March 29, 2010 Dispedido for Elder Ramirez

A VERY HAPPY DAY FOR US!

Antonio Pichel's Baptism! WOW!
Elder Ramirez and I absolutely LOVE this guy.




Hola Mi Familia!

I think I say that every single week but that`s alright. I`ll try to think of something new next week.

So this week the miracle happened. Antonio Pichel got baptized. Included are pictures of his baptism. This man is incredible and has such a strong testimony of the restored gospel. He knows it. He got confirmed Sunday, got presented before the ward to receive the Aaronic Priesthood and be sustained to the office of a Priest, and got called to be the new first counselor in the newly formed Young Men`s Presidency. He is absolutely incredible! We spent today with he and his family fishing, working on the farm, having lunch, and having a dispedido as they call it here for Elder Ramirez. Tomorrow we are going to have a going away dinner for him at their house. We absolutely love that family.

So I kind of gave it away in that last paragraph, but we found out transfers today. I am staying here and will be training a new gringo. It is my first experience being a Senior Companion as well as a trainer so we`ll see how it goes. I`m way excited! I don`t know who he is yet. I am going to Mendoza Wednesday morning to have an interview with President and will be paired with one of them based off of who he feels should be with who. I love the church and modern revelation that tells us what the Lord wants us to do in our lives. More to come on that next week.

This week Jorge also got baptized. He is so included with the Young Men and I feel that Antonio will be a big help for him with the activities they will do and with the personaliy that Antonio will bring to the Young Men`s Organization.

This week I learned about love and law from a talk entitled as such given by Dallin H. Oaks this last conference. I sometimes have problems telling someone when they are wrong and when they need to be corrected. But I learned from this talk that if I have love for people I will teach them correct principles and correct them when necessary to yhelp them realize that they are sinning. By helping people in a loving way realize that they are sinning, I am showing them that I am loving them and helping them come closer to Christ. Humility does not mean backing away from principles that you know make people happy. Humility is courageously putting the Lord as your first priority and not backing down when your back is against the wall of truth. The truth will set you free.

About the pench situation, we are still looking for a new pench, but I love our Pench. I`ve kind of gotten attached to it. The one pench that we wanted fell through but we`ll find something soon.

Thanks for all the love! Love from Mendoza Argentina,

Elder Hoglund