12/28/10 - Letter to the World

Goooood Morning!
I don´t normally get the opportunity to write this early. Today we woke up at 5:30 to catch a bus from Momotombo to Paz Centro at 6:30 to catch another bus from Paz Centro to León at 7:00 to arrive at 8:15 to walk a half an hour to a cathedral where we met up with our zone to have P-day. We took a tour of an old Catholic Cathedral and at 9:00 they sent us on our way to write our families, go shopping, and enjoy the day. The cathedral was kind of cool, but it was borderline creepy. I´ve never seen pictures where Christ looked so sad before in my life. I think I´m going to stick to the Gospel Art Book for sure!
For those of you who don´t know, we had changes last week! They translated me to a fairly new area called Momotombo. It´s right off of Lake Managua so all of the streets are sand, except for one that is cobblestoned. The sand makes it really hard to walk and it tires you out really quickly. It´s really different than Lamlaya. It´s pretty much farm land. The people are pretty cold and closed, but that´s why the Lord has sent us there! Getting an investigator to go to church is extremely hard. It seems like everybody wants to become closer to God, but noone is willing to start walking in His direction.
We visited one man named Pedro during the week and he said that he would try to go to church on Sunday. On Sunday we passed by in the morning and he said that he wasn´t going to be able to go. We asked him why and he told us that it is because he goes to the New Star of Bethleham Church. We asked him what time his church started to see if he´d be able to go to both and he told us that it started at 10:00 am. It was 10:33!!! We gave him the time and he just looked started and told us that he wasn´t going to go.
Yesterday in the afternoon we met a really positive family! I love them! We taught them about prayer and tomorrow we´re going to teach them Lesson 1, about prophets and the restauración. I´m really looking forward to seeing all of them again.
I hope that all of you enjoyed your Christmas and that you all have a happy New Year. Be good and don´t make me come up there!!!
Love you all,
Elder Denton II

12/6/10 - Letter to the World

Good Afternoon!Who´s getting excited for CHRISTMAS!?!? I sure am! December has finally come around again and yesterday during the Christmas devotional we were reminded of the reason for the season. I really enjoyed Elder Uchtdorf´s talk about the true meaning of Christmas. It´s amazing how we all KNOW that Christmas is about our Savior, Jesus Christ, but somehow we always get caught up in the commercialization of the holiday. When President Monson started talking, I could not stop smiling! I love the look that he always gives us when he´s about to say something funny. Every time I hear his voice, my testimony in living prophets grows stronger. What a blessing it is to have a prophet in these latter days that recieves direct revelation, to guide us, to direct us, and to let us in on what our Heavenly Father wants and needs us to know.

Last week I didn´t have the opportunity to tell you all about Vicenta, so here´s the spill:

Vicenta is a recent convert that was baptized a week and 2 days ago. She is incredible! I first met her with Elder Burrows, 4ish months ago, and she was ready to get baptized! The only problem was that she wasn´t married and her husband wasn´t legally divorced from a previous marriage. That in itself isn´t normally a big problem, but whilst those papers were in progress the ´alcaldía´ (similar to city hall) was robbed and a ton of papers were scattered and stolen. Vicenta´s husband kept telling us that he was doing everything he could to get the papers taken care of, but it seemed like nothing was happening. Elder Amaya came and left and the darn papers still didn´t get taken care of. When Elder Cordero, my present comp, arrived I told him about the situation and he told me that according to the Nicaragual laws, as long as the divorce was in progress, the two of them could legally be married!!! WOOT WOOT! Can you just hear the wedding bells? They were married two weeks ago and Vicenta is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! In the time that she was an investigator she only missed 1 week of church (out of about 10), she read half of the Book of Mormon, cooked for the missionaries several times, and offered to wash all of our clothes for free (which we wouldn´t allow her to do because it´s a ton of work). She always says her prayers and is always trying to better her life! I really feel blessed for the opportunity to have met, taught, and baptized her!

Well, I´ve written a ton now and I´m sure you´re all tired of reading. Have a fantastic week, be pilas, and don´t forget to pray...ever!

Love you all,Elder Denton II

11/29/10 - Letter to the World

Bautismos de 27-11-2010

Good Afternoon family, friends, and conocidos!I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving, celebrated with plenty of pies, mashed potatoes, and turkey. I´m happy to announce that mine was rightly celebrated with a big old mountain of gallo pinto!...if you don´t remember what that one is, do a quick google images search! Lots to say and not much time! This last week my comp and I had 4 baptisms, ALL very exciting!Maura, Keri, and Fray -Maura is the wife of a recent convert, Orby. When Orby got baptized, he was going to get married with his wife, step daughter, and step-son...in law. When the day came, Maura never got ready. She told us that she didn´t have sandals so she couldn´t go. We knew that that was bogus and that there was another reason, but we didn´t know what it was. We went back a few days later, and she didn´t want to talk to us, we didn´t want to upset her, so we left, and planned to go back on Saturday, after she had time to cool off (from what?, I don´t know). Saturday came and she still didn´t want to talk to us, she was talking to her friends in Miskitu, and we didn´t understand a thing. We invited her to church, but she said she wasn´t going to go. After that, we would go back to visit Orby and his step-kids, but we never talked to Maura, because we didn´t want to make her angry, but every Saturday we invited her to church (she had never been). After about 2 or 3 months we found out that she had problems with her riñones (¿kidneys?) and she couldn´t hardly walk.3 weeks ago we invited her to go to church again, not expecting anything out of it, and she said that she would go! I was shocked and excited, but at the same time, I didn´t really expect her to show up. But guess what! She did! I was super excited and all day I was wondering why she had changed her mind.We went by to talk to her that evening after church and we had a really neat experience. We asked her how she liked the church and she started telling us how much she loved it. She told us that she had been sick for 3 months, and no one from her church had gone to visit her and that during those 3 months, we went by every Saturday to see if she was okay and to animate her to go to church. She said that she was impressed with our dedication - teaching people all day long until after the sun goes down. And then she paused, and said, with a giant smile, ¨My son learned how to pray!¨. She had brought her 6-year old son to church with her and in primary they taught him how to pray. She was astounding and completely impressed. She told us that she wanted to be baptized along with 2 of her 3 kids (keri and fray). Saturday they were baptized in the Atlantic ocean and now, they´re next goal is to go to the temple!I´m out of time and I haven´t even mentioned Vicenta, who is AMAZING! I´ll write about her and her story next week.I hope you all have a fantastic week and enjoy the transition from November to Christmas!!!Love you all,Elder Denton II

11/22/10 - Letter to the World

Good Afternoon, my family!!!
Buenas tardes, mi familia!!!
Tutni yamni, familiki!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I know it´s a few days early, but I hope it gets you all thinking about all of the things that you are grateful for! The gringos here in Puerto Cabezas are doubly grateful this year, because we wrongly celebrated it last Thursday. Turns out that since the Pilgrams didn´t land here in Nicaragua, they don´t celebrate Thanksgiving and we were convinced that it was the 3rd Thursday of November. Oh well, One more holiday! It´s incredible to think that Christmas is already on it´s way - it´s hard to accept when there isn´t any snow on the ground and there aren´t Christmas lights up on the houses. ¡¡BUT!!!, good news!:

In Puerto Cabezas I haven´t seen kleenex - only snot rockets...gross!

In Puerto Cabezas I haven´t seen skittles - only mamones, a little fruit that´s actually pretty good

In Puerto Cabezas I haven´t seen running, heated water - only coffee makers to heat water for a bucket-bath

BUT LAST MONDAY I BOUGHT EGGNOG! My comp showed me a drink called ¨rompope¨ and as soon I realized that the translation was eggnog, I was jumpin´ up and down!

This last Saturday my comp and I had two baptisms, a father and a son. They´re both named Delfino. We had a bit of a hard time finding them on Saturday (the dad went hunting and the son left to the market all day), but in the end we had a really nice service for the both of them. As the baptismal service was getting closer and closer, I kept asking myself if he was really ready, if we had done everything we could to prepare him to take such an important step. After the baptism I asked him how he felt and he said, ¨ahora, sí, estoy feliz!¨. He was ready! I think he is going to be a great example for his son and his son, likewise, a great example for his father.

Something that I realized this last week is that on my mission, I make a lot of lists. I have lists of investigators (vicenta, ricardo, etc...), lists of recent converts (felipe, delfino, etc...), lists of things to write on monday (baptism, eggnog, lists, etc...), lists of movies that pop into my head that I need to watch in 20ish months (mrs. doubtfire, aladdin, etc...), etc... I think my the end of my mission I´m going to be all listed out!

Well...I wrote too much and it´s time to take off. Have a great week, eat a lot of turkey, keep an alka seltzer handy, and tell brother devey to take it easy at the turkey bowl.

Love you all

Les quiero todosSutra mai wantsna, Elder Denton II

11/15/10 - Letter to the World

New Companion, Elder Cordero with Elder Denton

What the heck do you think he ate to puff up like this, with hives? I'm thinking it may have been shellfish. It happened to me when I was his age.

Hey World!!Who´s pumped for ANOTHER change here in Puerto Cabezas? I know I am! The Nicaragua Managua North Mission had changes last Wednesday, and Elder Denton was not part of it. I am the only missionary in the mission that has never gone to a reunión de cambios (¿change meeting?). Something that did change though, is my comp. This change I´m going to be working with Elder Cordero! He´s a tico (person from Costa Rica) that has about 8 months here in the mission. He´s super pilas and has a really important task here in Puerto!I imagine that all of you who follow missionary blogs have heard of a ¨new doctrine¨ or ¨new teachings¨ or maybe ¨new focus on the Gospel¨. I don´t know how they say it in English, but it´s pretty new and has everything to do with teaching 100% with the spirit. I think nearly all, if not all of the missionaries in the field have already received this capacitation, except for Puerto Cabezas. The church, in it´s organized form, is an hour-long flight away from Puerto which impedes us from having the most updated news/capacitations. The capacitater of these new teachings arrived to Puerto last Thursday and it just so happens to be my new comp!President Arredondo (mission president) told us that the capacitator was going to be the missionary that applied it best, so I´m super excited to learn first hand how it all works!A little bit of bad news...I´m allergic to something here in Puerto and I don´t know what it is. A few days ago I broke out in hives all over my body and my lips swelled up pretty bad. That was the day after I was up until midnight puking. Oh well, it´s all part of the experience and I´m loving it!For the rest of the month, although we need to keep focussing on retention, are going to pick back up on baptisms and I´m stoked for that! I love seeing the instant change that it makes in people´s lives when they recognize the laws of God and start living by them.Well, that´s what I have for you this week, be pilas and don´t let Satan get you down!Elder Denton II

11/1/10 - Letter to the World

Elder Denton didn't send a letter to the world, that I'm aware of. With three missionaries hitting our email account all on the same day we have been having technical difficulties getting all of the emails...especially when they include pictures. We are working on resolving that for tomorrow's next wave. Here are some excerpts of what he wrote me...I think it is safe enough to share with everybody to give a flavor of how he's doing.

I´m trying to send/organize pics and write a ton of people today, so I´m a little scattered.Thanks for the ´little gem´! That´s really tight...and true! Last week I started reading the book of mormon from the start in spanish. I´ve read parts and sections, but I want to go all the way through it, there are plenty of things that I don´t understand, but I ask my companion and he helps me understand who´s doing what to who and why. Even in reading the BOM in English I never really got it, so this time I´m going through without moving onto the next chapter until I´ve understand the preceeding chapter. The questions that I´ve asked my comp have really brought us closer together!I thouroghly love this opportunity to serve this people. I get frusterated and discouraged until it nearly brings me to tears, but I absolutely love it because I know that it´s the truth and I know that it´s exactly what my Heavenly Father wants me to be doing.Thanks for your support and your quotes always! They´re always very inspiring and just what I need...or just what another missionary needs. ex. Elder Johnson, who has 3 months here in the mission, just got a new comp that also has only 3 months. Yesterday he was way stressed because his mission dad hadn´t ever taught him how to be a missionary...he just did everything for him. Now that his dad is gone, he has a ton of responsibilities and he´s not sure which are more important or how to accomplish them. I´m gonna share that scripture that you gave me with him.

[Guides to Courage and Strength
"At the moment, these four guides—prayer, obedience to God's commandments, daily scripture study, and a commitment to follow the living prophet—may seem like small and simple things. Let me remind you of the scripture found in Alma: 'Behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass' (Alma 37:6). When applied in our everyday lives, these four 'small and simple' guides from the book of Joshua will combine to provide the most powerful source of courage and strength there is: faith in our Heavenly Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ."
Ann M. Dibb, "Be of Good Courage," Ensign, May 2010, 116 ]
My favorite that you´ve sent so far was the one about Repentance that talked about a guy in a marathon. That was tuanísimo.Well...That´s all I have to say for now. Love you tons!!Elder Denton II

10/25/10 - Letter to the World

Dear Family and Friends!I´m sorry for not being so good about writing my letters to the world. Starting this week I´m going to have a new system. When things happen, I´m going to write it down in my agenda so that I don´t have a lack of things to say when P-days come around. Throughout the week crazy things happen, but when they don´t get written down, they get forgotten.This last week all the missionaries in my zone had the opportunity to get interviewed by the mission president, which was a really cool experience. I had my first interview with him the first week I came to Nicaragua, but as I was really new, I didn´t have much to say. Now that I know what´s going on in the mission, we were able to talk about how things are going and how things are going to improve. Before the interviews, we were all in the sacrement salon and he taught us some really neat things. He tought us about the importance of asking inspired questions, which was just what I needed. He taught us that although across the world there are hundreds of different cultures, the culture of the Gospel is one and that no matter where we live, we need to live the culture of the Gospel.Here in Puerto Cabezas, we´re focussing a lot on retention. The last mission president had the attitude of ¨baptize anything that moves¨, but our new president, President Arredondo, is much more focussed on baptising strong families that understand the Restoration and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.I really love this new turn that this area is taking. I don´t think I will be here in Puerto for much longer, but I can definately see that with this new focus the church will be greatly strengthened. On Sunday our 4 branches were formed into a district. When the members and recent converts change parts of their culture for that of the Gospel, we´re going to see wards and stakes here in Puerto!!! Ya´ll just wait - in one of these next general conferences you´ll be hearing about a new Nicaragua Managua Temple!I know that the church is true and that it´s only going to keep growing here in Nicaragua and across the world. Have faith and exercise it! If you don´t know how to exercise it, ask any seminary student!Love you all!Have a Happy Halloween.....OooOooOga BoooOoOOOoga!Elder Denton IIPS: If you need a good Halloween story, look up grisi siknis...it freaks me out!

10/11/10 - Letter to the World

Buen Dia!
How are we all doing today? I hope life is treating you all well! I don´t have ANY bug bites on my arms, the rash from the water is COMPLETELY gone, and best of all...my comp didn´t start ANY fires last week!
This last week has gone by incredibley fast. As my companion, Elder Amaya, is the district leader, it seems that the time that we have with our investigators is incredibly limited. Our days are spent riding our bikes to and from meetings in Puerto and doing interviews for the other missionaries. The meetings and interviews are really important, but at the same time it´s hard not being able to spend as much time with the investigators that need our help.
I don´t know if you remember, but a few weeks ago I mentioned that I gave my first lesson in English to an old lady, the grandma of two positive investigators. We had a great lesson with her, but she told us that she already had her religion and that she didn´t want to visit our church. Weeks went by and we kept visiting with her grandkids, but she would just walk by as we taught them, never really paying us much attention. On Saturday we went to her house again. We sat down with her and her grandkids and asked her why baptism was so important for us in this life and in the next. She told us that it´s important because it cleanses us of our sins and it´s a commandment of God. We were satisfied with the answer and were about to move on, but she followed that statement with ¨That´s why I want to get baptized¨. WHAT?!?!?! OKAY!!!
Following the promptings of the Holy Ghost and asking inspired questions is really like hitting the ¨Easy Button¨.
We all need to be ready and willing to always follow the promptings that we recieve. When we follow them, the Holy Ghost will confide in us in the future!
Mai wantsna. Wik kum pain bris. Kli wal praubia
Elder Denton II

10/4/10 - Letter to the World

Good afternoon, everyone!

I´m sorry for not writing last week. I´m sure you were all devastated to not know about my adventures here in Nicaragua. The truth is that everything here is pretty normal now. The things that used to shock and surprise me are not just part of my daily life, which is funny, because we just got a few greenys! It´s exciting to here the nervous voices saying ¨You shower with buckets?¨, ¨You drink out of a well?¨, ¨Is it always this hot???¨. All of us here try to be really supportive of them, but every once in a while, you just gotta laugh!

This last week we got a sign that we need to be harder workers. It was 8:00 pm and the power went out. My comp said that it would be too hard to teach a lesson without light so we went back to the house to get ready for bed early. My comp never writes in his journal, so I thought that since we had extra time, it would be a good day to start. He told me that he didn´t want to so I didn´t press it. He went to bed and I stayed up writing. My comp always leaves a candle lit when he goes to bed so that he can see if he wakes up in the middle of the night. At about 9:45 I noticed that the pages of my journal had a red tint to them, so I looked up and noticed that the curtains had cought on fire...along with the mosquito net and my comps bed. I jumped out of bed screaming ¨ELDER ELDER ELDER!!¨ and I started pulling the curtains off the wall. I put the fire out and we both went to bed. Since then, we haven´t gone to bed early...and I don´t think we will! ***** Don´t waste the Lord´s time ***** LESSON LEARNED!

Since last week was General Conference, we didn´t have any baptisms, but this Saturday we´re looking forward to baptizing Chiquiña and hopefully Vicenta! Vicenta needs to get married before she can be baptized, but first her husband needs to get divorced...gotta love nica culture! I hope to tell you about that baptism this next P-day.

I´d leave you with my favorite talk from general conference, but the power went out several times over the weekend, making it hard to know exactly what was taught. On monday I´m going to start watching the talks at the Cyber. Although I can´t share my favorite talk, I do want you to think about how blessed we are to have a living prophet that loves us and recieves revelation directly from God. I used to take that for granted, but sharing the message daily with the people here has really forced me to realized the importance of it. If you have a spare minute, look up an old conference talk that you liked, read through it.

I hope you all have a fantastic week. Remember who you are. Hagan lo justo!

Elder Denton II

9/27/10 - Letter to the World

As of now, Elder Denton II didn't send anything that I'm aware of, other than the following pictures. We'll see if he happened to send his letter to the world to his mom when she gets home. If there's something there, I'll update you. Otherwise, go to his blog (eldercodydenton.blogspot.com) to see the pictures he sent today.

9/20/10 - Letter to the World

Tutni Yamni!

For those of you who don´t know, last week I got to go to Managua for a multi-zone conference. We flew there on Tuesday and everything started the next morning. We had the opportunity to hear from President Arredondo, Elder Clark, and their wives. It was an incredible experience! Our whole zone went, expecting to be told the we´re not working hard enough, but that wasn´t the case. The entire conference was incredibley spiritual, uplifting, and motivational. Elder Clark asked us if we truely believed that we had the potential to be Gods and Godesses. After a positive response, he then started explaining that if we have the potential to be Gods and Godesses, there is nothing that we can´t do. If we set a goal to teach 50 lessons in a week, and we pray for help and guidance, we can do it.

We can do ANYTHING! It just takes faith. When we have faith, the Holy Ghost is with us. When the Holy Ghost is with us, we´re unstoppable!

Never get disanimated [discouraged]. When we´re disanimated, we´re doubting. When we´re doubting, we´re not showing faith.

In La Misión Nicaragua Managua Norte, each missionary is aloud to be disanimated for 5 minutes per transfer, but only with special permision. We have to ask permision from our mission president who has to ask permission from the area president. IF the area president gives us permission, we have 5 minutes and we have to be disanimated in the bathroom, so we don´t affect our companions.

Well! Those are some things that I´ve learned this past week. I hope it helps you to realize how powerful we are when we have the Holy Spirit with us.

Have a great week.
Kli wal praubia,
Elder Denton II

9/13/10 - Letter to the World

Buenas Tardes South Jordan/Argentina/Pennsylvania/etc.

I have some excellent news! On Saturday we baptized 2 sisters: Magdalena and Lorenda. It is so nice to be back on the ball. There was something about the last transfer that knocked our whole zone out of wack, but I think we´re finally getting back on track. Magdalena and Lorenda are 13 and 12 and they have incredible faith, just like their sister, Lorena, who we baptized about a month ago. Lorena is the only member of the family that speaks Spanish, so she translates for the rest of her family. It something so simple, but so helpful for EVERYBODY. It helps us as missionaries to share the message and at the same time, learn a little bit of Miskitu. It helps Lorena because when you translate, you have to really process the meaning of what you´re translating. Lastly it helps the rest of the family because learning from a family member is a lot easier than two random strangers walking around Lamlaya with ties. What at first seemed like an inconvenience ended up being a great blessing for all of us!

Margeni was called to be a primary teacher, which I´m way excited for. She´s got the perfect attitude and personality for it.

Before I log off today, I just want to remind all of you how real and how powerful the Priesthood is. It´s an amazing gift that God has given us to do his work here on the Earth. Just like prayer and fasting, the Priesthood shouldn´t be used as a last resort. If God didn´t want us to use it, he wouldn´t have given it to us. If you ever feel like you need a Priesthood blessing, ask for one, I´ve never met a Priesthood holder that didn´t want to give a blessing!

I want you all to have a fantastic week...don´t let me down :)

Love you all
Elder Denton

Happy Monday!
Wow! Sometimes you just need to sleep in! It seems like P-days always come just in the nick of time!
As Elder Amaya and I have been working with the same investigators for the past little while, I don´t have anything new and exciting to mention. This week we´re going to go out searching for new people, which should bring about some good stories!
Yesterday was really rainy, so asistance [attendance] in the church was chupazo (sucky). I did one baptism on Satuday, but it wasn´t really mine. There was a girl from Caminante (another district) and she was really nervous about getting baptized, so the missionaries asked her ´¿Who do you want to baptized you?´ and she pointed at me and said ´Miriki´ (translation: gringo). Before I baptized her I got to get to know her a little bit and she ended up being really cool, pilas, just a little nervous. The next day, Sunday, I got to confirm her a member of the church!
It´s really awesome going to the different baptism ceremonies! I hadn´t ever noticed how simple and short they were, but at the same time, so powerful!
OH! I DO have a little bit of news...if I didn´t already tell you. Ramón, Jorge and Felipe were ordained Preists. Jorge was also ordained an Elder which is really exciting! I´m still searching for pictures to send out to you guys. When I lost my blue camera I lost my MTC experience and the beginning of the life in the mish. I´m going to ask some MTC roomates to see if they´ll send me some.
My sister, Whitney, sent out a letter today which said - ´I've decided to stop drinking milk to help me better empathize with those that are trying to overcome addictions to join the church.´ - At first I just chuckled a little bit, but then I realized that I did something similar with Elder Burrows. We didn´t stop drinking milk, because that´s not too tough for me, but I had a TON of bug bites that itched liked crazy. Every time it started to itch we would think of our investigator who was having problems with cigarettes, and not itch it. It sounds a little weird, but it really helped us to understand how hard it can be to quit addictions.
One more thing and I´m out: There are witches in Lamlaya!
Okay, time´s up. I gotta go look for a machete and a bike.
Have a great week!! - Love you all!! - I do recieve pouch mail now and hand written letters are awesome...just sayin´
Elder Denton!

8/30/10 - Letter to the World

Elder Denton with some turtles just before they were prepared for somebodies dinner!

I´m back!

Last week I was having some technical difficulties and only ended up with enough time to write my family. Today I got a letter informing me that you guys don´t even know who my new companion is! Geez are you behind!!! My new companion is Elder Amaya. He´s from El Salvador and I think he´s 22, his birthday was yesterday. He´s very animated and outgoing when it comes to teaching the gospel, which is great. He has a ton to teach me and I´m more than willing to learn!

I feel like I´m getting a lot more comfortable teaching the Gospel to people. In my first change I just taught right out of Preach My Gospel. This change, I want to change it up a bit. My goal is to FIRST find the needs of the people, and SECOND teach from Preach My Gospel according to the needs of the people. That´s something that Elder Burrows was teaching me when he left and I´m finally starting to see the real importance of it. The Gospel that we teach is such a miracle because it helps EVERYBODY - our job is to find out what the people need, and show them how applying the teachings of Christ will benefit them.

Tonight is Family Home Evening! Don´t forget it! Mondays is one of my favorite days here in the mission field because we get to do FHE with the investigators/recent converts. It´s fun to see them study up on a topic and then teach it to their family, it lets them know that they can learn about the Scriptures even when the missionaries aren´t at their house.

Random: Today my Mom told me that survivor was going to be in Nicaragua this year and it kind of made me feel like Tarzan...but just for a minute...then I remembered that this last week I learned how to open a coconut with my mouth...and I felt like Tarzan for another minute. It´s kind of crazy here - if you see something on a tree that looks good, you can just pull it off and eat it...unless someone owns the tree...if someone owns the tree they get mad.

Well, I think that´s about all I have to tell you for this week. It´s almost time to head back to Lamlaya and ¨poner las pilas¨ so we can get people ready to be baptized on Saturday.

OH! One more thing I remembered. Last week I gave my first lesson in ¡English! to a lady that only speaks English and Miskitu. It was pretty amazing (if I do say so myself), but it´s a bit embarassing when you start to forget your own language. When you´re teaching about the structure of the church, there are certain words you don´t want to forget (ex. preisthood, scriptures, etc.)....my bad.

ALSO!!! Yesterday I said my first prayer in Miskitu! I hardly know any Miskitu, so it was really short and simple, but I did it!

Well, That´s my news! I hope that you are all having as much fun as I am!

Love you all,
Elder C. Denton

8/23/10 - NO Letter to the World

We were in contact with Elder Denton II briefly yesterday around 5pm. He mentioned that the Zone Leaders were doing something with machetes which made for a late start to their P-day, and on top of that he managed to get a very slow computer. He got off a short message that he was glad his mom was done with chemo and asked if his ex-companion, Elder Burrows (from Sandy) stopped by the house yet. (He hasn't). That was about it other than a quick text to Connie saying the other elders were ready to go. Until next week....

8/16/10 - Letter to the World

The beachside missionary house Elder Denton, Ramon, Feliz, Elder Burrows, Derkin, Rogelio

Elder Burrows, Margini, Justin, Elder Denton

WORLD! Good Afternoon!

I´m glad to have the opportunity to write a few things until my comp tells me that my times up. I´ll start with Baptisms!

Araseli and Maima are two sisters that were baptized on Saturday. They´re both very humble and enjoy going to church every week. I think they´ve been going ever since we got here! Their parents aren´t quite as interested, but we´re working with them. They [work?] every day until late, so it´s hard to find time to teach them and they haven´t gone to church at all...I´ll keep working on ´em!

Felix was baptized on Sunday. He was kind of a surprise for me. I hadn´t ever even realized that he had been going to church, but apparently he had! He told us that he wanted to get baptized and we weren´t going to stop him! It´s incredible how the spirit can touch people so strongly in such a short time! That´s one of the most incredible things that I´ve learned here on my mission.

I think I´ve already mentioned Ramon. He´s as pilas as Felipe! He loves reading the Book of Mormon and is sitting there reading just about every time we go to visit him. He wanted to know EVERYTHING before he was baptized, which is good, but it gives Satan a lot of time to work! Our district leader came to talk to him and helped him realize that if we have even just a simple testimony of Joseph Smith we already know enough to be sure that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. He was baptized on Sunday with his son, Derkin. Derkin´s friend, Rogelio, was also baptized. Since it´s such a small community, everybody knows each other. It´s really interesting to see how diferent people react when they find out that someone got baptized.

Alina was the last one! She´s another relative of Felipe! Their whole family is pilas! Every single one of them! Alina told us up front that she wasn´t going to get baptized, but we knew that she had a testimony of the church...a strong one! We kept talking to her of the importance of following the example of Christ and of following the commandments. Yesterday at church Elder Burrows talked to her for a few minutes and she decided that it would be the right choice to make! I was thrilled we I got the thumbs up! She was baptized yesterday and her family was really excited to hear about it!

Well, I gotta attach some pics and head out. Thanks for the support, love, and prayers. I love and appreciate you all!

THANKS

Elder Denton II

8/9/10 - Letter to the World

Good Afternoon!!!

How are you all doing? (I´m asking everyone...not only the 7-8 people that have been writing me) I hope that you are all having a good summer! It´s coming to a close quickly!

Today I was reading through some letters and it struck me how fast time is moving while I´m here focussing on my little Lamlaya! It´s awesome to hear all of the different things that are happening!!! My Mom finishing chemo!! My sister going on a mission!! My Dad´s ´hijos preferidos´ have started laying eggs!! And chaz...chaz got a ticket (¿bad news is better than no news?)

The people here are great and we are hoping to have a lot of baptisms this week, but I need to talk about the last people we baptized so I don´t get too far behind! Orby, Merlin, and Alexander were all baptized 2 Saturdays ago. They are a humble family and really receptive to the message of the Gospel. Merlin is the only one that speaks Spanish well, but when we go with a translator, we can tell that they understand. We set up a wedding for Merlin and Alexander and they were married a day before their baptism. Here we don´t have to ´sacar fechas´ like they do in Kyle´s area. We just call up the lawyer and tell him to come over for a wedding. Merlin is gonna have her first baby soon so I´m glad that they were able to hear the Gospel early so they can start building their family on good principles.

MARJINI GOT BAPTIZED!!! Marjini is Felipe´s daughter! She´s awesome! She hears a lot of rumors about our church in the community, but she always sets people straight when she hears them! I had the opportunity to baptize her on Thursday and she was confirmed on Sunday by Elder Burrows!

I really have seen so many blessing here in Lamlaya and althought there are a lot of things trying to slow us down, we´re not going to let it disanimate us. I know we´re on the Lord´s side and he will take care of us. Being away from my family and looking back, it´s so easy to see how this Gospel has blessed my family. There are so many blessings that I had that I didn´t think twice about. I love teaching families here because I can picture how they´re going to change and how they can be such firm members in the Church. When I tell them about the blessings that I had in my family and about the blessing that they will see in theirs if they follow Christ I feel the Spirit so strongly! Families really are ordained by God and are such a blessing in our lives...I wish I would´ve realized that earlier.

Well, It´s time for me to take off. I have other people to talk about, but mejor next week!

I love you all and I appreciate all of your support and love.

Until next weekElder Denton II

OH!...this week I learned that I spent the first 2 weeks washing myself with laundry soap. Elder Burrows asked me to get the laundry soap and I had no idea what he was talking about and he said ¨that pink bar of soap in the bathroom¨. I felt retarded, but that´s how we learn, I guess! I´ve now returned to my regular soap usage!

8/2/10 - Letter to the World

Dear World!

This is the last time that I´m going to say that I am short on time. From here on out it is your responsibility to know that I don´t have a lot of time to write.

This last week has gone pretty well, although we are having some trouble animating the people, we are still getting them out to church, which is a really big help. The church here is really nice and yesterday it was nice to hear such strong, yet simple testimonies. Nearly all of the people are recent converts, so they all just talk about Joseph Smith, but the people here learn so quickly and are so receptive to this gospel that soon they´ll have a testimony of all the other points and principles as well.

FELIPE GOT BAPTIZED!!! He was really getting down on himself last week, but he made some good life changing choices and now he´s a confirmed member of the Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Dias. I´m so exited about that!

Just recently we also had to let one of our investigators go. I didn´t think that it was going to be as hard as it was. She has a testimony of everything we taught her, but here in Nicaragua there is a church that is more of a tradition than anything. Almost everyone goes there starting when they´re really young. The people that go to this church really believe the things that we teach, but the cultural tie to their church makes it hard for them to come to our church and get baptized.

A 2 quick Nicaraguan facts, a short story, and I´m off:

Wabul is an amazing drink here! It tastes like liquid banana bread. They serve it hot.

When the people don´t understand a question, they twich their nose and upper lip to let you know..The other missionaries want to go out to lunch. No time for a short story.

Love you all!!! Elder Denton

NOTE: He came back to the internet cafe a little later and wrote this to me just before he had to go again: SHOOT! I had other baptisms...Orby, Mairin and Alexander...I´ll try to remember to write about them next week

07/26/10 - Letter to the World

[I asked Elder Denton how he was chosen to baptize the first three people last week: I did the baptisms because my comp wanted me to be able to do the first ones and because it was in the sea! He thought that it would be a good experience for me because they don´t do that too often.]

Heey! How are you all?I hope you are all starting the week of well! I´m doing great here in Lamlaya! We´re still teaching a lot of people and the people are incredibly receptive! I love every minute that I spend with the people. When you ask questions after a lesson and they give you the exact answer you want to hear, it just puts a smile on your face! The people here are so hospitable and they´re always checking up on us Miriki (gringo in Miskitu).

On Saturday we had 6 baptisms:

Diana, la esposa de Jorge - Diana is awesome! She´s going to be a great leader in the church one day. She´s very headstrong and gets things done! She didn´t get baptized last week because she wanted to see a change in her husband before she was baptized. This past week we´ve made it a point to teach that we are baptised for nuestros mismos, to make covenants with our Heavenly Father.

Lorena (daughter) and Domitila (mom) - These two women are some of the most faithful people I have ever met. They were ready to be baptized the moment we told them about baptism and the restored Gospel. They are both more than willing to live the commanments and serve in the church!

La familia Lopez - This is a family that doesn´t speak spanish, so I don´t know too much about them. We have a translater that helps us, but he doesn´t always tell us everything that they so, so we have to guess sometimes. From what I can tell, they are all very happy people. They are always excited for the missionaries to come and share a message.

This next family hasn´t been baptized, but I love them, so I´ll tell you a bit about them. La familia de Felipe has been awesome since we arrived. They live right near our house so we stop by there every night before we go home to check up on them and make sure they´re reading the scriptures and praying. They almost always are. I don´t know if I´ve told you about this Felipe character, but he´s incredible! He loves the Lord so much and he always is trying to do what is right, but he has had a problem with drinking. It´s so sad to go there after he´s been drinking because you can see how ashamed he is of it as soon as we step in the door. Today we´re going to set some goals with him to keep him from drinking and teach him about fasting. I think it will be a great blessing for him.

God is working with us here in Lamlaya, but Satan is working just as hard to keep the people from being able to keep their commitments. I never really realized that Satan was such a jerk. He´s starting to get on my nerves, but I´m not going to let that slow me down.

----------In my Agenda I write down things that I don´t want to forget in my letter to the world...these are some of those things: One day I saw a Monkey, a pig, and a chicken without turning my head...and I wasn´t at a zoo! I saw a chicken cross the road and tried to make a joke out of it, but it didn´t have any other intentions than to just get to the other side.........

WOW! Time flew!...I´ll write more next week! - Love you all, take care! Elder Denton

First Pictures in from Elder Denton II

Today was the first time he's sent pictures. Here are all of them, some dating back to the MTC. Most pictures are self explanatory.

MTC District

Elder Dearden and Elder Denton--MTC Companions


Classic MTC Picture

I think this is Elder Burrows, his new companion, getting off the plane with him at the airport in Puerto Cabezas, near Lamlaya.

Elder Denton's house. He says the power goes out there once/day.

7/19/10 - Letter to the World

Here are a few side-notes to Elder Denton's letter:
1. The stomach issues that he speaks of below lasted about 36 hours.

2. The investigators only have to attend church 1 time (and pass their interview) before they can be baptized.

3. His meeting with the "native" to learn the Miskutu language went well, but since he didn't really know how to TEACH the language, that was the biggest challenge.

4. As you see in the pictures, they took a plane ride to his area of about 1 hour. Even recently they bussed back and forth (a 20 hour ride) until a bus turned over with some missionaries in it because the roads are so bad. He heard that the mission president will be flying out for zone conferences.

5. They do pay for somebody to wash their clothes and feed them.

Good Evening World!!!

I wish I had more time to tell you about all the things that have happened this week, but time has escaped me! I´ll just touch on some of the most memorable things!

On Saturday I had my first baptism!!!...3 of them actually! Jorge Lee and his daughter Darci, along with their neighbor, Alfadelia Wilson! We showed up here in Lamlaya and they were just ready to hear the Gospel and change their lives! My companions confirmed them members of the church yesterday in Sacrament meeting! Jorge´s wife, Diana, and kids are planning on being baptized too, but we just need to teach them a few more things first!

There are still just sooo many people that are ready and willing to hear the Gospel. Are day is so full of teaching people that we don´t have time to go out and contact, which is a problem. We´ll need to start condensing our lessons a bit so we can get to more people in a day!

Question! - How many times does the average human poo a day??? - Not 17! I can tell you that much! Turns out that the people weren´t joking when they said that gringos had a rough time getting used to the food and water here. I thought I was going to die, but I´m all better now! Luckily that is in the past!

I have some pictures attached. I hope you like them! If you don´t, I´ll try to take better ones this week...well, I´ve gotta go out for Ice cream! Jealous? Don´t be...Rum and raisin ice cream is one of the more popular flavors here :S

Have a FANTASTIC week!!! Love you all

Elder Denton II

OH!!! And just in case you were wondering! I´m a MASTER at taking shower´s with a bucket of water!...freezing...cold...water!

7/12/10 - Letter to the World

Hey World!!!! What´s up? I´m having a great time here in Nicaragua! My companion is Elder Burrows and we´re serving in the Puerto Cabezas stake (it´s not quite a stake). We are in a BRAND NEW AREA called Lamlaya. It´s never been open to missionaries before and the field is whiter than white! All of the people are at least giving us the opportunity to teach them. We´ve been there since Wednesday and on Sunday we had 20 investigators at church (35 if you could all of the kids). One of our biggest challenges is that a great number of the people don´t speak spanish! They speak Miskitu. My comp and I are anxiously trying to learn it. It´s rough! So far I know:

Nakisma - How are you?
Ninum dia? - What´s your name
Painsa - Nice to meet you
Isabe - Bye

Pretty impressive, right? We´re going to have lessons with a native member a little later today. He wants to learn English, so it´s a nice trade-off. My time is already just about up, so I´m going to just right down some quick things that I never new before I came here:

Perosonpopos (a type of lizardy thing) make creepy chirping noises when you try to go to sleep.

If you´re ever in a bind, if you crinkle up a peice of paper and unfold, it works just as good as any toilet paper...Don´t judge me!

Mosquitos have a CRAZY fascination with Gringos. I have 35 bites on my left hand!...but they don´t itch, thank goodness!

Nicaraguans use a plastic money with little windows in them.

If you want to point to something, you don´t use your finger, you use your lips.

If you eat enough gallo pinto, you start to smell like gallo pinto.

Turtle doesn´t taste as bad as it sounds.

If any of that comes across as complaining to you, you´ve taken it the wrong way. I love it here and I´m enjoying all the different experiences. It´s incredible to see the different style of life and I hope to get closer to the people as I learn more about there culture.

Well, that´s the Nicaraguan Report. I hope that you are all have a fantastic week!

Love you all,

Elder Denton II

Someday I want to be a missionary...by Whitney Denton

Elder Denton's sister wrote this: "Song by David Blasucci with Donny Osmond. I think this is a cute song, so I made a video to it!"

Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGKaUYKATaY

You'll notice a couple pictures of Elder Cody Denton.  Hint:  He has a bottle in one of them.

Elder Cody Denton has arrived at the Nicaragua Managua North Mission!

Elder Denton was on the phone with us a few times yesterday. We got the 5am call that we discussed, then he called us from Texas and spoke to him for awhile...Whitney was able to speak with him this time. Fun to hear how much she misses him, and him her! We heard a few more stories about life in the MTC and how easy it was for a group of 18 missionaries to get off track during training with the Sister teacher who wasn't able to get control of the class very well. Apparently the Bro. teacher did a better job at keeping them focused, but he/they also learned to help themselves focus when they would notice that they were not doing what they were sent there to do.


He also tried calling us from Florida, but the phone connection was lousy and after three tries we thought we said our good-byes. However, at around 9:30 we got another call from him directly from Nicaragua. He was out to dinner with his Mission President and wife (and a couple of the Assistants, we assume. He didn't know who they were). The Pres. let him use his personal phone to give a quick call home and let us know that he had arrived safely.

So, on just one hour of sleep he left the MTC at about 3am and left SLC at 6am, had breakfast in Texas, lunch in Florida and then a nice dinner in Nicaragua. Now that's traveling! His P-days are on Monday.

5:00 am Wake up Call!

Elder Denton II has left the MTC and is on his way to Nicaragua.  We were blessed with an early phone call this morning and were able to speak with him for about 20 minutes.  He did have the chance to meet about 10 other missionaries who are also going to Nicaragua when they all had a chance to formally meet their Mission President and wife.  The other Elders/Sisters going to Nicaragua are flying out tomorrow to go to Guatamala for the next 6 weeks to practice contacting people with their newly acquired language and in a spanish speaking country to help them get used to the culture.  They are only allowed to speak spanish there.

Elder Denton II is the only one of the group that is on the expedited course, so he is traveling alone today.  He mentioned that the MTC was never quite on track with him that he was in this expedited course and they were trying to tell him he would be going to Guatamala too.  He explained what he was doing and he was happy to see that his ticket this morning was to Nicaragua!  He's got a little mexi-accent (no disrespect meant) like his brother, Elder Kyle Denton, who is in Argentina.  It's kind of funny.  He loved the MTC and everybody in his class, even as crowded as it was...he wouldn't have had it any other way.

We don't know when his p-day will be.  Because he is coming in at an odd time he doesn't know if he'll get hooked up with a companion, or just work in the office until the other's catch up.  So many unanswered questions and we'll just have to wait until he contacts us, or his mission president contacts us to let us know he has arrived.

6/29/10 - Letter to the World

Sent at about 8:00am today:
Do I need anything? - Line of authority please. Have I been able to get everything I need from the MTC store? Yeah, they're pretty stocked. I got a children's song book in spanish!!! Did I have to get more shots? NO, thank goodness! What times are my meals? 7:30/12:30/5:30 Did I get assigned to the advanced class? Yes, with all the natives....scary. Do you have a new off to Nicaragua date? I sure do! July 5. I have to be at travel services at 3 AM. Crazy, eh? How's the food? Hit and miss - some is fantastic, other sends you to the bathroom. What are the activities I do for exercise? Volleyball, soccer, baseball. The laundry room is just a giant laundry mat, you have to pay for soap, fabric softeners, and the machines, but it just deducts from the 6 dollars they put on our blue card every week. I'll write more thank you's today. I'll be back later to write a letter to the world. Love you all!!!!

Sent at around 9:40AM today:
Good Morning! How are all of you doing? I have a lot to say, and only 11 minutes to say it so here I go! Since the Provo temple is closed, we thought that we were going to be bused to the Timpanogus Temple to be able to do a session, but we were told on Sunday that it wasn't going to happen. They've done it before, but since there are so many people here at the beginning of the Summer, it's just not possible. We talk 100% Spanish in my classes which I really enjoy, but we have some native speakers that have been living in the USA for some time now so we have some pretty funny things said, like "A que hora vamos a Lunch". We all just crack up when stuff like that happens, I love it! I don't remember if I already mentioned it, but the first day that we were here we did an exercise with an "Investigator" as a full room of missionaries, I was really focused on the activity, but then I looked over and saw 2 Elders with their tags on and thought "Hey! The missionaries are here!!!" then I realized that we were all missionaries and felt a bit dumb. I got to meet my mission president and his wife on Friday! I already love them both! They are from Guatemala and I think I'm going to be there first missionary. I got my itinerary and as they thought I was going to be in the beginning spanish class (like the rest of the kids going to Nicaragua) I don't have anyone else going with me when I leave. So I'm the only one in my Travel Group. I have to be to travel services at 3 AM and then I'll leave SLC at 6. At 9:35 I get to Texas and I'll leave at 12:35. I get to Florida at 4:35 and leave to Nicaragua at 6:50. I should get there at 7:30. Sooo excited! I snailmailed my Pday schedule home so you can see what a Pday is like here. We got our cleaning inspections back and they told us that our room was Telestial :( - Two people in our room aren't the most organized people I know. I won't say who, but it's not me or Elder Alvarado! I heard something funny from the MTC President. He said that once the Beginning spanish kids leave to the field, they will speak a BEAUTIFUL..........C+ Spanish. That made me laugh! They are going to be launching a new Mormon..org on July 7th which is supposed to be really cool! I'm excited to see how that reaches out to different people around the world. I love being here! The spirit is so strong and the people are here because they have a desire to serve the Lord. In being here I have definately seen how God loves us sooo much and that we need to do all that we can to show our love for him. Love you all! Have a good week - Elder Denton........can I get my oil vile sent???

6/25/10 - A Hand Written Letter Home

Mom & Dad,
Thanks for all of the letters. (We have family/friends write letters before they leave to the MTC and stuff them into different nooks and crannies in their suitcase...we did this for Kyle too.  Whitney may be on to us when she leaves Sept 1st!)  It's fun to see all the other Elders jealous when they don't get anything.  When you want to send me blog stuff, plese do it through dearelder.com.  My 30 minutes isn't enough to read through everything.  Remember that I can receive dearelder.com stuff all week long, so don't be shy.  I'd like a dearelder.com on how mom is doing if you have some time.  I really do love it here and I am bless to be in my district.  I ran out of time on the computer today so you can add anything from this letter to that.  I am in the advanced Spanish class.  Tomorrow I will go to try and work out travel plans.  I've only met 1 other elder going to Nicaragua, but he's not in my zone or anything.  In my class we only speak Spanish.  There are a good amount of natives in my district which makes for great practice as they're great people.  We think we are the biggest district ever in the MTC.  We now have 18 students with 2 more Sisters wanting to join.  We are STUFFED in the classroom as it is.
Most of the Latinos in our class lived in South/Central America, but ended up here in the States, so we have quite a few Spanglish phrases.  Sister Mercader said a phrase in Spanish about going to lunch, but she said Lunch in english and the whole class started cracking up, so now we often make fun of her for it, but tactfully.
Funny story!  We did an intense exercise on the first day we got here.  We were given an investigator to convert and we were having a pretty hard time.  I looked over to the corner, saw some guys with tags, and thought <> - I felt pretty stupid, but I thought it was funny.
All the teachers here have a double identity.  They're a teacher and also a fake investigator.  They're great actors, really quite fantastic.  We study alot and we pray alot...I love it!
I saw Jordan Madsen today...Just saying!  Oops - Elder Madsen!

6/22/10 - Letter to the World

(I can't use the enter key) Hello World! - I absolutely love it here! The spirit is always here and it isn't hard to find. The teachers are amazing at what they do, and the influences and experiences of the other elders really helps. My companions name is Elder Dearden and he will be serving in chile after this MTC experience. He is a great guy who has a tooon of knowledge of everything it seems. I think he's a history major. We share are room with Elder Alvarado and Elder Gonzalez. Alvarado is from Florida and has the strongest testimony in the gospel that I've ever seen. He is a recent convert and it's not hard to see that he truly loves everything about this Gospel. He will serve in El Salvador. Elder Gonzalez is from California and he will be serving in Chile. He also has a great testimony and is learning a lot here, just like me. He hurt himself when we were playing soccer yesterday, and today has to use crutches. Times up. See you guys next week. - I'll tell you about the amazing spanish we use here, it's hilarious. Love you all and thanks for you support! The Gospel's true and God loves you! ~ Elder Cody Denton

No news from Elder Cody Denton yet.

We were hopeful to have a letter from Elder Denton on Saturday, but it didn't happen. Perhaps on Monday? Hopefully all of his friends and family will sign up to "Follow" his posts.

The Eagle Has Landed!

After a yummy lunch at Olive Garden (thanks Whitney!) we (Connie, Cody, Whitney, Chazz and I) headed to the MTC. After a quick stop at Walmart to do some last minute missionary shopping, we dropped the young man off. We laughed, we cried, we hugged and said good-bye! Then just as quickly as we got there, we left. We got about a mile away when we discovered that Elder Denton had left all of his paperwork sitting on the seat. Back up the hill we go and drop it off in the office. Hope it catches up to him!

Elder Cody Denton is Set Apart!

Last night at 9:00pm Elder Denton was set apart by Pres. David B. Tate. Other's in the circle were Pres. Shaw, Bishop Anderson, Uncle Stephen and Dad. He received a marvelous blessing and has been with a "companion" ever since.

We spent lots of time yesterday gathering clothing and other items, and hauling them downstairs to be either heat pressed with his own special logo, or embroidered with his name on it. Socks, underwear, baptismal clothing, suit and suit pants, shirts, towels, washcloths, backpack and laundry bag. It appears that the members will wash the missionary clothing in Nicaragua so we don't want anything getting mixed up with somebody else's stuff.

He passed his Spanish test!

At the suggestion of his brother, Elder Kyle Denton, Cody called the MTC to set up an evaluation test of how well he speaks Spanish. He got the call this morning and a Sister quizzed him on his Spanish. 5 minutes later she determined that he was doing very well and would advance to the 3 week class, putting him in Nicaragua about July 7th (as long as his visa papers are in by then!)! Nice job Cody!

Preparations

Cody spent time with his Mom on Saturday purchasing a new suit, which came with a couple pair of pants. They are getting hemmed up and hopefully he'll be sporting them to church on Sunday.
Last Monday Cody called Elder Kyle Denton's family that would allow the missionaries to use their phone on Mothers Day. Thank goodness he does speak Spanish...he made sure the number worked and spoke with the Grandmother of the house, who said he spoke Spanish very well, according to Kyle.
We came home from church yesterday and Cody made the call and we spoke to Kyle for about an hour. Kyle thinks that Cody will spend just 3 weeks in the MTC because he's so good with Spanish already. We have a number for Cody to call to see about taking a test (over the phone) that will help the MTC evaluate which class Cody should be assigned to. We'll see how that goes.

28 APR 2010 - Elder Cody Denton gets his mission call!

It's 7:55 am and I am already waiting for the mailman to arrive with Cody's mission call. I'm hoping he remains fast asleep on the couch so I can just go out and get it and hide it from him...just kidding!

We met at McDonalds at 4:30pm because that was the only place that everybody could be at the same time...it was a busy night for everyone (I had a court of honor, Connie needed to keep working because Women's conf starts tomorrow and she had to pick up Cyndi from the airport at 8:30pm and Chazz was working...at McDonalds!).

Lisa, Rebecca and Jaime were there. Nanette Davis came and so did Becky Jorgensen and her kids (and Kips kids, who played on the toys). Chantel came too, and she was excited because this was the first time she got to see somebody open their call live!

He is going to the Nicaragua, Managua North spanish speaking mission! What a relief that it was spanish speaking...he so wanted to go to that because he wants to become a spanish teacher and he speaks it all of the time via the internet to people in Columbia, Honduras, etc.

Click here to watch him open his letter from the Prophet. He enters the Provo MTC on June 16, 2010.