Elder David Maynard

HOLA! ¿QUÉ TAL? ¿CÓMO LE VA? ¿TODO BIEN?

One thing that I love about Argentina is that people always say 4 things to say hello haha It is like saying ´´Hello! Good Morning? What´s up? How are you doing?´´ I love it, it makes me laugh sometimes.

To start this letter off I would like to say Happy Birthday to my little sister Amanda! She is 18.... :O I hope you have a great birthday on Saturday Amanda! YOU ROCK! And you have so much swag! ;)

This week was transfer week, so it was full of lots of meetings. I am fine with that because I get to listen to President Pérez a lot and he will just take you into a spiritual spaceship and blast off. President Pérez focuses a lot on the personal conversion of every single missionary. We have to be truly converted ourselves if we want to be able to help other people. Do we just believe in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ or do we really KNOW that it is true? We have to KNOW! And if we do not know, then we can always go to our Heavenly Father in humble prayer and ask Him for wisdom. We read together Moses 5:8 ´Wherefore, thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore.´´ I love how this scripture says ´´Forevermore.´´ We aren´t here to serve the Lord for only 2 years, we are here to worship God forever. That gives me so much comfort. In the mission, in this life, or after death, I shall worship God forevermore. The mission is just a step that we take to prepare us for the eternities. We have to be ready to follow God at all times and in all things, and in all places. We have to be converted to Him. He just wants us to follow Him and have the joy that He has. The church is just so cool and so true.

Due to lots of meetings we weren´t able to work very much this week, but basically all we do is contact people. It is fun and we enjoy it a lot.

Funny story of the week: Were talking to a guy in a park, and the guy freaks out and points at Elder Pearson. We didn´t notice but Elder Pearson was standing on an ant hill. I have never seen so many ants on someone´s pants. It was so funny. We spent the next five minutes shaking ants off of Elder Pearson. Luckily he wasn´t bit.

I love you all and I hope you have a great week! Happy Birthday Amanda!

Love,

Elder Maynard

Greeting the new missionaries this week. 3 from Utah, 1 from colorado, and 2 from Mexico

Foto shoot with Elder Maynard? haha

Food after the meeting with trainers and newbies

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACKSON!!!! I got the party hat on

Elder Giacoboni goes home soon. He was my zone leader and I did my very first splits with him.

I got an x ray this week so I took a selfie. Don´´t freak out, I am completely fine. I have a funny story coming soon.

This is called Puré pie. One of Elder Pearson´s and I´s creations and it is delicious

Alfahor for 17 months!

The crew at church, our new ward mission leader.

Alberto gave us a loaf of bread. its called pan chincharron. It is made out of little pieces of cow fat but it is absolutely delicious.

Hola Familia y Amigos,

Another transfer has come to a close in the Great Mission Argentina Santa Fe. We have completed 12, and we have 5 more to go. Time goes by too fast. Speaking about going by fast, How was general conference?! In the mission we look forward to General conference so much and it goes by in the blink of an eye. I would have to say that my favorite talk came from President Thomas S. Monson during the priesthood session. I know without a doubt that this man is a prophet of God. He told a story about a man in the Navy. He was overboard and he had to climb back into a ship during a storm. While climbing up the ship, he was losing strength. He had always kept the Word of Wisdom, and while climbing up the ship, he prayed to God to receive the strength to make it back up. God gave him strength. He was no longer tired and he climbed up with ease. I thought this story was so awesome. The main message that I got out of it is that the blessings will always come. Always. God will forever fulfill with His promises when we obey His commandments. We may not know when the blessings will come, but they always do, especially when we need them most. I loved it. The blessings will always come.

Another thing touched me during conference. I cannot remember who said it, but he said ´´Are the windows of heaven opened when we pray?´´ That is a great question. The best prayers come from me when I pray out loud. I am more focused and I feel closer to God. I remember praying a few nights ago, and I felt like the heavens were opened. I really felt like I was talking directly to God. Sometimes we take things for granted. I am used to praying a lot in the mission, so it was a good reminder to make our prayers more personal and remember that they are sacred.

We had an awesome experience last night too that has to do with prayer. We met a 15 year old kid, Tobias. He let us into his house and we shared with him the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was locked in, listening intently to us. At the end, we invited him to pray to know the truth. He asked, ´´God, this message is true?´´ He then sat there for about 2 minutes in complete silence. The silence ended when he said, ´´Amen.´´ We asked him how he felt. He told us that he felt peace, he feels closer to God, and that he felt like God was listening to him. The moments like these are when you feel like you are on top of the world as a missionary. It is the coolest thing in the world. We have another appointment with Tobias tomorrow!

Our main man Alberto came to the Priesthood session of General Conference with us. The first thing that he said to us after was, ´´ Your prophet is a little old aye?´´ haha I laughed because Alberto always complains about being old. Alberto continues to be our main prospect for baptism. He is just a solid man. Such a good guy. He is working hard to be able to come to church every week. That is going to be our focus for the week, Operation: Get Alberto to Church.

I am grateful for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know that it is the true church of Christ here on the earth. Christ is the Creator and the Leader. He is the Good Shephard. I am grateful and blessed to be able to serve God in His kingdom. I am grateful for the love and support of my family as I am here in Argentina. I always feel your love! Have a great week everyone! I love you guys!

Love,

Elder Maynard

P.S: EVERYONE give a big hug to my stud of a little brother Jackson. It is his birthday tomorrow! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY! I love you tons bro! He is now 16 and can go on dates so all the ladies out there better hit him up! ;) I love you Jackson!