Found home in Natalio Paraguay

Dylan arrived in Paraguay on Tuesday September 18, exactly two months after leaving Salt Lake City.  Upon arrival he was greeted with a major wind storm that knocked out the power of the entire country.  Power returned and he was assigned to Natalio a small farming community 190 miles from Asuncion.  The Capital of Soy and on the boarder of Argentina.  He has found Guarani to be the only language spoken, enjoy his comments.  


First week in Paraguay......AWESOME!!! Empidrada, the rocky roads, so much worse than people describe haha. It's a good time though. There's tons of chickens here. I'm in a town called Natalio, it's really far South/East. I can see Argentina from my front porch. Everyone speaks Guarani haha. We've met some families that only speak Guarani, which makes it really tough to teach them. In church yesterday, the bishop stood up to talk and he talked for a while in spanish then said 'sorry elders, I'm now going to speak in Guarani.' haha. After that the whole sacrament meeting was in Guarani.

So there are a ton of members here. But most are inactive, apparently that's how all of Paraguay is. But the people who stay active are amazing. Everyone here is super nice. They're always trying to help me and are already trying to get me to speak Guarani. We have some pretty solid investigators too. We just can't baptize them either because they don't have church attendance, or they only have church attendance and they don't have the lessons. A lot of the investigators are young too so they have to get permission from parents which is pretty tough. It's hard to teach people sometimes because;they are working literally like all day, every day.

So my trainer is from Colorado. His name is Elder Omanson. He has 13 months in his mission. He's way chill and a great help. I'm the 3rd person he's trained so he's super good at it. It's cold in the morning here and then it gets pretty hot and cools back down at night. Surprisingly though, there's less mosquitoes here than Argentina. There's loads of small flies and what not, but I haven't seen any mosquitoes and I only have one bite. So yeah, the language is good. Everyone thinks I'm Paraguayo haha. So yeah talk to you guys soon.

Arrival in Paraguay via Brazil

Emailed 9-17-12

Dylan, we think, headed for Paraguay on a local flight that traveled through San Paulo, Brazil.  His final comment warmed my heart, glad to hear he arrived safely.

So this past week was pretty good. Finished with the CCM y’know. I’m like excited to go but not. I’m gonna miss all my buddies here. I’ve made so many great friends here, some I won’t see ever again, it sucks bro. But I’m pretty stoked to leave for Paraguay tomorrow. My flight is at 6 AM, so 3 AM your time. It’s gonna be killer but hey! It’s better than the flight to Uruguay at 4 AM. Proselitismo was a downer on Saturday. Literally like no one would talk to us, we only gave 2 pamphlets out and I had to practically shove the pamphlet into their hands. Oh and a bird pooped on my head during proselitismo. It sucked but it was pretty dang funny I must admit haha. I was reaching in my backpack to grab some more pamphlets and the bird side-skirted my head haha. And to go with the poop, I got like 15 new mosquito bites haha. I’m getting straight eaten alive by those blood suckers. I got to be more careful, ‘cause I heard the mosquitos in Paraguay are super gnarly compared to the ones here in Argentina. I’m also kind of sick which sucks. Just a cough and a stuffy nose but I think it’s getting better. So past all that, my last Sunday here was pretty great. We talked about the priesthood power to heal. Some scriptures for yeah to read are DyC 42:43 and Mark chapters 5-6. Some really great stories of healing by the priesthood. So yeah then there’s today we have orientation, literamente all day. But yeah tomorrow will be tight. I’ll finally be in Paraguay. Can’t wait to tell you about my first week there. ¡Chau Ché!

12:30pm Tuesday September 18, 2012; So I'm in Paraguay now. I get my companion tomorrow morning and I'm having a great time here.

Buenos Aires Temple Dedication

Emailed on 9-12-12

We watched the celebrations in Argentina via YouTube: Search for Celebracion de la Joventud Argentina.

We actually found him in the sea of missionaries.  It was fantastic to see him participating in such a great event with the members.  He had a spiritual high of a week and now prepares for departure to Paraguay.  Enjoy his comments:

So,  A ton of stuff happened this last week. First, I loved the package. Thanks so much for all that candy and corvatas(Ties) haha. That newspaper was tight too. And I didn't see the courier so give them my thanks for bringing the package. So this last weekend was the dedication for the Buenos Aires Temple which was way cool. I couldn't take pictures of any of the events though. Stupid rules right? Once in a life time stuff but whatever. So on Friday, all of the missionaries in the 3 Buenos Aires missions and in the CCM had a devotional where E' Christopherson, E' Ballard, and President Eyring spoke. It was a prime time dawg. Wonderful talks, great for missionaries and for me. Saturday there was a cultural event that we were in. It was all day so we didn't proselyte but I loved the event so much. You know me, I love seeing other cultures. We were in a stadium in the city and there was music, singing, and dancing. Pres. Eyring and the two Apostles spoke a little for it too. Then at the end all the missionaries marched onto the field singing "llamados a servir" (called to serve). It was pretty legendary. I tell you what, Argentines LOVE their missionaries. We are practically famous here. They all wanted pictures with us and they were cheering, it was tight.

Then comes Sunday, we watched the first session of the dedication and one of my teachers from the CCM was in the choir for it. The dedication was sweet in Spanish and later that night during a fireside with the CCM pres. I shook the Area Presidents hand, it was E' Mervyn B. Arnold in the picture you sent me.  Entonces(In otherwords), I shook a General Authority's hand, Whuttup Ché! and today I went to do endowments here with some other missionaries. I had headphones so it was in English, but I tried to do some of it in Spanish and dude, it was hard. It was fun and interesting but super hard. The people that help you were slurring their speech so just 'No entiendo(Don’t Understand) dawg' haha. This temple is so beautiful and radical. Look at some photos of it, ché. So normal life here in the CCM is pretty cool. Learning tons of Spanish and now I'm doing like full conversations with some Latinos. My Spanish is straight bumpin' haha. The weather is getting super hot here and I'm slight sick. Hopefully it's not from the 50 mosquito bites I have from playing soccer. Me and E' Francis, the new American from California, are way tight. We talk all the time, he's probably my favorite person here. It's too bad he's going to Uruguay, Montevideo mission. So, one more week here then I bounce. My letter next week will be short probably because I leave on Tuesday. Thanks again for the package, love you guys. Oh and check out this sick knot I learned not to tie! Peace out, Bellsprout.

All Spanish

He is immersed in Spanish now with a companion from Ecuador.  We told him about our trip to Shakespeare and Aladdin. 

So this last proselitismo was fantastic. It was a great way to end my first companionship. We only covered 2 blocks of area but we gave out 6 Libros de Mormón, countless pamphlets, and we got 9 references for other missionaries. Oh and guess what! Pres. Eyring is doing a fireside on Friday for all of the missionaries in the area and the missionaries in the CCM get to go as well. And it's in English!!! Sounds like a good time. So I got my Latino companion. His name is E' Apolo, he's from Ecuador and he doesn't speak ANY English. Usually gringos get someone that speaks a little English but nope. In my classes too, I’m the only one that speaks English. It's so hard bro. I understand almost everything they say but they want me to answer these in depth questions and I'm like 'Dawg, I can’t just speak a paragraph of in depth doctrine in Spanish.' haha. It's rough but it should get better. so I'm already way close to some of the new Latinos. Love them, they're so crazy haha. Or in Guaraní, 'Netavy'. there's 4 new Americans, 2 elders and 2 hermanas. The two elders are E' Francis, from California, and E' Pyper, from Oklahoma. They're both way cool, I talk to them a lot. but yeah that's pretty much it. I hope you guys are keeping it real for me. I'm super jelly about the plays. Dude I miss musicals haha. My Comp is way tight. He's in the big email. He's fun but a little difficult to understand. All in all during class I understand almost everything but I struggle to answer back haha. Thanks for all the love and prayers I need it. Yesterday was way rough I was just spent from so much Spanish. So too kill a mockingbird, I remember it but I read it back in sophomore year where I barely paid attention in English haha. But yeah now I'm remembering the main plot. Such a good book, I need to read it again when I come home. I hope all is well in UTAH. Love you guys.

¡Chau Ché!

Alone at the CCM

All of the other Americans have left the MTC for Asuncion North or Uruguay. 

So this week was pretty chill.   Proselyting was ok, nothing big happened it was a normal day, o crap just kidding so not this last Saturday but the one before we met this lady named bertha but we didn’t have much time to talk to her so we gave her a plan de salvación folleto and asked her to read it. Then this week we went to visit her twice and she wasn’t home either time so we just said o well and continued our day. Then later we came across her and I forgot who she was because we meet so many people but my companion recognized her and she said she read the pamphlet and absolutely loved it so we gave her the book of Mormon and la restauración folleto(restoration pamphlet) and she said she would go to church the next day. Who knows if she actually went to church but she’s way nice and she seems like she probably went.   Yeah bertha seems like a great lady. The rain has stopped and it’s starting to get hot. I was playing goalkeeper during fútbol the other day and I was just standing there and i felt like I might break a sweat haha.

It's just me and 8 other missionaries en la CCM until Thursday.  It's nice to have some peace and quiet but I miss everyone else. I gave out so many of my information cards to my new friends. The Americans that just left were my favorites, they were so chill. One of them was E' Deaver, who's from Las Vegas, he was telling me that we were going to hang out and get all you can eat sushi in the Vegas. Sounds like a good time to me jaja. lol. Well this last set of latinos were crazy, they had like water fights and would play ninja all the time. They were so chill though. The last few days we started trading ties. I got two new ties but I need you to send me some more ties to trade because I love all the ones I have now jaja. So I met another E' Memmott here. He's in the Buenos Aires west mission. He says his ancestors are from the colonies, does that connect us? Grandma only tells us about the watts family, I don’t know the Memmott heritage jaja. E' Memmott is from California, he's pretty chill and he's pretty white. We could be related. So check out this song we sang in sacrament on Sunday. 

V1: We are marching.

We are marching in the service of our lord,

endowed with power from on high....from on high.

Armed with faith to teach his holy word.

For the lord is nigh.

Chorus: Oh We, Oh we all labor in the service of god,

with heart might mind and strength.

ever onward, holding with faith the iron rod.

ever onward, forward with faith we serve our god.

V2: Faiths the power and obedience the price,

to serve our savior valiantly.....valiantly.

loves the motive and the spirit key,

for eternity....for eternity.

[Chorus]

That is the Vanuatu missionary song. Its way up beat. I'll try to get a video of it. I told you we have a missionary from the island of Vanuatu right? It’s an island near fiji he's way rad. O so during proselitismo we found a bakery and they ha pizzas! we ate one right there and it was way good so we bought another to eat during the movie on sunday and everyone started laughing when they saw the pizza. It wasn't the full pizza, just the crust and sauce jaja. So my companions and I decided to ask the chef here if he could put cheese on it and cook it and he's way nice so he said sure. When he gave us the cooked pizza on sunday, it had a layer of ham and cheese and slices of sausage and olives and random seasonings all over it! It was so funny when we went to the movie session with our pizza. It was so good jaja. Well yeah that's it this week. How's my bud's in the ward? What's Zach, Stets, Megan, and Natalie up to? Tell everybody what's up. ok well mad love and Til' We Meet Again.

So on mondy I get my latino companion. I'm super excited.  So today I weeded some of the temple grounds. The dedication is in 2 weeks and apparently there is rumor that we will be doing something for it and we will be on tv. Dont take my word for it though haha but that would be cool if you watched it. Bear Lake looks way fun I wish I could be there.

with the money in the drawer? haha so we started selling them to the new latinos because they don’t proselyte on the first Saturday so they all wanted candy but didn’t have any. That’s just a picture of the stash me and my companion had. The banana and dulce de leche is showing you what I eat 5 times a day haha.   Chau.

Pictures are wonderful

This week was extra special because we found all the pictures Dylan was sending.  They were not coming through regular email.  He is working hard on the language, soon I will have to use bing translate to post his letters as he writes more and more in Spanish.  Hope this inspires you, He passed along a scripture that means a lot to him right now 3 Nephi 27:13.. enjoy... 

Hola mis amigos. (Hello all my friends) ¿cómo esta los estados unidos? (How is everyone in the United States)so this past week was alright. Kind of the same as usual. I can't believe it's already been over a month here. The first few weeks at the time felt like months but now looking back it seems so fast. 1 more week until the new set of latinos. We were told we might not have any new English speaking missionaries coming here. If that happens, my group would be the only English speakers and there will be no English class. I love latinos but I might go insane with no new English blood here haha. So in a week and a half Ill get my new latino companion. I’m excited but scared, it will be interesting haha. We'll see just how much Spanish I’ve learned. So proselitismo, it was much better this week. It didn't rain and we talked to loads of people. Literally, we got off the bus and said a prayer, then the first TWO houses we clapped we gave pamphlets and Libros de Mormón to and the families said they would attend church. We're meeting back with them and 2 other houses this Saturday. We met a guy named Nathan, he had a sweet lemon tree and garden in his front yard. We talked to this other guy too, I forget his name but he's super nice. We talked to him for a whole hour it was great. We had so much success that we had to run to the bus so that it wouldn't leave us. Well until next week. yo los amo a ellos much. no puedo esperar por proximo miercoles porque teneré cuatro horas escribir a mi familia. ¡Chau!

So just to give a basic idea of my daily life here in the CCM, I´ll give you my schedule. I wake up at 6:30 and get ready for the day. Then I eat breakfast at 7:25 which is always cereal.  Next I have personal study at 8 and companion study/progressive investigator at 9. Then assisted study at 10, where we just get help from our teacher. At 11 we have grammar study where we learn how to conjugate verbs, basically just learning Spanish. At 12:35 we have lunch which is usually a pretty big meal. At 1:00 we have Book of Mormon studies for a half hour with an hour of assisted study right after. Then we have language study until 3:30 where we just practice Spanish on our own. Then at 3:30 we have physical activity where I usually play soccer, aka fútbol. At 5 I have progressive investigator again or working on TALL. Progressive investigator is where our teachers pretend they are an investigator and we do mock visitations as missionaries. It´s pretty cool, it’s a great learning tool. TALL is a computer program that teaches us Spanish. That is also way cool. TALL helps me learn a ton of Spanish way fast. Then we have grammar at 6 and dinner at 6:45.  At 7:30 we either have more grammar or assisted study. And then we plan at 9 for the next day. There are a lot of other random stuff that changes our schedule every day such as learning stuff in our preach my gospel teaching manual. We have lots of devotionals as well. That’s pretty much my day to day. It’s pretty boring and repetitive but whatever and then every Saturday we have proselitismo.

Si estoy aprendiendo mucho español. es loco. proximo semana obteneré un compañero latino.

  We asked him if he needed anything and had been back to the temple open house. 

Nah I dont need anything. I've gone to the open house already but I don’t know about a session or the dedication. I know Eyring or someone is giving us a devotional. Ballard, Eyring, and Christopherson will be here.

Raining in Buenos Aires

Dylan sounds so great, loving the learning.  

Hola mis amigos. ¿cómo esta Utah sin mi? ¡estoy aprendando español muy rapido, es loco! ahora, solomiente hablo español. ¡Eek! jajajaja. Broma.

Translated:

Hello my friends. how this Utah without me? I am learning Spanish very fast, it's crazy! now, I only speak Spanish. Eek! jajajaja. Joke

lol. but for reals Im learning so much spanish. now that i've learned the basics. it's getting really hard. I love it though. I found out that the spanish program in the Provo MTC is 9 weeks long, but here in the CCM they condense the program into 5 weeks. so we learn spanish in 5 weeks, then review for one week, then we get a latino companion for the last 3 weeks. So in 2 weeks I get a latino companion and I go to the all spanish class, training like the natine speakers. So besides the language it's been fun here. Proselitismo on Saturday was fun but also a bummer. Fun because it was pouring rain on us. We were just laughing the whole time haha. But because of the rain, people wouldn't answer the gate to get a pamphlet. We barely had any success but that's all ok. Keep Moving Forward right? So yesterday we played futbol americano and then it started to rain. It was a full out downpour and our field is not very good so the rain turned it all into mud haha. We were sliding everywhere, just straight up gettin' dirty bro. Some peoples clothes were white when we started and now they are brown haha. It was so much fun. so yeah, how's the ward? what's going on in Utah? Keep me posted. Yo los amo, en inglés, I love you guys. Have a good week. Chau.

Extra Comments:

Connie told him about Gurarani on the Paraguayan News and how we can't understand it at all. 

Dylan comments, Yeah I learned how to count to 10 in guarani today. It is completely loco. Makes no sense at all. water is y. which sounds like ul. haha

Yeah I'm doing great thanks love you guys. how is utah.

Book of Mormon delivered

Dylan didn't actually send his letter until Thursday this week, Wednesday was a day of waiting and disappointment.  Yet thursday came with several notes and his letter, I have tried to tie the comments all together, with a note from his companion Elder Holgate.  I am so proud of him and his efforts. 

Hey sorry I couldn't write yesterday. Our internet was down until now.

     What´s up guys! So the rain has been insane! I´ve never seen so much rain, not even in Costa Rica bro! The thunder is super loud too. So the days are getting faster which is nice.

     Ok so story time. Proselitismo was on Saturday right, all 3 of our appointments bailed which stunk. We went to the same houses and different people answered the door. Haha Wat. But at the end, we were clapping houses and I saw this lady walking towards us. I said ‘hey lets talk to her’ so we did and she started rambling off on us. At first I thought she was getting mad at us because she said she was Evangelic and she said ‘malo’ like 50 times. I had no idea what she was saying haha. But then in my mind the word ‘Leerá’ came up, which is Spanish for ‘will you read’. After awhile she said she had to go but I told her to wait and gave her a Book of Mormon. I asked her to read it and she was like super happy. She said ‘for me? For me?’ Then she started crying and stuff. I invited her to go to church the next day and she agreed to go. Hopefully she did. But when she left my companions said the spirit interpreted everything she said for them. Apparently she was thanking us; saying our work is good and most boys our age are bad and she’s had great experiences from the bible. It was killer. Definitely a great prompting, so on that note.

Everyone at the C.C.M. left yesterday and its me and 18 other American missionaries until tomorrow. It’s crazy to think after 3 weeks you could get so close to some people. I will miss loads of my new friends. Oh, and no new Americans are coming in tomorrow, only latinos. Spanish is coming but now it’s getting pretty difficult. Have you heard of alfajors? It’s a 2-3 layer cookie with straight up Dulce de Leche in between the cookies. They are stellar. I eat so many. I am like addicted to Dulce de Leche bro. I’ve gained like 3 pounds here, which is amazing for me. I eat Bananas and Dulce de Leche 3 times a day haha. The food is good here, especially when we’re here alone haha.

     So what’s going on up in the states? O I forgot to tell you about the mad pranks we’ve been pulling. When people have been showing we fill a an empty trash can full of cold water and dump it on them and then one time we rotated the bunk beds around so the ladder was against the wall haha. So yesterday since it was only my group and the American group before us here for Actividad Fisica, we played against each other. My team lost but it was way fun and we all bonded close together from it. We’re the only English speakers here for the next 3 weeks haha. But yeah that’s about it. Miss the friends and family lots but time is speeding up. Mad love, and until next week yo. Lets Keep Moving Forward yeah? As they say in Argentina, ¡Chau Ché!

    Love you guys. so I will be in the MTC for 6 more weeks. they rotate us every 3 weeks

Additional Emails and responses to questions.  We asked if he needed anything. Have you sent the package? I also need parchment to write letters and a converter because the outlets here send too many watts through for our electronics. I also need some notebooks because mine is already low on paper. thanks. Send the packages to paraguay then. I would like that stuff though.  I wrote back quickly and indicated that his electronics are fine with the voltage of Argentina. Sweet. No we can only stay in our 10 block area while prosylting.

Elder Braden Holgate is his companion and wrote this about the experience they had on the streets of Buenos Aires.  It touched our heart as he referenced Elder Memmott.

"this passed saturday when we went, i knew something amazing would happen. we went to each appointment, but every door, a different person answered each door, claiming they dont know who we were talking about. Oh well. because we didnt teach them, we came across three different people during the time we would have been teaching, all of them were street contacts. the first two were good. we understood about 20 percent of what they said. but the last one was an older woman. we had 30 minutes left, so we were just going to finish off the block and meet up at the bus. during the second door we knocked, she walked by. normally we would just say hi, but we were prompted to talk to her. we introdued ourselves and she went on talking for about 3 minutes without stopping. Elder Memmott said he couldnt pick up much of it and thought she was  bashing on the bible and religion. i know about a forth of the language of what Elder Memmott and Elder Lumpkin know. but i knew the spirit was there, because i understood almost all of it. i needed to hear what she said so i could speak to her. she was talking about how the bible has been so good to her and her family, but she knew something was missing. she said she had to be somewhere and started to walk away. Elder Memmott was prompted to stop her and ask her to read the Book of Mormon. he knew what to ask without knowing what she said. she asked"¿para mi? about 5 times in astonishment. and broke down in tears. she then went on saying she knew this is what she was looking for and said it is amazing for 19 year old boys giving up two years of their lives and walked away reading it. "

Wake up and learn Spanish - ALL DAY

Today was full of anticipation, and we were rewarded with both insight into his life and precious moments of faith. I have combined emails to create this collage of comments and stories. He sounds so great, I hear his voice in each word. I now understand missionary parent's love for P-days.

So I hear my blog is pretty chill. Elder Holgate and Elder Lumpkin are my companions. So yeah. Proselitismo was Saturday and it was way sketchy. We knew like hardly any Spanish but we were still able to get 3 appointments. It was kind of a bummer though because we went to a wealthy neighborhood and we had to clap on a lot of doors and not many people would talk to us. but this story I’m gonna tell yeah happened TWICE on Saturday. so we got to the corner of a block and didn’t know which way to go, so me and my companions stopped to pray and right after we prayed, we knocked or clapped at the house right behind us and they talked to us and we set up appointments for next Saturday. It was so cool. Its gonna be tough teaching them but we have been learning Spanish super fast here. It will be fun and a neat experience. We definitely had the gift of tongues and interpretation with us on Saturday. I don’t even know what it was but sometimes I just knew exactly what the Argentines said. It was way cool. So the MTC life is kind of boring. Wake up and learn Spanish like ALL DAY but it’s pretty chill. We play soccer a lot though and we have some pretty great devotionals. We went through the temple yesterday. It was super gorgeous and the baptismal font is crazy. So we can’t take pictures except for every third Sunday before people leave, so I don’t have many pictures. But this Sunday I’m going to take loads of pictures and next Wednesday I have 2 hours to email so I'll talk to you guys then as they say in Argentina. ¡Chau! .

”How was your Saturday out of the MTC proselytiting?”

The food is way good and prosilyting was fun.  I have 3 appointments for this Saturday to teach people. It’s gonna be tough but the lord will let us speak clearly and understand and help the investigator. The food is different every day and no we don’t help with the temple but we went to the open house!!! Yeah next week I have 2 hours to write you guys because there will only be like 16 Americans in the MTC. Everyone leaves the MTC on Tuesday. Well I forgot to write about the gross hot dogs here. They have like a rubber film around this gross red meat haha. ok well I'll write next week

how is everything I love you guys so much o and that picture is way rad(We sent him the picture from the Clipper of the 2000 strippling warriors) To Nyah: I miss the puppies they are so cute and I hope flip gets better. Love you gangsta!

“Do you need anything?” 

Where is my pocket knife? and send envelopes and US stamps and a new watch battery. “Missionaries can send letters through the pouch that get mailed by the church office to addresses wihtin the USA. We didn’t send him with any, so you parents who are preparing missionaries for foreign countries take note of this item, we regret it.”

Like I said I have 2 hours so it will be sweet!!!! Ok love you guys. ¡Chau!

President Kenneth Lynn Openshaw





Learning Spanish in the CCM

Dylan's first week in Argentina and the Spanish seems to be coming along.  He sounds happy and fitting in, what a relief it was to finally hear from him in such good spirits. 

Hey guys. P-day is Wednesday here not monday. How is everything there. I leave the C.C.M(Centro de Capacitacion Misional)or MTC) this saturday for prosyliting(proselyte). Sorry if that was spelled wrong. My english is way weird after so much spanish. I´m learning so much lately. Yeah I'm just going to write one letter for everyone so show these all to them. During P-days we just hang out and get our haircuts and have Actividad Fisica or Futbol haha. I love playing soccer here. The latinos are so good at it. I got a haircut today. Its so short and I look like a true latino. Everyone here thought I spoke spanish haha. The first 2 days, 11 people tried to talk to me in spanish. I was like ah no habla español haha. It was so funny. So yeah I dont know what else to write here. Its way fun but I've been super homesick lately. I miss the family y'know. I love the argentine accent here though. They dont speak fast but paraguains do. There are a couple of elders from paraguay here and almost all of us are going to paraguay haha. My whole group is going to my same mission lol. The lisp from the paraguains is way hard though. I cant understand them very well. I´m getting good at understanding spanish though and speaking it too. The argentines accent does a shuh sound on the y and ll in the middle and beginning of words its so cool. I have been trying to pick up the accent haha. My president here is way cool too. He knows a scripture for like any question. Like last night we asked about healing people and his testimony was insanely strong and he just says 'well I think we should turn to D+C chapter 16 verse 43 and we will find our answer there.' Its totally crazy. Well I'll talk to you guys tomorrow. I only get a half hour here. Try to write me all in one letter. Its easier that way. ps tell Elder Asays parents that he couldn´t log into his email today so he couldnt write; he is doing good though.

Departure to Buenos Aires









Dylan's leaving was hardest for those he left behind I believe.  His attitude was positive and he was excited to get started.  Dylan made comments to missing his Sister and Brother, and all those who have influenced him during his childhood years.  He is so grown-up yet plays all the child games like pokemon this makes it hard for Nyah.   His arrival into Argentina was on time and we received the following at 6:30am 7-19-2012.  

"

Yeah it's totally great here. It's not that hot here. The flight was long but I made it safely. I'll talk to you soon. We are just writing to tell you we made it here. Love you guys and talk to you on Monday.

 "







Boeing 767-300 he flew on landing in what could be Buenos Aires

 



 

Farewell Sunday

I thought for those that may have missed his talk and for records I would post his written version of his talk.  He did so well, it was emotional and spiritual.  You can really see the change happening even before he leaves. 

"

·        Opener (Padawan braid for a year, now I’ve become a Jedi. Super powers)

·        Where I am going on my mission.

o   Going to Paraguay, heading straight to MTC in Argentina.

·        Restoration (of this church, the church of JC, LDS)

o   Background check. (GA and LD)

§  The church has been restored numerous times on this earth and each one has been followed by an Apostasy. We just got done with the GA which is the longest one of them all and occurred right after our savior was crucified.

§  Following this GA is the LD, which is the time period we are in now. It is the final time the church will be restored as after this dispensation the second coming of Jesus Christ will occur.

o   Joseph smiths family background

§  Lets talk about JS. He was 14 and a determined and open minded boy who came from a religious family but was never really part of any particular church.

§  He began to ponder about which church was true and which he should join.

§  One night he came across a scripture passage while reading the bible. It was James 1:5 and it read, ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of god, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (scripture spoke to JS)

§  JS realized he needed to kneel down in sincere prayer and ask our heavenly father this question of which church was true.

o   Joseph went to a grove near his house one morning and prayed.

·        I’ve noticed the difference in my life from prayer and scripture study.

o   Most of us start with our parents’ testimony and we need to grow our own.

o   Thank my early morning seminary teachers for teaching me.

§  They helped me find my testimony of the church.

·        Restoration (lets continue on with our story of JS)

o   Joseph’s prayer with Heavenly father. (JSH 1:15-16)

§  JS was a very strong willed boy to have been able to push through that torment.

§  The devils grasp was around his throat but he had such great faith in our HF to keep pushing through this torment and speak to god through prayer.

o   Joseph was told all the churches were wrong. Because they did not have the fullness of the gospel.

o   Joseph was told that through him the church would be restored. He then worked hard and did as he was asked, so that the true church would become prevalent on this earth once more.

·        Missionary

o   As a missionary I will be continuing Josephs work to bring people into the light of the restored gospel. There are about 15 million members in our church today. Seems like a lot but we have a long ways to go as there’s 7 billion people living on this earth.

o   I decided to become a missionary, to share this truth to others and serve my HF.

o   I am excited to serve the people of Paraguay and learn their culture and language.

o   Talk about mission…

§  Met with missionary, mission for me. Can’t wait to see what’s in store.

·        Restoration

o   Book of Mormon

§  Through JS, the church progressed in many ways. Joseph continued to try and communicate with our father in heaven and was visited many times by angels. One night, the angel Moroni visited Joseph and told him of ancient records hidden upon a hill. This ancient record was the Book of Mormon.

§  JS retrieved the record and through the power of god, he was able to translate the writing.

§  Testimony: The Book of Mormon is another testament of Christ. It goes alongside the Holy Bible, not replaces it. I have read much of the BoM and know that it is true. All of the stories are real and through heavenly power, Joseph Smith was able to return this record to us.

o   Priesthood

§  As JS was translating the BoM, he read of priesthood powers and baptism. JS began to pray for guidance on this matter, and was soon visited by John the Baptist. He baptized both JS and OC and gave them the Aaronic priesthood.

§  Later; Peter, James, and John (three of Christ’s original apostles) gave JS and OC the Melchizedek priesthood.

o   With the full priesthood, Joseph Smith organized and restored the true and complete church of Jesus Christ.

o   The church has grown immensely and continues to grow through missionary service.

o   Temple ordinance

§  The final piece to the full restoration of this church was the temple. Through temple ordinances, we can all be connected to our savior and HF.

§  The temple gives each of us the ability to return to our HF if we keep the covenants we make with him. Through temple work it is our opportunity to help the dead so they can accept the gospel in heaven, as missionary work progresses there.

§  My uncle Daron died just before he served on his mission. He was struck by cancer and was unable to serve. Although he was not able to do missionary work here on earth, I know that he is teaching the gospel to many who have passed away.

o   The restoration is a wonderful thing. We have all truly been blessed and we should all share this wonderful gospel to others.

§  As members, it is our responsibility to invite others to church and to read the BoM.

§  Step by step we improve and through friendship, love, and genuine compassion, each of us can introduce the gospel to a non-member, and bring to them the salvation of a complete and restored church; The Church of JC of LDS.

§  All of this has come from a simple prayer of a boy, who believed his Father in Heaven loved him enough to answer.

·        Once again I am excited to serve and teach the people of Paraguay.

·        Thank family and members of the church.

o   Brother, parents, grandparents on both sides.

o   Thank bishop. All my family friends in the ward, especially Doug Jackson for being a great home teaching companion and such a loving and caring guy. He has been with me in SYC and in priests quorum. He has truly helped me become a missionary.

·        Testimony

o   Yo se que jesus cristo vive. Yo se que joseph smith fue un profeta. Yo se que la iglesia es verdadera. Yo se que la mission de Paraguay es para mi.

o   I know this church is true. I know that Joseph Smith has restored the true church to us and I am eternally grateful. I know that through the atonement, I can return to my father in heaven and live with my family for all time. I am so grateful to have the church in my life. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

"

Orchard 5th ward house

Site under construction... 

Dylan is preparing and celebrating the last few days with family in California and returning to Utah July 11th.  Please plan for Dylan's farewell on July 15 at 11:00am at the Bountiful Orchard stake house.   All celebrate with us following his farewell at our home in NSL UT.

Dylan will report to the Argentina MTC in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, his flight departs at 12:20pm.