A great week! and a baptism!

Well hows it going? :)

There's no usb connection, so sorry, no pics this week, but we had a baptism!! Super crazy experience.

So first of all, how's it going with everything? Thanks for the wonderful notes and I loved all of the personal notes from everybody!! haha I also loved the pics and I'm glad that my pictures got there and that you loved the little things that I decided to send. :) I loved hearing from you all and feeling your love. :)

 

Haha, that sounded like the dumbest BYU game ever! Sorry for the strong language, but they have to kick the field goal!! ...with the defence doing that well!!! Oh well, it's past but I hope that they can turn it around or we are going to have another 2003. That's too bad that Riley is injured and playing, I say let Taysom Hill get some reps early on in the game and see how he does. Anyways, enough about that.

 

Tanner, looks like you had fun on your date, oh and you look great in pink. ;) Thanks Camryn for you letter, :) your english is getting really good, especially your writing! haha That's awesome Jason that you're doing good in swimming, keep it up. And Braden, I hope that your bum stops hurting. haha Thanks Rachel for your love, and thanks for making me trunky Alex ;) haha, but school sounds like it's all good! I'm glad that everyone was able to be at the temple dedication and that you were able to use the handkerchief, haha and that's only in Utah County...the white handkerchiefs in Walmart haha, such a different world!

 

Oh wow! that's awesome on hearing of all the missionary calls! Keep updating me!

 

Thanks Mom for the dream experience, that's awesome to hear and I'm glad that I'm still picturable. ;) I can't even count the number of times that I have had dreams with my family in it, it's now less and less with the mission life taking over.

 

Well, now for the weekly report, number 40 something, wow that's alot!!

 

So last Monday was super chill, we were able to play soccer. :)

 

On Tuesday we had weekly planning. It was super windy that day and we had to bike for 10 minutes down a highway to get to lunch and then it started raining, pouring, haha, so we were riding our bikes everywhere in the rain and the mud. There's so much mud out here in Savio!! haha but we had a good day. We taught this one lady named Andrea and she was super excited to talk to us. She had been talking to a member friend and then we passed by and gave her a Proclamation on the Family and a L1 pamphlet, she had read both of them and was wanting to know more. We had a great lesson one about the restoration and then we put a fecha with her for the 7th. She didn't come to church, but it was super fun to find someone like that, so willing to listen and to know if its true.

 

Wednesday, I led a super awesome lesson with this investigator, a Catholic lady and a referral from another ward. She was like, yeah elders have passed before but they only talked about how I was wrong and that they were right (I sure hope that it really wasn't like that) but we started talking about her family and we figured out that her dad had died a couple years ago. She really misses him and then I was prompted to ask her, so do you know where he is right now? She said no. Well I have a scripture just perfect for that question, Alma 40:11-12. She then knew where he was and that he was happy, but then I explained that he was receiving the restored gospel over there and that God, Jesus and her dad want her to join this church. The spirit was super strong and it was a great lesson and she was left thinking. We left her with some reading and a return appointment. I don't see a future with her, Lucila, but we can try still. Then we talked with this lady named Beatriz, she is an awesome lady, also ready to receive the gospel and be baptized. We talked with her about the restoration and she accepted it all and we put the fecha for this Saturday!! Her husband doesn't know though and that could be a problem, but we are praying that he will let her be baptized. She's super nervous about that, and the husband of a married couple should know about these types of things. Oh, and we taught Judith in the complete dark, all of the power was out in her block, more like several blocks. We could see the stars, lots of different formations.

 

Thursday was a full day, just the normal missionary work, going there and here and back. haha

 

Jorgelina was doing really great throughout the week and was confirmed yesterday. She is making friends with members and the members are doing really great in inviting her to places. That just makes me happy that our convert is being accepted and helped in the conversion process.

 

Judith passed her interview and we were super excited for her, this was Saturday. Beatriz had an awesome lesson and is doing well for her fecha.

 

Sunday, I'll try to sum it all up in one word, crazy. So we pass by her house at 8:30am and she's sick in bed, but she still wanted to be baptized that day, so she started getting ready. We had to be at the church, because supposedly I was supposed to give a talk, turns out that no, I didn't have to, but by 9:30am she still hadn't shown up, so we get up and we take the bikes and go looking for her, she's still slowy getting around but by 10am we are out the door walking to church. We had to call President and get permission and he gave it to us--she only had had 2 attendences and she needs 3, but then Elder Barragan baptized her and it all left good. :) That was the quick explanation without tons of tiny details, but it sufficeth me to say that she was baptized. So we had a great week and we ended up with 23 lessons with a member, a Savio record, according to Elder Solum.

 

Then today we made tacos for lunch, super good!! Thanks again for your love and support!! I love you all so, so much and I will send you pictures next week. :) Now I want to go play some soccer. :) Have a great week and go Cougs!!! still invested!

 

Love,

Elder Ryan Pittard

Yay for missionary work and miracles!!
 

Well the first pic is when we ate at the flia Acuña´s house, he's a returned missionary and is a stud of an elders quorum president. They are a nice young family and we had fun at their house. That was like 3 weeks ago.

 

 

The story of Jorgelinas baptism is so awesome, I wish I had all the time in the world to tell you all about it. Let's just say that on Thursday night we didn't think that she was getting baptized. But on Friday morning, Elder Rose, yes the same Elder Rose from Juncal, a friend, the new ZL, called us and asked us what we are going to do with Jorgelina. We had no idea, so he invited us to pray about it and find out what God wanted. Honestly, in the stress of the week and the comotion of trying to talk to her and have her baptized on the fecha for the 16th, I totally hadn't prayed about it and asked God, duh!!! So we did and received a distinct impression to call her right then and there. It was 10:30 in the morning, and with her working all night and sleeping all day I was like, really? but I didn't doubt for long and I decided to call her. The night before, I was able to talk with her right before she entered into work. She was saying that she still has all of these doubts and then I promised her that she just has to believe, I told her that she was stopping herself from recognizing the answer. So we call her and she answers! haha I was super surprised at that, then I told her that we were thinking about her and praying about her and figured that we needed to call her. She then said, well I hope that you don't get mad, but last night I realized that I do want to be baptized! I was shocked and so happy at the same time, we shouted and were celebrating. She then told us that last night after we were done talking she was really thinking about it and needed some council. She decided to call her mom and talk to her. Her mom is Catholic-Catholic, not going to change, and after a while her mom straight up asked her, do you even really want to be baptized? Then it hit Jorgelina like a rock, she just said yes, yes I do, and realized that was her answer. So we set it all up, so excited!! She passed the interview with flying colors and then she asked that I baptize her. Wow! It was fun getting wet again and it was an awesome baptism! Then she went with us to the despedida and loved it, oh and Elder Giannini finished and is going home, he is the first companion that I've had that has finished and is going home, makes me feel old. haha So that was an awesome experience and definitely helped my faith and testimony in prayer and faith.
 

 

 So your week sounded nice, kinda boring, kinda normal, really sad, I was almost crying... oh well I was disappointed to hear that they lost. Oh well, enough about that, haha, thanks for the update. So wow lots of other info, fun to see the pics of the temple dedication. Then wow everyone is leaving and going all over the world! Exciting for everyone and say hi to them, I can't wait to read my friends' letters from you, that's always a blast! Haha congrats to Lehi!! That's exciting that they have a winning record for the first time in I don't know how long. Then I'm sure that Tanner had a blast, send a dance pic if you can. :) Tanner sure looks great in a pink tie haha. Congrats on getting out the product, I'm sure that was a lot of hard work with more and more work coming along, keep it up, and I'm sure that you're doing great at school Mom. :) I love you. :) Haha, yeah for scoring a goal Braden!! and Alex as well :) I hope that everyone is doing well in school. :) That's fun to have a regional conference like that and that's a lot of Mormons!! haha
 

Another miracle... Judith, the mom of Brigit, a recent convert (Brigit) has been investigating for a while and she was thinking about the invitation to be baptized while she was on a colectivo (bus) and she said a prayer and asked if she should be baptized for the 23rd and she said that she received a cold, yet warm, feeling at the same time and took that for her answer and she is stoked for her baptism this weekend. She's been robbed twice since that date, super sad, but she still is keeping the faith and now we have someone to work with this week. :) We also gave her a blessing of health and she said afterwords that she could feel something just pulsing through her and it was the Holy Ghost :)
 

So I'm doing good now and I'm looking forward to my bday on the 4th, like 2 weeks, haha and then the one year mark will hit next transfer, so that is super crazy how it's flying fast. I hope that all of my friends are doing great and are enjoying their missions like I am. :)
 

I know that this is the true Church and that baptism really is the door to eternal life. Last night I was talking to Jorgelina, she really has changed from since we first met her and she definitely told us when we invited her to be baptized, no, I'm catholic and I'm only wanting to know more, to the smile and joy that she has right now with her testimony in Jose Smith. :) The mission is just awesome. :) Thanks for the support and the gifts and mail and love and everything else in between. :)
 

I love you all with all of my heart! :)
 

Love,

Elder Ryan Pittard

We just had the most awesomist weekend ever in Argentina!!!

Wow, hey there family that is mine :)

How's it going? Having fun up in Utah haha because we just had the most awesomist weekend ever in Argentina!!! Let's start with the pics.

 

First pic, so we just barely fixed the new bikes that we received and so we used them for the first time on Thursday. So we took a pic just before we left to go out, too bad it was a rainy muddy day but still fun to zoom around Savio. Funny story, so we had to order the helmets from the bike store and when we got them, we hadn't picked them, so we had no choice in what we got. Turns out that we get them and the plastic covering was an American design. It was bright blue with stars, stripes, American flags haha, we were like, oh no, targets!!! haha So we promptly took off the plastic covering when we got home and the gray foam is what we have right now. :) 

 

 

I don't know if the guy was trying to be funny or sarcastic but there really isn't a thing called customer service down here. haha Oh, and don't even expect exact change haha, if it's within 20-25 cents then it doesn't matter haha. So we were all serious and ready to go and baptize and confirm. They are actually nice bikes in the standards of missionary Argentine bikes. They don't look girly and all the brakes work and they go fast! We call them the storm trooper bikes because they just look like so soldiery like made for real men missionaries. :)

 

Then the next pic is from the spot where I was sitting for the cultural celebration! I´ll have to tell you all about that because it was super fun and the missionaries did get to participate.

 

 

So it all started last Monday. We found out the schedule for the Friday where we were going to hear from Pres Eyring, Elder Ballard and Elder Christofferson.

 

First I'll tell you about the normal week, before the awesomeness!

 

Monday... normal, super stressed about the cyber stuff, that's why we are in Escobar, about a 15 min bus ride from Savio and a better email place. haha

 

Tuesday, Elder Lemo from Tucuman, Argentina came on divisiones with Elder Solum and they bought something special from an ice cream place in Maschwitz. It was called the crocatino (crunchy) and it was basically a meat loaf (shaped like) of ice cream and dulce de leche. After planning we played scrabble (castellengles) a mix between the languages and ate all of the ice cream, it was as big as my hand!

 

Wednesday, we were at this one house and Brigit (recent convert) her mom was over and she had actually gone to church by her own will the last Sunday so we talked with her about the 5 steps to following Jesus Christ and she was scared to accept a fecha but we put a slight fecha for the 23rd. Oh, and Daniel for now has fallen off of the fecha map, his parents are stunting it right now, it's alright, we have other people to work with.

 

Thursday, we had another lesson with Jorgelina, Hmo Cubilla (Rickert's convert) came with us and shared an awesome testimony about his conversion to the Church. Jorgelina still has a lot of doubts and so I bore a strong testimony about Joseph Smith and left her something to read and pray about. Slow progression but I think she will get there one day, we just met with her last night and she didn't read or pray. She went again to the internet to look for answers, I was so frustrated, (I've told her a thousand times how she's going to find and recognize her answer) anyways, she read some stuff about Joseph Smith and it wasn't on the Church's website, something about polygamy (people don't normally have that doubt down here, they just don't know) so again we went over what she has to do to know and to feel that this is the true church. We have another cita with her this Thursday and we are going to have daily contact with her to kind of push her to read and pray so that she can be baptized this Sunday. So we will see :)

 

So now the fun part. So we get up on normal time on Friday, we get all ready, haircuts, shoes shined, nice shirts and ties and then we take the Savio train to the Retiro line. It was an hour train ride that left at 10:13 am it was basically a rocky ride inbetween the middle of nowhere Argentina, then we went down to San Isidro and we ate lunch there. Then we got to the church in San Fernando and I got the birthday letter and the letters from Grandma Pittard and Brother Carlson, thanks!!! Then we had a quick devotional with President and hermana Gulbrandsen. Then the whole mission, including the south elders that flew up for the weekend, all got onto assigned buses and then we headed off for an hour ride to the west mission. All of the Buenos Aires missions and the MTC would be there for the charla with President Eyring and the others. We got there like 2 hrs early and sat down in our assigned seats. I was in the back and could barely see, but oh well. We studied the scriptures and then they all walked in. It was super awesome, we were in a really big stake center somewhere in the west mission and all of the missionaries fit in it, like 600 or something. I was noticing about the rowdiness of the other missions. We had been instructed from our president to be super reverent to receive the spirit, the other missions weren't like that and I'm grateful for the mission that I am in and the president. This is definitely the mission for me, there are a lot of stud elders and to be a leader is a challenge and a privilege. So Elder Christofferson started off the meeting speaking perfect spanish, it was really weird hearing him in another language, but still really awesome. He gave a powerful talk (because he gave it in spanish) about the work that we are doing here and the importance of baptism. Then Elder Ballard, with his translator, spoke about how his great grandpa dedicated South America in Buenos Aires on Christmas 1925 and prophecied that the Church would bloom into a big oak tree of strength and firmness. Then Pres Eyring spoke with his translator and he's such a sweet man, sometimes he couldn't contain it in and would talk right on through the translator. The translators are really good and can think on the spot of what to say and changing it to Spanish. Then they walked right on out, so I didn't get to get close to them this weekend. Then we got home just in time to go to bed. Pres Eyring never stops smiling.

 

Saturday, even better, so we left on the bus from Savio at 9:30 am and it took us an hour to get to the edge of Capital, then we decided to go exploring a little bit, we had time. So we stopped in Plaza Italia, in my old area and took pics, ate at Burger King, a first for the other elders that have only known the campo. Then we walked down the huge street Sarimiento and took a pic next to the huge statue of the libertador on that huge 12 lane street that I always crossed. Then we took a walk through Palermo, seeing the sights and sounds of Capital. Then we went on the subte to Retiro, the huge train station and met all of the missionaries there. We had about an hour to chat and talk with old friends. I saw everybody, all the old companions and friends from earlier. I learned that Palermo is baptizing a lot from the villa that me and Elder Gianinni opened up, yay. Then we went to the Stadium of Independiente which is in Avelleneda, just south of Capital. We got there at 3:00 pm and went through a practice. Then we did another practice and then we received a sack lunch and we got to sit in the stands for about 2 hours, again just hanging with the mission friends. It started with the apostles coming out on a golf cart. They shared something really short, all wearing their ponchos that they received and bore testimonies. Then they got off and the event started. It was really awesome, lots of youth were involved. They had dances from every part of Argentina and the one I liked the most was a cowboy dance, it was like tapdancing cowboys, haha, but in really cool costumes. Then after all of that, they parted down the middle and the missionaries all came marching onto the field singing Llamados a Servir. haha Fun to go on the field and feel important haha. Then we were done and didn't get onto the buses until like 9:30 pm. We then took the bus all the way back, I fell asleep on the bus and it was like a 1 and a half ride. We then got home around 11:30 pm but we had an awesome day and I was able to see a lot of people from Palermo and Lugano. Oh, and a senior couple from our mission that work in the offices, the Lowrys, said that they met the Zoelbes that are working in the area officies of the church and that the hermana served under Grandpa and Grandma Hilbig in Knoxville. So that was cool, sorry about the spelling, idk..

 

Sunday...we went to the 12noon session in Escobar, yeah they had it in 3 sessions as well. It was really cool. They had a bunch of other speakers from around the area. It was funny seeing Elder Ballard sitting there with his headphones for the translation haha. They they all shared some thoughts and it was super powerful. Then we did the dedication, Elder Christofferson read it in Spanish from what President Eyring had written, thought that was interesting. Then afterwards we ate some really delicious Peruvian food, love that type of food. Then we got some interesting news last night. I got a call at like 10:30 pm where I was told that my new companion was Elder Barragan, someone that has recently gotten here and that Elder Brown is going south. They are taking advantage of having all of the elders up here, so they are doing the transfers a week early. Elder Brown will be leaving later today, crazy changes. I had a lot of fun with Elder Brown this last transfer and he will be a great missionary in the future!! Elder Barragan recently got here and was staying with the zone leaders and now Elder Rose will be the new zone leader with Elder Jaime, and so technically I'm training, or finishing up the training of Elder Barragan. I've met him before and he seems really chill. He's from Arizona.

 

So that was my week :) awesome, and I'm sure that there will be an official video made by the Church about the weekend here in Buenos Aires.

 

To answer the question about the clothing, it's all holding up, just the normal mission wear and tear. If you want, a new shirt or tie are always welcomed. haha

 

Oh, and about the pics. Thanks. You all look great, and Tanner, your calves are huge, you better look to be dunking in a game this year haha, and not just in the teacher-student game. :) I'm glad that BYU won and I was super surprised that USU beat Utah. I'm excited for the game all the way down here, but don't worry, it won't effect my work. ;)

 

Have fun this next week and just know that I love you all so so much!!!

 

Enjoy the pics and I'll be sending a dvd with 541 pics and with some other temple souveniours to keep for me. :) I should send it this week, and just so you know, the mail prices to send stuff to America is ridiculously high right now, but because I love receiving mail and because I love you all so so much I'll sacrifice. :)

 

Love,

 

Elder Ryan Pittard

President Eyring will be speaking to all of the missionaries in Buenos Aires!!

Hey there family!!

I had a great week!! and I'm excited for the week that's coming :) Haha another keyboard, this one the c and the space bar go down at the same time so sometimes I get a space after the c or a c after the space, but only sometimes... hmm oh well :).  I was excited to read your letters and the pics look great!! Haha the girls looked great in front of the temple and awesome pics from the BYU game.

 

Well, the internet stopped working in the one cyber and now we searched and found a new one. Anyways, I have 19 minutes now. Sorry, again no pics but next week we will go to a good ciber. Anyways the temple sounded awesome!! I'm glad that you were able to go through (Brigham City, UT Temple). Yeah for BYU!! I wasn't worried but I was curious how they did. I'm glad that they won. Now they get the prep game against Weber St and then the real challenges of the season. Bueno to the really important stuff.

 

So we had a great week. 

 

Last monday night we taught family history work by candlelight with the flia Cubilla.

 

This last week we did alot of walking around.

 

We had a zone meeting and that was really awesome. Savio was one of the top areas in the zone last month... this last week we had 20 lessons with members, and that was an awesome feeling.

 

Gaston has started accompaning us to citas (teaching appointments), he is a stud and just received the priesthood last Sunday and so now he and his recent convert father-in-law will bless the sacrament together and that will be special.

 

Thursday was a great day and I went on divisions with Elder Solum. He came to my area and we went walking around. We didn't have that many lessons but we did have great discussions about the pension and all the things that we can improve. The mission has changed and it is now better being the senior companion, and my teaching is improving because I am using more inspired questions and then going by the spirit.

 

We had a great lesson with Jorgelina this last week. We talked about how she did receive her answer but that she just didn't recognize it. She prayed and then she called her mom and her member boy friend and then went online looking for answers. I thought that we were dead meat, but she actually was turned off by the stuff that she read, saying that she saw a man that used to be Mormon but is now Catholic and just thought that he was fake and then she agreed that baptism for the dead is a true doctrine. So she has had some weird experiences but she is progressing and we put the fecha (baptism) for the 16th of September.

 

We also found a fecha for the 15th this last week. His name is Daniel and is the son of some former investigators. His dad wouldn't allow him to come to church this last week which made me mad but he should be fine, we will see. Saturday we went to a super ghetto part of town and that was different, more ghetto then the rest of the town already is, but I'm doing fine down here and I'm accepting that I will probably be here for at least 6 months, so we'll see.

 

Sunday was good, we reached the 20 lessons, the first time for me as senior companion, and that was a great accomplishment because it's something that the mission has said that if you can have 20 lessons with a member present you will baptize weekly, so that's our goal. We also went looking for people on bikes to take to church, that was a first. Then today we made empanadas of cheese and ham so that was good.

 

Thanks for the love and support, thanks for the packages and all of the things that you have sent. I can't believe that I'm a month away from my bday, the year surely has passed rapidily.

 

Well, I sure love you all so so much and thanks for the news updates. I think that BYU will do awesome and keep me updated. ;)

 

Love you!!!

Elder Pittard

 

I just got another coin and now I'm going to add pics!!

 

 

All of the Savio elders, with Gaston. He really is a stud and will be an awesome father and priesthood holder.

 

The next pic is of me and Elder Brown...we swapped ties and so we took a pic.

 

 

The red one got a stain on it, a big long one down the middle and it was annoying me, you can't see it straight away but you can looking down, so Elder Brown was wanting to trade and so I said that one was available. :) I like the new one.

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Yes, Camryn, it is weird that I'm communicating in Spanish, haha, sometimes I'm sitting there in a lesson and my mind just stops and I think to myself, Elder Pittard, you are talking in Spanish and understanding what they are saying back to you! haha Yeah it is a great gift from God. Oh, the biggest news ever...so the temple is going to be dedicated on the 9th, and this Friday the whole mission, and I'm sure the other two missions of Buenos Aires, will be taught personally by President Eyring!! Wow, what a great surprise!! Then we are going to be part of the cultural event for the dedication on Saturday, and then we will watch the dedication on Sunday. What a great week!!! So we are in great times here and we are on the last two weeks of the transfer and then it will be October pretty soon and then November 9th and then Christmas. It's just flying for me right now. haha  Have a great day and keep me in your prayers and let me know if I can do anything for you all. :)

 

Gotta go. :)

 

Love you!!!

 

GO BYU!!!!