A New Start

This week Martín got baptized. We had the baptismal service on Saturday and it was really nice because a lot of the members came to watch and support Martín. I got the opportunity to baptize Martin. The original plan was that an elder who had served here before and taught Martin would come and perform the baptism. But on Saturday, about one hour before the baptism, he called and said that he wasn´t going to be able to make it. Martín said something that I really liked, he said, "there´s nothing stopping me now from being baptized. It doesn´t matter if Elder Souza baptizes me, whats important is getting baptized." He had it completely right. What´s important is being baptized and doing it for the right reason. Martin has told us in earlier lessons that he wanted to be baptized to show God that he really has made a change in his life. That´s what baptism is all about. It´s a new start. It´s a promise between us and God that we are willing to give up our worldly and sinful life and live a spiritual one instead. We promise that we will follow the commandments and teachings of his son Jesus Christ and he promises us that he´ll be with us in the path, guiding us through the power of his Holy Spirit. I know that everyone can benefit from this promise with God, being baptized in his manner. I know that the spiritual life that God offers us is really the only life worth living. 

I am so grateful for the opportunity to help people get to know their place in the plan of God. I wouldn´t trade this time for anything else.

Have a great week. 

Elder Lulich

Happy Mother's Day!

Yesterday was mothers day here in Argentina. I think that this is the only country that celebrates mothers day in October. In the sacrament meeting one of the speakers spoke about albedrio (agency) and explained how Mothers help their children use their agency correctly by showing them the path to take. We saw the proof of this in the afternoon when we met with a sister who is in the process of reactivation. She had been inactive for about 15 years and during that time her kids followed her and became inactive. Now she has put the goal of coming back to church and one of her daughters is following her example and now is planning to get married and bring her young family into the gospel. The Mom told us that she feels bad for having become inactive for so long, but her example shows me that God is always going to do everything possible to bring his children back to him.
I hope you guys are doing well and thanks Mom for being my guide!

Tyler 

A Crazy Transfer

P-day at the creek.

Sorry I haven´t written for the past two weeks. Let me tell you what happened. The first time was my fault, I just didn't have time to write ( I technically shouldn't be writing now, but I think that if I went three weeks without writing a letter some people would begin to worry a little more than normal). But last week was just about the most crazy p-day of my mission. I got transferred to a new area after only three months in Villa Dolores. I was pretty sad to be leaving. I got sent to the city of Cordoba again to a place called Parque Liceo. There were sister missionaries here before, but they had some security problems so they took them out and sent me and my new companion Elder Gomez here to blank the area. So on Monday the sister missionaries gave us the address of the apartment and sent us on our way. When we got to the pension the first thing that happened was that the taxi driver told us to be careful. He said, "take care chicos, here they´ll rob you in your own doorway." So that gave us a great first impression. Then when walked up to the door of the apartment we saw that it was completely destroyed. We entered and there was literally nothing inside, no beds, no stove, nothing. The cellphone that the sisters had left us couldn't make calls so we went to a place where you can make phone calls and called the secretary of the mission telling him about our situation. He was aware and he came by with the mission car and took us and our luggage to the mission home. He told us that people had entered in the apartment several times and that we were going to live with the office elders until they closed the contract for a new apartment. We ended up living in the apartment of the office elders until Wednesday. So Monday I didn't really have any time to write. 

Me on the roof of the office elders pension with the temple in the background

Now we are in a great pension in another part of town. I've gotten to know the area pretty well in the past week. It's actually really nice despite the bad first impression that we had. The members here are great and glad to have us. We have big shoes to fill here, the sisters baptized 4 people in the three months that they were here, after 2 years of no one being baptized. We have a baptism for this Saturday of the dad of one of the young women in the branch. His name is Martin and is so ready to be baptized and make this big change in his life. I´m really excited for him.

My new comp is Elder Gomez, he is from Honduras. He has a gift of taking with everybody. In the week that I've been with him I've learned so much from his example about how to be "cool" with people and testifying at the same time.

This is going to be a great transfer.

Have a great week!

Finding Through New Members

We've just started to work with a friend of two girls, Micaela and Candela that recently got baptized. This boy's name is Rodrigo and we are trying to get him to go to seminary with the girls. That´s how the girls ended up getting baptized, they started going to seminary and they ended up loving it. We are hoping that the same thing happens with Rodrigo. Seminary here is held in the afternoon after school three days a week. 

I still haven't gotten the things that you guys sent me. But that's because I only get the chance to see my mail one time each month, during the zone meetings. This next week we have a zone meeting and I'm hoping that the zone leaders bring the package. ¡Fingers crossed! 

It's good to hear that Zach and Emry are getting put to work. How did you guys teach me to love to dig? That´s something that I miss sometimes, being able to go out and take out a stump, or cut wood, or pull ivy.

Love you guys,

Tyler

One of the families that we eat with every week. Along with Hermana Medina and  Hermana Oviedo.

 The mountain where we went for p-day today.