Blessings

what happening fam and friends!! a lot has happened this week, but i will try to sum it up really fast so that i may be able to send all the pics from thsi past month!! haha. boy have i been stenghtening my relationship with my heavenly father a lot this time in my life. i am able to see the blessings we recieve when we just strip ourselves of all our pride and just be humble unto the lord giving him ALL the glory. this week we were able to see a lot of the blessings from our actions and our humility to the lord, and he has blessed us with the opportunity to participate in the baptism of 3 of his precious daughters. it was such a beautiful experience, especially to baptized them in a cenote! you'll see in the pics. we have been having a lot of divisions this week to really help the zone accomplish its goals and prepare for the baptisms. this week when i went to acanceh onother village, i met this little girl and her family, and the little 5 year old girl was in her ballerina outfit and she won me over with her adorableness. but she taught me son of her ballerina tricks and i did them with her, copying her moves, you could now say that i know how to dance now! so be prepared for when i get back. hahaha. we ended up teaching their family after they saw my awesome dance moves, lol. ill try to send some pics when i can. but i got to go, i love you guys!

ELDER WASDEN

It's about time!!

 BUENAASS!!! hola como estan familia! i know i know i know, i hardley write anymore, but we usually write in merida, becasue in our village we got nothing! and sometimes we cant afford or we dont have time to go all the way here to merida! but here i am! boy these past 4 weeks have been super busy! i am in the pueblo or village of Cuzama, in which we pretty much have no members. so many things have passed that i can hardly remember everything. like 3 weeks ago, elder acosta got special transfers and went back to merida. so now it is just elder echeverria and I. i was really hoping to kill 2 missionaries but that wont be happening now. haha. for the new years my comp and I got to the house and we cooked some awesome food to feed our hunger and we have our great new years feast with these gringas we made, or more easier for you to understand, quesadillas with the things we combined from our frigde, like corn, eggs, mayonaise and beans!! it was SUPER suprisingly delicous! haha. my comp also showed me a tradition that they do in guatemala in which they write 12 goals 1 for everymonth and then they eat 12 grapes. so we got grapes in did that. never heard of a tradition like that but it was fun! after new years, you wont believe who i saw. i saw my papa, or my trainer, elder judd. he came back to the mission to visit and we went out to eat with him. it was super great to see him. Here in the pueblo, my companion and i have been working super hard. we are trying to make this pueblo into a branch. this sunday we had 23 people in the church today, or our house today. 7 of them were our investigators, and some were other members that come from the other branch of telchaquillo to preside and also some recent converts and their families. when we started, we only had like 6 people in the church. it was soo amazing to se our investigators going. we are actually preping a baptism for this saturday. ill say more about that in a bit. Here in the pueblo life, it can be pretty hard, the problems of the people that we hear as missionaries its just depressing and it gets you thinking 24/7 about each and everyone of them, but you dont know how much i just love it soo much, because i have been strengthened soo much. i have come to love the people even more down hear! and it is amazing to see the changes in everyone and the true eternal peace, joy, safety and happiness they recieve as families. i just LOVE the lord work sooo much!! it just makes me want to record myself dancing super hard so that i an send it to you to see how much i love it! haha. As i have also said in the past, my companion is dying, his mission is coming to an end. he is also working right now in pathway, because he is going to go to BYU-I! im super stoked. eventhough i dont know which one im going to yet. here in Cuzama, the weather is super crazy donw here, it gets down to live 60º F. i dont know why but it is SUPER cold!! we are walking around in our sweaters and in our suit jackets! its super crazy!! the worst part are the showers we have to take in the mornings, super cold. we would rather just not shower and spell bad the whole day then suffer the cold shower. but it sure wakes us up! haha. so i was also headed to the other pueblo of Ek'nakan this week, and in the convi or the transport van, the song cotton eyed joe came on and that pretty much killed me in that small moment! i explained the song and the dance we do at church dances and i promised to teach him it when we got home that night! so ladies at byu, my companion, soon to be Ex missionary, now knows how to dance the cotton eyed joe so be ready because hes coming!! hahaha. boy do i love him soo much!! So we have this family that we are teaching, that is such a HUGE family. its a family of 18 children, already sounds like a future mormon family, huh? hhaa. but on top of that, the grandchildren they have too. but we are teaching them, its hard to find them all at home at the sme time. but we are currently teaching the parents and 3 of their daughters. pretty much all the girls names are maria, but their 2nd name is different. we have grown soo close to this family, and we are preparing 2 to be baptized this saturday. maria ester (22) and maria dulce (20). we are working with the rest of them fam. but we are going there every single day with them and they love to have us over to learn. i love this family tons!! many of them have received their answers from the holy ghost as we invited them to pray and find out for themselves. i guess heavenly fathe answered their prayers! it has been such an amazing experience, and i just hope that i will be able to stay here for the bapstims of more of their family, becasue we have transfers next week, and president wants me to train this upcoming transfer in another pueblo near by, but i really want to stay here, becasue it will be super hard for all of our investigators to find out they have 2 new missionaries! especially after the trust we have finally gained with them, where we know their needs. i have been praying a lot for them!! but i guess we will see what the lord really wants this next transfer, and i will accept his will. becasue he knows his children a lot better than i do.  Well its about time i close up, but i want to say something in which the first presidency said of which i totally agree with, "There is no more compelling work than this, nor any which brings greater satisfaction. … We challenge you to rise to a new sense of commitment to assist our Father in Heaven in His glorious work". i love this work, i love this gospel, and i love my father in heaven! i know this is the only true gospel of jesus christ restored to the earth once again. i love you all and i hope everything still well at home!

con mucho amor y cariño, 

ELDER WASDEN

PS: you could say that im already mexican, i just dont have the mustache yet. im workin on that one!

Elder Judd and the other missionaries who came back to the mission

Me and my Dad

My true conversion to the gospel of jesus christ!

Well!! it was amazing to see you guys again on skype, hope everything is still going well! hey i got another joke for ya, "hows the life of a dog in mexico?" - "RUFF"!! hahaha boy that cracks me up!
boy do i just love christmas!! this week i had an experience that might have just changed my life forever. this week i experienced my true conversion to the gospel of jesus christ!!! i feel like i just view everything in a different way now! it has been a really spiritual experience these past weeks!!

yesterday, my comps and i were walking and we pass 6 drunk men. and they called to us, normally we pass by them or stop and just give them a pamfelt becasue they dont rememebr anything, but we decided to stop and we went back there and started preaching to them, it got to the point where they just kept talking and yelling when one of my comps was talking, so i stood up high on the tall rock and looked down on all of them and started talking about the word of wisdom and how they were all children of god and that their bodies are gifts from god. all of them were shut in silence while i was speaking and out of those 6, the spirit touched deep down to 2 of those people and now we have 2 appts. with 2 of them. so i got down and we headed on our way!
this week has been such full of excitement!! the beginning of this week we had big training meetings with the whole mission up in merida that called 8 principios or 8 principles where we learn about the basics on teaching every 3 months! this week all the missionaries in our district came to our village and we all did an activity and sang in their little downtown in the middle of the pueblo or village. we sang for everyone, i played my ukulele, and we showed a lot of videos of the church! it was amamzing! on christmas, we slept the night in merida after the other training meeting becasue we missed the bus to Cuzama! so we stayed in the house of the secretaries, which is the biggest house in the mission becasue there are always missionaries who have to sleep there when they stay in merida! but its like a missionary man cave! we bought a pinata and we hit it and got candy and everything on the roof balcony! it was a bunch of fun! thats how we spent our christmas eve! then we took a bus to another pueblo Telchaquillo and ate with some awesome members and wrote the fams in the house of prayer in which is just soo flippen awesome!! after we stayed the night with the missionaries in their small house and when we woke up, ´president of the mission took us back to our pueblo to baptize and interview and help us.

friday we went to the house of some of our investigadors. mom and dad, laura and nelson, and they have 3 kids nelson(16), Nelsy (11) and Matias(4). nelsy got baptized a couple weeks ago. and saturday we baptized the mom laura. so that same day president of the mission has been with us the whole time to authorize everything! after the baptism president took us ALL out to eat in this tourist restaurant! it was delisous! haha. after he told us to prep the husband for baptism so he could be baptized the next day sunday and recieve the priesthood. normally we have to wait a week to give the priesthood but president is building the priesthood power in this small area! he is an inspired man by god! so after we ate, we went to the other pueblo or vilage in there they live and went to their house at like 6pm and us missionaries stayed there until 9 at night. we did arrive really late to the house becasue there arent much buses or convis late at night so we had to wait longer to get back to our pueblo! but the next day, laura and matias came to church but we knew the husband had to work so we finished the services and later in the day, we prepped everything and the father and the whole fam came to Cuzama, and we had the dads baptism service and i baptized Nelson. and after the service we went back to our house of prayer and had another separate church sacrmental service authorized by the president to confirm him a member and later give the priesthood to him! the only person left is the son nelson who is going to get baptizd next week. but this time his dad has the power to baptize him now as a newly ordained priest! so that will be an amazing experience!! boy do i just love this family soooo much!!! just think, one day they will be sealed in the temple as a family!! im super excited for them! 

i love this work soo much and im blessed to be a missionary here! i know this is the place of where i am suppose to be in my life for these to year. we need to always trust in the will of god! i love this gospel becasue its true, i love my savior, and im grateful that he has helped to have this change of heart through his servants, and for the knowledge by the spirit he has given me! i love you all lots and have an amazing week!!

ELDER WASDEN

when we were going to Telchaquillo on the bus. one of the greenys, the companion of elder Cadena fell asleep on the sholder of a man next to him! hahahaha. it was such a funny moment in the bus!!

before the baptism of Nelson sunday afternoon! then we confirmed him member at a later church session at like 7pm!! 

this is the Fam!! minus there other son!  

What a true companion! Elder Echeverria from guatemala helping me brush my teeth!!

Back to the Villages

FAM! well this week im not going to write as much so i can send ALL my pictures that i have missed these past few weeks! but i am here in my area of Cuzama! its a tiny pueblo or village that this church is literally just starting here! i feel really blessed to be here in this area! we have met soo many people here and we are now teaching a tons here! we already have a baptism! and guess what our house is the church!!! we live in the house of prayer!! but it is SUPER tiny and hard to house 3 missionaries. in which 2 i am going to kill becasue they go home! muahaha. its possible that i might train next transfer pres. said! so im hoping i can learn a bunch from these 2 excellent elders that i just love!! one is elder acosta from arizona and the other elder echeverria is from guatemala!! but i forgot how different the villages were becasue i have been in the cities for a while now! haha. but im loving it! right now ima send some pics!

service with the ward mission leader

Familia Pool

comp lying dead waiting for our other comp

talent show

walkin to the pueblos

attempting selfies in the bus ride home

killin my next compies

hangin on for my life on the bus!

takin out my own stiches... sorry mom!

familia caamal

gettin my stiches from the dog bite! felt great!

might as well bite it too to see both sides of the story!

broke the pipe and had to fix it

went to go sing in downtown for christmas

our 2 converts from Zazil Ha! like 3 weeks ago

Diana and i before her baptism. her uncle baptized her!

ELDER REYES!!

Edwardo!! saying good bye before transfers

Transfers

i love going to the temple!!!!

our house sunday for church

Busy week and Transfers!!!

whats happenen Fam!! boy do i have much to say! Mom what really surprised me is how did you know i would take out my own stiches!? becasue i just took them out myself with a knife and a pair of scissors yesterday, but dont worry, i washed them first! haha. im still a little sick but im working it out with the doctor and already got my pills to help me! but everythings going good! 

i never had the time to tell you last week! we had a baptism of a little girl named diana, who her parent are less actives, so we have been teaching her for a while now. but last week was her baptism. her and another one of our investigators named jasmine got baptized too. but with diana, we had the program and everything, and when it was time for the ordinations, diana was super afraid of the water to the point where she was crying. her family was encouraging her and trying to comfort her but she did not want to get baptized because of her fear. after 10 minutes of trying to talk to her, i pull her aside, and talk to her one on one and she still was crying, but i asked her was was the thing she was most afraid of. i start talking to her more, and we decided to say a private prayer us to and in the prayer i blessed her with comfort and the knowledge that jesus christ was there with her to help her overcome her fear. when we said the words amen. the spirit just filled us two and she was ready, and pointed at my at my badge where it said Jesus Christ and i told her that Jesus Christ was there right with her, and as a representative of jesus christ, i sat on the bottom of the stairs in the water in my normal church clothes soaking wet while her uncle baptized her. these experiences i just love, when a person can feel the spirit of the lord and gives them comfort.

 the time beat me again this week but ill try to catch up next time

hey Fam! a continuation of this past week, boy was it amazing! like always! i have sure learned by now to not play with dogs down here! haha. this week has been our christmas week.  but starting this week we did service for the councelor of the mission president. presidente zapata because he lives in our area! but we went over there in the morning to cut trees, weeds, and clean the roof. i was in charge of the trees. i got to climb trees and cut branches with my machete while in the tree. you could say im yucateco. after asking permission, i got on the roof of the neighbor to cut the rest of the tree. the son of the president, ex missionary, helped be guide the branches as they fell, but i cut one branch and it fell on the water pipe of the neighbor and it broke. but luckily, im an eagle scout and i worked with water pipes and stuff thanks to Dave Lupton, i told the sister what we needed and i fixed the pipe right there! but also luckily it was an easy fix! also this family zapata has there own buisness with icecream that they make and boy is it super delicous!!! haha. this week we also did divisions with onother elder from california! so that was fun!

MOnday we aslo had our mission christmas party, with lots of fun, devotionals, surprises and more! we ahd a talentshow, and i got to play my ukulele and sing 2 times with some other sister missionaries. first we played a christmas song and sang while she read her poem, and then i played and sung be still my soul with 2 other sisters. and it turned out super good! we got the thumbs up from president! hahaha. in a year you will see the video! haha. at the end of this week, our zone got together and we went to a giant park here in merida and we sang in front of everyone christmas songs, and we contacted many people that were in the park! it was amazing!! 

well right now i am in the offices becasue today was the day of transfers! and i have transfer this week! im soo excited becasue im going back to the pueblos, an area named Cuzamá! in which i will be opening again! i have opened all my areas on my mission! haha. but we are in a threesome! my companions are elder Echeverria and elder acosta from california! this is going to be an amzing transfer!! hahaha. there are no members in our pueblo becasue we are starting fresh! we will see how it goes this first week there. the thing is, my companions both only have one transfer left! thats right i will be killing them! haha! right now i need to go, but i will try to send photos next week, because i cant send them here becasue it doesnt work! but until next week! }

Lots of love!

ELDER WASDEN

Good Dogs and Mexico Dogs

Whats happening fam!!! i feel like i say this every single week, but its true... Boy has this been such a big week! fill with excitement, problems, and fun! here in the south of merida, has been going pretty good! now is the time, a very special time, we are coming close to christmas!! that is soo crazy!! im rememebring all the stuff we did for christmas a year ago!! it is my favorite time of the year!! this is the part of the year, that just kills the missionaries! hahaha. but theres something much better than being home celebrating the holidays for 1 day, and that missionary work saving my brothers and sisters! i dont know if you guys have seen the new church videos of Christmas and talks about the birth of our savior and why he was born! but as a missionary, i can say that i have already seen them, but in spanish! but they are amazing!!  i invite you all to go watch and find out why god sent YOU a savior!! 

the beginning of this week we had a big meeting with president with half of our mission, just us near merida, in the northern part of our mission. and it was kind of a great spiritual planch for the whole mission. this week we visited these 3 less acitive girls, who are young sisters, 27, 17 and 15. we have to teach them outside, becasue we cant enter, but its been years since they went to church. and after the lesson they told us they didnt have anything to wear to go to church. the next day, lucky for them, our house was full of clothing for women because the sister use to live in our house, so we brought them some awesome clothing to wear and they came to church with us this sunday! they really liked it and they are going to try to start goinbg again

so i actually got a story, so this week i was walking with this member and my comp, after dropping his kids off at the school, but when we were walking to his house early in the morning to do service, i saw this dog behind a fence, but maybe after my mission ill tell the full story, but in the end, a dog bit my finger. so we went to the members house with my finger open and we cleaned it with the dirty water of mexico and we wrapped it up with a shirt. we then ate some sandwiches because all the bleeding made me hungry, and then we went to the house, to get some money and we took a 1 hour and 45 min bus ride to the hospital. only to have them look at it, clean it, and wrap it up, we had to return to find out if the dog had rabies, so we took the long bus ride back, and these busses are freezing cold with AC and i was just dying because im already yucateco and am use to the heat. we checked the dog and then we went back to the hospital and stitched it up, and then went back home to eat, and that pretty much took the whole day! boy was it such a fun day, and i learned my lessons with dogs. there are no nice dogs in mexico! so now i have these awesome stitches in my finger!! i have soo much more stories but im running out of time. ill try to send some more next week! 

Baptisims and Buses

bix`a kaaba! (beesh uh kaba)  thats what is your name in maya!! MOM!! some of the mayans are teaching me how to pray in maya!! im so excited to learn to pray in maya! its been going pretty good here on this side of the world. i have been feeling a little sick in the stomach for about a month now, but i got some drugs to help me so i should be fine! 

This week, we are prepping a little girl named Diana to be baptized this saturday, so that the following saturday she can go to the dedication of the tijuana temple, because only members can only assist the broadcast! but i am super excited for her!! keep her in your prayers so that everything will turn out fine! speaking of prayers, 

there was this old woman named amelia that we contacted one night and she is a woman who lives alone in this big house, but she can see and its hard for her to walk. but there were these drunk guys out back to that work for their families cement job thingy. but as we were talking to the woman, we told her and let her feel the love of the savior in her life by talking a little about the plan for her. she told us that she has been praying for a long time that sombody would come and help her and tell her something life this. and it made me realize, the lord prepares his children, because missionaries in the past have always walked in the same strets but there is a time for every person. the next morning she came with us to church, with the help of another sister in the ward. 

in our ward our ward mission leader has felt a little depressed and started to inactivate himself. for about 2 weeks which is not like him. we talked to him the day before sunday and he told us about the shortness of money and how his little torta business wasnt gaining much money to keep supporting the family. i told him that not going to church was just hurting him and his family more, and we talked about the atonement and i promised his that he would recieve the guidence he need by going to the church. that night i continued to pray for him hoping that he could find something good from going to the church and that he would go too.  the next day we saw him in the church with his kids and boy do i love this guy! in the last class of sunday, in priesthood, the topic was on tithing. and boy was the spirit strong in the class by what the brother pool was saying, and then our mission leader stood up and started telling us how he was lacking in this and pretty much told us he found his answer and bore his testimony so strongly and even finished the class. before he sat down, he made direct eye contact with me, and that just penetrated me in my heart. and it made me realize once again that god really does answer our prayers! it was an amazing experience to see that too. this week, our other young 17 year old investigator Edward came to the church too, and found a friend there that he already knew!! so that was just perect. the young men made him feel welcomed!! and also 3 less active young women we saw this week, made it to the church too. so that was great to see how amazing this week turned out! 

last monday we also had the opportunity to go to the fair. me and my comp and the another companionship went and had a lot of fun in the fair on our prep day. we just couldnt go on the rides, but the fair food was amazing. we all also had many investigators who worked in the fair, and one of them gave us free frappes, dont worry they dont have coffee! 

another funny experience this week, was when i was walking with my comp, when i walk i like to look at everything. when walking in the street, an airplane flew over us real low and i as looking at it, and what i didnt see infront of me, was a bus that had turned  and was just stopped in front of me, and my comp thought it would be funny if he didnt tell me, (it acually kind of was funny though! haha) but i kept walking and i ran into the back of the bus. and looking around just to check if nobody saw me, just my comp laughing, i got him back already. but it was pretty funny and now its a story here. "Elder wasden watch out theres a bus coming up!" or "we probably shouldnt take a bus, we have elder wasden." hahaha, boy do i love it here! and one last story of what happened this week, we were with these less actives, and they offered us something to drink, and i was like that would be amazing! my comp wasnt thirsty, but they brang a big pitcher of juice, and i pretty much drank one glass and i told them that wow it was REALY delicious! so i drank more and more until it was pretty much gone! i asked him here he bought the juice and he told us, TShop, thinking that was just a name of a regular store, i continued, but my comp seemed shocked and started laughing. after the lesson, i was thinking of why he was laughing. and while walking in the street of our way home i asked my comp, "that wasnt just juice was it...?" he said no. i then asked "it was Tea wasnt it" and he laughed and said yes. i was so shocked!! hahaha, the first time i drank tea, it had to be on my mission!! haha. but i didnt feel as bad because 2 other priesthood home teachers went to the that house and drank the same thing that was offered to them! hahaha. well that was my story! you know me, just breaking the word of wisdom out here on the mish!! i already told my mission president of my story! haha. well i am going to close for now! i love you all and cant wait for christmas because its coming up super fast! i love you guys and take care! 

ELDER WASDEN

Theres an old country song that i really feel like singing right now!!

In the fair!

Its my little missionary!! its soo cute! he wants to be a missionary already just like us. we puts on a tie and my badge and my watch and acts like a missionary in the house!

the tractors in the fair! reminds me a little of work out on the farm!! thinkin of you brian miller! haha