A Dry spell in Florida....

Elder Tenney is my Zone Leader, I got to go on exchanges with him.

 First time I have served with him my whole mission. 

(Elder Tenney was one of Elder Wardell's companions in the CCM in Mexico) 

8-3-14

Well this will be a short one this week.

So this last week really wasn't the greatest week for a missionary haha.

our investigator pool is bonedry right now, and this last week was filled with a lot of knocking and not a whole lot of teaching. We can't teach until we find. It's ok though. There are so many things that missionaries do not see in the preaching of the gospel. President told us a story a short time ago of a man who had the missionaries knock on his door, and when they introduced themselves, he angrily said NO and slammed the door in their face. (Imagine what the missionaries probably said or thought) they had NO CLUE what happened next. the man goes into his house, and a little bit later was thinking about what he had done, and realized how bad he felt for treating those two young men that way. they had wanted to share a simple message about Jesus Christ, and he blew them right off. The man knelt down and said a prayer to god wherein he said, "father, i'm sorry for what I just did, and I pray that I will have the opportunity to make it right with those two young men" many years go by and there's a knock at his door from the missionaries. the man opens and when the missionaries say they are there to share a message from Jesus Christ the man says, Come right in. He was baptized a short while later. the point of that story is that we never quite know what we do for all of those that we meet. all of those that seem "ridiculous they will never join the church". It is for THIS reason, that it is always important to live the gospel always, and set a righteous example. My favorite church song says it the best.

"Love one another as Jesus loves you"

Well I love you all!

God bless! Live the Gospel, and porfavor, Help the missionaries.

Elder Wardell

Someone took "skinny cow" to a whole new level, 

Elder Lemmon and I felt pretty sad about it...

We thought we heard something dragging under the car....

Welcome to Hialeah and all Spanish....

Elder Lemmon

Last day in Blue Lagoon.... 

7-27-15

So here's what's new.

OYE CHICO! Que bola hacere! jajaja I'm finally in the Hialeah zone. I'm in an area that's completely Cuban! haha literally there's like no English here. actually since my first area, this is the first time that I've been in a straight all Spanish ward! super excited about that. So I

transferred down here, i'm with Elder Lemmon now. He's from texas, and he's really cool. He actually came in with elder Hansen who I got to see at transfers this last transfer meeting. that was really exciting. aslo speaking of transfers, another one of my former companions just went home. :( elder marshall went home at the end of the transfer before this last one, and then elder Park just gave his last testimony at transfer meeting, along with all the other dying missionaries. it's ok though. I've really been blessed on my mission with my companions. I've not had a companion that I didn't like. it's really nice. Well we are finally back in rainy season here. haha it's poured a TON every day since Wednesday. on Saturday the weather was straight bi polar. just couldn't make up it's mind on whether or not It wanted to pour or sprinkle. it would pour, sprinkle, pour, flood, then the sun would come out, and then it would be floodwater again, and all of this in aobut five minutes. (i'm serious) weather is weird in florida hahaha.

 

Well, when elder lemmon and I were driving home from transfers, he informed me that we had a baptism coming up in the ward, so it was really nice to be able just come into an area and immediately baptize two people! :) haha they have worked with the missionaries already for a long time and finally made the decision to get baptized. it was great.

Well, I love yall, this is the scoop for this last week! love ya

talk to you next week

Elder Wardell.

Elder Pukahi, he's back home in Hawaii now....

Mi Hijo....Elder Hansen, Elder Wardell 

Locking the blue Lagoon house....  :(

So long Blue Lagoon...

This is why I will miss Elder Bedke..foot soak during study time...

7-21-15

so speaking of scoop, haha we literally got "a scoop" of ice cream at church. not quite sure where that came from but yeah!

Sooo, This is transfer week, aaaaaaand, I"M STAYING AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WITH ELDER BEDKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...is not what the transfer call said. hahaha i wish that it was the case, but sadly elder bedke and i are both transferring out of Blue lagoon. We are actually pretty sure that it's just getting combined with the other blue lagoon area, because the ward boundaries were just changed, and the ward got cut almost in half. So we are pretty sure that Blue Lagoon east and west will just be Blue Lagoon now. So sad! six of the happiest months of my life were spent here and it's now come to and end. :( it's like i just got here! and now it't poooof vanished away, anyway before any of you all get trunky for me, i'll give you a cool rundown of what we had cooking this last week. 

So, we had sweet maria, who is getting baptised this weekend! she came to church this wee and absolutely loved it! haha she's super excited for her baptism. so excited in fact that when we were in sunday school she smiled and looked at us and started pointing, when the teacher pulled out the painting of christ being baptised. And then she also told me that i was whiter than milk in our lesson with her. :) haha she's such a sweet old lady. doesn't qutie have a filter betweeen her mind and her mouth! :) haha

Well sadly, i'm outta time so i gotta cut this short. :( but i love you all! and miss yall.

Elder Wardell

 Sky

 Trolling on Elder Gomez...

Rough day.....

Temple Trip with Lenay

Temple Trip with Lenay's family 

7-14-15 

Well, here's da shcoop! 

So, this last week we got to go to the temple with Lenay! haha this is the 2nd time I've done a temple tour at the temple and it was great! Lenay really loved it. She felt the spirit really strong, even though her daughter had to use the bathroom almost right off the get go, so we had to kinda expedite the tour, but it all worked out in the end! What I'm mostly excited is for the time wich is just about a year from now, when i'll get to come back to florida, and go to the temple, because lenay will be going through! super exciting. 

And as well, church this last sunday was really awesome! Maria (the sweet old cuban lady that gave up all of her coffee) was finally able to go, she overcame her strange little fear of church, just enough to come, and it was fun! :) she walked around smiling at everyone, and then went in and sat down with this sister who's been helping us teach. and when she was first there, she said, i'm only going to stay for the first hour.(we had told her about all 3). and so we decided not to push her, and so we had sacrament meeting, and then after that was over we said, "how was it?" she was like, ooooh i LOVED it! so, that next class how long is it for? and we told her, and she was like, ok. i'll stay for that class. So we go to gospel principals, and we have the class, and at the end, she was like, "wow that was amazing! i'm going to third hour!" ahahaha. This just goes to show, that the spirit is the best teacher. we could have told maria all about what the classes were like, but she would have never known, until she went. we asked her after church was over what she thought and she was like, wow i absolutely loved it! haha and i said, now aren't you glad you came? and she said yes! and then we asked her if she was going to come next week and she said of course!

Well, I love you guys!

can't wait to talk to you all next week! 

Elder Wardell

1.  new friend at Lenay's