Monday, March 4, 2013

La iglesia verdadera (The true Church)

Hello everyone!
We have passed a pretty exhausting week! There have been lots of events that have just taken it out of us both including consejo for the zone leaders traveling to Mendoza at the first of the week, preparing everything for the zone meeting that we have to give tomorrow to the zone, finally finding our families that are progressing when we got into their house(we have a good handful of families now that we are working with), the most crazy sacrament meeting I have ever been in, a visit to the meetings of an evangelical church(The assembly of God), etc.

We ended up leaving to Mendoza right after P-day finished. We got the opportunity to enjoy our P-day at least. It was way cool to see a lot of my old comps and other elders. President and Hermana Àvila along with the asistants had a lot of good things to say and I think that if we apply the things that we learned about how to use the Book of Mormon in our teaching and the focus of the families(not just the one person in the family that seems interested), because behind every person there is a family(more people to baptize along with fulfilling the purpose of the church. Our zone of San Rafael has had an awesome week this past week and I think that we are just going to continue raising the bar as we work hard and apply the revelation that President has received for the mission.

As we have been finding our way around better in the area we have also been having a lot more success with our investigators. Leonardo, whom we have been trying to find ever since we got here(because he was the best investigator that the other elders left us), we have found and he has read up to Alma 39 in the Book of Mormon. He is an awesome guy and through the visits we have been able to help him recognize the answer to his prayers that this really is the true church of Jesus Christ. He has had his questions answered through the Book of Mormon. For example he had a few questions about the law of Chastity in our visit and we were able to answer his questions and teach him just by reading the chapter that he was in(Alma 39). Ha ha. Then he wanted to know about the place that we go after this life and what happens to us. Elder Barton and I both laughed because the next 2 or 3 chapters(Alma 40-42) have the exact doctorine that he wanted. He accepted the baptismal date for this Saturday the 9th, but unfortunately for some unknown reason he did not show up at church yesterday when he is needing one more attendance to be able to get baptized. Complicated. We also have been working a lot with another family(the Conejeras family) who have been passing lots of emotional problems because the girlfriend of Milton(the son) got sent off with her dad to Buenos Aires. Super long story that I am sure that you do not want to hear. But the two kids of the family, Milton and Jenifer, are recent converts to the church but the parents, Silvia and Arturo, are delaying because they need to get married. Silvia is way ready, but Arturo has a little bit harder of a heart, so we are in the softening process(gaining his trust) as on Saturday we went over and taught them how to make tacos. They were very spicy(I think I may have left that house crying), but delicious! We also found another big family on Friday as this kid came up to us in the street and asked us for a brochure with pictures(like tons of kids usually do) and my comp told him that he would give him one if we could meet his family. He took us back to his house and we met the family. A couple members had almost been baptized about a year ago. They couldn`t come to church this week but they said that we could take two of their kids with us. It was the most stressful sacrament meeting that I have ever been to. I got a little taste of what it will be like to be a dad(but 100 times worse because these kids were very uneducated in every way because they come from a VERY humble family). My comp and I both decided that we want about 0 children. I don`t know how our wives are going to take that. Ha ha.

One of the other families that we are working with(the Galdame family) is being really tough with us. They are super evangelical and wanted us to go to visit at least one meeting of their church yesterday. Seeing as there is no rule about visiting the meetings of other churches if they invite you, we went to try it out with the objective that they could soften their hearts to be able to come and just visit our church next Sunday. We went with them and it was a way different experience than that of our church. It was a very big building. They were basically having a testimony meeting(as it would be called in our church), but they would just go up there and sing. We were hoping to hear lots of doctorine so we could compare and contrast with what the Book of Mormon has that the Bible can`t really get across. But the thing was that there wasn`t even really any doctorine. One of the pastor guys turned to some chapter in Matthew and read the ask and you shall receive scripture and promised everyone that whatever thing they asked in the name of Jesus it will be given them. I got a weird headache throughout the whole thing because the drums and other instruments were really loud. I hope that we can have the spirit with us as we talk to Sandra and Juan to be able to express to them what we really felt without offending them or their church. I feel like it was a good experience for our testimonies because we can definitely feel something very different in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. What a great blessing it is to be in Christ`s church.

We have another busy week ahead of us with a couple conferences happening here in San Rafael. To answer a few questions from the fam...As of right now, we don`t have a ward mission leader. He is selected and everything, but he needs the sustaining. His wife came up to us in church yesterday and told us that he is super excited for his calling. Ha ha! I don`t think she understood that you are not supposed to tell anyone until he is sustained in sacrament meeting. That is awesome that Cade is now in the mission field. I can`t believe that it has all happened so fast. I will probably have to send him a quick email. I will be anticipating the mission call of Dill. I`m not a prophet or anything, but Dillon is going to get called to the Argentina, Mendoza mission! That`s great that Dad is starting up the races again. And moving up to Expert category! Keep up the blue ribbon status that you have from last year!
Well, it is time for us to go. Thanks for all the prayers in my part.
Un abracito,
Elder Larisch
La iglesia es verdadera
 E Larisch has talent!!!
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