The Elders from Lehi are taking over the 3rd floor

Hey there Family!!

I decided to use my time wisely and so I'm fitting in the email right now on my busy p-day. :) (It came at 8:15am)

Good Morning!! How's everything going up in Lehi? What are Tanner and Alex's schedule for basketball this year, who are they playing first on Wednesday? How did BYU do against Idaho? Any other news you think I need to know? Ha ha So many questions.

Now to the real stuff. I'm doing great! A lot has happened since last Monday. We taught our progressing investigator, Esteban, totally in Spanish too, though we used lots of notes, but the spirit was still there and we had our first experience of having our investigator commit to baptism after the 5th lesson. Esteban, then became Hermano Wade and started teaching us, so that was cool. We just got two new investigators, Juan and Alexandra, both teachers. So now we are preparing to teach Juan tonight. I have a stack of 250 flash cards and growing. I've almost memorized most of it and feel really confident in just speaking in Spanish without notes. It's amazing to think that I'll almost be fluent when I leave in 9 weeks!

Alright, to answer your questions...Yes, we had a devotional last Tuesday by Elder Tad R. Callister of the Presidency of the Seventy. He talked about 10 points of why the Apostasy really happened and it was an amazing talk that filled the room with the spirit. I'll see if I can copy those points and send them to you in a letter. We then went back as a district, all 10 of us, in our classroom and discussed the talk for an hour. We really had the spirit with us as we all bore testimony of the truthfulness of what we had just heard.

Wednesday, all the new people were coming in. We got a chance to play soccer on the field just west of the temple, closest to the street. That was fun because it seems like that is going to be the last nice day we have here at the MTC. haha Guess what, Matt is basically in the room across from me on our floor!! Elder Haskell is room 301, the first room to the left after coming up the stairs and I'm 343, the first room on the right. So all of us from Lehi, Elders Walker, Scott, Haskell and Me were all on the same floor and basically right next to each other--the other Elders were 303 and 307 :). Elder Walker left this morning to Dallas, Texas so it was fun to see him again and to see how much he has changed. Elder Scott, I found out, is going to Mexico City and he's either on his 3rd or 4th week.

We haven't had any official teaching on the culture of Argentina, but all we have heard so far is how nice of a place it is and I've only heard really good things about my mission.

Elder Defriez is from North Ogden and he graduated from Weber High this past year. He played football last year and at one point led the state in receptions. He was called to be our District Leader but I was called to be the Senior Companion. :) haha He's probably 6'2" and is a bigger guy than me. I've gained 6 pounds so far but I'm doing push-ups and crunches every night though, so I don't think that it'll be too bad.

7 out of 10 in my district are going to ARG BAN (Argentina Buenos Aires North) while 3 of them are going to ARG Neuquen, which is the mission that covers the wastelands of Argentina south of Buenos Aires. I sleep on the top bunk, which makes it hard to make every day but I'm doing good at that and I really miss my own bed. haha Actually it isn't that bad and it's getting better every night. :) My desk is the opposite side of the room away from the door, right next to our window.

Church is great here! Every week we have to prepare a 3-5 minute talk in Spanish just in case we get called up to speak. Yesterday I was asked to play the piano for both priesthood and sacrament meeting. Haha Funny story...the zone leaders told me Thursday morning that I would be playing, and they handed me a list of songs, course they were all the spanish hymns and their corresponding numbers, so they told me which each of them were so I could practice. I somehow didn't hear the sacrament hymn one correctly, so I prepared for the wrong one for Sunday. So come Sunday, I played the first hymn good and was preparing for the sacrament hymn. It's weird cause in the spanish hymn book, some songs have more verses than if they were in English. I got there a little late and so I didn't have a Spanish hymnal to play from but it was alright cause I knew where they were in the English book. So I was checking to see how many verses the next song was so that I wasn't playing too many or too little. As I was realizing that I was going to be playing the wrong song, they were announcing the sacrament hymn, and I still didn't know which hymn I was supposed to be playing, so I was frantically trying to look for the same tune in the English book, but couldn't find it. So the Elder stood up to lead and everyone was waiting for me to start playing, haha. I then commented that I didn't have a Spanish book to play from and so I didn't know what to play. Luckily one of the zone leaders gave me one of their books and I just started sight reading. Haha I had been praying from the get go and Heavenly Father helped me to play a song that I don't think that I've ever practiced enough to play while others sing. Haha I felt blessed and decided to share it with you. :)

Oh wow, out of time. haha Actually a little over, oops.

Oh well, just know that I love you and I know the Church and my message are true. Can't wait to hear from you!!

Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard

Our first letter from Ryan

Hey there Familia!!!

I have so much to tell you!!

First of all, my companion's name is Elder Defriez, and I promise that I'll send pictures asap. We have been having a great time and I have loved being there at the MTC. First, thanks for the Dear Elder letter, I love getting mail so please send some asap. :) To answer Dad's question, (if he'd seen anyone he knows) Elder Walker and Elder Scott, former bball teammates, are on my same floor in the Edward Stevenson Building. I'm on the 3rd floor. I also saw Elder Mathis (friend from school that entered the MTC the week before Ryan) on my first day at dinner so we are all good!! First day was great!! The video was exactly how it was, but as soon as I got into my classroom my teachers started talking to us in Spanish right away! It was really difficult to understand but it has been a blessing every day! Yay for Tanner!! That is way exciting to hear that he'll be playing bball and I'm also really happy for Alex!! (he made the 9th grade team)

Well, here is our daily schedule, get up before or at 6:30 depending on the day. Some days we have gym at 6:35am and other days we shower and get dressed. Then we go to our assigned classroom to have personal study. We are district 13B, and all of the other missionaries are going to Argentina as well, there are 10 in the district and 7 of us are going to Buenos Aires North. The meals are done by BYU dining so the food is really good and it is all you can eat! I've been eating healthy but I always have a cup of chocolate milk. ;) We use a computer training system called TALL (technology assisted language learning) and that really is helping. The biggest surprise was that on Friday, we taught an "investigator" all in Spanish! His name is Esteban and he will be our teacher by the end of this week! By that time we had already had a basic knowledge on how to bear our testimony and pray in Spanish, so we were able to put together a 20 min. lesson, but just bearing testimony and asking him how his day was. We have had two days of gym time and I've been able to play bball with Elder Walker and Elder Scott again!! But I'm definitely out of shape. haha But I've been doing pushups and crunches so hopefully that will even it all out. Basically we sit in our classroom for at least 10 hours a day, either in personal study, or language study or classroom instruction!

I had a wonderful experience yesterday. I had been struggling a little with getting used to the new routine and I was feeling a little homesick, but I finally decided to pray about it and really ask for help. So I spent 20 min. in class praying for help and to comfort me and to give me the Spirit. I then asked Heavenly Father to help me in my studying, and then I opened up my scriptures straight to Enos and I read the entire chapter. I realized that I hadn't been praying enough and that was why I was feeling down. So now I'm getting there to where I'm constantly feeling the Spirit and talking to my Heavenly Father.

I love you very much!!! I promise I'll send pictures asap and I'll probably email you around the same time every Monday. Have a great week!! Hope everything is going great and please write. :) LOVE YOU!!

Love,
Elder Pittard

Change to MTC address

I just got a quick note letting us know that the mission code that we were originally given was wrong. Please note the slight change to Ryan's MTC address. (See address at right)

A Funny Thing happened on the way to the MTC...

Wednesday November 9th actually arrived. This morning Ryan was up and ready to go. :) Cary and I drove the others to school and Cary had to go into work for a little bit. I made some blue and white ribbon thing-a-ma-bobbers to put on his suitcases (easier to identify)...sounds like something a mom would do. :) Ryan spent some time playing the piano. I will miss hearing him play the piano. One of his favorite songs to play lately is the EFY medley As Sisters in Zion & We'll the Bring the World His Truth. Love it! He also snacked a little while sitting in front of our computer watching the screen saver of random family pictures through the years.

We checked the other children out of school early. Before we left our home Cary gave Ryan a father's blessing. I love having the blessing of the priesthood in my home. We then knelt for family prayer, and as we always do, we sang a song before offering the prayer. Today we sang I Hope They Call Me On A Mission. Then it was time to go....

We all went out to lunch at Cafe Rio. Ryan did request that one...and no one else objected. :) In the restaurant several people asked him if he was going on a mission. I'm sure people around here get used to seeing families like ours on Wednesday afternoons going out to lunch one more time together. :) Plus, it was a little obvious...Ryan in his dark suit and the rest of us in regular clothes. One of the guys preparing our food was talking to Ryan about how much he's going to love learning to speak Spanish...and the lady sitting at the table next to us asked where he was going, and when she found out it was to Buenos Aires North she said that her brother and her ex-husband both had served there, and her current husband served in Buenos Aires South!

It's amazing how quickly, yet also how slowly, time passes as you're waiting for that departure time. We were done with lunch quicker than expected, so we had plenty of time to drive to the MTC. When we got down there we drove past the MTC a couple times and saw all the cars pulling in....the missionary drop-off had begun. We then parked up by the Provo Temple to take family pictures.

Oh, did I mention what a BEAUTIFUL Fall day it was?!! It was a cooler day, but the warm, bright sun made it feel much warmer. Cary's sister and her husband met us there to help take pictures of our family (so nice of them) :). We took several pictures....you can view all the pictures in the slide show to the right.

Check-in time was 1:25, so about 1:10 we started walking back to the car. As we got to the car Cary reached for the keys, but they weren't in his pocket. He looked to me to see if I had them. I didn't, and I had left my purse in the car. Cary looked in the car window and there were the keys sitting on the console between the seats!!! We looked at each other like we couldn't believe this had just happened! We've never locked our keys in our car before! I thought to myself....we can walk across the street to the MTC....but all of Ryan's things were locked in the car! I quickly said a little prayer. I knew it would work out somehow. I called the Provo Police, but they told me they weren't authorized to help us with that. She suggested I call a tow truck company or a locksmith, or maybe even the MTC Security could help us out. At that moment a tow truck was pulling out of the temple parking lot across the street, so Cary's brother-in-law ran over to ask him...but he said he couldn't help us. Then I called the MTC. I explained what had happened and that we were supposed to be dropping off our son in a few minutes. A very kind woman told me that she'd send someone right up.

It really was a funny experience, just because of the time and place that it happened to us, especially because it has never happened to us before. :) Ryan wasn't laughing though. He wanted to get to the MTC. I knew he was already feeling anxious and emotional and by this time he was just ready to get there and get started. I told him he'd laugh about the whole thing later.

Within five minutes someone from security came to our rescue! And within 3-4 minutes he had our door opened.

After many thanks we loaded up and drove across the street, and got there by 1:33.

I'd heard that on average 100 cars pull up to the MTC curb every 15 minutes on Wednesdays during the drop-off times. And there was a steady stream of cars...and lots of smiling elders ready to help all the new missionaries. What a rush of emotion as we drove in! We each hugged Ryan one more time...

Then he was on his way....

I will never forget his big smile as he turned to wave one more time!!!!

He is my sweetie and I will miss him--I will miss talking to him and miss his texts just saying hello or telling me that he loves me. So now I can't wait to start getting his letters. (Plus, then you won't have to read my rambling posts, and you'll get to hear from him.)

I know Ryan is going to do his best to be the best missionary that he can be. He is very prepared, and also very ready to learn and to study hard to more fully understand the gospel and to learn the Spanish language. Ryan has a sweet spirit and a tender heart. He is a good teacher and he loves to serve. I know he will love the people of Argentina and bless many lives with the message he shares.

We love you Ryan! God be with you till we meet again...

I'm Off to the MTC

Hey there everybody,

Well, here I go, I'm off to the MTC in Provo. I have been called to serve my mission in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I have been waiting for 5 months now, ever since I got my call in June, and now I'm ready to go. Yesterday was my last day at home and it was spent packing up my room, being set apart as a missionary and then packing everything up into 2 large suitcases and a smaller suitcase and a backpack. Over the past couple of days I've experienced many mixed feelings of joy and excitement with sadness for leaving all of my family and friends. It has been hard seeing them all for the last time, but I know what I'm doing is the right thing for me at this time. The Savior set the great example, and I hope to follow and emulate his love for the people as I serve the people of Argentina. The Savior gave all His life and now he is asking me to go and serve, like He did, for two years. When you think of that, it's only a tenth of my whole life so far, so it's like I'm paying tithing to the Lord for my life. I'm super excited to be able to have this opportunity to share this "good news" or in other words the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

My favorite scripture: "And moreover, I would desire that ye consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never ending happiness." ~Mosiah 2:41

I love this scripture in the Book of Mormon because of the happiness it promises! It promises happiness for keeping the commandments and then for enduring in our faithfulness to the end--"that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never ending happiness." I want never ending happiness and that's also what I want for everyone in Buenos Aires! I know what I am about to embark on is what I am supposed to be doing right now in my life.

I would like to bear my testimony so that everyone knows that I know that this gospel is the word of God. This church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is the only true and living church on the earth today. I challenge you to go and ask for yourself, ask your Father in Heaven if this is the only true church on the earth today and He will manifest to you through the Holy Ghost. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and that he was inspired and directed from God in restoring Christ's church on the earth today. I know that I have the priesthood of God and that I have the power on earth to do His will for His people. I know that I am an instrument in the hands of the Lord and that He will direct me through promptings of the Holy Ghost to find the lost sheep of His fold. I know that my missionary work is a great work and that it is what I am supposed to be doing at this time. I love all of my family and friends. I'm excited to go and also excited to come back and share all of my wonderful experiences. The work is true brothers and sisters!


Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard

The Eve of Departure

What a day we've had. Even though we'd been physically preparing for Ryan to leave for 3 months...buying all the clothes and shoes and everything that is required for a missionary...I still had to run to the store one more time this afternoon! Ryan kept busy cleaning out his room and unpackaging and ironing his white shirts, and making sure he had everything on his check list.

I had asked Ryan what he wanted to have for dinner on his last night at home. He said he didn't care. I'd been so busy doing other things that I really hadn't thought in advance what to make for dinner. This morning I got the idea of making a Thanksgiving meal, but when I went to buy all the food I discovered that no one was selling fresh turkeys yet...they were all frozen...and that wasn't going to work for a last minute Thanksgiving meal! I even went to two grocery stores. Then I thought to buy some turkey meat from the deli....it cost more than a frozen turkey, but it was better than nothing. I figured it would taste okay with plenty of homemade mashed potatoes and gravy.

Of course it wasn't the same...we all called it "fake turkey"...ate it and had a good laugh. My Mom was able to come and be with us that night (my dad was traveling).

After dinner we watched the first half of a special that was on tv between general conference sessions last April....about the 50th Anniversary of the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. I had recorded it, knowing that Ryan would be entering the MTC this year. That was fun for all of us because it showed what the missionaries do in the MTC after they leave their families at the curb. It was fun to picture Ryan being there...putting on his missionary name tag, being shown his room where he will live for 8 weeks, and meeting his companion....and then getting to work. Lots of studying!

At 8:00 we all went to the stake center and Ryan was set apart as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by our stake president. Our bishop, who has been a great friend and example to Ryan the past four years, was also there. What a special experience for our family. I could only imagine what was going through Ryan's mind. Afterwards, we all gave Ryan hugs. It was so sweet, when Ryan picked up Camryn she laid her head on his shoulder and clung to him for what seemed like a couple minutes. So tender. I'm sure she felt something.

Elder Pittard with our bishop and stake president

Looking at all the missionaries serving from our stake

Most Sunday evenings for the past 8 years our family spends time singing together. I play the piano and we all take turns choosing a hymn. I have loved that time with my family. So after he was set apart we went home and had family singing time one more time. There was such a sweet spirit in our living room. A precious memory for me. The last song we sang was God Be With You Till We Meet Again. After we dried our tears, we all shared a few words for Ryan.....then we all had some chocolate pie! :)

Then it was time to pack...he had gathered everything in the family room...and I have to say that when we first read over everything on the list, I thought...how are we going to fit everything in two suitcases?? But then when we had everything laying out, I knew it would all fit. :)

That night Rachel wrote Ryan a very sweet letter...

Dear Ryan, I am glad and sad that you are leaving on your mission. I am sad because I won't see you for two years, and I am happy because you will go out into the world and teach people about the church. Also, so others can be with their families forever. I love you as a brother and I hope you have a good mission and you have fun. Bye!! Sincerely, Rachel

I think she summed up how we all feel. :o)

Mission Farewell

Today was Ryan's mission farewell at church. It was a great day! Ryan's good friend, Matt, also spoke today. He is going to Monterrey Mexico on Nov. 16th. It was great to be in church with so many family members and loved ones. It was fun for he and Matt to have so many good friends from school there also. Ryan said there was a large group of friends in the last several rows in the cultural hall. It was so nice of all of them to come support Matt and Ryan. Ryan was definitely blessed with many good friends throughout his high school years.

Matt spoke about the Restoration. Then our ward's youth choir sang a beautiful arrangement of I Feel My Savior's Love. I love the 4th verse of that song:

I'll share my Savior's love by serving others freely,

in serving I am blessed, in giving I receive.

He knows I will follow Him, give all my life to Him.

I feel my Savior's love, the love He freely gives me.

Ryan was the concluding speaker and he spoke about the Plan of Salvation. He did a great job on his talk. I was very pleased, as his mother, on how well he did. He looked and sounded like a missionary. :)

Afterwards, several friends and family stopped by to wish Ryan well. I really appreciated all the love and support shown our family on this day.

Here are a few pictures....

I have been cutting Ryan's hair his entire life, and Saturday night I gave him one last haircut

He wanted to read the Book of Mormon during the last month before he left on his mission.

He diligently read 18 pages every day.

A good friend talking to Ryan about soccer in Buenos Aires

A new ipod shuffle and mini speakers to take on his mission

We LOVE you!!!