Busy Busy Elder Wasden

sorry for not writing last week, i know i know, but last week was a really busy week and couldn’t get to email! but no need to fear because i cant spell anymore, i just noticed i feel like i am losing my English very slowly. and just to think before the mission, i couldn't even speak it then, just imagine it in a year and a half from now. anyways!! cheespas!! these past 2 weeks have been really busy but really fun at the same time. i am still here in my 1st area here en Tekax, and this next transfer will decide what my future here will be. my comp elder rogers dies after this next transfer, so i might stay here for 2 more weeks in tekax, but if i stay here during this next transfer, that means I will be here another 2 more transfers, and I will end up like another elder garcia (an elder who finished last month but stay here in tekax for almost a year, 10 months) so i guess I will see what happens, elder rogers wants to die with me. jaja. earlier last week, we did service for a family in the branch, and we did a lot of chopping and a lot of burning or fires. i got to climb the tree and stand on the branches to chop it down, so i went up with my machete and trimmed it. after we also cooked breakfast for the family and we ate with them. this week i also did exchanges with Elder McDonald, and no he doesn't have a farm... i ask him everyday! but i got to teach this one family with like 9 kids and they are an amazing family. we got them to attend church this week. this week elder rogers and i were visiting sandra but she wasnt there, and next door there was a family building a house, so we went over and helped them, thats right, who needs a license to build a house in mexico! but we helped him and talked to them for a while, and asked if we could pass by their house later that night and so we did, we taught them a little bit, because it was really late but we talked to all of them and we got back to our house really late past curfew at like 10:20pm, but we already repented, jaja. but now we have more investigadores. we meet a lot with leti y her son, and she is learning really fast and she loves the libro de Mormon and went to church the past 2 weeks and also the women general conference broadcast thingy and loved it, she really wants to get baptized and her date is one the 11 de abril. we are all stoked! she also makes the best boli, which is kind of like this icee with coconut and she gives us some. yesterday we celebrated a recent converts birthday, his name is umberto, hes an old mayero, and is the one who i gave the priesthood to. and we ate dinner at his sister in laws house of manela, yenni, y gracie. all us missionaries went over there and we ate with them sang happy birthday and climbed a tree for mangoes. the sisters gave him a tie and i gave him one of my white shirts! oh yeah mom can you do me a favor and send me a new shirt... nahh jk. but only if you want to. earlier this week we were eating with president y su familia and we were talking about resurrection and that got me thinking, and i thought of belly buttons, because when we resurrect, we are going to be in a perfect form, so will we have belly buttons when we resurrect! philosophy! i also found a new amazing scripture, its in 2 Nephi 9:34. okay not true, thats a good one but not it.but its Enos 1:15, well actually the whole chapter is really good. well im going to close here so i have time to send some fotos.

 

Ek alik bie

Elder Wasden

 

my best friend Flor

me in a police caseta.

look!! they made bread named after my hometown!!

panuchos!! my favorite food here

me trimming a members tree with my machete! i know what your thinking, who gave that boy a machete!

we learned how to make tortillas by hand!

if you look really closely in the flowers, you can see i photo bombed my companions photo. #professionalphotobomber!

building a house is tough work! and i might have got some cement on my pants and shoes...

me cutting my own hair

 

Pictures

for some of those who know me... i LOVE the rain!! and that's me in the rain, and if you notice you can see branches that my companion is under trying to stay dry! silly rabbit tricks are for kids..... no that catch phrase doesn't really work for that does it...

Missionaries from California!!

Spanish and English

que paso!! me encanta aqui en tekax, y veo muchos cosas cada semana que son potentes. i feel like i m losing my English slowly, because sometimes it is soo hard to speak in English, sometimes when i teach there is a word that i forget how to say, so i try to think in english but that doesn't help because i cant remember in English. but its okay and i dont care because im mexican now... when i meet someone new here or in merida i tell them im from the republica dominicano, or brasil and they are are like whoa, then they catch on to the half greengo accent i still have and then i tell them actually where i from, and that im from peto which is another pueblo really close to hear, and then they give me another look and then say fine.... soy greengo. it is pretty funny every time and really gets them talking. boy do i love being a missionary! every day i see new things and things that are so powerful! this week out water pump broke again, so we gave our keys to a person on the street who is paid to watch us everyday, i know freaky but he is nice, but we gave our keys to him so our pump could be fixed during the day. and when we got back later at the end of the day he wasnt there, so we were locked out side our house without anything. so we walked to the other elders appt. and slept there on the ground, the next morning it was time for church, we had a ton to do, but couldn't, we said a prayer asking for help and how we could get into our house like 1 hour before church and we literally had a "the best 2 years" moment and the phone rang during our prayer after we asked for help and we ended the prayer and it was our landlord, telling us he got back from merida and for us to pick up the keys! boy what a miracle right! jajaja

 it rained a lot 2 days this week especially when walking to sandras and getting soaked. our investigator sandra, is actually fulfilling her "compromisos", i don't no how to say that in English. but she is reading now, and coming to church more. and from these past 4 months with her, seeing her from the beginning i can really see a change in her and her 4 crazy boys! she is always smiling and this week we taught her how to fast and we fasted with her to help her husband to accept the lessons. its hard to explain over email but its amazing to see the big change in her, and the thing that also really touched my heart this week, was a letter that a little girl along with her mother we are teaching named Flor. she gave me a note, and it is the picture that i attached, but its so cute because she doesn't know how to conjugate verbs yet, but in English it says "elder wasden, thank you for coming and changing our lives, with much love, flor" but that carta or note, really opened my eyes and made me realize how the gospel really can change so many lives, just like that family, i have see their progress from day one and it is getting better, there family is more united and she invited us to teach her other daughter who lives on the other side of town. **la verdad, me encanta la obra misional y por la oportunidad estar aqui y ver los cambios en familias por el mejor. amo el evangelio con todo mi corazon y que puedo predicarlo y compartir mi testimonio con otros personas cada dia. yo se dios nos ama y que jesucristo es nuestro salvador, y que gracias a el tenemos la oportunidad a regresar con nuestro padre celestial y vivir juntos como un famila grande! les amo mucho y espero que tengan un buen semana!

con carino o mucho amor

Elder Wasden

**English version:  "the truth , I love missionary work and the opportunity to be here and see the changes in families for the better. I love the gospel with all my heart and I can preach and share my testimony with other people every day . I know God loves us and that Jesus Christ is our Savior , and thanks to it we have the opportunity to return to our Heavenly Father and live together as one big famila ! I love you very much and hope you have a good week! with much love and affection" Elder Wasden

Highlights of this Week

ba´ax ka wa`alik!  boy was this week soo amazing or what!! i saw some amazing miracles and amazing things happen this week! every single day i feel like i am gaining my knowledge of this gospel, and gaining a testimony but at the same time, I'm starting to forget how to speak English!! i don't know if it is good or bad! well like i said this week has been amazing! we did a lot of praying and fasting this week. we have been working a lot with non active members lately and we went to this girls house named Maritza, she has about 17 years, and only her, her brother and her mom are members, but the past times we went there, Elder Judd and I, they weren't really interested, but over the past few weeks we have been talking to Maritza and teaching her a little bit, and we went over there again and her mom was out side and we talked to her for a bit, our plan was to try to teach teach them a lesson and help them come back to church with us, and out of no where, as we were talking outside, it started pouring rain, and they invited us inside for the first time ever!, and we talked more and got to know them a little more, you could say we are all besties and also they came to church with us this Sunday. its amazing what the lord can do. maria y flor our investigators, we are still teaching them, their baptismal date is in 3 weeks, we are still praying for them. on our way over there I bought some pan, or this amazing sweet bread that only Mexico has and I'm going to live here after my mission just so I can eat it everyday, but I bought some for them, and I planned to surprise them with it after the lesson. I put the bread behind me, and while teaching the lesson, their dog bobby kept coming up to me like every time, so we would have to push it away, and after like 3 minutes it finally went away. so after the lesson when I turned around for the bread, its like it had just disappeared, and I am almost positive that bobby ate my pan! so next time I see that dog I am sooo not petting him, and he owes us pan. jajaja. to that same lesson we invited hermana franscis who is the presidents wife and also served a mission when she was our age. and boy, she still knows how to teach because she pretty much taught the whole lesson, but the spirit was strong for us all, we were all tearing up. this week, we also prayed in the streets, after not having much success, and prayed that we would find some one that would listen to us. and like 2 hours later, this mom and her 22 year old son walked up to us, named fanny and uriel and told us they were looking all over for us missionaries,and they came to the church for church but no one was there, because their friend told them about the church. and they are now investigating the church. its amazing the power of prayer and that the lord can place some one in your path just like that. I really wish that just happened everyday! I would be one happy missionary, not that I am not already! jaja. now this week we met with a guy named fernando who had about 58 years, this week that we contacted  earlier and we went to his house, and during that lesson, we started talking about how god is our heavenly father, because usually at the end of lessons we invited them to say the prayer, and told us that he feels like he will bother him, and that he doesn't really know that much about god and he feels like he is a nobody, it just breaks our hearts that he felt this way. after 15 minutes of explaining and testifying on that subject, we felt inspired to give him a priesthood blessing to feel the love of god. we gave him a blessing, and after it was soo strong spiritually in there, we sat in silence for about 5 minutes after the prayer, after saying good bye we had to head home because we were really late, it was about 10:10pm, but this Sunday we walked by his house to take him to church and he took us in his moto taxi, and on our way there, he explained what he felt during the blessing 2 days ago, and how he felt something that never in his life has he felt before, for the first time in his life he felt the love of god, and his presence. he still doesn't have that much self confidence yet, but he told us that he knew we had some kind of power and that it was different than all the other religions, and now he knows for a fact that this is the true church,  its hard to explain what he described in English, but that was the most spiritual experience I have had on my mission so far. the priesthood is an amazing gift we have in this life, and there are many miracles that we can perform, I have seen it with my own eyes. how much it can change this mans point of view and turn his whole life around. I cant even find a word to describe it. but it was truly amazing. well that was pretty much the highlights of this week! but all I have to say is you can always put your trust in the lord, and is you do, he will bless you in soo many ways that couldnt ever imagine! hope you all have an amazing week!

Ek alik bai

Elder Wasden

 

our district and president of the branch and su familia

at a members house eating carne asada for elder garcias farewell

us beginning our walk home again from xaya

 

Future Missionaries and Xaya

Mom!!! remember when i would always sit on you and you would lose all your breath and using the last bit of air you had left you would say, get off! boy do i miss those moments and I'm pretty sure you do too! obvi! keep working on those cookies mom, i will never forget the cinnamon rolls you made us that one time, and nobody would eat them because when you would drop them on the ground it sounds like a rock hitting the pavement. that's how hard they were, jajajaja, so about my new companion, his names elder rodgers, he has 19 years just like me, and he is going home in 2 cambios or exchanges. el es un buen misionero! and he is from Utah! shocker huh. jajaja. i feel like im starting to become fluent en maya. because i talk to this person in xaya, using al the maya i knew and we had a conversation for like a whole 2 minutes! mother, in 19 months your going to have a kid who is black, white, Mexican, y mayan. thats is soo awesome, every one is going on missions back at home! Melissa is leaving next week, and Cameron got his mission call, every time i see the young men in our branch, i always try to talk them in to serving a mission, and put one of those "future missionary" tags for little kids on their shirts, and tell them they look handsome. a lot of them, or all 3 of them want to serve a mission in Mexico or the US. i was excited to hear that, but ill be humble and not take credit for that :P jajaja jk. we are continuing to go to xaya every week, this week, we kind of got stuck over there again, and that was my companions first experience of xaya, i got a picture to capture the best part... of us starting the walk back about 28km to tekax. luckily after a while a car drove by and picked us up. we hitch hike a lot down here, because everyone is pretty much family in the pueblos were in. today, one great missionary that was in my district died this week, his name was elder garcia, my repulica dominicana brother. we have been together in this district since my day one, and he has been in tekax for like 10 months he still owes me a bueno bar, jajaja oh yeah and when i say died, died as in went home, his 2 years are done. a family in the ward made us carnitas and it was delicious! we also ate at the presidents house, i love his family soo much. as of now, i am now the missionary who has been in Tekax the longest i feel like I'm past the one year mark! jaja. this week our investigators maria y flor are progressing, during one lesson, they bore their testimony of why they know this church is true, and how it has strengthened their family so much. especially when 9 year old flor started talking, it just broke my heart, they want to go through with baptism. also we are reactivating this 16 year old member named maritza and her 17 year olf brother too. their the only ones baptized in the family, and we will see how it goes with them. well that was pretty much this week, everyday i am learning something more about the gospel. that's something amazing about it, you never stop learning! just being a missionary is soo good!!!!!! I love this gospel with all my heart. I know it is true. i know that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and that Joseph smith translated it, that he restored the Gospel. i know that Jesus suffered pains and afflictions for us, that he died for us. I know that he lives. and loves us all. les amo mucho!! in'yabilt'mex! 

Mucho Amor

Elder Wasden