birthday here... Wow... I love the mission... :) I love you guys so much, Sorry for the short letter, but I have stuff to do! I miss you a ton, and can´t WAIT to talk to you guys at 1:00pm on Sunday, the 25th of December!!! Que tengan una buena semana! Hasta que hablemos!!!

 

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 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