10/30/09 - Letter to the World

Hello World!
I almost forgot about you all. (Thanks to Dad last week for putting togethera letter to the world for me!) I´ve been trying to get other Emails out, write down recipes, and a whole bunch of other stuff! Life as a missionary NEVER has a dull moment! There is always something to do! Last week for Christmas, we got a call from our Zone leader that we could leave Munro to go to Ballester to play soccer! Our Mission Pres is very strict with the white handbook, and it says that VERY RARELY should the missionaries leave their area....this was the first time that he´s authorized something for us to get together! I had a great time! We were about 10 missionaries in all, and played for about an hour before Elder Fuentes and I had to go home to shower, change, and run over the the house of our most recent converts to recieve our phone calls and eat lunch! I don´t think you all heard about the baptism so...Claudio Martín Bentancourt and Cecilia (Claudia) Bentancourt were both baptized on the 19th, and confirmed on the 20th. Claudia asked me to baptize her! It was an amazing experience to be abe to perform an ordinance for the salvation of one of God´s children! It was also a nice early Christmas present! (for my companion too...the baptism was his first week here!) Last week (the 27th) in church Claudio recieved the Aaron Priesthood (Priest)! As far as the other investigators...we´ve pretty much dropped everybody that we had. Nobody has given us the time to go and teach them, and Elder Fuentes and I are realizing that the Lord has people ready for us to teach right now, and we can´t waste our time on people who aren´t ready to hear the message of the gospel right now. This week is going to have a HUGE focus on finding new investigators through our members, contacts, and any other way that the lord wants to bless us!
I love this gospel, and i am so glad that i was raised knowing what i know. I hope that everybody can come to know this message, and LIVE IT in their lives. True joy only comes from knowing and living in accordance with the commandments that we have been given.
I hope that everybody has a GREAT New Year!!
Love,
Elder Denton

12/25/09 - Christmas Call to Elder Denton

Cody used skype to call Elder Denton at noon on Christmas day at $0.02 per minute. Nice! Elder Denton answered the phone and we weren't sure if it was him until he started speaking a little more. He has been told recently by other missionaries (and we can confirm this) that his English is terrible! On the plus side, Cody and Chazz say that his Spanish is very good now (I'll have to take their word for it). Cody spent a lot of time translating to English what Elder Denton was trying to express. He told us many things about how they celebrate Christmas in Argentina and seems to be doing very well with his new companion, Elder Fuentes. He loves to work hard and gets aggravated if something prevents him from living the mission rules. In the picture from last week there was a question whether or not he had baptized the couple that were in the picture (Claudia and Claudio). Elder Denton did baptize Claudia and the other man baptized Claudio. The Sutherlands were visiting from Oakley and listening/participating in to our conversation too. Kyle let us in on another Argentina fact...the bidet is the preferred method for cleansing oneself. That one caught us all by surprise! George Denton

We were not going to hear from Elder Denton until Christmas day, but due to a mistake all the missionaries had to find a family in the ward willing to let them use their landline so we could call them in Argentina and then email the information to their homes. Apparently they were set up to use mission cell phones, but then somebody found out that it would cost the mission a ton if all the missionaries used them to receive calls from out of the country. He didn't have very much time to put together anything, but following are some highlights that we discussed in a few quick emails back and forth before he had to go:

I don´t have time to write a letter to the world...but just wish everybody a VERY Merry Christmas!

He gave us the phone number for Claudia & Claudio and asked us to call them asap to make sure we had the proper country code, etc. Cody (Elder Denton's brother) came home from one job just long enough to make a call and was able to speak with Claudia for a few minutes (which was not planned...waiting to find out what that is going to cost us!). She had many good things to say about Elder Denton, that they and the ward loved him and that they are taking very good care of him; and that they had seen some pictures of him before his mission and said that he was now very skinny. She told Cody that Elder Denton would not even eat a piece of her wedding cake when they got married this past week. I was amazed at how easily Cody was able to speak to her, as she doesn't speak English at all. Incredible! We are set to make a call around noon on Christmas day using Skype, which Cody is working on setting up for us. He uses that quite often to speak with his Spanish speaking friends from other countries.

Because he was in such a hurry, he didn't say anything about the pictures that are attached. We are curious to know if Claudia and Claudio were also baptized this past week...we'll be speaking to him about that on Christmas day for sure! He also asked for another care package that included things mostly for other people...recipes, gum, etc.

Have a Merry Christmas,

George Denton

12/15/09 Letter to the World

Hello World!!
I don´t have much time...sorry. My new companion is Elder Fuentes..he´s from Chili.
This last week has been great, and next week will be great too!!...Claudio y Claudia, a few investigators that i´ve had since i got here are finally getting married this week!!! Jueves van a casarse y el sábado van a bautizarse. It should be GREAT! It´s a bit sad for elder poteet, but a great gift for Elder Fuentes! Yesterday, the last thing we did for the day was visit a contact from the street. His name is Javier. He is married (por la ley!!!!!) and has a child of about 3 years. We taught him the first lesson, and he accepted a baptismal date for 8 january 2010!!! We have a few other investigators that are progressing well also...Fabian is doing well, and we have an appointment to teach him later this week.
Nicolas, who was baptized a few weeks ago went with us para hacer divisiones. We went saturday morning for about 2 hours with him, and today we have an appointment with him to start a list of friends y conocidos para empezar a trabajar en la obra, y traer otros a cristo.
Yesterday in the house of a member who has internet, while eating lunch we were able to see part of the first presidency christmas devotional. Elder Uchdorf and part of Elder Eyring. WOW. IF you haven´t watched it...you should!!! Amazing!
I Love you all, and hope that you have a great Christmas...
(My next pday isn´t until next friday, Dec 25th....president changed it for christmas)
Argintine Fact - Christmas is celebrated here the 24th. There is no preperation beforehand, so everybody is going to be buying stuff on the 24th, and then they have all of the celebrations at night.
Sorry for the partial spanish...no time for me to change and translate...i just write what´s on my mind!
I will try harder next week....cody...do your magic! ¡gracias che! [Note: Cody is at work so there was nobody here to translate before I sent this out...george]
Hasta Luego! Love to all!
Elder Denton

Note: Elder Denton sent the above picture without telling us who was in it. Elder Poteet is in white along with Nicolas, I believe. Other than Elder Denton, I don't know who anybody else is.

Hello World!!!!
Wow...last week was PACKED with stuff...this week, not so much. Nicolas recieved the Priesthood Sunday in Sacrament Meeting, and is now a Priest! He is doing great, and on Saturday he´s going to be coming out with Elder Poteet and I to teach a few people! Tatiana has basically stopped in progression. There are some problems with her family and boyfriend, and she has decided that it is better to let things cool right now instead of continue fighting with her family. We are still having people from the ward visit her, and invite her to church and other activities! Irma is moving along, more or less. She is pretty hard to get in contact with, but we have a meeting with her on Friday! We have recently found a man names Fabian! We contacted him in the street while we were with our Elders Quorum President, and were finally able to get in contact with him, and yesterday we taught him the first discussion. He has a catholic background, assisted the universal church (la iglesia universal...it´s very big around here) for a while, but recently has found himself working a LOT. He lives alone, and has a shop in his house where he does leatherwork. In the first lesson, we were able to set a date with him to be baptized. We set the date for January 2nd. We have to change it to the 9th though, because right before we left he remembered that he has to go out of town this weekend, and he won´t be able to go to church, and we forgot to change the date with him. We have another person that we are teaching named Mariana. She lives alone with her 3 kids. We taught her the first lesson in her doorway with our Ward Mission Leader, and she invited us to come back. It will be sort of complicated to teach her, because there is no man living in the house.
Anyways...that´s about what´s going on here in Munro. Next week Elder Poteet will be heading home, and I´ll have a new companion! I´m excited to see what the Lord has in store for me, and willing to do whatever he would have me do!
I Love you all!
Love,
Elder Denton

12/2/09 - Letter to the World

Hello World!
Okay...so i´m sure that everybody is wondering....what happened with Nicolas?!?! Well...he got baptized! Everything went great...the only slight glitch was that when the ward mission leader went and turned on the font, he forgot that he needed to light the pilot light of the water heater. Luckily elder poteet and I, after a few lessons in the morning went to the church to make sure everything was going ok...and that they had actually started filling the font. Elder poteet checked the water temp, because he was going to be getting wet....it was way cold. I told him i was glad that he was going to be getting wet and not me! Anyways, it was about half way full, but we lit the pilot light and filled it up the rest of the way with REALLY hot water, and elder poteet said it was still cold, but not too bad! As far as our other investigators, we´re having a bit of trouble. Tatiana has a couple of concerns, but we´ll be having a lesson with her tomorrow. Irma, another investigator, has a baptismal date on the 12th, and we´ve been having a lot of trouble getting in contact with her to teach her, but we called her last night and we´ll be having a lesson with her also tomorrow. Yesterday was a great day! We had a retention lesson with Nicolas and the president of the elders quorum, and it went great! He´s excited to get the priesthood, and has an appointment with the bishop sunday morning to recieve it! After that meeting, Elder Poteet, The Elders Quorum President, and I went to a few places near the chapel to talk with less active members, and a few investigators that we have. While we were out, we ended up doing quite a few street contacts, and it seems that we´ll soon have quite a few more investigators...that´s been one of the biggest problems is finding good investigators and retaining them. My companion, Elder Poteet, will be going home soon. I think his last official day here is the 16th. He´ll be home just in time for christmas.
Well....have a GREAT day. I´m enjoying the heat here, and i imagine that many of your reading this are happy to be inside because of the cold.
I love you all!
Love,
Elder Denton
OH...we recently had a zone conference. SOOOO good! We learned a whole bunch of different things. I´m very excited to start using them in my teaching. One of the things we learned was staying out of the way of the holy ghost. Many times when we are teaching we try to say a lot more that we need to, because we are insecure that the people are going to think that what we´ve said is weird...but if we´re teaching true doctrine, the spirit will be with us, and they will be able to feel and know through the spirit that we are representatives of Jesus Christ.

11/25/09 - Letter to the World

OK....so i had a HUGE letter written, and i went to send it, and the server logged me out soooo..i have like 5 min (maybe to write)
This week was great. We had a conference with elder Bednar from the quorum of the 12 apostles, and he took and answered questions. I had a question to ask him, but never got to me (we were about 600 misionaries). However...the spirit is an interesting thing. Even though my question wasn´t even mentioned, i was able to recieve an answer. The spirit works in small ways, and as i was sitting and listening, all of a sudden i recieved the answer to my question. Elder Bednar wasn´t even talking about a subject close to my question. This is important to keep in mind when any of you have questions. Keep it in mind always, because the spirit can speak to us in any moment, and we need to be ready and receptive to the spirit to understand the answer!
José Luís - he told us not to come by anymore. It is so hard to ´drop´him, because we know that he has a testimony. He knows that the church is true...but he thinks that it will be to hard to live the gospel, and ALSO live with his family.
Tatiana - She came to church, and the only thing she needs to do now is talk to her parents. They told her about a month ago that she was moving too fast (she was going to be baptized the 14th of this month) so we moved the date to the 5th of december. Now she has to ask her parents permission again, and she´s scared to do it. She said that she will sometime today!
Nicolas - He is amazing! He´s going to be baptized saturday at 7pm!
Sorry for the shortness and lack of details.
Love,
Elder Denton
NOTE: Before the glitch happened, Kyle had emailed me the following information, which I think would be fun to share with everybody:
They don't have Taco Seasoning Mixes in Argentina (at least he can't find any) so I sent him a home-made recipe I googled off of the internet. This was his response: I left here last week before i got the recipie for the taco seasoning...i don´t know how i´m going to find the ingredients..i´ll have to grab a dictionary and translate all of the spices into spanish!
I told Elder Denton that we had always said that his companions would love to have him as a companion because he was such an excellent cook. This was his response when I asked what fun things he had made and what they have for breakfast: Elder Poteet is a pretty good cook also...we usually only have to make ourselves breakfast, and lunch on our P-Day (it´s easier to not have to leave the house and go look for food!) I have made a lot of bread and muffins...last week we made sloppy joes, the week before we had Ñoquis (a type of pasta) with a white cream sauce and smoked ham (yummmmm!)...i guess it´s going well!! For breakfast, i usually make myself a fruit salad and a potato patty (like grandma sherwood does...but with a lot more stuff...2 eggs, some mashed potatoes, ham, onion, tomato, oregano, and garlic)!!! yum! I haven´t really made any other treats...today were going to prepare a couple of things to take to the baptism saturday (brownies and chocolate chip cookies) I haven´t made no-bakes...but the ingredients are here!
Elder Denton was commenting that it would be nice to have computer programs and the organization found here in the U.S. I asked him about computers and phones and how do they communicate if you needed to talk to somebody immediately...People don´t really have personal computers...but there are a lot of internet cafes. Many people have cell phones...and home phones...but the cell phones usually don´t have credit...so they can only take incoming calls. There are many people that don´t have phones too. If you need somebody to take over a class...you have to go to a locurotorio and use a public phone.
George Denton

11/18/09 Letter to the World

HELLO WORLD!! I don´t know if thanksgiving is this week or next, so i´m going to go ahead and wish you all a happy thanksgiving now!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!
Okay...we´ve got a couple of investigators that are progressing, so here´s a little update on all of them!
Tatiana - She´s doing ok. She didn´t come to church 2 weeks ago or last week for different reasons, but we do have a date set for December 5th for her baptism. She has to come to church this week and the next to be able to be baptized that week, if not, we´ll have to push her baptism date back.
José Luís - He´s playing hide and go seek with us. We have passed a few times knowing that he is home, but he hasn´t opened the door...and every time that we call his family tells us that he´s out. We´re giving him a couple of days, and then we´ll try again. I hope that we can continue teaching him because i know that he has a testimony of the church. I think that he has problems with what his mom has to say.
Nicolas - AMAZING! We had a lesson with him yesterday, and he continues well! We asked him if he was going to come to church this sunday and he said he can´t come to our ward, but he is going to go to the ward he was assisting before for their primary program...and then he will be baptized next saturday, the 28th!!! His family is not too happy with his descision, and that worried him a little, but when we talked yesterday he told us that he knows that this is what he should be doing, that there isn´t any other thing that brings him the peace and tranquility that he feels when he reads the book of mormon and prays!!Here are some answers to a few of the questions that have been ´thrown my way´so that you all can get a little more perspective on what i do/what it´s like here in Argentina!
Are there ever any ward members / investigators that speak English?
Yea...there are a few members in the ward that speak english (mainly learned on missions). But we don´t really ever talk in english with them. They know i´m trying to learn spanish, so they speak to me in spanish to help!
Do you and Elder Poteet speak much English in your apt.?
I´m going to have to confess that sometimes we do speak english, when we´re really lazy and don´t want to think in another language, but that´s usually only a couple times through the week for a couple of minutes.
How big is the ward(s) that you are in...about how many people?
The ward here has a lot of members, but most of them aren´t active. We have more than 300 in the records, but it´s a good day when we have 70 in the chapel.
In Utah, there is a ward for about every 6-8 square blocks...How big are the ward areas in Munroe? Is Munroe just one ward, or are there several cities that make up a ward?
Munro (no e!) is the name of the ward, and the city is called Villa Marteli. Munro is the name of a neighborhood in the city.
How big is the stake in your area?
8 wards...6 cities.
Argentina Fact - When you go to an ice cream store to buy an ice cream cone, they also give you a little spoon. (like the flavor test spoons)...but to EAT your icecream from the cone. They don´t lick the ice cream off of their cone like in north america.

11/3/09 - Letter to the World

Hello family, friends, and everybody else!!
This week has been great! Today was transfers...but we didn´t get a phone call last night...so it looks like Munro has Elder Denton for another 6 weeks (at least!). This has been a good week! First, we found Kevin. We were looking for another contact, and he came to the door of the pensión (a pensión has like 6 apartments inside!) We talked to him, and he let us into his apartment, and we taught him the first lesson, and challenged him to be baptized, and he accepted! Also this week, we were in another pensión talking to an investigator, and as we were leaving, I started talking with a 20-something year old guy, and he invited us to come back. When we went back, he said that he had read, and we talked a bit about the church. As we were about to leave, his sister came out, said that she had been listening, and that she was also interested in listening to our message. We went back on saturday (halloween), to have a lesson with the 2 of them, but there was a party going on in their apartment, but the investigator that we had been talking to initially let us use his apartment to talk with Mario. As we went in, there was somebody already there. It was ANOTHER sibling (little brother) of Mario!!! We taught them the first lesson and challenged them to be baptized. The little brother of mario, José Luis (he´s 18) said that he wanted to be baptized, and also that he would love the opportunity to do what Elder Poteet and i do...go and talk about the gospel with people all day!!!
One of the hardest things here in Munro has been church attendance. This week, it rained all friday, saturday, AND sunday. When there´s rain...church attendance goes down. (There were 30 people in church sunday including missionaries and kids). The miracle was that 2 of these people were investigators!! Tatiana came with a family of members, and José Luis, the little brother of Mario came also!!!!
It was a GREAT sunday!!
Argentina Fact -
I´ve run out...i need questions to answer!!

I love you all. Have an AMAZING week!!
Love,
Elder Denton

10/28/09 - Letter to the World

Hello Family, Friends, and EVERYBODY!!

This last week has been great! As you probably already know, last week Elder Poteet and I had the opportunity to go to the temple! It was a great experience! This week has been full of lots of stuff. Finding, teaching, and everything else we do as missionaries! Our main focus for this last week has been Marité and Lucho (luis). Luis was baptized about 10 yrs ago, and has basically forgotten everything that he learned when he was baptized. He is living with Marité and they have 2 kids together, but are not married. On Monday, we went to their house, and comitted them to set a date to be married. Things for marrige work a little different here, but this Monday, they are going to go to the registro civil (like a city hall...ish) and sacar turno (basically tell the city hall place that they are going to be married a month from Monday) because it´s required to sacar turno 30 days before they are married. If all goes well, and they have all the papers that they need to sacar turno, we are going to set a date for Marité to be baptized! She already has a testimony, and has told us that she wants to get married, so that she can be baptized, because she know that our Heavenly Father has many blessings in store for those that keep his commandments!
That´s basically my story this week...thanks for tuning in!!
(if you have any questions that I could answer about what I do every day...what it´s like...etc...you can send an e-mail to my dad at george@printing2impress.com, and he will forward the questions to me!) ....don´t worry..it´s ok to send it to him, because if he doesn´t want stuff sent, he would have erased this paragraph!) ..thanks Dad!
ok...this is the Fun fact from Argentina!
The keys here are....interesting. There are basically 3 types. 1 type is like what we have in the states...just a regular key to get into the hose. There are other types of house keys here also...one is like the keys that we always see in old movies...I don´t really know how to explain it. The OTHER kind is pretty cool...I don´t know how it works, but there are indented holes in the shaft of the key, and somehow it works! I´ll try to attach a picture through a word document to this e-mail!

I Love you all!
Love,
Elder Denton

10/21 - Letter to the World

WORLD!!
OH my goodness...I´m so sorry. I have been going so fast trying to write to my mission pres and answer the e-mails from my family that I just about completely forgot to write to all of you. I think I´ll just leave you with a quick hello, and a ´Fact from Argentina´....this one is to complete last week´s...to collect the garbage, there is a garbage truck that drives down the street, but like at home, where there is an arm that grabs the garbage cans, here, there are 2 men that run behind the garbage truck grabbing the garbage out of the metal baskets up on poles that are on the side of the road, and then throw it into the back of the truck!
I Love you all, and I´m sorry. The Temple in Buenos Aires closes on 1 NOV, 2009...in about a week....and my companion and I went today to do a session...that lasted for a LONG time. That´s why I didn´t have too much time to write.
I´m sorry again.
Love,
Elder Denton

10/14/09 - Letter to the World

[I'm sorry for being so slothful and posting a week late...I'll have his post from yesterday up in a few minutes//george]
Hello World!
This week, there hasn´t been anything big, huge, new happening. We did recieve one reference from the church offices that came from a member that lives in Texas. The investigator is Maxamiliano! He´s great! The member has already been talking to him about the gospel for a little while, and he is really interested! We had the first lesson with him last Friday, and then he had to go out of town for the weekend. He works for ESPN and is in charge of transmissions for Argentina. We had a lesson set with him yesterday, but he called us in the morning and had to change it, so we´re going to meet with him again Friday!
For all of you out there that would like a little bit to study, I read this scripture this morning in my studies, and absolutely love it! Moroni 8:25-26. I love that it has all of the principles of the gospel, and tells us that if we´ve been baptized, repented, had the holy ghost with us, we already have a bunch of the attributes that christ had. At the end we read that we need dilligence in prayer to continue until we are with our Heavenly Father again! Read it! Love it! :D
I Love you all!
Love,
Elder Denton
Argentine tidbit - Garbage bins are permanant fixtures on the side of the road. It looks like a pole that you would have a mailbox on, but instead of a mailbox at the top, there is a metal basket sort of thing. Bags of garbage go inside, and then to pick up the trash...well....I´ll save that for next week!

10/7/09 - General Conference Report

Dear Friends, family, and others!,
How´re ya´ll doing! Did you all LOVE conference?!? Wow...I don´t think I´ve EVER wanted so bad to stay, or that 2 hours has ever passed by so quickly in four instances! WOW. Ok...my Dad sent me a bunch of questions to answer for this week about the conference... so, here we go!
1. Who of your investigators were able to show up, what was their favorite talk and what did they think of General Conference?
We had at the conference Inez and Ricardo (he´s a less active member baptized about 10 yrs ago, she´s investigating), Marite (her husband also was baptized about 10 yrs ago, and she is investigating), and Carlos. We found Carlos last Thursday, and he is amazing! He prayed after the first discussion, and recieved his answer immediately! He tried to go to the first session of conference, but got lost and was looking for the church for about 1 hour before he went back home. We had a lesson with him on Monday, and found out that he had shared his testimony with his brother and sister-in-law, and we´re now teaching them also!!! Things are going good! As far as their favorite talks and such, they don´t usually remember much, but they all said that they felt the spirit!
2. How much of conference did you get to hear/see and who was your favorite speaker?
We got to see all four general sessions! Saturday, we had to listen all in Spanish, because the stake pres forgot to set up an English room! But...I understood just about everything. (I hope...Elder Poteet and I were talking about the conference Saturday night, and he quoted something said and I said ´wait....who said that...when´...I just miss some things!) Anyways, Sunday morning we watched all in Spanish also exept for the last talk, President Monson. And the last session we watched all in English! (Thank goodness, because that session was excellent!) I think that Elder Holland´s talk was my favorite!
3. What was the best message, in your opinion? ...or your favorite message, as they were all good!
Through the conference there were a LOT of good messages, but the main topics that were REALLY strong were:
A. Learn to rely on the spirit, recognize promptings, and write down the promptings that you recieve.
B. LOVE! Love is the center of everything that we do in the gospel and out!
And as C., part of this also was the importance of our testimonies. We should share our testimonies even in our families. I would challenge everybody reading this that in their next Family Home Evening, as the lesson, or as an addition to it: Have a testimony meeting, and give everybody a chance to share their testimony!!! I know it´s scary, intimidating at times, but at the same time, it´s the gospel!!!
4. What hit you with the most power?
Elder Holland´s talk!
5. Did you make the priesthood session and hear the talk about the rowdy boys who sing terribly (but now sing better many years later!)?
In Utah, Priesthood session starts at 6pm, so, here...it starts at 9pm. The missionary rules are that if we don´t have a lesson to teach, we have to be in our apt. by 9pm...sad.
6. What did you think about Elder Jeffrey Holland's empassioned talk about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon?
This really was the highlight of conference for me...but for a reason more than the passion that Elder Holland has when he talks. I started reading The Book of Mormon from the beginning again in the MTC, and finished it Sunday morning. When I finished, I prayed, and asked Heavenly Father to help me to know for a surety that The Book of Mormon is true....and then Elder Holland talked!!!!! WOW the power of his message was a strong answer to my prayer!
7. What did your investigators think about seeing the prophet and his apostles?
Um....I´m not quite sure. As investigators they know that they have these titles, but I don´t know if it really means as much to them as us. Carlos did comment to us that he thought it was interesting that there were prophets and apostles, because he couldn´t remember any other church that he´s investigated before that has had a prophet AND apostles!
Overall, the week has been great, and I´m excited as ever to see what the next week has in store for us!
Love,
Elder Denton
Fact from Argentina - (and I just found this out today)...there are NO vending machines here. CRAZY. They might have those little stands that you put coins into to get little prizes/treats, but I´ve never seen one of those, and Elder Poteet has yet to see (in his 22 months here) a vending machine.

9/30/09 Letter from Elder Denton

Family, friends, neighbors, conocidos, y todos otros:

I´m really sorry that you didn´t have anything to read last week, this is what happened. I wrote a fantastic letter to the President, saved it in a word document to send to him, but saved it in a folder that doesn´t exist on this computer....so I had to re-write the whole thing, and ended up with no time for ya´ll!

These last 2 weeks have been good! The mission has been working for the last year, and had a goal to double the number of baptisms they had the year previous. This last weekend was the last one that we had to achieve this goal, and we did it. I can´t remember what the exact number was, but the number that was the goal was exactly the number of baptisms that we had!

I´m WAY excited for general conference this weekend! I don´t think I´ve ever been so excited to go, listen, and take notes! This is how it´s going to work: Since the time is different from Utah and here, the sessions are going to be from 1-3 in the afternoon and 5-7 as well, both Saturday and Sunday. We will be in the stake center to watch. We will watch it in Spanish with our investigators if we can´t find members to sit with them, but if we do, there is another room set aside where they show it in English, so that we can get all that we can out of the messages that the Prophet and his apostles have for us! We have a number of investigators that have already commited to attend at least one session of conference, including Hector Webber! Hopefully he´ll be able to get work off soon, because otherwise it´s going to take 3 sessions of conference (1.5yrs) to baptize him....and there just isn´t enough time for that! I can´t remember if I mentioned Alejandro, but he´s still progressing well! We found him as we were walking in the street, and he is in a congregation of people who know that their respective churches are in apostacy, and are looking for the truth. (enter Elder Poteet and Elder Denton!) He´s read through about half of 1 Nephi, and is continuing well! He, also, will be at at least one session of conference!

I mentioned to Whitney (my older sister, for those of you that don´t know her!) in my letter to her that I´ve been reading through the Book of Mormon, and am currently in Mormon! I started in the MTC, and was reading through strong, and then when I got here to Argentina I slowed down a little because I was also studying all of the lessons that we have to teach, but about 2 weeks ago I started from Alma 9 again, and picked up where I left off. WOW!!! I love the Book of Mormon! There is so much in there, and so many experiences that we can apply to our lives, whatever is happening! Read it! Apply It! I know that it will help anything that you are going through, whoever you are!

Argentina Fun Fact - To sell a car here, all you have to do is put some sort of jug on top. I don´t know where this came from, but any car that has a jug, empty bottle, full bottle, etc., on top of their car...is selling it. I put a picture in with the others in the document that I´m going to attach!

I Love you all!

Love,

Elder Denton

9/23/09 - Not enough time to write....

Friends, Family, and everybody else...
I don´t have time to write this week, so next week might have to be a little bit longer. I´m doing great here in Munro with Elder Poteet, and yesterday was my first tranfer, but nothing changed, so I´ll be here for another 6 weeks gauranteed! I love you all, and hope you all have a good week!
Love,
Elder Denton

Additonally - Elder Denton did have time to mention that he finally went out and bought himself a pair of new pants and took another pair to a local seamstress to have them taken in. He notched his belt again, so doesn't feel the need to go purchase another quite yet and tried on shirts but didn't find any he liked.

Regarding his area, he said, "As far as baptisms, we´re working hard! We find a lot of golden investigators, and then we run into brick walls. Hector Webber, for instance, is an amazing person. He already has a testimony and everything, but his boss won´t give him Sunday's off for work....things like that just keep popping up. Satan is working really hard here...but we´ve got God on our team, and I know that we´re going to win!"

A "Behind the Scenes" Letter that was ok to publish

Below is a 9/16/09 response to an email I had sent to Elder Denton on 9/15/09. I had told him that I had forwarded his picture to our ward newsletter, and because he had lost about 55 lbs at this point since leaving on his mission many people hadn't recognized him in the picture at first and there were many inquiries as to how he was doing. I asked if he was losing weight the "smart" way, or was he feeling lousy and that caused the weight loss. I asked his eating patterns. I was curious if he had purchased any new clothes since he told me he's down to his last belt (he took 3) and has been punching holes in that one, his shirts hang very loose on him around the neck, plus they hang on him, and he doesn't have to unbotton his pants to put them on or off any longer...his mission mom recommended he go to a local seamstress and get them taken in. Kyle has started forwarding emails back to me (his mailbox was getting too full already) and I have began an electronic journal of all of his letters, pictures, etc for him. I also asked him to think about forwarding his emails to the mission president each week (a requirement for each missionary) if they weren't too personal so I could add those to his journal as well.

Dad,
I'm glad that so many people are enjoying hearing about what´s going on here in argentina! I´m having a great time, and hope that everybody is having a good time who's along for the ride! The weight loss is still going well...I feel healthier...a little i guess, but i still have weight to lose. I don´t feel like crap at all, i´m just eating better, and excercising every day. The eating is one thing that´s really helped i think. With all the fruit down here, i basically have desert every day, but it´s an orange or and apple or something. They serve a TON of food for the meals. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day, and i usually can´t finish the first serving. That´s usually around 12 or 1...and then we don´t eat again, if at all, until right before bed. That´s just the culture here..there really isn´t a dinner. For me, it´s not been hard at all, because we always have so much work that we´re doing, there isn´t really time to be hungry.
I haven´t gotten any new clothes yet, but i definitely have enough money...i don´t know if mom told you, but the money exchange really works in my favor. 40 dollars USA is like 150pesos, and we only live with 120 pesos every week...very good! When we took our laundry to be washed, we asked the lady that works there, and she told us where we could find a seemstress. As far as shirts...i don´t know when, but i´ll get some new ones soon! Thank you for everything that you´ve done, are doing, and will do! You´re awesome! I´ll keep sending letters to be added to the journal thing. I´m not sure about the letter to the mission pres...i don´t think there´s anything personal in there...but i´ll read over them, and send them if i feel like it :D lol. Thanks again for everything, and have a great week!
Love,
Elder Denton

Letter to the World - 9/16/09

9/16/09
Family, Friends, Amigos, y...creo que es todo!
¿!QUE TAL!?
Estoy acá tratando a eligir si puedo escribir como asi, en español, o si puedo cambiar para que Cody no tiene que traducirlo...y creo que voy a cambiar, porque no quiero tener la vergüenza cuando los que pueden entender español leer esta parafo, y entender que en realidad, todavia no se como hablar! fa.
OK...for all of you that didn´t understand that...PERFECT! Because those that can understand spanish probably didn´t understand it either, so you don´t have to feel left out! ...and Cody...sorry...but it´s not much!
Things are going great here in Argentina! We have a busy week. We were supposed to have exchanges on monday, but it´s been changed twice since, and will be on friday. We have had a meeting almost every day, and we have a Mission conference (or something very similar) on saturday morning...which i am VERY excited for...but not for the fact that i have to get up way early to get ready, and be where we have to by 9:30ish. We ALSO have Stake Conference this sunday, which is going to be amazing! The work is picking up, and the time is flying by. The weeks are litteraly feeling like days, and i don´t know how we do all that we do every day. We are still working with Ricardo e Inez, and were very excited to see them in church this past week. One of the members even decided to stay with them through all of the meetings, and went with Inez to Relief Society! We also met an AMAZING investigator sunday night. His name is Webber, and is about 40 yrs old. We were trying to find somebody, and started talking to him, and he let us into his house (miracle!) and we taught him the first discussion. He said that he felt good about what we had taught, and we told him to read the book of mormon, and pray about it. We went back yesterday, and he had read (miracle!), he had prayed (miracle!), AND he said ´me sentí mucho tranquilidad como, no algo que es normal, pero mas´ (i felt a lot of tranquility like, not something normal, but more) WOW! Heavenly Father Definitely Prepares people to recieve the gospel!
Everything else also is going great!
Now...a commitment/challenge from each one of you that is reading this. HELP YOUR LOCAL MISSIONARIES!!! It is SUCH a blessing to recieve referals from members! I challenge each of you to think of one person that is not a member of the church, and give their information to the missionaries!...But it doesn´t stop there! I know that you all know that this gospel is true! Because of the faith that you have, you should be moved to action. What action? Go with the missionaries to this person, give them a book of mormon, bear your testimony...something!
ok...now that you´ve done that, here´s a little tidbit of information about argentina!
(i don´t remember if i already said this, so i´ll do 2 this week!) 1. When you go to somebody´s house, almost always their are gates, or a door that leeds to a hallway of doors, so, the only way to get attention of people is to clap your hands, because you can´t get to their doorbell...and usually, they don´t even have one.
2. They eat a LOT of bread here. EVERY time we go to a members house to eat, there is bread on the table. It´s not like, sandwich bread, but more like a smaller version of french bread.
ANWAYS...i´ve rattled on WAY to long...
I love you all,
Love,
Elder Denton

Letter to the World ~ 9/9/09

Dear all Nations, Kindred, Toung, and People (i.e., whoever is reading this!)
¿¡¿Como Andan?!?
This weeks weather was about a 180 from last week...it was FREEZING! We´ve had some miracles over the last weeks! We met a guy named Javier. We taught him the first lesson, and left him the book of mormon, and had him read 3 Nephi 11 before our next visit. When we saw him next he said he had read it !!!!....he had understood it!!!!!!...and when we asked him if he was planning on comming to church, he told us yes, and asked us if he could bring a friend!!!!!!!....that is like...the golden of golden! (i just realized that i talked about javier last week, but he was cristofer last week. cristopher is his first given name, but he goes by javier...just to clear that up!) We have some people that we have been teaching sort of on and off, becuase we see them all the time in the street, but the other day, we realized that there are like 4 different people that we know that are all realated, and we didn´t even realize it! We had an amazing meeting (that sounds too formal) (charla) with them, in a pool hall/bar, of all places. (don´t worry..it was after closing, and they run the place...that might have to change!) They wanted to know the basic differences between us and other churches. Elder Poteet and i explained about the great apostasy, joseph smith, and the priesthood that we have in the church. I felt the spirit really strong when we were teaching, and i realized that, wow, this all really makes sense! I knew it before, but the spirit reaffirmed it for me! I LOVE those moments!
Fun Fact from Argentina - Most of the houses here have gates around the property, and it is not appropriate to enter the gate to knock the door, so instead of knocking doors/ringing doorbells, one would have to clap their hands outside of the gate/or even at the door to get the attention of anybody inside. It is also really common that, if there is a door off of the street, when you go inside, there is a long cooridor with a bunch of other doors to peoples houses.
I Love you all, and pray for all of you every day!
Love,
Elder Denton

9/2/09 - Letter to All...From Elder Denton

Dear Family, Friends, and anybody Else who wants to hear about my adventures in Argentina,
COMO ESTAN!!!!
We´re working hard here in Munro, and having crazy mood swings in the weather. It was like 90 degrees the other day, with way too much humidity, and the next day (and the last couple of days) has been rainy and cold. Oh well...that´s the life huh!
Ok, over the last week, we´ve done a lot of ´sorting out´ from our area book. We´ve been trying to see who is progressing, who will progress, and who isn´t. We ended up having to drop a lot of our investigators. It is super hard to drop an investigator. Yesterday we were walking by the house of a former investigator, and wanted to visit, but i knew that they weren´t going to change, and am trying to stay super focused on the people who WILL change, and who are diligently praying to find answers.
On monday we had exchanges with the district leader. I was with Elder Hymas, his companion, and was in the Bolougne area for the day. It was a great experiance to learn and expand, and to see different ways to teach the same doctrine.
While i was gone, Elder Poteet and our District Leader, Elder Vega found a new investigator to teach. We had the first lesson with him yesterday. His Name is Cristofer, and the lesson went really well! At the end, we challenged him to be baptized on the 20th of September. Horacio, i think i wrote about him last week, has run into a problem. On sundays, he has to go to tortugitu ( i have no idea how to spell it) to help his son with some renovations in his house, and will be doing that for the next month. We´re going to continue visiting him durring the week, but because they have to have 3 church attendances before they can be baptized, it´s going to be a little while. I´m sorry i can´t write too much more, i always find that i don´t have as much time as i would like to tell you everything that is going on here.
Fun Fact from Argentina - The police here ALWAYS have their lights flashing on the top of their cars. I don´t really know what they do, because i´ve never seen anybody pulled over, but from what i´ve heard, the only way to know if they want you to pull over is if they turn on their sirens.
Love to all!
Elder Denton

Here We Go!

Posted 8/19/09 - I´m here! I didn´t think that it would ever happen, but here i am sitting in Argentina as a missionary! I know some of you know, but for those of you that don´t, my first area is called Munro. It includes Munro, Florida, and another city really near by that i can´t remember the name of. My companion is Elder Poteet, and he´s awesome! He´s Canadian, and his family lives in Calgary, Alberta. He only has about 5 months left in the mission (until about mid December).
When I got off of the plane in BA, my voice was completely gone. I could hardley hear my own voice. I think it had to do with being sick, and making so many phone calls at the Airports. Anyways, that made my first few days quite interesting! We stopped by the temple/mtc here in BA to pick up the native´s who were entering the field with us, and then went to the mission home. We had some orientations, interviews w/pres Argyle, lunch, and then they brought in the trainers! We got to know them for about 20min, and then we headed off to our apt by remise. (it´s like a taxi, but not really). It was crazy how fast we got into the work....not 5 min after we got in the remise, elder poteet was talking about the gospel with the driver. I think that is one of the things that it so amazing to me, how much we talk to complete strangers, and even MORE amazing to me is that some of them allow us directly into their house, or allow us to accompany they back to their homes to talk with them about the gospel!
When we got to our apt, we dropped my stuff of, and then went to the bank to get some money, went to get my groceries for the week (that was weird, having to shop for myself for a week), and then went and dropped stuff off. It´s weird how they sell the milk here. ít´s not in jugs, or containers like they have in the states, they come in plastic bags, and you just cut open a corner. to store it, they have small pitcher like things that you keep it in. The people here are great! (maybe it´s because i can´t understand what they´re saying to me yet). Elder Poteet said that i´m blessed right now to not be able to understand what some of the people in the streets say to us....maybe i don´t wanna learn!??! Anyways, the first night was crazy. President Argyle challenged all of us new missionaries to challenge somebody to baptism. I was nervous all day, and started getting even more nervous when it was getting to be later in the day, that i wasn´t going to meet the first goal that i recieved here in the mission, but then we went to the house of a new investigator, and elder poteet had me challenge him to baptism, and he accepted!!!!! I felt so good, first that he accepted, and second that he understood my invitation to BE baptized!! We have lots of investigators, and it´s hard to watch some of them that know this gospel is true, but don´t take the time out of their lives to apply that knowledge to bless their lives. We are working with Sebastian and his wife Paula, who have a daughter named Milagros who is having surgury on her feet this friday. Claudio y Claudia are living together, and working on getting married. Claudio has a son from a previous marrige that´s about 11 yrs old, and they just had a child together about 3 months ago. Horacio is a new investigator. We got his name/info from the Bishop, Obisbo Hidalgo, and he already has a copy of the book of mormon, but wanted help understanding some of the things that it was saying. We helped him out, and started teaching him the first lesson. Another set of people we´re teaching are Willy and Susan. They´re both from peru, and haven´t lived here long. They´re both about 19, and recently had a baby. They both seem to have real interest, and we have set baptism dates with them. The only thing we need now is for them to get married so that they CAN be baptized!
As far as a typical day here, we get up at 630 and work out until 7, then shower and eat breakfast. at 8 we start studying, and have an hour of personal, companion, and language study, and then we leave for the day. we have an hour for lunch (usually from a member), and then back to work until 9 (930 if we have later appts). We plan for about 45min each night, write in our journals, and then go to bed. We walk about everywhere. if we take colectivo (bus), it´s for one of the really far ends of our area, or because we need to get somewhere really quick. There is a train station about 100yrds from our house, but we´ve only ever used it 2 times. (the train is actually cheaper than colectivo).
If anybody DID send anything through mail or dearelder.com, like you dad, let them know that i only get those at zone conferences once every 6 weeks...so if it´s here by then i´ll get it, otherwise it´s another 6 weeks....
I need to buy something that converts SD card to USB port so that next week i can send you some pictures...sorry, i should have sent that SD card from the MTC home with that postmart package...my bad.
Until next week....
Love to all,
Elder Denton

From President & Sister Argyle

Dear Family,

We are happy to tell you that Elder Denton arrived safely in Buenos Aires this morning. We are thrilled to have him here. After some training and lunch we introduced him to his new companion, Elder Poteet. They will serve together in the area of Munro. They will make a wonderful and strong companionship. We love our new missionaries. Elder Denton is ready to go to work. Thank you for all you have done to help him prepare for this unique experience. It will bless him for the rest of his life.

With love,

President and Sister Argyle
Argentina Buenos Aires North Mission

Welcome to Argentina (After a 23 hour flight schedule!)

Elder Denton woke up at 5am yesterday to get ready to head for the airport with 400 other Sisters & Elders. As their bus pulled out of the MTC there was a shout for joy to get away from their 2 months of language and spiritual training. While there was always a great spirit about the MTC, a change of scenery was most welcome. Our family received a call from Elder Denton from the SLC airport. We had him on speaker phone and every family member got up by 7:45am to join in the conversation. It was a lot of fun to listen to Cody and Kyle speak spanish to each other. Chazz listened intently from the couch wrapped up in his sleeping bag and followed the whole conversation without any trouble. Fortunately, he still remembers how to speak English, so I was able to understand him some of the time. Nothing earth shattering came from the conversation...it was just a nice treat to hear his voice because I didn't think we'd be able to talk to him until Christmas after he first went into the MTC.
They flew to Los Angeles and there he had a 4 hour layover where he called a few other people. As of this morning at 8:15 am, I have heard nothing yet about his arrival...but hope to hear something from his Mission President via email.

It's all been just a blur...

Ok, i'll try to write a letter, but i don't know if i have all that much to say...these weeks just all blend together for me, and i don't really know what's going on. This last week has been good. We're kind of running out of stuff to learn, because Brother Vance is used to teaching the Advanced districts, so he usually has to teach all of the stuff that he knows in 3 weeks. Well, teaching it over the period of 9 weeks is just really hard. We've already gone over all of the principles in PMG...literally, we've gone over ever page in that book, and some multiple times!! On sunday, because it was fast sunday, we had a Mission Conference in stead of Priesthood/Relief Society. it was 2 hours long, but really good. the MTC Pres, one of the counselors, and a District president all spoke, along with their wives. After the mission conference, Elder Gaspar and I taught a lesson to our district on prayer. I think it went well! :D I got a lot of the information that i used from 'True To The Faith'...that's a great book.
I don't really know, i think that's all i have to say for today. If i happen to think of any other mind-boggling interesting information, i'll let you know sometime later today!
OH....for all of you that DON'T know, i did get my flight plans last week, and i leave for Argentina on Monday, the 10th.
I report to the travel office at 5am, and my flight leaves Salt Lake city at 8:30. I fly to California (LA), and then have a 4ish hour lay-over. I leave LA at like 1:30, and fly to Peru. I get to peru at about 11:55pm, and then have a 1.5ish hour lay-over. I leave Peru at about 1:30am, and then fly to Buenos Aires. I'll get there on the 11th at around 7:40 am.
Well....that's all folks.
Love ya'll
Elder Denton

Flight Plans and Taking in the Suit!

7/28/09 - Hey All! I don't have a lot of time today, and sorry to wait until later in the day again...but that's how it goes! Nothing much has happened this week that sticks out to me. I'm sure that will change once i get out to Argentinga. I DID find out that i don't have to have a visa to go to Buenos Aires. It's the only city in the country that you can live there off of your passport. The rules changed about a week after i got in here!!! (which means that there should be no reason for me to get delayed)!! Elder Hales had surgury this morning, but it wasn't anything big. He seems to be doing fine now, just getting a lot of rest. Because I've lost over 20 lbs here at the MTC, I had to take one of my suits to the BYU cleaner earlier this week to get taken in. I think they said they were taking off about 3 inches, and moving the buttons in. I should get that back tomorrow! FLIGHT PLANS COME THIS WEEK!!! They will either be here later today, or on thursday! I think it's one of the most looked forward days here in the MTC! I cannot wait! :D
Mom...i found the Elder who's aunt works with you. His name is Elder Jones. He was in the first district that i was in before i got bumped up to Intermediate. I saw him the other day and he said "I think that your mom knows my aunt!" Kinda funny that we were so close, and had no idea. LOL!
Whit, Andrew Vance said that you added him to my facebook page...i don't know if you know, but he is one of my teachers here at the MTC, and i see him every day except for Tue, and Sun....just FYI! My other teacher, Hermana Johnson, is getting married next saturday, and tomorrow is her last day. We still don't know who are replacement teacher is gong to be for the next 2 weeks...but oh well!! :D
I've got to get going. I've only got about a min. left.
I love you all!
Love,
Elder Denton

Only Three More Weeks!

Written 7/21/09.
Sorry about last week, i just sort of ran out of time, and wasn't paying attention to who i was sending letters to.
Anyways, one of the really cool things i found out this week from an Hermana who is going to Argentina Buenos Aires Noth as well, is that Our mission doesn't require visa's any more. I guess that they want to change that for the whole country, but they are starting with Buenos Aires, so i should just get my passport back, and not have to wait, and possibly not get to go because of my visa!!!!!!
This week has been full of great/fun stuff! For gym time, i play a lot of volleyball! If i'm NOT playing volleyball, i am working out, or running. Nothing too fun...but it's been worth it! I was going to try to get here earlier in the day, it's just hard to do. We get up and have 45min of personal time, and i guess i could try doing it then, and have it done before breakfast at 7:45, but i don't know if Elder Gaspar wants to get up that early. Like i said, I'll try! I'm WAY jelous of all ya'll up in Washington. If you're still there today, definitely say hi to Grandma and Grandpa for me! Somebody said something about the postcard i sent being just for grandpa, but make sure grandma knows that it definitely WAS intended for her as well! Say hi to all of the rest of the family up there as well...Sherwoods, Lovelesses, Zollingers, and anybody else i may have forgotten, I love you all! Sunday was an awesome day for me! In sacrament meeting, our Branch president's wife spoke to us on the power of prayer, along with some other things. It was great to hear the things she had to say. From Pres. Weiderhold, the Branch Pres, we got to hear his conversion story. One thing from that which really stuck out to me was this: "The Lord trusts me to be here on my mission, but have i really put all of my trust in him? Do I know that he is the one that called me to where I am going?" I guess for me, it was just one more thing to add to the list of things that i should be praying about daily! The sunday night devotional was also on prayer, but directed in a different manner. Bro. Healey, who spoke to us, talked about how we should be getting out investigators to pray on the first visit. This is really important, because they cannot come to know any spiritual truths without prayer. Hermano Vance (one of my teachers) also talked to us about the importance of getting investigators to pray, and started talking to us about how to get them to pray on the first visit, because a lot of investigators do not feel comfortable praying in front of others. One of the most spiritual experiances that i had this week was when somebody in our district asked another Elder for a blessing. The spirit was amazingly strong, and i definitely felt the love of God for all of us there in that room. It also made me think of how much we are indepentant now, here as elders. We used to rely on our fathers, or other priesthood leaders for blessings, but now we hold the priesthood, and we are capable of doing the lords will, and giving blessings!!! I still think that the best thing about being here in the MTC is that spirit that we feel constantly, but even more so, the extremely strong feeling of the spirit that we get to feel every once in a while.
I love you all, and hope you're having fun!
Love,
Elder Denton

Attended a Funeral...

Posted 7/14/09 - This week, like all of the others, has been great! All of the firesides, devotionals, class time, LGM's, MDT, and any other acronym you can think of, has been great, and helped me more! Last tuesday night's devotional was amazing! Elder Angel Abrea, from the 1st quorum of the 70 spoke to us. (I might be a little biased, because he is from Buenos Aires!! :D...) Anyways, that devotional was great, and even better than that, was the district meeting that we had after it. The district meeting is to discuss what we heard, and the spirit was so strong. Elder Hales said something that really stuck with me. He said: "You may not be able to have a testimony 100% solid that you know that Jesus Christ lives, but you can definitely, without dispute, have a testimony of the fact that the spirit has witnessed to you, and you have felt it in your heart, that Jesus is the Christ, and that he suffered for our sins."I think it relates back to Elder Boyd K. Packer's talk "candle of the lord" from like 1982, where he relates the story of him being on a plane, and somebody asking him how he can know that god lives without having ever seen him, then Pres. Packer asked the man to describe salt to him, as if he had never tasted it...There are just sometimes not enough words in the english language to describe the things that we know.
Hermano Vance has also been a great influence this week. Since it was our half way week, we set some district goals, and made a covenant, as a district, with the lord. We set things that we want from our experience here in the MTC, and also made a list of things that we were doing, that we were willing to sacrifice so that we could receive those things that we wanted. I think it has made a big change in our District.
Yesterday, w/ Hermana Johnson, we had a funeral for English. Again, because it is our half way week, we are now ONLY speaking spanish. I think that this is definitely going to help us learn faster the things that we need to know to be more successfull.....I love you all,Have a great week.
Elder Denton
P.S. One of my new favorite scriptures...and sort of a motto for my mission: 2 Timothy 2:10

Posted 7/7/09 - Letter from Elder Denton

Ok...way mad right now...i had like 15 min left, and i was kicked off of the server, and it erased everything that i had...i now have like 10 min left, so i'll try to write as much as i can. this week has been great! I've had great experiences with the book of mormon! I've been reading in mosiah, and am learning a lot. I never really had a great understanding of the BOM. I have read it like 3 times, but info never really sunk in. I think i was skimming to say i read it, rather than studying, and thinking about the things that i've read. I love reading it now, and seeing all of the stories that we always talk about in sunday school and stuff, but i never knew the referances too, or could never remember reading it for myself. I just finished King Benjamin's address earlier this week, and right now i'm reading about King Noah and Abinidi. Things make so much sense when you know the background to what you are reading! :D On the 4th, there were people dressed up in old style clothes. They walked around the cafeteria, and came up to the missionaries to talk. They were all people who had appeared to wilford woodruff in the st. george temple and asked for their temple work to be done. I never knew that had even happened. The majority of the people were the founding fathers, but other important people from history were also included. One of them was that person that wrote Jane Eyre..or maybe that's her name. I don't know. i'm a little confused! :D On the night of the 4th, we had a fireside sort of thing so that we wouldn't be tempted, or happen to hear the jonas brothers performance at stadium of fire. The fireside was good...ish. It was about the importance of people johans gutenberg, and john calvin, and all the things they did to set the climate, so that when joseph smith recieved the vision, things in the world were right for him to accomplish what needed to be done. About t-shirts. i wrote in a letter home that you'll get in a couple of days..but...i think shirts would be cool, or blankets like the one i got, but with the other Elder's specific missions. either would be awesome, but i definitely don't want you doing anything that is going to take up time that you don't have, or cost too much. There are 8 elders in my district, so if you did the blankets, there would be 7, cuz i've already got mine, and if you did t-shirts, 8! i only told 1 elder in the district about it, and he said he'd like a blanket more than a t-shirt. i ONLY told one, so that elders wouldn't get their hopes up for something that you might not really be able to do...but agian....don't go way out of your way to do anything! If you decide to do either of those let me know, so that i can get you either countries/shirt sizes if you do t-shirts, or so that i can get you countries/and the corresponding names of the elders in my district for blankets if you go that way. i've got like 2 min left, and i'll check my e-mail right before dinner 5:30, just in case you've let me know by then. thanks. love you tons. have a great week..
Elder Denton
P.S. I can't wait to get my letters this week! I know you said you like getting them from me, but i think i enjoy it even more! :D
Hasta Luego(Paz Afuera)
Love, Elder Denton

I Need Thee Every Hour

I couldn't get this to upload on here, so I posted his song to YouTube. It's a group that Elder Denton sings every night. They sang in a Sunday Devotional in front of the entire MTC. Here is the link.

June 23 Letter to Whitney

Whitney,

Wow, I've got like 6 pages worth of dear elder letters all from you, and I've been trying to figure out in which order they go in.

The food is ok. I'm not eating any sugar here tho, so my opinion of the food is very different than most other elders.

We don't sing called to serve that often, I think maybe like 3 or so.

Are you guys going to send me my drivers license?

I think that so far, my fa thing to do is call center.

About 5 of us white guys and 2 samoans living on our floor sing about every night before bed. Today we actually had an audition to sing in a LGM sometime. The lady said she would definitely used us. We sang Hymn 98, I need thee every hour, accapella, with a 4 part harmony. It was awesome. Besides that, every time we pray or sing is in spanish.

I ma back down to only one companion, Elder Gaspar. He's from Virginia. I know there are 2 elders in my zone who would love mail from you. Elders Young and Jones. I don't know the addressess, but they are comps, and I can give them whatever you might want to wright.

I would like the book from the Wahlquists. I didn't mean to leave it.

Did you get a response to whoever is managing elder Hales account?? (He's the only one on mission.net because he's the only one in the district going to the same mission as me.

Elders
Hale and Denton=Buenos Aires North
Probert and Hatton=Bahia Blanca (Argentina)
McCutchan and Stuart=Paraguay, Souncion
Gaspar=Salta, Argentina

Bronchitis recovery is over! Elder McCutchan is all better now too, but his comp, elder Stuart got swine flu. :( He was in quarantine for like 5 days. He got out this morning.

My anticipated departure date is the same, only the "Advanced" Districts leave early. All of the Elders in my district came in on the same day as I did.

District=6-15 missionaries who go to all classes, devo's, and meals together. All are @ the same level of Spanish.

Zone/Branch=a bunch of districts who meet togther on Sundays, have the same basic schedule as you, and speak the same language. All come in @ different times, and leave @ different times

*Hermana Buhler is in my zone. Their daily classroom is right next to mine.

I haven't heard of anybody not liking the call center, my District all loves it. We go at any time that we can.

I more go and play volleyball each gym time that we have. Sometimes I go running.

I think I'm going to get another card. I only have the 1.

I got the package a day after you all expected it to get here. And yes...all of your letters show:

Next letter--letter#xxxxxxx. Letter was recieved on (Date) Sender: (Name) (Address)

Anyways,
my laundry is almost done.
Gotta go.

Love ya,
Elder Denton

30Jun2009 - Letter from Kyle

Sorry...it's been a really busy day with lots of exchanges and stuff, so i'm just getting on really quick right before dinner, because we are not able to e-mail after 6pm, and dinner starts in just a couple of minutes.

The weeks been good! One of the highlights was that Elder Diaz came back. I don't know if you remember, or if i told you, but he went home the day after we came in, because his step-dad only had like 2 weeks to live. He was dying from cancer. He went home, his step dad died, and he came back last friday night.

On Thursday, i saw President Ukdorf, but it was from quite a ways away. Wed. i think it was, we got notes telling us that we'd be singing in the sunday night devotional/fireside in front of the whole MTC!

On sunday, we were having a great day, that turned into an even better day when we were in district meeting, and we heard a bunch of girls shrieking....we ended REALLY quick, cuz we knew what was going on...the prophet was outside. His car had been parked right in front of our building, and so before he left, he wanted to meet some missionaries. He was a ways away from me, and a few seconds later, i realized that President Eyering was like 10 feet away from me. Somebody asked him a question, and he came closer and started talking to us all...Then pres monson's security told him it was time to leave, but as he was going to his car (moving towards us) he started talking to the group of people i was in. He was asking people where they were going on their missions, and started on my left, moving right. He asked people on either sides of me, but not me. He got to the other end, and there was a little lul in the conversation between everybody, and he looked at me, then pointed at me and said "where are you going on your mission elder?". THE PROPHET TALKED TO ME!!!! Holy cow, it wasn't much, but it was amazing!

As his security told him again that he needed to leave (because his wife was waiting for him in the car), we all started singing "We thank thee O God for a Prophet". He again turned around, smiled, and then started conducting us! He is hilarious, and his sense of humor is just something that you wouldn't expect! After we finished singing, he got in his car, and left.

If that hadn't been enough, we had to sing at the fireside a few hours later. We practiced, did our sound check, went and ate dinner, and then went to sing. I think it went well, and many people told us the same thing. Depending on the quality of the recording, the MTC may send you a full recording of the singing, but it is also on the SD card that I sent home along with some other stuff today.

Other than that, the best part has been having great spiritual discussions, and learning stuff just from personal study! Did you know that: since baptism, we have had the ability to converse in the language of Angels? I learned about that when i was reading in 2 Nephi. Around chapter 30ish i think! ALSO....that there is scripture out there that we will eventually have, we just don't yet. that was in 2 Nephi 29:13 or 14. (right around there anyways!).

I did get all of the pictures! They look great! I really like the one of Uncle Allen! That is definitely a keeper! :D I don't really know what else to say...i'm gonna check the other e-mails i got, see if i didn't answer any questions you asked. If i missed something, i'll send a quick e-mail! :D

I Love all of you!

Oh.....PS. You have my address ALL wrong! :D333 has NOTHING to do with my address anymore. I keep getting letters late because all mine keep going to the wrong place.

Mailbox # 98
Mission Code: Arg-Ban
Departure Date: 0811...i don't think you even need this one, but my district is 48H.

Anyways...love ya, see ya....
Elder Denton

From 6/23/09...

Hey there!

Elder Ludwig, the guy McKenzie knew was in the first district that i was in. I haven't seen him too much tho, because he actually got the swine flu, and was in quarantine for like 5 days. Also, one of the elders in MY district, Elder Stuart had the swine flu, and just got out of quarantine today. We have been on tamiflu for the past like 5 days, and have to stay on it for 10 total, just to make sure we don't get any bug.

I haven't met andrew jones, but i'm keeping my eyes open. I think Elder Hales, one of the guys in our district who is also going to Buenos Aires North, thinks he met him a couple of days ago though.

I also thought i met let you know that i'm not eating any sugar while i'm here. I really appreciate the package that i got, and my district REALLY enjoyed the bag of Mike-and-ikes. I don't know if you've already sent out the package for this week, if you have, sorry, but today was the first day that i could write. If you want to keep sending goodies, i'm sure they'd enjoy! :D haha. I know that you have the one free thing from dearelder.com, that has the cookies and stuff...be sure to send that, cuz it's free, and my district will definitely not let it go to waste!

I have a pair of pants from mens warehouse (or whatever the place is called that you picked the stuff up for me) that is broken. The zipper never got connected, and just fell off because it wasn't attatched to thte other side.

I can't think of anything else that i was going to tell you at the moment, but i've got like 15 min of time left today. My laundry is going right now, so i'll probably be back on in an hour or so to check and see if i got anything back!

Love ya. Talk to ya later. See ya!

Hey! How'd the wedding go? Did you go to the actually sealing, or did you just take pics? What temple was it at? Draper? I think that's what i remember. [SLC, actually]

I don't know about the chips, i didn't eat any of the Dorito's from last week, but my district enjoyed them as well! I'm just trying to loose weight...

I'd love to see some of the pics from the wedding. Whit did send me a pic, it was...um....interesting?

I've got like 8 min left. If you're on the comp, and have anything else to say, i'll prob check one more time for the day around 5:20ish.

Well...i'm bored, have some extra time, and thought i'd write a little about the last week.

So...Elder Hales, Gaspar, and I were companions when i last wrote you...then Elder Stuart got Swine flu, so Elder Mccutchan and Elder Hales Became companions. Now, Elder stuart is back, and to help him catch up from the last couple of days, Elder Hales is staying with elders Mccutchan and Stuart.

Today, the 2 other elders that were staying in our dorm moved out..one to his mission, the other to be a temp missionary in the RC while waiting on his visa to activate.

ALSO today, Elders Probert, Hales, Mccutchan, Hatton and I (1 district), elder young (another district, but in our zone), and 2 samoan elders that live on our floor, but are in a different district AND zone all have been practicing, and had an audition for a 'special musical number'

The lady said that she would have us sing somewhere, but she doesn't know for what yet. It would be AMAZING if it was at the devo on fri night, because we're all pretty sure Pres. Monson is going to be speaking.

This week is training for all of the new Mission Presidants and their wives, and it's done here...but ALSO, the entire quorum of the 12 and first presidence will be here. They get here thur, and leave sat..(pretty sure)..i know they are here for like 2ish days. Anyways, it's going to be AMAZING because the Presidency and quorum of the 12 is just going to be like..hanging out around the MTC! :D IF you can't tell, i'm pretty excited about that!!!

Pictures!

His mission blanket. Uncle Bill pointed out that Argentina resembles a face and Buenos Aires it the eye.


Embroidered in the corner of another blanket.


You can see it at the bottom there.


Yes he is!


A family picture--minus dad behind the camera and Whitney on the road. We went to Mimi's Cafe for breakfast before he took off.


Hugging Uncle Stephen goodbye


Hugging Aunt Tiffiney goodbye


Hugging TJ goodbye


Awww...Forrest doesn't really want to touch him...


But he does anyway! Last time for 2 years!



Hugging Grammy goodbye.


Calming Grammy down a little. This is her first grandchild to go!


Hugging his favorite sister goodbye :D


See! We do love each other!


Everyone shows their love in different ways...Aunt Ginger uses the lint roller.


Father and Son--Dad got his wish of having his children be taller than him!


Don't really know what's going on here...


Much better!


Family photo!


Mother and Son


My dad likes to watch the progression of the lady in the fluorescent vest--the one who literally kicked Kyle to the curb.


Just taking down information to start...


Waiting for them to hurry up with the unloading.


Putting stuff on luggage


Look at that smile! I believe my dad quoted her as saying "Yes! Another successful separation!"


Last bit of lovin.
Hugging mom goodbye for 2 years.