May 28, 2012

That`s so cool about school getting out and watching the Avengers (NINE MORE MONTHS, NINE MORE MONTHS...) Hahaha, I`m sure you guys had a blast. Dad, I know you can do it with the workload, with an iPad... Anything is possible! ;) Hahaha! I am so proud of you.  Thank you for sending the pictures of Jareds photography. I really appreciate it! It will be great to be able to show people more about my life! My keyboard sucks, that`+s why there`s so many mistakes... Sorry! 

Well, I said goodbye to my Mission President, Pres. Peterson and his wife for the last time on Thursday. They came down to Comodoro one last time before they leave at the end of June. We had a good talk together, and we laughed about how when I get home, we`ll get together for a lunch or something, they live in Bountiful.

Me, E. Slaugh and two other Elders did a musical number... We sounded beautiful. I sang bass while E. Slaugh sang tenor, E. Jewkes with the alto and E. Marriott with the melody. Abide with me tis eventide. Great hymn. Anyways, good stuff. So I saw E. Slaugh there, again and we were able to talk. Really awesome.

Well, the 25th of this month was Independence day for Argentina, so we the missionraies threw an acivity for the entire ward. We had a delicious GIANT pot of what`s called Locro, look it up, we made enough for 120 people. Then, we had a talent show, and we four missionaries did the best skit/lip sync to Backstreet Boys EVER. I don`t have the time to explain it... I feel really bad, but suffice it to say that we will be famous forever in this ward for the show we put on. It was so funny. SO SO FUNNY!!! :) :)

We put three baptismal dates yesterday night with a new family that are really awesome! They`ll be baptized this next month, June. I`m so happy, missionary work is awesome. Mom, has Hermana Peterson emailed you back about what you have to do t come down to Argentina and pick me up? Anyway, I love you all so much. I want you o know that I have a strong testimony, and I won`t let you guys down!!! Until next week!

Amor,

E. Cuthbert 

May 7, 2012

Jared, Ha! Do you mind sending me some $ since you`re making so much? Just a couple grand... Not much to ask, right? Ha! Oh, how`s Valentina? Did you get all the parts and the registry and everything done to drive her? I bet you`re just itching with the roads being nice and dry and hot from the sun... Oooh, it gives me chills to think about it... ;) Heh! 

So we`re moving out today. Saturday was a long day spent in a ton of service. I`ll hurry and tell about what happened. So the pench that we`re moving into is the pench of a less active member and her non member husband. They are moving into their new house that they have built, and were planning on being out by Saturday, didn`t happen. Haha. On Wednesday, we went over at their request to help them dig a giant hole for the big pipe to connect their water to the waterline. 3 hours later with a giant hill next to us on the side of the road... We find out that the waterline doesn`t pass by where we were digging... GREAT!!!... Ha, so we went back to the pench,  changed and went to our appointments. On Saturday, we went over after lunch to see if they had connected the water. Still, no luck. They were working on another hole a little farther away, using "logic" that that`s where the pipe would have to be. So we got clothes on, and went to help dig with the pick ax and shovels and stuff. Nothing. So we started doing the same thing, a little farther inside, on the sidewalk this time. This time, there was no way we were going to fail. We began digging and then found a pipe at the bottom. Success!!!! Ahem... Not. The owner of the house whose sidewalk we were destroying came out and told us that that wasn`t the water pipe. Great. 3 holes, and no luck. So, finally we made a temporary ditch for the pipe that passed through the street. We were digging and pick axing for a good 7 hours. We got home with sore hands and tired bodies. So, I decided to make us Empanadas Arabes. They`re probably my favorite food in all of Argentinedom. What you do is you mix hamburger meat with onion, green, red pepper and salt, pepper, and a spice. Then, you take the juice from about 6 lemons and you pour that over everything. You then let it sit in your fridge for 2 hours, and the lemon juice cooks the hamburger meat, solo! With the acids from the juice, that cooks it all, you then put it into empanada shells and throw them in the oven. So RICO!!!!!! 

So today, at 6 pm we are moving. FINALLY. We slept on our mattresses on the ground last night because we already took apart the bunk bed in the hopes that we would have already moved out. Haha.    So I will definitely send pictures next week of the move and everything.  

Alright, I am so proud of my Dad right now. What a bunch of woosies that wimped out of the job!  That`s so awesome that he kept with it, and will be doing that with Texas. I promise that I will not do anything to my body that will  cause a medical insurance difficulty. You have my word. And I just signed a random piece of paper, signing my life away to that promise. I hope you`re happy. :) 

Thanks again for the package with my journal in it! I forgot to tell you to send more of the spicy chipotle marinade packets!! Oh well, I can be patient for Christmas or something like that.   So, Mother`s Day. I`m so, so so so so so so so excited    to call you guys! It`s going to be great! I`m planning on calling at about 4:30. 1:30 your time. Be sure to write down any questions   that you want me to answer so you don`t forget. I`ve got about an hour to talk to you guys, so let`s make it a good one! I`ll call you guys, and then if you guys can call me back, that would be great. 1-801-358-0396... I`ll never forget your cell number.  I`m not going to do Skype. I`m going to make you wait till I pick you up from the airport in Neuquèn!!! ;) I`ll be talking with my President about that soon to make sure I know everything and how to help you  know what it is you have to do. 

So, yes, we have found a few new investigators... But not enough. I have realized latelty that I might be putting too much confidence in myself, and not in God to help us work. I realized through a set of really humbling hours of knocking and not getting into ANY house, that I need to ask My Heavenly Father more specifically for His help, and then I need to listen as carefully as possible to hear His whispers to me. I love missionary work, and I know I don`t want to leave. The work is a little harder here, but E. Cuthbert never backed down to a little adversity. In 2 nephi 4 it talks about how Nephi wouldn`t back down because of his afflictions. I, like him, will do the same. Work the hardest I can, and let the Lord do the work. Thank you for all of the support you guys give me. I can truly thank my Heavenly Father for giving me the most incredible family... I love you guys so much. Send me pictures of Prom, and of the family!  Don`t worry about me, I am doing so well here... I`m happy, and I`m learning more about the Plan of Salvation and the purpose of our existence here, more and more. I love this Gospel. 

Amor, 

E. Cuthbert 

April 23, 2012

How are you all?? Jared, you went to Prom, huh? Way to be the gentleman! You will find that the COOL people are the ones who treat their dates and the women in their life nicely. You``ll be surprised that they treat you more nicely in return as well ;) Haha! So you went in a Lexus IS 350???? How was THAT my bud?? I bet you guys were hauling! That reminds me of my Prom to Sundance in the Audi RS6, my car... Right, Omi and Buppi? ;) It was SUCH an adventure, I``m so happy you went, send me pictures of everything, PUHLEASE!!

Wow, this week had some big ups and so giant downs! It was a very good week, overall. The Work is slowly working its way back up, and we``ll have success here pretty soon. Forgive me for the apostrophe``s, for some reason, this Argentine computer likes to do two instead of one. Don``t know why.

YAY!! I``m so happy I have money! Will you set aside, and pay my tithing on that money please? If that``s aloud, I don``t know if you can do it for me. Haha. Feliz Cumpleanos, Simon! Espero que fuera lo mejor! :) Anyways, What a week, lets get started.

First of all, we might be moving!! Our pench is REALLY small, and what``s more, I have had to take a bucket shower every day since I got here, because the pressure of the shower, literally, sucks. Bucket shower, bucket shower, bucket shower!!! And the front door is really hard to open with the key, Ha! It``s all really hilarious, really. But we might move into the house of a member, because they are moving out of that house to move into a different house, so they``re leaving the other house free, and we can have that house on the first few days of May, Me entendian?? Did you understand that Ha, yeah, so hopefully we can move, it``s a lot bigger and got a lot more space.

So... I was BITTEN BY A DOG!! We were up in a new part of the area that I hadn``t ever seen before, and while we were walking around and knocking on all the little shacks on the perimeter of the neighborhood, this big, fat dog comes walking next to us. He had his head down, giving us shifty looks every once and awhile. We thought we were good, so we kept walking. As soon as I broke eye contact with him, WHAM!!! I feel this very strange, pulling on the back of my calf muscle. I instictively kicked and whipped around, and the dog started going berserck. He had bitten me, getting his jaws firmly on my calf muscle and had PULLED. It HURT. We were already at a door when he had bitten me, so I just forgot about it, more focused on talking with someone about the Restored Gospel. So we knocked the door, and I hid the pain and my anger under my smile and we asked to come in... We didn``t get in. When the door shut, I wiped that smile off my face and whipped around ready to KILL. The dog was about 10 meters away, so I couldn``t really do anything. I just started to limp away and we continued contacting. He bit me through my pants, lucky thing is that he didn``t tear through them, there is no hole or anything whatsoever on my pants, but he still got me good. I have sent the picture so you can see. Dumb. Dog. I called Sister. Peterson and she told me if I started to feel sick or anything like that, to go to the hospital for Rabies, but we``ll see... Hahaha! I``m not too worried, there was no skin contact. So that night, I treated myself to some good ``ol Brownies with Dulce de Leche to make me feel better! Hha!

I have made French toast with syrup and whipped cream and cinnamon sugar a couple times... Oh my Gosh. There was a 14 yr. old kid that kept passing by us on a moped every one to two minutes on the road the other day for about a half hour, every time, passing screaming cuss words and flipping us off. How the younger generation is slipping farther, and farther into the flaxon cords and temptations of the devil!!!! :(

The days have been pretty tough. Hard work. We``ve been contacting a lot lately trying to find new investigators. There aren``t a lot, and I WILL NOT use the excuse that Comodoro is just ``Harder``. I refuse to make excuses. The only reason an area is open is because there is someone in that area, who will be baptized. I just have to find them. So we``ve been working to find them. IT``s tough, but we won``t give up, me or E. Wagstaff. He``s doing great, by the way. We love each other. 

We found a girl from Salta who was baptized 2 years ago and then moved here right afterwards. She is now completely inactive, she smokes, drinks, has a boyfriend and a kid and doesn``t remember ANYTHING about the Gospel, Joseph Smith, BoM, or anything. It is so sad. We found her through trying to find a different person, hopefully we can help her and her boy friend want to accept the Gospel again.

I have to say, I love Comodoro... It``s gotten surprisingly cold, it bites my face off! Being next to the ocean gives us a very.. ahem, pleasant ocean breeze that``s about a billion below zero degrees. The wind has picked up, so we``ve been bundling up a lot more too. I loved church, yesterday. the 2nd counselor from the bishopric gave me this paste used to heal horse cuts on my dog bite, it``s sealed up quite nicely! Haha... But man, oh MAN did it hurt for awhile there! I want you all to know that I am fine and happy. I love the Gospel, and am studying the BoM and the Bible more than ever before. I love studying, and learning new things. When I get home, I will HAVE to go to work and study so I can keep myself busy and not get bored... I haven``t had a boring day for more than a year! Awesome. I love you all. If you have any questions, concerns, anything, I``d love to hear them... It``s been awhile since I got a letter from anyone, Ha. I miss you all! Pray for me and my companion, that we can be guided by the Spirit to the ones who are searching for the Truth!

E.Cuthbert 

March 26, 2012

So I have to be quick this week, I´m in Junín de los Andes and we have to get on the bus to San Martín in about a half hour, so I have to be quick. 

My dear companion, E. Agazzani leaves for home next Monday, and I will probably be stuck in San Martín, solo again. This week was good, we have been a lot better behaved and have had a very good time. The pictures I´ve sent was my lunch... :D Today we roasted a lamb on a cross... We had our own little crucifiction (I don´t speak english, is that how you spell it?) going on!! It was so delicious! We had lamb with Asado meat and salad... I ate probably 3-4 pounds of meat... Someone needs to work out tonight! It was AWESOME! 

Darío is still waiting, but is antsy to get baptized. Lautaro got confirmed this Sunday, it was awesome. Gaspar is working on stopping smoking and drinking. I´m SUPER EXCITED for the conference. It´s hard to think that it was 6 months ago already that I was in Esquel during the Conference. Crazy to think how fast the time is flying by. 

That´s hilarious about the hamster! Pobre madre wants to help prune trees nada más!!! :) I love you, you´re so cute! Haha! 

Pasamos para hablar con ustedes means Can we come in to talk with you? I wish I could send you videos... I have a video that is hilarous that we took with the lamb, it´s to die for. I guess you have to wait till after the mish! ;) My comp is getting very nervous about leaving, I can only imagine how it will be.. I don´t want to think about it, though. My mission is still young. Thank you for always writing, Mom. Melyn and Aubs as well! Thank you guys! Gen. Conf. is going to be awesome, I´m very excited. We´re going to busier than heck this week with everything that E. Agazzani has to do. We´re going to be eating a TON of food, but I´m going to be very happy to get a new companion and begin the normal work routine. We haven´t been able to have real working days for awhile... We´re always doing something somewhere, interviews in Zapala, meetings in Centro, service on the mountain, stuff like that. It´s missionary work, but it´s not work that helps someone get baptized, and that´s what I´m all about. I just want my investigators to progress and get baptized, enter that door to eternity. I love missionary work.

Amor, 

E. Cuthbert 

March 19, 2012

So, I´ve got a lot of stuff to say, I apologize again for the short letter last week. I promise that this week will be much better.

 

So... WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!! It wasn´t of Darío, so I´ll hurry and explain the baptism, and then talk about Darío.

It was Lautaro! The little 10 yr. old stud did it. It was such an incredible experience for me. I wasn´t able to visit him almost the entire week, I´ve been so busy with... I don´t even know what. I can´t even remember what happened during this week, it flew by... But don´t worry, I wrote everything down that I wanted to say. So Lautaro got baptized on Sunday. We got there in the morning, and saw him with his mom, Fabiana come into the church with Flia. Calderón, who has been the supportive family for all of this. He went and did what 10 yr. olds do... Play. Haha, Fabiana had an incredible time at church, she bore her testimony during our Gospel Principles class, about how before we arrived at her house, she thought that religion was the best way to kill the faith in God. Her words. And then she explained how what we had taught her and Lautaro about God, the Plan of Salvation, that there is hope... It gave her hope to keep going on and fighting for the family. I almost had tears in my eyes. But then after the Sacrament meeting, we got everything ready, then took pictures with Lautaro and Martín Calderon in Baptism White, Babay!!! The first time he was baptized, he didn´t go all the way under, so they did it again. Right when he surfaced the second time, he exclaimed: "Can I do it again??!" Hahaha! Everyone started laughing, we took a couple more pictures then went upstairs to wait for them to change. We asked Fabiana to bear her testimony... And she did it. While she was talking... I realized how happy I felt. I was watching a single mother who had decided to follow Christ, bear testimony and witness to the entire branch that what her son did was true. The CHANGE... The absolute, CHANGE in their lives was unbelievable. She began to cry, and then during the final hymn, she cried as well. I thought to myself... Think about how happy you are now, and then think about how happy you will be when you´re taken up into the presence of God, and  every single person you helped will run up to you and embrace you for helping them follow Christ and form their Eternal Family... Eternal Bliss as it is called in Alma 37... I thought of that and was almost brought to tears for the amount of happiness I felt was almost un bearable. I know that I am HAPPY. I LOVE my life here in Argentina. I LOVE serving the people. These experiences are unlike any other. Jared, Brady, Bryson, Tate, Mitchel, Scott, EVERYONE that has not served a mission and will have the chance someday... DO IT.

 

So on Tuesday I was on divisions with one of our Zone Leaders, E. Herbert (Lloyd Chase Herbert for Kass who might know him, he went to Alta as well, played football.) He was sharing with me how E. Aidukitis (from the Seventy) had told them about a challenge they had had to see who could get into a house with the least amount of words. He had done it in one - Pasamos? So I said, I want to try! The next house we knocked, I said, Pasamos para hablar con Ustedes? It wasn´t one, it was five, but it was still almost nothing... An 18 yr. old named Gaspar answered us and... LET US IN! E. Herbert had to muffle his laughter at seeing me do it on the first one I tried, it was hilarious. Gaspar is VERY curious about the church, and wants to know if it´s true. He´s an awesome investigator. Flia. Alogostine, another family that we found recently, the story behind them was this:  We were walking to an investigators house, and I saw the family outside their house sharing Máte. I had the biggest urge to go and talk to them, but I didn´t listen to that prompting... FIRST MISTAKE. After finding out that the investigator wasn´t home, we returned down the road and when we were walking past the house, I got the urge again, at the last second, I turned around and said: Hola!! The wife, Jorgelina, said: Pasen!! It was then that I got into a house on 1 word. :) They are a family of five, with 3 boys, all above the age of 8. They have a lot of questions, and are an incredible family.

 

E. Herbert that night during planning told me thank you for helping him out, I had helped him find his "Inner Osadoness". Which means his Inner Boldness, but in Spanglish. Hahaha! I have realized that I am very bold with people... Haha.

 

So on Friday, I was doing divisions in Junín de los Andes with E. Davis, an awesome Elder from Gunnison, Utah with 6 months in the mission. We were having a hard time finding someone to teach in the morning, so as we started on the way to another investigators house, I said: Alright, if you receive any kind of prompting to talk to a person, or knock a house... Listen to it, I´ll do the same."  We kept walking, 10 seconds later, I saw a brick house on the right side of the road. "Have you ever knocked this house?" I said. I walked up to the house and knocked. A girl named María came out and I introduced ourselves, and then she let us in! I looked at E. Davis as she led us in, and winked. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!! He had a hard time holding in the laughter and amazement. It was a very cool experience. The Lord really does guide us, even when we don´t realize it. We are his servants, He knows where we need to go, and in one way or another, we always end up where He needs us to be.

 

We´ve been working on a 200 meter ditch for a member who needs to throw in a water pipe. He and his family always give us Asado for lunch afterwards... This Saturday was She-Deer.... MMMMMMMMMMM. SO GOOD.!!! Anyway, Darío is fighting to receive a paper from the province that states that he´s divorced. He told us that the date for the wedding should be in the first week of April, so he will be baptized then. I love him, he´s so awesome, and has so much faith.

 

Well, I am officially in love with San Martín. Don´t make me leave!!! We´ve got transfers coming up on the 2nd of April, E. Agazzani is going home, he´s fine btw, happy, working, the ring fits perfectly. :) He says thank you. GRACIAS! I loved that quote btw.

 

Anyways, until next Monday, We´re fighting for a baptism on Conference weekend, pray for us that we find someone prepared!

 

Amor,

E. Cuthbert

March 5, 2012

*I can't believe Jordan's irreverent behavior!  I apologize!! - Melanie*

First of all, Monday night we got a call from the Mish pres. and he told us that E. Campos is being emergency transfered to Allen, Roca (Where E. Syddall was slashed) and E. Syddall was coming here. Hahahaha! I was really sad, actually. E. Campos is someone that I will be hanging out with when I get back. He has been such a good friend, just like E. Barton was back in Esquel, but anyway, he left on Wednesday. So I`ll be able to see E. Syddall again and get the full story from him. He was awesome in Esquel, poor kid. He`s now having studies done on his face because one of his neck muscles was severed and his saliva gland was also destroyed. I love this mission. :) COOL things happen. (You can totally tell that I`m still a boy at heart... ;)) 

Dad, we don`t carry out Passports hardly at all. The majority of the time, they`re stuck in a safe in the mission home in Neuquèn. We have to become Argentine citizens, or at least have an Argentine license, and that`s what we use to be legal. I was given my passport because I need to renew my Visa to be in the country, that means trips to Bariloche!!! 

Lautaro was not baptized with all that happened this week. I was in my area for a good... Three days, nada màs. He will be, soon. He`s a ten year old with a lot of energy that doesn`t like to be cooped up in the house listening to the boring, old misioneros... ;) I`m so jealous that you`re all going down to Moab and Jordan`s running the marathon there and then you`re going to the Fiery Furnace! SEND ME PICTURES OF MY BEAUTIFUL FAMILY. I WANT TO SEE you guys!!!! I miss that stuff, ha, but I only have one more year so... It`s already coming to a close. :( NOOOOOO!!!!!

We are going to be doing something HUGE for my year anniversary, and E. Agazzani`s end of the mission. HUGE. We`re talking roasting a stinkin` lamb on a big cross over a bed of stinkin` coals!!! THAT`s WHAT I`M talking about!! That`s Argentina. :)I`ll send you pictures with my NEW CAMERA! It got here!! WOOT!! So happy about it. Well, I don`t really know, I haven`t turned it on or anything, but I will be playing with it tonight. Thank you so much, Mom. 

My Eccos are holding up FINE. They`re full of magic, I think. Seriously. I have walked, probably... GAJILLIONS of miles, and they`re still goin. They`re starting to pull away in a couple places but I can take them to be repaired really quickly, don`t worry about that. You`ve sent me too much stuff anyway. Are you sure Jared turns 18 this year? Doesn`t he turn 15 or something? There`s NO WAY he`s turning that age. No. Way. My little brother isn`t so little anymore! I love you Jared. 

Now, we were in Zapala for 3 days, well me and another Elder. Like I said, we needed to renew our Visas, and we had to do the first step in Zapala in the police station doing thumb prints and going to the bank and paying a lot of money and crap like that. So we weren`t in San Martìn for awhile. But last Monday, I went on Divisions in my area with E. Davis, an Elder with 6 months, NO Spanish and from Gunnison, Utah. He can`t speak at all, but it was with him that we had a lesson so spiritual... It was like it was from the movies. Darìo is the dad of Daniza and Zahida who got baptized. We went to their house, and I wanted him to accept a date to be baptized, and to get married, because they`re not married. So in the beginning I began talking about Eternal Families. They want it. I asked him what he would need to do to be able to have that Eternal Family. I was hoping he would say baptism... He didn`t. He said Marriage. EVEN BETTER!!! The majority of the time, marriage is harder to get people to do than baptism, so I was so happy that he recognized the need to be baptized. So we spoke about marriage for awhile, then I wanted him to accept a baptismal date, so we spoke about that and he said: "You know, I`ve been thinking a lot about what you guys have been telling me these last few days, and.. I want to get baptized." BING! SCORE! GOAL!! Then, I said: "Darío, y Viviana (the name of the mom) Heavenly Father wants you to keep all the commandments before you get baptized. One of those commandments is marriage. Viviana, do you want to get married to Darìo?" She said: "I`ve ALWAYS wanted to!!" And she burst into tears. Darìo held out his hand (They were in separate couches) And she reached out and latched onto his. Then I asked Darìo the same question. He said, "Yes, I do." At that point, they were both crying, the Spirit was so strong... Viviana launched herself into the arms of Darìo and they began crying together, just holding on to each other. It was a beautiful moment, and I am a LUCKY man to be apart of that moment. We set everything up, and they will be married and baptized in the coming weeks. I am so happy, Mom, I am happy. I see miracles every day. I love the mission. I love this work. I love my Lord and Savior. I love my life. 

Just the other day, we did service, then had the whole rack of ribs of a goat and a giant rump from a cow. Fresh. I love Argentina. I LOVE this people. Kolt knows exactly what I`m talking about. The people here are so loving and incredible. The culture is amazing... The land is beautiful. I`m in love, and I`m already halfway through... :( 

I want you to know that I love you. I`ll be taking more pictures of beautiful San Martìn, baptisms and everything else. When E. Agazzani leaves, I`ll be receiving much more responsibility, from what the President told me in our interview in Zapala. He looked me in the eye and said, E. Cuthbert... You`re good. Baptizing almost every single week. I know you`re anxious to not be junior comp. And that time is coming much sooner than you know it. Your mission is still young. 

The mission... It`s a once in a life time experience. I`m working on more love, patience and humility than ever before. I love you all. So Much. 

E. Cuthbert 

January 23, 2012

Wonderful family...

I have being 20. I feel weird. It´s the first time in 7 years that I haven´t had to say "een" when I say my age... Que Raro!!!! It´s so different, and I don´t want to grow up!

É. Agazzani and I are doing wonderful. He´s awesome, he wants to work hard and push it till the end, and I´m more than willing to help him help as many sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father that is possible. We´re having a great time, we work well together. So for my birthday, we bought a big thing of icecream and went to Flia. Rama´s house to make it and everything. We didn´t have a lot of time, and so it really... Didn´t work out... HAHAHA!!! We baked the cake all at once... I was going to make two discs separately, but we didn´t have the time! So we made the cake, then cut it in half. Threw it in the freezer for the longest time possible, then we threw the icecream on and back in the freezer! When we took it out, there was icecream EVERYWHERE!!! I said... "Ni importa. Comamos!!!" We ate it all, it was still delicious. I love that family. They made us empanadas to go with the cake. It was an awesome night.

So we were eating lunch with a member and her family, and she told us that there was an inactive family that had two daughters that have been questioning baptism and what it is and everything. We BOLTED over to the house as soon as we heard that. We met the inactive mom and her two daughters, we set an appointment for the Thursday. When we went over Thursday, they were all ready, waiting and DYING to listen about baptism. We explained it to them, taught them about some things and then asked them if they wanted to be baptized. They said, YES!!! We´ve been working with them this week and they will be baptized the 4th of February... 4th of February... One month from my year mark... WHA???!!! Anyway, we took them to a baptism of the other Elders in San Martín, and then to church yesterday. They loved everything! Their names are Daniza y Saira. Daniza, after church asked us: "When are you guys coming to our house? When are you guys coming to our house?? When? When? When???!!!" Hahaha, it was hilarious. Very good family.

Another lady named Fabiana, we found on Tuesday, is progressing rapidly also. She has NO faith in religions, because of what she´s heard them say, but later, what she´s seen them DO, which is far more important than what you say. She has a wonderful family, and we have gotten to know her through a member who is her friend. She has had every question answered that she has asked us, and we are really excited for her. She has her baptismal date for the 11th of February. I love finding investigators that WANT to learn. That WANT to progress. They´re very few... But when you find them, there is no other joy that fills your heart more than that of watching one of your Brothers or Sisters accepting and receiving the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love it. I love it. Thank you to everyone who emailed me for my birthday. I love you all, and am so grateful for all the support you've given me in my 20 years of existence here as a Son of God. Pray for me, please.

I love you.

E. Cuthbert

January 16, 2012

Twenty years? NOOOOO!!! I´m not that old! I feel like I´m still 12, not a care in the world, running Hershey track and having a blast. But.. I can´t stop time. As much as I would like to stop time and stay young forever... I can´t. I´m turning twenty in a couple days... Blegh. I have to tell you the truth, I just want to stay your little Jordie. But, I know for right now, I can´t. Life has gone on, the years have past, and I am now an authorized servant of God. The time has flown...

So much has happened. E. Calvache left later on Monday, leaving E. Campos, Arenas and me here in San Martín to do whatever we wanted... So what did we do? We walked around to every chocolate store in San Martín and ate their samples... ;) And there´s LOTS of chocolate stores. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! If there´s one thing that age won´t change, it´s my love for delicious, scrumptious, smooth, luscious chocolate... HMMMMM. That night we began packing the other Elders´ stuff up. They were going to move to a different apartment in San Martín, so I helped clean and organize. That night we sat and spoke about our lives, and it was a pretty deep conversation. We spoke about things that I haven´t told many people, but we as Elders in the Gospel were strengthened by the testimonies of each other. At midnight, pouring with rain, we ran to the terminal to pick up E. Agazzani, my new companion. When he got there, we left the other two Elders for our own apartment, once there, we spoke for a little bit, then got to bed at 2am. Next morning... DEAD. We were so tired. Ever since then, I´ve been showing him around San Martín, we´ve been teaching, talking and loving life as missionaries. E. Agazzani is from Cordoba, Argentina. He´s got an accent that I´ve never heard before, a little hard to understand, he´s ending the mission in April, and he´s pretty shy around people he doesn´t know. But we´ll fix that.

The recent converts are doing very well. Mirta and Dana were sick, so Ramón and Claudia came to church by themselves! I was so proud of their effort. Yenifer and Karen came alone, without their mom. Her mom has been having a very hard time right now. She has a HUGE desire to be baptized, but she´s got a boyfriend, a daughter between the two of them, and she doesn´t want to separate the family again... HARD situation. They fasted with us on Saturday-Sunday to find a way to make the situation better. It´s brought a lot of tears on the part of Miriam, she doesn´t know what to do. I have been praying a lot for her and for her family. We have a lot of families now that are new. Everyone we had either got baptized, or said they don´t want to hear anything more. So when E. Agazzani got here, we are once again, almost starting from zero. We´ve found a lot of new people, had a lot of weird conversations, met a lot of dedicated catholics and evangelicals... What a week. We got into a pretty big bible bash the other day, and I had to repent for it on Sunday. I felt terrible for diverting from my cause as a missionary and only relying on scriptures from a half translated correctly Bible... Instead of using the power of the Holy Ghost and the Book of Mormon. I love the Bible, but only confusion comes from it because people interpret its sayings so differently. The Book of Mormon is NECESSARY. Without it, we are lost, in the dark. Anyway, I repented a lot for what I did, we also met a catholic yesterday that said "If you guys come to the Mass on Sunday at 10:30 this Sunday, I guarantee you I will come to you church too, but I already know you guys will never come." Hard decisions.... I don´t think we´ll be going, but it would be very interesting. He´s a hard core catholic that is SO SURE that the church that Constantine made permanent is the church of Christ. Wrong. Even by that time, the church was already in Apostasy... Ooops! I´m beginning to teach here... Sorry. Heh! I´ve been doing a lot of studying with the Apostasy and what happened... It´s a sketchy situation.

Anyway, for my birthday we´re going to Mirta and Ramóns house to have a bunch of Empanadas... I´m going to use one of the chocolate devils food cakes that you gave me and make a chocolate icecream-dulce de leche icecream cake!!!!! Hahaha! Wish me luck with that! I love this work. I love you all so much. SEND PICTURES! They make me HAPPY. Give me more HOPE. Make me work HARDER.

I love you all with all my heart. Jared, I WANT that hat. Mom, you´re la mejor mamá que hay en este mundo. Nunca te cambie. Eres mi angel. Melyn, sigues con el español. Te amo mucho. Papá. Te amo. Gracias por llevar a Jared y Simon al Show de Autos. Gracias por todo. No puedo esperar para hablar con ti.

Amor,

E. Cuthbert 

January 9, 2012

I liked what you said about the WHY in doing the commandments and all of that stuff. It is absolutely necessary that the investigators know the why. If they don`t, they`d never do anything. Mirta, Ramòn and Claudia, (Flia. Rama, now.) if they didn`t know that being baptized and keeping the commandments would give them a eternal family, they would never have been baptized! But, they knew the reasons why, and that`s what gave them the faith and the courage to do what they did. They`re my miracle family. Them and Flia. Colque are... They`re something else... I love them so much. 

First of all, I got Melyn`s pckg... And already put it to good use!! The lemon poppy-seed muffins were... Oh my gosh... Buenìsimo! I`m saving the others for my birthday. Melyn, thank you so much for that pckg.! I loved it, but even more than the food... The CARD!!! I LOVED the card! It made me laugh so hard! E. Calvache didn`t understand why I was laughing about a kid in a bunny suit, but he`s never seen it, Pobrecìto! Grandma`s pckg... Still haven`t gotten it. I`m hoping it comes today. If not, I will be calling the office to see if they have it but just haven`t sent it still. I would really like the pckg. from my wonderful Grandma. The pants... I think they`re repairable. I gave them to a sister here to fix them, but she still hasn`t gotten them back to me. We will see. No, don`t worry about sending me more, haha. And no to the shirts, stop spending money on me! I can take it in these shirts, with the rolled up sleeves they`re fine. But thank you for asking. :) 

Well, we had the baptisms!! They were great! Yenifer and Karen were so excited, their mom is so happy, she wants to be baptized too, but can`t until she and Justino get married some day. No, they are not the daughters of Justino. Miriam has three daughters, and every single one has a different dad... Argentina is famous for that... :( Anyway, they all came to the baptism, Miriam was just flooded with tears, Justino came and enjoyed it. I baptized Karen, (9 yrs. old), E. Calvache baptized Yenifer (13). They`re a wonderful family. I love my converts so much... San Martìn has been very good to me, and it might be that way for another 4 and a half months. I forgot to tell you guys that we had transfers this week. And guess who`s leaving? E. Calvache. 

We got the call on Saturday night. We found out that he`s leaving and that I have another Latino coming here named Elder Agasani. He will be ending the mission here in San Martìn because he only has 3 months left. There`s two things that could happen. I could be here for just a month and a half more, and then be kicked out somewhere else. Or I could be here until he ends, then be here to help another Elder get to know the area. I could be here for 7 and a half months! Crazy! But we`ll see what happens. 

So yesterday we went by all the recent converts that we had together. Yenifer and Karen were sad to see E. Calvache go, including Miriam as well. But we had an awesome lesson together, then said goodbye. We did a lot of other stuff yesterday as well, but that night we went to Flia. Rama`s house to say goodbye to our Miracles. When we got there, they were watching the movie The Legacy from the church. They`re already watching church movies on Sunday! We watched it for a little bit with them, then we had a little chat. Mirta started crying, then Ramòn started crying, then I started crying, then E. Calvache started crying. We were all standing up in a circle in their living room, crying. E. Calvache told them that just last week he had had a dream about the pre earth life when we were all together with them, and we told them wait for us, we will find you, we PROMISE you that we will find you. Wherever you guys are on the earth down there, we will find you and we will bring you guys back. I then spoke about my feelings about how it will be when we are all up in heaven, reunited again... And we all give our Heavenly Father a huge hug... I can`t describe the feelings I have for this moment that I WILL have somewhere down the road. They were so prepared... They were always waiting for us. I could end my mission right now, and be happy until I die. But I know I can`t. I need to keep going. I want more experiences like that, and I know there are more families waiting for me and my new companion, E. Agasani. 

I am so happy. Mom, Jared, Dad, Melyn, Jordan, Dani, Aubrey, Kim, Chris, Holden, Grandma, Grandpa, Omi, Buppy, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Friends, Loved Ones... I am Happy. For right now, I don`t want to come back. I want to stay right here. Missionary work is hard, but I don`t care about that. This mission is shaping me into something else. I`ve changed so much. And I`m going to keep letting the Refiner refine me until I come forth as gold. I`m no where near that, but I`m trying. I love you all so much. I love missionary work, and don`t want to do anything else. Sometimes missionary work is hard because you just can`t find the people that are searching for the truth, but when you find them... It is a feeling that is indescribeable. 

Keep up the good work at home. I love you all. Pray for my investigators, and that we can find more. That E. Agasani and I can be strong, excited and driven to make success. 

E. Cuthbert 

January 2, 2012

And........... THEY DID IT!!!!!!!! This WONDERFUL family did it!!!! I am so happy and proud of them... Really... This last week has flown by, and a MILLION things have happened... I am so happy. 

Alright, I just want you guys to be aware that we have another baptism coming up for this next Saturday! Their names are Jennifer and Karen, the two daughters of a really awesome family. We found them in the same week that we found Mirta and Ramon. Miriam, the mom of the two, she too, wants to get baptized. We were in a lesson with them about a week ago, Monday, actually. They had come to church the day before and she said: I was already baptized in another church a while back but... I want to be baptized again, I´ve decided. WE WERE SO HAPPY WHEN SHE SAID THAT. But, one problem... She´s not married. Her man doesn´t really want to talk to us. We´ve tried a lot to talk to him, but he´s either really shy or doesn´t want to talk because we can´t get him to say one word! Anyway, he doesn´t want to listen in this moment, so we´re going to baptize Jennifer and Karen so they always have contact with the church and the missionaries. Blessings... :) 

Now I´m going to tell you right now. The Lord knows how to direct His work. On Tuesday morning we went with Mirta and Ramon to do all of the wedding arrangements. They needed to get their blood examined, buy seals at the bank, get the birth certificate and a bunch of other stuff. Now, mind you... To get your blood examined, we were talking to a member that had recently gotten married, and she said that the results usually come back in about a week!!! A WEEK??! We needed to schedule the wedding that same day!! Long story short, Mirta and Ramon got up really early to do all this stuff. We were praying and fasting for WEEKS for all of this stuff to happen. And by 9:00 in the morning... Everything was done. Just like that. Easy. I was shocked. I didn´t understand it. But then I realized... It was the prayers, it was the fasting, it was the diligence... It was an answer. Heavenly Father blessed us, blessed this family... And things that usually take weeks to do, they did it in 2 hours. A Miracle. The miracle of a New Years Eve!!! It was awesome! 

On Thursday, they got married. It was awesome, but it didn´t quite give me the satisfaction I thought it would. The marriage was just another step towards the ultimate goal, the baptism.  The baptism was AWESOME. The members LOVE this family, and they helped with everything. A really wonderful couple named Alberto and Evelina Di Stefano did all the decorations for the wedding reception that we had right after the baptism, and the cake, dances that they danced to and everything was... Wonderful. It was very emotional to finally watch this incredible family make it through the door... Baptism. :) I want you guys to know that the Lord loves his Children. That He KNOWS their desires, and that he answers prayers. I was so worried that Tuesday morning for the papers and everything that was going on, but I shouldn´t have... It all went more fluidly than I could even imagine. I love my Savior. 

It´s been extremely hot this week. In the 90´s and 100´s. I have realized that I really don´t like the heat in a shirt and tie... Not even going to talk about the pants... Oh! By the way, I went on divisions with another Elder, and I decided to take us on a "shortcut" to a neighborhood. We had to climb a fence, and I... Ripped the butt seam of my favorite slacks. a HUGE hole. It was terrible. I had to work for the rest of the day with a very big breeze going through my pants. Haha! Anyways, for New Years Eve, we spent it with the Flia. De la Torre, a really good member family that has been having some very hard trials lately. But we spent it with them, had a ton of Asado and deliciousness... Then went to bed at 11:30 and slept through the New Year. Yes, mom, I have lots of goals. :) I want this new year to be incredible. And it WILL be incredible. I´m just getting warmed up as a missionary. There´s still the curve and the straight-away to run. :) I want you all to know that I love you. I want you to know that the house is GORGEOUS!!! BIEN HECHO!! Props there, Mom and Dad! I miss you guys so much. Seeing those wonderful pictures and reading about the Christmas stuff you did... Aw man. I love you guys. Have a wonderful week, I´ll be back next week with pictures of the next baptism!! 

Love, 

E. Cuthbert 

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 

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