Merry Christmas!!!

Hey everyone!!

Well, I just thought that I would send out a quick Christmas letter out to all of you while I had the chance :) This week in Bolivia has been quite spectacular! With a new companion, working hard, and enjoying the holiday season, I couldn't be happier right now :) I'm going to keep it short because I know that you all are trying to enjoy your own Christmases, but it will suffice to say that it was a really good week and my new companion is spectacular! Small investigator update: Daniel was not able to be baptized this week and we will have to wait a little bit of time before he can be baptized. I would like to ask that you all keep him in your prayers as he keeps working towards being baptized :) Now, Christmas in Bolivia. What do they do on the 25th? NOTHING!! I haven't seen anything Christmassy going on today, BUT they do celebrate the night before. Everyone in the family stays up until about 3 AM giving gifts, eating food, and spending some time together. So, I didn't really get to experience a Bolivian Christmas in all of its glory, but it is really cool to hear fireworks going off at midnight and hear all the celebrations going on. It has a really cool spirit about it :) And this Spirit is that which I would like to focus my thought today. Through all the food and all the gifts, I would like to give you all a little reminder of what this season is truly about: Christ. If you have been doing the #LightTheWorld, awesome! Great job! If not, there is still time to make your Christmas centered on Christ! I want to invite you all to give a little something to someone else today. Whether it is a gift, a hug, some time to talk, or whatever, I invite you all to give something. I love you all I I hope you all have a very Merry CHRISTmas!! You guys are the best!!

Merry CHRISTmas!!!

Elder Wynn

Loving the Life We Have

Hello everyone!

How are you doing? Christmas is so close it's not even funny! Are you all ready to enjoy this wonderful time of year? I hope that life finds you all well and that you're enjoying the Christmas season. Well, this week here in Bolivia was rather spectacular, not going to lie. Rather crazy, but spectacular nonetheless :) Well, with transfers looming over us all week and an uncertain future ahead, we still went out this week and gave it all we could. We've been working really hard this week to contact old investigators or reach out more to recent contacts and we have found great success. We have extended a couple more baptismal invitations, set up appointments with many old investigators, and even found a couple really good, new investigators. So, to focus on a few, I will touch on Daniel, Liz, the Limón Family, Nayeli, and, a new investigator, Bryan. Daniel was not baptized this past week because he had his graduation from high school, but we set his baptismal date for this week, and this time it should happen! Really hoping for the best with Daniel. Liz still has not gotten permission from her dad, but is still working hard to stay active in the church and meet with us. The Limón Family made great strides this week with a talk about the Word of Wisdom. They have committed to abstain from those things and attended church this week as a family, so all is looking up for them :) Nayeli continues to show interest in the church and we are looking forward to her baptismal date on the 30th of December. We have also began teaching her mom, so we're hoping she will progress as well. Finally, Bryan, a new contact. We contacted him on Friday, taught him Saturday, he accepted a baptismal date, and attended church. He is AMAZING! We hope he continues to progress and cannot wait to see where he goes :) These are just a few of our current investigators and we are very pleased with the work that is going on here. Now, looking at this week, Elder Romero and I were very happy and very excited to continue working together to build the church in Avaroa. However, transfers happened, and we sadly will not be staying together. Elder Romero is being moved to an area closer to Cochabamba and I will be staying here in Avaroa with my new companion, Elder Alvarán, to keep the work going. I have many emotions about this change. Elder Romero is a phenominal Elder and a great friend. I am SO sad that we will be separating and SO sad that he will not get to keep helping me in the work here in Avaroa. However, I cannot wait to meet my new companion and keep the work rolling here :) This whole experience of transfers has taught me a wonderful lesson: Love the Life You Have. I have loved working with Elder Romero, and I am glad I had the opportunity to work with him, even if it was just for a little over 6 weeks. I am heartbroken that we are not going to continue, but I have made up my mind to love whatever comes. As a favorite quote states: Come what may and love it. I don't know what my new companion will bring, but I cannot wait to get to see. My challenge to all of you is to appreciate that which you have. Enjoy every moment so that you have no regrets when changes come. And when these changes come, "Come What May and Love It!" I love all you guys and thank you all for your support of me here in Bolivia. You are amazing and I hope that you know it. I am looking forward to what this next week will bring with a new companion, definitely nervous, but excited nonetheless. I hope you all have amazing weeks leading up to Christmas and I hope you will all remember the real reason we celebrate this time of year :) If you have any questions for me, don't be afraid to ask! I love you all and Merry Christmas!

Elder Wynn

     

We wanted to fit 4 in the back seat of the Taxi. Only 3 would fit normally, so we had to improvise ;)

Elder Romero and I celebrating at the Christmas Conference

Elder Olsen, an Elder from Orem, Utah, a day before heading home from his mission.

Overcoming the Everyday Struggles

Hey all!

How have your weeks been? Is the cold starting to set in? Is there snow? I hope you guys are all enjoying your winter season because it is summer here! It's a little different than I expected, though. I was expecting blistering heat, but all that has happened so far is a downpour of rain. I'm not exactly sure if that is normal or not, but that's what is happening, and I'm not complaining! In complete honesty, this week was filled with many emotions, and a lot of those emotions were not so good. This week, we had a lot of empty days where all we had to do was contact, and we also had many full days in which all of our appointments fell through. With all of that, we have been a little frustrated and it has honestly been a good struggle to keep up our spirits and get to work. However! Good things did happen this week and I would like to focus on those for now :) So, as a snapshot on investigators, I will talk about Daniel, Liz, Guildo (the father of the Limón Family), Nayeli, and Maria (our new convert). With Daniel, we were hoping for his baptism this week, but he has become very busy these past couple weeks and we had to push his baptism back a week because of lack of time. We are very happy for him because the reason for his lack of time is the fact that he found a new job and is starting to study in a college, but we are sad that we are not able to meet with him all that often. Hopefully, it will happen this week :) With Liz, things continue as normal. We are working with her and trying to help in any way that we can, but her father continues to be strong on the topic of baptism. We will keep working with her. With Guildo, we have seen an amazing change. We gave him the Word of Wisdom lesson this week, and though he has many problems with this commandment, he seems very eager to follow this commandment. He also came to church for the first time this week, so we are really looking forward to continuing with him. His family was gone this week traveling, so we couldn't teach them, but he is progressing so we are very happy about that. A new addition, Nayeli is a 13 year old girl that we have been working with for a couple weeks and attended church for the first time this week. We love teaching her and have already given her all the main lessons and she also has said many times that she knows the church is true, so we will continue working excitedly with her. Finally, Maria, our new convert. She was gone this whole week with her mom, so we have no idea what is happening with her at the moment, but we hope that all is well. Personally, I am doing really good! As a companionship, things couldn't be better! We are working hard and giving our best, but as I stated, it's been a little bit of a rough week, and I'd like to focus my thought on that today. So, as I said, we had many days with no appointments and many days with appointments that fell through. It is hard to describe the feelings that surface during these times. You always want to work, you always want to have success, but sometimes, despite your best efforts, the success you are looking for just doesn't come right away. We felt that very strongly this week, but I personally have learned a lot from this week. Yes, it was hard. Yes, we were often discouraged. However, we continued working, and we had an amazing experience of having 8 investigators at church this week, which is much more than I have ever had. I have learned this week the power of sincere prayer to gain strength and comfort, as well as the rewards that come from working, even when that work is very hard to continue. My promise to all of you is that the success that you are looking for will come if you continue. I promise that whatever you are going through, no matter how hard it is, if you say a prayer asking comfort and strength and continue working with all you have, the success you are looking for will come. Maybe not right now, maybe not for some time, but it will come. I love you all and I thank you so much for your love and support of me here in Bolivia! Now is an exciting time here because, 1: Christmas is coming! and 2: Transfers are this Sunday! I have no idea what transfers will bring and I cannot wait for Christmas, so all in all, I'm just excited! Please keep our investigators in your prayers and keep being the amazing people that you are! If you have any questions about my doings here, don't be afraid to send me an email. Love you all!

Elder Wynn

Me with my Hot Chocolate and decorated desk :)

My Christmas package!!

The most awesome district EVER!!

Love you!

Elder Wynn

Overcoming the Adversary

Hey everyone!

How's life treating you? I hope you all are enjoying your winter season. It's summer here now, so regularly super hot, but we're entering a rainy season now and it's super nice. Well, this past week was great, but a little different than usual. Tuesday through Friday were business as usual, but Saturday and Sunday, due to elections here in Bolivia, we were not allowed to leave the house. So, we worked for the first few days, and then had two full days inside the house. Not going to lie, it felt pretty nice to rest up a little for two days. Did all my laundry, cleaned the house, rested, studied, etc. It was great :) Well, investigators wise, we are doing great! We are working a lot with Daniel, Liz, and the Limón Family as well as trying our hardest to find new investigators. We are super excited for Daniel because he is supposed to be baptized this Saturday! We cannot wait for that to happen! With Liz, her father is as strong as ever, but we are continuing to work with her and hoping that a change will eventually come. With the Limón Family, we are working hard to teach them as much as possible, but we're also just trying to be there for them and help them with some of the difficulties they have been having in their lives. Things have been turning for the better and they are super excited to attend church and other activities. We have high hopes for this family. If you could keep them in your prayers, especially Liz with her dad and Daniel with his baptism, I would greatly appreciate it :) Well, other than investigators, we have just been working hard in all aspects: with our Bishop, other members, and, a big focus right now, Maria, our new convert, and she is the one I would like to focus my thought on today. Let me just start off by saying that Maria is wonderful and has a strong desire to stay active in the church, but she has expressed a lot of struggles throughout this past week. She loved her baptism and said that she felt a lot of peace after her confirmation as well, but she has felt pelted with trials this week. We have explained with her a couple times that whenever we try and do something good, Satan will always try and attack us. And she has felt this strongly, but she has a strong testmony and is pushing forward through it all. Now, for you guys, I hope your lives are all going fantastic, but know that we all have our struggles once in a while. Whether small or big, these trials can batter us and cause us to question the things that we know. However, there is a sure way to conquer the adversary, and that is through our testimony that is founded on Jesus Christ. My favorite scripture is Helaman 5:12 and it talks about building your foundation on Christ. It states that when the devil fights you with all his might and strenght, if your foundation is on Christ, you cannot fall. I love this scripture dearly and can testify that it is true. So, for all of you, follow the example of Maria, who is going through some tough stuff right now, but is relying on her testimony, and, really, relying on Christ to get her through. No matter what you're going through, no matter what your struggles are, Christ can always help if we have our foundation, our very core, centered in him. I love all you guys and hope that you have a phenominal week! As always, if you ever have any questions about my doings here in Bolivia, don't be afraid to send me an email and ask! ¡Hasta luego!

Elder Wynn

Me with my Thanksgiving dinner that I made :)

Me with some awesome kids that we played soccer with and then taught

Me with a machete after a service project clearing trees with a machete. Not gonna lie, it was quite fun ;)