Week #18

Hola Familia!

 

This week in church was great for several reasons. First, Martín passed the Sacrament. It was a sweet moment to see him worthily and happily pass the Sacrament. It was a sweet spiritual moment for me when he passed it to me. The Spirit was incredibly strong and I´ll never forget it. 

 

Also, Cejas received the Priesthood. What a miracle. He´s had two brain attacks, but he´s really starting to understand the spiritual things in life. That´s the most important. He told Elder White and I that he wants to come to Utah when we both return home and he wants to take a picture with us at every temple in Utah. He told us that he wants to do this and then die after. The way he said it was pretty funny. Cejas has turned into our grandpa haha. My Argentino Grandpa. We learned that he was a captain for a boat and so he travelled to the New York and New Orleans several times. After church, he went and ate at a restaurant. hahaha. We had to reteach him the Sabbath Day. I think (hope) that he gets it now. Thank goodness for the Atonement right? But the Truth is that he´s changing and becoming better everyday. He even invited his friend, Gladys, to his house and we taught her and she wants to be baptized in a few weeks. He´s a missionary too!! Martín and Cejas are preparing to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood in 3 weeks. What a blessing it´s been to watch them! The changes that have happened in our ward have been tremendous and the Lord´s hand is right in the middle of it... like ALWAYS. Seeing the miracles is one of the tender mercies of being a missionary!

 

And for something I noticed the other day in the wind of Mar del Plata was an ant on the sidewalk. The Lord teaches us things in crazy ways sometimes. But the ant was walking and then the wind would blow it back, then it would walk a little, then it would blow it back. The ant would walk some more (but this time in a different direction because it didn´t know which way it was facing). The ant was getting nowhere. Then I saw a rock. A little rock, but still a rock. It was solid and immovable. Helaman 5:12 came to my mind. I thought about how much we need to build our foundation and our lives upon Our Rock, even Jesus Christ. We are promised that we won´t be guided astray. We won´t be tossed by the winds of Satan and confused about where we´re going in life. 

 

We know where we´re going. We´re going back to live with our Father in Heaven, who misses us and loves us so much. I´m blessed as a missionary to represent our Savior Jesus Christ and I challenge each of you to help someone build their life even more on the rock of Christ. He IS the way back to Heavenly Father. I know it with all my heart.

 

I love you all and Happy Halloween! (I don´t think they celebrate it here haha)

 

Love, Elder Bosco II

Week #17

Happy Mother´s Day!!

I know that sounds a little weird, but Argentina celebrates El Día de la Madre in October. So Elder White and I sang I Need Thee Every Hour and we recorded it so we could send it home. I really hope it sends home. I´ll try after I write this letter. But what a great week on the mission. We had interviews this week with President Parreño and Hermana Parreño talked to us. It was a great experience and I´ll tell you more about what I learned later in this letter.

It´s starting to get warmer, but the temperature changes every other day to really hot to windy and a little chilly. It´s because we´re by the Ocean. But to be honest, most of the time the temperature is fresh. But yes, it´s getting warmer and it´s very humid haha.

But great news! Martín received the gift of the Holy Ghost (there were 5 confirmations in our ward this week. It was incredible) and Elder White and I had the opportunity to stand in the circle during Sacrament Meeting to confirm him a member of the church! Also, Martín received the Aaronic Priesthood and was ordained to the office of Priest. The blessings that he received were incredible and I felt how powerful of a missionary that Martín is going to be. In November, the goal is that he´ll become an Elder and receive the Melcezedek Priesthood. If his schedule works out, he´s going to do baptisms for the dead in a month or so in the Buenos Aires Temple. And he is planning on leaving on a mission in a year and a half or so. He says he wants to prepare as much as he can before he leaves. But the truth is, he´s already ready. Martín is incredible and he has the faith that one day his family will join. He´s incredible.

President Parreño taught me a lot during the interview. He asked me if I had any questions and I asked him how I could focus myself even more on the mission. I´m focused on the mission, but I know and understand now that the more focused I am on the mission, the happier I´ll be. And with other things in life, with focus comes success. It´s the same with a calling in the church, with a family, with sports. Focus is key. He turned to the mission manual and shared with me a part about our covenants. He told me that if I always have my covenants in the front of my mind, I´m going to be focused. So I began to think about that. It´s so true. We are a covenant people of the Lord. 

I began to think of the things that I´ve promised to Heavenly Father and the things that He´s promised in return. And I couldn´t help but smile because the blessings are incredible with the foremost blessing being that I can live with HIm, Jesus Christ, and my family forever. So it´s something that I´m doing on the mission right now. Focus on the covenants. And I challenge everyone else to do the same. Always remember your covenants and make decisions that are in accordance with your covenants. The covenants as a baptized member of the church, as a Priesthood Holder, as an endowed member of the church in the Lord´s House. These covenants give us power and protect us from the destructive ways of the Devil. I have a testimony of this more than every on the mission. It gives me great peace knowing that the power of God can always be with us as we are obedient to our covenants.

I love you all so much and I´m so grateful for your love and support. And Happy Mother´s Day! It was nice to reflect on my mom. Who, like the stripling warriors of Helaman, gave everything they had to their mothers. I can honestly say that I am the person I am today only because of my mom. She has shown me how to be more Christ-like than any other person in the world. I thank you mom for everything and I hope to be half the disciple of Christ that you are. I love you so much!

Love Elder Bosco


Elder Bosco and Elder White singing "I Need Thee Every Hour" in Spanish. Elder Bosco is singing the second verse and Elder White is the harmony on the Chorus.

Week #16

Hola familia!

This week was incredible. MARTIN WAS BAPTIZED!!! What a miracle. He loves the gospel and he knows with all his heart that it´s true. He is so grateful that he received it even though his family is against it. He wants to serve a mission and he finishes high school in December. So next October he could leave! I´m so excited for him and to see the people that he touches. He goes to seminary now and he loves every minute of it. Especially because they´re studying the Book of Mormon and he doesn´t get to read it at home because it´s uncomfortable in front of his family. He truly is incredible. 

 

I´m SO happy for him. During the Sacrament Meeting, they announced that he was getting baptized and that he will be a priesthood holder and a missionary in the future. He put his arm around me, smiled, and said ¨Gracias a Bosco¨. I was humbled by that statement. During the Sacrament, I thought about that. In all reality. I realized that I did absolutely nothing with Martin. He was the one who came to the church everyday by himself to be taught. He´s the one that keeps his commitments. He´s the one that has had to go through a lot of trials and overcome them. He´s the one that recognized the Spirit. He´s the one that has embraced the gospel. And the Lord was the one who blessed him with his Spirit. The Lord blessed him with comfort, with an answer, with a change of heart. The Lord was the reason that we found each other. The Lord was the reason that we miraculously found each other again after his family rejecting us. It was completely the Lord. And I realized once again that this is the Lord´s work. The only thing I hope for is that I can be worthy to be one of his instruments in this work because it blesses my life so much. The last few weeks with Martin has changed my life forever and I´m forever grateful for the Lord giving Elder White and I an opportunity to see this miracle in our lives.

Another great thing that happened was that Cejas received the gift of the Holy Ghost!! He is so happy now and he is filled with life! We went over to teach him and he took us to lunch. He took us to a very expensive restaurant on the coast. I never thought that I would eat in a restaurant like that as a missionary. The name of it is Hotel Antártida (Look it up on the internet) The facebook page is Hotel Antártida Oficial. Let´s just say that each meal was 100-200 pesos and each drink cost extra I think. The water came in glass bottles. Elder White and I were shocked the entire time. Especially because the view of the coast was incredible. Miguel (the blind member) also came with us. And we found out that his nephew worked at that restaurant. So his nephew paid for it all. We didn´t pay for anything. So Cejas is taking us out to eat in an hour for PDay today haha. So sweet. We´re pumped.

But for real, the miracles on the mission are incredible and I´m not talking about eating at nice restaurants. The feelings at church yesterday were a million times better. The Spirit was incredible at Martín´s baptism. He even fasted with us. He has been prepared to receive the gospel for a long time. Truly incredible.

Thanks for all the prayers and support. I love you all!

Love Elder Bosco II

Elder White, Martin, Elder Bosco

Elder Bosco, Martin, Elder White

Martin is so happy!

Elder White, Ariel(a priest in the ward), Nawhel (Carolina´s son), Martin, Elder Bosco

Week #15

E. White, Cejas, me, Miguel (the blind man), and the Bishop

 

The baptism last week of Carolina (Victoriana´s mom)

We had 5 baptisms between our zone and the zone by us in between sessions of conference. So we took a picture of all of us in white. I love this picture!

Elder White, me, Cejas (The old man, our first baptism), and Hermano Veron.

My First baptism! Her name is Victoriana and she´s 11. She was an investigador of the hermanas and she was SO happy and excited. She loves the CTR ring I gave her

Me and Cejas (our first investigador that was baptized)

The Pompeya Ward is growing!!!!

Elder White baptized her mom last week and they are so happy.

Hola Familia!

 

First things first, my debit card got here safely so you don´t have to worry anymore. A lot of tough things are going on, but that´s why we´re on earth. To learn and to grow. Conference was amazing and it´s incredible as a missionary. Especially when it answers questions for investigators who are present. We got to listen to it in english!! And when the General Authority spoke in Spanish, we ran to the chapel and listened to it. I could understand like 75 to 80 percent of it!!!!

 

But what a week!!! I´ll start with the baptisms. I baptized Victoriana! Elder White baptized her mom last week and they are so happy! They were investigators of the hermanas in our ward and I´ll send pictures in another message. Victoriana is 11.

 

Elder White and I had a baptism ourselves!! Remember the man that showed us his hernia? I hope I told you that story a month or so back. Well he is a living testimony that this gospel changes lives. He has tons of health problems and he´s had two brain attacks. He´s always in a lot of pain, but each week he likes going to church more. He couldn´t sleep the night before his baptism because he was afraid he was going to sleep through his alarm and miss his baptism. He was baptized and went completely underwater and that was a miracle by itself. It wasn´t important that Elder White and I had to change him and it took 30 mins. or that we saw some things we wish we wouldn´t have seen,  hahhahah but truly, the Spirit of the Lord was there. He´s an incredible man. He asked me if I could make him a missionary plaque with his name on it. In my mind, I thought that one day he will have is own on the other side of the veil teaching his wife and his family. Truly incredible.

 

Remember Martin last week? Well right after we got done writing our families last week, we were walking and Martin walked up to us and found us. He said that he had been praying to find us and he did! We took him to the chapel and taught him. His family has been attacking him with rumors and lies about Mormons, but he knows it´s true. He didn´t like doing it, but he had to lie to his mom so that we could teach him. His mom´s heart is slowly softening, but his older brothers attack him with false things. He texted us and told us he needed to talk. He told us of all of the hard things that have been happening to him ever since we met him and for that reason he said he knows this is true. We gave him a blessing of comfort and he told us that he feels more comfortable and happy with us than at home right now. He came to three sessions of conference and he loved it!! So many talks were directed to him. He also came to the baptismal service and he is so excited to be baptized next week. He is definitely a chosen servant of God and his strong testimony is an example to me. He reminds me a little of Joseph Smith who was persecuted for having the truth. He truly is a saint and I can´t wait to see where the blessings of the gospel takes him in his life.

 

I love you all and I hope all is well.  Love you all and thank you for everything!!!

 

Love Elder Bosco II