Ethan's 10th / 2015 Letter Carmen de Patagones, Argentina 3-9-15

Alright so transfers came around again and after 9 months in Necochea i am on my way to another area. I will be returning to Viedma to a small city called Carmen de Patagones. You have Viedma and you cross the river and you have Carmen de Patagones. I couldnt believe it when they called so im just tag team serving in the cities where i have served. haha Right now im in Bahía Blanca waiting for my bus to leave at Noon(my time) I will arrive at like 4:30pm(my time) I'm super excited to have a new area and people to come to know and try to bless their lives with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I dont have all that much time to be writing due to the schedule of my bus leaving to Viedma, i will write as much as i can but ill have to leave in a little bit.

I would be sending pics but i don't have my camera things to send the pictures as they are packed into my bags.

A Miracle for me in my life as a missionary, so my left shoe lost all support and my foot starting to hurt really bad... I realized that i need to fix the shoe situation and then the Tuesday we went and ate lunch with some members and right before we were about to eat, my Convert Ruben Cardenau called and so i went and answered it and he said hey can you pass by for my house right now. I told him that we were about to eat but we could pass by in an hour. We passed by and he invited us in and told us to sit down, and then brought me a bag and said open it. He gifted me and 1000 peso(100 dollar) pair of super nice working/walking shoes! He told me that the last couple days he got the thought and feelings that my back was hurting and i was uncomfortable at church and he had seen my shoes. Then Tuesday morning he following the prompting that i needed some new shoes or something and went and bought me some!! It was a miracle for me and a grand blessing. I took pictures of them but ill have to send them next week.

I wanted to share this because i know that God blessing us both Spiritually and Physically in the things that we need. God knew my situation and blessed me. I am forever grateful for Ruben and for his love towards me, he has changed my life for ever!

Thank you so much for all that you do and for your love!!

Con Amor,

Elder Ethan C. Durocher

Carmen de Pantagones, Argentina

Ethan's 9th / 2015 Letter/photos Nechochea, Argentina 3-2-15

Dear Family,

This week was pretty good... my companion got sick Monday and he toughed it out the whole week with only a couple setbacks. We were able to work the whole week and find people to teach. Friday came around and it was a normal day, but by the time 9 pm rolled around my stomach wasn't feeling to well. At 10:30pm i finally fell asleep and about 1:00 am my stomach woke me up with a lot of discomfort in my stomach and for the next couple hours i had to make a visits to the bathroom..... Stomach Flu sucks!!!! haha Its alright now, I feel a little better.

Saturday we were able to find two new investigators. we were walking in the street and there was a women walking toward us and we went to talk with her and she passed in between my right side and the wall/building saying that shes is late... so the next person we saw walking towards us, I said lets corner her so she hast to talk and cant slip past us again. So thats what we did and we found a women named Maria, she has gone to our church before and really liked it but never wanted to get baptized. we invited her to go to church and to be baptized and she accepted those invitations and so we will be teaching her and trying to help her come unto Christ and change her life. The other women we found is a single mom with two little kids, she is super nice and super prepared. She accepted the same invitations but didn't make it to church, we need to find her again so we can find out what happened.

The week was super good, but time has ran out to write... some weeks i have a lot of time to write in the hour that i have and other days not enough.. but know that i love you so much!!!

Con Amor,

Elder Ethan C. Durocher

ps. I sent a lot of pics and those are better then words anyway! ;)

Mom sends photo of Cousins Sunday Dinner!

Cousins Sunday Dinner gathering and they are waving to Elder Ethan from Utah!

Ethan's 8th / 2015 letter/photos Necochea, Argentina 2-23-15

Dear Family,

We had something called Super Exchanges this week, the whole Zone starting last Tuesday got mixed for a week and so we were with other companions for a whole week, I was in our area and Elder Howell went to 3 Arroyos for a week. It was the idea of our zone leaders, as they wanted to liven things up? haha Im not really sure what the purpose was, but it was pretty fun. Today we changed back to a normal companions.

When i was with Elder Pace the zone leader here, he had is iPod and showed me a talk by Jack R. Christianson called The Mortal Christ. It was a great talk, i learned a lot of things that i did not know about the Gospel. I invite all of you to find this talk and listen to it,

The highlight of my week was a baptism, it was the baptism of the sisters in our branch. The reason i was so thankful for and excited for the baptism even more the normally is because, my convert RUBEN CARDENAU BAPTIZED HER!!!!! For me it has meant the world to be able to see Ruben passing for all of theses things, he was baptized, he received the holy ghost, he received the Aaronic priesthood, and blesses the sacrament, and now he was able to baptize a women! It has been so special to be apart of Rubens conversion(spelling error?ha) into the gospel.

A member bore his testimony yesterday and he said in his mission a theme that he had or a saying that he used was, " Shut up and Get to work" haha I like it a lot, its so true as in life we complain about how hard things are and we are blabbering complaints from our mouth and we need to learn to just be quiet and work. I want to take this phrase and use it in life, because Jesus Christ did exactly this, he was quiet and did the work of his father, in whatever circumstance he was in he did the work of his father and didnt say anything against the will of his Father. Its something that we need to apply more and more in our lives.

My testimony of Jesus Christ has grown so much during the time of my mission! I know that he is our Savior and Redeemer, that if we cant hold ourselves up longer, then Kneel and pray to God for help through The Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Atonement isn't just for remove our sins, but it is to there to Carry Us! When we feel as if we can not continue longer, and we fall down, this is the moment that the Atonement is carrying us. Jesus Christ is and always has been with us through all trials and hardships. He never gives up on us, even though we had given up on our self.

Footprints in the Sand

One night I dreamed a dream.

As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.
After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.
This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You'd walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me."
He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."

- by Mary Stevenson

Family and Friends, know that I love you so much and I pray for you all the time! Know that my prayers are being answered, as God is blessing your lives and helping you in all things, sometimes if we dont see the blessings from God in our lives its because we are looking with our Eyes Closed!

Open your eyes and See!

Con Amor,

Elder Ethan C. Durocher