October 22, 2018 (Week 55)

Another one bites the dust...

The time is flying by down here, it is true what they say, after completing a year the time flies!  And speaking of biting the dust, our new house of prayer is bigger and prettier than the old one, but the rooms are so big that they each collect a ton of dust throughout the week, so we always help out the family that is assigned to clean it each week.

This week he had almost all the floors mopped up when one of the three year old's dumped out all the mop water and reversed all the work we did. Oh well!

One of the things we have seen this week as we've invited people to baptism is that it is the natural desire of our spirits to want to make commitments and covenants with the lord.  After the lessons where we invited the investigators to be baptized they each mentioned how it was something that they had the desire to do for a while, but just didn't know how/where to satisfy that spiritual hunger, until they experimented with the gospel.

There are many signals and signs that show when/if a person is willing/ready to accept the invitations of the gospel, signs that the person is willing to put of the desires of the natural man and follow the quiet subtle desires of the spirit.

Anyways, that's my rant for this week, be sure to pray for hermana Gloria, Yudit, and Elizabeth so they can continue following the path of the gospel, I love you all!

-Elder Varney

October 15, 2018 (Week 54)

This week was full of lots of opportunities, first off we had lots of experiences with prayer, when our plans had failed we acknowledged that it was what the lord had planned and said a fast prayer together to be shown where to go.  In every case we were able to find people that had been prepared to listen to the message, the "chosen"-if you will.  We've been seeing a lot of the influence of the spirit preparing people in their lives, we had two lessons where the investigators said they had felt this specific feeling that is "hard to describe" before and knew it was something good.

And last of all, I had the opportunity to give a baptismal interview where I heard a powerful testimony of how the lord really has prepared people over the course of a year, in this case over 20 years, to know that the church is true immediately when it is presented to them.

Anyways, love you all, thanks for your prayers, have a great week!

-Elder Varney

The camino to visit one of the members in Elder Varney's area

Elder Varney and his Companion at a branch activity with one of his youth investigators.

October 8, 2018 (Week 53)

I like to call these weeks the ¨Christmastime¨ weeks, not because of Christmas but for the same anticipation I get for general conference that I got when I was a kid from Christmas!

Ok, that´s a pretty strange comparison, but of well, now as we reflect this whole week had prepared us to receive revelation from our prophets during conference.  One thing we noted was how many times we noticed forgiving others in the conference talks, which we can apply since we have faced a lot of opposition from the family members of our investigators really persecuting them for listening and coming to church with us. It was quite hard/frustrating to have that happen again and again with several people who were progressing very well, but now we can see that in order to progress we must forgive, which has made it easier to see the hand of the lord working with us.

Other little miracles we have been seeing is that in every seemingly arbitrary place where we are, the Lord has given us great opportunities in the form of people.  The best example happened in between the sessions of conference on Saturday; we were simply sitting on a bus stop and started talking with the man next to us, and it turned out he was a former investigator.  We invited him to the next session of conference, and he came and as it turns out the missionaries who´s area this was had been recently looking for him.  There truly is a heavenly father who knows the best for us, we simply must follow his will as he reveals it to us through his prophets!

Have a great week full of the spirit!

-Elder Varney

Elder Varney surveying his area

The skies "opening up" after General Conference

October 1, 2018 (Week 52)

Swarming success...

This week was had lots of well-deserved blessings for many people in the branch.  First off, we finally found a new house of prayer, which was almost new, the only problem was that it had been sitting around uninhabited for a while so there was a huge wasp hive on the balcony.  The day when we went to help clean and get the house ready we pointed out the hive to an older hardworking sister in from the branch, and she just narrowed her eyes and said "I'll take care of it..."

We had to leave shortly after but the next day when we came back to finish cleaning the hive was completely gone and the balcony was full of dead wasps...  Anyways, on another note we've had more success with teaching the youth we've found, our only challenge right now is convincing their parents to let them get baptized, we still need to meet formally with each of their families, but we're fasting and praying that their hearts may be softened and allow their kids to get baptized.

Anyways, things are nice and chill here in the villa, talk to y'all next week, thanks so much for all the thoughts and prayers!

-Elder Varney