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!!

 

 

Week #66

Hola Familia!

First off, I got the package from Mar Del Plata! We had a leadership conference and all of the leaders come to Bahía Blanca to listen to President Cifuentes. I learned a lot from him. He truly stresses the importance of love and service. We even had the opportunity to have him speak in our ward on Sunday and it was incredible. He asked us all why we were here at church. He told us the reasons why he was there. He said two simple things- 1.Eternal Families 2. Service. He talked about how we are all one big family and how God´s plan is that ALL of us return to His presence. That´s where the service comes in. We must serve all of God´s children so that ALL of us can return to God´s presence. That´s what I want- I want to be able to return to God´s presence with ALL of my family and friends.

Unfortunately, Vitelli started smoking again and this time he told us that he doesn´t want to learn more. We left him with our testimony and a good friendship, and then we put him in the area book. Right now he doesn´t want to change, but in the near future he will be more prepared. It´s hard to let go of investigadors, but the gift of agency is real and God has given it to each and every one of us. We´re teaching a few people that are amazing! Mirta is going to get baptized one of these next few weeks. Please pray for her so that she´ll be able to keep progressing. We also found a family (The Cuestas Family) that are listening to us because they feel something special about us. We had a great lesson with them on Saturday, but they couldn´t come to church because of problems with work. Pray for them so that they can make it to General Conference and watch it with us. I´ll keep you updated on the progress of them.

For P-Day, we had a zone P-day and we went to a place called Monte Hermoso. It´s so beautiful. It´s on the cost and it´s a little city that reminds me a lot of downtown Park City. I took a lot of pictures, but I´m not going to send them this week because I don´t have too much confidence in these computers here in Monte Hermoso. I don´t want to get a virus and lose everything hahah. Look Monte Hermoso up on the internet, it´s an hour outside of the city of Bahía Blanca. President Cifuentes encouraged us to have these P-days as zones to help the missionaries feel like part of a family and to relax and have fun. We had a great time playing volleyball on the beach. It was windy so there was literally NOBODY. We had a great time!

Thanks for all the love and support. Have a great week preparing yourselves for General Conference!!!

Love Elder Bosco II

Thanks to Elder Dements family for this picture of Elder Bosco and Elder Dement

Week #65

Hola Familia!

This week was incredible and I learned a few things about the power of the Spirit in this great work. Two people came to church this week!- Vitelli and Mirta. First off with Vitelli, unfortunately, he was tempted and he smoked a cigarrette and drank a little. He was disappointed and very discouraged. He took down all the encouraging posters that we put in his house and told us that he didn´t think that he could do it anymore. I learned this week just how encouraging the Spirit is. We testified to Vitelli just how much the Lord loves him and how he suffers every time he picks up a cigarette to smoke one. I felt the Spirit encourage Vitelli and let him know that he truly could overcome this addiction in his life. He pulled out the pack of cigarettes that he had in his pocket and gave us the rest and told us that he wanted to stop for good. We told him that he can´t do it alone and that he NEEDS the help of God. He NEEDS to come to Church so that he has strength throughout the week to overcome temptations. He came to Church, and I know that the Lord will bless him for that. Please keep praying for Vitelli. He can do it!

We talked to Mirta in the Street a few weeks ago, but she never was able to come to Church. We visited her on Tuesday with a member and I know that she was ready to feel the Spirit in this momento. We taught her about baptism and she told us (even though she´s 70 years old and fear of water) that she wants to get baptized. She said, “I don´t know what it is, but I feel something in my heart that is telling me ´Do It!´” We taught her that that was the Spirit and that God is talking to her. Every time we had the chance to share a scripture with her during the week, she always ended up crying and telling us how much she wants to follow God and be clean. She seriously is very sensitive to the Holy Spirit.  The best was during Sacrament Meeting. I sat down by her and we just sat listening to the prelude music in the chapel. She looked at me and asked me if it was weird that she feels like crying when she hears this music. I took the opportunity to share with her that she was feeling the Spirit and that she was going to feel this feeling during all of the meetings. I told her that the feeling was good and that it was from God. She felt this feeling even stronger during the Sacrament. When the Sacrament started, she grabbed her chest and she started breathing a little harder, sighed, then said “O Dios”. From what I could tell from the situation, she was feeling a burning in her bosom. (Either that or she was having a small heart attack haha) The Spirit was incredibly strong and I began to think about the POWER the Spirit has in our lives. I began to think just how strong the Spirit especially when someone isn´t used to feeling it in their lives. When they recognize the Spirit for the first time, it´s overpowering. For me, I´ve always been surrounded by the Spirit and I received the gift of the Spirit at 8 years old. I´ve felt it powerfully in my life, but I´ve always known that it was a blessing from God. I thought, for those who don´t know, it´s an odd feeling, one you can´t explain, but one that you want with you forever.

How many times have I taken the influence and power of the Spirit for granted in my life? When God blesses us in this way, the best way we can thank Him is to recognize the Spirit and share it with others. The Lord´s mercy is over all of us and He wants to bless us with His Spirit.

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

Love Elder Bosco II

Digging holes for a service project (pozo ciego for the bathroom-sewage system or something)

 Elder Dement in the hole (it´s called a pozo ciego)

One week letter in the hole- It´s at 2.5 meters and we need to hit water at about 4 meters!

We cooked a big chicken pot pie- it´s called a TARTA

With Elder Chronister (his friend that was stabbed few months ago-thankfully he's doing well!)

Week #64

Hola Familia!

I absolutely LOVED this week because it was full of miracles. I made a lot of personal goals and I´m striving to be able to achieve them. It all started with the conference with Elder Teixeira. It was an inspired meeting and I learned a lot from the Spirit and what I must do to better serve the Lord. One of the themes of this conference was how we can recognize the Spirit in our lives and the the power of prayer. I made goals concerning both of those themes and I want to share with you a few stories and experiences from this week. President Cifuentes challenged each of us to carry a Little notebook around with us to write down moments when we recognize the Spirit during the day. I did it this week and I saw many miracles.

First off, I made the goal to teach simpler and with more power. We were teaching Vitelli and he has a hard time remembering what we teach him. Elder Dement and I decided to teach him like an 8 year old kid. We took an entire lesson to simply tell him that he has a Heavenly Father that loves him, that Jesus Christ is his Savior and Redeemer, and that the Holy Ghost is a guide to help him choose the right. I testified to him as if I were speaking to an 8 year old of the truths that I had learned from Primary. I truly recognized the presence of the Spirit in the lesson and as I pondered about the lesson that night writing in my journal, I realized that the Spirit can´t testify if people don´t understand. But when language is simple and pure, the Spirit can testify of simple truths that have and will always be true. It was a cool experience to recognize the Spirit in that way. The Spirit has the ability to testify to anyone and everyone.

I also learned that you can receive inspirations through the Spirit through other people (in this example, the members of the Church). On Friday a member of the Relief Society Presidency called us and told us that a young family that was baptized about 6 months ago was having troubles in their home and contentions were arising to the point of being seperated. We received the call and acted without hesitation. Before entering the home, Elder Dement and I said a prayer together to know what to say to this family. We entered the home and we knew that something was wrong, we could literally feel the contention. I started by saying a prayer and I pleaded for the Spirit of love would feel their home and that they could feel the love that the Savior has for them. As the prayer ended, we realized that the mother of the family was crying and I knew that the Lord had sent us His Spirit. We testified of temples and how families are most important in God´s plan. I shared my personal experience of the love that I felt when I went through the temple and hugged my family in the Celestial Room- there truly wasn´t a sweeter feeling of the Spirit. The Spirit of contention left the room and the father of the family said the closing prayer. And he prayed for the ability to be more humble. I left that house knowing that I had followed the Spirit with my companion and we had recognized it through the leadership in the Church.

I had many other experiences this week where I recognized the power of the Spirit in our labors. The only thing that I can say is that this week was FULL of miracles. Being an instrument in the hand of the Lord is the greatest blessing the Lord gives us when we give our will to Him. I challenge everyone at home to write down the moments throughout the day when you recognize the Spirit and I promise you that you will recognize the power of God more in your life. I also promise you that the Lord will be more willing to bless you with His Spirit as you recognize His influence in your life.

Thanks for all the Love and support! I hope you have a great week in Disneyland! Love you!

Love, Elder Bosco II

 

We dug a whole for the Menéndez Family..Well we dug a Little bit (With Young men that are preparing to serve missions)

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 All you can eat pizza for PDay with Elders in our home and from the zone

 Playing pool

 Elder Teixeira

 

 With Celeste and Mari Lu Menéndez (investigators)

Menu that a Young girl made for us (lunch with the Ávila Family)

 Elders in the house- elders Dement, Perry, Bosco, Valle