Family and Friends

This week was a good one. our numbers were low but a lot of good things happened so we weren't too sad about that. It is getting a lot colder here though. I feel bad for Matt up in Canada because it will be worse up there. But it's down to like 40 here. So pray for me. aha. But I guess we should start out with Anthony. Since Berthold left we haven't been able to get a hold of him. And that's been rough. Because he was so ready to be baptized and then he got worried and we haven't seen him since. We hope to be able to soon though.We want to reset a date with him so that he has something to work towards. And hopefully he feels ready for it this time. We continue to do great work with the members as well. And Its great to see theis growth in missionary work. But it's time for them to kind of take action and leave the nest so to speak and just go for it. The goal is to see miracles together. We want to help them with their missionary work, not ask them when we need help. Missionaries are members of the ward who help in the missionary work that happens in the ward, rather than create all the missionary work and the members help if that makes sense. We are supposed to be teaching 20 lessons a week and Elder Tanner and I taught 2. Maybe 1. So it needs to change. One of those lessons that we had was with the foster's. Brother Foster is less active and his wife is not a member. But they really are great people and I seriously see them temple bound.

They absolutely need to make it there. So we have been teaching them for about six weeks or so now and Elder Tanner and I really prayed to know  what direction to take the whole thing. And we felt impressed to teach the restoration but focus on Robin rather than brother Foster. And the morning of the lesson we role played, and role played, and role played. And the spirit worked through us both so much. It started from teaching her from 3 Nephi 19 to teaching the Restoration. From extending to her the invite to kind of here the discussions the way we usually do them to inviting her to just read the book of Mormon. So it was amazing to see how the Spirit worked through us both. It was awesome. And we taught her and the lesson went super well and she has some questions still but she is planning on reading the book of Mormon. And we have a lesson with here on Tuesday where we will extend a baptismal invite and hopefully set a date. not only will it help here come closer to Christ but Brother Foster has seen the change that's happening and will hopefully go along for the ride as well. But we keep praying for miracles to happen. And we hope they do. We also had another great experience after a zone training meeting. We were eating lunch with the zone at this place called huhot's and Elder Tanner got theimpression that we should go over to Fanzz ( the store where Laurie works. We had an amazing lesson with Laurie and then never saw her again) and she if she was there and try and talk with her if she was. So we went over there, saw her, got super nervous, almost left, and then just did it and we talked with her for a good 20 minutes. She is super interested still. She just has an amazingly busy life. So we set up an appointment with her for later today at the church where we can just show her around and show her what our building is like. And then reteach the Restoration as well as her daughter who she wants us to speak with as well. So hopefully she follows through and makes it. I will probably cry tears of joy if she makes it and we re-extend a baptismal invite to her and her daughter and hopefully she accepts a date as well. It will be great. We love here so much. And just truly want what's best for her. Hopefully this is the right path for her. hopefully she has read as well.

This week we also got to see the duttons who were a referral from the bishop. they live out in Palo and he wanted us to see if we could stop by and see them. Brother Dutton is less active due to medical reasons and his wife and daughter were recently baptized but no longer attend as well. His son Cody has not had missionaries over to teach him yet thogh so we are looking forward to extending a baptismal invite to him as well. It will be great. Hopefully we see success here soon. We have a goal of one baptism in November, two in december and two for January. So hopefully those pull through. I love you all. Your the greatest. Keep pushing through and working hard. keep the Lord close to your heart. Pray and seek revelation for how you can do better. Everyone can do better. I miss yuo and wish the best for you.

Hugs and kisses,

Elder Wardle

Family and Friends

This week has had it's ups and downs. We got great numbers this week as far as the amount of lessons we taught to less active members of the church but we struggled with Anthony. It seems like something is holding him back. He didn't end up getting baptized on Friday but we will contnue to meet with him. Hopefully we can reset a date so that he has something to look forward to. The biggest issue is his mom. he doesn't have suport from her. If we could reactivate her and get her going to church again it would change Anthony's attitude toward church and baptism completely. he has it stuck in his head that he has to give up the music he listens when there is no profanity or insinuating lyrics and he loves caffeine. But those are things he can keep. In the lords eyes he is ready to be baptized. But he is having a hard time seeing that. And with him not being very receptive to us we may not have any investigators here pretty soon. Elder Tanner and I have set a goal to talk to 5 people a day (besides our regular lessons) about the gospel. We trust the Lord to send someone in our path. Elder Berthold went home on thursday and Elder Tanner and I are together and he is going to finish up my training. I look forward to working hard with him. We are really trying to consecrate ourselves and put our hearts into it. And that's going to be especially important as we strive to find new investigators. Hopefully we can see the fruits of our tracting. And we hope to find someone who is interested. Our mission fasted this Sunday for our goal of 550. We are at 382 so we have a long ways to go. But we pray every day for our goal and put forth as much effort as we possibly can. I love this work. I truly do. Its so great to be consistently studying the gospel, teaching people about Christ, and perfecting self mastery in myself. Ive been thinking about why we follow the commandments and the mission rules. Literally everything we do in this life, everything we strive for and our main goal, is to increase how often we have the spirit. We have and follow the word of wisdom so we can get and maintain the spirit, we worship Heavenly Father so we can feel the Spirit. We as missionaries don't watch tv or listen to music that doesn't bring the spirit. My only purpose as a missionary is to have the Spirit and help others feel it by teaching truth. So I continually pray and seek for it.

 Its amazing to be able to feel it as often as we do. I hope the best for you all. Keep your heads high. And keep pushing forward. I love you all so much. Continue to pray for the missionaries around the world. They need it. Keep safe.

Love,

Elder Wardle

Fambamily and Friends

What a great week. Things are always amazing out here in the mission field. It seems like life can't get better and then it does with conference and what not. I really appreciate the words of the prophets. Its amazing to feel their love as we listen and pray about what they said. I know that they all truly are speaking the words Heavenly Father would have us hear. Well \, transfers are on Thursday. And elders only get 16 of them... so Im 1/16th done with my mission. which is ridiculous to me. Time is flying. I asked President Jensen to extend my mission in the last letter I sent. Elder Berthold mentioned that He has been asking for one since his third transfer and I figured if I wanted to make it actually happen (which it probably won't) I should ask as soon as possible.He replied to me and just didn't mention anything... so that's interesting aha. I got to go on exchanges with one of the Elder Weiss today. He's a phenomenal guy. He's going AP for sure. I can just see it in his dedication and he is consistently exactly obedient. Which is what a leader should be. I learned a lot from him as well. He is 10 months out. I asked him what the most important thing he has learned since being a leader was and he said "Humility. It's hard to tell people who are older than you or the same age even what to do, but when I find the most success in my mission and leadership is when I humble myself before the Lord." So that's what my focus has been. Im trying to humble myself and I know that when I do that and when our whole disrict and zone do that, we will begin to see miracles. We continue to work with members. We have five families that we focus on and we challenged them all to look for the blessings and promises of doing member missionary work. And look at the outpouring of blessings that the apostles promised us. Missionary work is a commandment from the prophet. Its now the time for members and missionaries to work as one. We can't do it alone anymore. Tracting barely works. The best referrals are the ones from members in the ward. So we hope to be able to continue meeting with them and strengthening them. The best thing members can do is to be an FFT (Finder, Fellowshipper, Testifier) That's how simple it is. Invite people to come to church. When you see someone new or someone who hasn't been there in a while say hi. and bare your testimony to them. Go out with the missionaries.
Anyways, Im just super passionate about it. And I want to see miracles, but I want to see them with the members. It will be amazing. We got to meet with Anthony this week. And he expressed more concerns about baptism. He is supposed to be baptized this friday but his mom is super stressed because she is out of work, has 3 kids, and is struggling with her testimony as well. But we will strive to help her with this as well. she may call it off if he doesn't so we are kind of stepping in grey area. But I asked Anthony: Do you feel the spirit when we come over and teach you and at church? yes. Well where do you think that's coming from? God. And what is he trying to tell you? I need to be baptized. So he knows what the right path is we just need to get him to take it. we invited him to pray and to ask the person who knows. Heavenly Father. We want him to take God's word for it not ours. But we know this will bring him peace. So we will see how things pan out. I loved the words of Elder Uchtdorf and they are perfect for this situation. Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. If only we could help Anthony understand that. I love you all. And I am truly grateful for each of you. Ive been sending a bunch of letters... mainly because I didn't know that I am only supposed to be writing on Pday. I didn't know that. So hopefully I can keep it up. I will try my best. I love you all. Pray about what the prophet and his apostles have said. Pray like your life depends on it. I know that this church is true. Its something I would do anything to defend. Don't become casual. Don't stop doing what you are supposed to . Keep going. Your the best. I love ya.

Elder Wardle

What a week

Family and Friends,

Im so excited to hear that Camberley arrived safely and I got pictures in the mail on Friday which was sweet. Congratulations Charity and Anthony. Ive been reflecting on how grateful I am for each of you. You really do keep pushing me forward and it' the absolute best to be able to come home to a letter or to a picture of my family and friends. So thank you for that.

Well like I said, Anthony was pretty skeptical about being baptized. But we had a dinner and a lesson with him and Elder Berthold was able to take him to the side and talk to him about it. basically Anthony just didn't feel ready. His mom is inactive and basically just told him that he has to be perfect after he s baptized. Which isn't true at all. he is so ready. And a great example to me. how many 13 year olds do you know that can bring a 9 year old brother and a 7 year old sister to church on Sunday? That's amazing. Plus church is a place for imperfect people. That's why it's called a ward. Similar to a hospital ward where people need fixing. That's why they called Christ the great physician. He heals us spiritually. So it was great that we were able to figure that out with him. Laurie called us monday right after we emailed so I wasn't able to include that in last weeks. But we had fasted and prayed for a way to get in contact with her an we received revelation that we should write her a letter. So we did, and she received it and called us immediately and said she would be at church on Sunday and that she was just caught up with work and with a whole lot of stuff. Well yesterday was Fast Sunday once again and we prayed and prayed that she would be able to make it to church and the dinner that we had set up for her. We called her friday saturday and sunday and morning, left messages and she didn't show... so that was a bummer. We don;t know what to do. But there is a saying in the mission. PUSH then LEAD. Pray Until Something Happens then Love Enlightens And Directs. So we will continue to PUSH at this point. Preach My Gospel talks about being bold with people. So thats what I think needs to happen next. She is more ready than anyone I have ever seen. She wants it deep down she just can't see it yet. So we will try to help her with it. Well, we tried to have a lesson with Randina this week. And after how good our first lesson went we were pretty set on her having us back. But we called her and she said that she was comfortable with being a methodist and that's where she wanted to stay. So we just told her to continue to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. And either it's true and she changes her life forever, or she was uplifted by good scripture. Thats all we asked. And she said she would. So we will try and follow up with her and see what happens. I just want you all to know I love you. Your the best. And you really do make it easier out here. So thank you for that. I love this work. elder Berthold bore his last testimony as a missionary yesterday. He said that a mission, wether old or young is the best decision anyone could ever make. I personally plan on serving as many as I possibly can down the road. Everyone owes it to themselves, to God, but especially they owe it to their family. I have seen my family strengthened so much just in this past month. And if you are not capable of serving, I encourage you to just share. Invite people to non threatening activities like Ward bbq's or to basketball on thursday nights or to a halloween party. And then once you've planted that seed, ask them if they want to learn more. And if they don't that's completely fine. I love you all. your amazing. Keep up the good work. And I will see you soon.

Much love,

Elder Wardle

I'm an uncle! (I think)

Family and friends,

I should have a brand new baby niece which is absolutely amazing. I bet she is just as beautiful as her mother (charity say hi to miss Camberley for me!)

This week has been interesting. Tuesday we went over to the Fosters ( a less active part member family) and they are absolutely. Brother Foster is a member and he is massive. But really just the sweetest guy we are trying to reactivate him and then teach his wife. Directly afterwards we went to Randina's who is a member that we found spirit finding. i dont know if I mentioned it but we found her two weeks ago after a hard of people rejecting our message and she was the last house that we hit. So we were able to teach her the restoration and we we commited her to be baptized. We had to teach her outside though because her husband was in the basement working out. And it was absolutely freezing. So we were having a hard time feeling the spirit when we were just getting to know her, but the moment we starting teaching it was there right along side us and kept us warm. We all siad the same thing when we got in the car, I was so warm after the spirit got there. It was amazing. Wednesday we had a zone training meeting and it was fantastic. I learned so much. We learned how important the members are in missionary work. We learned that no mission can reach its full potential with out member help. our president did the numbers and found and found that with the members help we can baptize 3,600 souls in a year (our goal is 550) So really the missionaries shouldn't be finding anymore. Tracting is going out the window. Its almost useless. We are relying on the members to help us find, fellowship, and testify. The members are so important. The Des Moines has the highest retention rate (number of people who remain active after baptsim) in the country. 93%. Thats unheard of. That ward has 60 new converts who were baptized within this time last year. And that's because the members there are kicking butt. I can promise you that if you do member missionary work, you will be forgiven of your sins, your families will be strengthened, you will do better in school, in work, and all aspects of your life. Doctrine and Covenants promises us those things. But it also says that no one can receive salvation without sharing the gospel. You can't make it to heaven without opening your mouth and telling those you come in contact with about the work. We are guilty. So just get over your fears and do it. The Lord promises that wherever you go, he will be there also. You can't lose. Its impossible. people may say no, but then atleast at that point you know they weren't ready. You may have thought that before but now atleast you know. But how would you know for sure if you don't ask? Give someone a book of Mormon. It paves the way for Jesus Christ. Go out with the missionaries. Sit by an investigator at church. Testify of what you know to be true. I know that it will bring blessings. Ive seen it. My family has been blessed because Im out here. Its a promise. So try your hardest.

Thursday we went on exchanges with Elder Markstaller who is sick. We love him to death. His spanish sucks but that doens't matter. He will get the gift of tongues in no time. But we walked about ten miles (we were trying to save miles on our car) and delivered fliers to other churches about a project going on in the community to benefit children in zimbabwe. But anyways, we saw a storm coming so we hid in Taco Bell and the storm was the coolest thing Ive ever seen. It was amazing. A wall of rain just hit the building so hard and the thunder was absolutely ridiculous.

Yesterday we took Anthony to a baptism. The Spirit was so strong there. And he went home and an hour later we got a text that said he was second guessing his decision to be baptized. So we have been praying non stop. And will continse to do so until something happens. I love you all. Your the best. keep doing what your doing. And become member missionaries. Catch the Wave. It's here. And you don't want to miss it.

I love you all

Family and Friends,

This week has been one of the most Spiritual of my life. We were able to teach another great lesson to Anthony Tuesday night. His brother Cole is 9 and Isabelle is almost 8 so we are teaching them as well. We brought a less active member named Brother Ryan and he bore the sweetest testimony on his conversion story. We are trying to reactivate him as well. It seems time is flying by. Ive been out for a month now. Which is absolutely insane to me. Im 1/24th of the way done. I hope to make it the best it possibly can be. We have been having some trouble finding people to teach. But on Thursday Elder Gay of the quorom of the Seventy gave us some amazing council at our yearly mission tour on how we could use the members. And it will be great for the rest of my mission but for now it will be tough. We technically are only allowed to meet with the members of our area and we only have 5 families that are in ours. Since we have so many sets of missionaries in our ward it's hard for us because our area is so spread out and not many members live here. So we continue to tract and Spirit Find and have found some people who are interested but haven't seemed to teach anyone here quite yet. It's been tough to find people who are not just being nice but are sincerely interested. But we will continue to search and find the lord's elect. We have prayed as a companionship to know how we can further the work. And it's been rough but we know that through the Spirit and the promptings that come we will find our way. I love this work and everything about it.

Elder Gay bore beautiful testimony on our purpose as missionaries and how absolutely true the Gospel is. It's all true. It just simply is. And I can testify to that. Elder Gay was the Ghana mission president and a few of the stories which he shared I feel are to personal to be relayed to you. But just know that it was a beautiful experience for me and I wish everyone could have been there. I saw the Spirit being worked through a man of God. He was so intense and so sincere. I loved every word he had to say.
And I hope I can continue to fulfill my purpose.

Some time this week we were able to teach Sierra. A convert to the church and she's been a member for about 2 months. And she has a great testimony. but during the lesson a bee flew up my plant leg... and the spirit was so strong as we were teaching that I didn't want to make any interruptions. So I left it there... for 20 minutes... My faith has never been tested more. It came my turn to bare testimony and the Spirit kept telling me to say more. So I continued... and the bee would fly around and buzz some. And then stop. Eventually we prayed and got in the car and I immediately took my pants off and out flew a bee. Elder Berthold and Elder Tanner laughed so hard when I told them what happened. Sunday we had a chance to fast to know what we should do for Laurie. She is the investigator that we haven't seen since the first day I got here and committed her to baptism. So as I was writing in my journal last night I received revelation that we should send her a letter since we can't get in touch with her any other way. So that's what we did. We decided to write our testimonies and hope that she would feel the Spirit enough to meet with us again. But Ive learned to act on the promptings that come to me. So we will see how that goes. I do love this Gospel. It truly is amazing. A mission is a time where we prepare for the rest of our Eternal Lives. It's not a time we wander through. We have purpose. And we get exhausted. And we struggle. And we are blessed. And we come closer to God than in any other time in our lives. It all becomes real here. It all remains true. We prepare for Godhood and sacrifice the things of this world. I love you all and wish the best for you. I love the support and the love. Thanks for all you have done. the church is true.

Love, Elder Wardle

What a Week

Family and Friends,

This week has been super fun and interesting. So I guess I will start from Tuesday after we got done emailing. Pdays are Mondays here but it was Labor day so the library and some of our favorite places to shop were closed so we did some proselyting on Monday to make up for the time we would spend emailing and shopping on Tuesday. Anyways, The spanish missionaries moved out and didn't have a car so we took them to go shopping with us. There is a sweet place called Aldi's out here where the food is dirt cheap. A dozen eggs for 89 cents, milk for a buck 20, so we missionaries really like it. After our shopping we took the Spanish Elders back to their apartment and as we were leaving we noticed some groceries by the main entrance and a tv and a woman struggling with her baby in a carrier, so Elder Berthold held the door while I offered to help the lady. Then her husband sees us and says you better never come back here again. Interesting. We were all pretty confused so the Spanish Elders said oh Sir we live here. He didn't care. He said I don't care I don;t want to see you. I guess he might of thought we were knocking doors. Anyways, Elder Berthold left the door cause he heard the guy yelling and swearing at us and he passed him and said have a god day sir and the guy said get the heck outta here. So Elder Berthold just laughed cause it was an interesting situation and the Guy ran back and said you want to laugh kid? ill call the cops. Elder Berthold said why? And he said for being a punk (bad word) kid. Anyways, Elder Berthold dared him to call the cops and despite them being face to face in this heated argument no punches were thrown... it was so strange cause there were five of us Elders and one of him, and he was begging Elder Berthold to hit him. And it ended with us leaving and the guy cussing us out. The moral of the story is that Satan has people prepared to stop us just as much as God has people prepared for us to teach. So who knows whats going to happen and when. It was hard for us all to feel the Spirit for atleast an hour after that though. But it slowly come. Elder Berthold just isn't the kind of guy to be challenged and just let the guy swear at him and stuff. He never had intentions to fight with the guy he just wanted argue his case I guess. It could have been a lot worse but I was ready to jump in there and protect him if I needed too. Well, Cedar Rapids is absolutely beautiful. The more we drive the more I think Id be ok living here even if there are no mountains. We had a chance to teach Anthony this week. His mother is less active and he has two younger siblings. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Which consists of faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end. He's 13 and an absolutely fantastic kid. He loves us all to death too. His mom sits in on every lesson and I know that she feels the Spirit when we teach. Anthony has really progressed. He madeit to church on Sunday for the second week in a row so he is good to be baptized now. His date is October 12th, to see a baptism that quick on my mission would be amazing. he wasn't going to make it to church because he had to babysit while his mom worked, but we told him he could bring his brother and sister. So, we had a member pick them up and that is the most courageous thing Ive seen Anthony do. Not only did he come, but he brought his family. Which is remarkable for a 13 year old too. Isabelle his younger sister who is 7 absolutely loved church. She loves it! So I hope they can come again. We still haven't been able to meet with Laurie since we committed her to baptism though. But thats probably due to her health mainly. And her work. Because she got kidney Stones she had to work on the day we had scheduled to meet with here and then she went out of town. But she gets her schedule today and will let us know when we can meet. I really do love this gospel. It brings so much happiness and I can see that. I think the main thing Ive noticed is that without this knowledge life becomes so much harder. just with trials. As we have this perception of how they cause us to grow and where we are headed the things of this world don't matter anymore. I love the verse in Doctrine and Covenants that says, set aside the things of this world and seek for the things of a better. Im teaching people to do that. And that has brought me so much joy. Keep attending church. I promise you that as you do you will feel that joy that Im speaking of. You will see the blessings flow. And attend the temple. That is the closest place to heaven on this earth. Long to be there. And long to feel the spirit there. I love you all. And I love this work. Thanks for your prayers. and the love and support. You make me happy :) Keep going. And I will too!

Love,

Elder Wardle