Güd Times

This week was crazy! For the first time in my mission we had 7 investigators at church. Four of the investigators were from a family that we've been working with a lot. The mother of the family, Claudia has so much faith and determination! She really heading the force to help bless her family. About 5 years ago she had received the missionaries and her and her daughters went to church a couple of times. She wanted to be baptized in that time, but her husband didn't agree. A few weeks ago we found her and invited her to be baptized and she said that this time she is going to achieve her goal. So now Claudia and one of her daughters have plans to be baptized this Saturday, and the rest of the family is listening to the discussions.

Today for p-day we are going to a place called La Cumbrecita. We haven´t gotten there yet, but I´ve heard that it´s super beautiful so I´m pretty excited.

Until next week. 

Elder Lulich

Finding the Will of the Lord

This week we were able to set a baptismal date for Kevin. It was a pretty special experience. We've been trying to set the date for quite a while now, but had problems agreeing on the date with Kevin´s mother. She wanted Kevin to be baptized on a date in November and we thought that it would be best for Kevin to be baptized next week due to the fact that he already had all of the lessons and was coming to church and he really had the desire to be baptized. It was a real battle for both of us to accept the will of the Lord.

Our little amigo

The zone leaders came to our area on Saturday to do the baptismal interview of Kevin and they basically made the same argument to Kevin´s mother that we've been making, "If he ´s ready why wait?" Finally Kevin´s mom opened up and we were able to understand what the real problem was. It wasn't that Kevin wasn't ready, it was that they were afraid that his grandparents were going to get angry and react if Kevin was baptized. It just so happened that one of the zone leaders had a similar experience with his grandparents when his parents were baptized, his grandmother didn't speak with his family for about 18 years. But now that her grandchildren have gone on missions she is talking with them again. With the help of the Elder´s experience we were able to set a date for August 6th. This will give Kevin and his mother time to win over his grandparents and prepare them for the baptism of Kevin. 

Elder Pereira and I had been hoping and praying that Kevin could be baptized this week. His mother had felt that he should be baptized in November. But sometimes the will of the Lord is something different than what we have in mind. What we need to learn to do is have patience and learn to accept that he has plans that are much greater that ours, but plans that are always in our  favor.

Have a great week,  
Elder Lulich 

This week was great. Cold and rainy but great. Elder Pereira es un capo. (Elder Pereira is a boss). I've learned a ton from him in this first week about how to create a good relationship in a short time with strangers. 

Here´s a photo of the entire mission from the last conference of Pres Alliaud. You guys will have to play a little where´s waldo to find me. 

Also a few pics after district meeting. We talked about being focused on the conversion of others in everything we do. Like Pres Alliaud says, "do the missionary work,not just missionary things". (Haga la obra misional no solamente cosas misionales).

Plus, a giant dog that showed up last p-day

My Bold Companion

My new companion is great. He really just wants to baptize and is always talking about baptism with people. Sometimes in the contacts he has fun when people reject us or say that they aren't interested and just directly asks them if they would like to be baptized. Or if they would like to be baptized again. I´m not usually that direct with the people, but nobody has gotten angry at us yet. Besides being super stoked to baptize Elder Pereira is a great teacher and has a gift of creating a good relationship with the people in a short time. In just this week I've learned a lot from him. Like a few magic tricks to grab the attention of the people.
Elder McCleve´s knee was better at the end of the week. I hope he´s alright in his new area. But I think it was riding on the bike here that was bothering him so he should be fine now. The work is going well. We´re still working with Kevin. Like I said before he´s great, but his mom still isn't ready to let him be baptized. And this week we've found several other investigators that I think will progress this transfer. We've also found other less actives that have children that haven´t been baptized. We call those families PFs. There are a ton here in Alta Gracia and Elder Pereira and I are working a lot with them. I like working with PFs because no one wants to be alone in the gospel. Everyone wants to have their family with them. and if we can help more of the family of a less active member be converted, everyone is strengthened and everyone wins. I´m confident that we are going to have success this transfer.  

New Transfer

Today is the first day of a new transfer. Elder McCleve left for a new area this morning. I'm going to miss that guy. But the farewell of Elder McCleve means that I have a new companion! My companion´s name is Elder Periera. he´s from Brazil. He´s the first Brazilian companion I've had. Maybe if I´m lucky I´ll be able to learn a little bit of Portuguese. At least I´ll be able to perfect my Brazilian accent. Elder Pereira seems like a pretty great missionary, I´m super excited to work with him. 

This week we were not able to work that much because Elder McCleve´s knee was super swollen. The highlight of the week for me was seeing the baptism of three of the investigators of Elder Aniel and Elder Teban, the two other Elders that live with us. The investigators, Juana, Celeste, and Antonella progressed very quickly. I remember two weeks ago when I went with Elder Aniel to a visit with them and we invited them to be baptized. The whole district went to the baptism and sang a special musical number. The whole baptism was even more special because the grandma and the two girls were the first baptisms of the branch Anisacate since it´s beginning 9 months ago.

With Elder McCleve we started singing in the visits that we did with our regular investigators. I really could tell how it invited the spirit. We´ll see now if Elder Pereira likes to sing, or if I can teach him;).  

And happy summer to all of you too. Winter is starting down here. But it´s a nice winter. At least it hasn't rained for a few weeks.

Until next week. Un abrazo de Argentina

Elder Lulich      

The Power of Prayer

Yesterday the whole mission got together to say goodbye to Presidente Alliuad and Hermana Alliaud. It was a super special conference. 

 Presidente teaching the doctrine of a good mate

Among other things President gave us a motivational speech for what he and the Lord expect from us, we were able to hear the crazy story about how Presidente and his wife met one another, Presidente taught us how to prepare a good mate, and I think that most touching part was when Presidente said a prayer for all of the missionaries. When he finished the prayer the story in the Book of Mormon when Jesus prays for the Nephites came to my mind. After their experience the Nephites testified, "no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father." I can really echo those words now. With the prayer of Presidente I could really feel the great love that he has for all of us missionaries, how much he thinks about us and is concerned about our futures. 

In the work, Elder McCleve and I are teaching Kevin the son of a less-active member. He is super fun and really loves learning about the gospel. Last week we were not having the success we want with finding new investigators, we were coming along badly in the week with no new people to teach. Then Saturday evening after panicking a little and feeling bad, thinking that we were going to finish the week without a single new investigator, we kept contacting and the Lord blessed us to find several families that were interested in hearing the gospel. We finished the week well. 

Have a great week!

Elder Lulich  

Elder Fantham (my son)

 Presidente y la Hermana Alliaud

 Elder Mendoza (my second comp)

The Stress of Moving

I don't have time to write but just want to let you all know that I am doing well. This week, after a lot of stress, we were finally able to move to a new apartment. I never had to deal with paying rent or bills or deal with a landlord or look for a new place to live so the whole process was pretty stressful and new for me. I kept on thinking," I'm a missionary I should just be worrying about people slamming the door in my face I shouldn't have to think about these things now." But it was a good experience because I´ll probably have to deal with those things after my mission. And it also helped me combat my uncomfortableness with talking to people over the phone. 

Have a great week and don't get mad at your landlords! or anyone else for that matter.