Count Your Many Blessing

Hey everyone!

How are you doing?? I hope that your October is going well and that all of your preparations for Halloween are going great! As for us here in Sucre, life is great! Work has continued as normal and we are really pleased with how everything is going :) For this week, I would love to mention Jhysel and the Lopez Family. Jhysel is an amazing teenager that has been connected to the Church for some time. Elder Martinez (my companion) and his last companion were teaching her for quite a while before I got here, but right when I arrived, she began to travel a lot with her family. My whole first transfer here, I never had the opportunity to teach her, but she just showed up to church every once in a while. This last week however, we were able to set an appointment with her and her parents and it went amazing. We extended a baptismal invitation to the whole family, and Jhysel's parents asked for more time to think. Jhysel, however, bore her testimony that she knew that the Church is true and expressed a deep desire to be baptized. She is AMAZING and we really look forward to helping her progress towards the baptismal date that she has committed to :) The Lopez Family is a family of four that we just love. We have been teaching them little by little in these past weeks about the Restoration, but, before this last week, they weren't showing much interest. However, we arrived at their house last night and things had changed. They had read the entire pamphlet as a family and had TONS of questions about Joseph Smith, prophets and several other subjects. We were able to answer their questions and they committed to investigate a little bit more about the Church. They have committed to come to church this following week and to also read the Book of Mormon that we gave them. We are really hoping that they continue to progress :)

Well, these are a couple of the amazing people that we are visiting and we are truly so happy with the progress of all of our investigators :) Now, before saying goodbye, I would love to share a small thought. 

This past Saturday, we had an amazing experience. We were walking through a market in our area heading towards an appointment when we heard someone yell "Elders!" We turned around to see a lovely woman selling a powder to make Api (a delicious local drink). We walked up to her and began to talk. She is a member from another ward here in Sucre named Leticia. She told us that there were several problems that were happening in her life and wanted to talk with us. We headed to the church building that was nearby and she told us about her life. She is from Argentina and has lived here in Bolivia for 15 years. The only job that she has been able to find is selling little bags of powdered api for two Bolivianos a bag (worth just about 25 cents). She walks to every market in Sucre every day offering her api. She is starting to have back problems from walking every day and her sons are also having problems with men beating them in the street. Her sons cannot study because they need to help their mother. As she cried and told us that she feels that she cannot continue living in this way, my heart broke. Her life has been so hard. She is doing everything that she can to support her small family, but it is just so hard. We did our best to console her and had the opportunity to give her and one of her sons blessings of strength and comfort. We will be visiting with her this week and hope to continue helping her. As I heard the life story of this wonderful and strong woman, I realized how blessed of a life I have lived. I have lived in a very advanced country all of my life. I have received a wonderful education and look forward to continuing my studies. I have lived a life of comfort almost free of worries. A question comes to mind: Why have I been so blessed? This life isn't fair. Some of us have more struggles than others. I have come to realize this more and more in my time here. My invitation for you all this week is that you take the time to think about all of your blessings and thank God for everything you have. Remember that not everyone has the blessings that you have.

Well, I love you all so much! Thank you so much for your love and support that you always send me! I hope that you all have an amazing week!

Elder Wynn

Hey everyone!

How are you doing? Did you have a great week? Did you enjoy General Conference? I hope so! Here in Sucre, we had a great week! In the week of work, things went really well! Investigators wise, I would love to mention Marlene, along with a funny story that happened this week. Marlene is a teenager that is 18 years old who was a reference from other missionaries in our zone. I would love to share the story of us tracking her down. So, the reference said that we had to go to a bus stop near a rather large valley in our area. We called her and she said that she was almost home, so we waited about 15 minutes before deciding to call her again. She said she was home and we asked her to come to the bus stop so that she could show us where her house was. She said no because it was easy to see her house from the bus stop. She indicated that there was a large semi-truck in front of her house clearly visible from the bus stop. We began looking all around but the was no such truck to be seen. My companion then looked at the other side of the valley, where there were about 5 houses separated from everything, and there, clear as day, was the large semi-truck that had been indicated to us. We laughed pretty hard and then began our descent into the valley, just to come up on the other side. No worries though, it was 100% worth it as we had a wonderful appointment and gained a new investigator that attended 3 sessions of General Conference this past weekend. Normally the hardest things in life are the best :)

Well, we're very happy with Marlene and all of our investigators. There is lots of work for us to do here in Sucre :)

Well, I would now love to talk about Conference and share a quick thought with you all :) First off: Wasn't that amazing?? Between the huge announcements about Sunday meetings and Temples and the great talks about just about all topics, it was an amazing Conference. I hope that you all were able to at least watch part and receive the answers to any questions that you may have had :) One thing that really struck me was how many promises we were given during the sessions. Almost every authority of the Church extended an invitation and promised us blessings along with our faithfulness in completing their invitation. One example: President Nelson talked about the importance of the name of the Church. We are The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, not Mormons. He invited us to strive to use the true name of the Church and drop any nicknames we may be using. He then extended several profound promises, one of which was that we would be able to take the Gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. That is a HUGE promise for such a seemingly simple change. Well, I want to give you my witness that this promise, and every other promise made in these past two days, will be completed according to our willingness to accept the invitation. So, my invitation to you all: Follow the words of the Prophets! You will be blessed more than you could ever imagine! That is a promise :)

Well, I love all of you guys so much! Just for your information, we had transfers last night and nothing changed here! I will be here with Elder Martinez for another 6 weeks at least. I look forward to continuing the work here in Sucre!  I hope that you all have an amazing week!

Elder Wynn

Photos:

Descending into the valley while heading to Marlene's house

A selfi with my compi :)

Visiting the famous black Christ statue here in Sucre

Preparing for General Conference

Hey everyone!

How are you all doing?? Can you believe that it's already October?! I hope that this last week has treated you well and that this next week is even better! As for me, it was a crazy week. We travelled a ton, even going to Potosí for our Zone Conference and it was an amazing experience. President Montoya talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and it was truly amazing :) After returning to our area, the week finished well and I am happy to report that Nicole was baptized this past Saturday. She truly is an amazing girl and I cannot express how happy I am for her :) I'll be sure to keep you updated on how she's doing in the weeks to come :)

Now, let's talk about some other amazing people that we are visiting :) I would like to focus on Marcela, Teresa, and Gregorio. Marcela was a reference from a recently returned missionary and she is amazing. She says that she has gone to many churches and loves reading their pamphlets and other things they give her, but she has started to lose faith in their being a "true church". We loved the opportunity to talk with her and she had many amazing questions. She is very well studied in the Bible. We look forward to seeing how things turn out as we work with Marcela :) Teresa and Gregorio are a lovely couple that we met as we looked for their son, who is a less-active member. We actually found Teresa first, and as we talked with her, she shared that she thought her husband would not be interested in our message. This last week, we met Gregorio for the first time and had the opportunity to teach about the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. Much to the shock of Teresa, Gregorio was very interested and asked many good questions. We look forward to continuing the work with these two amazing people and trying to help them accept this amazing gospel :)

Well, now that I have talked about our work here this week, I want to talk about General Conference. I know that not all of the people on this email list is a member of the Church, so I want to explain real quick. We believe that prophets (Such as Moses, Noah, Abraham, etc.) are not just people that exhisted in ancient times. We believe that we have a living Prophet and Apostles that really do communicate with God and receive revelation for our times. This coming weekend, we will have a General Conference where these men will speak with the whole Church giving us counsel about how to live our lives. Now that I have explained, I want to ask a question: If you heard that Moses (supposing that he were on the Earth today) was coming to give a talk to the world and you had the chance to listen, how excited would you be? How would you prepare yourself to receive what he would say? Well, the amazing question is that this applies. God's chosen representative, President Russell M. Nelson, and the 12 Apostles of Jesus Christ will be talking to the world this weekend. We should be excited! We should prepare ourselves! You better believe that I will be preparing myself spiritually for this experience and I invite you all to do the same. Now, for those of you that are not members, I invite you to take a challenge of mine. I promise that this is the true church. Don't believe me? Well, I promise that if you go into this weekend really wanting to know if this church is true or not, you will know without a doubt if you watch every session. That's a promise for you all.

Well, I hope that you all enjoy General Conference! I love you all and hope that you have an amazing week!

Elder Wynn

Photos:

Saying Hi to Elder Ordoñez, Elder Vergara, and Elder Romero at the Zone Conference!

Falling sleep with my companion on a bus ride to the airport ;)

Nicole's Baptism :)

The Importance of the Spirit

Hey everyone!

How are you doing? Did you have a good week? I hope that life is treating you all well :) As for me, life couldn't be better! Working here in Sucre was amazing this past week, even though we weren't here for half of it. More on the other stuff that went on in a sec :) With our investigators, I would like to mention Nicole and Epson. Nicole is a great investigator that we've been teaching for all my time here. She has progressed amazingly fast and looks forward to being baptized this following Saturday. She has come to church for a LONG time with her friend Abril and just loves it. She is also going to seminary and doing so many other things that just blow us away. We look forward to seeing her be baptized this week :) Epson is an investigator that Elder Martinez found with his last companion here. He loves reading the scriptures, almost scarily so, and just loves learning. This whole transfer, we have been working really hard with him and trying to get him to come to church, but he never could. However, yesterday, he finally came. At first he sat in the back, but then, for the last talk, he walked all the way up to the front row. He loved his first time at church and said he wants to keep coming, so we're really excited to keep working with him :) Well, those are a couple of the people that we are working with here. Now, I would love to talk about the other thing that happened this week. Last week, I was writing from Cochabamba because I was there for a leadership counsel and it was amazing! We got to talk with th Mission President about problems that are going on in the mission and how we can improve. It was amazing :) Now, for my thought, I would love to share a part of what our Mission President shared as his message for us.

He started with John 16 and read a few verses that said that (forgive my crappy translation) it was convenient for us that Christ left. I was shocked by these verses as I had never thought much about that statement. It goes on to say that it is so convenient for us because it would allow the Holy Ghost to descend upon us. This got me thinking: How important is the Spirit? Is He really so important that it is better for us to have Him more than Jesus? After a discussion, we came to the conclusion that yes, the Holy Ghost is even more necessary on the earth than Christ, and here's why: Jesus is amazing, but has a body, meaning, even though He is perfect, that He can only be in one place at a time. He can make an unbelievable change in that one place, but only in that one place. However, the Holy Ghost does not have a body, so he can be in any number of places at once, confirming truth right to our hearts and helping us know whenever anything is true. I feel that often we are not that grateful for the amazing presence that is the Holy Ghost. In this following week, I invite you in your personal study to read about the Holy Ghost and all that he does for us. Then, I invite you to study how to have Him with you in every moment of every day. Then, I invite you to apply that so the Spirit can be with you more often in your lives. I promise you that you will be happier, you will find more success in your daily lives, and that you will feel more guided as you make decisions in your life. That's a promise :)

Well, I love all of you and hope that you have amazing weeks! You are so amazing! Talk to you next week!

Elder Wynn

Eternal Progression

Hey everyone!

How are you doing?? I hope that you are enjoying your September! Can you believe that it's already halfway over?? Well, I hope that this last week has treated you well adn that this next week is even better! As for me, it has been a normally amazing week here in Bolivia :) I continue getting used to Sucre (It has been a STRUGGLE!) but I am loving it more and more every day! Well, I would like to talk about a few of the amazing people here that we are visiting for just a moment. I would like to mention Jordan and Mayra. Jordan is a teenager (17ish) that we just love to visit. He loves learning about Jesus Christ and has so much desire to follow Him. This past week, we were able to talk with him and extend an invitation to be baptized in October. He truly is amazing and I am so happy for the opportunity to know him here in Sucre :) Mayra is a woman that has been familiar with the Church since she was a young girl. She has always loved the Church and was once meeting with the missionaries here in Sucre before she moved to Argentina and completely lost contact. However, she has moved back and a member referred us to visiting her and we have loved the experience. Mayra is someone that loves to learn, especially about God. We look forward to working with her in the weeks that come :)

Well, now that I've talked a bit about my week, I would like to share a small thought :) Here in the mission, there are so many amazing experiences that happen every day, but I would like to talk about one of my favorites. Having a leadership assignment here, I have the great opportunity to give baptismal interviews to amazing people that are making the choice to join the Church. Talking with these people is an unbelievable blessing. As you probably know, there are many standards that one must live inside of this church, and talking with people that have accepted these standards and lived them helps one learn the powerful change that this church brings to the lives of others. I have talked with people that were once drug-addicts or alcoholics. Others have even been imprisoned for some time. However, they all share on thing in common: a desire to change. These people have made the decision to completely abandon their old lives, deciding to live on a higher plane. I have an amazing respect for them and am so grateful for the opportunity to meet them in every interview that I give. And now, an invitation. These people have had to make very big changes in their lives as they have recently grown to know the Church. Many of you are members, and if you are not, you are at least familiar with the Church, and that brings changes. However, I invite you to never think that you have made all of the changes that you will ever have to make. We live in a church of eternal progression, so we need to be trying to improve each and every day. I invite you to think about ways you could improve, maybe as small as daily scripture study or as big as being baptized, because we can ALL make important changes in our lives today.

Well, I love you all and I thank you for your support of me here in Bolivia. I hope that you have an amazing week!

Elder Wynn

Photos:

A Sucre Sunset

A Selfie with my Compi :)

P-day Selfie with my companion and Elder Nelson

Hey everyone!

How are you doing?? Well, I don't have a huge amount of time today because, as you may have noticed, I'm writing on Tuesday instead of Monday. We went to the Uyuni salt flats as a zone yesterday and it was amazing! Well, quick update on the work here in Sucre. Our investigators are progressing alright and we have been happy to find more new investigators as well. We look forward to Nicole's baptism in a couple weeks and a couple others should follow as well. We have a lot of work to do here in Sucre. Well, I just want to share a quick thought with you all before I go. Yesterday, I once again had the opportunity to go to the Uyuni salt flats and it was once again a breath-taking experience. It is honestly so beautiful and impossible to describe. As many of you know, I am a HUGE fan of nature and love seeing beautiful desplays of God's creations. I honestly believe that we can experience the Spirit in such beautiful power as we take time to enjoy the beauty of the Earth. I invite all of you this week to take a day and make time to wake up early, go to a beautiful place, and watch the sunrise. I testify that this world is a work of divine creation and that the Spirit of God can be felt with special power as we look to appreciate what we have been given.

Well, I love all of you guys and hope that you have an amazing week!

Elder Wynn

Pictures:

Enjoying the Uyuni sunset with my companion, Elder Martinez

A fun pic at the train cemetery

A panoramic of the amazing Uyuni sunset :)

Crazy Changes

Hey everyone!

How are you all doing?? I can't believe that we are already in September! Time is FLYING! Well, I am now officially in Sucre, and it is WAY different than my other areas. It is a very large city and I honestly feel completely lost when we leave the house. I am hoping to learn my way around quickly, but we'll have to see, it is a huge area and a very confusing city for me. Luckily, I have an amazing companion! He is from Paraguay and his name is Elder Martinez. He is a great missionary that works hard and is also super funny. I really look forward to continuing working with him :) This last week we have mostly been looking for new investigators, but I have also had the opportunity to meet a few of the long time investigators here as well. I would like to introduce you all to Nicole, Epson, and Karina. Nicole is a friend of a young member here and is amazing. She has come to church every Sunday for many weeks and has also expressed a desire to be baptized. I look forward to working with her :) Epson and Karina are a couple that is absolutely amazing. Elder Martinez found them a couple weeks ago and they just LOVE to learn. They love reading the scriptures and have many, many great questions. It will be amazing to keep answering their questions and helping them progress. I really look forward to it :)

Well, now that I've talked about a few of the people that we are teaching, I would love to give a small thought that come right from the craziness here. This past week, with the new area, new responsibilities, etc. here, I have found myself really overwhelmed. There have been several moments that I have just been so confused, stressed, and frustrated that I have had no idea what to do. As hard as these moments are, they truly are the best moments to learn and grow. I have learned a lot about myself (mostly about how much of a big stress ball that I am ;), but even more important, I learned a lot about our Heavenly Father. We often say that God is always there to help us, but much less often are the times that we feel the absolute truth of this statement in it's full beauty. I have felt his comfort in these stressful times and have also seen his hand in helping me in these new adjustments. I have a new appreciation for prayer. I now invite all of you that are going through hard or difficult times to drop on your knees and ask for the help that you need. He truly does listen to you. He truly does give us what we need. He can strengthen you and help you through whatever you are doing. We truly can "do all things through Christ." I testify to all of these things and invite you to ask for any help that you might need. I promise that He will help you. Yes or yes :)

Well, I will now get back to work here in Sucre! I look forward to continuing to work with Elder Martinez in this amazing city with all of its amazing people! I love you all and hope that you have an amazing week!

Elder Wynn

Selfie in the Airport with Elder Martinez!

Watching the sunrise at the airport while waiting for a plane to take off

A great Bolivian dish! Fricasé! A spicy soup with chuño, móte, and beef! So good!

I hope that you enjoy the pics! Love you!

Love,

Elder Wynn