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

Photos from Hermana Parks

I am alive!

Hola familia!

Well, I am here in Cochabamba and am alive! Five flights and 36 hours, so it took some time, but I love it here and am doing well. The city is not at all what I imagined, but I think it is absolutely spectacular! Hope you guys are doing well!

Love you!

Elder Wynn

The Home (Bolivia) Stretch!

Hey Everyone!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful week! How's the world? From the reports of it, because we only hear about the large natural disasters, the world is ending, but I REALLY hope that's not the case. My week here has been great! We honestly haven't done a whole lot differently here, just the same classes and teachers, but it has been awesome :) For all of you that know a little bit of Spanish, we started leaning the Subjunctive tense last week and it is legitimately destroying me. No creo que sea importante... pero esta bien. We had our two devotionals this week and they, as always, were spectacular! President and Sister Livingstone came from the Provo Temple Presidency and, last night, Elder Quentin L. Cook and his wife came! Two amazing devotionals and I can't believe we had another apostle here! Okay, now to the crazy stuff: I leave in less than a week! My time is almost up here and I can't wait to go! I'm in the home stretch! (Not really the home stretch... but you get what I mean. The Bolivia Stretch I guess :) With my MTC time winding up, along with tremendous excitement, I've also been feeling a little bit of anxiousness and stress, and with that I would like to share a small thought with all of you. I was studying (because we legitimately have anywhere from 6-9 hours a day of studying) and I was in a little bit of a panicked mood because the Subjunctive tense was making me scared about Spanish and I just felt I wasn't progressing fast enough and that I wasn't going to be ready to serve only having a little over a week left, but I came upon some verses in the book of Moses that really turned that around for me. I won't type it all out, because I do not have the time, but it's Moses 6:31-34 and Moses 7:13. Basically, Enoch has been called of God to preach to the people, but Enoch feels unbelievably inadequate and expresses this to God. I love the response in verses 32-34 and they have brought me all the peace I've needed while here. The Lord tells him to have Faith, take courage, and trust that because the Lord is with him that all will be well. In Moses 7:13, we see Enoch speaking with power, "and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command." To me, this brings power, knowing that if I trust in God and move forward in him that I can and will have his strength with me. And I make to all of you the same promise. I don't know all the struggles or trials that all of you are having in your life, but I promise that if you rely on the Lord, pushing forward with Faith in Him, you will have the strength to do what you need to do. I love all of you and hope that you all have wonderful weeks! I want you all to know that I'm having a BLAST here and that I have the most amazing district in the world! I could not have made it through without them :) The next time I email you it'll be from Bolivia and I don't know when my P-day is, so it will be longer than a week, but I want you all to know that I can't wait to go out and I can't wait to serve. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me! You're all amazing! Thank you for all that you have done for me!

Elder Wynn

Just Keep on Swimming!

Hey Everyone!

How are you doing? How have your weeks been? I hope you guys are all doing well and enjoying the things you are doing because I am having an absolute BLAST here at the MTC. I had the crazy realization yesterday that after this email I only have one more before I'll be in Bolivia! How crazy is that?! My experience here somehow feels like four eternities stacked on top of each other but also like a blink of an eye. I don't know how to explain it, but that's how it feels, sooooo... yeah :) This week had the exact same schedule and much of it I found myself reminding myself of the title of this email: Just Keep Swimming! I'm learning Spanish slowly but surely as well as being taught lessons and teaching lessons. It's slightly overwhelming, but, again, just keep swimming! We had two amazing devotionals this week by Chad Lewis (BYU/NFL football player) and Patrick Kearon (of the Presidency of the Seventy). They were both super entertaining along with having great messages and I loved them so much! The message I want to share with you guys was touched upon by both speakers and it has to do with trials. It doesn't matter who you are, what you do, or where you're from, you're going to have trials and hard times in your life. The amazing thing is that we have the ability to choose how we react. We can either become angry, hateful, and depressed, cursing the world for all of our hardships, or we can look to the future with optimism, dig in our heals and push on. One of the amazing things that we know in the Gospel is that trials are meant for our good and will never be greater than we have the ability to handle. One of my favorite analogies for this was shared by the amazing choir director here Brother Egget about silver. Silver is a curious metal in that in order to purify it must be heated, but not overheated or it will harm the metal. The good purifier knows just how much to heat the metal to make it the purest possible without burning or damaging the metal. Similarly, we have a Father in Heaven that allows trials to come upon us not to burn us or damage us, but to make us more pure and allow us to truly shine. I challenge all of you this week to push through whatever trials you may face, whether in work, home, or school, and push through them with a positive attitude, knowing that you are gaining the strength today that you need for tomorrow. Here at the MTC, I have had my fair share of problems, but I'm learning, I'm progressing, and I'm trying to do my best. None of us will ever be perfect, but all we can do is our best. I love you all and hope that you are all doing well! If you have any questions or if I can do anything for you, don't hesitate to email me! You guys are amazing and I wish you the best in all you do!

Elder Wynn

Pluggin' Along

Hi all!

Another week has come and gone and I just don't know how to feel. On the first hand, I'm half way through the MTC! I've been so excited to get out into the field and enjoy the experiences there, so being this close makes me so excited! On the flipside, I don't have much more time to prepare! I can't wait to get out, but it's also super daunting. We'll see if I can figure things out in my final three weeks. Well, this week has been just about like all the others: Same schedule and same people, but super fun and exciting all at the same time. My district is honestly some of the most amazing people I've had the opportunity to spend time with, so every second with them is an absolute party! Whether it's the long talks and jokes during meals, or the super spiritual devotionals, or the awesome exercise times, I love being around them and enjoying their company. I've talked a little bit about the devotionals before, but I just need to reinforce how amazing they are. Sunday we had one of the MTC Presidency members speak, and I was a little disappointed at first that we didn't have a general authority coming in, but it was amazing and I loved it. Last night was something really special though. During the MTC choir rehearsal we were told that the devotional was being broadcast to all the MTCs around the world. Then we showed up for the devotional, and they refused to tell us who it was. Finally, right before the devotional started, they announced that Elder Dallin H. Oaks was speaking to us! We got to have an apostle come talk to us and he and his wife both gave spectacular talks. Both Elder Oaks and the MTC Presidency member spoke along the same lines and I would like to leave it as my thought today. They talked about becoming consecrated missionaries and that we shouldn't just obey the rules to obey the rules, but obey them for the purpose that they serve in our lives. I don't know how many of you have served missions or plan on serving missions, but the amount of rules we follow is crazy! It would be so easy to follow them just to check another thing off the list, but if we follow them because we are serving our Lord, knowing that we will become better people in the process, then we will not only follow the rules, but change into a better version of ourselves. This doesn't just apply to missionaries, so I'm challenging all of you to find something in your lives, whether in the church or out, that you do grudgingly. Once you find that thing, I want you to do it, whatever it is, but don't think of it as something you just have to do, think of it as something that will either bless your life or the lives of those around you. Love you all so much and hope that you all have wonderful weeks! If you ever have any questions, don't hesitate to email me and I'll do my best to respond :)

Elder Wynn