Wednesday, August 19, 2009

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

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

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.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

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