Hello Everyone! How are you all doing?

I have had a good week here in the MTC. We are getting ready to leave, so we are doing a lot of Spanish review. We had our last TRC (refer to older posts if you don't know what that is) yesterday. I will be leaving the MTC late next Monday morning, so less than a week! I can't believe that I am pretty much done with the MTC. It seems like going to the field is going to be a much bigger step than entering the MTC. After all, I have still been living in my hometown for the last two months. Only when I am on the other side of the equator will it seem like I am really gone. I am so grateful for all of the letters, notes and packages I have received from all of you. Once I leave, communication will probably be slower, but I hope it doesn't stop. I am fairly certain that through DearElder.com and the Church's Pouch Mail Service, it won't be too hard to send letters. I will request for instructions on that to be posted.

One thing that I don't think I have mentioned in any of these emails is about Sacrament Talks on Sundays. Every week, we are instructed to prepare a 3-5 minute talk in Spanish to give in Sacrament meeting. Then, that morning, our Branch President will randomly choose 2-3 missionaries to give theirs. I was called on last Sunday to give mine, which was on Diligence and following the Prophet. I talked about Helaman, and his son Nephi, and the teachings they gave on diligence. It was a great experience to create the talk and give it all in Spanish. We are not allowed to speak English while we are up there. That same day, I had the opportunity to bless the sacrament in Spanish, which was awesome as well. I am to the point where I can understand most of what I read, and most of what non-native speakers say. I am so excited to get down to Argentina and be stuck in a flood of Spanish that will force me to grow and to speak. I think that that is one of the secrets of learning a language, to actually speak it! We have been told stories of people who study in college for 4 years to learn a language, but they never get it because they only speak it inside that class. Think of how we all learned English when we were little. It wasn't by studying books or listening to tapes. It was by hearing it, and trying to speak it.

I have a couple of items for specific people.

John, I met a trainer here at the gym in the MTC named Geoff Loomis? Does that sound familiar? He told me he lived in Michigan with you until he was about 10. Dave and Marilyn, you might remember him too. He has been living in Orem since then. I can't remember where he served his mission.

Mark, did I see you fly over the MTC in your plane last week? There was a plane that flew by really low, and looked like the kind you fly. Just thought I'd ask.

Shered, I was walking down the hall in my classroom building the other day and as I came around a corner I heard this "And Shared (Shered) wounded Coriantumr in his thigh, insomuch that he could not fight for two years" (or something close to that.) I always love hearing that story in Ether in the Book of Mormon because it reminds me of you. Thanks for being my big brother. I love you!

To members of the Summit Ward, I love you all so much and greatly appreciate all the different kinds of support I have received and continue to receive from you. That includes but is not limited to, the Nelson Family, the Lee Family, the Harris Family, the Andrews Family, the Montes Family, the Selk Family, the Aldous Family, the Peterson Family, and the Prina family. Thank you all so much. If I forgot to mention your name, I'm so sorry. It's probably because I am rushed writing this, and I have received so much support it’s hard to keep track of. But to EVERY person in the Summit ward, I love you and I am grateful for your example. If any of you Young Men read this, I think about you guys all the time, and am so excited for the time when you all will get to serve your missions. Listen to all of your leaders, including the Bishopric. They all know way more than us, and only want the best for us.

Lane and Vay, I hope you read this too. I have been thinking about you lately, and I want you both to know that I love you so much and I am so grateful for you. Trevor, you too. I'm not sure if Derek get's a copy of these but if he does: Derek, It is such a cool experience to be serving at the same time as you. You are getting to the end, just as I'm starting, but I know that we are both doing the work of the Lord. I am so grateful for you example to me.

Tom and Julie, I feel the same cool connection with you as well. To get to serve a mission at the same time as you is a once in a life-time experience. Thank you both for your love, example, and support.

As far as logistics go, I will be leaving Monday morning from the MTC at 11:30. My flight leaves at 2:50 from Salt Lake, and we go first to Dallas/Fortworth. Then from there, we fly about 11 hours and 20 minutes to Buenos Aires. We will get there about 7:45 local time (4:45 Mountain Time). So we should get there just in time to start the day!

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Elder Scot Daniel Stobbe Jr

Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission

Another one

So, it's possible that we will get our flight plans either today or tomorrow. We will know at lunch, when we get our first mail, and I will let you know as soon as I can (Maybe on Tuesday, even though you may get something directly from the Church as I mentioned before.)

Also, could you check the balance of our checking account? The one that I use? I fear I may have drained it. I went to by Laundry Soap on tuesday and it got declined. So I used a little bit of that $100 to do it. I only needed about $2.50.

Can you tell Grandma and Grandpa Stobbe that I got their letter through DearElder, but they put my MTC as the Argentina MTC. haha. So it didn't get here for a while.

I don't know if I have already mentioned this, but could you do some research on the Pouch Mail system of the Church? And if you find that it will be the best way to send letters to me, have Sierra post on the blog how to do it? I know that there is some kind of system in place, but I have no idea how it works.

It sounds like you are keeping busy. Hopefully that means income. We were talking in class the other day about how we all have seen blessing given to our families because we are out here serving. One of the Hermanas in our district just had her sister deliver the first grandchild/niece in their family, and everything went way smooth for the Mom, and the Baby. It's cool to see the good things that happen because of this work. (Let's not think about Ethan's tooth!)

So grandpa told me about Gordan Hayword (sp?) getting drafted by the Jazz, and I have heard some rumors about the NBA (Lebron in Miami?). I was wondering if you could send me just a simple rundown of the major trades/changes that have gone on. And so you don't get worried about distracting me, I will explain to you how I feel, and maybe you can pass this on to the rest of the family.

When I hear stories and get letters from all of you, I love it. I love when the sisters tell me all about their lives and all the cute things their kids do. It doesn't take me very long to read, and its just a breath of freshair. It doesn't distract me from the work, but gives me more desire to work harder, knowing that everything is good at home, and that the kids are still as cute as ever, and will be waiting cutely (not sure if that's a word) for me when I get home. And things like iPhone news and Basketball news are similar. It takes me just a few minutes to read, and doesn't really distract me. It's nice to keep in touch with Babylon just so I'm not completely enclosed in a bubble hear. And honestly, I like hearing about basketball and technology, because that's part of who I am. So don't hesitate to send me stories like that, and tell the girls to keep sending me stories about their families. I love all of them so much.

On the other hand, I look at how busy I am, and I know that if we didn't have time specifically set out for writing home, I might not ever do it. There is just so much to do here. But I do like writing home. It's cool to kind of talk to you twice a week.

Yesterday, we go to be Host Missionaries. I don't know if you remember when you dropped me off how I had a missionary take me away from you : ) Well we go to do that today. We take the new missionaries around campus and help them get their nametag and keys and such, show them where their residence is, and show them where their classroom is. It was really fun to be the first person they talked to after leaving their families. And it was interesting to see the different reactions of missionaries and their family. Some would stay hugging and crying for minutes, and finally tear themselves apart and depart with wet, red eyes. Others would give a quick hug and goodbye to their parents and just go.

We got over 450 new missionaries yesterday. We now have 5 districts in our Zone. For the first few weeks I was here we only had 3. It makes laundry more crowded, but I love that the Church has so many of us willing to come and serve. Well, my time is almost up today. If you could answer those questions, it would be much appreciated. Tell everyone who asks about me that I say hi. To them specifically. I can't think of all of them, but I want to tell all of them Hi. Tell Bishop Nelson everything is going great I am so thankful for his help, counsel, guidance, and friendship.

If you have any other stories you want to tell me, feel free to share 'em.

I love you so much! Sorry there isn't really anything specific for Mom in here. Mom, I love you too, so much it's ridiculous.

Have a great weekend!

Sorry Im posting this so late...

Hello Everyone!

It has been another great week in the MTC. I have learned lot's of Spanish, taught the 2nd Lesson in Spanish at the TRC, and a few other times, and had some good spiritual experiences.

Today I got to go clean at the Temple with my district, and I saw a bunch of Dad's friends. It was cool to at least some people I know from outside the MTC. We cleaned the grout in between the tile in the entryway with big toothbrush looking things. The work itself wasn't very fun, but it was great to get to go inside. It should open back up in time for me to go at least once more before I leave which is about two weeks now!

I started about two weeks ago to read the Book of Mormon over from the beginning. My purpose was to go through fairly quickly to get an overall picture of the story, and how events tied together. I finished on Sunday night, and that night took up Moroni on his promise, and prayed again to Heavenly Father to ask if the book is true. I received an answer, which was really a confirmation of something I already believed, that the Book of Mormon is in fact true. This was a good reminder for me, so that I can go down to Argentina and preach from this book. I wish I could preach like the early missionaries of the Church, who stood on a box and preached the Gospel to the people walking by on the street. There are so many good stories and Gospel Principles, even the Fulness of the Everlasting Gospel it that book, and I wish everyone would just read it and pray about it.

I'm sorry this one is kind of short, but I always spend too much time thinking about what to write.

Thank you everyone for your testimonies the copies of "El Libro de Mormón". Those will be a huge help.

Everything is going good here, and I will try to give you more of an update next week. It is a pain with only 30 minutes. Hopefully in the field I will have an hour, so that will be nice.

I love you all and am so grateful for all the packages I get!

Talk to you next week!

--

Elder Scot Daniel Stobbe Jr

Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission

random

Ok, so I decided I will just tell you a bunch of random things that may be interesting since you guys were in the MTC at one point (LTM).

I live in building 12M, which is the in the NorthWest corner of campus. My classroom is in 18M (It's the building attached to the gym) which is on the SouthEast corner of campus. I live on the first floor in room 101. Our Zone surrounds the vending machines, so there are always all manner of missionaries in our hallway. It's not bad, unless someone burns there food. Then it smells just terrible. Especially burnt popcorn.

Right now, one of my companions (Elder Davis) may have either Bronchitis or Pneumonia (sp?), so we get to ride the Elevator instead of going up 4 floors using the stairs. The stairs keep us in shape (kind of), but it's nice to have a break and use the elevators.

So, I never read all the way through the Book of Mormon fast before I came, so I'm doing it now. I can't go quite as fast as I could have at home, but I am still making progress. I started last Tuesday night, and I am now in Alma Chapter 12. My goal is to finish by the end of the month. I can already see the benefit it has as far as piecing the stories together and knowing where to find certain scriptures. I am absolutely loving it! Especially understanding which Alma, Nephi, or Moroni is doing what.

My district is now the oldest in our zone. I don't think I mentioned that in my last email. The last of the other oldest zone left yesterday morning. We are now down below three weeks left in the MTC, and I am getting quite excited to get to Argentina. Every day I have little experience that make me just want to get down there and start teaching the people.

The gym is closed until after we leave because they are putting the bleachers back in that they were fixing. So I won't be playing any basketball for a while. I'm probably going to run for gym to get in a little bettter shape.

One of the Elders in my district is sending a list of addresses to his parents, so they can get in touch with all of the other Elders Parents. I just gave them your email address, because that seemed a safer bet than a physical address. There last name is Martindale. They are from Price, but don't know Grandma Liebhardt. So you might be hearing from them soon.

Did you ever get my package from PostMart? Have you had any friend requests on FaceBook from anyone named Israel Rosales or Tyler Aston? Those are my teachers. You can go add them if you want, and ask them questions that you would like to know from a different perspective.

My time is up! Sorry.

I love you!

--
Elder Scot Daniel Stobbe Jr
Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission

Ok, I can't believe this, as of tomorrow, I will have been on my mission 1 transfers worth of time! It may not seem like a lot to some of you, but for me that is crazy!

This last week has been one that was full of the Spirit, and Spiritual Experiences. I would like to share a couple of them with you. The first is cool in general, and the second is more personal.

On Sunday, we had a fireside with a woman named Jenny Oaks Baker. She is the daughter of Dallin H. Oaks, and a nationally renowned violinist. She did a presentation where she would talk to us about her life, and share stories of Faith and other Gospel principles, and then play a song that corresponded with that experience. This was awesome for two reasons. One, she had amazing insights to her stories, and brought the Spirit with just her speaking, and Two, when she would play songs on the Violin, it would so strongly reinforce the Spirit that I could hardly contain myself. Every time she ended I wanted to stand up and cheer because I was so happy and feeling so great! Not only was her music beautiful, she is the best violinist I have ever seen perform. I haven't seen many, and don't know too much, but I could tell she was amazing. And she sounded amazing. She did this thing where she played two strings at a time, and was managing different notes and both strings. It was quite impressive, and I didn't even know you could do that with a violin. All in all, it was a great experience. Dallin H. Oaks was there as well to watch his daughter.

The second experience happened yesterday in the T.R.C. If any of you don't know, that is where we go to practice teaching "Mock Investigators" All are members of the Church and most are converts, so they know the other side of things. We have been teaching in Spanish the last two weeks, which has been a lot of fun. Yesterday we were teaching a Sister named Sister Carrasco. It didn't start out too well when one of the first things she did was "rag" on Utah. She is from California and doesn't really like it here. So at first, I was kind of upset, because I love Utah. We have a task to do every time before we teach the lesson that helps our Spanish vocabulary, like shopping in a department store, eating at a restaurant, riding a bus, that kind of thing. Well we got talking to her, and she was giving us pointers in both the Teaching and the Language, and we never really ended up doing our task. In addition, we are supposed to take a break between the Task and the Lesson, but we just talked right through that. Why? Because this Sister was amazing and had so many good stories, and had the Spirit so strong with her. These volunteers take this very seriously because they know how important our work is. So after awhile, we decided to just start the Lesson. This week is the 1st one in Spanish. So we started, and immediately, we could all feel the Spirit so strong. As we continued, my companions and I struggled with the language. All three of us were forgetting vocab, how to conjugate, and even what we wanted to say in English. But the Spirit was still there. For this lesson, it was my opportunity to quote the 1st Vision. I love when I get to do this in Spanish. As I was quoting it, I was hit with a ridiculously strong impression that what I was saying was without a doubt 100% Truth. And I was saying it in Spanish! It is so cool to me, that I would be assured of truths through a different language. The thought in my head wasn't "this is true", but rather "esta es verdadera" And I could tell that this Sister could feel the Spirit with us. This is the principle I want to emphasize. We were speaking only in Spanish. She was speaking so fast sometimes we couldn't understand. But we could still feel the Spirit. It doesn't matter what we are saying with our lips, but what we are feeling with our hearts. It was a huge testimony builder to me that even though I won't have the Language down when I get to Argentina, and even though I may not be the best teacher yet, as long as I have the Spirit with me, I can help the people of Argentina come unto Christ.

I am out of time for today, but I wanted to share those experiences with you.

I love all of you, and pray for our family and friends every day.

Thank you all for the support and love you give me. It means more than you know.

--

Elder Scot Daniel Stobbe Jr

Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission

Pictures!!!

Handsome little devil. haha

Week...I'm not sure in the MTC

Hello Everyone!

This is coming a little bit late because the computers were having problems on Tuesday. This may be a little disjointed as a result.

In the past few weeks I have seen a couple more people I know here at the MTC. I have been able to see Willy quite a bit. His classroom is one floor above mine, and we eat meals right next to each other in the Cafeteria. I also saw Spencer Tipa, which was way cool, because I had no idea he was going to serve a mission. He is going to the California Fresno Mission. For those of you who care, I have seen Josh Jensen, Scott Wilcox, and a few other people from Timpview who's names I don't know.

On July 3, we had a really cool presentation about the Restoration of the Church. It started with the Reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin and went through the American Founding Fathers, up to Joseph Smith. It was all about how the world was prepared so that the True Church could be restored. Those reformers were amazing men. Most of them gave their lives in order to make the Bible available to the world. Without that, the young Joseph Smith would never have read James 1:5 and would never have gone to a grove of trees to ask of God. It was great to see how it was all connected, and the Lord truly does know the end from the beginning. After that show, we got to go out and see the last of the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire.

On Sunday night, we had a fireside with one of the District Presidents of the MTC (The organization goes: MTC Presidency, then the MTC is broken up into about 5 districts. In each of those districts are Zones. They call them zones for the Missionaries, but Branches for Sundays and Sacrament and such. Then there are the smallest groups: Districts. Hopefully that makes sense.) It was all about the amazing feat of translating the Book of Mormon. He talked about all the things Joseph had to accomplish, and how impossible it would have been without Divine help. If you are interested, you should search online for the detailed "statistics" of the translation of the Book of Mormon. Keep in mind that none of this matters without a true testimony of the Book, but it's still fun to see.

Then, on Tuesday we had a devotional with an Emeritus General Authority named Robert K. Dellenbach. It was all about how exciting missionary work is, and just a great motivator to work harder. I know that I am even more enthused about this work now.

And yesterday, we watched an older talk from David A. Bednar that was given at the MTC last spring. If you can find it online somehow, it is about knowing when you are feeling the Spirit and when you are just thinking thoughts on your own. His answer was simple: "Quit worryin' about it. Just be a good boy. Be a good girl. Keep your covenants, and follow the commandments. Act on every good thought you have, and it will be ok. You don't need to know in the Moment that you are feeling the Spirit. You may realize that it was later, or you may not. But just quit worryin' about and be good."

I love everyone, and hope everyone is doing good. I sent a package with my voice recorder that has a little message for a lot of people. Hopefully you can each get a chance to hear it.

Thanks for all the packages, letters and notes.

Sorry this is short, I never have enough time to write.

If you have any questions, just go to DearElder.com and send em' to me.

I would love more pictures of the Kids, too!

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Elder Scot Daniel Stobbe Jr

Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission