Christmas Skype Pictures

Cookies and Push Ups

Bax kúu yuchu!! That's maya for que paso! and that's Spanish for whats happening! there are so many people who speak maya,i have no clue why they sent me to a Spanish speaking MTC. jajaja. this week has been an amazing week. let me start off by saying that i am officially addicted to pan! pan is this sweet Mexican bread  that guys on bikes ride around selling and every time i hear them clap the pan clap i get pretty excited! so don't be surprised if i come back really overweight from the pan down here because it is soo worth it! haha. this week my comp and i moved in this other house where we are staying now, its pretty cool because we are in our own area now. showers in the morning are actually pretty interesting. first we take a bucket of water, then we warm it up on the stove and use that water to take our shower! and we wash our clothes by hand,so when i come back to the states be prepared to have a cheaper water bill mom! jaja. this week we had a lesson with a family in our branch and this lesson was about the atonement. so we bought some cookies and brought them over to their casa, and explained how Jesus Christ atoned for our sins and paid the price, so first we brought out the cookies and told them if they wanted one the price was 20 push ups per cookie! none of them wanted a cookie until we revealed to them that as i was a representative of Christ that i would pay the price and do the push ups for them. they guiltily took the cookies and feeling bad and eventually they didn't want me to go through that many push ups. lets just say after that lesson i was pretty buff! i asked my comp if we could do that lesson more so by the time of our next transfer i would  be toned! jaja this week with our progressing investigator family, we finally got the full family to participate in our lessons. they are reading the book of Mormon and have committed to baptism! hopefully they keep attending church. i love this family soo much, they are full of energy every time we are there. and every time they see us coming down their street the two youngest girls, ages 9 and 11 and their dogs are always the first ones to greet us with excitement. for Christmas eve,us missionaries planned a branch activity and it was a big turn out! we showed some Mormon messages, had the youth perform a traditional dance and then after had 2 pinatas ready to finish the night of fun. and then to end it we had our potluck dinner thing. weird order but it all worked out and was a lot of fun and really brought our branch together! we are planning another activity for the branch this Friday. about Lehi's dream. ill tell more about that next week! well as i always say, i'm loving it here more and more everyday, the people are really nice here. i love sweating everywhere i go because of the humidity because it makes me glisten! oh yeah, and even down here i happen to look like Obama to people in the branch! hahaha .lets just say i take a lot of pictures with them! well that's all for this week! i love you guys and i want to let you know that this is the lords work and i'm soo happy and honored to be doing it! everyday He has blessed me in so many ways and i know he loves each and everyone of us. everyday we leave the house my comp and i always bear our testimony in Spanish! and just by doing that it has strengthened my testimony each day. i know this is the true restored gospel! and i'm glad that i get to share it everyday, even though its hard for me because of the language, but i am doing my best! love ya lots! 

El evangelio es verdadero! 

Nos Vemos, signing out

Elder Wasden

Christmas Devotional and a an Investigating Family

For my birthday this week, my comp and another companionship bought me 2 giant Mexican pizzas and had a little pizza night. let me tell you i love Mexican pizza!! last week we took a bus to peto and we all met up as a zone and sang in centro! then after we went around contacting people! it was a fun night. this week we have an investigating family! they are such an amazing family. its a couple and 3 of her daughters. we are working on the other 3 kids. but 5 of them came to church with us this Sunday and accepted our lessons. the padres names are maria louisa y josé, and the 3 daughters that came too were Yasuri, Llamili, y Luz. we have another lesson with their family tomorrow! praying for them everyday! this week we also discover a new part in our area with our branch president, he drove us too this other pueblo or village like 25 minutes away from our pueblo of Tekax! it was a pretty cool area! yesterday we took another 3 hour bus ride to Merida and had a Christmas devotional! there were like 250 missionaries. we had some missionary experiences like talks in the chapel, and each zone sang a song we practiced. then we had a big dinner, and then a talent show and then we exchanged gifts kind of like a secret Santa but we know who our person we are exchanging gifts to each other. ill send some pics of my week because pics take a long time to upload! nos vemos y Le amo. me encanta estar aqui en Tekax porque esta muy bonita y los personas de tekax son muy amistoso y estoy apriendo la idioma cada dia! voy a hablar con ustedes jueves! nos vemos! Elder Wasden

Jesus is the Gift of Christmas

Que tal! or should i say BaxcaHoalic! that's Mayan for whats up. its awesome I'm learning Mayan out here too, its more difficult to learn 2 languages but I'm getting through! Cox.janná means lets eat! that's my favorite, i bet you know why! its been amazing here in Tecax Mexico! i am loving it more and more everyday! there is a lot of work that needs to be done, right now we only have a church that's a 2 story house, but hopefully after we are done with it, we might need to build a whole church! this week we woke up with a scorpion in our casa. guess who got to kill it! this guy! but i played with it first! so for Christmas, we have been handing out these cards which say él es la dadiva. and it pretty much says how jesucristo is the gift of Christmas. and so we hand them out as an introduction and explain our church. so as we were walking to a members house one night, we pass this little market store and my trainer hands me a card and tells me to go get a reference. so i had to, i walked into the store and my comp told me that i had to buy something. at this point i had no clue what i was doing or what to say, so i grabbed the first thing i say while walking around the mini store and i grabbed baby food. i walked up to the counter with it and she gives me a weird look, so i said..."tengo habre" which means I'm hungry. and then i said come fue su dia which is how was your day, and she look at me weird, and didn't say anything. my comp said that i said it in a loud and excited tone and was laughing at this point. so i gave her the card and she looked at me again after looking at the card, and i had no clue what to say so i was like que tenga un buen noche! that was part of my week. i also got to drink a coconut. im running out of time! i have to go to tecul. love you and i hope you having a great week! 

Mucho \Amor

Elder Wasden

First Days in Merida

New address:

Elder Wasden

Misión méxico Merida 

C70 x 65 y 67 #521a

col. Centro

Merida, Yucatan 97000

hows it going! it has been another amazing week!  yesterday was my first day out, and we didn't sleep Sunday night and just stayed up till we left at 2am and we took a plane to merida and got there around 7 and had breakfast at our presidents house and went to the church centro and had meetings there all day! i was soo dead! it is soo humid here, you cant walk anywhere without sweating a little bit! we picked up our materials last night and i picked up my hammock to sleep in for my mission. and as we were walking to the bus station i never knew that the merida temple was literally right by where we were the whole day, so i got to see the merida temple. it was soo beautiful! as we took a bus for 3:30 hours i got to know my companion a little bit more until i passed out because the lack of sleep for 48 hours! we got to the town of tekax last night at around 11pm and we got dropped off by the bus and we had no clue where we were going because the area just opened up and now we are here. eventually 2 elders walked towards us and helped us and brought us to there casa where we stayed there that night. and it was my first night here sleeping in my hammock! im not quite use to sleep in one but eventually ill get the HANG of it! see what i did there? ;) i have an amazing trainer for the next 12 weeks, his name is elder judd! once again did i mention that it is soo hot and humid down here! and this is the coolest part of the year right now! haha. there are a lot of stray dogs here as well. today i tried this food that i still have no clue what i ate but it was good. well i don't have much time left, i have a lot to do today! and plus im paying to use a computer in this little computer shop down here! ill send some pics! love you y nos Vemos!

Elder Wasden

 

 

The Mexico CityTemple

He didnt have time to send an email as most of day was spent at the temple.

 Only a few more days left in the MTC!!!

Three Weeks to Go!

Well this week has been an amazing week like always! so me being the friendly guy i am, saying hi to everyone, i shook this one guys hand and i didn't find out till later that it was President Boyd K. Packers son! This week our previous zone leaders district left the MTC to go to Peru! they were such awesome missionary's. So remember the tacos that i ate last week with cow brain, my companion totally got sick from it, and since I'm pretty sure we have a good relationship i decided it would be funny to make throw up sounds with him to make fun of him for not having a strong enough stomach! well lets just say i learned a pretty good lesson about humility, because it hit me like 3 hours later and my comp got me back for making fun of him and laughed at me! so remember... be humble! jajajaja :P This week had an investigator come in the MTC so we could teach her. her Spanish was so fast i only understood like half her Spanish, but i knew a ton of phrases. she told us all about her life and how it was difficult for her because she didn't have a big income and it was hard for her to support her family. so we taught her a little about the law of tithing and about the plan of salvation! she is such an amazing woman and it is amazing to see how interested she is in the gospel. like i said, i know i wont be able to see her progress because i will be in Merida Mexico in 3 weeks, but all that matters is that we planted the seed for her and the missionaries after us will help her. she has an great future in hand for her and her family! i know it! I had the opportunity to give a blessing at night to this hermana in the MTC who was feeling horribly sick.  so  the very next morning, we heard from her that she was perfectly fine. Its amazing how the power of the priesthood works! and i do have a testimony of priesthood blessings. Yesterday, we also had the opportunity to hear from one of the 70. Elder Paul B. Pieper! He came to the MTC and talked about the work in the mission field here in Mexico. Also got to watch a broadcast by Elder David A Bednar, and lets just say he has the best cookie monster impression! jajaja. he is one of my favorite general conference speakers. i am loving the mission more and more everyday! and i cant be any more excited to serve in the Merida Mexico mission! TGIT (The Gospel is True), its a district thing. 

alright i got to go , love you all! 

Elder Wasden

Crazy MTC Week

Today has been the most exciting, heart filled, crazy MTC week experience yet! some of our zone finished their MTC experience! Elder Randall and Elder Tarawhiti! such awesome missionaries! my companion and i woke up at 2AM to say good bye to them. i also said goodbye to my Latino friend who is such a funny guy and i don't know if he even understood anything what i said because my Spanish may be a little rusty! jaja. This week we got a lot of rain and thunder storms and boy did i love it! This week we got to hear from Elder Richard G Scott and he talked about the challenges of being a missionary and how our trials help us learn and build character! that was always good to hear! I am blessed to have an amazing night teacher, hermano alverez! he is hilarious. (also 22 and single...ladies) jk jaja. Im improving my soccer skills a ton down here, but yesterday in cage soccer, my companion accidentally broke someones nose with his knee. so now i like to play with my hands on my face to keep me from having a broken face and to stop touching the ball too much! Our pday yesterday got changed to today this week because some of us got to leave the Mexico MTC to do some visa stuff. so they dropped us off in the middle of |Mexico city at a consultant. and did our visa stuff. after we had time, so we walked around the streets and we also had the chance to go tracking in the real world. we met this guy named Jaime and we told him a little about our church with the little Spanish we had and it was really hard to understand and speak everything but i think my companion and i did great! or at least that's what im hoping and thinking to make me feel better. jaja. two other companionship and i were hungry so we went to this street vendor, and we got some tacos, as we were buying them he told us they were cerebro de vaca. which i had no clue what that meant, so I'm like what the heck. so we started eating them and we found out that cerebro de vaca was cow brains. i wouldn't recommend them, especially if they aren't really cooked,but we downed some coca colas so we should be good! this week we also found this gigantic moth which was literally as big as a bird! we found it because we heard some hermanas scream at it. i tried to get it and take the typical missionary picture with my name tag right next to it, but it was so big it took my name tag and threw it and started beating me up and then it flew away, only because i let it win! gotta love it down here! ;) jaja. i cant wait in 3 weeks to start heading to the Yukatan! its coming up very quickly! Im very grateful to be serving out here and thankful i chose to come out here to serve the Lord and go on a mission. I know it will be a life changing experience, not for just me, but to the people of yukatan! i cant tell you how much i love my district! i know the gospels true and i have a testimony of the book of Mormon. I'm starting to read it in Spanish now. Gordon B Hinkley once said if you finish the book of Mormon in your mission language, you will be fluent by the time you are finished. so i thought i would give it a try! :D well i need to close for now! but i love you, and its so great to hear from you! ill send some pictures from my week! te quiero y espero que tengas una semana incredible!

Love 

Elder Wasden

Elder Wasden's Address

Hey there! A lot of people have been asking for Elder Wasden's email address so that they can email him. If you want to write him you will need to write him real letters and send them to the MTC. So here is his actual address at the Mexico Mission Training Center. Thanks everyone!

Elder Wasden

dic.10, 2014 / 11-C

Carretera Tenayuca-Chalmita #828

Colonia Zona Escolar, Gustavo A. Madero

07230 Mexico, Distrito Federal

Mexico

It's Finally Wednesday!

Madre! como esta usted!?(Mom, how are you doing?) ill save you the trouble and type in english! jaja. mexico is soo crazy down here and it is beautiful! our MTC is in the middle if mexico city and it is surrounded by HUGE mountains surrounding us in a valley area. some day you can just see clouds rolling over the mountains. so i got off the plane in mexico city and i walked to the customs line where they check your passport. longest line ever! so i finally get to the front and he directs me to a station to get checks and the girl is speaking spanish. and she looked at my passport and pointed to the other giant line. turns out i was in the mexican line and i had to go stand in the foreigners line. haha. but i met another missionary while i was picking up my bags, and we headed outside where we were greeted by some MTC workers who directed us to this white van where we met another hermana misionero (sister missionary) and we got out bags in and we started driving to the MTC. it was pretty scary, they have laws for driving, but they are optional. theres no lines to stay in, so imagine 5 lane traffic with no lines and everyone all over the road driving aggressively. we came like 6 inches to hitting someone merging, but its just how people drive down here. lol. i just hope i dont get a mission car! there are a ton of stray dogs down here too!  jaja. we got to the MTC where we checked in, and met some other missionaries. later that night i met up with some other missionaries that i met at the consulate. my new companion is |Elder Tousa. hes from north carolina. it has been an amazing week this week. but also one of the hardest and longest weeks of my life. lot of studying the language and the doctrines of the gospel, even in Spanish! its like a giant overload! lol. everyone is still getting use to the food, lets just say our digestive systems are acting up. luckily yesterday was Tuesday and they had Costco pizza night, and thats every Tuesday. they love us! we are already teaching our first "investigator" and the hard part is we had to teach him in spanish. so it was a lot of preparing. we told about the restoration and i could trell he felt the spirit. we even got him to say the prayer and to pray to find out if the book of mormon was true. i think we have another appt with him today, his name is jorge. i love our district, we have an amazing one, they are like another famalia to me. so almost everyday we have exercise around 2ish. and us elders played volebol con las hermanas en our district Saturday. and this week we played some basketball with some other elders, but Monday we got introduced to some cage soccer, and it is pretty fun and intense, so if i break something, dont worry about it. but when i get back i plan to be pretty good at soccer. jaja. it was our first Sunday in the MTC and it was great. we had testimony meeting with our district and another district we are close to. there were like 5 different sacrament meetings on campus. but ours we all had to bare out testimony in spanish. it was pretty difficult but i did it! they pretty much make us fast here because they dont feed us for dinner Saturday and breakfast Sunday. but i decided to fast for a day for the language and im starting to get better. its amazing of what the power through fasting can do! well i feel like i have a ton more to say but my times running up. te amo y no puedo esperar a oir de usted otra vez la proxima semana!
Elder Wasden

And.. He's Off

Its finally here! Today Elder Baily Wasden left for the Mexico Mission Training Center! My name is Kacey Brady and I will be posting Elder Wasden's letters here on his new blog. This  way everyone can keep up with all the amazing things he's doing in Mexico. I will also be posting a link to the blog on his facebook every week to make things quick and easy for everyone! 

Annnd now we wait for his first letter!!!