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