February 6, 2012

We went to a place today called Via Christi. It`s a Sculpture Park on the mountain in Junìn de los Andes of the entire life of Jesus Christ.. Through sculptures. It was incredible. And I had no camera to take pictures of it! I hope I stay here one more transfer, it would be awesome to go back with my camera... 

So the baptisms.. WERE AWESOME!!! Those two, SWEET GIRLS!! Their mom is less active, hasn`t been inside the church since she was fifteen. But she wanted her two children to know what baptism was, and if they had the desire to be baptized, that they would be baptized as well. Their father is a non member. He also has desires, but was never home when we taught them, which made it more difficult to teach him. But he has interest as well. On Friday we had the baptismal interviews, Zahida (11 years old) She gets very, VERY nervous in front of people she doesn`t know, and during the interview, E. Campos asked her what a prophet was. She began to tremble because she couldn`t remember, she THREW her face into her hands and started yelling, I don`t know, I don`t know!!!! Hahaha, E. Campos calmed her down, and helped her out. Turns out she DID know, she just didn`t remember. But they both passed the intervews. On Saturday morning, we went by their house in the morning to give them the baptismal clothing. We asked them who they wanted to baptize them. They both shouted: "Vos!!" Or "You!" I felt very humbled. That night in the baptism, everything went perfectly. The baptisms went through well, Daniza (9 years old) bent her knees too much and hit the bottom of the font with her butt, haha!!! But it was awesome, I loved it. I love baptisms. With those two girls, they almost didn`t need to be baptized.. . So pure. Children are SO pure. It makes me think of 3 Nephi 9:22 that says we should become as little children. 

Fabiana is a miracle. I couldn`t tell you guys of the miracle that happened last week with her. We gave her a chapter to read in the BoM, she read it, but then the idea came into her head... What else does this book say? She began filing through some pages and stopped on a page and read two verses. We came by later that day to talk to her. She then had the question "Why the Book of Mormon?" What`s its purpose? I leafed through some pages of the book of Mormon, stopped ona page... And had her read two verses. She stopped halfway through, and said: "I`ve already read this." Turns out that it was the exact scripture that she had read earlier when we weren`t there. Don`t ask me how I knew I had to go to that scripture, but the Spirit works in mysterious ways, and she took that as an answer to her prayers, amongst other things that have happened. Fabiana in the beginning told us that Religion is BAD. It is meant to DESTROY. Churches do nothing but rip apart families. But she has realized over the past 3 weeks that that is not so. She had the plan to come to church last week, but in the end didn`t come because her little 1 and a half year old daughter didn`t have diapers. But she came this week!!! She liked it, too! We have her baptismal date for the 12th, on Sunday after Sacrament meeting. If everything goes well, you should see the pictures on Monday. If not the 12th, the 18th for sure!!! Miracles, Miracles, Miracles!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THE MISSION!!! Well, I have to go. The time is short! 

I love you guys. 

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 7, 2011

This week was VERY good here in San Martin. I love this place, and never stop to appreciate its beauty. This last week, we baptized Roberto and Matius Gori, Father and Son. It was such a special experience. I loved it!!! It marked 3 weeks since Matius had met us. I have been so blessed... I don´t understand why my Heavenly Father lets me have all of this success. I could be so much better. My potential is so much more... But more on that later. This week has been very interesting. Every morning is a P90X workout, so I´m always up and sweating, ready to go. Haha. Studying has been very good, too. I decided to read the BoM for the 3rd time so far on the mission, but in Spanish this time. I had tried right when I got to Esquel, but my comprehension was so little that I decided to wait till I understood more. I now understand everything, and it´s incredible!! I need to read the BoM so much more... The lessons, verses, POWER that are in its pages is incredible. I know that book comes from God. On Thursday we traveled on a 4 hour bus ride to Zapala for Zone Conference. The movie Battle: Los Angeles was playing. Our president lets us watch movies on bus trips because it would be impossible to watch us all on bus trips... So we all had a fun time watching it. But I have to admit, I felt guilty inside for watching a movie. Zone Conference was incredible. We spoke mainly on Repentance, and the wonderful gift it is. Focusing mostly on the talk D. Todd Christofferson gave during Gen. Conf., we learned a lot on how to best help our investigators repent. On the return journey Friday night, we watched a different movie, and at the end of the trip, I was sick of it. I said a prayer during Sacrament meeting, repented of watching the movies, and covenanted with my Lord and Savior that I will not watch another movie, no matter the movie, for the rest of my mission. This is not a mission rule, this is MY rule. In the MTC I learned a lot about Sacrifice from my teacher Hmo. Maxwell. Heavenly Father will bless us even more when we sacrifice even more. This is what I want. I have thought of some other things that I can take out of my missionary life that prohibit me from becoming the best I can be. During Zone Conference, E. Smoot and I were talking about it and he said, This is you... (pointing at the bottom of the floor) And this is what you, me, every missionary can be...(Pointed to the ceiling) He wasn´t saying I was dirt, or anything, But a good example of the amount of potential we have as Sons and Daughters of God is incredible... Also a little scary. Am I ready to take on the responsibility and be a real Soldier of my Heavenly Father? I´ve done well so far, but do I have what it takes to take it farther? Go all the way? Become a Dedicated, Sanctified, Consecrated servant of God? Good question... I hope so. I start now. I have been very successful as a missionary so far, but I have also lacked in many, many ways. I need to repent, I need to change. I want to be a scriptorian when I get back. I want to know that Book of Mormon backwards. So many things I want as a missionary... So little time to do them.

Anyway, we had the baptism, and it was AWESOME!!! Roberto was baptized first by E. Calvache. You´ll see in the pictures next week how big Roberto is compared to E. Calvache, he had to baptize him 4 times to get it right!!! I had to come in on the fourth and push Roberto down into the water with Calvache, HA!! Then I baptized Matius, my 15 yr. old STUD!!! I´m getting that boy on his mission!!! Roberto has a girlfriend in the branch, I´m going to get them married in the temple! (If it´s what they want)

I thought you might want to know that while you were sailing on a cruise ship... I too, was sailing on a boat!!! Ha, this Pday, we got permission from Pres. Peterson to get on a ferry on Lake Lacros and go to Quila Quina... The MOST GORGEOUS PLACE ON EARTH!!! I´ll have pictures next week, but MAN! It was incredible... The lake is beautiful, and the views from the beach were incredible. I was sent to paradise. It makes it even better to be able to preach the gospel here.

Well, I have to go. Got some work to do!!! I love you, Mom! Have a great week, and I will talk to you all next week! Oh, THANK YOU AUBREY, GMA, KATHERINE and MELYN for writing me!! It´s been awhile without a letter, Haha! Aubs, he has a Yamaha R6??!! That´s what I wanted!!

I have a testimony that this is the true church. I know it. The Book of Mormon is true, SO TRUE.

E. Cuthbert

October 3, 2011

Well hello my wonderful family!! :) Man, today has been a good day! And SOOO much has happened!! 

First of all... WE HAD A BAPTISM!!! HAHAHA!!! I bet you weren`t expecting that one! Ha, I feel really bad for leaving it out of my emails, I completely forgot! We had been teaching a 19 yr. old kid named Alfredo for about 3 weeks, and he entered the waters of baptism between Conference sessions on Saturday!! We were so happy!! I got pictures of his face all soaking wet, but there was a huge smile on his face, and we all knew that he felt the Spirit. It was an incredible experience. It is going to help his family a lot, because his mom is 6 years in-active, and seeing her boy get baptized, she began crying, saying to the members that she was so happy for what we had done for him because it´s given him more purpose in life! Great, great day. Oh... And about the pictures... Something´s wrong with my SD card in my camera that has about 4 months of pictures on it, and I´m a little worried that they´ve all been deleted... I´m praying I can save them! So forgive me for not having the pictures of the baptism, or our wonderful Pday adventures... :( 

The Colque family... I LOVE THEM!!!! What happened with the Sister Missionaries??! They´re so ready! Cecilia is always so excited, and if ever we leave the house without giving her and the family homework, something to read, stuff like that... She teasingly scolds us! Hahaha, we have some incredible blessings here in Argentina, Esquel! On Wednesday, we went to their house that night and Franco, the husband who has always stayed away from us, made us and the family Empanadas from Salta, Arg. (Way up north). They were the most INCREDIBLE things I´d ever eaten!!!! While he was making them, we threw on the Restoration movie, and he almost forgot about the empanadas, he was so focused on watching the Joseph Smith story! I have a picture of him trying to roll out dough while his eyes are plastered to the screen. We had an incredible time with them. On Friday, we invited them to a dance that the two branches were putting on... They came, and had a blast with all the members! We are inviting Cecilia, and the rest of the family to be baptized this next Saturday tonight. I pray that they will have the courage to do what they know they feel is right. It is especially hard for Franco, because his entire family is Catholic, and they would reject him. I´m hoping for one of the miracle stories that happens when missionaries have A LOT of faith that their investigators can receive their answer, and take a leap of faith... Because it would be super hard to be rejected by your entire family!! But, I am so grateful for that family, and I know they will be baptized. 

General Conference was such a spiritual FEAST!!!! I loved it! My favorite talks were by Pres. Uchtdorf about knowing that we ALWAYS have our Dear Heavenly Father with us... That he NEVER abandons us, and even in our darkest hours, He will always be there to be our Light. I have such a testimony of His presence in my life. I know that He loves me, and that He watches over and cares for every one of us. He is our loving Heavenly Father... Our FATHER. My other favorite talk was in the Sunday morning session by Elder Callister about the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I have become the biggest fan of the Book of Mormon in my mission, I know it´s from God, and I know that no one could have made it up. The Book of Mormon has a Spirit about it. It´s words touch the soul in the way a normal man talking could never do. I HAVE A TESTIMONY IN THAT BOOK. I KNOW it´s true. I challenge every one that is reading this email, to try the promise written in Moroni 10:4-5. It is true. Joseph Smith did not write it. He translated it from divine power from Heaven. I encourage all to read that book, meditate and PONDER the message, and pray to Heavenly Father to know if it is true. I know that He answers. Always. 100%. Wow... Look at Jordy... He´s turned into a missionary... ;) HAHA! The mission really changes people. I know it´s going to be the best thing for my entire life. I´m learning things that are invaluable. Jared... Don´t do ANYTHING that will prohibit you from going. As your big brother, I EXHORT you... Be a good boy. I love you, and care for you as the little brother that you are to me. You are my only brother, and I want the best for you. It is through the scriptures, church and a mission. Plan on a mission. You will never regret it. Yes, it´s brutally hard. But through the Refiner´s Fire... We come out as Gold. I´m not saying I´m gold, I never will be... But I do know that Heavenly Father has the power to shape us into the people that He wants us to become. The Sons of God. Through the tribulations... We become stronger. It´s like a muscle. If you want it to grow and become stronger, you need to work it out, and tear it up. Through this process, it repairs itself, and comes back even stronger than before. I love you, Bud. You are such a driving force for me in my mission. Keep up the good work. 

E. Rojas left very urgently for a medical emergency. We as a district have been together, the 5 of us, since Saturday. We have had a ton of fun, including going to Los Alerces, a national park with a lake, and gorgeous views!!! We went there today, it was such a blast. I have a few pictures from it... 

Well, I love you all! The work is INCREDIBLE!!! I LOVE being a missionary!! WOOHOO!! Bring it on! It´s incredible that I´m already past the 6 month mark. The last month has gone by SO FAST!!! I want you all to know that I´m happy, healthy... And I´ve got an incredibly terrible farmers tan on my neck and arms from my white shirts... Oh well... ;) It´s getting hotter every day, but we´re only in Spring! We´ve long since left the suit coats at the apt, and go in just white shirts and ties. Esquel is as gorgeous as ever... And we might go paintballing for Pday next week... ;) ;) ;) 

AMOR PARA TODOS!!!

E. Cuthbert 

April 1, 2011

I'm ready to leave!!! Ha!

Today marks the halfway point in my time here at the MTC. It's gone by so fast, but at the same time, I am SO ready to be out of here and into Argentina. This week has been so busy, Santa Vaca! (Holy cow!) I guess I'll begine w/ Saturday I think it was? No se...

Anyways, we were eating breakfast that morning when H. Thompson, one of the Hermanas in our District asked me for a blessing. I asked what was wrong and what I could do to prepare myself as best I could. She's been having some health issues, and the doctors have absolutely no idea what's wrong w/ her... She asked for a blessing of comfort. So for the next hour and a half, I buried my nose in the scriptures.. Looking up any and every example of how to receive the Holy Ghost in fulness to give someone a true blessing. I was worried, because I usually think too much about what I'm going to say, and the words never flow. So for the next hour and a half, I studied how we receive the Holy Ghost, through prayer, meditating, asking, things like that. It was such a good study time. When the time came to give her the blessing... It came. :) During the blessing, I was saying to myself: "What the heck?? What's going on? How did I know to say that?" I can testify that I know that through the scriptures, we can receive any answer we have. That's something I've learned here. I never liked reading the scriptures at home... Don't know why, just didn't. But here... I've learned to love them, because they truly are the fulness of the Doctrine of Christ. They contain the things we need to do to be happy. If we have questions, go to the scriptures, it will be there. It was an incredible blessing.. I was so thankful for the opportunity to give that to her. Also, that same day was the first day where Elder W. and I focused COMPLETELY on studying, and learning, and being completely productive. We didn't have a minute to spare that day! It went by so quickly.. I know that when our days are busy, and we plan effectively for every minute of the day, we become more productive, and are blessed more because of it. I learned and grew so much that day.

That night, Elder C. - our Zone Leader - asked me if my faith has ever been shaken... I told him of course, but why does he ask? He went on to say how he loves being here, how he loves to teach and learn about the gospel, but knowing 100% that everything is true is difficult. He said he's probably 99% sure of everything, but that 1% has been bugging him. We spoke in the hallway of our dorms for about 33 minutes. It was a deep conversation. I told him that if he feels good about being here, then he has nothing to worry about. Those who aren't worthy, or don't have a true intent to be a missionary, won't be as happy as he is. The Lord loves each and every one of us, and I know that to be true. He also was worried about not being forgiven about all of his sins. This is when I looked him in the eye and said: "The Lord wouldn't let you, in good conscionce (?) be here if you weren't worthy. The Holy Ghost would not be in your life, and in a place like the MTC where the Holy Ghost and Spirit of God is everywhere... You would feel like crap." I won't go into to much detail of the things we talked about, but it sufficeth to say that I began to have many questions as well about my faith, and if I truly am dedicated to this Gospel. That started a long scripture chase, one that is still going on today. But everything I'm doing here is good, and that's all that matters. I'm happy, and that's all that matters. How could it not be true? The BoM is way too complex to have been designed and written by one man. It would be impossible for him to do anything in that level of detail.

Sunday was good. Fast Sundays are always hard here, because it's a lot of study time, and no eating time! For me, that's definitely been a struggle. I love Sundays here, the Spirit is always so strong. Does it sound strange that I talk in this way now? It's amazing at how just one month in the MTC can change so many things... I'm surrounded by the Gospel, 24/7. The only conversations I have is on Gospel topics, or things that in some way, relate to us as missionaries. It's incredible... Weird to think about, but incredible.

Kass is home now, isn't he? How's he doing? Is he adjusting to life alright? I bet he is... Ha.

The Hermanas in our district started to snap at us a couple of days ago. It was hilarious because all the things were so trivial and insignificant. Women and their sensitive feelings... ;) Hahaha, just kidding. No but seriously, it was very strange at all the things they were complaining about. Very frustrating as a D.L. to handle that kind of thing, because I have no direct authority over the Hermanas in the District. Anyways...

I'm a steady 190 lbs. right now. crazy, huh? Don't know if I'm growing, gaining muscle or what, because I can't see where it's goin'! Whateva!

Tuesday was my first hard day.. It was just... difficult. I don't know what happened, but I snapped at everyone, my pride was out the roof, and my attitude was terrible. I spoke with one of the Elders who has been DL before, and he told me a lot of good things. I decided I need to become better at serving people. And my attitude needed to change. Everything here depends on your attitude. What is it Pres. Hinckley said?... "Happiness and Misery. It all depends on your disposition in all circumstances.. somethin' like that." Ha. Anyways, I know that's true... And BP! Christian A. Springer. When you get here into the MTC, have a good attitude EVERY DAY. No matter what the circumstances, be HAPPY. It will go such a long way.

I was released as DL last night... It was sad, because I care deeply for this District. But Elder G. is going to make a great DL. The food at the temple was amazing, as always. :) Those waffles... Ah.

How is everything at home? Haven't received any letters from anyone lately, except for wonderful Aub & Fam! Love you guys! I love everyone else too, of course, never forget that! Ha, I don't care if you don't have much to say to me... Send me something. I want to talk to everyone, it's such a happy moment to open that mailbox and get some mail. Well, time's almost up. Oh! I have been forbidden to speak en Ingles from now on at the MTC. We'll see how it goes. It's incrediblly difficult, because it takes SO much energy to just THINK OF THE FLIPPIN' VERB AND CONJUGATIONS!!! Ha, anyway, I don't speak English anymore. English? What's English? Ha, anyways... I love you all. Never forget that. You all mean a lot to me, I pray for you all every day. I have so much fun here, you have no idea. BUT I AM READY TO LEAVE THE MTC!!! i'm using this time wisely to study and prepare though... Ok time's up.

LOVE,

E. Cuthbert