Long-Time Friends

Hey everyone!

How are you all doing?? I hope that you all had amazing weeks and that this next week is even better! As for me, this was a fairly average week in the mission. I would like to focus on Janet Vargas and Marcela Ibañez as the investigators for this week. Janet Vargas is the mother of one of our very good investigators, Diego, and is also the daughter-in-law of our branch president. We have taught Janet for a long time, but in these past two weeks I think that our teaching has finally hit her. She has talked about baptism and has made a very good effort to come to church, coming for the first time yesterday. She is amazing and we look forward to seeing her continue progressing :) Marcela Ibañez is the daughter of a less active member and we have also taught her for a long time. I believe that I have already mentioned her, but I wanted to talk about her again because she truly is amazing :) She has come to Church for three weeks in a row and currently has a baptismal date for the 14th of July. She is an amazing person and an amazing friend for me here and I have loved watching her progress :) I look forward to continuing working with her :)

Well, these are a couple of our investigators and I am so grateful for them. They truly are amazing :) Well, this week was mostly normal, but there was one abnormality: Zone Conference. This past Friday we had the opportunity to travel to Potosí to listen to our mission president, his wife, and the zone leaders there. They all gave amazing classes and I loved it so much :) I also had the opportunity to play the piano for the Hymns, along with giving a piano solo (the Marshall McDonald's "If you could Hie to Kolob" if anyone was wondering :), so I loved being able to participate in the conference in that way :) Even with these opportunities and the amazing classes, there was something else that I loved even more, and I would love to focus my thought on that this week :)

Although it is kind of a hassel to travel to Potosí (5 1/2 hours to get there and 5 1/2 to get back), it is so worth it for me for one reason more than anything else: Seeing other missionary friends. Our focus here in the mission may be preaching the Gospel, but one amazing highlight is the people that you meet along the way, especially other missionaries. This past week, I got to see several amazing friends that I had not seen in about 4 months since I was last in Cochabamba. Elder Romero (my step-dad and second companion in the mission) and Elder Nelson (one of the amazing Elders from my district in the MTC) were the highlights from the conference and it was amazing to catch up with them. This got me thinking about how amazing it is to have great friends. All of us have friends, and all of us have really good friends. These people help us in everything that we do and can also be amazing examples to us. However, sometimes we lose contact with these people and do not see them for some time. But, when we see them again, it is such a happy, amazing reunion. I had this experience this past Friday, and my invitation for you all is to look for these experiences in the following week. I know that each of you have good friends that you have lost contact with, maybe for a month, a year, or even several years. It doesn't matter how much time has passed since you last saw them, but I invite you to search them out once again because that reunion will be worth it. It was for me :)

Well, I love you all so much and I thank you for all the support that you guys give me every week! You are amazing and I hope that you have an amazing week!

Elder Wynn

Selfie with Elder Nelson!

The Tupiza Zone with our mission president!

My favorite Uyuni shot :)

I love you and hope that you have a wonderful week! Love you!

Love,

Elder Wynn

Tupiza Pday in Uyuni

The Parable of the Broken Piano

Hey everyone!

How are you all doing?? By the way, happy Tuesday! It may be weird for me to write today and not yesterday, but it has a very good reason: I got to go to Uyuni yesterday! Uyuni has world famous salt flats and was even one of the filming locations of the last Star Wars! It was an amazing experience and took up all of yesterday, so that is why I am writing today. Don't worry, we have permission and everything, so I am not being a disobedient missionary :) So, my week went great and I am very happy with the work that we were able to do. I would like to focus on another experience this week, so I will not mention investigators by name, but just know that they are doing great and the work continues progressing here :) The experience that I would like to focus on this week was in a little pueblo (which is a term that means a small, secluded town) called Quiriza. Quiriza is about an hour drive outside of Tupiza and around 50 people live in the pueblo itself. In this area, there are also about 8 other pueblos that also need to be visited, and after arriving to Tupiza, each one is between a 30 minute to 3 hour walk away. Every weekend, a couple missionaries from Tupiza go to Quiriza to help the Branch there and do a little bit of missionary work in the pueblos there. This past week I had the opportunity to go and it was amazing! While there, we lived inside the small chuch building there, which is actually the first church building ever constructed here in Bolivia. We walked to a couple pueblos, shared messages with the people there, and even helped them a little bit in their daily work in their fields with their crops and animals. It was such a cool experience and my favorite part was spending Sunday there. We got to see people from every pueblo walk to this small church to partake of the sacrament and enjoy some time there. These people are such dedicated saints of the Church and I loved being able to be with them this weekend. One of my favorite experiences was being able to play the piano during sacrament meeting. The piano there is not electric, it is a real, old piano that has been there probably since the building was constructed. Many members told me how that piano had been sleeping for some time but they were so happy to see me wake it up again after its many years of silence. It was out of tune and had many, many broken keys, but it was amazing to play and it was a great honor to be able to play for these amazing members (who sang just as loud as my home ward as a group of 15 people). As I think of this piano, I can't help but think of a thought to go along with it, and I would love to share this with you guys today :) As I said, this piano was old, out of tune, and slightly broken, so I cannot say that it was the easiest to play. I tried several hymns that simply would not work just because the keys in that musical key were either broken or too out of tune to work together properly. When I was preparing to go to Quiriza, I had heard of the piano there and was really excited, but other missionaries in my zone told me not to get my hopes up, that it was too broken and out of tune to be played well. So I went, without many hopes and came to many of the same conclusions as the other Elders. However, I kept at it and realized that there was one musical key that had no broken notes and was sufficiently in tune that the hymns in that key could be played quite well. This opened up a whole world of possibilties and I was successfully able to play the piano in a good, not perfect, but good way that brought the Spirit to that meeting. Now, let's make the comparison :) Many of us may feel like this broken piano sometimes. We may have tried many things in many different ways, but we just never can find what we can truly do. We may struggle at many of the things that others think that we should be good at, and they don't hesitate to point that out. We may become discouraged and decide that maybe it is better if we just don't try anymore. However, like this broken piano that had it's musical key that worked for it, we too have our area that we can succeed, we just need to find it. So, don't be discouraged if you aren't good at what the world thinks you should be good at. Keep working, search for your God-given gift, and I promise that you will find it. Remember that a piano has no use if it is not played. Likewise, you have no use if you do not try, but if you do try, you can be made beautiful before the world and show those who doubted you how amazing you truly can be. That is my promise that each and every one of you has a gift that can and will help others if we truly make the effort to find it :) Well, I love you guys and I hope that you have a wonderful week! Thank you so much for all of your love and support!

Elder Wynn

Hey everyone!

How did your week go?? I hope that you all had amazing weeks and that you're enjoying your summer! Here, in Bolivia, it is winter, and when you are at a high elevation, that means COLD. However, life is still great and I am loving being here in Tupiza. This past week was a week with two first-time experiences which I will explain in a sec. But first, the investigators :) This week, I would like to focus on Marcela, Ismael, and Elmer. I don't believe I have mentioned either of these three before, but they are amazing :) Marcela is the daughter or a less-active member and is very, very shy. This week we were able to make more of a connection with her and she actually was able to come to church for the first time since I have known her. She is amazing and I look forward to continuing our work with her :) Ismael and Elmer are two good friends and two even better investigators. Ismael has known about the Church for a LONG time (more than 5 years) and has known all the missionaries that have passed through Tupiza. Elmer, as his friend, is just barely getting to know the Church. This past week we had the opportunity to teach them but also take some time out of our P-day to go play soccer with them, which is a passion of them both :) They are amazing and both came to church yesterday. They really liked it and I hope that they continue being just the amazing people that they are :)

Well, these were a couple of our investigators and I hope that they keep progressing :) Now, the week of firsts that I mentioned. The first of my firsts: I gave my first district class! Yes, I was stressed and nervous, but I think it went really well! I talked about the power and authority that we have as missionaries using Preach My Gospel and the stories of Enoc (Moses 6-7) and Nephi and Lehi (Helaman 5). I have an amazing district that participates a ton, so they help me a lot and I loved that opportunity :) The second of my firsts: I went to the farmland this past Saturday and helped harvest corn. This was a crazy experience. We left at 7 AM and returned at 6:30 PM, taking up our whole day and making for an experience that I will never forget, and I would love to focus my thought for the week on this experience.

Every once in a while, we have an experience in our lives that helps us see the bigger picture. This past Saturday was one of those experiences for me. I was in the middle of nowhere, in a field of pre-cut corn, and my job was to pull that corn off the stalks and peel it before throwing it into a bag and moving on. I have lived such a priviledged life of comfort that this was kind of a world rocker. People live out in that place. They farm every day. They eat what they farm. They sell what they won't eat to buy what they can't grow. This is their life. This is only something that can truly hit you when you get just a taste of what that life would be like. I am so blessed with such an amazing life with comforts and priviledges that these people couldnt't even imagine. I am so blessed to have been able to study for 12 years in a public school learning so much. I am so blessed to have a family that has always provided for all my material needs and so, so much more. These people do not have that. They wake up, they work, they rest, and they repeat. I am so blessed to have all that I have. Seeing this also makes me grateful for this wonderful Church. I understand my purpose. I know why I'm here, what happened before, and what will happen after. I know that I have a Father in Heaven that loves me. This brings me purpose to my life. Many of these people don't know this purpose. That is why I am here, so that these amazing, loving people can learn about the amazing purpose that their loving Father has for them. Now, as you all go back to your normal lives this week, I invite you to think about the lives of these people in the Bolivian farmland. Then, I invite you to count your blessings, remember your purpose, and then try your best to help others learn the same. You will see the bigger picture and realize how blessed you truly are :)

Well, thank you all so much for all of the support and love that you guys send me! You are all amazing and I hope that you guys have great weeks! I love you all and I hope that you never forget that you are amazing!

Elder Wynn

Mounting a Donkey in the farmland

A couple of the houses out in the farmland

Our field of work after finishing

I love you so, so much! I hope that you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Wynn

Hey everyone!

How was your week?? Can you believe that we're in June already?! I hope that everything went well this past week and I hope that it goes even better this week! As for me, it was a rather normal, but still really good week here in Tupiza :) I would like to focus on Febe and José, Vicente Fernandez, and Magalí. Febe and José continue progressing as normal. What surprises me more than anything is the rate at which they are progressing. They have such a desire to learn and know if it is true, so they have been reading the Book of Mormon a LOT and are both almost finished with Jacob. We have already taught them all the lessons and they have a baptismal date for the 16th of June, so we will continue preparing them for that date. With Vicente Fernandez (It's really Vicente Quispe, but his favorite singer is Vicente Fernandez from Mexico, so he likes it when we call him by that name ;), we are just really happy :) Vicente, as stated in past emails, has problems with his memory, but he still continues to progress and try his hardest to learn. He came to Church yesterday and gave me a huge hug, making me feel amazing, and I just love him :) We hope that he can continue progressing and learning :) Lastly, our recent convert, Magalí. Magalí continues strong and impresses me more and more every day. She is currently preparing herself to travel with the branch this July to visit the temple and also got up yesterday in Sacrament meeting to bear her testimony. It is something amazing to see her continue progressing and she just makes me so happy :) I hope to continue working with her and can't wait to see her continue :) Now that I have talked about the investigators/recent convert that I wanted to mention, I would like to give a small thought and then talk about transfers. One of the amazing things about this Church is the amazing opportunity that we have to serve in callings. Just think about it. We all have the opportunity to contribute to this beautiful truth, whether it be in the Ward, Stake, or beyond. One thing that is important to remember is that every calling is important, from Primary Teacher to Stake President. No matter where we serve, we are making very important contributions to this Church. So, just to remind you all, don't worry about where you serve, just serve where you are called and make the difference that you are supposed to make. I promise you that you will find more happiness in your life if you serve where you are called, without disappointments, doing all that you can to complete with your calling. Remember, you were called by a servant of God to serve where you are, you are there for a reason, and happiness will find you wherever you are. That's a promise :) Well, now that I have talked about callings and accepting whatever comes your way, let's talk about transfers. This is always kind of a stressful time, as you truly have no idea what could happen, but they are also amazing, so here goes with my transfer: I am staying here with Elder Vergara, but something has changed. With Elder Perry leaving, I have been assigned as the new District Leader here in Tupiza. This is an amazing honor and I that I am able to serve to the best of my abilities in this assignment. If it is not to much to ask, I would love to ask for your prayers to help me with this assignment along with the normal daily work as a missionary. Thank you :) Well, This has been my week! I look forward to another transfer here in Tupiza with Elder Vergara and cannot wait to get back to work! I love you all and thank you for the amazing support that you always give me! I hope that you all have amazing weeks!

Elder Wynn

I took a selfie with my pention and her family!

El Choco (this is the slang they use here for all white people, so I HAD to take a photo with this ;)

Today was the anniversary of Tupiza, so the owner of our house barbecued a whole lamb! Really cool to see and he let us try some! So good!

I love you so, so much! I hope that you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Wynn