Hey there Family!!! Thanks so much for writing me to me one more week. :) How's it going?
So we have had a crazy day, let's just say that I'm glad that it's basically over and that I was able to do something that I wanted to do. So let's just start off when we take the truck to go to capital to pass by the River Stadium and then onto the train station to go to a place to buy a ton of stuff. So we first stop by the bank to take out the monthly assignment money that we receive. So we all get out of the car and we come back and Elder Lopez had left the keys in the car on accident. We had no way of getting back in... ughh not again. Remember the day that I was entering the MTC....yeah one of those moments. So there's not an extra key for the truck, the area offices are closed because it's a Saturday
and so we had to call a locksmith. We were there from 10:30am to around 2pm 'ish when he finally arrived. For that time we had been trying to pry open the door to slip in a wire hanger, we accomplished to open it just a little bit, scraping the paint... but oh well, we couldn't open the door, so we were just standing there waiting for the locksmith guy, the first car they sent out got into a minor accident so they had to send another one. So to make a long story short, the guy finally came and charged us a lot of money just to open the door... We lost all those hours of my last pday. Then after getting a lecture from the older office elders, they reimbursed us and so then we were able to at least go to one place to find stuff to buy. I bought some gifts and other things. Now we are now back here in the offices quickly trying to squeeze in writing home :) So it's just a funny memory now haha, everything's fine, a good lesson learned. Anyways ill give you more details in a couple of days...
What, is it really happening? haha Wow, I can't believe that these two years have passed by so fast. I remember the first moments after being away from you guys and lots of moments in between. I've loved the mission and now that I've served my two years, it's time to move on with life and get
going with things haha. I'm excited to come home, though I will miss Argentina, though some days I swear that I won't, haha, but I really do love the culture and the people. The church is growing rapidly and is getting better and better everyday. One day it will be like Utah, o sea, how the church is in Utah except being in Argentina.
So I'm glad for everything that I have learned and all of the learning experiences that I have had. The good and the bad. I've had my share of both, but I mostly just remember the good parts. :)
My favorite part has been helping out my brothers and sisters return to God and to change their lives and to receive the true happiness that they have been seeking for a long long time. That feeling of
somebody accepting what we teach and what we represent as a church really is something that only missionaries experience. Also I'm glad that I have been able to learn another language to help
other people come to the church. A second language will also be of great practical use, haha, I'll have to find ways to still use it to keep it strong.
Yes, it's interesting to think of the things that have changed since I left and the things that have stayed the same. I can't wait to see all of the changes to the house, my siblings haha, Pepper, Lehi, Utah, America, everything, technology, music, sports. It will be a fun weekend. :)
Well, about what I want to eat when I get home... I'm not sure right now. Something Chinese-y, I don't know...haha, you can decide and I'll just enjoy it, though I've had a ton of noodles and Argentine pizza. I don't know...just something American-y. :) or Mexican-y.
Well it will be hard not to think of the house these last couple of days. But being busy in the office really does help.
So last Sunday I went with Elder Lopez to the sacrament meeting of San Fernando, we took the sacrament and then we had to take the car all the way out to Lima... Buenos Aires, like an hour away in car. We had to drop off a DNI card, her ID card, to a hermana that was going to vote and didn't have her card, So we got all the way out there and then we had to come back, it was because of a miscommunication. I've learned that miscommunications can be costly sometimes, that's why it's always important to communicate well.
Being in the office we don't have lots of time for teaching. We still do teach and we have been, but we have been loaded down with finding new pensions (apartments) for all the new missionaries coming in. Everyday we have to travel somewhere, to a real estate place to pick up a contract or to
drop one off. We have been all over Buenos Aires for that, once that this rush calms down the office should have lots more time to proselyte. We have been working with this one man named R-- and his
soon to be wife A--. They have been investigating for a long time and they only have to get married, we are helping them right now to have the desires to do that. So we will see what goes on.
Wow, so much has gone on this last week, I've traveled twice more out to the farthest away zone, Zarate, to drop off supplies and to meet with a real estate guy. Last Tuesday we had all of those newbies come in, 22 Americans and so we were busy with their documents and filing those away and preparing them to go and receive their DNI cards. They are on tourist visas so they still are waiting for their offical visa. We are happy to have them, we are receiving 28 more this Tuesday, so lots of
growth in a small amount of time.
So yesterday we had taco Friday in the offices, Hma Lowry made the whole office and AP´s and the training Sisters tacos, it was really good. The Lowrys finish 3 weeks after me, they are from Midway, UT, and they invited me to their homecoming. It will be fun.
Well, the number one BYU fan says that BYU's lucky charm is returning to the country for the game against Wisconsin and that we will win the rest of our games :) and that we will go BCS bowling :)
Also this last week I finished the Book of Mormon for the first time in Spanish, so that's a good accomplishment for me. :) I'll have to show it to you when I get home. I have lots of stuff to show to you when I get home. haha Hopefully I can take home everything that I want to take home.
The farewell is at 6pm, so like 2pm your time, right? We are a group of 13 missionaries leaving, two Latins and us 11 Americans. The only elder from my MTC district that finished in the other mission was Elder Barnwell. They actually ended two weeks early, it just happened that way. If I had been in the south when the change happened I would've been home for Halloween, crazy no?
So I'm also participating in a choir for the farewell, we are singing a medley of Praise to the Man and We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet. It sounds really cool and I feel the spirit as I sing it.
I've been taking lots of pics, trying to remember Argentina how I will always remember it, or how it really is.
Well, this is the last time that I'll be using this email, so it's been great, but I'm glad to return and to give everyone a big hug!! :) Take care and stay safe and don't arrive late to the airport. :) haha, or lock your keys in the car! haha. Love you!!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
signing off
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Saturday, October 26, 2013
I'm super excited to be here in the offices to help out in whatever ways that I can
Hey there how's it going? :) Yup, it's really true, I'm in the offices right now and I can't believe it! Also, I can't believe how little time I have left on this 2 year mission! That's even more scarier haha. It feels weird writing on Saturday, but I guess it's alright, I'm glad that I'm not staying in the offices for that long, I could do it, but it's stressful sometimes.
Here let me explain what went down in the week.
So Monday was normal, we had that barbeque and then we headed out to work, Tuesday the same thing, just a normal day of work. We couldn't find the two girls that have to be confirmed. So I hope that they find them soon. Then Wednesday morning, I received a call around noon from Pres telling me that he needed help in the offices and that I was the man for him to fill that spot. He told me that I needed to return home and pack my stuff and be in the offices by the afternoon. So that was crazy. I had no idea or forwarning, I didn't have time to really say goodbye to anyone. Kind of sad, but I'll see them at the despedida if they want to come. I'm going to miss Jose C Paz 2, but I'm liking the change of scenery and events and schedule. Now the days are really flying haha. So now I'm super excited to be here in the offices to help out in whatever ways that I can.
I got all packed up, I left some stuff at the pension, little things, stuff that I had adquired throughout the two years. Stuff that I wasn't going to use in these last two weeks. Then we ate the rest of an ice cream cake that we had bought for lunch that day. Then just like that we were out the door and off to San Fernando. So I got there and Elder Mederos, the secretary was there, so I just chilled in the offices, Elder Carvajal stayed in JCP and received a visa waiter, a new elder from Argentina, then he will receive a new ZL comp in 2 weeks. So then finally the other two office elders, we are 4 in total, came back from their different assignments and then I went with Elder Lopez and we dropped off my stuff in their pension, I'm not going to unpack, haha, it's a little crowded for 4 elders and so I'm just going to live out of my suitcase for 2 weeks and I'll call it good. Equally, we are hardly in the pension, we are always here in the offices.
So that night we headed out to a dinner that we had, then we did a couple of contacts of some less active families. Then the next morning was a normal morning, we did the hour personal study and then we sang and read the rule book, then we left by 9:30am to start our day in the offices. I've done lots of different things here, I've done everything from tabbing new incoming missionary booklets to accompaning elder Lopez, the housing coordinator, to different places in the mission to work out contracts of renting apartments and doing all that realtor stuff haha. Yes, we share a car among us, the ap´s and the older office elders. I don't get to drive because I don't have my international drivers license and it's too late to take it out, but still it's weird to travel a lot in a car. I was use to buses and walking.
We don't have a normal set schedule, just do to whatever we need to get done in the day. Like last night we were up late trying to figure out how to get all of the Argentine elders to go to the right places to vote tomorrow. It's a big mess, we have two sisters having to travel up to Rosario, like 5 hours away from the offices, just to vote. You have to vote in the city where you were born, if you find yourself outside of 500 km from that place you can get a paper signed and you don't have to vote and you don't have to pay a fee for not voting. Then I worked a lot yesterday on a plan to get the whole mission mobilized, with 5 different buses taking the 12 zones from different locations to the special conference with Elder Holland and Elder Christofferson on Nov. 16th. So that's the dirty work and stress that we have down here haha, but I like the little change for a little bit.
So that's been my week so far, we also get up at 6 every morning and we play soccer with the AP´s, good exercise and good practice for waking up early to play bball with the ward ;) haha We do some work with the AP's, but not too much, they do help us with the search for new pensions, which is our biggest concern right now. We are going to be receiving 47 new missionaries this Tuesday and the next Tuesday, so lots of new areas that are needing pensions.
Today for pday we dropped off money to the sisters that are traveling to Rosario, and we took advantage by passing by the River stadium close by, we were wanting to enter and take pics, but we didn't have time, then we went to the same Wendy´s that I went to my 2nd pday in the field. Wow, memories. So it was a good pday so far, now we are going to play soccer. It's fun being with Elder DeFriez again, we start and end the mission together.
Well, have a great day. Just know that this week I'm super busy and that I'm all over the mission doing all sorts of things. It's fun to have this experience at the end of the mission. Have a great day family, and yes, we will see each other faster than you know it!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
Yay for BYU, I'm so happy for them!! Finally we beat Boise State. I really hope that we can beat Wisconsin, especially since I'm going to be watching. haha ;) I've been invited by the #2 BYU fan to watch it live. haha
Here let me explain what went down in the week.
So Monday was normal, we had that barbeque and then we headed out to work, Tuesday the same thing, just a normal day of work. We couldn't find the two girls that have to be confirmed. So I hope that they find them soon. Then Wednesday morning, I received a call around noon from Pres telling me that he needed help in the offices and that I was the man for him to fill that spot. He told me that I needed to return home and pack my stuff and be in the offices by the afternoon. So that was crazy. I had no idea or forwarning, I didn't have time to really say goodbye to anyone. Kind of sad, but I'll see them at the despedida if they want to come. I'm going to miss Jose C Paz 2, but I'm liking the change of scenery and events and schedule. Now the days are really flying haha. So now I'm super excited to be here in the offices to help out in whatever ways that I can.
I got all packed up, I left some stuff at the pension, little things, stuff that I had adquired throughout the two years. Stuff that I wasn't going to use in these last two weeks. Then we ate the rest of an ice cream cake that we had bought for lunch that day. Then just like that we were out the door and off to San Fernando. So I got there and Elder Mederos, the secretary was there, so I just chilled in the offices, Elder Carvajal stayed in JCP and received a visa waiter, a new elder from Argentina, then he will receive a new ZL comp in 2 weeks. So then finally the other two office elders, we are 4 in total, came back from their different assignments and then I went with Elder Lopez and we dropped off my stuff in their pension, I'm not going to unpack, haha, it's a little crowded for 4 elders and so I'm just going to live out of my suitcase for 2 weeks and I'll call it good. Equally, we are hardly in the pension, we are always here in the offices.
So that night we headed out to a dinner that we had, then we did a couple of contacts of some less active families. Then the next morning was a normal morning, we did the hour personal study and then we sang and read the rule book, then we left by 9:30am to start our day in the offices. I've done lots of different things here, I've done everything from tabbing new incoming missionary booklets to accompaning elder Lopez, the housing coordinator, to different places in the mission to work out contracts of renting apartments and doing all that realtor stuff haha. Yes, we share a car among us, the ap´s and the older office elders. I don't get to drive because I don't have my international drivers license and it's too late to take it out, but still it's weird to travel a lot in a car. I was use to buses and walking.
We don't have a normal set schedule, just do to whatever we need to get done in the day. Like last night we were up late trying to figure out how to get all of the Argentine elders to go to the right places to vote tomorrow. It's a big mess, we have two sisters having to travel up to Rosario, like 5 hours away from the offices, just to vote. You have to vote in the city where you were born, if you find yourself outside of 500 km from that place you can get a paper signed and you don't have to vote and you don't have to pay a fee for not voting. Then I worked a lot yesterday on a plan to get the whole mission mobilized, with 5 different buses taking the 12 zones from different locations to the special conference with Elder Holland and Elder Christofferson on Nov. 16th. So that's the dirty work and stress that we have down here haha, but I like the little change for a little bit.
So that's been my week so far, we also get up at 6 every morning and we play soccer with the AP´s, good exercise and good practice for waking up early to play bball with the ward ;) haha We do some work with the AP's, but not too much, they do help us with the search for new pensions, which is our biggest concern right now. We are going to be receiving 47 new missionaries this Tuesday and the next Tuesday, so lots of new areas that are needing pensions.
Today for pday we dropped off money to the sisters that are traveling to Rosario, and we took advantage by passing by the River stadium close by, we were wanting to enter and take pics, but we didn't have time, then we went to the same Wendy´s that I went to my 2nd pday in the field. Wow, memories. So it was a good pday so far, now we are going to play soccer. It's fun being with Elder DeFriez again, we start and end the mission together.
Well, have a great day. Just know that this week I'm super busy and that I'm all over the mission doing all sorts of things. It's fun to have this experience at the end of the mission. Have a great day family, and yes, we will see each other faster than you know it!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
Yay for BYU, I'm so happy for them!! Finally we beat Boise State. I really hope that we can beat Wisconsin, especially since I'm going to be watching. haha ;) I've been invited by the #2 BYU fan to watch it live. haha
Monday, October 14, 2013
Sunday was a good day, we had to open up the back curtain to have enough space for everybody.
Hey there, how's it going? :) Can you believe that I only have so many times left to write to you
all? It's crazy how this has all flown by so so fast!! I sure hope that everyone is doing well up there in the north, starting to get a little bit colder and colder, and down here it's heating up. haha I'm glad that I don't have to pass through another summer, that was too much. haha.
I loved the letters and notes and just feeling a little bit closer to you!
So we had a good week, lots of things happened, well lots of just day to day normal things that I can't remember off the top of my head. That's why I write it down in my journal, I can't remember after that all of the details. haha.
So today is the holiday, dia de la raza, or human race day, they don't want to call it dia de cristobal colón, or Columbus Day, oh well, but still nothing is open down here, we are in a ciber that I've never been in before, we are lucky to be writing you today. It's hot today, lots of humidity. A family has invited us to eat an asado, an arg bbq so we are heading out to that after we are done writing. So we are being hurried through this day.
This last Monday we just had a normal afternoon, then Tuesday morning we were up and ready and we left the house at 7 am. We took the train from Jose C Paz up to Pilar, then a 45 min bus ride all the
way over to Escobar and we got there just in time at 9:30am, it was weird seeing all of the missionaries together, all in their white shirts and ties. We had a mini conference beforehand and then we walked over to the zoo, we had fun being together. We could go where ever we wanted with whomever we wanted as long as we were with our comps. We saw everything from fishes, sharks, tigers, and lots of birds. It was funny, we walked into this bird exhibit, the birds just walk around you, we walked through the big cage. We walked in and there were these parrots just sitting on the railing, we could've easily touched them, but we didn't want our fingers to get bitten off. haha It's nothing like an American Zoo but is a good step for Argentina. Then we waited in line for lunch, we hadn't eaten bfast, so we were super hungry. They provided 64 pesos for us to eat lunch, that wasn't enough
for me. haha By 4pm we were leaving and taking the same path home arriving by 5:45pm, so a good full long day!! I felt like a normal person just walking around the park, it was weird after not doing
something like that for such a long time.
So Wednesday we went to San Miguel for the district meeting, it was a good meeting, and as soon as we left the church when it was finished, it started raining. It wasn't torrential but it wasn't sprinkling and we had to walk 15 min. to the train station, so we got a little wet. haha That day it was raining the whole day, even into the night it was thundering and lightning and we had to go to the furthest part of the area to eat a dinner, so we were walking in the dark with the rain and storm all around, it was a fun experience.
Thursday was a normal day, though we found out that the dad of A-- and M-- fought with his girlfriend and they separated and now he's still nice to us but I believe that he doesn't really want
to come to church. It showed when they didn't come to church. We showed our faith by going out to their house to go and look for them, they didn't leave the house. We tried all sorts of things to get them to come to church, but we will just have to keep working with them. It's sad that it happened right now-- just before they need the saving ordinance of the confirmation, he hardens the hearts of
the people.
Friday we enjoyed a good day, normal day, oh also this week we found this awesome kid, a son of this less active lady that just moved here. We are also teaching his baptizable siblings. N-- and P-- came to church yesterday and they have dates for Oct 27th. Yesterday the Lord blessed us with 9 people in church, people bringing family members and people just showing up, it really was a blessing for us because that was only the second time that that has happened to me, having that
many people. Right now we have 5 people with dates, but none for this weekend, so we are going to be searching for the miracles.
Saturday, there was a baptism of a 8 yr old girl that was baptized by the reactivated dad, a ward baptism that we helped in. Then right afterwards we had a mini ward activity, we watched Only a Stonecutter, and then nobody wanted to play volleyball, they only wanted to play soccer, but that was only like 3 boys, so we got a huge game of Tip-It going and they all loved that. There were like 10 people on each team. I incorparated another coin, so there were two coins going around. :) I got some pics that I'll show you in a couple of weeks.
Sunday, it was a good day, we had to open up the back curtain to have enough space for everybody. We normally teach the Gospel Principles class, but yesterday Ornella was assigned to teach it, so it was nice to just sit and listen. E-- keeps on coming, she is so strong, just can't be baptized just yet. It's already been more then 6 weeks since we found her. Then we had a good afternoon, we were able to find A-- and M-- and we read from the Book of Mormon sitting on the grass in front of their house.
So today nothing is open, haha, on their independence day, there were more things open than on this holiday.
We taught lots of lessons, a couple to the family N--, N-- and them all, he's been coming to seminary with his active cousin. We also have been visiting this unmarried couple, trying to get them married so that she can be baptized. We also have visited with A-- and M--. On Monday night we made homeade pizzas with them,
I love you all so so much!!! Thanks for the wonderful letters and notes once again. I think about you and pray for you every day.
Alright, chau!!!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
all? It's crazy how this has all flown by so so fast!! I sure hope that everyone is doing well up there in the north, starting to get a little bit colder and colder, and down here it's heating up. haha I'm glad that I don't have to pass through another summer, that was too much. haha.
I loved the letters and notes and just feeling a little bit closer to you!
So we had a good week, lots of things happened, well lots of just day to day normal things that I can't remember off the top of my head. That's why I write it down in my journal, I can't remember after that all of the details. haha.
So today is the holiday, dia de la raza, or human race day, they don't want to call it dia de cristobal colón, or Columbus Day, oh well, but still nothing is open down here, we are in a ciber that I've never been in before, we are lucky to be writing you today. It's hot today, lots of humidity. A family has invited us to eat an asado, an arg bbq so we are heading out to that after we are done writing. So we are being hurried through this day.
This last Monday we just had a normal afternoon, then Tuesday morning we were up and ready and we left the house at 7 am. We took the train from Jose C Paz up to Pilar, then a 45 min bus ride all the
way over to Escobar and we got there just in time at 9:30am, it was weird seeing all of the missionaries together, all in their white shirts and ties. We had a mini conference beforehand and then we walked over to the zoo, we had fun being together. We could go where ever we wanted with whomever we wanted as long as we were with our comps. We saw everything from fishes, sharks, tigers, and lots of birds. It was funny, we walked into this bird exhibit, the birds just walk around you, we walked through the big cage. We walked in and there were these parrots just sitting on the railing, we could've easily touched them, but we didn't want our fingers to get bitten off. haha It's nothing like an American Zoo but is a good step for Argentina. Then we waited in line for lunch, we hadn't eaten bfast, so we were super hungry. They provided 64 pesos for us to eat lunch, that wasn't enough
for me. haha By 4pm we were leaving and taking the same path home arriving by 5:45pm, so a good full long day!! I felt like a normal person just walking around the park, it was weird after not doing
something like that for such a long time.
So Wednesday we went to San Miguel for the district meeting, it was a good meeting, and as soon as we left the church when it was finished, it started raining. It wasn't torrential but it wasn't sprinkling and we had to walk 15 min. to the train station, so we got a little wet. haha That day it was raining the whole day, even into the night it was thundering and lightning and we had to go to the furthest part of the area to eat a dinner, so we were walking in the dark with the rain and storm all around, it was a fun experience.
Thursday was a normal day, though we found out that the dad of A-- and M-- fought with his girlfriend and they separated and now he's still nice to us but I believe that he doesn't really want
to come to church. It showed when they didn't come to church. We showed our faith by going out to their house to go and look for them, they didn't leave the house. We tried all sorts of things to get them to come to church, but we will just have to keep working with them. It's sad that it happened right now-- just before they need the saving ordinance of the confirmation, he hardens the hearts of
the people.
Friday we enjoyed a good day, normal day, oh also this week we found this awesome kid, a son of this less active lady that just moved here. We are also teaching his baptizable siblings. N-- and P-- came to church yesterday and they have dates for Oct 27th. Yesterday the Lord blessed us with 9 people in church, people bringing family members and people just showing up, it really was a blessing for us because that was only the second time that that has happened to me, having that
many people. Right now we have 5 people with dates, but none for this weekend, so we are going to be searching for the miracles.
Saturday, there was a baptism of a 8 yr old girl that was baptized by the reactivated dad, a ward baptism that we helped in. Then right afterwards we had a mini ward activity, we watched Only a Stonecutter, and then nobody wanted to play volleyball, they only wanted to play soccer, but that was only like 3 boys, so we got a huge game of Tip-It going and they all loved that. There were like 10 people on each team. I incorparated another coin, so there were two coins going around. :) I got some pics that I'll show you in a couple of weeks.
Sunday, it was a good day, we had to open up the back curtain to have enough space for everybody. We normally teach the Gospel Principles class, but yesterday Ornella was assigned to teach it, so it was nice to just sit and listen. E-- keeps on coming, she is so strong, just can't be baptized just yet. It's already been more then 6 weeks since we found her. Then we had a good afternoon, we were able to find A-- and M-- and we read from the Book of Mormon sitting on the grass in front of their house.
So today nothing is open, haha, on their independence day, there were more things open than on this holiday.
We taught lots of lessons, a couple to the family N--, N-- and them all, he's been coming to seminary with his active cousin. We also have been visiting this unmarried couple, trying to get them married so that she can be baptized. We also have visited with A-- and M--. On Monday night we made homeade pizzas with them,
I love you all so so much!!! Thanks for the wonderful letters and notes once again. I think about you and pray for you every day.
Alright, chau!!!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
Monday, October 7, 2013
I loved watching General Conference
Hey there family that I love so much. :) Thanks so much for the notes and the pics and the love that I felt for you all!!!
I LOVED THE VIDEO!! I was so surprised and I'm glad that it all worked out, it was funny to see you all, haha for a second I thought that it was a live feed, it was just a quick wish of mine haha, but then I realized that it was only a video but I loved it equally!! Wow, everyone`s voices have changed a lot!! You are all so grown up!!
I enjoyed my birthday in the mission field. This year we ate less cake, but that's actually a good thing haha We had lunch with E-- and M--, O--, who has become best friends with E-- was also there. We were all there, the four elders and we had a lunch of oven baked chicken and a potato salad, then we had a basic Argentine cake, premade thin cake layers stuck together with dulce de leche in the middle then peaches on top. I miss the American cakes haha, but it was fun being with friends and to see you as well, that was really special. That was really nice of O-- to set that all up.
Wow I can't believe that im 21!! I was asked last night, how old I was and I had to stop my self from saying 20 and I was like, wow, I'm 21 yrs old. So old haha, I'm not a teenager anymore. But I still feel the same as before.
I was able to gift my cd of the church hymns in Spanish to E-- and she was crying with gratitude. So I've learned that it's nice to recieve but that it's better to give. The feeling after gifting the cd was worth it. :) I've also given them a couple of the dvd`s that I have, and I'm sure that I can leave some other stuff with them.
Our week in general was chill, nothing too crazy happened, the weather has been between warm and cold, sunny and cloudy. It was supposed to rain on Friday but it was sunny all day, good weather.
Yes, we had the baptism yesterday inbetween sessions. That was the crazy story of the week I guess, one never has the perfect baptism where everything works out on its own. There`s a ton of stress haha. So we get to Sunday morning, we are watching the morning session and I ask the elder that is in JCP1, a different ward, if he was filling up the font, turns out that he still hadn't so we almost didn't
have a full font. Then after the session we were looking for a supposedly white dress for a 9yr old girl that the church had but we couldn't find it. The family was standing over my shoulders, stress, so
we decided to go and see if we could find anything in our church, we went in the car of the Farnsworth's, the older couple of the ward, they drove us over, and almost to the church I get this thought to call A--'s family, the 9yr old girl that was baptized Sept 14th, and to ask to borrow her own dress that she had used. Luckily they were home and were willing to share it with us. We arrived late and the families and the ward were waiting for us. We quickly changed into the white clothes. So all in all it all worked out. :) The stress-free feeling afterwards is totally worth it.
I really enjoyed conference weekend. I did something that I've never had done before in the mission. We got to the church in San Miguel on Saturday and no one had set up the English screen in another
room, so I had to watch the first session in Spanish, it's just not the same.
I also loved Elder Maynes' talk, also Elder Nielson's talk, the former BYU quarterback, lots of energy!! I loved the spirit that I felt from Pres Monson Sunday morning and as he closed out the sessions. Yah it was cool to think that we were just with Elder Viñas and it was fun to hear his English. I now know how they all feel, I speak in Spanish the same that they speak in English.
This morning we had a special leadership conference with all of the ZLs and DLs in San Fernando with Pres, we talked a quick 2 hours and then they fed us a mini lunch and sent us off, luckily we can
write to you all.
Well its crazy to think that in one month's time I'll be getting off the plane and giving you all a hug. I'm not constantly thinking about that but it's on the back of my mind. They haven't told us our travel plans yet, but they will tell you guys so you can be there to pick me up, so that it's not a RM experience haha. You still live in the same house, right? haha
This last week a member loaned me the institute book about the restoration of the church in the fullness of times in Spanish and that has been fun to read that and learn details about church history that I never knew.
Dad, yes, conference was great and I loved all of the talks. I thought it was interesting that most of the subjects that the apostles picked, we are living in a changing world. I also loved hearing that we now have 15 million members!! Remember when you were on your mission, just a couple of million, no? Wow, how much will we have in 20 yrs?!? Fun to think about.
I loved the talk by Elder Nelson, about learning to control our body in this life and that the purpose of life is learning how to control our God given appetites. Also how Elder Christofferson was calling all of the men and women to step it up. One could just feel the spirit when Pres Monson announced that, and yes, I thought that it was special that he mentioned so much about his wife. I really do appreciate all that you have done for mom and the example that you have set for me. I hope that I can be like you one day.haha A stud. I also learned a lot from conference, there are lots of things that I need to work on to become more like Christ.
Everything is going good with the four of us, we get along. I get along good with my comp and we are surviving with the four of us cramped in our pension.
Inbetween sessions on Saturday we did divisions, my comp went to go look for someone in another area while I waited with the DL to do the interview of our two baptisms. Then Sunday we were zooming around in a car searching for a white dress, then around 4:45pm we finally were able to eat lunch. jaja 15 min. before the last session.
Have a great week and know that I know that this is the true church!! I love each and every one of you so so much!! Have a great week and enjoy the fall weather and the upcoming fall break!!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
I LOVED THE VIDEO!! I was so surprised and I'm glad that it all worked out, it was funny to see you all, haha for a second I thought that it was a live feed, it was just a quick wish of mine haha, but then I realized that it was only a video but I loved it equally!! Wow, everyone`s voices have changed a lot!! You are all so grown up!!
I enjoyed my birthday in the mission field. This year we ate less cake, but that's actually a good thing haha We had lunch with E-- and M--, O--, who has become best friends with E-- was also there. We were all there, the four elders and we had a lunch of oven baked chicken and a potato salad, then we had a basic Argentine cake, premade thin cake layers stuck together with dulce de leche in the middle then peaches on top. I miss the American cakes haha, but it was fun being with friends and to see you as well, that was really special. That was really nice of O-- to set that all up.
Wow I can't believe that im 21!! I was asked last night, how old I was and I had to stop my self from saying 20 and I was like, wow, I'm 21 yrs old. So old haha, I'm not a teenager anymore. But I still feel the same as before.
I was able to gift my cd of the church hymns in Spanish to E-- and she was crying with gratitude. So I've learned that it's nice to recieve but that it's better to give. The feeling after gifting the cd was worth it. :) I've also given them a couple of the dvd`s that I have, and I'm sure that I can leave some other stuff with them.
Our week in general was chill, nothing too crazy happened, the weather has been between warm and cold, sunny and cloudy. It was supposed to rain on Friday but it was sunny all day, good weather.
Yes, we had the baptism yesterday inbetween sessions. That was the crazy story of the week I guess, one never has the perfect baptism where everything works out on its own. There`s a ton of stress haha. So we get to Sunday morning, we are watching the morning session and I ask the elder that is in JCP1, a different ward, if he was filling up the font, turns out that he still hadn't so we almost didn't
have a full font. Then after the session we were looking for a supposedly white dress for a 9yr old girl that the church had but we couldn't find it. The family was standing over my shoulders, stress, so
we decided to go and see if we could find anything in our church, we went in the car of the Farnsworth's, the older couple of the ward, they drove us over, and almost to the church I get this thought to call A--'s family, the 9yr old girl that was baptized Sept 14th, and to ask to borrow her own dress that she had used. Luckily they were home and were willing to share it with us. We arrived late and the families and the ward were waiting for us. We quickly changed into the white clothes. So all in all it all worked out. :) The stress-free feeling afterwards is totally worth it.
I really enjoyed conference weekend. I did something that I've never had done before in the mission. We got to the church in San Miguel on Saturday and no one had set up the English screen in another
room, so I had to watch the first session in Spanish, it's just not the same.
I also loved Elder Maynes' talk, also Elder Nielson's talk, the former BYU quarterback, lots of energy!! I loved the spirit that I felt from Pres Monson Sunday morning and as he closed out the sessions. Yah it was cool to think that we were just with Elder Viñas and it was fun to hear his English. I now know how they all feel, I speak in Spanish the same that they speak in English.
This morning we had a special leadership conference with all of the ZLs and DLs in San Fernando with Pres, we talked a quick 2 hours and then they fed us a mini lunch and sent us off, luckily we can
write to you all.
Well its crazy to think that in one month's time I'll be getting off the plane and giving you all a hug. I'm not constantly thinking about that but it's on the back of my mind. They haven't told us our travel plans yet, but they will tell you guys so you can be there to pick me up, so that it's not a RM experience haha. You still live in the same house, right? haha
This last week a member loaned me the institute book about the restoration of the church in the fullness of times in Spanish and that has been fun to read that and learn details about church history that I never knew.
Dad, yes, conference was great and I loved all of the talks. I thought it was interesting that most of the subjects that the apostles picked, we are living in a changing world. I also loved hearing that we now have 15 million members!! Remember when you were on your mission, just a couple of million, no? Wow, how much will we have in 20 yrs?!? Fun to think about.
I loved the talk by Elder Nelson, about learning to control our body in this life and that the purpose of life is learning how to control our God given appetites. Also how Elder Christofferson was calling all of the men and women to step it up. One could just feel the spirit when Pres Monson announced that, and yes, I thought that it was special that he mentioned so much about his wife. I really do appreciate all that you have done for mom and the example that you have set for me. I hope that I can be like you one day.haha A stud. I also learned a lot from conference, there are lots of things that I need to work on to become more like Christ.
Everything is going good with the four of us, we get along. I get along good with my comp and we are surviving with the four of us cramped in our pension.
Inbetween sessions on Saturday we did divisions, my comp went to go look for someone in another area while I waited with the DL to do the interview of our two baptisms. Then Sunday we were zooming around in a car searching for a white dress, then around 4:45pm we finally were able to eat lunch. jaja 15 min. before the last session.
Have a great week and know that I know that this is the true church!! I love each and every one of you so so much!! Have a great week and enjoy the fall weather and the upcoming fall break!!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
Me and My Companion
Monday, September 30, 2013
This last month we broke a mission record for confirmations in a month!
Hey there Family :) I'm so glad that you all had a great week!! Thanks for all of the notes and birthday wishes, I even kinda forgot how close was my birthday, I knew it was coming up but it surprisingly snuck up on me this time. haha. Yah I can't believe that I'm turning 21! I feel so old
and I can't believe that it's October again, exciting time of the year for me and for the family. :)
I'll try to answer all of the questions and include more details, haha I include all of the details in my daily journal that I've been keeping my whole mission. It's full of everyday details and the things that I've eaten, to funny moments and other moments that I don't want to forget. I get a laugh as I read about what I was doing over a year ago haha, For example, a year ago I was in Savio and we went to lunch with a Peruvian family after church and then we went with the young women's president to do a visit to a less-active young woman and then we went house hunting, looking for a house from a ref that we had received with Hmo C--, we didn't find it. Then when it was night time, we met up with
F-- at the plaza close to the C--'s house. He was late and came running up to us, which from the point of view of a nearby cop, looked like he was robbing us and he quickly drove over to see what was going on. haha It was all good, and funny. Then I ate ice cream and played a game of chess right before bed. haha I just read that today, but it's funny to remember all of the those experiences and have them ready to remember.
Tuesday we played soccer at our church. 12 young men came and we played lots of games, I scored 3
times, once on a break away where I manuevered through the 2 defenders to send it home with the left foot, it was a great feeling. I'm excited for the World Cup that's coming up next June, 2014 in Brazil. Everyone down here is super excited, especially because they think that Argentina should go far, but I think that Brazil will win it all. They will have home field advantage.
The weather this last week also was up and down we had days of lot of heat and then other days that it was rainy and windy which made it super muddy and cold. So the other 2 elders arrived on Tuesday night at around 11:30pm, we had to help them get situated and ready to go to bed, luckily they allowed us to sleep the 8 hours, so we were able to get our sleep. It's hard for the new elders that came in. He`s doing well in a tough situation. So the new elder is Elder Hicks from AZ, he has 7 months on the mission and he's training for the first time, his new comp is Elder Paricahua from Lima, Perú, he's a newbie that started Sept 11. So Elder Hicks just got moved up to senior comp and a trainer at the same time, starting a new area in a new place that he`s never been in and his comp is brand new, the only advantage is that he already speaks the language. So I got lucky that when I was moved up it was in parts that allowed me to adjust. So they have been getting to know the area better and learning how to get around. They are still without a cell phone, but luckily we have given them another set of keys.
Elder Carvajal and I are getting along really well. He`s an awesome missionary and an awesome guy in general! He was baptized when he was 17, three years ago, and he`s the only member of his family. His family doesn't really support him, but he has a lot of desire to serve and work. We work well together. He has a different teaching style than Elder Gonzales, which has been the only thing that I have to get used to.
We have been visiting the G-- family, they live on the edge of the mission and it's a long trip down there everyday but we have to have daily visual contact with them to help them come to church. We baptized recently G-- and M-- and now we are working on their half sisters A-- and M--. They are an awesome family and they always give us stuff to snack on haha. Like this stuff called polenta, I don't know what it's called in English but they cook it in hot milk and add sugar for a fun treat. It's like a corn mush, but not, I don't know how to explain it haha. Also torta fritas, I forgot what they are called in English haha.
This week for lunches we had a lot of spaghetti with red meat sauce. We also ate milenesa and one day we went to a pizza buffet that just opened up here around the corner from where we live. We didn't have lunch like 3 days this last week, and one day we made spicy spaghetti, the other day we went and had the pizza buffet, which was really good haha, but kinda leaves your inards destroyed. haha
With the division of the area that we did, I'm no longer technically on the side of M-- and E--, but we ate dinner with them on Thursday night, they are so up and down haha, the missionaries for them are a stabilizer, but they both came to church on Sunday and in skirts, when M-- was baptized Elder Gonzales came from the neighboring area to confirm her, she was threating not to be confirmed if he didn't do it, haha. It's sweet how they sometimes get so attached to their missionaries. They also came to the ward activity on Saturday night, which because of the weather, cold and rainy, hardly anyone came, but we made it a fun experience. For the activity we made popcorn, we were like 12 people, but we watched lots of Mormon Messages and then we played a type of hot potato game and then I taught them the quarter game. The one where you sit with the two teams on the opposite sides of the table and you pass it around and then you have to smack it down on the table without making it known where the coin is. It was funny, but they started to get the hang of it. haha
Sunday morning we woke up and it's pouring, no!! The worst sign for a missionary, especially in rural Argentina! So we had half the attendance this week with what we had the previous week. No one came to church as an investigator, so that was sad, but everyone put the weather as an excuse. I'm glad that we have access to a car haha, but it would be difficult to have to walk to church or to a bus in the cold and rain through the mud. It's difficult, but we still have to commit them better throughout the week.
So we also had exciting news!! This last month we broke a mission record for confirmations in a month, we were blessed in helping 201 souls as a mission become members of the church and receive the blessings of the Holy Ghost. So the whole mission is really excited right now and Pres is going to celebrate. We are going as a mission to a huge public zoo in Escobar next Tuesday. That will be our
pday, but I will still write to you on Monday, they have given us 2 hours to write to family and friends. It's exciting to accomplish something like that especially being an old elder in this mission. It's crazy to think that there aren't any missionaries with more time than me and those that are in my
group. Lots of experience. haha
Teaching this week was great, we are learning how to teach together but that's nothing, just the normal comp changes, but we are getting along really well, we like to quote church movie quotes together haha, super funny.
Well I've got to go, but thanks for all of the love and support and I'm sure that I'll have a great birthday. :) Enjoy conference and see you next week. :)
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
Oh, and another cool thing, a new elder that just got here in an area right next to me in my district is Elder Goff from Highland, UT. He knew Tanner from junior high, haha, small world.
Go BYU!!!
and I can't believe that it's October again, exciting time of the year for me and for the family. :)
I'll try to answer all of the questions and include more details, haha I include all of the details in my daily journal that I've been keeping my whole mission. It's full of everyday details and the things that I've eaten, to funny moments and other moments that I don't want to forget. I get a laugh as I read about what I was doing over a year ago haha, For example, a year ago I was in Savio and we went to lunch with a Peruvian family after church and then we went with the young women's president to do a visit to a less-active young woman and then we went house hunting, looking for a house from a ref that we had received with Hmo C--, we didn't find it. Then when it was night time, we met up with
F-- at the plaza close to the C--'s house. He was late and came running up to us, which from the point of view of a nearby cop, looked like he was robbing us and he quickly drove over to see what was going on. haha It was all good, and funny. Then I ate ice cream and played a game of chess right before bed. haha I just read that today, but it's funny to remember all of the those experiences and have them ready to remember.
Tuesday we played soccer at our church. 12 young men came and we played lots of games, I scored 3
times, once on a break away where I manuevered through the 2 defenders to send it home with the left foot, it was a great feeling. I'm excited for the World Cup that's coming up next June, 2014 in Brazil. Everyone down here is super excited, especially because they think that Argentina should go far, but I think that Brazil will win it all. They will have home field advantage.
The weather this last week also was up and down we had days of lot of heat and then other days that it was rainy and windy which made it super muddy and cold. So the other 2 elders arrived on Tuesday night at around 11:30pm, we had to help them get situated and ready to go to bed, luckily they allowed us to sleep the 8 hours, so we were able to get our sleep. It's hard for the new elders that came in. He`s doing well in a tough situation. So the new elder is Elder Hicks from AZ, he has 7 months on the mission and he's training for the first time, his new comp is Elder Paricahua from Lima, Perú, he's a newbie that started Sept 11. So Elder Hicks just got moved up to senior comp and a trainer at the same time, starting a new area in a new place that he`s never been in and his comp is brand new, the only advantage is that he already speaks the language. So I got lucky that when I was moved up it was in parts that allowed me to adjust. So they have been getting to know the area better and learning how to get around. They are still without a cell phone, but luckily we have given them another set of keys.
Elder Carvajal and I are getting along really well. He`s an awesome missionary and an awesome guy in general! He was baptized when he was 17, three years ago, and he`s the only member of his family. His family doesn't really support him, but he has a lot of desire to serve and work. We work well together. He has a different teaching style than Elder Gonzales, which has been the only thing that I have to get used to.
We have been visiting the G-- family, they live on the edge of the mission and it's a long trip down there everyday but we have to have daily visual contact with them to help them come to church. We baptized recently G-- and M-- and now we are working on their half sisters A-- and M--. They are an awesome family and they always give us stuff to snack on haha. Like this stuff called polenta, I don't know what it's called in English but they cook it in hot milk and add sugar for a fun treat. It's like a corn mush, but not, I don't know how to explain it haha. Also torta fritas, I forgot what they are called in English haha.
This week for lunches we had a lot of spaghetti with red meat sauce. We also ate milenesa and one day we went to a pizza buffet that just opened up here around the corner from where we live. We didn't have lunch like 3 days this last week, and one day we made spicy spaghetti, the other day we went and had the pizza buffet, which was really good haha, but kinda leaves your inards destroyed. haha
With the division of the area that we did, I'm no longer technically on the side of M-- and E--, but we ate dinner with them on Thursday night, they are so up and down haha, the missionaries for them are a stabilizer, but they both came to church on Sunday and in skirts, when M-- was baptized Elder Gonzales came from the neighboring area to confirm her, she was threating not to be confirmed if he didn't do it, haha. It's sweet how they sometimes get so attached to their missionaries. They also came to the ward activity on Saturday night, which because of the weather, cold and rainy, hardly anyone came, but we made it a fun experience. For the activity we made popcorn, we were like 12 people, but we watched lots of Mormon Messages and then we played a type of hot potato game and then I taught them the quarter game. The one where you sit with the two teams on the opposite sides of the table and you pass it around and then you have to smack it down on the table without making it known where the coin is. It was funny, but they started to get the hang of it. haha
Sunday morning we woke up and it's pouring, no!! The worst sign for a missionary, especially in rural Argentina! So we had half the attendance this week with what we had the previous week. No one came to church as an investigator, so that was sad, but everyone put the weather as an excuse. I'm glad that we have access to a car haha, but it would be difficult to have to walk to church or to a bus in the cold and rain through the mud. It's difficult, but we still have to commit them better throughout the week.
So we also had exciting news!! This last month we broke a mission record for confirmations in a month, we were blessed in helping 201 souls as a mission become members of the church and receive the blessings of the Holy Ghost. So the whole mission is really excited right now and Pres is going to celebrate. We are going as a mission to a huge public zoo in Escobar next Tuesday. That will be our
pday, but I will still write to you on Monday, they have given us 2 hours to write to family and friends. It's exciting to accomplish something like that especially being an old elder in this mission. It's crazy to think that there aren't any missionaries with more time than me and those that are in my
group. Lots of experience. haha
Teaching this week was great, we are learning how to teach together but that's nothing, just the normal comp changes, but we are getting along really well, we like to quote church movie quotes together haha, super funny.
Well I've got to go, but thanks for all of the love and support and I'm sure that I'll have a great birthday. :) Enjoy conference and see you next week. :)
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
Oh, and another cool thing, a new elder that just got here in an area right next to me in my district is Elder Goff from Highland, UT. He knew Tanner from junior high, haha, small world.
Go BYU!!!
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Wow, I want to be baptized like that!
Well, your waiting is done, the news is out... I'm staying. :) I'm really excited to stay in an area that I already know and that I'm going to be able to have my birthday here as well. :) My new companion is Elder Carvajal, he is from Chile and has almost a year and a half in the mission and he seems like a chill guy and a good worker and so I'm excited. :)
Today is transfer pday and so I don't have too much time because we started later :) but thank you so much for the news and pics. I loved it all, though I'm kinda bummed about the BYU game. Ugh haha oh well, don't worry, their good luck charm will be there soon. ;)
So first of all, there have been a lot of changes, the whole zone was changed up, we opened 4 new areas and split it into two zones of 8 elders with 2 districts. Elder Gonzales was sent around the corner to Vucetich and I stayed. Jose C Paz 2 was split and now we are JCP 2 and JCP 3, 4 elders in the same ward. So now we are going to be 4 elders in the tiny pension again haha, but I'll survive like I have before. We still haven't met the new elders that are coming, it will be an American, who was actually trained by Elder Barragan, so in mission terms he's my grandson and he's training so I have the privilege in my old age to have a great-grandson in the mission, haha. So I'm old. haha
We split the zone north and south and I'm taking the south part. Now we have to figure out how to divide the area, I'm thinking of doing it east and west and us taking the west side, the part that touches the west mission. So I'm now officially zone leader senior comp, so now I have that
responsibility haha, but now I'm going to "die" as a zone leader and I guess that's what the Lord wants me to do. :)
So I have to tell you all about M-- and how she was baptized! On Tuesday we received a call telling us that M-- wasn't going to be baptized, she had a doubt that she couldn't get over. We later found out that it was tithing. We were able to get through all of her doubts, giving up the Virgin Mary and knowing that the bishop doesn't recieve and use her tithing money. Then on Friday we had scheduled her interview and I received a message three hours before telling us that she couldn't be baptized, haha, it's passed so many times that I didn't even blink. We headed over at the time planned and I just sent in Elder Stewart to do the interview, after an hour she passed, turns out that she did have an abortion over 20 years ago and felt really bad about it, she was afraid that she couldn't be baptized for that but it happened so long ago and she really was repentant, so she passed with flying colors and she was super excited!! She even got one of her wayward sons to come to the baptism, with his wife and daughter, the daughter saw the baptism and was like, wow, I want to be baptized like that!! Now we have to get the permission of the dad... but we are depending on the spirit, but I think according to where I want to divide the area that they are going to be with the new elders, but they will be in good
hands.
So she left the font super happy and with a big smile and it went perfectly! :) Then after church we went far away to eat Peruvian food and then we went to the missionary farewell and that was a crazy
experience to think that's me in 6 weeks, what!?
We are also working with the cousins of G-- and M--, well technically they are half-siblings, same thing right, haha, anyways they have a date for Oct. 6th, we are excited for them because they already
have the signature of their father. We are working with him, G-- too. :)
Friday and Saturday night we got home late both nights, we were out doing late interviews. Saturday night we got completely lost, we didn't get off at the right stop on the bus, haha I think we might have
gone into another zone, but it was on accident haha.
Yes, on Thursday we had the mission conference with Elder Viñas and it was excellent to learn from him. It was just him with the half of the mission. He is a man that just uses the scriptures to answer questions and quotes from the prophets and Preach My Gospel, so like he said that we couldn't deny his words because they were the Lord's. We learned more about the work of Salvation, how the missionaries are in all of the 5 facets of this work. We learned about the importance of saving the members that have entered the temple but now don't have a current temple recommend. He had lots of missionaries stand up and bear their testimony on the Atonement and how it has blessed their lives, he used the scripture Jacob 4:12, it's like why shouldn't we talk about the Atonement, something like that haha. But overall it was a great experience.
We had a great experience Saturday morning, so we decided to drop in unexpected on this one companionship that is having troubles. We have their keys and we got all the way to their door, it was 8:30am and they were still in their jammies and they weren't studying, so we fixed that and then we had a good 2 hour discussion with them and hearing their complaints and concerns about their area. They think that the church is dead there, but using Preach My Gospel and the scriptures we were able to get them more excited to be more obedient and more diligent. They actually had two people in church, which is 2 more than normal. I was glad to help them in a good way, well it wasn't me but the spirit.
It rained a couple of times this last week and it's been colder and windy, not winter-like cold, but more cold than it should be in spring, it just hit and everyone was excited for the holiday, they
have a holiday and a day off from work for like 30 occasions... and they ask us why we earn so much money haha, it's a different economy, but I'm realizing that it's also a different attitude, don't get me
wrong, there are a lot of great hard workers down here, lots of them are members of the church, but it's still funny to see the culture difference.
This morning I did receive your packages, thanks for the bday gifts and candy. :) I love it and I'm already wearing the BYU shirt. :)
As of now we are at 26 baptisms and 20 confirmations, so we need 9 to break the zone record and we only have 3 sets, so we are going to need a couple of miracles haha, us in my area, we don't have anybody. But we are looking to having a couple on Oct. 6th.
Pres Ayre speaks to us in Spanish because I'm with a Spanish comp, but sometimes he speaks to me in English when I call him, but when two Americans are together it's all in English.
I love the scripture you sent and it makes me think of you also, because you were just in front of me to come down. Do you think that we met each other before, like hey Ryan this will be your earthly mother! one wonders, no? haha
Yes, I did receive a letter from Tanner and I'm glad that he is doing well and enjoying his time in the peach state.
Remember to send pics of this week's game and I hope that they win big!!
Have a great week family and we will be writing each other soon! :)
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
Today is transfer pday and so I don't have too much time because we started later :) but thank you so much for the news and pics. I loved it all, though I'm kinda bummed about the BYU game. Ugh haha oh well, don't worry, their good luck charm will be there soon. ;)
So first of all, there have been a lot of changes, the whole zone was changed up, we opened 4 new areas and split it into two zones of 8 elders with 2 districts. Elder Gonzales was sent around the corner to Vucetich and I stayed. Jose C Paz 2 was split and now we are JCP 2 and JCP 3, 4 elders in the same ward. So now we are going to be 4 elders in the tiny pension again haha, but I'll survive like I have before. We still haven't met the new elders that are coming, it will be an American, who was actually trained by Elder Barragan, so in mission terms he's my grandson and he's training so I have the privilege in my old age to have a great-grandson in the mission, haha. So I'm old. haha
We split the zone north and south and I'm taking the south part. Now we have to figure out how to divide the area, I'm thinking of doing it east and west and us taking the west side, the part that touches the west mission. So I'm now officially zone leader senior comp, so now I have that
responsibility haha, but now I'm going to "die" as a zone leader and I guess that's what the Lord wants me to do. :)
So I have to tell you all about M-- and how she was baptized! On Tuesday we received a call telling us that M-- wasn't going to be baptized, she had a doubt that she couldn't get over. We later found out that it was tithing. We were able to get through all of her doubts, giving up the Virgin Mary and knowing that the bishop doesn't recieve and use her tithing money. Then on Friday we had scheduled her interview and I received a message three hours before telling us that she couldn't be baptized, haha, it's passed so many times that I didn't even blink. We headed over at the time planned and I just sent in Elder Stewart to do the interview, after an hour she passed, turns out that she did have an abortion over 20 years ago and felt really bad about it, she was afraid that she couldn't be baptized for that but it happened so long ago and she really was repentant, so she passed with flying colors and she was super excited!! She even got one of her wayward sons to come to the baptism, with his wife and daughter, the daughter saw the baptism and was like, wow, I want to be baptized like that!! Now we have to get the permission of the dad... but we are depending on the spirit, but I think according to where I want to divide the area that they are going to be with the new elders, but they will be in good
hands.
So she left the font super happy and with a big smile and it went perfectly! :) Then after church we went far away to eat Peruvian food and then we went to the missionary farewell and that was a crazy
experience to think that's me in 6 weeks, what!?
We are also working with the cousins of G-- and M--, well technically they are half-siblings, same thing right, haha, anyways they have a date for Oct. 6th, we are excited for them because they already
have the signature of their father. We are working with him, G-- too. :)
Friday and Saturday night we got home late both nights, we were out doing late interviews. Saturday night we got completely lost, we didn't get off at the right stop on the bus, haha I think we might have
gone into another zone, but it was on accident haha.
Yes, on Thursday we had the mission conference with Elder Viñas and it was excellent to learn from him. It was just him with the half of the mission. He is a man that just uses the scriptures to answer questions and quotes from the prophets and Preach My Gospel, so like he said that we couldn't deny his words because they were the Lord's. We learned more about the work of Salvation, how the missionaries are in all of the 5 facets of this work. We learned about the importance of saving the members that have entered the temple but now don't have a current temple recommend. He had lots of missionaries stand up and bear their testimony on the Atonement and how it has blessed their lives, he used the scripture Jacob 4:12, it's like why shouldn't we talk about the Atonement, something like that haha. But overall it was a great experience.
We had a great experience Saturday morning, so we decided to drop in unexpected on this one companionship that is having troubles. We have their keys and we got all the way to their door, it was 8:30am and they were still in their jammies and they weren't studying, so we fixed that and then we had a good 2 hour discussion with them and hearing their complaints and concerns about their area. They think that the church is dead there, but using Preach My Gospel and the scriptures we were able to get them more excited to be more obedient and more diligent. They actually had two people in church, which is 2 more than normal. I was glad to help them in a good way, well it wasn't me but the spirit.
It rained a couple of times this last week and it's been colder and windy, not winter-like cold, but more cold than it should be in spring, it just hit and everyone was excited for the holiday, they
have a holiday and a day off from work for like 30 occasions... and they ask us why we earn so much money haha, it's a different economy, but I'm realizing that it's also a different attitude, don't get me
wrong, there are a lot of great hard workers down here, lots of them are members of the church, but it's still funny to see the culture difference.
This morning I did receive your packages, thanks for the bday gifts and candy. :) I love it and I'm already wearing the BYU shirt. :)
As of now we are at 26 baptisms and 20 confirmations, so we need 9 to break the zone record and we only have 3 sets, so we are going to need a couple of miracles haha, us in my area, we don't have anybody. But we are looking to having a couple on Oct. 6th.
Pres Ayre speaks to us in Spanish because I'm with a Spanish comp, but sometimes he speaks to me in English when I call him, but when two Americans are together it's all in English.
I love the scripture you sent and it makes me think of you also, because you were just in front of me to come down. Do you think that we met each other before, like hey Ryan this will be your earthly mother! one wonders, no? haha
Yes, I did receive a letter from Tanner and I'm glad that he is doing well and enjoying his time in the peach state.
Remember to send pics of this week's game and I hope that they win big!!
Have a great week family and we will be writing each other soon! :)
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
M-- was baptized by me and it was a miracle!! I Love the Mission!!
Monday, September 16, 2013
Our zone is going to be split
Hey there family. :) So a great week and sounds like you all had a great week as well. :)
So to start everything off we were extremely blessed by the Lord with 3 baptisms and 4 confirmations, J-- was confirmed and A--, G-- and M-- were all baptized on Saturday and confirmed yesterday, it was a great feeling to be able to help them out.
Last Monday it was really hot, we played soccer and I played so hard in the heat that I was left feeling weird, it's just that the climate is changing between freezing rain and super hot, right now it's freezing with a ton of rain. So it was a weird weather week.
That night we taught the Law of Chasity to E-- and we had to let her know that she still had to wait to be baptized. We tried hard to make it not as hard for her to take, but she took it hard. The next morning she called us and told us that she wouldn't be able to meet with us that day and that she would be calling us to set up another appointment, the normal sign of an investigator dropping us, we were so sad, we sent her messages and she explained to us that she felt so bad for living together without being married that she thought that God didn't love her, it was totally Satan working on her, but she listened to our counsel to read in the Book of Mormon and then kneel down and pray, she said that she felt like Jesus had put his arm around her and she felt so happy and peaceful. We were picking up the food for lunch and instead of heading over to eat, we went straight to her house to see how she was doing and she was a totally different person. :) The Lord had completely changed her heart and now she was wanting us to keep coming by and we were able to see them everyday of the week. :) We met her boy friend and he is a good guy, but we need to find a way to get to him so that he can see the importance of these things. M-- is progressing well and she has her date for this Sunday, so we are praying that all goes well. Yeah, then again two years ago, they received the pamphlet of the Plan of Salvation again when Mirta's husband was dying from diabetes. But no, they never searched out the church or anything, that's why the Lord was so strong in directing us to
them.
That was the coolest story of the week, we were able to see everyone every single day to have daily contact, which meant lots of traveling. So I was tired for most of the week, with the climate changing so fast I was sick a couple times in the week, I don't know why, but now I'm feeling better to write to you all. Oh and after the baptism on Saturday night, I wasn't feeling well and I threw up lunch, but it took away the head pain, then they had me play the piano as a couple of members sang Christmas hymns. Don't ask me why, haha, it's what they wanted. But it was good to finally play the piano
again, I miss playing the piano.
Haha we got stuck in a torrential rain looking for lunch on Thursday. We got onto the bus to head home just soaked from head to toe, well not really, I had my rain coat on, but my legs and shoes were full of water.
M-- came to church with E--, we went to look for them and we were running a little behind and it was great to see them wanting to hurry up to not get there late. Investigators never are that worried to get to church. We paid a car to take us and we got there on time. :)
So now the fun news, so this morning we received the weekly phone call from Pres Ayre and we were talking about the zone's numbers and then he was like, elders you should know that this Tuesday we are expecting 30 new elders to arrive and we are going to be dividing a zone to make another zone. Our zone is getting split and he basically told us that we won't be comps next transfer, so that basically means that I'm for sure staying here in JCP or the zone close by. We are starting the last week of my second to last transfer, so crazy fun news!! I'll let you all know what happens.
As a zone we are at 21 baptisms for the month and 18 confirmations, we are 14 away from the zone record and 23 away from the mission record. We have 7 people set for this weekend and that would put us 7 away from the zone record, which would be huge because the record was set more than 2 years ago, 2 and a half years ago! Feb. 2011, and only once since then have they reached more than 30, March 2013, so we are setting history here in Sarmiento and now it's the last chance for a while because we are dividing at the end of the month.
This week we are having another mission tour from Elder Vinas, from the seventy and he is in the area presidency, so that will be cool to see him and learn from him.
Well family, the time has come to an end. Another emailing session has come to a close and we are getting to closer and closer, but I just want you to know that I love each of you and I hope and wish that you all have a great week this week. Remember to send me lots of pics of the BYU/Utah game and have a fun week. Say your prayers daily and read the scriptures daily!! The Church is true!!!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
GO COUGS!!!!! ;)
So this is the newly sealed family and four of the 5 elders that helped them get baptized. It was an awesome day and everyone was just so happy.
In front of the temple, probably the last time before the trip right before coming home, so it was a fun day and the rain stopped just a tiny bit to allow us to take pics.
I was able to baptize G--, he's 11 and he loves to play soccer with me at his house. :)
So to start everything off we were extremely blessed by the Lord with 3 baptisms and 4 confirmations, J-- was confirmed and A--, G-- and M-- were all baptized on Saturday and confirmed yesterday, it was a great feeling to be able to help them out.
Last Monday it was really hot, we played soccer and I played so hard in the heat that I was left feeling weird, it's just that the climate is changing between freezing rain and super hot, right now it's freezing with a ton of rain. So it was a weird weather week.
That night we taught the Law of Chasity to E-- and we had to let her know that she still had to wait to be baptized. We tried hard to make it not as hard for her to take, but she took it hard. The next morning she called us and told us that she wouldn't be able to meet with us that day and that she would be calling us to set up another appointment, the normal sign of an investigator dropping us, we were so sad, we sent her messages and she explained to us that she felt so bad for living together without being married that she thought that God didn't love her, it was totally Satan working on her, but she listened to our counsel to read in the Book of Mormon and then kneel down and pray, she said that she felt like Jesus had put his arm around her and she felt so happy and peaceful. We were picking up the food for lunch and instead of heading over to eat, we went straight to her house to see how she was doing and she was a totally different person. :) The Lord had completely changed her heart and now she was wanting us to keep coming by and we were able to see them everyday of the week. :) We met her boy friend and he is a good guy, but we need to find a way to get to him so that he can see the importance of these things. M-- is progressing well and she has her date for this Sunday, so we are praying that all goes well. Yeah, then again two years ago, they received the pamphlet of the Plan of Salvation again when Mirta's husband was dying from diabetes. But no, they never searched out the church or anything, that's why the Lord was so strong in directing us to
them.
That was the coolest story of the week, we were able to see everyone every single day to have daily contact, which meant lots of traveling. So I was tired for most of the week, with the climate changing so fast I was sick a couple times in the week, I don't know why, but now I'm feeling better to write to you all. Oh and after the baptism on Saturday night, I wasn't feeling well and I threw up lunch, but it took away the head pain, then they had me play the piano as a couple of members sang Christmas hymns. Don't ask me why, haha, it's what they wanted. But it was good to finally play the piano
again, I miss playing the piano.
Haha we got stuck in a torrential rain looking for lunch on Thursday. We got onto the bus to head home just soaked from head to toe, well not really, I had my rain coat on, but my legs and shoes were full of water.
M-- came to church with E--, we went to look for them and we were running a little behind and it was great to see them wanting to hurry up to not get there late. Investigators never are that worried to get to church. We paid a car to take us and we got there on time. :)
So now the fun news, so this morning we received the weekly phone call from Pres Ayre and we were talking about the zone's numbers and then he was like, elders you should know that this Tuesday we are expecting 30 new elders to arrive and we are going to be dividing a zone to make another zone. Our zone is getting split and he basically told us that we won't be comps next transfer, so that basically means that I'm for sure staying here in JCP or the zone close by. We are starting the last week of my second to last transfer, so crazy fun news!! I'll let you all know what happens.
As a zone we are at 21 baptisms for the month and 18 confirmations, we are 14 away from the zone record and 23 away from the mission record. We have 7 people set for this weekend and that would put us 7 away from the zone record, which would be huge because the record was set more than 2 years ago, 2 and a half years ago! Feb. 2011, and only once since then have they reached more than 30, March 2013, so we are setting history here in Sarmiento and now it's the last chance for a while because we are dividing at the end of the month.
This week we are having another mission tour from Elder Vinas, from the seventy and he is in the area presidency, so that will be cool to see him and learn from him.
Well family, the time has come to an end. Another emailing session has come to a close and we are getting to closer and closer, but I just want you to know that I love each of you and I hope and wish that you all have a great week this week. Remember to send me lots of pics of the BYU/Utah game and have a fun week. Say your prayers daily and read the scriptures daily!! The Church is true!!!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
GO COUGS!!!!! ;)
So this is the newly sealed family and four of the 5 elders that helped them get baptized. It was an awesome day and everyone was just so happy.
In front of the temple, probably the last time before the trip right before coming home, so it was a fun day and the rain stopped just a tiny bit to allow us to take pics.
I was able to baptize G--, he's 11 and he loves to play soccer with me at his house. :)
This is the pic of A--'s baptism, her dad did the efforts and was able to baptize her, then the two younger kids are G-- and M--, so we had a great day on Saturday, though haha the water was freezing and the air outside was freezing, but everyone was a good sport. Then afterwards we shared soda cookies and paraguayan soup, but honestly its just like corn bread with more flavors. We were excited for both of these families and the progress that they have shown.
Monday, September 9, 2013
I think that they were angels of God sent to bless this precious family through their faith
Hey there how's it going? First of all thanks for the wonderful letters and notes and for the pics!
Well today I forgot my camera so next week I'll have to send you a bunch of pics, of the baptism and the sealing!! That was awesome!! More on that later, and just the normal week that I had. All of the
weeks are basically the same and I've gotten so accostomed to the schedule that it's going by even faster. I can't believe that I'm writing to you again, and that another week has passed.
So to start off, last Monday we played soccer, I had a header to score a goal, kinda cool and then we had our cita with J--. All week she just wasn't sure of a decision, she would say one thing one day and then another thing another day. She never said no, but didn't say yes, yes!! I want to get baptized right now! Those are the best ;) But we kept on inviting her to pray and read and to keep preparing. She passed her interview on Friday and Sunday barely made it to Sacrament meeting so that she could be baptized. But she was shaking as we were in the water, so I had to calm her down and then I had to dunk her deep so that all of her bushy hair and her wide dress made it all underneath. She came up and just turned to me like she wanted to give me a hug. Sometimes I wish I could just to congratulate them, but we just stood their in the water for like 5 seconds and then she came out
smiling it was a great feeling!! Honestly, yesterday was just like any other day, I've been doing this for so long that sometimes the moment doesn't get to me as much, but every time that we are blessed by God to have a baptism, I am grateful for everything!!
Tuesday, we were running to pick up a lunch from a sister and we found the street, a part of the map that we´ve never been to, and we felt the strongest impression to talk to a family sitting outside on their gate, so after we picked up the food we went over and started a conversation, they were nice enough to listen for a bit but turns out that they are strong Atheists and didn't want to accept another visit. As we were walking away we felt the strongest impression to turn around and ask them for a refferrel, (or however you spell it in English) haha, and so we obeyed and we asked them and they directed us to a house across the street, we were tempted to come back another day, we were so hungry and it was hot!, but we went and contacted the house. At first there wasn't an answer, then we insisted on knocking on the window and this lady answered through the window and we starting
sharing with her what we do. She was accepting everything and wanted us to pass by again. She accepted a baptismal date right there on the spot!! Her name is E--. We were so excited and glad to have followed the impressions of the Spirit.
Then the next day we passed by and we were able to meet her mom, and turns out that the day that we had met E--, they had been doubting God and wondering if He really was there. The mom´s
husband died of diabetes 2 years before. They were very receptive, haha bought us a pizza, and we were able to teach them about the Plan of Salvation, and as we were teaching they were like
this is what I was needing to hear. Oh man, when I heard that come out of their mouths I was just rushed over by the Spirit and I was just so happy to be there and share with them, they said that they already had the pamphlet of the Plan of Salvation, we asked them and this is the story that they told us:
Interesting story that I think is really cool and shows how prepared the people are from the Lord. So E-- has 2 daughters a 15 year old, and a 13 year old. When the oldest daughter was 1 yrs old, she got really sick and they were in the hospital for many days. It finally got to the point that the doctors told the mom and gma that the baby would probably die by midnight of that day. M--, the gma, was so sad and angry with God that she climbed to the top of the hospital and prayed at the highest point, a window at the top. She was so worried and emotional that she was like God, why do you have to take away my granddaughter, if you don't save her life and she dies I'm going to jump off the top of this hospital (crazy right?) She then says that she heard a voice behind her, she looked around and there were two men standing there, they told her, "Your granddaughter will be alright, she will live. Then they gave her the pamphlet, then directed her view to the ground below. And there they were, her E-- walking out of the hospital with Y-- in her arms. She was so excited that she rushed downstairs to see the baby. E-- said that while M-- was away two men came into the room telling them that it would be alright and that they could give the baby a blessing by the laying on of hands, they gave her a blessing and immediately she was better. Everyone was so happy and excited, she went running with the baby to find the gma, they found each other and told each other their side of the story. They realized that it was the same two men that had comforted them and helped them. So they wanted to find the men and thank them for what they did, they searched everywhere and asked everyone but
they couldn't find them anywhere... wow, crazy no?
They remembered this experience and connected it when in Relief Society they talked about the laying on of hands. They don't remember if they were wearing name tags or not, but I think that they were angels of God sent to bless this precious family through their faith. I'll have to ask them to write it down, I only heard the story from Elder Gonzales, but the same, they are still very prepared. Now the thing is that we aren't sure where M-- lives, she doesn't live in that house that we have been visiting and E-- isn't married, but her two daughters we can baptize and we are working with her about that. But I know that the Lord will answer the prayer of faith of any of His children, I'm glad to be a part of His work.
So that was just the beginning of the week! Friday I had to do a difficult interview with a girl that was having suicidal thoughts, tough family situation, she still has to prepare for her baptism. But that was sad and to just see this daughter of God just sad and miserable, she doesn't show it outwardly but after a few questions she broke down. I tried to help her through the scriptures, but I couldn't seem to connect to her, that's what made it more harder for me. But that same night J-- passed her interview and so that cheered me up. :)
Saturday was a great day! So we got up on time and we were at the train station by 8:00am, we took the train 5 stations and then we took a long distance bus for an hour to get to the temple. We got there at 9:45am, I was told that everything started at 11:00am, so I thought, hey, we had a ton of time. But we entered and found out that it started at 9:30 and that we had gotten there late. So we went back to go and change, and we enter the locker room and there is one of the brothers from Savio and for our luck it had been postponed to 11:00. Turns out the sealing was supposed to be at 11:00, but we were able to go through the temple with Hmo y Hma C--, A-- (their daughter) and her husband G--, which I had the privilege to help him get baptized just over a year ago. Then as we were in the Celestial room we went striaght to the Sealing room and A-- and G-- were sealed and then Hmo and Hma C-- were sealed and then the rest of the family entered all dressed in white and they all knelt down around the altar and they were all sealed as a family!! :) It was an awesome experience that I'll never forget, also it was my first sealing, so that was interesting to see. I didn't cry, just because I don't normally cry, only for manly stuff like 17 Miracles and when BYU loses. Then it was also
raining a ton down here to on Saturday, the whole travel down there it was raining a ton, when we left the temple it was raining a lot, but it stopped just enough to allow us to take a couple of pics :) It was great to see like half the ward again and Elder Solum went straight to the airport from there. He had extened his mission for a month to be able to be at the sealing. What a way to finish the mission!! So then we took forever to get home, our lunch was 3 alfajores. ;) We are surviving down here.
So the rain made it all super muddy and now my shoes are muddy again. It reminds me a lot of Savio. I'll try and be better at taking care of my shoes this time around. :)
So that was my week. Oh, the zone baptized 6 and confirmed 10, so now we are at 16b and 10c, so we still have 3 weeks to shoot for the goal. This weekend we are expecting 8 baptisms, so here we go. This weekend we are expecting 3 ourselves. A-- is still preparing for her baptism, the dad is super excited to baptize her, he was inviting everyone yesterday at church. He really wants to baptize her and has done his part. Also, we are expecting to baptize two other kids from a part member family.
I love you all and thanks for sharing this moment with me. I hope that you all have a great week and I know that the Lord is watching over each and everyone of us where ever we are in the world.
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
Well today I forgot my camera so next week I'll have to send you a bunch of pics, of the baptism and the sealing!! That was awesome!! More on that later, and just the normal week that I had. All of the
weeks are basically the same and I've gotten so accostomed to the schedule that it's going by even faster. I can't believe that I'm writing to you again, and that another week has passed.
So to start off, last Monday we played soccer, I had a header to score a goal, kinda cool and then we had our cita with J--. All week she just wasn't sure of a decision, she would say one thing one day and then another thing another day. She never said no, but didn't say yes, yes!! I want to get baptized right now! Those are the best ;) But we kept on inviting her to pray and read and to keep preparing. She passed her interview on Friday and Sunday barely made it to Sacrament meeting so that she could be baptized. But she was shaking as we were in the water, so I had to calm her down and then I had to dunk her deep so that all of her bushy hair and her wide dress made it all underneath. She came up and just turned to me like she wanted to give me a hug. Sometimes I wish I could just to congratulate them, but we just stood their in the water for like 5 seconds and then she came out
smiling it was a great feeling!! Honestly, yesterday was just like any other day, I've been doing this for so long that sometimes the moment doesn't get to me as much, but every time that we are blessed by God to have a baptism, I am grateful for everything!!
Tuesday, we were running to pick up a lunch from a sister and we found the street, a part of the map that we´ve never been to, and we felt the strongest impression to talk to a family sitting outside on their gate, so after we picked up the food we went over and started a conversation, they were nice enough to listen for a bit but turns out that they are strong Atheists and didn't want to accept another visit. As we were walking away we felt the strongest impression to turn around and ask them for a refferrel, (or however you spell it in English) haha, and so we obeyed and we asked them and they directed us to a house across the street, we were tempted to come back another day, we were so hungry and it was hot!, but we went and contacted the house. At first there wasn't an answer, then we insisted on knocking on the window and this lady answered through the window and we starting
sharing with her what we do. She was accepting everything and wanted us to pass by again. She accepted a baptismal date right there on the spot!! Her name is E--. We were so excited and glad to have followed the impressions of the Spirit.
Then the next day we passed by and we were able to meet her mom, and turns out that the day that we had met E--, they had been doubting God and wondering if He really was there. The mom´s
husband died of diabetes 2 years before. They were very receptive, haha bought us a pizza, and we were able to teach them about the Plan of Salvation, and as we were teaching they were like
this is what I was needing to hear. Oh man, when I heard that come out of their mouths I was just rushed over by the Spirit and I was just so happy to be there and share with them, they said that they already had the pamphlet of the Plan of Salvation, we asked them and this is the story that they told us:
Interesting story that I think is really cool and shows how prepared the people are from the Lord. So E-- has 2 daughters a 15 year old, and a 13 year old. When the oldest daughter was 1 yrs old, she got really sick and they were in the hospital for many days. It finally got to the point that the doctors told the mom and gma that the baby would probably die by midnight of that day. M--, the gma, was so sad and angry with God that she climbed to the top of the hospital and prayed at the highest point, a window at the top. She was so worried and emotional that she was like God, why do you have to take away my granddaughter, if you don't save her life and she dies I'm going to jump off the top of this hospital (crazy right?) She then says that she heard a voice behind her, she looked around and there were two men standing there, they told her, "Your granddaughter will be alright, she will live. Then they gave her the pamphlet, then directed her view to the ground below. And there they were, her E-- walking out of the hospital with Y-- in her arms. She was so excited that she rushed downstairs to see the baby. E-- said that while M-- was away two men came into the room telling them that it would be alright and that they could give the baby a blessing by the laying on of hands, they gave her a blessing and immediately she was better. Everyone was so happy and excited, she went running with the baby to find the gma, they found each other and told each other their side of the story. They realized that it was the same two men that had comforted them and helped them. So they wanted to find the men and thank them for what they did, they searched everywhere and asked everyone but
they couldn't find them anywhere... wow, crazy no?
They remembered this experience and connected it when in Relief Society they talked about the laying on of hands. They don't remember if they were wearing name tags or not, but I think that they were angels of God sent to bless this precious family through their faith. I'll have to ask them to write it down, I only heard the story from Elder Gonzales, but the same, they are still very prepared. Now the thing is that we aren't sure where M-- lives, she doesn't live in that house that we have been visiting and E-- isn't married, but her two daughters we can baptize and we are working with her about that. But I know that the Lord will answer the prayer of faith of any of His children, I'm glad to be a part of His work.
So that was just the beginning of the week! Friday I had to do a difficult interview with a girl that was having suicidal thoughts, tough family situation, she still has to prepare for her baptism. But that was sad and to just see this daughter of God just sad and miserable, she doesn't show it outwardly but after a few questions she broke down. I tried to help her through the scriptures, but I couldn't seem to connect to her, that's what made it more harder for me. But that same night J-- passed her interview and so that cheered me up. :)
Saturday was a great day! So we got up on time and we were at the train station by 8:00am, we took the train 5 stations and then we took a long distance bus for an hour to get to the temple. We got there at 9:45am, I was told that everything started at 11:00am, so I thought, hey, we had a ton of time. But we entered and found out that it started at 9:30 and that we had gotten there late. So we went back to go and change, and we enter the locker room and there is one of the brothers from Savio and for our luck it had been postponed to 11:00. Turns out the sealing was supposed to be at 11:00, but we were able to go through the temple with Hmo y Hma C--, A-- (their daughter) and her husband G--, which I had the privilege to help him get baptized just over a year ago. Then as we were in the Celestial room we went striaght to the Sealing room and A-- and G-- were sealed and then Hmo and Hma C-- were sealed and then the rest of the family entered all dressed in white and they all knelt down around the altar and they were all sealed as a family!! :) It was an awesome experience that I'll never forget, also it was my first sealing, so that was interesting to see. I didn't cry, just because I don't normally cry, only for manly stuff like 17 Miracles and when BYU loses. Then it was also
raining a ton down here to on Saturday, the whole travel down there it was raining a ton, when we left the temple it was raining a lot, but it stopped just enough to allow us to take a couple of pics :) It was great to see like half the ward again and Elder Solum went straight to the airport from there. He had extened his mission for a month to be able to be at the sealing. What a way to finish the mission!! So then we took forever to get home, our lunch was 3 alfajores. ;) We are surviving down here.
So the rain made it all super muddy and now my shoes are muddy again. It reminds me a lot of Savio. I'll try and be better at taking care of my shoes this time around. :)
So that was my week. Oh, the zone baptized 6 and confirmed 10, so now we are at 16b and 10c, so we still have 3 weeks to shoot for the goal. This weekend we are expecting 8 baptisms, so here we go. This weekend we are expecting 3 ourselves. A-- is still preparing for her baptism, the dad is super excited to baptize her, he was inviting everyone yesterday at church. He really wants to baptize her and has done his part. Also, we are expecting to baptize two other kids from a part member family.
I love you all and thanks for sharing this moment with me. I hope that you all have a great week and I know that the Lord is watching over each and everyone of us where ever we are in the world.
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
Monday, September 2, 2013
The Lord is blessing us with people to teach
Thanks so much for the wonderful letter that you all sent to me, I'm glad that everyone had a great week and I'm glad that school is going well for everyone.
So to tell you a little bit about my week,
First we weren’t able have the baptism of J-- this last week, she still needs preparation and to take care of some things, but we are looking for this week, A--'s dad has also been coming to church and is preparing to baptize his daughter, so we are excited for that!!
This last week was a crazy one because on Tuesday we headed to San Isidro for the monthly leaders council with us ZL's, Pres and the AP's, both elders and sisters, it was great. We were able to meet the new area doctor and his wife, that would be a crazy mission, lots of travel. Then we spent a good amount of time talking about the monthly goal, we finally put it at 155 which would be breaking the all time September record, though President wants to break the all time mission record of 200, but he wants to build up to that. Then we were treated to an American bbq, but Argentine style, what I'm trying to say is that it wasn’t either the normal Argentine or American bbq, only that it was a combination of both. The meat was a little burnt but excellent, it was fun to see all of my mission friends again.
Wednesday we had the Zone meeting where we discussed the topics from the council and then we again were working through what should be our zone goal, the whole zone got excited to go for the all time mission goal of a zone in one month, 43, so we put our goal at 44!! So we are super excited because since they split 3 zones, us and one other zone are the biggest in regards to the amount of missionaries, and this month there are 5 Sundays in order to baptize, so all of the signs are in our favor, now we just need to go and find!! This last week as a zone we had 10 baptisms and so that was a good first week, right now we are only waiting for 5 this next week but there are a lot of possibilities.
Friday, so we did divisions with Vucetich so that we could interview their baptisms that they had, so Elder Popoca came with me and we had a great day, we made lots of empanadas and we ate them with a type of guacamole, delicious, then we had a good day teaching lots of people.
Saturday morning I had to go early out to San Ignacio to do some interviews and all morning I was doing that.
Sunday we got up early, it's fast Sunday and I'm not going to lie, it was hard not eating anything, luckily in church I was able to teach the Gospel Principles class about Fasting and that helped me remind myself of why I fast. 5 people came to church for us and there were a lot more that weren’t members but they live in another ward and they didn’t have interest in receiving the missionaries. We are trying to improve as a mission in only counting those that count. It's too big of a problem that missionaries have thinking that they need to have a lot of numbers, really high numbers, but honestly the numbers don’t help us if they aren’t true. But the Lord is blessing us with people to teach, this last week we only found 3 new investigators and two of them were yesterday, but they both accepted dates and we will see their progress.
To relate a miracle from last week was actually just last night. Our final appointment had fallen through and we had no one to go to, so we decided to say a prayer right there in the street and ask God where he wants us to go. So we felt like we should knock the door of some former investigator that lived right there, nobody answered, so then the thought came to my mind to go and visit a recent convert that lived right around the corner, and it turned out that her friend was there and we were able to teach her and she accepted a date, so we were grateful for the blessing.
MOM!!! Love you!! Good job with work and helping all of the those little kids behave, I can't believe that some kids are starting schooling so early, but that just goes to show how well of a teacher you were to us because you taught us everything!! Reading, writing, spelling, math, the gospel, and we were more well behaved, right? ;)
Sounds like a crazy week, really busy, but hey the days are flying when youre busy. Haha, I remember the cleaning your room talks from you guys, luckily I'm a neater person and I'm pretty good at keeping it clean. :) haha
Just yesterday we ate an asado and I ate blood sausage, don’t try it, it's disgusting. I'm not going to lie haha, but it’s a good culture experience. We ate well this last week, everything from Paraguayan soup to arroz chaufa, empanadas, the bbq at the mission house. I'm starting to round up haha. I'll need to run a lot when I get home!! We taught 18 lessons with a member this week. :)
Well, I love you all so, so much, have a great labor day and keep praying for me that I can perseverar hasta el fin!!!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
So to tell you a little bit about my week,
First we weren’t able have the baptism of J-- this last week, she still needs preparation and to take care of some things, but we are looking for this week, A--'s dad has also been coming to church and is preparing to baptize his daughter, so we are excited for that!!
This last week was a crazy one because on Tuesday we headed to San Isidro for the monthly leaders council with us ZL's, Pres and the AP's, both elders and sisters, it was great. We were able to meet the new area doctor and his wife, that would be a crazy mission, lots of travel. Then we spent a good amount of time talking about the monthly goal, we finally put it at 155 which would be breaking the all time September record, though President wants to break the all time mission record of 200, but he wants to build up to that. Then we were treated to an American bbq, but Argentine style, what I'm trying to say is that it wasn’t either the normal Argentine or American bbq, only that it was a combination of both. The meat was a little burnt but excellent, it was fun to see all of my mission friends again.
Wednesday we had the Zone meeting where we discussed the topics from the council and then we again were working through what should be our zone goal, the whole zone got excited to go for the all time mission goal of a zone in one month, 43, so we put our goal at 44!! So we are super excited because since they split 3 zones, us and one other zone are the biggest in regards to the amount of missionaries, and this month there are 5 Sundays in order to baptize, so all of the signs are in our favor, now we just need to go and find!! This last week as a zone we had 10 baptisms and so that was a good first week, right now we are only waiting for 5 this next week but there are a lot of possibilities.
Friday, so we did divisions with Vucetich so that we could interview their baptisms that they had, so Elder Popoca came with me and we had a great day, we made lots of empanadas and we ate them with a type of guacamole, delicious, then we had a good day teaching lots of people.
Saturday morning I had to go early out to San Ignacio to do some interviews and all morning I was doing that.
Sunday we got up early, it's fast Sunday and I'm not going to lie, it was hard not eating anything, luckily in church I was able to teach the Gospel Principles class about Fasting and that helped me remind myself of why I fast. 5 people came to church for us and there were a lot more that weren’t members but they live in another ward and they didn’t have interest in receiving the missionaries. We are trying to improve as a mission in only counting those that count. It's too big of a problem that missionaries have thinking that they need to have a lot of numbers, really high numbers, but honestly the numbers don’t help us if they aren’t true. But the Lord is blessing us with people to teach, this last week we only found 3 new investigators and two of them were yesterday, but they both accepted dates and we will see their progress.
To relate a miracle from last week was actually just last night. Our final appointment had fallen through and we had no one to go to, so we decided to say a prayer right there in the street and ask God where he wants us to go. So we felt like we should knock the door of some former investigator that lived right there, nobody answered, so then the thought came to my mind to go and visit a recent convert that lived right around the corner, and it turned out that her friend was there and we were able to teach her and she accepted a date, so we were grateful for the blessing.
MOM!!! Love you!! Good job with work and helping all of the those little kids behave, I can't believe that some kids are starting schooling so early, but that just goes to show how well of a teacher you were to us because you taught us everything!! Reading, writing, spelling, math, the gospel, and we were more well behaved, right? ;)
Sounds like a crazy week, really busy, but hey the days are flying when youre busy. Haha, I remember the cleaning your room talks from you guys, luckily I'm a neater person and I'm pretty good at keeping it clean. :) haha
Just yesterday we ate an asado and I ate blood sausage, don’t try it, it's disgusting. I'm not going to lie haha, but it’s a good culture experience. We ate well this last week, everything from Paraguayan soup to arroz chaufa, empanadas, the bbq at the mission house. I'm starting to round up haha. I'll need to run a lot when I get home!! We taught 18 lessons with a member this week. :)
Well, I love you all so, so much, have a great labor day and keep praying for me that I can perseverar hasta el fin!!!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
So to explain, on Friday we were making empanadas, I was frying them in the pan and I miss handled one and it splashed down into the pan and splattered my finger with burning oil. Elder Popoca, we were on divisions, told me to put tooth paste on it so that there wouldn't be any marks or so it wouldn't sting, and it worked! And the empanadas were delicious!!!
and to explain the pic of me just totally tired after a long day of work, well that just explains it :)
So here's a cool view of our church that I snapped real quick, every time that I take my camera around there's the danger of it being stolen, but I'm able to show how the church is in Argentina. It's actually a light to this dark place, just misunderstood lots of times. Though the missionary effort is paying off. :)
Monday, August 26, 2013
I'm grateful for all that I have learned from these experiences, it's helping me to be able to live on my own and depend on me. :)
Hey there family!!! How's it going? Thanks for all writing me something and thinking of me this last week. :) I loved hearing all about your weeks and I'm glad that the first week of school went well.
So we had a great week here in Argentina, it was super hot the first part of the week and then it turned to bitter wind which made it colder for the weekend. I actually got a headache from the quick change of climate on Friday haha, but I survived. The days were starting off really hot, the sun shining and then by 3 or 4pm the clouds cover up the sun and it's super windy, so crazy weather.
So this last week we were able to find B-- and he was confirmed yesterday, also C-- and S-- were also confirmed, so it was a good Sunday.
We had a big miscommunication this last week with the father of A-- who is a less-active member, somehow we were understanding that he was wanting one of us to baptize his daughter but then we get to Saturday and he changed his mind or something so we had to postpone the baptism, maybe if A-- makes a ton of effort he can baptize her in a month, so it was kind of a downer to not baptize but at least she will be baptized soon. But we have to respect the rights and wishes of the father. But we are expecting the aunt of A-- to be baptized this Sunday. She is coming up with doubts but we just need to help her receive the answer from God, she's really timid and doesn't really express her feelings that easily but we showed her the font yesterday and that animated her to go ahead with it next Sunday, so we are praying for her.
Talking about the guy that has the blood disease and if he doesn't receive a transplant he will die, he said that he´s not afraid to die, he doesn't think that he's done nothing wrong in his life and that all good people go to heaven. Our message would be perfect for him, but the only problem is that he doesn't want to listen. haha That's the toughest part of this work, teaching people that don't want to commit or listen to anything that you say.
Yesterday I did divisions with a member of the elders quorum presidency and that was a good experience, we met with a less active man that's sick and says that he can't come to church for that reason, but we were able to help him build his faith to come this next week. Then we were trying to visit the less active sons of this one member and she's super faithful but we found her in a bad state. She just needed somebody to listen to her and to give her a word of comfort, so that was nice to help in that sense. This member was a convert of just over 3 yrs and I thought the first time that I saw him that he was part of the high council. haha, so it's good to see some converts actually take it and run with it. haha.
Also last night we got back to the church waiting for everyone else to arrive and we heard rocks being thrown against the side of the church, so I climbed up into the tree that's right next to the wall that surrounds the church and I was trying to see who was throwing, but I couldn't see anybody, but luckily nothing was broken. The nerve of some kids, or even teenagers, you never know down here.
So that was basically my week, haha, just the normal.
Good luck this next week of school and don't forget to send me lots of pics of the BYU football game haha. The computer is threating to shut off so I'll send this part first and continue the other part.
Alright, hopefully it doesn't shut down on me...anyways to continue,
...yeah I never really had a problem about extreme anxiety, yeah I had rough days and moments, a couple of times I was thinking what am I doing here? It was more of the stress more than thinking about home, but the Lord has helped me and I have adjusted. I'm grateful for all that I have learned from these experiences, it's helping me to be able to live on my own and depend on me. :)
Well, just know that I love you all so, so much and I pray for you everyday, I hope that school goes well this week and that you say your prayers and read everyday. Have fun waking up early with me and Tanner. :)
I love you all so, so much. :) Have a great week!!!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
We did divisions with the assitasts and Elder DeFriez came and spent the day with me. We had a fun time together and we were remembering old times.
We first had our interviews on Tuesday and from there he came back with me and we had a great day. We had a wonderful talk on the 2 hr bus ride home, then we had a great lunch of a cold chicken salad, the first that I've had here in Argentina, then we ate fillet, or oven cooked fish, delicious and then we ate that with noodles.
Then we took a member with us as we took a bus over to the back part of our area. There we met J--, a less active that I talked to on the bus. We were able to meet his family and then find his neice that isn't baptized, she's a tough one to help accept a baptismal date, her mom is Mormon but doesn't like the idea of baptizing her so young. I haven't met the mom, but it would be a different story if I did. :) haha
Then we stopped to buy a donut on the side of the road close to the church and we got talking to the kid selling them and turns out that he's a cousin of a recent convert and so we were able to see him later on in the week. Then we took the bikes, it was starting to drizzle, and we met a member's husband that is suffering from a blood disease, and he's a nonmember, but he was also super tough to break through. It was raining while we were in the house and as we were leaving it stopped raining.
Then we went and said hi to C-- and S-- and made sure that everything was good for this Sunday for their confirmations. They are doing wonderful. Then it was starting to thunder and lightning and so we quickly made it over to the church, and as we were entering it started to pour. We had our PEC and then we got a ride home with a member.
So this is an example of a journal entry that I write each day, so I'll have lots of info to draw off of from the last two years.
Here I am walking in the street like 4:00pm in the afternoon in the cold, it was sunny but windy, so it was cold. But we were in the back part of the area on the dirt road. I thought that it was a cool angle and a different look on my mission. Those shoes have seen a lot of dirt roads. haha Those pants as well, I need to wash them, maybe next month... haha
So this is a cool pic, it's a three generation of Pittards...well, sons of Elder Pittard. Elder Stewart who is in Jose C Paz 1 is training a Peruvian and so that makes him my grandson in the mission haha. So it was cool to take that pic. His name is Elder Sandoval and has less then a month in the mission. But I was able to go with Elder Stewart this last week in his area and we had a good fun day together remembering good ole days.
I actually was a grandfather like 2 transfers ago but I hardly get to see them. Elder Barragan trained an American and now Elder Johnson is training, so I have 3 grandsons, and Elder Kern was sent to the south right before the change so I've lost contact with him, so he's the lost son. haha
I'm hoping that everyone comes to my farewell talk at the despedida and so I can take a picture with all the fruit of my loins. :)
Monday, August 19, 2013
That doesn't happen every day where the people are so willing to at least listen.
Hey there Family :) I love you all so so much!!!
Wow another week has passed by and I can't believe that I'm on the internet right now writing to you all again. :) It just seemed like last week that I was writing to you guys. Wait, I was! haha
So first to describe the picture, this last Friday I went to San Ignacio 1 for divisions and I was with Elder M-- from Chile. He's really cool and we had a great day together. We found this older lady and her grandson and they both came to church yesterday and so I'm excited for them. Elder M-- is a cool guy. He changed his life up and decided to serve a mission. He's 25 and was really different before, but now thanks to Jesus Christ, he's a changed man. Really humble, and only has like 2 months in the mission, so really young, but going to be a leader.
So other than the changes it was a pretty normal week. It was weird adjusting to it being just the two of us in the pension and having to go to all parts of our area; that's been the hardest change, having to figure out who are the most important people to visit out of the people that we had been visiting.
This last week we were also able to help the doubts of an older lady and her daughter to help them be baptized this last Sunday, it was a struggle but the Lord pulled through on us. :) She was evangelical, protestant basically, but this lady realized the truth of the things that we were sharing and what really helped her was reading the BofM. She was already being taught by the other two elders and I got the chance to come in for the last week.
Other than that it was a week of planning, talking to people, teaching in the streets and in their houses and inviting all to come to church and be baptized. So it was a normal week. haha
It was cool, we were in the poorer part of town way back behind the church, and we were sharing with the husband of the friend of a less active lady from Paraguay and we asked him if there was anyone else that we could share the message with right then and there. He said his neighbor, so we went to the barbed wire fence inbetween the houses and we called the neighbor and he was sleeping but was nice enough to accept a visit right then. He is really humble, he had been living in Argentina for 7 years and we were the first people to invite him to talk about God. That's almost unheard of down here. haha We were able to teach him, and his neighbor, and we invited them to church, they didn't come, but it was a cool experience because that doesn't happen every day where the people are so willing to at least listen.
Cool experience on Saturday night, so we had gone to contact a possible person to come to church, the daughter of a less active lady. Already one of the daughters was baptized last year and we wanted to see about the other one. Turns out the mom was having a tough Saturday night and when we stopped by M--, the recent convert, told us that it would have to be another day. But right there in the front gate we had her say a prayer asking for the Spirit to soften the heart of her mom. So she said the prayer and then went and called her mom, the mom yelled from inside, no, not right now, well actually in other words, but everyone gets the idea. Then we persisted and she came steaming out and told us everything bad that had ever happened with her and the church and she wasn’t happy, but all she needed was somebody to listen to her.
So after a little bit of listening she slowly started to soften up and by the end of the conversation we were laughing and we even committed her to come to church. She ended up not coming but when we passed by last night she wanted us to come in and talk, so slowly we are gaining her confidence. Next would be getting to the non-member dad, he's super Catholic and doesn’t want to know anything about the Church, he allowed the other girl to be baptized because she wasn’t technically his daughter but we are going to keep trusting in the Lord and His help.
Haha last night I was heading the soccer ball back and forth, well not that well, but still improving. Anyways, I was heading it back and forth and I headed it and it hit the light bulb hanging from the ceiling, we were in an unfinished room in the front of the house and the bulb burnt, so I had to provide the money for a new bulb haha, costly lesson to not head the soccer ball close to light fixtures.
It didn't rain on us this last week, it was actually a week of perfect weather and it was sunny all week, a good missionary weather week. Spring starts on Sept 21st down here so we are looking forward to the weather change, well half looking forward, but I'll enjoy the quick weather change before going back into the cold. haha
It was cool, we received a call from President this morning congratulating us for having 7 baptisms as a zone and 40 people in church as a zone. We had the most people in church and lessons with a member in the whole mission, so we are really improving, now we just need to improve the baptisms.
It's cool about G-- and A-- being sealed. Last night I was thinking about when he accepted to be baptized and how he had said no to that Sunday but then with a tiny grin said, I would like to be baptized on Saturday. We were all excited. :)
Well, just know that I'm doing well and that the work is moving forward. I love each and every one of you guys and I'm thankful for the blessings that the gospel brings into our lives.
Keep going to church!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
haha I was super tired and decided to take a nap... haha, I wish... but seriously, we were waiting for the changes to arrive by email so that we could call the zone to let them know everything that was going on. It was the end of another transfer and now to start another one!!
MTC comps back together again, just for the picture haha, He's still in San Fernando as AP and he's doing good, he's changed a little bit but personality wise. We are going to be doing divisions tomorrow with him so we can talk about old times haha. This was at the despedida on Sunday night, the other Sunday night. I can't believe everything that we've been through these last 21 months, but we definitely have changed. :)
So here´s the pic of the baptism, it was a great day and we were super happy to help them come unto Christ by being baptized by someone that holds the priesthood authority of God. C-- had recently lost her husband but was struggling to accept the fact that we can do baptisms for the dead, she was thinking that it wasn't just to give someone a free baptism, she didn't want to accept the fact that people can still reject this baptism. Finally we had to share with her Mosiah 4:9 which says that we don't understand everything that God does, and that seemed to calm her down.
They are a testimony to me of how the Lord opens the hearts of the people and softens them and prepares them to receive the restored gospel.
Yes, I know, I'm way taller than everyone else down here, but actually there´s a kid in our ward that has Russian origins that's like 6´8"... crazy
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
The mission is expanding a lot
Hey there family :)
How's it going? I'm doing well and I will be enjoying 6 more weeks in Jose C Paz with Elder Gonzales. So we sent the kids out the door and now it's just us two again and ready to work again. :)
So this morning I went with Elder Calderon to San Fernando to drop him off and return with the elder in Vucetich, haha I was surprised not receive a letter haha, I've just been so blessed from everyone that has sent me letters, oh and to remind everyone that might want to send a package...to be safe, it's better not to send a package after the middle of Sept to Arg, just in case that it gets held back and then arrives after I have left, so just so you know.
A little bit about my week. So we had a tough Sunday. Sunday was election day for Argentina, it's a must to vote down here, if you don't vote, you get fined, so there was a lot of stuff happening around that this last week. Argentine elders had to go and vote, or show that they were living more than 500km from their home, they have to vote in their home town. So these were only the preliminaries and I believe that the presidential elections are coming in Oct or Nov, so we will see if I'm here for that. But it made for a great excuse for people to not go to church. haha Since it was obligatory, many people thought to go super early to still have the rest of the day. There was acutally a good amount of people that came to church, B-- disappeared on Saturday and Sunday and so he wasn't confirmed yet, so we will be working with him for this Sunday. Also we had A--, a girl that we found this last week as part of a part member family, that wasn't baptized, she came and the other two elders brought C-- and her daughter S--, so we are waiting for those two baptisms for this weekend and the next weekend after that for A--.
We talked to an old catholic lady that didn't believe that the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith had just written it. We tried testifying but it's hard for them to feel the spirit when they aren't listening. She was so sure that Mary was the reason that Jesus left to go and preach, a little crazy if you ask me. We gave her a book, but she's been avoiding us lately haha. But we found the 9 yr old girl right next door, so for something we had to talk to her.
I went to the despedida this last Sunday, it was weird seeing lots of missionary friends going home, something that I never thought that would happen. Oh, and I heard some wonderfull news. K-- from Savio was there at the despedida with her two little sisters and she told me that her family and G-- and A-- are all getting sealed in the temple on Sept. 7th and that all of the elders that were part of that are being invited and so I'm invited to go to the temple on Sept. 7th. That's going to be a wonderful treat. I helped G-- get baptized who was the boyfriend of A--, the older sister of K--, so I completed the family. ;) So I'm super happy for that. So that's a basic run down on the week.
So funnny story, Elder Popoca was trained in Mexico by Elder Scott, who was in the MTC with me, the tall brown haired elder that was on the bball team with me, he graduated a year before me. So I decided to send him a message through email, so I guessed his email address and last week I sent it, this week I received an email from an Elder Joshua Scott that's serving in Brazil haha, oops wrong address. So I'll have to try again...
Well, just so you know, the mission is expanding a lot. We just made 3 new zones, splitting the zones in 2. So lots of cool changes are coming. Elder Johnson and Elder Stewart, 2 of my sons in the mission, were called to be DL's.
The weather has been milding out, yesterday though it was cloudy and windy and kind of chilly so we are starting to enter spring time.
Well it's time for me to head out, but just know that I love you so, so much!! Have a great week and read your scriptures. I'm right now in Alma 51, I'm reading for the first time the whole BofM in Spanish, so I'll finish right before I come home.
I also want to leave you all with my testimony that I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God and that the Apostasy really happened and that we are led today by Prophets and Apostles. The Church is true and Jesus lives!!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
How's it going? I'm doing well and I will be enjoying 6 more weeks in Jose C Paz with Elder Gonzales. So we sent the kids out the door and now it's just us two again and ready to work again. :)
So this morning I went with Elder Calderon to San Fernando to drop him off and return with the elder in Vucetich, haha I was surprised not receive a letter haha, I've just been so blessed from everyone that has sent me letters, oh and to remind everyone that might want to send a package...to be safe, it's better not to send a package after the middle of Sept to Arg, just in case that it gets held back and then arrives after I have left, so just so you know.
A little bit about my week. So we had a tough Sunday. Sunday was election day for Argentina, it's a must to vote down here, if you don't vote, you get fined, so there was a lot of stuff happening around that this last week. Argentine elders had to go and vote, or show that they were living more than 500km from their home, they have to vote in their home town. So these were only the preliminaries and I believe that the presidential elections are coming in Oct or Nov, so we will see if I'm here for that. But it made for a great excuse for people to not go to church. haha Since it was obligatory, many people thought to go super early to still have the rest of the day. There was acutally a good amount of people that came to church, B-- disappeared on Saturday and Sunday and so he wasn't confirmed yet, so we will be working with him for this Sunday. Also we had A--, a girl that we found this last week as part of a part member family, that wasn't baptized, she came and the other two elders brought C-- and her daughter S--, so we are waiting for those two baptisms for this weekend and the next weekend after that for A--.
We talked to an old catholic lady that didn't believe that the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith had just written it. We tried testifying but it's hard for them to feel the spirit when they aren't listening. She was so sure that Mary was the reason that Jesus left to go and preach, a little crazy if you ask me. We gave her a book, but she's been avoiding us lately haha. But we found the 9 yr old girl right next door, so for something we had to talk to her.
I went to the despedida this last Sunday, it was weird seeing lots of missionary friends going home, something that I never thought that would happen. Oh, and I heard some wonderfull news. K-- from Savio was there at the despedida with her two little sisters and she told me that her family and G-- and A-- are all getting sealed in the temple on Sept. 7th and that all of the elders that were part of that are being invited and so I'm invited to go to the temple on Sept. 7th. That's going to be a wonderful treat. I helped G-- get baptized who was the boyfriend of A--, the older sister of K--, so I completed the family. ;) So I'm super happy for that. So that's a basic run down on the week.
So funnny story, Elder Popoca was trained in Mexico by Elder Scott, who was in the MTC with me, the tall brown haired elder that was on the bball team with me, he graduated a year before me. So I decided to send him a message through email, so I guessed his email address and last week I sent it, this week I received an email from an Elder Joshua Scott that's serving in Brazil haha, oops wrong address. So I'll have to try again...
Well, just so you know, the mission is expanding a lot. We just made 3 new zones, splitting the zones in 2. So lots of cool changes are coming. Elder Johnson and Elder Stewart, 2 of my sons in the mission, were called to be DL's.
The weather has been milding out, yesterday though it was cloudy and windy and kind of chilly so we are starting to enter spring time.
Well it's time for me to head out, but just know that I love you so, so much!! Have a great week and read your scriptures. I'm right now in Alma 51, I'm reading for the first time the whole BofM in Spanish, so I'll finish right before I come home.
I also want to leave you all with my testimony that I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God and that the Apostasy really happened and that we are led today by Prophets and Apostles. The Church is true and Jesus lives!!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
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