October 16, 2012 Hey I got pooped on by a bird yesterday! We had a zone conference and as I arrived to the bus stop after, I felt something wet hit my head and all over my suit coat... I thought someone threw a water balloon on me, and then I (stupidly) looked up and saw the grey, feathery butt of a pigeon mocking me. I wasn´t even mad... just kind of shocked. That has never happened to me. For a fleeting moment, I DID want to get my vengeance (spelling?) with a rock but I realized that the pigeon probably didn´t poop on me intentionally.... although its timing was remarkable. Anyway, besides that, the zone conference was really good. We talked about a little bit of everything. I love President´s training because he does it so well. He usually picks like 5 or 6 scriptures and expounds on them and how we can apply them in practical ways in the mission to improve and become better missionaries. Then Hermana Avila talked to us for a little while and we heard from the zone leaders, the assistants, and finally from the senior missionaries who tried to convey a spanglish presentation on health and working out in the morning etc... After all was said and done, we got out of there, a little poopier than before and headed back to good ol´ Rodeo del Medio. That night we had a super good lesson with Graciela. She has been investigating for a while and it looks like there is nothing that stands in between her and being baptized on Saturday, after our blood drive. Its kind of cool because she is studying to be a nurse and so she has a calling basically, representing our ward in the blood drive. I am way excited because the last couple converts in this ward are going to be really strong. Last week as we were walking back from the Gutierrez family, I found a small plastic bag of seeds on the ground. I don´t know what they are, but they look like garbonzo beans.. So I imagine that they are just that... I don´t know, but the important thing is that I put them on some cotton and poured some water on them and now they are huge! They grew a ton in just a matter of days! All but one... I ate that one because it wasn´t progressing. Anyway that picture is old. I am doing great. Elder Larsen and I get along really well and we are trying really hard to keep it going in our ward and area. Our minute to win it activity was a blast and we had a couple investigators come, who got along really well with the ward members. We are probably going to have a Halloween activity, so if you have any ideas please send them. They don´t really do halloween here as far as I know... But maybe they do. I have been in pretty poor farming communities for my two mission halloweens and they don´t really celebrate anything, and if they do its usually with incredible ammounts of alcohol and barbecue. Well, I hope you are all doing great. I hope you are enjoying life and keepin it real good. Love ya! Elder Daybell

October 8, 2012 The Lord´s work is hastening. Hey Family! Wow... Conference as always is the best weekend in any given six month period on the mission. Better is you have people come with you that previously weren´t even aware that God still has prophets and apostles and 70s on the earth today. Unfortunately, this conference we only had one investigator come, that has been investigating forever, and is actually quite converted. He just needs to get divorced, which means he is still far from being baptized because it is such a difficult process here. Hermana Gutierrez and her daughter came and after the Sunday afternoon session, I asked her how she liked it, and she very animatedly said it was absolutely beautiful, and that she loved it. I was happy. Conference really was a wonderful experience and as I sat listening to the words of modern day prophets and apostles and righteous exemplary women, I couldn´t help but think, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." I felt an excitement and an emotional stirring several times during the talks that never before had I felt due to different announcements and other phrases I felt were just for me. I felt something similar to what one feels right before the big drop on the roller coaster, when you are almost paused at the top, looking at the huge fall in front of you when Elder Holland said during the press conference that the Lord´s work is hastening. I appreciate the way that regardless of who you are or where you are or what you are doing with your life, you can recieve mounds of personal guidance at Conference. The Lord is truly the God of gods because He knows what every mortal living here on earth needs to know and manages to give it to us precept upon precept every six months, but in only a cumulitive 12 hours of talks, music and prayers. The hymns were great were they not? This week went well. We found out today transfers and Elder Larsen and I are staying together in Rodeo del Medio for another transfer. I am very excited. We still have people we need to find together and I am grateful for the loving way that he dedicates himself to the work and helps me to push myself in a similar way. I hope to become more like him. I felt kind of like President Eyring in the sense that God is LETTING me stay in Rodeo for one more transfer. I honestly was somewhat looking forward to another area, or province and after the call came telling me I would be in Rodeo for another 6 weeks, a total of 24 weeks or almost 6 months, the feeling of......okaaaayyy....... came into my mind and heart and almost instantly I felt the words of the living prophet seer and revelator come to mind, and really the words of our Heavenly Father come in and penetrate saying, "I will LET you stay in Rodeo another transfer at least." How grateful I am for a loving and mindful Father. I hope that these next six weeks I can keep trying to put it all down and straightaway follow the Lord into the lives and hearts of my brothers and sisters here in Rodeo. I have so much I could say about conference, how I feel, what I saw or heard, and everything else.... I hope you all are doing well. I am SO excited to be close enough to hang out with R and Hope when I get back! I love you guys. Elder Daybell!

October 1, 2012 Hey Family! Happy Birthday Dad!!! and Lindsey!!!! and Grandpa Kenneth!!! Well this week I got an email about voting... I don´t really know how that will work out, because I don´t know anything about the people running, only that Mitt Romney, and Obama are running... If there are more, its a surprise to me. I don´t think I will do the absentee ballot because its just another thing to keep me from the more important work. But whoever wins, and is the best choice, I would probably have voted for him or her. I had a pretty good week. We did a few exchanges but for the most part it was a pretty tranquila week. The elders from Colonia Bombal got robbed this last friday night. They called me at 10:48 PM that night, and Elder Larsen answered and said something like, "no way!!!...Duddeeeeeeee" and then I talked to them. It was pretty nuts because Colonia Bombal is a super calm area and there is almost not enough people to have thieves... But I guess they were out late and just barely missed the robbers. They got cleaned out though; the water heater, the gas tank, microwave, blender, toaster, camera and all the pictures of both of them, and there was about two or three inches of water on the floor in the whole apartment. It was not a good way to end the night for sure. So they took the late bus and got to our pension late and we finally got to bed at about 12:30 AM. So that was probably the most exciting thing that happened this week. We have a couple investigators that are going to get baptized, but have just a little tiny doubt that keeps them from taking the first step. I am reminded of the young ruler that Jesus taught. The young man had kept up all HIS commandments from his youth, and was for sure a good young man. When he asked the Lord what more he lacked, the answer was too great for him to bear in that moment. Our investigators have made some amazing changes, and now live a more honorable life, and are happier. They have seen many blessings recently. They all have one little thing that keeps them back though. We don´t really know where to go from here with them because they come to church every week and participate in activities and in classes and so on... Missionaries sometimes I feel are too hard on themselves. They think that it is thier fault that people use their agency to reject the good news of the Gospel. We must all learn from the Example that is Jesus Christ. Some people even He taught didn´t drop everything all at once and immediately accept His Gospel. These kinds of experiences are good to have though. When the Lord gave us the commandment to go forth and make disciples in all nations, baptizing them, He never said that it would be easy, or even a fun experience but He did promise us that if we keep His commandments, we shall have a fulness of joy, even as His joy is full. Anyways, I am STOKED for conference! I hope to hear a few more temple announcements, especially here in Mendoza! I hope you are all doing good. Sorry this letter was a little all over the place, I got called like 6 times while writing this. Love ya! Elder DAYBELL

September 17, 2012 Hey Family! Well this week was great. Lourdes and Miriam got baptized on Saturday and it was a great service. We had a lot of people come and there was just a great spirit present. I made some banana bread from the recipe that you gave me (mom) and everyone LOOOOVED it. Even if they don´t have shortening here. I baptized Lourdes and Elder Larsen Baptized Miriam, and then our Bishop, Obispo Villarroel confirmed Lourdes, and the High Priest group leader, Abuelo Gomez confirmed Miriam the next day in church. We had kind of an exciting day getting the font filled on saturday and trying to get everything ready. At first we just shoved a hose into the kitchen sink faucet and let ´er rip, but the water ran out after about an hour and we had no idea what to do until about two hours before the service was to start, two hermanas showed up and let us know about the secret spickot from outside the chapel.... so with two hours to go, and about 4 feet left to fill, we started and somehow there was enough water in the mobile font by the time everything actually started. It was really great. Lourdes made us some matching knit hats...on mine, she put W for "Willians" and on Elder Larsen´s she put a L for Larsen. I think it´s pretty dope. She also got us some shirts. Mine is about the rugby team here in Argentina, the Pumas, and how they won the world championship back in... 1946 or something like that haha. Elder Larsen says something like "Mendoza, Capital internacional de vino" Anyhooo besides that, the sacrament meeting on Sunday was great. The Stake President came and talked about temples and how they bless us, and how we need to go si o si to the Buenos Aires temple or Santiago Chile temple as often as we can. It was just a good talk about the next steps that Lourdes and her family will be taking... soon. By the way, this is the Gutierrez family that I have been talking about for about 4 months. Ya buddy I´m happy! We have to keep working with the rest of the family, but they will come. This next weekend we will be working so that Graciela and Matias can also be baptized. Keep them in your prayers! I am good. I ate mondongo again recently. Its been a while, but I have been here long enough that it was actually muy rico. I hope you are all doing good. Love ya! Have a good week! Also, we have interviews with President Avila this week (the 20th) and so I will get my package that arrived! Thanks! Lots of love Elder Daybell

September 10, 2012 Hey Family! This week was de diez. Elder Larsen and I had a rough start on monday and tuesday because I have been dealing with some dumb alergy-cold thing for about a month and it reached a climax on saturday, sunday, monday, and tuesday, but it seems to be going away a little bit. No worries, because its nothing worse than that fun month in Virginia when the allergies attack. I just have the blessing of being in another fruit producing, flowering area in spring time. Free fruit almost everywhere, vale la pena. We are doing way good though; Elder Larsen is a dream companion and so we get along really well and have a lot of fun working together. We are seeing the Lord´s hand in the work as we work hard to meet goals and find thos that will listen to His voice and not harden their hearts. I recently finished the Book of Mormon in spanish for the first time... I know right, I have like a ton of time as a missionary and I am just BARELY getting that done? Well I have been taking my time up until I saw that Elder Larsen had less than a 100 pages left to go and he has a little less than half of the time I have... So I turned it on and ended up losing any way (by a day). Well, we don´t read for mileage or for distance, So now I will re-start and give the Book the attention it duly deserves. But the Lord never loses an opportunity to help us learn and grow, regardless of how much time we give Him, and so I learned a lot and realized some things in the last couple days that have helped me and blessed me. I wanted to tell you guys about an experience that I have already shared with you, but that continues to press on my mind and heart... The Book of Mormon is the most important resource one has in his or her conversion, second only to the Holy Ghost. I have seen it change lives, and tenderize hardened hearts. I love the message that it contains, and I love that it has been brought forth among all of God´s children to help us come unto Christ. It is true, because it is from God. It is from God, because it is true. I have a testimony of the words of José Smith when he says that it is the most correct of any book on earth, and that no other will help us come closer to our Lord than this one. It has changed my life, it has blessed my life, and it continues to do both of those things daily. While the book itself is essentially, paper and ink and a little glue, the words and how they are set forth paint a wonderful image of who God is, and how great His love is for me, and for you and for your neighbor and friend. If you aren´t reading it, I would with much love invite you to start. Any problem is solvable with the Lord, and any question that we have that matters to us, will be resolved within the pages of scripture that the Lord has given us, along with fervent and sincere prayer. We had the temple rededication this sunday morning, and it was awesome. We went to the 3rd of 3 sessions and heard President Eyring, and Elder Christofferson (who speaks perfect spanish (he served in the Argentina North mission under President Richard G. Scott (who also knows spanish (the same mission covered the mission I am currently in)))).....) and Elders Mervyn B. Arnold (president of the South America South Area) and Francisco Viñas of the Seventy. It was a great meeting and I am so excited to see the Buenos Aires temple when I leave to come home. I think we will be able to go through it before we fly back, so I am so stoked!. Anyway, I love you guys, I hope you are well and happy. Thanks for your prayers on our behalf. un besito. Elder Daybell

September 3, 2012 Hey family This semana was pretty wild. Every day is going faster and faster and We are finding so many people that are progressing wonderfully. They actually all want baptism. Now the challenge is getting people married, or divorced and then married so they can get baptized. Or helping them get to the capilla. Getting divorced here is way harder than other stuff though. In a lot of the families we are teaching, they already have testimonies of everything. Now they are just jumping through all the political and financial hoops of the Mendocino government to get divorced. Flia. Gutierrez is coming a long great. We got to give the Hermana a blessing because she was sick and so it was great for her to experience her first priesthood ordinance from an authorized holder. They are all coming a long pretty good though. We are so in love with their family and have loved teaching them these past couple weeks. We are going to have the temple rededication this sunday for Buenos Aires, and I am pretty excited. I still have to get a white handkerchief but... Its all good. Anyways, I am doing way good. Elder Larsen is way cool. We are thankful for your prayers! Love ya, Elder Daybell

August 31, 2012 Dear Brother and Sister Daybell, It is a pleasure to be working with Elder Daybell. He has recently been called to serve as a district leader and is growing and maturing as a man and as a servant of the Lord. Thank you for the support and encouragement you give to him. Your son’s mission brings many blessings to him, the people he teaches, and the other missionaries around him. I’m sure that you have also felt the blessings that the Lord gives to a missionary’s family. A district leader is assigned to a group of elders, normally two or three companionships. Once a week he presides in a meeting with his district. He will prepare talks and classes that will help the missionaries in his district improve their teaching techniques and knowledge of the scriptures as well as the missionary lessons. He is responsible to stay aware of his district’s health and spiritual progress. He also does proselyting work with each of them. As district leader, Elder Daybell will give baptismal interviews. What a wonderful opportunity and blessing it is for him to sit and discuss with baptismal candidates their progress and the covenants that they will make. He determines whether or not the candidates have fully repented and if they are prepared to be baptized. We know your family will be blessed and see the growth in Elder Daybell as he shares with you the experiences and challenges that he has as a missionary and a representative of Jesus Christ. I pray that the Lord will bless you and your son continually in your efforts to build the kingdom of God on earth. With love,President Sergio E. Avila

August 20, 2012 Hey Family I am glad that Vegas was fun. There is a huge boliche (club) near where we live called La Vega. It has a picture of the Statue of Liberty on it and I never understood why until yesterday we were talking to a less active 40-ish with 8 kids hermana who told us that is one of her favorite clubs. She was talking about how it has that statue that signifies liberty because the world is like that... all things are free for the taking and it doesn´t matter what one does because consequences don´t matter.. I don´t know, something like that. I was trying not to laugh when she told me she had gotten back from dancing at about 6 on Sunday morning, slept for 2 hours and then went with us to look for her neighbor Graciela, who is going to get baptized probably on the 1st of September. So besides Graciela and her super cool son Matias, we are working with the Gutierrez family still. The hermana has come to church three times in a row, and she is super converted. Her husband and her two boys didn´t come this week, and I asked her why on Sunday, and she just kinda started to break down and asked me what we can do to get her husband converted, because the boys pretty much follow him. I have been working with this family for about 3 months and I don´t know what more they need to just take that step. I know you are praying for us and for the people we teach, but I wanted to ask that you especially keep this good family in your prayers. The other day, we were in a cita with them, and at the end (which was a mess because they always have really loud and obnoxious visitors like right when we feel like its a good oportunity to extend the baptism committment) the hermana told me that for now she was not going to get baptized. I just felt my stomach fall and everything seemed to just kind of shut down for a second. She then greeted Pamela "Anderson" (the hermano´s sister in law. She announces herself as Pamela Anderson every time she karate kick´s the door open....) and looked back at me, and asked me why I was so quiet... Well, we just played it off kinda and then set up a different cita for 2 days later. That lesson was great. That was when we realized that the hermana is converted. We talked a lot about different things, and I asked them if they feel like their reading from the Book of Mormon is guiding them and helping them to know what they can do to come closer to God. The hermana said that she started to realize how much repentence and baptism is emphasized in the book. I asked her if she read 3rd Nephi 11, and she said yes. The Book of Mormon is such an important tool. Besides the Spirit, it is the most important tool that we have as members of the Church of Jesus Christ to share the Gospel and help others understand all the "good news" that our Savior brings. We usually always leave 3rd Nephi 11 to read just because of the spirit that it usually brings. If you haven´t read it lately, I would recommend it, trying to imagine yourself as one of the multitude that Jesus commanded to come forth and to feel the marks of the nails in His hands and feet. Or try to immagine hearing the voice and testimony of the Father, and then seeing that Man enveloped in white descend. I love every word of that story. Anyways, I am doing good. We are finishing up this transfer and I am excited to see what happens here in a week. We lost almost 30 missionaries this last week due to so many going home for school. Including one assistant, and 12 of the 24 zone leaders. A lot of good friends are getting to that point of going home. Elder Reininger went home, who I will miss a ton. We did many exchanges back when I was born and when I was in Godoy Cruz. Elder Fackrell goes home in about 7 weeks. I will always remember him as my trainer and will miss him a ton. Relationships made while serving the Lord are always worth being treasured forever. I hope you all are doing good. Love ya Elder Daybell

August 13, 2012 > > Hey famlee > > Wow have I got a story for YOU guys... On Saturday night we went to our appointment with the Gutierrez family and were surprised to see an unfamiliar truck parked outside. Well, we arrived about 15 minutes early on accident and so we decided we would try to be at least on time in case they had some important family or friend or whatever (here, if they have "visitas" we never get into the house, even members). We decided to knock a house that was near (the only house that was near, we live in the super-country) and when that ended up being a, "no, gracias, ya vamos a la iglesia Jesus te ama....no, gracias....ya te dije, no gracias!!!", we went back to the Gutierrez´s house. The truck was still there. So Elder Larsen and I did our PEPO (Planear:plan, estudiar:study, practicar:practice, and orar:pray). We talked about what we were going to talk about again, we practiced and then we said a prayer. I couldn´t have been more surprised what happened when we knocked, if Elder Larsen hadn´t called it perfectly; Lurdes came out with an akward kind of smile and told us, " I have some bad news.... the pastors from the church came..." I liked how she said THE pastors instead of OUR pastors, and THE church, instead of OUR church, but still, a little shot of panic went through my body and then I think a higher, more intelligent influence took over and I said, "no matter, that´s okay. If it´s okay with you..." She said it was fine if we still came in, but that maybe we should act like it was the first time we were contacting them or knocking or whatever. Luckily the natural man didn´t understand what she had said, and the higher influence came back again and I said, " Hermana we came here to say something, and we are going to say it." She said, "bueno, pasen hermanos." > > So we went inside and warmly met the two pastors (husband and wife) and then the rest of the family. We made some small talk and the Pastor said, after asking us where we were from, "the only word that is the same in every language is ´halelluya´." I had not heard that ever in my life, because it sounds way different in Castellano. So I said kind of smartly, "Also, taxi." hahaha..... So after that little awkward silence, I said, "well, we wanted to come and share message with you all. Would it be alright if we started with a prayer?" The hermano asked me to do it, and so I agreed, prayed, and then opened up my triple to 3 Nephi 27, and we read 13-21, or the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The pastors refused to read from the Book, and so we skipped them and had everyone else read. After we were done reading, and explaining, the woman pastor asked us where in the bible that was found. We explained that the Book of Mormon wasn´t in the Bible, that they were two different witnesses of Jesus Christ. We knew exactly where this was headed and then for about 15 or 20 minutes after that, we sat and listened to all of their completely false-doctrinly based attacks. They asked us questions and then as soon as we had said two or three words, they started to answer themselves, again, taking pure truth and twisting it to satisfy thier almost blood-thirsty desire. Elder Larsen did the smart thing and in the middle of the pastor´s rant on how baptism is just something we do, not something we need, he cut him off and started bearing testimony about the Book of Mormon. When he was cut off by the pastors (both at the same time) I somehow quietly and firmly told them how we had been called by a prophet of God, and set apart to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the Gospel of faith, repentence, baptism, the Holy Ghost, and of enduring to the end. My companion again bore testimony about how baptism is essential and without it, we will not enter into the Kingdom of God. The pastors were a little shocked I think, and then said, "well, we have to go now." They asked if they could leave with a blessing, and so the pastor asked us all to stand and he started his prayer, addressed to Jesus, and blessed us (los chicos muy jovenes) and the family Gutierrez in his own name, with his "authority" and closed the prayer in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. > > Elder Larsen gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon and they accepted. I was really glad that we hadn´t given in to the temptation to fight back with them, because then the Gutierrez´s would have had that impression. I am also thankful for the guidance we had in our words and in our timing and everything. The entire family (except for the dad) came to church the next day and it ended up being just a miraculous experience. I am very thankful to know that we aren´t in charge here, in this work. > > I am doing really good. I hope you are all doing good too. It´s starting to warm up here, which is wierd becaue in Cordon, at this time I was still freezing. But time rolls on, seasons come and go, and new alfajors come out. Love you guys. HAVE FUN IN VEGAS! > Elder Daybell

August 6, 2012 Hey Family! This week was really great. The Gutierrez (Goo-tee-air-ess) Family is doing great. We have been working with them for so long, and I can tell that Satan does NOT want them to be in the Church. The hermana was telling us that as she was reading Alma 34 recently, she felt a a hot, painful sensation in her head, but kept on reading because she knew that el enemigo was trying to keep her from learning the truth. We had such a good lesson this saturday night though; we told the story of the people of Ammon and how they were evil, and a bloodthirsty people for a very long time. They then recieved the missionaries and had a wonderful, fantastic conversion. They then were commanded by the Lord to move to a place that they could reap and sow the principles of the Gospel more fully, in the lands of the people of Nephi. We noted how their children were blessed for generations and how amongst all the people, never was thier a happier bunch. We then talked about how a while ago, their family (Gutierrez) was not in the right path, and how, thanks to some wonderful Christian brothers and sisters from a different church, they had come to know the Lord and His words. And how now, we as representatives of the Lord are here to help them be where they need to be in order to be really happy and safe. The only thing keeping them from being baptized is that they don´t want to lose all their friends that have helped them through all the hard times of the last few years. They have testimonies of the Book of Mormon, the Prophet Joseph, and all other things necessary. Of course they have a huge testimony of the Lord, and of the Father. They have friends in the church and they came to church yesterday. Its just a matter of waiting for them to be ready I think. But let me say... I fasted like you this weekend, and we really saw miracles come from it. I know that it is a gift of God to be able to fast. Anyway, this week went really quickly. We have been making a lot of progress with our ward´s 555 program, and we are seeing the results of puting the plan of the Prophet into action. I am really excited for the coming weeks. This week is going to be nuts. Pday today, district meeting tomorrow, zone conference thing on wednesday, and then planning on Thursday. I will be able to work in the morning two days this week! Its crazy. Anyway, I am doing well and I am starting to sound more argentine haha. Everyone here says I sound like a mexican, which is wierd because there aren´t any here. I don´t know why they say that... But they think I look exactly like a soccer player from Mexico, who I don´t remember como se llama... Chincholito or something like that. Anyway, I will have a good week. Hope you all love The City of Sin. :) haha jk I <3 vegas. Elder Daybell

July 30, 2012 Hey mom sorry I don´t have a lot of time now to write a ton.. But i love you! Email length is not an indicator of that! Hey whats up everybody! This week was super good. We got just a ton done and were really able to make some good progress with a lot of the people here in Maipú. We were able to meet a lot of new people and really help some of the old-timers progress. We found a new pension and so we should be moving in next week sometime. I ate some cool meat crepe things that were good... I am really cold for most of the day because we are living in a cave with light bulbs again, hello Cordón del Plata... Well... I will write you next week. I know how pathetic this is... Love you! Chau Elder William "Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe" Daybell

July 23, 2012 Hey Famlee This week was really great. I got a new companion named Elder Larsen. He is from Saint George Utah and knows my MTC comp Elder Smith, and my last pench-mate Elder Wixom. Small world indeed. Anyways, He is super cool. He has the same time as Elder Dowdle and Steeves so I think we are just juggling around that generation with the elders that trained them... But anyways we had a really good week. We found a lot of people that can progress and this transfer should just be super awesome. We have a goal of baptizing every weekend and it looks like we can really make it happen so I am excited. Elder Steeves is in my old zone, and on Saturday morning, we had the opportunity to go to the offices to listen to a member of the area presidency, Elder Aguero. He mostly talked about Joseph Smith and it was a great little presentation, but the best part was probably just seeing a lot of old friends. My trainer, Elder Fackrell dies in two transfers and so its really crazy. I remember being with him when he had just one little añito. And now I have more than that. It is going by too fast! Elder Larsen and I decided to do a special fast to start the transfer off and we have really seen some miracles come from it. We went to go look for the Gutierrez family on sunday morning and we managed to only get one of them to go with us, but it was ok because it was the father of the family! He loved the meeting and got to know really well a lot of the members. I love being able to see the progression this family has made in the gospel. Although it has taken some time, I know that they have really made some progress and are finding themselves closer and closer to the Lord as often as they keep the committments to read and to pray and to come to church. Remember the "primary" answers to every question in sunday school? CPR? Church pray read? They really are the primary answers to life and the sure way to endure to the end. Well, I am having a super blast. I know my pictures are all goofy, but I just didn´t take a lot with Elder Steeves I guess. They are all from the last p-day we were together, and also at the zone asado. The picture with blood dripping down my face is my favorite. If Hollister needs a new model or anything just let them know...Chiste.... Anyways, I hope you all are doing super well. I am great, and happy and healthy and just a little cold because all our heaters and outlets broke/exploded this week. Pero, oh está, todo bien. Love you guys. Elder Daybell

July 16, 2012 Hey Family! This week has been really great. We were able to get with the Gutierrez family a couple times and teach them some more. They still haven´t come to church yet and that has been hard just because it´s the only thing that is keeping them from being baptized. They have had their car break down, amongst other things that have been keeping them from coming. The war is really neck and neck sometimes in the mission... Anyway, today marks the beginning of a new transfer and my new companion is coming from San Juan and is fairly new. He got here the same time as Elder Steeves and Elder Dowdle so I will be having a super sick transfer for sure. Elder Steeves is going to my old zone, like 10 minutes from my old area, so for sure he will be tearing it up out there. Super stud that he is. I am excited to stay in this area because there is a lot of potential and we are going to continue to invite others to come unto Christ, and then help them by applying the first principles and ordinances of the restored Gospel. I am so glad to see that Dylan got baptized. It really is such a simple ordinance that means the difference between eternal life or not. I know that he is going to be a great missionary someday and remembering his own baptism and the special people that he had there with him will help motivate him to find those honest seekers of truth. Today we had an asado, and I made my own and I don´t mean to toot my own horn or anything, but... toot toot. It was SO good! The cows down here have really got it figured out. :) We also played american football (you have to distinguish here) and ended up having quite a day. So this ciber that we go to doesn´t have working USB outlets so I can´t send pictures. Maybe next week we will go to a different ciber so I can send pictures from the las 6 weeks mas o menos. I am SO sorry! Elder Steeves and I have taken a ton of pictures so... I will send them sometime promise. Anyways, you were right mom, I WAS giving a talk this last sunday! I talked about testimony and how to get it and the kind of blessings that open up to us once we have it, primarily, the opportunity to share it. Weird that I would talk about missionary work no? But its all good. I enjoy giving talks because I always learn so much. I hope you are all doing well. I have a few requests.... could you send me a ton of pictures (over email) of old family outings, of me as a baby/man-cub, and if you can find one of Elder Abutaa and I, that would be so great. I need to put some more in my photo album! Like some from JROTC, football, scouts, etc.... Also, I need to hear some of your miracle stories about the Word of Wisdom or Law of Chastity or Tithing or Priesthood experiences. I want to be able to share them with people here to help them see how living according to those particular commandments can really help them, and how it has helped me and my family. So only the stories you feel comfortable being shared with people you might never meet. That is all! I hope you are good and loving your role in the plan. Remember how much you are loved from Heaven and exactly who is rooting for each and every one of you. I love you much more than I can really honestly express. You are the greatest blessing I have ever recieved and I am so happy to see how you are doing, collectively and individually. I love you! Elder Daybell

July 9, 2012 Hola Familia! How is it going up there? Its cold down here. I am glad to hear that everybody seems to be doing good and healthy and happy. At least thats what I assume if its not the case :) Well this week was a little harder than the previous semana. We had so many great investigators going so well and then the enemigo did what he does and all thier baptismal dates dropped and I feel like we are back to the drawing board. Oh well, that is kind of the name of the game. We were really excited to see the Gutierrez family get baptized all together this Saturday but it looks like that might take a few more weeks now. Its all good. ITS SO HARD TO FOCUS ON THIS LETTER! there is so much music and everyone is trying to talk to me at once. The internet cibers here are like big dance clubs!!! Anyway, we had some interesting things happen here. During the hours from 1:00 PM to about 6:00, this country is a ghost town. We don´t usually have much to do during this time so we usually spend this time knocking doors, looking for a new apartment, or opening the mouth with the one or two people that are outside. Well this week we decided to explore the area a little bit, trying to find a man who has been coming to church for about 3 years or more but can´t get baptized because he´s not married. On the way out to his middle-of-nowhere house, we found several European girls riding by on bikes, and then a couple of americans were just a few minutes behind them. I heard them speaking english and so I very wittily and quickly prepared a greeting. As one of them rode by, I said, "Hey, whats up." He replied in the same manner. This was a wierd experience for me as I have not greeted anyone like that in a little while. The casual manner in which he responded was kind of wierd for me... We are in a different country after all. Whatevs. We never found the guy, but we did run into Hans, our latest new investigator. He is from Belgium and knows English, Spanish, French, German and Dutch. He sticks out just a little bit from the rest of the Bolivians here, and better yet, he was a referral from someone. I have never taught the Gospel in English, so this will be interesting. Beside that, We didn´t really have a super eventful week. On the 4th of July we sang the Star Spangled Banner in district meeting, and that was pretty much it. Today is the 9th of Julio, which is the 4th of July for Argentina, so its going to be exciting tonight. Anyway, I hope you all are good. I am great. I will write you again in about a week. Exactly. Love ya! Elder Daybell

July 3, 2012 Hey, how do you walk? (Hola como andás) Aren´t literal translations SO fun? That means like whats up. How are you all doing? Happy birthday Mady and America! You all are having a crazy week huh? My last one was pretty good. I am writing today because there was an invasion from Chile and we all had to come to the offices. :) Chiste. We had zone conference all day and we had so much to talk about. We mostly talked about obedience which was long overdue but good to hear and be reminded of. It reminded me of a really cool scripture I found at the end of 1st Chronicles when David is giving his son Solomon the kingdom and the charge to build the temple---"Be strong...and do it!" There are so many opportunities for us to make decisions every day. There is not white to grey to black of obedience. President Avila made it very clear that there is just obedecer and desobedecer. Everytime we choose to obey, our self control strengthens, along with other God-like attributes like faith, testimony, and wisdom. I learned a lot, and so it was great. I have to tell you all about this last week! The Gutierrez Family. They were a reference from Hermana Adela, the bishop´s wife. She is SUPER nice and always has someone new for us to visit, along with a nice warm bolivian treat whenever we see her. Anyways, the Gutierrez Family is super hard to find, because they work very hard and are only home on Tuesdays and Thursdays and sometimes Saturdays in the night time. Well we went out on Tuesday and when we got there (about a 30 minute walk to the middle of nowhere) they said that they were just about to go out to take in the honey. I had no idea what that meant. But as Jorge (dad) gathered the firewood, I started to understand. We all drove out to this lone tree in their huge field of lettuce and tomatoes and then I saw the GINORMOUS bee´s nest. We were harvesting it! They readily accepted our offer to help back at the house before we knew what we were doing. When I saw the nest, I knew why. About 3 feet tall and 2 feet thick or wide, the nest was full of sleeping bees. Well we lit the fire to get the smoke which really handicaps bees, and as they started to fall off stunned, we started to cut the nest and collect the pure honey (Which tasted very delicious thank you Winny the Pooh). I didn´t get stuck once. Neither did my comp, but the youngest son, Juan Pablo got stung right on his neck, which is funny because he was farthest away from the nest the whole time. We had a lot of fun and definitely got the blood goin. We were totally not expecting that though! We just took off our sweaters and ninja-tied them around our heads to protect us. Well that was fun. Juan Pablo went back to the house and came back with a lighter and a flamethrower made from his Adidas body spray. He got his revenge... Anyways we got done and had a short, really great lesson with the whole family and the nieghbor that helped sacar the miel. On Thursday, we had a great lesson with them again, and this time the sister of the mom came and she liked to talk a lot and tried to bible bash but my momma taught me not to fight so she got bored and eventually quieted down. Saturday night came, and we had yet another excellent lesson with this divine family. We talked about who Christ was for each one of them, and something that He did that they liked. After talking, we brought up baptism, and every single one of the family (6 people) accepted without protest the challenge to be baptized on the 14th. When asked what quesitons they might have, the Hermana said, "well... will the water be warm?" And then she started laughing. (For all you who want to know, its winter time here, and the water will NOT be warm :)) Anyways, I just wanted to tell you about the one super prepared family that we have found thanks to a reference from a member! Think about that person in your life who you have doubts would accept the Gospel and missionaries, and pray about them. And then tell the elders about them! The Lord is ALWAYS preparing men´s heart to recieve the Good News! I love you guys and hope you are happy and lovin life. I pray for you Elder Daybell

June 25, 2012 Hey Family! How is everyone doin lately? I am doing really wonderfully. This week seriously was SO good! We had so much happen in our area. Elder Steeves and I are working really hard with this 555 Plan. It is really the next thing that the obra misional needed to take it into the future. Its amazing when you look back to see in the history of the Church the different things introduced by prophets and seers, given to them by the Lord to help move the work along. I am so thankful for this new plan. It is going to give this great work the foundation that it needs. We are so close to a temple here! I can feel it! I will be so happy to see the new generations of missionaries come because I know that they will be able to reap the seeds that have been planted for generations here in this mission. But the field is white, all ready to harvest now also, and so the labor is great and the reward is greater. I feel so incredibly blessed to be a part of this great work and to have been given the blessing of being an instrument in God´s hands along with all my consiervos in the work. I always try to remember that the work of the Temple, the work in Home Teaching, the work of the full-time missionaries and the work that goes on in the home are all the same great work, and when we all work together as if we were on the same team (which we are) then we see great miracles. Never in my life have I been so convinced that our Father in Heaven lives and loves me and all of His wonderful children. Even though sometimes we trample Him underfoot by our words and actions, especially towards our fellow brothers and sisters, He will always love us and be willing to recieve us with open arms as soon as we decide to turn to Him. We had some great lessons this week in which I felt the Spirit´s presence and I know that Carlos, Paola, Alejandra, Jorge, Franco, and many others have felt to "sing the song of redeeming love". I am SO excited to see their progression as members of the Church of Jesus Christ, and participants in the plan of happiness. I am doing really great and I hope that you are all doing well and are excited for your family reunión. See ya at the next one :) Elder Daybell

June 19, 2012 Hey Fam ¡¡¡¡FELIZ DIA DEL PADRE!!!!! This week was pretty good. We got to meet more members of our ward and that was cool. This morning there was an earthquake. at about 5:00 AM, I woke up suddenly to the creaking house and the vibrating bed. It only lasted a couple seconds. Everything was destroyed. Look at the photo of me and the rubble.... Tragedy. Just kidding, that is just the outside of our apartment. But there really was a pretty fuerte earthquake today. All the dogs and car alarms in the neighborhood went off. Elder Steeves and I were talking about how maybe there was a huge earthquake in Chile or something, but I guess not because nobody has said anything about it. My first thought was, "oh no where is my emergency backpack?!?!!" and then it was, "Why did I eat all the american food in my emergency backpack???" Well, anyhoo... We are currently puting into place the 5-5-5 plan in our newly upgraded ward. I think it will be really successful here because Elder Steeves and I both want to work hard and really put it into practice. Unfortunately we have families all over the place and we recently discovered that our area is like the size of Rhode Island due to the spread out houses and large and spacious fields (unintentional). So we are going to be burnin some calories this winter! Also, cumplí mi primer añito en la mision! That tie is my one year tie (Thanks Soph!). I am really loving the area I am in and the people especially. I am doing super good. Elder Steeves is so amazing! He lived on a ranch and has alll sorts of stories. He even knows how to make summer sausage, which is something that I would have never known about if I didn´t ask him what sort of fun activities ranchers do. We got bittersweet news this week... Two of our progressing investigators who were going to get baptized on the 20th are no longer going to be able to get baptized then. We thought they were getting married on the 19th, but really they are registering to have a court appearance or something so that they can get married on the 19th. This means probably sometime in July they will be baptized. But its all good. I also recieved a spot of bad news from Elder Larisch who was in my last apartment with me.... Sammy died. The dog. So... That is sad but she is in a better place. The funeral will be on Friday I guess (we found a member that wanted to take her so SHE will be performing a funeral service.... not the missionaries. Para que sepan...). Alrighty then. I think that is about it. I hope you are all doing good and lovin life. Elder Daybell

June 11, 2012 Hey Family! So guess where I am? Cordón del Plata. Just kidding, but that would be crazy huh? I am actually in Rodeo del Medio, which is the former 25 de Mayo. It just became a ward two weeks ago. We meet in a house that just happens to have all the doorways at a height of 6´0, and unfortunately I am like 6´2 or 3... I have hit my head about six billion times already. My area is very much campo, which is country. It is almost completely Bolivian, and full of fields. I LOVE that. It is just like Cordón only maybe 10 times bigger. Bolivians talk a lot differently than Argentines, so I am still getting used to the soft-spoken, quiet Bolivian tone. My companion is Elder Steeves (Estives in Spanish) and he (like Elder Dowdle) is from Oregon. He is just a little shorter than me and we definitely stick out here. But I am pretty sure we won´t get robbed so thats good. Welll what more can I tell you about my new life... Our apartment is GINORMOUS. Literally a cave. Unfortunately it is winter time here and almost none of the outlets work, and the one gas heater doesn´t have long enough hose to really do a lot. President Rastelli, who lives in my last area and is counselor in the mission presidency told me my first priority here is to find a new apartment haha... We will see. We have a washing machine which is great. I have a lot of pictures to take. This area is super great though. Members all really love us and its been a while since this area has seen a lot of growth, but there are so many people here ready to come on into the fold. I am really excited to see what happens. Some news.... The people from my last area that were supposed to get baptized on my last Sunday there (but didn´t due to stake conference) got baptized yesterday and so that was really great. I am really happy for them, and for Elder Dowdle who had been working really great and hard. Its hard on new missionaries to not see the fruits of their efforts (but that being said, I think its harder for the trainers because they have to do all they can to keep the new missionaries excited about the work). I am just grateful that everything came out so wonderfully. So in this mission, we set a monthly goal of 100 baptisms for the month of June. I don´t really know how that compares to other missions, but I do know that it is pretty low compared to other latin american countries, and even other missions in Argentina. It really amazes me just how succesful we are as a mission. I am convinced that we are building a foundation to the work. I know we are doing things here and planting many seeds with people that will be eventually reaped by future missionaries, especially when the province of Mendoza is covered in the shadow of a temple from the gigantic Andes, the real "top of the mountains." "People shall flow unto it...and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob..." I am so excited for a temple to be announced here. It really is just what is missing here and I hope that we can reach the requirements and that I can see it at least announced while I am here. I will send some pics in a different email. Love you guys. Chaucito Elder Daybell

June 4, 2012 Hey family guess what? Me voy! I got transfer calls this morning, and I am headed to Maipu (yes, its pronounced exactly how you thought). I am excited to go, and even more excited to see what that area is like. In a year, I have been in the MTC, and in only 2 areas. I am kind of excited to be in a new place. I have had some really good experiences here and I will always be able to remember what I felt here. The many miracles that I have seen is astonishing and I just am thankful for this opportunity to be here. I feel like the mission is doing far more for me than I am for it. That is a characteristic of God. He loves us so much that He blesses us. He has blessed me in more ways than I can imagine, and I feel so humbled to see the blessings He has bestown upon me. As you become more aware of all the blessings, I think you become more humble because you become aware of how much you don´t deserve them. King Benjamin was right, we are unprofitable servants. I know God lives, and loves us. We have only to turn to Him to be happy. Well today I made alfajores. I got the recipe from a porteña, Hermana Dana who is a missionary in my zone. I am SUPER excited to bring them to the district meeting tomorrow. It was really fun! I don´t know anything about my new area, but I will take some pictures this week :) I have a lot of people to say goodbye to, and a lot to pack and clean here in Villa del Parque. Unfortunately, I won´t be here next Sunday to see the 3 people be baptized that we have been working with, but thats ok. As long as they ar going to be able to enjoy that wonderful experience, thats pretty much all that matters. I am doing great. I am happy. I am healthy. I have been waking up everyday for the last 2 weeks at 6:15 or 5:45 which is really wierd. We found a loving home for "our" dog. Life is good. I hope you are all doing good. Thank you for all the prayers and thoughts on our behalf. I love ya and am praying for you all daily, nightly, and ever so rightly. haha. Love ya, Elder Daybell

June 4, 2012 Hey guess what! I am leaving. I got transferred today... or better yet, I got the transfer call today, and I move on wednesday early in the morning. I am pretty excited because I have been here since before Christmas and I have pretty much gotten out of this area what the Lord wants me to...I think so anyways. I feel like I have been able to help the people that I have met and we are just starting to get this ward going.... It will be interesting to see what happens in Villa del Parque over the next couple of years. The elder that is coming is getting some nice free baptisms seeing as how we will have 3 this Sunday, and two the week after that. Its cool though. I am only going about an hour away, to Maipu (like my-poo.... I was NOT the first one to think that was funny and start making jokes. Thought you should know:) Anyhoo... today I don´t have a tone of time, but I just wanted to let you know that I got transferred and that I am getting a new comp who came with Elder Dowdle, so I will see how this it is. I bet it will be very different. So how are you doing? It sounds like it will be pretty hard to leave in a couple weeks. I don´t even want to imagine what that is like.. I don´t want to leave. I love it here and I know that these 2 years are so special and they do not come back, regardless of how much I want them to... I know its important to live it up every moment that we can. I have gotten to know so much better, exactly what that SHOULD mean. I know mortality is such a privilige and with it, we have the opportunity to learn and grow and become the spiritual giants our Heavenly Father wants us to become. So I love how people here say, "Elder so and so is MY elder." They say that about who baptized them. I have seen people smoking and just a little tipsy be touched as they remember the missionary that taught them the Good News of the Gospel. It really is an amazing work. I am amazed at the types of relationships that are formed in the mission field. I am so grateful for them. I have been thinking a little bit about the missionary work that must have gone on in the pre-earth life. We apparently had the ability to choose who to follow, so I imagine we had to be given a spiritual witness of the truth of the Plan of Happiness to know it was the right one... I often wonder who was responsable for my soul... Maybe its not like that, but I would like to know who I heard the Spirit testify through if it is like that. Anyways, just some thoughts I was thinking :) I am so happy with your decision to selflessly serve those children in Ecuador. Yo me he enamorado contigo y hace mucho tiempo que se que tu eres la tesora celestial mía. Espero que estés bien y que no te haga falta. Te amo para siempre Elder Daybell PS. I just want an alfajor wrapper or something haha. or a pet parrot or monkey or something ;)

May 28, 2012 Hey Family! como está?? Okay so this week was pretty awesome. We had Mariel confirmed a member of the Church and that was a great experience. We also got the Cardozo family to church and more excited about the baptism on the 9th of June. This family is really sweet. They are going to Utah in a couple months to go to BYU so I will be able to hang out with them after the mission. I hope to be their for their sealing in one of the temples there. Besides that, it was a normal week. I got to do exchanges this week in a different area, and it was amazing. It made me think that maybe my area is really difficult for some reason. We were able to talk to a lot of very humble people and get some good lessons in. I have really enjoyed this area, but its been very difficult. I have been studying a lot about how to become a better teacher in chapter 10 of Preach My Gospel and I have learned a lot. Its been kind of fun applying different things too. I want to make teaching a part of my career for sure. At some point in time I want to do what dad does...Believe it or not, teaching the Gospel is infinitely more satisfying than pulling back the trigger on any firearm or doing any amount of push-ups at 5:30 in the morning. But I think that is the nature of the Gospel. Those other things are still very satisfying :) There is a great talk by Elder Holland that talks about when Peter and the Apostles went back to fishing after Christ left. He talked about how they just went back to doing the only thing they knew how to do. Well, Jesus came and after very thoughtfully cooking a hearty breakfast for His beloved Apostles, started to ask Peter some very interesting questions. Well, just one. "Lovest thou me, more than these?" Peter answers in the affirmative the first two times and is told to "feed my sheep" in response. The third time, Peter became troubled. And in response to His simple question, he said, "Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee." He is then commanded again to "feed my sheep" Elder Holland made a point that we are much like Peter. We get excited and pumped about the Gospel, and maybe we see some miracles. Maybe we get our spiritual batteries recharged. We go to EFY, or a youth conference, or a General Conference, and later seem to forget all that we must have experienced. We just go back to doing what we know best. When God had given us the light of the Gospel, when He had caused a mighty change in our hearts, so that we no longer had the desire to do evil, He was really calling us to the same work; "feed my sheep." This is a call to be a sheep-feeder forever--not just until we have those special feelings leave us, or until it becomes inconvenient, but forever. For the rest of our lives. This calling to live a higher law and to truly love and serve others, is such a great calling and we have been given so many tools to comply with it. We have scriptures, patriarchal blessings, the supernal gift of prayer, our loving brothers and sisters and parents and children, faith, repentance, the guidance of the Holy Ghost. We have truly been given so many resources to succeed in this life, because our Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to live with Him again. But He also wants that we do our best to bring as many back to Him as we can by inviting and then helping them to recieve the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know its true, and I am so thankful for the Christ-like examples I have in my parents, and all my siblings and so many friends. I love you guys and hope you have a great week. Love Elder Daybell

May 21, 2012 Hey Family! This week was way awesome. Mariel, an 11 year old girl got baptized on Sunday right after the meetings. Unfortunately, we didn´t get a picture before the baptism because the family was in a hurry for some reason, but we did get a good shot after. Its better because she´s happier now anyways. She is so cool though! She had read like most of the first book in the Book of Mormon before we had even talked to her. She is just so ready! She was interviewed and after they were done, I saw her and she really excitedly, with a smile almost too big for her face said, "They are letting me get baptized!!!!!" It was so awesome. Never had I seen anybody so excited to go through that wonderful ordinance. If everything goes good, we will be baptizing the rest of this transfer (which ends not next sunday, but the next one after that) which is going to be really great. Its been a long time. This area has been hard because of a few different things, but I feel like it has also been somewhat of a refiners fire and has helped me develop some goals and helped me know more about the person I want to be in the future. We will see what happens in the next couple weeks. I have been here for six months and so I don´t really have any idea what will happen, but its all good, I am kind of just a long for the ride. I have gotten along pretty good with Elder Dowdle. He is going to be a good missionary. Its been really good for me to train. Well I am loving life here. It sounds like mom and dad are having a culture shock similar if not more dramatic than mine. I am excited to see how their story unfolds. I am good. I am not so fat anymore which is great. I haven´t eaten anything peculiar lately.... But we are having an asado (bbq) in a couple weeks with the bishop of the other ward. He is pretty cool. We will see if there are any parts of the cow I haven´t eaten yet. Love you guys a ton and I hope you are all alright. And happy. Love Elder Daybell

May 15, 2012 Hey family! So talked to most of you yesterday. Which was wonderful! I missed the Broadbent clan. I took some fun pictures this weekend. One of them is a mothers day picture, with a sweater. Niiiiice. The other ones are just random. Anyway, I am doing way good still, and I don´t really have a lot to say other than I totally forgot to tell mom and dad to check out the Lower Lights, which is like a bluegrass version of church hymns that are really cool. But besides that.... I am wonderful. I hope you are all doing well and have a really good week! Your favorite youngest brother and/or son, Elder Daybell

May 7, 2012 Hey Family how is everyone? Sometimes I feel like I am the guy on Star Trek thats like.... ´´Captain´s log 42856.... today I blah blah blah,´´ because I am writing basically a journal entry for the last week. Anyway, this week has been pretty decent. We are trying to figure out how to work better with our ward. I will have been here a 1/4 of my mission in about a month and I hope that I have been able to do something to change this ward for the better. The gift of being able to look back and see errors and good things is something I am grateful for. I think God gave us repentence not only so that we could be clean from sin and eventually enter into His presence someday after relying wholly upon the merits of His Son, but also so we aren´t just paralyzed by mental and emotional anguish for the stupid things we have done. As a missionary, I have looked back on the first several months of the mission and sometimes I just wish I could hit the rewind button and go back to that point with what I have now. I will probably say the same thing in another year. But God doesn´t want us to be sad, neither does He want us to continually live in the past, but to instead look forward with faith. Its not really about where you are at, nor where you have been, but where you are headed. That is the miracle of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Through this atonement we have the ability to look at ourselves and pick out the things we don´t like about ourselves, and overcome them, either by having that particular characteristic removed, or learning how to be stronger than that part of your natural man. Anyway, I have just been thinking a lot about these things. I hope you are all doing well. We have a lot of really important lessons this week and I would appreciate an extra prayer or two our way. I know you are praying for us and I love you for it and I do feel them. I know that our Heavenly Father is hearing my prayers on your behalf. I love you guys. Can´t wait to have a little chit chat next week. chau chau.

April 16, 2012 That apartment sounds SO sick!!!!!!! I am SO excited to ride that elevator up and down 33 floors like all night long. You guys have to make friends with the doorman. And everybody on your floor so you can give the missionaries easy references to contact. NYC... No one here appreciates that! I tell people my family is moving from our nice comfortable suburbia into the biggest city in the the country, literally in the heart. It blows my mind but everyone here just says, "oh... la manzana grande ¿eh?" Ah..... Yes, the big apple. You have to send me a picture of the house that you leave so that I have something to show people. Like as you are pulling away, or maybe a picture of you guys in front of the house. And of the pond! And then send me a video or pictures or something of the new pad. Well I think I got your package today because I went to buy groceries and my card got rejected like 6 times. The mission just takes money automatically from the church account when packages come so.. We will see! Anyway... I have a miracle to tell you guys about. Ramón has been super sick with something but they have no idea what it is and it is just super painful and they have ruled out all kinds of cancers, and viruses, and other bugs, but they just cant decide what it is. So the other day, we went with my district leader to see another investigator, but we ran into Ramón outside of his house. I talked to him for a little bit and then asked him if we knew what a health blessing was. He said no, so we explained it and then told him that we could give him one. He asked for it and so we gave it to him. Well Elder Hunter did the annointing and then I did the sealing. He started to shrink under my hands as we gave him the blessing and I had no idea what was happening but we finished it. When it was done we saw that he was curled over in pain and with a very distorted face on. Gasping for air he said that it never had hurt this bad. I thought I had killed him and this was him dying (but really...), so we talked a little bit more and then said a prayer and left. We went to visit him later that week and he looked totally different. He looked about 10 years younger and just had a brightness that I had never seen in him before. He said that after we left the other night, he was in extreme pain for a little while longer and then felt wonderful. He then went to his exploratory surgery the next day and he said they didn´t find anything wrong and since then had just felt wonderful, better than ever. As far as I know, he had been healed. The same power that the Apostles and even Jesus Christ used in the ancient world is today on the earth. I know it. Elder Dowdle is good. He is from Oregon and technically half Canadian because his mom is from there. Lots of Canadians here. His spanish has improved a lot and he gave a good talk on Sunday (after Jonathan Rastelli, who just got back from his mission to Venezuela.... very surreal listening to a returned missionary. I don´t want to come home) and the whole congregation was helping him with some words by either nodding or shaking the head and kind of mouthing them out... He would look to me with a very confused face if he got stuck and I somehow communicated through brainwaves the right word or conjugation because he got it everytime. It was a group effort and a couple of people came up to him after the meeting in tears saying how great that meeting was. It really was the most Christ-centered meeting I think I had been in ever. The RM talked about the atonement of Christ, and then my companion talked pretty much about the same thing and how to endure to the end, and then the Bishop got up and talked about Christ and his pure love for us all. Very good. Would have been a great Easter meeting but last week we had a testimony meeting (which I guess was totally wrong because everyone else had a special Easter Sunday). Anyhooooo this has been a pretty chill week. Training is so tiring. I just have not been so tired in my life I think. It is really rewarding and we get an extra hour to study in the morning and so its been pretty sweet. I have just swallowed Preach My Gospel and the Book of Mormon. The new program (I was in the second generation of missionarie to go through it) for training missionaries is WAY sweet and helps us focus more on our objective and kinda helps us to cut down other goals that don´t really have to do with the objective. So it is very good. I love it. Dylan is getting baptized? Sweet! I cant believe that Dawson´s baptism was almost two years ago.... well like 1.5 years ago. That seems like yesterday. Who keeps pressing fast forward??? I am good and healthy and happy. I love you guys and hope you have a great week.

Hey family

So conference was way awesome no?? For missionaries it´s like the Super Bowl, Christmas, Thanksgiving, or when Subway comes up with a different $5-dollar-footlong. BUT BETTER. And this weekend was no exception. I was very thankful for the opportunity to hear all the speakers and to take in all that the Lord wanted me to know.

Okay pictures first. Those peppers are called malas palabras, (bad words) and they are incredibly hot. Nobody buys them here because they are too hot and argentines generally don´t like spicy food. We made a really good salsa to accompany our spicy chicken empanadas (the other picture---delicious) that we made for conference. I had a run-in with a mala palabra the other day on the street though. We just knocked on this guy´s door and he very quickly rejected my new companion, so as we were walking away, I saw this pepper plant with a few tiny red peppers and so I decided to snag one and pop it in my mouth... It was fine for like 8 seconds, but then my nose, throat, eyes and generally my whole face started leaking as it started to burn. Luckily because it was the siesta, everything was closed. So we started to jog around and I found a little side store opened ran completely by Chinese people (kind of an odd place to find a group of Chinese people... I mean Argentina) I bought a little chocolate milk thing to quench the fire and that kind of worked. But mostly it didn´t do much. Jalepeños are childs play compared to malas palabras. Anyway on to the next pictures. Elder Larisch and I have a common attraction towards ice cream, and taking on strenuous food challenges. So between sessions on Saturday we walked to this really great ice cream place talking with people on the way (same ice cream place where the week before I talked to the lady about the word of wisdom and invited her to call the elders of that area). We talked about it, and then decided that we could definitely both eat a kilo of ice cream. thats like 2.2 something pounds. It was definitely a challenge, but we did it in about 15-20 minutes. Its a good thing I went running once last week hahah.

Okay so what else... Conference really was sweet. I felt like the theme for this conference was the family and rescuing the members who are no longer coming to church or have for whatever reason fallen away. As always, Elder Holland gave a great talk and I have a few phrases of his running through my minds like ´´Brethern, step up,´´ and ´´It´s getting late.´´ I missed hearing any temple announcements but thats okay. I still have two more conferences to see a Mendoza temple announced. Something I did differently this time was that I came to Conference with a bunch of questions and I got specific answers to each one. So I want to encourage you all to think of some questions you have (if you don´t do this) and when october comes, to be ready to recieve your answers. I promise you will.

Unfortunately none of the investigators we are teaching were able to come which really is just super unfortunate. I have learned repeatedly that you can neither bring a horse to water, nor make him drink... What a wonderful thing that we have our agency no? And that we have the opportunity to come here to the earth and learn how to do everything the way we want, or the right way, which is the Lord´s way. Well I don´t have a lot to say. I need to put my brain back together after having it be blown by Conference. I am good though. My companion is truly a stud. Thanks for your prayers and friendly thoughts you are pushing my way. Love you guys. Elder Daybell

Hey Everybody!!!

This week was good. My new companion finally arrived and he is good. His name is Elder Dowdle and he is from Portland Oregon. Very cool. I met him for the first time on Thursday morning after I had gotten out of the shower. He rolled over (he got to the apartment with the office elders at like 12:30 the night before, so thats why he was sleeping) and saw me with just a towel on... So it was kind of an interesting first impression he got from me, based on the fact that all other trainers meet their new companions fully-clothed, in suits and inside a meeting house. But since then it has been good. We have been outside just a little bit of time to tell the truth though...We have to study for 4 hours in the morning in place of the usual 2.5 hours, and so when we get done its time to go to our lunch appointment. and then we just have the afternoon and night to work. I am not used to this haha. It has presented a little bit of a dilemma but its not too big a deal. My companion has a pretty hard time talking and understanding the people here. Case in point, on Sunday, I had to go talk with somebody and so left him at the mercy of the obispado for a couple of minutes. I came back and they were all laughing; Bishop, and the two counselors for what they had done, and my companion just because everyone else was laughing. One of the counselors told me that I should translate for him and so I asked what they had told him and they said that they had asked him to give a 15-20 minute talk the weekend after conference and that Elder Dowdle accepted. So... I guess this will be a good experience for him haha.... Elder Dowdle stopped laughing after I told him what they had asked him to do and that he had already accepted. oh bother

Well besides that, this week was great. We had a FHE with Claudia and Ramón and her really cute 5 year-old daughter Anael. It was SO fun too! I have made a goal to do a FHE every week at least once in the mission becuase the Prophets of God have told us that we should hold a Family Home Evening weekly and so I figure just because my real family is far away, I don´t have any excuse to not do a family home evening... there are plenty of families here! But anyway it was just really fun. We played a game, (which I can´t really explain very well so you just have to know that it is FUN) and then we taught a lesson and enjoyed some tasty chocolate banana bread. Good day.

Lets see. The other elders that live with us are awesome and threw me a suprise party last monday. I am 20 years old and a week. woooooow. Thats crazy. We had our interviews last night really ridiculously late. I felt bad for Presidente Avila because he had been interviewing since the morning and hadn´t eaten anything. I love that man! He really is so selfless and does everything he does for the well-being of his Elders. I hope that the presence he has is something that I can grow to have because I feel like he just radiates his discipleship. You know that he knows just by talking to him and being around him. Well I made a Mormon.org profile in the MTC and just recently finished it because I had so much time to just wait in the offices last wednesday... So check it out! and put it on my facebook if you could. Love you guys. I hope you are all doing really good and are happy and healthy. Moroni 8:25-26

Love ya.

He´u´intema peteí tongo. That is Guarani, an indian language from paraguay. I am learning a little bit here and there haha
Elder Daybell

Hey Mom, that was an awesome email you sent me. Sorry for being such a hastle haha. I do remember the short stranger thing and also the speed bumps. I think thats why I like going over the speed humps so fast now... :) I love ya mom.

Hey Family this week was crazy.
So my mini missionary arrived (more like mini-me. Elder Benegas does almost everything I do which has been pretty fun haha) on Wednesday and Elder Leany left. As well as the 2 other elders that they stored in our pensión for the last two weeks. So that was great. So what happened this week that is noteworthy....
-Cristian Perez left for his mission on Thursday and he had a huge farewell on Tuesday night that he invited us to, so after Elder Leany and I got done saying good bye to everyone (because he was leaving and he only has one more transfer left in the mission) we stopped by and said goodbye to the currently Elder Perez.
-We visited an older couple in our ward that had been on vacation to Chile for about a 2 months and when they came back the Hermano had something like a heart attack.... He is totally fine now, but we stopped by to visit them one tarde and to introduce my new companion Elder Benegas (who is from San Juan, a state of Argentina that pertains to our mission). One of the first things they told me was, ´´Wow! te has engordado un montón!´´ (You have gotten WAYYY fat). Later in the conversation, the Hermana hinted that they might have broken the word of wisdom on their trip home (which wouldn´t have suprised me, because there seems to be a little bit of confusion amongst the members on things like coffee and tea...). It was what she said next that kind of surprised me... ´´We did a little coca to help with the altitude sickness...´´..... I guess the coca plant (where we get cocaine) is used to help with altitude problems going all the way back to the Incas... But it was just the last thing I expected to hear from this matronly sister hahaha....
-We have given blessings everyday so far since Elder Benegas came. I think its pretty inspired because he has given his first blessing here and its been great practice for him and me.
-CLAUDIA GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!

It was a wonderful service and I will always remember the smile she was wearing after she came up out of the water. The Lord can do miracles with our hearts when we decide to follow Him. It was truly a wonderful day. The next day she got confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That same Sunday we had a pretty awesome day. We left with the High Priests Group Leader of the ward (who is truly a stud member. 85 ish and still leaving with the missionaries to find the lost sheep) and started looking for a few families that have apparently disappeared of the face of the earth. But a very miraculous thing that happened is that two families that we ended up talking to (looking for the others) told Elder Benegas and I that they want their whole family baptized and they have been waiting for someone to come and teach them. It was really an awesome experience because missionaries sometimes avoid working with the less active families. I feel like it was the Lord´s way of saying ´´You two elders need to help this ward. I will help you find those of my children that don´t know me yet along the way.´´

Well I am 20 years old today. I realized that this morning as I was eating my corn flakes, oat meal, yogurt and milk.....that I am no long a teenager. That is weird. Welcome to the ´´roaring 20s´´ :) I love you guys and hope you have an awesome week. Happy Birthday to Elder Abutaa this week. Love Elder Daybell

Hey Family. Well, I am SO glad you found those ties mom. and the hand workout thing. There is this guy that lives in my area with a grip like a vice. I gotta show him up the next time I see him... Speaking of my area, this transfer just ended and we recieved the transfer calls today. I am going to stay here in Villa del Parque. I was going to train but they just called me and told me ´´sike... you are going to have a mini-missionary.´´ I was way excited to train a new elder but.... Thats not in the cards this transfer. I am way excited to be with a mini-missionary though just because I have NO idea what to expect haha... We will see :) I just hope that we will be able to help a few of our investigators continue growing in the Gospel until they reach the day of there baptism. We were going to have one yesterday but Nara never showed up and later told us that she couldn´t get baptized even though we had talked to her mom and got her signature on all the right papers... Which is actually a pretty cool story, so I will tell you that one. On Saturday night, Elder Leany and I did divisions with our 2 new companions and then at about 8:30 at night we found out that Nara wasn´t able to get her mom to sign the registro bautismal and dropped it off at a members house. So we called Nara and asked her where her mom was and she told us that she was in some parque selling something but would be home at about 10 ish... But she was supposed to get baptized on Sunday, so we had to get that signature. So we picked up the registro, and then called the zone leaders and asked for permission to stay out late and get the signature. They said yes and so we started off to Nara´s house. We got there at about 8:45 and began to wait for the mom to come home. It is the second most dangerous part of our area, but like... we had to get the signature. So after the first group of teenage guys pulled out a gun and shot in our direction (just a cap gun mom...) I decided to take my watch and money and ID and put it inside my shirt. Very inconspicuously... Then at about 9:30 we were still waiting outside for the mom and these two pretty decent sized kids started walking towards us and I told Elder Leany that we should just go into the little store next door. So we did and acted like we were looking for alfajores and the two guys came and waited outside the door and started like whispering bad things to us... so we waited and then I said, okay, I am going to go and see if they are still there. You stay here and do something if they start to rob me or whatever... (we had to wait outside because if we didn´t like intercept her mom, we probably wouldn´t have gotten the signature). They had gone.... and then about an hour later we saw her mom finally and I recognized her just in time and she was totally fine with it and signed it no problem. Then we proceded to walk very swiftly home... So we had a miracle and we survived a pretty dangerous area late at night without anything more than a few scares and constant attention from the local "gangstas". And Nara ended up not getting baptized. But still a miracle no?

I have been thinking a lot about how the Lord has asked us for all that we have. All our time, talents, our whole heart, might, mind and strength. Whenever we teach the law of tithing and fast offerings, I always end up saying, we are only giving 10 percent of everything that the Lord has given us back to him, so its not that hard. So what can we really offer God? When you remember the nothingness of man, you begin to realize that there is literally nothing you can give to the Lord that is not already His. You can´t even really give your time, because time was created by God. We can´t give Him our possessions, because He does not need them. So what can we give our Lord? He gave us the wonderful gift of agency, our will, our heart. That truly is all that He asks. Without your whole heart, you are only damning yourself with every cent of tithing you give, and every second you spend as a full-time missionary, or Bishop or Nursery teacher. That sounds pretty heavy though doesn´t it? I thought so too. So I was thinking about it, I read some talks and I decided that all you need to do is ask God to have your heart and your will. Be like Christ and offer your own will to be swallowed up in the will of the Father. The Lord can do such wonders with your heart and all you have to do is ask Him to take it and change it. So we can really fulfill all of our covenants when we use our agency, the ability to choose captivity and death, or happiness and eternal life, to turn over everything to the Lord. Therein one can and forever will find the most happiness possible in this mortal probation.

No hay nadie que esté obligado a seguir al Señor Jesucristo, pero yo se con toda seguridad que al seguir a Jesucristo, vamos a recibir interminable felicidad en esta vida, y una plenitud de gozo en la vida después. Dios nos mandó a la tierra para ser probado, y para que pudiéramos mostrar nuestro amor y fe. Estamos acá para aprender y enfrentar todos los desafíos de la vida. Pero Dios nos ha dado un fuente de ayudo, o sea, el Evangelio de Jesucristo. A medida que sigamos al Señor, vamos a encontrar la perla del gran precio. Se que nuestro Padre nos ama y quiere que sepamos la verdad de todas las cosas, y por eso nos dio el don de la oración. El nos escucha, y siempre nos contestará. Les amo y espero que estén feliz. Casi tengo 20 años... que raro. Elder Daybell

Spanish translation by Grant Moulton--Missionary to Madrid Spain back in the day!

No one is obligated to follow the Lord, Jesus Christ, but I can say with full confidence that upon following Jesus Christ, we will receive great happiness in this life, and a plenitude of joy in our after life. God has sent us to earth to be tested, andso that we might show our love and faith. We are her to learn and confront the challenges of life. But God has given us a source of health, even the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we follow the Savior, we will find the pearl of great price. I know that our Father loves us and wants us to know the truth of all things, and for this reasion he gave us the gift of prayer. He listens to us and always answers us. I love you and hope that you're happy. I'm almost 20 years old....how weird. Elder Daybell.

Hey mom I am sorry about your harddrive failing. I hope that it doesn´t hurt your business at all. OKAY.. fAMILIY LETTER TIME.


Hey everybody!

This was an interesting week. A lot of stuff happened. Well, I´ll write you next week!

Love Elder Daybell.


Hahahaha Just kidding.. We did a lot of cool stuff this week. One of our investigators, Nara who is about 15 or 16 was really interested in what we were teaching and the first time she came to church in december, she went up and bore a testimony, which NEVER happens. It was way sweet. I wasn´t here yet but... I heard about it. Anyways this week we visited her at her house (we usually teach her at a store that she runs) so that we could find her parents but they weren´t there... But she was and she told us that she didn´t want to keep learning more. And we were like, uhhh.. que pasó???? and she said that she wouldn´t want to keep coming to church or learning more after Elder Leany left... This whole time she was just smitten with Elder Leany!!!! Oh man. I couldn´t stop laughing... But at the same time it was like... Nara, do you know how many hours we planned for you??? hahah... So she´s kinda out of the picture right now... (They play SO MUCH american music here its crazy... just as a sidenote). We are also working with a older lady named Aide (i-day) and she is great. She has come to church the last two weeks and is doing great. We are going to have a baptism this Saturday at 7! But she´s great. This last wednesday we went on divisions with some other elders (because elder Leany is a district leader) and I was with an elder who has 2 weeks on the mission so far, but he already has the language down because he is from Buenos Aires. But we had a lesson with Aide and I wanted to teach how to fill out a tithing slip, and then the law of chastity, which is the last thing she needs before the interview. I wanted to spend like 5 minutes on the tithing slip because we already taugh tithing and Fast offerings and she understood. But Elder Cattaneo spent like 10 minutes talking about each cattegory on the tithing slip so we never got to the law of chastity! But we are teaching her today so.. no worries. But anyways she was talking about how she couldn´t go to work that day because her knees were just killing her. And so I told her what a blessing of the sick was and she readily asked for one. Elder Cattaneo .... Ungió... I don´t remember the word... he did the first part with the oil... And then I sealed the unción. It was a great experience and at church yesterday she said that it helped a lot. Speaking of church yesterday, she came and after it was over she gave us an envelope and said it was her tithing and fast offering. Wow. It was awesome to see her faithfully living a commandment she just learned.

Thursday morning Elder Cattaneo and I were studying (until 11 because as a newbie he has to study an extra hour....) but when it was time to leave, I unlocked the door and then tried to unlock the bars in front of the door, but it just was not happening. I did everything short of break it down to try to open it but it didn´t budge. At about 1140, we prayed for a miracle and I decided to call President Rastelli (a councelor in the mission presidency who is in our ward, I spent christmas eve with him and his wive). The hermana answered, and I told her my predicament. She just laughed for a few seconds, and then said, ´´well Elder, just another thing to write in your journal. I´ll send Mario over when he gets back.´´ So about 15 minutes later he comes and tries doing everything I did, but from the outside. So he said that he was going to go make another copy of the key, and left. About 15 minutes later, he came back and opened it easily. By this time it was 1250, just in time for us to go to lunch haha... A very productive morning indeeedd.

I felt good this week about being able to maybe teach Elder Cattaneo something. We were just knocking doors after all of our appointments dropped. We saw this old woman sitting in her front doorway reading a magazine and so we went to go talk to her. She was very nice, and told us that she was a member of the church and I haven´t seen her before so I asked where she´s been. She was like oh chicos, its been 15 years since I went to your church. I´m a catholic now. And so I said... Well... Hermana, I don´t mean to bother you, but what happened? and she went on to tell us all about how she didn´t like the doctrine of the baptisms for the dead because it wasn´t in the bible. And so I told her that it actually was in the bible and showed her where (Thanks seminary!) and she said, Oh, I didn´t know that. And then I asked her if she believed in Christ and she said of course, indignantly. I told her well than you have to believe in vicarious ordenances because the atonement was a vicarious work. She then said... welll... I don´t like the spiritualism. I said what is that? and she said how people always talk about feeling the presence of loved ones in sacred places and that sort of thing. Elder Cattaneo took over, but pretty soon they were arguing pretty good and so I put my hand on his shoulder, bore a simple testimony to the sister, and asked her to remember how she felt when she was baptized and that she was always invited to return to church and feel the peace that dwells there. And we left. Something I learned immediately in the mission is that Arguing does a lot of damage and no good.

Anyway, I had a good week. hOPE yall did too. Love ya. Elder Daybell

Hey Family que tal???

This was a good week. It was not so productive because from like the 23rd to today (the 2nd is a holiday too) most people were either gone or just way drunk and so we had a couple days where we were told to stay in the apartment. But this week will be great. We have a several people that we are going to finish teaching and get ready for baptism and confirmation for the 14th of January. One of them is this girl named Narylla (I think that's how it's spelled...) And she is great. She is excited but just getting a ton of pressure from her Aunt. I guess the Evangelical churches here have a book that just talks about how evil every church is and the aunt gave her this book and she just has tons of questions about every little thing. I just told her, listen Nara, none of this really matters if you don´t believe that the Book of Mormon is true or Jose Smith is a prophet so... any question you have, is answered by whether or not you believe that Jose was a prophet and if the Book of Mormon is true. We haven´t seen her in a couple days because of the fiestas... But we have an appointment with her and her wonderful aunt today at 6. Wish us luck? I am thankful for all your prayers in my behalf and on the behalf of the people I am working with. It just feels good to be working here, and with a companion who wants to work. Also, We are teaching this lady named Ayde (I-day) and she came to church and said she felt really peaceful and a warm feeling in her heart. She has a date for the 14th as well. We are also teaching some awesome families! We set a goal of 7 baptisms this transfer and I hope we accomplish it. There are so many people here and the elders that were here earlier... lets just say, its been a while since the people of Villa del Parque have seen missionaries outside ;)

Yesterday was like a regular Sunday in the sense that there wasn´t a testimony meeting and so Hermano Perez came before the meeting started and asked me to go up and present myself, and if I wanted to impart any council or advice or anything to animate the members, I have about 15 minutes haha. So in about 3 minutes before the Santa Cena, I wrote a few notes and said a little prayer. The first speaker got up and she was great, talked about how we can do service. She really wants to go on a mission and so she talked a ton about mission work. After that it was my turn. As soon as I approach the stand, the microphone starts making that noise like ´´woooooooooooooooooooo´´ and so I back away and it stops and so I come closer and it starts again... So after just standing there smiling at the congregation for a couple seconds, looking like an idiot, I just took the microphone out of the socket and gave a very loud talk haha. I felt like an old school preacher...

This area is way different though. I sit on couches DAILY. So the people are a lot better off here than in Cordón, but they are all just as nice and generous as others. You really can´t get a Mendocino to say yes to letting you help them, and they don´t take no for an answer when they want to sirve you... Really great people here.

Hope you liked those. The elder who got my gift was just like.. ROCKS?? WHO WOULD GIVE A BOX OF ROCKS? hahaha It was way funny because Elder Leany did the same thing. I thought they looked great... At least it was creative. I got a lighter. And then another elder wanted to trade my lighter for his yarn. But I really did not want yarn. So I just gave him the lighter. It was a good party. I ate cow tongue...

I GOT THE PACKAGE! that was awesome. I loved the chocolate and peanut butter. I just ate them together and made reese´s pieces..(sp?)
I can floss again! That was very welcomed. Thank you for the memory stick too! I also got a bunch of letters from Sophie, Brother and Sister Kuta, the Johnson family, an awesome card from the Giler´s and a couple DearElders. Christmas was great :) Thank you all :)

I hope you guys had a great new year. All our neighbors had like military grade fireworks and so that was exciting. I love you all and am praying for you all the time.
Elder Daybell