Thanks to prayer we will know to which houses to go to find prepared people

Well hey there family of mine :)  Great to hear from you all again, and I'm glad that everything is going great back home as usual. :)

So when I say that it wasn't the week that we were expecting is because M-- was taken against her will with her mom to Paraguay, oh when we found that out, we were out of our minds, it's like the devil just shipped her out of our reach. That was on Thursday, so a tough day to deal with, but oh well it's already passed. We will just have to try and find out where she lives to send the missionaries over to her house.

So yesterday it rained, well actually it rained for like 5 min and then it was sprinkling a little bit the rest of the morning, so that means it's an excuse for the whole world down here not to go to church, it's the most frustrating thing in the world. Yeah it might be a little muddy but you still have to go to church. So the missionaries are really pushing people and helping their faith. So we just need to keep loving them and realize that they are learning just as we are. But the culture sometimes doesn't help haha. So we have this one investigator that will be married this Friday and then baptized on this Saturday.  We passed by right before church and she was up and ready and said that she was on her way, so we continued to church and we helped with the sacrament. I helped pass and Elder Brown helped bless. Then after the sacrament, she still hadn't come, so we decided to take matters into our own hands, so we went and got her and brought her with her kids to church, so by our faith we were able to have at least somebody at church. The zone struggled yesterday with the church attendance. So we are trying to help the missionaries to increase their faith to do everything possible to have people in church.

Then funny note, in choir practice, I'm one of the two tenors, and the other one thinks that he sings really good, sometimes he does, but other times I catch him singing the soprano part down an octive, and it's funny that he doesn't want to sing some parts because he doesn't like how they sound. It was just funny because the director was like, no, you have to sing your part. Elder Brown helped with the sopranos because there was only one and the other two ladies there were learning how to sing alto, so I'm once again grateful for our wonderful ward choir.

Anyways, we had a great afternoon yesterday. We were struggling all week to find new investigaters and to have actual lessons that didn't fall through on us. We went yesterday after lunch and contacted this part-member family and we were actually able to do some service for them. They were putting up new electrical wire posts, well they were actually logs that they were burying into the ground and nailing on some wood up above to help guide the lines. We were way out in the campo, and you can do whatever you want out in the country. So that was a great way to win the hearts of the family. Then we got talking to the moms, they all lived together. They were all members, except one of their 9 yr old sons, they really wanted to come back to church, and with our pushing we can help them have enough faith to go to church this week. We put a fecha with B--, the 9 yr old boy, for the 23rd of June for his baptism, so that's totally a blessing from the Lord.

Then it was almost time to go home and we decided to go really far away to try and contact the sister of A-- whom we had met on Saturday. We took the trip, finally found the right house,--down here they have street numbers but sometimes they aren't in the right order, like we were looking for 5450 and on the same block there was a number of 5200, so it's just whatever down here.

We found the house and we were able to meet the family really fast. She has 5 kids, 4 of which were there and they kind of accepted a fecha for the 30th, but we will be going back on Tuesday to set the fecha really good. They have lots of faith and want us to pass by again. It's fun to just meet people and to challenge them on the spot to be baptized after bearing testimony of the need of that saving ordinance by the proper authority.

So then this morning we spent like 45 min walking around trying to find a ciber that had 2 computers available, all of the teenagers are in here on facebook, so we are fighting against that every Monday. We are in a cheaper place right now and the computers are slower and my mouse has trouble left clicking haha, but we are going to play soccer again here at our church, so that will be fun. Last week I exerted myself a lot to win the games and Ithought that I had stretched enough but I forgot that im getting older and I haven't been running around for like 2 weeks, so my calves really tightened up and for the next three days it was awkward walking around because it was hard to walk. But now I'm fine :)

I made the chocolate chip cake mix cookies from the recipe that Gma Hilbig had sent me, I used butter instead of oil with the chips and they were delicious, thanks grandma. :)

My beloved mother, thanks for the wonderful notes and for the love.  Yeah I love messing with the dogs here, they are funny sometimes, when they aren't attacking you haha. Oh that reminds me, on Wednesday Elder Brown's bike chain broke and so we have been without bikes since then, but it's alright.

Yeah our goal is 204, and we are on that path, we just need to find more prepared people right now to be able to be baptized within these next three weeks. The best are the part member families, they already have the background and most of them have already been to church before. So we have lots of those to work with. Right now on the ward list there are 1018 members listed with like 75 coming every Sunday on average, so we have lots of work to do. But thanks to prayer we will be able to know which house to go to to find the prepared people to be baptized.

This Thursday we have our interviews with President, our last ones. It'll be interesting being a ZL to see what we talk about. I really do love President and I know that I came to this mission for him, so now we will see with the new president, I'm sure he´ll be just fine.

So thanks for the love and the notes, I can't believe that the weeks are just flying by, soon there will be two Pittards in the mission field! Best of luck to everyone and hugs and kisses to all!!

Love,

Elder Ryan Pittard

 

                                                  At the temple as a mission last week.

 

 

                                                       Elder Brown and Elder Pittard

 

 

I'm just so happy right now

Hey there family :) I love you so much :)  Thanks for your wonderful letter and all of the love that I felt as I read your letter. :)  I'm just so happy right now because the Lord really has blessed us, let me tell you about it. :)

So we were working with this girl named M--, she was the niece of this one sister in the ward and she was from Paraguay. She doesn't speak that well in spanish, well she does but she´s just super shy. So we were passing by and teaching her and we were trying to prepare her baptism for this last weekend. So we went on Saturday with the faith that we were able to finish her teaching and have the interview.

So lets just say that the devil didnt want us to have this baptism, he stuck in his tail (a spanish saying) in almost every part of a baptism and the service. So Friday night we received a call from our DL saying that his lock on his pension´s door broke as they were trying to leave, so they were locked in their house. And he was supposed to do the interview for us the next day. So we went over early in the morning and we tried with the copy key that we have. The keys that they have here are different from the ones that the states have. They are skinny until the head which has teath sticking out (i think that i sent you a pic in my first area of the keys) so anyways it still wasnt working and so we went in search of a locksmith, and we were in a hurry because we had our cita with M-- to finish teaching her everything and going over the questions. So we luckily found a locksmith right next door and we left to catch the bus to get there on time.

So we get there and we go over everything and she´s all good and wanting to be baptized, but the only thing is that the aunt whom she lives with still hadnt received the permission from the mom, technically the aunt was the guardian but to make the aunt feel better she wanted that the mom that is living in Paraguay knows and is doing this. So then the other elders showed up and he was able to do the interview. So we left the interview not knowing if we were going to be able to go through with it or not. So lunch fell through on us and so we bought stuff to make empanadas de los cielos, (Heavenly Empanadas) ;) haha and as we were eating those we received a message from the aunt that she had talked to the mom and everything was great :) so we were really happy.

So then after going to the moon and back, a place really far away that's in our area, but it's all the way in Moreno. Anyways we came back from that and we went to check out the font in the church and we were having problems getting it to fill up with hot water, we were trying everything because the hot water was running in the bathrooms and everywhere else but not into the font. Then we had trouble with the pump pumping out the cold water that we had put in there. So basically all sorts of problems with the font, so we decided that we would worry about it on Sunday the next day, the 1st counselor who is acting as bishop knows how to work it.

So we go to bed all happy and excited to be missionaries, you know how it is, a baptism! And we get up the next day, i shower and get dressed and then i sent a message to the aunt asking her who M-- wanted to baptize her. I get a message back saying that at like 11 pm the night before M-- didn't want to get baptized. So we were freaking out!! haha, we called her right then to find out what happened. Turns out the devil was working through another crazy aunt to scare her about stuff like how the church was only going to control her and she wasn't going to have fun in her life. She probably was just nervous and wasn't sure what to do. So we pray for help and we decide to show our faith and go and start filling out the font. We get to the church and we start it, the hot water wasn't running out as fast as we needed it to be, it was trickling out. So we call them and now she´s not wanting to come to church. She had to come to church to have her 3rd attendance to even have a chance to baptize her on Sunday.

So we were pleading with the aunt to take her to church at all costs. So every other investigator fell through on us and so we get to church after looking for somebody, and they come walking up with M--!! first miracle haha. So yesterday was fast sunday and we were sitting by her in the meeting wanting her to feel the spirit in the testimony meeting. But halfway through the lights cut out and the little kids were being relentless, loud and rowdy. Here it's not a custom to take out crying kids, idk why it's not like that, but it's just the culture. So the mic wasn't working and you couldn't hear the old sweet ladies giving their testimonies. The devil was really not helping us, but luckily we have the MVP on our side, the lights came back on and the kids shut up and then her cousin got up and shared his testimony to finish the meeting and it was really powerful and the spirit returned.

Then we invited M-- to the next class that we were teaching. We were praying to know what to teach before the lesson and we were looking down the list of subjects and we both thought in faith. So as we were going through the lesson, the spirit was really guiding this lesson. It somehow got to baptism and an older less-active lady bore powerful testimony of her baptism and how it really made her a happier person. So then we were able to ask inspired questions and after the hour had passed, we were like straight up in the lesson, we are preparing everything to baptize you today, will you be baptized today? she paused and thought about it and in her Paraguayan accent, yes I will get baptized today. yeah!!! another great moment! and another miracle from the Lord. So then we went to check the font and it hadn't changed, we had asked the 1st counselor to look at it and it just wasn't wanting to work. So we called up Jose C Paz 1, the other ward in this city but meets in another building, and we asked them to start filling up their font.

Then we asked her who do you want to baptize her and she picked me and so we had to go with Elder Farnsworth, the couple missionary in our ward and we went in his car back to our place and we got the clothes and then we get back to the church and the aunt that originally wanted the baptism to happen, after hearing that we needed to do it in JCP1, she was like no, better that we wait till next week. what!? that's the worst thing to do, another week for satan to stick in his tail. So the Lord was able to soften her heart and we had to call a remis (on-demand car) and that took us over to the other church and a couple of members came over to support her and we had a great service. The water was half cold and half warm but at least it was working and it felt great to show our faith and having the Lord fulfill his part. So I would send you pics, but the computer doesn't want to accept this cord, stupid haha.

So that's my novel for the week. :) I really felt the Lord´s love in all of that process, I was constantly praying and all that I ever felt was peace and a comfort that everything was going to work out.

So that was just an end to a crazy week. With the temple on Monday, that wasn't the end of our travels. On Tuesday we took an hour and 15 min bus to San Fernando and then the train to the mission home for a leadership counsel with the ZL´s AP´s and Pres, it was awesome and we set the goal for this month for baptisms at 204 like Mosiah 18:16. We are super excited for that goal, it would be the most that the mission has had in one month ever. We are going to need more miracles like what we just experienced yesterday. Then Wednesday was another crazy travel day. So we were waiting for a bus for 45 min and it wasn't coming, the line was 30 people long and we had to leave right then. I don't know but there was a problem with traffic everywhere in BsAs, idk what happened with the other missions, but they were supposed to come to Belgrano in our mission, in capital, or really far away and they ended up not being able to come after all. So we had to take this on-demand car to virreyes where we ate some lunch, our first real lunch in a couple of days. We had eaten fast food on Monday and Tuesday, and then the train wasn't coming, but we waited it out and we took the 45 min train to capital then we walked the 10 min to the church. Yeah we were able to meet up again as a mission and yes we were able to shake the hand of an apostle and the South America South Area presidency. We were able to hear Elder Cook, Elder Acosta from the local 70, then Elder Zeballos and Elder Gonzalez from the 70. It was awesome hearing the voice of Elder Cook in person. He looks a lot older in person than on tv haha. but his voice was strong and the way we do missionary work is slowly changing and the apostles and authorities are receiving the vision, Pres G has been teaching us the same thing this whole time, so I received another testimony about how this church and work is run on revelation.

So then we had to take the same route back home afterwards and we didn't make it home until 8:30pm, so we weren't in our area for the first part of the week. So that's why the baptism is a miracle because the Lord was preparing her when we weren't able to be there.

This morning we received a call from Pres and we talked about the zone and the numbers, so it was fun to see that Pres really does care and he was wanting us to succeed and was giving up sugesstions to tell the missionaries. Our zone isn't the most successful in the mission but we are trying to transmit the vision to the rest of them. I feel like me and Elder Brown are together for a purpose, we both are great leaders, in different ways, but we both have the vision and we are here to share it with the rest of the zone. This morning we had a conference call with the zone, we told them that we aren't perfect as missionaries but that we need to change some stuff that we are doing so that we can reach the goals that we have placed as a mission and as a zone. We are going to be doing divisions this week and trying to lead by example and to love them, that's why we are saying the things that we say, because we love them and we just want them to have success.

 

Well we are off to play soccer, I love playing soccer now, it's just the only thing to do to get exericise. the bikes, yeah but it's not the same. Oh the bikes here are different then in Savio. It's a low rider haha, made for a Latin, oh well we will make do, we don't use them everyday, but it'll be fine, hopefully all of my pants can make it through haha.

 

Well I hope that you all have a great week and enjoy the summer. I can't believe that it has finally arrived for you, that just means that it will be getting a lot colder down here. I love every single one of you so much and I want you all to know that I'm loving my mission and it's just going to go up from here.

 

Random mission prep counsel: Tanner bring lots of ties, ones that you really like too, youll get bored of some. bring some to trade to. Bring darker sheets, bring a smaller extra pillow if you like sleeping with two. get a really flashy watch, thats the style now, i heard especially in Georgia. Get to know lots about the area, the history and the sports, anything that you can use to make quick friends with the people. bring lots of garments, wow it's going to be so easy to send and receive packages in the states, and buying stuff for cheap. takes lots of pics on the mission, even if they are crazy, it doesn't matter, sometimes you will get really bored. The misson isn't easy, there is lots of stress and doubt, but in the long run you will only remember the good stuff. Get Ecco shoes, they are the most long-lasting of all of the shoes that I have seen on the mission. Music, as much as you can! even if you think that EFY songs are super cheesy, bring them, you will want to listen to something. Bring all sorts of genres and beats and styles that are in the guidelines. ;) Get the email address of all of the friends that you want to write, get the address of the girls that you want to write hand written letters, it's better that way haha and it's more fun to wait for it. Don't leave with any regrets, you have 2 years to think about that and talk about that. Bring lots of pics that you can carry around and show to everyone, pics of the family and of your history, like sports pics, dance pics, trips pics, you will want to see those after a couple of months.

 

Well that's enough for now, I will let you know if I come up with more this next month.

 

Love,

Elder Ryan Pittard