I now feel more guided by the spirit and I'm having some good lessons--great ones even

Hey there :)

sorry the usb port wasnt working, so no pics this week, bummer :)

But yes, we did have the baptism!! i'll tell you more about that later :)

Well, the week went like clock work, just the normal missionary week with meetings, citas and a baptism. :)

Thanks for all those that wrote me letters and especially thanks to Bro Carlson for his ever so amazing sports updates. :) Haha. I did receive the bday package and it is hidden away until my birthday. :)

About the food, yes we do eat well in capital, but outside of it, nope, they still have great food, mostly the food from Peru, but it's few and far between, so i'm getting used to that out in provincia.

On monday night we had dinner with a lady that says she was baptized by Austin Collie, that's a bummer that he got another concussion, still has a whole career ahead of him.

On tuesday we made the rest of the wings that we had frozen and this time we made them better and then one elder had root beer concentrate and so we bought just plain soda and added sugar and it was alright, i still miss good ole american root beer, there is none down here.

So Wednesday we had Zone conference in Escobar. they celebrated my bday because the next time that we have a normal ZC will be in Oct after my bday. We received a DVD from the mission that has like 40 Mormon messages in spanish that we can use in lessons, how hi-tech are we? :)

Elder Solum got kicked in the face thurs night, he was walking next to a train that was pulling out and someone kicked him in the face, nothing happened but that's something that doesn;t happen often. He's fine and no breaks or bruises but we learned not to walk next to a moving train. haha

Friday, Gaston passed his interview and we were all good for Saturday.

Saturday, so we had the baptism, a hour and a half from the appointed time. We were all waiting on the bishopric member and we finally did it and it was awesome seeing the smile on his face.

Yesterday we had a really good lesson with Jorgelina, she told us that she is reading from the bofm everyday and is starting to receive a testimony of it!! she didn't except the fecha but she's progressing well. Then we had a priesthood meeting in Pilar and the whole stake was there, president came and we learned how we could help the less actives in the ward become priesthood holders and full tithe payers, and Gaston was confirmed, so all is well. :)

Sorry for the rushed letter, because today we did alot before. We first played soccer at the church and then we played football and that was fun and i had a great time showing everybody what's up. ;) haha Then we made chicken alfredo and then went to the bank for my comp and then we faxed the baptismal registro to the offices. I feel like my teaching skills are improving and my language skills being the senior comp, I now feel more guided by the spirit and I'm having some good lessons-- great ones even, it's all in the questions that we ask and then the testimony that we bear, :) the spirit will do the converting. :)

I love you all so so much, good luck with the week and go Cougars!!!

Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard

It's super awesome that the youth have the spirit of missionary work

Hey there familia!!!

Well im doing great and im loving the mission more and more everyday, the days are flying by more and more everyday too.

So to talk first about the pics,

So last monday night, we all went to Paseo de Compras, which is a huge bolivian owned place that sells a bunch of random stuff and for cheap too. So we all bought a jersey and took a picture when we got home. E Brown is the far left, he´s a stud. E Solum is wearing my river jersey haha and E Dewitt is the other elder.

We are some how surviving in our pension haha no we are having a blast and getting along really well. So my jersey is the new one that just came out, i got it for 80 pesos, it has a sublte red stripe with the red background, super cool!!

The next pic was the hoodie after i was done sewing it, the rip was on my left hand side close to the pocket in the middle. So thanks so so much and i will wear it every morning for good luck this season!! :)

So wow last week of freedom is already gone and by the time you all get this youll be suffering in school :) haha its nice not to have to worry about school for right now, though i do realize that this is the last time and next year ill be getting into it full swing :) But thats awesome that your classes will work out and youll be a great teacher. Haha thanks tanner for your update, im dying with anticipation every week to read your little thought, thanks from down south. Haha braden, honestly you have to learn spanish, the translator is tan mal haha oh well i got the basics of the story and thanks for thinking of my daily spanish practice. Tell the girls that i love them a lot :) good luck with school to everybody.

That sounds fun that youll all go to the temple and that was an awesome experience down here and it really is so so pretty.

Yay!!! congrats to alex for the big accomplishment of getting the eagle scout, yay no more scouts!!! ;) haha

To answer the questions, we dont really need a cook book, we were provided with one to start the mission in our new missionary packet with arg tips as well. oh and i made the cake mix cookies, i burned the last two batches but the first one was delicioso :) yum yum yum yum haha i tried making it with the arg cake mix and ours in america is so so so much better!

oh and yes i have given a couple of blessings and actually have given two in english, but i have given a lot more in spanish though, i struggle saying them in english, funny how that works.

alright a quick blurb for my week.

so last monday night, dont worry about me but i didnt drink enough or eat enough and so by the end of the hot day i had a headache and i had to rest for that night, but i did get some good rest, thats rare haha, at least i dont feel like that every morning haha, but it is getting easier, or at least it seems so.

So it was pouring all day on Tues, well all the week it was pouring haha, so we go trekking around savio in the rain and mud, but we finally were able to find somebody new, we found this one hermana in the street and she told us about her sister that she wanted us to visit, so we passed by and the sister doesnt have too much interest but her 20 or so yr old daughter did, so we left her a bofm. Then we had dinner at the flia cubilla´s house, they are so so awesome, E Rickert baptized Karina and then she converted the rest of her family and so they are an awesome recent convert family and are always willing to receive us, so we played some games and had a great bbq.

Wed, we wake up and there is no water haha dang it, so we didnt get to shower and i was thinking that was only the second time that i havent showered in the mission one morning, the other was the day that i flew down here to arg, which by the way took 10 hrs plus the 4 hr plane ride to atl. but yes i feel your pain dad for the 14 hrs sitting in a tiny cramped seat, not sleeping a wink, i think that ill get a little bit more sleep on the plane ride home haha. So we also received a bunk bed so now we all have a real bed to sleep in and im back on top. So that day we tried contacting a lot of people and it seemed like nobody was home, it was kinda raining in and out all day. we also received two more bikes, just two more money wasters haha

So thurs the E Solum and E Dewitt who are in Maschwitz which is really far away like a 45 min walk, while they were going out there the chain on one of the new bikes broke and the other older bikes were broken as well, so we havent been riding as many bikes as we normally do. but the other bikes are now fixed but its just another hassle, i couldnt imagine having a car to look after as well haha or working in an area that would require a car to cover it all.

Friday, another raining day, so after lunch we go get Karina to accompany us to her friend's, and it starts pouring, then we go to another less active family and had a lesson there and then we returned to her friend and she still wasnt there and then we got back to Karina´s house and Gaston was there, the boy friend of Ana the oldest daughter that is also a recent convert, he has been listening to the lessons for a while now and we had a great discussion about baptism and he accepted to be baptized and then i tried to get it for this last sunday and he said no, he wanted to but just didnt know when, so we almost put a fecha. Then E Brown threw up walking home that night.

So sat, E brown still was sick, he had a fever and so his counsel from the mission nurse was to stay in bed and get some rest and drink more water, so i had my first whole day in the pension. I cleaned dishes and watched a Joseph Smith movie, that was an awesome experience, i love learning more and more about Joseph Smith and his wonderful and difficult life that he led. So that story inspired me to write back Joseph. So i first said a prayer that Heavenly Father would help me know what to say and have the confidence to be bold, i first read through the scriptures to receive revelation and then i read through the entire BofM Liahona and my testimony was just being strengthened by the second-- that's an awesome ensign. So then i wrote a great letter and i challenged him to read the bofm and to look for the missionaries, i felt pretty great to know that i was actually doing missionary work in my own life, i should send that letter soon. Then i went with E Solum on the bikes and we had daily contact with Sasha and so that was good, then a drunk guy contacted us in the street and we started talking and he sounded pretty interested, he lives in another area, but its cool to see that padre celestial is putting people in our paths. Then we bought ice cream to celebrate our confirmation, its a great thing to be confirming somebody haha and it was an excuse to eat ice cream.

Sunday was great as well. So first i found out that i was going to be speaking in church right before sacrament meeting and confirming Sasha, haha i confirmed her but they ran out of time in the meeting so i didnt have to talk haha. Then for lunch, guess again, milenesa, that's the easiest food to cook and prepare so we are always eating that, i miss lasanga haha So we had a great day!! we were all over and the youth were just going with us everywhere. Qori, Karina and a recent convert Hugito came with us everywhere. We were walking back from a cita and i was talking with Qori, he has brought 6 baptisms in the last year or so and is a great missionary at 16 yrs old and hes a convert as well. so he named off 3 people off the top of his head that we could visit, that's super awesome that the youth have the spirit of missionary work. Then we gave a blessing to Sasha´s mom, turns out she has cancer and so she is fighting that right now, sad. Then we went to the flia cubillas house and Gaston was there again and i felt prompted to read 3 nephi 27 13-22, its just Jesus laying down his law and gospel and then the family got into a great discussion and then we got talking about baptism and i asked Gaston if he wanted to be baptized this sunday and he said no again, then i said for the next sunday and another no, then he started smiling and he said well i was actually thinking about this sat! haha the whole family was screaming and shouting with joy and we were also :) what a feeling to see a difficult investigator finally say yes!! so for now we have a baptism planned for this saturday!!

Then this morning we decided to make bbq wings and we did all of the prep and then we fried them and im not so sure that they were cooked all the way through haha, ill survive but a prayer would be nice :) nothing serious ;)

So im excited for you all to get started with school and I'll keep on doing what I've been doing for a while now :) i'm glad to have this pday to relax a little bit before the work week. I just want everyone to know that i have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and i know that it contains the word of God, i have done the read, ponder and pray challenge and i received an answer. That book will answer all of your questions about God and the purpose of this life and the things that we need to do to be saved.

Thanks to gpas and gmas and aunts and uncles and my loving parents for bringing me up strong in this gospel and thanks for loving me enough to teach me about Jesus as a child and how to pray and read the scriptures at such a young age and as always thanks for your love and support.

Until next week :)

Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard

Well, a great week, lots of mud and a baptism

Well, how's it going? :) wow i have a bad keyboard, difficult to write, so im learning as we go, its like different and keys in different places. I'll make it. :)

Wow, great week and yes we had the baptism, that's fun coming into a baptism like that. So to describe the pics. The first one is the baptism of Sasha, she's 12 yrs old and has been investigating for like 6 weeks, it was kind of difficult because up until thurs she didnt have the permission from her mom and her aunt that is a member wasnt helping either. She was saying that there has to be a change in her attitude before she can be baptized. She´s a seminary teacher and was holding up the work of the Lord. So we had a great lesson where we talked to her mom who is LA about how having the Holy Ghost would help Sasha behave better and that she has to be baptized right now. So the mom let us go through with it and she passed the interview and we went through with the interview. So who you see in the pic is E Solum with me. Both my comp and E Solum´s comp were sick on sunday so we went on divisions for church. So Elder Solum was already going to baptize her and i got to be in the pic.

 

Then the other pic is from the sunday before that, haha that was a tough baptism to work out. The kids were rowdy but they calmed down enough to be baptized. Again they both wanted to go swimming after they got out. E Carlson had to physically lift the older one out of the water, we got a pic of that but youll have to see :)

 

 

 

So Elder Brown is awesome, like i said hes from Idaho and has 6 weeks less then me in the mission. Hes super awesome and we have hit it off to start off the transfer.  He is the middle of 5 children and has a brother that is about to end his mission in Germany. He loves to cook and already has made us some good food. There really isnt that much food out here, the members are awesome there only isnt that much signed up, so we cook alot. :) im a little bit more hungry then i was in Lugano but i think thats a good thing ;) haha i was getting a little bit more chubbier in Lugano then i wanted.

Yes there are 4 of us living together in a pension that luckily can fit 4 elders :) The other elder that came was E Dewitt from Arizona and had been waiting in Fresno Cali for the last 3 months, his mission pres was Pres Gelwix, the rugby coach of Highland, the Forever Strong movie. thats cool, oh oh oh i also figured out something really cool this last week. Austin Collie served in Savio!! how crazy is that!? he was here for like 9 months and i have seen his name on some of the registries. I had forgotten that he served in Arg for his mission and thats even cooler that he served in our mission and then in Savio!! haha

 

So like you see in the pics on Google, Savio is a big difference from what im used to in the mission. It is definitely more north and it is even outside the Greater BsAs area. There are dirt roads everywhere and everything is super short, like 3 stories is the tallest around here. There is the one train station that passes through and some buses that go on the main route that goes through savio.

 

So the ward was like 75 people yesterday but the bishop is awesome and really has the missionary spirit. The ward is super awesome! the youth are the strength and they love to come with us everywhere. E Rickert was here back from last may to jan and so its cool working with his converts to convert more people. Normally its 100 every sunday and its the only ward that goes to the building, the sacrament starts at 9 am :) The pension is good and we are sleeping all in the same room and studying in the other room with a nice sized kitchen in the middle. We are the second story of a 3 story building and we have a small balcony.

 

So traveling is going to be new for me. We walk everywhere unless we have to go to an outer place, then we go for a bike ride haha the areas are huge out here and so the bikes help, though, i bent the seat back on mine, got a flat on the back wheel of the other one and then rebent the other seat back again after a hermano had tried to straighten it. They were already like that when i got here, broken down and cheap but now i have to worry about that problem. :) Its dangerous because there is less people and yes, there are a lot more poorer people that live out here. So we have the bike locks, but as long as we dont carry too much money and not wear the watch, we are good to go :) and there are some areas that we cant go to at night, because there are no lights out there and no police, but honestly they don't do anything here anyways, they are pretty corrupt, im glad for the american police that actually care about the community :) It gets dark at 6:30 pm ish and the weather has been nice, it got hot one day haha.

 

So funny story about the packages, i also received all of the letters and especially from the friends. thanks that was super fun to read and to hear experiences from missionaries all around the world. Thanks for the chocolate cookies haha, they will be delicious im sure :) also thanks for the insoles, the other ones were pretty worn out. Haha so i go to cut open the hoodie package and i wasnt thinking haha i started cutting off the top of the one package and before i realized it, i had cut a small v-shaped hole in the hoodie, i was so mad at myself haha. So i quickly got out the sewing kit and got to work :) i was able to sew it back up and it doesnt look that bad haha, just a missionary hoodie, thanks so much for that, it looks great and fits good too, i wear it every morning :) So i still have 1 more package to receive then, hmm ill let you know when i get it :) youre the best.

 

So to start off the week, we had a great week, we were looking for new investigators to teach and baptize. Haha on tuesday, i was crossing the train tracks and i slipped in the mud and i got all dirty, luckily i was wearing my rain jacket so no white shirt was wasted haha. On thurs we went to talk with this one guy but it turns out that it was his 4 yr old son's bday party so we were there with about 30 people, half and half member and non member so we got to know some new people and as we were leaving we all invited them to go to the temple. That was super fun.

 

So the surprise of the week was that we actually went to the temple on Sat. We traveled with the ward on a rented bus and got down there all right haha there was a lot of people and from all over too. So as soon as we get there E Brown started feeling sick so we gave him a blessing and he went to the health clinic, so he had to rest and so i got to sit out in the hall for like 2 hrs. I was able to talk with pres and his wife, also Pres Carter passed by and we got to say hi. Then he got out and we quickly went through the temple and it really is so beautiful. The celestial room was awesome and so peaceful.

 

So sunday was great, and we almost put a fecha with this one lady that had come to church with her less active boy friend and she wanted to know more, we passed by later and we had a great lesson and she accepted baptism but then we tried to put the fecha she turned around on us and told us that she was catholic, so we left her with the BofM and the search continues.

 

So today real fast we played bball at the church and then i bought some soccer jerseys and shorts.

 

So have great week and good luck with everything. I'm glad that the plaque is up and that everyone is safe.

 

Love you all so much and until next week

 

Love,

Elder Ryan Pittard

A new phase in the mission has started

First I want to tell you how much I love you! :)

 

Well, lets just say that I had an awesome week and had a ton of success :) but I also can say that a new phase in the mission has started. So yesterday was the transfers and we received a call at around 10 pm telling E Carlson that he would be training a gringo (American) that just recently got his visa and that would mean that he would be staying in Lugano. Yup so after 3 months in Lugano I'm out. So then after E Carlson got done on the phone he handed it over to me and E Pabón from Colombia, an assistant told me that I would be going to Savio which is in the zone Escobar and that I would be senior comp! :) so that's where I'm at right now haha :)

 

So I stayed up packing until like 1 am haha and finally was able to fit everything into the suitcases and then this morning a remis came and took us to San Fernando, it was like an hour drive because there was heavy traffic on General Paz. We finally made it and I said goodbye to E Carlson and he went with the other new trainers to a special meeting with Pres and so I was left waiting in the chapel of the church that we were at with the other elders that were just waiting for their new comps to come. So we were sitting there for like 3 hours and I was able to say hi to a bunch of elders and hermanas. So my new comp is Elder Ryan Brown (theres like 3 browns in the mission) and he's from Idaho Falls, Idaho. So here's what happened normally when the new comp gets there we can pick up the mail and leave, but E Brown's old comp E Solem is training and he his staying in Savio because they are splitting the area into Savio and another one, so E Brown was there and so we had to wait a long time until E Solem was done and then we all got into the remis and headed off. So it was like an hour and half car ride, idk it was long but we finally arrived and got the suitcases put into the new apartment and then we went to eat at a pizza buffet and then we came to email. :) So that's been my crazy day so far and then I'll have to adjust to being senior comp and learning the new area. But I'll be fine and we will have success. We are living in a smaller pension that will just barely fit us four elders. E Solem will get his new comp tomorrow and so he´ll be with us tonight.

 

Elder Stocking and Elder Barnwell from my group are training this transfer so its getting to that time in the mission. :)

 

Oh and I also got the two packages and all the letters, thanks again for all those that sent something and I would like to invite you to keep doing what you're doing and for those that haven't yet, I call thee to repentance ;) chiste (joking)... haha but seriously ;)  I still haven't had the chance to open any but thanks for everything, you're the best!!!!

 

So wow its amazing what can happen in one day :) but all is well and now about your email :) oh and I forgot the camera so no pics today which is a shame because I really want to show the 3 baptisms that we had yesterday ;) yeah more on that later.

 

Thanks for the story dad, I love those type of people that show so much faith and then accomplish it and are baptized. I left an hermano in Lugano who was trying to stop smoking and he is slowly progressing with his goal and its fun to see people exericising their faith!!

 

Alright, now that you are all anxious to hear about my amazing week, here we go, I dont have my journal with me, which I haven't missed a day yet, so let's see how much I can remember...

 

So we had the asado on Monday and half the zone ended up coming and so that was really fun, there are a bunch of great elders here in this mission. Then, well honestly I dont really remember off the top of my head until like Saturday, so you´ll just have to read it in my journal when I come home, anyways so Saturday was super crazy, so we had the interview all planned out for Fabiola and so to do this the ZL´s came and also E Giannini came so E Diamond and E Giannini came to Lugano for the interview because E Fernandez went with E Garcia for an interview in Tonelero. So we decided to do divisions, I went with E Diamond our ZL and we went to talk with Daniel and his older brother Gabriel. They were our possibilities and so we wanted them to be baptized that Sunday, so we talked with the mom and were able to receive permission from her to baptize them if they wanted to. We talked with Gabriel and he wanted too, but Daniel was a little timid about it. Fabiola passed her interview and then we were talking with them two for a while to try and motivate them to be baptized. So we were all over the place on Saturday night just trying to talk with all the possibilities to see if they wanted to be baptized so we were dead tired. Then Sunday morning we went looking for them, first we went looking for this great teenager that we had just recently found and he was all ready to go, so then we took the bus to go to church and then we came back in a taxi looking for the chicos, they had already left for the church so then we took a remis back to church. The only problem was that only Daniel and Fabiola were at church at the start of sacrament meeting. Gabriel showed up in the middle of the sacrament, they had all come by themselves, and then E quintana did his interview real fast and then we had to get the clothes situation all worked out, it was a crazy experience, it was Dylan's baptism but doubled!! But we finally were able to get them all in the water and they all got baptized which was a great experience, E Carlson baptized them all so we finished the transfer with 5 baptisms and a great spirit, we averaged this last transfer 23 member lessons and so with all that success, numerally, it was almost evident that we were both gone. So it was an awesome way to end the transfer and now I'm in a new area with an elder that is only a transfer behind me so we should have a bunch of fun and success. We already have a baptism nearly set for Sunday and so we will see with that.

 

Pray for me as the senior comp that I will be able to do the work that I have been called to perform. I feel like I'm being moved up from a normal employee to a supervisor. I'm going to miss Lugano, it was an awesome ward and lots of great people and recent converts especially our side of the villa. But now I'm in Savio which is towards the north of the mission, so it's a totally new experience from Capital Federal, I have slowly been going away from centro and now I'm pretty far away :) It's just a lot of field and there is way less amount of people. Also a little bit more dangerous but I'll be fine. E Solem and E Brown are super awesome and they are so funny and we will have fun this next transfer. This next transfer will end in the middle of Sept and after the temple dedication. So that will be super exciting. Also I will hit my 9th and 10th month marks and will be a couple weeks away from my 20th birthday, so exciting and fun times in the mission right now. I have a feeling that if the situation is right I might be here for a long time, there have been many elders that have stayed 7-9 months here, but every elder has said that they love it and loved it so so much :) so I'm excited to be here and help more people to come unto Christ :)

 

Umm a super cool experience to baptize Fabiola, her and her mom are so strong and will be great future members in the church, Magdalena would have been baptized but isn't married but is planning on moving out at the end of the year and will be baptized in Paraguay. She bore her testimony and said the closing prayer in the baptism. She started crying and the spirit was so strong. :) That has been my second best baptism yet so far. :)

 

Oh yeah and now it will be super hard to go through the temple for the open house now that I'm really far, luckily I went through before and will probably get the chance down the line to go through really as a missionary one pday.

 

So thanks for all of your love and support, you are the best family and friends ever and I'm glad to share all of these experiences with all of you :) keep strong and have fun, life is short and so we should enjoy it to its fullest, spending time with the family and great friends, video games and tv will never take away the fun that we can and will have with our families.

 

Oh, E Rickert was in Savio for like 8 months, so that's cool and umm me and Elder Wood from my MTC district are senior comps now and so I'll keep you updated. So I'll try and send pics asap and thanks for the support and love.

 

Love,

Elder Ryan Pittard