Hey everybody it was way nice to talk to ALL of you yesterday you all look great and happy and like you are enjoying the holidays. Sorry you guys weren´t able to head out west R and Hope. But it was a perfect Christmas for me to be able to see and ´´be´´ with my whole family. Dad, there really is something to this ´´I only want my family to be happy´´ business haha. I am sending a lot of pictures this week. here we go!

Well this week was a big week. I got transfered to Villa del Parque, Godoy Cruz and its way nice. Its up in the mountains kinda. The buses here are scary. I feel like a little country bumpkin in the big city, I am totally lost haha. But Elder Leany is great and he and I are going to see a lot of miracles here. The ward is alright. The Bishop is just a young guy and wants to put a lot more responsibility on us than what we should have but its okay. I learned a little about that in Cordón. We are going to recommend having a ward council,. and then starting an activities committee, and then getting the members excited about the mission work. Something I learned in Cordón is that it is better to teach a man to fish, so we will be doing a lot to help the ward out, but not to the extent that we are doing everything. Especially now that we aren´t counselors, I want to be able to focus more on finding, teaching and baptizing converts and strengthening members. This area has a lot of potential and there are just a TON of people here!

Well Christmas was great. Being away from my family and friends was different, but I feel like I learned a little bit about myself and God, and more about our relationship. I first learned for myself that I love my family and there is nothing I want more in life than to have a happy, good family. Secondly, I learned that I am never really alone. I felt that way a little bit and wasn´t lonely, but didn´t feel like I had anyone for thousands of miles to be happy with. Feeling down for myself, I remembered that no one on earth has ever been truly alone, except for the Man whose birth we celebrated yesterday. I then felt bouyed up and great love for the Savior. He was born to die, and He died for me, so that through Him I can live again and be with my family forever. Because He traveled a lonely road, completely alienated from everything, even His Father in Heaven for a time, I will never have to. He has given me the promise of being forever happy and never lonely if I choose to follow Him and endure to the end. This is my hope and my joy. I love you guys a ton and I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas.

Elder Daybell.

Okay mom you seriously got to keep doing the ´´hahas´´ they are so funny in your letters! I love them. Do you see why they are so fun? Oh man.

I have a couple items of business first.

1- I am getting transfered this week to Godoy Cruz(zone), Villa del Parque(area). My comp is going to be Elder Layney (I don´t know how to spell it....). I heard he is cool and likes to work and so that is going to be awesome!!!! He was also attacked like a year ago and these drunk guys were trying to rob him and broke a pepsi bottle (glass) over his head and threw a bunch of rocks at him but he said he didn´t feel anything. Miracle? I think yes. I am going to be with a famous missionary! hahaha okay and

2- WE can skype for Christmas!!!! So I hope Lins and Dave have Skype. If not, no biggy, they can download it fo FREE and on Christmas day, I will just call you guys if I can find an open internet place. if not, we are allowed to do it at a members house. I am glad I leaving Cordón for this reason... no one has a computer and there aren´t internet places hahaha...

3- I didn´t eat anything too strange this week... :(

Thats all the big news I think.

This has been a great week. We had interviews with President Avila this last wednesday and that was great. We only do them every other transfer so its been 12 weeks since the last time I got to talk mano a mano haha. He really is called of God to lead this mission. I had a great experience with Him and the Holy Spirit. This made me want to learn more about the gifts of the Spirit and so that is something that I researched a little bit this week. Specifically, the gift of discernment. I have always wondered about that, and I realized that I didn´t really know what it meant. I have come to the conclusion, that it is an available ´´upgrade´´ after we understand how to ask for, recognize, and receive personal revelation. Fortunately, there is a chapter that talks a lot about that in Preach My Gospel and I learned much after reading.

Anyway that is just something that I was thinking about this week. I echo the plea found in Doctrine and Covenants 46:8, ¨seek ye earnestly the best gifts...´´ I know that every good gift comes from Christ, and in light of this Christmas season, I have much to be thankful for. I love you guys and I am so glad you are all going to be together for Christmas this year. This will have been the best Christmas for me since I can remember, knowing that you are all together. It will be better in a couple years when I get to be with you too, but just know that I couldn´t have asked for anything better than this- to be among our Argentine brothers and sisters while my whole family is celebrating together.

We had our branch Christmas party this last Saturday night and it was kind of a disaster. It was supposed to start at 7, but didn´t until 8, and the only priesthood leadership that was able to come was a young, less-active deacon. Our Christmas ´´dinner´´ consisted of the two sodas and facturas that I bought at the store next door and the pork rinds one of the Hermanas brought. The live nativity was great. The primary kids performed wonderfully and presented some of the cutest cows, donkeys and sheep I have ever seen in my life! I hope I didn´t sound whiny in describing the whole event, I did it with a smile and will always remember it in a positive light. Our Savior wasn´t born in a fancy hospital, and there were no professional doctors or nurses to help comfort Mary or Joseph and I would readily confess that the animals that surrounded His nativity weren´t cute and probably more unwelcome than the ones we had. But, the humble attempt of the Cordón Branch to pay homage to the birth of our Redeemer will always be in my heart. I feel that God looked down on that event with gratitude and happiness that His saints would be willing to truly sacrifice to worship His Son.

Anyway, tomorrow I will be spending the day passing by some investigators and then visiting some members in the afternoon and nighttime. It will definitely be hard to say goodbye to them. But the Church is true everywhere you go and I know I will find more saints in my next area.

I am just about to finish the Book of Mormon again. I just got done with 3rd Nephi and the account of Christ´s coming to the Americas has just gotten me more excited for this wonderful season. I love you all and I can´t wait to hear from you next week. Elder Daybell

December 12
hey family! This week was kinda frustrating because we didn´t get a ton done due to illness. Elder Espino had a pretty nasty cold or something a couple days and then we did divisions with the ZL and one of the assisstants and I was in Tupungato. I feel like I haven´t even been in Cordón this week hardly! This is the last week of the transfer and I was hoping to have at least 2 of the 3 Doras and one Marta Delgado baptized this next weekend, but none of them could come to church yesterday so... I don´t know if I will be in Cordón for 6 months so who knows what will happen on the 21st. THAT IS SO AWESOME FOR MIKE DRAUT! I have heard a ton about Cordoba and we actually taught a guy from Cordoba a few months ago. Oh man thats just way awesome. When does he leave? He is going to love it! Tell him to start practicing rolling his rr´s haha. So yesterday the Rama of Cordón del Plata made some serious history. President Fredes (district president) called an EQ president AND a first consejero to President Quiroga! From now on, the missionaries are no longer going to be consejeros! I think we were the last area in the mission to still not have consejeros (I don´t remember how to spell the english word for consejero) so I am way excited about that. This branch has changed a ton since my Sunday here. Now my callings are limited to piano player, branch secretary, and now primary pianist haha! The branch primary program is next sunday and I am stoked! its going to be so good and the primary president asked me to play the ´´we are as the armies of Helaman´´ song. I know that you all are thinking like.. wait was he actually good at piano? And the truth is that... no haha. I am still highly inadequate and my expertise are limited to the Happy Little Donkey from the first level books but... Somehow I manage to hammer out a few right notes every now and then. I have learned so many skills in this branch though. Like basic piano, how to conduct meetings, how to plan meetings, how to call people to speak and how to baptize, confirm, confer and ordain, and give blessings to the sick. I will always love Cordón and I think that the things I have learned just in 4 months here will affect the rest of my life. Lessons on gratitude and humility. On accepting who you are and being happy with what you have. The power of hard work and the numbing damage of complaining.

Since I was given a lot of extra time this week, I decided to read some conference talks from the last several years as well as the scriptures. It was awesome going from talk to talk and finding things that must have been spoken just for my benefit. The leaders of the church certainly are inspired and their words have power for a long time after they are first spoken. I am really grateful for them and the effect they have on me.

Well I don´t really have a lot to say this week. uhhh Next week I will have info on how to call and all that stuff. Love you guys and I hope your getting stoked for Christmas!

Love Elder Daybell

Hey everybody this week was great.

First, the pictures. Today (monday) we had the opportunity to help out a less-active family by mixing and laying a TON of cement. It was way fun. They don´t really use wood here to build stuff. Its almost all cement and brick walls. The people are like... you guys use wood? how do your buildings stay up??? It was way fun though and I got totally covered in it haha. We were up on a roof laying the cement first because a truck came and just poured it all on but when the truck was empty we were still missing a good 1/4 of the roof so we got to make it in the little mixer they had. I imagine you could make some great dough in one of those bad boys. After we had finished mixing one of the loads, I was standing right in front of the mixer and it just decided to fall over for no particular reason but it was all good because I got mostly out of the way haha. Earlier the hermana told me not to get cement on my hands because it would mess them up... Well, her prophecy was correct, only it was the mixer that got them haha. It really wasn´t too bad and my amigo in the picture doctored me up. I know I´m not supposed to say those things, but it really wasn´t that bad. Sorry mom.

Anyway, they fed us after and I don´t know if I was just way hungry or what, but it was SO good. And then it started raining and hailing really hard so I hope there won´t be any problems with the cement. Anyway, today was really great.

Well, I started the New Testament in the MTC and have been reading it pretty slowly up until about two weeks ago. I just flew through Hechos and Romanos, and enjoyed the zeal of Paul in the following books. James and Peter and John taught me some great things, as well as Jude, and I found a wonderful piece of knowledge in Titus (I call that scripture the Anti-Missionary--see if you can find it). Really, I loved reading the Gospels and I learned much from the words of the Savior. I initially decided to read the NT completely because I realized I didn´t know personally many specific teaching of our Lord. I learned so much over the past 5 months in the NT, combined with my reading the D&C, OT, PGP and of course the Book of Mormon. But then I got to the book of Revalations... Which I don´t know.. it was hard to start it. Its the last thing standing between you and the end of the NT. But I decided to get into it and I got all the way through. I have never learned so much in so short a time! It is amazing the things that we will see and experience either on this side or that of the veil. God is not a god of fire and brimstone, but of hope and joy. I know that my Savior will someday wipe all the tears from my eyes, as it says. I also gained a stronger testimony of learning by the Spirit. It really is pure knowledge flowing into you when you elect to learn God´s way. I was greatly blessed this week. Next is Isaiah haha.

This week we had 18 people (including two full families) who said they would come to church. Sunday morning as we walked to each house to look for these people, each one told us why they wouldn´t be able to come today. Walking to church was kind of a downer. But as I took the Sacrament and looked around at the various members, I felt as if a powerful testimony had been born. It was, after all, fast-sunday and many of my brothers and sisters here walked to the pulpit and bore a simple testimony. I thought of Brian, 12 year old, who we recently just baptized and how he had to ride his bike almost 8 miles just to get to church. He was there. I looked at Hermana Cazon, an elderly sister who comes to church every sunday. She can´t read, but feels and believes that the Book of Mormon is true. She was there. Celia, a 14 year old young woman whose mom is decidedly against her membership and the church and who hasn´t been able to attend for almost 2 months- was there. Yea, we had a good flow of members going up to the stand sharing sincere and pure testimony, but every single member there bore testimony that they were willing to take Christ´s name upon them, just because they WERE there! It isn´t easy for anyone in my branch to come to church, whether it be family problems, financial problems, or just getting up on time after a hard week in the fields. I took that for granted for so long, but I am greatful for that experience. I hope that I get to stay here for the holidays. Transfers are on the 21st...

On that note, I am very excited for Christmas. We know that He was not born at this time, but we celebrate His birth at this time. As Christmas is a season of giving, it only makes sense doesn´t it? Our Heavenly Father GAVE us His Son. His Son GAVE us our salvation if we choose to live up to it. He paid the price for the greatest of all the gifts of God. We can never repay Him, but we can show Him that we truly are willing to follow Him by striving to love our neighbors and family.

Anyway, I love you guys and I hope all is well. Its rained almost everyday this week, which I´m told never happens here. It rains like 2 times a year usually.. Anyway... Love ya! Elder Daybell

Hey everyone so this has been the fastest transfer of my life. It really is going by like a whirlwind and before you know it a 1/4 of my mission is already past. I can add my testimony to everyone that says its the fastest two years of your life...

pics

1The sunsetting.. I know i´ve taken a ton of those but the sun going down behind the Andes, shooting the last rays through the clouds is really breathtaking....

2 The cherries are starting to be harvested. There are trees all around and of so many different fruits. If I want cherries, i pick a few on the way, or apples or peaches or pears or walnuts.... (didnt know those grew on trees...) but anyway I ended up eating a whole kilo of cherries. They were really good. I think thats almost 2 lbs. anyhoo...

But anyways thanksgiving was this week. I am sure it was great there. they have enough holidays here so I never feel homesick in that regard haha. Okay. This week on the food report, I ate something new and different. Its called pata de vaca. Which is like all the sinews and parts of the hoof and legs of cows that isn´t meat. It was not bad. Its like salt flavored jello that has been left out too long and is kinda rubbery. It wasn´t bad, but it didn´t change the fact that I had to beg in prayer that I would get through it. And I did, so that was a much appreciated tender mercy. I made a deal with myself that I would try anything that was placed in front of me here because why not? Paul became like the greeks and romans and the other gentiles, so I can become like the Argentines. Or Bolivians haha.

I went on divisions with the new elder in our neighboring area of Tupungato and he is just awesome. He already knows castillano perfectly! It helps that he´s a portaño haha. So it was way fun, we taught 15 lessons and had like 5 news. But it was really fun because we had a competition and the rules were thus: had to place a LdM (20 pts) and 1 of every folleto...(i don´t remember the word but those are the little booklets about the restoration, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, law of chastity, etc.) there are 6 of them. Each was worth 13.333333333333 points and so in total, if you placed a BoM, and all the folletos, you had a 100 pts. Well, I started getting all my easy folletos out of the way by way of just talking to people in the street. The Restoration, Plan of Salvation, and Gospel of Jesucristo are relatively easy to give away because they are some of our fundamental beliefs. The Law of Chastity was fun because a lot of elders (yes, me too) just get way red when they teach someone about it. The Word of wisdom was interesting because this guy I stopped on the street was carrying a crate full of returnable 40 oz beer bottles and smoking something... but I told him about prophets and how through a prophet we have the word of wisdom. He was like Bro I alread have a prophet. Bob Marley maaaaaan. But i saw him later reading the whole thing so I hope it did some good. Okay, now teaching someone about the law of tithing is really hard to do if its not like an established investigator and they are just lock stock and barrel ready for baptism. But we both managed to teach a little bit about commandments and how they are for our benefit and how tithing has always been a commandment. Return appointments with both of those people haha. It was a really good day and we ended up tying because we both handed out every folleto and each placed a Book of Mormon. So we ordered from the Krustyburger to celebrate a little haha. Divisions are fun and miracles always happen. It is also weird that I´m not the greenie anymore. Only as far as like titles go though. I have so much to learn and experience still.

Something I have been thinking about lately is testimony. We know its like any living organism that requires nourishment and care. If it lacks those things, it diminishes until dead. As a sidenote, I believe that any testimony can be replanted again and hearts can change. But I have been studying the words of living prophets in recent conference editions of the Liahona about testimonies and how we gain and maintain them. A common theme I have found is that there are a few requirements to the gaining and maintaining of them. First, you need a desire. God will bless us according to the righteous desires of our hearts and I promise that the desire of gaining a testimony is certainly a worthy desire. This leads to the next step; willingness to work. The Lord will most likely not do for us what we can do for ourselves (True to the Faith: prayer) and so if we take no thought but to ask Him, we probably will not recieve anything (for a testimony is a gift of God). This work involves daily scripture study, constant prayer, desire of course, obedience to the commandments and personal meditation. The next step is to be willing to do something with this gained testimony. We have to be willing to change, or to live the Gospel of Jesus more committedly. Then, if we ask God, with faith in Jesus Christ, and that we can recieve answers to our prayers, we will know by the power of the Holy Ghost anything we want, including the veracity of the First Vision of Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ, to name a few. And then we have to put it all into practice.

Like it says in John, we can gain a testimony of certain principles like tithing or daily prayer or keeping the sabath day holy by practicing it. I am working on improving my testimony becuase I know it will help me become a more powerful teacher, or in other words, a stronger testimony will help provide the Holy Ghost more to work with, and the message will be taken directly to the heart of those who listen. Anyway, just some thoughts.

I hope you are all happy and good. I can´t wait for Christmas! I started listening to more christmas themed mo'tab now haha. This is going to be a great Christmas. Love you all!

Elder Daybell

Hey Family! okay... first of all, I thought of something I need. STAMPS. good old fashioned american stamps. I am currently using some 44 cent stamps Elder Hancock gave me. They are commemorative Vancouver olympics stamps and famous seamen.... His dad is in the navy or something haha.

And if you could send me a cheap pendrive... that would be awesome because you cant buy more than 8 gb here and its 150!. Pesos. So really only like 36 american dollars... but still. you can buy like a 32 gb for that much in the states... But if not this time, maybe birthday present or next christmas. Also, Elder Packard, the senior missionary dropped by the apartment the other day to install a water filter and told me about an elder whose parents sent him a couple pairs of shoes and its going to cost him almost a 1000 pesos to get out of customs... So like 2 or 300 ish US. But a 1000 looks more impressive. SO he gave me some new tips... Make sure packages are small, not super heavy, and nothing rattles in it. Also make sure the address is written directly on the package somewhere too because they take off the labels sometimes just to spice it up i guess....

Okay anyway. Thank you so much! This week was not so hot. We had so many people tell us they would come to church or commit to something and then chow, nothing happened. I think missionaries and telemarketers are probably the most-lied-to people in the world. But we are selling something so much better! and its free! When people back away from the table of the bread of life and the living waters its because THEY didn´t understand. Elder Lawrence of the 70 told me that if they didn´t understand, its because you didn´t teach well enough. Talk about lighting a fire under you right? Besides that, the week was pretty good. It was elder Espino´s birthday on the 17th. He is 23. hence the 23 on the pancakes I made him! I got up and did about 12 pushups and then started making the batter--from scratch (The flour already has all the baking powder and soda and everything in it so really its pretty easy). I made some pretty big ones and then walked in trying to fit Feliz cumpleanos to the happy birthday song we know and love and he was needless to say, surprised. I left after taking the picture to shower and get ready and when I came back to study like an hour later, there were about 2 bites taken from it. I seriously wasn´t offended or mad or anything. I didn´t know if he even likes sweet stuff because we´ve been together like a week. It was just hard because they were sitting right there and they were way tasty... I took about 1/365th of a pancake every couple of minutes.... I felt weird eating his birthday (pan)cake(s). For lunch that day we had a barbecue on a cookie sheet and a couple of bricks we found in the back yard. It was really good. And yesterday the Diaz family made him a really good cake that we ate for dessert. Very fun.

I ate ubre this week. Its cow utter. Terrible. There wasn´t even any free milk.

We passed by a house the other day because this lady I talked to on the street told us to come by. So we got there and the same 4 little kids were outside playing with some tractor equipment and so we told them to go get there mom. A little girl runs in, and tells her mom that the mormons are here, and then I SEE the woman stick her head out to see, and then quickly go back in. She sends out her other kids to tell us that she isn´t there. I say, could you go ask her where she went? and another little kid runs back ( haha I love doing that) and tells us, she went to Cordón. The first little girl puts on a really serious face and shakes her head no, like to say, ´´its a lie!´´ Oh my goodness I lost it. We both just started laughing so hard. It seriously could have been in a movie. Anyway we left a pamphlet with one of the kids and said we would try another day haha.

Well. I am way excited for Christmas. We don´t have a buffer holiday like Thanksgiving so I am just ready for Christmas instead haha. Plus my comp is not american so we probably won´t celebrate it. I might celebrate by making some rice or buying a Coke. Its really good here. But meat is so expensive! Unless you buy the weird stuff like mondongo or ubre... so... pass. I hope you all know how thankful I am to be here, to have a call to the work, and to have my awesome siblings and parents. My friends are some of the best in the world too. Love you all and hope all is well. Eat too much on my behalf!

Elder Daybell

Hey This week was alright. Elder Espino came and doesn´t know english which has been interesting. I know a lot more spanish that I thought I did. Or maybe I don´t and he just thinks I´m an idiot when I talk haha. I don´t know. But anyways he´s pretty cool. From El Salvador. People here ask him what language they speak there haha... I don´t know it just seems obvious to me but maybe not.

Anyway we decided that we need to start focusing on the less active members of our ward after teaching so many people the first or second lesson and getting to the part where we invite them to be baptized and them saying, Oh, I already was baptized.... So.... This transfer is going to be a little different. There is a lot of pressure to make this district (Valle de Uco) a stake because Mendoza only lacks 5 stakes before they can build a temple here. So we will be working a lot with the members and I bet I will see a temple at least announced before I leave here. I hope so. There is a lot of work to do. We need so many more priesthood holders and full-tithe payers in our district. Yesterday we only had 21 people come to church including me, Elder Espino, one investigator, and the President.

But its a work in progress.

Christmas is right around the corner. Thats crazy. Umm I can´t think of anything. I could use some more flosser things haha... I haven´t seen those here. Maybe I will just have to use real floss now. Or stop flossing haha.... Um christmas present. I really am great. I don´t lack anything... How about more pictures (just over email) of the family and all those types of things...

You know how at Christmas we always draw names and everyone just gets something for that person? Well in addition to gifts or whatever else you do, write that person a nice letter. And open them and read them on Christmas Eve. No other requirements. Even if that person can´t read (You all know who I am talking about... Hannah.) Hahahaha just kidding love ya Hannah. Well that was mean. But for real, thats all I want. Let me know how it goes yea? Okay. I know this Christmas is going to be way great for us.

Well I love you guys. I earnestly hope that everything is great and that my prayers are answered on your behalf. Your prayers are certainly answered on my behalf and I will always be greatful for the way you labor for me and others in your prayers.

God knows us.

love,

Elder Daybell

Hey family! this week was awesome. We had a baptism on Saturday and I confirmed Jorge on Sunday. First time doing that. It was awesome, I was really helped in the what to say, as well as the how to say it. It was kinda funny to, because I was about to finish and then Elder Fackrell whispered, ´´Por la autoridad del Sacerdocia Melquisidec.´´ I added that and said amen haha. It was pretty good timing.

Anyways, Jorge is great. He has been converted for a long time, but only decided to take the plunge about 3 weeks ago. there was some things that kept us from baptizing him every weekend since then, but we finally got it done. When it ´´clicked´´ for him was really interesting. We assigned him Alma 7 to read (that chapter is used a lot....) and he forgot which chapter it was, so he read Alma 5 which just like drops some hardcore Cain on people and he told us the next day, ´´uh... Well. I think i need to get baptized.´´ We were like... uhh.. YEA!!! hello!!!! But it was awesome that he decided to finally baptize after he read a chapter that we didn´t assign. The Spirit plays such an amazing role! He is definitely the best out of the three in our companionship.

The other pictures are just kinda random. Today we went to this park with the branch president of Urbana, one of the branches in Tupungato (almost a ward--way exciting) and had an asado. I never have been in the forest here, but it was beautiful. They just had every type of tree there. It was like a rainforest, but not humid or so tropical, just a ton of different types of trees and plants. All the fruit is starting to grow here too, and should be ready to pluck off and eat about the time that I get transferred haha.

Speaking of transfers, Elder Fackrell is peacin out to San Juan where it is hotter than... a hot place... and so its finally coming to an end. He´s a great guy and has been my good friend these past 12 weeks. I cannot wait to train someone. Elder Tilleman (the guy you all asked me about) must be a super stud who already is like fluent in spanish because he only has one more transfer than me and is training already. what a capo. I met him in the MTC and he seemed really cool. Anyway, Elder Espino is my new comp and he is a latin so my spanish is gonna be nice and good and my english is gonna have a sweet accent when I talk to you guys at Christmas. This is going to be a way sweet transfer. I love cordon.

I thought Cordon del Plata meant shoelace of silver, so I finally asked someone the other day and they told me it was actually string, like the string of mountains, or in other words, chain of mountains.... so Mountain range of silver. Its prettier I think. AND it makes sense. Way to go Argentina!

The elections finished up here last week and Cristina is the Presidenta again! I guess shes too liberal even for Obama´s tastes becuase he came to South America once and went everywhere but here haha. Thats just what I have heard though. Anyway....

This last transfer has been a mix of blessings and burdens. It has helped me grow a lot in ways that I didn´t know I could. I feel humbled because of the language, blessed because of the people, and a deeper love and urgency for the work. I am excited for things to come.

I am doing really well and I included that picture of the sunset because I am pretty sure that is going to be a small fraction of what man might see during the second coming.

I watched the Mountain of the Lord this week and at the end, you know how it talks about how the Lord´s house will be established in the top of the mountains? Like that gives you chills about the Salt Lake Temple right? Tell you what, those pioneers never saw mountains like the ones here. Mendoza has a goal of having the next temple in Argentina. Its the next biggest city and so I hope that that announcement comes while I am here. That would be so exciting and be such a blessing to the people here. They have to either pay a ton of money to get a passport to go to Santiago Chile, or take a 2 day (por lo menos) bus trip to Buenos Aires (also super expensive) to go to the temple. I think that is why I loved the new fund that President Monson announced at conference in October, helping members go for their first time. Such an exciting time to be a member of the church.

Anyway, I love ya and am doing well. I love reading the scriptures in spanish because it brings a new meaning to some of them. Like you know how we are told to watch for the second coming? well in Spanish, its Velar, which means to watch over. Like watch over your stewerdship until He comes. Just a little sidenote, but I think that things like that are awesome.

Love ya! Elder Daybell

The cat is just a cat. She loves me. Kind of a weird cat.. When ever we go to this house (Jorge) I knock on the door and it jumps and climbs up my back, to my shoulders (from behind, totally a surprise). She is always there when they answer the door so... now they´re like, where is Mishi, when we go and she doesn´t attack me...

also highlight of P-day : we played monopoly today and it started out with 4 of us and I didn´t even want to play because I ALWAYS feel way contentious when we play that game... But they got me to play and guess who won after almost 4 hours? I did. Yep. I ended up with 28445 pesos, and killed Elder Fackrell. It was great. I wrote my score on the cover of the box so the generations to come can stand in awe and fear my name! hahaha...

Hey! oh man. this week was Crazy. for real. Remember how Elder Aidukitus was coming to drop cain on us for the zone conference that we had last week? Well he came, he saw, and he did indeed drop cain. It was a way good conference though. He is just like Elder Holland in his zeal for the work. He is one of those guys that when he calls on you, you had better have everything in its place, and your planner has to be just chock full of plans and details and you just gotta be all ship-shape because he WILL publicly embarrass you.. So its just better if you have all the fundamental things going right, that way he has to dig a little bit to find the error haha. No but really he is way cool and I had just a way uplifting experience listening to him. I know that he is a 70 for a reason. He is the President or councelor in the Area Presidency of South America South.... Example: One elder didn´t bring his PMG, anything to take notes, or anything like that.. for the next 5 minutes Elder Aidukitus went on about how he must have told the Lord that he didn´t want to recieve any personal revelation that day, and that basically gauranteed him that he wouldn´t haha. Then a couple minutes later, he asked an elder to read something from PMG and he had one of those little PMGs that is the same thing, but just about a 1/4 of the size. Elder Aidukitus stopped him and suggested that he bring a bigger PMG to work in, and send the little tiny one home. Then he said that you probably want personal revelation, but only a tiny bit. Hahaha oh man. But his attitude and the tone of his voice is full of love and you know that he loves you and deeply cares for the work, so when he called all of these people out it was kinda funny, but not really at their expense. Or maybe it was haha, I didn´t get called out. I think its because he made all the newbies stand up at the beginning of the conference and took note of all the Elders he didn´t want to make cry hahaha. Oh but don´t get me wrong, he is an absolute stud and I know he is a servant of God. I partly know that because the Lord definitely helped me out with the gift of Tongues and allowed me to understand perfectly everything he said, and partly because of the powerful testimony he bore at the end.

Anyway, that was great. I got a sweet little package from Sophie with an awesome tie and letters from her brother, and her friends. It was WAY awesome! and the package had a little María on each side and so I got some way funny looks from people on the long trip back from Mendoza to Cordón haha. But the trick worked, and the package hadn´t been opened by Argentine Customs.....

Another little funny note.. Mom, remember how you were peeved that you got a letter from me and it was actually for Cameron Crawford? Well I sent you a letter to that was actually yours haha.... Well on saturday we made divisions and Elder Reininger (my zone leader) had to get his toe operated on and so we had to go to Mendoza (getting there was a whole notha story because the bus terminal there was like on lockdown because of a huge strike... stupid). While I was there, I talked to Elder Packer (Old USAF intel officer who apparently knows Lary Adkinson from Vietnam??? Wierd connection right?) and he gave me a little plastic bag that had a shredded up letter inside of it. The one that was for you haha... oh man. That was rich. It was a great little apology by the USPS and so I think that I am just going to send you the half-letter (as proof that I did write :) and the plastic bag.... I will send a picture next week. I forgot my camera this week....

This week was good because we planned for about 7 hours on thursday, after the conocimiento we recieved from Elder A. It made the rest of the week way better and we ended up having a pretty decent week. Next week for sure we are having at least two baptisms. Which I am excited about.

Well, Love ya! I am fine

and OH i got the batteries finally! they came a long time ago, and have been sitting in the mailroom for about a month! I guess when the package got here, some joker at customs thought it would be more effecient to take off all the labels (like the name of the person the package was addressed to....). But anyway, I have that now. Thanks!

Love ya

Elder Daybell

PS happy halloween. We eat lunch with the district president and he was shocked when elder Fackrell told him that he was a dinosaur one year.... he said ´´but elder, how did you keep all the dogs from biting your tail?´´ hahaha. they have strays EVERYWHERE here. and horses too.... I don´t really know how that works out but whatever. I love Argentina! Viva Cristina!

hEY! I am going to Mendoza this week for zone conference and elder Ah choo kite us is going to be ripping us to shreds i think. That is his reputation around here anyway. I don´t know how to spell his name but he is in the first 70... anyway. I am sending you a letter! and maybe your package will be there... hopefully! anyway, love ya mom!

Hey Family!

Oh man! this week was crazy. lots of stuff happened. I guess there was a volcano in Chile that eruptió? I don´t know. A lot of people said that. and so the sky was way dark this whole week. but it was still hot. Weird huh? It also gave me like the worst allergies you can have. I just had a sinus headache for like 4 days straight. But it passed now. It was kinda cool because it made some killer sunsets. Also, it made it so it was not so sunny, so at least we weren´t getting burnt. It was kinda a tender mercy. i hope it didn´t cause too much damage in Chile though. I never thought I would be afflicted by a volcano in any other way but like... being burnt or melted by lava... I never thought that it would give me a sinus headache... hmm....

Anyway.... We made popsicles last night out of tang and they were a huge success. I sat on a real-life couch (first time since home!) twice in one day here when I went on divisions with one of the Zone leaders. The first time was at a member´s house, and the second time was when we went to a beliche (which is a super dirty night club) during the siesta and taught the family that lives there and owns the beliche the first lesson. They had carpet too. It was way awesome. I felt the spirit strongly and I know that Carolina felt the spirit. She came to church last week I guess and she is just a capa. I hope everything goes well with her and for the ZLs.

Um... the picture of the meat is one of my personal faves. The left is mondongo, cow stomach. Way nasty. the stuff on the left is cow heart. which isn´t unusual i guess, but i figured that they were next to each other and so it warranted a good picture.

How is everything back home? I had a decent week. We had two baptisms that were for sure going to happen. Jorge and Angel were just way stoked to get baptized. But they both fell through. but i´m not really worried about it because there was some stuff that happened that they didn´t have any control over and so next week for sure.

I don´t remember if I said anything about Paola and Miguel and Milenia? They are a way sweet family that we found a couple weeks ago and are just so prepared to accept the true gospel. I guess Paola had a brush with cancer and just knew that she is here for something more and survived and I think that she is coming to find that she will find greater fulfillment by making covenenats to the Lord in this Church. Keep your fingers crossed for them though because Satan is fighting way hard to not give them this opportunity.

We are getting to the end of this transfer and Elder Fackrell is counting on leaving and I think he is pretty excited. Just gotta endure to the end though right? :)

I had a pretty cool experience in church the other day. I play the pìano (kind of) and during the post-lude, Hermana Soto came up and talked to me for a second. Her family is part of a district-wide reactivation plan and so we visit them every week. Its really her husband who we are focusing on because everyone else is active and really fulfilling thier callings. But we went last wednesday and Hermano Soto wasn´t even there ever though we scheduled and verified and everything (maybe next week we will have to go as a surprise haha). Anyway, President Quiroga and I went alone and Elder Fackrell and our Branch Mission Leader went to go visit some other friends. So there we are and we are talking and its about 9 and we gotta go, so I finish up the lesson and I leave a reading assignment for the family to read Alma 7. That morning Elder Fackrell and I decided on leaving Alma 40, which I don´t know... doesn´t really apply to them right now? It is about life after death and is a good supplement to the plan of Salvation.... but on the way to the lesson, about 5 minutes out, I decided for whatever reason, no, we should leave Alma 7. Anyways, after church yesterday, she comes up to me and tells me how for only the second time since she was baptized has she felt the spirit so strongly. She said that as her family listened to her read, tears streamed down her face as she felt the testifying power of the Holy Spirit. She asked me how we decided what to assign people to read and I just told her we try to follow the guidance of the Spirit. I know that that is true. The Spirit is a guide, our Liahona. And those that have it can always live with its guidance, and can feel over and over again His witness of all things that are true.

It was really great to hear that she had a spiritually uplifting experience with her family, especially her husband.

Anyway, I love yall and I hope you all have a good week. Takereasy.

Elder Daybell

hey momma!

Sunday was mothers day here and it was weird. I got you a little dorky book mark that said something like..... this certifies that you are the best mom in the world. and I was going to give it to you! but as we walked back home on saturday night, we passed this little old lady who lives next to us and i just felt way prompted to give it to her. So i stopped, and i was like, hey senora, i can tell that you are a great mother because of how i see your grandkids treat you. we just wanted to give you a little gift because its mothers day and we appreciate you being a good mother, especially because ours are far away. She is a super catholic, but she was just way happy. She was like, oh bless you chicos! So i thought that might warm you up too.

Love ya mom

Hey family!

This week was way good. We just had a lot of really great miracles. I dont have a ton of time to say much, but i do love you guys, and i am good. its way hot here now. Summer has started. the kids are finishing up the year and starting to hog the nieghborhoods again haha. But we are going to have 2 baptisms this week end. I promise to write more and give kind of a two week report next time okay! No se porque Dios me bendició mucho. Les amo mucho.

Elder Daybell

okay. man we had a cool week. we worked way hard and it was just a good week. Well... we went to an inactive member´s house this week as part of a big reactivation effort by our district and it was way frustrating because we got there five minutes late... he lives about 35 minutes away.... but anyways we got there, and he was like, ´´well, too bad, you were late and i have to go.´´ so we didn´t teach him or really get anything done. big waste of time. One of his qualities.. or characteristics that I love though, is that his laugh sounds exactly like Betty from Kung Pao. and he laughs a lot haha. So rich. Anyway we got back to the chappel and had our planning meeting with President Quiroga (mom, you were right all these years... I should have learned how to play the piano better. But I bought the simplified hymns from the mission office and so from now on we will have music to go to our hymns on sunday!) and right in the middle we heard a knock on the door and so we looked at each other and then I went to answer it. It was this guy with just the saddest story that I´ve ever heard... He had 0 money and he just came from a very dark place. He just wanted to know where he could get work. So Pres. Quiroga talked to him (because he is kinda one of the big cheeses at one of the vineyards here) and we gave him some apples that a member gave us. I gave him 10 pesos which is about 2.50 USD, but it has like the same purchasing power as like 10USD. And we invited him to church and didn´t really think anything of it. Well this sunday, we got to church and there he is! What the HECK right!?!?! I just really didn´t expect him to be here. But here he was! Anyway, we got through testimony meeting (about 10 people shared testimonies including missionaries, and two visiting people) and instead of having sunday school, we taught Angel the first lesson. He loved it! I loved it! it was awesome. He has a date to get baptized and I think everything will go really well because he didn´t come to church hungover and saturday night is really when people just get smashed here. He is way sincere and super excited to read the Boof of Mormon. Just a way good surprise miracle. Those are always really appreciated. Especially when your best investigators stop progressing. We have two of those now. They just need to accept a date to be baptized. Karina, we are just waiting on her mom to talk to her and give permission. Jorge, we have no idea what to do. We decided to fast with him this last sunday and it was... good. I think. He didn´t come to church so... We dont really know what the outcome of that was. But its alright because the Lord is involved with this work. He is aware of the needs of His brothers and sisters here in Cordón del Plata and I am really honored to be here representing Him. oh man. Well I love you guys and I miss you a ton. In a good, supportive and positive way though so no worries haha.

I had mondongo. I don´t remember if i said anything about that or not. but its gross. Its cow stomach. it tastes kinda like a really chewy cheese, that just kinda tears apart after enough chewing. I had to just cut it small and swallow it whole. too much man. too much. Then the next day i had liver milanesas. Which just means its prepared like a country fried... liver. It was pretty gross too. But that was three weeks ago maybe? I don´t remember. its all kinda melting together now haha.

Umm... oh, something exciting. We live in a pretty big pensión, but now the water heater doesn´t work and so we just boil the water to shower with and use the good old bucket. I am NOT COMPLAINING for the record, I actually love it. But one day it was way cold and so we took the little electrical heater and put it on the toilet facing us in the shower so it wouldn´t be so cold, and it was awesome. So I took it with me to go change and when i plugged it in the other room, it started on fire. I just looked at it hahaha. way funny morning.

Well i also found out my pants are totally washable even though they all say dry clean only haha. Good day for real. The familia Diaz is way awesome and we eat there on sundays for lunch. They are raising rabbits right now, but they haven´t... reproduced yet. But Hermana Diaz says that when they do, we are totally having rabbit for lunch. I am excited because thats something new :)

Oh, also another little tender mercy. This last thursday, we had to go to mendoza for a trainers and trainees training meeting with President Avila (stud). It was AWESOME to see my MTC buddies. Elder Ashby and Foster and I are probs gonna be like BFFLs. And Elder Riding who was kind of a stocky kid in the MTC, is like a stick now. I wonder what his secret is eh??? But for real it was way nice to see my buddies. I think my spanish has had a lot more opportunity to grow than them though. Only because I really only talk to Bolivians all day and they talk really fast. They sound like the little kids who talk with the microphones in there mouth... Do you know what i mean? i don´t remember the english word for what i´m trying to say. But anyway it was way easy to understand all the mendocinos and Presidente Avila for once. Peruvians are by far the easiest people to talk to because they talk really slow and annunciate (---THAT WAS THE WORD I WAS THINKING OF BEFORE!!!) everything. I have seen a lot of blessings with my language. Fasting and sincere prayer is a blessing for us.

Anyways, I love yall. Stay sweet.

Elder Daybell

Hey Family! This week was pretty good. We talked to a lot of new people this week because we pretty much baptized our teaching pool, or they will be this weekend. I think that is a trap that Missionaries fall into- being content with the sheep they have. I don´t want to ever let that happen again, and now that I know Spanish well enough, I can do my part in finding and teaching. Man wasn't conference awesome! I loved President Uchtdorf´s talk about the welfare plan. I really loved how he said that God´s way is not sitting on the side of the river and waiting for all the water to pass before you cross, but to roll up your sleeves and get to work and build a bridge. I loved that. I felt like there was a pretty strong theme of Missionary work. I feel like something huge is about to happen, or that the missionaries aren't working hard enough haha... But Elder Holland really did singe my eyebrows at priesthood haha. I am glad that he gave that talk. I feel strongly that missionary work is the best, most important work that any young man my age can do, and it is imperative that once you decide to play for the Lord, you don´t dribble out of bounds like Elder Holland says. However because we have a loving Heavenly Father, we have the Atonement at our disposal made possible by Jehovah. Another thing I really liked about Conference was Elder Scott´s talk about the scriptures. My companion told me not to read the Old Testament because ¨it´s pretty much useless in the mission field´´ and I decided that... while I disagreed with Him, I wouldn´t read it (but just in his presence). And when Elder Scott said that he loves how it plainly and simply teaches gospel truths, I just smiled at him haha. I firmly believe that as the Iron rod is a singular rod, that leads to the ´´greatest of all the gifts of God´´, one cannot just toss out the Old Testament or the PGP, or any other of the standard works, without missing a piece somewhere along the line. Does that make sense? While I do not understand the significance of some parts of the Scriptures like Isaiah, or Leviticus, or the Song of Solomon it doesn´t mean that they don´t have something to contribute to our time here our probation. Jesus himself quoted from Isaiah and by way of exhortation, commanded that we become familiar with his writings. All I am saying is that we must continue to do the good works like reading and praying daily, in order to increase the size of our anchors as is written in Ether. Something else I loved was President Eyring´s talk in priesthood about preparation. The Lord uses small and simple means to bring to pass His magnificent work of eternal nature, and so must we use the simple means to help build up the kingdom of Zion. I will be eternally thankful I think for all my callings that I had here on earth because each calling is significant and is a channel by which the Lord prepares us to take upon ourselves more responsibility. I just really loved conference. There were things said that were just for me and I know that the Brother (Waddell or Richardson?) who said that his mission was ´´was the best two years FOR my life´´ was really spot on and something that I needed to hear. Anyway, Conference is definitely a powerful experience. God is the same today, as he was yesterday and will be forever. So since he loved His children before to call prophets, why not now? It makes sense to me. I do know that prophets are on the earth again, and that it is by the Spirit of Revelation that they know, and deliver unto us the will of God. These talks have been what God has been thinking about us since April (and obviously since the beginning because we hear the same message every 6 months of read, pray, and go to church).

Anyway I loved conference, and I didn´t even get to understand both morning sessions. The translators talk WAY fast so... I didn´t get much. But I did get the part about the new temples and that was SUPER exciting. I remember driving to see Tron Legacy with Elder Abutaa on the night of Dec. 17th and wondering why traffic was so bad. Then we drove by the Tabernacle and saw the billowing smoke and we both felt bad about it. I along with the audience at the Conference center let out an audible ´´ooohhh!´´ when President Monson announced that haha. oh man thats SICK.

Okay well I don´t really have a lot more to say. I decided to eat only fruits and vegetables everyday to balance the 3500 calorie meal I have for lunches everyday and that has helped a ton haha.

It starts with the fundamentals.

I love you all and I am good.

Oh its nice to get up in the mornin, when the sun is shining overhead,

oh its nice to get up in the mornin, but its better to lay in bed. Haha. I thought about Grandpa Dick a lot because the fields are starting to get worked on more and I always see these old dudes on tractors. smells like the garden here.

Elder Daybell

Pictures!

Oh Maa!

That was supposed to say oh man!!!!

But anyway Hey Family!

This week was way crazy. Like really just miracle after miracle happened. First of all, we were able to do a service project for this lady in our neighboring branch (tupungato) and it was awesome. She has Bipolar disorder and stopped taking her pills for a while a couple of years ago, and ended up setting fire to her house. It was really sad because she is an awesome woman. like the kind that if the missionaries had to cancel on a dinner appointment, she would walk the 5 miles both ways to bring the food to them. True story.... But anyway she had been saving up to go to the temple in Buenos Aires and was finally able to take off for a few days and finally take part in the wonderful ordinances there. While she was gone, the missionaries, and quite a few members of the Tupungato branch kind of snuck in and repainted the inside and outside of the house, cleaned, and re-furnished her whole house. It was AWESOME! anyway, that is the story about the service project. I heard she was just beyond ecstatic when she came home.i wanted to be there when they yelled 创move that bus!创 but it was nice to hear that she was just really appreciative and moved by the service. It was way fun to take part in.
Secondly, we had a baptism this week. Remember Brian? he has a really hard time learning and understanding and reading? Well that was him. So here it is... On Friday night, we walked to his house to talk to his dad one last time to try and get permission. We threw the zone, and district leaders at him the past week, and even an assistant who is just a stud. Well Jose (Brian磗 Dad) just wouldn磘 budge. So we got to his house way out in the fincas and we talked to Jose for a couple minutes, trying really hard to just get him to understand how important this was. Well Elder Fackrell gave him the registro to sign, and Jose looked at it for a couple of minutes. Or hours, at least thats what it seemed like... and then he said, well, i want to give all my kids the chance to get baptized. He signed it, and Elder Fackrell and I had a hard time trying to pick our jaws up off the floor. It was an awesome night. So the next day was hectic to say the least. We spent the majority of the day setting up the font and getting everyone animated about the baptism. We asked to girls in the ward to give short talks and then just went around and made calls to many members inviting them. It got to be 6 and NO one was there (thats when it was supposed to start). One of the girls with a talk showed up, and we patiently waited for the other members (and Brian) to show up. At about 630, I walked out side, looked both ways and didn磘 see Brian. I went back inside into the Branch President磗 office, knelt and said a quick, sincere prayer, walked outside, and Brian was right there on his bike. He was good to go! but didn磘 want to do it without his Dad being there. We waited until 7 and his dad still wasn磘 here. Same thing, I said a quick sincere prayer and then Elder Fackrell made an executive decision to start. About halfway through Soy un Hijo de Dios, I looked out the window and saw not only Jose, but his step-mom, his older (member) brother, his two younger sisters and his two baby (legit babies) brothers. They also brought a ton of snacks. WhAT??!?!?!?!?!?!? Oh man. I couldn磘 believe it. I mean I could, but it was just so AWESOME! God truly is a God of Miracles. This has been a good week and now i have one transfer under my belt. One more with elder Fackrell and then I will be trained and supposedly I will be capable of training. Thats the goal of this new training program that we kicked off in the MTC...

But anyway, this week was just way good. I will have to tell you all about some other time though because there just isn磘 time haha... Anyway, only got a few minutes to email yesterday becuase it was the national holiday of the worker.... which is SO stupid because they already take off 3 hours everyday for siesta, plus the hundred other holidays and pretty much whenever they don磘 want to work haha..... Weird. anyway, This has been a good month and a half. I am trying to set some long term mission goals as well as short term and i find that therein lies success. This letter is super random and all over the place, but just want you all to know that God lives, and loves you and knows you better than you could imagine. There are many outside influences that want us to think that we can磘 do it, or the reward isn磘 worth the struggle like the 10 spies with evil reports in the book of Numbers. But there are many resources and giant helps we have that, like Caleb and Joshua, know its worth it and can encourage us to keep going and doing our best. I love you guys and I am really enjoying the work here. Hope all is well with you!

Elder Daybell OUT! haha

Hey Family!

This week was pretty crazy. and by crazy, I mean not much happened. My comp was sick a lot and so I just had a lot more time to read... I finished the missionary library, got through Leviticus (wow...) and am just about done with the NT. I am currently reading the LdM in spanish because I have already read it in English. As well as Our Legacy... Spanish is so much prettier! Also I have found that reading the Gospel Principles book and other church published articles helps a lot. I am also fasting more and that has really worked miracles for the language. I love fasting. Especially before the Sacrament meeting because it adds a more physical necessity to taking the Sacrament. It helps me to realize that we not only depend on Christ for our spiritual and emotional well beings, but also our physical. He truly is the Bread of Life and is the Fountain of Living Waters.

I had to give a talk this week about the Temple sealing, and families, which was hard because maybe one family and another young couple (who are inactive) are sealed as a family in our branch. So that was like... really difficult. And I had to lengthen it quite a bit because our third speaker forgot his talk. He really is a stud and so I can´t say anything about that. Plus I have forgotten to write like three talks back in the Fair Oaks haha... anyway... We have these really strong, and dusty windstorms called zondas and they pretty much get everything dirty and some people say they have heart problems because of them... but I don´t know about that. It just gives me way fun allergies haha.... but it pretty much covers our entire pensión with a thick layer of dust.... because our doors are kinda similar to swiss cheese haha... Speaking of doors, we got a call last night from our neighbor at like 11 and they said our front door was just...open (we go to Tupungato for p-days) and i guess Elder Fackrell forgot to shut it/lock it? haha.... its okay. I would only be mad if someone stole my scriptures. luckily nobody took anything soo... Tender mercy!

The work is going well. we have three really solid investigators right now who want to get baptized, but one (Brian) can´t read and that makes it hard for him to learn a lot of stuff... so we teach him how to read from the pamphlets and he is slowly absorbing the material. Another is lock stock and barrel into the gospel, but he won´t accept a baptismal date and that is so hard because we can´t figure out his concern... he just needs to exercise his faith. He has already accepted all the commandments and has heard all the lessons. He actually asks us for reading assignments in the Book of Mormon now haha.... He will come around. The other is a young girl who´s biggest impediment is her mother who isn´t a fan of the church. But she let her other daughter get baptized so I don´t really know what the deal is. We are working on it though. We have lots of new investigators who seem really good and prepared for this message though. I am stoked for them.

Anyway, I love the scriptures. My new favorite is Romans 8:18... It says something along the lines of ´´I reckon that all our trials aren´t worthy to be compared to the reward.´´ I really love that. Paul was a STUD. I have also been thinking that those people that we read about in the scriptures aren´t supposed to intimidate us, or make us feel small or inadequate. They are just testimonies of righteous living. We may not all have experiences like Saul on the road to Damascus, or Alma, and we may not see visions of grandeur or experience a physical meeting with the Lord, but we can live up to the Gospel and to what is expected of us. Those people are awesome, but I feel as if it could be said that if all men were like unto Randy Daybell, or Isa Abutaa or Jeffrey R. Holland, the gates of Hell would be shaken forever. I feel strongly that any number of my new extremely humble friends could be described as the salt of the earth and they have plenty of savor. I personally want to be known as Joseph of Egypt was known; ´´whatever they did there, he was the doer of it.´´

I love that. I love all of you and I hope that your week was good. The church is true! Stay sweet :)

Elder Daybell

Sept 12

The rabbit is from the Familia Diaz and i can´t wait to eat it! she said she is going to make it this super delicious way....

the coins were just random. i had a lot of time during siesta yesterday....

that is elder Hancock who was playing with all the features on my camera that i didn´t know i had.... he is way goofy.Super cool. also Elder Frost in the background there. he is a total capo...

The last one....elder hancock took a bunch of random pictures and this is one. like the floss thing? we totally planned this shot...

hey family!

this week was better. Our numbers were higher, and it went by way fast. I think Elder Fackrell is a little burned out from this area just because its a more difficult place....but we are working hard and making progress. We had two baptisms scheduled for the 17th and one of them just kinda flaked out and the other kid can´t read, so in addition to reteaching the lessons, we are teaching how to read from the BoM. Our English class is pretty successful. we teach it every Sunday at 4, in our chapple/barn and a lot of the kids come, especially around testing time. Its awesome because i can´t speak the language perfectly yet, but i can teach english to them. its way cool. I LOVE the alphabet and the sounds it makes in spanish. it just makes so much more sense! English has so many stupid rules that only work sometimes. like i before e except after c and sometimes before y and certain holidays and pretty much whenever you feel like it... but in Spanish there are very few irregulars and the rules really are rules. In English, they´re actually more like guidelines. Ah...

anyway. Yesterday was the 10 year mark. that is crazy. some people here are evil. they say the most messed up stuff like, ´´i´m glad that all those Americans died´´ and ´´ i hope the terrorists win´´ etc... its way stupid. i just dont say anything about being a soldier, but its hard... and they give us a lot of crap for being in Iraq and Afghanistan and its like... Hey.... remember the Malvinas Islands? why are you there? besides the british totally rocked you in that war... idk... its stupid. anyways.... The spirit of contention is of the devil...

We had some funny stuff happen this week. We went to an appointment way out there and we were talking to Brian, this 11 year old kid and his dad came up to us holding little baby bunny. He was like ´´can you guys give it a blessing?´´ and Elder Fackrell and I kinda looked at each other and I guess we both consented haha.... So he just held it in his hands and said a short prayer (don´t worry, no sacrilege was done....) and after, the dad took it back, and went outside and i´m pretty sure he killed it because the kids came back bawling and screaming haha....(he had run over the mom with his tractor and the baby was still... nursing and so it was probably the right thing to do...) but they are a really poor family so i think they might have made some soup that night.... but that was kinda interesting and funny i thought.

also had a pretty big miracle happen this week. At the same house, we were teaching Brian and around 12:30 we decided to go because we had to catch the 1:00 bus to Tupungato for some silly internet thing that the whole mission had to do. And neither of us ate that morning and our lunch canceled on us so... we wouldn't have eaten until late at night like 9-ish. But anyway we go back into the kitchen to say goodbye to the Hermana and shes like, you aren´t staying for lunch? (they are way poor, remember) and we said we didn´t want to be a bother, but she just said no, i am offering it to you! and so we stayed and ate, and the bus was late so we made that too!

Scripture fulfilled. i don´t know the words exactly but its something like don´t worry about food, or clothing or transportation, just go and preach. everything will be taken care of. Super awesome. The tender mercies of the Lord are definitely observed and much appreciated every day in Cordón.

well i hope everything is well! i love you guys like crazy!

Elder Daybell

Hey family! How is everybody doing? I am great. I had my first bautismo this week. His name is Raúl Umiri and he is a pretty solid convert. He had been coming to church for like a year, and the previous missionaries here like hadn´t done anything and so when Elder Fackrell and Benitez washed the area they found him and he like didn´t even know he could get baptized or anything. So he had been prepared a long time. It was awesome to baptize someone for the first time ever. I have been able to help out with vicarious baptisms, but this is really cool because I got to see someone take that step of faith in THIS life. Anyways, our font was awesome. it reminds me of the transportable tabernacle in the OT just because it took us about 10 minutes to put up and to take down. Now filling it up took like 4 hours. We started the night before and then finished on Saturday during the Siesta. I HATE the Siesta. just by the way... um.... lets see. What else happened. Not much this week. we actually had low numbers everyday and it is somewhat frustrating because I know the people are here that want to hear what we have to say, or more importantly what the Spirit has to say, but so many people CAN NOT get baptized because they are unwilling or unable to change their circumstances. Believe it or not, the most common problem is the law of chastity. Lots of people get married here because the government just GIVES them a house and so they say why not.... and then when they realize that was stupid, they just move out and move in with someone else. so there is a TON of married people here, they just dont live with their spouses. So we mostly teach kids and teenagers that aren´t married yet haha... We have one really solid family in our ward, the Diaz´s. They have 4 little girls and Hermana Diaz cooks lunch for us on sundays after church, which is the big meal here. mostly people just drink Mate and snack on stuff for the rest of the day. But it was funny because she cooked this thing yesterday that she claimed was arabic food haha. it reminded me of the weird grainy kind of think that mom and dad eat sometimes. its like quipu or something like that... i dont remember haha. anyway i thought it was funny to see another culture´s food in another culture than my own....

Um... lets see. I sent pictures of this week and i will send a few more. Last p'day, after email, we went to this thing called Cristo Redentor, which is like Argentina´s pathetic excuse for the Big Jesus statue in Rio de Janiero.... but anyways that was pretty cool. I don´t know why people like to focus on a super sad Jesus. I think He is probably more happy than sad.... but anyways. also there is a great store at the top that sells beer and cigarillos haha which is just what you need after a 30 minute hike to worship Jesus right??? man. they know business down here. Um I dont really have a lot more to say, other than I am really enjoying the people here. And i think that i´m pretty much satisfied for the rest of my life with rice, noodles of any kind, potatoes and bread.... which is all that the argentines eat basically haha. I am way excited to be in a 4 man pensión because then the odds are better that one of the elders will want to go running.

But anyway I have been having a great time and I learned from other elders that we pretty much get packages in 2-3 or 4 weeks, and letters are pretty quick. Dear elders are instantly... to the office in mendoza, so i will get those any time someone from our zone goes in. but thats like once a month or less. anyway.... I love you all and I will send a few pictures in a second email. Love ya!

Elder Daybell

Hey familia! Wow the family looks awesome. I love that last picture with everybody. Man i have some pictures to send too, but i forgot my little cord so i cant send any today.... but i do have a few. i guess there will just be more next week! that is crazy about the earthquake!!!! holy cow! and we were walking by some store here and heard something about a hurricane in north carolina, but it was argentine news so we didnt really know how reliable that was... so i hope everyone is okay. wonder how Sophie´s family faired... this week was good. we had a baptism scheduled for last saturday but Raúl was just super nervous about it so we put it for this next saturday.... and then his girlfriend was like (she is a member by the way... and not positive if they are like an item but they are always super awk around each other when we come haha...) it would be so cool to get baptized in a river! and so now thats probably whats going to happen. good thing winter is just getting over haha... and this is definitely not tropical weather haha... which i just mention because i think most people are under that impression... because i was haha...

anyway... oh yea! something really funny happened last week. a few things actually. first. the custom of greeting people here, regardless of gender, is the little peck on each cheek, and missionaries aren´t supposed to do that... haha i remember Hno. Hernandez in the mtc saying that we basically need to stiff arm people when they come in for kisses haha... anyway, we were at a pretty solid investigator´s house and during the lesson, a few people came in and this girl came in and kinda put her hand out in a really awkward way and i thought she was going for a high five so i just high-fived her and smiled like an idiot... i guess she was expecting a kiss on the cheek too because she like....stuck her head out toward me, and when i high fived her she looked really confused and then just moved on to Elder Fackrell haha.... okay second story..... last tuesday, we cleaned our pensión a little bit and when we were done our bathroom flooded. remember that hole i was talking about that would just fill up with poop-water every time to much water was being used? well that flooded like crazy... and we couldn´t shower or use any water.... basically this past week we have been living in a tent. because our heladera is broken too haha.... oh my lanta.. anyway we called the dueñó and she called this guy who came over and poured some acid down one of the drains which is argentine drano i guess... and then went out back to check our septic tank. its just a hole covered by a brick and so he moved the brick, and dropped a big rock down the hole. when he heard the splash, he said, "yep, its full." haha... anyway they came and got that taken care of a few days later.... but i love how they test stuff here haha. so efficient.

so anyway it was a pretty good week. we play settlers of catan on pday with our zone leaders and i came so close to winning today.... and then the last second elder frost (one of the ZLs) pulled a tricky move and won. but its funny because everytime he wins, he has a little ipod shufle and ihome, and finds the main theme from pirates and the carribean and just relishes in his victory haha...

Thats awesome about the batteries. just send them to the mission home. and i´m serious, if you put catholic pictures of the Virgin all over the package, it will have a better chance of getting to me. also make sure you write my name on the package somewhere too. but if you can, try using one of those big cushioned envelopes. it will get here faster and no one will open it.

umm... thats way exciting. i love that the vegas trip was great. i love the picture of dad too haha... reminds me of one i saw another time. and i can get pictures so keep´em coming!

I love you all!

Hope you have a really great week!
Elder Daybell

that is the doorway of one of the members houses here. it was a pretty nice place. notice the axe? i think it could be the cover to a book one day...

that is our bathroom. its pretty nice but not really... there´s a little hole on the ground where a bidet would be but we dont have one so its just a little whole where some really colorful water occasionally spurts out. Also the shower is warm but its super low pressure. but its awesomeee!!!! i sure wish i had my sandals that i forgot at the Broadbents house though haha.... i just use my tennis shoes....

view in front of our chapel...apples or peaches.... not sure, but some kind of vineyard and then the mountains.

hey family! wow this week has been crazy. I still dont feel like im in a different country though its wierd. also i will not really focus on good grammar and spelling, capitalization etc because the keyboard is different here and i dont know where the shift button is haha.... anyway. lets start with last monday. got at 6, airport by 8, plane at 10, georgia in the afternoon, and then leaving for arg. at about 9? dont remember, anyway. didnt stay up too long on the plane. woke up and we were about three hours or so away, and then we got there, finally met our contact, who is named alberto, about 2-3 hours later, got some pesos, and then went to a smaller airport and flew to mendoza. by that time i had flown about 20+ hours already so i slept on that plane ride and i was mad that i did because they handed out fracturas, which are these super tasty pastries, (instead of peanuts... argentina is so much better) and i missed them.... but then we finally got to mendoza, met the pres. and his wife, and went to his really nice apartment in mendoza and had a good dinner and i talked to santiago, his son, the whole time and he mostly made fun of my spanish but we ended up having a good conversation haha....

The next day we had a big lunch, meeting, and then we met our comps. mine is elder Facrell and he is pretty legit. Total capo. but we have been doing a lot of work since then. I am way out in the boonies though. we live in a pretty big pensión or apartment and we have a few neighbors, but for the most part its open vineyard and farmland. but we have a lot of people to talk to and meet here. i have already met some really cool families and its awesome because they speak spanish and its like... wow i can understand you kinda... but this one family- the diaz´s- are really cool. they have 4 daughters that are all under like 8 or 9 and they all remind me of emma haha. it is SO funny to hear little kids rattle out spanish. and they love elder Fackrell and me because we are easily the two biggest people in like 800 miles and our spanish is still pretty gringo-y. oh and all the people here, in cordon del plata, are bolivian so i have only talked to a few argentines so far...

man next letter will be a little better organized so.... sorry about this one.

Also about the gps thing, it died on me as soon as i got here, to cordon del plata, and i can´t find lithium batteries anywhere so.... i dont know what to do about that. packages take about 5 ish weeks to get here by the way. and they said anything i send probably wont make it so..... i dont know. someone said the envelopes that you ship stuff in are more reliable so keep that in mind.

anyway my spanish is getting pretty decent and i cant wait to talk to you all at Christmas haha..... I love it here. I will send a few pictures every week too.

Oh yea the license plates looks like oreos only opposite. white on the top and bottom and black in the middle. and that is for EVERY license plate.

They play a lot of american music here. and bolivian music which is the MOST annoying thing in the world. also holidays stink because EVERYONE is completely plastered..... and so kinda hard to talk to... but everyone is really friendly. okay. gotta go! love ya bye!

Elder Daybell. prounounced dievull.