I am Elder Porter Severtson, an LDS Missionary serving in the Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission from January 2015 - January 2017. I can be emailed while on the mission at: porter.severtson@myldsmail.net
I am writing to inform you of the safe arrival of your son in the Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission. Attached here you will find a photograph of Elder Severtson with President and Sister Thurgood. His trainer will be ElderTorres and they are going to serve in the town of Florencio Varela, and in the area of El Parque. Their preparation day will be every Mondayand you can expect an email letter on that day. I am also including important information about mailing packages to your missionary. Please be sure to read and remember.
Thank you for sharing Elder Severtson with our mission. We appreciate your support and also the fact that you have a son who wants to serve. We will take good care of him! God bless you.
Sincerely,
Receiving Packages : Please advise friends and family:
Due to restrictions imposed by the Argentine government, we're having trouble receiving packages from other countries.
Because of this, America South Area Presidency South recommends that no packets are sent to their missionaries while they serve in Argentina. If packets are sent they will likely remain in the Customs Capital and never reach your destination.
We want to clarify that there's no malice in it, but to remove these packages from customs is an expensive and time consuming process for the church, missionaries and families. If appropriate measures are not taken, these problems can be avoided.
We would advise sending a personal debit or credit card for your missionary to access additional funds for personal use. Argentina has most the needed items for your missionary.
Porter sent a couple little emails today as they had an extra P-Day this week since he leaves Monday for Buenos Aires, Argentina! He's doing great, ready to leave after 6 weeks in the MTC! The next time we hear from him he'll be officially out in the mission field! He sent this picture of his MTC district as they are all leaving to different places...I'm sure he'll be missing them!
This is my last week in the MTC! I got my travel plans on Thursday which I attached a picture of. I'm going to be traveling for a long time! Here's what I did this week:
Wednesday: We did service in the morning. I got a package with my glasses, ties, and snacks. We also hosted new missionaries that arrived that day. We got a new district in our zone.
Thursday: We just had class all day, learning how to teach the Word of Wisdom, and learned passive voice in spanish.
Friday: We had class all day again... We talked about Christ-like attributes in a part of the class. We took the Christlike attributes assessment in Preach My Gospel. It's a really cool way to measure your spiritual progress.
Saturday: Mostly just class all day again. Our teachers focused their lessons on love because it was Valentine's day. We did service in the morning, and mostly just talked about teaching the law of chastity and the word of wisdom.
Sunday: I played the piano in Sacrament meeting. The theme for the day was recognizing the spirit. We were in charge of the district devotional that day so we had to teach a one hour lesson. We watched the movie "The Testaments" and we had Sunday Night Devotional.
Monday: We learned about the Subjunctive tense in Spanish. We also talked with members that speak spanish over skype.
Anyways, everything is going great here! I can't wait until Monday, I'll be leaving the MTC Monday morning and arriving in Argentina Tuesday morning. We heard a quote in the Sunday Night Devotional that said "When everything around you says you can't, believe in the part of you that says you can". When we took the Christ-like attributes test our teacher compared it to holding stained-glass up to the light. When you do that you can see all the mistakes in it. And that light is Christ. When we come unto Christ we find more ways we can improve ourselves, and when it becomes overwhelming, just believe in the part of you that says you can do it!
I can't believe it's already my 4th week at the MTC (or as some call it, the "Empty Sea", haha)
Tomorrow, we are getting a new district in our zone, 4 new Elders and 4 new Sisters arriving tomorrow! It'll be cool!
My Spanish is improving lots each week, I'm finding the I can read and write most things, and I'm starting to be able to talk much faster! I can usually understand mostly when people are talking, hopefully its not too different hearing Argentine accents. It's crazy how much progress we can make here.
Well, here's what happened this week:
After P-Day on Tuesday, that night we had a devotional. Brother and Sister Schwitzer talked. Sister Schwitzer talked about how we have one shot on this mission and we have to make it count. Brother Schwitzer talked about that if we are having trouble knowing if doctrine is true, we can know simply by living by it. As we live the commandments we will grow our testimony that it is true simply but the happiness we receive from living by it.
On Wednesday we had service in the morning, and we had class most of the day. During our last class we read Ether 2 about when they crossed the ocean. It's cool how you can compare that story to going on your mission or just life in general.
On Thursday we just had class all day, and practice teaching about the Doctrine of Christ.
On Friday we had more class. We did an activity where we taught 10 minute lessons through all the lessons up to baptism
Saturday had nice weather so we got to study outside during our study time.
So each week we write talks about a topic they give us, and on Sundays the choose two random people to give their talks in spanish. I got chosen and had to give my talk about the book of Mormon. Luckily, I always prepare a talk.
Monday we did a Skype meeting with a member in Argentina about the Holy Ghost, but it was kind of hard to understand because the sound quality was pretty low.
And then today we just went to the temple and are doing laundry right now.
Anyways, on Sunday night we had devotional about how the Lord doesn't call the qualified, but he qualifies those he calls. Never feel like you aren't good enough, because you will be when the Lord needs you, as long as you are willing to work hard and have faith. Just remember, any bad feelings such as feeling like you aren't good enough are always coming from the devil.
Anyways, Have a great week everyone! I can't wait until two more weeks I am going to Argentina!
I've had another great week here, it is amazing! I can't believe I'm already halfway done with the MTC. The days can get pretty repetitive here, but it's really fun! Mission life is going good, and I can't wait to go to Argentina! My Spanish is improving a lot, I feel like I can read and understand most of it, but speaking and hearing is still a lot harder...
The days are getting really repetitive hear, so I'm forgetting what I already told all of you. Also, I forgot my journal back in the classroom, and I usually use that to remember each day.
Anyways, from last Wednesday to Saturday we mostly just had class and taught our "investigators". We started a new thing where we are teaching members that volunteer here too! We get so much practice doing this, using only Spanish, I notice we get better like everytime! Also every Wednesday and Saturday morning we have service time where we do some cleaning.
I remember Thursday, Elder Glade in our district gave us these Mexican Chili Powder Candy sucker things. Me, Elder Bailey (One of my companions) and another Elder in our district drank all the extra powder and it was funny, we all had to spit it out. We got it on video, but it's too large to send. I'll see if I can eventually get it to you all!
I don't know if I mentioned yet, but me and Elder Milne were looking at our pedigree charts and found out we're like 5th cousins or something. Also, me and Elder Bridge have the same exact birthday so we say we're "twins", haha.
Sunday was good too. I played the piano in Sacrament meeting which went well. Every Sunday and Tuesday night there are devotionals which are great. Since it was fast sunday, we also had missionary conference which was cool too.
On Monday Elder Grider was sick, so just me and Elder Bailey had to do our teaching that day. We also had to walk to the store to buy him medicine, and I have a video of us I'll send to my dad later if it isn't too big. Also, one of the districts in our zone if leaving. Most already left, so I think we might get another district soon. Elder Bridge and Elder Shoemaker are our zone leaders now.
This morning we went to the temple as usual. We woke up at 4:15 to say goodbye to one of our old zone leaders, Elder Watson, before he left. The other zone leader already left too.
Anyways, last night we had a "noche de hogar" or "family night" thing with our district, and I played the piano at it. We talked about the Atonement too.
One thing I wanted to share about it was that Jesus suffered for ALL of our pains. Not just for our sins/guilt. Any bad thing that has happened to you, he has felt. Without him, we would have to live with every pain for the rest of our lives. And even more, there is no way we can repay him. When we are obedient and serving him, he just blesses us more, which is amazing!
Well, hopefully I remember my journal next time so I can write more details.
Let me know if anyone else wants added to my weekly email list!
I'm having a great time here and I love you all!
-Elder Severtson (or Severt Elderson, as I got my district calling me :) lol)
P.S. Here are just some more random videos we took this week:
One is at the Health Clinic waiting for Elder Grider, playing with these spinning toys they have there.
The other is walking to the store to buy him medicine.
I had to set them to the lowest quality to get them to send, and that limits them to 30 seconds too.
P.S.S. One more video of me practicing, "Come thou fount of every blessing" for a sacrament meeting musical number.
P.S.S.S. So I am almost out of time to write emails, but I'll answer your questions that you asked:
I feel like I'm ready, and I'm excited to go to Argentina. I haven't heard about my VISA yet, but usually they wait to give it to you with your travel plans a few days before leaving.
I have seen Christian Glasgow several times already.
I get the DearElder letters pretty quick. Usually just the day after you send them, but I think it just depends on the time you send it. Not all of them say the time sent anyways.
That's cool about your new calling, sounds exciting!
Great news about the Severtson Screens app, let me know how many downloads it gets. You can check on the itunesconnect website.
Anyways, like I said in my other email, its going really great here! I love it and I'm making lots of good friends! That's sad about the person who died, but cool that the guy wants to date Kami now :)
If you want to use my amazon account to buy stuff for me you can. I have like $40 and some more ties or candy or anything would be cool. If you can send me some popcorn, candy, ties, or anything else you think I'd want, with my glasses that would be cool :)
Well, we're just about out of time so we're gonna go on with our day now!
