More Photos

1. Elder Hernandez and I last pday.

2. Ok, I only added this one to the list so that somebody can forward it to uncle Gordon. Only he will understand it and i think he will get a kick out of it haha

Here comes 2015!!!

    Wow, it was so awesome to see you all. Except everybody is so big. Tanner is more like a man with his low voice and everything, and my sisters are gorgeous!! You girls are lucky im coming home soon haha! Mom, you are still famous here since everybody got a kick out of you haha. You are the best! And Dad, Elder Hernandez could tell right away that you lived in Chihuahua for a bit. He said you had a little more of a northern accent and were saing things like ´´que le hace´´. So good job! Everybody else (especially Mom), we will work on your spanish later haha. But seriously, thank you so much for skyping, and sorry that we didnt have the best connection. But hey, it was still worth it!!

   Well, this week, we didnt have much time to work with the mission Christmas party on Tuesday, Christmas eve, and then Christmas day where we could only leave the pench to skype. But even with the limited time, we were able to see some sweet miracles! Fist, we had a stake activity with some of the YSA´s where we went to the main plaza in San Juan centro to pass out the ´´He is the Gift´´ cards and talk about the true meaning of Christmas. But of the YSAs was Belén Sanchez, my convert from Benavidez. We got to talk for a bit afterwards and it was so great to hear about how strong she still is in the gospel. She is now in the Young Womens presidency and is even thinking about serving a mission. It was amazing to see her and her growth after 6 months. But the biggest miracle happened on Saturday when we found Margarita, a woman super prepared by he Lord. Margarita met with the missionaries back in 2012 and was very close to be getting baptized. She had the inerview and everything. But because of some negative feelings from her husband, it ended up not happening. We found her teaching record in the area book friday night and decided to pass by Saturday morning. We got to her little apartment, clapped at the door, and she answered with the biggest smile ever on her face as if she was expecting us. She let us in and told us as we were sitting down ´´I knew you two would come´´. She then told us about how she has been reading the Book of Mormon ever since she talked to the missionaries 3 years ago. She never went to church or was baptised out of fear from her husband. But she said that she is tired of this as is now ready to do whatever is necesary to follow Christ. That morning she had prayed, asked the Lord to bring the missionaries back to her home, and then sat down to wait for us to come. Two hours later was when Elder Hernandez and I passed by her home. There are still many problems with her husband and the rest of her family, and for this reason she wasnt able to go to church yesterday. But she is going to spend this week studying and praying to know what she should do to best follow Christ at this time. So if you could, please keep Margarita in your prayers. She is an incedibe woman with incredible desires to accept the gospel.

   So everything is going great here in Retiro. Hot but good. But atleast we have a AC unit (if you can even call it that haha) in our bedroom making it atleast possible to sleep at night. During the day is another story, but no heat is stopping us. Thank you so much for your love and everything you do. I love you and hope you have an amazing New Years!!

Elder Wengert - W9

PS-Sorry, my first email got erased right as i finished it, so thats why this one isnt as good haha!

1. Belén and I.

2. After the stake activity

Retiro!!!

   Hello everybody and Merry Christmas!! What an amazing time be a missionary! Im glad to hear that everybody is doing great! Jess, shoulder injuries are the worst. You may try sleeping on the couch with your shoulder propped up against the back. That helped me a lot to sleep! Im so excited to see all of you on Thursday!! I cant even believe it is Christmas. It is too hot here and no christmas decorations. But oh well, it has helped me a lot to focus on how Christ truly is the gift and this is his time!! What are all of your plans for christmas?? Mom, I have 2 of my christmas packages so far, so thank you so much. And tomorrow we have a mission christmas party in Mendoza, so hopefully there will be a few more there!!

    So I am now here in Retiro in Chimbas San Juan. It has been way fun because like 6 months ago when I was Benavidez I had to spend a day in this area and a bunch of the members still remembered me. But I am here with my new boy, Elder Hernandez from Mexico. He is a brand new 18 year old missionary and a convert of 2 years. He is really great and we have gotten along very well so far. The ward here is way awesome. They called a new bishop only 3 months ago, Obispo Colombo. But he is only 29 years old and has really gotten this ward excited about missionary work. 

    We met with and are working now with a man named Diego Saez. His mom and siblings are converts of about 3 years and are way solid members. But Diego was pretty upset when they all got baptised and told them that he would never go to church. But about 4 months ago he had a motorcycle accident and felt like he should have died. He took that as a sign and then as soon as he could walk again (like 3 weeks ago) started going to church with his family to begin to change his life around. He is a great guy. he just doesnt want to get baptised until his is 100% sure that it is true. So we are going to keep working with him and take care of that haha! So we have some good things going for us here in Retiro.

    Well, sorry that its a little shorter this week. I can share more on thursday!!! I love you all so much and look forward to seeing each and everyone one of you. Have a wonderful christmas filled with the true christmas spirit: our Savior Jesus Christ!

Elder Wengert - W9

1. Elder Hernandez and I.

2. Goodbye to San Luis!

Here comes #4!!

   Well hello everybody!! Another busy and great week for the Wengert family. Jordan, you looked absolutley beatiful!! It´s probably a good thing that im coming home pretty soon haha! Tan, way to go in basketball. Soundsl like guys are really playing well! Jess, sounds like all of those guys in Logan area going for you haha. And good luck with you shoulder surgery! Jordy and Naes, good luck with CDO. Take it to them!! I am super excited to be able to see you all and talk for a bit. The best christmas present I could ask for!! 

    Well this was probably the craziest and busiest week of my mission so far. Elder Rabanales and I were just having to run around all week with Zone Meeting, service for a family in the ward, taking care of the zone, zone conference, stake conference, and still trying to balance our area and investigators. But it was still a great week!! Darío is still going very strong and his testimony just continues to grow. Right he is trying to get one of his friends, Kevin, to meet with us. And the best news is that this sunday Darío will be recieving the preisthood. He is just doing way awesome!! Cristian is also doing way good as well. He wasnt able to come to church yesterday because he has his little 2 year old daughter in Buenos Aires sick with cancer, so he was there visiting her. But he got back yesterday afternoon and we were able to meet with him. He knows he has a lot to change, but he is so willing to do it and is exciting for the order and peace the gospel with bring to his life.

    So since we had Zone Conference on friday and then stake conference saturday and sunday, we had the privilege of having President and Hermana Goates here in San Luis for three days. They always bring so much love, enthusiasm, and a powerful spirit with them. I remember one thing that Elder Christofferson taught us when he came here to Mendoza. He said that a huge part of our missiona calls and being assigned to this specific place was our mission president, and I have really been able to see that. Each and everyone of my mission presidents President Wilky, President Ávila, and now President Goates have each had such a huge impact on my mission and my life. What a blessing to be around such specail servants of the Lord! And yesterday I had a special experience with President Goates. We were there in the chapel waiting for the stake conference to start. President Goates called me over, put his arm around me, and took me away from the other missionaries. We had a good heart to heart talk together with a spirit incredibly powerful. At the the end president told me ´´Elder Wengert I want to thank you for your time here in San Luis as a zone leader. You have worked wonders here in the work of the Lord. But now the Lord has a new calling for you. He would like you train one more time before ending the mission´´. So that is it. We now have finished another transfer and I will be now leaving San Luis to go back to Chimbas San Juan to train and wash the area of Retiro. So here comes #4. So I am way excited for this. I will be getting my new comp on Wednesday and after head out to San Juan. So here it is. This is what Iv been preparing for this whole. The last minute of the fourth quarter. Thanks to each and everyone of you I know what to do! Now I just have got To Do It!! Thank you so much. I love you all so much and will see you soon. Have a great week!!

Elder Wengert-W9

Baptism of Darío Gomez

Our White Christmas!!!

    Hello everybody!!! Everybody sounds so good!! Uncle Kenny, I honestly didnt recognize Porter in that picture. I thought that it had to be Keaton haha! All your kids are so grown up!! Jordy and Naes, way to go with basketball. Sounds like you are all playing really well!  Tan, good luck in your tournament! So it´s U of A and Boise State in the fiesta bowl. That will be a lot of fun since here in my zone we have Elder Ah You from Boise and went to Boise State before the mission. Mom, im sorry about the family not being there when you passed by on Sunday. It is so frustrating, and it unfortanetly happens all too often. Through my mission i have seen that the best way for somebody to realize the importance and blessing of the gospel is to have them feel the spirit through our testimonies. Our personal testimonies are the greatest tools that we have, and we must use them. That is until they are able to have their own personal experiences.

    So this past Saturday we were able to have our White Christmas!!! Darío Gomez was baptized and the process truly was a miracle. This whole time we had been teaching him, I had been a little nervous about him getting baptised because he never really showed signs of recieving a testimony and he didnt really have a real desire to get baptised. I was just hoping it would come with time and the rest of the lessons leading up to his baptism. But then a week before his baptism we taught him about the law of the fast. And this was while he was having dificulties with quiting smoking. So after teaching him about that he asked us if we could all fast together. So we fasted together that sunday and from that he told us about the extra strength he felt the week leading up to his baptism to not smoking. Also he felt impressed to read the book of mormon and pray everyday that week, which he hadnt really done before. We were able to have a good talk with him on Friday, the day before his baptism, and he told us about all the experienes that he had had that week, including recieving an answer to his prayers and finding his own personal testimony. It truly was amazing to see and be a part of that change in him. He is now working towards recieveing the priesthood and even maybe serving a mission one day!

      We also had a great week with Cristian. It has been tough these last 2 weeks to find him in the house, but on friday we felt very strongly that we needed to pass by that morning. So we headed on over and there he was in front of his house. So we got inside and had a great lesson with him. But come Saturday night we got a call from his Mom saying that Cristian had turned back to his old ways and had left that night with his friends. We were pretty sad about that and ended up not passing by for him like we had originally planned to bring him to church. Then 10 minutes before church started we got a call from Cristian saying ´´hey where are you guys, im here waiting!´´, so we drove over real quick with a member and brought him and his little brother to church with us. Lets just say he really stuck out haha, but he loved it there and felt great. That was a huge lesson learned personally for me. I was too busy judging Cristian to worry about what I could truly do to help him. It doenst matter what he has done, when Sunday arrives, he needs to be there in church with us. This is a gospel of change and thanks to our Savior and the process of repentace, there is always room to change no matte what we have done or what we are doing!!

     Vanessa is also doing well. We were able to meet with her this past week, but we have now come to a road block with her. We have passed by for her these last 2 weeks, but she hasnt been there both times. She is a great lady and has the desires to change and get baptised, she just needs to take these certain steps of preperation to get to that point! Oh, and we still havent been able to go to Quines, Familia Coco are still having some health problems, but I really hope to go this week since transfers are next week and there is a chance I could be going! But everything is great here in Pringles. Burning hot, but great! Oh one other thing. We need to set up a time to skype on Christmas day. I believe it is a 4 hours diference. So just let me know! Maybe at about 2:00 here which would be 10:00 there. But I can do later or earlier. Just let me know!!!! Love you all so much and have a great week!!

Elder Wengert-W9

1. This is Leo Montoya. I knew him  very well when I served in Alvear and then he moved here to live with his brother, so Iv gotten really close to him. But last week he left on his mission to Colombia. What a stud!

2. We got to do some service on saturday, working on the house of one the members here. Way fun!!

December!!

   Holy Cow, December is already here!! But it sounds like Thanksgiving was pretty incredible. I just sat here for a good 10 minutes staring at the food on the table. It looked so good haha! But my thanksgiving was great here. Lets see, oh we had weekly planning and some good lessons. Yahoo!! haha. Jordy and Naes, way to go with the bball!! And Tan, good luck with your game!! Tawa, Levi sounds like such a stud haha! And holy cow, i couldnt get over that picture of Beau. She just gets cuter and cuter. Im excited to see these kids!  And a cherry on top for a great week, U of A beat ASU and is now going to the Pack 12 championship game. Oh yea!!! Oh and Jess, I heard from one of my comps who is now home that he saw you on news. Something about you losing your wallet and all your tuition money. What are you doing carrying that much money for anyways haha. But im glad you found it alright! Mom, so a little more details about Quines. It isnt my new area, we will be traveling out there like 1 a week to begin working out there. We still have time to work with our other investigators here in Pringles. We havent been able to go yet because of some health issues of Hermano and Hermana Coco, but we should be going this week!

   So first of all im sorry. I dont have a lot of time to write since we have to travel to Mendoza this afternoon. Tomorrow we have our leadership meeting with Presidente Goates. But things are going well here in Pringles and we really had a great week. In the end, we werent able to have the baptism of Darío on Saturday. It has been a little difficult for him to quit smoking. But he hasnt smoked now for 4 days and is going strong. So I believe that we should be having the baptism this saturday. It has been a little difficult to meet with Cristion because of his work schedule this past week. But he is still going strong. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he told us ´´so it is kind of a like a guide for us then?´´, that is exaclty what it is ´´oh, in that case im going to read it every day!!´´. He wasnt able to come to church yesterday because of work, but he still has all of his desires to change. So dont worry Mom, it is perfectly safe for us. The Lord protects His servants and we arent going to do anything dumb things that will put us in danger. This week we also were able to find some way awesome new investigators. One of them is Vanessa Romero. She was a reference from  a house that we knocked. They told us ´´that family over there needs some help´´. So we stopped by, Vanessa answered the door and she got so excited as soon as she saw us. She told us about other Elders were passing by there house and teaching her about 3 years ago. She really liked what they were teaching and she even went to church a few times with them. But one day they stopped passing by for her. But she let us in and we had a great restauration lesson with her (she remembered everything so it was easy to teach her haha) and in the end she accepted a baptismal date for the 27 of this month! She really is a great lady with 2 young cute little kids!

   Once again, sorry for not having much time. Thank you all so much for your love and support. It still amazes me how amazing you all are. I love you and hope you have a great week!!

Elder Wengert-W9

    

Photo

Playing a bit of fútbol this morning for pday!!

¡¡Quines!!

   Hello everybody!! I hope you all are grateful for Thanksgiving, because I sure miss it haha! But now worries, being here in the missions is worth every second of it. Just make to sure to eat lots and lots of pie for me! Tan Man, I am also pretty jealous that you got to meet Lute Olsen. There arent very many coaches out there like that man. Jordy and Naes, way to go with spirit days and sports! And Jordan, you looked just like Buddy the Elf haha! Dad, college football is sounded super exciting! Mom, I look forward to teaching seminary with you and we can be companions haha. The best companion ever! Wow it is crazy to hear how everybody is coming home now! But who look is the lucky to be here, this guy!!!

    Well this was another incredible week! To begin, yesterday was the primary program here in Pringles. And I got to be the lucky one to play the piano for them (mostly because i am the only one who plays haha!. But it is just amazing to see how strong and powerful these children. Also a huge example of Christs teaching about how we need to humble ourselves and become like little children to obtain the kingdom of God! Sure, at times they are a little rowdy and crazy, but they are even more pure and special!

    So Darío is doing great! He hasnt smoked since we taught him the word of wisdom, which was about a week ago. So everything is looking good towards his baptism on Saturday. He just needs to keep going strong during this week. So please keep those prayers coming. I know they are helping him so much, along with Elder Rabanales and I! We werent able to see Javier and Estefani this week because of the work schedule of Javier. So we havent been able to really verify with them and see how they are doing. But hopefully this week! But we found another family this week, Familia Jofré/Diaz (kind of a mixed family), through a very interesting experiance haha! On thursday we were working in a part of our area on the outskirts of the city. It is the more poorer part of our area. But we were looking for the house of an inactive family. But a pretty sketchy looking guy named Cristain Jofré, stepped in front of us asking us who we were and what we do. To help you picture it a little better he has a pretty crazy limp (later we found out he had been shot in the leg last week haha) and a huge scar going down from his ear to his chin. So we explained to him about us as missionaries and after he told us ´´I knew you were specail. I need your help because I want to change and be better´´. So Cristian took us to his house and as we entered 3 more guys were in there waiting for us, all of them looking just like Cristain. One had this big white patch over his eye and another had his arm all wrapped up. Long story short, we sat down with all four of them and the Mom of Cristian, and we taught them all. All of them are tired of how they are living, filled with theft and drugs, and truly want to change. Then on Saturday, we were able to teach Cristain again where when we asked how he was he answered saying ´´man, i have been so good since you guys passed by´´. And at the end of the lesson he asked us ´´so what do I need to do to get baptised?´´. So now he is working towards a baptismal date on the 27th of December. It will definatly be a long repentence process for him, but he is willing and able! What a blessing to be part of such a change in somebody!

    The last miracle of the week happened yesterday during church. Bishop Rojas called us into his office along with an older couple that were recently called as ward missinonaries, Hermano and Hermana Coco. He asked us to open up a new section of San Luis to the gospel, called Quines. It is about a 3 hour drive from here in Pringles, so pretty far. There is one family, the Familia Rosa, that live there in Quines. They make the 3 hour drive every other sunday to come to church. So now Hermano and Hermana Coco have been specailly called to help us get out to Quines where missionaries have never worked before. We are seriously so excited to head out there. Literaly just like little kids on Christmas morning. What a special blessing to open a brand new area like this. Who knows, maybe one day in the future there will be a branch or ward there in Quines!

    Well, things are going great here in San Luis, and so much of this success is coming from all of your prayers for us. Thank you so much for everything you do. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Wengert - W9

Photos

1. The whole mission with Elder Christofferson

2. La Zona San Luis

Just another day Pringles!

   Hello once again. I dont know how it is Monday already, but hey its here again. Sounds like everybody is doing good. Tan, way to ball it up on the court. Start working now to block dads fade away shot (it´s the only move he has haha). Jordy and Naes, good luck with your scrimmages this week. Im sure you will be looking good on the court with your SICK shoes like Jordan said haha! I bet it was so great spending the week with sweat little Beau! All this kids are getting so big, I cant believe it! The temple dedication sounded awesome as well. There is a temple here in Argentina, in Cordoba, that should be done fairly soon. Being just to the right of San Luis, it would make trips so much easier for members here. They always travel about 14 hours to Buenos Aires, or about 8 hours into Chile. So that temple will be a huge blessing for everybody here! I cant believe that Sara is home and that Aubrey gets home on Friday. Just shows how precious the time is here on the mission! Dad, i remember talking to Dan Post about that first Branch here in Mendoza. Now in Mendoza there are 4 stakes and 2 districts. Just shows how miracles come from planting that first seed. 

   Well, this was really a great week. Darío is really doing great as well! We taught him the word of wisdom on Saturday and have now started with him to quit smoking. But if you could keep him in your prayers, i would really appreciate it! Things have gotten a little more complicated with the Familia Caballero. Even after the Book of Mormon experience where we know he felt the spirit very strongly, Luis has kind of turned his back to the church. So more than anything we wanted to show them that we are here to serve and to love them. So we got to go over with them and do some service for them. They are building an apartment behing their house to rent out, so we went over there on Friday and worked with them for a few hours. It was a lot of fun and hopefully gained a little more of their trust! Hermana Ana was planning on coming to church on Sunday with their 5 kids, but they ended up not coming and we dont know why. But we will be passing by their house soon and hopefuly we can clear up some doubts and be those guides that we are meant to be!

    This week we also found some way solid new investigators. A few of them are the Famila Blanco. We knocked their door and allowed us to come back another day. We taught them the Restauration and the dad, Javier, right off the back accepted a baptismal date for the 13 of December. His wife, Estafani, is a little tougher and didnt accept the invitation. But that is alright. Just a mixture of time and the spirit will fix that right up!

   So to end with kind of a funny story, and im sure im going to hear all about this from Tan, Jordan, and Naes. But this week i kind of got in a fight with a tree. The sidewalks here are pretty torn up most of the time so to keep from tripping or falling you always keep your eyes focused on the ground. And so yea i was stairing at the ground and didnt see the low branch of the tree that caught me right in the head haha. But it wasnt too bad. Not too much blood and my hair coffers up the cut so nobody can even see it. But no worries. No tree of any size can take this missionary out!! I hope you all have another great week and I look forward to hearing from you next monday!

Elder Wengert-W9

Re: What a Week!!!

Oh just kidding, I just realized that Dad sent me President Kartchners email. But thank you so much, love you all!!

On Mon, Nov 10, 2014 at 11:04 AM, Derek Wengert <derek.wengert@myldsmail.net> wrote:

  Hello!!! So where do I even begin today! First of all, how did my package already get there, holy cow! 1 month, that has got to be a mission record right there! Tan Man, you are such a baller! You had to play against a 6´3´´ guy, wow! Makes me rembember when i had to play against a 7´1´´ guy in a summer tournament. Yea, a little rediculous haha! Mom, i got my social security number, so thank you so much! Jess, why are you getting surgery on your shoulder? Does it have to do with you accident on during your mission? Tara Jo, tell those boys of yours to stop growing. I seriously cant believe it!!! Jordy and Naes, Dozier is your new basketball coach? I bet that is pretty interesting, but tell him hi for me haha! I also cant believe that Zack and Sara are home, that is rediculous!! If you could, it would be great to get an email for Sara! Oh and I also need the email for President Kartchner and I will be flying to the Tucson Airport right? 

   So you were all right, this was the week of the Conference with Elder Christofferson, and it was absolutely incredible. There is nothing like being in the presence of a special witness of Christ, and especially one of His apostles. We were gathered as the whole mission, which never happens here. It was the first time in years that he whole mission was gathered together. But Elder Christofferson allowed us all to come up one by one to shake his hand (and his wifes) and introduce ourselves. What a special moment to take his hand and look him in the eyes and get that personal confirmation that he truly is an apostle of Jesus Christ. Since he served his mission here just a few years ago under the authority of his mission president, Elder Richard G. Scott, it was a special time for him as well. It was definatly a time that one truly cannot forget!

   I was also able to spend a little bit of time in Rodeo de la Cruz. Unfortanetly i didnt get to see any of my converts. I was really hoping to get to visit Melisa Carletti, but she happened to be out of town. But I at least got to talk to her on the phone. But we did get to visit the Familia Vega, an inactive family that we reactivated during my time there. We were walking towards there house when i hear somebody yelling ´´Wengert!!´´. So I turn and see Marcelito, the 5 year old of Familia Vega, running towards us and he just jumps into my arms haha. It really was a special moment that helped realized the little impact i was able to cause with that family and others during these last 20 months! 

   Everything is also going great here in Pringles! Elder Rabanales and I had an amazing experience this week in regards to the Book of Mormon, causing my testimony of the this special book to grow so much. We had a lesson last week with the Familia Caballero and we decided to read 1 Nefi 1 and apply it personally to them and there family. So that was exactly what we did and during the process, we could literally see the heart of Luis, the husband, changing. He started to read ahead so he could learn more and at the end of the lesson he told us ´´alright, we cant come to church this sunday, but next sunday we will be there´´. What an incredible blessing to have the guidance of the Lord through the teachings of His prophets in the Bood of Mormon! Darío is also doing great as well. This week we will begin the process of quiting smoking, but he is still progressing well towards his date on the 29th!

   Thank you so much for everything that each of you do. The mission isnt easy at all, but when you have a familiy behind you 1000% of the time cheering me on, it is so much easier. I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!!

Elder Wengert-W9

What a Week!!!

  Hello!!! So where do I even begin today! First of all, how did my package already get there, holy cow! 1 month, that has got to be a mission record right there! Tan Man, you are such a baller! You had to play against a 6´3´´ guy, wow! Makes me rembember when i had to play against a 7´1´´ guy in a summer tournament. Yea, a little rediculous haha! Mom, i got my social security number, so thank you so much! Jess, why are you getting surgery on your shoulder? Does it have to do with you accident on during your mission? Tara Jo, tell those boys of yours to stop growing. I seriously cant believe it!!! Jordy and Naes, Dozier is your new basketball coach? I bet that is pretty interesting, but tell him hi for me haha! I also cant believe that Zack and Sara are home, that is rediculous!! If you could, it would be great to get an email for Sara! Oh and I also need the email for President Kartchner and I will be flying to the Tucson Airport right? 

   So you were all right, this was the week of the Conference with Elder Christofferson, and it was absolutely incredible. There is nothing like being in the presence of a special witness of Christ, and especially one of His apostles. We were gathered as the whole mission, which never happens here. It was the first time in years that he whole mission was gathered together. But Elder Christofferson allowed us all to come up one by one to shake his hand (and his wifes) and introduce ourselves. What a special moment to take his hand and look him in the eyes and get that personal confirmation that he truly is an apostle of Jesus Christ. Since he served his mission here just a few years ago under the authority of his mission president, Elder Richard G. Scott, it was a special time for him as well. It was definatly a time that one truly cannot forget!

   I was also able to spend a little bit of time in Rodeo de la Cruz. Unfortanetly i didnt get to see any of my converts. I was really hoping to get to visit Melisa Carletti, but she happened to be out of town. But I at least got to talk to her on the phone. But we did get to visit the Familia Vega, an inactive family that we reactivated during my time there. We were walking towards there house when i hear somebody yelling ´´Wengert!!´´. So I turn and see Marcelito, the 5 year old of Familia Vega, running towards us and he just jumps into my arms haha. It really was a special moment that helped realized the little impact i was able to cause with that family and others during these last 20 months! 

   Everything is also going great here in Pringles! Elder Rabanales and I had an amazing experience this week in regards to the Book of Mormon, causing my testimony of the this special book to grow so much. We had a lesson last week with the Familia Caballero and we decided to read 1 Nefi 1 and apply it personally to them and there family. So that was exactly what we did and during the process, we could literally see the heart of Luis, the husband, changing. He started to read ahead so he could learn more and at the end of the lesson he told us ´´alright, we cant come to church this sunday, but next sunday we will be there´´. What an incredible blessing to have the guidance of the Lord through the teachings of His prophets in the Bood of Mormon! Darío is also doing great as well. This week we will begin the process of quiting smoking, but he is still progressing well towards his date on the 29th!

   Thank you so much for everything that each of you do. The mission isnt easy at all, but when you have a familiy behind you 1000% of the time cheering me on, it is so much easier. I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!!

Elder Wengert-W9

Time flying!!

    Well hello!! I think the weather here is a little confused. Last week i was telling you how hot it has been so far, and we are only in spring. Well this week i think we had just about every type of weather you can have except for snow haha. One day it was blazing hot, then the next day we were freezing all day, and then a beautiful spring day, and now it has been raining for the last 2 days. So its a little suprise every morning we wake up haha. Sounds like Halloween was a lot of fun for everybody. Tara and Tj, i loved your superhero family haha. and Mom, thank you so much for the pictures as well, but i didnt recieve your email. And to answer everybodys questions, Argentine doesnt celebrate Halloween and so we didnt do anything on friday and it was just a normal day for us here in the mission field haha! Tara, thank you so much for the testimony of grandpa. I loved reading it so much!!

    So anther transfer has come on gone here in San Luis. But not too much change with this new transfer. Elder Rabanales and I are both staying here together in Pringles. We have a lot of good things going for us here in the area, so i am actually really happy that im staying. Well this week is going to be awesome. On Thursday we have consejo, or the leadership meeting with Presidente Goates, then saturday we have the special conference with Elder Christofferson. But since both are there in Mendoza, it doesnt make any since to travel back to San Luis after consejo and then the next day make the 5 hour trip again. So on Friday, Elder Rabanales and I recieved permission to spend the day in our old area of Rodeo de la Cruz. So that wil be a lot of fun to be able to visit some converts and some of the members. But of course that takes us out of our area for 3 days, which is a lot of time. That is the only bummer! Because we have been finding like crazy these past 2 weeks, and for once our calender is just completely full of lessos to teach and people to visit. These week we found a wonderfull family, familie Cabellero. The mom, Ana, is seriuosly so prepared and so willing to complete with her commitments. Her husband (well boyfriend), Luis, is a little more tough on the other hand. He is super nice and allows us to enter the house, he just has a lot doubts because of experiences in other churches and refuses to believe anything. Even though though they have been living together for 13 years and now have 5 kids, he still doesnt want to get married because he doesnt think it is necessary. But you know what, the gospel is here exactly for this. To take away doubts and replace them with hope. So we are really excited to keep working with them. We also found another great guy named Darío Gomez. A family in the ward has brought him to church with them the last 2 sundays and we were finally able to get in with him yesterday. He is a great guy with a lot of desires to be better, but also a typical 19 year old guy outside of the church here in Argentina. But he is now working towards a baptismal date for the 29 of this month. Unfortunatly we passed by Juana this week and her family and other people has filled her mind with false doctrine about the church, and she  now refuses to even talk to us. Poor lady!! 

     Well, it shocks me everyday how much i really have left. And today i recieved the paperwork from the offices to fill out for when i get home on March 11. And in order to fill those out i need the email of President Kartchner and where i will be flying to, the tucson airport right? Well, im glad to hear that everybody is doing so well. I love you all so much and look foraward to hearing from you next week!!

Elder Wengert-W9

No heat can stop the miracles!!

   Hello from the dead heat of Argentina!!! It´s not supposed to be this hot yet! Summer doesnt start until December and this week has been killer. Being and arizona boy i always thought that i could easily handle the heat. But then i realize back at home there are actually ways to escape the heat since we have pools and actual AC units in the houses. Here, everything is built by brick without insillation of anykind making homes more like ovens. Luckilly we have a good working fan in the pench that is a life saver at night make it possible to get a least a few hours of sleep. But its wierd to see how happy we still are. We are always sweaty and tired, but still happy. Gotta love the mission!!

    Sounds like another wonderful week back at home. That temple tour sounded so awesome and im a little jealous about it!! Up close with the oxen and see every room in the temple, way cool. I miss being close to a temple!! Make sure to take advantage of those blessings! You have like 4 or 5 temples within a 2 hour distance. Members here would die for that privilege and i dream of the day to hear of the anouncement of a temple here in Mendoza!! Dad, im sorry to hear about your beloved club breaking. But hey, better your club than Jordans head haha. Teddi, i hope all goes well with your eye so that you get that surgery. Just know there is an Elder here in Argentina praying for you!! Janae, way to go with swimming and getting swimmer/athelte of the week!!! Jordy, enjoy your first senior night and enjoy your senior year. It will be gone before you know it! Tan Man, how is basktball going and who is your coach?

    Well this really was a great week for us! Hot but great! We were really focusing on finding some new investigators and we were able to find some great ones this week. Last night we found the sweetest old lady named Juanna. She lives alone but happened to find her yesterday knocking her door while her nephew was there visiting. So she let us in and we had a great lesson with her! So has a lot of health problems and for that reason stopped going to church. But she accepted our invitation to come to church with us on Sunday when we pass by for her in the car of a member. She also expressed to us about her desire to get baptised, because she never has been baptised. So we taught her about authority and she accpetd a baptismal date for the 29 of November. Familia Callejas are doing great as well. They came to church once again and really are excited about coming back to church. So we are going to work on getting started on the divorcement process of Efrain so that they can get married and then Yamila can get baptised! But they are a great family! The only tough thing that happened this week was some problems that have started in the family of Agustin back at his house in Santiago del Estero. And because of those problems he was required to move back there. It will be very tough for him there because he doesnt have any other family in Santiago who are members, but we had a good talk with him and he is determined  to continue strong in the church! So if you could, please keep him in your prayers, because he will need some help!!!

    Thank you so much for all you do. I hope you all have a great week and I love you all so much!!

Elder Wengert-W9

Photos!!

1. I forgot to tell you about the service we did this week of destroying this wall for Hermano Lucero, the counsilor in our bishopric. The only problem is that the walls here are made with straight concrete and bricks. So it was actually pretty difficult and some tough work. But us missionaries always love a great opportunity to change the clothes for a sec and get a little dirty haha!

2. Playing some fútbol last pday!!

The News!!!

    Hello everybody!!! Well, this has been another great week! Im glad to hear everything is great at home. How could it not be when grandpa was there and it was a week full of chili!!! Im looking forward to some of that haha! Tan, way to make the basketball team, you are the man!!! Jordan and Naes, good job as well with your softball games. its crazy to think that i will be home in time to watch a bunch of your games this upcoming season! Jess, thank you for the updates and Kade truly sounds like a great guy!! So the phoenix temple dedication is this week! Where exactly is the location of the temple? But what a wonderful blessing for the saints in Arizona! Oh, and how are things going for the Tucson temple? Are we getting closer to breaking ground?

    So this has been a great week! We were able to find some new investigators and teach some great lessons!! We found a great family, familia Callejas. The husband, Efrain, is the son of the bishop in the bordering ward and his been innactive for about the last 10 years or so. His girlfriend, Yamila, is way solid and has a strong testimony of the gospel. She isnt a member because Efrain has to get divorced from his ex-wife inorder for them to marry. The divorcement process is a very difficult and long process which is part of the reason why so many dont get married here. But we are going to work with them to atleast get started with this process. They both came to church yesterday with their three kids and everybody really welcomed them in and made them feel at home. We also found a 25 year old guy named Marcos. His situation is very different. He stopped us in the road one day and asked us for a pamphlet to read. So we left him one, got his address, and passed by the next day where he let us in. We taught him a great restauration lesson and he really showed his desires to follow the example of Jesus Christ. The only problem is that during the lesson he told us about how he is homosexual and has those certain attractions to the same gender. He understands that these type of relationships arent a part of the Lords plan, but believes that it is just the way he was born and has accepted it. We left him with a certain location on ´´mormon.org´´ that talks more about the churchs stand on this topic. So we have a cita set up with him for this wednesday and we will see what he thinks after learning more. But he really is a great guy whith strong desires to do the right thing. Mom, we havent been able to get together with Yamilda this week. We called her and she told us about how she had to go up to La Pampa, which is another providence farther up north here in Argentina. She will be there for the next 6 weeks, but asked us to call her when she gets back.

    So a great week filled with great miracles! But this morning we learned of some great news and will serve as a huge blessing for the Argentina Mendoza Mission. On November 8th, we will be having a special mission conference! And at this mission conference we will be visited by Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles!! How great of a privilege to here from a special servant of the Lord and a special witness of Jesus Christ. Like how President Goates put it in the letter that he wrote to us ´´it´s as the Lord himself has invited us to participate in a spiritual feast with Him´´. I am way excited for this chance and opportunity!! Thank you all so much for everything you do for me. For your love, support, letters, really just everything. I hope you have a great week and i look forward to hearing from you next week!!

Elder Wengert - W9

    Hello everybody!!! Sounds like a crazy and jam packed week for everybody and that Grandpas birthday party was rockin (like come on, what party isnt a success if there is food? even if its for an 80 year old haha). Hey Jess, so i keep hearing about Kade but i still dont have any details at all. All i know is that his first name is Kade and he also served his mission in England. Come on, help a brother out here haha! Clay, Shad, and Beau are just getting so big now. I feel like they will already be talking and driving by the time i get home! And Dad, you said you i must be a veteran because you didnt hear much about my winter. Well the real reason was that I got lucky and was in San Juan for the winter which is the hottest part of the mission. So i didnt really have a winter. I think i might have left the pench with a jacket on like 10 times the whole time. So i dodged a bullet there and wont have to deal with another winter until the end of 2015!! Mom, thank you so much my secret sib name. And I hope Ty didnt tell everybody who i have haha! But i will make sure to get that present in the mail pretty quick! 

   So this has been another great week here in San Luis!! Agustin is literally killing it and is such a stud! He was baptised and confirmed on Saturday and Sunday and then Sunday afternoon came out and worked with us for a few hours. During those lessons while he was testifying about certain principles, you never would have guessed that he was a convert of like 8 hours haha! Afterwards we ate an asado at his house with the Familia Pallares and the whole time he was telling us about how he loved feeling the spirit so strong during those lessons and is now thinking about maybe serving a mission in a year or so!! He was seriously so prepared!

    This week we found another girl named Yamilda. She is 21 and when we talked to her at the bus stop her 9 month year old baby had just passed away 2 weeks prior due to heart problems. We were able to meet with her last saturday for about 15 minutes and teach her a little more about the plan of salvacion and she really liked it and had a lot of good questions. The only problem was that her dad wasnt too happy to see us when he entered the room. when we greeted him i told him that it was nice to meet him, and answered back saying ´´its not for me´´. So we have a little work to do to soften his heart. But he at least allowed us to come back this week on wednesday!

   Well this week we had interviews with President Goates. He was planning on have 20 minute long interviews with each missionary, but i had like an hour long talk with him which was awesome! Of course we talked about the zone and the needs there but after spent the rest of the time on three topics: the creation, the fall, and the atonement. He really made it clear on how those three things are the three pillars of our faith. I literally came out of that room feeling I could take on the world! There are just so many learning opportunities in the mission and that is why it is such an important time of growth!! Thank you so much for all that you do. I hope you have an amazing and I love you all so much!! 

Elder Wengert-W9

PS-Dallin, i dont stand like that anymore alright!! Just a warning, you  now have only 5 months to prepare yourself for a good game on the court haha!!

One more!

1. Umm yea, that is a selfie with President and Hermana Goates haha!

Go Conference!!

  Wow, so how great was conference?!! I dont even think i can single out my favorite talk from it. Whether it be Elder Ballards Old Ship Sion, Presidnent Uchtdorfs ´´is it !?´´. Elder Bednars talk to all the investigators (and Agustine was there to hear that talk!!), or Elder Packers about the Atonement. But i think one of my favorites was definatly by good ol President Monson about how a man without a purpose is like a ship without a rutter. How true is that statement. Just like that german battleship, without truly understanding our purpose in this life and using our rutter to guide us, we will only by traveling in circles never being able to progress! But luckily we dont have to worry, because the Lord has given us every type of rutter we could possibly use to complete with our purpose and return to his presence. One amazing thing that i saw this conference came on saturday as another big storm hit San Luis and the streets were once again floooded. But still one by one and family by family, the members showed up to hear the Lords teachings. They showed up nice and soaking wet, but ready and excited for conference! So yes, i absolutely loved conference and got to watch the whole conference in english with the other gringos here in San Luis. What a blessing it is to hear the words of the Lord through His servants in your own language, even when in another country thousands of miles from home. Sounds like you all had a wonderful conference as well and a usual interesting yet exciting week. Im glad to hear that Weston is doing well and will keep his leg!! Oh, and welcome Olivia to the family. I hope she doesnt make Gracie jealous! Jordan, im glad to hear that you heard that I met Elder Randall. We talked a long time about Eric and how he is doing in the Naval Acadamy. But it sure is a small world!! Dad, im way excited to hear how well Arizona is playing right now. Does that put them in the top 25? Hey Dev, so i got an email from Haley Laulusa who is in Africa right now doing the same project that you did. But she is working in one of the schools that you built there and said that the people there still talk about you! So way to go!! Oh and Dad, tell Brother Peterson (Pau) hi back for me alright!

   So we had an interesting leadership meeting with President Goates this week while in Mendoza. But you have just got to love those times. Learning from such a special and inpirational man like him. The only bad part of that trip was traveling to mendoza when our bus broke down not just one time, but twice haha. Dang buses. But its alright, we still got there!

   So for the rest of my week! Agustin is literally just soaking up everything we are teaching him. He is progressing so well and loves the gospel. He came to 4 of the 5 sessions of Conference, including the priesthood session. He showed up to the chapel in a suit and everything. So on this saturday we will be having his baptism! I am way excited for him and he is so ready!! Other than Agustin, it was kind of a tough week for us. we got dropped by a few people, and plus didnt have a whole lot of time to work with being in Mendoza for consejo. But that is alright, becuase we need to continue on fearless. Fearless in building Sion, fearless in teaching our families, fearless in living the gospel and in all that we do! That is truly one message that really came through to me at conference this past weekend. No need to have fear becuse the lord is always with us. There is only a need to be fearless and trust in Him! I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!

Elder Wengert-W9

Photos

1. Elder Olaya and I with the Familia Pallares. Agustin is on the far left!

2. Elder Olaya heading off to his new area in Mendoza.

3. And now Elder Rabanales and I!

Pringles!!

   Hello!!!! Once again, i dont have a lot of time today. We have to leave in a few hours to travel to Mendoza for a meeting with President Goates. But mom i think you are a little confused. San Luis is the providence that i am in, but my area is called Pringles. But sounds like everything is great at home. Tan Man, you look so scary there on the line. What a beast!!! And now that football is over, what sport is next at MMS? Jordan, congrats on getting voted most athletic. That is way awesome! Naes, how is swimming going? And when does basketball start up? Dan is preparing to go to the temple and  Victoria is bringing people to church!! The work of the Lord just keeps going forth in Marana! So awesome to hear!! And Dad, way to fix the dryer Mr Fix it Felix!! Kord Catt is now home as well? Im glad to hear that he had such an amazing mission! Did anybody get to go to his homecoming?

   Well, we had another great week! Mom, the weather has calmed down and we were able to leave in our short sleeve shirts nice and comfortable. And  my shoes are still going strong. Mom, you keep talking about my christmas presents which reminds me that we should probably get our secret sibs soon so that there is time for me to send my present home. Thanks!! So We have been working a lot with the famalia Pallares and Agustin. I just love this family so much! They are pretty poor, but without fail, always have some kind of food prepared for us when we come over. Agustin is now progessing so much! He told us of his experience of praying about the Book of Mormon and getting that special burning answer from the Lord. He asisted to church again yesterday and accepted a baptismal date for the 11 of October. He is seriously a stud!! Still havent found Familia Ayala. We traveled out to this little area, but werent able to find their house. Also things are still tough with Mario and Flauria. We passed by several times this week, but never got in. But we still continue to see those daily miracles here in Pringles. I love you all so much. Have a great week and take care!!

Elder Wengert-W9

Time Flies!!!

   Well sounds like an exciting week all around!! Going to california, record breaking floods that didnt exist, dinner with Kade, belly flop competitions (way to go Naes, im so proud haha), and of course the amazing win from our beloved wildcats!! And way to not go to the game guys haha just kidding. But reminds me of when Dallin and his friends left early from the U of A vs Houston basketball game a while back and missed that come back as well! But its alright, I will have to rep some U of A aparrel today!! Mom, im glad to here you are finally finding a cure for your foot from your horse whisperer. Sounds a little wierd, but hey if its working going for it haha! 

    Now to start off my week, we now finished another transfer here in Pringles which means that we got those transfer calls last night. So Elder Olaya is leaving San Luis to go back to Mendoza and I am staying here with my new companion Elder Rabanalez from Guetemala. He is coming here to San Luis from Rodeo de la Cruz in Gueymallen, one of my last areas. So that will be a lot of fun to hear about how everthing is going there. He was there with Elder Thomas, one of my sons. So im pretty excited for this transfer. It is just crazy how fast the time is going by. This week all of the Hermanas from my mtc group go home which means that i will have completed my hermanas mission and now only have 4 transfers left. Gotta live it up while im here doing this amazing work!

    So all of you talked about this huge storm that was supposed to hit Tucson hard coming up the Baja of Mexico. Dad, you said that it luckilly just missed you guys. But i think maybe it just pulled a little u-turn and came down here to Argentina, because last week we had a rediculous strom hit here. Luckily we were walking past the church building right as it hit. But it was still super loud inside as the rain was coming down on the tin roofing. So we stayed there until it calmed down a little bit since we didnt have our coates with us. But when it calmed down a little bit, we braved the storm to get our coates and then head off to our appoitments. But we found ourselves with water up to our knees at certain points since San Luis is build more on these small hills that turned the streets into what was more like full running rivers haha. I wish i had my camera with me at the moment so that i could of gotten pictrues to show that im not exagerating at all haha! But it was actually pretty fun and makes for a good memory!

    So thank you so much for all of your prayers in behalf of me and my investigators. We still havent found Familia Ayala and things are still a litle difficult with Mario and Flauria. We taught them again last week, but Mario is slowly shutting himself out to us. Flauria really wants to come to church, but wont come unless Mario comes with her. But its alright. I believe in miracles and i know the Lord can soften his heart! But the real miracle from this week came from the familia Pallares, a less active family that are now reactivating themselves and working through the long process of marriage. But they are an amazing and special family. But Hermana Pallares called us this week wanting us to teach her 18 year old nephew, Agustine, who is now living with them. So we had a lesson with him and the family on Saturday and went super good! Then Agustine came to church with the family yesterday and he really liked it. Agustine is the man and im really excited to keep working with him. We are meeting up with him later today at 4 and with some other members to play some futbol!! So that will be a lot fun!

    Well, I hope you all have a great week once again. Good luck with seminary, sports, work, and everything you will be doing!! Oh, and general conference is almost here. Im way excited and cant wait!! I love you all so much and will talk to you next week!

Elder Wengert-W9

To Chile and Back!!

   Hello everybody! So yes i know it is a wednesday this week, but it has been a crazy time here lately. I will go more into detail later. But it sounds like everybody is doing great there. Jess, Kade sounds like a great guy!! Tan Man, great job in football and enjoy those super nachos at the U of A games! Jordy and Naes, how is volleyball and swimming going for you guys? Momma, im glad i could help you with seminary. If there is anything else i can do to help, just let me know!! And Spencer and Kelsey are engaged?!! I didnt see that one coming at all haha. But that is way awesome and im happy for them!! Oh and Jess, you got to meet Elder Holland?!! I bet that was amazing! Meetting a special witness of Christ is sure a special experience and one that you will never forget! Oh Dad, you said there are many missionaries from our stake coming and going. Who all is getting back and who has recieved mission calls?

   So on to the crazy week! Argentina has been pretty stingy with our visas lately. All the new missionaries have only been coming with 3 month traveling visas and then during those 3 months we work on getting there real visas. So my visas expired last June (yes, ive been illegal here for like 3 months haha). But finally they told us that inorder to renew it, i was required to leave the country. And the same thing was happening to a lot of other missionaries here in Argentina. So on Monday, a group of about 50 missionaries from the missions Mendoza, Cordoba, and Salta took a bus over into Chile to do all of the visa paperwork. But it was a beautiful drive going up and over the Andes in order to get into Chile. But it was sure a long trip but a lot of fun to get to know the other missionaries and get to see a little of chile. We were only in chile for like 6 hours or so when we did the paperwork and then found a place to eat dinner, but it was a lot of fun!

    But things are going good here in Pringles. We have been teaching a girl named Celeste who is a friend of a member. She is really progressing well and wants to learn more so that she can teach her 4 month old daughter and help her. But her husband doesnt want anything to do with us and they have to get married as well. She wasnt able to come to church on sunday because it was raining pretty good and her daughter has been pretty sick with a virus. But she is really earning her own testimony of the gospel and it is amazing to see.

   We still havent been able to get into contact with Familia Ayala still, but tomorrow morning we are making to the trip out there to see if we can find them! And things have gotten a little more difficult with Flaurio and Mario. Flauria really wants to learn more and have us help her husband, but Mario has shut himself away from us. We arent really sure what happened because the first time he was really receptive. But it is alright, we are going to keep going strong and we will get in with them to help them!!

   Well, im sorry it is kind of short. I dont have a lot of time to write this time. But thank you all so much for everything. I love you all so much and will talk to you next week!!

Elder Wengert-W9

  

Another week!!

   Holy cow, how is it another week already?!! This has been such a crazy week, but great. I dont think it is possible to be more tired than i have been certain nights this past week. But it is alright! Somehow the lord gives just enough energy and strength to get up the next morning to do the same thing. It really is the best!!! Everybody sounds so great back at home. Jess and Kadie-Poo are still going strong haha. I now would like a picture Jess haha. Sounds like the kids are all doing great in sports! Tan, you are such a stud, i cant get over it. Jordy is the captain and Naes is dropping seconds left and right! Way to go! Ty and Levi started soccer too. So awesome! Dad, the other day we were eating lunch with some less active members and they put the Argentine basketball game on the last 5 minutes we were there. But i havent heard much about the US. Mom, you are the just the greatest seminary teacher ever. I want to be comps with you so that we can have some rockin comp studies!! 

    So this week was really good. We had consejo last Tuesday which was way awesome. It was all focused on the zones here in the mission and what we can do to help then. Tomorrow we also have zone conference with President Goates. But this time he is coming here to San Luis. So that is pretty exciting! 

    Last week, we werent able to get in contact with the Familia Ayala. They live really far out in a part called San Geronimo and dont have a phone. We went to the terminal to catch a bus to go out there last wednesday but didnt know that there was only one bus that goes out there everyday. So we have to plan out another day this week to go out there! But we found 2 amazing investigators this week. It may have been one of the most powerful moments as a missionary. Saturday night we tried to visit some less actives that we found in the ward list. So we went to the house and they didnt live there anymore. But instead we found Flauria there. We talked to her for a bit and she already so much faith and trust in the Lord. She asked us to back the next day when her husband was there. So we went by and they both let us in. Her and her husband, Mario, are a younger couple that have one little 6 year old and one more on the way. But as we began teaching, they both really opened up to us and trusted us. Flauria at one point stood up and starting talking to Mario saying that he has a few problems in his life (mostly with drinking) that he needs to change. Mostly to srenthen their family and to be a good example for their son. She told Mario that while she was talking with us the day before, she just knew that we were that help he needed. Even though Flauria didnt know exactly, she was testifying to Mario. with all the love of her heart, that this is the gospel of Jesus Christ that changes and blesses lives. Seeing that love that she has for him and for the lord, and her desire to abitlity to recognize the spirit just amazed me. And the best part is that Mario has his desires to change as well. He knows he needs to. So they asked us to keep coming by to help and bless their family. I am seriously so excited to go back to that house to teach them. That is what the mission is all about. Serving, loving, changing lives, and bringing those childeren of the Lord back to the path. No matter how far away they strayed or what they had done. They are still a child of God and are worth so much! And that is really the purpose of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. To allow one and all, no matter what is happening in your live, to come to Christ. To obtain and enjoy his grace. And what a marvelous privilege the mission is to share that worth and grace to everybody. I have seen that over and over and over in my mission. Teaching somebody so lost, but yet as they learn of the gospel you see that worth come out and they realize that they are still loved so much and are still a child of God. 

     Thank you so much for everything you do. I love you all so much and have a great week!!

Elder Wengert-W9

Miracles left and right!!

Hello everybody!!!

    First of all,i am sorry that this is going to be kind of a short one. We have to leave today at 2 to travel to Mendoza. All the zone leaders and sister trainer leaders have a meeting with president once a month, and since san luis is so far away from mendoza we have to travel today. And plus we went to a different cyber to email and while there the internet cut out on us! Dang it!! But its all good! Sounds like a good another good by crazy week in the Wengert household. Man, i would kill for some good mexican food right now. But is alright, im having more colombian food for lunch today! Jess, i was so proud to see you drinking mate. Did you like it? It is definatly a distinct taste,but i love it! I will get you all hooked on it when i get home haha! Amy, your play sounds way cool! Dad, what is the name of the QB of U of A? And is Kedeem still the running back?

   So real fast, this week was great. I personally only got to work in my area for about 3 days because the other four i was doing exchanges with elders in the zone. One of them was with elder Breindhold from Tucson Arizona. He graduated from Sabino. So that was way fun to talk about good´ol tucson with him. But when i was in my area, we were able to see many miracles take place! First, we talked to a family, familia Ayala, in the street one day. We happened to be right in front of the capilla, so we offered to to do a church tour with them. At the end we were gathered right in front of the baptismal faunt. We had them close their eyes and picture themselves dressed in white, getting baptised in that very faunt, and being cleansed from their sins through the atonement and the grace of christ. We gave them a moment to ponder and then asked the wife a question, but she was totally zoned out. After a sec she was like ´´oh sorry, i was just trying to comprehend how amazing baptism is. So right their we invited them to get baptised and they both excepted. They couldnt come to church yesterday, but we have an appitment set up with them this week. We also found another family this week, familia Lucero, who are a family of 18!! We only got in to say a prayer with them, but we also have an appoitment set up with them on Wednesday. They are a great family who could benefit so much from the gospel, so please pray for them and also familia Ayala!!

    It has been a little difficult with Patricia this week because she isnt very educated and it is very tough for her to understand the teachings of the book of mormon causing it to be pretty difficult for her to recieve her own testimony. But its alright. We have been passing by frecuently to read with her and explain the teachings. 

   Well, sorry, we have to go. Have a great week!! Good luck with all of your games and plays, keep drinking that mate Jess and say hello to Kade for me, and I love you all so much!!

Elder Wengert-W9

Miracles are still real!!

Hey everybody,

    So i just got out of eating lunch with a colombian family that the hermanas that we share the ward with are teaching. They wanted us to come over so bad since my comp is Elder Olaya haha. But it was a lot of fun and we ate what is called ´´salcocho´´. But it was super good and i am now super full. But we have a cita in like an hour so i dont have a lot of time! I got all of the pictures this time, so thank you so much!! Looks like everything is great and crazy like usual in the Wengert household. Jess is already dating somebody, that didnt take long at all (and yes i would like some more details about this Jessie haha), stitches, mom messing up with her flight, weddings, etc.!! Tan, sounds like you are doing great in football. Way to go bud!! Jordy and Naes, how is volleyball and swimming? 

     Everything has been great here Pringles (once again it is not pronounced like the chip haha). Of course it has been a little crazy with the meetings, late night trips to fix problems in the zone, but it has been great and honestly filled with miracles! First to start off we had our conference with Elder Viñas of the 70. We had to travel down to Mendoza for it where we met up with about 3/4 of the misson. Elder Viñas talked a lot about the Atonement and how everything we do must be based off of our understanding of the Atonement of Jesucristo. Whether it was a good choice or bad choice. And then of course as missionaries we need to be focusing a lot on helping our investigators learn and understand the Atonement so that they can apply it in their personal conversion process. It was truly an incredible conference and we left with such excitement to work. So this whole week our studies have really been based on the atonement and really strived to apply it through our week. As we did we truly saw miracles happening in our area. Probably the biggest one was with Patricia. She has been taught for a little while now by the missionaries, but it wasnt until this week when we focused our lesson with her on the Atonement that she really began to progress and was having so many great questions. Showing us her great desire to grow and progress in the gospel. Then on Sunday Elder Olaya and I show up to the church building and there was Patricia already inside conversing with the members as if they had been long life friends. The hermanas of the relief society really took her in which helped so much. And now on wednesday she is going to a releif society activity and is just soaking everything up! It truly has been a miracle in the process!

    This has been one of the greatest things i have seen and learned here on my mission. That the Lord is a God of miracles and that miracles are so so real!! I have seen countless miracles during my time as a missionary. Wether it was here in Argentina, in England, or back at home. They happen everyday. Some bigger than others, but still miracles in my eyes just prooving to us how great and strong the love of the Lord is for each and everyone of us! 

    Sorry that this is so short, but i am just out of time! But i want you all to know that I love you so much and i appreciate every little thing you do! Have a great week and I will talk to you next week!!

Elder Wengert-W9

Photos

1. Elder Willard and I at the bus station before heading off to San Luis

2. Elder Olaya and I at the service project!

3. Lucas Laciar and I. He was one of the stud missionaries in Benavidez. He leaves in Octover for his mission to Mexico!

Down to one!!!

   Well, I have felt super wierd this past week. Lots and lots of change. But hey, change is good! Jess, welcome home!! And what is your email? Sounds like you did so good at your homecaming. Even with all of the british words haha! Sounded like a great time with all of the family as well. Oh and i didnt recieve any of the pictures at the airport or anything, so if somebody could please try sending those again that would be wonderful! Dad, i bet that was a special experience for you getting to release your own daughter. Maybe we can just send President Kartchner on a little trip when i come home as well!! 

   Well I am now here in my area of Pringles, San Luis. San Luis is very different than any where else i have served. It is all city and a lot cleaner than San Juan and Mendoza. But it is a great place and i love it so far. It was a pretty crazy week last week. We were just always running around having to do something. Thursday night we had to pick up four missionaries from the bus station at 1:30 in the morning since they had the special trainers meeting in Mendoza and then the 5 hour bus ride afterwards. But it has been super good. It is a big change being a Zone Leader, but nothing i cant handle. The area is great here. We share the ward with the Sister Training Leaders, and the ward is absolutely great. It is actually the biggest ward in the mission. Still only about 130 active members, but way bigger than some others. Like in Chimbas we would have about 30-40 asistences each week! So i am here with Elder Olaya from Manizales Colombia. Tj, where is your Mom from? But Elder Olaya has been just great. I got to know him pretty well when he was in my first district here in Argentina in Maipu. So it has been way fun with him and he is probably the hardest working missionary that i know here in the missionary. So i am way excited to keep working with him. We are working with a lot of investigators but the problem is none of them arent really progressing. They have desires to learn more, but not really to act upon anything. But that is alright, we both are really excited to work a ton and get them all progressing. Plus we also found some awesome people this past week that could be golden if we can get in with them!

   This week we got to do some service for the husband of one our investigators husband. Her husband, Davíd, has always been kind of a tough one and wouldnt talk to us. But he excepted our invitation of service. So we went to work with him where we built bricks...or blocks, i forget which one they would be called haha! But afterwards he allowed us to share a message with him. He was still pretty tough to teach because he doesnt really believe in a lot of religious things, but the service was at least able to soften his heart enough to listen!

    We also found a man on Saturday named Sergio. He ended up being a member from farther up North who moved down here to San Luis to find work. But he has a lot of desires to come back to the church. We met with him and had a deep lesson with him, kind of having to teach with tough love. But in the end we were able to set up some solid goals with him to help him overcome a few things and return back to church fully prepared to embraze it! 

    Well we are super ready and excited to work this week. We have a mission wide conference with Elder Viñez of the 70 and lots of citas set up. It will be a good one! Thank you all so much for everything. I love you all so much and have a great week!

Elder Wengert-W9

Photos 2

Last week we went on a hike for pday to ´´el dique´´, made me realize i can walk 1000 miles no problem, but when it comes to hiking wow i have some to do. But it was still way fun to get out and moving!!

Goodbye Benavidez!!!

Hello Everybody,

     Look everybody, my head is just fine ok haha! Just a slight concussion and was in the mission home for a few days haha. Jess, i cant believe you are already going home! It feels just like yesterday where we saw eachother for the first time in the MTC and got in trouble for giving a big hug! But welcome home and its not the end, just the beginning of your next chapter! Dad, is it possible to have a normal outing in our family haha? Mama, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! I love you so much and am so grateful for everything little thing you do. You seem to always help me when i need it most, even when thousands of miles seperate us! Jordy, Naes, and Tan, you be looking good for that first day of school. Too good haha! I loved all of the pictures, thank you so much. Paul and Kaylenes wedding looked so great and they both looked so happy. I love it!

    So yes, we received those transfer calls last night and even though i only have 1 transfer here in Benavidez i have been called to leave my area and to go to the providence of San Luis, in the area of Pringles (not pronounced like the chips), and i will be a Zone Leader there. So lots of change and suprises. I wasnt expecting to leave at all, but hey, the Lord needs me somewhere else. So my new companion will be Elder Olaya from Colombia. I already know him really well and he is a great missionary. So i am way excited for this new transfer. A little nervous about going up as ZL, but it will all be good!

    This week we had to make the 3 hour bus ride to Mendoza for a meeting with President Goates which kind of took us out of our area for a whole 2 days, but we were still able to have a pretty good week full of miracles. First of all, Belén got baptised on Saturday which was so awesome. There was a lot of support from the ward and she was so happy. I dont think i will ever be able to get the picture out of mind of Belén crying after coming up out of the water. Truly a special experience for me. Unfortunatly we didnt get in to teach Bruno this week because  he was pretty sick, but he asked us to come by this coming week. Hopefully we can teach him a bit before i leave for San Luis on thursday. Probably the biggest miracle we had this past week was finding Verónica. We saw her two kids (Francisco and Lara) playing in front of the house so i just thought to myself ´´perfect, she has kids´´. So we asked Francisco to get his mom. Verónica came out and we talked to her for a few minutes. She let us in right then, we taught her the Restauration, and after she accepted a baptismal date for the 30 of August. We taught her again a few days later when we passed by with our bishops wife and she loved it. She couldnt come to church yesterday but really wants to next week. We are super excited about her. There are ALOT of problems that we have to fix before baptism, but she has the most important thing right now, a true desire. Its a little sad having to leave right after finding so many good and solid investigators, but it will be leaft in good hands!

   Oh Dad, i was talking to a guy in my ward yesterday who got home from his mission about 3 years ago. But he served in Chihuahua Mexico, so of course we started talking about Colonia Juarez and we found out that he ate dinner once with the Johnsons. Small world!! Well thank you all so much for everything. Happy Birthday Mom and Welcome home Jess! I love you all so much!!

Elder Wengert-W9

This great work!!!

   Well hello everybody!!! Hey Jess, happy last week on the miss! Work hard and push through that finish line! It´s like that last straight away of the 400 in track. You love it but you hate it!! Tan, glad to hear your heart is doing great! Good luck in Middle school. Go tear it up you big bad 7th grader. Jordy and Naes, sorry but you cant get be looking too beautiful at school alright! But for now on, ill pick your outfits alright! Dad, i would also like to challenge you as well! We will got to LA and first play some racketball to warm up, head over to the courts to ball it up a bit, and then end on the field playing some fútbol haha! Mom, hope your foot is doing better and let me know if i can do anything at all to help you with seminary. I am here at your service!

     Well now since Jess is heading home, that means that im here starting the 4th quarter. Belén is still doing great, so i guess we will start off this 4th quarter with a bang! Belén had her baptismal interview last week so that we could announce her baptism yesterday in church. I love how the members, especially the hermanas in the ward, have really accepted her so full heartedly and are so excited for her! Kind of a funny story though. We had just finished the baptismal interview for Belén and we were explaining a few more things to her. So i was teaching to her and her 2 year old nephew, Carlitos, cames up and throws his toy at me nailing me right between the eyes haha. It hurt pretty bad actually, but lets be honest, that was a pretty dang good shot for a 2 year old!!

     Probably the biggest miracle we saw this week was finding a man named Bruno. Elder Willard and i were walking to a cita in kind of a far neighborhood. But we were already late so we were walking pretty fast and Bruno rode his bike next to us and i got a thought to talk to him. But dumb me just shrugged it off since we were running late. Luckilly the Lord gave us a second chance, and Bruno made the move this time. He stopped his bike and yelled over to us ´´Hey Elders!! Do you happen to have a Book of Mormon that i can read?´´. I dont think we had ever moved so fast. We basically went full speed to him thinking ´´come on now, of course we do´´. So we talked to him for a bit and found out that his isnt a member, but his mother in law is and she lives in....Tucson Arizona!! I was so suprised. So Dad, i may pass her name on to you when i have to see if you happen to know her. Probably not, but you never know!! So yes, i learned my lesson this time. Act upon the spirit no matter the cercumstances. The Lord knows best! Im just grateful that he was able to still use me in that moment to do his great an marvelous work! 

    Thank you so much for all of your endless love, letters, packages, and support. I love you all so much and i love this gospel!

Elder Wengert-W9

    

What a week!!!

   First of all....Dad, happy birthday!!!! I couldnt ask for a better father and example in my life! I hope you have a great day!!! But just one question, what is a ´´bullet´´? Oh and thanks everybody for rubbing the navajo tacos in my face haha! But man, those do sound so good! Those kids better enjoy getting dragged out of bed at 6 to go play some ball, i would love to do that! And im awake 30 min later anyways so doesnt make a huge difference haha! So Shelby is home now. That is crazy, seems like she just left. But tell her and Tim hi for me! Oh and Dad, that hotdog i was eating is called a ´´poncho´´. Not really sure why its named that. So sorry but no they dont call it a meter dog! Tan Man, dont worry about your heart murmer. I have one too and have never had any problems with it! But i hope it works out so you can go tear it up on the football field! Oh, so in dads birthday picture, i saw Dan in the pic. How is he doing? Is he still going strong in the church? Hey Dad, so my bishops wife is from the Alvarez family. She said trace only came over one time for a family night but that she was taught by Elder Beserra and Elder Bagley. Mom dont worry, i had a great birthday. Elder Willard made pancakes for breakfast that morning and the hermanas in our district baked me a cake since we had district meeting that day. Plus i already had my calender, so i was perfectly content! Thank you so much again for that birthday package. It was perfect (plus it got here as well!!!).
     So this was a busy week for me! So many miracles in our district that we all saw and ended up having 5 baptisms in our district (the zone leaders baptised a family of 4 and the hermanas baptised one more little boy). And of course being the district leader i had to do all of the baptismal interviews. So i was running around doing those plus trying to find baptismal clothes for them all since they couldnt find enough in their church building. Then they asked me to play the piano at the baptism and for a musical number that the hermanas were singing. But i actually enjoyed that. I now kind of just soak up and take advantage of the chances i get to play the piano (thanks Mom). But in the end, they all got baptised and comfirmed, making it all worth it! Oh, and one thing that i loved about the baptism was that 2 of the members of the family that got baptised were baptised by 2 recent converts from the last year. The first one is a man that moved here from Korea, met a lady and they were living together before the missionaries found them. After being taught they got married and them plus their 2 daughters were baptised. Now in October they are going to the temple to get sealed as a family. The other was a 17 year old kid named Leandro. Before accepting the gospel, he was hard core in a gang, selling drugs, basically just doing anything an everything illegal haha. But about a year ago the missionaries found him, he dropped everything, made a complete change, and is such a strong member. He literally talks to everybody he knows and even people on the street because he just wants everybody to learn about the gospel. Miracles are so real and i cant even begin to tell you how many i have seen during my mission.

   Then to end a great week, Belén came to church and loved it. All of the hermanas from the relief society were so accepting and were just loving her to death. She is progressing so well for the 9th right now. She is just so prepared and has such strong desires to know her Father in Heaven just a little bit more. So yea, a great week if i would say so myself. But I love you all so much and hope you all have an amazing week. ¡Chao!

Elder Wengert-W9

Re: Photos!

Oh sorry, i didnt explain these. We ate an awesome asado yesterday called matambre a la pizza. It was so good!! This family is seriously so awesome and we have an asado with them for lunch everyother sunday!!

On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 11:03 AM, Derek Wengert <derek.wengert@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Photos!

My time of refinement!!!

    Thank you all so much for all of the birthday wishes!! Today is the birthday of one of the other Elders in my district, so we will be partying it up all pday long haha! Thank you so much for all pictures. Everybody looks so good and so grownup. Its so crazy to see. Tan Man, your sleeping experience on your campout out reminds me a lot of some of my nights here in Argentina haha! Sleeping without any blankets, splashing myself with water to cool myself down, and well the bugs arent too bad luckily. So it will be good preperation for your mission! But right now it has cooled off during the nights and we have a good heater. So i have been sleeping like a little baby! Dad, no worries. I am proud of my German heritage. I wouldnt change my Wengert name for anything. It was just a little ´´dodgy´´ (jessie talk right there haha) since a lot people didnt like germans very much after the loss. But it has settled down now and preselyting time is now back to normal! It sounded like a lot of fun having quinton down for a bit and that Tan and him have become good friends! Naes, good job at swimming! By the time you graduate from high school you will probably have every record possible! Jordy, it was pretty funny seeing who all was at your party since i remember going to high school with some of them! Wow, that world wide indexing event sounds so awesome!! I didnt hear anything about that. Family history is just so cool, i love it!!

   So we had a miracle pack week this time! Unfortunately we were only able to get in with Roberto and Teresa for like 15 minutes this week. Roberto told us that he still wants to meet with us and learn more, he just cant right now because of his work conditions. He doesnt have a set job and just does whatever he can find. So pray for him to find a good job and still have time to meet with us please! So when Elder Willard and I got here to Benavidez we only had record of 1 investigator, Belén Sanchez, in the area book. We called and passed by her house so many times, but never could find her. But we decided to pass by once again late one night before returning to the pench, and we found her. We got into the house, taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and at the end she accepted a baptismal date for the 9 of August!!! She really has a lot of desires to get baptised and join herself with the Lords people, it was just hard for her since she was always at school and studying (she is studying at the university here in San Juan). 1 month of hard work looking for her paid off!!! Miracles are real!!!! She was able to come to church yesterday because we passed by for here and she was sick. Dang it!! But next week for sure! 

    Well this week we saw so many miracles, but we didnt get much time to work. On thursday i had to travel to Mendoza in order to do paperwork to renew my visa since i have kind of been illegal here for the last 3-4 months. But its alright! i almost have it! I love you all so much, have a great week. This is my life and my time of refinement. And it´s the best!!!

Elder Wengert-W9

    

¡Miracles come!

  Ok seriously, do i really look like im from Germany? I cant even begin to tell you how many times this week I have been stopped in the street and asked if im German (ok fine, if you look back far enough in my family tree you will find Germany and the name ´´Wengert´´ does come from there as well, but argentines dont know that haha). But this week has been crazy with the final game going on. But we didnt get to watch it this time. Right after church we were required to go straight back to the pench where we had to stay without leaving for any reason until this morning. But we were able to kind of tell what was happening to just listening to the roars of Benavidez. But in the end Messi couldnt pull it off this time. Oh well, it was fun while it last and now we will finally be able to get back to normal missionary life and have to plan our schedules around the games because nobody would let us in during those times haha!

   Sounded like such an eventful week!! The Family Reunion sounded like so much fun and I really want to see a video of those swim moves haha. The testimony of Grandpa sounded absolutely amazing and so powerful. We are so lucky to be part of such amazing and strong families. And how grateful i am to have the oppurtunity to carry with me both the Wengert and Allen names. I couldnt imagine life without family and i cant imagine life after without family. Heaven just wouldnt be heaven without each and eveyone of you! I am way excited for the reunion next year, mostly for the food haha. Oh Momma guess what?! I got the birthday package this week!! I seriously could not stop laughing at all of the calender pictures. And im not really sure where you got some of those ideas, but good job! I know it was so much work to do it, but i love it! Thank you so much!! Jordy Poo, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! How are you already 17, that cant be! Enjoy your day, eat lots of food for me, and next year we can celebrate our birthdays together ok!

    So this was a much better week. We started it off with a meeting to meet President and Hermana Goates. Wow, they are so amazing. And he even remembered meeting Dad, so i was pretty impressed about that. They are probably some of the most loving people i have ever met, and I am so excited to work with them! So we had a lot of meetings this week which didnt give us a whole lot of time to work in our area. But the time that we did have, we worked hard, and the miracles came! We found an awesome family this past week. Tuesday night it was another tough day working wise, and we decided to knock one more house before heading back to the pench and we found Roberto. We talked to him for a bit and got a return appoitment for Friday. So we came back on friday but nobody answered when we knocked. So we started to walk away and the door gets flung open. There was Teresea, the wife (well more like partner or girlfriend since they arent married) of Roberto who immediatly let us in. So we got to sit down with both of them and teach the restauration. We learned that Teresa is actually a member but hasnt gone to church in a super long time. But they have been feeling like their church they have been going to lacks certain things and were looking for another one to go to. Unfortunately they couldnt come to church yesteday, but we have a cita with them tonight. They are a way solid couple!

    Saturday morning we got invited to a youth conference of the 2 stakes here in San Juan. There, the youth got to listen to President and Hermana Goates about missionary work and after they got to come out for a bit with us missionaries and place some cards anda pamphlets. The youth here in Argentina are just incredible. They are so strong and firm, have such strong tesimonies, and such great desires to share that with everybody else! 

    Well, I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the time as family! I love you all so much!

Elder Wengert-W9