August 27, 2018 (Week 47)

Chuggin' on!

This last week was one of the most challenging I've had in a real long time, but as he always does, the Lord showed us the fruits of our hardships at the very end.  This last P-day president Hernandez had the idea to do the interviews while we were playing soccer and basketball, and of course when he is there everyone seems to get injured, with at least three sprained knees and an ankle and lots of big ugly scrapes on my knees.  Everyone left super exhausted and we suffered they physical consequences the next few days, piled on with the fact that two of our families that were progressing dropped out of the teaching pool.

Then we extended a baptismal date to our near perfect investigator Julio, who said yes but then told us he'll be moving to San Luis Potosi in two days.  Things were pretty rough until on Saturday on a last minute appointment we found a former investigator's family and taught all of them, and the two ten year old boys basically taught their parents what it means to act upon faith, so they all committed to make the sacrifice to come to church and read the Book of Mormon every night!  Super great end to the week.

Well, as it turns out I am staying in Villa Juarez for another transfer, I'll be receiving Elder Arce who is from Bolivia, he is super great and loves to work, so we'll be able to se some great fruits in this branch with this new change!  Thanks for all of your prayers and inspiration that you all share with me, it works!

-Elder Varney

Climbing a mountain in Villa Garcia, Zacatecas

Elder Varney's Last District

Pretty sunset in Villa Juárez

August 20, 2018 (Week 46)

Wow, I guess the church really is true!...

Another week of good 'ol grinding with the work in Villa Juarez, this last week we've had great experiences with using the spirit to help people really realize the need to change their living to see the blessings of the gospel.  We've been able to do that mostly through the Book of Mormon, but in particular we had a great experience with a family that has had many problems physically and with relationships inside the family, but with just using the first three chapters of 1st Nephi they told us at the end of the lesson that they felt a spirit of peace and unity they had never felt before.

On Sunday we had an interesting time when the electricity failed in the house of prayer so we had the sacrament meeting in the primary which has the only window to let light in the building.  Then we had a sweet talk from an eleven year old in the branch, everyone, even the kids, are used to giving talks and Manuel told us how after he was baptized one day he asked heavenly father to answer his prayer if the church was true, and then he told us how after going to one of his friends churches he realized and said to himself, "Wow, the church really IS true!"

Hehe, and interesting but very powerful testimony.  Anyways, transfers are next week, we'll see how they go, most think I'll be going back to San Luis Potosi, which would be nice, but who knows!

Love you all!

-Elder Varney

August 13, 2018 (Week 45)

We've been having a good time in all the pueblitos out here.  It is quite interesting to see the church out here, of course the church is the same and always true in whatever part of the world, but the people are sometimes interesting...

For instance we arrived at one of our food appointments to find the member coming back from the veterinary clinic with his sick dog, but later his dog began to get better and he explained to us how he knew he couldn't give it a blessing, because he didn't yet have the Melchizedek priesthood, but instead he fasted for three hours and that seemed to do the trick.

Another member told us he built an altar where he offered sacrifices in the form of his artwork he does of Jesus; I often wonder how they come up with some of these things.  Anyways, in other news we've had a good miracle with another family of investigators; we've been teaching Hermana Kenia for about a month and she loves the Book of Mormon, but her husband was never there in the appointments.  But on Friday he approached us asking how god could help him with his health and work problems, and we were able to teach him how the Book of Mormon can help him with all of those things, and now we are able to teach the whole family together and they are much more willing to progress!

We've also had a good zone conference where we concentrated on the power of the Book of Mormon and the three different parables of the lost sheep, the lost money, and the prodigal son and how they apply with less actives and old investigators, very very powerful!

Anyways we're just chugging along down here, thanks for all the love and letting me know how each of you guys are doing!

-Elder Varney

August 6, 2018 (Week 44)

Diligence brings forth blessings...

Well, this week was another one of new and perfect experiences to enjoy and to learn from.  We had to learn much from diligence early on when three of our former investigators who were progressing simply decided they didn't want to listen anymore.  We could've gotten discouraged completely but just kept on trying, and the lord brought us great people towards the end of the week.

One of those new people are a young couple that run a store near our house, we had always known them as friendly people but never really talked much with them, but this last Saturday we got into talking about differences in religion out of the blue, and we promised to bring them a Book of Mormon the next day.  On Sunday when we came to bring them the book they were excited and said they had been waiting for us, and later as we passed by on the street we saw them in their shop completely absorbed in reading the Book of Mormon!  That sure was a sweet feeling!

Another thing we've seen is the power of the Book of Mormon to completely respond to conflicts.  We've had three instances where people told us in lessons that we taught the same thing as all the other churches and that there was nothing new, but simply with two or three verses of the Book of Mormon the people who moments before wanted to contend were left without anything to say other than to agree to read more of the book!

Ha, the lord sure does work in mysterious and sometimes pretty amusing ways!  Anyways, thanks for all your prayers and love, talk to ya next week!

-Elder Varney

July 22, 2018 (Week 43)

Burning the time away...

It has been good to get back into the good villa Juarez, and it has stopped raining every day recently, but now that means that it is getting pretty hot during the day, which you notice but don´t really realize until someone gave us a ride and the thermometer in th car read 101 degrees...  

But anyways, its been a good learning time trying to get people to keep commitments, a lot of people just are choosing to not follow the example of Christ, even though many of them know it is right, but it is good because for everyone who doesn´t want the message the lord gives us another who is fresh and willing to hear.  

One funny story before I leave off, we´ve been going to many little pueblitos that are far away to go after new references, and there the people really aren´t used to seeing a white person, and one older lady asked me ¨Hey, are you gringo (American)?  Well, yes, yes I am.  And how does that feel to be gringo?  Well, just like how it feels to be another regular person, I suppose.  Yes but, but...¨ Lots of fun awkward times when the people are dumbstruck that you can understand them.  

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But anyways, just keeping on going hard out here, thanks for all the love!

-Elder Vaney

July 30, 2018 (Week 44)

This past week was a pretty dang solid one.  We got working hard on finding lots of new people with potential, focusing a lot on individuals and families that have a reason to be interested in the gospel.  We were having pretty normal results, when out of the blue one of the members who lives in one of the furthest always pueblos called us and asked us if we could teach his son.

Turns out it was a miracle from the Lord, because he was super prepared and committed to reading the Book of Mormon and going to church all in one lesson, and then he actually made the hour and a half trek in the buses to come to church!  He´ll be in Mexico city for the next week visiting his family, but we got him an appointment to visit the visitors center in the temple in Mexico city!

In other news our branch is finally able to start up the self reliance classes so now we can start the pilot program and contact people in their businesses about coming to the church to get the self reliance classes.  We first contacted a guy we know who has a shop, and right when he saw the pamphlet he asked us for five of them and gave them to all of his friends, and told them that he knew that these are the best administration classes in all of Mexico!  Who knew!  The Lord really, really prepares people!

Anyways, I love each and every one of you, see ya next time!

-Elder Varney

Elder Varney and Elder Magana (his "Brother" from the same trainer

Rainbow in Mexico!