November 26, 2018 (Week 60)

Oh man, another whirlwind week!

First off after arriving in my new area me and elder Dominguez had to leave immediately for a conference in Aguascalientes, so we had to lose another two days of proselyting which was fun... not!  But it was all well in the end, as the Lord had already planned things out for us.  First off a sister in the ward had prepared us a thanksgiving dinner filled with American thanksgiving food!!  Thats a first for me in the mission!

Then the next day we were out finding some old investigators down one street later in the day when some sketchy figures came down the street, so we decided to abandon the search in that area for the rest of the day.  We felt pretty crappy until Elder Dominguez had the thought to knock on the door of a less active sister, even though it didn´t look like she was home.

Turned out she wasn´t home, but her husband was; and he had plans to be baptized three years ago with the missionaries but had to leave for work but now says he´d like to join the church as soon as possible!  The lord has a plan for each for his children!  Anyways, the fun continues on the ward Industrias, thanks so much, I love you all!

-Elder Varney

Elder Domingez & Elder Varney

Part of Elder Varney's new Zone (1 of the 3 Districts)

November 19, 2018 (Week 59)

Blessings and suprises- all rolled into one!

This week was another extremely fast one, we were focusing on getting Sherlynne ready for baptism; and every time when we asked her why she would live a commandment or even choose to get baptized, her answer was always "so I can get to heaven"- pretty direct answer, but nothing wrong with it!  In the end Alexis, her brother who was baptized three weeks ago was able to baptize Sherlynne which was super cool!  It was so spiritually rewarding to be able to watch a family become more complete and unified in living the gospel!

We also had a very unique/cool experience when a group from the U.S. called book of Mormon central came and gave a presentation to the whole stake on Wednesday.  I was able to translate for one of the founders of the group, and it was just so cool to see all the factual evidence there really is for the Book of Mormon.  Of course, a true testimony can only come through the spirit through personal study and prayer; but it was very great to be able to see with more clarity how the Book of Mormon really actually took place in these lands with the real ancestors of these people!

Anyways, to cap it all off we received a reference of a man who the missionaries were teaching in Canada who moved back here to San Luis and the actually came to church on his own before we had a chance to teach him and brought his wife as well, and they had a super great time!

Unfortunately good things can´t last forever, and I´m leaving Elder Penteado here in Fresnos and going to Industrias, another ward in the same stake here in San Luis, should be an adventure!

Anyways, lots of blessings testifying of the lord here, thanks so much for all your spiritual support, I love each and every one of you!

-Elder Varney

Elder Varney's former District - He is now onto his new Zone!

Sherlynne and her Brother Alexis with Elder Varney & Penteado

Sherlynne and her Brother Alexis

Sherlynne and Alexis's Family 

November 12, 2018 (Week 58)

Time flies when you´re having fun!

Or at least that´s still true for us out here.  Perhaps its also because the ward with just one companionship is quite massive, buts it´s all good, we still have the soles on our shoes! (for now..)  Anyways we had another good time with our investigator Rueben this last week, he has already gotten most of the lessons and is just waiting until he can get married in two weeks before he can be baptized.  Most of the members don´t believe us when we tell them he´s not a member, since he already looks and talks like one.  In nearly every lesson we´ve had with him when we ask him what he knows about the subject he explains it all as if he was reading it from the pamphlet!  Oh well, the spirit teaches, not us!

We also had a great experience on Sunday when everyone met up in their stake centers in Mexico to hear a special message directly from the general authorities!  It was very cool so see two seventies and even an apostle speak Spanish to everyone!  Amazing they can work so hard to learn a new language with all their other responsibilities!  Anyways, lots of great stuff going down here in San Luis Potosi, if you could all please pray for Sherlinne, she is getting ready to be baptized next week, and she is very enthusiastic about it!

Thanks for all of your thoughts, letters and love, they all help to forward the work down here!

-Elder Varney

November 5, 2018 (Week 57)

Wow, what a truly incredible week!  These past 7 days feel like sonly two or three, and yet we have been blessed with so much!  On Tuesday I met up with my new companion, Elder Penteado (de Brasil)  and we headed off to whitewash the Fresnos ward in San Luis Potosi.

Turns out even though the area didn´t have missionaries for nearly a month there are a ton of people that are extremely prepared to hear the gospel.  One of them was Alexis, a 17 year old who had gone to church even while the missionaries weren´t here.  And he was simply so prepared that we were able to share all the lessons and he was able to be baptized on Saturday!

It meant so much to his family, especially his dad who was a member since childhood and was very happy to have his son accept the gospel.  Anyways, we have truly seen the hand of the lord at work here, we cannot say we are thankful enough!  There definitely is a merciful and powerful God that works for every one of us personally and cares for our salvation!

Love,

Elder Varney

Elder Varney, his new companion, Elder Penteado, and their convert, Alexis

Alexis and his family 

October 29, 2018 (Week 56)

Elder Varney had a shortened P-Day this last week due to him getting emergency moved out of his current area - all is well, but he did not have a lot of time to send out an update, so here is a abridgement of his weekly letter:

But for now We´re with the assistants in the Colinas ward, which is actually super cool and we´ve seen so many quite amazing miracles in our short time here.  The biggest one of these was that they were able to baptize this last week, which was the first time the assistants have been able to for a long time.  And it ended up being part of God´s plan because their district leader couldn´t come to do the interview, so I was able to do it for them instead!  super great blessing for us all.  

Elder Ethan is doing well - keep up the prayers on his behalf!