December 25, 2017 - (Week 13)

**Dad Update**

Since it was Christmas, we got to speak to Elder Varney over Skype for an hour on Christmas morning - and it was great!  He is doing well, still in his "greenie" area for at least the next few weeks, and he is now in a "Tri" companionship (he has two companions) due to the fact that one of them had to have a quick Gall Bladder removal surgery in their city that they serve in.

That has had a bit of a damper on the missionary work, as they have had to stay in the hospital with their companion while he recovers, but they still have some great investigators and are working with a number of individuals to work towards baptism.

He was able to send us a bunch of pictures to update his blog with - so here are the ones he sent with explanations beneath each one. 

Elder Varney's companion getting ready for surgery

After the Surgery - doing their own "Nativity" play in the hospital room

The "Light the World" presentation done in the town square

Mexico's version of KFC "Pollos Kentuchi"

The local Ward Primary program

Ethan's new Chrismas tie

The best feature of his new Christmas tie - a hidden pocket for cash!

December 18, 2017 (Week 12)

Shoot well another semana has gone on by! 

This week was full of great blessings, first we got a baptismal date for a whole new family, they seem to be progressing great towards their baptismal date.  Also, we have been teaching with a less active family that has an 11 year old boy named Alex that wants to be baptized.

Interestingly enough, Alex is already reading the Book of Mormon every day and is ready for baptism, we just need to reactivate his parents.  But they are progressing well and we hope to have his baptism on the 23rd, this Saturday!  Also this week we had our zone conference/Christmas feast with the presidente del mision. 

Then the next day we had the Ward Christmas party, where there were "only" a few injuries with the primary pinata this year. The day after this we had the ilumina el mundo presentation in the city square with the whole zone.  It was a great opportunity for people to learn about the church and participate by writing a positive message on a pass along card and then releasing them all at once on baloons to someone who needs it in the world! 

Then, the unfortunate last event of this week was Elder Barragan needing to go to the hospital for a problem in his intestines, we pray that everything will be well with him.  Anyways, thanks for the thoughts and prayers, I love each of ya!

-Elder Varney

December 11, 2017 (Week 11)

It is so cold here!

You´d think in Mexico it´s always warm, but not right now!  It has been getting to -2 degrees Celsius every night in San Luis Potosi and it does not get that much warmer during the day, and two nights ago it snowed for about one minute!  Anyways this week has really been full of the rico bendiciones for us.  Our good old friend Efrain came to church this Sunday and we have almost got him off smoking, it´s looking really solid that he´ll be baptized soon! 

Also a brand new investigator came to church, he told us he would have brought his family but they were all sick with stomach flu, so it´s really amazing that he still put forth the effort to come to church!  This past Friday our district was able to go Christmas caroling to sick kids in the cancer clinic at the hospital, what a joyful and spiritual experience that was! 

Anyways, the spicy food will keep us warm as it gets cold down here, thanks for all the love and prayers, onto another week of work!

-Elder Varney

December 4, 2017 (Week 10)

Every week feels shorter down here, which is a blessing and a curse!  This week was full of blessings, almost too many to handle, but I guess that is a good thing.  We had intercambios with the zone leaders which was interesting.  When I was with Elder Platt (who is even whiter than me) people seemed to run away from us, and when I was with Elder Munoz, who is Latino, somebody thought we were lost businessmen. 

But oh well, it was a learning experience nonetheless, and it made me even more grateful for my area.  This week we had so many new investigators every day it was very hard to keep track of, but three of them have already said they want to be baptized!  Also one of our older investigators called us out of the blue and said he wants to be baptized on the 23rd.  Also we found an old investigator who seemed very excited to have the missionaries back over to teach, and she runs a haircut place, so it was a double blessing. 

This p-day we went and ate at I-Hop and out of the blue a lady who was visiting from Idaho paid for our meal.  We spent most of the rest of the day walking around the big mall which was surprisingly exactly like an American mall, the only difference was the cops walking around with assault rifles.  Buy they seem to like talking to big tall Americans, so that's a plus.

It was fun to walk around and look at all the stuff we can't afford in the mall, but it's good to be back in our good old area.  Hoping for more miracles, thanks for all the prayers!

-Elder Varney

Ethan with Pres and Sis Stapley @ Mexico MTC
(Pres Stapley grew up with Ethan's Grandma in Cedar City)

November 27, 2017 (Week 9)

Another incredibly quick but rich week!  This week we were able to make progress with all of our investigators, we got a less active family with an unbaptized ten year old to come back to church, got two other less actives to return to church, and we got Efrain down from smoking two pack a day to just six cigarettes a day!  Hooray! 

Anyways this week was full of other good news, we got the Ilumna el Mundo tarjetas (#LightTheWorld) to share for navidad here, it has been really great to see some of the new Christmas videos of the church and share in our lessons! 

Another tender mercy was that we totally forgot it was Thanksgiving, but the lord still blessed us since we got two dinner appointments that day and got fed frijoles charros.  Also, this week the other elders finally moved out to their own house and we were able to fix our hot water heater, so now we get to take real showers! (at least until the propane tank runs out of gas)

Also today for P-day our district went rollerblading in probably the most run down rollerblading rink there is.  It was all going well until one of the floorboards pulled up and made Elder Barragan fall flat on his face!  He was fine though, which is good since he already fractured his thumb playing basketball last week! 

Anyways thanks for all the prayers and support, they really do work!

-Elder Varney