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!