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

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.

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.

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!!

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

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

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