We had another baptism!

How's it going!?

We had heard over a month ago of a family that had come to church with people that could be baptized. We went with some of the youth to look for their house the next week, but we couldn't find it. We kind of "gave up" on it because we had lots of other work to do. We received the right address and that same week, two weeks ago the friday right before conference, we found their house and talked with the mom. She had been baptized in Escobar, a town close by, a long time ago and had fallen away and gotten married and had 6 kids. They recently moved into the ward and went to church once, I didn't see them I only had heard that they had shown up. So we invited them to come to conference and then we would be passing by on Tuesday of this last week. Well, we get done Sunday night with Alexis' baptism and we are thinking, well, we don't have any dates right now so let's try with these kids. So we went by to see them on Tuesday and talked with Uriel and his mom, Isabel, the member, and we got talking with him and he was a super smart kid, 11 yrs old, and we taught him the first lesson and then he accepted the fecha for Sunday, we were super excited and then the next day we had a lesson with all of the kids and Dafne, 15yrs old, was there and she also accepted for Sunday. So now we were going crazy! So we had daily contact with them and they learned so so fast, they soaked up everything and they passed their interviews and we had a smooth baptism yesterday. I baptized Dafne and Elder Barragan baptized Uriel. Their grandma came in over night somehow from Uruguay and is an awesome member and is staying for the week to help them get confirmed next weekend.

So sounds like you all had a great week!!

Haha I loved the picture of all those cookies, which reminds me that I have been making lots of cake mix cookies down here and they are starting to become famous, well at least in the Escobar zone.

Anyways, definitely pray about it Tanner, earn as much as you can right now!! that goes for all of you siblings of mine. (like the spanish placement of words in english form? ;) ) ¡Ahorren su plata! ¡ya! but let me know asap what you plan on doing. Wow, thats interesting of all the YW that are choosing to leave for their mission right away, that's awesome though and they all will be great missionaries.

Well, now for my little bit from my week.

Haha, Monday, did a door contact and I asked this older man how he was doing and he told me "muy mal" and then shut the door, it wasn't a slam but still, haha, oh well they come in all shapes and sizes.
On Tuesday we tried contacting a referral that we had and this guy's sister walks out and starts asking us all of these questions, looking back, some of them were really weird. I think that she was kind of off at that moment, her name was Melina and we got talking about the Restoration and then we invited her to be baptized and she said yes, but we weren't able to find her the rest of the week. Oh well, we still put a fecha!

On Wednesday, we were waiting for Uriel and Dafne to get to the church to teach them a lesson, they had to walk and they live quite a ways away, so while we were waiting for them we were with some of the youth and so one of them made a tennis ball out of plastic bags and then set up chairs in the cultural center like a net, and we played tennis with our hands for like 15 minutes. haha Then we taught Dafne and she was super accepting of everything.

Thursday, Elder Solum finally received his huge bday pack, a huge box. Thanks for sending padded envelopes, they are much cheaper and faster. :) But he received ranch powder and so we made ranch dressing and that's something that they dont have down here, and I had forgotten that I had loved it so much. :)  So if you're ever wondering about what to send next, you can send lots of ranch powder packets. haha We had an interesting conversation with a man named Javier, super believing evangelical and wanted a Book of Mormon, so we discussed it but it didn't do that much. I just think that he wanted a book, because I saw a JW bible there as well, but we still had a good discussion about the church and what we do.

Friday, I went on divisions with Elder Solum in Maschwitz and that was fun to work outside my own area for a day. We did lots of street contacts and found a new family that they could teach. The other elders had 5 lessons with members in one day while we were gone, ¡qué capos!

We did the interviews on Saturday morning, and while he was doing them, I got to play a little bit of ping pong with the youth haha, almost won three times. haha It's been 11 months, I'm going to be a little rusty. So we met up with Alexis at the church and taught him and then we found out that his dad, an atheist, the ones that dont believe in anything, ateo. So his dad was going to take him fishing on Sunday morning. That's never good to have to wait to confirm somebody and we had big pressure from the leaders to confirm the fastest possible. Because they technically aren't members and they don't have the Holy Ghost, so it's not complete until after the confirmation. So we went imediately to their house and tried to convince the dad, in a friendly way, to postpone his trip for at least a couple of hours, but he wouldn't budge, and trying to explain to him the importance of receiving the Holy Ghost wouldn't even work because it was his attitude that God, if there was a God, could wait a week. So Alexis wasn't confirmed yesterday but we will get him confirmed this Sunday.

So then yesterday, the baptism, went really smoothly and we are going to have a good week.
I love you all so so much!!!

Elder Ryan Pittard

Oh and Go Cougs!!

We had another miracle this last week

Hola, como estan?

Well, as for now, I'm not going to be able to send pics, it's a pity because you'll need to see the 3 baptismal pictures that I was going to send. Haha, yup we had another miracle this last week, we were able to baptize Beatriz' 10 yr old son, Alexis. He attended the last week and didn't have a fecha when we started the week. So we passed by on Monday night to talk with his mom and he wanted to listen with us. So we start teaching his mom the lessons of retention and then we found out that he really liked the church the day before but when we invited him to be baptized for this next weekend, he said no and he didn't want to until he learned more. That's the most common answer, haha, even in 10 yr olds! So then we went back the next night and tried again after teaching the restoration. He still said no, so we were praying really hard that night and going into the next day's lesson on Wednesday. We started teaching about the plan of salvation and then we ended up focusing on him, he had been reading and praying and wanting to learn more, so then when we invited him again, he said no again, but then Elder Barragan received revelation to have him say a prayer on our knees to ask God right then and there to see if the Book of Mormon was true, the church was true and if he should be baptized. So we all knelt down and he offered the prayer and it was a simple prayer and then he asked if he should be baptized on the 7th and then afterwords we waited to let the Spirit testify to him and then we asked him how he felt. He said that he felt good and then we asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said yes! haha Wow, what a great feeling that rushed over us. We continued to have daily contact with him and then Sunday, after the conference, we baptized him along with another girl from a branch in our district of missionaries in the stake center. It went really good and I had the wonderful chance to baptize him. It's always a great feeling to baptize somebody that you have taught and prayed for and then to perform that saving ordinance for him is an overwhelming experience!

 

So we had a great week :)

 

But a little on the North Pittard Branch (you guys up north) haha Wow, what a great week and weekend that you all had. :) I loved reading about all the great experiences that you all had with general conference. :) Wow, that was a great conference and it passed by the fastest that one has ever passed by. (Yes, I agree with you mom.) We had just barely arrived at the stake center, after searching for people and then taking a crowded bus over, and then buying stuff to make sandwiches for lunch. And so I sat down in the English room with 7 other elders, a class room with the TV connected up, and Pres Monson had just started to speak. I was able to hear of the two new temples and him explaining what had happened in the temple news the last 6 months. Then when he announced the news, I could totally see it coming too, we were all like, no way! this is big! I could definitely feel the spirit strongly testifying to me personally that this was commanded of God and that Pres Monson really was a prophet of God. I immediately thought of Tanner as well and I totally reccommend him for the mission. haha That's an awesome attitude Tanner, Heavenly Father will bless you for that desire and will help to prepare you. Suggestions, spend as much time with the family as possible, reading the scriptures everyday, saying your morning and nightly prayers and studying all of the sections of PMG. This will set the foundation that you need to be a successful missionary. Everything else will just have to be learned in the field. I didn't think of us not seeing each other for like 4 yrs but if it's the Lord's will then it'll be alright. Your mission will be an awesome experience where you will grow and succeed. One thing, let the Lord change you, honestly I'm still working on that, if you have a determnination to be exactly obiedient and to do whatsoever the Lord, through His leaders that He has called, counsels you and do, do it because of your love of the Savior. Yes, I went through the 12 week program and now we are going through it again as I am training.

 

Cool thing, Elder Holland, gave that exact same talk a couple years ago in the MTC. I saw a DVD of it out here in the field. I was actually able to watch the press conference, haha we were in the middle of the World Report and then it just stopped, we were like ohhhh! haha but then we were just as interested in the press conf. There was lots of construction in the MTC when I was there and there were elders in my Zone that were part of one of the many 6 week MTC groups, I just never put it all together but I'm all for it. I'm super excited for the new rush in of elders and sisters, there definitely is alot of work to be done. I think that there were be a huge influx of new elders and sisters by the next year and we might get up to 70,000 missionaries, that would be crazy. My zone leader right now, Elder Jaime, is 19, he entered when he was 18 and has about a year and a half in the mission and is a stud. He's from Mexico.

 

That's exciting about hearing about all of the mission calls, so Brandon is the next to leave, say hi to him if you see him again, wow and that's exciting for all of the other people in the ward, are there any YW wanting to leave right away? So when would Tanner turn his papers in? Could he possibly be leaving as soon as June or July? Wow, that's crazy! and yes I thought that was funny how Utah sports was brought into the discussion, but yes that will be interesting.
 

Well what else... oh yeah haha I totally laughed when Jason broke his pen so he couldn't take notes haha that's a memory, but it was super cute to see his curosity in everything. I can still remember when we bought him a computer cord for his birthday a long time ago. It's weird to me that he's already 12 and receiving the priesthood!! Way to go Jason!! I still picture him as that little Jason and now he's not. :)

 

Oh and my birthday, yah it was different, but I still felt loved and thanks so so much for the presents and cards and the cake was delicious. Yes, I made it and we put dulce de leche on top of it with bananas and strawberries. Haha I was able to cook in my new cooking protection gear ;) personalized (we sent him a missionary apron) haha Thanks Rachel and Camryn for the notes and that was a fun idea and a fun activity to paint it all out, I took a pic of everything. Also a big thanks again to the McOmbers for their love and the BYU shirt is totally awesome, along with the nutella!! Thanks for the cards, haha I loved the 10 new reasons to not come to church, those are definitely new. haha ;) Then I had a cake with the flia cubilla, they are an amazing family, all recent converts and so what did we do? I served them. I was able to cut their front yard weeds with a machette, haha don't worry, I was careful, but that's how they do it down here. Then they made me a sign and a peach cake that was really good. Then Jorgelina probably gave me the biggest present, I don't think she knew before hand, we showed up for the cita and Elder Barragan, like a good companion, told everyone that it was my bdirthay, and then she went into the back room and came out with a wrapped gift. I wasn't expecting anything. She gave me a ceramic round thing that has Argentina in the middle with the provinces eched in then with all of the provinces' banners circling the outside. It is a super Argentina tourist thing, it's totally awesome! Then she made a cake in the hour that we were there and it was a really good choco cake. Then the other elders of Maschwitz bought me an ice cream cake that we all shared gratefully. :) Wow, what a crazy day and thanks for the love. :)

 

So a little bit more about the week...

 

Tuesday, it was raining and cold and wet and muddy haha :)

 

Wednesday we had a zone meeting with lots of practices. (teaching lessons)

 

Thursday was my birthday... like you all know ;) oh and thanks for the new white shirts and I love the ties!! haha I'm going to keep one of the white shirts clean and white for baptisms. ;)  Elder Solum made me and everyone else an omlet. :) Oh, and en route to a cita, my chain broke, so we had to get a new one. I didn't have enough money but he let us come back and pay him the next day. You know it's a small town when they let you do that. So I had in total 4 cakes that day, pretty good. :)

 

Friday, weird and cool to think that I'm now 20, made empanadas at a member's home with some youth. The youth in Savio are the best, the whole ward is just the best. They truly understand how to friendship new members and to do the missionary work. It's the best ward that I have been in so far in the mission.

 

Saturday, general conference, Alexis was able to come to the first session Saturday morning, so we ate sandwiches in between and then I went on divisions with the Escobar elders. Escobar is the stake center area, and we went looking for somebody to come to the next session, no one. I really loved Pres Uchtdorf's conference talk, and yes, the big news was the minimun age change.

 

Sunday, general conference again, this time we went with a less active family that has a nine year old that can be baptized. They went for the first time in years. Then we finally were able to watch the world report and then we watched about that one family in Illinois get to together through Family History work and then go through the temple to be sealed, then watching the sweet beginnings thing was so sweet and I loved the story, and I could relate with what that lady was doing for those people. Those children of God that need our love and support, especially down here, the poverty is really bad in some parts and we are helping bring the love of God to them. Then we had the baptism afterwards and then all the Mormons from Savio took the bus home together. It was fun to see how much more happier we were than everybody else. The gospel is real and I'm so blessed to be a part of it in this hectic world and have the truth and the hope and faith of a better world.

 

I have a testimony that I do love God and I'm out here in the middle of nowhere Argentina to serve Him and His lost children here in Savio. It really saddens me when they choose not to accept and to remain in sin. Oh well, it's totally worth it with the baptism and seeing the happiness that it brings to their lives.

 

Thanks for the love and support. Keep up the great work and I love you all so so much!!! :)

 

Love,

Elder Ryan Pittard

 

ps - oh and tell Great Gma Wayment thanks for the note and the picture, you're looking great and I love you!

 

pps - Thanks Gma and Gpa Hilbig for the birthday email

 

ppps - GO BYU!!!! ;)

We moved a house for service!

Well, how's it going? :) Sorry but you'll have to wait another week for the two baptism pics, the usb won't recognize the cord, dangit, oh well, I still love you. ;) Oh, and a big happy birthday to Jason, the big number 12!!

Yup, we were able to baptize Beatriz on Saturday. Wow, she is honestly a miracle!! with such great faith and desire to choose the right and follow Jesus Christ. We met her on Sept 16th, she came to the Sunday meeting and we set up a cita with her for the 19th. We talked with her and put the fecha for the 29th, she was a little hesitant at first but then in our 2nd meeting, Satureday the 22nd, she was all ready for it, she was loving reading the Book of Mormon and she just felt the spirit so strongly. So we had a cita set for Tuesday and we were going to slowy and easily teach her the rest of the commandments. But we were doing a service project that took a lot longer than we thought it would and so we had to set the cita for Wednesday after interviews, but that went longer then we thought that it would again, so we had to postpone the cita to Thursday night. She would have to be interviewed on Friday, so we had to dump teach everything to her on Thursday night. So we get to the cita with the Flia Cubilla, we brought Beatriz and Yamila (her niece, member, brought her to church the first time) and we start going through the laws of God, we get to the word of wisdom, she had a problem with smoking, oh no, what were we going to do. We got talking about it and wow, what a miracle she is. When she first came to the church just over a week and a half ago, she was smoking and wanting to quit, but when she came to the church she felt bad for smoking for some reason and wanted to quit even more. So she started smoking less and less and she had smoked 3 cigarettes that Thursday, the day of the Word of Wisdom lesson, but she promised us on the spot that she would never smoke again, and so I felt good enough to continue with the lesson and then we did the practice interview and she passed. So then we were needing a miracle from God to help Beatriz, a life long smoker, quit in one night. So we were praying really hard and then we got to the interview with Elder Solum and she had completely stopped!! It was a miracle!! She had overcome the temptations and we were so proud of her.

So Saturday, the day of the baptism. So we get the pila filling up and everything is going good. She shows up and the people start showing up, everyone except the bishopric rep. haha just like Gastons baptism. Hermano Huerta was 40 min late, we took the pics and we were waiting. But then he finally showed up and the room was full of people and then came the time to perform the baptism, an hermano of the ward did the baptism, our ward mission leader, and he was in the water and me and Elder Barragan were the witnesses. Then it happened, she froze at the top of the stairs, turns out that she was really scared of water, that's a first, but with her faith that she has she slowly made it down the stairs until she was in the water. The hermano said the prayer and she was baptized! haha The Lord really helped us out on this one, only the restored gospel will lead people to change their lives in a day and overcome their fear of water for a minute to receive all of the blessings that the gospel brings for us!! Then she was confirmed yesterday and within two weeks was a member of the church. We received permission to baptize her with 2 attendances (to sacrament mtg) because of General Conference next week. Oh, and para que sepan, Judith was also confirmed, so this was a pretty awesome week, with a baptism and two confirmations.

So I received two smaller packages with the big manilla bag that hermano Bartholomew delivered. Thank you thank you thank you so so so much for all of you that sent something. I also received the package from the McOmbers! Thanks for the snacks and pics, haha honestly I love any type of snack, thanks aunt Kim. Send my love to the cousins and good luck with school and BYU for Courtney, how exciting! I haven't opened the packages that say to wait for 10/4 but thanks mom for the new inserts and the flip flops those are awesome!! :) also the vitamins and the cake mix and candles, we are going to make cake for weekly planning this Thursday. :) haha I also received the letters and the letter from the Biggs, thanks, there still is one waiting in the offices so Elder Solum went to do visa paperwork today so hopefully he can pick it up on the way back.

I'm super excited for General Conference this next weekend, it just seems like the April one just got done, but yeah it will be transmitted to the stake center in Escobar and we will go to watch it there. We won't be able to watch the priesthood session because it starts at 9pm here and we don't have permission to stay out late, oh well, in a month I'll have the dvd to watch from the priesthood session.

It's crazy that I'm going to be 20 yrs old this Thursday!! I can't believe that 20 years is now passing and that I'm not a young man anymore, haha I can remember my 10th bday party, first our flag football game with my friends, then the party with cake outside on the patio and then Gen. Conf. and I made the wooden block statue, haha and now I'm going to be planning for the week to come and talking to people about the gospel of Jesus Christ on my 20th birthday, but I'll still have cake. :)

That's an awesome story about Brandon and him sharing the gospel and he will be a great missionary. That's awesome that he's going to Bolivia, that will be an awesome mission. I love hearing from the friends and how they are doing, it's awesome that we are all over the world, some of us speaking spanish and other crazy languages haha. What are Tanner's plans?  Shouldn't the BYU entrance papers get started soon?

Anyways, to talk a little about my week, first of all it was a crazy week,

Tuesday, we moved a house for service :) haha Yes, I'm not lying. It was a small two room house made out of wood and we had to move it 4 meters and it took a long time. It was for an awesome family, the Llactahuamans, from Peru. First we helped take out the remaining things from their house and then we all took a corner and the middle, it was a ingenious way to do it with what little resources that we had. There were 3 beams through the middle of the house that we were able to lift up and so we started lifting it up onto two logs and then we put it on 2x4´s and then on top of that little pegs that would work like wheels and then we had the slow process of pushing it and trying to make sure that it didn't fall off of the track, it was a slow process, but finally as the sun was going down we finally moved it to the concrete that had been prepared as the new foundation. They had a foundation of wood and when it rained it would flood the house, so now they aren't going to have that problem. Then they fed us lunch in appreciation, it was all four of us helping.

Then Wednesday, we traveled to San Fernando for the interviews and it was another great interview. We talked about the success that we have been having in Savio and what we were doing to acheive all of that. Then we talked about how gma and gpa Hilbig were mission pres in Knoxville and how Elder Hilbig is in the 70 right now, he remembers that name from somewhere. Then we talked about how Elder Barragan is doing and how I could help his language even more. It's already really good and he has the confidence, he'll have it in no time. Then a crazy experience on the bus ride home, so we finally found a bus that would take us back to Savio, and it was already an hour and a half trip, so we get to Maschwitz right next to Savio and there was a huge traffic jam and so our driver decides to take a back road to try and go around the traffic. Then we got to a part of the road where there was only a small bridge wide enough for cars, so the bus started trying to turn around by backing up and turning around, of course it was really black outside, night time, and so we get half way turned around and there is this post that is blocking us from completely turning around. So he tries going back even a little more and then the back window smashed, we had hit a tree branch and here they don't have safety glass, luckily I was sitting in the front of the bus. I don't think anyone was injured, the funny thing was that we just kept going like nothing happened. haha We made it home safe. I don't think they have a drivers ed class here. haha

Saturday night after the baptism, the youth performed the dances that they had performed at the temple celebration and they did it for a FHE event at the church, so that was fun to watch after the baptism. The baptism gave me a headache, haha all of the stress and the greasy lunch that some members gave us, it was really good and a kinda like milenesa but a batter was used instead of bread crumbs, and then deep fried. It was good, but I didn't feel good that night haha, but luckily I was able to sleep it off. Then yesterday was a busy day and we had lots of work and now the challenge of finding the next baptism. We have some younger kids that could be, so we will see. :)

Well, I love you all so so much!! Thanks for all that you do! Have a great week and I'll be thinking about you. :) Oh and ask Brother  Bartholomew how it went in BsAs, and a special thanks for the service to bring the package. :)

I love you mom and dad, enjoy General Conference!! :)

Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard