Monday, October 27, 2014

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

Monday, October 20, 2014

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 fĂștbol 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

Monday, October 13, 2014

    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!!

Monday, October 6, 2014

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