Super good week (12-8-2014)

Hello Family :) This week has been super good. We fasted yesterday for the stake of goal of 72 baptisms. And really felt the Spirit as we fasted. I'm so happy to serving in Fairfield for another two transfers. Things couldn't be better. We had a ward Christmas party last night! And there were probably 20 people who weren't affiliated with the church there! Our ward is amazing! Everyone is inviting and sharing the gospel like crazy. I love serving here. Right now our biggest prospect for baptism is Virgilia. She is so great! She is super involved with everything and we love sitting down and meeting with her. She has made so much progress and is striving to her very best to be baptized on the 20th of December. The only issue that we are running into is that she needs to quit smoking. And as far as we know Saturday was the last time she had smoked so as of right now she is good to go. So hopefully she hasn't since then. It seems as if she is doing well though. She is so cool! We are so excited for her. So please pray that she has the strength to stop. 

Teri and Justin are doing ok. Teri's daughters boyfriend just got out of jail and moved back in with them, and has been causing a lot of problems to due his alcohol abuse. He has threaten to take the kids away and other stuff when he is drunk and it's just a dumb situation. I probably would have called the cops by now. Who knows. Maybe she has. We will probably end up moving Teri's date back to the 27th of December. Hopefully we can get her done smoking. And Justin can definitely be baptized by the end of the year as well. So we will see what happens. Hopefully things go well. 

Elder Belliston and I have also been teaching a Messianic Jew named Jamie. She is awesome. Super good knowledge of the bible and of spiritual things. She believes that Jesus is the Savior and that baptism is essential, but she also still practices the law of Moses. I'm not 100% sure how that all works but she is striving to come to know that the Book of Mormon is true. So we will see how things go from there :) Hopefully she can gain an answer and let the Spirit truly teach what is right :)

Other than that we really aren't teaching anyone else. I have been thinking a lot lately about the importance of the Spirit. And I've come to believe that no matter what, if on my mission I have tried to lead to people to gain testimony of certain principles so that they would see why baptism is important (Priesthood Authority, Joseph Smith being a prophet ETC) when truly the most powerful thing that I have been able to invite someone to do is to ask God if this is the path for them. That;s powerful. IT puts all other things aside, and helps them gain the strongest relationship that they can with Father in Heaven. When God speaks, people listen. And if our ultimate goal is for people to enter into the waters of baptism then the only thing we have to do is help people have an experience where Father in Heaven can testify to them that he truly does want them to enter into a covenant with Him. And the best way that we can do that, is by having them gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. Because if it is true. Then they will know that they need to be baptized. And that is huge. 

I testify that the Savior lives. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. I have been taught those things by the Spirit of the Lord. And that's all that matters. The Spirit can withstand any thing else. It;s amazing. I love this work and I love the Lord. I testify that participating in the work of salvation can bring us out of the rutts and bumps that life can bring. It will save us :) 

I love you all. 

Elder Caleb James Wardle

I'm Staying!! (12-1-2014)

Family :) I am staying here in Fairfield :) Hooray! That means I will be here at least another two transfers since Elder Belliston goes home in January. It will be the longest I have served in one area and I am so stoked because this ward is absolutely amazing. And I love the people so much! I think most of all I just love the feeling that is here. The missionary work is blossoming and the zone that I have had the chance to be a leader of is full of some of the best missionaries this world has ever seen. I'm sure of that. And I love them so much. They are all super stellar and have been so diligent in sharing the testimony that God has given them of His son Jesus Christ. They aren't afraid, because they know it's true. This week our lessons were low. We taught 9 all together when we are usually around 17 or so. But the blessings this week have just been so intense. And I couldn't ask for more. 

To start off, we had the privilege of finding a brand new couple to teach this week. Since February of this year, the missionaries in this area have found at least one new investigator a week. And Elder Brooks and I were able to keep that streak going due to the hand of the Lord and Elder Belliston and I have as well. But this week was rough. We were super busy and didn't have time to knock a single door. We went to both district meetings and Thanksgiving kind of got in our way of proselyting and so last night we were just desperate to find someone new to teach. But, we had two meetings in Iowa City to go to right after church and then a dinner with the Bishop and an investigator named Virgilia at 7. So we were booked! But amazingly we got out of the Bishop's house by 8:30 and were out knocking some apartments. Well, we knocked and knocked and knocked but no one really came. And we had five minutes before 9 oclock when we had to be inside. (The rule is you have to be in by 9 unless you are in an appointment, in which case you can stay out till 9:30) so we needed someone to let us in quick! Well we finished knocking an apartment complex and decided that we would go kocnk some houses right next door since we didn't really have time to drive somewhere. So, we headed away from the complex to try a couple of doors, and we just look ed at each other and said "Where are we supposed to be?" And then the name of a potential investigator that Elder Brooks and I had found like 2 months ago popped in my head. And we hadn't seen her for that long either... So who knows? maybe she won't be interested still. But we only have five minutes! Well, it felt right so we decided to go. We pulled up to the apartment complex and Sammy's windows were dark. But we tried anyways. And sure enough she let us in! And her boyfriend was there and we taught him as well. The Lord gave us two new investigators last night instead of one because we exercised our faith. It was amazing. We got of there and Elder Belliston and I just kept saying over and over again, that was so cool! What just happened? And things like that. Holy Cow. The Spirit was so strong. And we were pumped. I know that the Lord guides us in this work. And when we have righteous desires and work hard to share what we have, the Lord provides a way. 

Another miracle: Virgilia has been progressing very nicely. And we had a lesson with her last Tuesday about the Plan of Salvation. And it was amazing. She start to remember the pre-mortal and life with God. And she remembered hearing about the plan. Oh man! It was incredible! That lesson was insane. We just felt the Spirit so strong! And so did she! At the end she started talking about her kids serving missions and sharing the gospel and about how excited she was for her baptism. Well, later in the week she told her mom about her baptism. And her mom said she was fine with her being baptized as long as she did her research. And she did. On you tube! The worst place to research the truth about the Book of Mormon and the temple! aha. So at church on Sunday she has tons of questions. Racism against African Americans and the Priesthood. Polygamy. Becoming Gods and Goddesses. Free Masonry and the temple. Anyways, it was a great lesson! She really responded with a wonderful spirit. There was no contention she just really wanted to know what was true and what wasn't. So we explained everything as best as we could and separated fact from fiction. It was awesome! And the Spirit was so strong. Her biggest concern was that her daughter (who is half black) would be growing up in a chair where she couldn't blossom because of racism. And I had the opportunity to bare wonderful testimony of what the church has done for my family, specifically about being sealed in a wonderful interracial family with my main man Tony. And the Spirit was so strong. Tony isn't any different than any of the other kids at church because he looks different. And I love him. He is my brother. The Spirit was strong. Just as it has always been around him, and with things pertaining to his salvation. The day he was sealed to our family. his adoption. And his soon to be baptism :) How amazing. I love this gospel because of what it has done for my family. In no other faith could there have been Priesthood Authority exercised so that Anthony could become a Wardle forever. I love this Gospel and I love all of you so much. 

Merry Christmas! http://www.mormon.org/christmas

I love you all! 

Elder Caleb James Wardle

Super Blessed :) (11-24-2014)

Family,

This week has been absolutely incredible. Just full of wonderful miracles and blessings. Things seem to be just taking off. Our stake consists of two zones. And we need a total of 19 more baptisms before the end of the year to reach our goal of 72. So we are fasting and praying and working hard. Currently in our zone we have 11 on date for the end of the year. So if all those souls enter into the waters of baptism we will be well on our way. And the other zone is doing great work and we are in contact with the Zone Leaders there. It's interesting how we all have to work together. In bigger news, Crispin Zapata was baptized on Saturday. Elder Brooks and began teaching him, then Elder Belliston came and we taught him once or twice. We found out eventually that he lived on the North Side of town. But we were pretty involved in his conversion. And he asked me to baptism him and then on Sunday I confirmed him as well. What a wonderful miracle. Crispin is a stellar guy. 23. And just doing his best to follow God. He actually has a dream where his brother who passed away came to him and told him to get his act together and that his meeting with missionaries was the right thing. So he was baptized. What a miracle. The service was great and the Spirit was really strong. 

We had three investigators at church this week, Virgilia came to church again this Sunday. And she felt the Spirit super strong. Brianna (a recent convert) gave a talk and she really felt the spirit as she spoke. It was amazing. Virgilia then came to gospel principles and couldn't stop answering questions and talking about how much she loves the church. What a miracle. It's wonderful to see people feel the Spirit. We went over last night with a member and she is really starting to believe. the only thing that would stop us from entering into a covenant with her Father in Heaven is her attachment to her current church. So hopefully we can help her gain a testimony. 

Justin and his mother Terri also came to church. Terri is really feeling the Spirit. She said that the musical number that the choir performed really touched her. So hopefully good things come. She also kicked her bf out! That was awesome! So she is pretty serious about all of this. hopefully things continue to progress with her and Justin. We are super excited for all of the wonderful things that are happening. We found a couple of new investigators this week, and I had an opportunity to go to Ottumwa on exchanges. Sometimes it feels like I am out of my area more than I am in it. Oh well. It;s been really cool to be a part of a bunch of people's conversions rather than just a few. And seeing other ares of the mission are super cool as well. I know most of the members in Ottumwa so it's almost like I have served there. Pretty cool!

I love being a missionary. It truly is one of the best experiences I will ever have in my life. Learning on my mission has been really interesting. I guess I have tried to focus on simple things. Rather than big deep doctrines of the gospel that ultimately don;t matter for my salvation and the salvation for others. And I have basically just been learning the principles that we learn in primary over and over again. Elder Belliston puts it this way "On my mission I have come to learn things that I thought I knew, but I learned them from the Spirit." And he is so right. I have been having some super spiritual experiences lately with some of the most simple doctrine. For instance, I know that I am a Son of God. And me saying that is one of the most true statements I have ever said. I am a Son of God. And the Spirit teaches me that over and over again. And it is probably the most important thing that I have learned on my mission. Anyways, I am grateful for you all. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and always remember to thank the Lord for all you have. Even the blessings that are to come. 

With Love,

Elder Caleb James Wardle

Forgiveness (11-17-2014)

Dear Family :)

Im just going to start saying that now since you are all like family to me :) Elder Belliston and I had a wonderful week. Full of preachin and teaching and inviting people to be baptized. That is probably one of the greatest experiences on a mission. Inviting one of Gods children to make a covenant with him. Holy cow. The spirit is so stinking strong when you invite. And usually the response is generally uplifting. On Tuesday I had the opportunity to go on exchanges in Washington. That place is pretty cool. The Elder's don't have too many investigators currently so we went looking for some. And it was stinking cold. Last Monday it was 65 degrees and then the Lord played some games with me and shot the temperature down to 25 the day that I would have to be walking in it. So that was fun! I have been bundled up pretty warm the past couple of days which has been good. On Wednesday we just went out and did our thing. Talking with everyone and driving all over the place. And then on Thursday we drove up with the North Elders to our mission tour with Elder Cardon of the Seventy. He gave a sweet talk in conference awhile back so if you get a chance you should check it out :) But the mission tour was great. We had a Mission Leadership council with him before the meeting where we talked about the culture of the Iowa Des Moines Mission. And ultimately just sitting in that meeting, I was just pondering how much I have loved my mission. It has seriously taught me so much. I have made wonderful friends, and just learned things that I never that I could know. The traditions in this mission are absolutely amazing. There is just a spirit of obedience here that is unlike any other thing t hat I have been a part of. Elder Cardon is a great man. It's always fun to hear stories form members of the seventy who have sat at the feet of the prophets and apostles. Elder Cardon says that Boyd K. Packer's hates these five words "I'm sorry to disturb you" Elder Packer is just as much a servant as anyone else. So he is never disturbed because he is doing the Lord's work. That's pretty amazing 

On Friday, I wasn't feeling too hot but we still did work. Taught a few good lessons. On Saturday we made some cookies and tried to get as many people out to church as we could. People really like cookies. We got one of our investigators out to church named Virgilia and then set a date with her for December 20th! Hooray! Hopefully things work out with that. We will try to get her to feel the Love of God and the truthfulness of the message with her as strongly as possible. Miracles are happening!  Virgilia has had an interesting life. Full of questions of what to believe and where to go to church on Sunday. So we spoke with her about the message of the Restoration. And she really enjoyed. She has decided to pray about what is right :) Hopefully that goes stellar. Yesterday there were some pretty amazing talks at church. oooh I almost forgot! Elder Belliston and I sang Jesus the very thought of thee in Sacrament meeting. It went really great. He has a wonderful voice and we have seen or been in a lot of the same musicals so we are just constantly singing Broadway and Disney. It's awesome. In Sacrament meeting we learned about forgiveness. It was a great talk! And I studied it again to day. And forgiveness is everything. I love the scripture that talks about how when we don't forgive we have the greater sin. So we need to forgive everybody. I love the Lord and  I love this gospel. It has brought me so much peace and joy. 

Kisses! 

Elder Caleb James Wardle

Wonderful Week (11-10-2014)

Family and Friends! How are ya? I hope things are going swell and the weather isn't harshin on anyone's mellow too bad. Today is actually beautiful. 65 degrees :) hooray! But this is supposed to be the last good day until Spring. I guess we will have a day here where the high will be like 21.... So yeah. Winter is definitely here! It came so quickly! 

We had a wonderful week here in the Fairfield South area :) We found five new investigators and set one of them on date. We were teaching a boy named Justin awhile back who had a baptismal date for a really long time. But we could never get in contact with his Mother to get consent for him to be baptized. And lately we have had a hard time meeting with him. But on Saturday we got a hold of his mother Terri and taught her and set a date with her for December 20th and then she came to church on Sunday! Miracles all around :) She just has to quit smoking in order to be baptized. But she did mention to us that she doesn't want to be baptized without Justin... Hooray!

She is doing well. A couple of our baptismal dates fell off. We weren't able to get in contact with Daniel and he didn't make it to church. We are going to try our best to reset a date with him this week. And Jessica's father gave her a hard time about meeting with us. So she called her fellowshipper and said that she doesn't want to meet with us again. But we will definitely get her back :) She is great girl. And she will definitely be baptized in the future.

We taught a number of different people this week. A Messianic Jew, an ex gangbanger from Chicago, her friend, and a single mom with two kids trying to make ends meet. The Gospel is for everyone. No matter who you are, it will change your life! And I have a wonderful testimony of that. 

Because it is the season of giving (all though it should always be) some members here have been taking really good care of us. Every Sunday we get notes on our door or in our mail box that are anonymous. And they have some awesome clues that we have to piece together in order to find a care package of food. For instance this week all of the Elders in the Fairfield ward got a slip of paper. When we placed them together they said "do YoU WaNt sOme MOre? bEcause I was just wonderiNG?" So all the capitalized letters are Y,U,W,N,O,M,O,E,,N,G and it unscrambled to the words Young Women. So we went to the Young Womens room in the church and found a bag of marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate so that we could make smores :) How cool is that! This ward is the best! ahaha. Anyways, I hope you all have a fantastic week! Stay strong, and keep pushin on! 

Love ya!

Elder Caleb James Wardle

Family and Friends :) (11-3-2014)

Hello! How is everyone doing? Things are going great here in Fairfield. Plenty of people to work with and everyone is so amazing. We currently have 5 people scheduled for baptism here in the Fairfield ward. Two here in the South area and the North Elders have 3. So things are going great! This week was insanely busy for us. We had a meeting last Sunday (Stake Coordination Meeting) that took all day, a meeting on Tuesday (MLC) that took all day. A meeting on Thursday (Zone Training Meeting) that took most of the day. And then Stake conference on Saturday as well Sunday. So this week has been crazy! We have just been trying to make sure all of our investigators are doing o.k. and that they are progressing. Daniel wasn't able to make it to church this week. That was a bummer. So we had to move his Baptismal date back. He had a friend come in to town that he hasn't seen in a really long time and he had to take him back to the Bus stop on Sunday around noon. So that conflicted with his church attendance :( bummer! But we are doing all that we can this week to get him there. He is such a good kid. And everybody needs to be baptized! So we are doing all that we can. We also met with Jessica this week. And she is progressing really nicely. She is scared to enter a new church for several reasons. Her pastor at her church that she currently attends is definitely going to give her a hard time. She has been baptized before and doesn't know quite yet if God wants her to be baptized again, and she would have to drive a half hour every Sunday to church when she currently drives about 5. This week we just really focused on baptism for the remission of sins. We told Jessica that this (Nov. 22nd) was the first day in her life that she would truly access the atonement. And it was her day. Her special day to make a covenant with God. And we think that helped her a little more. Instead of focusing on Priesthood authority and going about baptism that way, we felt that helping her gain a testimony through prayer and church attendance would be better than just simply giving her an understanding of the Gospel. Faith and testimony trump understanding. She is progressing really nicely though. Pray that she can continue to experience the blessings of the Gospel. She came to church and really enjoyed Stake Conference. What a blessing it is to hear inspired words from inspired Leaders of God!

Other than those two we are really just trying to grow our teaching pool by focusing on talking to everyone and opening our mouths. And knocking more doors! It actually works :) It's awful when it is all you are doing. But it is important to at least some sort of finding every day. I truly have a testimony of this wonderful gospel. Its true! And I know that! I'm grateful for the holidays. Elder Belliston and I carved some sweet pumpkins on Friday. I love you all so much!

Family and friends (10-27-2014)

This week was stellar! There is so much work to do and not enough time to do it! It's been pretty amazing to be a part of the Fairfield ward and to see the progress that the ward has made over time. I really feel like a member of the ward more so than just a missionary serving in it. It's pretty interesting to be part of. Elder Belliston has been teaching me so much about being unified with the members here. We have had meetings with the Bishop to see what he would like us to do, we have been trying to set up lessons with the ward council members to get names from them of who they are focusing on and asking them if there is anything we can do to help. And I really feel like we have seen a lot of success in so doing. And we have gained a lot of trust from the members of the ward. It's been pretty remarkable to see the change. This week was really busy. We had a few meetings to attend and several reports that we needed to write up for those meetings. So we spent a lot of time in and out of the library. And although we have spent a lot of time just doing things that don;t necessarily involve teaching and helping others, we know that it is the work that the Lord would have us be doing. And as we use our time wisely He will bless us for our efforts in working diligently. It's been really hard to balance everything. But as we prayerfully figure out what the Lord would have us do and as we strive to be the Leaders that He would have us be, the area has kind of taken care of it's self. And what a blessing that is. This week is going to be another crazy one. We had a meeting after church in Iowa City that took up our whole Sabbath. Tomorrow we have MLC (Mission Leadership Council) which lasts from 9 to 4 and we usually don't get home until 8. Thursday we have Zone training meeting which will take up more than half of the day and then Saturday and Sunday we have Stake Conference. Which will take up more time than usual as well. So it's going to be a crazy week!

Daniel is doing well. He is still on track to be baptized on November 15th which is exciting! He has just had a super hard time getting to church. He has had doctors appointments and ten this past week he went to his grandmothers house because she isn't doing so well. So it has been hard to help him there. But he is doing great and he loves Jesus more than anyone else in this world. We are just really excited to help him make his first covenant with the Lord. Pray for him :)

Jessica is doing well. She did scare us a little bit though... We had to reschedule an appointment which she was o.k. with. But she called the other day and told us not to come. So we told her we wold reschedule for another time. Well, we knew that something was going on so we had member set up a lesson with her! And it worked! So we got in one more time. And we just tried to help her understand why we were there. And she is less scared now. So hopefully things go well with her. We have a return appointment so pray that things go well with her! 

I had the wonderful opportunity of going to the Nauvoo temple this week. I love it there. It is so beautiful. We were able to do an endowment session and we basically had the whole temple to ourselves. Which is sad because you would hope more people would be there! But it was more peaceful for some reason. Just us missionaries and a couple of other people. It was great to just sit and ponder the creation and receive revelation for what I can do better. I love the temple. It's an excellent place to receive revelation. And I know that the covenants that we make there are real. 

I love you all! Thanks for all that you do!

Elder Caleb James Wardle