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