April 30, 2012

Man! I`ve been waiting to talk to you guys! So many things have happened, I don`t know where to begin!. So yes, I was bitten by a dog. I pass by it every time we go to that neighborhood, and I always throw a good rock at it with a note that says: JerkFace! Ha, naw... But really... What a stupid animal, that dumb dog. You cursed me it sounds like!! How rude! 

So on Tuesday we did what is called a Whitewash in our area. We had 8 missionaries in our area, and we all knocked ALL day. At the end of the day, at night around 6:45 it began to hail on us... We were in white shirts, with a few in sweaters.. But no one in a jacket! Haha! It was SOOO cold and windy! The hail hurt so badly! But from that Whitewash, we found a ton of investigators!!! 22! A little better than the 0 from two weeks before and the 5 from last week! I was relieved to finally see a good number. Anyway, we`ve found some pretty awesome people. There`s a guy named Nelson and his family that gave us homemade pizza, the day we contacted them! They invited us in and threw down two pizzas in front of us! We spoke about the Restoration, the mission and our lives. I bragged about you guys, of course, and yeah! It was awesome! There`s also another guy named Javier who is about 25, he`s super rich because he works in the oil down here. Oil takes up about 80% of all jobs in Comodoro. So he`s rich, single, and he likes us and our message! Awesome! We`re finally beginning to see more success. We found a girl named Vanina who knew the missionaries when she was about 8, she`s now 20 and has many questions about the purpose of life, if there is an eternal life, stuff like that. It makes me so excited!!! :) 

So this next Saturday, we`re MOVING!!! WOOOT!!!!! The pench we`re in is litrally, terrible. I`ve had a bucket shower every day for a month, the toilet is clogged and will not get unclogged, there must be a problem in the pipes or something... No sè. But anyway, we`re moving to the house of a member family who are now moving out, so it works perfectly! It will be much bigger, the shower WORKS and we`ll be a lot closer to everything. E. Wagstaff is bouncing off the walls happy about it. The sooner we get out, the better. Haha. 

I`m warm, don`t worry. The thermal garments are  coming into use Heh!! Thank you for all that you do. You need to tell me what schedule you guys have for church so I know when to call you guys. I`ll tell you guys the hour I`ll call next week. Hard to think that the time has flown by so fast... Kind of scary when you think about it. I`m really working for more success here in Comodoro. When I came down here, I promised myself it would be my best area. I was reminded of the Lion painting I have in my room that says ^"The Righteous are Bold as a Lioin" - Prov. 28:1. Good scripture. As long as we are brave, we can complete our goals. I know that. 

Make sure you guys write down any specific questions you want to ask me, so you down`t forget! :) I`m now going to go play some basketball!!! Whoo!!! 

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 

February 20, 2012

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! That made me smile and laugh SO HARD when you told me about Maggie eating the dead fawn!!! Haha! That`s normal here... Dogs eat whatever they can find. People eat a ton of grilled meats and chicken, so when they`re done with the bones, they throw them out to the dogs. Not to mention all the dead animals that they find, and begin to chow down on. The other day we were at an investigators house, and there was a dead cat outside that her puppies were eating. They had ripped the spine clean off the cats body and were having a blast while doing it! Haha. But yeah, it is nasty. I hope Maggie wasn`t licking Jared or Simon lately... Ha. 

Right after I`m done writing you, we`ll be going to the terminal to see if any packages got here. I really hope the birthday one gets here today... It`s been an awfully long time. The camera, I`m sure will be here next week. It`s only been two weeks since you sent it. Hopefully, I`ve been praying that it gets to me. Heavenly Father answers prayers, so I know that it will come. Thank you so much for helpìng me out, Mom. I`ve missed out on the pictures of three baptisms because my camera broke, and we`re going to have a lot more coming up here. :) 

E. Agazzani and I had a HUGE fight on Thursday morning. That morning is dedicated to the 3 hour weekly planning... And we spent all 3 hours... Fighting. It was Bad. Bad, Bad, BAD. I couldn`t believe it when I finally looked at the clock and it said 1:00pm. We had been fighting since 10:00. BAD. It was a huge fight about lack of communication and imperfections in the both of us. One of would throw out a criticism, then the other would throw one right back. It was BAD. The majority of the argument was about... Well, I can`t really tell you. It was about everything under the sun. In the end, we were able to cool down and come back and talk it out and come to an agreement. We said, "At least in 4 days I`ll be leaving San Martìn,"... We made up and continued working. We`re fine, now. Oh yeah, I guess that means that with Transfers... I`m not leaving!!! Ha. I will probably be here for another 3 months. I`ll complete a year in the mission in a little bit, and when May comes, it will be exactly a year in the Andes mountains... Something other missionaries only DREAM of having the opportunity to do. I`ve been lucky. :) We`re excited, we`ve got a lot of potential for these 6 weeks in the Work of the Lord. We`re going to baptize many. 

So, Fabiana.... SHE DID IT!!!!! WOOT!!! Miracles, Miracles, Miracles! The last Sunday she had come to church like I said, she liked it, and everything was good. Then, halfway through this week, her work schedule changed... And she had to work every day in the afternoon... This meant she couldn`t have her baptism at 6 on Saturday like we had planned... NO! We were frustrated, thinking of every back up plan we could do. Not only that, she was a little shaky on her testimony of Joseph Smith, she had many doubts about him being a prophet of God. We taught her, and testified with all our hearts, and int he end... Asked her to pray to her Heavenly Father and ask Him. Trying to figure everything out for the baptism, she finally came up with the thought that she could trade her hours for Saturday with someone else and work a different day when she had the day off. This was Friday when she came up with the idea. This was a day before the stinking baptism. We were biting our finger nails, Afùl!!! That morning, Saturday, we called her, waked her up from sleeping because she had left work at 2 in the morning and she said... "Yes, she changed with me, I can get baptized today." We then asked her... "Alright, who would you like to baptize you?" She said "Both of you". We laughed, told her we couldn`t do that. Then she said "E. Cuthbert". I felt very humbled. We had been trying to get her to want a member to baptize her, but in the end she wanted one of us. We got to the church when she was already in her interview with E. Campos who would tell her if she could be baptized or not. This would tell us if she had prayed to HF about Joseph Smith. She came out of the interview smiling, having cried a lot in the interview,E.Campos said" She`s good! " WWOOOT!!! She had told him ... I Believe. I believe. " That`s faith. So we had the baptism! The entire time before the baptism, she was on the balls of her feet, bouncing around because of the nerves. She kept (jokingly) acting like she wanted to escape through the windows of the church. But in the end, it was a solid, clean dunk in the font and she was baptized. Wonderful experience. We were so happy. 

Sunday was the real miracle, though. We got to church and waited for Sacrament meeting, when it came... She wasn`t there to be confirmed. Oh no!!! She`s not a member until she`s confirmed! The meeting started and I was flipping out. What`s happened, what`s happened?? The other Elders had three baptisms along with our one and we began confirming their baptisms. During the second confirmation, I said a prayer to HF and asked him... "HF, when I open up my eyes and look at the back of the audience, I beg you... Let Fabiana be there." We finished the confirmation and I opened my eyes. My comp whispered in my ear., "FABIANA!" I whipped around and a HUGE grin was plastered on my face. She had just walked in as Branch President got to the pulpit and announced that it was her turn to be confirmed. When she saw my grin, she spilled out in a smile, too. She got up and said, "I made it!" We were SO happy. And I will never forget that little prayer I made to my Father in Heaven. She was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. A religion. She told us that religion was false and of the devil when we found her. And I, Elder Cuthbert, Believe in Miracles. 

I love you all. I`ve got a good 3 months in San Martìn to go. We`re going to baptize a lot, help many people and work HARD. I love you all. Thank you for the prayers,. Thanks to you, I have had the success that I`ve had. Pray for Lautaro, the son of Fabiana. He`s 10 yrs. old and he`s next on the list for a baptism. 

E. Cuthbert 

Melyn, I hope everything is going well! What happened to that promise about writing me? ;)