Week #27

Hola Familia!

It was so great being able to talk to you guys!! I can´t believe how much Ella has grown up. She´s huge!. It´s extremely hot and humid here and there isn´t air conditioning in many places. It´s part of the learning process of being grateful for everything that we have. Congrats to Collin!! That´s a great accomplishment and it sounds like he´s getting better every game.

It was my first week in Necochea and we saw MIRACLES. Ruben was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. I want to tell you about this miracle. Ruben met missionaries 6 or 7 years ago in Córdoba and the missionaries helped him in a lot of ways. he want to church a few times, but after some time, he lost contact with the missionaries and with the church and now he lives in Necochea. He´s been prepared for many years to accept the gospel and to have a relationship with God. He told us many miraculous experiences where God saved his life when he should have died and even experience where he left his body and came back to life. He told us of some stories of how he´s saved people´s life with the hand of the Lord. He´s been prepared his whole life. As a zone we found names of people that could be baptized this week through miracles. Elder Durocher told me about Ruben whom he contacted the week before. We prayed for all of these names and we did practices to ask him to be baptized. We went to his house and we talked to him. We invited him to be baptized and his attitude changed. A week ago he didn´t have many desires to go back to church. But this day, he accepted and he told us that he feels that this is the right time in his life. We reviewed the Restoration and the commandments with him and he told us that he´d stop drinking (He didn´t drink much). He took down a Catholic Saint that was on his mantle in his house. and well... he was baptized on Saturday! He told me that he feels so much peace in his life. After he received the gift of the Holy Ghost, he told me that he felt that peace again. He´s been prepared for awhile now and it was a miracle to be Necochea to see it. The Lord is incredible.

What I learned from this experience is that you never know what you say or do will affect people down the road, 6 or 7 years, or even more. The missionaries that helped him 7 years ago don´t even know that he´s a member of the church now. But that´s part of the Lord´s work. My testimony grew about the way that the Lord works in His vineyard.

Thanks for all the love and support and prayers. Have a happy 2015!

Love, Elder Bosco II

 

Lily was baptized in the Branch too!

Baptism of Ruben 

wow... Ruben´s Baptism haha

 

Week #26

Hola Familia!

Feliz Navidad! I can´t believe it´s already Christmas because it doesn´t feel like it here with the weather haha. This week was great! And it was my last week in Pompeya. I got transferred to Necochea Centro and I´m serving with Elder Durocher. I´ll explain more of that later.

Marcela came to church again. We had a baby´s blessing, a homecoming talk from the Bishop´s son, and a baptism! She got to see it all and she was filled with the Spirit. The baptism in our ward was from other Elders that live in another Ward but the young man lives in Pompeya so he was baptized yesterday and the Spirit was incredible. Marcela was crying and was filled with the Spirit. I sat down next to her and told her that I was leaving to a different area and she asked me why. Why is it like that on the mission. I told her I didn´t know but that the Lord has his ways and wisdom for everything. She starting crying and thanked me for the Spirit that I brought into her life. I started crying too. We were both sitting in the chapel crying and I reminded her about the Celestial Kingdom that we taught her a few days earlier. That one day we will be able to see each other again and that it´s important that she continues to prepare for her baptism. She is so ready. She was really happy and she told me the only thing that could make her happier is to see her 10 children have the gospel too. I told her that they´ll have the chance. She´s incredible. She´s sharing the gospel with her family and her family told her that they´ve noticed a difference in her. I can´t wait to see the picture of her baptism.

Also, saying by to the ward members and the recent converts was definitely hard! I bore my testimony in Sacrament Meeting and it was a tender mercy to see all of the people that I love so much in the Pompeya Ward. The Spirit was touching my life in so many incredible ways. I can´t wait to see them all again in the presence of God. But the Lord said that this work is not meant for us to look back at what has been done,but to look forward at what we need to do. And that´s exactly what I plan on doing.

Now I´m in Necochea Centro and I´m so excited to start another adventure on the mission! Elder Durocher is from Alpine UT and he graduated from Lone Peak. He played football he´s big and tall so I feel safe and protected haha. I´m so excited to spend Christmas in this area and to help people come unto Christ. I´ve been blessed in so many ways and I owe it all to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The gospel is amazing and it´s especially incredible during this Christmas Season.

Happy Holidays and thank you for everything!

Love Elder Bosco II

 

Elder Durocher! My new Companion from Alpine, UT

 

 

Marcela! She´s getting baptized next week so we took a picture before I left

Martín. Cejas. and Miguel. It was tough saying goodbye to these people!!

 

 

The Baptism of Elian!

The missionaries in Pompeya, Mar del Plata!

Week #25

Hola Familia!

This week we had our Christmas Zone Conference and it was amazing! We Sang Christmas hymns at an old folks home and then after we got to talk to some of them. They truly felt the spirit and were extremely grateful that we came. One old man, with tears in his eyes, told me that I´m his son. It was incredible the love that I felt at that moment. I´ll send some pictures that I took with them. 

In the zone conference we talked about charity and the true meaning of Christmas and then we watched a slide show with some of the baptisms from this year and then after we received letters from home. Thank you so much Dad. I can´t tell you how grateful I am to have a family that has so much faith and such strong testimonies in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It truly is a blessing.

I realized just how amazing it is to have a family with testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ this week. We have been teaching a family the gospel but they never can come to church. Nahuel, a 9 year old, (He´s full of freckles and he looks like he´s 6 because he is really small) but he is the cutest kid in the world. He wants to be baptized and he was really excited about coming to church this weekend. We stopped by their house Sunday morning to pick them up and he answered the door. Him and his 4 year old sister. They were ready and wanted to go to church but their parents were sleeping and didn´t want to go. With tears in his eyes, Nahuel was trying to talk without crying. We decided to say a prayer together and Nahuel said it. It was only 2 sentences but it was simple and sincere. He went back to ask his parents and they didn´t want to get out of bed. With tears in his eyes, he said ¨lo siento mucho¨ [I'm sorry]. I will never forget the image that I saw. I left a little angry, a little upset, a little sad, but mostly full of gratitude. I´ve taken for granted too much in my life the fact that I have parents and a family who cherish the gospel of Jesus Christ and have faith that he lives. I have a family who is obedient to the commandments and for this reason, we are happy. I learned a lot from this experience and I´m extremely grateful for the Savior´s teachings in my life.

I can´t believe it´s almost Christmas and we get to celebrate our Savior´s birth. Thank you for all the prayers, support, and love. Physically it doesn´t feel like Christmas here in the sun, but the Spirit of Christmas is definitely here in the mission.

Love,

Elder Bosco II

Mar del Plata!

Christmas with the ocean and the sun

Pictures from the old folks home that we sang at! The Spirit was incredible!!

Week #24

Hola Familia!

It was HOT this week! haha.It´s actually not too bad, but walking in the streets for most of the day, it gets pretty hot. But it´s all worth it. This work is amazing. It was another tough week in church for us because it poured Sunday morning and nobody came to church today. 

 

BUT we did have a miracle in our ward. On Tuesday, Elder Jones and I visited a less active member of the church that lives far away and that we don´t know. We welcomed us and he talked to us for a long time and he was extremely nice. He wasn´t wearing a shirt and he was in the middle of shaving.. oh and he looks like Will Ferrell. He looks like him, talks like him, and has the same mannerisms. He could star in the movie Elf. But he said he was going to come to church because he misses it. He was offended by a member 7 years ago but he said it wasn´t important. Well, on Sunday, he showed up! Even though it was raining. I almost didn´t recognize him because he had a shirt on, he was wearing a tie, and a vest and he shaved haha. He told us just how much he started remembering about the church and he really enjoyed it. He´s really smart (he speaks 5 languages. English and Castellano fluently, and parts of Finnish, Swedish, and Italian) But what a tender mercy of the Lord during a day that was a little tough with no investigators in church!

Another great thing about December is that we are sharing #Él es la Dadiva. or He is the Gift. They asked each companionship to share at least 10 cards each day and they gave us CD´s with the video so that we can watch it with people in the street and members. It´s incredible how the church is using technology to help the gospel grow. It´s really fun because we get to testify even more about Jesus Christ. There is nothing in this world that brings me more peace than to testify of our Savior Jesus Christ. 

 

I´m extremely grateful for Him in my life and I can overcome anything with the help of Him. He truly is the gift that we need to accept in our lives. I´m so grateful for the opportunity that I have to represent Him on this mission and to testify that He is the Savior of the world. That salvation can ONLY come through Him. May we bear our testimony of the Savior to everyone and anyone. 

 

Everyone needs to accept this gift in their lives if they want to be happy. And they can´t accept it until they know they have it.

Thanks for all the love and support and prayers. And I love hearing about Collin and the success that he´s having on the court!

Love Elder Bosco II

#HeistheGift   #Sharethegift

The District

The Zone (Mar del Plata Centro)

Week #23

Martín received the Melchizedek Priesthood!!

Miguel (The blind recent convert), Me and Elder Jones ordained Martin. What a blessing!!

Hola Familia!

It´s December but it feels like June. It´s so weird seeing Christmas decorations in the stores when it´s getting super hot. All of the missionaries have funny tan lines from the white shirts haha. And yes, I have some investigators that needs a lot of prayers!

But first, the best news ever! Leandro Martín Villilobo (Martin) received the Melchizedek Priesthood and was ordained to the office of Elder. But even more special was that he asked me to confirm him. I was honored. The meaning of the Priesthood has grown immensely for me on the mission and to be able to give the Priesthood to Martín was incredible. It brought back memories of when I received the Melchizedek Priesthood. So of course, I wore the same tie yesterday that I wore when I received the Priesthood.  But I´ve learned from the scriptures that the priesthood is given to men so that we can perform ordinances and be saved. We have the priesthood on the earth so that we can go to the temple and learn of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. D & C 84:19-22 explains it perfectly. The power of God is manifested through the ordinances of the Priesthood and without the Priesthood, we would NEVER be able to return to live with God. I have a testimony that the Priesthood blesses everyone and that it´s the power of God on this earth.

We are teaching Daniela and Gladys. Daniela is the person that I sent pictures of a few weeks back. She is progressing but is still in the hangup with her boyfriend. She wants to move out but has a lot of fear to tell him. We had a powerful lessons about families and we read The Family: A Proclamation to the World with her. The Spirit was incredible and I testify of the power of families and the happiness that we can find within families that base their lives on the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Gladys is 80 years old and we had a family night with a family and we invited her. She felt the spirit but she´s still trying to decide between the LDS church and the Evangelical Church. It´s taken me a lot of patience with her because she doesn´t think she´s received an answer, but SHE HAS. Right now we´re really trying to help her recognize her answers. Sadly, Daniela and Gladys didn´t come to church yesterday for reasons of their own. But something that I´ve learned on the mission, is when things don´t go your way and people choose different things, there´s only one solution... WORK. Be patient, love, and work to find more of God´s children that need our help. There´s no time on the mission to get down or to get frustrated. This isn´t my work and my success isn´t based on baptisms. This is the work of the Lord and He is in control of all.

Thank you for all the love, thoughts, and prayers. I truly feel them as a missionary. Good luck this week Provo in basketball! Play hard and put everything you´ve got on the court.

Love,

Elder Bosco II