Week #91

Hola Familia!

This week we are in Mar del Plata again and we´re working with Elder Valenzuela (from Chile) and Elder Maldonado (from Uruguay). I´ve learned a lot this week and I wanted to share with you something that has been the very focus of our work for the last month and a half- efficiency. Elder Dement and I are trying to help the leaders in the mission work more efficiently. Working efficiently is something that I´ve learned a lot of with Elder Dement because he is an example of working like that. Everything he does he does efficiently so that his time is well spent. And just like every other missionary that has ever served the mission, we realize that when our two years our running out, we look for ways to get more out of our time. I´ve asked myself that a lot lately, "how can I get more use out of our time?"

These last few weeks I´ve realized that the Holy Ghost is the most efficient worker in the world. If we work with Him, especially on the mission, we are working efficiently. What we´ve found with missionaries is that the Spirit only comes when you let it come. This means that we need to be obedient, organize our work, and have a clean house. Even though we only have a few days in each area, we realize that it´s worth out time to clean the house and organize the work on a map. Doing these things allows the Spirit to be with us as we plan for our days at night. I have found also that being clean and organized actually allows us to be obedient. It´s becoming a lot more clear to me which Elders  work efficiently because they do the little things necesary to have the Spirit with them. When we allow the Spirit to dwell with us in our homes, we can leave in the street and preach the gospel with the power and authority of God. And the greatest part is that the Spirit is with us testifying our the words that leave our mouths. We have seen the success and fruits as we do this because we just found out this week that the zone leaders from Viedma, Necochea, and Santa Rosa all have a baptism for this weekend. What a blessing it was for us to hear of their success!

I´ve been extremely blessed to be able to work with Elder Dement because he has taught me so many things about how to work hard. Just his example has helped me improve and become better. I´ll be blessed for the rest of my life from what he has taught me.

Thanks for all the love and support! I´m so happy to hear about the temple dedication in Provo! I hope everyone is doing well!

Love Elder Bosco II

Elder Yeates just sent me these pictures haha. He´ll be a good friend after the mission at BYU

Week #90

Hola Familia!

I called it! Nobody is going to believe me, but if you need proof, ask Elder Dement. I guessed that Collin was going to go to a mission speaking some Chinese language- especially after hearing Mckay and Aaron´s mission calls. I am seriously so excited! It´s as if the Lord gave me a shot of steroids. I´m seriously so pumped! Does that mean that I´m going to speak with Collin when I get back? That would be really cool. I can´t even start to explain to everyone the Spirit that I felt when I read that email from Collin. He has got two years of experiences ahead of him that will bless his life forever. I´m still in the middle of these two years and I can already tell you that my eternity has been changed. 

This week we´re in Mar del Plata and we´re working with Elder Swanson (my MTC companion) and Elder O´rourke (The Elder that Elder Isom trained when we got here in Argentina). They are great missionaries! We are helping the zone leaders create model areas that can be seen throughout the Stake and so we helped them change areas. It´s a pretty cool experience being white washed and starting with little knowledge. You have to trust in the Lord and in His tools that He has left us- like the Area book. We put a big map on the wall and we put about 150 names on the map of people that we can work with. While working yesterday with Elder O´rourke, I had a pretty cool experience.

We passed by a less active members home that Elder O´rourke had known from about 8 months back. We weren´t sure if it would be worth our time to visit him, but I had a feeling that we should, so we did. We got in his home and he was happy to see us. We started talking to him and he introduced us to his 17 year old neighbor Leo. Leo sat down on the table and we continued to speak to the less active member. I remember having the impression, "speak to Leo," so I did. We got talking and he told us that he is looking for a Church where he can feel comfortable. The last few weeks he had been going to other churches and he just didn´t feel good about them. He didn´t like the way they asked for money, or what they did to present "miracles" in their congregation. I asked him if he had seen the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He said that earlier that day was his first time (coincidence right? haha). We left him a short message with an invitation to visit him another day because it was getting pretty late. I could see that he was pretty excited. We left their home and I started asking myself, were those thoughts my own thoughts or were they impressions from the Spirit?. Still thinking about it in the morning, the thought came to me, "Of course they were from the Spirit! From who else would they be?" I realized that when somebody is striving to live worthily of the Gift of the Holy Ghost, their own thoughts can actually be from the Spirit! If we are living with the Spirit in our lives, than He is part of us! Maybe it was my thought, maybe it was His promptings, but when we´re worthy of the Lord´s Spirit, is there really a difference? It was a lesson that the Lord taught me yesterday. Oh how important it is to be CONSTANTLY worthy of the Spirit.

Thanks for the great news! I´m really excited for Collin and all of his friends! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Bosco II

The zone leaders in Bahía Blanca called us today telling us that Nestor is going to get baptized on Saturday from Cerri! That made me extremely happy!

(from Santa Rosa)  Elder Valle, Elder Chronister , Elder Bosco and Elder Dement. watching a soccer team practice on PDay

Week #89

Mini golden gate bridge in Necochea

 Necochea

 I also visited the Laguna Family! The kids are doing great!

Santa Rosa, La Pampa!

Santa Rosa, La Pampa!

I got to visit Ruben Cardenau when I was in Necochea. He´s doing awesome! He receives his endowment on March 25 and he told us that he has done temple work for his family 5 generations back. It´s a pretty cool story, I´ll tell you one day.

Hola Familia!

This week has been great! We have been working in Santa Rosa with Elder Chronister and Elder Valle. They are both great friends and outstanding missionaries. Yesterday I worked with Elder Chronister and I loved it. I think our relationship is similar to that of Dallin´s and Elder Bean´s. I feel like I´ve known Elder Chronister my entire life and that we´ve always been great friends. It´s weird how we had to meet up in Argentina to get to know each other. haha. I hope that Elder Chronister´s mom can get this letter. I just want her to know that she has an amazing son. He´ll never know how much he´s taught me in the time we´ve known each other. He´s definitely one of the best missionaries out here. He works hard and it´s very clear that the Spirit is with him and guides him constantly. It was fun contacting and teaching with him because it all seemed natural. I´ve never been his companion but we already knew how the other teaches so we were able to have some cool experiences. I´d like to share one with you all that we experienced together yesterday.

In the morning we were looking for a way to print out a big map of the area and while we were walking, we stopped and started talking to a man, Toledano. He was about 60 years old and he started telling us that his wife was doing some tests on her body in the hospital. She has been in bad health and they had to come to Santa Rosa to get these tests done. He told us that they were from a little city with about 600 habitants and they had to drive a few hours to get to Santa Rosa. Because he has almost always lived in this little city, he had never seen missionaries before. We felt that we should offer him a blessing. We told him that we held the Priesthood of God and that we were able to give blessings of health to all who need them. He loved the idea and he asked us to come back that night at 7 oclock. He showed us what hotel they were staying in and then we left. We got there at night and he was waiting for us. He welcomed us back to his hotel room and we entered. His wife was laying on the bed and they were getting ready to leave Santa Rosa and return to their home. They waited until we got there because they wanted a blessing. We explained to them what a blessing was and then we layed our hands upon her head and gave her (her name was Santa) a Priesthood blessing. She sat still without saying a word but every time words came out of my mouth, I could hear Toledano whisper "amen, amen, amen" with his head bowed and his arms folded. I can´t remember all of the words that I said, but I surely remember the Spirit that I felt. Even more than that, I remember feeling the faith of Toledano and Santa. They had no idea who we were. The only thing they knew is that we were two young boys from the U.S. with a white shirt and tie and that we represented Jesus Christ. Even though they didn´t understand the Priesthood, they recognized us as having something special from God. It was sincere faith and trust that Toledano had in his Savior Jesus Christ and his Heavenly Father. We walked away knowing that we may never see those two again, but knowing that we had been instruments in the Lord´s hands. Elder Chronister and I talked afterwards and agreed that the preparation to that blessing started a long time ago. It has been some time now since we´ve been spiritually preparing to give blessings from the Lord.

That was one of the experiences that I had yesterday with Elder Chronister that strengthened my testimony in the work of the Lord. As we do our part (which is really small) the Lord will do the rest. 

Love, Elder Bosco II

Week #88

Hola Familia!

Mom, I´ll  write you about the BYU school stuff on a different email. I can´t believe I´m already talking about things like that. Time goes by so fast. This week we were in Necochea with Elder Yeates and Elder Osorio. I´ve lived with the both of them a little while back. They´re great friends and great missionaries. I´m also hoping to see some people from Necochea Centro where I served a year ago (and where Elder Isom served). I´m going to see Ruben in a few days. He´s planning on receiving his endownments at the end of this month. I´m extremely excited for him.

I had a real cool experience this week that made me think a lot and helped me understand the Book of Mormon a little better. I was working with Elder Osorio and we visited an investigator, Juan, that is blind. We brought him the 4th volume (of 7) of the Book of Mormon in Braille. The Book is huge and it´s impressive how Juan reads it so fast. Each week he asks for a new volume. While we were teaching yesterday, I had the impression to read 3 Nephi 11 with him. Elder Osorio and I read it out loud as he listened. I will never forget the Spirit of enlightment that I received as we read the verse when the Savior invited everyone to come to Him and feel the marks in His hands and His side. Thinking about Juan, I realized that he does about everything with his touch. He has to touch to get around, he needs to touch and feel when he reads, and just about everything he does has to do with the way he feels things on his hands. What a great blessing it will be the day that Juan touches and feels the Savior´s hands. I have no doubt that he will know that it´s the Savior. He will know that it truly was Him who died on the cross for Him.

I started thinking about us. Many of us have the blessing of being able to see, but are we spiritually blind? Will we be able to see and feel the Savior´s hands and know that it´s Him? I think we will be able to, well at least I hope we will be able to. Will we recognize Him? Will we know that it´s the only Begotten Son of the Father? Will we have a testimony of His atoning sacrifice? Again, I´m not sure, but I´d like to think that we would. We are members of His Church because we are preparing ourselves and this world for when He comes again. What a great responsibility and blessing!

Thanks for all the love and support! Good luck to everyone heading out on the mission! Work hard out there!

Love, Elder Bosco II

 

We made a little friend at the Bus Terminal coming home from Viedma last week

Viedma

The week in Viedma (with the Elders and Church Leaders)

 Elder Yeates and I in some kind of leather store haha