February 18, 2019 (Week 72)

Howdy there everyone!

Well, this week sure has been so friggin' tiring!  It all started off with managing the transfers, bouncing back and forth with a total of three different elders as companions while they waited for their companions and buses.  But in the end it was really great to be able to hear each of their short conversion stories and see why they are all here!  And the real miracle is even during the whole mess we were able to get to all the appointments we had for the day! 

That truly is amazing given the public transport here, but in the end we were almost falling asleep during the lessons just from being so worn out, but in the end it was the right sacrifice!  It all worked out in the end because this week Rafael and Vanessa were able to go to church and they both now have baptismal dates!  We will be able to baptize Rafael this next week, Vanessa the next, and with the familia de la cruz we will probably be able to have at least 3-4 weeks of back to back baptisms! 

We are truly being blessed down here!  

Thanks to all of our prayers on our behalf, please keep them up so these next brothers and sisters can get baptized!

Love you all!

-Elder Varney

February 11, 2019 (Week 71)

The time flies when you're having fun!

And this week was full of it! (sorry for not writing last week, my bad.)  These past weeks were great for our investigators, they are really getting into all the ward activities, especially the English classes and our new piano class!  It is super awesome to have the ward helping with bringing in all the people learning about the church with great useful activities!  This last week we were also able to progress a lot in particular with hermano Manuel.  His dad is actually elder Taylor's convert from the other side of San Luis, and it was interesting to hear how when his dad was baptized he was totally atheist and against the church.  But now just a month later he has changed completely and is very humble and listening for the impressions of the spirit.

He himself said from our first contact that he wasn't prepared at the time of his father's conversion, but now with sufficient time the lord has prepared him!  How incredible!  He needs help overcoming some confidence and addiction issues, so he could really use your prayers!

Anyways, this last Saturday we were able to go and preach with the young men and women in a pueblito named Cerritos, a place where the church has never been before!  But in the end it was so rewarding, we felt as if we were missionaries of old, truly preaching the gospel to the people!  But in the end so many great blessings came from the activity; in fact too many to tell here!

But I can witness that the Lord does truly prepare people, even if they have never even seen the church or a missionary before!  Anyways, this next week I'll finally be getting my own companion, he's named Elder Aquino, from Oaxaca.  He is a super cool dude, it's gonna be great!

Thanks for all your individual love!

-Elder Varney

Elder Tayler taking a break...

Cute homemade birthday card that one of the primary children gave Elder Varney

February 4, 2019 (Week 70)

Quick update - Elder Varney got caught up in Zone meetings this last week, so he forgot to do a update for his blog, but he is still service with the other companionship in a "Tri" still in his Zone, and he just celebrated his 20th Birthday in Mexico, so we have attached a bunch of pictures he sent from this last week - More updates to come in next weeks update!  Keep up the prayers!

This is a Mission tradition on their birthdays - to eat a Flan with no hands

Elder Varney with a "really cool" DC-3 he found in a park on his P-Day

Elder Varney with his "Tri" companionship in his Zone

Elder Varney's current Zone and Mission President and Wife

All of the February birthdays, from shortest to tallest (Yes, that is Ethan's Mission President on the shortest side)

January 28, 2019 (Week 69)

Lonely times...

Just kidding, you can never be lonely with a companion, especially with two, which is what I have now!  Elder Dominguez had to go to aguas in some special transfers, but the really special part was for me when I was informed that they aren´t sending me another zone leader companion!!

So now its just a juggling act of keeping the whole zone stitched together, especially that we have two branches located far away and both of their phones stopped working this last week!  Anyways, in the midst of all this commotion the lord has really blessed us with a ton of new people and with really strong testimonies for those who we are teaching.

We had stake conference this last week and Rafael and Vanessa were finally able to come and they both said the church is even better than they imagined, and are really looking forward to their baptisms now!  We also had great times teaching Jesus; he always has practical doubts about what we are teaching during the lesson, but it always just comes back to personal prayer and personal revelation, and then he gets all happy and peaceful, because he knows that every time he asks, he receives his answers!

Anyways, it´ll be fun splitting the work between two areas for now, but I know that the Lord is watching over us every second of the work!  Thanks so much for all your love!

-Elder Varney

Elder Varney and his new companions; elder Lemus (de ciudad de Mexico) and elder Taylor (de Idaho)

Juggling both District call-ins at the same time! (Ignore his skin color - bad camera colors)