Hola Familia!
I´m
sitting here reading this letter amazed as I read the experience about
everyone with Elder Andersen. I´m a little jealous that I wasn´t there
but I don´t think there is any other place in the world where I would
want to be right now- on the mission. And even more than that, I know
that all of you and Elder Andersen wouldn´t want anything else. So I´m
extremely happy, and hopefully one day I can meet Elder Andersen
personally. I´m pretty excited for this week because Elder Texiera is
going to come (a member of the Seventy) and he´s going to speak to us as
a mission. I´m extremely excited about that! The heat here is starting
to come. We didn´t have much of a winter, so I´m sure this summer is
going to be brutal, but at least I´m not in Brazil or something haha.
I
have a few experiences that I want to share from this week. First, an
experience with an investigator and second with a personal experience.
We are teaching an investigator named Vitelli. He´s about 70 years old
and he is very humble and always listens to us. He stopped listening to
the missionaries awhile back because he struggles with smoking and he
felt like he would never be able to overcome it. We brought a plan to
his help to help him stop smoking. He is very willing to stop, but he
struggles with the addiction. He told us to leave him one more cigarette so he could smoke one more. We left the cigarette on the
table and we started cleaning the house a little. Taking away cigarettes and cleaning things that smell like smoke. The program
consists of drinking a lot of juice and eating vitamin C and basically
taking yourself from any addiction and temptation. We found a box of
wine in his fridge and he said he bought it yesterday but that he didn´t
want to drink anymore either. We invited him to pour the whole box down
the sink- and he did it with ease. We even took a picture with him
doing it haha. We taught him the importance of trusting in the Lord and
praying often for guidance. He was insistent that we left the last cigarette, but while we were talking, Elder Dement and I hid the cigarette from the table. We invited him to say a prayer asking for
help and he asked the Lord that he will be able to stop smoking. He said
amen and said " I know that you guys took the last cigarette, but I
don´t even want to smoke it anymore" It was a miracle. We left him, went
to the store and bought some air freshener, juice, and air cleaner to
give him so that he could take away some of the temptation. The next day
he told us that he hadn´t smoked, nor drank (even though he ate an
asado- and everyone and their dog drinks wine with asado haha) It was
quite the experience. We´re still working with him so I hope he´s
strong. Keep him in your prayers!
The
next experience was personal and it took place during the Sacrament. I
relearned yesterday what I have known all of my life, but this time I
understood the Atonement at a deeper level. I realized that Jesus Christ
always had his agency and at any moment that he decided to use his
agency to do something against the will of God, the whole plan that God
created would have been destroyed. The Savior didn´t have to suffer the
Atonement if He didn´t want to. He CHOSE to. And even though He chose to
suffer, He had NO idea how it would feel before he did it. When he
accepted to be the Savior of the world, he didn´t have a body, or in
other words, he didn´t know what it was like to have bodily and mortal
pains. He accepted and he fulfilled. What amazes me is that our Heavenly
Father trusted completely in His Son Jesus Christ. All of His plan
depended on His Son. I began to realize if there was something in my
life where I wasn´t completely trusting in the Savior. These things need
to be changed completely and NOW. If our Heavenly Father trusted
COMPLETELY in Jesus Christ, what keeps us (imperfect beings) to put our
complete trust in Him. I know that He IS the Savior of the world. He DID
do everything that was asked of Him. I invite everyone and myself to
put more trust in our Savior Jesus Christ. I promise that He will help
us and He will lift us up. He lives.
Thanks
for all the love and support! Have fun in Disneyland! Just so you all
know, Churros here in Argentina are a LOT cheaper. I can buy 12 for the
price of about 5 dollars. I hope you get jealous when you pay 7 bucks
for one in Disneyland haha. I love you all!
Love Elder Bosco II
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Fotos de Casa en General Arias (Bahía Blanca 1) |
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Elder Dement (Texas), Elder Perry (Sandy, Utah), Elder Valle (Chile)
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Don´t worry- the house is clean. I really enjoy cleaning now |
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Fotos de Casa en General Arias (Bahía Blanca 1) |
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Fotos de Casa en General Arias (Bahía Blanca 1) |
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Fotos de Casa en General Arias (Bahía Blanca 1) |
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We made a sweet map- Now we´re working a lot more organized!
We call it our IMAX
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[we had the fun opportunity to meet Elder Dement's mom, sister, and aunt- what a great family. I know why Elder Bosco is so happy on his mission. He's had great companions and roommates and along with sharing the Gospel he gets to clean- organize- and create maps! Doesn't get much better than that! Thank you to the Dements for giving us these pictures below]