Baptisms, and Miracles....loving the life of a Missionary!!

3-30-15 Note from Mom:  We recieved a voice recording from Elder Wardell! He told us a little bit about his mission. He LOVES his mission! 

 Yasnay's Baptism

 The Posterity

Elder Hansen, Elder Marshall, Elder Wardell 

3-30-15
sorry the scoops gonna have to be real short

had to write some necessary emails :( 

this week was awesome! Yasnay got baptised and then confirmed, miracles happen and hard work pays off! Maria, came to church and was crying durning i stand all amazed, cuz she felt the spirit. we are excited for conference this weekend so that she can hear the voice of a living prophet. love you guys!

 Sweet new tie!  Thanks Grandma!! 

 Come listen to Elder Wardell's voice

Trying out the new voice recorder! 

Breakfast!! 

Blessings of the Atonement of Christ

Note from Mom:  no pictures  :(

3-23-15

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell here's the scoop.

Well, let's start off with some good news, Yasnay will be getting baptised this saturday!!!!!!!!!!! She came to church, we've taught her the lessons, she's amazing, we will be going swimming this saturday! it's amazing! There's also this woman Maria. She's the "friend" haha of a member, who introduced us to her at the Meet the Mormons movie that the ward had showed. we taught her the restoration, and she accepted baptism. We set a return appointment with her, but sadly she wasn't able to make it. but when we asked her how her reading of the book of mormon was, she informed us that she has been reading every night!! and more than just a couple of verses she's been reading a full chapter every night. She's amazing! she will without doubt be baptised really soon.

  Well, we had another interesting experience this last week. 

so, in our ward, there are two sets of missionaries, so the ward is split into two areas. A couple of weeks ago, the other two missionaries, had a baptism for a brother named Bro Zapata. he's this 80 somethin year old cuban man, with whom they had been working the entire time that we have been here. Sadly though, his wife has had cancer for the past little while, and her time was counting down very quickly. but he pressed foreward anyway, got baptised into the church that he knows to be true, and is already anxious for when he hits one year so that he can go to the temple. but this last week we were informed that his wife had passed away. Her funeral was yesterday afternoon, and the neat thing to see. was how a ton of the members from the ward went to see him, even though they didn't quite know who he was. they were there for him to give him a hand and a hug, and literally put together a small little service right on the spot. it was so wonderful, and the spirit was so strong. Something i noticed though, is one of the blessings that we have, of having the knowledge of the plan of salvation. His family that was there, was just so sad, so gloomy, so down. every was kind of saying goodbye for forever. The greatest thing about God's plan of happiness is that very simply we know that it's goodbye for maybe, a few years. maybe 5 for some and 75 for others but either way, in eternity, time is nothing. it's goodbye for a bit for now, and Hello for forever after.

It literally takes the scare out of death. This I believe to partly be the way that Jesus Christ "conquered death"  wow, haha not sure where I was going with that. 

Well i love yall. Can't wait to talk to you all next week! 

Elder Wardell

Exchanges, Family time and Biscuits and Gravy

So me, my son and the three ap's. haha all in the MAN VAN (the ap's drive a dodge minivan....it's pretty dope not gonna lie)

 front l-r: Elder Marshall, elder Sorensen 

middle l-r: hijo mio (my son), me, 

exile: Elder Burgoyne (love that guy)

3-9-15

Note from Mom: 

From time to time the Elder's (or Sister's )  will work with another missionary. They will "exchange" companions and work for the day with a different missionary other than their regular companion.  In Elder Wardell's mission, they are usually on exchanges with their District Leaders, or their Zone leaders. After Elder Zwick's training, they will now be also going on exchanges with the "AP's" (Assistants to the President).  

Weeeell here's the scoop,

     So, everyone has heard of the thing called the exchange. usually who exchanges with who just climbs the food chain: missionaries with district leaders, DL's with Zone Leaders, ZL's with the Assistants to the President, and then the AP's are always around President, who frequently get's training from the seventies and the 12, and, well you know who they get training from hahaha.

Well, after Elder Zwick was here, he mentioned that he wanted the AP's to do something different: Now they don't do exchanges with the ZL's, they exchange with the trainer's and trainees. It's a wacky exchange too, because the trainer and trainee go into the ap's area. Why do i bring this up? because Elder Hansen just got to take a 2 day trip out of our area into the AP's area. it was actually really fun, mainly because i actually got to have some flash back time. so if you remember my first emails from the field, you will remember reading about a missionary named elder marshall, who trained me. (eh he's an alright guy) ;) love you elder marshall! (he too is reading this) 

anyway, if you read back a few emails, about halfway through my time in jupiter, you'll find that he was called to be an assistant the the president! so, needless to say, I GOT TO SPEND 2 DAYS WITH MY POPS!!!!! haha it was a ton a fun and a wave of memories, to go knocking doors with elder marshall agian. and this time we were actually on bike! funny enough out of all the time that i was ever around elder marshall, it was literally the 3rd time i ever rode a bike with him. it was fun.

especially with a biscuits n gravy breakfast. i think it's the new exchange tradition.

oh this last week on the fifth, was officially one year! since i left for my mission!

well the area is doing well! we are working with this young man named robert, who's really intelligent, one of the few people who has actually read the bible and understands it rather well. he lives with this part member family who we are also working with. he's come to church the past couple of weeks, and right now we are just doing what we can to held him gain a testimony. 

Sadly, Yasnay was not able to come to church this last week, but it's ok, she's still cool, and still puttin along for her baptism! so all is well there. 

Well as sad as it is, i am now just barely over email time, so i gotta get off, but i love you all! 

can't wait to talk to you next week.

Elder Wardell

Zone Conference and Reunions....

March 2, 2015

 The dynamic trio reunited 

Elder Tenney, Elder Wardell, Elder Swensen

 Son, Father, Grandfather

Elder Hansen, Elder Wardell, Elder Marshall

 Speak no evil, See no evil, Hear no Evil

Guess who the semi-intelligent one is?? That's MY BOY!!! 

weeeeeeeeeeell here's the scoop.

So some exciting things that happened this last week, we had zone conference!

Zone conferences are always a ton of fun because there's always missionaries that you have served around, there's the missionaries that are in your old areas that you can talk to, etc etc it's alwas a ton of fun! i got to chat with elder tenney and elder swensen which is always a blast, (funny enough, elder swensen, when he left his greenie area, kicked me out of my greenie area, and then when he left there, he went to elder tenny's greenie area! it's really funny.) I also got to chat with my pops Elder Marshall, (worlds biggest goofball lemme tell ya! ;))

well we had a ton of visits with the members this week! it's really nice cuz this ward is amazing!!!

they absolutely love the missionaries, and that means food! and also photos that get sent home, so my mother is always happy. haha

Well this last week saw a lot of good stuff with the work! Sadly we had to drop robert the atheist, but he just truly didn't have a desire to believe. that was the reason that he wasnt seeing the evidence of faith was because he didn't have a desire to believe. but, Yasnay, the daughter of the recent convert we have been working with, came to church! we were so happy to have her there, and in meeting with her earlier in the week, we taught her the plan of salvation! It's always amazing to me when we get to teach the plan of salvation. Whenever i think about the plan of salvation, i'm just grateful. grateful to have been born and raised in the true church of god, that has the blessings of a living prophet, who can recieve knowledge of things like the plan of salvation. I mean, how many people do we know that say, yeah god has a plan, but that's all they know? it's truly marvelous to me.

Well yasnay is going full steam ahead prepping for baptism, as well as this guy carlos that we found, with whom we shared the restoration. we left his home, with the comment from him, "wow, i really need to read this book" (book of mormon) 

next week will definitely have exciting news! well i love yall! can't wait to talk to ya next week.

Elder Wardell

Stake Conference, Fun and more Fun

 February 23, 2015

 Shhhh, the baby is finally sleeping....

 One goofy missionary

Well I thought I was good looking, but then I looked in the mirror and saw my son, I realized I am still better lookin and vain,  ha ha, just kidding, this is the two of us, ready to conquer the day. Neither one of us better or worse looking than the other, cept for Elder Hansen, handsome Devil!  (Runs in the family!) 



February 23, 2015, 

weeeelll here's the scoop.

 WE BROKE THE WORD OF WISDOM!!!!!!!! haha jkjk.

it was only herbal tea.

So we were at this investigators, flor's, house. She is kind of an eternagator, who really has never been truly challenged by the missionaries, but slowly and surely she is coming along, but this past week we met with her, and she for some reason thought it was cold so she made us a couple cups of chamomile tea. it was ok. sadly though, we pretty soon won't be able to work with her anymore, becasue she will be moving to homestead!!!! GREAT NOW THE HOMESTEAD ELDERS GET TO TAKE MORE OF MY BAPTISMS!!!!!!! Hahah, i'm kidding, i only bring that up, because it reminds me of the coolest thing of this last week. So, yesterday was stake conference, and i'm still in the same stake as homestead. so, WE GOT TO DRIVE BACK TO MY OLD STOMPIN GROUNDS!!!!!! haha i was so happy and homestead trunky goin back down into homestead! just a flood of good memories. the best though, was when we walked into the chapel, and there, sitting on one of the pews, really early, WAS THE RAMOS FAMILY!!! my whole face just lit up with excitement as did theirs when we saw each other, and i went and chatted up a storm with them. Not only did they get baptised, but becasue the whole ward got involved and really just pulled them under the wing, they are now completely active, GOIN TO STAKE CONFERENCE (lemme tell ya there's an accomplishment ;) haha), and all of the kid's have already gone to the temple to do baptisms. it literally made my day! 

Well, some awesome things from the week, we have been working with this man named robert, who before said he was an atheist, but what's really awesome, is seeing some light of faith kick on in his eyes. he's got a little seed of faith developing, just as it says in alma 32, 27? i think it's that one, eeh it's somewhere in there, but it's really awesome! he's building a testimony, and will really soon be prepping for baptism!

And we have another person prepping for baptism, her name is Yasnay. She's the daughter of this cuban lady named margarita, who is a recent convert, and she too is prepping to be baptised on the 14th!

so some funny moments from this week: Elder Hansen got his first taste of full and complete cuban. it was AWESOME! haha we talked to this guy at the door, and elder hansen at the end was just like, Haaah? it was really funny! and we also stole a restaurant from the other elders. haha So, we have this rule in our mission that we can only have six missionaries together in a restaurant, and we were headed to a district training in another area, and we went to this restaurant called 100 motaditos, that the other elders love, and we met the sisters in our district there, and as we were right in the middle of eating, we saw the other elders come walking in, and then they saw us, and had a look that was just like, WHAT THE HECK!!!!!!!!!! haha It was really funny. funny enough one of them was elder Cobabe! (second companion) 

well i love yall, talk to ya next week.

Elder Wardell

DVD player for 12 week training course....

 Home stereo that was here when we moved in....

One auxialry cord, 

 One diabolical plan....

Voila! One in home movie theatre!!