Mi familia y amigos

What a fun week! We had a great lesson with Lisa. She is awesome and is a golden investigator. She would be such a valuable asset to the Branch. She has such a wonderful testimony of service and loves to be involved in the community. The only issue is that Her mother is holding her back. Lisa has a younger brother who is looked down on by her family and she doesn't want them to do that same to her by Her joining the Church. But she knows it's true and she wants it really bad. She is just stuck. And she even admits to us that she has a hard time keeping commitments. She said "Can't you just come back after my mom passes away and then I can join the church?" I thought that was pretty funny. She understands how monumental the Book of Mormon and the restoration are. She just needs to take a leap of faith and then the rest of her life (including her family relationships) will all fall into place. So I hope she can get past that. She needs the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. Does anyone have any advice? 

We had a great zone training on Thursday where we talked about covenants and what that means. And we also talked a little about the sacrament. So I wanted to share with you my thoughts and insights about the sacrament. It really opened up my eyes. Church leaders have said that when we take the sacrament we renew all covenants we have entered into with the Lord. Not just the baptismal covenant. I didn't know that!! How awesome. So I can literally start my mission over every week. I can say, ok Heavenly Father, I didn't do my best this week. But I promise that if you forgive me I will do my very best this week to fulfill my purpose. What a blessing. The Savior can take off my name tag that bares his name once a week and then He can put it on again like it's the first time. SO I don't have to dwell on the mistakes I made three months ago. I can look ahead and say ok I'm forgiven, now what can I do to push the work forward and to lengthen my stride. Anyways, the meaning of the sacrament hit me so hard and I have been taking the opportunity to take the sacrament for granted lately. I am so grateful
for it. I am grateful that I can renew my covenants and start fresh. What a wonderful feeling. 

We also talked about opening our mouths. And opening my mouth is something that has  come very forcefully into my mind at different times on my mission do far. Some weeks I think.. o.k. no investigators. I need to make  a goal to talk to atleast 10 people a day. And then some weeks we are doing pretty good so I neglect opportunities to talk to people. But we did a pretty good job this week. After zone training we drove back to Manchester and went to the Window Walk that they have every year here. We handed out pass along cards to people on the street. Talked with lots and lots of people and drank some hot chocolate at the same time. It was pretty sweet. I loved it. Anyways, it was just great to be able to go apply what we learned earlier in the day. I loved it. 

On Saturday Elder MacDonald and I had to do a lot of finding. And we had thought about where to go and we walked... in the freezing cold to Howard street. Nothing was really going our way so we left for a little bit and then Elder MacDonald was like... o.k. we need to go back. So we did and in five minutes we set up 2 appointments. Got a referral and contacted the referral and met a former investigator. It was sweet. And it was awesome to see the spirit work through Elder MacDonald like it did. It was great day. 

I love you all so much. Thanks for all that you do and all of your hard work and dedication to the Lord. Please keep pushing forward. I know that the Lord answers our prayers and Ipray for you all.

Love always,
Elder Caleb James Wardle

I love you all so much

This week was great. We had a great Thanksgiving out here in Manchester! We first ate at the Weber's who have like 10 kids and the Bockensteads came as well. Brother Bockenstead is the first councilor in the Branch presidency and the Ward mission Leader. They have a great family. The  Weber's have a barn with a hay loft and in the hay loft they have a basketball court. So we got to play some ball which was awesome! The day before Thanksgiving we helped Borther Weber split some wood and I was soooo cold. But once we were doing it for about an hour I felt a whole lot better. The Weber's have 3 Foster children. And Julio is about to turn 8 so the East Elder's will be teaching him. But He looks exactly like Tony just a little bit older. And He acts like him too. It made me miss him so much. We played some sweet basketball together. He was on my team and I would pass it to him and then guard for him and He would make it every time. It was sweet. The Webers are amazing. I figured out at Church that just about everyone in the branch is a convert... It's incredible. These little towns in Iowa are really growing in regards to membership in  the church. It's awesome. The Branch will be ward soon. They just need 120 more members and they are set! aha. I love it out here though. Elder MacDonald and I get a long super well. We love serving together. It's the greatest, He is such a funny guy. We seriously could have been best friends in High School. He loves to work hard too. And He wants to be exactly obedient with me which is a good attribute to have in a new missionary. well in regards to the missionary work, We have been contacting a lot of the less actives and former investigators that are in our area book. We taught a 75 year old man named brother Ledjte who was baptized in 2001 a little about the importance of coming to church. We hope to get him reactivated and hope that he can feel the spirit as He strives to come back. He has lung cancer though and He has a hard time sitting through 3 hours of church. Plus He lives a half hour away and He can;t drive. So we have some hurdles to jump over. We have a lesson with lisa Sifrit tonight. Lisa was going to be baptized about a month and a half ago but she is afraid of Her family and how they will think of her. So we need to bare testimony about putting our trust in the Lord and knowing that He will always be there for us! Once we get more investigators and are teaching more these emails will be a little longer. but for now, I love you all. Please always remember that you have a Savior Jesus Christ who atoned for your sins. Use his grace. Puch forward. Enable his power. And I promise you that things will fall into place. I love and miss you all. 

Elder Caleb James Wardle

Family and Friends

My new address is

208 Seeley St.

Manchester, IA 52057

I had a great week. Tuesday night we got to teach the Cooper's and set # baptismal dates with the husband wife and son in the family. So that was sweet. And then transfers were awesome. I got my first boy Elder Macdonald. I will send pictures. We like the same things which is sweet. We listen to the same kind of music and we both love soccer. And we both play the drums. He grew up in Vegas which is sweet and He is almost 20. SO that's a little weird since I'm older than him. But it's going to be fun. I feel bad because opening a new area is really really tough and so we are starting off absolutely fresh. So we don't have anywhere to draw from. So training him might be a little different than what we expect. So I'm in Manchester IA. Same stake as Serving in Cedar Rapids. In fact my area touches my last area boundary wise so that's pretty sweet. Manchester has a small branch of about 60 active people. Including children. Our building is tiny. It's insane. Practically everyone in the branch is a convert to the church as well. So it should be a lot different. There is a Wal-Mart though which is good.  We get the west half of the area and the other Elders (Elder Wood and Elder Davis) will be on the East side. Our area includes Independence which has about 14 less active families. So we plan on doing a bunch of work out there. The only problem we have run into is that we don't have a car... So that's going to be rough. We have to share with the other Elders. And they are out in Dyersville about twice a week. Which is about 25 miles from Manchester and Independence is the same distance away but in a completely opposite direction. So we really have to coordinate our lessons and our plans with each other which is going to be hard. Anyways, we are looking forward to finding some investigators and teaching those who are less active out Independence. It's been kind of a rough start though. But things will get better. 

We are living with an older couple named the Christensen's. They are so sweet. The cleaned out there basement for us and we have a pretty sweet set up. A pretty tiny room with a washer and dryer in it. And then we have a pretty nasty fridge that we had to clean out but it runs. The best part is the view though. There is a sweet pond that's frozen over outside the house and there is like 2,000 geese. they get pretty loud at times though. One morning we woke up to 3 deer just roaming around down there. It's awesome. I have been to feel the spirit well as I study. I'll take a break and just look out at the beautiful scenery. I still hate being in the snow and cold... but I do like to look at it. Brother Christensen is so great. His conversion story is amazing. He went from being drunk all the time and smoking five packs a day to being sober for 33 years and basically a grandpa to me. I love him to death. He has great stories. We study scriptures together every night for about a half hour too which is great. So I am now in the Cedar Falls Zone. Elder Aiasau from the Sycamore ward back home is my Zone Leader. He is so sick. I love him to death. Every time he sees me he says "Elder Wardle, my Manteca Brotha!!" He's great. We spent the night at there place last night because Elder Wood has to get his leg checked out and the zone leaders wanted to meet Elder Macdonald. So we drove down last night which was sweet. We woke to a bunch of snow this morning. Like a ton. 

Anyways, I hope you are all doing wonderful. I have been thinking a lot lately about Christlike attributes and how we develop them. Then in Gospel Principles class we had a lesson on talents. And it really hit the spot. I learned that the Lord wants us more so to develop our attributes that make us more heavenly rather than the skills that in the World's eyes are more important. I hope to continue to strengthen myself in all of the christlike attributes of Heaven. I love the Book of Mormon. President Johnson (The Branch president) asked me to bare a five minute testimony on the Book of Mormon. And it was probably a little bit longer than that. But I was glad the branch was able to see our faces and get to recognize that Elder Macdonald and I are truly servants of the Lord. I love the Book of Mormon so much. I don't think I had a testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ until I read the Book of Mormon. It's helped me so much. What a blessing it is to have another witness of him. I love it. I'm so grateful that we have it. It has strengthened my family so much. And I wouldn't have it any other way. I love you all. Keep praying for Elder Macdonald and I. We need it. Keep your head up. And just think about how cold it is here in Iowa. And maybe you will feel better :) 

Love Always, 

Elder Caleb James Wardle

Family and Friends

This week has been a really fantastic one! We woke up and soon after got a call from President Jensen. I's being transferred and I have been asked to open up a new area as well as train a new missionary. So I am super nervous and excited about that. Besides that excitement, we had a lot of new opportunities to teach this week as well. Elder Jackson and I went on exchanges and we found a guy named Stephen in the area book who we contacted. We set up an appointment for the following day. Stephen is ridiculously smart. So smart that it almost hurts him. He knows a lot about science and the early history of our church so he has run into a lot of anti mormon literature that dwindles his ability to understand the way we want him too. We have tried to help him understand that praying is the key to knowing the Book of Mormon to be true. He understands how important it is though. he said the B.O.M is probably the most important document ever. Either it is truth and everyone needs to know about it or it has lead 15 million people astray. So we asked him if he had a spiritual witness of the validity of the Book of Mormon if he would be baptized. and he said that it would be enough for him and he would still have to study it all historically and scientifically as well. The lesson that Elder jackson and I taught him was the most intense lesson I have ever been in. the entire time I was thinking... WOW!  What are we going to do. We set up another appointment to see him on Friday and Elder Tanner and I went over there and the same thing happened...WOW! It was awesome. So intense and the spirit played a massive role. In D&C 100:5-8 it promises us that we shall not be confounded before men. And I'll tell you that the spirit literally was speaking for me. It was amazing. 

We also met a family who was a referral form the ward over named the Coopers. Roe Cooper (the father) has a had a past of gang violence and a lot of other criminal things. But he understands that he needs to do better. he wants to be baptized but doesn't want to be a hypocrite if he does. So he wants to make sure he's done smoking and drinking for sure before he does anything. But He knows the church is true. Anyways, it was just an amazing week. And I really felt the Spirit. I look forward to training this next transfer and to opening up a new area. It should be fun! I love you all. pray for me extra hard this week as this is new for me and I need all the help I can get. I love you all so much!

Elder Caleb James Wardle

Friends and Family

Wow. I really felt you prayers this week. We had a rough start. But things got a whole lot better when the weekend came! We fasted on Sunday and decided to go finding until we found a potential investigator or someone who was interested in hearing our message. So we did. And right as we were going to go home with no success, we saw a lady raking leaves and we decided to ask her if we could help. So we did. And later we realized that we had actually knocked on her door earlier and she wasn't interested. But she said we could help her. And she actually said that she had been praying for someone to help her because she has a bad back and we were an answer to her prayer. We talked about a lot of different things. And her religion came up and she said that she spoke in tongues. So of course, like my curious self I asked her more about it and asked her if she could do it for us... and she did... and it made me feel really gross and weird. AHA. We talked to her about what our belief is about the gift of tongues and how the Spanish missionaries in our ward have it and that the MTC is the fastest place to learn a language and she was really fascinated with that. So that was pretty interesting. But we went back the next day which was Saturday and finished the service we were doing and she said she wasn't interested in learning but she did give us her number and some cookies so we will stop in and see her again. Hopefully something can come from it. Later though, we went to see the Dutton's. brother Dutton doesn't come to church because of his MS and so we go and see him weekly. his son Cody is 17 and hasn't been baptized. But we had the chance to teach the Restoration really quickly to him and we invited him to be baptized and he said yes! So we now have an investigator! But it's going to take a lot of work to get his dad and his mother who was baptized a year and a half ago to church so that they can support Cody. Anyways, I really want you all to know that I love you so much. I pray for each of you.
I hope you know that. Things are looking up for elder Tanner and I. Transfers arenext Thursday so we will see if we still get to be together or what will happen! Keep your head up and keep pushing forward. i love you all. Stay warm. It snowed here yesterday and it's terrible!

Love Always,

Elder Caleb James Wardle

Family and Friends

This week was tough. Again. Elder Tanner has been taking things a little harder than I have been though since he is the senior companion and all. But I don't blame him. People have just been canceling on us like crazy. Which stinks and gets us really stressed. Anyways, we hope to find people to teach soon. 

The members are doing so great. We teach five families on a weekly basis about how to become better missionaries and they absorb it so well. It's amazing. Everyone has been inviting and they have all been super stoked about everything we teach and about becoming better. They all want miracles. And I know that if we put our faith in the lord we get there. It's been awesome to see them all progress. Hopefully we can teach someone. Elder Tanner and I sometimes get frustrated because we go spirit finding and then doors are closed on us. And then we will be doing something and talk to someone and they will accept the message. And we get their address and they end up being in a different set of missionaries area. We just referred a girl named Katrina to the zone leaders and now she is a new investigator. which means she accepted the invitation to baptism. and the BorBor family was baptized recently and elder tanner and elder Berthold found them too. But they weren't in our area. So our prayers are being answered because we ask the Lord to bring us to those who are ready. And He does. We just don't get to teach them. so it's a little bit rough. But as long as we are inviting others to come unto Christ we are fulfilling our purpose.

Bishop Dupree has been feeding elder Tanner and I every night because Elder tanner was told by missionary medical that he needed to gain 100 pounds... so we've been trying. And Bishop kind of took that upon himself and is now feeding us every night. And it's great for elder Tanner... terrible for me... 

But I do love you all and I hope for the best for each and everyone of you. keep praying and keep reading your scriptures. I feel your prayers. I truly do. And I thank you for everything that you have done for me. Stay strong. and remember to look up :)

Love,

Elder Wardle

Family and Friends

This week was a little rougher. We had a bunch of appointments set up and had a goal of setting 3 baptismal dates and we did all we could, but we actually didn't meet with any investigators this week. So that was somewhat discouraging. But Elder Tanner and I have really been focusing on how we measure our success. As long as we are working hard and inviting others to come unto Christ we are successful. So we are happy and content with how things are going. We will work extra hard this week to get things rolling. We have so many people that are so ready. They are just so busy and can hardly find the time to meet with us. We were planning on giving Laurie a church tour and resetting her baptismal date and she fell through. Anthony hasn't gotten back with us for sometime. And we didn't get a chance to meet with Robin Foster either. But we do have several reasons to be happy. The members we are working with are inviting! It took them four weeks but each of them are doing what they are supposed to now which is great. We have 6 potential investigators who we are planning on inviting to baptism. And we still have the gospel and we know it's true. Plus we have amazing families back home to support us. Elder Tanner and I are really getting a long great. He loves to sing. I love to sing. He's a dork. Im a dork. He wants to work hard. I want to work hard. We did have a cool experience on Wednesday that I would like to share. So the Zone Leaders gave us a little bit of there area so that we could do finding around where we live so that we don't waste time walking to Robins and back. Which is a two hour walk by the way. But so we had a whole day of finding to do. No appointments set up, and we prayed about where we should go. And at first we were thinking we go find in our new area that we were given but Elder Tanner thought we should go to Robins so he invited me to pray and I did and we both felt the same. So that's where we went. And we also decided to fast as well. And the second door we knocked on we met a girl named maggie who is coming to church this upcoming Sunday and is willing to meet with us as well. So that was a big testimony builder as well. We are beginning to see things happen here. Miracles are coming. It's going to be a great week. I love you all. Keep your heads up and keep loving the lord. He will bless you. 

Love,

Elder Wardle