Monday, March 11, 2013

Hey y`all

Another tiring week here in San Rafael! Well, I guess it is better that way. We were just everywhere planning a ton for the zone meeting on Tuesday and the zone conference with president on Thursday. It is good to be working very hard, but planning for meetings and stuff is stressful when you have it all in the same week. Oh well. Hey, I hit my 18 month mark this past week! Wow! I cannot believe at all that the time has flown by so flippin fast! We had a little party on Thursday to celebrate after the zone conference. This week I have had some of the highest moments of the mission and some of the lowest.

Well, as I said, I am pretty exhausted from all of the meetings this week. This time around I was very ready for a relaxing P-day. I think today we are actually going to some tenedor libre(buffet) place close by and then going to the stake center to chill. A couple elders wanted to do a ping pong tournament. All of the gringos(north-Americans) in our zone(5 out of 18) are pretty good at pong and a couple of them know how to beat me. So it will be pretty fun. Ha ha. After zone conference I got my first temple recommend interview in Spanish. He also gave me the recommend in Spanish that expires 3 months after the mission. I can`t wait till I get to go and pass through a session at the Buenos Aries Temple(in Spanish) on the way home! Dang, it is a lot tougher working with a comp who is in his last days because he talks about home more. Ha ha. I found a way to put it: I am really excited to go home and get off the mission sometimes just because I miss a lot of stuff(like every missionary does), but I really don`t want to give up being a missionary. These are my last 6 months of the mission though. Like everyone says, this is the best part of your mission and I need to work my butt off. And I will!

On Thursday after zone conference we went over to the other elders` pench and did the 18 month ritual of the burning of the pants. I at no time in the mission planned on doing this because it just seemed dumb. I ended up burning my favorite pants even! The think is that they were just the most worn pants ever. They had gotten holes and I patched them up with pieces of sock material(it was all that I could find! ha ha). And they were just falling apart. But they were the most comfortable. After the burning, we went and got ice cream. The assistants had to stay at our pench for 3 nights straight because they were traveling to and fro from one zone to the other and we just happened to be in the center there.

We have been able to feel the spirit very strong in the lessons and meetings that we have had this week. Friday was actually one of the days that we have been able to see the most miracles. Just back to back the whole day. One of our investigator crazy kids came with us and gave us all of his friends` families as referrals, Leonardo had a crazy experience with the Book of Mormon(he probably had some crazy dream of an angel coming to him to tell him it is true) because he saw a member neighbor and they talked for like an hour but we still don`t know what happened to him because he had to go to Mendoza yesterday for some mechanic job so he wasn`t able to attend church with us, Pedro finally is starting to get a testimony of the Book of Mormon, etc. We just saw a ton of miracles everywhere on Friday. Friday night Elder Barton prophesied the trial of faith that was to come on Saturday...and it sure did. Everything just went wrong...Leonardo went to Mendoza for the weekend, one of our new families lost a lot of interest, and no one was home!!! It was tough, but we got through it. I think we just had to sleep it off that night. This week will definitely be a lot more successful!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LEXI! Que la cumpla feliz, que la cumpla feliz, que la cumpla Luberta, que la cumpla feliz!!! In Argentina it is tradition to cake people in the face so...I did it electronically. It really should be pie though because you were born on pie day. We told the hermana that gives us lunch on Thursday to make us pie...so we`ll see. Enjoy your pizza!

That is awesome that Dillon got his call to Mexico! We will both be spreckin ze spanish juntos! He is going to love the mexican mission! He is going to baptize a TON of people over there. I heard that Mexico is second to only to Utah(Provo) in convert baptisms. So I think he will like that! I also hear that they are focused more on the ´open the mouth´ street contacts there, but I am sure they are slowly changing to working more with refererrals from members. Well cous, I´ll see ya in two and a half more years! Is joshy washy really getting married?? I wanna see a pic! What about Jason? Is he even trying? I can`t believe that dad got a new car!! Just lots of big news today! Send me lots of pics next week when you get it. Is dad going to give me the Altima? Because I would surely accept that gift if it is an offer...just sayin. Yes, I will make you tacos and other Argentine foods when I get home. And yes, I do very much miss baseball and all other sports a lot.

Till next week!
Un abrazo,
Elder Larisch
La iglesia es verdadera
Zone San Rafael