Sunday, July 14, 2013

¡Dios beniga a América!



Hello!
Another good week in the mission. I was able to do a lot of exchanges this week so I wasn`t way too much time in my area, but we still saw tons of miracles. We went to consejo on Tuesday. It was weird because we didn`t have to go on a long bus ride or anything. We are already just right in Mendoza.

In consejo, my mission president gave us lots of new stuff including the new principal way that we will be teaching the first lesson to potential investigators. The new big thing is doing organized church tours! I have already been doing church tours my whole mission once in a while, but the first presidency following up on the words of Elder Perry in the transmission the other Sunday has sent us a packet that informs and has guidelines for how to carry out an effective church tour. We are going to present it to the zone tomorrow in our zone meeting. I think it will definitely change missionary work here in Argentina. We did practices when president taught it to us and we could feel the spirit super strong and testifying of the things that we do in church and that they are true. Bummer that I won`t get to see much of how it all unfolds seeing that the time is winding down bit by bit here. I talked to Presidente Avila on Tuesday and he told me that you guys sent him the email and that we might as well just change the date back to the 9th of August! Two days less. Oh boy! Hearing that Braiden is already home and that Lexi has her countdown is making me anxious. Ha ha. Only a couple more weeks left! Faa!

It was good to celebrate the 4th of July this week. We found an american flag here in the apartment a couple weeks ago so we were able to do the pledge of allegiance and stuff. God bless America! The 9th of July is Argentine independence day. Should be fun. Too bad they don`t do fireworks because it is too cold.

Doing exchanges this week was pretty awesome! On one of them, I was able to go back to one of my old areas, San Ignacio, where I was for 6 months of my mission! It was way weird to go back there and work again. We did some visits with Bishop Ruiz and his wife and another visit with Bishop`s dad and his wife. Super good visits! Bishop says that I have improved a lot in my teaching from a year ago. Ha Ha. That made me feel good. I could see him being some general authority some day or a mission president just because he is such a stud. His dad invited me over to lunch for the next week. What a boss! We were able to go and pass by Ofelia, one of my converts from that area. She is doing awesome and seemed really happy. She loved the surprise so much that she gifted me a couple jars of jam and a bag of lemons from her huge lemon tree in her backyard to take home. I was able to show the elder I was with tons of old investigators that I taught there so hopefully they can bring them back. In the other exchange, I went with Elder Wahl(my old comp from San Juan) to his area and visited a couple awesome families that just needed a push in the water. Ha ha. The Lucero family has been listening to the missionaries for freaking ever and just keeps saying that he wants to learn more before he wants to get baptized. In the lesson we were able to share a couple important scriptures with him in Mosiah 18 and Alma 34 to get him understanding how he is going to progress in his knowledge and towards salvation. The only way is to get baptized. We got far enough for him and his family(4 in total) to get baptized this next Saturday. Turns out that that night something happened and he told his wife that he didn`t want to get baptized and none of them showed up to church yesterday. Bummer. His wife called the elders crying because she didn`t understand why. Well, I am going with them again tomorrow to see what we can do. The patriarch or the head of the family is usually the hardest one to teach the gospel, but when the spirit touches his heart, he will follow Christ and so will the family.

Well, we had a cool miracle in our area this week. We had a member that just moved here that was living in Maipù for a while pull us over in the road. He said that he was new and they were recently reactivating in the church and they want their son to get baptized. They came to church yesterday and we put a baptismal date with the son for the 20th of this month! I love baptisms! Ha. They look like a way awesome family! Other than them, we are struggling/looking way hard for good, committing investigators to be able to prepare for baptism.

Recently, those words from my mission president have been going through my head of being able to endure to the end of my mission. If I serve a good mission through till the end and then flop and not care about the rules, the dedication will really just be a lie. Strong words, but they help me to obey all of the rules until the last day.

I hope that the fam has a good time in Lake Powell! Send lots of pics next week so I can feel like I went. Ha ha. I can`t believe that you have the flight plans already! 10:21 on the 10th. Flying all night is going to be a killer. I probably won`t even be happy to see all you guys being so tired... Ha ha. Just kiddin. But really, I will probably have to take a nap asap. You making plans to take me to panda express and carls jr and stuff? Ha. I can`t wait to have different food!

Well, anyways, I love you all and hope that everyone has good health and success with the plans this week. Prayin for ya.
Un abrazo,
Elder Larisch
La iglesia es verdadera