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