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