I found this picture while viewing Elder Ludwig's blog (http://drewsmissiontoargentina.blogspot.com/2010/12/we-will-see.html)
3/19/12- Letter to the World
12 years ago
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
12/28/10 - Letter to the World
Hello world!
First and foremost, i should probably apologize for not writting a world-letter last week. oops. i thought that i had finished everything, and so i got off the comp, and was waiting for MY comp to finish, and then we left, and I realized that i hadn´t written. My bad.
Well - I have made a new years resolution! I´m going to TRY to not be so lazy in writing this letter to the world, and talk more about the work that´s going on here in ´´LA BOCA´´ instead of all the stupid trivial stuff that i´ve been writing!
Matias - We have had his baptism planned for a while now. There have been a lot of things in the way, but it isn´t anything that we can control. His mom, who is a less-active members really wants him to get baptized, but, she also wants his dad to know, but his dad doesn´t live with them, and she has little to no contact with him, so it´s been hard for her to be able to let him know when the baptizm is going to be. She feels that if she doesn´t tell him, she´s doing in in a ´´sneaking-behind-his-back´´ sort of way.
Benjamin, Deisy, Maxamiliano - Benjamin and Deisy have a wedding date for January 14th, but they havn´t been doing very well at coming to church lately. Deisy is doing better than the others, but we need to have a sit-down with them so that they realize that if they aren´t coming to church, they aren´t going to have the attendance that they need to be able to be baptized after.
Gaspar Family - Maria and Silvina are doing great! They´re coming to church, and doing what they need to do! The parents, Norma and José still need to get married, but José needs to get divorced from a previos marrige first, which take a good bit of time. We talked with them last night, and are putting little goals with them so that they can get José divorced, and the 2 of them married as fast as we can!
I don´t know if i told ya´ll, but we have started working in a new part of our area, that´s on a little island type thing. there are a LOT of members there, but most of them are inactiave. We are working with lots of them, and this last week there were about 5 of those less active members in church. There is a lot of potential in this new area, and we have quite a few investigators, and people that have been to church before, and have listened, but SOMETHING stopped them from getting baptized. Now, our job is to figure out what that problem was, and help them overcome it!
I love ya´ll, and hope you´re doing great! Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We´ll see ya in 2011
Love,
Elder Denton
First and foremost, i should probably apologize for not writting a world-letter last week. oops. i thought that i had finished everything, and so i got off the comp, and was waiting for MY comp to finish, and then we left, and I realized that i hadn´t written. My bad.
Well - I have made a new years resolution! I´m going to TRY to not be so lazy in writing this letter to the world, and talk more about the work that´s going on here in ´´LA BOCA´´ instead of all the stupid trivial stuff that i´ve been writing!
Matias - We have had his baptism planned for a while now. There have been a lot of things in the way, but it isn´t anything that we can control. His mom, who is a less-active members really wants him to get baptized, but, she also wants his dad to know, but his dad doesn´t live with them, and she has little to no contact with him, so it´s been hard for her to be able to let him know when the baptizm is going to be. She feels that if she doesn´t tell him, she´s doing in in a ´´sneaking-behind-his-back´´ sort of way.
Benjamin, Deisy, Maxamiliano - Benjamin and Deisy have a wedding date for January 14th, but they havn´t been doing very well at coming to church lately. Deisy is doing better than the others, but we need to have a sit-down with them so that they realize that if they aren´t coming to church, they aren´t going to have the attendance that they need to be able to be baptized after.
Gaspar Family - Maria and Silvina are doing great! They´re coming to church, and doing what they need to do! The parents, Norma and José still need to get married, but José needs to get divorced from a previos marrige first, which take a good bit of time. We talked with them last night, and are putting little goals with them so that they can get José divorced, and the 2 of them married as fast as we can!
I don´t know if i told ya´ll, but we have started working in a new part of our area, that´s on a little island type thing. there are a LOT of members there, but most of them are inactiave. We are working with lots of them, and this last week there were about 5 of those less active members in church. There is a lot of potential in this new area, and we have quite a few investigators, and people that have been to church before, and have listened, but SOMETHING stopped them from getting baptized. Now, our job is to figure out what that problem was, and help them overcome it!
I love ya´ll, and hope you´re doing great! Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We´ll see ya in 2011
Love,
Elder Denton
Monday, November 29, 2010
11/29/10 - Letter to the World
Hello world! I hope you all had a GREAT thanksgiving.
Like i predictid last week, i didn´t realize until VERY late that it even WAS thanksgiving. Planning at the end of the day, i looked in my agenda and saw that it was Thursday - ´´Hey - IT´S THANKSGIVING!´´
My companion doesn´t celebrate thanksgiving, so i had to say HAPPY THANKSGIVING to my 3 district leaders - Elder HALES!! (From my MTC Group!), Elder Rayme, and Elder Davis! - Needless to say - i didn´t do anything special for thanksgiving.
We had a good week, and it ended with a baptism. We had the interview saturday at about 3, and then started to fill the font. This church where i am here in LA BOCA, and its a new building. The font is on the second floor, so the drain is just a pipe that goes down into the parking garage right below, runs along the ceiling to the wall, and then down and out. The pipe on the wall has a lever that is just open and closed. Obviously, when the font is being filled, the lever needs to be closed so that all of the water doesn´t run out. Well.....the font wasn´t filling up, so we went down, thinking that the other missionaries had left the knob open from their last baptism - but what we found wasn´t really what we expected. The elbow pvc pipe piece that directs the water from down, to run along the ceiling was broken, and the water was falling out of the ceiling all over the garage. The headache began, and we went to find plummers tape. we got a little, patched it up a bit, and started filling the water again...well, the tape wasn´t strong enough to hold a fond full of water, and the water, after filling up about a foot of the font, started gushing out again over the garage. At that point, a guy from another ward, who ´´just happened to be there at the right time´´ (ya right! i´ve been a missionary too long to NOT realize that it was a miracle!) WITH ALL THE TOOLS THAT WE NEEDED to jimmy-rig the pipe.....next week i´ll send the pics. (sorry) Basically, we got another pole, and put it under the other pipe so that it wouldn´t fall, and let all of the water out...we also, for the doubts, unscrewed the drain, and stuck a rag in there to clog it, so that it wouldn´t run down! Thank goodness that this font fills up quickly! With only hot water, it takes like 3 hrs....well, we ended up having like an hour and a half, so we filled it with coldish water, but it was definitely bareable! The baptism turned out great at the end!
Today we went and played tenis....nothing too eventfull.
I Love ya´ll, and hope ya have a great week!
Love,
Elder Denton
Like i predictid last week, i didn´t realize until VERY late that it even WAS thanksgiving. Planning at the end of the day, i looked in my agenda and saw that it was Thursday - ´´Hey - IT´S THANKSGIVING!´´
My companion doesn´t celebrate thanksgiving, so i had to say HAPPY THANKSGIVING to my 3 district leaders - Elder HALES!! (From my MTC Group!), Elder Rayme, and Elder Davis! - Needless to say - i didn´t do anything special for thanksgiving.
We had a good week, and it ended with a baptism. We had the interview saturday at about 3, and then started to fill the font. This church where i am here in LA BOCA, and its a new building. The font is on the second floor, so the drain is just a pipe that goes down into the parking garage right below, runs along the ceiling to the wall, and then down and out. The pipe on the wall has a lever that is just open and closed. Obviously, when the font is being filled, the lever needs to be closed so that all of the water doesn´t run out. Well.....the font wasn´t filling up, so we went down, thinking that the other missionaries had left the knob open from their last baptism - but what we found wasn´t really what we expected. The elbow pvc pipe piece that directs the water from down, to run along the ceiling was broken, and the water was falling out of the ceiling all over the garage. The headache began, and we went to find plummers tape. we got a little, patched it up a bit, and started filling the water again...well, the tape wasn´t strong enough to hold a fond full of water, and the water, after filling up about a foot of the font, started gushing out again over the garage. At that point, a guy from another ward, who ´´just happened to be there at the right time´´ (ya right! i´ve been a missionary too long to NOT realize that it was a miracle!) WITH ALL THE TOOLS THAT WE NEEDED to jimmy-rig the pipe.....next week i´ll send the pics. (sorry) Basically, we got another pole, and put it under the other pipe so that it wouldn´t fall, and let all of the water out...we also, for the doubts, unscrewed the drain, and stuck a rag in there to clog it, so that it wouldn´t run down! Thank goodness that this font fills up quickly! With only hot water, it takes like 3 hrs....well, we ended up having like an hour and a half, so we filled it with coldish water, but it was definitely bareable! The baptism turned out great at the end!
Today we went and played tenis....nothing too eventfull.
I Love ya´ll, and hope ya have a great week!
Love,
Elder Denton
Monday, November 22, 2010
11/22/10 - Letter to the World
HELLO WORLD!
First off, i´d like to wish ya´ll a HAPPY TURKEY DAY wherever you are!
We had a great BUSY week, and we didn´t let the BUSY keep us from doing what we had put goals to do!
Monday was just a rotten day, and we didn´t acheive much...
On tuesday, Elder Tapia came, and that night we only had 3 hours to work.
Wednesday I had to go to immigrations in the morning, come back to La Boca for lunch, and then turn around and take a 40minute bus ride to a district meeting, and then 40 minutes back...
Thursday and Friday we were in leadership trainging meetings from 8am to about 4pm - and the trainging was about and hour and a half away from La Boca.
Friday, after the training, we did divisions with the assistants. Elder Tapia stayed in San Fernando, and i was with - ELDER LABRA!!! He was my companion before elder Smith. We were together for 6months in Lopez Camelo, and he was made assistant this week! So friday and saturday with his was GREAT, and we found 6 new investigators together!
Sunday, Elder Tapia was finally back here...we are going to be on splits with the elders quorum EVERY DAY this week - and with all of the training, and divisions, elder Tapia has to learn the area - and quick, otherwise he´s going to be lost!! haha.
This saturday we have a baptism! Jennifer Ojeda! She´s been listeing for a while now, and we´ve been trying to make sure that her mom will stay strong coming to church every week to bring Jennifer, because she´s only 11, and can´t come alone...and the mom isn´t a member, and isn´t married either, which means she can´t be baptized until that situation is fixed up.
Well....that´s all folks! Have a GREAT day!
Love,
Elder Denton
First off, i´d like to wish ya´ll a HAPPY TURKEY DAY wherever you are!
We had a great BUSY week, and we didn´t let the BUSY keep us from doing what we had put goals to do!
Monday was just a rotten day, and we didn´t acheive much...
On tuesday, Elder Tapia came, and that night we only had 3 hours to work.
Wednesday I had to go to immigrations in the morning, come back to La Boca for lunch, and then turn around and take a 40minute bus ride to a district meeting, and then 40 minutes back...
Thursday and Friday we were in leadership trainging meetings from 8am to about 4pm - and the trainging was about and hour and a half away from La Boca.
Friday, after the training, we did divisions with the assistants. Elder Tapia stayed in San Fernando, and i was with - ELDER LABRA!!! He was my companion before elder Smith. We were together for 6months in Lopez Camelo, and he was made assistant this week! So friday and saturday with his was GREAT, and we found 6 new investigators together!
Sunday, Elder Tapia was finally back here...we are going to be on splits with the elders quorum EVERY DAY this week - and with all of the training, and divisions, elder Tapia has to learn the area - and quick, otherwise he´s going to be lost!! haha.
This saturday we have a baptism! Jennifer Ojeda! She´s been listeing for a while now, and we´ve been trying to make sure that her mom will stay strong coming to church every week to bring Jennifer, because she´s only 11, and can´t come alone...and the mom isn´t a member, and isn´t married either, which means she can´t be baptized until that situation is fixed up.
Well....that´s all folks! Have a GREAT day!
Love,
Elder Denton
Sunday, November 21, 2010
11/15/10 - Letter to the World
Elder Denton w/new companion, Elder TapiaI can´t believe that it´s already the middle of November - its almost thanksgiving...¿next thursday? ¿or this thursday?
I´m gonna be honest - last week was not even close to the top of the ´good weeks´ in the mission...BUT THIS WEEK ROCKED!
Elder Smith and i have been working so hard this last month and a half to figure out HOW to really work with the members, and we finally did it! The key was doing divisions with members, and being with them for a lot of the time! We had a member to accompany us EVERY DAY and there were only like 2 days that we didn´t have 2 members to be able to do divisions. We taught 15 lessons with members, and only 1 other (because we were basically always with the members)
On monday, Elder Smith was with Fabio, a 17 year old in the ward, and they found a family - the Gaspar´s. They are an AMAZING family. There is Jose and Norma (the parents), and then Maria(23ish), Silvina(10), and Josecito(8) (The kids) They are all very interested. In one of the lessons, we asked Jose what he though God was telling him in that moment, and he said ´´I need to spend more time with my family..i want to stop working Sunday´s´´ WHAT A MIRACLE! We haven´t even taught ´´keeping the sabbath day holy´´....so, we taught it then! He has a few more weeks of sundays that he has to go to, and then he´ll be off to go to church! Both of the parents have to get divorces from previous marriages, and then get married. It´s going to be a long process, but the 3 kids have baptismal dates for december 4th! We went to pick them up to go to church, and when we walked into where they live and knocked on the door, and nobody answered. 2 seconds later, Maria came running in and said that they were all waiting for us outside at the corner, but we had come another way, so we didn´t see them, but they saw us when we went down the passageway where they live.
That´s the BIG story of the week! They all REALLY enjoyed going to church, and are excited to go next week. The kids got a little bored because it was stake conference, but they know that there are going to be special classes for them next week!
The other exciting news for this last week is that BENJAMIN Y DEISY HAVE A WEDDING DATE! January 14th. It´s a long ways away, and Deisy is even gonna go to see if she can get it moved forward.
Well...that´s about it for the week. My new companion is ELDER TAPIA!! He´s from Bariloche, Argentina, and he´s great! He´s been in the mission for about 13 months, and this is his first Transfer as a Zone Leader!
Have a GREAT week everybody!
Love,
Elder Denton
I´m gonna be honest - last week was not even close to the top of the ´good weeks´ in the mission...BUT THIS WEEK ROCKED!
Elder Smith and i have been working so hard this last month and a half to figure out HOW to really work with the members, and we finally did it! The key was doing divisions with members, and being with them for a lot of the time! We had a member to accompany us EVERY DAY and there were only like 2 days that we didn´t have 2 members to be able to do divisions. We taught 15 lessons with members, and only 1 other (because we were basically always with the members)
On monday, Elder Smith was with Fabio, a 17 year old in the ward, and they found a family - the Gaspar´s. They are an AMAZING family. There is Jose and Norma (the parents), and then Maria(23ish), Silvina(10), and Josecito(8) (The kids) They are all very interested. In one of the lessons, we asked Jose what he though God was telling him in that moment, and he said ´´I need to spend more time with my family..i want to stop working Sunday´s´´ WHAT A MIRACLE! We haven´t even taught ´´keeping the sabbath day holy´´....so, we taught it then! He has a few more weeks of sundays that he has to go to, and then he´ll be off to go to church! Both of the parents have to get divorces from previous marriages, and then get married. It´s going to be a long process, but the 3 kids have baptismal dates for december 4th! We went to pick them up to go to church, and when we walked into where they live and knocked on the door, and nobody answered. 2 seconds later, Maria came running in and said that they were all waiting for us outside at the corner, but we had come another way, so we didn´t see them, but they saw us when we went down the passageway where they live.
That´s the BIG story of the week! They all REALLY enjoyed going to church, and are excited to go next week. The kids got a little bored because it was stake conference, but they know that there are going to be special classes for them next week!
The other exciting news for this last week is that BENJAMIN Y DEISY HAVE A WEDDING DATE! January 14th. It´s a long ways away, and Deisy is even gonna go to see if she can get it moved forward.
Well...that´s about it for the week. My new companion is ELDER TAPIA!! He´s from Bariloche, Argentina, and he´s great! He´s been in the mission for about 13 months, and this is his first Transfer as a Zone Leader!
Have a GREAT week everybody!
Love,
Elder Denton
11/1/10 - Letter to the World
Wow - Can you believe that it´s already November?
Well, things are going great here in La Boca. So, the turtle that ya´ll saw last week was just a set up...they don´t eat turtle here, that was the family pet where we went to eat lunch last sunday! haha.
Well, this week was more or less normal. We did divisions for 2 days with one of our District Leaders, and i´m sure that this week we are going to be doing more divisions to help with some training.
I´m pretty sure i´ve told you about Benjamin and Daisy before, but for the doubts - Benjamin and Daisy are a young couple who have friends that are members.
They started coming to church about a month ago, and they really like it.
They have to get married, and will be heading out this week to go to the civil register to get a date to be married. We met with them on monday, and the mom was sick, but we had a lesson with benjamin and the 10yr old son, Maxamiliano. This kid is a genious. We taught him lesson one, and it was AMAZING how much he understood, and the questions that he asked, and the comparisons that he made, and the comments that he made...he would say stuff like - ´´so, if i understand right, Jesus called the apostles to help him teach the people, but when they died there was nobody else who had the authority to teach until God called Joseph Smith, right?´´ Elder Smith and i were so shoked by his answers, and it was funny to see his dad beaming with pride for his son, and his knowledge because of the dumbstruck faces that we had. At one point Elder Smith gave Maxi his bag with his scriptures and said ´´hey, you can come with us now to teach!!´´ haha.
On tuesday we had a family home evening with the family that brought Alexis to church, but with that family, and the brother of the dad of the family. It was supposed to be a FHE, and nothing more, but we quickly turned it into a lesson for him. He´s sort of stiff, and doesn´t want to change too much now, but was just about to be baptized a few months ago...we´ve just gotta figure out what´s up.
Wednesday was a nation wide census. We weren´t able to leave our Apt.
until 6pm...when we were able to leave, we just went to the church for our missionary coorelation mtg. with our ward mission leader.
Thursday and Friday i was in divisions in another area, and while i was gone, my comp found a bunch of families to teach from bolivia.
We went back on saturday to talk with the dad. Bolivians tend to be quite timid, and it´s hard for them to trust others right off the bat...so, we´re gonna try to go back with our bishop, because he´s from the same city in Bolivia as they are.
Well...that basically wraps up the week!
Have a great week, and HAPPY ANIVERSARY TO MOM AND DAD ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a great 23rd (i think...!)
Love,
Elder Denton
Well, things are going great here in La Boca. So, the turtle that ya´ll saw last week was just a set up...they don´t eat turtle here, that was the family pet where we went to eat lunch last sunday! haha.
Well, this week was more or less normal. We did divisions for 2 days with one of our District Leaders, and i´m sure that this week we are going to be doing more divisions to help with some training.
I´m pretty sure i´ve told you about Benjamin and Daisy before, but for the doubts - Benjamin and Daisy are a young couple who have friends that are members.
They started coming to church about a month ago, and they really like it.
They have to get married, and will be heading out this week to go to the civil register to get a date to be married. We met with them on monday, and the mom was sick, but we had a lesson with benjamin and the 10yr old son, Maxamiliano. This kid is a genious. We taught him lesson one, and it was AMAZING how much he understood, and the questions that he asked, and the comparisons that he made, and the comments that he made...he would say stuff like - ´´so, if i understand right, Jesus called the apostles to help him teach the people, but when they died there was nobody else who had the authority to teach until God called Joseph Smith, right?´´ Elder Smith and i were so shoked by his answers, and it was funny to see his dad beaming with pride for his son, and his knowledge because of the dumbstruck faces that we had. At one point Elder Smith gave Maxi his bag with his scriptures and said ´´hey, you can come with us now to teach!!´´ haha.
On tuesday we had a family home evening with the family that brought Alexis to church, but with that family, and the brother of the dad of the family. It was supposed to be a FHE, and nothing more, but we quickly turned it into a lesson for him. He´s sort of stiff, and doesn´t want to change too much now, but was just about to be baptized a few months ago...we´ve just gotta figure out what´s up.
Wednesday was a nation wide census. We weren´t able to leave our Apt.
until 6pm...when we were able to leave, we just went to the church for our missionary coorelation mtg. with our ward mission leader.
Thursday and Friday i was in divisions in another area, and while i was gone, my comp found a bunch of families to teach from bolivia.
We went back on saturday to talk with the dad. Bolivians tend to be quite timid, and it´s hard for them to trust others right off the bat...so, we´re gonna try to go back with our bishop, because he´s from the same city in Bolivia as they are.
Well...that basically wraps up the week!
Have a great week, and HAPPY ANIVERSARY TO MOM AND DAD ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a great 23rd (i think...!)
Love,
Elder Denton
Sunday, November 7, 2010
11/1/10 - Letter to the World
Wow - Can you believe that it´s already November?
Well, things are going great here in La Boca. So, the turtle that ya´ll saw last week was just a set up...they don´t eat turtle here, that was the family pet where we went to eat lunch last sunday! haha.
Well, this week was more or less normal. We did divisions for 2 days with one of our District Leaders, and i´m sure that this week we are going to be doing more divisions to help with some training.
I´m pretty sure i´ve told you about Benjamin and Daisy before, but for the doubts - Benjamin and Daisy are a young couple who have friends that are members.
They started coming to church about a month ago, and they really like it.
They have to get married, and will be heading out this week to go to the civil register to get a date to be married. We met with them on monday, and the mom was sick, but we had a lesson with benjamin and the 10yr old son, Maxamiliano. This kid is a genious. We taught him lesson one, and it was AMAZING how much he understood, and the questions that he asked, and the comparisons that he made, and the comments that he made...he would say stuff like - ´´so, if i understand right, Jesus called the apostles to help him teach the people, but when they died there was nobody else who had the authority to teach until God called Joseph Smith, right?´´ Elder Smith and i were so shoked by his answers, and it was funny to see his dad beaming with pride for his son, and his knowledge because of the dumbstruck faces that we had. At one point Elder Smith gave Maxi his bag with his scriptures and said ´´hey, you can come with us now to teach!!´´ haha.
On tuesday we had a family home evening with the family that brought Alexis to church, but with that family, and the brother of the dad of the family. It was supposed to be a FHE, and nothing more, but we quickly turned it into a lesson for him. He´s sort of stiff, and doesn´t want to change too much now, but was just about to be baptized a few months ago...we´ve just gotta figure out what´s up.
Wednesday was a nation wide census. We weren´t able to leave our Apt.
until 6pm...when we were able to leave, we just went to the church for our missionary coorelation mtg. with our ward mission leader.
Thursday and Friday i was in divisions in another area, and while i was gone, my comp found a bunch of families to teach from bolivia.
We went back on saturday to talk with the dad. Bolivians tend to be quite timid, and it´s hard for them to trust others right off the bat...so, we´re gonna try to go back with our bishop, because he´s from the same city in Bolivia as they are.
Well...that basically wraps up the week!
Have a great week, and HAPPY ANIVERSARY TO MOM AND DAD ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a great 23rd (i think...!)
Love,
Elder Denton
Well, things are going great here in La Boca. So, the turtle that ya´ll saw last week was just a set up...they don´t eat turtle here, that was the family pet where we went to eat lunch last sunday! haha.
Well, this week was more or less normal. We did divisions for 2 days with one of our District Leaders, and i´m sure that this week we are going to be doing more divisions to help with some training.
I´m pretty sure i´ve told you about Benjamin and Daisy before, but for the doubts - Benjamin and Daisy are a young couple who have friends that are members.
They started coming to church about a month ago, and they really like it.
They have to get married, and will be heading out this week to go to the civil register to get a date to be married. We met with them on monday, and the mom was sick, but we had a lesson with benjamin and the 10yr old son, Maxamiliano. This kid is a genious. We taught him lesson one, and it was AMAZING how much he understood, and the questions that he asked, and the comparisons that he made, and the comments that he made...he would say stuff like - ´´so, if i understand right, Jesus called the apostles to help him teach the people, but when they died there was nobody else who had the authority to teach until God called Joseph Smith, right?´´ Elder Smith and i were so shoked by his answers, and it was funny to see his dad beaming with pride for his son, and his knowledge because of the dumbstruck faces that we had. At one point Elder Smith gave Maxi his bag with his scriptures and said ´´hey, you can come with us now to teach!!´´ haha.
On tuesday we had a family home evening with the family that brought Alexis to church, but with that family, and the brother of the dad of the family. It was supposed to be a FHE, and nothing more, but we quickly turned it into a lesson for him. He´s sort of stiff, and doesn´t want to change too much now, but was just about to be baptized a few months ago...we´ve just gotta figure out what´s up.
Wednesday was a nation wide census. We weren´t able to leave our Apt.
until 6pm...when we were able to leave, we just went to the church for our missionary coorelation mtg. with our ward mission leader.
Thursday and Friday i was in divisions in another area, and while i was gone, my comp found a bunch of families to teach from bolivia.
We went back on saturday to talk with the dad. Bolivians tend to be quite timid, and it´s hard for them to trust others right off the bat...so, we´re gonna try to go back with our bishop, because he´s from the same city in Bolivia as they are.
Well...that basically wraps up the week!
Have a great week, and HAPPY ANIVERSARY TO MOM AND DAD ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a great 23rd (i think...!)
Love,
Elder Denton
Monday, October 25, 2010
10/25/10 - Letter to the World
Hello World!
Well, we had a pretty good week! Like i think i said last week, Alexis had his baptismal date set for the 23rd, and we had a LOT of work to do to get him prepared to his interview on the 22nd. The last week, we couldn´t find him at all, and we only had like one lesson with him, so this week, we had a lesson with him EVERY DAY! Mon, Tues, Wed, AND Thurs. On thursday, we finished up teaching all of the commandments, and we did a ´mock´ interview, and he passed with flying colors! Alexis is a REALLY smart kid, and he learns really fast! His interview was on Friday, and he was supposed to be there at 4.30...i think we ended up getting to the church with him at around 5, and he has a quick interview, and then elder smith and i had to run to meet up with some other missionaries to do an interview for them! That´s kind of the story of our week - there was a lot of running around trying to get things in order. Elder Smith and I were hopping that after the first week things would start to slow down, and calm down as we got into the groove of things, but that still hasn´t happned. Oh well!
The baptism on Saturday was GREAT! We share our chapple with another ward, and the elders in that ward also had a baptism. Elder Rayme and Elder Trayner (From SoJo Utah!! Woot! He´s good friends with Steven Davis) We wanted to combine the 2 baptisms, but the bishop of the other ward wasn´t too fond of the idea. At the end, he gave in, and we combined the 2, and it wsa amazing! The spirit was really strong! It was also a great opportunity for Alexis´s parents to get to know some of the members - even though they already know the family that brought Alexis to church every week!
We are working really hard with the members here. President Gulbrandsen and his wife came out with us on saturday to have a family home evening. He wanted to show us a way to get a lot of references, and it worked really well! It is something that has been in effect for a couple of years now here in Arg, but it´s like super updated, and more in tune with the spirit! Instead of just asking for the names of the people that they know, we also make SPECIFIC plans with each of the people that they know that live in the ward boundries so that the stuff isn´t all just left up in the air.
I can´t really think of anything else to say...thanks to everybody that´s writting me lately - Josh Poteet, Jaimee, the Peterson Family, The Wahlquists, the Jorgensens, (and my immediate family of course!) ...letters will be coming your way shortley!
I love you all!
Love,
Elder Denton
Well, we had a pretty good week! Like i think i said last week, Alexis had his baptismal date set for the 23rd, and we had a LOT of work to do to get him prepared to his interview on the 22nd. The last week, we couldn´t find him at all, and we only had like one lesson with him, so this week, we had a lesson with him EVERY DAY! Mon, Tues, Wed, AND Thurs. On thursday, we finished up teaching all of the commandments, and we did a ´mock´ interview, and he passed with flying colors! Alexis is a REALLY smart kid, and he learns really fast! His interview was on Friday, and he was supposed to be there at 4.30...i think we ended up getting to the church with him at around 5, and he has a quick interview, and then elder smith and i had to run to meet up with some other missionaries to do an interview for them! That´s kind of the story of our week - there was a lot of running around trying to get things in order. Elder Smith and I were hopping that after the first week things would start to slow down, and calm down as we got into the groove of things, but that still hasn´t happned. Oh well!
The baptism on Saturday was GREAT! We share our chapple with another ward, and the elders in that ward also had a baptism. Elder Rayme and Elder Trayner (From SoJo Utah!! Woot! He´s good friends with Steven Davis) We wanted to combine the 2 baptisms, but the bishop of the other ward wasn´t too fond of the idea. At the end, he gave in, and we combined the 2, and it wsa amazing! The spirit was really strong! It was also a great opportunity for Alexis´s parents to get to know some of the members - even though they already know the family that brought Alexis to church every week!
We are working really hard with the members here. President Gulbrandsen and his wife came out with us on saturday to have a family home evening. He wanted to show us a way to get a lot of references, and it worked really well! It is something that has been in effect for a couple of years now here in Arg, but it´s like super updated, and more in tune with the spirit! Instead of just asking for the names of the people that they know, we also make SPECIFIC plans with each of the people that they know that live in the ward boundries so that the stuff isn´t all just left up in the air.
I can´t really think of anything else to say...thanks to everybody that´s writting me lately - Josh Poteet, Jaimee, the Peterson Family, The Wahlquists, the Jorgensens, (and my immediate family of course!) ...letters will be coming your way shortley!
I love you all!
Love,
Elder Denton
10/11/10 - Letter to the World
Hello World!
Ok, so, sorry about the short little letter that i sent you last week, but, i really didn´t have time. This week, well...i´m feeling a novel coming on.
I LOVE my area! Like i said, i´m in ´La Boca´. It´s a really down-town place, and there are a ton of big buildings. We are really close to a really popular soccer field/stadium that belongs to the team that´s called CABJ (Club Atletico Boca Junior) - Athletic Club - Junior Mouth. Ok, so...it doesn´t sound so cool in english, but they´re one of the 2 most popular teams here in Argentina. if somebody askes what team you root for, it´s either Boca, or River.
My companion is Awesome! We worked somewhat close in my last Zone - he was one of the District Leaders, and he´s a stud! He´s a hard worker, and we´re getting ready to put the pedal to the metal and put things in full gear this week! Last week was sort of slow for us, or, i don´t know - not as slow as it was full of stuff to do. Being Zone Leaders means that we have to take care of running all the errands, paying the bills, paying the rent, making sure that everything is ok....There was a new area added to our zone, and another companionship is getting ready to move, and there was/is a lot to do.
This last week was a blur - but here are some highlights
Lucas Diarte - This is the 15 year old kid that was gonna be baptized on Saturday, but, he gave us some bad news. He asked his mom when we could go by so that she could sign the baptizmal record, and she had changed her mind and doesn´t want to give permission anymore. He was devistated, and us too. We are going to keep working with him, and hopefully his mom will come around soon.
Benjamin y Daisy - Ok, so i don´t realy know them much still, but they came to church with a family in the ward. It was their first time, and it seemed that they both had a great time! They have 2 kids, Maxamiliano and Celeste, (10 and 7). I hadn´t met them before sunday, so, it was great to be able to go to church, and have them just show up!
Alexis - He´s 14 years old, and was a reference from a family in the ward. He, like Benjamin and Daisy showed up with a family from the ward without us having to do anything excepts remind the family. We had a first lesson with Alexis last night at about 8pm, and it went great! He doesn´t have any sort of religios background, and didn´t even know how to pray. It was awesome teaching him!
Those are the main people that i remember...
Aside from them, we had an AMAZING Sunday. I don´t know what happened, but it was one of the most spiritual experiances that i´ve had.
I´ve always heard about other people having a ´burning in their bosom´. I´ve felt the spirit before, but it´s never been anything like that, i know that he´s with me when i feel calm, tranquil, and when it´s very strong, it´s like i get the chills all up and down my spine.
At church on sunday morning the spirit was VERY strong. I was sitting there, and even before the first person got up to share their testimony, i started to feel that burning in my bosom. I felt like my chest was full, and it seemed like the spirit was screeming to me that i needed to get up and share my testimony. I then started that little battle that we (or at leat i) always have when i´ve decided that i´m going to share my testimony. Before, i´ve decided to do it, and if, at the end, i don´t get up, it´s no big deal...but i felt that if i didn´t get up, well, that couldn´t happen. But - the battle commenced. I told myself - ok, i´m gonna get up when this person finishes....and then somebody else got up. And then i said - ok, i´m gonna get up when this person finishes...and then somebody decided to one-up me and go and sit up on the stand to wait. So...i finally made the decision, got up, and went up to the front to wait...When i was able to get up to bare my testimony, it was amazing. I felt like i was on fire. The spirit was so strong.
I Love ya´ll, and hope ya have a great week!
Love,
Elder Denton
Ok, so, sorry about the short little letter that i sent you last week, but, i really didn´t have time. This week, well...i´m feeling a novel coming on.
I LOVE my area! Like i said, i´m in ´La Boca´. It´s a really down-town place, and there are a ton of big buildings. We are really close to a really popular soccer field/stadium that belongs to the team that´s called CABJ (Club Atletico Boca Junior) - Athletic Club - Junior Mouth. Ok, so...it doesn´t sound so cool in english, but they´re one of the 2 most popular teams here in Argentina. if somebody askes what team you root for, it´s either Boca, or River.
My companion is Awesome! We worked somewhat close in my last Zone - he was one of the District Leaders, and he´s a stud! He´s a hard worker, and we´re getting ready to put the pedal to the metal and put things in full gear this week! Last week was sort of slow for us, or, i don´t know - not as slow as it was full of stuff to do. Being Zone Leaders means that we have to take care of running all the errands, paying the bills, paying the rent, making sure that everything is ok....There was a new area added to our zone, and another companionship is getting ready to move, and there was/is a lot to do.
This last week was a blur - but here are some highlights
Lucas Diarte - This is the 15 year old kid that was gonna be baptized on Saturday, but, he gave us some bad news. He asked his mom when we could go by so that she could sign the baptizmal record, and she had changed her mind and doesn´t want to give permission anymore. He was devistated, and us too. We are going to keep working with him, and hopefully his mom will come around soon.
Benjamin y Daisy - Ok, so i don´t realy know them much still, but they came to church with a family in the ward. It was their first time, and it seemed that they both had a great time! They have 2 kids, Maxamiliano and Celeste, (10 and 7). I hadn´t met them before sunday, so, it was great to be able to go to church, and have them just show up!
Alexis - He´s 14 years old, and was a reference from a family in the ward. He, like Benjamin and Daisy showed up with a family from the ward without us having to do anything excepts remind the family. We had a first lesson with Alexis last night at about 8pm, and it went great! He doesn´t have any sort of religios background, and didn´t even know how to pray. It was awesome teaching him!
Those are the main people that i remember...
Aside from them, we had an AMAZING Sunday. I don´t know what happened, but it was one of the most spiritual experiances that i´ve had.
I´ve always heard about other people having a ´burning in their bosom´. I´ve felt the spirit before, but it´s never been anything like that, i know that he´s with me when i feel calm, tranquil, and when it´s very strong, it´s like i get the chills all up and down my spine.
At church on sunday morning the spirit was VERY strong. I was sitting there, and even before the first person got up to share their testimony, i started to feel that burning in my bosom. I felt like my chest was full, and it seemed like the spirit was screeming to me that i needed to get up and share my testimony. I then started that little battle that we (or at leat i) always have when i´ve decided that i´m going to share my testimony. Before, i´ve decided to do it, and if, at the end, i don´t get up, it´s no big deal...but i felt that if i didn´t get up, well, that couldn´t happen. But - the battle commenced. I told myself - ok, i´m gonna get up when this person finishes....and then somebody else got up. And then i said - ok, i´m gonna get up when this person finishes...and then somebody decided to one-up me and go and sit up on the stand to wait. So...i finally made the decision, got up, and went up to the front to wait...When i was able to get up to bare my testimony, it was amazing. I felt like i was on fire. The spirit was so strong.
I Love ya´ll, and hope ya have a great week!
Love,
Elder Denton
Thursday, October 7, 2010
10/4/10 - Letter to the World
Elder Denton and new companion Elder Smith
Baptism of Raquel GimenezHello World,
Ok...i don´t have a lot of time, but this is what went down this last week.
Raquel, the Mom of Johnny and Ariel Gimenez was baptized on friday. It was a small baptismal service, but it went well. It was great!
General Conference was AMAZING. I LOVED The first talk by Jeffrey Holland, and the talk by Pte. Uchtdorf also. They were both amazing.
There was one talk by a 70, elder arnold. he is the area president of the area south america south, and he is going to be in our mission this comming weekend from like friday to tuesday training and stuff. he ALSO is going to be doing apt. inspections....
I´m in a new area in the heart of capital Bs. As. My zone is called ´´Congreso¨ and my area is ´La Boca´ (the mouth). My new companion is elder Smith - my first yankee companion. He´s from Texas. He´s way cool - i´ve known him for a while....when i was in Litoral, he was one of my district leaders...
We have a baptism this weekend...i still havn´t met the kid. His name is Lucas, and he´s 15. I´m sure we´re gonna see him today!
I Love you all!
Love,
Elder Denton
Ok...i don´t have a lot of time, but this is what went down this last week.
Raquel, the Mom of Johnny and Ariel Gimenez was baptized on friday. It was a small baptismal service, but it went well. It was great!
General Conference was AMAZING. I LOVED The first talk by Jeffrey Holland, and the talk by Pte. Uchtdorf also. They were both amazing.
There was one talk by a 70, elder arnold. he is the area president of the area south america south, and he is going to be in our mission this comming weekend from like friday to tuesday training and stuff. he ALSO is going to be doing apt. inspections....
I´m in a new area in the heart of capital Bs. As. My zone is called ´´Congreso¨ and my area is ´La Boca´ (the mouth). My new companion is elder Smith - my first yankee companion. He´s from Texas. He´s way cool - i´ve known him for a while....when i was in Litoral, he was one of my district leaders...
We have a baptism this weekend...i still havn´t met the kid. His name is Lucas, and he´s 15. I´m sure we´re gonna see him today!
I Love you all!
Love,
Elder Denton
Monday, September 27, 2010
9/27/10 - Letter to the World
New Glasses???
¨Just Married¨Angelica Gomez de Sanchez, Heriberto Sanchez, Elder Denton
¨Baptism Pictures¨Elder Labra, Heriberto Sanchez, Angelica Gomez de Sanchez, Elder Denton
Hello World - dangit- my exclamation mark key doesn´t work...that´s gonna be a problem.i´ll have to use this instead - ¡
Ok, how´re ya´ll doin´ today? I´m doing very well¡
This week we made the final preperations for the wedding and baptism of The Sanchez/Gomez family. It all went really well¡ The wedding was on Friday at 10am, and then we had the baptism at 7pm. After the baptism, everybody had brought food, so we ate, we had a DJ come, and we had a wedding cake made - the party started after the Elders left - we had to be home at 9.30, and they hadn´t even cut the cake when we left - but the ward missionaries saved a piece for my companion¡¡¡
I don´t know if ya´ll remember Jonathan and Ariel Gimenez, but we´ve been having lessons with their mom, and she has decided to be baptized¡¡ She already has all of the lessons, and church attendance, so, we´re just gonna go over the lessons again, and she´s gonna be baptized on friday¡¡¡
Sorry for the short letter this week, but there isn´t too much new going on here.
I love ya´ll
Love,
Elder Denton
Ok, how´re ya´ll doin´ today? I´m doing very well¡
This week we made the final preperations for the wedding and baptism of The Sanchez/Gomez family. It all went really well¡ The wedding was on Friday at 10am, and then we had the baptism at 7pm. After the baptism, everybody had brought food, so we ate, we had a DJ come, and we had a wedding cake made - the party started after the Elders left - we had to be home at 9.30, and they hadn´t even cut the cake when we left - but the ward missionaries saved a piece for my companion¡¡¡
I don´t know if ya´ll remember Jonathan and Ariel Gimenez, but we´ve been having lessons with their mom, and she has decided to be baptized¡¡ She already has all of the lessons, and church attendance, so, we´re just gonna go over the lessons again, and she´s gonna be baptized on friday¡¡¡
Sorry for the short letter this week, but there isn´t too much new going on here.
I love ya´ll
Love,
Elder Denton
Monday, September 20, 2010
9/20/10 - Letter to the World
Elder Labra, Melody, Maxi and Elder Denton
The 18th was Chili's 200th birthday and we ate BBQ with the familia Egúez – Provoste, a Chilean familiy in the ward!Eugenia, Jenny, Elder Denton, Dahi, Sister Provoste, Edwin
Banana Bread that Elder Denton prepared for F.H.E.
A Banana Cream Pie Elder Denton whipped up for a baptism. HELLO WORLD!
Today is a beautiful sunny day here in BA! Elder Labra and i started running in the morning last week, and ran again this morning! WE did our studies, and then headed to meet up with the zone to play soccer! Last time we played, i made the first 2 goals that i had ever made (i´ve never played soccer, those of you that know me know why!) in my life, and today i made 4 goals! Either everybody else is getting worse, or i´m getting better! (I´m gonna go ahead and go with the second!)
This wasn´t the most productive week, but we had a lot to do. On Wed. morning, Elder Labra and i went to the church to use the TV to watch a DVD called ¨The District 2¨ which has a bunch of examples of how to teach using different teaching skills like resolving doubts, teaching about the book of mormon, etc. We were preparing for what we were going to teach the zone on thursday in the zone conference about teaching people, not lessons. While we were there, one of the other zone leaders called and asked how much they needed to bring for lunch the next day (we combined 2 zones for the zone conference.)...I had no idea, and they told us that we were supposed to be in charge of lunch....uh - 43 people to feed, and less than a day to throw it all together.
It had been about 5 months since the zone leaders had been in charge of doing lunches for the conferences, the last few times, the mission president´s wife did it, and the assistants forgot to tell us. that was convenient!...anyways, we ordered a ton of empanadas, some pastrys for desert (facturas), and thursday morning we had to go to where we were going to have the conference early to be able to go find a place to buy water for everybody, and find a fruit stand to buy mandarins and bananas! After all was said and done, the lunch turned out great, and the Zone conference in all was amazing also! I always enjoy listening to president, and learning what he has to teach! We are being trained on 8 lessons, and he talked to us a lot about the first one, which is the doctrine of christ. Oh - and i forgot, Elder Labra and I with 2 other elders were asked about 5 min before the conference started to sing Nearer my God to Thee in parts - that was fun!
This last week we had the baptisms of Melody Radolovic, and her brother, Maximiliano Salazar - they are both Cristina´s kids, and Macarena´s siblings. We thought that the baptism was going to turn out sort of lame, because everybody in the ward was planning on going to the stake center for a YSA activity that they had been planning for a long time, but, it turned out great! We had about 40 people there, and there were alot of non members that live near the Radolovic family that we are going to go try to visit today!
This week, we were planning on having 5 baptisms, but we ran into a problem with the Radolovic´s next-door-neighbors. The kids are progressing great, but the mom´s going a bit slower, and she doesn´t like to see that her kids are progressing, and doesn´t see anything happening in herself, so she gets a bit egoistic, and didn´t let them come to church yesterday. We are going to go today to see what´s up there, and see if we can´t get Sofia back on for a baptismal date for the first of October.
I hope that everybody is doing well, and hope that ya´ll have a great day.
oh....and if i didn´t mention - i made 4 goals today! haha! Love ya´ll
Love, Elder Denton
Today is a beautiful sunny day here in BA! Elder Labra and i started running in the morning last week, and ran again this morning! WE did our studies, and then headed to meet up with the zone to play soccer! Last time we played, i made the first 2 goals that i had ever made (i´ve never played soccer, those of you that know me know why!) in my life, and today i made 4 goals! Either everybody else is getting worse, or i´m getting better! (I´m gonna go ahead and go with the second!)
This wasn´t the most productive week, but we had a lot to do. On Wed. morning, Elder Labra and i went to the church to use the TV to watch a DVD called ¨The District 2¨ which has a bunch of examples of how to teach using different teaching skills like resolving doubts, teaching about the book of mormon, etc. We were preparing for what we were going to teach the zone on thursday in the zone conference about teaching people, not lessons. While we were there, one of the other zone leaders called and asked how much they needed to bring for lunch the next day (we combined 2 zones for the zone conference.)...I had no idea, and they told us that we were supposed to be in charge of lunch....uh - 43 people to feed, and less than a day to throw it all together.
It had been about 5 months since the zone leaders had been in charge of doing lunches for the conferences, the last few times, the mission president´s wife did it, and the assistants forgot to tell us. that was convenient!...anyways, we ordered a ton of empanadas, some pastrys for desert (facturas), and thursday morning we had to go to where we were going to have the conference early to be able to go find a place to buy water for everybody, and find a fruit stand to buy mandarins and bananas! After all was said and done, the lunch turned out great, and the Zone conference in all was amazing also! I always enjoy listening to president, and learning what he has to teach! We are being trained on 8 lessons, and he talked to us a lot about the first one, which is the doctrine of christ. Oh - and i forgot, Elder Labra and I with 2 other elders were asked about 5 min before the conference started to sing Nearer my God to Thee in parts - that was fun!
This last week we had the baptisms of Melody Radolovic, and her brother, Maximiliano Salazar - they are both Cristina´s kids, and Macarena´s siblings. We thought that the baptism was going to turn out sort of lame, because everybody in the ward was planning on going to the stake center for a YSA activity that they had been planning for a long time, but, it turned out great! We had about 40 people there, and there were alot of non members that live near the Radolovic family that we are going to go try to visit today!
This week, we were planning on having 5 baptisms, but we ran into a problem with the Radolovic´s next-door-neighbors. The kids are progressing great, but the mom´s going a bit slower, and she doesn´t like to see that her kids are progressing, and doesn´t see anything happening in herself, so she gets a bit egoistic, and didn´t let them come to church yesterday. We are going to go today to see what´s up there, and see if we can´t get Sofia back on for a baptismal date for the first of October.
I hope that everybody is doing well, and hope that ya´ll have a great day.
oh....and if i didn´t mention - i made 4 goals today! haha! Love ya´ll
Love, Elder Denton
Saturday, September 18, 2010
9/16/10 Zone Conference
Another excerpt (or two) from the Kroffs blog regarding their zone conference they attended with Elder Denton:
Four missionaries sang a hymn without accompaniment and their voices blended beautifully. They were Elders Lowry, Peterson, Denton, and Labra. It was great and brought the spirit into the meeting. Then the President showed the DVD, the First Vision, and following had selected missionaries come forward and tell when was the first time they realized that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He, then, talked about the role of the Savior in the Plan of Salvation, and the importance of receiving revelation during their planning meetings with their companions.
The zones met for a combined group picture. This is the first one of many that the missionaries will have with the Gulbrandsens.
Four missionaries sang a hymn without accompaniment and their voices blended beautifully. They were Elders Lowry, Peterson, Denton, and Labra. It was great and brought the spirit into the meeting. Then the President showed the DVD, the First Vision, and following had selected missionaries come forward and tell when was the first time they realized that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He, then, talked about the role of the Savior in the Plan of Salvation, and the importance of receiving revelation during their planning meetings with their companions.
We didn't go, however, until we were entertained by Elder Mohulamu doing the Haka. The President asked if all the missionaries wanted to join him, but there were no takers. Everyone wanted to just observe with cameras in hand. He was a member of the U.S. Rugby team and this version of it was done before their games. Later in the day, I asked him about the one the BYU football team does and he said it depends on what island a person is from as to what they learn and demonstrate. His tongue was flapping wildly in this version. He is from Tonga, but was called on his mission from the United States. It was fun to watch.
The zones met for a combined group picture. This is the first one of many that the missionaries will have with the Gulbrandsens.
Monday, September 13, 2010
9/13/10 - Letter to the World
HELLO WORLD!
Wow, so this week we had a LOT to do, and we got a lot done!
From Tuesday to Thursday, we were in Leadership Training for the new program that we have to teach in district meetings. The training was VERY good, and edifying, and the travel was, well, travel. We caught the bus in the morning, and took it to the traing station, and then took the train about 4 stations, and then walked a few blocks the the church, and the same to get back each night. Getting there wasn´t a big deal, but after being trained all day, and THEN have the travel back home, well, it´s a long trip. We, like i said, have had a LOT to do, and the 2 of the days that we went we didn´t have time to go back to the house and change, so we walked around all day in our suits, and with our study journals and everything that we took with us.
On Tuesday night, we had a lesson with the neighbors of Macarena and Cristina Radolovic. 2 of their kids went to church last sunday, and in the baptismal service we had set up an appointment with them for tuesday. We got their, and had a GREAT lesson, and found 4 new investigators - The mom, Adriana, her 16year old daughter, Sofia, and her two sons Franco (11) and Marcelo (10). This last week we´ve had varios lessons with them, and Adriana and Sofia came to church yesterday! The dad came on saturday and took the 2 boys for the weekend. Sofía has a baptismal date for teh 24th, and Adriana for October 1st.
Besides them, we´re basically working with the same people as before. If you remember the Sanchez/Gomez family, the wedding is FINALLY coming up! They are going to be married on the 24th, and their baptism will be that same day.
This weekend, we have 2 baptisms - Maxi, and Melody, two of Macarena´s siblings. Her other brother, Nauhel, will be baptized on the 24th with Heriberto and Angelica Sanchez, and Sofía (macarena´s neighbor!).
We´re really excited to keep working here, and I´M very excited for general conferance that´ll be coming up in a few weeks! Wahoo!
I hope that you all have a great week!
I love you,
Love,
Elder Denton
Wow, so this week we had a LOT to do, and we got a lot done!
From Tuesday to Thursday, we were in Leadership Training for the new program that we have to teach in district meetings. The training was VERY good, and edifying, and the travel was, well, travel. We caught the bus in the morning, and took it to the traing station, and then took the train about 4 stations, and then walked a few blocks the the church, and the same to get back each night. Getting there wasn´t a big deal, but after being trained all day, and THEN have the travel back home, well, it´s a long trip. We, like i said, have had a LOT to do, and the 2 of the days that we went we didn´t have time to go back to the house and change, so we walked around all day in our suits, and with our study journals and everything that we took with us.
On Tuesday night, we had a lesson with the neighbors of Macarena and Cristina Radolovic. 2 of their kids went to church last sunday, and in the baptismal service we had set up an appointment with them for tuesday. We got their, and had a GREAT lesson, and found 4 new investigators - The mom, Adriana, her 16year old daughter, Sofia, and her two sons Franco (11) and Marcelo (10). This last week we´ve had varios lessons with them, and Adriana and Sofia came to church yesterday! The dad came on saturday and took the 2 boys for the weekend. Sofía has a baptismal date for teh 24th, and Adriana for October 1st.
Besides them, we´re basically working with the same people as before. If you remember the Sanchez/Gomez family, the wedding is FINALLY coming up! They are going to be married on the 24th, and their baptism will be that same day.
This weekend, we have 2 baptisms - Maxi, and Melody, two of Macarena´s siblings. Her other brother, Nauhel, will be baptized on the 24th with Heriberto and Angelica Sanchez, and Sofía (macarena´s neighbor!).
We´re really excited to keep working here, and I´M very excited for general conferance that´ll be coming up in a few weeks! Wahoo!
I hope that you all have a great week!
I love you,
Love,
Elder Denton
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Leadership Training - Monday Sept 7th
The following excerpt was taken from the Kroff's mission blog (http://kroffmission.blogspot.com/2010/09/leadership-training-monday-september-7.html). They are an office couple who have extended their calling for another three months recently. With daily updates, and Elder Denton so close to the office, it is fun to occasionally see pictures of him and his companion (Elder Labra) on their site. Thank you Brother & Sister Kroff!
Elder Labra (Chile), and Elder Denton (Utah - So. Jordan) are Zone Leaders and have been together for four transfers. The President told them he wanted to split them up, but was prompted to leave them together one more transfer. There must be something they need to accomplish while together this time. Elder Denton is quite the cook and I was the lucky one to receive some of his delicious banana bread recently.
Monday, September 6, 2010
9/6/10 - Letter to the World
Elder Labra, Matías Montenegro, Elder Denton 
Back - (Friend), Kevin (Baby), Cristina Radolovic, Macarena, Elder Labra, Melody, Juaquin, Elder DentonDown in Front – Maxi, Diago, Nauhel, (Cousin)
Cristina Radolovic, Elder DentonHello Everybody!
This was a pretty busy week - or that´s how it seemed anyways. We had a lot of nasty weather, which always makes things a bit harder, but all in all things went well!
This was a pretty busy week - or that´s how it seemed anyways. We had a lot of nasty weather, which always makes things a bit harder, but all in all things went well!
We had lessons EVERY DAY with Matías Montenegro, and he was baptized along with Cristina Radolovic on saturday! The baptism was a little bit hectic, but everything went well. With all of the bad weather in the week, we didn´t know how saturday evening was going to turn out, but miraculously, saturday afternoon everything started to clear up, and by 3pm, the skies were completely cleared up, and it was a beautiful day!
[Here is the reason it cleared up on Saturday. Elder Denton sent this tidbit to me: It´s been really rainy, and nasty weather, but on Friday to Saturday Elder Labra and I had a fast so that the Weather would clear up, and all of the people that Cristina Radolovic invited would be able to show up! We we left our lunch appointment on Saturday, it was clearing up, and within an hour or 2, it had turned into a BEAUTIFUL day!//gd]
We had a VERY hard time finding new investigators this week, but i had a great experience last night! I was with a member, and my companion was with another member. We went to the house of an investigator who we found last week, and we percieved that he has some trouble learning, so we knew we would have to go a little bit slower, but he had interest. After the first lesson, we didn´t leave him a Book of Mormon, because we were never able to present it, he wasn´t understanding what we were teaching, but we left him with the invitation to pray, and ask Heavenly Father if what we taught him was true....ok...that was all the first visit.
[Here is the reason it cleared up on Saturday. Elder Denton sent this tidbit to me: It´s been really rainy, and nasty weather, but on Friday to Saturday Elder Labra and I had a fast so that the Weather would clear up, and all of the people that Cristina Radolovic invited would be able to show up! We we left our lunch appointment on Saturday, it was clearing up, and within an hour or 2, it had turned into a BEAUTIFUL day!//gd]
We had a VERY hard time finding new investigators this week, but i had a great experience last night! I was with a member, and my companion was with another member. We went to the house of an investigator who we found last week, and we percieved that he has some trouble learning, so we knew we would have to go a little bit slower, but he had interest. After the first lesson, we didn´t leave him a Book of Mormon, because we were never able to present it, he wasn´t understanding what we were teaching, but we left him with the invitation to pray, and ask Heavenly Father if what we taught him was true....ok...that was all the first visit.
We got to his house, and he was there along with his wife. She was washing the dishes, and he sat down at the table with us. I invited the wife, and she asked what religion we were. I told her - ¨The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints¨, but we´re known a lot by the title ¨Mormons¨ because of a book that we have. She said that she was evangelical, and that she would stay where she was and just listen. We said a prayer, and then i invited her from where she was to pay close attention, and ask whatever question she had. About half way through the lesson, i realized that the water wasn´t running, and that there was no more noise from her washing the dishes (about 10 feet away). I thought that she had left, and as i taught, i felt the spirit really strongly, and taught very clearly about the apostacy, and the restauración, and then, as i was reciting the 1st vision, i saw her watching off to the side out of the corner of my eye. I realized why i had felt so strongly to say what i said, becuase the guy we were teaching wouldn´t have understood... As i presented the Book of Mormon, his wife, Elsa, came to the table, and started fingering through the book of mormon as i continued to talk to her about how it came about (its story). And then she asked where she could get herself a copy. I told her that it was free, and if she was willing to read it, and pray about it, we would love to give her a copy as a gift.
The spirit was extremely strong in the lesson, and then they asked before i could tell them when the meetings were. I told them, but we were short on time, and i forgot to invite them to church (i figured we would do that in the week the next time we saw them), but as we left, they said that they would love to go to church. I told them, of course, that they were VERY welcome, and that if they wanted, we could pass by to go together next sunday morning. They liked the idea!
I know that this is the only true Church on the earth. God loves every one of his children, and has a special plan for them. He wants them to be happy (2 Nefi 2:25), and there is no way that you can have 100% joy if you don´t keep the comandments, and if you are not fulfilling the covenants that you have made. I know that Jesus Christ made it possible that we can break free from Satan´s chains, as long as we have faith in him, repent, are baptized, recieve the holy ghost, and endure to the end. To have hope of a better life after this one, in the presence of God, we MUST have faith that God exists, otherwise there will never be hope to be with him. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God to restore the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that we, who live now, can know what God wants us to do.
These last two weeks, there if a phrase that i´ve had in my head a lot, and that really helps me in more ways that one.
Where does God want me to be?
This phrase runs through my head every night as we are planning, looking at the map, trying to figure out who we are going to visit. I know that i am His servant, and what I do is a direct reflection of what He would do if he were here in my Area.
God loves you!
I Love you!
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Denton
Monday, August 30, 2010
8/30/10 - Letter to the World
HELLO WORLD!
For all of you that DON´T know, my big sister Whitney will be Sister Denton starting tomorrow night when she is set apart to be a missionary!!!!! Wahoo!
This has been a great week!
We´ve been working hard with Matias Montenegro, but he sort of escaped from us for a few days. We tried to have daily contact with him, but we couldn´t. He came to church yesterday, and we told him that we are going to do everything that we can to help him so that he can achieve his goal of being baptized, but that he has to do his part too. We have set up to have a lesson with him in the church each day this week to help protect him from his temptations.
The family of Macarena are doing great! They all want to be baptized sooo badly!
Last night we watched the movie Mountain of the Lord with them and the Esttamatti family, and Macarena´s mom, Cristina, told us that she already had 18 people confirmed to go to her baptism, and that she still had more to invite, and others to confirm! She is super excited, and wants everybody to come and know why she is going to be baptized!
Maxi is 10 years old, and we thought that he had 2 church attendances, and he was going to be baptized with his mom, but we were wrong, and so he´ll be baptized next week. (the 11th)
Nauhel, another brother of Macarena came to church for the first time yesterday, he´s 13 years old, and he has a baptismal date for the 18th of September.
We had a lesson with Melody, a sister of Macarena, and she asked us why we hadn´t asked her yet if she wanted to be baptzied! We told her that we were waiting to have a lesson with her, and she immediately accepted a baptismal date. She was going to be baptized with her brother Maxi on the 11th, but she had some problems yesterday in the morning, and couldn´t come to church, so we are going to have her baptism with Nauhel on the 18th!
On Saturday we had the first lesson with the last member of the Radolovic family thats old enough to be baptized. He is 18 years old, and is the most rebelious. We had an AMAZING lesson with him, and he himself recognized the spirit. He told us at the end of the lesson that he expected to visit with us, and it was sort of an obligation because we were teaching his whole family, but he thought that his goals, hopes, and perceptions would be completely different from what we teach. He was surprised, and told us that we got to him, and that he´s going to read the Book of Mormon, and he´s going to pray to know if it´s true. He also said that when God answers him, he will be baptized!
Apart from the Radolovic family, we are teaching the Almaraz/Galarza/Romero family. They are all family, and they all live in the same property, but there are 3 or 4 little houses on the same land. Yesterday we were on splits with some of the youth that are getting ready to go on their missions, and I met another one of the brothers that lives there. I think that he is the reason that we found that family. He´s 15 years old, and is currently going to the evangelical (is that really how you spell it??) church because it´s where his mom goes. When we arrived, we invited him, but he just went inside (we were teaching in the patio). He came out about 15 minutes later as we were finishing, and when we asked if anybody had any questions, he said that he didn´t understand much, and wanted us to teach him. We finished with who we were teaching, and had a lesson with him. He told us a little about his life, and wants to better his family situation. We have a lesson with him today at 7:30 in the church!
I hope that everybody is doing great, and would like to thank everybody for their support!
I love ya´ll!
Love,
Elder Denton
For all of you that DON´T know, my big sister Whitney will be Sister Denton starting tomorrow night when she is set apart to be a missionary!!!!! Wahoo!
This has been a great week!
We´ve been working hard with Matias Montenegro, but he sort of escaped from us for a few days. We tried to have daily contact with him, but we couldn´t. He came to church yesterday, and we told him that we are going to do everything that we can to help him so that he can achieve his goal of being baptized, but that he has to do his part too. We have set up to have a lesson with him in the church each day this week to help protect him from his temptations.
The family of Macarena are doing great! They all want to be baptized sooo badly!
Last night we watched the movie Mountain of the Lord with them and the Esttamatti family, and Macarena´s mom, Cristina, told us that she already had 18 people confirmed to go to her baptism, and that she still had more to invite, and others to confirm! She is super excited, and wants everybody to come and know why she is going to be baptized!
Maxi is 10 years old, and we thought that he had 2 church attendances, and he was going to be baptized with his mom, but we were wrong, and so he´ll be baptized next week. (the 11th)
Nauhel, another brother of Macarena came to church for the first time yesterday, he´s 13 years old, and he has a baptismal date for the 18th of September.
We had a lesson with Melody, a sister of Macarena, and she asked us why we hadn´t asked her yet if she wanted to be baptzied! We told her that we were waiting to have a lesson with her, and she immediately accepted a baptismal date. She was going to be baptized with her brother Maxi on the 11th, but she had some problems yesterday in the morning, and couldn´t come to church, so we are going to have her baptism with Nauhel on the 18th!
On Saturday we had the first lesson with the last member of the Radolovic family thats old enough to be baptized. He is 18 years old, and is the most rebelious. We had an AMAZING lesson with him, and he himself recognized the spirit. He told us at the end of the lesson that he expected to visit with us, and it was sort of an obligation because we were teaching his whole family, but he thought that his goals, hopes, and perceptions would be completely different from what we teach. He was surprised, and told us that we got to him, and that he´s going to read the Book of Mormon, and he´s going to pray to know if it´s true. He also said that when God answers him, he will be baptized!
Apart from the Radolovic family, we are teaching the Almaraz/Galarza/Romero family. They are all family, and they all live in the same property, but there are 3 or 4 little houses on the same land. Yesterday we were on splits with some of the youth that are getting ready to go on their missions, and I met another one of the brothers that lives there. I think that he is the reason that we found that family. He´s 15 years old, and is currently going to the evangelical (is that really how you spell it??) church because it´s where his mom goes. When we arrived, we invited him, but he just went inside (we were teaching in the patio). He came out about 15 minutes later as we were finishing, and when we asked if anybody had any questions, he said that he didn´t understand much, and wanted us to teach him. We finished with who we were teaching, and had a lesson with him. He told us a little about his life, and wants to better his family situation. We have a lesson with him today at 7:30 in the church!
I hope that everybody is doing great, and would like to thank everybody for their support!
I love ya´ll!
Love,
Elder Denton
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Interview Day - Thursday July 29th.
The following excerpt was taken from www.kroffmission.blogspot.com. I just learned of their site and found Elder Denton and his companion while I was there. The Kroff's work in the mission office.
While the President was conducting interviews in his office, Sister Gulbrandsen had her own interview with the missionaries. She would talk to the companion of the one with the President and find out about where they lived, their family, schooling, work, etc. This would allow her to get to know the missionaries too. Great idea!! Elder Denton, a zone leader, sat with her to translate for the Latinos. 
While the President was conducting interviews in his office, Sister Gulbrandsen had her own interview with the missionaries. She would talk to the companion of the one with the President and find out about where they lived, their family, schooling, work, etc. This would allow her to get to know the missionaries too. Great idea!! Elder Denton, a zone leader, sat with her to translate for the Latinos. Elders Labra, (Chile - zone leader), Elder Sampson (Layton, UT), and Elder Chanca (Perú) wait for their turn with the President. The flash caught the crystal on Elder Sampson's watch just right. The missionaries would slip through our office and into the President's office without a distraction.
The interviews took a long time and the hour grew late before they were done.
The interviews took a long time and the hour grew late before they were done.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
8/23/10 - Letter to the World
Hello World!Wow - we had a GREAT week!
First of all - there were no changes this week. Elder Labra and I were both sure that ONE of us was leaving, because we have NEVER heard of a companionship being together for 6 months, (4 transfers)...but we were wrong, and the Lord has other plans for us!
I don´t know if ya´ll remember Ada Paye. She was going to get baptized a couple of weeks ago, but a few days before her baptism she basically disapeared, and we couldn´t find her until saturday (the day she was supposed to be baptized)..and she told us that she didn´t want to be baptized, she didn´t want to tell us why, and she didn´t want us to pass by to visit her anymore. Well.....Last Monday we ran into her because she lived about 2 doors from a member that we often visit. I went over to say hi to her, and she told me that she had been looking for us for about 5 days (since the thursday before)...and she had even gone to our house looking for us, but we were never there. I asked why she was looking for us, and this is what she said - ¨i was looking for you because i want you guys to come visit me again...(5 second pause)....because i want to be baptized!¨ WAHOOOOOOOO! We told her that we would be back in 5 minutes with a member (so that we could go into her house - she lives alone), and talked for a few minutes, and then put a baptismal date for that same weekend (this last weekend!)
Sooooooo, Ada was baptized by me last saturday!
Matías Montenegro - He´s still battling his addictions. He had an interview with President Gulbrandsen, and came under the influence...oops. Pres. went ahead and did the interview to try to help him, and said that he would come back in a week, and if he had stayed sober for the week, he would be able to be baptized this coming weekend. We don´t know how Matías is doing though, because we haven´t been able to find him in a while. We´ve gone to his house, but he´s never there...and we don´t have any way to contact him. We´ll see if he´ll be baptized this weekend of not.
Macarena Radolovic was baptized 2 weeks ago, and her mom went to the baptism, and the confirmation. We knew that the family of Macarena was going to progress, but didn´t know exactly how to initiate everything. We organized a family home evening with the same family that had organized the lunch with us and them. The family home evening went great, and Macarena´s mom told my companion that she wanted him to baptize her in 2 weeks!!!! (we´re going to do everything that we can to move the date to this weekend, but we also want to prepare a good baptismal service....i don´t know what we´re going to do...so that´s a big TBA!!!)
Macarena has an older sister, Melody, and two younger brothers: Maxamiliano, and Nauhel (it sounds sort of like noel, but really nassaly). They are also listening to us, and should be baptized shortly after their mom! (the mom has more attendance in church, so the kids´ll have to wait another week or 2)
Well, these are the big headlines for this week!
Oh, and that MOM FINISHED HER CHEMOTHERAPY LAST THURSDAY!!!!! WAHOOOOOOO!!
I love you all, and hope that everything goes well this week for everybody!
Thanks for the letters of encouragement from (you know who you are!!), and for everybody else, your conciounse (i don´t know how to spell that word, but....Jiminy Cricket) will tell you what to do!
Love,
Elder Denton!!
Monday, August 16, 2010
8/16/10 - Letter to the World
Marta (Aunt), Ariel Jimenez, Jonathan Jimenez (Brother), Hermana Élida Escobar (Aunt), Can't remember the little girls name, Matías Montenegro (He should be baptized this week!!!)Hello World!
Like i´ve told everybody that i´ve written today, we´re going to play Soccer with the zone, and we have to be at the soccer field in about 15 minutes.
Ariel Jimenez was baptized on saturday (no problems with the water this time - we were VERY carefull checking and reachecking that everything was going to work!) It was a small baptismal service, but amazing! 2 recent converts gave talks! Jonathan Jimenez, and Macarena. The person that was GOING to give the other talk had a family member pass away, so when Macarena got to the baptizm, i asked her if she would give a 3 min talk about the holy ghost. she said that she didn´t have any clue what to talk about, but we gave her a scripture to read, and told her to read it, and then bear her testimony about what she read. It was AMAZING! She gave a talk as though she had been a member all her life!
Next week we are planning Matias´s baptism. It was going to be this last weekend, but he didn´t make it to his baptismal interview - oops.
Yesterday Elder Labra and i did splits with 2 members. I went with a 19yr old kid, David, who is preparing to go on his mission...so, last week i talked with a guy in the street, and he siad that we could go to his house. we went, and he wasn´t there, but we found out that their hose is ALSO a church (which is pretty common around here). Anyways, we were supposed to go back on saturday, but with preparing for the baptism and everything, we didn´t have time, so i went with David. It´s a Evangelical church (is evangelical a religion??) i don´t really know how to say it in inglish - una iglesia evangelico. Anyways - we got there, and they let us in. Long story short, we found 7 new investigators, and they want us to go back this saturday to teach them more. I left them with a book of mormon, and each one said that they would read it!
I love you all, and hope you have a great week!
(Next week are transfers - i´ll be online TUESDAY, not Monday!)
Love,
Elder Denton
Like i´ve told everybody that i´ve written today, we´re going to play Soccer with the zone, and we have to be at the soccer field in about 15 minutes.
Ariel Jimenez was baptized on saturday (no problems with the water this time - we were VERY carefull checking and reachecking that everything was going to work!) It was a small baptismal service, but amazing! 2 recent converts gave talks! Jonathan Jimenez, and Macarena. The person that was GOING to give the other talk had a family member pass away, so when Macarena got to the baptizm, i asked her if she would give a 3 min talk about the holy ghost. she said that she didn´t have any clue what to talk about, but we gave her a scripture to read, and told her to read it, and then bear her testimony about what she read. It was AMAZING! She gave a talk as though she had been a member all her life!
Next week we are planning Matias´s baptism. It was going to be this last weekend, but he didn´t make it to his baptismal interview - oops.
Yesterday Elder Labra and i did splits with 2 members. I went with a 19yr old kid, David, who is preparing to go on his mission...so, last week i talked with a guy in the street, and he siad that we could go to his house. we went, and he wasn´t there, but we found out that their hose is ALSO a church (which is pretty common around here). Anyways, we were supposed to go back on saturday, but with preparing for the baptism and everything, we didn´t have time, so i went with David. It´s a Evangelical church (is evangelical a religion??) i don´t really know how to say it in inglish - una iglesia evangelico. Anyways - we got there, and they let us in. Long story short, we found 7 new investigators, and they want us to go back this saturday to teach them more. I left them with a book of mormon, and each one said that they would read it!
I love you all, and hope you have a great week!
(Next week are transfers - i´ll be online TUESDAY, not Monday!)
Love,
Elder Denton
Monday, August 9, 2010
8/9/10 - Letter to the World
Hello World!
How´re you all doing? I am doing WONDERFUL! Eventhough it´s winter, today is a VERY nice day, and i am loving it!
This last week was fairly productive! The other day we were standing out in front of the church waiting for somebody to arrive for an appointment, and we were doing contacts, trying to see if we could get somebody to come inside for a tour and a quick lesson. I did a contact with a man, and he didn´t have time, but he said that we could pass by in another moment. We went by 2 days later at the end of the day, and had a great lesson with him and his family! There are 8 in the family, 6 that are older than 8!
Ok - SOOOOOOOOO...on Saturday morning, Macarena had her baptismal interview - at about 11am. After her interview we started filling up the baptismal font because it takes about 7 hours to fill. We left the water running like always, and then Elder Labra and I went around doing what we do - and trying to find more people to teach. Macarena said that she would be arriving to the church between 6.15 and 6.30, and Elder Labra and I arrived at about 6 to start setting things up. When we got there, i realized that the water wasn´t running. There were already people in the church, and i thought that they might´ve turned it off because it was already full, but when i went to look, the baptismal font only had about 3 inches of water. Elder Labra and I about freaked out. We went to see why the people had turned off the water, or what had happened and they said that it was like that when they got there, and then we realized that the water to the church had been cut off. We went to talk with a neighbor who is a member, and she told us that she didn´t have water either, that it had been cut off to the neighborhood. We knew that the church has a well with an electric pump, and so we were trying to call the bishop, ex-bishop, or anybody that we could to figure out how the well works - we didn´t have any luck - the bishop wasn´t answering, neither was the ex-bishop, or anybody we were calling. Elder Labra were trying to figure out what to do. Macarena had invited lots of friends, and family. Do we change teh baptism to tomorrow? Will we have water tomorrow? What can we do? How are we going to tell macarena? WE were destraught, but we had faith. We were diong EVERYTHING in our power so that the baptism would happen. 5 minutes before macarena got there, we heard the water come back into the building. That problem was solved, but there was still a baptismal font to fill, and only 30 minutes before teh baptism. Macarenta arrived with about 5 friends, and we went into a room with her to tell her what happened. We gave her the options - We can have the baptism tonight - but it´ll be another 2 or so hours to fill the baptismal font, and that water will be cold, or we can have the baptism tomorrow whenever you want after church. She said ´I don´t care if that water is cold or warm, i´m going to be baptized today.¨ The words were simple, but the spirit was very strong. She has an amazing determination! Elder Labra went to see the water level after we talked with her, and the water was already half way full. WE didn´t realize that the cold water filled the font SO quickly - 30 minutes later (at 7, as we had planned) the baptismal font was full, and we started the baptism a little bit late...at like 7.20. I baptized Macarena, and the water was FREEZING. I´m glad that i didn´t have to go under completely, but i told her the same thing that my dad told me when i was baptized (because when i was baptized, the water heater in the church was broken) - that she shouldn´t make any weird faces. The baptism was great, and nobody realized that the water was freezing cold, exceopt those that we told.
This was a great test of faith. We knew that She was ready, and needed to be baptized, and we did everything in our power. Even though our efforts weren´t enough, the lord blessed us, and everything was great!
After the baptism, she bore her testimony to everybody that was there. WOW! The things that she said surprised me, because even i didn´t realize that she understood so well the doctrine. She said that she hoped that everybody could know what they needed to do to be able to recieve exaltation, and live forever with Heavenly Father. On sunday, she also shared her testimony in sacrament meeting!
This weekend, we have 2 baptisms - Matías Montenegro, and Ariel Gimenez!
Yesterday in Gospel Principles, we had the class about the word of wisdom. The class was great for Matías, because he´s quitting smoking and drinking. He shared with the class that he stopped smoking about 20 days ago, and he doesn´t have desires to do it any more!
I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. Thanks to his atonement, everything that we do is possible. Thanks to his atonement, Macarena could feel that she has been cleansed of her sins. Thanks to His atonement, Matías is changing his life, and leaving behind things that were harming him.
I love this gospel, and the oportunity that i have to share it with the Argentines every day!
I Love you all!
Love,
Elder Denton
How´re you all doing? I am doing WONDERFUL! Eventhough it´s winter, today is a VERY nice day, and i am loving it!
This last week was fairly productive! The other day we were standing out in front of the church waiting for somebody to arrive for an appointment, and we were doing contacts, trying to see if we could get somebody to come inside for a tour and a quick lesson. I did a contact with a man, and he didn´t have time, but he said that we could pass by in another moment. We went by 2 days later at the end of the day, and had a great lesson with him and his family! There are 8 in the family, 6 that are older than 8!
Ok - SOOOOOOOOO...on Saturday morning, Macarena had her baptismal interview - at about 11am. After her interview we started filling up the baptismal font because it takes about 7 hours to fill. We left the water running like always, and then Elder Labra and I went around doing what we do - and trying to find more people to teach. Macarena said that she would be arriving to the church between 6.15 and 6.30, and Elder Labra and I arrived at about 6 to start setting things up. When we got there, i realized that the water wasn´t running. There were already people in the church, and i thought that they might´ve turned it off because it was already full, but when i went to look, the baptismal font only had about 3 inches of water. Elder Labra and I about freaked out. We went to see why the people had turned off the water, or what had happened and they said that it was like that when they got there, and then we realized that the water to the church had been cut off. We went to talk with a neighbor who is a member, and she told us that she didn´t have water either, that it had been cut off to the neighborhood. We knew that the church has a well with an electric pump, and so we were trying to call the bishop, ex-bishop, or anybody that we could to figure out how the well works - we didn´t have any luck - the bishop wasn´t answering, neither was the ex-bishop, or anybody we were calling. Elder Labra were trying to figure out what to do. Macarena had invited lots of friends, and family. Do we change teh baptism to tomorrow? Will we have water tomorrow? What can we do? How are we going to tell macarena? WE were destraught, but we had faith. We were diong EVERYTHING in our power so that the baptism would happen. 5 minutes before macarena got there, we heard the water come back into the building. That problem was solved, but there was still a baptismal font to fill, and only 30 minutes before teh baptism. Macarenta arrived with about 5 friends, and we went into a room with her to tell her what happened. We gave her the options - We can have the baptism tonight - but it´ll be another 2 or so hours to fill the baptismal font, and that water will be cold, or we can have the baptism tomorrow whenever you want after church. She said ´I don´t care if that water is cold or warm, i´m going to be baptized today.¨ The words were simple, but the spirit was very strong. She has an amazing determination! Elder Labra went to see the water level after we talked with her, and the water was already half way full. WE didn´t realize that the cold water filled the font SO quickly - 30 minutes later (at 7, as we had planned) the baptismal font was full, and we started the baptism a little bit late...at like 7.20. I baptized Macarena, and the water was FREEZING. I´m glad that i didn´t have to go under completely, but i told her the same thing that my dad told me when i was baptized (because when i was baptized, the water heater in the church was broken) - that she shouldn´t make any weird faces. The baptism was great, and nobody realized that the water was freezing cold, exceopt those that we told.
This was a great test of faith. We knew that She was ready, and needed to be baptized, and we did everything in our power. Even though our efforts weren´t enough, the lord blessed us, and everything was great!
After the baptism, she bore her testimony to everybody that was there. WOW! The things that she said surprised me, because even i didn´t realize that she understood so well the doctrine. She said that she hoped that everybody could know what they needed to do to be able to recieve exaltation, and live forever with Heavenly Father. On sunday, she also shared her testimony in sacrament meeting!
This weekend, we have 2 baptisms - Matías Montenegro, and Ariel Gimenez!
Yesterday in Gospel Principles, we had the class about the word of wisdom. The class was great for Matías, because he´s quitting smoking and drinking. He shared with the class that he stopped smoking about 20 days ago, and he doesn´t have desires to do it any more!
I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. Thanks to his atonement, everything that we do is possible. Thanks to his atonement, Macarena could feel that she has been cleansed of her sins. Thanks to His atonement, Matías is changing his life, and leaving behind things that were harming him.
I love this gospel, and the oportunity that i have to share it with the Argentines every day!
I Love you all!
Love,
Elder Denton
Monday, August 2, 2010
8/2/10 - Letter to the World
Hello World!!
Wow - I love the mission! This week we finally had some good time to work! Lately we´ve been having a lot of meetings, but this week we only had two.
Ok - So we thought that everything was ok with Ada, but on Tuesday when we saw her, she didn´t want us to go inside, but we convinced her to let us talk to find out what was wrong. She had a pretty serious doubt, and was a little but confused about what to do. We helped her to recognize all of the blessings that she has recieved, and it helped her (and me) build her testimony about the church. She has been truly blessed these last couple of months since we met her. At the end, she said that everything was ok for her baptism on saturday but we went by the next day, and we knew that she was home, but she wouldn´t even open the door. We didn´t see her until saturday morning - and she told us that she didn´t want to continue, and that she didn´t want to tell us why either. We are praying a lot for her, and have have the faith that she will be baptized in the next couple of weeks.
Macarena is progressins SUPER well! We have been seeing her almost every day because argentina is on winter break, and today she started classes again, and we are only going to be able to see her on wednesday, and then on saturday before her baptismal interview. She is super excited for her baptism this weekend...i think that she´s more excited than anybody that i´ve ever taught, and the reasons is that she is very smart, and understands the reason for her baptism. She has expressed to us that she regrets the years that she wasted studying in other places, but is glad that she has found the true Church of Jesus Christ!
If you remember about a month ago, we baptized a kid named Jonathan Gimenez (9 yrs old). We found him for activating the family of his aunt. His aunt gave us lunch the other day, and knew that there wasn´t going to be anybody older than 18, so she invited a neighbor, who was a reference that they had given us before, and we were never able to find at home. We had actually talked to him in the bus a few months ago, but said that he didn´t have anywhere to recieve the lesons. We ate lunch with them, and he told us while we were eating that if we wanted, Jonathan´s Aunt had offered to let us use her house, and he wanted to listen to us, and he wants to be baptized!!! um..YES WE WOULD LOVE TO TEACH YOU!! So we taught him lesson 1, and in the middle of the lesson, one of Jonathans brothers stopped by who is 14, and we started teaching him too! Jonathan reminded us that day that saturday was his 10th birthday, so we stopped, and his mom, and some other siblings were there! The mom didn´t want to participate, she said that she was just going to listen. We taught lesson one, and she wasn´t paying very much attention until i asked her a question, and used her name specifically. she looked at me, and couldn´t answer cuz she wasn´t paying attention, but from there to the end payed attention, and when we were leaving she said that she was going to go to church on sunday! We didn´t even have to invite her!
on sunday, Jonathan, his aunt, his great aunt, the friend of his aunt (Matías), and a whole bunch of kids showed up at church. They had to leave to go the the cemetary after sacramente meeting, but we visited them later sunday night, and they all said that they had a great time at church! Matías has a baptismal date for the 14th of August!
I love this work, and know that my Heavenly Father is helping us here in Lopez Camelo.
I love you all for your support and encouragement!
Love,
Elder Denton
Wow - I love the mission! This week we finally had some good time to work! Lately we´ve been having a lot of meetings, but this week we only had two.
Ok - So we thought that everything was ok with Ada, but on Tuesday when we saw her, she didn´t want us to go inside, but we convinced her to let us talk to find out what was wrong. She had a pretty serious doubt, and was a little but confused about what to do. We helped her to recognize all of the blessings that she has recieved, and it helped her (and me) build her testimony about the church. She has been truly blessed these last couple of months since we met her. At the end, she said that everything was ok for her baptism on saturday but we went by the next day, and we knew that she was home, but she wouldn´t even open the door. We didn´t see her until saturday morning - and she told us that she didn´t want to continue, and that she didn´t want to tell us why either. We are praying a lot for her, and have have the faith that she will be baptized in the next couple of weeks.
Macarena is progressins SUPER well! We have been seeing her almost every day because argentina is on winter break, and today she started classes again, and we are only going to be able to see her on wednesday, and then on saturday before her baptismal interview. She is super excited for her baptism this weekend...i think that she´s more excited than anybody that i´ve ever taught, and the reasons is that she is very smart, and understands the reason for her baptism. She has expressed to us that she regrets the years that she wasted studying in other places, but is glad that she has found the true Church of Jesus Christ!
If you remember about a month ago, we baptized a kid named Jonathan Gimenez (9 yrs old). We found him for activating the family of his aunt. His aunt gave us lunch the other day, and knew that there wasn´t going to be anybody older than 18, so she invited a neighbor, who was a reference that they had given us before, and we were never able to find at home. We had actually talked to him in the bus a few months ago, but said that he didn´t have anywhere to recieve the lesons. We ate lunch with them, and he told us while we were eating that if we wanted, Jonathan´s Aunt had offered to let us use her house, and he wanted to listen to us, and he wants to be baptized!!! um..YES WE WOULD LOVE TO TEACH YOU!! So we taught him lesson 1, and in the middle of the lesson, one of Jonathans brothers stopped by who is 14, and we started teaching him too! Jonathan reminded us that day that saturday was his 10th birthday, so we stopped, and his mom, and some other siblings were there! The mom didn´t want to participate, she said that she was just going to listen. We taught lesson one, and she wasn´t paying very much attention until i asked her a question, and used her name specifically. she looked at me, and couldn´t answer cuz she wasn´t paying attention, but from there to the end payed attention, and when we were leaving she said that she was going to go to church on sunday! We didn´t even have to invite her!
on sunday, Jonathan, his aunt, his great aunt, the friend of his aunt (Matías), and a whole bunch of kids showed up at church. They had to leave to go the the cemetary after sacramente meeting, but we visited them later sunday night, and they all said that they had a great time at church! Matías has a baptismal date for the 14th of August!
I love this work, and know that my Heavenly Father is helping us here in Lopez Camelo.
I love you all for your support and encouragement!
Love,
Elder Denton
Monday, July 26, 2010
Hey World!
Well, it was a busy week here in Lopez Camelo. Lots of travel, but we´re still getting some work done! We found a family of 5, 3 of which are older than 8. The Silva Family. The daughter is 8 years old, and we found this family through them. Malena is friends with Jonathan Gimenez (9yrs old, and baptized about 3 weeks ago). She went to his baptism with an aunt, and after seeing him baptized, decided that she too wanted to be baptized. We talked with the aunt, and got the information to go to her house. The Parents are great! - Oswaldo and Synthia. They both work alot, but are also very receptive, especially Synthia!
Macarena Radolovic is the friend of Jimena Acuña, who was baptized the week after Jonathan Gimenez. Macarena is also progressing very well, and had her second church attendance yesterday. She had to leave early, but enjoyed the meeting none the less! We had a lesson with her and the family of Jimena a few days ago, and Jimena shared her testimony with Macarena! It was AMAZING being able to see a recent convert sharing her testimony with an investigator!
We´re working with another family, Richard and Noelia. They are living in a house with a LOT of other family, some of which are members, but haven´t been to church in YEARS, and are not very good examples to them. They want to change their lives, and get out of the pit that they are in. We are very excited for them! They were going to come to church today - i even called sunday morning at 8, and everything was fine - but they didn´t show up. I hope nothing has happened.
Ada Paye is the next programmed baptism that we have. If it´s out Heavenly Fathers will, she will be baptized here in Lopez Camelo this Saturday. Last week, one of her sisters died, and left behind a 7yr old Daughter. The dad has to work, and asked Ada to go an live with them to take care of the daughter while he is at work. She started packing her stuff, and was going to leave in the moment, and then her daughter started talking to her about what a rash decision she was going to make - especially since she only met her brother-in-law 2 or 3 times. He wanted her to move at the end of this week - on saturday morning to be exact - but we told her that her daughter was right, and that she needed to pray before making such a big decision, and leaving behind everything that she has.
I don´t want to see her leave, but if it´s God´s will, she´ll be leaving soon to take care of her Niece. I think we´ll know tonight what´s going to happen.
Guillermo Gomez was baptized on Saturday, and confirmed memeber of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on Sunday! The baptismal service was small, but great! One of Guillermo´s aunts passed away the week before his baptism, and for respect, they didn´t have any sort of reception after the wedding, so, we bought a cake, and had a mini-party after the baptism! We´re still not giving up on Jimena. We want to know what happened to make her stop listening to us. The posative is that she came to the baptism, and to the confirmation on sunday! They´re on their Honey Moon now for the Next 7 days - they´re going Skiing in Mendoza!
I Love you all, and wish you the best in everything that you do!
Love,
Elder Denton
Well, it was a busy week here in Lopez Camelo. Lots of travel, but we´re still getting some work done! We found a family of 5, 3 of which are older than 8. The Silva Family. The daughter is 8 years old, and we found this family through them. Malena is friends with Jonathan Gimenez (9yrs old, and baptized about 3 weeks ago). She went to his baptism with an aunt, and after seeing him baptized, decided that she too wanted to be baptized. We talked with the aunt, and got the information to go to her house. The Parents are great! - Oswaldo and Synthia. They both work alot, but are also very receptive, especially Synthia!
Macarena Radolovic is the friend of Jimena Acuña, who was baptized the week after Jonathan Gimenez. Macarena is also progressing very well, and had her second church attendance yesterday. She had to leave early, but enjoyed the meeting none the less! We had a lesson with her and the family of Jimena a few days ago, and Jimena shared her testimony with Macarena! It was AMAZING being able to see a recent convert sharing her testimony with an investigator!
We´re working with another family, Richard and Noelia. They are living in a house with a LOT of other family, some of which are members, but haven´t been to church in YEARS, and are not very good examples to them. They want to change their lives, and get out of the pit that they are in. We are very excited for them! They were going to come to church today - i even called sunday morning at 8, and everything was fine - but they didn´t show up. I hope nothing has happened.
Ada Paye is the next programmed baptism that we have. If it´s out Heavenly Fathers will, she will be baptized here in Lopez Camelo this Saturday. Last week, one of her sisters died, and left behind a 7yr old Daughter. The dad has to work, and asked Ada to go an live with them to take care of the daughter while he is at work. She started packing her stuff, and was going to leave in the moment, and then her daughter started talking to her about what a rash decision she was going to make - especially since she only met her brother-in-law 2 or 3 times. He wanted her to move at the end of this week - on saturday morning to be exact - but we told her that her daughter was right, and that she needed to pray before making such a big decision, and leaving behind everything that she has.
I don´t want to see her leave, but if it´s God´s will, she´ll be leaving soon to take care of her Niece. I think we´ll know tonight what´s going to happen.
Guillermo Gomez was baptized on Saturday, and confirmed memeber of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on Sunday! The baptismal service was small, but great! One of Guillermo´s aunts passed away the week before his baptism, and for respect, they didn´t have any sort of reception after the wedding, so, we bought a cake, and had a mini-party after the baptism! We´re still not giving up on Jimena. We want to know what happened to make her stop listening to us. The posative is that she came to the baptism, and to the confirmation on sunday! They´re on their Honey Moon now for the Next 7 days - they´re going Skiing in Mendoza!
I Love you all, and wish you the best in everything that you do!
Love,
Elder Denton
Monday, July 19, 2010
7/19/10 - Letter to the World
It is freezing cold here, and my fingers don´t want to cooperate with the keyboard...
This last week was another week of success!
From the baptisms last week, we found a new investigator. Her name is Macarena, and she is one of Jimena´s best friends. Macarena is 16 years old, and is truly one of God´s chosen children. She told us that she has been looking for the true church. She has gone to many, but hasn´t felt anything. (She was with the Jehova´s Witnesses for 4 years) She has also seen a lot of things in different areas that she doesn´t like.
We´ve had 2 lessons with her, and after each one she has expressed that she feels a lot more comfortable with us, than in any other place she´s gone. She is amazed by the fact that everything that we are teaching her is more or less what she´s thought, but she´s never been able to find the place that teaches it.
With the weather changing here, everybody is getting sick. It´s a lot harder to work in the cold, and the rain, but we´re pushing along here!
Yesterday we had a lesson with Guillermo Gomez. We confirmed everything, and everything is on track for his wedding on Thursday, and his baptism on Friday. We´re pretty worried about Jimena, his future wife, because she hasn´t been listening to us lately....actually, for about a month. It´s like she´s avoiding us, and with the little time that we were able to see her before, it has a big effect. Guillermo told us that she has a lot of stress with her work, and studies. I hope that we can talk with her, but sadley, i don´t think that she will be able to be baptized with Guillermo on Friday.
Last night we had a special lesson with Jimena Acuña, and her family. We watched The Testaments. It´s been a long time since i´ve seen it, and the first time in spanish, and it´s still just as good as i remember it!!! The spirit was really strong during the movie! We also left them with another movie to watch later in the week!
We weren´t able to see Rocio much this last week, she´s been really busy with work, with her Son, and then SHE got sick. She decided that it didn´t matter, and we had her baptismal interview on Saturday morning, and then she was baptized in the afternoon. She had asked me to baptize her, but last sunday her little brother, who was baptized about a month ago, got the priesthood, and is a priest...so we had him baptize her! It was GREAT!! She had lots of family come from all over, and a few friends as well!
This next week is going to be a busy for Elder Labra and I...We have conferences Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, Guillermo´s wedding on Thursday, a District Meeting on Friday, and Guillermo´s baptism Friday aswell.
I love you all, and hope that you´re enjoying the sun and fun!
Love, Elder Denton
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
I Hope that everybody is doing well, and that you are all having a great week! I had an AMAZING week!
As i wrote last week, we had been preparing the baptisms for Rocio Fernandez and Jimena Acuña...welllllll.....Rocio´s 2 year old little boy decided that he was going to get Chicken pox this last week.
The baptism was all planned for friday - interviews in the morning, and baptisms at 5pm, right after the ward activity finished. Rocio called us on thursday night and told us that she was going to have to wait another week because of her son. I was crushed. I was so excited for the baptisms, and the progress of these people, and didn´t want to see them have to wait even longer to get baptized. We wanted to meet our weekly goal that we had put to have 2 baptisms, and if you remember Nicolas Leiva, he almost got baptized a few weeks ago, but then he got sick. We had a lesson with him, and he told us that he had been having doubts because of what some people had told him, and he wasn´t sure anymore....
We knew that Nicolas was going to be in the church playing soccer in the morning at the same time that Jimena was having her interview, but we couldn´t get ahold of him to confirm anything. When we got to the church, we had the interview with Jimena, and then went outside to talk with Nicolas. We asked him if he´d like to be baptized that same day, and expressed again that he had some doubts still. Elder Labra and I were with Elder Rodriguez and Elder Pearson, because Elder Pearson had done the interviews, and we all noticed that Nicolas was there in the church with all of the lessons, the person who he had chosen before to baptize him (Gustavo Romano) was also there playing soccer, the person to do the interview was there, we had white clothes, and the baptismal font was being filled for Jimena.
We decided to go inside, and had him pray to ask Heavenly Father if he needed to be baptized that day. He did it, and still felt a little uneasy. We said - Ok - how about you have your interview with Elder Pearson, and after the interview, you can choose.
He agreed, and about 40min later they finished. When we asked how he felt, he said ´I feel great - and i want to be baptized today!´ I don´t know how to express the joy i felt! Elder Labra and Elder Pearson ran to our appartment to call his parents, and tell them that their son was going to be baptized at 5. They said -ok...we´ll be there!´ Which was a HUGE step for them, because they didn´t want to go to the church before.
There were 60 in the baptism, and the spirit was WAY strong! Jimena and Nicolas´s parents were really emotional, and afterwards, Nicolas was also.
Nicolas has an interview today with somebody in the bishopric to get the priesthood on sunday!
Rocio will be baptized this Saturday, and we´re going to see if Ada wants to be baptized this week too...she knows that the church is true, but wants to be even more sure...
I´ve written a lot already. Sorry.
We met our new mission president yesterday. We´re going to continue having a lot of success here! The next week is the wedding of the Gomez family, and their baptisms!
I love you all! Thanks for everything that you do!
Love, Elder Denton
Monday, July 5, 2010
7/5/10 - Letter to the World
First of all - HAPPY 4TH OF JULY (yesterday) - a bit embarassing BUT...i didn´t even realize that it was the fourth of july until we were planning last night. I looked at my Agenda, and my companion wanted to talk in English (he´s chilean)...and i said that it was the 4th of July .... and then i realized. haha. ANYWAYS....
We had a great baptismal service. Jonathan was the only one that got baptized, but it still went really well. The spirit was really strong, adn there were a lot of members there to support him!
Rocio Fernandez - She WANTED to change her baptismal date AGAIN. She said that she still didn´t feel completely sure. We had a lesson with her of what we had planned to teach her, the stuff that we still have to teach her before she is baptized, and then we talked about Jesus Christ, and the atonement. We read in Alma 7:11-15. Afterwards, we knelt down, and told her that she needed to pray, asking God specifically is she needed to be baptized this weeked. She prayed, and afterwards, when we asked her how she felt she said ¨I feel like i have a lot more desire to be baptized next weekend.¨ (that was saturday!) Soooo...we´re planning her baptizm!
Jimenna Acuña (Esttamatti) - Basically the same thing happened with Jimenna. She actually told us that some of her friends from her church had been over to her house, and she had told them that she was preparing to be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They obviously tried to talk her out of it, but she told them that she had already made up her mind. We challenged her to be baptized last friday, and she said yes, but with hesitation. We told her to pray about it, and then invitied her to Jonny´s baptizm on saturday. She came, and after the baptizm, when we asked her how her prayer went she told us that she recieved her answer, and that the baptisms made it even stronger. We´re planning her baptism for friday also!
We saw Ada on saturday just before the baptism, but she was heading home, and really tired. She said that sunday she was going to go to Church in Sabio, with her Daughter. We have challenged her to be baptized, but i´m not sure if it´s going to be this weekend. She has the date for this weekend, but she also has had problems with people from other religions. It is weird that random people can find our investigators, and start to tell them lies about the church. She told us that in the street, somebody from another church saw her, and knew somehow that she was investigating the LDS church. They told her that we only look to baptize people with a lot of money to take their money in tithing. ....we obviously expleined the doctrine of tithing to her, and she´s all good...but we have a lot left to teach her, and if she´s baptized THIS weekend, only a few days.
Silvia and Reuben Franco have fallen off of the face of the earth. We had a lesson with them last week, and since then, we haven´t seen them. They don´t have a phone, so we can´t call them, and every time that we pass by to visit them, they aren´t home. They had their baptismal date for the 17th, but since they didn´t come to church, they´ve lost it. I hope we can find them soon, and that everything is ok.
We´re still having problems with Jimena Gomez. We haven´t seen her in about 2 weeks. Everything is ok for their wedding, but she has a LOT going on with work, and school...and she is basically avoiding us. We´re still going to do everything we can to have another lesson with her to see what we can do to help, and strengthen her faith.
The Sanchez´s continue 100%! Full steam ahead! Heriberto at the beginning had SO MANY doubts, and questions, specifically about spirits...but once he recieved an answer from God that this is the true church, all of the questions about those doubts have stopped.
Evangelita Llanos was confirmed yesterday with Jonathan. Being fast and testimony meeting, Evangelita had a desire to get up and share her testimony. It was INCREDIBLE to hear her testimony. With only knowing that the Church even existed for about a month, the testimony that she has is super strong. She talked about how she´s been looking all her life for the truth, and a few times thought she had found it. She had been baptized 4 times in 4 different churches before she met us. WOW. What an example to all those that say No, i´m too old to change.
I Love this work, and am excited to continue and help others recognize what they need to do to return to our Heavenly Father after this life. I Know that Jesus Christ is our savior, and that His is the only name given by which salvation can be attained. I Know that God Lives, and that he loves us. It was because of his love that he send Christ to suffer for us. Joseph Smith was called of God, and thanks to him, we have the fully restored gospel once again established here in the earth!
I Love you all! Love, Elder Denton
Challenge - Give your local missionaries AT LEAST one reference this week. I know that everybody reading this knows at least 1 person that isn´t a member that the missionaries could teach.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Hello World!
This has been a really good week! The work here in Lopez Camelo is blowing up! There is so much to do. This week we had another Baptisms! Evangelita (Angelita) (Lita) Llanos was baptized on Friday! After her baptism we had a ward mission activity - The Iron Rod. Evangelita is 72 years old. Elder Labra baptized her, but i was in white too to be in the water to help lift her out of the water! Her baptism went really well, and the activity that we had afterwards made it even better! While she was changing, we had all of the people that attended the baptism write on 3x5 cards their testimonies, congradulations, etc. It was GREAT...especially because some of our investigators were there.
Angelita wasn´t confirmed on sunday because we had stake conference....which was AMAZING! Even though everybody had to travel about an hour to the stake center, we had 8 investigators that showed up!
Johny - Johny is a stud! He´s 9 years old, and has an Aunt that was not active. We met her, and invited her to church. When she came, she brought her nephew, Johny, and he already had 1 assistance....yesterday was his 3rd time to church, and we had a great lesson with him last night. He is very excited about his baptism this weekend - the 3rd.
Ada - Ada is 57 years old. She also has a baptismal date for the 3rd, but we might have to change it to the 10th because it´s hard to find her in her house, and get somebody to accompany us to be able to give her the lessons. She has a daughter that is a member, and the only problem that we have with her is that it´s VERY hard for her to read....but that´s ok, becuase we have a member - Sister Fernandez - who can read to hear, and only lives about 40 feet away! What a blessing!
Rocio Fernandez - Rocio is 19, and has a 2 year old son. She lives alone with him. I met her 2 weeks ago when i was in divisions in Benavidez. She is a relative of the family of 8 that was baptized there. She has a baptismal date for this weekend, but we aren´t sure if she´s going to make it. She said that she wanted more time to be able to invite friends and family. We left her with the commitment to pray, and ask Heavenly Father if she should be baptized on Saturday. We´re going to meet with her tomorrow to see!
Jimena Esttamatti - Jimena is 18, and we were working with her about a month ago when Elder Labra was away in divisions. She, also, is the daughter of a less active family that we activated. She had been going to a Evangelical (sp?) church. (she met her dad about a year ago, and moved in with them). We had a really powerfull lesson with her last night, and she commited to be baptized on the 10th.
Franco Family - Silvia and Reuben are from northern argentina. Silvia was a seventh day adventist before, but hasn´t gone in a while. They told us the other day that when we talked with them in the street to ask if we could visit them, it was a time that they were in need, and we were the only one´s who helped them. They have already recieved their answer! They have attended the last 2 baptisms that we had - Sara´s, and the one on friday!...they also went to the Stake conference! They have a baptismal date for July 17th!
Sanchez Family - They are still just waiting to get married...they´ve been together for 30+ years, and when they went to see for what day they could get married, the city told them not until september 23d.arg....that´s argentina for ya. They both went to stake conference. They are really got friends of Evangelita, the woman who was baptized - we found evangelita because she was a reference from the sanchez´s.
Gomez Family - They are going to be married on the 22nd, and baptized the 23rd. Jimena is struggling a little bit, and didn´t go to stake conference with Guillermo, but we´re going to be working hard with them to make sure that everything goes well!!!
Wow....SO MUCH WORK! But, it´s always great to have a few weeks planned out well with weekly baptisms! I Love you all!
Love,
Elder Denton
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