Las frutas del bautismo

Hey There!
How is everyone? I don´t have the same keyboard as last time that seemed to be a bit troublesome, but this one also has some defects...

We had a super good week this week! I am not sure if I told you this week or if we were super sure that it was going to happen, but we had a baptism this past Saturday! Chiquita(Urbelina Cataldo) a friend of a member, we were able to progress a bit faster than we thought with her and she accepted to move her baptismal date up a bit. She was so ready and she had an experience that she will never be able to forget even if she tried. We had the husband of the member that befriended her and brought her the gospel to baptize her. Another cold water baptism, because the dang callafone things never work or there isn´t gas to heat up the water. At least I didn´t have to get in it this time...jaja. We have finally come to a conclusion with what is going to happen with Agustín and his padrastro(step father) Geronimo. We have been working with him a ton and trying to get the gospel into that man´s life. He has multiple bunches of problems in his life that all develop from his depression and nervousness, and with revelation that we have received from praying and fasting, we were able to ask him what he really wanted. From a bunch of other details, we concluded that we will be baptizing Agustín this next Saturday and work with Geronimo throughout the next few weeks. All of you prayerful people should probably at least say one prayer for Geronimo so that he can get baptized and receive the holy ghost in his life, because I know that there is nothing he needs more. One thing that I think is really cool is that most of our other investigators right now are men and future holders of the priesthood. Argentine men are no easy thing to teach, they are a lot harder to get to their spiritual side(that is why, as you can see, we have been stickin a bit to the older señoras and young kids), but when you can baptize an Argentine man...kudos to those missionaries. In the future, these men that we are working with will get in those waters and make those covenants!

We had a fun noche de talentos(talent night) activity this past Friday(yeah, I know we had a ton of stuff going on this past weekend). I´ll see if I can attach some pics or even better a few vids. We had Irma show up, who is an investigator who always has to spend time and care for her super old mother who is going to kick the bucket any minute now. The whole Villegas family(Agustín and Geronimo) came including the older brothers who have been super inactive for years now and disincluding Geronimo...ugh. The bishop gave us a little time to squeeze in for the last 20 minutes of the activity to share a bit of a spiritual thought related to the missionary work. It all went good.

Got a few goods to tell all yall. Especially you, mom. I believe you requested a pair of toms and basically gave it to me as a goal of my mission to find some for you. I have some good news...I don´t know if you are familiar with shoes brand called Alpargatas, nope you´re not because they are Argentine and Argentine only. I don´t think there is a single person here in Mendoza who doesn´t have at least one pair of Alpargatas. I´m pretty sure they are just like the Toms. They are super cheap and Chiquita, the lady we baptized said that she would make us a few pairs. Like 6 or 12...jaja. Why not¿ There is an Alpargata factory somewhere in Centro and she said they have like every type of material that they can make them out of, even courdoroy and denim and anything else...So family, if this would please you I could probably get a pair for ya. You would have to convert your norteamericano shoe size to an argentino shoe size(see if you can do it through the internet or something) and give me a material request and I´ll see if they have it. No promises with anything though. At this moment of time, I am also getting made cool leather scripture cases with a guy in our stake. There is another man/company in Córdoba who does them super good(with whatever picture on them and stuff), but is going on a mission and will only be accepting orders till the last day of March(this month). I was hoping I could wait till later in my mission, because I wanted one for my English scripture quad also but it doesn´t look like I can wait. It may be possible that I could get a few more for your quads also if you want. It costs like 200 pesos(little less than 50 bucks) for each quad case. It is 150 pesos for this guy that is doing mine right now, but it is a little less quality. I don´t know if any of this interests you at all, but if you are interested send me the pictures that you would want on the front and back and any other writing that you would want on it in the next email. I should have pictures to send you when I get mine this week. It´s gonna be sweet!

We had a couple little terremotos(earthquakes) this week. I still don´t believe it because I didn´t feel anything, but everyone says that they happened. We have developed a new hobby of pretending to skateboard as we are balancing in the middle of the collectivos(buses) while not holding on to anything. It´s pretty fun I guess.

We have plans today to go to a Bodega(Wine Factory). Should be pretty fun. Last week we walked and walked and walked to a museum that was closed in the parque San Martin. Other things we still have to do here are go to a really good restaurante called Tinacas, go to the Aquarium, and to the Alpargata factory.

Oh yeah, and for the first time in Argentina I saw a Schnauzer like Maggie. I was happy to see it so I ran up to it and tried to pet it behind a fence. It almost bit my hand off( it wasn´t a mini schauzer) so I don´t like it anymore.

Thanks for all of the sweet pics from YC. It looks like it went fantastic and Dad was able to make Germany proud with the use of his outfit again. That is awesome that most of the family got to be involved with this YC. I bet the spirit was just as strong as it was a couple years ago with the old group of priests.

Keep studying the Gospel, especially as a family(scripture study and FHE). It is amazing what a difference it can make with family unity. I´ve seen plenty of examples here in the mision and I have been able to testify to them of it because we did well with it at home. Keep it up.

Thanks for the email. I love reading them every week and looking at the pictures.
Spiritual Thought.

For the activity that we did last Friday, we were able to teach the ward a program called Apaciente mis ovejas which explains what the role of the missionaries is in missionary work, and what is the role of members in missionary work. It outlines it simply:
1. Members: FIND
2. Missionaries: TEACH
3. Members: BEFRIEND
4. Missionaries: BAPTIZE
It is basically telling the members that they should not be teaching the lessons to the investigators, but they should just be super good friends with them(Christlike charity) and share the strongest tool that they have, their testimony.

Signing out as,

Elder Deven Larisch
¡Love you all and keep prayin for those missionaries!

La Iglesia es verdadera

Happy 6 Months to me this week! I can´t believe time has come and by so fast. Good thing I still have a bunch of time left!

Deven thought these dirt tennis courts were cool!

A package of PEANUT BUTTER!!

The baptism of Urbelina Cataldo. I think Deven has grown a foot or three...

THIRSTY!!

El poder del espíritu en los demás (The power of the spirit in others)

¡Howdy!

¿How´s it going in the States?  It is starting to cool down a bit down south...kinda.

The keyboard that I am using right now has a very small backspace buttome, so if there are calereless typos, just continue raeding and enjoy.

This was a very good week for us here in San Ignacio.  Our investigators that are progressing the most are doing very well!  Chiquita, is going to get baptized on the 10th of March.  We were able to teach the Principios del Evangelio class in church yesterday and so we took advantage and taught her the Plan of Salvation which was the last lesson we needed to teach her.  Daniel(29) we think is a hard core coffee addict...he talks and talks and talks at about 76 mph "sin cesar".  But he likes the churchs´ websites and spends a lot of time on that, so he knows a lot.  We are hoping to get a baptism lined up for him soon also.  Agustín Villegas(10) was supposed to get baptized on Saturday...but unfortunately...and fortunately we chose to wait.  I know, you are worried right now, but just wait till the next sentence.  When Elder Arnold came and visited his family with the Bishop and Stake pres, they were able to talk to Geronimo Guiñazú, Agustín´s stepfather, and bring up the option of Geronimo getting baptized and having the opportunity to receive the priesthood right after the baptism and getting to baptize Agustín.  All that is against what it tells us in Preach My Gospel, but a general authority overrides that manual when he feels so prompted by the spirit.  We weren´t able to meet up with Geronimo until Saturday night for a Noche de Hogar(FHE) because he has been really sick.  We watched the Testaments and he started feeling the spirit a little, but didn´t quite have the nerve to tell us too much of his feelings because he is a bit timid.  We had a really really good lesson with him yesterday night where we got the opportunity to just talk to him and his wife(who we just reactivated recently and has a super strong testimony).  We came in with the want to be a bit more bold and talk to him about what he had talked to Elder Arnold about last week.  Let´s just say that that lesson last night changed that man´s life in every way. There is a power that comes with the spirit when we have the right atmosphere to talk about eternal families.  He also opened up to us enough to agree to receive a priesthood blessing, which was just the topping of the truth that he didn´t even know that he was searching for.  We commited him to pray and ask if baptism in this church is the right path for him.  But if he didn´t have a change of heart last night, I don´t know what else would do it.  

¡The mission is Awesome!

Everything else is going pretty well here.  Elder Wixom´s thumb is doing okay.  He had a couple stitches fall out before they were supposed to, but all is good.  We also had some really good doors slammed in the face this past week and Elder Wixom even got spat on by some rotten adolescent on his bike.  I don´t know how it is for a lot of missionaries, but sometimes I enjoy a bit of minor persecution.  I remeber reading a scripture this week that talked about how we should rejoice if we are getting persecution while wearing the name of Christ upon us.  That is really how Christ lived his whole life.  That is one of the things that makes the mission so unique, because there is no other way you can experience these things except on the mission.  But really, every member of the church has made covenants with the Lord to take his name upon us every week.  And if we do that, He promises us that we will have His spirit to be with us.  So represent Him well at all times, in all things, and in all places.  "May the Spirit be with you"

Saludos a toda mis amados y mis amigos en una tierra muy alejado.  Espero que todos estén sanos y bien.  Gracias por todo el apoyo y las oraciones por los misioneros que toman sobre sí el nombre de Jesucristo.  Continúen a mantenernos en sus oraciones.(Greetings to all my beloved and my friends in a land far away. I hope you are all healthy and well. Thank you for all the support and the prayers for missionaries who take on the name of Jesus Christ. Continue to keep us in your prayers.)

Con Cariño, 

Elder Larisch

¡La Iglesia es Verdadera!

"¡Me corté el dedo!"(Two thumbs way up)

Hey there!
Well, got some bad news and also some super good news. As it always happens, I will start off with the bad news and move to the good: I cannot take much time for the email this week, but I have super good stuff that is all awesome.
First it would be very appropriate to give you the deets and fill ya in on all the Investigators. Agustín Villegas(10) was supposed to get baptized this Sat the 25th, but something even better happened. It just so came to pass that the Presidency of the Area of South America South came and visited specific less actives in our area(Elder Arnold, Elder Aidukaites, and I can´t remember the 2nd Counselor). But they talked to Agustín´s papa and it turns out that they commited him to baptism. With the authority that Elder Arnold has, he has given us the go to baptize the papa Villegas after he attends church twice, then give him the priesthood, then he can baptize his son. Super cool huh? Our manual, preach my gospel says that we should definitely not do that, but we have had a rule breaker with Elder Arnold. We also have a few other way good investigators that are moving on their way to baptism. There is one that we call Chiquita, we don´t really know her real name, that is super prepared and super nice! She even said that she would make me a pair of auporgatas(I think that´s how you spell it. They are like the most popular type of comfort shoes here in Mendoza. Probably even better than Toms...mom). There are a few more awesome people that we are teaching, hopefully I will be able to forward the info next week.
Today, my comp cut his thumb open...ha. So we had to go to the offices, who sent us to the hospital(first time in an Argentine hospital, and don´t ever want to go back...ha ha.). He had to get a few good stitches. Sounds like fun. Also when we were at the offices I was able to receive the best package ever from the family. I havent gotten to look at all of it yet, but from what I have seen, I am thoroughly impressed and will be happy for a long time. Much gratitude is sent to my home. Love you family! You are all the best!

Con cariño,
Elder Larisch
La Iglesia es verdadera!

Milagros(miracles) en San Ignacio

Good Day!

I am just going to acknowlege this right now as I am starting that I don´t have much time because I got caught up in putting pictures up for all yall. I know, I don´t have any pictures of my compañero yet. I will make sure we get some of that next week. I live in a pension of 4 Elders right now. Me, Elder Wixom, Elder Leany, and Elder Daybell. Riverton, St. George, Kearns, and Virginia, respectively. They are all awesome Elders and I am definitely seeing a change in the work because they all have super good attitudes of the work.

Ah man, this week was super good and I super wish that I could just share every bit of it with you because we have seen so many miracles! Most of them take place in the streets when we do our "abre la bocas"(open the mouth, the expectations are that we get 10 a day for each elder in the companionship). We don´t ride bikes anymore( Colonia Bombal is the only area in the mission that is permitted to have bikes) so it is a lot easier to do our ALB´s, and it sure brings a lot of success when you can master those. It has sure been a testimony boost when you see the results of exact obedience. Elder Wixom is the biggest capo(stud) and teaches me so much! He has been out for like 10 months.

That is way cool to see that letter from Elder Hudgen´s mom. That is way nice that she would say that. Elder Hudgens and I got along very well and we both taught each other a bundle of things no doubt. He will definitely be one that I keep in touch with, if not good friends after the mish.


I have not yet received a package. I really like Mallory´s picture that she drew. Ha ha. You should keep doing that, I love seeing visuals from the family and friends. Ha. I am glad she is getting better and I will make sure to pray specfically for Pops so he can get better.

Thanks for everything! Keep the prayers coming this way and Ill make sure that they are going your way also. Love you!

Elder Larisch

La Iglesia es Verdadera!

The district that I left behind in Colonia Bombal...

The stud companion(trainer) E. Hudgens and the pension that I left behind...

First Buzz cut ever!!!  Aunt Kim I had too... cause it is stinkin hot here!!

This shows just how stinkin hot it is here!!  Kinda gross!!  Ha 
How many more days till winter??

Con Cariño,

A proud day for Elder Larisch's Mom!!

When I got the mail today, there was a letter from Deven's trainer Elder Hudgens MOM!!  She was so sweet to write our family a note telling us how much her son enjoyed being companions with Deven, and thanking us for raising such a fine young man...I cried just a bit ( OK a lot)!!  She made my day and I thank her for taking the time to write us...she also has an amazing son which Deven learned so much from!!  Heavenly Father sends people into our lives exactly when we need them the most!!  Here are copies of the letter and the emails that she sent us...click on the picture and they will be easier to read...

Hey there loved ones,

My new comp is called Elder Wixom, not Wilson.  I heard the name wrong.  He was E´ Squires´ trainer from the last area!(remember my companion from the MTC) Fun eh? He is a really good missionary and I am sure that I will learn many new things from him this transfer.
Before I start about anything else, I just had a pretty cool moment here. When I was back in the Riverton Farms Ward a few months ago, around the time when I got my mission call. I met a missionary in the Reunión Sacramental called E´ Tinoco. He was called to Mendoza but he was waiting for his visa and serving in our ward. He even remembers the family a bit and a lot of the ward. He taught Cody Baker, Jason Hill´s friend. Well, odd enough I am sitting right next to him right now in the Ciber. He recognized my last name. Fun eh?

So you may want to know how the new area is and all the deets within. Well, I have already given you a moderately thorough description of my new comp. So I´ll just describe the area. Godoy Cruz is a great zone. My area is called San Ignacio. It is very much smaller than my last and has a lot more in it. The ward is very amazing. They have a new bishop and he is just a stud who will be very awesome to work with. It is kinda weird, because we have to share this area with a companionship that work in the offices. So what is basically happening is that the mission just threw my new comp and I here because a lot of new missionaries came this transfer and not enough left. Ha. So it is my second experience with "washing" an area. But this one is to the extreme. Ha. The definition of washing is just two missionaries arriving in the area at the same time, because it usually happens that one stays in the area every transfer. This time we don´t have anything to work with so we have to go find everything ourselves. We have been in the streets a lot trying to talk to a bunch of people. It is such a small area that is seems like everyone has already chatted with the misioneros before. We have a couple that could be pretty good though. And with the ward helping us, we are going to have bundles of success here!

We have a disabled pet dog(not really a pet, most dogs here are territorial and come by the house a lot) whose name is Jalepeño and always looks like he is pooping. His legs must be some sort of paralyzed or something because it is definitely not normal. He is really nice though and likes hard bread.

Right now, we are sitting in a ciber in the mall. I´m pretty sure this room is used for a club every night. Ha. They just barely started blasting Party Rock by LMFAO and the lights are flashing and stuff. I think they really want me to get up and dance, but I will refrain. Ha.

Thanks for the pics. Ha. I really liked the cartoon and mallory´s pic of her squinkies. I´ve never heard of those, but they sound like fun.

So the Giants won the Superbowl this year eh?

That sounds pretty fun that it was a poopy week. I hope everything gets better with all of the season sicknesses. Ill make sure to keep you in my prayers.

I´ll have to ask some people about this parade thing. It sounds like it would be pretty fun. I don´t have too much more time to write because these computers countdown with time and Ive only got a bit left.

Thanks for sending the package. I got mail from a kim, the tophams, and a few other friends this past week because we have visited the office a few times because we are really close to it now. They did not have a package there when I passed by on friday. Hopefully it comes soon. How did you find a Lower Lights CD? Ha. What else is in the package?

My eyes have been starting to hurt a little bit lately. It has been harder to wear the contacts without them irritating me pretty bad. I wear my glasses more than usual. Because of that, a lot of the members in my last ward called me Clark Kent. Ha ha.

I don´t have time to send any pictures today. Next week will be a ton hopefully.

Thanks for everything!

Love you all!

Cariño,

Elder Larisch

La Iglesia es verdadera!

¡Me Voy! (I'm going)

Hooooola
Amados míos,(my dear friends),

Well when the six week period ends in the mission, it feels like just a little touch of Christmas each time. Transfers is like a gift that you have to wait to open until a certain time. I just barely got the news from the line of leadership. We are actually with our District Leader right now so he was able to tell us right when the Zone Leaders called him. It turns out that I will be the only one leaving in our district! The new area that I will be going to is in the zone of Godoy Cruz(definitely more of a city area), where the mission offices are, and the area is called something along the lines of San Ignacio, but Elder Hansen(district leader) said the phone was cutting out a bit so it was hard to understand. I am pretty stoked to go and experience a new area, meet new people, and have a new companion(not that I´m getting sick of Elder Hudgens...ha ha. Nah, we get along great) whose name seems to be Elder Wilson. No one in the District knows who he is so I guess I will have to give you the profile next week. I am also pretty bummed though because we were getting to know our area so well and have some really good new investigators, but "I´ll go where you(the Lord) wants me to go." I will be moving Wednesday of this week. Transfers are fun.

Oh yeah, and a big bummer is that my comp forgot his camera cord so I will not be sending you any super good pictures this week. But no worries, we are going to work something out so that he will be able to send me a flash drive or something through the mission. This week we have taken many good pictures at church with all the members and stuff. They are some of my favorites so far...so be ready for something real good coming your way sometime soon!

Some not so good news will be that we did not get the chance to baptize Sol this past weekend because it is too soon for the family. Some of our more progressed investigators, or otherwise known as older investigators that we have had, are not quite progressing as fast as we need them to. We are starting to just kind of start off new with our good new investigators that we have adquired. Hopefully my comp and his new companion will be able to work miracles when I leave. The last couple days we have had to go despedir(say good-by) to a lot of the members that we are closer to. We weren´t able to tell them who was going to be leaving, but we basically both had to say goodbye just in case. Ha. Those were pretty hard(emotionally), especially for Lucía. She said that she will always know us as her niños and ángeles. It is really cool how close you can get to the ward here because they are a bit smaller than back at home. I don´t remember seeing the Elders very much working in our ward. It is a blessing to me that I can have so much love coming from this ward. I hope the new ward in Godoy Cruz will be just as good as Colonia Bombal.

To mom: Well, the sweat stain picture was not mine. It was from E´ Hudgens, but I just threw it on because I thought you would like it. But...this week the same thing if not worse happened to me. Ha ha. It is pretty disgusting. There is definitely a need to wash our clothes a lot, but to be honest there isn´t really too much of a way that I can wash as much as my clothes need it. Tell Grandpa he doesn´t have to send more money. Ha. Oh yeah, and about money. I took 200 Argentine pesos out of the ATM last Saturday from my Cyprus card just in case you would want to know. I don´t have much money at this end of the month because I have had to pay a bunch for bike fixes and still haven´t gotten reimbursed from the mission offices, so I had to pull a bit out of my own account. I went to try and look at how much was left in the account on the card today and for some reason it says that the checking and savings accounts are both empty. So, you may wanna check that out somehow. That´s not fun that everyone has been sick at the house, I hope everyone can get back to feeling good as new as fast as possible. I will be sure pray for good health for the fam. I can´t believe Luberta is already in drivers ed. Make sure you teach her that you are supposed to speed up when you see a yellow light!

Tell Mallory that Ailín really likes to read. She always pulls out her favorite books when I come over for Tuesday lunch and I help her read Ruana La Rana(Ruana the frog). Ha ha. I won´t be in this area when I get your package, but I´m sure there will be a plethora of little children who would love to receive candy bracelets that Mallory picked out.

Here, they have a fair every tuesday, thursday and saturday. We go every saturday to eat with one of the members in their stall that they have. Mmm, empanadas...

I really like that your lesson was focused on the small things in life. Alma 37:6-7 was one of the first scriptures that I chose to memorize in Spanish. That really is true that the small things in life are what turn out to be the big things. There are so many ways that that scripture can relate to us. Thanks for that little thought. Yesterday in church, the Principios de Evangelio teacher didn´t show up so we got to teach the class. The section was labeled Sacrifice. We had some really good discussions about how much it is worth sacrificing things to receive blessings. At the heart of sacrifice comes trust in the Lord. There are many examples of ways that we are asked to sacrifice in this life; our time, talents, and worldly possesions, to name a few. For example the law of the tithe asks us for a tenth of our income, and with that often comes challenges. A tenth of our income is no small bit of pocketchange, and it can sometimes appear that how the world runs economically today, it just cannot be done. I know for myself though, that as long as we pay a full tithe we will be blessed, whether it be spiritually or temporally. Sacrifice takes trust and faith to look into the future in the Lords hands.

Here, we have not had that many chances to do service for people. That is one thing that we surely could improve on, because it is always a great way to find new investigators. But I definitely can agree with the part about inviting non-members to activities of the church. The biggest thing in our ward now is fútbol every Miércoles en la noche. Non-members always feel much more comfortable coming to church when they already know some of the members. That is where the job of the members comes in. If the members are good and befriend the new one, it is surely going to have a very good outcome. It is like we are slowly handing them over to the ward, the only thing they need to pass through is the waters of baptism.

Don´t feel bad about the long letters. I like hearing as much as you can tell me about whats going on at home. Ha. Sorry that this one isn´t very organized. I should start outlining it or something on the collectivo so that you will be able to follow better.

Thanks for all of your prayers. I know that there are so many prayers worldwide for all us missionaries. I´m pretty sure that all of your prayers work just like fuel for a car, so just make sure you always keep filling up our tanks! :) *I don´t do smiley faces that often, so enjoy this one. Love you all!!!!
Con mucho amor,
Yours truly,
Sincerely from the deepest of my heart,
Elder Dev Larisch

La Iglesia es verdadera!
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
This means that the church is true!

The biggest dog ever!

Dad is this helmut safe??

Sweat marks...Deven said his were worse!!

Couple missionaries are awesome!!

Elder Hudgens birthday cake...I love the expression of the sisters in the back..
Deven said she always makes a cake for the Elders birthdays!!

Cheers to the New Year

New Years celebration at a members home...