March 4, 2013

In one week from now... I`ll have my Mother in my loving arms. Strange. HAHAHA, I mean... AWESOME! It has finally come. The last week. The final stretch. The End of the Road. What a ride this has been. Two years of work. Non stop, continuous work. What an accomplishment. What an achievement. What a blessing. How blessed I`ve been, being able to spend two years among these wonderful, beautiful, happy people of the Patagonia. I have been given so many blessings from my Heavenly Father. I love Him so much. He has given me... Everything in my life, and for that, I owe Him my all. I owe Him everything. 

We are going to have a killer week. In a few hours, I`ll be celebrating my last Pday with a Lamb on a spit... :) I`ll take a bunch of pictures, don`t worry. ;) Elder Childs birthday is tomorrow, we have TWO baptisms on Saturday!! WOOOT!!! Agustina Lagos, the 10 yrs. old girl from the inactive family that we`ve now helped return to church, and Patricio, the Father of Enzo, who we baptized my first week here! He has been an incredible miracle. We have been just... jaw-dropped, dumb founded as we`ve seen him progress, and see the light of Christ growing in his eyes. At the beginning of my time here, 6 weeks ago, he didn`t even talk to us. He wanted nothing to do with us, and now? We announced his baptism on Sunday, and he told us afterwards, with a look of disbelief and shock... I`m getting baptized on Saturday, as if he couldn`t believe it himself!!! HAHA! Wow. What a blessing. I will be working harder this week than ever before. I love the mission. It has been the greatest. This is the last week I have to be able to show my Heavenly Father how much I love Him, and I will dedicate every last second to his will. Bring it on. 

Anyways... I`m very excited. I`m super happy. This is it. What I lived for for 19 years is about to come to a close. But, as said Paul... "I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith." Those words bring a lot of peace into my heart. The scriptures hit you in the very soul. Your Spirit calls out for their inspiring words from on High. If there`s one thing I`ve learned on this mission, it`s that Heavenly Father lives. That Jesus Christ, is my Savior. That he REDEEMED ME. It is REAL. It`s all REAL. I am a Child of God. In the most literal sense... I love the Plan of Salvation. I`m grateful for Joseph Smith, and for his bravery and courage in restoring the true Gospel, and the true Church upon the Earth. Thomas S. Monson is THE prophet on the Earth today. I know it. And I know that God knows it, and I cannot deny it. 

I bore my testimony to my Zone in my last Zone Conference. What a moment. What a spiritual experience. In that moment, It hit me that I was going home. I cried. Hard. I am excited to come home, and begin working in my own ward. The Lord has a great work for me to accomplish in the Church. I will not deny Him my service. I come back, changed. And that is the biggest blessing of all of this. I will come, converted. 

I love you all. You have been my love and support for these two years. I will never be able to thank all of you for what you`ve done. Thank you for everything. What a journey, what a blessing, what a miracle. I leave my testimony to you all, to all who will ever read this email, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is THE Church of God on the earth. I will never deny my testimony. Mobs may combine, persecutions may rage, calamity may defame, And the very powers of Hell may assemble to throw me down, but I will not, cannot deny the testimony of my Lord and Savior, even Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Elder Cuthbert

February 25, 2013

Everyone,

Here is Jordan's letter from last week.  At first I wasn't going to send it because it was so short, but after re-reading it, I decided it was worth sending.  He mostly talks about our trip while I'm there, so I won't bore you with those details - can't believe its here!!!  I leave on Sat the 9th and we will be back on Mar. 22nd.  His homecoming will be March 31st (Easter) at 11:00am.  Everyone of you are invited to the house afterwards for lots of good food!

 

Thank you for supporting Jordan for these last two years! 

 

Melanie

Elder Presley should be talking to you right at this moment. Haha, yes! The mission is dividing!! No longer will it be my beloved Argentina Neuquèn Mission! It`s going to be a huge change for the mission. Missionaries will be transfered to the new mission Comodoro Argentina Mission, which covers Trelew all the way down to Ushaiah! Crazay! I`m doing wonderful, just busy seeing miracles and loving my companions. I`m having so much fun with them! They are incredible. E. Child plays the violin and has this FIRE when he testifies, E. Lozada is becoming more and more like his Pa... Me. Haha, he`s becoming a fireball. I`m so happy for them. I honestly never loved a companion as much as I do, them.

 

I love you. See you in two weeks.  

E. Cuthbert

February 18, 2013

You guys will not believe what has happened... HOLY COW!!! HAHAHA! You don`t know HOW EXTREMELY HAPPY I AM!!!  First of all, Happy Valentine`s Day! We celebrated the birthday of Enzo, the boy who we baptized my first week here, he had his birthday on the 14th as well! So we had pizza and birthday cake with the family, it was awesome! Anyway... I want to share the happy news!!!

The "Father" of the "Son" just got another "Son"! HA!" Do you understand? Do you get it? I`m TRAINING AGAIN!!! I have two companions, both of them new! E. Lozada, from Peru, obviously, and my new "Son", is named E. Child, from Alaska! WWOOOOHOOOOO!! Can you believe it? What a change of plans for my last three weeks! I am training two missionaries, one from Peru, and one from the United States. What a blessing, what a challenge, and what a humbling experience. I am super happy. 

On Tuesday night, my Zone Leaders called me up and told me - "Elder, you`d better sit down, because the news we have for you is going to make you limp..." Haha. I sat down, and they said, Elder Cuthbert, you`re training again." I was dumbfounded. I didn`t know what to say. ""WHA??" Haha! What happened was that Elder Child, with a few other Elders had their call to come to Neuquèn, Argentina, but their Visas were taking forever to reach them, so they were working in the MTC as Internet Missionaries, missonaries who spend the majority of their day on the computer, chatting with people on Mormon.org, facebook, Skype, and things like that! He was there for 5 and a half months! He finally got the Visa, and when he arrived here, the President assigned him to me. I was so happy. His Spanish is pretty good, because he got 5 months of practice in the MTC, obviously, it needs work, but at least I don`t have to spend all my time trying to teach him Spanish when we could be spending that time to teach people and baptize. I`m not here to waste a single second! We`re here to baptize! So, we`re now in a trio. The ward loves it, and we love it too. It was pretty hard in the first lesson, because every one of us wanted to say stuff, and share his testimony and speak about everything, so we ended up teaching for an hour and a half! I pulled them aside afterwards and said, "Look, we can`t do that! Haha, we need to learn to be a companionship, we`re a team. We need to say short, powerful statements, and turn the teaching over to our companion, so that all can speak, but also so the influence of the spirit isn`t hindered... And now we`re a very good trio! So yeah, what a change of plans! Que tal, eh!!! I`m REALLY sorry, for some reason, every cyber we go to to write you guys, none of the computers recognize our cameras, so I can`t send you a picture of our awesome trio. Oh well, when I get home! Haha. 

Baptize, baptize, baptize... That`s all that`s on my mind. Well... I lied. Not really. What I`m more worried about are my two "sons". Haha. I want them to become BOMB missionaries. I want them to become Assistants, Zone Leaders, Mission Presidents... Haha! I want them to become TRUE Celestial Missionaries. So, I have a big task ahead of me. I know that as we focus on baptizing, we will grow closer, as three best friends, tied between countries (and even those that live in the same country, tied between a VERY BIG DISTANCE) Ha, we`ll become baptizing machines! We`ve put quite a few baptismal dates for my last week here. I pray and beg that we will baptize. POR FAVOR!!! 

Anyway, Have a wonderful week. Mom... I can`t believe I`m going to see your face in 3 weeks. I can`t believe it. 

I love you all, have a wonderful week... I will see you all very soon! 

E. Cuthbert 

February 11, 2013

Alright, HELLO!!!!!! I love you all!!! You`re all the best!

With the end being so close... It`s getting harder and harder to focus and stay concentrated. Sometimes, thoughts about what I`m going to do come barging into my mind. What will I do the first week that I return? Where will I go? When will I find work? In WHAT will I work? When will I go to school? Bla bla bla bla bla!!! I said to myself.. "ENOUGH!!! Elder Cuthbert, you do NOT need to worry about any of that. Get your head in the game, and worry about ONE thing. Missionary Work. Worry about one goal. Inviting ALL to come unto Christ. Don`t worry about ANYTHING else. Throw it all in the box, throw it in the suitcase - or better yet - throw it in a box and mail it home. I worry about what the Lord wants me to do now. Afterwards, He will worry about me, and help me so that everything goes to plan so that I can fulfill my Divine Nature. As I put my faith in Him, He will put everything into its proper place when I return home, so that when that moment comes, I can pull out everything from the box, throw away some things here, begin again with some things there... Basically, review my life from before, and decide what it is that I no more desire, and what it is that will help me grow and progress. I do NOT need those things now." And so that`s what I did. Whenever a thought comes into my head about movies, Apple iPhones, running sprints or hurdles, school, money, work... Anything like that - I shove it into the box, not to be opened until my feet hit the ground in Salt Lake City. It`s pretty tough. Ha. 

I am enjoying my time, thoroughly in this wonderful little city. To be honest, when I got here, there wasn`t a lot going on. The Elder that was here with E. Lozada for 4 weeks had his thoughts on a girl, and not on the Work. So we`ve been letting go some people who don`t want to progress, and we are in the hard process of finding new people. Remember how it was in Esquel when I was put into a Whitewas with E. Sharp? Same basic thing has happened. E. Lozada was NEW in the mission, and had only 4 weeks here in Allen, of which much of that time wasn`t spent doing stuff a missionary should do. I have come here, and I "tore down the tables of the merchants and sellers" as Christ did with the Temple. We are obedient, hard working and desirous for miracles, and the members can see it. We didn`t have anyone in church yesterday. We are working with an inactive family named Lagos family, who has a daughter named Augustina who isn`t baptized. She`s 10 years old. We`ve been fighting for a good 2 weeks to get them to go to church, but they haven`t been able to make it... I was pretty frustrated yesterday when we went over. When we got to the house, we asked them why they hadn`t gone. The mom said that one of the daughters had felt sick, and that for that reason, no one went. What an excuse. Especially when we had spoken previously that week that if one of the parents couldn`t go, that the other one would take Augustina. Problem was that the husband was busy working on the roof of his new house he`s building. Something we had taught to them during that week was Keeping the Sabbath day HOLY. I saw him working on that roof, and a sorrow... a HUGE sorrow came over my heart. I felt what the Savior felt and feels. People who neglect the sacrifice that He paid for their sins... I dropped the cane a little bit, but then - knowing that making them feel bad won`t really do anything in the end, began teaching about the Atonement, and that no matter what, the next Sunday, they would all be there. It was a tiring lesson. 

I feel it. Yesterday, I was very tired. I fight and fight and fight, walk and walk and walk, invite and invite and invite, help and help and help, serve and serve and serve... And so many times - Those sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, just... don`t accept it. But I know that I must go on. Today marks the countdown of one month. ONE month. A lot can happen in one month. I know that if I surrender myself completely to my Father in Heaven, He will make a missionary out of me. Pray for me, all of you. I need your prayers. This is more than a mission. This is more than one month. It is the last month of my life (For all I know) that I will carry the name of the Lord over my heart. One day, I was curious to see what I would look like in a shirt and tie, without the plaque that says:; ELDER CUTHBERT The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter Day Saints. And I looked... wrong. Empty. I threw my plaque on as quickly as I could, then, again, looked in the mirror. There I was. ELDER CUTHBERT. There was the person that I knew. The Son of God that I had grown to recognize every morning. There was a Disciple of Christ, ready to go into battle. There... was Me. 

Two years is a long time. Lucky me, I`ll be on the mission for two years and one week. HAH! 

I love you all, you are my strength. Have a wonderful week. 

E. Cuthbert

February 4, 2013

We had a pretty interesting week. Yesterday, there was a special missionary prep class at 6pm at the church. E. Lozada and I went to it to bear our testimonies. When we bore them... I felt the Spirit SO strongly. In just imagining how much time has gone by as a missionary, and knowing that it`s almost over, I was torn apart. I bore to them the most heart felt testimony that I could. I wanted them to FEEL the need to go on the mission. I wanted them to DROOL for the mission! And I think it worked. It`s amazing to think that it`s almost over. The mission has gone by so quickly, that sometimes, I feel that I`ve learned... Nothing. But then, I realize at ALL the experiences that have happened to me, the people I`ve met, the lessons I`ve taught, the things I`ve experienced, the hardships I`ve endured... And I`ve learned things that for me, are priceless.

 

We`re working on a lot of people. Having lessons that are awesome. Working out every morning. Walking a TON. And doing Missionary Work. I`m happy. And not willing to let any minute pass by without serving my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Sorry this letter is so short, I have to do a bunch of stuff today, and I`m talking to you, Mom, in an hour and a half!!!

 

Your Missionary,

E. Cuthbert

I love you all.

January 28, 2013

P.S. Just so you know. . .  I didn't intentionally send Jordan scissors, Haha!  I wrapped the pkg. in the car and somehow they ended up in the pkg.!!  Wow!   

WOOOOOOOO    HOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

We got the Standard, We got the Standard, We got the Standard, Hey Hey Hey HEY! Who got the Standard? We got the Standard! We got the Standard, Hey Hey Hey HEY!!! (To the music of "The Little Rascals"... HA!

Alright, as you can tell, I`m pretty happy. REALLY happy. SUPER DUPER Happy. We had a week that blew my MIND. I`ll tell you all about it. First of all, yes, I got my Bday package! DOUBLE CHOC. CHIP COOKIES!!!! YES!! Thank you for the card, the balloons, and the cookie mixes. Is there a reason you gave me scissors? Ha, I couldn`t find a use for them in anything that ws in the package, so I thought that maybe someone stole something... Anyway, hopefully not. 

I left Avellaneda, Zapala a little sad, but ready to go. I left a ton of incredible people there. After getting the Standard with E. Irala again, we were pretty tight together. We`ve become really good friends. And I know that I will always remember those days. Those incredible days... Anyway, I got to Allen that night, Monday and met my companion, E. Lozada. He`s from Peru! My first Peruvian! He`s new in the mission, obviously, and is really excited. He thinks a lot about home, (Just like any other new missionary that recently left home) But is full of excitement, and likes to push himself. He wants to learn English really badly, and has an accent that is NOT Argentine. Hahaha! He`s awesome! I`m going to see if I can send a picture of us with our baptism... These computers are pieces of trash. I got here on Monday night, and when we entered the apartment, I was stunned with the amount of TRASH and FILTH that there was... It was incredible. E. Lozada had a companion for 4 weeks before me, and he wasn`t a very good one. It was DIRTAY!!!! So I spent the next few mornings cleaning... Haha! The pench is spic and span - a place where the Spirit can now dwell. It`s a nice apartment. I`m going to like it here. Allen is a pretty big city. It`s not really a City city, but... It`s big. You`re right, it`s apart from General Roca, and no, I don`t go to both of them. The missionaries in my district are in Roca. Allen is the place where E. Syddall, a year ago, was cut from the neck to the cheek... Remember? Haha! Don`t get startled... The guy who cut him was found dead a while back. What goes around comes around! Anyway, before that incident, there was a pair of Sisters and Elders here, and now, we have the whole city to ourselves! I LOVE IT!!! It`s HUGE, and there`s a TON of work to do. As trainer, I will be doing everything that I did with E. Healey... Making sure that this wonderful companion of mine becomes the best missionary in the Argentina Neuquèn mission. As District Leader, I`m over a District of 8 missionaries, including myself... And guess who`s in my district??!! E. Healey!!! Hahaha! When I saw him again, it was awesome! We hugged and spoke a while about everything, it was so good to see him. Heh! That Gringo! Anyway, Yeah, that`s Allen... I can`t send a picture, because the computer doesn`t even recognize the camera.... Stupid computer place... 

I loved what you said about the Atonement... I know that NO ONE here knows what ATONEMENT means... It is something so sad. People say they believe in Christ, but it`s just a blind faith. They know NOTHING about Him or His life. They think that to follow Him they need to lead a good life, not doing anything bad to anyone, and that`s it. People don`t understand a lot about Him. And it`s true, because the Bible was translated so many times, the plain and precious truths were lost. 1 Nephi 13... 

On Tuesday, we met with the family of a recent convert. We are teaching their kids... Enzo (Jared will like that, because it`s the name of a Ferrari) who is 12.... Really likes the church, but didn`t know if he should get baptized. We told him to pray that night to see if he should get baptized on the 26th of January. We went by on Wednesday, and he said: "I prayed last night, and this morning, I woke up with a sensation of happiness, and I know that I have to get baptized." BAM!!!!! We prepared the baptism, and began working our rear ends off, here... We had the baptism on Saturday, and by the end of Sunday, we ended the week with better numbers than I`ve ever had in the entire mission. We destroyed. Destruction. And we got the Standard. It was a testimony to myself that I`m here to work, and I`m here to show the Savior the love that I have for Him, and that I don`t want this time to end. But yeah, I`m happy. Hahahaha. I know that these 6 weeks that I have left are going to be 6 weeks of pain, but I`m excited. Afterwards... I can rest. For now, to the field. 

Anyway, Not being Zone Leader gives me more time to write family... But I don`t know what else to say! Haha, so I love you all. Know that I am working my hardest. I love this Gospel, this Work, my Savior... Pray for me!!! 

The Missionary

E. Cuthbert

January 21, 2013

I AM SO HAPPY!! SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO HAPPY!!! My Birthday was the BOMB, We got the STANDARD BY MIRACLES, I´m SUPER PUMPED about my new area... I´m flying in the clouds... But I´m not going to get ahead of myself... One at a time.

 

Hello, my wonderful family! I love you all SO much. You are all so incredible, thank you for sending me Birthday emails. It´s incredible, I can´t even believe that I´m 21. How the time has flown. How grateful I am for my life, the experiences, the friends, the family, everything that has happened in my life up till now makes me SO happy. Heavenly Father is smiling down on me, here in Zapala. I know it, because I´ve seen incredible blessings this week. First thing´s first... I´m being transferred, E. Irala is staying. I´m going to Allen, General Roca. To the East of Neuquén about an hour away. It´s a wonderful place, I´ve heard. I was told that it´s ready to baptize a ton. My new companion is... a new Elder! I´m training again! I´ll be District Leader, and Trainer. It´s going to be an incredible experience. I´m so excited for my new area, and absolutely ecstatic to get working.

 

We got the Standard. I can´t even tell you guys the amount of prayer that I was doing this week. I have never prayed more earnestly in my life for something. All I wanted was to leave Zapala and E. Irala with the Standard, showing God, President Lovell, and myself, that I´m not going to fizzle out in the end. That I will push myself till the last second. And that´s what we did. By miracles, we got the standard. Yesterday, we ran from house to house, teaching and talking to people... We had 5 Investigators in church, Miracle. 4 lessons with member, Miracle. Spoke with 34 people in the street in about an hour and a half, which doesn´t happen often here, because there´s never a lot of movement in the roads... And we baptized Vanesa and Genaro! Oriana didn´t get baptized, because she needs the permission of her father. But, we are SO happy about the baptisms of Genaro and Vanesa. Genaro got baptized Sunday morning at 8 o clock, before church. Vanesa on Saturday evening. I can´t even write what I want to, the joy that´s filling my heart is indescribable. I know that I left everything on the table here in Zapala. I know that I can hold my head high, knowing that miracles happened, and that I did everything within my abilities to make this area better than when I found it. I´m so grateful for everything.

 

Everyone at church wished me a happy birthday. I had cake with Familia Sanhueza - The wife also had her birthday yesterday, so we shared birthday cake and had a wonderful visit. Then, we were working like never before, trying to achieve all the goals we needed to get the Standard. Finally, the Venegas family invited us over to eat a few pizzas at 8:30... I was suspecting a surprise.... And what do you know!!! They had a huge surprise party there, waiting for me. The Elders and Sisters from the other wards were there as well. Vanesa and her family were there. a HUGE party with a ton of pizza, alfajors, desserts everywhere... And a giant cake for me!!! I went in to bite a piece off the corner, and E. Cooper from a different ward, pushed my face into the cake!!! We all laughed about it, and then we had a wonderful time, eating a ton of food. Then, we all had, basically, a testimony meeting. We said a ton of goodbyes... We all cried. I love the Venegas family so much. I love Vanesa so much. She was a pure miracle baptism. She is incredible. She wanted me to baptize her, so, on Saturday, I baptized her. I can tell you guys, that I have never felt happier. I know that these last 7 weeks will be the best ever. I´m so ready to run till I drop.

 

Anyways... That´s everything. Seven weeks. Seven weeks of heavenly bliss, and then... Home.  Anyway, I have to go now. I have to get to the pench, finish packing and leave on the bus! I love you all so much, thank you for the birthday wishes... You are all wonderful. You´re the best.

 

Your Missionary,

E. Cuthbert