I love my mission!

Hey there family :) How's it going? I feel like I say that every week. ;)

Again no pics, just when we move and I want to show you the new apartment.

 

We had a good week and we are excited for this one to get going, we will have the marriage of L-- and R-- on Tues and then Saturday he will be baptized! A good way to end a drought way too long.

 

(in her letter Rachel asked a lot of questions....so now he answers all of them)  :o)...

 

Rachel, here we go... it sounds good, empanadas, yes I love serving in this far away land, yes and I hope that he goes foreign speaking, yes I love you :) and yes I very much love my family. Yes I like speaking spanish, sometimes I wish that I could speak better, I like them all (his companions), they each have helped me to become a better missionary. Yes we get plenty of sleep, but it doesn't feel like it sometimes, sometimes we stay up talking in bed, but that's more of a new missionary thing. :) in the winter it rains a lot, but it's not like FL in the summer. There isn't any mud in the city, just dog poop, but yah in Savio, everyday I got muddy. :) Yes I shower once a day, por lo menos. Yes the apartment has a good shower, we also have an automatic floor cleaner, every morning that we shower we can clean the floor, o sea we don't have a curtain yet, that seems to be an option down here. Yes I like my new apartment, it's great and spacious, but in a good way ;) We don't have a view, there are two windows, one is really high up, the other is from the kitchen and it's looking at the passageway wall. We don't get to much natural light. Yes, and I'm jealous that you are going (on a vacation over spring break)  haha, you are happy because you're skipping, but I don't know, you are a 9 yr old girl, so it could also be hyperness. Yes I miss you all :) Yes I pray lots of times everyday, I should pray more. Yes I do wash my hands, but I should also wash my hands more, and stop depending on the Lord´s mercies ;) dont worry that was a joke... Yes I miss my friends, but I'm making new friends down here too. Yes I'm excited to get home, but that still is far away and there still is a lot of work to do :) Please don't paint any room red haha, but as of now, keep the room how it is please. :) Yes I miss BYU, but they aren't playing that good so I'm glad that I'm down here not worrying about it haha. Yes we play lots of soccer, I've improved in that alot. Yes I'm almost 20 and a half. Yes please keep track of how old that I am and when I turn 21. Do you keep track? Yes I have to answer the other questions, yes I love your paragraph :) all answered!!!

 

love you :)

 

What's up kat, that's cute haha, sounds like a great MORP, I want to see pics asap. Oh and good job on magnifying your calling, the Lord has so many blessings for his willing servants that are willing to sacrifice time and efforts in his cause, keep being a sweetie to mom and dad.

 

Tanner, wow so exciting for you to be receiving your call, I hope that you do get it on Wednesday, I had to wait a couple of days, hey I'll skype Wednesday night... chiste haha but yah I'm excited to find out. Sounds like you all had fun at the dance, I want to see pics!! haha You're a stud you know that, un capo! I'm guessing Chile or Brazil. :) I'm so excited down here!

 

So about the stake conference this last weekend, it was awesome. On Saturday night there was the adult session of the conference, and we brought L-- so we could go, it was really awesome with really great talks about the family. There is a Chinese person that is the first counselor in the stake presidency, he speaks really well, he gave a good spiritual talk, it was cool to think that because we can speak spanish we can understand each other, because otherwise I don't have a clue about Chinese. Oh and L-- met President Gulbrandsen on Saturday night, and we got permission to go to his wedding on Tues. Pres changed the meetings schedule so that my zone can go on the other day. So then L-- came again on Sunday, it was a transmission from SLC, Elder Russel M. Nelson presided, it was great, it was all in Spanish. L. Whitney Clayton, conducted and Shayne M. Bowen also spoke. They all spoke in spanish except Sis Jean A. Stevens who had someone reading her talk while she spoke in english and we heard the spanish, it's how they do it for general conference. So it was really a spiritually uplifting experience.

 

So L-- and R-- are doing great after a last minute scare with their relationship and with the paperwork, they almost didn't get some documents shown at the place, but they were allowed to turn it in one day later. Then we had some good lessons about repentance and love and forgiveness, Satan is really trying that they dont get married, but it's the Lord´s will that they get married. L-- said something interesting that he was feeling the other night after the adult session of the conference. President had told him how special that it was for him to be being baptized and confirmed on Easter weekend. L-- told me with teary eyes that he was going to become a new person and be "resurreccted" as a person on the same days as Christ was. Such a spiritual person.

 

Emailing, yes they have requested that the mission president give more time for emailing. Honestly President Gulbrandsen doesn't have a policy for how long we can email. But now we can email whomever we want, with permission to write to some people.

 

It's actually a miracle I think that I didn't blow up after it (his camera) was broken and that it wasn't working, I was super calm and I realized that it really wasn't something that was important, I think that I have a lot of patience, but then again it's always being tested. Yah I'll be looking around, we are in the older part of the city and there aren't many stores, but I'll keep my eye out.

 

That's awesome on counseling Rachel to pray for help, that will help her to realize that she can pray to God for whatever thing that she needs, thanks for being such a great teacher and example and for being such a righteous mother.

 

Dad, "Baller!!!" yah that's awesome and coming from Mahe too, that's where I get all of my talent, in sports. ;)

 

Well the week was a busy one, we spent time cleaning the apartment and buying stuff that we need. I've been making pancakes on an oven sheet over the top burner. I forgot to bring a frying pan and we can't find a good quality one so far.

 

Friday, I did 5 baptism interviews for Boca 2, but only 2 of them passed and only one ended up being baptized but they have found lots of goldens lately. We had a zone/stake baptism after the conference, 7 people were baptized. I saw the flia A-- there, they were a family from Palermo.

 

What I learned last week is that we shouldn't judge being members of the church to other members, because I have met too many people that made a mistake and were judged by the members and it has been hard for them to find the desires to come back. I love the mission, I need to say that more, I really do, but to say it really jumps out at you and it sticks with you. :)

 

Well I hope that you all have a great week! Good luck with everything. :)

 

Love,

Elder Ryan Pittard

We are going to be finding the golden ones that God is preparing to listen to the gospel

Hey there! :)

 

I´m doing great down here in the wild jungles of Buenos Aires. We had a normal week but with little success, so we need to try something new, so we are dropping all of our current investigators, not including L--, and we are going to be finding the chosen ones that God is preparing to listen to the gospel.

I loved your letters and the pics were great. I loved seeing the pic of all of Gpa´s cousins and that should've been a great experience to have been there. I know that our family will be like that one day. Also Tanner does look good and I'm glad that he is almost ready to turn in his papers, it's crazy to think that it's so soon, well a couple of months, but still they seem to be passing by really fast.

So you ask about my new comp. He´s great, and we are getting to know each other. He is actually the oldest of four and he is the first missionary in his family. He is actually a convert, he was baptized when he was 10, his parents are also converts. He is 22 yrs old and he loves music, so I'm learning a little bit more about music, I'm realizing that lots of people and missionaries are really big into music, just like I'm really big into sports. He is 1 meter 60 centimeters, I don't know what the conversion would be, he comes up to my shoulder, or something like that. He did just come from Savio and he was only there for 5 weeks, so he was surprised to be moving so fast. He also was comps with Elder Solum, he was in Maschwitz when I was in Savio, and so we also have that connection. We get along and we still have 5 more weeks to get to know each other better.

Yes we are excited that L-- and R-- are progressing towards their wedding. We need two witnesses from the city of BsAs and one just canceled on us, so we found the bishop's wife along with him to be the witnesses, the process is really different down here, sometimes it's kind of frustrating.

We tried with S-- and M-- but they weren't progressing, and we have been counseled to drop investigators that aren't progressing within a couple of visits. S-- was going to come to church, but then we couldn't get her out of bed to answer her door. People here are very alusive, and hard to get a hold of, you kind of have to just show up when they aren't expecting you, that's why we set citas with them so that we can know if they are going to progress or not.

Last Wednesday we taught a nephew of this one hermana that he just moved here from Uruguay, so we taught him the restoration after lunch and he didn't accept a fecha, then when we passed by the next day to see how his reading went he hadn't read or prayed and then we were trying to teach him but he wasn't showing any interest. He didn't come to church and so we are going to drop him, it's sad but it's for our best, we can't be spending lots of time with people that can't be baptized, that's the job of the home teachers, we are here to find to baptize.

Fast Sunday was good, oh I was wearing my purple tie, my fast Sunday tie and we went over to the L--´s house and we ate some empanadas, well in the middle of my first empanada, it spilled all over the bottom half of the tie. So the hma is going to try and wash it and get out the stain. So it's survived 2/3rds of the mission, I hope that it can still work for the last 8 months. Which i realized that on Saturday I hit 8 months till my last Sunday, it's changed by one week.

L-- did bear his testimony for the third time in three fast and testimony meetings, he was thanking us, the missionaries for the teachings and the support. He said that he knows that the church is true and that brought a great feeling to my heart. :) Then we ate a good meal of chicken milenesa and mashed potatoes with a really nice family.

Last Monday, we played soccer with the other two companionships from the Boca. E DeFriez is still there and is still our zone leader. I'm loving soccer more and more, because I feel like I'm getting better at it everytime that I play, I'm not like dribbling master, but I do kick hard and most of the time accurate, and I can pass pretty good as well. Oh our ward just won a multistake soccer tournament on Saturday, they are the best, the young men in our ward are the coolest, they will be awesome missionaries. They also are really goofy, so I don't know what they put on their fb, but they are awesome with the missionaries. We also taught each other slang from America and Guatemala, so now I can communicate all cool with Jordan and Tanner. It's crazy to think that Jordan has been home for a long time and that Tanner is so close to being done, and that's cool that he is a AP, I just also remembered that Ty just left, that's crazy to have two missionaries in the same family out at the same time. So the next time that you see Jordan or Tanner tell them, what´s up chapín?! It means Guatemalan.

Tuesday, the newbie came on Tuesday and his name is E Marchant, he is from Chile and is a stud. It is weird talking in spanish almost all of the time. I'm glad though that Elder Harrison is there to remember the fun times that we had last transfer.

Wednesday, we were able to contact like three refs and find two news, but the news didn't turn out like we wanted them to be.

Thursday, we had a zone meeting with our zone and it was really good and that I'm glad to be in this zone, Congreso really is the best zone. That night we passed by with L-- and he was there alone and was telling us about some concerns that he has with his wife, I think that it happens to everybody right before they are married, especially when he didn't really choose her with marriage in mind. That's what I love about the gospel and the focus that we have on eternal families. So we were able to share about working together and not get into contention. I think it worked because they have been happier.
 

Friday I went on divisions with E DeFriez, that was fun and crazy to think how far we have come! I can remember sitting there in the MTC trying to teach in Spanish and now we were there both talking fluently enough and teaching real people. We are now really good friends and we are both enjoying the mission and the challenges that we are facing.

Saturday was alright, we had both of our citas with S--, and M-- and C-- both fell through, they weren't there. So it was frustrating and so it's requiring a change in what we are doing.
 

Sunday was calm and we passed it with great families like the L--´s and the M--´s they are really talented and they performed for us a little bit, they were singing in English, they are really big into a band called McFly and they were singing their songs for us. They are the best.
 

So this week we have interviews, oh and I still haven't recieved that one package, but I do expect it tomorrow.

Well I love you all so much and I hope that you all have a great week!!

Give mom a kiss and dad a hug for me :)
 

Love,

Elder Ryan Pittard