Monday, April 25, 2016

Hey guys! 

How are you doing?? Hope you are having a nice time in Prescott!

Notice anything strange about the way Jesus is Getting baptized? Somebody didn't read Matthew 3, or Romans 6... Its a church window in Martinez de la Torre - we were there one Monday with the zone.

This week Tania got baptized!!!

He was ordained as a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood this Sunday.

The Branch Presidents wife playing ping pong with an inactive member!

The other picture is me eating fruit with salsa... I'm used to that now...

Monday April 18, 2016

Hey Guys!!!

Excited for Mothers Day! I always said when that last phone call got here, I would really feel like I had been in the mission for a long time. Still not really believing that it's almost here... I'm going to have to look for a place where they have a webcam.

Glad to hear that you survived tax season, Mom!

It's been an interesting week! We found a lot of new people that we've been teaching. There's a young man who has been going to church for a while who told the member who lives near him that he didn't want to listen anymore. We went and talked to him. He said that he wanted to keep taking his classes in the Catholic church and that he didn't want to go to church with us anymore. We asked him if he knew which church was true, and he said no, so we explained again how he could know for himself if what we were teaching came from God, and after listening he decided that he would pray. We agreed to go back two days later, but the brother who took us in his car couldn't take us. So we ended up walking 7 kilometers down the highway to the ranch, after getting lost in the wilderness for like an hour beforehand. Anyway, we got there and we asked him if he had prayed. He said that he had, that he had felt a special kind of joy, and had almost wanted to cry. He accepted a baptisimal date for the 24th.

And then he didn't come to church on Sunday because he says that he is going to finish his Catholic classes and he doesn't want to go anymore. So that was almost a great story but it sounds like he's still pretty confused. That's what happens with your Catholic family who doesn't go to church but hates the idea of you going somewhere else :(

A new family came to church on Sunday, and the mother of a member who is recovering from a surgery and has never listened to the missionaries, and a sister who we have been teaching who lost her daughter 3 months ago and wants to take her name to the temple. Unfortunately, the two families who got baptized 3 weeks ago couldn't make it to church AGAIN and only one of the 9 has been confirmed to date. The brother we baptized last week did get confirmed though. Yay!

Also we had interviews. President'e told me to have charity and not worry when I can't fulfill all of the needs of the branch, and Sister Greer talked to me about marriage. soo... anyway we'll get to that bridge some day..

Let me get some pictures up here..

AND it won't let me... sorry. I'll get this worked out at some point...

Love you guys anyway!!

Elder Wadman

Su Foto - Photos from Sister Greer

Zone Martinez (Vega) 

Monday, April 11, 2016

[Note: items in blue brackets have been added for clarification]

Hey guys!!!

Sorry I cant get any pictures to you, for some reason this computer can't detect my camera. I think it's too new. My new companion is names Elder Cáceres. He's from Peru, and honestly, looks kind of like you dad, just that he's 23 and from Peru. He got baptized at 14 but he was inactive until last year. He´s kind of different but a good guy, we get along pretty well.

I loved the conference, and last Sunday was super crazy!  We downloaded some talks and brought them to the house of prayer in Vega and put them up at 7 pm. 38 people came. 19 of them weren't members!!! 

This Sunday, unfortunately, not many of them got to church. We did have a baptism though, an older gentleman named Angel. We have another young man who is going to get baptized next Sunday, if all goes well.

What I've really felt that I´m starting to learn is humility. I know that all of this has very little to do with the work I'm doing, and everything to do with the Lord. I'm grateful that I have the chance to be here in Vega and help the work go forward. I'm doing by best to not worry too much about my 4 month deadline.

Glad to know things are going well at work. That poor sister! [serving in your Tucson ward] 8 months in one area!! That´s like half of her mission! I guess the Lord really wants her to learn something or meet someone there.

Anyway, Love you guys, and hope things start calming down over there!

Elder Wadman

2 Weeks in and a Baby!

[Note: items in blue brackets have been added for clarification]

Hey Guys!

I'm writing today instead of Monday because the Assistants [to the Mission President] called me today and told me I'm headed back to Xalapa on Monday to pick up a new missionary to train here in Vega!!! Now that I've been in my area for a grand total of 19 days or something like that...

Anyway I'm excited to make the most of it! But it means my P-day [preparation-day] is today, between [sessions of church general] conference, while I'm here in a different city. So we'll see when on earth I manage to get my clothes washed and buy food.

I didn't really know this was going to happen, so I'm not ready and armed with pictures, but I'll try and give you guys a rundown of the week.

This week I only got to work 2 and a half days in my area. Sunday we were occupied with the details of bringing 40 people to the beach and baptizing a bunch of them, and eating at 7 pm for the first meal of the day. Monday we worked from 6 to 9 like normal, and then Tuesday we went to Martinez de la Torre so I could teach my district class. From there I went to the area of some of the missionaries in my district to do their baptismal interviews for a family. They live between Martinez and Vega. The people weren't in their house for the first time ever, so I ended up staying with [the missionaries from that area] that day. I went to work with one of them and sent my companion with the other to give them a hand.  I did the interviews on Wednesday morning. We got to Vega to take a quick shower and work from Wednesday afternoon until Friday when we came BACK to Martinez to go to [general] conference today in the morning. Then about four hours ago they informed me that Monday I need to be in Xalapa to pick up my new companion. So.. it´s been kind of hard getting a good amount of traction in my area. 

I'm listening to general conference with 2 questions in mind, because honestly with 20 months in the mission, for whatever reason it's not as easy as it was before to give EVERYTHING, all day, all the time, and I'm remembering last time I trained and the struggles we had to find success when I know that I really did give everything. My first question is how I can learn to serve the Lord with all of my heart, might, mind, and strength, and the second is one that the Assistants asked me to write down, how can I be a better trainer for my new companion? 

Any thoughts you guys have are also welcome. (That goes for the people that read the blog too!)

I'm excited and humbled by the work the Lord has left me. Vega is a place that is ready for the gospel. Before I came people were flocking to the church. I hope I can live worthy to keep up the good fight!

I love you guys and I'm excited to hear from you on Monday the 11th, when I've got a chance to read my email again!

Lots of Love,

Elder Wadman

Monday, March 28, 2016

Hola Familia!

Its been a great week! My rash is gone, so you can stop asking about it and worrying!

I failed to mention that two weeks ago, my first day in my new area, President Greer called me in the morning. He thanked me for the organization and dedication I had put forth in the offices. It was just a little detail, but I really felt like I had fulfilled a great goal that I had put for myself to make a mark in the offices and fix some of the problems. It means a lot when the Presidente of 160 missionaries, in charge of all the missionary efforts in 6 stakes takes the time to give you a call and thank you.

I also told President that I didn't want to leave this area before it becomes a ward. He promised me he would only pull me out if the Lord needed to put me in a leadership position. I guess now I will just hope that someone else can go be a zone leader so I can stick around here till they send me home!

So this is what happened on Sunday!!

Tavo, me, Elder Paredes, Lupe, Elder Howell (The missionary who got sick), Christina, Edith, Enrique, Lorena, Eva, Y Faustino. I didn't think things through, because to be a witness I had to get in the water too.. so after this I got soaked...

 One daughter couldn't come, so she is going to get baptized later and confirmed with the family the week after general conference. Did I mention that both of these couples just got married on Tuesday???

THE WEDDING!!! The second from the left is Tania, the other daughter who is going to get baptized. Also Lupe, the first guy on the left, and Lorena, the third from the left, are going to get married in August! (And sealed in April? Hoping so!)

It was kind of wavy... haha we got soaked even before the baptisms.