"just being obedient and working our tails off"

Giselle's baptim in Lujan

July 22, 2013

Familia,

Well we had a great week!! Giselle got baptized yesterday!! It went great! We had a lot of support from the members and her family, and all of our investigators came as well! La Familia Cepeda came as well! It was great!!! They are SOO excited for their baptism on Saturday!! We got two miracles; their two nephews are going to get baptized with them as well! It’s so crazy how much the Lord is blessing us in this moment, we aren’t doing anything special, just being obedient and working our tails off and the Lord is doing everything else!! 

 La Familia Cepeda is awesome. Thursday it will be exactly 3 weeks that we found them and they are all ready going to be baptized on this Saturday. They are so prepared it is incredible. Things like this don’t normally happen here so we are praying and thanking the Lord always for this huge miracle! They are going to be great leaders in the church. We are excited to see all the miracles that will come from this family. They are going to give us references and bring a lot of people into the church. Next week is transfers again; I can’t believe how fast it has gone by!! Oh there is a chance of snow down here, you all know how much I love snow, so please pray that it snows.  Haha, I’m going crazy. Thanks for everything. Love you all so much!!!

Love, Elder Eppich!!! 

18 months!

18 months in the mission!

Burning the traditional pair of pants at 18 months!

July 15, 2013

Wow what a great week!! The Lord really is blessing us a ton and we are seeing his hand every day leading us everywhere we need to go!!! Well the Familia Medina has been super busy and hard to teach this week so they aren’t looking too sure for this month, but hopefully the following month!!! Gisel and Gonzalo are doing super good, we had a very direct and bold lesson with them a week ago and they have progressed a ton since that time, and they are making great friends with the members so that is helping a ton! Gisele will be baptized on the 20th and Gonzalo the 27th!! 

  Then the Familia Cepedea is doing great!!! They are reading and praying and stopped smoking and came to church yesterday, we changed their date to the 27th of July! So we are expecting Gisele, Gonzalo, Daniel, Claudia, Priscilla, and Ramero to get baptized this month, if you could pray for them specifically that would be great"!!!! We are really excited for them and the members as well are really helping us out a ton with those families, so things couldn’t be going better in that aspect!! So I completed 18 months this last week!!! CRAZY!! I can’t believe it!  It doesn’t feel like it at all. I still feel really new, but I know time will keep flying. I can’t believe that we almost have transfers again!! It’s crazy!!

 I burned some pants, well I tried to.  Haha they were super durable so I only burned about half of them, and then I had to go to bed!! Haha

  So this week we have been praying specifically for miracles and then working our tails off and the Lord has been blessing us a ton, it’s so incredible! Between us and the other missionaries in our branch we had 18 investigators at church yesterday, and then we should have a combined total of 11 baptisms this month!! Wow. 

 There is a few awesome families that are really helping us a ton! Oh mom could you accept the facebook requests from the people from Argentina that I have a common friend with? Thanks!! Sounds like everything is going great!! Love you all a ton!

Love, Elder Eppich

yay!! a Walmart!

Hard Work Pays Off

July 13, 2013


Family,

This week was a great week!! Oh before I forget again, last week when I saw the Elder that serves in La Perlita, he was telling me how one of the guys that I found and prepared for baptism, that his brother and mom got baptized and that the rest of his family is progressing as well!! It is such an awesome experience to know that all the hard work pays off and that never will we see all the results from all of our hard work!!!!!
 
This week we had an awesome week with lots of miracles!!! So the zone where I am has been one of the best zones in the mission when it comes to baptism and stuff, but lately they have been struggling, just like Chivilcoy when I went out. (Oh I saw pte and Sister Carter and they told me they put me in the favorite area and they are expecting BIG things from me!! Haha pressure) So we have been working super hard to turn things around. Me and my companion, Elder Hernandez have been working super hard with the members and looking for investigators and we have found a lot of great people!!! We have a family called the Familia Medina. They are part member family and two are members and there are five that aren’t. We are reactivating them and then we are going to baptize four of them on the 27th of July!! Also we have another part member family that we found that are progressing a ton. Their names are Gysel and Gonzalo, they should be baptized as well on the 27th, well at least Gysel, Gonzalo might take some more time!! Then on Thursday Elder Hernandez and I contacted a family and taught them and helped them with some service. Their water line broke and I helped him fix it. They were surprised with my ability to help them. Hahaha they are the Familia Zepeda and they came to church as well on Sunday, and they really liked it!! Oh we also sang a hymn in the sacrament meeting, the missionaries, it was super good!!! Haha and I have become a great cook, I experiment a lot and things turn out SUPER good! I made chocolate chip cookies yesterday!!!! ! They were soo good!! Well thanks for everything I got to get going, keep praying for me!! Love ya!!,

Love, Elder Eppich!!!!

"Pray with Faith, then work with Faith"

July 1, 2013

 

Family,

 

Well I am super short on time, but everything is going SUPER good here!! We are working really hard and we are seeing a lot of miracles. Yesterday at church we had 7 investigators and we are having a ton of sucess with the members and they are excited to help us all and we cant wait to see the results!!!!! My companion, Elder Hernandez is doing great as well!! He is a great teacher!!! I love so much how the Lord answers our prayers of faith. I encourage all of you to pray with faith and then work with faith. Ask the Lord for things and then do all you can to get them, and then you will really see the hand of the Lord in your lives! I love you so much and thanks for everything. Sorry for the short letter!!

 

Love, Elder Eppich

"The Lord has a Specific Purpose for Every One of His Children"

June 24, 2013

Familia,

Wow I don’t know where to start!! Well to start off, I am doing internet next to a McDonalds, Haha. I got transferred to my new area and I love it!! It’s Called Lujan! I have a new comp named Elder Hernandez from Colombia. He has been a member for 2 years, and he is the only member from his family except for his grandma! He is 21 and has a super strong testimony and I love working with him because he loves to work!!!! We are going to see lots of miracles in this area. 

 So I am currently reopening an area that had been closed for a few months. There were a few investigators but not really, so we are just starting from scratch, but it’s all ok because I already have done this in Saladillo!! The Members all received us with arms WIDE OPEN so we are really excited to work with them and we are sure we are going to be able to help them all a lot as they help us!!!!!

  So the area that I am in is super famous for a few things, one - the Virgin of Lujan, the picture that mom sends on all of the packages, is from this area, and also they have the Largest Catholic Cathedral in the whole world, you can see it from everywhere. Look it up on the internet, it’s called La Basilica de Lujan, its huge!!!!! Kind of scary, Haha. 

  We have quite a few investigators that look like they are going to have quite a bit of progress.

  We are still on bikes which is nice so I don’t have to walk around a ton on my foot so that really helps a ton!! 

  Our apartment is quite a bit smaller than the house in Saladillo, but that’s ok!

  I am super excited to be here in Lujan, it completely caught me off guard, because President normally tells us if we are training or not and he didn’t tell me so I wasn’t planning on it and then saw I was training and I was really excited to tell ya the truth!!

  This week it has just been incredible to feel that the Lord has a specific purpose for every one of his children. Sometimes we feel like its all chance, but I promise you that the Lord does everything for a purpose and his hand is always guiding us. We saw lots of miracles as we followed the spirit. The Lord is always going to lead us to where he wants us to be, so that we can become the best people we can be!! Follow the spirit always!!! Ask the Lord for help in everything and it will come!!! Make the most of everything!! Love you all so much!! Hope you all have a great week!

 Love, Elder Eppich

Leaving Saladillo :(

Elder Eppich with group members in Salidillo

Elder Smith and Elder Eppich with helicopter that is built in Argentina

June 17, 2013

Familia,

Well to start off, I am leaving my beloved town of Saladillo. It is so crazy to think that I’ll be leaving.  I can’t imagine the mission without being in Saladillo. I have been here for 9 months and 1 month in 25 de Mayo, so crazy. I am going to miss these people like crazy, they have been great and there have been so many obstacles and trials that we have worked through so we have grown super close!! It was a great last Sunday however!! We had a lot of good people there and converts and members that we helped reactivate and then I found out Fabiana got a new house and she is doing SUPER great right now! We ate with their family again, it was so great seeing her happy again and I felt like I could leave Saladillo in peace knowing that she was doing good. Also Victoria and Gonzalo are doing great and are planning on going through the temple in November so that I can go with them, I called Gonzalo as the priest quorum 1st assistant yesterday, he will do a great job, this will make him in charge of the young men we have and help them come back to church! We are really excited for the progress of Saladillo. At times it was hard to see the results of all the hard work that I put in over these last months, but yesterday and the past week I just kept feeling super blessed and saw many blessing and realized that the Lord worked LOTS of great miracles through me, and I was very grateful for that!! I love this work so much!!!!! 

  We had a mission tour, or that means that we had a General Authority (Elder Vinas) come and visit the mission and talk to the missionaries! It was great! I loved it! I learned a ton!!!! We talked about the atonement and repentance and a bunch of other things that I don’t have time to talk about, Haha sorry about that!!!

 Maria is still smoking, it is super hard for her, but I am sure she will be able to stop it and Marcos is doing great!! He finished the book of Mormon! I’m stoked for him, he is a great kid!!!

  It is so crazy to see how much I have changed since I got to Saladillo and how much I have learned! I will never forget this place, if Mom and Dad you end up picking me up we will definitely come here to visit everyone!! The whole town of Saladillo is in tears right now, including me. Haha but I am excited for the next area and know the Lord has something special for me in another place!!! Thanks all for all the support! I love you so much!!

Love, Elder Eppich

"I try and help all Come unto Christ"

June 10, 2013

Familia, 

Well this week was really good!! We are working super hard with a lot of the less actives and with Maria and Marcos to get them baptized soon. Maria is just as great as ever. Yesterday we did the baptismal interview, we are just waiting until she stops smoking all the way and then she will be baptized! So if all you pray for her it will happen!!! We are also teaching her neighbors and they are all doing great!! They all want to be baptized as well so we are helping them as well!!! Marcos is doing good! His mom just had her baby on Saturday and they all wanted us to go and meet him! So tiny and made me excited to meet my niece!!!! Marcos started reading the Book of Mormon that has pictures, it’s for younger kids, and he read half of it already, he loves it, he is 11 and instead of doing drugs and having kids like most kids his age he studies makes gardens and forts!! He is such a capo and wants to be baptized super bad! So were really excited for him!! 

  Oh Saturday we found real BACON! It was SOOO good! I haven’t had bacon in a year and a half and I loved it!!! Haha were going to go get more right now, before it’s all gone!!! Haha

  Oh laundry, so we do our laundry all by hand like Kade does, I just put it in some buckets to soak and then rinse it a lot and then wring it out and hang it out to dry! Haha it was super hard at first now I am just used to it and enjoy it Haha, kind of weird I know, it’s crazy what a mission will do to a person. Haha 

  Next Monday I will know if I leave or if I stay, we will see what happens!! I have no idea whatsoever!!!

 This week we were with the Familia Funes again and I was helping the Hermano work on his truck for harvest and I felt like I was at home when I was a little guy helping dad and everyone. I love that family so much and they are making so much progress I can’t wait to see them go through the temple! He will be the next leader here!! 

 Everything is going super good for us here and I love the mission more and more every day, especially as I try and help all Come unto Christ! Hope all is going well for all of you!! Remember God has a plan behind everything and never doubt that!!

Love,

 Elder Eppich