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

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

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

Letter to the World - 9/16/09

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

Letter to the World ~ 9/9/09

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

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

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

Here We Go!

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

From President & Sister Argyle

Dear Family,

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

With love,

President and Sister Argyle
Argentina Buenos Aires North Mission

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

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