Argentina Mendoza Letter...

Dear Brother and Sister Larisch,

Every missionary is important and I am concerned for each missionary’s progress and well being. I receive weekly letters from every missionary and conduct an interview with them every six weeks. In this way I become familiar with them, but I still need help to know more about their progress and well being. Zone leaders are called to train and direct district leaders for this reason.

I am honored to inform you that Elder Larisch has been called to be a zone leader. I will be working closer with him than before. I will depend on the weekly reports from him to inform me of how each missionary in his zone is doing. Many problems missionaries have are taken care of by the zone leaders. I will make decisions about living quarters, transfers, and other missionary affairs based on the information that your son gives me.

Elder Larisch will conduct zone meetings and conferences as well. Each individual missionary receives from his zone leader guidance, spiritual strength and enthusiasm. Through all of this he is also expected to carry a normal work schedule and set the example. I know your son will grow as he serves the Lord and the missionaries in his zone. I am confident that the Lord will continue to bless you as your son faithfully serves Him.

With love,
President Sergio E. Avila

¡Me Voy!

Hello Everyone!
May or may not have just passed one of the best weeks of the mission! I got lots of news for this email. First off, the wedding and baptism of Kim Jeong Soo and Elisa Castro was freaking awesome! We had lots of people there to support them and took a bunch of pics. They got confirmed yesterday along with Santiago, who we baptized last Sunday. A very good Sacrament meeting! We also received transfers earlier this morning...

That is awesome for Mallory that she is already getting ready for her baptism. I will be looking forward to the 28th of September! I also can`t believe that Cade is already leaving for the mission!!! This Wednesday already! He is going to be an awesome Elder who will use that conversion story to change and bless lives over there in St. Louis. It is awesome to know that there are people waiting for you in your mission already, but it is even more awesome when you can actually meet them! Elder Bullough. It sounds good. I want a big book like Josh has(the one that Cade is looking at in that picture) of the mission!

We have been preparing a lot for the family Kim this week. But we have also got a lot of other good news for our other investigators. Felix and Johana have decided to get married finally and will be getting married on the 22nd and baptized on the 24th of this month! This area is going to be known for the marrying and baptizing area of the mission! Ha. We have also been getting a lot of people to church. We have been having like 5 investigator attendances every Sunday this transfer. Rivadavia is going to be having lots of success this transfer.

The marriage of the Kim family was remarkable! We went to the registro civil at 11:00 and got them married by a member from the other stake who works there. They had lots of people show up. We were like 40 stuffed in that small room with all of us trying to film and take pictures. Right after we took them to a surprise party at the chapel honking the marriage song with the horn the whole way there. I`m surprised we didn`t get pulled over for confusing so many other drivers. Ha. Everyone stayed at the chapel until they got tired of dancing at like 4 or 5(we left earlier because we can`t dance...). The Kim family also had their own party at their house that night because they didn`t know about the surprise party. They are super tired! Ha ha. I don`t know how they were able to get baptized the next day, but somehow they had the energy to continue having a super busy weekend. Tons of people showed up for the baptism also. Our ward mission leader is awesome and prepared everything very well(even brought his big flat-screen tv to watch The Restoration while the couple was dressing after the ordinance) so everything turned out awesome especially because of the food after(essential). The Kim family even woke up early the next morning to come to church early and get confirmed. There is a bit of difference in the schedule of the average korean and argentine. An argentine cannot miss too many siestas in a row. Ha ha.

Well, it is the beginning of a new transfer. I am not going to lie, this transfer flew right by us. I think they go by a lot faster when you are having tons of fun and success and working hard. I am also on the other side of the hump(decension) of the mission so that may also be another variable there... So... do I stay or do I go? ¡Èlder Larisch se va! I am going to leave Rivadavia, and am getting sent back to Mendoza! I am going to a zone called San Raphael in the more southern part of Mendoza. I am also going to be moved up as a zone leader. My comp is going to be Elder Barton. It was pretty crazy because as I was getting the news of the transfers from...Elder Barton, he told me that I was going to be his comp. He has been my zone leader here in Chimbas for the past two transfers and I am now going to be with him over there in San Raphael to wash the area. This will now be my 3rd area that I have washed in the mission. It is going to be awesome! I am not going to lie, this will probably be one of the hardest areas to leave just because I love the people here in Rivadavia so much. The people here have been so great to me and I will surely have contact with them for the rest of the life! I was really hoping to stay here for at least another transfer because 2 transfers is just too little time. I know that the Lord has His hand in His work so He is sending me to San Raphael for a reason.

Finishing my work here in Chimbas Zone I am reminded of one of my favorite chapters of the Book of Mormon, Alma 26. In this chapter, Ammon, one of the most successful missonaries in the whole book, glories the Lord and recounts the success that they have had and the joy that fills their soul. "But Ammon said unto him: I do not aboast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my bjoyis full, yea, my heart is brim with cjoy, and I will rejoice in my God. Yea, I know that I am anothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will bnot boast of myself, but I will cboast of my God, for in hisdstrength I can do all ethings; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever."(Alma 26:11-12). I know that we have been able to witness these miracles here because God has been merciful to us and has heard and answered our heartfelt prayers for these people. "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to aturn back, behold, the Lord bcomforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear withcpatience thine dafflictions, and I will give unto you success."(Alma 26:27) As we have been applying the attributes of Christ, we have been blessed. "And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our ajoy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some. Now behold, we can look forth and see theafruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are bmany; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us."(Alma 26:30-31). I know that these people that we have helped here are going to go out and spread the gospel. Especially Sebastian and Yini Kim within this next year and Kevin Kim in 6 years. I can`t wait until that day when I can give these people a hug in the celestial kingdom and be in the presence of our Heavenly Father with them. That will be the day.

I love everything about this gospel because of the joy that it brings me. I know that complete happiness cannot be found in any other place than in Jesus Christ. I know that He lives and loves us.
Un abrazo,
Elder Larisch
La Iglesia es verdadera

Semana Exitosa (Successful week)

Hey,
How is everyone doing? We had a really good week! We, at the beginning of this past week, thought that we were going to be baptizing 7 people this next weekend. We have been having a lot of success and really being able to see the hand of the Lord in His work lately. I don`t know how much longer I will be spending in this área, but I wouldn`t mind staying here for the rest of my mission. There is still a lot to be done here. We ended this past week with 13 progressing investigators, which is very nice to have! The mission is kind of going downhill right now as a whole with baptisms, but we are trying to keep it up here in Chimbas Zone.

We had a baptism yesterday! A guy named Santiago Calìvar(62) that we have been working with just recently because he moved into our area. He is very converted to the gospel and is going to be a very good addition to this Ward. The baptism was super awesome. Like always, in this Ward there is always a ton of people that show up for the services. He also invited lots of friends and family so we received lots of referrals and will be working with them in the near future.

The awesome news that I have is that the Kim family has a date for the marriage and baptism! This Friday they are going to get married at 11:00 and we are going to throw a huge surprise party with the Ward after at 12:00. They baptism is going to be on Saturday at 7:00. It is going to be a great week for us! We have planned to celebrate a lot with Grido(ice cream).

Today we have planned to go to Zonda again. It is going to be a very hot day so I will make sure to wear some sunscreen. Should be pretty good. Don`t have way too much time so I will write ya next week and be letting you know about all of the big news: marriage, baptisms, transfers, new stories, etc. Hopefully I will be able to send some pics because it has been hard to get them uploaded to send lately. I hope that everyone has a good week!

Un abrazo,
Elder Larisch
La iglestia es verdadera

Ps. I received a Christmas package from omi and opi this week. On the card it says Stephen so I don`t know if it was for me, but we ate all of the goodies in a few seconds. Ha ha. I am not quite sure what the toilet paper is for though… but thank you very mucho omi and opi! I also received the valentines day card from the fam. Thank you very much. I really like the letters a lot from you and the Ward. I love all of you too!

Semana de Milagros (Week of Miracles)

Yes!
What a fun week we have had! One of those weeks where during the week you face a lot of challenges and falls but looking back we have got a lot of stuff looking very good for the rest of the transfer. We are going to be baptizing Santiago this Sunday. Adolfo and Elisa(Flia Kim) are going to get married on the 8th of February and I will be able to see their marriage and baptism! I got reminded of the importance of obedience to the words of living prophets.

I went to Mendoza on Monday and got back on Tuesday in the evening. We basically missed 2 days of work in our area. It is tough to leave investigators like that for so long without any visits. It was really weird traveling solo all the way to Mendoza. I am so used to always being with my comp 24/7 that it doesn´t feel right to be alone. Ha ha. I hope it won´t be too weird when I get home. I may just not ever leave the house. Ha ha. I just had to go and sign a couple papers and do a thumbprint thing and that was it. But something really cool happened on Monday night. The elders from Necochea(another area in my zone) called me and told me that they had good news. A man that has been attending their ward for a long time is moving into our ward boundaries and he wants to get baptized. His name is Santiago(50), we have been meeting with him a bit and preparing him for baptism this Sunday. He is a super cool guy! He works a lot so he can´t get baptized on Saturday, but we are planning on it Sunday after church. We are pretty stoked. It looks like every companionship in the district is going to be baptizing this week.

Another great tender mercy that happened this past week is that we basically secured the marriage and baptism of Elisa and Adolfo(Flia Kim)! We got in contact with another consultant from the registro civil(the place where they can go and take out a turn to get married. I don´t know how to say it in English ..) that is a member from the other stake. Everything as of right now is looking pretty good. We are continually praying for a miracle. We are hoping to see some pictures in white these next few weeks of the transfer.

I told you about the past week about how it rained a ton here in San Juan. Well, it kept raining. The water system in San Juan is very old and needs to be replaced. Because of all of the dirty rain, they stopped all of the water in San Juan for a day to three days(depending on what area you lived in San Juan). Luckily in our apartment it only lasted a day, but many other houses went without for much longer. Now all the members in San Juan realize how important it is to obey the living prophets and have food(water) storage to be ready for whatever disaster or event that comes our way. We are in the latter days so if we want to take the name of the church upon us we need to always be ready for the second coming of our savior.

I´m sorry to hear about the passing away of Chris´s dad. They aren´t members of the church are they? The passing of a death is much harder for those who are not familiar with the plan of salvation. The scriptures are a good way to look for consolation: 1 Cor 15:21-23
21 For since by man came adeath, by man came also thebresurrection of the dead.
22 For as in aAdam all bdie, even so in cChrist shall all be madedalive.
23 But every man in his own aorder: Christ the bfirstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his ccoming.

Thanks to our loving savior Jesus Christ and His atonement for our sins, through Him we will all be made alive. This seems to be a big topic in the mission field because this is one of the big questions of the soul that often gets left unanswered. What happens to us after death? I know that these things are true because I have prayed to know if they are true and I have received my answer. What a blessing it is to know the great mysteries of the plan of happiness.

I love you all and hope that you pass a great week. Make sure you put on a coat over there in your ice storms and stuff.
Un Abracito,
Elder Dev Larisch
La iglesia es verdadera

Lluvia (rain)

¡Hola!
Sounds like everyone has passed another good week over there! I hope it´s not too chilly over there for ya. We passed a pretty good week. It has been raining a lot here this whole past week. It is even raining right now.

Really, this week has been pretty normal, other than that we are improving and meeting many of our goals that we have as a district. Sebastián Kim is doing very well. Yesterday after church he received the Aaronic Priesthood and later that night left with many youth to go to efy. We have been visiting them a lot this past week(not only because they have a new ping pong table) to work closely with Adolfo and Elisa to get them prepared to get married finally. We set goals with them and they should be going today(this morning) to take out a turn. It usually takes about two weeks. I am praying that I can be here for their marriage and baptism! I didn´t realize it earlier, but Elisa´s birthday is also the 17th of January. So we had a little party over there that day. I hope you enjoyed your birthday this week mom. I bet it is really nice to be in St. George during these cold temperatures. Kyle(roommate from Snow) told me that up in Logan it got down to like 27 below zero...okay, I think I am happy here in San Juan. ha ha. Our other investigators are being stubborn and are being very good at frustrating us right now, but we have faith and patience to endure. We are also finding a lot more people to work with so I can still say that we are having a lot of success. It has cooled down here a little bit with the rainfall. I am just scared for when all this stops because the humidity is going to be crazy! I am going down to Mendoza today to do some more stuff for my VISA. Should be fun. Sebastián wanted Élder Crawford to baptize him because he knew him before us. They were the ones that found the Kim family, but then they found out that they belonged to our ward after a bit. I am planning on baptizing the parents though. Ha ha. Well, that is about it for this week. Sorry for the short letter this week. See ya next week!
Un abrazo,
Elder Larisch
La iglesia es verdadera

Bautismo...

Hello!
Greetings from Argentina once again. We had a pretty good week. The best news is that Sebastiàn Kim got baptized on Saturday! We also had our long-awaited interviews with Presidente Àvila. We have been eating way too many sweets lately so I am wanting to start a diet. It is still super hot here, and getting hotter. And it is my mothers birthday this week!

Yep, everything went very very well with the baptism this weekend! Sebastiàn Kim got baptized without problem and it was one of the best baptismal services that I have seen. He had many friends and family and fellow members come and attend the service. I think we had about 50 to 60 people there(which is a ton here in Argentina). He was really happy and is pretty stoked to go to efy this next week. Well, and the parents of the Kim family(Adolfo and Elisa Castro), are still pending on their marriage. It is true what you say mom, that it is difficult to work so hard to be God`s tool of the saving of a soul, but you may not be there to see the fruits of your labors. Even though I want to be able to say that I married them and baptized them, it has come to a point where it doesn`t even matter anymore. I see them as God`s elect just standing in front of the waters of baptism with a wall in front of the font. I just want them to be able to understand the importance of not putting off their repentance because the enemy is just going to keep telling them to not worry because they have plenty of time. They just need to get baptized. Same with the other couples that we are working with. The girl in one of them is now in the hospital today expecting her baby any moment. The other couple consists of a 16 year old(Emanuel) who has been coming to church for months without missing a Sunday. He was found by the anterior elders here. He comes from a family of the Jehovah `s Witnesses religion. His girlfriend is a member in the ward. His parents kicked him out of the house because his girlfriend is expecting a baby and they are not married. He is working things out so he can move in and have his girlfriend`s dad be his legal guardian or something like that and then they can get married. A bit complicated, but possible. Ha.

We had interviews with Presidente on Thursday. It went great as usual. An opportunity to talk with that man one on one is a pretty cool experience alone. At least I walk out of the interview feeling real good about myself. We went and ate at McDonalds for lunch. It had been a long time since my last McDonalds. Didn`t really miss it anyways. Ha. But what I did enjoy was an ice cream from Freddo, a gourmet ice cream parlor(expensive, so that will probably be the first and last time). It was delicious. Since E` Correa has been my comp, we have been eating a ton of ice cream! Just about every day. He is a great guy and all, but just being a little rough on the diet. I need a little bit more self-control. I made eggnog again this week. It always turns out so good! I should probably watch myself on that too.

It is still SUPER hot here in San Juan. Even though it stormed pretty bad last night, rain just increases the heat the next day here. I guess we are both stuck in the extremes. I could use -1 degrees once in a while here too. I am starting to bathe myself 2-3 times a day now. Ha ha.

Don`t think that I would ever forget your birthday mother! HAPPY BIRTHDAY It took me a little while, but I made you a special cake even with some utensils to eat with. I would sing you Feliz Cumpleaños in Spanish. Over the computer will have to do for this year until next year when I can sing to you in the house. Be sure to send me pics of all your gifts.

Spiritual Thought: I don`t know why I haven`t been giving you all spritual feasts with my Book of Mormon reading challenge that we are doing now in the mission. Presidente Âvila gave us all a new Book of Mormon with a pencil and a bookmark with the challenge to read it in 66 days. Even though it takes up all the time in my personal studies every day and I have other things I want to study, I have been enriched with the clear teachings of the prophets of the Book of Mormon. We are now in Mosìah. I passed the scripture mastery scripture this morning in Mosìah 4:30. I also have the new CES devotional of President Utchdorf playing while I am writing. He speaks of truth and the importance of it. The truth is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This scripture in Mosìah teaches us to watch ourselves or in other words look in the mirror to see if we are really in the truth, to see if we are really watching our thoughts and our words and our works. Confirm your own testimony of the truth, and if you don`t have one of your own yet. Get one! God is our loving heavenly father and I know that He restored the truth to us in these latter days through the prophet Joseph Smith so that we can ultimately return back to His presence. I love being a proclaimer of the truth.

Have a great week!
Un abrazo,
Elder Larisch
La iglesia es verdadera

Sebastiàn Kim"s baptism

La Familia Kim...

Hello!
I very much enjoyed looking at those pictures of the four-wheeler in the snow in front of the house. I used my imagination to make myself there for a moment making snow angels and stuff. It is getting pretty tough to keep a shirt white here in a San Juan January. We passed the New Years a lot better than we did Christmas this year. Transfers went well. More or less rough work week, but it is looking good for this week!

My new comp is a boss! E` Correa is from a department called La Matanza in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His family consists of four(2 parents, him, older sister). He is 19 years old and has now almost 5 months in the mission. He is from the same group as my kid(E` Johnson) as well as E` Egbert. I don`t know why Presidente is putting me with all of these youngins. Everything happens for a reason though. E` Correa came from Godoy Cruz, Mendoza, where he started the mission. He is a hard worker and very obedient missionary. We are lookin forward to having a great transfer.

New years was spent at the Kim Family`s house this year. We went over there pretty early and hung out with Kevin, Sebastiàn, and Yini, playing UNO for a while while papa Kim was preparing the beautiful asado. He always prepares it Korean style with the sweet meat and rice with a salsa picante. I like it a lot. Fireworks were a little better than Christmas mainly because there wasn`t any wind to stop these argentines from lighting them off. Hermano Kim took us home at midnight and from then on, we hung out with a couple other elders in the pench for a while playin cards and crackin jokes. We hung out in the institute the whole next day starving because nothing was open and we had nothing in the pench to eat. Neither were there any buses on the 1st so we had to be hungry the whole day while scavenging for whatever candy was left from our packages. Ha ha. Man, I guess the holidays were good because it helped me appreciate even more being a working missionary. So much hanging out made me never want to play cards again. Ha. It is an interesting concept(that of doing something unproductive repeatedly for the space of many hours or days), but I do not recommend it.

It was kind of a rough work week not being able to get way too much done with the fiestas and transfers, but we do have some awesome news. Sebastiàn is for sure getting baptized this Saturday as well as all set up for efy in Còrdoba on the 21st of this month. He really wants to get baptized this Saturday, but he still says that he doubts once in a while that God really exists. Because really anything about religion was hard for him to grasp his whole life(his dad was buddhist and the rest of the family has been searching for a while, especially Yini, who spent a long time investigating the Testigos de Jehovà(Jehovas Witnesses)). But now, because the family is doing so good in the church, he sees their example and wants to be like them. We are praying a lot for this guy right now. We also fasted yesterday for another couple that we are working with closely, the De Los Rìos Family(Johana and Felix). We were able to put a marriage date for March(I may not be here then, we are trying to move it up because we know that they don`t need to wait for anything really to get married. We like to call ourselves "The Casadores""(The marryers), so lets hope that we can have success with some of these couples here in Rivadavia.

Everything is going well here. I send a hello once again to all those northamericans up there freezin their noses off.
Un abrazo,
Elder Dev Larisch
La iglesia es verdadera

Fernando la Largartija

Stache-Fest