This is the Place

Yesterday was my first Sunday here in Villa Dolores. It was a pretty busy day. In the morning I got to meet most of the members of the branch here. There were 45 people in the chapel and that´s including 2 babies, some visitors, Elder Aniel and I. I almost have all of the last names memorized of the families that attend. After church we had a baptismal service of a young woman named Micaela. Her parents don´t attend our church, but she has been coming to church for several months. It just so happened that last Sunday her parents finally gave her permission to be baptized. Elder Aniel and I have passed by her house several times and it really amazed me to see how much Micaela loves the gospel. It was also special to see how the members of the branch really accepted her as a member of the "family". She is a great example to me of courage.

Micaela, her family, and some of the members of the branch.

I´m loving it here in Villa Dolores. This week flew by because everything was new. The members here are great and there is a lot of potential here. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Remember that God can never forget about you and will never abandon you. Also remember that we can have all the blessings God has in store for us if we have the desires to work for them. 

Elder Lulich   

New Área: Villa Dolores

Today is a new day in a new area with a new companion in a new pension. Everything is just very new. My new area is called Villa Dolores. What I've heard from my comp about the area is that it is massive. Not only are we in the city of villa dolores but we also work sometime in the other nearby pueblos. There is a branch here with about 40 to 50 members that attend and another branch of about 15 members in another pueblo. It´s going to be odd changing from a ward with about 130 members to a small branch, but I´m sure it will grow on me. My new companion is Elder Aniel. He is from Florida and is the district leader here. From our conversation during the 4 hour trip to get here I think that we´re going to get along very well. 

I´m going to miss Santa Isabel and Elder Mendoza, we really got to be good friends he and I. But it´s exciting to think about what awaits me here. 

This week I got the chance to eat cow brain. I ate it in a members house mixed in with scrambled eggs. I can´t say it was terrible, but I will say that I have no desire to eat that ever again. 

This week I learned once again that it is always better to follow the Lord´s counsel than to rely on one´s own intelligence. This Friday night my comp and I were finishing up our day and I just wanted to pass by one more person. This person lived close to where we were at, but in a more dangerous part of the neighborhood. My comp didn't want to go in and told me several times that we should pass by someone else. I also was scared, but I figured that it would be fine since I knew the area so well. Nothing could happen right? So we entered the neighborhood and were able to talk to the person. But while we were leaving three teenagers came up from behind and robbed us. They didn't do anything to us, they were kids and didn't know what they were doing. But they took our cellphone and map. I know that the Lord was protecting me and my comp. At the same time I know that he let that happen to humble us a little bit and teach us a lesson. That this isn't our work, missionary work is the work of the Lord. This is 

His message and it must be delivered in His way. I´m just here as a messenger. I´m so grateful for my calling and the chance I have to come to know so many people here in Argentina as well as my Father in Heaven. I wish you all a wonderful week. 

La Zona BautiSur!

 Here´s my old zone on our last p-day. Bowling!

Power of the Scriptures

This week went by super fast. What I can remember from this week is that we committed an investigator to be baptized! The sad part is that I´ll probably be leaving the area this next week so I won´t be able to see him through to the end. His name is Walter Collante and he´s getting ready to be baptized the 18th of this month! This Wednesday we had a lesson with him and we discussed the gospel of Jesus Christ. To help describe the principle of faith I shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon, Alma 32:21. I read the verse to him and then started describing what it meant. When I began, Walter cut me off and asked me to read the scripture again. I read it again and this time waited to hear what he would say. He told us, "You know what? That´s true." We also met with Walter on Friday and something similar happened when we read another scripture during the discussion, Mosiah 3:19. This time Walter told us, "That's exactly what I was trying to say." These moments are just another testimony to me of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. And they are also a testimony to me of the importance of memorizing scripture mastery in seminary (Thank you Sister Doman). 

It's amazing to be working with people like this, people who are discovering the treasure that the gospel is, people who are humble enough to recognize their weaknesses, but at the same time brave enough to overcome them. 

Today we went to the Centro. This is a statue of San Martin: the Liberator of Argentina

Funny Story: I almost forgot about the fourth of July. I didn't remember until the zone leaders told me "Happy birthday!" and then started to sing the national anthem.

Lavando las Medias

This week started off with exchanges within the zone. I got to go south of my area to a place called Alta Gracia. It was a biking area and so beautiful. It reminded me a little bit of Oregon. 

Saturday was flag day here in Argentina and the ward had a Locro. Locro is one of the traditional dishes of Argentina. Its a squash soup that has a bunch of different stuff inside. On Friday night we went to help prepare the locro. The picture here shows me washing one of the ingredients, tripa gorda. Thats large intestine for the English speakers. MMMMMMMmmmmm....To prepare the tripa gorda for the locro I had to cut it into smaller pieces and then turn those pieces inside out. The nickname for this is "lavando las medias" or "washing the socks." It was pretty fun.

A handful of guts. YUM.

Me and my compi are working hard finding and teaching investigators. I think that the best part of teaching is when, in the middle of a lesson, I get a new idea or a new perspective on an old scripture that helps me apply the principle to the investigator. I know that these little revelations come thanks to the Spirit. This Sunday one of our investigators finally came to church with us. We really wanted her brother to come too, we've been teaching him for a longer time, but he says that he`s  not ready yet. I think that`s one of the hardest parts of the mission, getting people to come to church. After all that we can do, the person has to make the choice. 

I hope you`re all doing well! And Happy Father`s Day!

Elder Lulich

Three goofy kids.

Contacting

This week had some highs and lows. When we arrived at Saturday morning we had only found 2 new investigators during the entire week. I still had hope that we could find investigators, but I wasn't too sure that we would achieve our goal of 7 for the week. Well my companion and I ended up finishing the day with 8 new people to teach. It was odd. The people seemed to be more receptive. 

The best part of the day for me was a contact that we did in the morning. At the beginning of the contact the lady did not want anything. But my companion and I were persistent. I´m not exactly sure what we said to get to the subject, but the lady began to talk about how she couldn't believe in God because he didn't save her mother from dying. My companion and I then challenged her to read the pamphlet of the plan of salvation and ask God if it was true that there is a life after this one. She accepted the challenge! My companion and I walked away from that contact feeling awesome. 

Have a great week!

Stay on the Rock!

This week my companion and I talked with some pretty sad people. People who told us that it was hard to believe in God anymore because of the things that have happened to them. My companion and I did our best to help them, it also made me sad to see that they were scared to grab on to the very thing that would help them pull themselves out of their problems. What they need to know is that god always loves them and that this gospel is here to help us be happy in any situation that we may find ourselves in. That's the purpose of this life. We exist here on this earth so that we can find happiness. That happiness always comes from following the gospel of the savior Jesus Christ.

If you remember the parable of Jesus about the wise man and the foolish man: the wise man listened and followed the teachings of Jesus and thus built his house on a rock. The foolish man rejected or ignored the teachings of Jesus and built his house on the sand. Then the rain and wind came and fell on both the houses. The house built on a foundation of sand fell because of the storm while the house on the rock stood firm. A life in the gospel is not a guarantee that trials will not come. The rain falls on both the wicked and the righteous. The gospel is a guarantee that when the storm comes we will not fall. 

So if we are passing through a storm in our lives it is not the time to complain because the rain is falling on us and abandon the rock that gives us strength. We need to stay there! And if we are not building our lives on the gospel of Christ, we need to get ourselves on the rock, and quick!

All in all this was a good week. We found a new families to teach! I'm starting to feel much more comfortable teaching in Spanish and working together with my companion Elder Mendoza. Sorry I don't share more cool stories and weird traditions of the Argentinos, this week I'll try to do cooler things for you guys. Ha ha. 

I'll tell you a little about the food ... We do eat cookies here in Argentina, but sadly nobody makes cookies in there house so it's not the same. One of the vegetables that we eat here, but not in the states is called zapallo. It's a type of squash and it´s pretty good. I don't eat too many vegetables here. Sometimes I miss having a salad at very meal like at home.

6 WEEKS MORE!!!

Transfers were this Saturday and I got the news that I´d be staying here in Santa Isabel. At the end of this transfer I'll have completed 6 months in this area. These past 6 weeks have flown by. But I can really see the difference they have made. In these past six weeks this area has changed a lot for me. I remember that after my first six weeks here in the area I wanted to get out of here. But now I´m glad to stay. Elder Mendoza and I have a lot to do here. 

I think the highlight of my week was that this sunday a family that we´ve been visiting regularly for 4 months now came to church. This family had stopped going to church about 6 months ago. They are great people, but they've been passing through some tough times lately. The husband lost his job and now they make and sell bread from their house to get by (and the bread is delicious). Every time we would invite them tocome tochurch they would tell us that they didn´t want to go because they were afraid that the other members would judge them. What they had to come to realize was that this gospel is not for perfect people this gospel is here in order to perfect people. Big difference. 

Que tengan una semana exitosa! 

Elder Lulich