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

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

11/15/10 - Letter to the World

Elder Denton w/new companion, Elder Tapia

I 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

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

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

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

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