Elder Marshal and a Baptism!

 Elder Marshall, my trainer! He is totally Awesome!!

The baptism of Paco Dejesus with his family and Elder Marshall

The scoop!

weeell, time for all of the exciting news.

lets see, Quentin l cook came and visited us last Saturday, i forgot to mention that. and he spoke to us at our mission conference. it was amazing we took a photo with him, the whole mission, and when he was walking in, he patted my shoulder and looked me right in the eye, smiled, and it was awesome. after, as we were making our way to the chapel, we all got to walk past and shake his hand. just being in his vicinity you can tell that he is truly an apostle of the lord jesus Christ. he gave a wonderful talk to us, (none of it was written all by inspiration) and he ended by giving us an apostolic blessing on the whole mission, that by our diligent service in the mission, all of us, and everyone that we hold dear would be blessed for it. it was truly comfort to a bit of trouble in the soul, especially when i have a lot of worries for others at home. it was amazing. also we had an investigator that we taught all of the lessons to, and she was ready from day one to be baptized. she just took everything in it was sooooo great. and the most amazing thing, was when we just finished a lesson one night, her and her husband were at the table, and i had just given him a book of Mormon, with a pass along card of the Nauvoo temple on it as a book mark, when i just felt a prompting to tell those two about the temple. i picked up his pass along card, and said, i want to tell you about this. This is a temple. i pointed at her book because she had a card with the salt lake temple on it and said so is that. there are about 140 something temples in the whole world, and theres even one brand new one here in fort Lauderdale. the temples are a place where we can be with our family for forever. and we can also feel the sweetest feeling there that we can ever feel. the temples are the most beautiful place on earth. they are houses of god. when i told them that i looked over to her, and saw her eyes light up and i could tell that she felt something big when i told her that and that that is what she deeply desired. almost like she had been wondering about it for a while, and had finally just got her answer. it was truly humbling. well that's pretty much it for this week if i had more time, but sadly i don't love yall.

Elder Wardell

Arrived in Florida...April 21, 2014

weeell its scoop time cuz I only have forty minutes left. yeah our mission gets an hour and a half. for email. its totally awesome! whew anyway, so on Tuesday, for the first time in six weeks, I left mexico. we left the ccm at about 230, and rode all the way to the airport, got in checked our bags, everything went off without a hiccup, up until we had to say goodbye to elder lorimier and Hermana melchor. there were a lot of tears. Hermana salima we had to say goodbye to before we even left the ccm it was saddening. but on the bright side, we will see each other again. so we got on our flight, and my head hit the window and I was out. (we didn't sleep Monday night, sooo) then I felt takeoff, and was awake for that, then fell asleep again, didn't wake up until we were getting in to dallas. we get there, go through customs, get our bags checked for the next flight, and then we had to say goodbye to Hermana leatherman and Hermana bailey. it was again sad. but we still had me elders swensen and tenny and four hermanas. it was still a party haha. we got over to our terminal. and we went to the payphones and I called home. asked if it was the wardells and then said, hi mom. :) mom was quiet for a second and then we just laughed and talked. so we got on the plane for fort Lauderdale, elder swensen sat right behind me, and we get going. and I hear this lady talking to elder swensen. she was an older lady, a Baptist, and she was asking him about being a missionary, you know she saw the tag, and we ended up teaching her about the gospel the restoration, and the plan of salvation. mom has more of that in a letter. im almost positive she was touched by what we talked about, and id be interested to talk to her a couple years from now. we got to fort Lauderdale, and when I stepped onto the jetway, my right palm was instantly sweaty. like soaked. dripping, wet. ahaha yes I had my first taste of humidity. it was very interesting. and when we walked into the airport, it was still the same I was like ayayay. haha president and sister Anderson were there waiting for us with big smiles on their faces, we got the bags loaded up, and drove to the hotel. we dropped bags off, then went to president and sister andersons house for dinner and first night orientation. we had a dinner that was roast, carrots potatoes, and cookies and ice cream for dessert. sister Anderson, Is an awesome of a cook as my mother is, I felt like I was home. hahaha well we went to the hotel, slept got up the next morning and went to transfer meeting. we started. and elder swensen and tenny got plucked away, and stayed in the same zone. luckys hahaha. and then, I got my papa. his name is elder marshall. he is TOTALLY AWESOME. he came walking over with a huge smile on his face, and gave me a big hug and was like, aaaah man I knew it! he told me he had picked me out when we came walking in. it was cool. so we loaded up and started for home. we are in north western Miami. the beach is our eastern boundary. haha we are out in the suburbs so theres not a whole lot of city but its not bad. it reminds me a lot of the show burn notice. that was the first thing I thought of when I got to our area. ahaha. we stopped by walmart on the way home to do a bit of shopping, and when got home, the inside of our car was so loaded with stuff, that elder marshall had to get our and unload a bunch of stuff before any of the other three of us could get out. im in the same apartment as my district leader and his comp. yeah so its good, weve had some good experiences so far. we don't do tracting here. we do what is called harvesting, where we knock doors, and tell people that we are representatives of jesus Christ, snd that he sent us there that day to share a prayer of peace and comfort with them. and we actually have a lot of success with it. theres a lot we have to refer to the creole missionaries and the English ones, but theres a lot of people whose lives we touch with it, and we are also one of the highest baptizing missions. well, we have a couple of investigators, one her name is Marilyn is a solid investigator, already accepted baptism we just are teaching her the lessons and she is just taking it all in its so cool. because that apparently doesn't ever happen to greenies in their first transfer, let alone week. so its good. well sadly I haven't anymore time so ill have to sign off till next week. btw I wont be able to send photos till next week cuz I don't have anyway to upload them :( so its sad, but ok anyway, till next week! elder britton wardell

Last day of Missionary Training

well its my last day in the mtc and we get to email really quick. so, heres whats happening. i leave at about 230 in the morning to go to the airport and then ill leave the airport at like six to go to dallas, and then its over to fort lauderdale.

 so yesterday, was amazing. this just cant wait for the scoop. so i had to speak in sacrament meeting and i talked about the apostasy and the restoration of the gospel. and so i started out by talking about what the gospel was and that christ established it on the earth, and after he left the apostles were in charge of preaching the gospel. after they were killed off the gospel was gone. so when i talked about the gospel i talked about how it included the ordinances necessary for salvation in the kingdom of god. which are baptism, confirmation, for men the reception of the priesthood, then temple ordinances and then temple marriage. and theres also enduring to the end and all that entails. (its not an ordanince, but its the other part of the gospel) then i talked about how when the father and the son appeared to man once more, they began their restoration. the first thing restored was the prieshood, which allowed baptism and confirmation to be restored, because those are performed through the priesthood.

 then i had an interesting thought. most people think that the restoration was the first vision, the translation of the book of mormon, and joseph  and oliver recieving the priesthood, and while those are three important parts, its not all. most people dont realize that there is more to the restoration, and that it took a long span of many years for the restoration to be complete. becuase the ordinances in the temple couldnt be completed until the temple was once again on the earth,  there were more temple ordinances restored when the nauvoo temple was built, and that was many years after the first vision. its something we dont always think about.  the word restore, in basis means to bring back, and the past tense, means to have been brought back.

 love you all, say your prayers, read your scriptures, goodbye
Elder Wardell

Note from Mom:
As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we know that our Church was not
"started" by Joseph Smith, but rather Joseph Smith was called by Our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ to restore Christ's Church to the earth. Just as Elder Wardell mentioned above after Jesus Christ was crucified and resurrected His 12 Apostles kept teaching Christ's doctrine and helped His work go forward. After the Apostles were killed Christ's church disappeared from the earth. During this period of time known as the Great Apostasy the Gospel of Jesus Christ was no where to be found on the earth. After the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ  through the Prophet Joseph Smith Christ's Church can again be found on earth today. We have a prophet who leads and guides our church and we have 12 Apostles just as Jesus Christ did in His day.  If you have any questions or would like to learn more please visit www.mormon.org  of course you can always ask questions here and I will do my best to answer them. 

The link below will take you to a written Testimony  of Jesus Christ from our Prophet and  the Twelve Apostles. This was written in 2000.  https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/images/gospel-library/manual/34591/34591_000_APP_04-livingChrist.pdf

So long to Mexico

weeeell, heres the scoop for the week. ok, first off, i found one good reason to keep a journal. so you can put at least most of your week into the weekly email. hahaha. yeah what yall have been reading in the scoop, about 90 percent of it comes straight out of my journal. ok anyway, the scoop. soo last friday, was pretty much a normal day, with one exception. i decided to start reading the bible, from the beginning. so now i have two types of scripture study going on: kolipoki style for spanish with the book of mormon, the old testament, and today, im gonna start reading in the pearl of great price, because i was kind of perusing through it the other day, and its totally aweosme. back to the bible, but yeah its totally simple to read, probobly because its alot of geneology, but it is still really cool. im currently in exodus, right after moses parted the red sea.(not bad for about 3 days total of reading( i havent been reading it every day)) now on saturday, it was soo amazing. it was conference, and for the first time, i actually stayed awake for all of the saturday sessions, but i was daydreaming a little during the priesthood session. oops. i do feel bad about that though because there were some good talks in that session. i dont currently have my notes with me, but ill send them home to mom when that notebook is full, which will probobly be very soon, and ill have her put them up on the blog for me. now sunday, was awesome. there was alot of good wisdom given, although i slept through a little bit of the morning session. ( i feel bad about that too but i was exhausted i had been up till like three writing something very important.) we then watched a movie that night about a man, i cannot remember his name, who was raised in italy and from a young age, had a gift for reading and understanding the bible, and became a preacher. while he was in new york as the pastor for a congregation, he found a book of mormon, but it was one of the old ones and the name was rubbed off of the back, and the title page was torn out, so he didnt know the name. he started reading, and became immersed in the book, and when he finished he prayed to know if it was true. he told that he felt the truth of the book, and never could deny it. he started then to teach from that book, and his congregation began to grow until he was always teaching a huge congregation, and older guys in the church noticed, and came to ask him aobut it. he told them that he had found a book that he didnt know the name of, and knew the truth of the book. these old men tried to tell him the book was evil and that it needed to be burned. he told them that if he would not burn the book because of what he had felt about it, and as a result was cast out of their church. he never did deny what he new about the book of mormon(though he still didnt know the name) and was always looking for the church that his book belonged to. then world war one started, and he had to go back to italy and was fighting on the front lines. he was one night teaching some other soldiers about the lamanites who took up the covenant to not fight anymore, and when their enemies came upon them and saw that they wouldnt fight, and were not afraid, they left them alone. his superiors called him in, asked him about what he was teaching, and he told them about the book, and they sent him off of the front line. which almost certainly saved his life. he then one day was flipping through a dictionary, and found the word mormon, and finally had found the church that the book belonged to, and was able to get intouch with salt lake, ( the prophet himself) and he got intouch with the mission in england, and this brother was supposed to go from italy to england to get baptised, but right as he was about to leave, nobody was allowed to leave because of the outbreak of ww2. so he was forced to wait, and finally after the war was over, he got in touch and in i think the early fifties when he was in i think his sixties, he was finally baptised, and shortly thereafter, recieved the blessings of the temple. he died in 1966. i thought that was truly an amazing story.well, not a whole lot happened on monday or tuesday, cept for tuesday night when it was a devotional. david a bednar spoke, to the mtc in provo, it was christmas and i dont remember when but. he talked about the character of christ, and the natural man. he talked about how the natural man turns in, instead of out. he compared it to the cookie monster "i want cookie. give me cokkie now. num num num." he said, the natural man thinks. i want what i want and i want it now. he told a story about a sister who called him, back when he was a stake president. and she informed him that there had been a terrible accident with three girls, and that all they knew was that one of the girls was dead, and they were being moved to the hospital near him, and they needed him to go identify the girls. he said that he realized, that she was talkiing to a nurse on another phone on his other ear, and that he learned later that the nurse was an lds nurse, and he also figured out that one of the girls was this lady´s own daughter. he then said that he heard through the other phone, from the nurse, that the girl who died. was the sister´s daughter. he paused for a second and with tears in his eyes that brought tears to my own eyes, he said. and without even thinking, this sister said to me, president we need to get in contact with the mothers of the other two girls and inform them that their daughters are still alive. she just lost her daughter and the first thing she thought of, was the mothers of the other two. she turned out, when we would have turned in. he also talked about how when it was her daughter´s funeral day, the sister (she was a relief society president) got a call from another sister in her ward, who was sick, and she chewed her out that nobody had brought dinner over to her yet. and on the way to her daughter´s funeral, she dropped off dinner to the whining, and complaining sister in the ward. she turned out. when everyone else would have turned in. he also talked about the savior, and when he had his forty day fast, and when the devil tempted him. he said, turning the stones to bread, and jumping off to pinnacle of the temple were temptations, but they werent the real temptation there. the real temptation he said, was for christ to use the power he had, for himself. to become the natural man, and think for himself. he also talked about, how throughout his ministry he always turned out. he healed however many people, taught them, healed them, blessed them. he also talked about when the savior was in gethsemane, and when the guards came to take him, and peter, cut the ear off of the one guard, and the savior who had literally just suffered to agony of every sin in the world in the past present and future, turned out. he healed a mans ear, a man who was about to take him away, ultimately to his death. he also talked about while jesus was hanging on the cross, suffering, and dying, he asked the father to "forgive them for they know not what they do" he turned out. he also talked about while he was there how he gave instruction for his mortal mother to be taken care of, and taught to the other two who were on the crosses next to him. all the way up literally, till his death, the savior turned out. he was talking about how that is the character of christ, and it is THE attribute that we should all strive to have. it was a powerful devotional. yesterday, wednesday, i was up late writing in my journal while i was doing my laundry, and i had a neat experience. in our casa, there are four rooms with four beds, so me swensen and tenny are in one room. lorimier and lee are in another room, and the other two rooms are occupied by latinos. one of them, whose name i cannot remember, is from colombia, and speaks about as much english as i do spanish, was doing his laundry last night whil i was doing mine. (i sat on the dryer while i wrote) and it was cool how we were talking to each other and teaching each other our different languages, even if it was only a little bit. growing up in the states, i always had this kind of cocky attitude of america is the best everybody else is second rate, but now being here, and seeing the other elderes, and talking with them really makes me 1 grow to love other people more, and 2 and more importantly makes me realize that they also are children of our father, and before this life, they were my brothers, and my sisters. it gives a whole new perspective on my life when i think of them and the fact that god loves them, just as much as he loves me, and nobody is better than any other person in this life. i was not kidding when i announced my mission in church when i said my mission would be a two year lesson of humility. whew, well i think thats a good scoop for today haha and as usual mother, you may take from this whatever you wish for the blog.

Getting to teach...

weeeell heres the scoop.  last pday, we had a slight mishap with elder tenney, he popped a tendon out of place in his ankle and it sent his system into shock. we got him to the clinic, and hes all good now, they gave him some stuff for his ankle, got everything fixed up, and he just had to sleep and stay off of his ankle for a couple days and all is well now. so, last friday i came to an interesting discovery, my district is in the advanced spanish course, ahaha we had no idea whatsoever. it was an interesting thing to discover. elder tenney was still really tired that day, so after his checkup after breakfast, elder swensen went to the casa and slept it off, and i went with elder lorimier and elder lee (the other two elderes en mi distrito) haha i didnt even realize that was spanish, anyway during our morning study, me lorimier and lee taught our investigator "erik" ( hes actually our instructor hermano matias) and we taught him about what the priesthood is. after gym, elder swensen and i switched and i stayed home with tenney till dinner. saturday was a really neat day. i got alot of kolipoki style scripture study in, and we also taught an actual ivestigator. he was a friend of Hermana Falcon (our Maestra) and his name was gabriel. we talked to him about his likes and dislikes (it was over skype, and the whole district talked to him) and some of his beliefs. we got to talking about god, and he told us about how he is catholic, and i asked him what he thought about prophets of old. he said that he believed in them.i asked him if he believed they were called of god, and if god appeared to them and talked with them and gave them his authority. he said he believed that. i also asked him if he thought god was the same today as he was in the days of old. and he said that he did. i then asked him, that if god wanted to, (because after the apostles were killed, there were no more prophets) could he call another prophet. he said the figured god could. i then said, well, we believe he did just that. (we taught him in english. he spoke english and for the sake of teaching rather than learning the language, we did it in english) we then taught him about the first vision, and the restoration and the book of mormon. towards the end, we asked him what he thought of all of this, and  he said that, he respected our beliefs, but that he thought his beleifs were good for him. we still asked him if he wanted to read the book of mormon, and he said if you get a copy to me, ill read it, but it wont be in the way you want me to. which is fine, because the only way we ever "want" someone to read it, is simply reading, haha it was ok though we definitely made an impact on him. so, sunday was nice. as it ALWAYS is here. haha sudnay morning we had breakfast and then preisthood, where presidente juarez(first counselor in our branch presidencey or presidencia del rama) talked about power and authority. (poder y autoridad) it was very nice and very powerful. after that we had district meeting, where we just talked about whatever we all of us felt inspired to talk about. after district meeting we had sacrament meeting which is always uplifting and amazing. today was fast sunday, and it was truly amazing to me, to see that the thing that i had fasted for, came to be. it was a great blessing. after sacrament we had lunch, and after that, we had class with president pratt, where he talked about the atonement, now ive had a good lesson about the atonement, and have also heard amazing talks in general conference about the atonement, but never before have i had a lesson like the one we got from presidente pratt. it was truly amazing. i love listening to president carl pratt. he has such an intimate knowledge of the gospel that only comes from years of endless faith and service of the lord. i really hope that i know him later in this life. hes great. funny story about president pratt. so, it was raining, at the end of our class, and president prat went and got in his car, and drove up on the cement right in front of the auditorium so that hermana pratt wouldnt have to walk in the rain. it was hilarious because she came out looking for him, and we said we saw him running to the car, and she was like, oh i told him to take the umbrella. now president pratt doesnt miss anything, and remembers just about everything, which means that he had it planned out. and it was funny when hermana pratt all of a sudden said " oh no he doesn´t" and we see his car rolling up to sidewalk between the tienda and reception. its just funny to know, that our mission president still has a small rebel streak in him. haha. after that we had a devotional (pre recorded) where richard g scott spoke, he spoke about prayer, and it gave me a completely new perspective on prayer. one of these days ill send all of my notes to mom that i took on these devotionals and she will put them up for me,. our sunday night movie was the Testaments, which kinda brought a little pang of homesickness, because the family and i always would watch that one. it was good though. well monday was just a normal day. now tuesday was really awesome. the discussions in class were really interesting, and we had trc where we taught other missionaries as investigators and i had to be an investigator. it was cool. it was also pizza night which is always nice. (the costco pizza in mexico is actually good). and then we had a devotional. lemme just talk about my experience with a change of heart. hahaha before i came into the mtc, i didnt really care for devotionals. and the first devotional we had, i slept right through it. however, now, i look foreward to devotionals and will so definitely miss them. devotional are quite possibly one of the coolest things ever to be thought up. anyway, on tuesday night, we listened to a devotional from david a bednar, and he talked about general conference, (it was an mtc devotional in oct of 2012) and he talked about a really effective way to study general conference. his way that he talked about, was always look for three things in a general conference talk, because there are three things they will always have: Doctrince, Invitation, Blessings. he said that there is always doctrine taught which is valuable teaching, and gave three examples. he talked about how there is always an invitation, to do something that will be beneficial to your spiritual well being, and gave three examples from the previous conferences talks. he then talked about promised blessings that will come from the invitations. he also said that, because the apostles are prophets seers and revelators and hold the same keys as the prophet himself, that when they announce blessings, it is a true, and promised blessing if you do what the blessing required. those arent his exact words but i cant remember what they were. wednesday was just another normal day, and then there was today. usually the first thing we do on our pday, is go straight to email.well today, was the temple trip for our district, now the temple is closed, but we did get to go see it, and go to the visitors center and tour it. it was aweosme, and i bought a really cool picture of moses. well that will be all till next week.

Learning to be a Missionary....

well, heres the scoop for the week. So theres an hermana in the baby district thats from las Vegas! it was so cool. the new district came in last wednesday the 19th. nothing much on friday, another day. saturday, was a pretty cool day however. i did some jump around reading in the bible, and came to discover some really cool stuff about all of the early people in the scriptures.i aslo discovered the origin of the word babble. so in genesis, it talks about how the people were trying to build a tower to heaven, and the lord confounded their language, and then theres a verse that says, and the lord called the place babel, (pronounced babble) for such as it was. i thought that was pretty neat. so, i took a recent interest in the salt lake temple, both spiritualy and physically, and i was talking to president pratt, and i asked him when the underground complex off the north side where the entrance is, when that got put in. he told me it was in about the 60s. he was also tellin me about goin in through the front doors, and goin up the spiral staircases, and goin into the assembly hall and out onto the roof, and i was really kinda jealous im not gonna lie. :) i really want to see all of the salt lake temple, sometime in my lifetime. that would be such a cool job to have, designing temples. so that was saturdays experiences. now, sunday, oooooh man. sunday was cool. so, here. the elders go to priesthood meetings within their ramas (branches which is just a zone) and all of the hermanas meet together for releif society. in prieshood today, presidente alvarado (he is our branch president he is waaaay cool.) spoke. and he talked about the five ordinances necessary for exaltation. they are as follows. baptism, confirmation, recieving the full prieshood( meaning both priesthoods and that applies to men), temple endowment, and then temple marriage. so, for brothers there is 5 and for sisters there is 4. its really cool, to me to think, that out of five, im already at four of them. and only have one more to go, and then its enduring to the end. after priesthood, me and the other four elders in my district, met up with the hermanas in our district, and we had district meeting. now we don't do district meetings like everyone else. we just kinda go around and share with everyone, something we feel inspired to share, and its really neat because we get to know each other just that much more. its so great i love my district. they are totally awesome. after district meeting was sacrament meeting. there was a sweet spirit in sacrament meeting. after sacrament was lunch. and after lunch was a class with president pratt, where he talked to all the missionaries that are learning spanish. funny enough, when he started, he started by going over some rules.and one thing he said was, "do not, take the mattresses, out of the beds, and sleep in the living room with them" me and the other elders from my district were sitting like right in front of him, and when he said that, he kinda looked at us, and we started laughing. (refer to the last scoop if you are unsure why) he noted,"youd think i wouldnt have to mention that, but, recent experiences..." haha it was kinda funny. anyway, he started the class, and started talking about how you start by converting the missionary. and conversion means change. he said that when someone is converted to christ, they have a mighty change of heart, they do good continually, they offer up their souls to christ as an offering,walk circumspectly before god, and strive to keep the commandments. they lay down weapons of rebellion ( we talked about how the lamanites literally buried their literal weapons of rebellion. and talked about figurative weapons of rebellion, with the chiefest among them being pride.) and to serve with unworried diligence. he also taught us about how a testimony is a beginning and a prerequisite for conversion. how its a point of departure, not a destination. presidente pratt is so amazing. when he speaks you can just feel the truth in his words. after class with him, we had a devotional, where we watched jeffrey R holland speak to the missionaries in the provo mtc, back in jauary of 2013. it wasnt live, but it was just as amazing. the devotional was amazing, and ill copy my notes from it.:

-all of the earlier leaders in all of the other dispensations, although they new they wouldnt succeed, labored anyway, because they knew that in this day, our day, we would.

- the second coming started in the spring of 1820

-when moroni speaks at the end of his life, he is talking to us here in the present day, because he didnt have anyone else around to talk to.

-missionary work is real life, with a capital R L (he was talking about missionaries who get home, and say well im done with that time to start "real life")

-if you only have one convert, then it had better be you

-no organization in the world, would put it's future in the hands of a bunch of 18-20 year olds, except the true and everlasting god.

- we're gonna teach the missionaries first and then let them teach. (talking about first presidency when they were making preach my gospel)

- preach MY gospel. it's the saviors gospel, do it HIS way.

                - obedience to the rules gives you the spirit, and you cant teach without the spirit

                - no phrase is more common in the BOM than, "they taught with power and authority" you cant have that unless you have the spirit, and you cant have the spirit unless you follow the simple rules.

-all of the things we want for our investigators, and what we want them to do, god wants us to do: read the scriptures more, god wants us to do that more. pray more, well he wants us to pray more to.

helaman 5:17-19

mosiah 27 :11-13, 17-19

-go out, and astonish people. nephi and lehi did it, the angel did it with alma, and the sons of mosiah.

     - the root in astonish, is a word which means thunder. to astonish means to speak with thunder, get peoples attention.

-convert yourself. 

-obey mission rules, strive to have the spirit with you, and you are succeeding.

jeffrey r Holland bore a powerful testimony in his talk, and there was part of it, where i was literally in tears because i felt such a strong spirit from his words. after the devotional. we had a testimony meeting in the Thomas S Monson building, (all the buildings here are named after the prophets, the monson building is the main one) with our whole zone, because the father district was leaving. this isnt an official thing in the ccm, its kind of a little tradition within our zone. anyway only the father district bears their testimonies at these, because they are the ones leaving. they bore some pretty powerful testimonies, and they will be amazing missionaries. after that, we watched finding faith in christ, and only a stonecutter, both of which are awesome films. and in finding faith in christ, during the part where the savior is healing all of the people, i was teared up. ive seen the movie like a billion times before, but never before had i realized why it was soo powerful. after the movies we said goodbye to the districts that were leaving, and we sang para siempre dios estay con voz. god be with you till we meet again in the english hymnal.monday was pretty much a normal day cept elder swensen, was feelin crappy so he went home after dinner. i went with him because of the compañerismo rule, so while he was sleeping, i had a couple hours to kill. i did some house keeping. first time in three weeks it felt good. haahaha that monday, the 24th, marked exactly three weeks from our last day in the ccm. and yesterday, wednesday, marked exactly three weeks that we have been here its crazy how fast time goes by. anyway there is one thing i wont miss about this place, and that is that, every once in a while the air here smells like poop. literal poop. like theres a big turd hanging in the air right in front of your nose. its not very pleasant. anyway, the other thing i did on monday, was read the sermon on the mount, in matt 5-7 its so amazing what those three chapters encompass. the savior literally lays out a map for what you need to do in this life. so amazing. on tuesday swensen woke up with his allergys buggin him, so we stayed in a bit late, but after a bit of breakfast, and some allergy medicine, he was ready to start the day.it was pretty good, we had progressing investigator where we taught our "investigator" (he was one of our maestros just playing the part. but they do an excellent job) and we had a good lesson with him. tuesday night was pizza night, and we had good pizza, and then there was a devotional after. the brother that spoke was one fo the seventy and i dont remember his name. but the devotional was in spanish, and in an attempt to learn more spanish, i didnt use the translator earphones, so i didnt understand all of it. i caught like every other word, but didnt entirely get his meaning. i did feel a sweet spirit though. wednesday, yesterday, was much less than interesting. swensen woke up and already knew that it wasnt gonna be a good day. he was having it out with his allergies, and his stoamach was givin him some trouble, so we ended up stayin home the whole day, and as it turns out i was a little sick too so i stayed with him. by dinner time i was feelin good, and he felf a bit better so we went and had dinner. whew weell, theres the scoop for the week enjoy!

 

 

This picture below is Elder Wardell's zone in the Mexico MTC

 

The Scoop!

heres the scoop for you guys.
sunday, IT WAS AWESOME!!! sundays are so great here.! we have priesthood meeting in the mornings, and then there is sacrament meeting. our branch, is just our zone so it was about twenty people. i had to pass the sacrament, along with elder swensen, and then i had to give a talk in spanish about the atonement. i really hope that one day, i can come to the level of knowledge that president pratt has about the atonement, the plan of salvation, just everything. just looking at him you can tell he knows so much. funny story about president pratt. the other elders have been sleeping on mattresses in the living room because they don´t wanna get sick, so they had their mattresses in the living room sunday night while we were writing in our journals and we looked up, and president pratt was standing there. we were like, oh crap, and he had said "well im trying to figure this out" and then the phone rang so he went and answered it, asked for a certain elder, and i went up to go get him, someone else went to get him, and so i was standing next to president pratt while he was looking at the mattresses on the ground and said, "does someone wanna explain this? and i said, uuuh well president, there are mattresses on the ground." i dont know why, but the real explanation escaped my mind at that moment. he said, oh, ok i wasnt sure about that, and then we went on to explain why they were there, and he said, oh ok. and we chit chatted for a bit and then he bade us farewell. on monday, we were in language class and Hermano Garza was talking to me about language goals, and i told him im reading the book of mormon and the libro de mormon side by side, verse by verse to learn the language. he mentioned to me that president hinkley had promised that if you read the libro de mormon through, you will speak the language when you finish. that was a really comforting thought.  well, on tuesday, we had our first TRC where we teach (supposedly) an actual investigator, and it was cool. we did it in spanish and we were so nervous because we kept forgetting our words, but she was cool. we taught her a bit about the plan of salvation, and then we taught her how to pray. it was awesome. we also had a devotoinal from elder Daniel Johnson, from the seventy. he came to speak to us, and i took some really cool notes, some of which ill tell right here.

 -why was the first vision even necessary? to show that god is a man, a perfect man. many of the people in joseph smith's day, believed god to be some mystical cloud, that was all powerful in the universe.

-you cannot have faith in something that doesn't exist

- people cannot have faith in god until they get who he is.

-one problem we have to overcome is what the investigator understands. as in, what their understanding of god is.

-the creation, was organization of existing elements. not just a poof outta thin air.

- Elder Johnson told us about this plaque that he has which reads, it wasnt nails that held him to the cross, it was the love that he has for you and me.

-It does not matter what it is, you can do it.

-if we want something, we ask. god wants us to ask. ask and ye shall recieve.

ok, so those actually were all of my notes haha. but it was totally excellent.

anyway, yesterday, we had a class called progressing investigator study, and we had to teach our maestro, Hermano Matías, (he played the part of an investigator named erik.) it was our second visit with him, and we totally nailed it. our first visit was horrible and does not deserve to be told. but our second one was awesome. we knocked on the door, exchanged pleasantries then he invited us to come in. we asked if we could start with a prayer, and he said that was ok. while we were praying, he was crinkling his candy wrapper really loud, and i almost laughed. (hermano matias is an awesome actor) anyway, we told him we did have a message that we wanted to share but first we wanted to get to know him a little bit more. so we talked with him, asked him what he liked, and talked a little about that, and some of the things we liked, and some of the same things that we liked, and we had a really pleasant conversation going on. we talked about his job, and how he likes it, and then we talked about his family, and as he was describing his family to us, i felt like saying, "it sounds like you love your family" i didn´t know how to say sounds like, so i instead had to say, "pienso usted ama su familia si?" which is, i think you love your family yes? to which he replied, yes very much so. i then asked him if he wanted to be with them for forever, to which he replied, yes if there is a way. (btw all of this was in spanish cuz Erik doesn´t speak english. hermano matias does, but his character does not.) anyway, so then we talked a little bit about the eternal family, and how god loves the family, and will bless him and his family, if he prays. he mentioned some of the problems he and his family are facing, and we told him about prayer. we told him that if he prays to god with sincerity and intent, that he will answer. with blessings of prosperity, safety, and peace. we then taught him how to pray, and then we said a closing pray to show him how, and then he prayed right after us. we set another day to come over, and then said hasta luego. the rest of the day was a normal day. and today is pday!!! whew thats a big scoop. ahah till next week, elder wardell