Monday, November 26, 2012

Rivadavia...

Yellow!
Wow, I am just super stoked to be in this new area in a totally new environment even though I moved just right next to my old area. I have the coolest ward ever! We are going to have just a bunch of success with how everyone wants to help us out. I am really looking forward to this transfer. My comp is awesome and speaks spanish like a champ. We don´t have any dogs(what a shame, I will have to find some and make them my own), but we have a pair of lovely women just below our apartment(don´t worry ma, it is just a little chiste(joke). I will hopefully show ya some pics next week. I miss Líbano Ward, but it was a pretty smooth transfer.

We had some great success in just the first week of this transfer. I had to run around doing some interviews for Los Pinos, another area in my district, because they are just baptizing a ton! I know that Heavenly Father has sure prepared a lot of His children here in this zone to hear this message and change their lives. We almost had a baptism this weekend, but this lady was working a lot so it will have to be this weekend. Her name is Romina Mesa. I still haven´t met her yet because we have been on exchanges already every time that they have gone over there. Ha ha. But I hear that she is just awesome and has a huge testimony of the gospel. We have visited other families and it looks like we just have a ton to work with. We had 5 investigators come to church. Our ward mission leader is a stud and helps us out a ton. We also have 4 ward missionaries that help us out a lot! Rivadavia, my new area, is a bit more on the high end than Líbano. There are a lot of richer neighborhoods because it is closer to downtown San Juan. The members here feed us suuuper well because they are a bit more well off. I am okay with that. We have Walmart in our area. The institute that all of the youth in San Juan attend is attached to our chapel. So we have instant access to pool and pong. We live right under a panadería(bakery), so most of the time(mornings and nights mainly), there is a sweet aroma of freshly baked bread flowing throughout the apartment. It is lovely to sleep to. Our bishop is a pretty good guy. From what people have told me(gossip), he is an "okay" bishop. Our stud mission leader knows that very well so he basically makes the decisions for the ward, when it comes to missionary work,and just says that the bishop trusts in him. Ha ha. My area is a lot bigger than my last area so we have to take a lot more colectivos(buses) around everywhere. The attendance in sacrament meeting is an average of about 120(much better than any ward I have been in). What is the normal average of the attendance in our ward every week? Curiosity. The bugs are really starting to come out now so I am starting to apply the spray even though I am already covered with bites. Elder Egbert is a super awesome missionary. He speaks the language like a pro. He took like a million years of spanish before the mission so I think that may have helped him out a bit. Elder Johnson emailed me and told me that he got robbed by Elisabet´s house(well, it was known to be one of the most dangerous parts of our area) the other day. Ha ha. He said he wanted to punch them but he got a spiritual prompting to not do it(probably because he would get sent home or something), so they got away with his watch. I can´t believe I missed that part of my son´s life! What a shame!

Thanksgiving...Well, sadly it was not that great of a holiday here. It was still a bit loco because we were getting all accustomed due to the transfers the day before. We tried to buy a pavo(turkey) from the carnecería near our apt, but the smallest they had was a pavo for 3 kilograms for 140 pesos. Now what poor missionary is going to be able to afford that? I celebrated by calling my elders in my district to express my gratitude towards them even though I had not even met them yet. I think the Navidad will be a bit better of a holiday. I am sure that there will be members fighting over who wants to have us in there house to pass the holidays with them because they are all so great...and rich. Ha. I can´t believe that it is just around the corner already. We are gonna be talking over Skype again for the second to last time! I hope we can find a good spot unlike last mother´s day, that doesn´t pause and drag. I am super stoked. I may or may not write a poema de la Navidad for you guys to enjoy. I wish I could send some presents home or somethin! I saved the rest of my Christmas for the 25th, so at least I will have something.

I am glad you guys had an awesome thanksgiving. I don´t have a ton of time to reply(sorry), but I will get to it next week!

To add somewhat of a spiritual thought at the end of this letter, I will throw down a scripture that I really like and I use often in lessons. It comes from D&C 130:20-21
20 There is a alaw, irrevocably decreed in bheaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all cblessings are predicated—
21 And when we obtain any ablessing from God, it is bybobedience to that law upon which it is predicated.

We learn the importance of the heavenly principle of obedience. I add my testimony to the truthfulness of this scripture. We can receive specific blessings if and only if we are obedient to the commandments of God. God made the plan this way so that idealy, as long as your are keeping each and every commandment by faith, you will never get lost and wander away from the iron rod into the dark mist.(1 Nephi 11) Grasp to that rod with all that you have, no matter what the circumstances whether they be if a friend makes fun of you, if the situation appears to be too hard, or even if obedience seems impossible. God will never make any commandment impossible to obey(1 Nephi 3:7). So go about knowing and obeying the commandments that you have in front of you so that God can open the heavens and pour out bounteous blessings upon your head and the head of all your family.(Malachi 3:10). I love you all a ton! Always rememberin ya in those nightly prayers. Thanks!
Un abracito,
Elder Larisch
La iglesia es verdadera
Sorry I could not send any photos. I will try again next week. 

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

¡Me Voy!

WOW! (Que lástima pero adios)

What an awesome week! Full of miracles after miracles, then a little more, and to end off with a couple cherries on top. I have got lots of thanking my Heavenly Father to do from this past week. I have got lots of news to tell ya just like every transfer week! But this one is even better. Let´s see, we had some of amazing(spiritual) lessons with our investigators when I was there and when I was absent. I have been running around like crazy trying to do interview and exchanges and stuff to get all of these baptisms in the district complete. It is way awesome working with so many more people, because that just means that you are going to have another reason to rejoice when they take the step of getting baptized. In my area we baptized two this week and in Rawson(another area in my district) they are preparing services for this Tuesday night and Saturday night. We are just finding lots of success here right now. That is why it is kinda sad to say that....I´m leaving my area! I´ll keep it a bit of a surprise until a little later in the letter. Every companionship in my district baptized this transfer. We had success! We will be having a huge ASADO today at our place, and tomorrow we will probably have pancakes and stuff before district meeting. We deserve to celebrate a little bit.

Yeah, we have been way too blessed this week! Yuliana Acosta and Elisabet Rodriguez finally both got baptized! Yuliana was kind of a last second happening. We had more or less planned on it this week, but bishop wanted to come with us and meet the family better because the family is inactive and hasn´t been showing much support for their daughter, but(the appointment that I wasn´t there) bishop went with E´Johnson and E´ Garcia to go and visit them to see if she was ready. Apparently they had a super awesome, spiritual visit(one of those where everyone is crying at the end, especially E´Johnson(ha, just kidding, but seriously)), and bishop was okay with her getting baptized this week(he was actually the one that baptized Yuliana). E´ Johnson even gave his first priesthood blessing in Spanish to Yuliana´s little sister, Aldana! It is pretty cool, because that is one of the things we talked about in studies that morning, so I believe the spirit had his hand in the choice of our studies that morning because E´ Johnson was prepared! Elisabet Rodriguez(Alaniz is actually her last name that she uses) has been ready for baptism for a while but she has just been super sick for like the past month! She decided to go through with baptism this week because she was starting to feel a bit better. Even with all of the problems she is facing with her husband, Omar(who was actually the first investigator in that house and the one we contacted in the street first to get into the house but who is now hiding from us and/or is always busy working so he has no time for us). I think they are trying to get separated, but no worries, the Relief Society of Barrio(Ward) El Líbano to the rescue. Elisabet wasn´t able to get confirmed yesterday because she couldn´t even get out of bed. Hopefully she gets better soon so that she can get confirmed and all can move smoothly.

The other big news of the week is TRANSFERS! I am going to leave my area only to go to the zone right next to San Juan called Chimbas! The area that I am going to, Rivadavia, we drive through to get here to use internet every week. It just borders the area that I am in now so it really isn´t that far of a move. Ha ha. My new companion is going to be Elder Egbert. He came in the same group as Elder Johnson, so he just finished training. Chimbas is a zone known for its success, so I am ready to go and put in my penny´s worth. I am looking forward to a great next few transfers!

Dang, I told you that I was going to prepare some type of Eulogy for Elder Johnson. Well, I could talk on and on about this fellow. He has taught me so many things in these past two transfers such as patience and charity and brotherly kindness because he has been such a burden for me.....ha ha! Just kidding. But really, I have learned a plethora of things from this elder. He has been one of those missionaries so easy to get along with and work together with. I congratulate the mother on the success that she has had with this boy. He is a great missionary and will even do bigger and better things further in the mission. He has progressed a ton in these 3 months in his teaching skills and spanish. He has always had the confidence so it is easy for him. I will miss this kid, even though I will probably see him often here at the cyber every week and maybe on the borders of our areas. Ha.

I will also miss this area. I can´t believe that I already am moving on to my 4th area in the mission. It just flies by. El Líbano has been an awesome area where we have had a lot of success. I thought I was going to escape San Juan and go somewhere a bit cooler in the summer for at least december and january but it looks like I get to enjoy the heat. Ha.

That is so awesome that Cade got his papers in! I will surely be expecting to hear where the Lord sends him. I´m praying for at least Spanish speaking if not Argentina.

I put lots of pictures on your Walmart account mom. I hope you are able to receive pictures okay this way. For some reason it is not letting me attach anything to this email. What a shame. I´ve just been taking so many lately for some reason. I accidentally carried around the camera a few times when I was proselyting so you get a back-stage view at what we do...how exciting!

Well, we have got to go get started on our asado because I am starvin marvin right now. I´ll talk next week to let you know about my new area and comp.

Thanks for all you do in my part. Family and friends always have a part in my nightly personal prayers. Love y´all.
Un abrazo,
Elder Dev Larisch
La iglesia es verdadera

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Hello!

Dang, this computer is freezing up on me a ton! I don´t know how much I am going to be able to get over to you today. We have some pretty sweet pictures this week...and still many from last week that I wanted to get off. Well, it will just have to wait till when I get home and we can check them all out on the computer. Ha.

It wasn´t too bad of a week. Even though we got some the best numbers that we have this transfer, I still don´t feel like we did that much. Sadly, this is one of those weeks where there is not a ton of highlights. But hey, I´ll try and conjure up what I can think of. I received the Christmas package already! The zone leaders must have passed by the offices in perfect timing to pick it up. Well, it is here a little early... and due to a lot of peer pressure(I do not recommend opening packages around wild missionaries) a couple gifts may have accidentally been ripped open...Thank you for the pajama pants(I promise I won´t wear them until Christmas Eve to keep the tradition going), for the Andes, for the Sour Patch, and also for the CD´s from Gma and Gpa. That was all that I was tempted to open. I will try(the hardest that I can) and save the rest for Christmas(except the present for my comp, because I will probably only be with E´ Johnson for like one more week, and I think he deserves a little gift or something for all this time putting up with me. Ha). We got a baptism in Rawson(my other boys in my district) this past weekend! E´ Johnson and I attended and helped them out a bit. It was an awesome service! The rest of the family of this lady is going to be following close behind. Same with a couple of our investigators...Elizabet has been super sick these past few weeks so we have not been able to have as much contact with her as we are needing for her to get baptized and Yuliana´s family did not come to church with her yesterday so that is going to be complicated. We are going to be working our butts off again this week, especially because it is the last week of the transfer, to get these people baptized.

Well, this may or may not be my last week working in San Juan. I´ve already got 4.5 months working here so Pres is most likely going to send me off to some other far off land. Next week I´ll probably give you my thoughts and feelings of San Juan and the news of transfers. Along with a Eulogy type thing for E´ Johnson because he has been such an awesome, grade A compañero.

I am pretty bummed that I can´t send any of these pictures to you this week. Oh well, just wait for the next week.

I guess we had some cool experiences this week. We met some very prepared people to receive us just by doing our "open the mouth´s" in the streets. I "opened the mouth" with this guy yesterday in front of his house. We were in a trio because we had one of the youth of the ward with us. He was a very intellectual man that wanted to teach us something about the philosophy that he knew and some of the cool scientific studies that have been done to prove that God exists. It was very interesting stuff, but I knew something that this man was not familiar with yet. The restored knowledge of Gods great plan of happiness that we gain from the Book of Mormon. This man was also fascinated by the map of God´s plan that we have in our brochure things we hand out. We gifted him a book and he willingly invited himself to church and we put a baptismal date with him and a return date for today, Monday. Not very often to you meet someone in the street that prepared to receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It really touched me the story of Cade´s conversion story that Grandma sent me today. Reading that story, I automatically placed myself in the situation of being one of those missionaries that arrived at his door that day, there ready to teach him. I here so many conversion stories(almost every day), but when it is the conversion of my own family it has a higher meaning and feeling to it. Cade is going to be an awesome missionary.

I love hearing all of this missionary news coming from the home ward. I can´t believe that we have 17 missionaries out right now! Incredible! I heard a cool fact that after Pres. Monson made the missionary age reduction announcement, the missionary applications sent in weekly went from 700 to 4000! The dream of Nebuchadnezzar(Daniel 2) is being fulfilled. The stone cut without hands is filling the whole earth!

That is AWESOME news that Kim is cancer free! I have been praying faithfully for that. Now we just have to keep the continual prayer to make sure that the baby girl is healthy.

I don´t yet have plans for Thanksgiving. Surprisingly it is not even a holiday here in Argentina. We will make sure that we celebrate well. I will probably be in a new area, so we may have to invite ourselves over to a members´ house or something and have some chicken(because turkey is very hard to find here), unless grandpa doesn´t mind sending me some of that dark turkey that he makes every year in a little package or something along with some mashed spuds.

That´s all for this week. Thank you for all the heartfelt prayers in my behalf and in the behalf of all other full-time missionaries. Here is another cyber-hug from...
Un Abrazo,
Elder Larisch
La iglesia es verdadera

Monday, November 5, 2012

Chistes o Dulces (trick or treat)

Hello! ¿Chistes o Dulces? (Trick or Treat)
Wow, what a week! It is a love/hate relationship with that exhausted feeling I get towards the end of every week. I feel good because I am giving it all to serve the Lord, it just gets tough sometimes. This week included preparing the baptism for Elizabet Rodriguez this week, workin our butts off to get people to church, halloween, exchanges with Élder Henrie, splits with the youth, service with Hermano Núñez/asado, fast, end fast with another asado, crazy P-day at Zonda, etc. Probably the week that I have taken the most pictures on the mission. You would be proud mom!

Yeah, we worked really, really hard to get people to church this week. By Saturday night, Elder Johnson and I were basically 75% sure we were going to have at least 10 investigators at church. We fasted/prayed, hoped, wanted, and needed these people to come to church. We are working with great families that are developing their testimonies very fast but just lack the priority list. Elizabet Rodriguez is progressing a lot even though she has been super sick for the last two weeks and really haven´t been able to have way good visits, she still keeps her testimony of the Book of Mormon close to her heart. She was able to come to church only for the first hour(she even arrived a bit early) because after that, her fever started picking up a bit so she just walked all the way back home with her little kid. It shows a lot of desire and faith to walk about 45 minutes there and 45 back to only go to one meeting at church. Would my family ever do that? All she needs is a baptismal interview and she should be ready for this Saturday! Woo hoo! Then we can pick it back up with her husband, Omar. Yuliana Acosta(9) needs to come to church with her family this next week and she will be hopping in that water. Another very top prospect for the future for the ward of Líbano will be the familia Sorias(Cristián, Daisy, and a couple kids). Cristián wants the best for his family. They don´t have a church that they attend normally, so...they are looking for one. What better of a choice to increase family unity and happiness than The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! Cristián has a strong testimony already of the divinity of the Book of Mormon. Because they are such a great family, they are going to have even more opposition on their path towards attending the church and baptism. Élder Marsh(Riverton) told me something today. He said "The mission probably isn´t the best two years of your life, but they are definitely the best two years for your life." The two years are definitely not easy in the physical sense, emotional sense, spiritual sense, and all of those other senses, but they shape and form a missionary for the rest of their life. Very similar to what you sent me mom.

We planned Halloween to go around and play a gospel game that we made with lots of candy. Halloween is a little lot a bit different in Argentina. It is very rare to see it celebrated here because it is such a dark holiday. What happens, is that here in Argentina there are many real witches and all of that very dark stuff so it is hard to even joke about that stuff. Some don´t even understand how it is so celebrated in the United Stated. Everyone thought it was wrong that we, a couple of missionaries, should be supporting such a dark holiday. We just gave them candy and played our game, then they underdstood why we celebrate it. Ha. We fortunately were able to see one group of Argentine trick-or-treaters right before retiring for the night. We snapped a quick pic with them.

I am normally doing exchanges with my Elders at least once a week. It is such a cool experience to extend beyond my own area and help other investigators to the church and especially other missionaries(so that they can bless the lives better of the investigators). If I had time I would just write a long paragraph about all of the other amazing people that I meet on exchanges. It has also kind of become a district tradition to end a good night of work with Grido(Ice cream). Elder Henrie went all out and made an amazing batido(shake) for us. It is probably not good to have just ice cream for dinner consecutively. Ha. Oh well, at least it´s not as bad as Elder Henrie and Elder Garcia with (1 kilo of ice cream) 5 nights in a row now. The heat here doesn´t really help us with this little addiction.

This transfer we have been having a lot more service opportunities than any other time in the mission. It is good sometimes to change into other clothes and get dirty even though it feels super weird. This week Hermano Núñez wanted us to move lots of dirt in his yard and he promised us a delicious asado, and yes, it was delicious. It may or may not have been one of the most enjoyable fasts that I have done. Starting off with asado with Hno. Núñez on Saturday and ending with the flia Camargo asado on Sunday. Yum!

Definitely one of the most enjoyable P-days to this point. We went to the mountains to a place called Zonda. I took at least 150 pics so I don´t think I need to explain it very much. We are running a bit late anyways so I will let the pictures tell the story. I may or may not have to send them next week though...bummer. These computers are super slow at sending pics and stuff...

Sending lots of love out to my family. You are great! Also another shoutout to the Johnson fam. Thanks for raising such a great son. He keeps me in line. And to Riley...Elder Johnson sends a wink.
Un Abrazo,
Élder Larisch
La iglesia es verdadera

I am way glad to see and hear that you just had an awesome Halloween. Keep up the good work Brooke and Luberta with the 4.0´s! Hard work pays off in the future! I will keep Kim in my prayers this week. Hope everything goes well! It is awesome to receive the newsletter for the other missionaries in the ward. It is incredible to hear that we are going to have 17 in just our ward out in the world serving the Lord in full-time. I haven´t worn my contacts since my first area and my glasses are holding very well and still in tact. I clean them well every day. Glad to hear you are starting to get ready for Christmas with the lights on the house already. I would say that we are also preparing for Christmas, but we have actually been listening to Christmas music since last Christmas.





Zonda