First 2 days

(Written by Mom)

President and Sister Perez with the new missionaries

This is an excerpt of Elder Meyer's letter home that his Mom shared with me (Heidi, not Avery). He also sent along pictures. Elder Meyer's is the financial secretary in the mission office right now.  There are 4 missionaries who work in the office.

" Tuesday was a crazy day. We spent the morning doing some office work, and then we did a deep clean of the office to get ready for the new missionaries. They all arrived at about 5pm. There are 11 new missionaries, one hermana and ten elders (3 latinos and 7 gringos). They are all awesome, happy, spiritual missionaries who are excited to work and baptize. They arrived tired, but excited, and we spent some time chatting with all of them while they each wrote quickly to their families, filled out a questionnaire, and had a quick welcome interview with Presidente Perez. After we finished up all the interviews, we all went to the mission home for dinner. I sat next to Elder Tutton, and we talked a lot. He seems like a great guy, and he was happy, and excited to get out there and work, and excited to be in Argentina. After dinner, we took all the new missionaries to our apartment so they could get some rest, and then Elder Llanos, the asistentes and I went back to the office to wait for the suitcases. The suitcases always arrive separate, and normally about an hour before the missionaries, but they had been delayed. We waited, and we waited, and we waited, and they weren't arriving. We called the guy who was in charge, and he told us that the driver's cell phone had died, so we couldn't communicate with him. Finally, we left Elder Blackmon and Elder Robles waiting in the office, and Elder Llanos, Elder Maynard, Elder Pearson and I went to Walmart to buy some things that we needed for the next morning. We had planned on going earlier, but the suitcases delayed us, so we ended up going at about 11.30 at night. Definitely a first in the mission. But we took a couple pictures just for the memories. As we dropped off Elder Pearson and Elder Maynard at their pension, Elder Blackmon and Elder Robles called us and told us that the suitcases had finally arrived, and this was about 12:30 at this point. We called the stake president, Presidente Carlotta, who has a big van and was going to help us bring all the suitcases, went back to the office, loaded up the suitcases, and brought them back to our pension. We finally got to bed at about 1:15am. It was definitely a long day. Sometimes the suitcase guy just doesn't deliver jaja.

Wednesday morning Presidente and Hna Carlotta came and made breakfast in our pension for all the new missionaries, and then we headed over to the church to have the meeting where all the new missionaries meet their trainers. We gave an introduction to the mission, I gave my little short training on the finances of the mission, and then everybody got to meet their trainers! That moment is always fun. After that we had lunch together, and then we sent everybody off! That evening, Elder Llanos and I spent most of our time preparing our announcements for consejo de la misión (mission leadership council) and getting caught up on our office work from the last three days."

Everyone and their new companions.
Avery is with Elder Orozco

Training meetings on day 2

The luggage that finally made it at 12:30 AM!

I see one of Avery's bags with the teal ribbon :)

Semana siete (week seven)‏

hola hermano's y hermana's,

alright so i'm in ciber (kinda like a community computer lab) and im using a computer from the 90's and im kinda just trying to figure out this whole e-mail thing but if i messed up on adding the e-mails to the group e-mail list i appoligize.also i appoligize for all of the mis-spelled words and grammar mistakes.

so you guys might have another reason to hate me, so while we were traveling down to Argentina i had 3 suitcases and a backpack. we had to take a bus and 2 trains just to get to the Salt Lake City airport then take a flight from salt lake to atlanta and then to buenos aires. so i was taking all of my lugage from train to train and i left my backpack on the platform between stops and didnt remember to grab it. and in that bag i had a few pairs of pants, my english scriptures, my english preach my gospel, and my camera. which means i wont have any pictures attached to this weeks e-mail. but luckily i got good news this morning from my zone leader saying that there is a camera that was left by one of the missionaries in his last transfer and her said i can take that one to use so i promise i will have some awesome pictures for you all next week. but as far as leaving my engish scriptures and preach my gospel i was able to get my preach my gospel replaced and have just been reading from my spanish set of scriptures. its actually helped alot with my pronounciation because i just read aloud and its been helping.

the language is very different here in Argentina, they speak castellano which is kinda like a drunk spanish. so its the same as spanish as far as spelling and writing goes but it is pronounced differently. the double L's are pronounced like SH and so are the Y, the Y's are prnounced the same way and make the SH sound aswell. just sounds like the slur there spanish. but as far as understanding i have been learing alot very quickly. i can understand by using the words i know the meaning of and then as far as speaking the language it is a bit more difficult. my pronounciation is terrible and they like to hear me speak just becuase im such a gringo and have a gringo (english) accent when i speak. i sit there with little kids we teach and just repeat spanish words they say to me and they all die laughing listening to me try to pronounce them. you kinda get use to everyone just kinda laughing at you.

my companion is a stud. his name is Elder Orozco. he hasbeen out for about 5 months. he is 21 and turns 22 on september 7th. so we get to celebrate his birthday in about 2 weeks. he knows so much spanish and i guess it might help that both of his parents are puerto rican and although he was born and raised in boston his family still speaks a ton of spanish around the house. he has such an amazing spirit and he is so great at communicating with the people. he has taught me so much just in a little under a week we've been able to work together. my companion and i are currently working in the Noth part of the city of Santa Fe. We are currently e-mailing from centeral of Santa Fe and have been visiting different parts of the city with presidents permission. oh and while having the oppertunity to meet president i can truely say that he loves each one of his missionaries as one of his own children. such an asweome president and his wife is the most loving woman and treats us as her own aswell. love them so much.

i am sorry again about not having pictures but i promise some awesome pictures next week. im also sorry if you write me and i dont respond. i promise i read all the e-mails i recieve but unless theres something i address i dont have a ton of time to e-mail back so i appoligize. i appreciate all of the love and support. my little advice to those back in america is really to just count all your many blessings. with the language and culture here one very important lesson i have learned and continue to learn is just to be greatful for each and every little thing you may have. count your blessings because the people here with as little as they may have still love all they have and they do not take it for granted and i admire that of the people here in Argentina. even every day your blessed with and the blessing of having your family there with you every night to be able to share that love is a blessing in itself and i just say to not take it for granted. i love all of you so much and hope you all have an amazing week and from now on i will be e-mailing on mondays to keep you all updated on my week.


mucho amor,
Elder Tutton

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

Off to Argentina! August 22nd

(Written by Mom)

Avery's flight information

Delta flight #1929 SLC-ATL 2:05pm-7:55pm 

                   #101 ATL- EZE (Buenos Aires) 10:12pm- 9:20am on the 23rd.

Once in Buenos Aires they will take a 5 hour bus ride to Santa Fe! 

Once he got to the Salt Lake City airport, he called me and told me that he had accidentally left his backpack at the train station prior to getting to the SLC airport.  In the backpack was his English scriptures, journal, and books from the MTC.  They checked into their flight then him and his companion headed back to the train station and the backpack was gone :(  He wasn't worried though, he was focused. (as of this writing, it still hasn't turned up, UTA, airport, police, or MTC don't have it in their lost and found).  It was so great to talk to him!  He sounded to happy, he was able to talk to me about the MTC, and talk to Ali and Austin.  Then he called again when he landed in Atlanta and we got to have a quieter and less stressed conversation than the one before (he was trying to catch his flight and get some Cafe Rio).  He was able to speak some Spanish to me (crazy!), bear his testimony, and tell me about his flight from SLC to ATL where he sat next to a lady who reminded him so much of Grandma Bryner and they got talking about angels and who their personal angels are.  He said the spirit was so strong testifying to her about the work he was about to go do and she asked him to say a prayer in Spanish, and he did and she said he did perfect! (She knew spanish).

He was able to call on his travel day on a cell phone.  They are allowed to have a cell phone sent from home with minutes loaded onto it that they can then throw away before they get on their flight to Argentina).

Avery and Elder Oldham checking out of the MTC!

Tracking his flight to Buenos Aires!

Leaving the USA

Flying over South American soil now

26 minutes until landing

Landed just a few minutes earlier than scheduled

Once he got to Santa Fe, he was allowed to take a few minutes to let us know that he had arrived safely

"alright so the guys at the mission office said we could send just a quick e-mail so i just wanted you to know that i just got to the mission office and i am safe and we will be assigned with our new companions tomorrow!"

Semana seis (week six)

Hola Hermano's y Hermana's,

Alright so this will be the last group e-mail I send of from the
United States, I leave on Monday morning to start on my way down to
Argentina! I am very excited and a bit nervous but that's to be
expected I guess! I am really just more worried about making sure I
have all of my gear packed up for when I head down to Argentina! On
Sunday were not suppose to be packing at all so this is kinda my last
day to get it all thrown together and packed up in my suitcases! I'll
be packing most of today along with my last temple visit in Provo
later this afternoon but with making sure I'm ready to walk out of the
MTC I'll be ready by tonight! Then have this Sunday to more of relax
and to have the chance to really get ready for the long trip ahead of
me and I look forward to having the opportunity to have Sunday to more
of just focus on our savior and to be thinking more on the sacrament
and to not have to stress about to many other worries and having to
deal with getting all my gear packed!

This week has all just been kinda leading up to this weekend and
making sure we're all prepared and having a few last classes with our
different teachers! With teaching us our last few language lessons and
to have our last few chances to teach our investigators! Crazy to
think that the people I've grown so much around and the brothers and
sisters I've grown to love so very much I won't see again! We will all
be off to serve the lord in all different areas with most of us being
in Argentina but with 14 different missions in the country the chances
we see each other again are slim! I'm just so grateful for the
opportunity to have been able to grow so close to these elders and
prepare to serve with such amazing examples! I am so great full for
all of the blessings and experiences I've had here at the MTC!

So last night while I was packing after one of my last classes I was
getting ready for bed and visiting with a few guys but then while
sleeping I dreamt in Spanish!!! I had a dream that I was teaching one
of our investigator about the restoration and the truthfulness of the
gospel in Spanish but the crazy thing is that we have our last lesson
with that one investigator tonight! The last investigator we have to
teach was the one investigator I dreamt of teaching! I woke up and
couldn't believe it! I woke up and told the guys the second I woke up
and oh man it was one of the coolest experiences!! I've always thought
that it would be after months if not a year into my mission I might
have the chance to dream in Spanish but never would I have thought
that one of my last nights in the MTC I would dream in Spanish about a
discussion I still have yet to teach, our last investigator! So it
will be an interesting discussion tonight! But I'm so blessed to have
had that opportunity!

Alright well you guys might hate me but I really don't have a ton of
time with how busy today is! I get a haircut and I have to do a ton of
laundry and I have to pack and get ready for the temple and I have to
prepare our last discussion and prepare for our last lesson with our
teacher! So many things and such a little amount of time! I love you
guys and hope you all have an amazing week!! You guys also might have
another reason to hate me, I didn't have a lot going on this week so I
didn't have a ton of pictures to share since we were mostly in class
all week! But I promise that I will be taking a ton of pictures of the
trip down to Argentina and I'll be able to have a pretty interesting
e-mail for you all next week!

Mucho amor,
Elder Tutton

Semana cinco (week five)

Como estas hermano's y Hermana's,

This week has been pretty interesting! On Tuesday Elder Andersen from
the quorum of the 12 apostles came in for evening devotional! On
Sunday we had our evening devotional and Elder Holland came in to talk
to us, not Elder Holland from the quorum from the 12 but his son who
is also the president of UVU (Utah Valley University)! You could say
we've been a bit spoiled with the visitors we've had on campus and
have been counting all our blessings and giving strict heed to there
council! I'll talk a bit about what they had to say near the end of
the e-mail!

Other then the brethren blessing us with spiritual knowledge it's been
a pretty routine week but definitely a week of growth and a week of
blessings as far as the classes, doctrine, lessons, and the language
go! We've been learning a lot over the past week and have been setting
insane expectations for ourselves and we are more and more impressed
with each other day by day! As long as we are striving for exact
obedience and we are persevering through trials and rough moments we
have been continually blessed!

GUESS WHAT!!! Our district got our travel plans and flight
information!! Crazy right!? So we will be flying from Salt Lake City
to Atlanta, Georgia on August 22 and our flight takes off at 2:05PM
and we land at 7:55PM in Atlanta! Then we have about a 2 hour and 20
minute layover in Atlanta and then our flight takes off at 10:15PM
from Atlanta and we land at 9:20AM on August 23 in Buenos Aires,
Argentina! Then from Buenos Aires we've been told that we will then
take about a 5 hour bus ride over to our mission home in the city of
Santa Fe, Argentina!!

Elder Andersen had talked about a few points I would just like to go
over briefly that stood out to me during his devotional! To start off
may I just recognize the true blessing of hearing an apostle of the
lord speak, powerful in every way and whether you are present in a
devotional or if you are watching general conference it is just an
amazing spirit that is felt with the words they have to share! Elder
Andersen stated off by sharing with us that on the day he was speaking
with us (this last Tuesday) was his birthday! He was able to share a
few thoughts with the missionaries in the devotional and the desires
Heavenly Father has for each of us during this special occasion for
himself! What a true apostle of the lord to always be in his service!
Elder Andersen shared a quote that said, "being a missionary is not
complex but it is not easy" and crazy how we as missionaries have
learned to come to know that for ourselves! He also talked about the
simplicity and obligations of missionaries saying, "be clean, be
obedient, be busy!" Elder Andersen then went on to talk a bit about
the hearts being prepared in the missions we have been called to serve
and the opportunity we have in our mission as to serve those hearts
who have been prepared by saying, "there are hearts being prepared but
they are not always easy to find but you must be diligent and you must
continue to call upon the spirit to assist you" and saying, "that
flame and that light you have you must keep kindled for that light
will bring miracles and that light will attract those who's hearts
have been prepared" I share these statements and invitations with you
because I believe that this is not just directly subject to full time
missionaries but to those who desire to continue in the lords work!

I've been so very blessed while I've been here at the MTC and have had
such great experiences and such great opportunities come my way! From
the guys I've been able to run into from my hometown to the brothers
I've had the opportunity of living and preparing with! I've been
blessed with the constant companionship of the spirit, I've been
blessed with the love and support I've had while I have been preparing
to serve, I've been blessed in very many different ways with the
language I've been studying, and I've been blessed in ways I could
have never thought of! I just wanted to personally thank everyone who
has shown there love and support for me and for my family! I have no
words to justify the amount of love I have for all of you and for how
thankful I am for the influence, example, and love each one of you
have had/shown for me and my family! Your in my prayers and in my
heart wherever I may go!

Mucho Amor,
Elder Tutton

Elder Isaac Batman

"Studying"

Elder Keith and Elder Natress (Brothers from home)

Elder Tyson South

Elder Jackson and Elder McClure (from home)

Elder Stocks and Elder Tutton
with twinning Penguin ties!

My District (we will continue to strive for a great picture
through multiple attempts)

Waiting to serve the people of Argentina 

Alright, honestly if you've made it this far in my email
and gone through these pictures I suppose I may bless
your lives with a bomb selfie!!!
"snapbacks and tattoos"

Breakfast on Pday

Semana Cuatro (week four)

Comó le va hermanos y hermanas,

Hope your week was pretty fantastic! Hope I can bless your lives once
again with my spiritual knowledge as I strive to do so every Saturday!
Alright so ummm this week was pretty good, pretty routine to say the
least! I've just been working on the language like crazy, I've been
working on studying the doctrine more diligently, I've been striving
to constantly be influenced by the spirit!

A little insight to the obedience of a missionary, you feel an intense
amount of guilt any time you catch yourself breaking a mission rule!
Let me give you a few examples of the MTC rules, 1) you are not
allowed to bounce your leg because it distracts from the message you
bring, 2)you must have the top button of your jacket buttoned at all
times unless you are sitting down, 3) you can't have your hands in
your pockets because its unprofessional, 4) no singing any song that
doesn't invite the spirit which means no singing songs with romantic
lyrics, 5) no dancing at any time! These are just a few examples of
the rules we live by at the MTC! They often say that when you are
diligent in keeping the small rules and the rules that seem
insignificant, the easier it is to keep then rules that are a bit more
important and the rules that will keep us safe from physical and
spiritual danger! We strive to be obedient even when we don't
understand the reasoning behind ever rule! We have been blessed but we
do our best every day to obey all of the rules!
"Obedience bring blessings, but being Exactly obedient brings miracles"

The language has been coming along pretty well! I made the mistake of
telling my teacher that I need to work more on my verbs and I need the
most help memorizing the definitions of Spanish verbs so I've been
working hard on getting a lot of my Spanish verbs down along with
pronunciation! My teacher said to also continue to work on sentence
fluency so just studying filler words so my sentences flow well and
aren't so choppy! Other then that I've been having most of my
thoughts come in Spanish while teaching! And when I know a few words
in Spanish I use them randomly when speaking in English so most of my
conversations are in Spanglish unintentionally but during class and
lessons I have been blessed with developing the ability to put
together sentences with the words I do know so I don't speak in
Spanglish but in only Spanish for more the half of my day! But it's
interesting at night when we're having conversations and the guys
randomly talk in Spanish just because they can develop the thoughts in
Spanish and so half the time in the room we talk in Spanish as well!
We've been blessed with understanding and learning the language at the
rate we've been at lately!

I've been trying to think back to all that's been going on this past
week! We had elder Shepherd turn 19 with us here in the MTC on
Wednesday I believe and we got to celebrate with him which was a lot
of fun! He's a stud and love always being around him! He's got a great
spirit and such a nice guy that he is just always in a good mood and
being around him is such a blessing! So glad I've had the opportunity
to prepare to serve with him and he's gonna kill it in Costa Rica!

This week has been a big week for new missionaries! On Wednesday we
got a lot of guys I know and I was able to see them a bit throughout
the week! I ran into Elder Keith, Elder Webb, Elder Scroggin, I heard
Elder Jackson came in on Wednesday so I'll have to see him sometime
soon, and I was able to see Elder Natress for just a quick second but
didn't have time to take a picture so I'll try to get one for next
week! I'll put a few pictures of guys I ran into down below!

Not gonna lie, last night I wrote a bomb e-mail and when I went to go
save it the e-mail glitched out and didn't save so I apologize if this
e-mail is less bomb then usual! Haha but oh well, umm not sure what
else is going on really! We got a new investigator and we have been
teaching her all week! We taught her 3 lessons and you could feel the
spirit probably the most in these past few lessons then we ever have
while we've been teaching!

This week has been an emotional week for the guys in my district (it
seems that every week is an emotional week with them) but yea I've
seen guys cry out of the spirit and joy with the language and the
blessings they've seen while they've been here and I've seen a few
guys cry out of frustration and heartache! The language is a lot to be
emotional over, with how much we've been blessed and how diligently
we've been working we expect a lot from ourselves! It's crazy how much
a few of the guys have come with the language but every time someone
get frustrated we just say that about 3 weeks ago we didn't even know
how to pray in Spanish! But now we're trying to understand complex
discussions and memorize scripture and gospel principles day after day
and it's crazy how some guys are so hard on themselves but it's been
crazy to see the blessings that have come with this week!

The devotionals on Sunday's and Tuesday's are always something to look
forward to! Scripture study has been pretty great lately! Studying a
lot about the restoration and Joseph Smith and I've loved spending the
time learning more about the early church! Like I've said before,
studying and preparing discussion for investors in Spanish, it almost
feels like I'm learning about the church all over again! I love having
the opportunity to study and learn in a way I've never been able to
before! The language adds a whole new perspective to the gospel! Well
hope you guys have an amazing week! Thank you for all of the love and
support!

Mucho amor,
Elder Tutton

Elder Shephard! Big 19 year old!

District selfie ft. Birthday Boy

I got a new shirt ordered from the MTC for my mission.

My Mom sent me this new jacket and she said she wanted to see
a picture so yea that explains it

Me and Elder Keith

Me and Elder Scroggin

Just a random picture I took in class

First row:(from left to right)
(Hermana Peacock, Hermana Simkins, Elder Sumsion, Elder Andersen, Elder Stocks, Elder Tutton, Elder Shepherd, Elder Call, Hermana Howard, Hermana Avila(Zuri))
Second row:(Elder Towns, Elder Brady, Elder Oldham, Elder Goimarac)