Tuesday, December 4, 2012

¡Transpirando Aful! (Sweating alot)



Dear Fam and other loved ones,

Another week has passed by. It has been filled with fun that includes: meetings, many companion exchanges, high moments with investigators as well as the low, and hey...ITS DECEMBER! AND IT IS STILL STINKIN HOT!

I may or may not be at this point of the season sweating 24/7. San Juan is just a treat in the summer. This area has been awesome in the aspect of the ward, but they don`t have a set "do the laundry for the Elders and receive many bounteous blessings" plan here. I don`t like that. With my sweating all the time I am most likely going to need laundry done more often. I miss that from Lìbano. Ha. But hey, good news is that I am still alive and breathing.

We have had awesome appointments with investigators and met awesome new families despite all of the families that are falling. That is just how missionary work...works. You take and work with the good families and plant seeds and leave be the families that aren`t quite ready yet to hear the restored gospel. We got into Romina Mesa`s house and by the end we put a fecha bautismal(baptismal date) for Sunday after church because our ward mission leader just wants her baptized because she is so ready. Like always, the opposition of the enemy comes in. We found out she has epilepsy and had some pretty bad convulsions Friday night and has been in bed for a while now. We think she will be all good to go for this week though, even though she has work on Saturday(we will have to work something out). Mabel Garcìa(wife of Alfredo, a recent convert in this ward), has been known as an awesome investigator for months and months but never came to church but yesterday she finally came and loved it all! She will be a near future baptism. The cool new family of the week is the Family Camargo(I think they are related to the Family Camargo that we rented from in Lìbano). They are a family of 7. They have 3 boys(15,14,13) that are pretty interested and are going to start getting involved in mutual with the ward and we gained the confidence of the parents on Saturday when they let us in their house. Hoping for the best with them. Oh, and how could I forget about one of the coolest families that I have met in the mission. They are a Korean family that some other elders are handing over to us. They have their part a bit later.

I have been doing a ton of companion exchanges with my district in my first week here because I wanted to get to know their investigators and also to get some more baptismal interviews done. The other Elders in my district are E` Meyers(Texas), E` Fraughton(Pleasant Grove, UT), E` Villegas(Viña del Mar, Chile), and E` Gòmez(Colombia). They are all hard working elders(both companionships baptized this past weekend). I don`t ever remember introducing my new comp E` Egbert very well either. He is from Sandy, UT and went to Hillcrest. He said that he knew Aubrey Duncan so we have a mutual friend already. He ran track and stuff in high school. He is 19 so he left on the mish just right outta high school. He has almost 7 months in the mission.
We had a couple meetings this week including a zone meeting yesterday right after the weekly zone leadership meeting(we didn`t even get to proselyte or anything yesterday because we were in a different far chapel for the whole afternoon). In Argentina, you spend a good amount of your life just waiting for buses. The transportation system could be greatly improved here. I love Argentina, but some governmental things could definitely be helped. We have a special conference tomorrow from E` Resec(I think he is an area seventy or something), the replacement for President Arnold(he got busy or something and cancelled). Should be good!

I got the letter from Gpa and Gma this week with the Christmas letters in it. Thanks fam! I also wish a Felices Fiestas(Argentine Style) to all my loved ones. Remember the true meaning of Christmas though!

Mom: No I have never been robbed. I liked your dream a lot. It made me laugh out loud a lot. I will spend some time pondering and praying about it to find out the significance. I bet you and grandpa are just looking forward to my homecoming even more! ha ha.

Somewhat Spiritual Thought:
This week with the big situation with the Kim(Korean) family I learned something new(or better) about a principle of the church. The situation is that the Kim Family lives right on the limit of the two stakes(Chimbas and San Juan Nuevo Cuyo), not only on the limits of two different wards. The street that divides them is also the division from Capital(Downtown San Juan) and Rivadavia. The Elders from Libertador Ward(the zone leaders from the other stake that I came from) have been teaching this family for 3 months and baptized half the family. They did not realize that this family was not within their limits until a day before their baptisms and they didn`t want to bitter them or ruin anything before. We are now just starting to care for the problem. The Hermano invited us over for a Korean asado(BBQ), the which was one of the most desirable things that my mouth has ever known. That night we focused our efforts on teaching them that we belong to a church of order. We are not counseling your family to attend the Rivadavia Ward just because you belong geographically to the city of Rivadavia and also pertain to the boundaries of our ward, but it is because this church is a church of order and God expects that we are obedient to that heavenly law. A bishop is not authorized to receive revelation for members out of his limits. The members will not be able to serve fully in a calling if it is not the ward that they pertain to. I actually did not think of it as that big of a topic, but when we look at it with the eyes of God we understand that even the littlest things go towards if we are obedient to the laws of God or disobedient to the laws of God. We are praying for the Kim family to understand this principle because the parents are not even baptized yet and it will be a lot easier for them if they just make the switch right now. I also pray that we can all notice even the smallest signs of disobedience so that we can show the greatest amount of gratitude and love towards our Heavenly Father. "If ye love me, keep my commandments."

I love you all and wish upon you good health and happy holidays. Keep Christ in your Christmas tree this year. Ponder that last sentence, I just came up with that.
Un abrazo,
Elder Deven Larisch
La iglesia es verdadera
ps. Enjoy the tons of pics. We found a great place that has faster computers.