Elder Tres Tarwater... ARGENTINA mission
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina Spanish speaking mission Sept 2013-2015
Friday, October 11, 2013
General Conference Weekend WAS AMAZING!!! WEEK 4 Provo Utah
President Lindahl, MTC Branch President and family friend!
This week was a good one as usual. A couple exciting things happened this week though. Last weekend was General Conference which was awesome! We went to main campus all day Saturday and all day Sunday to watch it. So many good talks! We are so lucky to be able to hear from, in my opinion, the wisest men in the World,and the Prophet! I want to invite you to watch it with a non-member friend especially these talks: Saturday Morning Pres.Uchtdorf, Saturday Afternoon Elder Holland, and Sunday Morning Pres. Eyring. I thought these talks were really powerful!
Yesterday we got another District in our Zone! 4 Elders and 4 Hermanas. All of them except for 2 Hermanas are going to Argentina Posadas mission. :( They all seem really cool! I think all of them are from Utah (of course) except one of the girls is from England! She is originally from Zimbabwe Africa and her last name is Dube! Remember Dube??, the Elder who spoke in conference? Except they aren't related but its weird they are originally from the same place. She gets asked that all the time.
Cant think of anything else out of the ordinary or exciting this week except conference. Pretty routine schedule here: P Ohhhhhhh this morning on the bus ride home from the Temple, Katy Perry- firework was playing and I was jamming out. I miss music so much hahaha. :(
MTC time is FLYING. Like I’m not kidding it goes by faster than everyone says it does. I AM GOING TO BE IN ARGENTINA IN A WEEK AND A HALF!@!@! I leave Oct 22! Pretty exciting stuff. Spanish is still coming along great and we were able to commit 2/3 investigators to baptisms this week. The lessons are coming along great and it feels great to be able to communicate. Blessed to be here. Sorry if I'm boring this week, my letter should be better once I get to Argentina and its different every day.
Love you guys!!!
Love, Elder Tarwater
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Week 3 October 3 2013 MTC West Provo UTAH
Hola! Great week that flew by again. Not much new throughout the week. I'm ready to go to Argentina already! Well maybe not ready, but I'm excited. Elder Tanquary (the one that went to Basha) and his district left on Tuesday for Mexico. They were all a lot of fun. So that left only my district and another district left in the zone. BUT we got a new District in our Zone yesterday! 8 new elders and all of them are going to Mexico :( Kind of funny when they got here we only spoke Spanish to them and it freaked them out. It is so weird how that was me not long ago. You grow so much in such a short time!
Spanish is coming along great still. I'm becoming a much more effective teacher now that I'm pretty comfortable with the language. I almost feel bad sometimes because I usually do most of the talking in my companion and I's lessons to our investigators. I get excited and feel the spirit and it feels like I could talk forever. But my companion is struggling with the language quite a bit so he doesn't mind if I talk :) I and my companion get along great though! He is starting to become a LITTLE but more talkative and I'm still trying to help him not be so nervous when talking to people and to look in their eyes. But I love him! He is so nice and we've had a ton of spiritual experiences with each other. The other day, we had a task to help our companion come closer to Christ during our private companionship study. I felt inspired to teach him about the Plan of Salvation. Come to find out, I learned his brother had committed suicide not too long ago and he struggled with major depression. We are so thankful for such a beautiful plan given to us by our Heavenly Father. Knowing that we can live with our families FOREVER, is the best blessing any of us can have in our lives. It makes me want to live my life the best I can so I can partake of that blessing.
On Tuesday we had a devotional at the main campus. Elder Baxter of the seventy was the speaker and gave talk on how our church IS a Christian church. He also explained a lot of the relief efforts our church provides all over the World. It was interesting to hear how much our church has done for the people in the World. For example, we donated $30mil to Japan during the earthquakes. We had trucks with supplies in New Orleans before the first wave of Katrina even hit. In Indonesia a village lost all of their sacred scriptures (The Quran) during the tsunami. The church donated 700 copies of The Quran to that village so they could continue to practice their religion. But what really hit me the most was after he explained each relief effort, he would say "That's what Christ's church would do, that's what your church does." Our job here is to LOVE everyone no matter the circumstance, just as Jesus did. We are representatives of Jesus Christ, the most loving and obedient person that has ever lived. He loved us so much that he gave his life for us. We have big shoes, or sandals, to fill but as we follow his teachings and focus on the welfare of others, we will be great in God's eyes. We can all try to become like him.
I miss all of you guys so much. And I miss my bed. Ha-ha but I know I am doing the right thing by being here. Everybody deserves to hear this great message that we have and I'm so excited to share it. Couldn't be happier!!! Love you guys!
Love, Elder Taragua
(Everybody calls me Elder tarAGUA, agua=water) LOL don’t think I’ve been called tarWATER since like the 3rd day
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Week 1 MTC WEST, Provo Utah Sept 16, 2013
WOWWWWWW. The MTC is the most special experience I've had and its only been 1 week. The people here are all super nice and really fun to be around! Its also so easy to feel the spirit when you are surrounded my such a good and loving atmosphere.
The first 2 days were a little rough though since you kind of jump into things really quick and there's not time to adjust. By day 2 I asked myself if I should really do this. Being homesick, tired, and busy all day aren't the most desirable things in the world. But by day 3 I got over that since I was called to be the District leader. So I felt entitled to be a good example to the rest of my District. In my District there is my companion and then 2 sets of sister missionaries. So we are the only Elders! good ratio I guess though ;) ha ha ha just kidding. My companion Elder Frandsen is super nice but super quiet. I've been trying to get him to open up and he is doing a little better. We get along really well. The Hermanas are Hermana Olson, Twitchell, Whitmer, and Winters. They are really great and are super spiritual and great speaking Spanish. All of them are going to my mission except Hermana Olson. They are also the only Hermanas in my zone so I am lucky to have them in my district.
Spanish is actually coming along really fast. I'm pretty good at praying and bearing my testimony in all Spanish and can communicate pretty well actually. Its almost hard to speak fully in English without wanting to spit out some words in Spanish. Crazy how our Heavenly Father blesses us with the ability to speak the language as long as we have faith that we can and we work hard. I always make sure to pray por el don de lenguas (gift of tongues.) I actually haven't prayed in English the whole time I've been here. We taught our first investigator FULLY in Spanish on the 3rd day and have been teaching pretty much everyday since then. The first couple lessons were pretty rough but I guess you learn from experience. The last one or 2 lessons me and my companion taught our investigator we didn't bring notes and relied on the spirit to help us teach, those last 2 lessons were definitely our best by a mile! We committed her to baptism and she thinks its a great idea and is going to pray about it. Its crazy to feel the spirit while speaking Spanish and be able to say the things you want even though you normally aren't able to. Its an amazing and unique experience.
Also went to a couple devotionals on Sunday and on Tuesday. They WERE AMAZING!!!! So many great insights to pull out of them and so much to learn. The spirit is always so strong. One of my favorite quotes from the Sunday devotional was "Lose yourself, and you will find yourself without even looking." I know that as we turn the attention away from ourselves and focus on loving others as much as we can that we will become more converted to Christ. Even during our trials or our hardest times we need to be charitable to others and not say "poor me." I've definitely learned that my mission is not about me but about inviting others to come unto the happiness of the gospel.
Wish I could write more but I'm out of time. Didn't get to say everything I wanted. BUT I LOVE EVERYBODY AND I MISS YOU GUYS!!
send me dearelders during the week please. I thoroughly enjoy them!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!
Darin Tres Tarwater
Comdoro Rivadavia mission
box 882
"Everyday you are on a mission, you'll think about home. Everyday after you get home, you'll think about your mission."
Cant attach pictures for some reason. Ill try to figure it out for next week. Love you again!!
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