The Gratitude of the Hermana Arguello

Hola Familia,

 Funny story about the Mother´s Day call.  I took the money out of the account and sent it off to the sister in Santa Isabel. But then at the Zone conference last week Elder Mendoza came up to me with the envelope with the money. He told me that he tried to give the money to the sister but she wouldn't accept it. she had written a little note and put it in the envelope. The note said that it wasn't necessary that I gave them the money because they receive enough blessings from God. (This is the family that also gave us lunch every single Wednesday). She also wrote that I should tell mom that she did a good job raising me. Thanks Mom, and Dad. 

Thanks for the emails too. It really is inspiring to see your positive outlook on the unexpected things that come up. I know that it´s the perspective that comes with the gospel.

I´m doing good. Elder Aniel and I have a lot of fun. Sometimes too much. I have to tone back my nonsense once in a while. I still haven´t gotten the package. We have to wait for zone meetings to get packages because the zone leaders get the mail from the mission home. Thanks for the birthday wishes! I´ll be getting a special lunch with the family of Micaela, the girl who got baptized when I arrived here.

I love you!

Tyler

Biking in Cura Brochero- a town that run mostly on religious tourism. 

Zone Conference and Reunions

The conference this week was so awesome. I learned a ton and I got to see my old companion Elder Mendoza and ask about how things are going back in Santa Isabel. This week we´ve also been preparing a youth to be baptized. She is the friend of some of the young women in the ward and is super ready to be baptized. It made me super happy to hear her tell us during one of our visits of how she´s been doing nightly prayers with her mom. Her mother is also an investigator of ours, but needs a little more time to progress. I´m sure the baptism of her daughter will help her a lot. This week between the zone conference and CDs about missionary work that I got from my grandpa I´ve also been learning about how to ask effective questions, questions that really get the investigators to open up with us. Now in my missionary I´ve got the teaching part down, but what´s just as important as teaching is making sure that the investigator understands and feels the message. So I´ve been asking a lot more questions about the feelings of the people. "and how does it make you feel to know..." "how do you feel when..." and stuff like that. It make seem silly but I sure have seen a difference in my teaching and in the way that the investigator receives the message. This work is making me stretch in ways that I never thought I could. And I think that the best part is that I am bettering myself for other people. I am trying to improve every day so that the people here in Argentina can have the missionary that they need to be able to comprehend, feel, and act upon the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When it´s done for others the work is so much sweeter. 

Have a great week! 

Elder Lulich

I saw Elder Mendoza at the conference. If it looks like he's not happy in the photo it's because he's a little sassy and it took some convincing for me to get a picture with him. haha.

Baptismal Interview Surprise

This week went by pretty quickly. On Tuesday night we took a four hour bus ride to get together with the other missionaries in the zone. We´re pretty isolated out here in Villa Dolores. 
 I have a bike now. It is so much nicer. Elder Aniel told me that I would get "thunder thighs" before the end of the transfer from riding so much. We baptize people here in the chapel of Villa Dolores. There are a few areas where the investigators get baptized in the river, but not here.  I´m doing pretty well with Spanish now. There are still some things that are hard to express, but I feel pretty fluent. 

 We played soccer with some of the young men this Saturday. That kids arm is in a sling and he still plays better than me. Ha ha

On Friday the Zone leaders came to Cura Brochero with us to do a baptismal interview. The investigator was really ready for her baptism. She has been coming to church out in Cura Brochero for about 2 months now. I spent the day with one of the zone leaders and elder Aniel with the other. All of the plans we had made for that day fell through but success is a choice so the Zone leader and I spent the day contacting and talking to people in their doorways. We ended up finding several new people to teach, one who had even read parts of the Book of Mormon. When the Zone leaders had to leave we all got back together to get our companions back and I asked how the interview went. Elder Aniel started to laugh and said that the interview went great, but afterwards it came up that the investigator wasn't married she had been living with her pair for 30 years so we assumed they were married. So she wasn't ready to be baptized. This taught me a lesson that we really have to be preparing in every moment. Our mission president always says that we need to be focused on everything at the same time. That´s how real lasting growth happens. God often puts little tests like this to see how dedicated we really are to achieving our goals. It´s up to us to decide if the test will make us stronger.

Make your week great!

Elder Lulich

Cura Brochero

It always seems like the days and the weeks end with something special. I like to think that it´s God´s way of saying," Good work today." I mentioned in another letter that in this area we work with two branches one of 45 people and one of 15 people. The little group of 15 people live in a little town an hour by bus from where we live. This town is called Cura Brochero. It is named after a pastor who helped many people in this part of Cordoba and who is actually a candidate for becoming a saint right now. We can only work in this town 2 time a week because of the cost of travel and the time it takes. Because of the little time we spend there it is difficult to find people and help them progress. Yesterday after the service here in Villa Dolores we headed over to Cura Brochero to gather up the investigators to see who would go with us to church. We passed by all the people we had contacted and begun to teach and none of them were a able to go (or they didn´t want to go). The service was at 6 and it was about 5:45 and we decided to pass by one last person to see if maybe he could go. When we talked to him, Fabio, and told him that the church would start in 7 minutes he said, "Great I´ll go put a sweater on and we can walk over there." It really was a miracle because he hasn't been in contact with the missionaries for about 2 and a half weeks. 

One thing I've learned from the scriptures and my experiences here on the mission is that, in order to receive blessings, I need to show my sincere desire to the Lord through my efforts and obedience. In reality I can´t accomplish much on my own, I can´t control external forces to make things work in my favor. All I can do is try to align my will with the Lord´s, work as hard as I can, and wait in faith that the Lord will help me achieve my goals. That how we use the grace of Christ.

I wish you all a successful week

Elder Lulich

And for inspiration during the week here´s my companion contemplating the sunset

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.