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

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

7/19/10 - Letter to the World

Hello 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

New Mission President!

President and Sister Gulbrandsen arrived July 8th, 2010

Hey Family, Friends, and Everybody else!

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