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 ;)

The Power of The Book of Mormon

Hey everybody!

How have you all been? All stuffed with turkey and potatoes I presume? I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving and just a great week in general! Sadly, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here, but it's okay, it was a good week! After a rather frustrating few weeks with baptisms falling through, I was finally able to enjoy my first baptism of the mission. I talked about it last week, but her name is Maria and she is amazing! She has been being taught by the missionaries for several months and she has expressed a great desire to one day serve a mission herself. I cannot express how amazing it was to take somebody to the waters of baptism. My companion, Elder Romero, performed the baptism and I did the confirmation, and we are just so happy for her! Our other principal investigators right now are Liz, Daniel, and the Limón Family. Liz still has not received permission from her father to be baptized, but we are still working with her and hoping that someday she will have the opportunity. With Daniel, we are super excited because he committed to a new baptismal date! It was originally this Saturday, but because of elections here, we cannot do it then, so it will be the following Saturday, but nonetheless, super happy for him! Finally, the Limón Family. This family has all the desire in the world to come to church and learn more, but they have just been bombarded with trials right now. I would like to ask all of you to keep them in your prayers because they are amazing, but the wife is currently in the hospital with pain of unknown origin and they are struggling with several other problems as well. Right now, we're just trying to be there for them and help them where we can. We love them and are hoping for the best. Besides investigators, we had another normal, but spectacular week of work. And, on Wednesday nights, Elder Estes (one of my zone leaders from Las Vegas) and I are teaching English classes! So, we're working hard, I get to teach some English, looking forward to another baptism in the near future, and all is truly just so good! Along with all this, I personally had a really cool experience and would like to center my thought on it today. This past week, I had the amazing opportunity to finish the Book of Mormon for the first time in my mission. Though I had done it a couple of times before, this was really the first time I truly dove in and studied the book from start to finish. As many of you know, the book finishes with a powerful testimony by Moroni, challenging everyone to read the Book of Mormon, ponder on what it says, and then pray to know that it is true. Well, though I felt that I knew already that the Book of Mormon is true, I finished, gave myself time to ponder, and then entered my room and prayed to receive a confirmation of the truthfulness of the book. Now, I want to give you all my firm testimony that I know that the Book of Mormon is a true book and that it truly contains the fulness of the everlasting gospel. Because of this, I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that the church that was established through him is God's true church upon the face of the Earth. The Book of Mormon has power that is impossible to describe. Many of us have had this book close to us all of our lives, but my question is, have you truly studied it? If yes: Keep doing what you're doing! You're awesome! If no: Don't worry, you can start now! My challenge to you all is to truly take your study of the Book of Mormon to the next level. If you have never read it cover to cover, do it! If you have read it a hundred times, awesome! Do it again! My promise to you all is that if you read the Book of Mormon and ponder on its teachings, then ask in prayer to your Heavenly Father if it is true, you will receive an answer. I am here to tell you that it is true and that if you have doubts about the book or about the church in general, read the Book of Mormon and ask in faith. I promise you that your doubts will leave and you will receive an undeniable testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am so honored to represent this Church and Jesus Christ here in Bolivia and I want you all to know that I know without a doubt that this church is true. Well, you guys are the best and I love you all! If you have any questions about the things that I'm doing here in Bolivia, don't be afraid to send me an email! I will do my best to respond. Love you all and hope that you have amazing weeks!

Elder Wynn

The Beauty of These the Latter Days

Hey everybody!

Did you guys just have the most amazing past week? I hope so! My week has been pretty spectacular here in Quillacollo! With our investigators, we had an awesome week and were able to contact many new investigators to begin teaching. I am often amazed by the willingness of the Bolivian people to listen to two strange, young people that knock on their door. Of the new people that we contacted this past week, we are most excited for the Limón Family. We contacted them on Thursday, taught them on Saturday, they had a family problem Sunday morning, so they couldn't come to church, but they came to an awesome choir activity in the afternoon. We are SUPER excited for them because they have a true desire to learn and they are eager to go to church this upcoming week. Hopefully they'll continue to progress! With our investigators that we have been working with for some time, we sadly had to cancel both the baptisms for this past week. Liz finally talked to her father to ask permission, and he gave a very clear and stern "No." We'll continue to work with her and continue to hope and pray for a change of heart because Liz is absolutely amazing and I really hope that she can have the opportunity to be baptized because she REALLY wants to. Daniel's baptism was canceled at his own personal request, not because he doesn't want to be baptized, but because he doesn't feel worthy or ready for this step. We love him and are working really hard with him because we know he has the desire, now we just need to help him feel ready for this amazing step. Though we had these two baptisms fall through, we do have another lined up for this coming Saturday. A 17 year old named Maria who really wants to be baptized and all we have been waiting for with her is the rule of three times attending church. This past Sunday she attended for the third time, so she should be baptized this Saturday! Our hopes are high for her! I want to ask a favor of all of you: Could you keep these three and the Limón Family in your prayers for me? There are absolutely amazing and could use all the help possible, so if you could keep Liz, Daniel, Maria, and the Limón Family in your prayers I would greatly appreciate it :) So, other than investigators this week, I had the amazing opportunity to attend the temple for the first time here in Bolivia. It is such a blessing to have a temple so close to my area so that we can literally take public transportation for less than an hour to reach the temple. I love going to the temple and I cannot express how great it was to finally be able to go after a little less than two months, and because of this, I would like to focus my thought today on the temple. How amazing is it that we have so many temples in Utah and in the United States in general? How cool is it that we can often drive for under an hour (usually less) and enter one of the Lord's holy temples? Now the sad question: How many of us take advantage of it? Here in Bolivia, there is just one temple, in Cochabamba. Sure, I have rather easy access to it, but I have been thinking, what about those that don't live close to the temple? For many, the opportunity to go to the temple is an incredibly rare experience, not because of lack of desire, but because of lack of opportunity. Contrast that with the United States. Many of us have multiple temples close to our homes, but we do not go. In these the beautiful latter days, we have been blessed with many temples, but we do not search out the time to go. So, my challenge to you is to go to the temple regularly. I know that you have busy lives and think that you may not have time, but before you make that excuse, think on the people of Bolivia. These people may only be able to go to the temple one time in their whole lives, and it is such a delight to them. Take advantage of the great opportunity it is to live close to a temple, and make the time to go this week. Make it a habit because you can, and I promise that you will feel the difference in your every day lives. I love all of you and hope that you have amazing weeks! If you have any questions about my adventures here, feel free to email me! You guys are the best!

Elder Wynn 

Perseverar Hasta el Fin

Hey everyone!

How are you doing? Are you all surviving? Enjoying life? Working hard? All of the above?! I hope so! This past week was awesome! Going to be honest, nothing really crazy happened, but just a great week of working hard and enjoying the mission. Of our investigators right now, we are continuing to work really hard with two, Daniel and Liz, and they should both be baptized this Saturday! We were actually hoping that Liz would be baptized this past Saturday, but, turns out, she didn't talk with her dad to get permission to be baptized. So, we had to push it back a week, and she was really sad, but if she talks with her dad and gets permission, she will be baptized this Saturday and she is super excited! With Daniel, he just continues to be amazing. He has only been meeting with the missionaries for just over a month and has already taken all the steps to be baptized. Super excited for them both! With exception of those two, we have been blessed with many other investigators and one of them, Araceli Angulo, accepted a baptismal invitation this week! We are super excited for her and really just super excited for all of our investigators because, as I think I have mentioned before, the people of Bolivia are honestly just the best! I'm loving the opportunity to work with them and share this beautiful gospel with them. Now, I'm just going to share some awesome things about Bolivia with you guys so you can feel jealous and want to move here. Everything is SO cheap. I bought 25 bananas here for 6 Bolivianos the other day (7 Bolivianos is 1 Dolar). There are little stores (tiendas) on every street where you can buy just about all the groceries you could need. Everything comes in bags, and I mean everything. Juice, milk, soup, food, etc. All in bags. Don't know why that makes Bolivia better, but it just does :) Honestly, I just love Bolivia; the food, the culture, the people, everything! Now that I've given you a little snapshot of my week and why Bolivia is so awesome, I will now give my thought for the week. This one comes from my personal study this past week. I am VERY close to finishing the Book of Mormon here and I am so excited, but I always find myself quite sad as I finish, not because I'm about to finish, but because of where the story goes. For those needing a little refresher, Jesus Christ visits the ancient people of ancient America and establishes His church among them, and a couple hundred years of peace and joy follow this experience. However, after only a couple hundred years, the people become very wicked all over again, and, eventually, all the righteous, with exception of Moroni, are killed by the wicked. This people literally saw Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, and descended into wickedness in only a matter of a couple hundred years. This is unbelievably sad, but there is an important pattern that we can pull from it and apply to our lives. It is said in these chapters that the first thing that began to lead them to their unrighteousness was their pride, which came from all of their many blessings that they had received. Pride is unbelievably powerful and I am here to tell you now to beware of pride, or glorifying yourself above your God. Remember, the people of Nephi saw Jesus Christ and they were able to fall away because of pride. How much easier would it be for us, those who have not been visited personally by Christ, to fall away if we are not strengthening ourselves daily in the church? This is what we teach as the theme of Perseverar Hasta el Fin, or Endure to the End. I counsel you all that if you are not DAILY strengthening yourself in scriptures and prayer, you should start today, so you can remember your God and keep from being lifted up in pride. This is the way to be truly happy and receive that which we all want: Eternal Life in happiness. You guys are the best! I hope that you all have amazing weeks and if you have any questions for me, feel free to send me an email and I promise to do my best to respond. Love you all and bid you farewell till next week. ¡Hasta luego!

Elder Wynn