Monday, July 30, 2012

Oh, ni sabía que iba a cumplir esta semana...¡Que Bueno! (Very Good Week)



Hello Everyone!

Wow, it looks like it is my birthday this week or something by looking at my inbox. Ha ha. Thanks for all of the emails. I feel very loved. I don´t know what is going to happen on friday for a celebration or anything yet, but I am for sure going to buy an ice-cream cake from Grido, the ice cream shop.

Well, I would have to say that we had a super good week this go-around. Saturday was our day of the most success. We had some super good lessons with members with the spirit surely present. I noticed that the joy out of missionary work really does come out of just watching the spirit do work in the lives of others while sometimes you barely feel like an instrument in the Lord´s hands because you just can´t believe the sorts of miracles that you see right before your eyes.

We had an amazing surprise mini conference with Presidente Ávila and the asistentes on Thursday and talked about some amazing things to us. We left that day with a huge prayer of faith expecting miracles and we had miracles that day. Friday we went back and had a part 2 of the conference to tell stories of the miracles that happened to us because of faith.

We met some superb families this week including the Flia. Tello, Flia. Valdez, and the Flia of Neli. We are starting the get accustomed to the way that the prophet wants us to work. We are starting to get really good references from members sharing the gospel with their friends and neighbors. The hardest thing that we are working on right now and the thing where Satan seems to be hittin us hard is the investigators attending church. We have had two goose eggs the past weeks, but that is just because we are basically starting from scratch. It is going to take patience and a bunch of diligence to get some of these familes to the church on sunday. I was told in the MTC that the Latino people just love to say yes, but from that commitment the missionaries don´t have too much of a promise. We need to be involved with every little thing we can do to get them to church whether it be calling them in the morning to wake them up, passing by their house to walk with them, etc. Takes some prayer and faith to get these peeps to church.

I am still meeting tons of new people here every day here in San Juan showing my pictures a lot. There was a few comments from members that I would like to share with you. Ha ha. As bishop´s mom and a couple other members were looking at the pictures, they kept mentioning how handsome dad was and how he looks really good because he does biking. They said that maybe someday I will be as good looking as my dad. Ha ha! Then I showed them how I was even starting to bald like dad is. No offense, but I don´t think I want to start looking like you too fast. Ha.

Yeah, the weather is starting to change a lot. I almost died this morning of cold having to go out and hang up the wet clothes at 6:30. It probably wasn´t very smart but it definitely was necessary. I don´t know when it will change again, but I think for now, it is going to be super cold.

Grandma, STAT: there are very few dogs in Argentina that have owners. STAT#2: there may or may not be more dogs that human beings in Argentina…actually, yes, for sure there are more dogs that anything else in Argentina. STAT#3: I may have seen the biggest and hairiest dog in the world on Saturday. His name is Tango and I will get back to ya with a picture.

I am still feeling pretty sick, but according to the mission enfermero(nurse), I am good to go out and proselyte as long as I drink lots of water, cough in my sleeve(not in the face of anyone, basically), and moisten my hands with sanitizer once in a while along with continual washing of hands. Right now it consists of a minor headache with my ears hurting every time I blow my nose, every time I sneeze I feel like my brain is going to come right out of my nose(like they used to do with the future mummies in Egypt), and the Laryngitis is to my advantage making my voice deeper. At least I am alive right? Ha. Nah, I´m doing pretty good. Don´t worry about me too much, maybe just a couple more prayers and I´ll get healed. Thanks.

Oh man, some of the hardest temptations to this point in my mission of being disobedient have come right at me. The Olympics have started and I am going crazy. I am super lucky that the work I am doing is much more important than any athletic event, but wow, I thought it was hard to stay focused when the discovery channel or something is on in the houses here, but now the Olympics, soccer, tennis, basketball, countries playing against one another. Someone may or may not need to record all of it so on September 8th of next year it will be available to watch. ¡Aguante los Estados Unidos!

This has been a pretty good p-day so far. We got panchos(hot dogs with more sauces and stuff that you could ever imagine), I bought a new sweater for really cheap(I hope that is alright, I just wanted one more to put a little more diversity in the selección. It was only 100 pesos(like 20-25 bucks). I really wanted to buy some of this art that this guy was doing in the street here in Centro San Juan. It was really cool spray paint art that he finished in less than 10 minutes. It is great entertainment. I think I may stop by next week to purchase on of his pieces. They go for 40 pesos! Crazy!

I saw E´ Squires(MTC comp) for the first time in about 7 months in the pancho shop. He is doing really good. He has been serving for 5 months in the Chimbas zone(one of the most successful zones, statistically, in the mission).

Gosh, sounds like everyone is just having themselves a good time at home. Everyone was safe over the holiday and Dad barely survived the hike. I will be willing to do that in the future. Ha. I bet that the ABBA concert just fulfilled all of your dreams in one night. That´s great that Kaitlyn is off to New York. Wish her luck from me if you see her before. That sounds like a really cool mission. I can´t believe that Jim is going to Ghana! He will miss his moustache for a couple years. I know that mine is developing very well right now and will be ready for full bloom in about a year or so. Is he going to speak English or Afrikaans? Dang, have fun in Lake Powell. I hope you enjoy it in honor of me or something. Ha. I am very jealous. I have a few pics of Lake Powell in my album that I show everyone. Tell grandpa happy birthday for me when you see him next. I hope he gets a chance to go fishin to celebrate.

That sounds really good that dad was able to talk to the priests up there about the missions. It is exactly what those boys need engraved in their brains right now. There should not be any other thing that should be even competing with a mission right now in the lives of those boys. I hope they all are able to leave for two years and experience something different than anything they could experience not wearing a black plaque.

Cariñito,
Elder Deven Larisch
La Iglesia es verdadera
Panchos...Yum Yum
Elder Marsh from Riverton 
Cool guy doing way cool spray paint art that most of us bought. They were 40 pesos each! I think I want to buy one next time
 Flia Milesi
 Flia Ferrero
 Flia Robert
Flia Sanna
My goodbyes to... Hna. Roldan... 
 Roldan Y Jose...
 Mateocito...
my district...
and Chiquita!!!