Mission Conference

 Got to see Elder Swensen at Mission Conference, Love that guy....

Kind of hot that day....

5-26-15
Hey everyone! 

 This last week was super good! we had a misison conference this last week, where President Richardson talked to us about how he wants us to introduce the BOM to people now. first, he told us all to always carry a Pros Bible, and hold them together so people can physically SEE that us crazy mormons do actually believe what the bible says! haha

and the second thing was how we introduce the BOM. What we are to do is read the first three and last two paragraphs of the intro page, and then go straight to 3rd nephi ch 11-20, and let the people read those just so they can read about christ's personal ministry, and then they can start from the beginning. SO AWESOME! :)

cool little bom experience. So, in our personal studies, as a rule we read out of the BOM for 30 minutes cada dia(every day) and yesterday i read through 4 nephi, and i read something that just smacked me right in the face. 

Constantly people bicker about religion, and it's understandable why people don't like alot of religion. If you understand the concept of the Apostasy, then it's rather easily explained. And when you understand that, you may understand the idea of a loving heavenly father bringing us the "fulness of the gospel". But the biggest question is why? what is the point of the restoration?

 

 15 And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.

 16 And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happierpeople among all the people who had been created by the hand of God.

 17 There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were inone, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God.

 18 And how blessed were they! For the Lord did bless them in all their doings; yea, even they were blessed and prospered until an hundred and ten years had passed away; and the first generation from Christ had passed away, and there was no contention in all the land.

That's what it's all about. Only the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, given by christ, and administered through authorized representatives,(prophets) can unite all people in peace. It is only the gospel of christ that can help us to have perfect love. 

Well, I love you all! sadly this one is a bit shorter than usual, but i do love you!

Elder Wardell

Work is going great!

***Elder Wardell forgot to add the titles for the photos he sent... the Mom will add them...I'm quite sure they won't tell the whole story of this weeks pictures....

 Edler Bedke...Dart gun gone amuk?? 

  Super Hero on my planner cover??

 Pancake version of Egg toasts?? 

5-18-15

well,

to be really straight to the point,

this week our area BLEW UP! :) We, have been really raising the bar in our mission on being exactly obedient, and elder Bedke and myself have been consistently re analizing what we can do to be even more obdient. and boy have we seen miracles from it. We have found a ton of new people, 3 of which are prepping for baptism! And there's one miracle in specific that i want to talk about.

So, we were goin along, and we had like 2 appointments that fell through, and we went and taught our new investigators, and as we were leaving, our phone falls off my lap and the batteriy falls out. our power button doesnt work, so we couldnt turn it back on. :( missionary work in this day and age without a phone, can be a little rough jaja.PAUSE 

 This is where the shout out goes out to my parents. "mom why can't i have a phone!" "cuz, you're not 16." "Not fair!" "You'll thank me later! ;)" 

It's later, THANK YOOOOOOOOOOU!! haha.

UNPAUSE

so, we went over to a members house, to call the other two to get the number of the phone missionary, but they didnt pick up. so we look up the mission offices phone number, but it was saturday and when we called, it was closed. so then we were like, we will just call the mission president, and get the phone number from him, *tip for missionaries, memorize the mission presidents phone number! jaja and so we called a couple people, finally got the phone number, call the mission president, and he didn't pick up. haha, finally though, the other two called us back, we got the phone number, and got the phone thing figured out. all is well. haha but what happend is that we were at the members house for about 40 minutes. and as we were biking away, we were like, oooh, we need to tell the other two about the dinner appointment. :( it's ok we will just head towards their house and look for a payphone! (half jokingly) we are biking along, and we find a payphone! :) hahaha

we are crossing this intersection, and this guy drives through, right in front of us and says, HEY DO YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT JESUS? and we of course said yeah. 

he pulls into the gas station, and gets out, and asks us a couple of questions, that require Plan of Salvation knowledge. we answer his question, and he says, Well show me that specifically in the bible! it's gotta be in the word of god! And after he goes on this semi rant, slightly bashing, and told us of some of the "wrongs" of Joseph Smith, and after we heard him out, we both of us, bore our testimonies of Joseph Smith as a prophet, and very calmly told him, about how neither of us had heard of the things that he said about joseph smith, taught him the restoration, and then said, think of the days of jesus, the pharisees and what not made up all sorts of things about him, because they knew who he was. And if joseph smith was truly gods prophet, then similar type things would be said of him. and then he admitted to us how he never read the book of mormon, and we really helped him see, how misinformed he had been. he left, with a book of mormon, and a promise to read it, and called us brothers. it was all guided by the spirit, and was truly amazing! there's far more to this story but i'm outta time! love yall!

Elder Wardell

Mother's day and Miracles....

 Sometimes planning can get a little crazy.....

 Got a new haircut.....

Mother's Day Skype....is that happiness or what??? He is loving every minute of his mission!!!

5-11-15

weeell here's the scoop.

 For all of you spanish speakers i have a joke that i learned. 

Cual vino es el mas malo? .........Vino la Suegra!!!!!!!! JAAAAJAJAJAJA

(for you english speakers i'll attempt to explain haha)

So in eh-spanish, vino means wine, and also means "she came", and Suegra, means "mother-in-law". So in the joke it's, "which wine (vino) is the worst?" "The mother-in-law came(vino)" 

So on a more spiritual side of things, Maria came to church again! She's making progress. It's kinda slow but definitely sure. She will be pickin up steam here quick. She's like a train, strong a mighty, it just takes a bit to get rollin but then there's no stopping it. We also got to see a really cool miracle, we got a referral over the phone for a guy named carlos who requested a book of mormon. we went over there to drop it off to him, and we ended up teaching him the restoration! He loved it! We left him with a commitment to read the passage in alma 32, and we left. Well five minutes after we pedaled out, we get a text on the phone from him that said: "hey i just wanted to say thanks for the book. i started reading what you left and realized that i didnt say thanks so thanks"!!!!!!!! It was AWESOME! :) i jumped for joy when i read that text. He also came to church, and is prepping for baptism on the 23rd!!!! :) we are excited. 

Well we got to skype home yesterday. It was cool to see the whole family. It's weird i only have 1 phonecall left! Crazy how time flies. it's the reason we are counseled to sprint in our work. 

Well i gotta roll, but there's a quote from PMG that i really want to share, and it says, "true doctrine, understood changes attitudes. a strong study of the doctrines of the gospel will change behavior faster than a study of behavior will change behavior."

Boyd K Packer.

Well i love yall,

gotta roll but take care!

Elder Wardell

New Companion and finding faith

Last time all four of us at the house Elder Hansen, Elder Pukahi, Elder Kiser, Elder Wardell 

Elder Jarman (Elder Pukahi's new comp) Elder Wardell, Elder Bedke 

My soda abstinence kind of ended when someone mentioned Voltage!!!

5-4-15

weeeell here's the scoop.

so, i got a new companion. his name is Elder Bedke. He's kinda your average, NOT AVERAGE! haha. For those who don't quite undertand my insanity, that means HE'S AMAZING!!!

mainly because i was able to explain Star Trek to him and he loved it! haha He's kind of a young pup, he actually entered the mission with mi hijo (my son) and funny enough, elder hansen and elder Bedke swapped areas! it was funny. but he's a CHAMP. he already speaks spanish bastante (well enough) and is just awesome at teaching. He's really humble, very intelligent, and he tells intelligent jokes which are just the best. we just get along really well! i love him he's awesome! 

Well Maria came to church this last week! by herself too! And something really cool happened, we have been trying and trying and trying to get maria to stay for 2nd hour, and she never has wanted to, but this last sunday, after sacrament meeting, she just popped up and said, so tell me about the next hour whats it like? funny enough right before she said that i just thought to myself, i'm not gonna ask her because then we are just pushing too much. (faith is amazing!) And so to answer her question we just said, well, we'll just show you. so we went back to the class, showed her the class introduced her to some peeps, and she stayed! and really got into the class reading scriptures, smiling, getting friendly with a really cool sister in the ward, and most importantly, feeling the spirit. 

It was really nice. her progression is finaly starting to speed up so that is amazing! 

Well, sadly we had to drop thomas this last week. :( it's never fun to drop people. Especially when you realize and understand the improtance of the words: Restored Gospel. It's really actually HEARTBREAKING. But sadly what had happened is thomas, who had a wonderful, growing testimony, decided to try and find more answers from "man" meaning he went online, and looked around on some blogs and such and such and did some "research". And when we met with him again, he very gently said that he wont be able to get baptised because he got an answer that the book isn't true, and then told us about all of the stuff that he found. and so then i shared with him. Elder Bedke shared an AWESOME experience about recieveing an answer, and then i shared alma 32, 27-29? something around there haha, 

 26 Now, as I said concerning faith—that it was not a perfect knowledge—even so it is with my words. Ye cannot know of their surety at first, unto perfection, any more than faith is a perfect knowledge.

 27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

 28 Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.

Quite simply, what that means, is that we can go to God for answers. Thomas kept mentioning, "but they've done studies.." the simple fact of the matter, is that when you look at the nature of God in the scriptures, and in the book of mormon, no amount of MAN'S study, will ever definitely prove the truth of the book of mormon, or of joseph smith as a prophet. If those things are of God, we must go to god, and GOD ONLY to find the truthfulness of answers. Thomas, did not do that. he didn't completely show his faith in god, because he went to man for his answer. And because he didn't completely trust in god, he didn't get an answer. He was genuinely looking for an answer, but was looking in the wrong place. Man's studies will never hold the answers to the "mysteries of god". This is the reason why it is important for us to gain a testimony of the book of mormon, as the word of god, and The restoration of the gospel through a living prophet. because then answers can be found in the right places. That is what we tried to get through to thomas, and i'm hoping he got it. We commited him to read the book of mormon, and ONLY the book of mormon to get an answer. We will be following up with him, and i'm hoping that it will be good. Well i love yall! gotta run but take care! 

Elder Wardell

Losing a Son!!

I love to visit the temple

Beautiful Fort Lauderdale Florida Temple at Night.....

 Taking  Jimmy and Maria to visit the temple, Bishop, Elder Hansen, Jimmy, Maria, Elder Wardell

I will always have a connection to this temple...my name is on a missionary list in that cornerstone box! 

Saying good bye to the tie....

The posterity tie, signed by my father, his father, his grandfather, now signed by me and passed on to my son...Elder Hansen will take the tie with him....going to miss him!! 


4-28-15

Weeeeeeell Here's the scoop

 So, sadly, as we found out last night, apparently for whatever reason, somebody has seen fit to rob me of my only child! ahaha Yep, Elder Hansen is shipping out, and Elder Wardell is staying for another transfer! :) sad as all get out that he's leaving but happier than a pig in the mud for getting to stay!!!!! i really do like this area a ton! next to las baleadas de Hna Rojas! ;) there's hardly any food that can compare! that and I'll still get to work with jimmy, and maria, Hopefully they will be married this next transfer! speaking of those two, we just got to go to the temple! sadly we didn't GO to the temple, but we got to do a temple tour with them last tuesday, and it was just FANTASTIC!!!

The spirit there was SO strong! haha there's a small entryway right before the lobby, that we can go in, and be able to look through these glass windows in the doors into the lobby, and just really FEEL the spirit, and elder hansen and i both were like, " I wanted to walk in soooooooooooooooooooo bad haha" 

well, i love yall! scoops gonna have to be a little short this week but next week will definitely be good! take care till next week.

Elder Wardell