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

The Lord Provides

   My pen leaked in my pocket

This week was tough. The majority of our appointments failed on us so my companion and I spent a lot of time in the street. For example Thursday was all planned out; we knew exactly what we were going to do the whole day. Every hour we had set up an opportunity to teach an investigator or a less active member. But every time we passed by a house the people told us that they were suddenly busy or that something had come up and they couldn't attend to us. 

The whole day was not a waste though. One of our plans at the end of the day actually was fulfilled. The Lord really provided in this opportunity. Not only were we able to  teach a less active member as we had planned, but we were also able to begin to teach her non-member brother, thus finding a new investigator. 

I really do love this area of the mission and the members and investigators that I get to interact with. Although many days are difficult, I know that this is the Lord´s work and that he wants me to succeed.

                          

Cultural Event and Temple Dedication

This week has been pretty great. There have been some high and low points. But it ended with the cultural event and the dedication of the temple. 

Wednesday we had a zone conference and got the chance to listen to President Alliaud speak. Our mission president is an inspired man. He spoke about many things, bu the part I liked the most was when he was talking about the natural man vs. the spiritual man. He said that all of us as human beings have two forces fighting inside of us, carnal and spiritual. Every time we give in to our natural desires to be lazy, or rebel, or get angry, or whatever the temptation may be we become more worldly and our spiritual side is weakened. But when we listen to the spiritual guidance of our heavenly father and choose to do things his way we become more spiritual, more heavenly. President told us that our salvation is determined by whether we can dominate the natural side of our self.

 Here's a picture of our zone conference. See if you can find me. It will be like where´s waldo.

On Thursday my companion and I had a pretty terrible day. We weren't able to enter a single house until 6 in the afternoon. And then when we did enter that house we taught a lesson that was just bad. 

On Saturday I got to give my first blessing in Spanish! It was a little scary, but I got through it well. Later we got to go to the cultural event for the temple. All of the youth ages 12 to 18 from Cordoba performed the many traditional dances of Argentina to celebrate the dedication of the temple. It was pretty much the closest thing to a concert that I´m going to get on my mission so I really enjoyed myself. 

Then on Sunday came the dedication. It has been so neat to see how the temple has affected the members here. And now they have the chance to enter! 

 Well that's mas o menos what happened this week in Cordoba Argentina. Hope you all are doing well wherever you are found on the globe.

Some missionary painted the first vision!

Miracles from the Temple

Well yesterday was mother´s day and we got to talk to our families so that was pretty awesome. I must say that I miss those guys. But don´t worry, I´m not moping around staring at pictures of my family just yet.

This week one of our investigators got baptized. WOOP WOOP! This girl is the girlfriend of a less active member. It´s been really cool seeing that as she has come to know the gospel, her boyfriend has also become active in the church. Now that she is baptized, they just got to get married and keep on helping one another out. I have the faith that they can do it!

Us with Rocio

Elder Mitchell and Elder Gonzalez had an investigator that got baptized too

On Tuesday we did exchanges within the zone and I got to stay in my area. I always get nervous to be in exchanges because I feel like I have to show off my area and I don´t want to let my companion for the day down. This exchange went pretty well. One of the plans for the day was to contact a less active sister in the ward. I had never met this member so I didn´t really know what to expect. We ended up finding the non-member husband outside the house. While we were talking to him he told us that he had gone to the temple open house with his wife. We asked him how he liked it and he told us a pretty cool story. During his temple tour there was a part where the guides invited everyone to be silent and say a personal prayer. He said that he prayed to be able to buy a car that he had been trying to get for a long time. Apparently there were only like 50 of these cars in all of Argentina and his friend had one, but wasn´t going to sell it. But he said his prayer and among other things asked God to help him get this car. And, what do you know, about two days later he was able to buy the car! So when we came by to talk to him he told us that since God had kept up his part of the promise he was going to fulfill his and receive the missionary lessons. We've already been able to go back a second time to his house and taught the first lesson. We´ll see where it goes from here! 

But all in all things are great here. I´m getting along well with my companion (most of the time). And I´m starting to really love the members of this ward. I actually wouldn't mind too much if I had to stay a while longer in this ward.

I hope you all told your mother´s you love them yesterday. And I hope you show just how much you love them today! 

Ciao! 

Elder Lulich

We went to a giant park in the middle of the city today for p-day. it reminded me of the Golden Gate Bridge park in San Francisco

Taking an Investigator to the Temple

I got to teach an English class this Saturday. There is one other gringo elder in this area and we set up a basic English. This Saturday it was mostly members with some of our investigators, but we encouraged the members to bring their nonmember friends. The class was a lot of fun. 

Our little English class

We finally went to the temple this week. We went with an investigator of ours. I think that she really enjoyed it. After we ended the tour she said something that I thought was pretty cool. She said that everyone should try to make their bodies a house of a pure spirit, just like the Temple is the house of the Lord. I´m sure that she recognized the sacredness of the temple and recognized how important it is to us as latter-day saints.

Elder Mendoza, our investigator, and I at the temple. It was so nice to be in a temple again. It felt like home.

Love you all!

  

Computer Troubles

Hey guys I had a good week. Me and Elder Mendoza worked and walked a
ton. I've written this message three times now but every time I send
it the computer freaks out so I´m not going to write as much this
time.
I´m really loving the work here. What I've learned this past week is
that the the more you give the more you get. My companion is such a
good example to me. He works so hard to be a good missionary. And I
can tell that he loves this work.
I love you all and miss you.

Tyler

New Companion: Elder Mendoza

So today marks the beginning of a new transfer for me. This morning my trainer Elder Sparks left for another area and I got a new companion named Elder Mendoza. Elder Mendoza is from Peru and for the 4 or so hours that I've been with him he seems pretty cool. Elder Mendoza only speaks Spanish so I´m going to be speaking Spanish 24 hrs a day now. Before with Elder Sparks we were both gringos so we could speak in English with one another when we were by ourselves, but there´s going to be no more of that for me.

 I can already tell that these next weeks are going to be way different than what I have gotten used to. With a new missionary here comes a different working and teaching style that I´m going to be able to learn from.

I've got to say that I am pretty nervous to have to introduce this more experienced missionary to my area. But this is a good opportunity for me because it gives me a chance to really see and evaluate what I've been doing in this area. It feels so weird now that I don´t have my trainer with me. It´s like I´m swimming without those little water wing things for the first time.

This past week we had 150 people in the chapel. That´s a record for our ward. It was pretty great to see all the families there. Some that I had never seen before. I attribute this record wholly to the new temple. Everyone is so excited now that the open house has begun. The special spirit of the temple extends beyond its beautiful walls and it is wonderful. 

An Argentine beso for you all

Here's one of my last photos with Elder Sparks. We are with bishop Cuello, his wife, and one of his daughters. Not all of the people in Argentina are this small! 

Our Zone has a tradition of taking a photo all together on the last week of the transfer. So here we are. Our zone leaders, Elder Reber and Elder Caten, are pretty great. They call every once in awhile to check in on me and their nickname for me is "LulyBear".