"And I Do This for a Wise Purpose"

Why hello everyone!

How was this past week? Normal? Crazy? Spectacular?! I hope so! Well, to start off talking about this week, let's just say that it was interesting. So, as I have said before, Elder Garcia has been struggling for some time here. This past Tuesday, so the day after P-day, we had a Zone Conference, which was spectacular, but after the conference, Elder Garcia had an interview with President Montoya. After the interview, he was recommended to go to the Psycologist. We went right away, the Psycologist is a member, which is really cool, and he got in right away. After a very anxious hour and a half wait, the news came: Elder Garcia needed to go home. I cannot say I was one hundred percent shocked at this news after being with him these past two weeks, but it was still unbelievable to actually receive the news. Afterwards, he spent the rest of the day making phone calls home to different people to give the news. The next morning, he wasn't quite right. He was very fidgety, he broke down into tears multiple times, and you could just tell that he was not doing well at all. So, on the way to another conference, this time with Elder Montoya of the Seventy, we dropped him off at the Hospital with another Elder. President Montoya assigned another Elder to accompany him there, so I went to the conference, but honestly didn't get much out of it. Afterwards, I got to spend the afternoon with him, but, because I'm new I'm assuming, I was placed on a split of indefinite time with the District Leader, Elder Romero, and this ended up lasting the rest of the week. So, my week has more or less been working with Elder Romero with an undecided future and with lots of worrying for my companion. He was released from the Hospital Saturday night, and he went home this morning. I'm just going to say it, this week was really hard. The work was great as always, but the stress for my companion and my undetermined future weighed hard all week. I love Elder Garcia. He was the best Papi (Trainer) I could ask for here. I am going to miss him immensely and I wish him the best at home. Any prayers you could send for him would be much appreciated :) Now, about my future here. As I said, this whole week has been me basically on an eternal split with Elder Romero until further notice. That further notice came last night. We received a call from President Montoya with the news that I will be changing areas to Avaroa, which is a different ward in Quillacollo, and my new companion (Father-in-Law) is Elder Romero, the district leader. Honestly, I am super pumped for this. Elder Romero is a very dedicated, hard-working missionary and I'm excited to keep going to work with him here in Avaroa! This news brought a TON of relief and put to rest much of my worrying and stress that I had been having throughout this week, and it is this stress and worrying that I would like to center my thought on this week. So, as I have said, this week has been crazy and stressful and just overall hard. So, to fight that, I did lots of scripture study and have been praying probably more fervently than ever before in my life. There were moments this week where I, rather unrighteously, had the thought of "Why is this happening to me?" Turning to the scriptures, I came upon a scripture in Words of Mormon. Chapter 1 (the only chapter) verse 7 states "And I do this for a wise purpose . . . And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will." So, honestly, I do not know why these things had to happen this past week. However I know that they happened for a reason, either for me, Elder Garcia, or some unknown future purpose. Yes, lots of stress, lots of worry, and just lots of struggles, but something necessary came from this experience, and I can take my peace in that. Now, all of you, whatever struggles you may be going through, whatever trials may come your way, remember this: it is all in God's hands and is serving some "Wise Purpose." No, that purpose is not always easy to see, but I promise that it is there. Now, to close, I want to share another scripture I came across this week that brought me some great comfort on the topic of worrying. 3 Nephi 13:34 states,"Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself." So, I encourage you all, in whatever you may be going through right now, to look to God, know that there is a deeper purpose, and stop worrying. Just work through it, knowing that God is in control and it will all be good in the end. I promise you that it all will be. Well, I love all of you and think the world of you! If you have any questions, feel free to email me and I will do my best to respond! I hope you guys have amazing weeks!

Elder Wynn

The Power of Giving

Hey Everybody!!

How are you all doing? I hope you all had great weeks and that you're just loving life because things are pretty great here. Throughout this past week we have been working a lot with our progressing investigators, especially the ones with baptismal dates. First off, Stephanie was not able to get baptized, which was super sad, but we feel that she has the desire and just needs to build her testimony a little bit stronger. Any prayers that you could send for her would be awesome :) Something awesome that happened this past week was the opportunity to extend a baptismal invitation to a girl named Adela. She is awesome! Not only did she accept it, but she attended a baptismal service of other missionaries, AND attended church for the first time. She is responding well to all of this and the members have welcomed her with open arms so we hope that she continues to progress. We were not able to get in contact with the Luna Family this week, which was kind of a bummer, but we're hoping to get in contact with them and continue to teach them because they seem SUPER interested in the gospel and we would love to see them continue to progress. These were the highlights of the week investigators wise, but all in all, everything is going well with the work here and I am just trying to love every moment because all I have is two years :) Random sidenotes: Quiacollo, and all of Cochabamba, is so pretty. The city itself is just so beautiful and I just love it. Also, the sunsets are especially beautiful. Another sidenote: the food is spectacular! I haven't really come across much here that I don't like. Whether it's the fried Buñelas that are sold all over the place or the Silpancho that is very popular here, it pretty darn fantastic. Last sidenote: the people here are unbelievable, and they are who I want to focus my thought on this week. Quiacollo is an especially poor part of Cochabamba, but that does not stop these people from giving. One of the hardest things here is being invited into somebody's house, seeing that they really don't have a whole lot, and then watching them pull out food and a drink to serve you. It honestly breaks my heart to see the conditions that some of these people live in, but it does not stop them from giving. I think that we could all follow the example of these wonderful Bolivian people and give a little more. One of my favorite quotes from our beloved Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, is,"He who gives money gives some, he who gives time gives more, he who gives himself gives all." While we may not have the ability to just give money to those around us, we can still give more and all according to Thomas S. Monson. Be generous with your time and look for opportunities to give of yourself to bless and strengthen others around you like these amazing Bolivian people that I love so much. Especially as the time for giving comes closer, look to give and I promise you will find opportunities that will not only bless you, but those around you as well. I think you guys are amazing and hope that all is going well. My advice, keep being yourselves and all will be well :) Love you all!

Elder Wynn

Always Working

Hey Everyone!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful time wherever you may be! You guys are the best! So, this week, I have been doing my best to just keep working with every moment that we have. The work here is fantastic and I hope to just keep it up! We have about 10 progressing investigators right now and 5 with baptismal dates, so we're very excited and hoping for the best with all of them! If all goes well, my first baptism will be this Sunday!! Her name is Stephanie (technically Estefani, but I translated to English for you guys :) and I really hope that it works out! The hardest thing here is finding out the commitment level of the people. The people are super nice, but often aren't too interested in the message. But, I feel like we are finding people and I hope that we can, with time, find even more people willing to learn and act on our message. This week has been a little different than most because Elder Garcia has continued to struggle with back issues. With this, I have gone on a couple of Exchanges with Elder Romero (the district leader) so Elder Garcia can rest an recupperate. Hoping for the best with him and if you could continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers, that would be great :) Along with the work we've done this week, I also had the opportunity to give my first talk in church, and I feel that it went really great! My Spanish still isn't great, but I'm learning and always working on it. The thought I want to leave with you all today is the power of sincere prayer. In the above message I have talked a lot about more of the great and happy things that have happened this past week, but I'm going to be honest for a minute: this is hard, hard work. I love it, but it is really hard. It's hard to walk all day every day. It's hard to lack the communication skills to effectively communicate your message. And it's hard to watch somebody that you love reject your message, especially because you know how much this message can bless their lives. However, throughout this week, the power of sincere prayer has really been manifest to me. Through the hardships, through the frustrations and through everything else, I know that I have a Father in Heaven that is willing to listen to me and comfort me. I know this for myself and I know this for you. So, throughout this week, through any struggles you might be facing, I encourage you to "send a knee mail," because I know the power that it can have, especially through my experiences this week. I love all you guys and think that you are the best! If you have any questions for me here in Cochabamba, don't be afraid to ask! You're all amazing!

Elder Wynn

Getting into the Flow

Hey everyone!

How are you all doing? Surviving the regular world? I hope you all are doing great and want to start off by telling you that I'm doing awesome! This past week has been just as crazy as the first, but, to my great surprise, it has flown by! Elder Garcia and I have been working hard this week and I feel that our work has paid off. We set our goals rather high this week and we achieved them! We were so happy! We have found several new investigators, but what I'm most excited about is a family of 10 that we have had the wonderful opportunity to start teaching! They are the Luna family and they seem to be enjoying the lessons and progressing well, which is such a great opportunity! The people here in Bolivia are AMAZING! They are so nice and even if they are not interested in our message they are super polite and loving. Along with teaching opportunities, I had the ability to go on two exchanges this week, one with a zone leader, Elder Fuentes, and one with the district leader, Elder Romero. They were both amazing and I really loved being able to go out and get a feeling of what different companions can be like. Besides that, it has mostly just been going to work and trying to spread this beautiful message that is the gospel, and though not everything is all sunshine and rainbows, the majority of everything here is just amazing and I love it. The message I want to share with you this week is about service. First off, my companion, Elder Garcia, has been experiencing some back and shoulder problems, so if you could keep him in your thoughts and prayers I would greatly appreciate it. With this, and just being in Bolivia, there have come some great opportunities to serve. Whether it be cooking dinner or doing laundry for my companion, or helping a ward member with a project in their home, or even just playing piano for church meetings, I have had so many wonderful opportunities to serve those around me, and this has been one of my favorite things here in the mission so far. I'm learning that using whatever abilities or talents that I might be blessed with is so enormously gratifying. So, I challenge all of you this week to go out and serve! Maybe for your family, a friend, a neighbor, etc. We all have been blessed with so many talents and abilities, so go out and use them to help someone in need! I want you to know that you're all amazing! I am the person I am today because all of you: My amazing village of people to support and help me. If you have any more questions on anything, feel free to send an email. I hope you all have wonderful weeks!

Elder Wynn

Cochabamba At Last!

Hey everybody!

How are all of you doing? Well, finally, after all this time, I have actually made it to my mission in Cochabamba, Bolivia! How crazy is that!? Well, I don't exactly know where to start after almost two weeks of craziness, but here goes! So, I finished up my time in the MTC and said goodbye to my amazing teachers (Shoutout to Hermana Parks, Hermano Cahoon, and Hermano Jake! You are all amazing!) before heading out Monday morning (a week ago) at 3:30 AM. Then, I flew to Phoenix (Arizona), then Miami (Florida) with a 6 hour layover there, then flew over night to La Paz (Bolivia), then Santa Cruz (Bolivia) where we went through customs, before waiting another 6 hours to fly here! Cochabamba at last! So, after getting to Cochabamba around 3 PMon Tuesday, we went to the Mission President's house to take care of some quick business, we got pictures taken for our Bolivian ID cards, and then headed to the house of the Assistants to the President (APs) to sleep. The next day we went to a local chapel before getting briefed on the mission rules and receiving our first companions! My trainer's name is Elder Garcia and he is from (get excited Dad) Argentina! He speaks WAY fast and I can barely understand what he says, but he is awesome and I have enjoyed my time with him thus far. After receiving my trainer we took a taxi to our area, got settled, and then headed right out to contact and start working. Basically, besides general conference, this has been a lot of what we've been doing, going out contacting, meeting members, eating crazy good food, and having a really good time. We have taught a couple lessons with investigators that already had a few lessons before I got here, and we've also had the awesome opportunity to extend a baptismal invitation! She said yes! All in all, I'm loving Bolivia and all of its craziness, my companion is great, Conference was amazing, and life is good! If you have any questions about anything that I'm doing here, don't be afraid to send an email and I'll do my best to respond as soon as I can. The message that I want to share with you all this week is about patience. Here in Bolivia, I honestly know nothing. Zilch. Nada. I can barely communicate in Spanish, the culture is crazy different, and I can't understand much of what others say. Yes, this is incredibly frustrating, but it is coming, MUCH slower than I would like, but it is coming. I want to counsel all of you in whatever you're doing to have patience, especially with yourself. Whatever you are striving for will come, maybe not the way you would like, or at the speed you anticipated, but it will come if you keep working at it. I promise. Like a lot of the General authorities said in conference, especially President Uchtdorf and Elder Holland, it is not worth it to beat up on yourself. Have patience with yourself, keep working, and I promise it will come. I just want to let all of you know that I'm sending you my love from South America! You are all amazing examples to me in my life and I hope that all is going well with you. Until next week, I say farewell. Wish me luck!

Elder Wynn