June 24, 2019 (Week 90)

And the rains came a tumblin' down...

Well, the Lord has been showering us with blessings, and literally as well!  Like clockwork every other day here at 6:00 it starts raining, which is fun especially when you get caught in the middle of a street that is now a one foot river!  Haha, its all good, at least until the water enters your apartment...

Well anyways no permanent damage occurred, so no big deal!  This week we've seen those typical blessings you have when opening an area, even though honestly most of our plans for finding people fell through, on literally every street that we've gone on we've found someone that has been prepared to accept us!  

Particularly this week we had a very spiritual lesson with Rodrigo, who shared with us that after reading and praying about the Book of Mormon that a friend gave him he had the most spiritual experience of his life; and now says that he knows the book is true!  The Lord truly is preparing the people here for us in the heart of San Luis!  Anyways, thanks for all of your prayers, they really help the work along for all of us down here!  

Hasta Luego!

-Elder Varney

PS - Elder Varney got a new Mission President this last week, and his former Mission President's Wife has posted a number of pictures on their mission Facebook page - we found the ones that had Elder Varney in them and posted them below.

June 17, 2019 (Week 89)

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 last week in Zacatecas!  We were able to find every person that we had fallen out of contact with that we were previously teaching, so that's a pretty great miracle considering that that occurrence almost never happens much!  Had every day filled with appointments, so it was quite a blessing for us!

Had a great time with elder Loyola, he will be having a ball with elder Burton (my old CCM companion) out there in Zacatecas.  In the meantime I'm back in the Centro de San Luis again in the Terrazas ward, with my new companion elder Clawson!  The best part is that elder Clawson is 6'5" as well, so I'm finally not alone in Mexico!

Anyways, just getting things started down here opening the area again (for the last time!)  And very grateful to be in the Lord's service!  I love you all!

-Elder Varney

Elder Varney with his new "Greenie" Elder Clawson (far left)

June 10, 2019 (Week 88)

Another wild run!

Well, this week was a spiritual roller coaster!  It stared off with ending a run of bad luck we had with finding new people, not that we were lacking a ton of people to teach, just a bit of rejection.  But this week started off with a very spiritual zone conference, the last that Presidente and Hermana Hernandez will be in!  They left us with great impressions and specific instructions on how to follow the Lord´s will; one interesting note that we learned was that we are usually the ones who inhibit our own faith, even before we have left the house, or left for the mission field!

But with that great spiritual powerhouse day, our luck began to change!  During exchanges I had three lessons in a row where people had read and all committed to baptism, and in another city my companion contacted a family that actually lives in our area!  Great miracles!  Anyways, just a few hours ago the assistants called to tell me that I´ll be training the next transfer, still don´t know where, but no matter what it´ll be an amazing way to finish the last two transfers of the mission!

Love you all, each and every one of you!  Take care till next week!

-Elder Varney

Elder Varney's last picture with his Mission President, Pres Hernandez

Sunrise in his area

June 3, 2019 (Week 87)

Wet´n´wild!

Well, this week was actually pretty dry up until today, when it rained all night long!  Then exactly at 6:30 in the morning it stopped!  Oh well, that´s pretty nice, except that now its very, very humid!  Oh well, the climate here is quite similar to salt lake, high and dry, so I guess I just got used to that.  This week we also had our stake conference and the visiting seventy is the best friend of my companion´s dad!  He had a little meeting with us, explaining how the missionaries can have a tremendous effect on the energy of a ward, which is very true!  We are following his councils and will surely see the blessings coming soon.

Another pretty good miracle was that the familia martinez came to the conference!  They are an awesome less active family that has two teenagers that we want to baptize very soon!  And they came to two sessions all on their own, we were able to get them set up with come, follow me and self-sufficiency classes, so the should be doing pretty well!  I´m so grateful for all these great programs that the church has to help us magnify our abilities, but mostly I´m grateful for all the great people that all work together to get the Lord´s work done!

Anyways, love each and every one of you, take care!

-Elder Varney

May 27, 2019 (Week 86)

Up in the clouds!

All this week the clouds have been getting lower and lower, but it has only been getting hotter and hotter and no rain!  But today finally rain and the temperature has dropped, so that is a blessing!  Speaking of blessings, this last week was very nice, we´ve had a ton of super spiritual lessons!
Literally after almost every lesson we left feeling super hot, not from the heat but from the spirit!

Also we were walking up one hill (as usual) when we saw a lady cleaning up the trash and dirt from the street so we got a rare service opportunity and helped her.  It was actually nice to be able to a little yardwork for once!  But in the end we were able to have a great lesson with Silvia and her husband, they have an autistic son and have really learned of the tender mercies of the lord and how to really pray all on their own, we hope to be able to continue on having spiritual experiences with them!

Anyways, lots of fun stuff this week, thanks for all your prayers and help in so many ways, talk to y´all soon!

-Elder Varney

Two Families that Ethan got to know in San Luis Potosi 

Dawn in Zacatecas 

View across Zacatecas