Letter #87

Hey Everyone

I´m going to make this letter very quick :) Today was a week full of miracles!!! We found 2 new investigators contacting and we invited them to be baptized at the end of this month. We also were going through the area book and we found and old investigator named graciela. She agreed to come to church and she LOVED it. She said whe wants to come next week and she´s going to bring her other family members. He has 7 kids and 4 of them live in her house. I am happy that we found this family. It will be a huge blessing when they get baptized. Things are changing in our area. we have been praying for miracles and trying to see the lord´s hand in the work. He has helped us be able to see the work progress and see the plans he has in sore for us. We also found another investigator named Jennifer. She is not married and is 19. I didn´t know that us as missionaries can get the paperwork together for people to get married so this is a first for me. xD hahaha She wants to be baptized but needs to be married first so this is what we are going to do. It will be cool to be part of the process. :D hahaha Remember ask and ye shall recieve. If you ask for miracles in your area and you go out and work with all the faith you have then the miracles will come. The lord loves you and he will use you as a tool in his hands. BEING A MISSIONARY IS THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD!!!! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!

Before I finish the letter I will explain the photos. This pday is the birthday of our mission when it was first organized 3 years ago so we all went to puerto madryn and had a beach day. We ate asado, went exploring, played soccer, etc. with the 2 zones in trelew and the zone in puerto madryn. Puerto madryn is famous for the whales that come through at this time of the year so we saw them out in a distance moving around in the water. I would send more pics of those but I am out of time. I hope you enjoy the photos. :D aguante MACR (misión argentina comodoro rivadavia.) :D HAVE A FANTASTIC WEEK EVERYBODY!!! I love you and you are all in my prayers. :D

Con Amor

Elder Kolton Elmer

Hola papá. :D 

Thanks for the birthday wishes. Happy father´s day as well! I couldn´t be better. I am the happiest person alive!! I love being a missionary so much and I am treasuring these last 7 weeks. Things have been progressing RAPIDLY in our area. I will write more about that in my other letter. 

I´ve thought many times myself as well that this is the best mission is the world!! The brother in our camp is right! I am convinced that i was meant to be in the this mission. I would never have learned the lessons I know now if I had been called to any other mission. I just Love being a missionary. It is the best thing ever xD

I´m glad you guys have been working on the house a bit. The photos of all the pine trees look really nice. I can´t wait to see them. That zoo seems really fun as well. You have no idea how excited I am to get my skiing gear on again!! :D haha We´ll have to make a few trips up when I get back. Here in trelew the winter weather came on all at once. It doesn´t snow here but by the sudden drop of temperature says that for sure it is snowing along the mountain ranges farther west. I was wearing my thermals for the majority of this week along with my scarf and hat. It´s that cold. It´s better than 40 C degrees of heat that it gets here durring the summer. 

I hope you guys continue to have a good week. Are the days getting slower with every day you guys are taking off? hahaha The weeks for me seem to be passing by even faster each time. Before we know it I will see you soon :D 

Con Amor

Elder Kolton Elmer

Hola hola hola

This week has been FANTASTIC!!! We have been so busy and we found so many new people to teach and we invited many people to be baptized. The work here has really started to pick up and it is awesome. I don´t feel trunky in the lest bit and we have so much stuff to do. I will write more about this in my other email.

Wow it seems like a lot of changes have been going on recently in Utah. Bishop Gerona will do great. It seems like a pretty fun bishopric. :D Thanks for getting school all set up for me and all that good stuff. It seems like I will be so busy when I get back visiting everyone. :D It will be so nice to be able to visit grandma and grandpa and all my friends at the same time!! :D I sent the letter to brother gerona so we will see what he says. :D 

This week we had a zone conference on how to be bold in our contacts and lessons. Teaching with power and authority is very intimidating at times but I just need to put it into more practice. We had a little experience with that when we taught an old investigator who has been "together" with her boyfriend who is a member for 2 years or so. She is 19. We had to be a bit bold and tell them that they need to be married. It was strange but interesting at the same time. I hate how it is so common to see people and families together without being married. but we just have to be clear and bold.  I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!! I just love it so much. The work is really getting better here and we have had so many miracles happen. Even the little things are miracles. :D 

I just got back from a super pday. The mission completes 3 years as since it´s organization so we all went to puerto madryn and ate asado as we played on the beach and watched the whales dive in and out of the water. This was probably one of my favorite pdays. It was wierd being in back in madryn after 22 months but I liked it :D I will send photos. Have a good week mom :D I love you.

Con Amor

Elder Kolton Elmer

Letter #86

Hey Everybody!!!

THIS WEEK HAS BEEN THE BOMB!!!!!! We finally had our investigator come to church. Her name is Yanina and she brought her daughter, Brisa. They are super prepared and they only need the lesson of the commandments and they are ready for baptism :D As a mission we have been doing lots of things recently. We had a fast and 1 hour of contacting every day this past week. (we didn`t fast every day this week we just contacted haha) My comp and I were able to do things this week we have never done before in the mission. We contacted 100 people durring these hours in the streets. It is cool to see how the lord prepares people. We found 2 new investigators and they are super cool. Their names are Pablo and Alicia. We`ll see what happens with them this week. 

This week i`ve learned something very cool. Our future is as bright as our attitude and our faith. If we have a lot of energy with the goals we make and we have the faith to go out and get them WE CAN!! :D All of our fears and limitations we have are only an ilusion. They don`t exist. When we can look past the things that are placed in front of us we will always find a way to get around them and achieve what we can become. You are all capos(the best)!! Always remember to have faith a good attitude and try your best and the lord will do the rest! :D Have a good week everyone!! 

Con Amor

Elder Kolton Elmer

p.s. District Photo!! :D On the far left is my comp. Elder Galeano. The 2 missionaries sitting in the middle are my zone leaders. Elder Foster and Elder Soto. We just got done helping the hermanas (sister missionaries) move to a new apartment. 

Hola Muver Dear!!! :D 

It`s good to hear that all is well at home. It sounds like you guys are really excited for me to get home allready xD hahaha It makes me laugh because you guys are more trunky than I am. This week was FANTASTIC. We have been working so hard lately and we beat our goals from last week. We are still being super busy and productive. We have 1 investigator that`s progressing to be baptized on june 25th. She really likes the church!! It`s wonderful to see how much the mission has changed me. I am actually really excited to be able to talk to people on the plane home. It will be a fun experience :) 

I remember the flight down here to argentina. Traveling is so much fun but at the same time I think this flight is going to kill me xD hahaha 

Don`t get too excited just yet mom. I`ve still got 8 weeks to go. It will pass by quickly i`m sure... for me. For you guys it will probably be the slowest 8 weeks of your lives xD hahaha 

All is going good the sprit is strong in the area and we have so much planned. The message of the gospel hasn`t changed but the messangers have. :D I love you guys and hope you have a marvelous week. 

Con Amor

Elder Kolton Elmer

Dad,

Nice Photos!!!! You guys are just partying it up! :D That argentine place looks pretty good. I`ll have to try it to see if I can give it the elder elmer stamp of approval of argentine quality. hahahaha

Love ya dad. Have a good week

Con Amor

Elder Kolton Elmer

Letter #85
Hola a todos. 

I´m going to make this letter very short. Durring the last month we had 48 baptisms as a mission, a new record!! For our next month we have even more planned. In our zone we have a goal of 28!!! The work is progressing. Remember that it depends on our atitude, not our aptitude that determines the altitude of the mission or life. :D Keep a high attitude and do all you can and you will do more than you thought you can do alone. Plus, this is his work so he will help us so there´s no way we can posibly lose. We only start loosing when we think we are. Wherever you are always keep a high and positive attitude! :D That´s all for this week i´m out of time but I will write more next week. ´till then keep up the good work! :D :D

Con Amor

Elder Kolton Elmer

:D :D :D HOLA HOLA HOLA!!!!!!!!!

Hey, it´s good to hear from you guys again. I´m happy to hear that you guys got to colorado safely. I laughed when you told me about the spanish map experience. I would have been a great help in that situation :D 

If I were there right now I would tease lyndon so hard about spiders. The one we found was about 4 inches long with it´s legs and everything. These are the only bugs here. Spiders and flies. When I was in tierra del fuego I always loved exploring in the woods knowing that there were no anoying bugs whatsoever. :D I will tease lyndon when I get back >:) 

I haven´t recieved the card yet so I think it may be better to just cancel it. Our next zone meeting is in 2 weeks so if you could wait until then to cancel it that will be great. Our ZLs deliver the mail for conferences so if it´s not there by then. I won´t get here.

So...You got my flight plans? That´s super!! :D Could you send me a copy in your next email so I have them on hand? :) If you want to, go ahead and publish it ALL THROUGHOUT FACEBOOK!!! :D That would be cool to see everyone in utah, leave, eat a little bit, and be back to the airport in time to go to colorado. :) I like that idea. :) 

This week has been pretty busy. The 25th of may was a holiday here in argentina "dia de la patria" so we had an activity in the chapel. We ate Locro. Locro is an argentine stew made of pretty much everything from pig skin to chorrizo. It was really good. :P The work has been going great. We have high goals and for may we had 48 baptisms as a mission :D This next month we are expecting more!! :D  Have a good week you guys. I hope all is well in colorado. Tell everyone I said HI :D 

Con Amor 

Elder Kolton Elmer

Hey Dad!!!

Thanks for the photos. They are FANTASTIC. I´m a little jealous xD hahaha It seems like you had a good time so that´s all that matters to me. :D I´m glad you have my travel itinerary and everything. That will be fun to fly into utah and see grandma and grandpa. Things are going good here in the mission. This last month we had 48 baptisms and we have more on the way!!! I´m just going to enjoy and work hard these last 8 weeks. My companion and I are doing well. He´s teaching me more guarani and i´m learning a lot of that as well. It´s really interesting how to speak it. After learning spanish it makes other languages a little easier to learn as well. :) On the 25th we had dia de la patria in argentina so we ate a traditional dish called Locro. It´s a stew with a bit of everything inside. It was really good. Other that that we are working hard and keeping it up. :D Have a good week dad. I´m happy to hear that the trip was fun! :D See you in 8 weeks. :D

Con Amor

Elder Kolton Elmer

Letter #84

Hey Mom.

It sounds like you guys are enjoying florida. Vacation is always tons of fun. :) I can´t wait to see you guys in 10 weeks. It will be here before we know it. Here in Argentina...in the patagonia there are no bugs. There are just lots of flies and spiders. On sunday we found a gigantic spider in the church. I just about wanted to crap myself. Dx I hate spiders so much. My comp pined it down and picked it up with his hand. He grabbed it´s 4 hind legs and it stayed like that. He told me he and his friend would always do that and make the spiders fight each other. In paraguay the spiders get pretty big. I hope there aren´t too many bugs in colorado. 

Tell the kids congrats with school and everything. It seems like Talon has improved a ton. 

This week has been really busy. The usual. We had conference with president. it was our last one with him. I´m going to miss them so much. :) We put a baptisimal date with a new investigator but other than that this week has been the same old thing. :) Enjoy florida. :D Thanks for the photos. :D

Con Amor

Elder Kolton Elmer

Hey dad

Thanks for the Animo. I´ll try to make the best out of the 10 weeks that I have left. You´re right. Post mission lift will just take care of itself. I´ll just keep sprinting to the end. thanks for the help. :D 

Con Amor

Elder Elmer

Hey Guys, we had conference with president this week. The first 2 photos are from my zone. :) Enjoy!!

I want you to know how wonderful the mission is. It is by far the best decision i have ever made and I will always be greatful for the call to serve! This is his work and it´s so great to be able to be a part of it. This transfer we have a goal to baptize 25 people!!! We already have 4!! The stone cut without hands is filling the earth :D

Letter #83

HEY MOM!!!

Dad told me all about Emma´s call. WOW!!! THAT IS THE BEST NEWS EVER FOR THIS WEEK!!!! I´m so happy for her. I can´t wait to see them when i get back. I love the shin family so much. :D 

Trelew is doing great. We´ve been plenty busy. This week has been pretty cold and cloudy. Here in trelew it doesn´t snow but in the other citys closer to the mountains do, so when it snows there we get all the cold air that comes from the storm. :) I would much rather have it be cold than hot. Trelew in the summer is horribly hot. So i´m happy for winter and fall here. I hope you guys enjoy your vacation in floriday. Remember to send me pictures :) You guys are going to have a blast. Have a fantastic week!!!!

CON AMOR
ELDER KOLTON ELMER

Hey Dad! :D 

WOW it´s crazy hearing about all the things happening with our family, friends, etc. It´s so crazy to think that Emma got called to stockholm sweeden. I´m so happy for her. For me it´s very crazy to think how fast the mission and life has been going by. It just seems like yesterday when I was 18 and just opening my mission call. Now i´m almost 20 with almost 10 weeks left  of my mission. In this time however, I have grown in ways that i have never imagined. The mission for me has been a huge miracle. It´s so strange to see how life goes. Jacob in the book of mormon says that this life passed by as if it were only a dream. I´ve just got to live every moment the best I can. I´m not trunky. I know i´ve still got work to do but it´s getting more difficult to maintain my focus. What advice do you have for me to maintain everything together?

This week we had conference with president so that was nice. It was our last conference with president rogers. I´m going to miss him. The new mission president seems pretty cool though. That´s all I have to say for now. I´m happy that you guys are going to enjoy floriday a bit. :D That sounds like a pretty interesting climate change. You and I will have a 1 hour difference in between each other in floriday just  something for you guys to think about. :) Have a good week!

Con Amor

Elder Kolton Elmer 

Letter #82

Hey Everybody :D 

This week has been busy with preparing for the new transfer. :) 

We made a Zone jersy and gave them out in the zone conference. I´m on the far left in the photo I´m number 3. The Argentina Pumas are the 4th best rugby team in the world so these are the jersys that we chose. :) These are also photos of transfers. 

My companion, Elder Campopiano left to go to Rio Gallegos. He will be missed a ton! My new companion is Elder Galiano. He was in my last zone in Comodoro South. He´s from Paraguay, lived in buenos aires for a time and after 2 years of being a convert he left on the mission :) It will be super duper. That´s pretty much all I have to say for this week. I hope everything is going well for all you guys. I love you and you are in my prayers :D Have a good week!! :D

Con Amor

Elder Kolton Elmer

Hey Mom!!

It was so good to see you guys too. It´s awesome what wonders modern day technology can do. :) It´s almost 11:00 here and he comes today at 3 or 4 so I´ll write more next week about him when I get to know him a bit better. :) Have a good week you guys. I love you all so much. :) The church is true!! :D

Con Amor

Elder Kolton Elmer

Letter #81
Hey Everybody!!!! :D This week as a mission we did something called "a week in his shoes" For this activity we strived for 100% obedience and had plenty of challenges to do. 

Sunday- start with fast

Monday- Super Pday Asado!

Tuesday- Super day (set high goals)

Wednesday- LDM Book of mormon day

Thursday- Interviews

Friday- Service day. Only offer service in contacts

Saturday- Another super day

Sunday- Testimony meeting as a Zone. 

For example, We had a day where we contacted only using the book of mormon. It was interesting becuase we found the dad of one of our new investigator who was EXTREMELY evangelical who didn´t want to know anything. One thing led to another in the arguement but in the end we started to just speak about christ and he started to soften up. In the end my testimony of the Book of Mormon and missionary work was strengthened. It doesn´t matter what people may say and frankly I can care less about the lies that people will try to use to disprove the book of mormon but I know for a fact and without a doubt that the book of mormon is the word of god. I know that this is the only church on earth with power and authority to help others make sacred covenants that will eventually bring their own personal salvation and the salvation of their families and loved ones. I know that the calling we have as missionaries is great. It is the best choice I have ever made to serve a mission and it is the happiest time of my life. 

On thursday we also had interviews with president and I felt the spirit a ton. I felt a ton of animo to continue working as hard as I can. The easiest way to be a missionary is to just let everything go. Those who find their lives will lose them but if we lose ourselves in his service we will find our lives. My mission president goes home in July and i´m going to miss them a ton. 

In all...This week I have learned a lot about missionary work and how to help others. I know that this church is true and that christ loves those who teaches his gospel. He loves us more than we can imagine. Charity is truly the pure love of christ. It may hurt when they reject but I still love these people. 

We were able to find a new person to teach. His name is Mártin and he´s a reference from a member.  We weren´t able to find our other investigators though. I´m greatful for the oportunity to take part in this wonderful super week. I hope all of you guys have an excelent week. 

Con Amor

Elder Kolton Elmer 

Hey Dad :D

Things are going fantastic here. I´m doing great. It seems like I will have a pretty busy homecomming xD hahaha It´s better that way though. I´m with elder norton right now and he goes home this week. He´s so dead xD hahaha It´s funny that time has passed so fast but I guess life if like that. I´ve just got to take advantage of every moment and I think i´m doing a good job with that for now. :) My companion Elder Campopiano could be leaving this transfer and from what he and the zone leaders say, they think i might be training but I will tell you guys what will happen on sunday. :) I hope I train because it will help keep my mind focused and in missionary mode. 

I´m happy that everything is going well with planning the trip and everything. Durring the trip I will probably be in the back seat drinking mate and speaking in spanish the whole time and having you guys re-teach me english xD haha I love you dad. I hope that everything continues to go wonderfully in colorado. Have a good week. :D

Hola Hola Hola.

My week has been fantastic! :D I will write more details in a group letter so everyone can get a glimpse of the week of christ we did. :D It was really wonderful. 

I´m happy to hear that everything is all aranged for SUU. i´m sure that I will enjoy it a ton when i get there. If I re learn english by then. I´m happy to hear that my spelling is getting worse and worse. The only times i speak english is when I write you guys. So no wonder it´s so bad xD haha I haven´t recieved any packages yet but i´m sure it might come this Friday or Saturday. I will keep you informed. :) For Skype, president want us to do in on Sunday. I´m thinking about doing it This sunday the 8th at 7:30 PM Argentina time. With the time difference it will be about 4:30 PM for you guys. :) I Can´t wait to see you guys on sunday!!! :D 

You guys are killing me with the chain!!! I´m laughing that you guys are that anxious for me to come home xD Time is definately going fast. If I´m counting my pdays, after this one I only have 12 left. Elder Norton goes home this week. He IS SOOOOOOO TRUNKY!!!!! I hope I don´t get that trunky my last week. Oh well, we will see what happens. 

Oooooo I hated the DMV. I would imagine that working there is miserable. That´s probably why everyone is miserable. It´s always better when there is something fun to do afterward to lighten up the day. I laughed when I heard about your buffalo wild wings experience with the habanero peppers. :D It´s hot isn´t it? My last comp was mexican and he told me about how he and his mom would always eat habaneros plain. xD Mexicans are crazy!! No wonder 5 year olds get gastritis. I don´t know if I will be able to handle spicy food after being here so long. Argentines HATE food that is super spicy. They don´t even use black pepper becuase even that for them is too spicy. :) 

I hope you guys have a good week. Tell Brynn congrats on winning the art competition. I hope you guys are having fun with your little countdown chain. I´ll be home before you know it. ;) See you guys on Sunday! :D 

Con Amor

Elder Kolton Elmer