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!!!