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

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