Monday, April 9, 2012

¡Felices Pascuas! ( Happy Easter! )


Yes mom, they do celebrate Easter here. They don´t really do too much of the huge partying and stuff though. The only easter bunnies that I saw were a few chocolate ones in the grocery store. Just about 110% of the Argentine population is Catholic. Something kinda funny is that Christmas and Easter are about the only times that they get off their butts, put down their máte and go to church for the special holiday mass. Easter for us was just another usual sunday.

My comp and I had a fun experience in church yesterday. Right before taking the sacrament, bishop had his secretary come down to us and ask us if we could do a special easter musical number because I guess they forgot to make the meeting special for easter. They announced it after the sacrament so we didn´t have a choice. Bishop wanted us to try harmonizing and all that good stuff. We didn´t know the spanish easter hymns well enough so he just let us pick another song. We sang ´Que Firmes Cimientos´(How Firm a Foundation) and it went okay. For not ever singing in front of anyone before and usually just practicing in the shower, I think we did okay. Ha ha.

In our area, I have been noticing that a lot more big, mean dogs have been wanting to eat us... The last few weeks I have had a few close encounters to being attacked. Luckily, I haven´t gotten bitten too bad yet to be worried. Ha ha. The recipe for scaring away the dogs is just bending down and acting like you are grabbing a rock to throw at them. I am starting to figure out these dogs finally.

This week we had Zone Conference and learned some super cool stuff! Missionary work around the world is taking a whole new approach from the new plan that the prophet has announced. It has already been out for a while, but we are just starting to understand how to use it to obtain baptisms. Working with members of the church is the key to success if you know how to use them in missionary work. According to stats, Argentina has been down on baptisms for a few years and now it the perfect time to bring it back up. Expect to be hearing about many more big family baptisms in the future.

For now, we have a few investigators that are doing pretty well. Irma, whom we had wanted to get baptized last week unfortunately did not make it to Saturday, but we are going to try really hard to get her to understand baptism well enough and what comes with it so that she can be a convert baptism instead of just a person convinced that Mormonism is the way to go. We have Angélica Bornignón who is doing really good, and we think that she has received an answer to her prayers. We have to have another lesson with her to see where exactly she is at. We don´t have too many more good investigators right now because we are focusing on a few other things so that we can get this plan in order to see many future convert baptisms.

Cumplí siete meses en la misión esta semana pasada. Todo el tiempo está pasando tan rápido para mí. No me gusta...(I was seven months in the mission this last week. All the time is happening(passing) so rapidly for me. I do not like...)

One thing that we are starting to put more in the missionary work is family history work. I am learning all kinds of new things about it. Do family history work! So many blessings can come from doing ordinances for the family. There are many people wating in the spirit world for people to help them out.
Today, for a fun pday activity we went to a bodega(winery) close to our Zone Leaders´ pension. It was not exactly a functioning bodega at this time and it was super old, but it was still very fun. The owner lady was a referral for the Zone Leaders so they even got to count her as contacted and they are going to start teaching her. Pictures will be attached.

If there is one thing you could do in the near future that would be a huge help is send me my Line of Authority of the Priesthood. If you could find that somehow and send it through email, I would be very pleased. Thanks.

I hope that everyone was able to have a good Pascua and take some time to remember the Resurrection for a bit. We should be forever thankful to our Redeemer that He has given us life. In the scriptures, it says that Christ is the light and life of the world. Follow the light that has been provided for us and we will gain life. I love my Savior and Redeemer and enjoy every moment of my mission because I get to wear his name on me every single day. There is no other experience where you can be so close to the spirit guiding you to the people that are going to recognize you as a true representative of Jesus Christ.

Another cool moment we had with an investigator this week was when one of them asked us why we, as members of this church, can say that we know that our church is true. I don´t recall ever being asked this question on my mission before, but I was able to share with her Alma 32. I love that chapter. Faith really can gradually change into straight knowledge only through the power of the Holy Ghost. That is called a testimony. Faith also needs to be nurished each and every day just like a seed or else it will wither and rot away.

Love you all. Pray for you every day. Signing out is...

Elder Deven Larisch

La Iglesia es Verdadera









yep, that is where good wine gets its taste...ha ha