Week #70

Hola Familia!!

You´ll have to tell me if my English sounds weird. I seriously can´t speak in English sometimes because the words come out sounding funny.I´m literally turning into an Argentine haha. Just kidding. When summer hits my hair gets super blonde and my face gets super red. Everyone realizes that I´m not Argentine haha. Thinking about this week, I would like to tell you about some personal experiences and personal progression that I´ve had this week. Looking back on just a week of progression, I realize just how much I love the mission. It´s incredible!

We had interviews with President Cifuentes on Thursday and it was an incredible experience. We talked about a lot of things that filled me with the Spirit. I can feel his love and it brought me closer to the love that the Savior has for me. After I asked him some questions he told me that he had some questions for me. I was ready. Word for word, he asked me the questions of worthiness for a temple recommend. I haven´t heard these questions in quite some time and it filled me with the Spirit of the Lord. I can´t tell you the feelings that I had and that I felt. I confidently answered each one of the questions and halfway through the interview, the Spirit penetrated my heart even deeper. I started to feel like I was in the temple. Tears came to my eyes and I felt for a moment that I was in the Celestial Room. The power of the Holy Ghost is incredible. I left the interview feeling like I had walked out of the temple and I began to realize just how much I miss it! Thinking about the interview, I realized just how important is to have a temple recommend always and to be worthy of it. If we are worthy of a temple recommend now, we will be worthy of a place in the Celestial Kingdom in the future. The Spirit filled me that day and I was filled with desires to do good.

Another experience that I had this week came from counsel from President Cifuentes on how we can elevate the Sabbath Day in our lives. How understanding the sacredness of the Chapel and treating it with more reverence would help us feel the Spirit more during the Sacrament and throughout the day. I put it to the test and I can say that I was filled with the Spirit during the Sacrament. I´m trying to treat sacred things with more reverence. I know that as I do it, the Lord will be more willing to bless me with His sacred gift- His Holy Spirit.

I hope everyone is doing well. For now, the weather is great- we haven´t hit the heat yet. I hope everyone can become closer to Jesus Christ this week and recognize the power of the Spirit in your lives. Thanks for all the love and support!

Love, Elder Bosco II

Week #69

Hola Familia!

First off, the questions about the ward I´m in. We´re in a pretty big ward, about 90 people come every week. We don´t have any assignments and we don´t have to teach a class or anything- it´s great. In our zone, there are 16 missionaries- 10 Elders and 6 Sisters. As well as zone leaders, we´re District leaders to half of them. It´s an incredible experience and I´m learning so much. Each Elder is very different but I´ve grown a love for each and every one of them. Their personal progress and service to the Lord is very important to Jesus Christ. President Cifuentes wants us to help them become better than they are now, whether it´s 1% better, or whether their life is changed. As for their investigadors, the missionaries have it all on their own. We help if they ask for help. We are completely focused on the Spirituality and well-being of each missionary. I´ve grown in so many ways serving under President Cifuentes. He tells us that we have to jobs as leaders- to love and to serve.

This week was great because Mirta was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You might be wondering why she wasn´t confirmed earlier... I´ll tell you why haha. She had to wait until after General Conference to be confirmed. We taught her throughout the week and the Spirit was incredibly strong. Saturday night we taught her about the Spirit and she was excited to come the next day. When we went to her house to pick her up in the morning- she wasn´t there. We had no idea where she was and she wasn´t answering her phone. I just didn´t understand. We had taught her with the Spirit as often as we could and we prayed like crazy for her. I didn´t understand what had happened. Even though I was filled with a little stress, I knew that the situation was in the Lord´s hand. We got a hold of her in the afternoon and she told us that right after we had left, she found out that her aunt had passed away. On Sunday morning she went to the cemetary for a ceremony. We took the opportunity to teach her about temples and baptisms for the dead throughout the week. The Spirit was incredible every time we testified to her and taught her. We taught her every day and prayed like crazy so that she would be able to be confirmed without the doubting power of Satan. She was extremely nervous on Sunday morning, but she was confirmed and she received the gift of the Holy Ghost. I will never forget the look in her eyes after the confirmation. She was filled with light and tears in her eyes. The Spirit of the Lord was powerful.

We visited her on Sunday evening and we gave her a little gift for Mother´s Day. She told us that nobody had every said "Happy Mother´s Day" to her before. She was extremely grateful and she got talking to us. She told us about a dream that she had had over 6 years ago when she was still smoking and drinking. She saw a celestial being in her dream with a white robe and white hair. It was very bright and she couldn´t see the person´s face. She told us that this person said words that have stuck in her mind ever since. The person said, "If you were to see my face right now, you would go blind." These words have stuck in her mind for years now. We had the confidence and peace to testify to her that being baptized and confirmed in the Church of Jesus Christ is the first step to be able to return in the presence of God. Not only in his presence, but with the ability to see His face and to hug Him.

I realized just how much Mirta and her experiences are changing my life and strengthening my own testimony. That´s what the mission does for you. When you go out to serve others, the only thing that happens is tha Lord helps YOU grow. It´s an incredible process.

Thanks for all the love and support. Have a great week!

Love, Elder Bosco II

A recorded message and a song from Elder Bosco- click on the links to listen

Hola from Elder Bosco

Subject: ¡Feliz Día de la Madre!

Elder Paleka and I sang a hymn for you for Mother´s Day to keep the tradition from the last Mother´s Day with Elder White. The song is called "Brillan Rayos de Clemencia"

I sang the first verse, Elder Paleka sang the second verse, and we sang together the third verse. The chorus we always sang together. I hope it turned out well hahah

LOVE YOU MOM!

This years Mother's Day Song from Elder Bosco and Elder Paleka

 

Week #68

Hermano and Hermana Valdez! Hermano Valdez served his mission with Karissa and Andres in Cordoba!

Hola Familia,

Our PDay was changed to today because yesterday was Columbus Day and EVERYTHING was closed. So President Cifuentes changed our PDay. Yesterday we ate lunch with a young married couple- The Valdez Family. They got married a little less than a year ago and he served his mission about 2 years ago. I asked him where he served, and he told me CÓRDOBA, Argentina. And yes, he served with Andres and Karissa. He said, "Hermana Bosco is your sister? I didn´t even think about that" haha He knew Karissa a little, but knows Andres a lot more. Andres was his zone leader and when Andres became AP, Hermano Valdez replaced him as zone leader. It was pretty cool because he showed me a few pictures that he had of Andres and all the missionaries in the zone. HAHA it was really cool. I´ll send you a picture with Brother and Sister Valdez.

This week I learned some awesome things. First off, I came on the mission to find, teach, and help people come unto Christ by making covenants with Him so that they can live with Him forever. But what I realized this week, is that the investigators have taught me more about the lessons that I teach and how I can better live my covenants. I´ll give you an example. During the week, we taught Mirta a few times and we always start and end with a prayer. She´s getting a lot better at praying and talking to her Father in Heaven. EVERY TIME that we end the prayer and say amen, there are tears in her eyes. She literally feels the power of the Spirit every time that we pray and talk to our Father in Heaven. I was always amazed at that, but it wasn´t until a little later on in the day when the Spirit taught me about the example of Mirta. The Spirit whispered to me, "Why don´t we all feel the Spirit strongly in our lives every time we pray? Why don´t we have desires to cry every time we pray because the Spirit has touched our hearts?" I thought about it and it´s true. When I pray with real intent and sincerely, I always am filled with the Spirit. But why don´t I pray like that always? Thanks to Mirta´s example and the whisperings of the Spirit, I am living my covenants in a better way because I am improving my prayers.

Another example of this is when we were teaching Ramona about why we have the commandments and rules from our Heavenly Father. She told us that she always has rules in her home because if her kids go out in the street and do whatever they want and get hurt because if it, who´s going to suffer most? She said, "I am!" During the lesson I began to think... If we choose to disobey the commandments and we go out in the real world and get hurt (physically and/or spiritually speaking), who´s going to suffer most? I think she´s right.. our parents. And even more than our earthly parents, our Heavenly parents. They love us and They don´t want us to get hurt. For this reason, we have received commandments as protections from the wickedness of the world. The lesson that we were supposed to be teaching to Ramona was ironic because SHE was teaching US.

We can always learn- day by day- as we have the Spirit as our companion. He will always find ways to teach us and to show us the way to eternal life.

Thanks for all the love and support! I love you all so much.

Love, Elder Bosco II

 

AND.... MARTÍN GOT BAPTIZED ONE YEAR AGO!!! OH YEAH!

 

Thanks to Elder Paleka's ( green and yellow striped shirt) parents for this picture

 

Week #67

Hola Familia!

I had such a great week. The weekend was the greatest ever. We´ve been working with a little old lady named Mirta. She has talked to missionaries for a long time, but was never prepared to get baptized. She smoked all of her life and she finally stopped 6 years ago because she had to. The doctors took 6 or 7 black balls of nicotene from her lungs. And she´s still living- she always says, "Thanks to God, I´m living free." Then last year, the missionaries talked to her and taught her, but she was living with her husband- but they weren´t married. So the missionaries stopped visiting and teaching her. A few weeks ago, we contacted Mirta in the street and started talking to her. We started teaching her with a member and the lessons were always filled with the Spirit. The mention of the name of Jesus Christ and her eyes were already filled with tears. She´s very sensitive to the whisperings of the Spirit. She understood that it wasn´t obligation and she wanted to get baptized- but she has fear of water. She told us that her faith in Jesus Christ makes it so she´s not scared. Also, she seperated from her spouse a little while back, and she knew that she could get baptized now because she was fulfilling God´s commandments. 

Her baptism was an incredible experience FILLED with the Spirit. On October 2, exactly 6 years from stopping smoking, Mirta got baptized. She entered the waters trembling. Her whole body was shaking. She got in the water, was baptized by Priesthood authority, and came out of the water with a light. What I remember is that her face was light up. She looked up at the heavens soaking wet and said, "Oh Dios mío. Gracias por eso. No puedo creerlo." Then Mirta (65 years old) gave the biggest hug to Elder Dement. I cannot deny the Spirit that was felt in that room. Every member and investigator that came was filled with the same feeling that I was. She was truly forgiven of all of her sins. It was an experience that I will never forget. Please keep her in your prayers so that she can stay on this great path of happiness!

Omar and Mari Lu came to the baptism! They are getting married on November 11 so that they can get baptized. They have 4 children some of them came to a session of General Conference. The Menendez Family is incredible, but the adversary is working hard so that they doubt the importance of marriage and baptism. Please keep them in your prayers as well. Omar, Mari Lu, Celeste, Johana, Lucas, Joni. I can´t even begin to explain to you the changes that have taken place this last week in Omar´s life. He´s starting to pray and read and taking a lot more interest in the lessons. It´s incredible the way that the Spirit works.

One thing that I took away from Conference that I will never forget is that I KNOW that the 12 apostles and the First Presidency is called of God. These truly are the Lord´s chosen servants on the earth today. Their counsel is the Lord´s counsel. Elder Bednar said something that hit my heart. When these men make a decision together, it is much stronger and much intellectually advanced than the human mind can make. These men are truly inspired by the Holy Spirit and by our loving Heavenly Father.

We had transfers yesterday and I´m staying here in General Arias in Bahía Blanca. Elder Dement left to Mar del Plata and my new companion is ELDER PALEKA. We´re really good friends and we served in the same zone in Mar del Plata. He´s from Hawaii and the first thing he pulled out of his suitcase was Hawaiian popcorn- I can´t explain it, but it was Good! haha

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

Love, Elder Bosco II

 

 President Cifuente´s home for a Leadership conference!

President Cifuente´s home for a Leadership conference!

 

Mirta got baptized!

 pictures from her baptism!

Monte Hermoso

 

 World Wide Service Projects- Mormon Hands Help (Something like that). We picked up garbage and took away all of the trash that causes mosquitos to come during the summer.

 Monte Hermoso

 The Menendez Family!

 My new companion, Elder Paleka from Hawaii

 Watching the Priesthood Session in Pres. Cifuente´s home!!