We are seeing miracles as we open our mouths and talk to people

Hey there how's it going?!!!!!   I LOVE YOU all so so much :) 

Sorry again no pics, it wouldn't connect, and this week we are in a good ciber, so bad luck.

 

Thanks for your love and the notes. Today we had our transfers. The big news is that I'm staying in Constitución and E Johnson left to Derqui which is in the zone Escobar and within 45 min of Savio. I'm going to miss that guy, he was a great, motivated elder and he uplifted me a lot. He also was super funny and we had great times together. So my new comp is Elder Carreto from northern Guatemala. He has 6 months in the mission and he seems like a great guy. We just barely met and I don't know too much about him yet, but I do know that he has 5 brothers and sisters. He also is just coming from Savio, he was comps with the elder that replaced me, small world. Only the Argentines and the Chilenos received their visas so we are still waiting for more to come. We are going to be fasting this next Sunday for the missionary work and that everyone can receive their visas.

 

So last night, we found out and we were up late packing and organizing in the small pension that we are in. This morning we called the remis (on demand car) and we went to San Fernando to get together with everyone. I saw E Brown from Savio and also E Stewart, who is in my same zone. I received all of the letters and I received Rachel's class' letters. It was fun to read them all the way through on the ride home. We were stuck in traffic on 9 de Julio, it took like 30 min to get down the whole street, I have only seen so many cars at once on the same street a couple of times in my mission. I did receive your valentines day letter, thanks so much, loved the scriptures.

 

Mom, my wonderful mother that I love dearly. :) How's it going? thanks for the wonderful input and update on the events that surround your busy life. That's totally awesome that all the missionaries are starting to enter and yes we figured out on Sat morning that we are going to be losing the south part of our mission starting in July and it will become part of the new Rivadavia Mission. Some of the elders that are in our mission right now will be changed to that mission, the ones that will be serving there when the change happens, I'm not exactly sure but that's cool! Thanks for the new mission pres name, Ayre, sounds like a great man and I'm excited to get to meet him! Try and find out more if you can.

So the exciting news of the week :)  Let's just say that I'm attending a wedding on March 26th! and then a baptism on March 30th :) Yes, L-- and R-- did it and took out the time for their marriage!
It was a week long stuggle, and the cibers where he was trying to submit it weren't working or that the printer wasn't working. We went with him once on Thursday night and the internet crashed on us and it was too late when it got back up, oh the advesary some times haha :) But now we are going to be preparing them for that day and they are excited, though on Sunday they were nowhere to be found and didn't come to church, we passed by their house and they didn't answer. so that was the frustrating thing about this last week is that there wasn't anybody that came to church, we had the highest attendance at 80 that we have had in a while.

 

Last week was a good week, on Tuesday I went with Elder Mower, the ZL that just died today (mission wise) and that was a good day, it's crazy to think that I'm so old now, I can't believe it.

Wednesday, we had a good day planned out but the citas that the other elders set were too far spread apart that we were late all day because one thing got behind and then the whole day. Thursday... um all of the days run together... we had our cita with L--.

 

Friday I did divisions with Elder LeBaron from the Boca and we had a good day. We were in the villa talking to this crazy Catholic Paraguaya and she really didn't want anything to do with the church, she was nice enough to listen but doesn't want to commit to anything. So we are sitting there and a friend of hers walks by, the Catholic lady shouts out...there is a person that you need to talk to, she'll listen to you. haha We looked around and asked her if she wanted to talk, she led us to her house, we got talking to her and she is having problems in the life with her knees and with the death of her parents recently, she's like 60. We had a good small lesson about the plan of salvation, she accepted a fecha and a return cita, as we are leaving that cita she says, pointing to her neighbors across the passageway, they might want to listen, we talked to them and set a cita for the next day.

 

Saturday, so we head to the cita with S--, that's the 60 yr old, and she isn't there, but then we knock on M--´s door, the neighbor, and he invites us in and we chat with him and his wife, they are actually married! C-- is her name. We taught lesson one, they accepted to read and pray about the Book of Mormon but wouldn't accept the date, so we are still working with them but we are seeing miracles as we open our mouths and talk to the people. Now that I'm with a Latin, I think that it will be easier to talk with more people because we can share the load. :)

 

Well it's time to go, I love you so much and think about you often. I hope that you all have a great week!!

 

I LOVE YOU all :)

 

Love,

Elder Ryan Pittard

He said that he couldn't think of missing church

Hola!!!  How's it going with everybody!!!???

Sorry no pics this week, frankly the computer isn't letting me and also looking back, I didn't have any new and interesting pics from this last week. It was a super fast week and I'm doing fine. :)  Thanks so much for your letters, I loved hearing from everyone.

So yes we are still living in the same pension, it's fun because they are fun guys to be with and we are making some friendships, but yeah it's difficult to fully function and have all of your stuff unpacked and easy to get to. But we get over it and we make the best of it.

 

 

So the investigator report. L-- and R-- are getting closer and closer to getting a turn for a marriage date. He is progressing so well, it's a pleasure to teach him and to help him in his first steps towards eternal salvation. We taught him tithing this last week and he loved the scripture in 3 Nephi 24: 8-10, where the Lord is quoting Malachi about the tithing, he loved the promises and was like yah I'll keep this commandment. He really has been prepared in his life and he keeps talking about how he wants to get married to be able to make covenants with the Lord at baptism.

Also a cool experience that we had with L-- this last week. So right now in his life for his job he does painting jobs--he goes where his boss tells him to go to complete a painting job. So this last week, he got offered a painting job that would've given him double the money that he normally makes in one job, the only thing though it was on Sunday. He didn't even flinch, later telling me, he said that he couldn't think of missing church. He loves all that he is learning and he told me that whatever money that he would make at that job on Sunday wouldn't be anything near to what he would gain by going to church. Also, he said that it's a commandment to go to church, so yah that's pretty legit. He's just so much more happier in his life and he and his future wife are getting closer and closer. So that's why we are missionaries, to help and find people like him.

B-- also came to church!! He arrived all by himself, too. The member that went to look for him passed by and his girlfriend told him that he wasn't able to go to church. B-- was in the back and didn't realize what had happened until the member was too far away. So he went walking, he knew the general direction of the church, so once he got there he started asking around for the Mormon church and he found it. So he is doing well, the only problem is his girlfriend doesn't want anything to do with us. We invited her to the lesson and she said no. The next time that we were walking down the street she was sitting in the street and totally ran away as we were approaching. They aren't married and so that's the only thing that is holding him back right now. He´s in his 50´s and he is from Paraguay. He can't read in Spanish. The reason is because back then, they weren't taught Spanish in schools, like reading and writing, but guarani (something like that). Now, everyone in South America, except Brazil, learns Spanish in the schools. So that makes it difficult for him to read the Book of Mormon and so he is walking off of pure faith and he is progressing.

M-- and F--, we have lost them, literally. They had been living in another person's house, this 66 yr old drunk guy, or at least every time that we talk to him he is wasted. He kicked them out of the house and doesn't know where they are. We don't have telephone connection with them, so we are in a pickle. That's the tough life that the people live down here, especially in the villas. So maybe one day we will run into each other in some random passageway in the villa, all is in the Lord's hands.

So we did find this guy this last week, we were at our lunch appointment and they had invited their cousin over to eat with us, primarily to have a man in the house, but then we get talking and I figure out that he isn't a member, but I wasn't sure until we were sharing a scripture with them at the end of the lunch. Elder Johnson asked the member to say what she thought about the scripture, and she was directing her toughts towards him and so I realized I should ask him if he knew about the Book of Mormon, he didn't and so we went through the Book of Mormon intro and then we asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said yes, but then he wouldn't really accept the fecha for the 3rd of March. He has heard the missionaries before, but I don't know why he stopped listening to them. We went back on Friday and we had a good lesson with him on L1, again he got it, he had read and thought about it, but I think that he is scared of his brothers that live with him. I don't think they know that we have been talking to him.

So my computer is either really old or bad, because the screen button isn't working, there was a piece of paper in the button wedged up in there, and I saw that and I took it out, then my screen went blank. I wasn't able to put the paper back in there like it was and so I put my DNI lamenated card in there and now I can see the screen. Argentine computers...

So on Tuesday, Elder Johnson woke up throwing up, he threw up like 4 times that morning before 11am and so I stayed inside all day, I first read to him from A Marvelous Work and a Wonder by LeGrand Richards, that's an interesting book. Then I took a nap, then I looked at all the pics that I have from my mission, there are a lot! Then I made chocolate cake mix cookies, then Elder Harrison came home and we went on divisions to go teach L--. So that was a fast day. He got better over that night and we didn't have any problems the rest of the week. I'm glad that that really hasn't happened to me, like throwing up crazily. I think that my body adjusted really well to the new food and culture.

Wednesday, we found J--, and then later that day I was walking over this bridge that crosses the train tracks, basically right before you get to the huge train station. And in the trash on the groud I found a pretty good sized political map of Argentina. It was just wrinkled up and dirty, I cleaned it off and then taped it so now I have a map of Argentina, for free! That day I also commited to learning how to play the guitar after my mission. We went to these youths' house and they were playing for us and they were really good. I just think that it'll be good when I can serenade all of the pretty girls singing Spanish love songs, haha.

Friday, we finally paid the rent, I feel like such an adult, pulling out the money to pay rent, big boy chores.

Saturday for lunch we went the farthest south that we can go. There is a river called the Riacuchelo, something like that, and it is the end limit of our mission. We went down Magaldi until the river and there is where we ate our lunch, outside in the shade. It was pretty epic to think that I was actually in another country as a missionary. I don't know if it's like this for everybody, but sometimes I just get these random thoughts, like wow Ryan, you are in another country speaking another language and you are sitting on the edge of the middle of nowhere, eating lunch to survive for the next couple of hours in the extreme heat.

Sunday was good because 2 people came to church. And it was really cooler outside yesterday, it was supposed to rain but it didn't end up happening. We got to talk to this recent convert, actually when Elder DeFriez was here, he started here in Constitución. She's less active and it's because she got attached to the missionaries, so now she wants the missionaries to pass by all of the time and it's hard because we are working on the opposite side of our area from where she lives, she has a tough schedule and a tough life. I'm really learning patience and charity on the mission. Sometimes I feel like people just feel like the missionaries are there to hear all of their complaints in life. I know it's hard in this life, but I've just accepted it and now I'm trying to help out in whatever way that we can. But still it's kind of frustrating, sometimes. :)

Today is Elder Mower's last day in the mission, in my district and my ZL, so we are going to hang with them and say good bye, luckily I have lots of pdays left to do lots of fun things, I can't even imagine the last pday.

Random thought, thanks Mom for sending me with a nice pair of mini scissors, because they are the best quality and no one else brings scissors and the Argentine scissors aren't the best quality and so everyone in the pension uses them. That's a good idea for your next missionary, and since he is going before your first one gets home, youll have to buy him all new stuff. Look into buying all black nike shoes to wear during proselyting, E lder Sweeney has them and he only wears them for normal stuff but then has the nice dress shoes for church and conferences. They would be super comfortable and a lot cheaper. Yes, colored towels are a good idea. Comfortable socks are the way to go. Short short-sleeve shirts are also a good idea, you know for looks. Also making sure that every pair of pants fit the elder before the elder leaves for the mission and then give him a little room for growth that will occur in the MTC. Also a good idea is not using all of the white shirts all at once, but keeping a couple nice and still in the packaging so that 6 months in or a year in the elder can have a couple of nice brand new white shirts. Also Ecco shoes are really nice, they hold up really nicely, but find some that are wide enough for the big boys' feet. Sorry I'm just sitting here thinking of all the suggestions for the upcoming elder in our family. Don't get a black suit, get a gray suit, everything can go with gray, also the other slacks, get lots of grays. Get lots of ties that can get wet and survive. Machine washable ties are good because one gets lots of stains on ones ties.

Well, that's enough for right now, haha, just feel free to ask me questions about any of that kind of stuff, I have a little experience being a Mormon missionary.

So anyways, thanks for all that you do for me and for all of your love. I love you all so so much!! I can't wait to hear from you again in a week. :)

Love,

Elder Ryan Pittard

¡chau!

I'm going to serve him out of brotherly love

Hey there,

I'm tired! We just got done playing soccer, I scored a lot, as well ;) but great to hear from you all.

So last week, I totally just went and played bball. We went to the church. First, a cool story of service. So a couple blocks from the church there is a cheap pizza place, 19 peso cheese pizza, and the guy was sweeping the floor when we arrived. Honestly without thinking, I was like hey I'm going to serve him out of brotherly love. So he put the broom down to go make our orders and so I picked up the broom and finished sweeping the floor. When he came back he was like, do you like doing that? haha I told him that I used to do this type of work all of the time, years of sweeping the kitchen floor and working at Trafalga. :) Then as I was finishing he was like so what are you charging? I was like nothing friend. Then I went to the bathroom I came out and with our two pizza boxes were two empanadas that he gave to us for free. :) So that was really nice of him. I wasn't looking for that, but hey look at the blessings of genuine service. :) Then we headed to the church and we were the only two there and so Elder Johnson just sat down in the chair and slept haha, we are tired, so I just played around like I used to back in the spring and summer back home all those years ago. I can't dunk the ball! dang it! haha I've lost my jumping ability. Oh well, but I feel like my shot is better, weird. Anyways, one of the young men just randomly showed up at the church and so we played some bball and I had Elder Johnson take pics and that was the coolest pic. Look at the form ;)  haha

 

Then we got back to the pension and I took a look out the window and what a cool looking sky, so I took a pic of it and I think that it's pretty cool. I don't know what conditions the weather has to be like to make clouds like that. I can't wait to see mountains again not just buildings in the landscape. :)

 

I'm glad that you finally got the pics, I waited a month to send them, it just never crossed my mind.  Yeah in provincia, or outside of the city, like Savio, they put metal baskets up for their garbage and to keep it away from the roaming dogs.    (the next few pics are from the CD of pics he sent to us)
 

 

 I once saw a shopping cart hung up haha. Then the garbage truck passes once a week to pick up the trash.

Yes, they love putting fresh fruit on their cakes. They make cakes different from us, they are still good, but I prefer American cakes. Yeah for my bday cake, we were wanting to spice it up and so we put a layer of dulce de leche and then we cut up banana and strawberry and it was really good!

celebrating my birthday on October 4th :-)  I had several cakes that day.

 

Well, now to my week. It was a week full of traveling and meetings.

 

Tuesday, I had a meeting in San Fernando with all of the leaders in the mission, we are recieving around 80 new missionaries within 9 weeks and we have 92 companionships in the mission and so lots of our Junior comps are going to be made trainers and leaders really soon. Oh I also heard from the secretary that it will only be this transfer with the shortened time, the rest will be normal so, my last Sunday will be Nov 2nd, and I'll be home the 4th.

Then that afternoon we headed to the villa. M-- and F-- weren't able to meet with us right at the appointed time and then we were walking away and a guy called us down and we went over and turns out that he had talked with the missionaries a while back and so we started talking to them all, him and his friend and then other guys were stopping and joining the conversation. We were in a small passageway and so it was funny to see a lot of different looking guys talking to two young men dressed in white shirts and  ties. We got talking to them and answering their questions and there was just a lot of confusion, because there was a couple of different religions represented and they weren't letting us talk, but when we were able to talk and testify of the Book of Mormon the spirit could be felt. One guy said that we could stop by his house, we haven't been able to just yet. But that was a fun experience talking religion in the villa in the street.

Then on Wednesday we had a zone meeting and we recieved the new phones, they are sleek, we have limited texting and limited calls and we have a camera. Then we did divisions and Elder LeBaron came over and Elder Johnson went over to the Boca. B-- dropped us after not being able to find him for a couple of weeks. B-- is progressing well, but he isn't married, we find out tonight if he has talked to his girlfriend.

Thursday was a normal day, we switched back comps after the meeting, the Junior comps had a meeting with pres in San Fernando.

Friday we went to San Fernando to pick up paperwork for Elder Johnson and we and his group went and did his paperwork for his DNI or Argentine papers. We started memorizing scriptures for every missionary teaching principle from every lesson, I've memorized so far 3 nefi 14:11 (of course all in spanish) Juan 3:16, 2 nefi 25:26, 3 nefi 18:21, amos 3:7 and Lucas 6:13.

Saturday, M-- and F-- fell through again, they are always gone, we will try a couple more times. L-- and R-- are doing well, they still are working on the paper work, but he is studying from the triple that we gave him and he his loving the gospel in his life. Their baby also got an infection from the vaccine shot that she got, it swelled up on her arm.

Sunday, only L-- came, B-- had to work at the last second, it's so frustrating! haha but 77 people came to church and we improved from the 61 of last week. Then last night there was a huge rain storm, it was building up and up, we were stuck in the dirt road villa and the wind started picking up and dust was going every where, then it started pouring and we had to walk home in the rain. We had to climb over cars and trash piles to avoid walking in ankle deep water in the streets. We got to the bus stop and we got on and we were the only two people that were soaked, so it just goes to show that we preach wherever and whenever. :)

I hope you all have a great week and have fun in the snow of Utah. haha I can't wait to hear from you again in a week. :)

I love you all!!!
 

Love,

Elder Ryan Pittard

It's a blessing being a missionary

Hey there family, hows it going? :) I love you all so so so much!!!!!!

So I was so excited to read your letter today, we are doing it first thing! So thanks for the awesome letters that you always send me, I love the detail that you all go into.

So to explain the pics:

The first pic is of me in front of the congress building of Argentina, it is a huge building with one of the tallest domes that I've seen!! Pretty impressive.

So that was after we emailed you last week, we went walking on an adventure to sightsee. That was the first thing that we saw, it was really hot and sunny and there were lots of people around. It's at the end of huge plazas that go on for a couple of blocks. So we went exploring down the plazas and took lots of pics. It was just me and Elder Johnson and we were having fun. haha.

Then we continued down Av. Rivadavia to the Pink House. In the plaza de Mayo there is a huge Catholic cathedral and we were interested and so we wandered in and we went around taking pics. It was something that I've never seen before, it was also a really weird feeling. Oh well it still is an impressive building, really great and there is lots of space as well. I wonder about its foundation? ;)

 

In the cathedral was the remains of the unknown soldier and of San Martin who liberated Chile, Peru and Argentina, so some old guy basically, but they had uniformed guards guarding it 24/7. We saw a changing of the guards and lets just say that it wasn't as impressive as it is in America at the changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier. We actually ran into two members from the south mission boundry in the church, haha we were both like, what are you doing in here? haha then as we left the building, we made our way accross the street and we ran into people from Utah, I was just waiting for that honestly ;) haha They were from St George and they were going to go on a cruise that would be going around tierra de fuego. Haha they took a pic with us, they asked us the typical questions and then we helped point them in the right direction towards the cemetary that I visited back in March in Juncal.

Then we had our pic taken at the Pink House, that's basically all that it is a pink building, apparently it's from the mix of white and red, mercy and blood, or something like that. Also that the flag colors are just the rising sun between the blue skies and white clouds. Then I had an adrenaline experience. So we went crossing the plaza to the other side and we were going to cross the street to find something to eat. So we came to the street and there were protest boards along the edge of the plaza and it blocked the view and so one had to walk a couple of feet out onto the street to see if there were any cars or motos coming around the bend, because it curved around. So I get a couple of feet going to check, walking up along the edge of the boards and I was going to stick my head out, but I
felt prompted that I shouldn't do that. In that exact moment a motocycle came flying around the edge on the side of the board and I jumped to the far side and he went around me, going to where I would've been if I had stuck out my body to see. haha Looking back it really was a close call, then I quickly walked back down the edge to the plaza on the safety of the grass, the light had just turned green but I wasn't able to see it. Then we crossed the street after we made sure it was red and continued on with the day. I only tell you this because I want to thank you for your prayers for
safety. Haha this country would benefit from using the police to be traffic police, haha it would slow some people down, especially on the motos. I'm also thankful for the Spirit that is always watching over me and protecting me.

So anyways, enough about the pics...

Wow what a crazy week that you all had. Traveling, snow, licences, bball, swimming and dance!! sounds like everyone is having fun.

First of all when i saw that pic of the snow i couldnt comprehend it in my head, it has been that long that I can't imagine it haha. But yeah, I'm glad that everyone is driving safe.

Say hi to Bro Butler at seminary and to coach Barnes, that's totally cool that you and Alex are in the same class in seminary. Say hi to Bro Draeger and give him thanks for the letter that they sent me.

Dad, thanks for the scripture, I like that one, it reminds me of the one in Moroni 7. It's nice having the gospel in my life to help me make the right decisions so that I can have the most happiness in this life. I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and his desire and love for me to sacrifice himself for me. Thanks for all of the training that you gave me before the mission on things of the gospel and the church, you definitely fulfilled your job as a father in this life. You have been the best parents that anyone could ever ask for. :)

Yay for the Ravens, that's awesome that Pitta caught a TD pass! It's weird to think that I have now been through my 2nd super bowl, it's just a weird feeling. Also that's awesome for Ansah, I hope that he does well.

Oh another thing, I don't know if you all have heard anything about this, but I have been hearing rumors that they are cutting down three of our transfers, starting with the one that we are currently in, (6 week periods) down to 5 weeks to accomodate for the influx of incoming missionaries. So if that is the case, I would finish Oct 20th and get home the 22nd. That's a weird feeling for me to think that they are taking 3 weeks from my mission, I never imagined anything like that happening. It still hasn't been made official, but that's a strong rumor running around the missionaries. The ones going home this transfer are all planning on the 24th instead of the 3rd. So I'm sure the church will send something out soon or at least the mission. I found out through the ZL´s that the mission is
expecting between 60-90 new missionaries arriving within the next 4 months. Because the next two groups to finish are big groups with lots of leaders as well, so there are a lot changes expected in the coming months. It's fun to think that I was part of the mission when the big announcement came out.

So last week went well. On Wednesday we had a great day. We taught I--, a recent convert, and then we went with her to try and contact some old investigators in the villa and we found two new investigators, M-- and F--. I was able to share a quick message of the Restoration and then we gave her a Book of Mormon. F-- is her ``husband`` and has gone to the church before in Paraguay. They didn't come to church but we are going to keep working with them, we have missed them a couple of times trying to pass by, sometimes the schedule complicates itself.

Thursday night we found out that R--, needs to get the Arg. papers before they can take out a marriage shift. So L's-- baptism will need to be prolonged a little bit, but he will be baptized and will be a great leader in the church. He bore his testimony again in sacrament meeting yesterday and I felt such a great spirit.

Friday, we got the surprise the night before that I would be doing divisions with the ZL´s, so that night I went with Elder Mower, and it's his last transfer so he's a really good missionary. It was fun being with him in the Boca and we found a new investigator and I felt really comfortable teaching her the Restoration, it's funny how lots of practice can help. ;) We set a date with her and she accepted everything.

Saturday, I was able to meet with the guy that makes leather scripture cases for the mission. I just got a case for my spanish triple, I ordered it and picked which pictures I wanted him to burn into it. It will look really cool. He just so happened to be coming to take E Mower's order, so I took advantage of it. I ordered with plently of time, so I'll be able to use it for the rest of my mission. :) That night we were able to teach L-- about the word of wisdom and he accepted everything, he doesn't smoke or drink and he only has to give up coffee and tea and he didn't really drink that before either.

Yesterday was good. I had a headache, I even had liquids in me, but I survived and manned it up for the rest of the afternoon. Though we had only 61 people in church, I know that it's summer but still I want the most amount of people to come every week. Every week it's different in who comes and who doesn't. Only L-- came, everyone else had a complicated schedule, it's the struggle down here because there are a ton of people that work on Sunday or work late Saturday night. The bishop also gave L-- an old triple that he really wanted. He had an interesting question the other day, he had seen
that there was an apparent ufo sighting from the NASA footage. He then asked us the question if we believed in aliens, because he said that he was sure that God had created more people. I felt alright with him sharing the scriptures in Moses and now he wanted to study it all and recieve all of that light and truth that the great and abominable church had taken from him, yeah we read in 1 Nephi 13 and he understood it really well. It's a blessing being the missionaries to teach L--.

But for now he is the only bright bright spot in this area, we are constantly looking for more people. We are having an increased effort to find families that are married and ready to be baptized.

Thanks for all of your prayers and fasts and support as I'm doing this necessary work for the Lord for two years in Argentina.

I hope that you all have a great week and I hope that you don't freeze in all of that snow. :)

I love you all so so much!!!

Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard