I'm back...

After a considerable hiatus I am back. The end of the year always seems to get so hectic, add work and illness to that and without the help of others there isn't much hope.

Although perfectly content with his informative and humorous letters, speaking for myself that is, we had the opportunity to speak to Dayne at Christmas. My tears rendered me completely speechless for most of the conversation. He is doing well and enjoying his companion Elder Risquez who is from Peru. He was very glad to find out that there were hard working elders in the mission. He has also had the opportunity to baptize 2 people. The first was a young girl who was very nervous and on one of the five attempts she actually dove forward. He has only been robbed once that I know of, and I thought he gave the family picture away! His hunting skills have come in handy as he can hear and feel the wild dogs as they creep up in the rear before they attack! After they are discovered all you need is to pretend to throw a rock. His previous companion's pants were full of tears from the sneaky little beasties.

Next week brings another transfer, Elder Risquez has been in the area for over 6 months so it is with great sadness that he and Dayne expect to be parted. Elder Robert Murray, a friend of Dayne's from Riverton arrives in the mission this month and it is a mother's great desire that they are put together. A mother can dream can't she?

Dayne sent a bunch of pictures including his pet frog, the streets after rain and some from the MTC.

Dayne's new email is dtatty31@gmail.com, please use dearelder.com mission buenos aires south.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Duty Neglected!

Life tends to get crazy and out of control from time to time, I just have gone through one of those times and completely neglected this site. Luckily, I still remembered to write to Dayne.
Dayne is doing Ok. He tends to get frustrated at times when he would like to work harder than they do. He also seems to be in a more difficult area where finding people to teach is even a challenge. He says that he can't take pictures because the area is too dangerous to take his camera into. Thank goodness he doesn't live in that area! His letter last week focused on a discussion they had with an inactive member and his girlfriend. It was a very good experience and was quite serendipitous as a man they didn't know flagged them down and took them there.
In his previous letter he was talking about a greenie and described some of his area, "Elder andros didn't really like Argentina at first ha ha, its a
good thing he isn't in my area or else he would have gone home. He couldn't believe that there were stripped cars burnt on the side of the road. Here people steal cars, strip them, then light them on fire. In my area i see crazy things every day.." Wow, a far cry from where most of us live. He hasn't had any great funny stories lately, I am waiting for tomorrow's with great anticipation.
Dayne has begun his fifth month, ironically it is his dad who is keeping track. I'm sure the blessings are there, but I miss him terribly. Boy do I love to teach and never would I deny him of that experience.
I hope to be back soon and climb on my soap box! Stay tuned...

Update for week of 9/28

Dayne's letter this week brought back many memories for me. I hope that this will get read and that someone, somewhere, will learn something from his words. Dayne's own words say it best, so I will paste them in a moment; but first of all I of course need to add my own commentary. My biggest shock is that Dayne is being made fun of as he has always been the king of cool, second of all, why in heavens name are you elders and prospective elders out there if it isn't to work diligently ( see D&C 4) and do the Savior's work? You have been called to a sacred calling and it needs to be taken seriously.

I absolutely know what I am talking about as the summer of '85 in Rome saw it's share of rule breaking. Luckily I was blessed with a tender mercy, because I too like to have fun, and was not invited to anything due to a companion situation. What a blessing that was. It still makes me feel sick to think how I would have felt had I participated. This is a very serious work that can be done with a degree of fun; the trick is to keep your eye "single to the glory of God."

(Dayne) "As far as the work in Argentina, it is tough but rewarding. I can really feel that i am being blessed and Heavenly Father is helping me. I am trying to be 100 percent obedience so I am able to have the spirit and find the people that are ready to receive our Heavenly Fathers gospel. It's not easy because not many missionaries have the same desire unfortunately. When i first got here i was devastated to see what went on in the mission. My mtc teacher gave me advice before i left, he told me I´m a natural leader and I cant be afraid to be the best missionary I possibly can. It is really tough though but through the scriptures i find strength. That is why the scriptures are so important in our lives and you all should read them every day. They help us through our problems and we can feel our Heavenly Fathers and our Saviors love for them. I really look up to Nephi because he was the younger brother and he wasn´t afraid to be too righteous. He also obeyed no matter what his brothers did to him. He was really blessed and the spirit was strong with him. I get made fun of by others missionaries but its going to be worth it in the end. I've been blessed and Heavenly Father has been humbling them. In the MTC we watched a re run talk that i´ll never forget. I can´t remember who it was ha ha but it was a twelve apostle and i have who it is in my notes. In the talk he said salvation isn´t cheap and its not meant to be. A mission isn´t easy and its not meant to be. It was even tough for the Savior to upon all of our sins and sorrows but he did. This talk gives me a lot of strength and I´m really trying to just focus on my investigators. THis talk applies to all of us though. Life isn´t easy and its not meant to be. Salvation isn´t cheap. Whenever we need help with life I know we can always turn to our Savior Jesus Christ because he has felt everything we have gone through and he is helping me a lot in my mission."

And now for the humor, "I only have one funny story to tell you about this week. It was my companions birthday and for his birthday we went to a members house and ate cake and empinadas. After we ate he went outside and they threw buckets of nasty crap all over him. It was funny and disgusting ha ha i was just glad it wasn´t me.
The members here aren´t quite used to my sarcasm yet. I was at the bishops house for lunch the the bishops wife was listening to me read out loud in the Book of Mormon to help me with my pronunciation. At the end of the chapter she always asks me what i read. There was one chapter that was only six verses and i had no idea what it said. As always she asked "what did you read?" I replied by saying "I read six verses." she just sat there looking at me and didn´t really understand until we explained to her. I don´t know if sarcasm exists in argentina ha ha."

Update for the week of September 21

Dayne's letters are getting shorter and shorter, but that's OK because he seems to pack a lot into them. One of my favorite times of day was when Dayne would come home and share with me some of the funny things that happened during the day, that chat is what I miss the most now. He hasn't had any funny stories to regale me with, however I received one on Monday. In his own words: "I have some good stories this week, the first one is amazing! It was raining really hard one day so the streets were pure mud. One truck slid into the zanca and we tried pushing his truck out. My companion was pushing and slipped in the mud and fell in the zanca, his whole body went under and the funny part is that a guy peed in it right before he fell! As he started to slip there wasn't anything i could do besides get a big smile on my face and watch him fall. I really don´t think the zancas are the sewers because i don't see poop in them but all of the sinks are hooked up to them and they are full of rotten water. he was pretty upset and I couldn't stop laughing. He didn't appreciate it but i didn't care. We went home early that night because his whole body was soaked, ha ha."
Well, that was a good laugh at the expense of Elder Elder; I hope he was able to get his clothes white again!

Dayne is getting used to the food and had to eat something he thought he would never have to eat again...gnocchi! I served them to my family once and he didn't care too much for them. They are little boiled Italian potato cakes and they are yummy! Of course I always eat them with sauce.

I say good night and GOOD LUCK to Elder Elder! That son of mine can be motivated when he wants to get things done. Actually I just wanted to say that again, Elder Elder!

Update on Dayne

I'm a bit slow getting this up as it was last Monday and Tuesday that I heard from Dayne. His 2 letters were more like "notes", but it's good to hear from him whatever we can get. Here are some excerpts from his letters:
All of the argentines have a hard time saying my name and so do the other elders in our apartment so they all call me tatty. It sounds pretty funny with the spanish accent. Nothing funny has really happened yet. It was a great week with a lot of success. We found seventeen new investigators and got two more baptism dates. For a district activity today we watched madagascar two and played soccer for an hour. It was fun playing soccer because the churchs have cement soccer courts that we play on. I did a companion exchange with the zone leaders and went to another area. it was fun because the part of the mission i went to was nice and actually a city and not dirt. I enjoy the little stinky shacks and dirt roads though. Its fun to see frogs hopping around as we walk to the bus stop. All the kids go through the garbage out in the fields looking for cool things to play with. The area that im in is really ugly. I hear that other parts of argentina are super pretty. The food here doesnt have much flavor so i dont know if dad would be able to survive here without having any salt on his food. I love it here and the members are amazing. I love going to church because the spirit is so strong and there is actually an argentine that speaks pretty good english. I can understand most things in the lessons but cant say much. I just sit there and look cute and occasionally bear my testimony and say something. i need to go so see you later!"
"Hey! I made it back to the computer today and the computer screen is bouncing around like crazy and I think I’m getting hypnotized. We just go to random computer places and pay to use a computer. I don’t know my physical address because we have the mail sent to the mission home. I think we get it once a week so you can send it there if you want to send me random things. I don’t think you will have to worry bout me getting fat here, ha ha, the food isn’t the best and the cookies that everyone loves here, I don’t like. Luckily there is a store with American food like peanut butter. It was 20 pesos for a jar but it was worth it because that is all I eat. ? I was just thinking about the day we first got here. The first thing elder coats said was that this place looks like it is from the movie I am legend and to my surprise that is one of the nicest areas. It is warming up here and I think summer is going to be miserable. I am loving it here though and it’s going to be weird coming back to America when its I’ll be so used to Argentina. It was cool, last week I saw a dog that had a tumor in its chest that hung down a foot and was the size of baseball. It almost dragged on the ground and just had long stretchy skin up to its chest. I try not to touch the dogs much because a lot of them have flees. We work hard out here. we don’t have a dinner break so we get back to the pench at nine thirty eat, plan, and get to bed."
It sounds like he's getting along quite well and adapting, except for the food that is. We miss him, but are glad that he is serving the Lord and his children.
There should be another letter tomorrow.

The first day of no school

I think that everyone is now back in school, my 13 year old daughter was one of the last, going back today. It was a different kind of milestone for my friends (if that's OK if I call you friends)the Frandsen's, as today was the first day that their little princess did not go back to school. I don't know why I was so touched by that little girl and why my heart is so broken over the grief and despair of a mother who has lost a child. It's a pain that I hope to never feel; nonetheless, it touches me deeply. Vittoria was the subject of my blog on August 21st, the day that I found out about her death. The poor little thing, not even eight, had been through so many surgeries that it was almost routine; except that this time father wanted her home.

We go through life not really knowing what each person we interact with in a day is feeling. We must be kind, lend a smile, somehow uplift everyone with whom we come in contact with each day, for a smile or a kind word is all that I have that may give my friends, or anyone else that is suffering, a glimpse of a smile on their faces. It may be that the biggest sourpuss or the one with the meanest disposition is the one who is suffering the most. Put self aside and reach out to lift and brighten the lives of others. I had no idea what to say today, even felt as if I was an intrusion on the day when I phoned; hopefully I was able to lift, maybe just a bit, even in my blundering way. May we search for peace because life is too short.