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.