Monday, April 20, 2015

Good to hear things are going a little better for you guys!!!

Yeah, a family member of a less active family where we baptized the daughters came to visit for the second time since I've been here in Alamo, and the day she left she left me a love letter, and when she found out how it was recieved by me from her family she got very angry. Anyway she's calmed down now and by some miracle I've managed to get her reading and praying about the Book of Mormon again and her family went to church for the first time in forever this last Sunday! So that's going much better than it was last week where it was just mostly stress and nasty emails for me to deal with. 

Things that I could use in the package... ummm not particularly more than it really feels good to here from you guys. I got my last package and appreciated all of the things, but all I had from you guys was a short little note. If you could just be really nice and send me a testimony, a cool story, or a conference talk from forever ago that you really like or something, I'd really appreciate it. The peanut butter runs out but it really feels good to hear from you guys during the week.

I got a hair cut after wayyyy to long!!! Haha, I had one of the crazy Mexican missionaries here do it so I didn't have to pay 40 pesos. In other areas its 20 pesos, so like a dollar and 50 cents, but here its expensive!!! 

Anyway we also have a really cool sister who's progressing and reading a lot in the Book of Mormon, but her husband works in another city and doesn't like that she goes to church, so that's the challenge that we're working with. We also ran into this family from ALABAMA!! The dad is a Pentecostal missionary who always runs around the mountains teaching people so I'm not sure how much success we'd ever have teaching them, haha. I want to go visit with Elder Spencer, the other American, one of these days.

It's now the last week of changes, which is good and bad. Good, because I'm honestly so sick of dealing with things the way they are right now. I just want to get home when we're supposed to and work during the day and it's a mess achieving those goals with my companion. Especially since basically all of the missionaries stop caring and working the last week of changes because they might be leaving. Ugh, I'm just pushing through these last 8 days and hoping this doesn't get more crazy in the future. I might might might end up staying in Alamo with the arguably more crazy Mexican in the other area.  Although honestly that would be much better than my situation right now, I wouldn't be super pumped. Excited to see what the Lord has planned for me to learn in this next change, and trying to learn what I'm supposed to here in this one.

Love you guys!!!

Elder Wadman

Monday, April 13, 2015

THEY FINISHED LA CAÑADA!!! I really have been gone a long time then. 

Sorry to hear that mom is still having a hard time. I've been under the weather with a headache and fever a few days too. Sounds like it was a really good stake conference! My favorite speaker in our stake conferences is President Greer, he speaks in almost all of them it seems. He's just a super animated speaker, and really grabs the attention of everybody, and then shares a very clear message. 

Things here have been about the same, it's still a bit of a struggle to get things done since its not my choice a lot, and I have to take a lot of flak from other Elders, but I guess that's how it goes. Changes come the 26th and I'm betting that's when I'll get your package. 

Love you guys and I wish you the best!!!

Elder Wadman

Monday, April 6, 2015

Glad to know mom is doing a little bit better!!

I LOVED CONFERENCE. Like seriously, we got to the end of the last session, and I wanted to cry because it was like saying goodbye to a good friend for 6 months. Elder Uchtdorf gave a talk specifically that really taught me about the things I need to change personally in my life out here, and President Monson did kind of hint at the fact that I need to get over my problems and accept that I can find success in my mission. 

One thing I came to realize, and I don't really remember in which talk I realized it, was that I have the problems I have right now because the problems were already there, and God chose ME to fix them. Not that I've done the best job, but that's been a comforting thought. I realized that when we don't feel real and sincere gratitude for God, it's because we lack the sufficient degree of repentance that he requires. Well, I learned a lot of stuff, mostly. 

It was really cool to talk to an investigator that was going for the first time to church who said she felt that several of the messages were aimed at her. I was also surprised by the amount of focus that was placed on marriage and the family, although most of it is only really relevant to the people I'm teaching right now, until I get home. Sounds like it's been a really wild week there, with hospital visits and engagements all over the place!

I've been enjoying the fruit here. I'm going to be sad when I live in a place without fresh mango... And of course here I just eat a ton of oranges. With the meals though, we don't get a lot of fruit. People kind of treat fruit as a snack food more than anything. 

Anyway, not a lot of other news for the week, besides the mission is going to be shrinking because 40 missionaries or so are going home and 8 are arriving. We're closing my house at the end of this transfer (the 26th), and although that doesn't specifically mean that Elder Mota and I both will get transferred, since I have more time than anyone else in Alamo, I'm more than likely on my way to a new area. Until then, just trying to do everything I can here and trying to learn the lesson God at least hopes I'm capable of learning while I'm here. 

Love you guys!!