Tuesday, May 29, 2012

¡Rayos! Todos los bautismos cayeron...(all the baptisms fell through))

Hello!

It has been quite a tough week this go-around. It has been hard to see all of these baptisms fall one by one. It seems like last week was when we had about 9 people prepared for baptism that week. It is crazy how things can change so fast. The Montier family does not want us anymore, Coqui is having a hard time and being stubborn, Arón has an atheist dad who won´t let us baptize his son, Gisel is not married to th father of her children and he will be in Chile for like another month so we can´do anything about it, Victor is still in jail and it looks like we can´t do too much about it, Erica all of the sudden got...well let´s just say that she definitely is not keeping the law of chastity with her boyfriend, and Ofelia confessed to us that she learned a bit of black magic while she was in the US and since she doesn´t have much of an income now, she uses it a bit to "help the neighbors", so she has to stop doing that stuff before she can get baptized. It doesn´t look too hopeful this transfer for any baptisms unless some cool miracle happens this week. I am hoping that your prayers will help us out a bit so that we can do something big this week.

It was actually a really cool experience with the familia Zapata(the one with the atheist dad). We had a mañana de hogar which is basically just a family night that we do in the morning sometimes. We made it up. We went to their house and got to know them because they have a 9 year old son, Arón, who wants to get baptized. After watching the John Tanner movie(really good, I recommend that everyone watches it for a family night or something) we had a huge, long talk with the dad telling us about his atheism. We taught him a lot and read with him in some scriptures to prove the point that God exists because his argument had no reason and he had felt the love of God and had faith when he was a kid when he got baptized. He was finally able to humble himself and listen when his wife joined in and bore her amazing testimony of the Gospel and of faith in her life. They both committed to start reading and praying as a family. Some of the biggest miracles that I have seen in the mission are the times when we walk into a house and the people have very hard feelings against the church or just do not want to hear anything. Then we start talking and teaching and giving the spirit some time to touch their hearts. By the end, they are already committing to make the changes in their lives to near themselves to Christ. That is when we, as missionaries, can know that we are fulfilling our purpose.

Thanks for the recipes ma, don´t worry about the donut one. We were just really craving maple donuts at that time. That sounds great for my birthday to just put some money in if ya want. I can´t really think of anything else that I would really like to have except one of the missionary portuguese learning guides and perhaps a portuguese book of mormon. ha. I heard you can get them on deseretbook.com. But it´s not a need, just a want. ha ha. I actually have a few things that I really want to send home in a package or somethin. I am going to see if I can do that somehow and let ya know.
Next week we are going to get transfers. Do you think I will stay or go? No one knows. I hope I stay.

That is crazy that Josh is almost home already. I am going to be the only kid on that side of the family out on the mission until Cade or Dillon leaves.

Don´t worry about me out here. The Lord is definitely watching over us always and I ask every day that he watches over you.

Un Abrazo,
Elder Larisch
La iglesia es verdadera

Monday, May 21, 2012

¡Feliz Día de la Madre!...un poco tarde...(Happy Mother's Day ... a little late ...)

Hola!

I had a great time chatting with ya yesterday! It was awesome to see all of your faces and stuff. You all look great and happy. Boogs shouldn´t be so camera shy. She kept looking up and away when she was talking to me. You can´t do that when you go on dates. Just ask loobert, she knows all about that now. I don´t know if I had ever felt so emotionally tired after last night. Whenever I get to talk to ya like that, it just drains me for some reason. Good times though!

I don´t know if there is too much to say this go-around because I basically let you in on everything last night.

Ofelia is doing great, still hasn´t smoked one cigarillo yet since Friday when we robbed her last box with her permission. Ha. She has had a very hard life and we have set some amazing helpful goals for her. There are so many people that we find that have had sudden close family member deaths in the family for some reason. The plan of salvation is very needed here in these parts. Erica and Gisel did not show up at church because Erica was at her novio´s house(ugh...chastity) and Gisel didn´t come back in time from her son´s house. We have definitely gone through a bunch of trials of faith this week. Just about everything is going wrong. It is definitely evidence of the devil´s "impetuosos vientos" in the life of a missionary, if I may say quoting scripture.

For P-day today we went to a mall place called las palmares(palm trees) and I bought a couple books to learn Portuguese and German. I am super stoked. Don´t worry, I won´t distract myself during proselyting time, just on P-days. Ha ha. We also went to Burger King and splurged a bit(I don´t know what that word really means, but I used it in a way that would mean "pig out"). We still have a bit of time so we are going to go and finish some letters that we still have to write. I am going to send off 11 letters today. Yeah, I know it´s a ton!

Grandma, we were in the offices this week and one of the elders that works in the office showed us something interesting. In my file thing, it turns out that I was actually supposed to be trained and be comps with E´ Larson in a whole different area. I guess Presidente Ávila must have received instant revelation that I was supposed to go somewhere else with someone else... Interesting eh?

Mom, some things that you could send me and could be helpful is some US mail stamps. It costs like 10 pesos to send off each letter in normal post offices here. The mission offices have a system where you can just put a US stamp on it and send it to SLC and they distribute it there. Much cheaper! Thanks mom! Love ya!

I forgot the poem at the apartment so I will maybe post it next week. Sorry mom. I love ya!

Love you all very much,

Elder Larisch

¡La Iglesia es Verdadera!



Sunday, May 20, 2012

Happy Mother's Day a week late

I am simply in love with Elder Deven Larisch!  We were able to skype with him today and it was heaven seeing his face and hearing his voice again!!  He bore his testimony in Spanish and you could feel the love he has for his Savior! He was so happy telling us stories about his mission.  You could see how serving has brought much happiness into his life!!  We were able to talk to his Bishops father and he told us what a great missionary Deven was.  It was also good to talk to his companion, Elder Wixom.  He ended his call with a Mothers Day poem that he wrote and my tears started...I am so proud of him and the person he is becoming!!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

¡Bauticemos un hombre en la cárcel! (Let's baptize a man in the jail!)

Hey there, well I don´t have a long time to write this time. I thought I would just enchant you all with my pictures. I hope you are all enjoying them.

The investigators are doing really good. We have had a lot of success showing the movie of the restoration in the homes this week. We had two at church: Ofelia and Gisel. Erica supposedly goes to her boyfriends house every weekend in Rivadavia(like 45 minutes away) so we are going to get her to come to church this sunday. To be baptized, it is normal that investigators have at least 2 attendances at church so maybe we can baptize Ofelia this Saturday, Erica on Sunday, and Gisel on the next Saturday. Hopefully we don´t have to work with some chastity problems with Erica and her BF. We found out that Ofelia has a small smoking problem so we are now helping her out with that so she can get baptized ASAP. Gisel is a new investigator that we found with the Martinez family(who is the family that EstefanÍa Sosa belongs to. Estefanía married Hermana Martinez´s son who is in jail. His name is Victor. Victor is super ready for baptism according to our bishop who has been visiting him occasionally in jail. We are trying to get permission to baptize him in the jail somehow without attendances at church. Apparently he is in jail because he killed someone accidentally while defending himself(according to his mom). Yep...fun stuff. We´ll see how that goes this week.

For P day today we were going to go to another Bodega that is actually functioning but that plan fell and we ended up going to a big store like Walmart called Jumbo that had a bunch of NorthAmerican stuff there. I got some stuff including tobasco sauce...

One thing that would be sweet if you could send me in the next package(if you are just casually making a list) would be one or a few flash drives so that I can store backup pictures and songs and documents and stuff. They are kind of expensive here. Thanks love ya.

I have like 9 letters in total to mail off today. Hopefully I´ll get around to it.

It was fun talkin to dad pretty casually on Friday. Lookin forward to this sunday. Call me in the afternoon that day to get in contact so we can work somethin out mmk?

Love you all.

Con Cariño,

Elder Deven Larisch

¡La Iglesia es verdadera!











Monday, May 7, 2012

¿Ocho meses?.....¿ya? (8 months)

Wow, thanks for making me notice that I am already to the 1/3 mark in the mission. That is pretty crazy and it makes me just want to make the best of the small time that I have left. There is still soooo much to do here!

We had a pretty fun week. We are setting new goals that we have never even thought of as we are now reaching new heights. I hope everyone had a good Cinco de Mayo. We tried to enjoy it the best we could just like all of the other holidays ya know? Growin moustaches and cooking taco soup. Mothers day is coming up. Getting ready to Skype the fam next week. I can´t believe it´s already time again. Are you sure you want to hear my voice again? Maybe you will get to talk to my bishop because we will probably do the Skype at his house. He speaks english.

During our weekly planning on Thursday, we made a list of 18 people that we thought could come to church on sunday. We did all we could on our part and ended up getting one there. Ofelia will hopefully be getting baptized this Sunday after she attends church one more time. Erica De La Fuente is also another that may get baptized then also. She has been attending seminary every day this past week. We just haven´t been able to get in touch with her. She is from a part-member family with a few recent converts. As I usually say, we are working with a lot of people right now, but it is just the commitment part that is the hardest for them.

I have a couple interesting stories...but time does not grow on trees so you will have to come to me when I get back from home and have me open my journal. Ha. Ask me about the crazy in search for a father for her children Hiru Krishna God worshipper. Good stuff.

Oh yeah, and one awesome thing that is just great is that Chiquita, one of our convert baptisms here saw that my shoes were in not very good shape. The ones that grandpa gave me were falling apart on the bottom because they are flat and I have been walking on too many rocks. She surprised us one day with a way nice pair of leather shoes for both of us! She is one of the best people I have ever met and deserves a lot of gratitude. She is also going to fix the soles of my other nice shoes and pay for half of it. I can´t turn her down or else she will feel bad because she just likes to give all she has to the church.

In a few studies this week I have used my study time to study gratitude. Especially so that I can find ways to show my gratitude for selfless people that dedicate their lives to the Lord and know that their worldly possesions aren´t anything compared to what God has in store for us if we obey his commandments and keep our sacred covenants as all the members of the church have made.

I definitely know that I owe tons of gratitude to my family for all that they have done to help me get here. I know that there is no other way in the world to obtain a lot of the knowledge and go through some of the experiences that I have passed by so far here except by accepting being called to be a servant of the Lord. It is amazing to see what things He has in store for those who have desires and are called to the work. But about the gratitude thing, I wish there was like a button here on email that would make this email more meaningful or make my words more poetic or something. Maybe I´ll write a poem next time...ha. But for now, thanks for all that you have done for me fam!

Remember to have a heart filled with Gratitude(D&C 78:19)

Con un amor indescriptible,

Elder Larisch
La Iglesia es verdadera
fun argentine wall art...one of my faves
Horizon
Jalepeño
My Bishop
Hermano Sanchez with a picture of his dad that looks just like him(but in the picture he is 19! Crazy!)
Cinco de Mayo Taco Soup(not an Argentine Holiday)

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Tercer Traslado Juntos (Third Transfer Together)

How is everything going?

This was a fun week that passed by. I have actually had a few sick problems which I will explain more down lower. I am actually very excited for another transfer in this area. I think you are definitely right mom, that I am getting this opportunity for a reason. I think that God knows something that we don´t know...once again. Ha.

We have had some cool experiences with investigators this week. On Tuesday I felt like we needed to go stop by one of our older investigator´s houses who we haven´t really worked with a bunch named Mafalda. We got there and I remembered some good council from our leaders saying that we should invite all in the home to hear our message...and good thing I did. By the end of the lesson, the only person that wasn´t interested was the actual investigator. We had a really good lesson with her two old lady sisters that live there with her. Fani, who has had some really crazy experiences including dying and seeing a lot of amazing things and having interesting dreams that she wants us to interpret. Ofelia, has a couple sons that live in Utah and Spain that are members of the church and is very interested. How lucky is that? We also had a pretty good activity de la obra misional this week. We didn´t have too good of a show, but we did get a couple new investigators out of it from part member families. Erika De La Fuente should be pretty good. She has been taught in the past but she felt the spirit pretty strong that night. We played ping pong and watched The Other Side of Heaven(with permission from Presidente Ävila), then we gave a little missionary work thought at the end and had a couple people bear their testimonies. Good stuff!

As I noted earlier, yes I have been sick this week. Earlier, like Wednesday night, I was up vomiting and having diarreah all night! I was super dehydrated and thought I was going to pass out and wake up the next morning on the bathroom floor. But the story doesn´t go that way, don´t worry mom, I finally gained the strength to ask my comp for a blessing. After that I was able to go lay in bed more tranquilly. The mission nurse put me on a special diet and I couldn´t go out and proselyte the next day...It was one of the longest days of my life... Well, that wore off recently and now I have picked up a pretty bad cold. I just love waking up to snot all over my face...ha ha.

Even though I am a bit sick, I didn´t want to hold anyone back so I didn´t say no to going out and enjoying ourselves this pday. We went to a Persa this morning(like a huge fleamarket/discounts everywhere place, that are pretty illegal in the states) and bought a few winter necesities like a hat, and I got a cool long sleeve River shirt(one of the main fútbol teams of Argentina) and a couple other goods. Enjoyed a good Godzilla burger at Kingo, then we went to Cerro de la Gloría, which is one of the biggest tourist sites in Mendoza. It is translated to be The Hill of Glory for all those in need of the translation...ha. It was a short, steep hike to a bunch of little statues and a big statue(that is found on the $5 peso bill). It was a great time! Memories to last a lifetime.

All of the sudden, this week it has just started getting SUPER cold! We tried having a campfire in our little courtyard area in the back of our pench to roast some chicken parts that some other Elder got from a member. The fire didn´t work out so well so we will have to find other means of cooking them. Probably would be good in a soup. I bet it is just a beautiful spring over yonder in the states. The birds here got caught by surprise, some of them froze, and some of them got a good start migrating back up north. It is weird to say that backwards. What if they still do go south? Wouldn´t they hit warm weather after passing Antartica?

I am not sure what time I will be calling you the week after mothers day yet. Actually this time I am going to be able to Skype home. So prepare for that! Its gonna be weird seeing and talking to everyone. I will let you next week on this topic.

That always makes me happy to hear that Mallory prays for me a lot and speaks of me well to her friends at school. Ha ha. She is so cute.
Tell everyone hi for me back at home. Love you all.

Hold the Spiritual thought for next week, it will be twice as good...ha.

Con todo el amor que puedo dar,

Elder Deven Larisch

La iglesia es verdadera
 District Hermanas
Leotardo w/suetér....our dogs
Sammy w/suetér