Semana quince (week fifteen)

hola hermano's y hermana's,

So this week has been pretty crazy!! there was a fight at church yesterday where an adult came in and started swinging at a youth for talking crap about his son on facebook! we had one of our investigators tell us about how her wife died a few years ago and how she use to be a lesbian and how she feels like she needs to be more alligned with the commandments of God and how shes willing to obey the commandments and the law of chastity and it was a super awesome and powerful discussion!! we had one of the families we were teaching separate and so the husband lives alone now and so we are trying to do everything we can for that family but kinda tough at this point but we have been teaching them less and less because of the family problems and all! we had one of our investigators have one of her childern go in to the intensive care unit at the hospital after the kid started to have a seizure and so we have been trying to help that family out as much as we can. but its been the craziest week and we're trying to do our best as far as the work goes but at the same time offering our help in any way we can!! the work has been going well but with all of the crazy stuff that has been going on this week were just wondering where we would be able to help and be the most effective but hopefully we can start to get a baptism coming up but the work has not been easy! there are a lot of questions so I'm gonna go ahead and try to answer as many as i can! but read the questions if you can because I'm able to talk a bit more about how the ward and the missionary work has been going!
ps-sorry if the pictures are kinda messed up this week!

Questions:
What have you been doing?
-teaching discussions/lessons, learning the language, changing lives;)
How's the language coming?
-the language is coming slowly but surely! I have been feeling more and more comfortable in discussions and teaching the lessons and having gospel discussions so as far as my missionary language its been going pretty well but i have been trying to improve my conversational and street language as far as in grocery stores and asking for directions and talking to people about things other then the gospel
How's the food, honestly?
-honestly the food is pretty bad! we eat milanesa and rice alot and we get fed by the members every once in a while but nothing really more then potatoes and salads and some pasta every once in a while! but we have been trying to get better with our cooking skills and with what we have avaliable to by in the grocery stores!
Any investigators moving toward baptism?
-we have a few progressing investigators who have been reading and praying but one of the hardest things is getting investigators to church!! we have had members promise that they would be at church on Saturday nights and not come on Sunday!! pretty frustrating especially when them going to church for only 3 Sundays is the only thing keeping them from being baptized but i guess if they don't have a strong enough testimony to be making it to church they shouldn't be ready for baptized as well but that's what we have been trying our best with is getting investigators to church!!
How many wards are in your area?
-we have me and my companion and another companionship in the same ward (Alots Del Valle) and so we have 4 missionaries that are in the same ward and we split the ward boundries as far as missionary work goes
Do you have to speak a lot in the ward?
-I have spoken about 3 times but 2 of those times have been during testimony meeting because missionaries are always suppose to talk and how i had to introduce myself after being sent to this area as a new missionary and i gave a talk that was just about 5 minutes about the book of mormon and the importance of the book of mormon in the church and my testimony
Do you help with the sacrament?
-we usually dont have to but if it rains on Sundays there aren't very many people attending church because most people ride bikes or drive mopeds to church so even though we walk 30 min in the rain they don't go to church because I guess its to much of a sacrifice to go when it rains for them.
How many people are in your ward?
-there are 400 members in our ward.... 350 of these members are inactive and the 50 who attend church every Sunday are the 50 who hold ward callings and they feel more obligated to be there more then anything! but if it rains on a Sunday you will see a ward with 50 active members drop to a ward with 20 active members so we usually help out with sacrament on rainy Sundays. which sucks because it rains a lot here! its raining right now.....
Any Americans?
-no americans, there are no americans in our district/ward
When are your next transfers?
-our next transfers are in about 2 or 3 weeks I think? i'm not sure, transfers are every 6 weeks and so i'm not sure when the last transfer was but I think in about 3 weeks we have another transfer!


mucho amor,
Elder Tutton

address for mail and packages:
Candido Pujato 3269
3000 Santa Fe
Santa Fe, Argentina

Semana catorce (week fourteen)

hola hermano's y hermana's,

Sorry I dont have alot to say this week!! i got really sick on Monday night and didn't sleep at all that night and then all Tuesday as well but by Wednesday morning I was able to get back out with my comp! Me and my companion had exchanges on Saturday and Sunday and so we were with our zone leaders, and to help with my Spanish I went with our new zone leader who is from Bolivia and we worked. So Saturday and Sunday I got some really good practice in with my Spanish! Pretty awesome guy too! love our zone leaders!! This week from Tuesday to Friday we were just in meetings and discussions all week and we have just been working a lot with specific investigators and trying to help them out the best we can with progressing in the steps to getting to the baptismal font and trying to keep our heads up and not be getting discouraged with a few of our investigators who are struggling. We've been working a ton and at the same time trying to get a few new interested investigators, but were really trying to be efficient and we are progressively been doing really well at not only giving it our best effort but being smart in what we put our efforts in and trying to get the best results with our efforts!

SHOUT OUT TO ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS BAYLEY COOK WHO GOT HIS MISSION CALL TO SERVE IN CHILE!! LOTS OF LOVE AND SO VERY PROUD OF HIM!! GONNA BE AN AWESOME ELDER!!!

Questions:

•  Are you getting eaten by mosquitoes? Your hands kind of looked like a lot of mosquito bites on them in one of your pics.

yea the mospuitoes here suck!!! i hate them here and im pretty sure im allergic because ive had bites ever since ive gotten here and there more just kinda scaring but yea the mosquitoes here suck and there kinda everywhere and the hotter and more humid it gets the more of them come out so its been progressivly getting worse but ive but trying to not think about it!

• Will you have A/C in your apartment when it starts getting hot?

its already started getting really hot and humid! we dont have A/C but i sleep with a fan right next to my bed!

• Have you been bitten by a dog yet? What are you supposed to do if you get bit?

hahaha funny story, yea i've been bit but kinda forgot to tell you but it was in my first 2 weeks and it broke skin and so if it breaks skin you have to go to the hospital so I went to the hospital and it was a pretty good bite but they just gave me a shot and some perscriptions to make sure i dont get an infection but yea that was a fun experience but that was a little while ago but forgot to tell you

• how are the little kids? looks like a fun time with them!

the little kids are freaking awesome! the kids are so wild and friendly and they are so energetic and just want to play soccer with us all day!! haha i love them though, so aweome!

Sorry i don't have a ton of time this week!! thank you for all of the love and support!! send me any letters or cards and i will be able to say all i have to say and take more time to write so please send letters if you can! I love getting letters and taking time to respond!! it takes about a month for cards and letters to get down to me and about the same amount of time for me to get letters back to the states but means a lot receiving letters and thank you so much for all of your love!! Hope you all have a great week!!!

mucho amor,
Elder Tutton

address for mail and packages:
Candido Pujato 3269
3000 Santa Fe
Santa Fe, Argentina

Semana trece (week thirteen)

Aloha de Santa Fe, Argentina!!

Hope you all had an amazing week! umm not a lot has been going on this week other then just a lot of work and a lot of meetings and discussions! nothing really out of the ordinary! we have just been focusing a lot on narrowing down our investigators and really focusing on the needs of the investigators who are serious in progressing and eventually being baptized so we "dropped" about 5 investigators this week who we thought didn't have the greatest intentions with hearing our discussions and weren't progressing. But we really focused on the needs of any of our investigators who have baptism dates and how we can help them the best we can! we noticed that we just need to be putting a lot of focus and energy into a good 5-10 who are serious about progressing rather then 20 when half of our meetings aren't really doing anyone any good so we are really focusing on the 4 investigators who have baptism dates along with 5 that are progressing well in the discussions! its just been a lot of re-focusing our efforts and in trying to be as effective as we can be and praying we can pull a baptism out of this area!

Just to give you a little taste of how the ward is and how differently structured it is out here, i'll give you an example! We go to church last Sunday, we talk a bit with our ward mission leader, he says that he will come with us to a discussion we have on Friday with someone who is really progressing! Really important meeting and we were hoping to ask her to prepare for baptism if the meeting went well! But we get a call on Friday morning telling us that our ward mission leader moved on Thursday to another ward and he never got back to us about going with us to the discussion! with no warning our ward mission leader just moves! He was a pretty difficult guy to work with in the first place, almost begging him to come to a discussion during the week! but yea so now we don't have a ward mission leader and were talking with Bishop right now to try to get another ward mission leader ASAP and we are trying to convince him into calling an awesome member who works with us a lot already and honestly fulfilled more duties of a ward mission leader then our actual ward mission leader fulfilled! But yea were praying hard for a bomb new mission leader which were praying is that same member who helps us out already!

It's been raining/cloudy all week pretty much! pretty great stuff, love it! also, another pretty crazy story that is a bit less spiritual then last week! we were visiting one of our progressing investigators and when we first met her she invited us in but as long as we didn't talk about religion (we ended up talking about religion) but this was about a month ago and this week we invited her to pray to know if the things we have taught her are true! and also to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true and she said shes not going to promise because if she promises she knows she will have to do it but we met with her on Wednesday and she said she will promise to pray in the next week but not by Wednesday so hopefully all goes well with her! Shes a pretty awesome older lady! We call her our Grandma, she always feeds us and always is super interested in all we have to say and she has come a long way in the past month! also during our last meeting she brought out skulls and bones out of a box and told us that they were the bones of her parents!! hahaha crazy stuff!! also her neighbor comes by during almost all of our lessons and shes been more and more interested as well!! hahaha but yea and this last Wednesday we made her and her neighbor french toast which was pretty awesome and then we shared with them a few messages from general conference!! but shes a pretty awesome lady along with her neighbor!!

Thank you all so much for all of the love and support and hopefully i didn't bore you all to much with my e-mail this week! ill try to get some more interesting things going on here to write about in next weeks E-mail! hope you all have an awesome week!!

mucho amor,
Elder Tutton

address for mail and packages:
Candido Pujato 3269
3000 Santa Fe
Santa Fe, Argentina

Semana doce (week twelve)

hola hermano's y hermana's,

how was conference weekend!?!? hope you guys have had a great week! sorry to had forgotten to mention that I would be writing on Tuesday this week! I forgot that with transfers (every 6 weeks) our p-days are moved to Tuesday's so i apologize but just to keep you updated on transfers, me and Elder Orozco are still in the same area and are still companions but we received new district leaders! Pretty crazy week with transfers and with conference weekend but it's been a great week!

Quick shout out to two of my best friends, Bayley Cook and Ashlyn Jensen who both submitted there mission papers this week and who are both preparing to be amazing missionaries so insanely proud of both of them!! Cant wait to hear when and where they will be reporting! love and best wishes to both of them!

Quick experience- I was out on day splits and me and the other missionary were both new missionaries (he came in to the mission the same time as me) and he is from Chile and he is just an awesome guy!! but while we were knocking doors we were getting a bit discouraged! It was getting dark and we had about another 20 min to knock until we had to be back and so we said a prayer and asked for the gift of tongues and interpretation and that me and my comp would be led to a person who;s heart was prepared to hear our message! the last street we knocked there was a woman who answered the door and she said that her husband had died almost exactly a year ago and she has 3 kids and we taught her about the plan of salvation and she was in tears the entire lesson! powerful spirit! I took about half the lesson that I felt comfortable in the language sharing and then at the end of the lesson me and my comp both bore our testimonies of the truthfulness of the message we shared and she then desired to come to general conference the next day with us so we brought her along to hear from the Apostles and then she came Sunday as well and heard from the prophet! such an awesome experience but i remembered after our discussion she was asking a bit about our missions and she asked where we were from and then she talked to me a bit about the language and she said she could tell that i was learning the language but that she understood all I had to say and the power behind what I had to say confirmed to her that the message that we were sharing was true!!

questions-
Has the language "clicked" yet? What's your favorite phrase?
-the language has not clicked (its coming slowly but surely/line upon line and precept upon precept) but i have been continuing to be diligent and in studying and giving my best effort to learning the language of the people i have been called to serve! my favorite phrase- "todo tranquilo" which means "all is good"
What is your favorite food to eat there?
-the food here isn't that great not gonna lie but they have milenasa which is kinda just like breaded chicken and we eat that a lot with rice but Argentina has really good snacks so my favorite snack would have to be, dulce de leche alfajores! its kinda like a triple layer chocolate cookie! pretty great stuff!
Are you sleeping better?
-not really, my companion told me you never really get a great night sleep and it's more of a miracle if you can sleep through the whole night without waking up! its not to much to worry about but we just wake up a few times a night! also in Argentina there is always someone blasting music so its kinda hard to sleep in general with the music going 24/7 but yea sleep is interesting
is it getting hot there yet?
-so were officially in spring so other then the days it rains its pretty warm out! just think that every day it get colder where you are its getting hotter here!
What was the highlight of your week, well, besides conference?
-conference for sure, and we watched 17 miracles in spanish which was pretty cool but we could only watch between Saturday afternoon and priesthood because it was to late to contact in between that session so we got to watch the movie for a bit but other then that session we were out contacting between sessions on Saturday and Sunday! also with the time change here we watched priesthood session from 9pm-11pm and didn't get back to the house till midnight which was interesting but yea conference weekend as a whole was just such an awesome time!

conference quotes-
"may our motive be our love of god and for his children"-Elder Uchtdorf
"using your time and talents and sharing your testimony will help you to grow spiritually"-Elder Hales
"Jesus Christ is the mark"-Elder Cook
"Stumbling blocks may be made into stepping stones"-Elder Cook
"there faith will be made manifest through diligence and work"(talking about missionaries) -Elder Bassett (of the 70)
"take over the priesthood care and keeping"-Elder Holland
"let us seek out, find, and inspire"-Elder Uchtdorf
"united in whole heart service of Christ"-Elder Eyring
"we need to work, search, and pray"-Prophet Thomas S. Monson
"the joy we have has little to do with our circumstances but rather our focus"
-Elder Nelson
"the missionaries are not leave there homes just to increase the numbers of the church but to share and proclaim joy"-Elder Nelson
"think of the times that the spirit has born witness of these truths"-Elder Ballard
"kindness is the key that unlocks the heardened of hearts and the stubborn souls" -Elder Gobbins (of the 70)
"that they may look to know the source for remission of sins"-Elder Nattress
"salvation comes through him (christ) and no other way"-Elder Nattress (of the 70)

these are just some of the highlights i had written down and i wanted to thank you for the chance to share a few of the quotes that stood out to me!

thank you for all of the love and support!! if you feel like I'm not getting back to you or I'm not saying all i can it's because i feel like my computer time is always rushed but i promise you that if you send me a letter i will respond with my full thoughts and feelings and that includes to many questions as well! it takes about a month for letters to get back and forth so keep that in mind as well! hope you all have an awesome week! love you guys and miss you all!!


mucho amor,
Elder Tutton

address for mail and packages:
Candido Pujato 3269
3000 Santa Fe
Santa Fe, Argentina

SHOUT OUT TO ELDER NATTRESS (both of them)
(one of my best friends is now serving in turkey/germany and his dad is in the quorum of the 70 and gave an awesome talk during conference)

Semana once (week eleven)

Hola hermano's y hermana's

hope you all had a wonderfull week! this week was pretty interesting! we taught a prositute! also we got drove home by one of our investigators and turns out he was drunk and he appoligized for some rude things he said in the car on the ride home! hahaha idk it has been pretty interesting!

so we have general conference this week!! pretty exciting, can't wait to hear from the prophet and apostles!! i've been looking forward to this next weekend for a while! so awesome! can't wait to hear the messages they have to share! also i heard that a few of my friends in the mtc will be in the choir which is super exciting and cant wait to hear all about it!!

the people in Argentina are so dang loving! i kinda hate how accepting and how happy they are sometimes hahaha!! no i love it, its just crazy how awesome some of the people are out here! and the kids have been helping me learn the language alot out here! hahahaha i love the kids out here so much! they will teach me a few different words throught the lessons we teach or even when were playing games they will just help me out with all of the words i have a tough time prounouncing! and its a little easier having a few little kids laugh at you about the language and your pronounciation and then have them help you out in learing how to say something then it is to have and adult laugh at you and then just continue and not help you out! the kids out here are just awesome little helpers with helping me learn the language and luckly we have had the chance to teach alot more families so the kids just play games and stuff with us all the time and teach us a ton while we visit with the families and then we have the chance to share the gospel! so its pretty awesome how the work with families has been going!

so there are a few thing in Argentina that i havent really talked to much about but thought i would kinda go over a few things now! there are a crazy amount of dogs!! you can take a second at any moment during contacting and you can easily count about 15 dogs at any given time! its so crazy! when we contact about over half of the houses have gates around there property so we have to clap outside there gate in order to contact (so i've been getter really good at my claping skills)! also out here they use a bidet which is like a second toilet! so i havent used toilet paper since i've been in Argentina but i've been using a bidet which i think i actually like a bit more! but i mean i guess thats more of a personal preference hahaha! it rains alot here in santa fe!! its crazy how much it rains especilly now as we're going in to spring the rain has been interesting! also when people greet eachother they give a hug or a handshake but they also put there cheeks up to eachother and do a little kiss! the members know the missionaries aren't suppose to do that but some of our investigators we've had to explain that too! also guys do the handshake hug alot here too! they call it an "embraso" which i think is more along the lines of embracing but its like a half hug half handshake! but yea just a few little weird and interesting things here in Argentina!

Thank you so much for all of the love and support! while i've been out here ive just felt an imense amount of love from friends and family and especially from our heavenly father! but im just so greatful for all of the great experiences i've had out here in Argentina and i'm so greatful for all of the love from family and friends i've had while i've been out here! it means so very much to me and i can't thank you all enough for you prayers and love for me and my family! hope you all have a great week and a great conferennce weekend and i'll be updating you all again next week!

mucho amor,
Elder Tutton


address for mail and packages:
Candido Pujato 3269
3000 Santa Fe
Santa Fe, Argentina

Semana diez (week ten)

hola hermanos y hermanas,

so it's been a pretty interesting week! we had zone conference this last thursday and i had the oppertunity to do divisions with the zone leaders for a service activity which was pretty awesome! but i've been learing alot this week as far as the language and as far as teaching goes as well! i have been studying diligently and i can see a bit of progress i've been diligent in my studies and have been seeing many blessings from staying diligent and learning as much as i can!

at zone conference i had the oppertunity to meet with our mission president one on one and he told me alot of what was on his mind about my area and about his thoughts on me personally! he show an amazing amount of love for me and although it was a bit tough with the language barrier we were blessed to be able to communicate pretty well and about to learn alot of what he had to say! he had high hopes for me and my companion and our area and promised blessings if we would stay busy and stay diligent in bringing others unto christ! his love was almost as i was his son and he told me that he has been praying alot for me and our area and he had alot of great guidance and direction to help us fulfil our purpose!

this last satuday we had the oppertunity to do some community service projects with a few of the wards which was a lot of fun! i was able to be with one of our zone leaders for the day and work in our area and introduce his to a few of our investigators and teach a few lessons and we were able to get alot of work done and we had a good time teaching and our lessons went really well!

so i wont be able to get pictures to you guys this week becuase i the computers were at this week wont allow us to put and upload pictures to our e-mails so i will try to get alot of pictures i took this week in the e-mail next week so hopefully you all will get an e-mail soon of just a ton of pictures when i get to a computer lab that will let us plug in to upload pictures! appoligies but ill be sure to keep saving pictures till i can get them all over and e-mailed to you guys!

more quesitons:
How is the language coming along?
the spanish is pretty frusterating sometimes not gonna lie but slowly and surely its coming little by little but if im diligent and studing cada dia (every day) ill be blessed and ive been noticing those blessings while studying!
How are the families treating you?
the families are amazing, in the ward they are just so loving and they are always helping us out with anything we need
Are they feeding you well?
they are feeding us, we usually have about one or two times a week we will be fed but yea they feed us as much as they can
do you have enough food and groceries?
yes, we are able to go out every monday to do weekly grocery shopping so yea we are good on food and groceries!
tell us about your investigators!
our investigators are awesome! we have alot and we actually have the oppertunity to teach alot of recent converts and less active members as well and get to help out the ward in that sense but we have been focusing alot on our new investigators and keeping there interest in hearing the gospel! there hasnt been a baptism in out district in 6 months but we are trying our best to change that! we have alot of moments of frusteration but also alot of moments of progress but we are trying our best for sure! we are usually teaching an average of 3-4 of our investigators a day which keeps us pretty busy but i feel like were doing good work and making lots of prgress! but definatly one of the hearder areas in the mission but its been a good challenge! we`ve been blessed a ton!

hope you all have an awesome week! thank you all so much for the love and support and prayers on behalf of me and my family! i cant tell you how much i have been lifted up and have felt so much love throughout the week and wanted to thank you all! thank you for all of the e-mails and kind words and advice! love you all and miss you all so much!

mucho amor,
Elder Tutton

Blessings

[Written by Mom]

Among the many other missionary blessings our family has received as a result of Avery's faithful service as a missionary, this past week I have been blessed with answered prayers for Avery.  A Mother's intuition is real.  All last week, I worried about Avery, I had no reason to, I just did. I asked him in my email to him, are you ever down or sad? I hadn't asked that before because in his emails he doesn't ever allude to it or give me reason to think that he might be. But, I really felt impressed to ask.   And the email back was the most heartbreaking email I've ever read.  He said he's trying so hard to be brave but feels like a failure when it comes to the language and that he's just getting in the way, that everyone laughs at him and he's trying to not be offended.  That he loves the families he visits with so much and they are so poor that it's hard to see them in such poverty.  He said they invite the missionaries over for dinner but then the families don't eat, they give their food to the missionaries.  He said he gives his dinner then to the children.  He is very homesick and misses the family so much and we're always on his mind.  We were able to have an email conversation back and forth after that email and he appreciated being able to do that.  I shared part of his email with a new friend of mine, another missionaries Mom, asking for advice on was this normal for a new missionary ect. Her son also happens to work in the mission office in Santa Fe.  She asked if she could share it with her son, because she thought he could help since she got a very similar letter from him early on on his mission.  She shared it with her son (Elder Meyers) and he wrote back that he was going to reach out to him and that he forwarded it to Pres Perez, and that he was going to give him a call that night.  What a miracle that was, within that same day, the Lord heard Avery's cries (literally) for help and his MP was there to reassure and reach out.  Also, such a blessing that they were having zone conference just 2 days later and President and Sister Perez could be with him and give him encouragement and love.  

President and Sister Perez also knew they had a worried Mom on their hands, (what, me?) and they were so kind to send an email.  Very thankful for friends who know Spanish that could translate for me haha, as they sent the email in Spanish.

Dear Sister Tutton: I am writing to tell you that during these first weeks of your son in the mission field, he has shown signs of great courage and faith in his Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. He is a great missionary and although the mission is not an easy experience he has been very mature to face his missionary adaptation. He seems easy going, lively and with a positive mental attitude. You should feel happy and grateful for having the good son and teaching him to trust in Jesus Christ and His Atonement.

With my wife we were attentive to meet the physical and emotional needs of Elder Tutton, but now everything is fine. Tomorrow during the Conference Area that we will send you a picture with.

Sister and President Perez
Mission Santa Fe Argentina



Dear Sister Tutton: Today in the Conference area [zone conference] I could be with your son, Elder Tutton. He is well and working on his missionary adaptation. He has a very good companion that helps him with the language and with their service as a missionary. Everything is going well in his life.

Receive our best regards.
Gabriel Perez Benavides
President Mission
Argentina Santa Fe



Don't they just look so loving?  I love them so much for their service to the Lord and to my brave Missionary.