The New Building‏

Greetings,

Yesterday we re-dedicated the chapel of Rio Grande. It is one of the most beautiful buildings I have seen, especially here in Argentina, but even back in the States. It is nice. I will get a picture of it to everyone soon.

This last Wednesday we had a really cool opportunity to hear from some of the 12 apostles and 70's who are in charge of missionary work. They had a live, world-wide transmission discussing how to "Teach Repentace and Baptize Converts." My favorite part was when Elder Oaks reviewed everything at the end and talked about how we cannot achieve the hightest glory that our Heavenly Father has prepared without the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and we cannot have access to that Atonement without living all the principles of the gospel. We must develop faith, we must repent and change, we must be baptized, we must receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and we must keep doing those four things all throughout our lives in order to have access to Christ's Atonement. How true that is. How much God loves us.

He really does love us, and it is amazing to find those people that want to express their love to Him in return. On Friday, we were on our way home to end the day, and a 17-year old kid that we had contacted calls us and says he is waiting outside of our pension to be taught. What?! So we go, set up some chairs behind our little wooden home, and teach this young man about Joseph Smith's prayer and the Book of Mormon. It is absolutely freezing cold, but he doesn't even care. He is listening so intently, telling us how it all makes sense and wanting to know more. It couldn't get any better... until he tells us that he is leaving for two weeks to Brazil... He says that he is going to bring his Book of Mormon with him, and I hope that he actually reads it. Either way, that was an amazing experience and I am grateful that Someone is listening to my prayers.

I know everyone is now asking, "Elder Bartlett, how is it cold? It's the middle of summer in the southern hemisphere." I too have asked myself that very question. Summer is only a dream here. It's basically Antarctica, cold, windy, and harsh all year round. It wasn't quite snowing, but there were several days this last week that we got drenched by slush rain. No one let us in... But I still love them all! I just wish they knew what I know, and getting upset doesn't help me share that.

Have a great week, and try to be a little better. Every day is a blessing from God, we should thank him by changing at least one small thing.

A funny post we found on Facebook of some missionaries

Love,

Elder Bartlett

Jarom and his compainion with the Sanchez's and with Martin Israel Meretta, an elder that his older brother Nathanael Bartlett served with when he was a missionary in Resistencia Argentina.  It a small world indeed!

The Bad Cake gets Baptized?‏

Greetings to family, friends, and fellow missionaries across the world!

I have some more to say about that greeting later, but first I have to explain the subject. We found this family, Villalobo (Wolf Village), that has been listening to the missionaries for 27 years, and we started teaching them again. At first they accepted what we said, but after our third visit it was clear they were not going to change. We told them we couldn't keep coming by, but they love the missionaries and want us to keep come by all the time, so they made us a really delicious cake (for reals one of the best cakes I have ever eaten) to try and tempt us. But they simply don't want to change.

Then, last week we met this man that is from northern Argentina, here looking for work. We start talking to him and he lets us in and we share with him Joseph Smith's experience and the Restoration of the gospel. He likes it and wants to know more, even though he is involved in the Evangelical Church. He gives us a really dry, flavorless cake. We come back for the second lesson and he accepts baptism and to read the Book of Mormon and pray! Guess I should pay more attention to people's cake.

So when we went the visit Gabriel, the bad cake man, we were doing something called Super Day. Basically a day were the whole zone decides to work as hard as they possibly can. At the end of the day, between 15 missionaries, we had talked to 215 people about the church, taught 38 lessons, and 4 people had accepted to get baptized! It was a day of miracles.

How real is God, no? There are hundreds of family and friends all over the world that believe and testify of the same Great Creator and Father of All. Can this simply be a human imagination? Can it be that millions of people world-wide for thousands of years have been following a myth? No. This is real. The world tries to hide it from us with all it's distractions, stress, media, false lifestyles, etc. If we simply take time to think, pull our heads out of the craziness, and look at the world, for me I see two things: what man has accomplished and what God has accomplished. His existence is very obvious. His accomplishments surround us, constant and beautiful. Man's accomplishments come and go, some are ugly, all are imperfect. God tells us everyday that He exists and that He has a purpose for us, do we listen?

Have an awesome week everyone!

Love

Elder Bartlett

Two Beautiful Lessons‏

It seems like I wrote just the other day... oh wait. I know it hasn't been too much time since I wrote, but too much has happened that I can't even write it all!

This area is special, and Elder Boyd is a super missionary. The other day we passed by a couple, and they were really sick yet let us come in. They are new here and come from the north, but have made a good friendship with the members here. They have come to church many times, but we quickly found out that they had never received the missionary lessons. I have taught the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ many times, but never has anyone listened so intently as they did. They really understood that God sends gives us families, prophets, and scriptures because He loves us. They were so happy.

Yesterday we went by a man that we had briefly talked with outside of his house. His mother-in-law answered the door, and let us in. They were all together reading the bible, the mother, daughter, son-in-law, brother, and son. They had no idea who we were, but as we taught them how much God loves us, they recognized that we were not there by accident. They accepted everything we said, sometimes sharing scriptures with us that we usually use when teaching! God really does prepare His children for the perfect moment.

I would like to share with you this week Mosiah 4:9

Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has allwisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.

And I would like to add my own admonitio, believe that God loves you, that He knows you, and that He has a plan for you. Then, go find out what that plan is.

Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Elder Bartlett

P.S. My camera died again... sometime I'll get photos sent

No More Buses‏

Queridos Todos,

I apologize for the lack of information, I have been living the last two weeks on buses... First, I leave from Comodoro Rivadavia right after I wrote last Monday, I got on a very nice bus (leather seats, only three seats in a row instead of four, laid almost all the way back, got to put my gigantic legs in the aisle), and I make my way down to Rio Grande. This trip is roughly 20 hours, mostly on paved road, but a lot on rocky roads, and a small part on a boat. I am in Rio Grande from Tuesday night until Monday morning, when I got back on the bus and went back to Comodoro for a meeting... we got there Tuesday in the morning, had the meeting, and back on the bus that night... get back to Rio Grande Wednesday night... I almost lost the ability to walk after being on a bus for close to 60 hours.

Good news! As far as I know, the Remolcoy Family (the three kids we were teaching) got baptized yesterday! I haven't confirmed anything yet, but it seemed pretty sure. I wish I could have been there, but the Lord has called me else where.

Rio Grande is nice. It colder than Comodoro, for which I am grateful because my once bright white shirts are starting to... not be so white anymore. There is still a lot of wind, but no dust or rocks like in Comodoro. The buildings and the city in general is more pleasing to the eye, and there are less stray dogs. The people like the weather are a little colder, but they aren't bad or anything.

Elder Boyd is a super awesome missionary from Florida! If people let us in, it's because they're scared of two gigants. He has been in the mission one transfer less than me, so we are two power houses! Plus he really knows why he is here and knows how to work, so we are going to get people in the water!

By the way, Happy New Year! We spent New Year's Eve with a family I met one time and some Elders that were passing through to get to Ushuaia. I made some corn bread and we ate pizza toppings but just on slices of bread. We got up the next day and played soccer almost all day in some really-cold-almost-snow rain.

Overall, things are going well. I am really excited for some things coming up in these next weeks, but I will keep you updated.

BYE!

Love,

Elder Bartlett