Last week in the CCM for Elder Ivie...ahhhhhhh! (6th email)

SO GOOD to hear from you guys this week as usual! I am SO SO SO proud of Alexis I almost started crying when I saw those pictures of eating salad!!! And what no minecraft? Who is my sister now? Have fun at Chick Fil A tonight I could you use some of that right now! Dont get me wrong I got amazing food here but I could use some nice solid MERICA food right now. Its good to hear that Dads work is giving him a break, he deserves it. And yet again my teams pull it out again! It's because I'm on my mission, thats why they are doing so amazing! Haha! Go BYU they sound that they are starting to really work as a team, and Taysom Hill and Cody! Too sick! Ultimate duo this season! Typical JORDY what a wizard! He never disappoints, sit down PETERSON, tooo knarly.  I'm doing sooo good thanks mom, i´ll try to send some pics this time so go check it out! And Levi leaves on Nov. 6th?? Why did I think he was already out?? Hmmm his farewell was pretty far out! Hmm well good for him, I met a girl that knows him today. Pretty neat. Tommy tommy tommy, keep riding him! Goodness I'm riding him also! LOVE YOU SO MUCH! Next time you hear from me, ill will be in the MISSION FIELD! AHHHH!

Anyways my week has been pretty neat! Haha everyday just keeps getting crazier and crazier! They are going by faster than ever. I literally have 5 days left  here at the CCM and it really just felt I just got on that plane! Sorry hopefully that wasn’t bad to say but I totally feel that way right now! Sorry I didn’t answer all your questions last week, we were pretty rushed last email time.  Saturday we went proselyting otra vez! We went to a different area this time. This area was definitely a lot poorer than the last area we were in. Some pretty sketchy, 3^rd world parts people talked about. But on the flipside this time we had our best numbers ever! We contacted almost 50 people in 5ish hours! Got 6 referrals, we placed 2 Book of Mormons and lots of pamphlets. People this time were so interested and happy to see us! This area was definitely a lot more humble. I also was a lot more excited going out this time too. It flew by because I got a little taste of losing myself in the work! SO COOL! I was just happy all the time, we stayed diligent, and because of that I know the Lord placed the people we contacted for us to share His wonderful message. Oh yeah and also we were in a Tri-panionship this week because one of the Elders sprained his ankle real bad so he couldn’t go proselyting. So his companion came with us! We also had a really good devotional on Sunday, with the 2nd Counselor in the CCM presidency. He said work so hard on your missions that you come out on a stretcher! And I need to work my guts out so when I am done with my mission, I can show the Lord what I have done and he will accept it. I'm not as good at explaining it but, it was an amazing class! Pretty much almost cried. 

                Still been pretty cold there? I've been checkin the weather and it is usually pretty nippy but sometimes perfect fall weather. Oh Utah weather…how I don’t miss its tripolarness! I can't believe it might snow this week, HAVE FUN! HA! Here in Argentina it stays the same most everyday. It gets cloudy and rains occasionally but that’s just about it. Its definitely getting hotter though. Today is Halloween eh? Too sick Alexis is probably dieing! That’s still here favorite holiday right? I get to celebrate my Halloween on my P-day so, that’s pretty neat!

      

Love, Elder Ivie

One month down...time slow down!! (5th email)

Buen dia mi familia! My week was great as usual. I feel bad nothing exciting really happens here. Its usually just the same stuff every week. Don’t get me wrong its amazing experiences and a journey but its just usually study, teach, eat, and sleep! I surely do love it here though. We went proselyting on Saturday again. Every time we go it gets me more and more excited to be in the mission field and sort of nervous! But hey the Lords on my side and I know that, He already has and will continue! Just like it says in D&C 84:88. Anyways proselyting was fabulous. We reached our goal for number of contacts and references. We placed 2 Book of Mormons and the investigators seemed really interested which is sooo good. Also Sunday we had a good lesson from our District Leader, he said if I can bear my testimony of the truth of the book and get them to take it. The Lord and the truth of the book will do the rest. Its awesome and that made me so happy and sometimes I forget how important giving a Libro de Mormon to a person can be. The book can change a persons life! That’s why I'm getting so excited for the mission field! 2 weeks!!!!!!!! AHHHH crazy! Woof anyways. On Sunday as well we had the 2nd Counselor in the MTC Presidency talk to us! He is a FBI agent for Argentina! How cool is that? He is way cool he has great advice and mission stories to tell. Oh yeah and Thurs. we had a devotional after our Pday! It was a devotional in Jan. 2013 where Elder Holland spoke in Provo! Ahh so good! He sounded like he was going to be passive about what he was speaking about, and boy was I wrong. Love how he says it as it is, and gets in your face. Because I feel like we all need that sometimes especially me! He talked about being a fully converted missionary because we all have to be converted to the gospel somehow. He said in every mission a missionary should have a least 1 convert, him-herself. He talked about being the missionaries in Helman 5:17-19 as well as ministering angels in Mosiah 27:11 that had voice of thunder. Anyways he grilled us on everything and it was such an inspiring talk! He is easily my favorite speaker of all time! He always talks on stuff I need to improve on. Anyways whats up with the whole government shut down thing in America right now? People keep talking about it but its not really making sense to me. Oh yeah mom I forgot more pens so I will let you know in the mission field if I need some or if I can just go buy them! I was not thinking that one over. Oh great news this week momma! Love it! Halloween should be super fun with the Misseldines! You goin out with them? Or you on candy duty again. Are you guys gonna get Wendys or we done with that one for now! CHICK FIL A it up!!!!!!!!!!!! Hahaha that is so good to hear from Levi and Thomas! What studs! Love them both. He is gonna do amazing! When does Levi leave again? And momma you are amazing, thanks so much for the packages. I can always count on you for packages!  I cant wait to see them! Love you! I had no idea Kylie was going on a mission! And Australia!! That is so so cool! So excited for her! Anyways umm Marlene and Janelle stopped by? What were they doing in Utah? Love them both too!  KEEP THOSE LIGHTS ON DAD! Hahaha especially on Halloween! That is the greatest, I have already started to listen to some Christmas Music! Its heavenly. Thanks for the quote and all the support. Thanks so much for keeping up with the blog and stuff! You are golden! Our teams have been rockin it lately! They suddenly all got SOO good when I have left. They keep winning! Keep it up! Thanks for the sports updates also. I cant believe my boys are staying alive with all the injures. Hopefully they get back out there soon! Thanks for everything, love reading the weekly emails. Love hearing from you guys and whats up in good ol Highland! Love you all so so much! Have a wonderful semana.
Love, Elder Ivie

Getting into the hang of it!! (4th email)

Hola my dearest family? How was the week? The language is coming along. We have been doing quite a few activities to test our Spanish, first off, we did a language fast on Friday so for 6 hours we didn’t speak English, I was proud of myself. Also Sat. was the big day, we went proselyting out of the CCM! What a crazy experience. They literally gave us an area to cover they dropped me and Elder Shaeffer off and let us walk the streets for 5 hours! All spanish too! Dude I'm so lucky that Elder Shaeffer knew enough to carry on conversations because I hardly did. I know how to ask people things and introduce myself but that’s just about it. They all speak so so fast too so that doesn’t help much either. But what a great experience it was. I know in the Provo I would never get to have that experience. We placed a Book of Mormon and lots of pamphlets so we did decent. Next time I'm gonna try to get a baptism commitment! Oh yeah Argentina has mega crazy drivers. There are no rules and no lanes so they just like cut you off! But like no one cares they are just all polite so the craziness isn't really crazy. Oh and add to the craziness they just allow horses on the highways too! Ok back to proselyting they dropped us off in a pretty poor area. But there were some really really nice homes. Argentina is so different to the US because everyone I mean everyone has a gate and you either have to ring a doorbell or clap to get their attention. There are also numerous amounts of (perros) dogs around! Everyone at least has 1 or more dogs and there are also stray dogs, but the weird thing is the strays are way nicer than the ones that have homes. There are pretty much more dogs than people in Argentina! I also had a great Sunday! We usually have a lot of meetings but they are mind blowing meetings because I said before the CCM President is a wizard and basically knows everything through the scriptures. One of the lessons he taught was about Gods love for His son Jesus Christ, all throughout his life on earth. It was so cool to read about in the 4 gospels like it says in my Patriarchal blessing. It was so cool to understand what little things he did when Jesus Christ was a little boy. Because you don’t hear much about his childhood! So cool and mindblowing! Also im doing the creep here but I think there is a girl here that is in our Stake!  Also how is the blog goin mom? I take it that you are getting the hang of it since you haven't said anything about it. Thanks again mom, love you!

Hola! Elder Ivie is having the time of his life! (2nd week @ the CCM--3rd email)

Que pasa mi familia? I feel like I'm so cheesy in these emails but whatevs. It was so good to talk to you last week, I felt like it was forever since I talked to you all. But anyways this week at the CCM has been muy comf! (inside joke)  I'm so happy everyday and it’s so easy to feel the Spirit. It’s hard to teach with the Spirit in Spanish because I want to say stuff in English so I can bring the Spirit. But we have to speak all Spanish well and some Spenglish! But hey things are coming along, Spanish is pretty slow as usual but my goal is to say new things everyday so I can expand my vocabulary. Umm how was Conference?!?!? I missed watching it with you guys, it made me think of you and those mega good muffs every Conference morning but it was still amazing! The church is true no matter where you are. It was cool that all of us missionaries were all dressed up and ready to hear revelation from the Lord through the Prophets.  Such a cool sight, and I loved it when President Monson said that there are 80,000 Full-Time Missionaries out right now and I was like that’s me! Anyways the talks were sooo good. I loved Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk in the Sat. Morning session and it wasn’t even morning.  It was so weird it started at 1:00pm, that’s how far ahead we are!  He talked about doubts and coming back to the church and stuff. He said "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith"  Hey momma that was one of my favorite talks too. So cool because sometimes I can get down on myself here at the CCM because I don’t know as much as some people or the language isn’t coming along faster. But I know that as long as I don’t doubt my faith that things will work out and I can do this! I also liked Elder Holland's talk on overcoming diseases and stuff. That was really touching.  Also Dad just wanted to let you know that I’ve been doing pretty good with working out and stuff. I ran a couple times and I do push ups and sit ups just about every night! I'm gonna be huge when I get back guarantee it!! Anyways umm Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday was so weird because ALL the Latinos and North Americans left. Well besides us obviously. So there is like 15 of us here in the CCM that holds about 90-100 people. It’s crazy to think that some of the Latinos that came with us on the flight from Buenos Aires are gone now. Oh yeah and also this week our district has been muy muy enferma,  very very sick. Literally half the district got sick with influenza. Thank you mom for getting me that shot because thankfully I didn’t get it. But now most of them are getting better now. When they were all sick we quarantined them into one room and called it the Leprosy Pit! Haha anyways, I realized this week that I should have totes put more spiritual Piano Guys on my iPod. I love their stuff, I should have listened to you guys. Oh yeah mom I forgot soap, how did I do that? Whatevs I'll find some. Umm this Sat. is going to be crazy though because it will be the first time they bus us out to a random part of town and drop us off to go proselyting!! In Spanish!!  Obviously but I’m so nervous because I hardly know any at all but hey its awesome practice and I’ll always try my best. Most of the time they just want you to do service and just talk to them. Oh yeah totes they got bides here! Like those European toilet things. Dude I'm never going back, yeah this is a weird subject but I thought this was very important because when I get my own house I’m easily fo sho getting one. Oh! Alexis how was your bday??  I thought of you all day! Love you! Wow seriously it must be so cold there. I get to go on the computer sometimes and do a language study program and I check the weather there every time and its always like raining, or almost snowing?!?! Did it snow? Crazy stuff, have fun fam! Oh yes I do love my companion. He is so funny and we get along pretty well. Our mock lessons are getting better and better each day. 

Well love you guys so much! I can feel your prayers everyday and I'm beginning to lose myself in his work and I love it! Have a great week love you all!

Elder Ivie and his companion Elder Schaffer (6' 7")

Elder Ivie in front of the CCM (or MTC)

Elder Ivie and the Elder's in his district.

Elder Ivie's 1st full week in the CCM (2nd email)

Hola Momma and Familia! First umm don't send me packages to the MTC I probably won't get them sorry if you already did I forgot to tell you in the first quick email. The first day was quite the day. I think I forgot how incredibly uncomfortable airplanes were. Both flights weren't too bad but it was just muy muy long! But hey I'm here in Bueno care. Our CCM Presidente Openshaw just challenged me to not focus a lot on whether you don’t know if its right or not.  I think I won't have any trouble with that because I got 4 missionaries in my room and its me and my companion Elder Schaffer and 2 natives that speak NO English whatsoever. So it's kinda awkward right now because I literally can't strike up a conversation so I just say Hola! Como estas? Haha and my companion Elder Schaffer can speak a little spanish so that's nice to have a little communication with the Latinos. My companion is so awesome. He is so humble and always open to the Spirit. I couldn’t ask for a better companion. He is 6' 7"!!!! Haha he is a giant! I like him a lot. He is from Arizona but he spent his summers in Utah for a job I think or something haha. The white house is soo pretty I feel like a king living here. They have this thing they like here, it's dulce de leche which is obviously caramel but amazing caramel and they put it in everything!  Elder Jensen, Sister Leifers nephew in the room across from me. And he probably thinks I'm a creep because I know some things about him through Aaron. He lives in Castle Dell and I remember I've been there to his dads work at the Vet. I think we did it for a Merit Badge! Ha good times. Oh and umm for Aaron tell Sister Leifer that they gave me lots of books. Like that red Spanish Language book you gave me, which is was like dang but thanks anyways momma! Also a Spanish Dictionary, a Spanish and English Preach my Gospel, True to the Faith in Spanish, a Spanish Bible and Book of Mormon, umm  Journal for notes, and I think that's just about all that really matters. I have got to admit this week has been sooo tough for me. I miss you guys more than ever, I miss my old lifestyle and doing things on my schedule but lately I just remembered what I should have never forgotten is that I am here to Invite others to come unto Christ. And by doing that I have to become humble towards God and let him help me. I've tried to a lot of things by myself and it has gotten me frustrated especially with the language. But when I submit to Gods will he will help provide if I exercise my faith in him. The Gospel is so true guys. So many miracles have happened and each day gets better and better!