Hey there Familia!!
Wow another week has already passed. :) How's it going?!! I loved getting all of your letters and treats. Thanks so much!!! We had an awesome week here and I have so much to share. :)
First to answer some questions, Alex, my favorite food so far was the guacamole burger with curly fries, which I washed down with my regular glass of chocolate milk. My companion is great and we are getting along just fine. My roommates are awesome too and luckily so is all of my district. My favorite parts of the day, well, is personal study time which we get a lot of everyday. Though I really love movie night on Sundays! The last three Sundays we've watched, Legacy, The Joseph Smith Movie, and last night was The Testaments. It's just a cool awesome spiritual experience!! Yes, I've seen Matt Haskell and I've taken a picture with him and I'm going today to pick up my pictures that I ordered a while ago so you should be getting some pictures from me within the week. :) And yes, I play basketball a lot--everyday almost--but I also love playing 4 square!! Oh and guess what?! On Saturday while playing basketball I was able to dunk it in a game, twice!! haha maybe it's because I've gained 10 pounds since I've gotten here. :) Don't worry though, I'm doing push-ups and sit-ups every night to counter all my eating. :)
Alright Mom, church starts at 1:45 for us and goes till 2:45. I played the piano again yesterday and without incident. Luckily I have not had to speak in church yet, but yes, everyone in the whole zone needs to prepare a talk each week just in case. It's been easy so far because I've been able to copy out of Preach My Gospel, until I know more Spanish then I'll write my own. :) Way to go Tanner and Alex for making the basketball teams this year!! I was surprised how early in the day the games were this year for Lehi. How did they do? How did Tanner play? And good luck to you, Alex, this week against Timpview.
Now from my last week:
Monday, I went and did initiatories at the Provo Temple, then wrote letters back to people that wrote to me and then did my laundry, which is a new experience. :) (meaning in a laundromat environment)
Tuesday was an awesome day!! I actually played some volleyball that morning, then the best part of all was we had an apostle come speak to us for our Tuesday night devotional!! Elder D. Todd Christofferson came and spoke to us about his mission in Argentina and some experiences that helped him as a missionary!! It was totally awesome because I was just sitting 10 yards or so away from the pulpit so we were really close! He mentioned how he had just gone to speak in Argentina, and then I remembered reading about how Elder Biggs said that he was excited for Elder Christofferson to come speak in their mission. So that was really cool!! Then afterwards we went as a District and discussed it and again really felt the spirit!!
Wednesday: This was a normal day for us. Started with personal study time. I'm starting to read Jesus the Christ and I'm loving it and already 200 pages in! I just love learning about our Savior's life and all the cool little neat things that we don't see while reading the scriptures. Then we had TALL time and I worked on grammar principles. Then we had gym time which is always fun now because I can relieve some stress. Then we had 6 hours of class with a 30 minute dinner break in the middle. We taught two investigators that night, Guadalupe and Juan Jose. This was our second time teaching Guadalupe and for both times we only had 10 minutes to teach them. So we are practicing how to begin teaching right now. :) This week we are starting TRC (Teacher Resource Center) where we get to teach a volunteer a first lesson all in Spanish again. :)
Thursday, Thanksgiving :) Well that day was a way different experience. I honestly missed home a lot and doing the normal day routine but it turned out to be good in the end. :) We started off the morning with a bang! Elder Russell M. Nelson came and spoke to us!! We had a morning devotional and the rumor was that it was going to be an apostle from the head of the missionary department, which is either Elder Nelson or Elder Holland. So again, we were sitting 7 rows back just right of the pulpit and it was a really neat experience!! He talked about how he was grateful for lots of things but especially how when he was a new apostle President Benson assigned him and another Seventy to be in charge of growing the Church in Europe especially advancing the Church in the communist countries, including trying to get into Russia. It was miraculous how the Lord prepared a way for His will to be accomplished. :) Eventually the Church was recognized in Russia. Then that day we did a service project for the Humanitarian division of the Church. We made in total 8000 injury kits for people in Sudan and that surrounding area! My job on my table was to put 2 band aids into a plastic bag that was being passed down the table. Just our table made 160 and we did this in about 30 minutes. :) Then that night we had kettle corn popcorn as we watched 17 Miracles, which was awesome with a bunch of missionaries.
Friday: There was no black Friday for us, the bookstore wasn't even open. haha We had 6:35am gym time, which usually means that I play 4 square cause it's too early in the morning for me. :) Then it was just a normal day after that where we ended again with teaching investigators at night--which are going really well. :) Now that Thanksgiving is over they turned on the Christmas lights in the main open foyer and I've taken pictures and will get you some of those asap.
Saturday, was our day of service which we basically cleaned bathrooms in building 11M starting at 6:30am until we were done. :) Then we had class again for 6 hours at night with the 30 minute dinner break. Wednesday and Friday nights are the hardest but it's all good because me and Elder DeFriez taught a really good first lesson to our teacher, Juan.
Sunday: day of the big surprise! So yesterday we had interviews with the branch presidency like scheduled. And I got a big surprise when I was asked to be Zone Leader along with Elder DeFriez!! This came as a blessing and as a humbling calling. haha So yeah, now I'm Zone Leader. It's nothing big in the MTC, but just thought you should know. We were announced in Sacrament meeting and then right afterwards we got some overall training. We were trained with another 40 or so new ZL's, which I guess isn't surprising, seeing that there are 57 zones in the MTC. :) Our basic responsibility is to watch over the new missionaries that come in and then prepare sacrament meeting every week. :)
So that is that and I hope everyone has a great week this next week!! Please let me know how everything is going!! I just know that what I'm doing is the right thing!! Thanks for all of your support and I love you!! The Church is true and my message is true and this work is the work of God and Jesus Christ.
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
Oh and Go BYU!!!
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Pictures from the first week in the MTC
Elder Pittard with companion Elder Defriez
Pretty Fall colors at the MTC
my desk
I'm ironing every night
Buenos Aires here I come!
My district (sorry that it's blurry)
Heading to do a session Monday morning, loved the lighting.
one of my favorites
The sky so blue and the day so perfect, oh and I love the shadow.
One of our teachers served in Argentina Salta and she donated this to our classroom. We're all going to sign it at the end of our stay at the MTC.
The Elders from Lehi are taking over the 3rd floor
Hey there Family!!
I decided to use my time wisely and so I'm fitting in the email right now on my busy p-day. :) (It came at 8:15am)
Good Morning!! How's everything going up in Lehi? What are Tanner and Alex's schedule for basketball this year, who are they playing first on Wednesday? How did BYU do against Idaho? Any other news you think I need to know? Ha ha So many questions.
Now to the real stuff. I'm doing great! A lot has happened since last Monday. We taught our progressing investigator, Esteban, totally in Spanish too, though we used lots of notes, but the spirit was still there and we had our first experience of having our investigator commit to baptism after the 5th lesson. Esteban, then became Hermano Wade and started teaching us, so that was cool. We just got two new investigators, Juan and Alexandra, both teachers. So now we are preparing to teach Juan tonight. I have a stack of 250 flash cards and growing. I've almost memorized most of it and feel really confident in just speaking in Spanish without notes. It's amazing to think that I'll almost be fluent when I leave in 9 weeks!
Alright, to answer your questions...Yes, we had a devotional last Tuesday by Elder Tad R. Callister of the Presidency of the Seventy. He talked about 10 points of why the Apostasy really happened and it was an amazing talk that filled the room with the spirit. I'll see if I can copy those points and send them to you in a letter. We then went back as a district, all 10 of us, in our classroom and discussed the talk for an hour. We really had the spirit with us as we all bore testimony of the truthfulness of what we had just heard.
Wednesday, all the new people were coming in. We got a chance to play soccer on the field just west of the temple, closest to the street. That was fun because it seems like that is going to be the last nice day we have here at the MTC. haha Guess what, Matt is basically in the room across from me on our floor!! Elder Haskell is room 301, the first room to the left after coming up the stairs and I'm 343, the first room on the right. So all of us from Lehi, Elders Walker, Scott, Haskell and Me were all on the same floor and basically right next to each other--the other Elders were 303 and 307 :). Elder Walker left this morning to Dallas, Texas so it was fun to see him again and to see how much he has changed. Elder Scott, I found out, is going to Mexico City and he's either on his 3rd or 4th week.
We haven't had any official teaching on the culture of Argentina, but all we have heard so far is how nice of a place it is and I've only heard really good things about my mission.
Elder Defriez is from North Ogden and he graduated from Weber High this past year. He played football last year and at one point led the state in receptions. He was called to be our District Leader but I was called to be the Senior Companion. :) haha He's probably 6'2" and is a bigger guy than me. I've gained 6 pounds so far but I'm doing push-ups and crunches every night though, so I don't think that it'll be too bad.
7 out of 10 in my district are going to ARG BAN (Argentina Buenos Aires North) while 3 of them are going to ARG Neuquen, which is the mission that covers the wastelands of Argentina south of Buenos Aires. I sleep on the top bunk, which makes it hard to make every day but I'm doing good at that and I really miss my own bed. haha Actually it isn't that bad and it's getting better every night. :) My desk is the opposite side of the room away from the door, right next to our window.
Church is great here! Every week we have to prepare a 3-5 minute talk in Spanish just in case we get called up to speak. Yesterday I was asked to play the piano for both priesthood and sacrament meeting. Haha Funny story...the zone leaders told me Thursday morning that I would be playing, and they handed me a list of songs, course they were all the spanish hymns and their corresponding numbers, so they told me which each of them were so I could practice. I somehow didn't hear the sacrament hymn one correctly, so I prepared for the wrong one for Sunday. So come Sunday, I played the first hymn good and was preparing for the sacrament hymn. It's weird cause in the spanish hymn book, some songs have more verses than if they were in English. I got there a little late and so I didn't have a Spanish hymnal to play from but it was alright cause I knew where they were in the English book. So I was checking to see how many verses the next song was so that I wasn't playing too many or too little. As I was realizing that I was going to be playing the wrong song, they were announcing the sacrament hymn, and I still didn't know which hymn I was supposed to be playing, so I was frantically trying to look for the same tune in the English book, but couldn't find it. So the Elder stood up to lead and everyone was waiting for me to start playing, haha. I then commented that I didn't have a Spanish book to play from and so I didn't know what to play. Luckily one of the zone leaders gave me one of their books and I just started sight reading. Haha I had been praying from the get go and Heavenly Father helped me to play a song that I don't think that I've ever practiced enough to play while others sing. Haha I felt blessed and decided to share it with you. :)
Oh wow, out of time. haha Actually a little over, oops.
Oh well, just know that I love you and I know the Church and my message are true. Can't wait to hear from you!!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
I decided to use my time wisely and so I'm fitting in the email right now on my busy p-day. :) (It came at 8:15am)
Good Morning!! How's everything going up in Lehi? What are Tanner and Alex's schedule for basketball this year, who are they playing first on Wednesday? How did BYU do against Idaho? Any other news you think I need to know? Ha ha So many questions.
Now to the real stuff. I'm doing great! A lot has happened since last Monday. We taught our progressing investigator, Esteban, totally in Spanish too, though we used lots of notes, but the spirit was still there and we had our first experience of having our investigator commit to baptism after the 5th lesson. Esteban, then became Hermano Wade and started teaching us, so that was cool. We just got two new investigators, Juan and Alexandra, both teachers. So now we are preparing to teach Juan tonight. I have a stack of 250 flash cards and growing. I've almost memorized most of it and feel really confident in just speaking in Spanish without notes. It's amazing to think that I'll almost be fluent when I leave in 9 weeks!
Alright, to answer your questions...Yes, we had a devotional last Tuesday by Elder Tad R. Callister of the Presidency of the Seventy. He talked about 10 points of why the Apostasy really happened and it was an amazing talk that filled the room with the spirit. I'll see if I can copy those points and send them to you in a letter. We then went back as a district, all 10 of us, in our classroom and discussed the talk for an hour. We really had the spirit with us as we all bore testimony of the truthfulness of what we had just heard.
Wednesday, all the new people were coming in. We got a chance to play soccer on the field just west of the temple, closest to the street. That was fun because it seems like that is going to be the last nice day we have here at the MTC. haha Guess what, Matt is basically in the room across from me on our floor!! Elder Haskell is room 301, the first room to the left after coming up the stairs and I'm 343, the first room on the right. So all of us from Lehi, Elders Walker, Scott, Haskell and Me were all on the same floor and basically right next to each other--the other Elders were 303 and 307 :). Elder Walker left this morning to Dallas, Texas so it was fun to see him again and to see how much he has changed. Elder Scott, I found out, is going to Mexico City and he's either on his 3rd or 4th week.
We haven't had any official teaching on the culture of Argentina, but all we have heard so far is how nice of a place it is and I've only heard really good things about my mission.
Elder Defriez is from North Ogden and he graduated from Weber High this past year. He played football last year and at one point led the state in receptions. He was called to be our District Leader but I was called to be the Senior Companion. :) haha He's probably 6'2" and is a bigger guy than me. I've gained 6 pounds so far but I'm doing push-ups and crunches every night though, so I don't think that it'll be too bad.
7 out of 10 in my district are going to ARG BAN (Argentina Buenos Aires North) while 3 of them are going to ARG Neuquen, which is the mission that covers the wastelands of Argentina south of Buenos Aires. I sleep on the top bunk, which makes it hard to make every day but I'm doing good at that and I really miss my own bed. haha Actually it isn't that bad and it's getting better every night. :) My desk is the opposite side of the room away from the door, right next to our window.
Church is great here! Every week we have to prepare a 3-5 minute talk in Spanish just in case we get called up to speak. Yesterday I was asked to play the piano for both priesthood and sacrament meeting. Haha Funny story...the zone leaders told me Thursday morning that I would be playing, and they handed me a list of songs, course they were all the spanish hymns and their corresponding numbers, so they told me which each of them were so I could practice. I somehow didn't hear the sacrament hymn one correctly, so I prepared for the wrong one for Sunday. So come Sunday, I played the first hymn good and was preparing for the sacrament hymn. It's weird cause in the spanish hymn book, some songs have more verses than if they were in English. I got there a little late and so I didn't have a Spanish hymnal to play from but it was alright cause I knew where they were in the English book. So I was checking to see how many verses the next song was so that I wasn't playing too many or too little. As I was realizing that I was going to be playing the wrong song, they were announcing the sacrament hymn, and I still didn't know which hymn I was supposed to be playing, so I was frantically trying to look for the same tune in the English book, but couldn't find it. So the Elder stood up to lead and everyone was waiting for me to start playing, haha. I then commented that I didn't have a Spanish book to play from and so I didn't know what to play. Luckily one of the zone leaders gave me one of their books and I just started sight reading. Haha I had been praying from the get go and Heavenly Father helped me to play a song that I don't think that I've ever practiced enough to play while others sing. Haha I felt blessed and decided to share it with you. :)
Oh wow, out of time. haha Actually a little over, oops.
Oh well, just know that I love you and I know the Church and my message are true. Can't wait to hear from you!!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
Monday, November 14, 2011
Our first letter from Ryan
Hey there Familia!!!
I have so much to tell you!!
First of all, my companion's name is Elder Defriez, and I promise that I'll send pictures asap. We have been having a great time and I have loved being there at the MTC. First, thanks for the Dear Elder letter, I love getting mail so please send some asap. :) To answer Dad's question, (if he'd seen anyone he knows) Elder Walker and Elder Scott, former bball teammates, are on my same floor in the Edward Stevenson Building. I'm on the 3rd floor. I also saw Elder Mathis (friend from school that entered the MTC the week before Ryan) on my first day at dinner so we are all good!! First day was great!! The video was exactly how it was, but as soon as I got into my classroom my teachers started talking to us in Spanish right away! It was really difficult to understand but it has been a blessing every day! Yay for Tanner!! That is way exciting to hear that he'll be playing bball and I'm also really happy for Alex!! (he made the 9th grade team)
Well, here is our daily schedule, get up before or at 6:30 depending on the day. Some days we have gym at 6:35am and other days we shower and get dressed. Then we go to our assigned classroom to have personal study. We are district 13B, and all of the other missionaries are going to Argentina as well, there are 10 in the district and 7 of us are going to Buenos Aires North. The meals are done by BYU dining so the food is really good and it is all you can eat! I've been eating healthy but I always have a cup of chocolate milk. ;) We use a computer training system called TALL (technology assisted language learning) and that really is helping. The biggest surprise was that on Friday, we taught an "investigator" all in Spanish! His name is Esteban and he will be our teacher by the end of this week! By that time we had already had a basic knowledge on how to bear our testimony and pray in Spanish, so we were able to put together a 20 min. lesson, but just bearing testimony and asking him how his day was. We have had two days of gym time and I've been able to play bball with Elder Walker and Elder Scott again!! But I'm definitely out of shape. haha But I've been doing pushups and crunches so hopefully that will even it all out. Basically we sit in our classroom for at least 10 hours a day, either in personal study, or language study or classroom instruction!
I had a wonderful experience yesterday. I had been struggling a little with getting used to the new routine and I was feeling a little homesick, but I finally decided to pray about it and really ask for help. So I spent 20 min. in class praying for help and to comfort me and to give me the Spirit. I then asked Heavenly Father to help me in my studying, and then I opened up my scriptures straight to Enos and I read the entire chapter. I realized that I hadn't been praying enough and that was why I was feeling down. So now I'm getting there to where I'm constantly feeling the Spirit and talking to my Heavenly Father.
I love you very much!!! I promise I'll send pictures asap and I'll probably email you around the same time every Monday. Have a great week!! Hope everything is going great and please write. :) LOVE YOU!!
Love,
Elder Pittard
I have so much to tell you!!
First of all, my companion's name is Elder Defriez, and I promise that I'll send pictures asap. We have been having a great time and I have loved being there at the MTC. First, thanks for the Dear Elder letter, I love getting mail so please send some asap. :) To answer Dad's question, (if he'd seen anyone he knows) Elder Walker and Elder Scott, former bball teammates, are on my same floor in the Edward Stevenson Building. I'm on the 3rd floor. I also saw Elder Mathis (friend from school that entered the MTC the week before Ryan) on my first day at dinner so we are all good!! First day was great!! The video was exactly how it was, but as soon as I got into my classroom my teachers started talking to us in Spanish right away! It was really difficult to understand but it has been a blessing every day! Yay for Tanner!! That is way exciting to hear that he'll be playing bball and I'm also really happy for Alex!! (he made the 9th grade team)
Well, here is our daily schedule, get up before or at 6:30 depending on the day. Some days we have gym at 6:35am and other days we shower and get dressed. Then we go to our assigned classroom to have personal study. We are district 13B, and all of the other missionaries are going to Argentina as well, there are 10 in the district and 7 of us are going to Buenos Aires North. The meals are done by BYU dining so the food is really good and it is all you can eat! I've been eating healthy but I always have a cup of chocolate milk. ;) We use a computer training system called TALL (technology assisted language learning) and that really is helping. The biggest surprise was that on Friday, we taught an "investigator" all in Spanish! His name is Esteban and he will be our teacher by the end of this week! By that time we had already had a basic knowledge on how to bear our testimony and pray in Spanish, so we were able to put together a 20 min. lesson, but just bearing testimony and asking him how his day was. We have had two days of gym time and I've been able to play bball with Elder Walker and Elder Scott again!! But I'm definitely out of shape. haha But I've been doing pushups and crunches so hopefully that will even it all out. Basically we sit in our classroom for at least 10 hours a day, either in personal study, or language study or classroom instruction!
I had a wonderful experience yesterday. I had been struggling a little with getting used to the new routine and I was feeling a little homesick, but I finally decided to pray about it and really ask for help. So I spent 20 min. in class praying for help and to comfort me and to give me the Spirit. I then asked Heavenly Father to help me in my studying, and then I opened up my scriptures straight to Enos and I read the entire chapter. I realized that I hadn't been praying enough and that was why I was feeling down. So now I'm getting there to where I'm constantly feeling the Spirit and talking to my Heavenly Father.
I love you very much!!! I promise I'll send pictures asap and I'll probably email you around the same time every Monday. Have a great week!! Hope everything is going great and please write. :) LOVE YOU!!
Love,
Elder Pittard
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Change to MTC address
I just got a quick note letting us know that the mission code that we were originally given was wrong. Please note the slight change to Ryan's MTC address. (See address at right)
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
A Funny Thing happened on the way to the MTC...
Wednesday November 9th actually arrived. This morning Ryan was up and ready to go. :) Cary and I drove the others to school and Cary had to go into work for a little bit. I made some blue and white ribbon thing-a-ma-bobbers to put on his suitcases (easier to identify)...sounds like something a mom would do. :) Ryan spent some time playing the piano. I will miss hearing him play the piano. One of his favorite songs to play lately is the EFY medley As Sisters in Zion & We'll the Bring the World His Truth. Love it! He also snacked a little while sitting in front of our computer watching the screen saver of random family pictures through the years.
We checked the other children out of school early. Before we left our home Cary gave Ryan a father's blessing. I love having the blessing of the priesthood in my home. We then knelt for family prayer, and as we always do, we sang a song before offering the prayer. Today we sang I Hope They Call Me On A Mission. Then it was time to go....
I'd heard that on average 100 cars pull up to the MTC curb every 15 minutes on Wednesdays during the drop-off times. And there was a steady stream of cars...and lots of smiling elders ready to help all the new missionaries. What a rush of emotion as we drove in! We each hugged Ryan one more time...
I know Ryan is going to do his best to be the best missionary that he can be. He is very prepared, and also very ready to learn and to study hard to more fully understand the gospel and to learn the Spanish language. Ryan has a sweet spirit and a tender heart. He is a good teacher and he loves to serve. I know he will love the people of Argentina and bless many lives with the message he shares.
We love you Ryan! God be with you till we meet again...
We checked the other children out of school early. Before we left our home Cary gave Ryan a father's blessing. I love having the blessing of the priesthood in my home. We then knelt for family prayer, and as we always do, we sang a song before offering the prayer. Today we sang I Hope They Call Me On A Mission. Then it was time to go....
We all went out to lunch at Cafe Rio. Ryan did request that one...and no one else objected. :) In the restaurant several people asked him if he was going on a mission. I'm sure people around here get used to seeing families like ours on Wednesday afternoons going out to lunch one more time together. :) Plus, it was a little obvious...Ryan in his dark suit and the rest of us in regular clothes. One of the guys preparing our food was talking to Ryan about how much he's going to love learning to speak Spanish...and the lady sitting at the table next to us asked where he was going, and when she found out it was to Buenos Aires North she said that her brother and her ex-husband both had served there, and her current husband served in Buenos Aires South!
It's amazing how quickly, yet also how slowly, time passes as you're waiting for that departure time. We were done with lunch quicker than expected, so we had plenty of time to drive to the MTC. When we got down there we drove past the MTC a couple times and saw all the cars pulling in....the missionary drop-off had begun. We then parked up by the Provo Temple to take family pictures.
Check-in time was 1:25, so about 1:10 we started walking back to the car. As we got to the car Cary reached for the keys, but they weren't in his pocket. He looked to me to see if I had them. I didn't, and I had left my purse in the car. Cary looked in the car window and there were the keys sitting on the console between the seats!!! We looked at each other like we couldn't believe this had just happened! We've never locked our keys in our car before! I thought to myself....we can walk across the street to the MTC....but all of Ryan's things were locked in the car! I quickly said a little prayer. I knew it would work out somehow. I called the Provo Police, but they told me they weren't authorized to help us with that. She suggested I call a tow truck company or a locksmith, or maybe even the MTC Security could help us out. At that moment a tow truck was pulling out of the temple parking lot across the street, so Cary's brother-in-law ran over to ask him...but he said he couldn't help us. Then I called the MTC. I explained what had happened and that we were supposed to be dropping off our son in a few minutes. A very kind woman told me that she'd send someone right up.
It really was a funny experience, just because of the time and place that it happened to us, especially because it has never happened to us before. :) Ryan wasn't laughing though. He wanted to get to the MTC. I knew he was already feeling anxious and emotional and by this time he was just ready to get there and get started. I told him he'd laugh about the whole thing later.
Within five minutes someone from security came to our rescue! And within 3-4 minutes he had our door opened.
I'd heard that on average 100 cars pull up to the MTC curb every 15 minutes on Wednesdays during the drop-off times. And there was a steady stream of cars...and lots of smiling elders ready to help all the new missionaries. What a rush of emotion as we drove in! We each hugged Ryan one more time...
Then he was on his way....
I know Ryan is going to do his best to be the best missionary that he can be. He is very prepared, and also very ready to learn and to study hard to more fully understand the gospel and to learn the Spanish language. Ryan has a sweet spirit and a tender heart. He is a good teacher and he loves to serve. I know he will love the people of Argentina and bless many lives with the message he shares.
We love you Ryan! God be with you till we meet again...
I'm Off to the MTC
Hey there everybody,
Well, here I go, I'm off to the MTC in Provo. I have been called to serve my mission in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I have been waiting for 5 months now, ever since I got my call in June, and now I'm ready to go. Yesterday was my last day at home and it was spent packing up my room, being set apart as a missionary and then packing everything up into 2 large suitcases and a smaller suitcase and a backpack. Over the past couple of days I've experienced many mixed feelings of joy and excitement with sadness for leaving all of my family and friends. It has been hard seeing them all for the last time, but I know what I'm doing is the right thing for me at this time. The Savior set the great example, and I hope to follow and emulate his love for the people as I serve the people of Argentina. The Savior gave all His life and now he is asking me to go and serve, like He did, for two years. When you think of that, it's only a tenth of my whole life so far, so it's like I'm paying tithing to the Lord for my life. I'm super excited to be able to have this opportunity to share this "good news" or in other words the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
My favorite scripture: "And moreover, I would desire that ye consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never ending happiness." ~Mosiah 2:41
I love this scripture in the Book of Mormon because of the happiness it promises! It promises happiness for keeping the commandments and then for enduring in our faithfulness to the end--"that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never ending happiness." I want never ending happiness and that's also what I want for everyone in Buenos Aires! I know what I am about to embark on is what I am supposed to be doing right now in my life.
I would like to bear my testimony so that everyone knows that I know that this gospel is the word of God. This church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is the only true and living church on the earth today. I challenge you to go and ask for yourself, ask your Father in Heaven if this is the only true church on the earth today and He will manifest to you through the Holy Ghost. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and that he was inspired and directed from God in restoring Christ's church on the earth today. I know that I have the priesthood of God and that I have the power on earth to do His will for His people. I know that I am an instrument in the hands of the Lord and that He will direct me through promptings of the Holy Ghost to find the lost sheep of His fold. I know that my missionary work is a great work and that it is what I am supposed to be doing at this time. I love all of my family and friends. I'm excited to go and also excited to come back and share all of my wonderful experiences. The work is true brothers and sisters!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
Well, here I go, I'm off to the MTC in Provo. I have been called to serve my mission in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I have been waiting for 5 months now, ever since I got my call in June, and now I'm ready to go. Yesterday was my last day at home and it was spent packing up my room, being set apart as a missionary and then packing everything up into 2 large suitcases and a smaller suitcase and a backpack. Over the past couple of days I've experienced many mixed feelings of joy and excitement with sadness for leaving all of my family and friends. It has been hard seeing them all for the last time, but I know what I'm doing is the right thing for me at this time. The Savior set the great example, and I hope to follow and emulate his love for the people as I serve the people of Argentina. The Savior gave all His life and now he is asking me to go and serve, like He did, for two years. When you think of that, it's only a tenth of my whole life so far, so it's like I'm paying tithing to the Lord for my life. I'm super excited to be able to have this opportunity to share this "good news" or in other words the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
My favorite scripture: "And moreover, I would desire that ye consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never ending happiness." ~Mosiah 2:41
I love this scripture in the Book of Mormon because of the happiness it promises! It promises happiness for keeping the commandments and then for enduring in our faithfulness to the end--"that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never ending happiness." I want never ending happiness and that's also what I want for everyone in Buenos Aires! I know what I am about to embark on is what I am supposed to be doing right now in my life.
I would like to bear my testimony so that everyone knows that I know that this gospel is the word of God. This church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is the only true and living church on the earth today. I challenge you to go and ask for yourself, ask your Father in Heaven if this is the only true church on the earth today and He will manifest to you through the Holy Ghost. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and that he was inspired and directed from God in restoring Christ's church on the earth today. I know that I have the priesthood of God and that I have the power on earth to do His will for His people. I know that I am an instrument in the hands of the Lord and that He will direct me through promptings of the Holy Ghost to find the lost sheep of His fold. I know that my missionary work is a great work and that it is what I am supposed to be doing at this time. I love all of my family and friends. I'm excited to go and also excited to come back and share all of my wonderful experiences. The work is true brothers and sisters!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
The Eve of Departure
What a day we've had. Even though we'd been physically preparing for Ryan to leave for 3 months...buying all the clothes and shoes and everything that is required for a missionary...I still had to run to the store one more time this afternoon! Ryan kept busy cleaning out his room and unpackaging and ironing his white shirts, and making sure he had everything on his check list.
Of course it wasn't the same...we all called it "fake turkey"...ate it and had a good laugh. My Mom was able to come and be with us that night (my dad was traveling).
After dinner we watched the first half of a special that was on tv between general conference sessions last April....about the 50th Anniversary of the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. I had recorded it, knowing that Ryan would be entering the MTC this year. That was fun for all of us because it showed what the missionaries do in the MTC after they leave their families at the curb. It was fun to picture Ryan being there...putting on his missionary name tag, being shown his room where he will live for 8 weeks, and meeting his companion....and then getting to work. Lots of studying!
At 8:00 we all went to the stake center and Ryan was set apart as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by our stake president. Our bishop, who has been a great friend and example to Ryan the past four years, was also there. What a special experience for our family. I could only imagine what was going through Ryan's mind. Afterwards, we all gave Ryan hugs. It was so sweet, when Ryan picked up Camryn she laid her head on his shoulder and clung to him for what seemed like a couple minutes. So tender. I'm sure she felt something.
That night Rachel wrote Ryan a very sweet letter...
Dear Ryan, I am glad and sad that you are leaving on your mission. I am sad because I won't see you for two years, and I am happy because you will go out into the world and teach people about the church. Also, so others can be with their families forever. I love you as a brother and I hope you have a good mission and you have fun. Bye!! Sincerely, Rachel
I think she summed up how we all feel. :o)
Of course it wasn't the same...we all called it "fake turkey"...ate it and had a good laugh. My Mom was able to come and be with us that night (my dad was traveling).
After dinner we watched the first half of a special that was on tv between general conference sessions last April....about the 50th Anniversary of the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. I had recorded it, knowing that Ryan would be entering the MTC this year. That was fun for all of us because it showed what the missionaries do in the MTC after they leave their families at the curb. It was fun to picture Ryan being there...putting on his missionary name tag, being shown his room where he will live for 8 weeks, and meeting his companion....and then getting to work. Lots of studying!
At 8:00 we all went to the stake center and Ryan was set apart as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by our stake president. Our bishop, who has been a great friend and example to Ryan the past four years, was also there. What a special experience for our family. I could only imagine what was going through Ryan's mind. Afterwards, we all gave Ryan hugs. It was so sweet, when Ryan picked up Camryn she laid her head on his shoulder and clung to him for what seemed like a couple minutes. So tender. I'm sure she felt something.
Elder Pittard with our bishop and stake president
Looking at all the missionaries serving from our stake
Then it was time to pack...he had gathered everything in the family room...and I have to say that when we first read over everything on the list, I thought...how are we going to fit everything in two suitcases?? But then when we had everything laying out, I knew it would all fit. :)
That night Rachel wrote Ryan a very sweet letter...
Dear Ryan, I am glad and sad that you are leaving on your mission. I am sad because I won't see you for two years, and I am happy because you will go out into the world and teach people about the church. Also, so others can be with their families forever. I love you as a brother and I hope you have a good mission and you have fun. Bye!! Sincerely, Rachel
I think she summed up how we all feel. :o)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)