January 21, 2019 (Week 68)

The good times are rollin´ here in industrias!

We had just a great time this last week!  Our mission president fixed the goal for every companionship to have ten families receiving the lessons, and so far we are getting pretty dang close to that goal.  We had a huge stake missionary activity and nearly half of all the missionaries brought families and we were blessed to be able to bring two of ours with us!  And even more interestingly we were able to bring three different families with us to the English classes our ward has.  It was a fun time with so many mangled words and syllables flying around inside the chapel!  But there was such a strong spirit there with us, there was a great feeling of learning and progression there!

Our biggest challenge for now is to get these families to church, one goes strong every week, but just little things get in the way of many more being able to come!  I pray that we can get those other two families with us the next week and get them baptized!  But regardless, its all in the Lord's time, but we feel so blessed down here!

Thanks for all of your individual prayers for us!

-Elder Varney

Elder Varney at the Stake missionary activity

Elder Varney with the Stake President

January 14, 2019 (Week 67)

Another solid week!

Haha, thought I'd start off with the generic title that all the missionaries start off with, but I suppose I can't really laugh because for now I haven't come up with anything better.

Anyways, this week was truly great; we started off just working through a few streets we didn't know that well near to where we live and found a ton of new potential people within just a few hours!

We've been having a great time with Rafael, he has continued to receive blessings from reading the Book of Mormon diligently, even though his work has been chaotic; and we were able to begin teaching his daughter Vanessa as well.  That is quite a miracle because the first time we met her she said she didn't really believe in any religions because of all the atrocities that have been committed in the past and continue to happen in the name of the Lord; but after we were able to explain the great apostasy to her she has completely changed paths and is now one of our most eager investigators!

Also, we came across a truly great family, who had already listened a little to the missionaries nearly two years ago.  The brother is a anti-fraud auditor for a company here, and he told us he can discern whether someone is lying or not by the way they act and speak.  But he must have judged that we are telling the truth because he became very enthusiastic and was very happy when they came to church yesterday!  The Lord truly performs miracles, in his own due time, of course.

If you could include some of these people in your prayers, so they may overcome the opposition that will come and stay on the lord's path!

Thank you all so much, love you!

-Elder Varney

Elder Varney and his Companion "helping" to make dinner...

January 7, 2019 (Week 66)

What a super slammin' week!  Our normal impressions of the first week of the transfer are normally pretty dull, because we usually have to make sure everyone gets to their areas with the transfers and then go to a training and council in Aguascalientes.  And all those things did happen this week and sucked up a whole lot of our time.  But in the end everything worked out super well when the Lord blessed us with a ton of very prepared people in the last few days of the week!

The definite highlight is a brother named Rafael, we found him on the street after he called us Elders, which normally means that someone is a member.  But it turns out he isn't, but he's had a Book of Mormon for the past two months and has been reading it with his family nearly every day!  We had a super spiritual lesson with him and were able to put a baptismal date right off the bat, and now he is also enrolled in the English classes at the church so he will have lots more connections with the members!

I'm so grateful for the inspired organization and programs of the church, they are truly a blessing prepared for us in our day!

Love each and every one of you!

-Elder Varney

December 31, 2018 (Week 65)

Hey there y´all!

Its been a wonderful week of holidays!  No matter where you are or in what language/culture, the familiar feeling of Christmas is always the same!  This last week we were able to actually find lots of familiar and new faces, despite it being the week between Christmas and new years.

One new face we found was Hna. Reginia, she is 95 years old but can still read the bible without glasses (which she was very proud of) and was able to understand almost everything we taught with clarity (which is quite impressive for her age!).

The only downside was that she moved back to her pueblito far away in the bush, where the missionaries can´t get to her.  But after reading a little of the plan of salvation pamphlet, she looked at us and said that she was sure that if we didn´t see us in this life, we´d see each other ¨real soon¨ in the next life to learn more, so no need to worry!  Haha, just a nice little unique/very spiritual experience.

Anyways, me and elder Dominguez are staying together for another transfer, so that is very nice!

Thanks so much for all of your emails and prayers, be talking to y´all soon!

Love,

Elder Varney