Monday, June 25, 2012

Ofelia se viste en blanca (Ofelia dresses up in white)




Yellow!!
Well, I don´t know if you skipped to the pictures that are attached to this but I´ve got some of the best news in a while!
OFELIA GOT BAPTIZED!!!
Yep, it is all just a great story. We have been working with her for way too long because she could not realize how ready she was to get baptized. We have been visiting her a lot and having just bomb lessons with her and we would talk about her will to be baptized every time and it was just a different doubt or some other reason that just didn´t really have much to do with what it says in the scriptures about the prerequisites for baptism. Our bishop even dropped the cane(bajar la caña: a phrase here meaning to throw it down on someone who is not doing something right, action usually done by leaders of the mission) on us a bit because he would see her on the progress report each week and nothing changes. We had a spiritual impression to have a charla(lesson) with member with one of our converts in their house, Hna. Chiquita, and we had amazing results! We went in to this lesson kind of trying to make it a charla franca, meaning that we were going to tell her that she has to get baptized or we are going to drop her for a while so we can take the Gospel to many others that are waiting for it. But surely we did it with words of love. With that, a few scriptures of encouragement in the book of Jacob, and an amazing testimony from Chiquita(which was one of the coolest things to watch because she relates to Ofelia a bit with her past because she spent a good time in the Espiritista church as well as many other churches and was able to testify of the cleaning power of baptism of water and of the holy ghost), we put it in front of her for the last time except we didn´t even ask it in question form. Ha. The spirit was so strong in that house that myy comp was like "Ofelia, we are going to come do a blessing on your house tomorrow night with one of our leaders and he is going to do a quick interview and we are going to have you try on some clothes and you are going to be baptized Saturday night at 18:30." Right after that Chiquita ran to her room and grabbed a brand new towel that she must have just bought or something and gifted it to Ofelia for her baptism. There was no room for the doubts or fears this time, she showed her faith and finally agreed to be baptized.

Super awesome experience and the baptism and confirmation went well. Not too many people showed up for the baptism and we had problems with the hot water, but nevertheless she made covenants. One of her neighbors came, but she had to leave early and didn´t really have too much interest...as you can see from the picture. Ha.

We are working on a few more baptisms soon. We have a couple fruta baja kids getting ready and another older lady(I don´t know why we always have better luck with the older women...ha ha).

Interviews were really fast but good. The latest Liahonas please me.

Today was supposed to be a special day. With the other Elders that left last transfer we had planned to have Christmas today and party it up but that plan kinda fell(since we didn´t have snow on December 25th here...). I guess that will have to wait until July 25th or somethin like that. We ended up going to the Persa again in Mendoza Centro(downtown) and do some compras(shopping). I had to get a sweet Argentina jersey that was súper barato(cheap)(95 pesos, which is like not even 30 dollars so it was basically a steal!). I´ll have to send ya pics next week.

I will not lie, I do not like the weather here. It is even worse than Utah. There is something called the Viento Sonda, which is a very hot windstorm that usually passes during winter and it is just killer. You walk out and it is freezing in the morning so you want to bundle up with like 37 layers at least, but no, an hour later it is blazing hot and you are getting sunburnt and sweating bullets. I have not passed a real Viento Sonda yet with all of the hot wind and stuff, just a couple minor ones. I had Ranch for the first time in like 10 months at a members house that has a son living in Utah. You would be super surprised how many Argentines are living amongst all you Utahns over there. It has got to be that we meet like one person each day who had a son or daughter living in Utah. I guess I won´t have to look for an Argentine woman on the mission anymore, I´ll just find one there....ha ha ha. Just kidding okay!? But really there are a lot of pretty girls here, it is true. But right now I am serving a mission. Maybe on the last day when I am buying souvenirs or something I will take one home with me...ha ha. Just kidding mom!

Wow, just an overload of news this week! The whole fam writes me and everything, ¡I feel so loved! Is Caitlyn really getting married??? To who??? Everybody is just getting married while I am gone! That is awesome that Dallin is heading out and I feel bad for Derrek having to give up his plaque. I dread that day...ha. I just can´t even imagine it right now.
That is awesome that Dad took first place in his race!!! How many were in his age group? That is a sweet pic of his leading the group. Now I can tell people here that my dad is a professional biker and that he hangs out with Lance. Ha.

Keep all of the missionaries in your prayers(especially me because I need the help). Love y´all! See ya around next week.

Un abrazito,
Hélder(as some spell it here) Deven Larisch
La iglesia es verdadera

Monday, June 18, 2012

Un buen día del padre (A good Father's day)

Hey,
Yeah mom, I am getting all of the pictures. Thanks! I like all of them! ha ha. That is crazy that Kylie had her baby and seeing that four generation picture. Everytime I show my pictures and the people pass the picture of grandma they comment on how young she looks, and now I can tell them that she is now a bisabuelita. ha ha. I am glad that Brooke had a fun birthday and got to go to kneaders...mmmmm..... That is crazy that we just are always having missonaries coming and going in our ward. Who else has their call or is about to get one? 

That´s great that Luberta is going to efy. The music is pretty good for this year. A bunch of country songs. Mom probably shouldn´t listen to them because she will most likely(100%) cry with one of the songs. Ha. Now you have to listen to it. The youth here went in their summer which was in like February and they all had lifechanging experiences. They had to go to Córdoba. The theme is Levantaos y Brillad(Get up and shine?). They focused a ton on missionary work this time and all of the youth came home with references for us to go to all of their friends. I wish I could go. Ha. Jk. I´ve got the spriritual experiences I need here. I will be very sure to keep Kim in my prayers and hope that everything goes well with her surgery.

We had some good éxito(success) this week as we had the opportunity to share messages of Father´s Day(focusing on our Padre Celestial(Heavenly Father) of course). Unfortunately we are still running around in circles with Ofelia. There are some investigators that will just drive me crazy because they are some of the best people ever and have some of the strongest testimonies of the Gospel that I have seen, but the enemy has just enough power to put doubts and fear in their way to tempt them and drive them away from their Faith. Ofelia is going to get baptized this Saturday no matter what because eternal investigators are no good. There are others that are getting close to baptism and I will tell you about them next week.

Élder Toledo and I are doing great and seeing miracles. We are expecting even more in the form of baptisms within the next few weeks. I can´t believe it has already been two weeks with him.

We have interviews with Presidente Ávila this Wednesday. That is always a pretty fun experience. He is an amazing man.

I guess Mallory gets another happy birthday wish because I did it a little early last week...

¡FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS MALLORY!wait to open this gift until your birthday!

I hope and pray that all is well back at home. Keep the missionaries in your prayers!

Love ya, un abrazito a todos,

Eldercito Larisch
La Iglesia es verdadera

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Primera Semana con un Latino (First Week with a Latino)

Great week!

How is everyone doing? We had a really good week here in San Ignacio even despite the transfers. Usually the first week of the transfer is a little bummy when it comes to numbers but we decided we were going to work hard. Thankfully I got a Latin that likes to work and make miracles happen!

Élder Toledo is from Concepción, Chile. Every time he introduces himself and where he is from he mentions that he is from the place where the big earthquake of 2010 took place. He is a pretty cool kid and loves to work. He has 3 little brothers and he was born in the church. He is going to hit a year in the mission this friday and he is pretty happy about it. We may have to celebrate a little bit by getting more apple juice carbonated stuff. That´ll hit the spot!

The other Élder that came to Villa Del Parque(the area next to ours that shares the pension) is Élder Stearns from San Diego. He is a bigger guy and talks really loud. Élder Dowdle who just finished his training is having a difficult time with all of the spanish speaking going on because he is having a hard time learning, but we are helping him learn fast. You seem to learn things a lot better and faster when you have pressure to do it.

We had a really good week. It surprises me each time I get to work with someone different how much I can learn from the way each missionary works and what brings success and what doesn´t. I am pretty sure that we are going to have a lot of success this transfer and see a lot of cool stuff happen.

We are still having some difficulties with Ofelia this week. We got Presidente Ávila to come and interview her on Wednesday(which was a pretty cool thing to witness) and from that we are going to try and work things out so she can have all of her temporal needs filled to get baptized soon because she is definitely spiritually ready. She passed the baptismal interview with flying colors but she still has a very big bad influence in her life. We are going to pray a lot to know what to help her with at this point to prepare herself for baptism. She walked to church in the freezing cold with knee problems and a cold and hour early yesterday even when we told her that someone was going to come pick her up in a car. She just didn´t want to be late. It amazes me, the faith of some people. It is really cool to look at my patriarchal blessing often and observe all of these promised blessings being fulfilled right before my eyes especially with the people that we work with.

There are a lot more people that we have to work with and a few more people with a fecha(date(baptismal)), so we are expecting more baptisms in the next few weeks. ¡Ojalá! Presidente Ávila also just keeps coming up with so many new/improved ways to do missionary work. The key to all success in missionary work is the members...we can´t do it without you okay. There are ways that you can support us like say hi to us out in public or have us over for lunch, but the real way that you can help us is showing us to your friends and family. Give them a chance to hear the Gospel!

I guess this week is going to be a very happy week. I have got to wish a happy birthday to Boogs, Mals, and a happy day to a father. Yeah, that´s too bad I can´t Skype for Father´s day also. I would be able to read my poems to all 3 of you. Ha ha. But for now and next year, I can´t give you much more than a...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOOGS
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAL
HAPPY FATHERS DAY POPS

Glad to hear that Dad did well on his race even though he got a bit sucio and he had to regarse a bit. At least you have mom there to limpiar your lentes whenever you needed it. That is a crazy story with Opi! I guess it is not too surprising to me that he would drive himself there and back with a huge chance of a heart attack and go back to work the next day. Opi is just one of those men. One of the hardest workers I will ever know. I am glad to hear that he is doing okay though. I will keep him in the prayers.

One thing that I have been wanting to have is stories of how my grandparents came to know the church. Could you ask Omi and Grandma to send me a brief story on that. I kind of know Omi´s a bit, but I don´t know Mom´s side of the family and when the church came to them exactly. It would also be really cool to have a Priesthood line of authority to have with me here. Thanks!

Love you all and I pray that our Heavenly Father watches over you forever and always!
Un Abrazongo de...
Élder Dev Larisch
La Iglesia es verdadera
New companion E. Toledo
Bishop and his family
enjoying a meal at the bishops house
Fidelito's...CLOSED.
Ofelia
Ofelias fridge(we helped her quit smoking)
Us...My district



Tuesday, June 5, 2012

¡Me Quedo! (I remain)

Good day!

Yeah, last week was pretty tough, but that has all passed and we are starting to receive more blessings here. We had an outstanding week! There is always that light at the end of the long tunnel!

Well first off, we have received transfers this morning and the news is...the same as what the title says!!! ¡Me quedo! I stay here and I also get my first latin comp, É Toledo from Chile. Should just be tons of fun. He is going to be the district leader. It is going to be a lot different. All four of us in the house right now have grown so close to each other. Let the work press on!

This week we had tons of success because we focused on our goals and almost reached all of them. We busted our butts and did all that we could to reach or pass the number goals that we set at the beginning of the week. We had some of the most spiritual experiences with Ofelia this week that I will never forget for the rest of my life. It is a really tough situation because the enemy had a very tight hold on her and it was very hard to get her to feel the spirit. We have been through a lot with her. She is so prepared for baptism because she has made so many changes in her life. I finally can say that I have helped someone totally quit smoking. Her only doubt right now is that she is going to fail God after baptism because she thinks the enemy will be out to get her. She is going to have an interview with Presidente Ávila this Wednesday. There is some crazy stuff here in Argentina...

We had stake conference this Sunday. It was really good! We had an area seventy attend but I can´t remember his name. The bottom half of his face was burnt. Most of the talks were focused on true conversion and they used a lot of scriptures from Mosíah 3. Leave behind the natural man to become life a child. Read it and learn from it.

Mom, if you want to write Chiquita you are going to either have to have someone who speaks spanish to write your handwritten letter for you, or you can email me something and print it out and give it to her using the new translate button on email with a bit of editing because it is not perfect, write an english handwritten letter that an english speaker could translate for her here and send it to the mission with my name on it and I can just put it in the box of our area if I am not here when it comes. Plenty of ways to happen. Whatever is your gusto. She actually still hasn´t stopped yet, she made us both homemade sweater/cardigan type things that doesn´t fit me really good so I may only wear it when I am around her...ha, along with a nice scarf. She is awesome!!! Never thought I would receive so many temporal blessings while serving here. I would send you a pic but I forgot to take a pic of it...sorry.

Oh yeah, and I have kinda forgotten to put up the mother´s day poems. I´ll put up the one that I read to you over skype...no one can make fun though, good poetry is just writing down what comes straight out of your mind.

Plants need things to grow
Flowers have reasons to fray
At least humans have their mothers
To teach them what to do and say

I feel lucky to have a mom like you
That guides me through this thorny way
Life usually is not that easy
With the exception of having a bidet

You have given so much for me to be
In the straight and narrow I was taught
Since I was a little kid until all grown up
You were always there to wipe away my snot

Thanks ma, for always being so cool
And puttin´ up with me through all the strife
There is nothing more that I can ask
That you love me for the rest of my life

It´s not my best work but I think it may be worth a few tears. Ha ha. The most important thing is that I always have you in the back of my mind, just enough to be fully focused on the mission. Love ya ma. There is more where this came from.

One thing that would be awesome if you could do for me is send me more pics. You should go on facebook and get a couple of things that Argentines would like to see. Lake Powell/Jet Ski, baseball/tennis, etc. You should just send them through email, because I can print out here. Thanks ma!

Un Abrazón,

Élder Larisch

La Iglesia es verdadera
Gross advertisement for the carnecería
Shaking hands with a dog named Lexi...not even joking
Elder Daybells alfajor wrapper collection(hopefully one day I can have that many)
Dumb dog wearing a shirt(it is normal that owners dress their dogs, it is very offensive that dogs just walk around naked here)
Banana Bread Alfajor
Female Empanada Doggy Chew Toy
Bishop teaching us how to do service Argentina style with one of his homemade devices
Asado