Another week down!
This week was full of good times, one highlight was the lesson we had with hermano Sergio and his family. They were always really receptive to the spirit and to the Book of Mormon, but this week was truly amazing! We ended up teaching the whole plan of salvation to them, but after every principle we taught someone always had an insightful question that led directly to the next principle of the lesson! They practically teach themselves! In the end they all liked that heavenly father respects our agency so much we can choose to which degree of glory we really desire; and how the plan is not fear based, like so many other religions say how you will only go to heaven or hell. In the end they all said it was a testimony to them that the plan of salvation is real and true! What a blessing it is to have them!
Anyways, in other news the transfers arrived but nothing has changed for us, the four elders in our ward are all staying the same. However there are lots of sister missionaries arriving this transfer, so we're having to make room for them to open areas in our zones, should be exciting! Anyways, love you all so much, I truly do appreciate your prayers on our and especially our investigator's behalf.
Love you all, talk to ya next week!
-Elder Varney
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Sunday, March 24, 2019
March 18,2019 (Week 76)
Well, its a smaller world than you think!
This week started off with our awesome zone conference, we focused on growing our testimony about the prophet Joseph Smith. We saw an awesome talk by president Oaks that talks about the legal history of all the allegations against Joseph Smith in his life. In over 100 legal actions against him in his life, he was never found guilty of one. And in the end the first attorney general of Utah said that "Joseph Smith was the best lawyer and the best man I have known in my whole life." Truly Joseph Smith was a great man, but most important he was chosen of God!
Anyways, we also had a super crazy good lesson with Sergio Eduardo, before we could even formally begin the lesson he already mentioned that he knows he needs to get married to truly live the law of chastity and also give up smoking and that he has already stopped drinking! And all this before we have ever been able to teach one commandment! Anyways this week finished up with Elder Vanezuela and Elder Bellez showing up out of nowhere to our sacrament meeting, and just for context Elder Vanezuela is the seventy and the acting president of all of the church in Mexico!!!
The best part is that Vanessa was asked to bear her testimony before the seventies spoke, and they were very impressed by her sincere, clear testimony! What great happiness comes through participating in the work of the lord!
Anyways, love you all, talk to y'all soon!
-Elder Varney
This week started off with our awesome zone conference, we focused on growing our testimony about the prophet Joseph Smith. We saw an awesome talk by president Oaks that talks about the legal history of all the allegations against Joseph Smith in his life. In over 100 legal actions against him in his life, he was never found guilty of one. And in the end the first attorney general of Utah said that "Joseph Smith was the best lawyer and the best man I have known in my whole life." Truly Joseph Smith was a great man, but most important he was chosen of God!
Anyways, we also had a super crazy good lesson with Sergio Eduardo, before we could even formally begin the lesson he already mentioned that he knows he needs to get married to truly live the law of chastity and also give up smoking and that he has already stopped drinking! And all this before we have ever been able to teach one commandment! Anyways this week finished up with Elder Vanezuela and Elder Bellez showing up out of nowhere to our sacrament meeting, and just for context Elder Vanezuela is the seventy and the acting president of all of the church in Mexico!!!
The best part is that Vanessa was asked to bear her testimony before the seventies spoke, and they were very impressed by her sincere, clear testimony! What great happiness comes through participating in the work of the lord!
Anyways, love you all, talk to y'all soon!
-Elder Varney
Sunday, March 17, 2019
March 11, 2019 (Week 75)
Well, another roller coaster week!
We had our interviews this week, and boy the time really does fly! You think that other people are taking a long time until you realize that your ten minute interview has slowly grown into 25 minutes! Oh well, time flies when you are having fun. But time is a thing that we don't have a lot of right now. We've got so many appointments that it is quite hard to be able to schedule them in order to be able to get to every one of them on time! But its alright, a good problem, I suppose. The definite highlight of this week was the baptism of Vanessa!
She has grown quite a strong testimony of the truthfulness of the church, and at her baptism nearly 30 youth from the whole stake came! It was quite a testimony to me how great and powerful a tool fellowshipping is! Another very nice highlight of this week was recognizing the true power of the Book of Mormon. We were able to teach two awesome families who had excellent very specific questions about the priesthood authority of the apostles. And with each of these great lessons we were able to present to them the Book of Mormon as the great defining evidence to be able to answer their questions, and they were each so grateful!
It is always funny to see the surprise on people's faces when they realize that we want to give them this book, for free! The Book of Mormon is such a great treasure we are so lucky to have, I'm so thankful to live in a time when we have it! Anyways, looks to be another packed week ahead with mission President fireside, exchanges, and the zone conference! Should be an adventure!
Love you all!
-Elder Varney
We had our interviews this week, and boy the time really does fly! You think that other people are taking a long time until you realize that your ten minute interview has slowly grown into 25 minutes! Oh well, time flies when you are having fun. But time is a thing that we don't have a lot of right now. We've got so many appointments that it is quite hard to be able to schedule them in order to be able to get to every one of them on time! But its alright, a good problem, I suppose. The definite highlight of this week was the baptism of Vanessa!
She has grown quite a strong testimony of the truthfulness of the church, and at her baptism nearly 30 youth from the whole stake came! It was quite a testimony to me how great and powerful a tool fellowshipping is! Another very nice highlight of this week was recognizing the true power of the Book of Mormon. We were able to teach two awesome families who had excellent very specific questions about the priesthood authority of the apostles. And with each of these great lessons we were able to present to them the Book of Mormon as the great defining evidence to be able to answer their questions, and they were each so grateful!
It is always funny to see the surprise on people's faces when they realize that we want to give them this book, for free! The Book of Mormon is such a great treasure we are so lucky to have, I'm so thankful to live in a time when we have it! Anyways, looks to be another packed week ahead with mission President fireside, exchanges, and the zone conference! Should be an adventure!
Love you all!
-Elder Varney
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| Baptism of Vanessa |
Sunday, March 10, 2019
March 4, 2019 (Week 74)
Calms and storms!!
Wow, well at the beginning of this week it seemed like we had everything under control, but just at the end the Lord shows us that he is in control! We started off being able to get a lot of people back to sticking to their commitments to read the Book of Mormon and to get to church! It sounds somewhat easy for us, but we've found that Satan really tries to stop people from just going to church, because if they don't keep that commitment they can't be able to keep a covenant!
But luckily this last week the Lord really blessed us and we were able to have so many sincere lessons! By far the highlight person of this last week is Vanessa; we've been teaching her for a few weeks now and she's wanted to get baptized ever since the beginning, just lots of stuff was getting in the way. But she and her dad (hermano Rafael, who was baptized a week ago) have really just fought against the adversary and are really great examples! The best part is that all the young women have gotten to know her and are all fully able to support her! Woo, the power of fellowshipping!!
Anyways, thanks for all of y'all's prayers, they sure are helping bring these miracles to us!!
-Elder Varney
Wow, well at the beginning of this week it seemed like we had everything under control, but just at the end the Lord shows us that he is in control! We started off being able to get a lot of people back to sticking to their commitments to read the Book of Mormon and to get to church! It sounds somewhat easy for us, but we've found that Satan really tries to stop people from just going to church, because if they don't keep that commitment they can't be able to keep a covenant!
But luckily this last week the Lord really blessed us and we were able to have so many sincere lessons! By far the highlight person of this last week is Vanessa; we've been teaching her for a few weeks now and she's wanted to get baptized ever since the beginning, just lots of stuff was getting in the way. But she and her dad (hermano Rafael, who was baptized a week ago) have really just fought against the adversary and are really great examples! The best part is that all the young women have gotten to know her and are all fully able to support her! Woo, the power of fellowshipping!!
Anyways, thanks for all of y'all's prayers, they sure are helping bring these miracles to us!!
-Elder Varney
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| The baptism of hermano Rafael! |
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| One of Elder Varney's new Districts... |
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| Service Activity |
February 25, 2019 (Week 73)
Rough roads, but great rewards!
This week the doctor told my companion not to walk on rough roads or his knee would fail. He didn't restrict anything else, exercise, walking, even running is fine, just not the rough rocky roads! They kill knees! (supposedly...) But it appears to be true, because his knee hasn't failed yet.
Anyways, the reward this week was the baptism of Rafael! He told us he twisted his ankle earlier that day, but that is wasn't any big deal, and that he was still coming to the baptism. But when he arrived it turned out that his ankle was hurt badly, and he could only walk really slowly. But he was determined to get baptized, so in the end after a lot of effort on his part, he was able to be baptized! Such a great feeling that has accompanied us.
We've been so blessed here, lots of people literally coming out of nowhere who want to learn more about the gospel! Our days are almost all full of appointments, hard to set apart time to find new people! But it is just such a great feeling we have right now!
Anyways, thanks for all of your love and prayers, see y'all soon!
-Elder Varney
This week the doctor told my companion not to walk on rough roads or his knee would fail. He didn't restrict anything else, exercise, walking, even running is fine, just not the rough rocky roads! They kill knees! (supposedly...) But it appears to be true, because his knee hasn't failed yet.
Anyways, the reward this week was the baptism of Rafael! He told us he twisted his ankle earlier that day, but that is wasn't any big deal, and that he was still coming to the baptism. But when he arrived it turned out that his ankle was hurt badly, and he could only walk really slowly. But he was determined to get baptized, so in the end after a lot of effort on his part, he was able to be baptized! Such a great feeling that has accompanied us.
We've been so blessed here, lots of people literally coming out of nowhere who want to learn more about the gospel! Our days are almost all full of appointments, hard to set apart time to find new people! But it is just such a great feeling we have right now!
Anyways, thanks for all of your love and prayers, see y'all soon!
-Elder Varney
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September 9, 2019 (Final Post)
HE IS HOME! Here is some final pictures that his Mission President sent just before he came home:
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Good times in the villa... This week was full of good stuff, we had a good lesson with Irving and the spirit was very strong, and it ended... -
Leave things better than you found it! Or at least that's my motto with areas in the mission, and its what we were able to do this las... -
What a crazy time! It was a whirl to get here so quickly and meet everyone so quickly! My companion is Elder Lingenbrink from Seattle Wa...