Returning people in Retornos
That's supposed to be a joke because the wards name is retornos which roughly means "returners" but anyways we returned lots of lost sheep last week. Me and my companion read a recent talk from an area seventy that talked about this is the time when the hearts of less actives will be opened once again, so we set out on the hunt for less actives.
Turns out two families live on our street that we were previously unaware of, and the whole family of six we found said they felt that they needed to head back to church for a few days before we came. Another lady who turns out lives on the next street over was baptized as a kid but left home when she was seventeen and felt happy to see the missionaries again.
Anyways on our way to the comida an old member said he'd give us a ride, and then stared off on how really the "real" sacrifice is the fast, not this"silly tithing thing; and we should be fasting at least every week if we want the "real" blessings. Turns out the member saw us suffering but didn't come and rescue us because the food wasn't ready yet, but of well, we got our weekly dose of apostasy. But anyways we got to go up to a Pueblito and teach this great family that got baptized a while ago, and the oldest son Oscar is back and wants to get baptized, which is great! Also we have the good King David a mairrage and baptismal date, so he's excited as well!
Anyways, thats enough ranting for me today, love you all!
-Elder Varney
Sunday, April 22, 2018
Sunday, April 15, 2018
April 9, 2018 (Week 28)
We have endured another week...
The funny stuff that went down this week all started when last p day we went to a pizza buffet but for some reason the lady didn't have any change in bills at all so gave my companion 300 pesos in change all in coins of 5 pesos. Haha, at least now we have change for the buses for the rest of the month! Anyways then we ate with this family that lives in the us for about six months then moved back to mexico in San Luis about two month ago, and their crazy kid was running around yelling at us in Spanish, then as a joke elder Scoresby asked if he spoke English, then the kid stopped and said, "Yeah, why, whada you want?" Turns out he speaks perfect English and speaks it better than spanish, which was pretty funny.
Anyways even though Satan tried to impede us with sickness this week we still got three baptisms, each of PF families, so they are all reactivated. We'll just be trying to recuperate this next week and get back into the groove after we don't feel like dying every day. Anyways, love you all, see ya later!
-Elder Varney
The funny stuff that went down this week all started when last p day we went to a pizza buffet but for some reason the lady didn't have any change in bills at all so gave my companion 300 pesos in change all in coins of 5 pesos. Haha, at least now we have change for the buses for the rest of the month! Anyways then we ate with this family that lives in the us for about six months then moved back to mexico in San Luis about two month ago, and their crazy kid was running around yelling at us in Spanish, then as a joke elder Scoresby asked if he spoke English, then the kid stopped and said, "Yeah, why, whada you want?" Turns out he speaks perfect English and speaks it better than spanish, which was pretty funny.
Anyways even though Satan tried to impede us with sickness this week we still got three baptisms, each of PF families, so they are all reactivated. We'll just be trying to recuperate this next week and get back into the groove after we don't feel like dying every day. Anyways, love you all, see ya later!
-Elder Varney
Thursday, April 5, 2018
April 2, 2018 (Week 27)
More good times in Retornos...
This last week was really great, we started off a bit rocky since it was super hot and also the "holy week" and nobody was out on the street, especially during the Holy Friday. But it all turned out really well, since the majority of the new people we found were some of the last second contact of the night / final back up plan kind of things.
We finally found Jose Rios, who I had seen around for the past three months but could never get a hold of him, but we finally did one night. He is huge and owns a gym and looks just like the Rock and even though he is brand new and hasn't heard anything about the church, he told us how things kept on getting in the way whenever he wanted to try to meet with us, but he though that must've been a sign that the adversary was trying to stop him from doing something good. Also we've been teaching the familia Esareño y Tayabas like crazy, and we're getting ready to baptize all three of the little girls this coming Saturday, please pray that all will go smooth in this week for them!
Anyways, one last funny thing that happened was when we were walking out on the edge of the city one day a drunk/crazy guy came up to us and did his whole christian prayer thing and then shook my hand and only gave Elder Scoresby knuckles. He then started crying and curled up in a ball on the ground, and when we asked him what was wrong he told my companion that he didn't care about him because he didn't shake his hand good enough. Anyways then we gave him a Jesus contact card to worship and left; the word of wisdom is true, don't drink.
Anyways, thanks for all of your prayers, I love you all!
-Elder Varney
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
March 26, 2018 (Week 26) - BUMP Day!
We're famous!
Or at least we think we are, on Tuesday we were just walking down the street when a car stopped by and and a reporter came out asking if he could film us. He was originally going to do a story about the kids that pick up trash on the street, but they never showed up so he saw us and decided to give us an interview.
President said it was fine, so they went ahead and followed us with the cameras till we arrived at the bishops house so he could accompany us to a lesson. When he answered the door he had this frazzled look on his face but we told him that it was OK, we were just filming the District 3. Anyways, the reporter wanted a juicy story, so he asked us if it was true that we were from the CIA, but we told him that the CIA wouldn't send two teenagers that don't know Spanish to Mexico. Next he asked us how many times we had been assaulted on the street, but Elder Scoresby told him that he has been in San Luis for 17 months and never been assaulted.
Anyways, it must've been a disappointing story for the reporter, but it sure was exciting for us! Anyways, we have seen a lot of great blessings this last week, we found two other part member families, one is from Oaxaca and moved here a month ago and we are reactivating the family and one of them is called name Rey David (King David) and we want to have him get married in two weeks so then we can baptize him. We also found the familia Escareño, the two girls Yuliana and Veronica from that family have a baptismal date for the 7th of april with Amelia Tayabas, so we are just working and hoping we can have all of them arrive at baptism!
Thanks so much for your blessings through your stories and prayers!
-Elder Varney
Or at least we think we are, on Tuesday we were just walking down the street when a car stopped by and and a reporter came out asking if he could film us. He was originally going to do a story about the kids that pick up trash on the street, but they never showed up so he saw us and decided to give us an interview.
President said it was fine, so they went ahead and followed us with the cameras till we arrived at the bishops house so he could accompany us to a lesson. When he answered the door he had this frazzled look on his face but we told him that it was OK, we were just filming the District 3. Anyways, the reporter wanted a juicy story, so he asked us if it was true that we were from the CIA, but we told him that the CIA wouldn't send two teenagers that don't know Spanish to Mexico. Next he asked us how many times we had been assaulted on the street, but Elder Scoresby told him that he has been in San Luis for 17 months and never been assaulted.
Anyways, it must've been a disappointing story for the reporter, but it sure was exciting for us! Anyways, we have seen a lot of great blessings this last week, we found two other part member families, one is from Oaxaca and moved here a month ago and we are reactivating the family and one of them is called name Rey David (King David) and we want to have him get married in two weeks so then we can baptize him. We also found the familia Escareño, the two girls Yuliana and Veronica from that family have a baptismal date for the 7th of april with Amelia Tayabas, so we are just working and hoping we can have all of them arrive at baptism!
Thanks so much for your blessings through your stories and prayers!
-Elder Varney
Monday, March 19, 2018
March 19, 2018 (Week 25)
Well this week was full of wonderful and wonderfully strange experiences. First off I had to spend two days in Jacarandas, the ward next to ours, while I waited for my new companion to arrive from Aguascalientes. But while in Jacarandas I got to meet all their crazy investigators.
First off we went to this lady that has been an investigator for over 40 years and knows more about the history of the church in San Luis than most of the members. She told us that she is content with just praying every day and doesn't need to do anything more, but Elder Belito is convinced that he is going to convert her, so we'll see how that goes. Next we went to another eternal investigator of theirs who told me all about how the aliens have been visiting us for 3,000 years and showed us the alien artifacts he found. Next he told us how the aliens have the advantage in technology but we have the advantage in spirituality and that he's looking forward to the second coming of Christ when Noah will fly down in his spaceship ark and save us all from when the sun explodes. And that basically sums up my time in Jacarandas.
Anyways, we had a super powerful experience when we finally got back to retornos and taught Amelia Tayabas and her family, after we finished the plan of salvation her 19 year old brother Mario said he wanted to come back to church even though the last time he was there was when he was 9 years old. And after he came on Sunday he told us that he wants to go and work with us for a day because he feels like he wants to go on a mission! Anyways the whole family is progressing so well and it is such a miracle, because at first only hermano Tayabas was supportive of us, but now everyone has the burning desire in their family. Anyways that is my rambling update of the week, its great to be with Elder Scoresby, he was in my area Retornos about nine months ago, and he's super excited to be back and work hard after he's seen how much the ward has progressed since his last time. Thanks so much for all the prayers and inspired words of confidence!
See ya next time!
-Elder Varney
First off we went to this lady that has been an investigator for over 40 years and knows more about the history of the church in San Luis than most of the members. She told us that she is content with just praying every day and doesn't need to do anything more, but Elder Belito is convinced that he is going to convert her, so we'll see how that goes. Next we went to another eternal investigator of theirs who told me all about how the aliens have been visiting us for 3,000 years and showed us the alien artifacts he found. Next he told us how the aliens have the advantage in technology but we have the advantage in spirituality and that he's looking forward to the second coming of Christ when Noah will fly down in his spaceship ark and save us all from when the sun explodes. And that basically sums up my time in Jacarandas.
Anyways, we had a super powerful experience when we finally got back to retornos and taught Amelia Tayabas and her family, after we finished the plan of salvation her 19 year old brother Mario said he wanted to come back to church even though the last time he was there was when he was 9 years old. And after he came on Sunday he told us that he wants to go and work with us for a day because he feels like he wants to go on a mission! Anyways the whole family is progressing so well and it is such a miracle, because at first only hermano Tayabas was supportive of us, but now everyone has the burning desire in their family. Anyways that is my rambling update of the week, its great to be with Elder Scoresby, he was in my area Retornos about nine months ago, and he's super excited to be back and work hard after he's seen how much the ward has progressed since his last time. Thanks so much for all the prayers and inspired words of confidence!
See ya next time!
-Elder Varney
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| Pic of Elder Varney & Elder Scoresby (Elder Scoresby is from Lehi) |
March 12, 2018 (Week 24)
This was a pretty dang good week. First we got to have the baptism of Brenda, (See picture below) she is super great and is probably the most prepared person I have ever met, her testimony is super strong, and she is already doing missionary work and invited three of her friends to the baptism and now were gonna go teach them!
Another great thing we saw this week was that every new investigator we found on the street mentioned how sick they were of the vain traditions of the other churches and wanted purpose in a church. It was such a miracle that the lord provided, we were really able to connect to a lot of people this way! As for now our next baptism we are hoping for is Amelia Tayabas, her family has been inactive for a while but just recently we got them to start coming back, it's really challenging for them though since Brother Tayabas just recently started having epileptic seizures and can't be left alone outside of his house, but they still were able to come this last Sunday, which was pretty good.
Yesterday I found out I'll be in Retornos for another six weeks, which is great since this ward is really starting to blossom!
Love ya all, thanks for all your love!
-Elder Varney
Another great thing we saw this week was that every new investigator we found on the street mentioned how sick they were of the vain traditions of the other churches and wanted purpose in a church. It was such a miracle that the lord provided, we were really able to connect to a lot of people this way! As for now our next baptism we are hoping for is Amelia Tayabas, her family has been inactive for a while but just recently we got them to start coming back, it's really challenging for them though since Brother Tayabas just recently started having epileptic seizures and can't be left alone outside of his house, but they still were able to come this last Sunday, which was pretty good.
Yesterday I found out I'll be in Retornos for another six weeks, which is great since this ward is really starting to blossom!
Love ya all, thanks for all your love!
-Elder Varney
March 5, 2018 (Week 23)
This week was full of opportunities to serve! First we got to help a disabled lady confined to a wheelchair buy groceries and brought her back to her house; then the next day we got to help a member move houses and we loaded the moving truck so full that it almost tipped over a couple times while we were driving to the new house, Good times.
Also we got to teach seminary one night because the teacher's car broke down, and I learned that teenagers are always teenagers, no matter where in the world you are. And I realize I'm saying that while I'm still a teenager... Oh well, whatever. Lastly this week stake president called and informed us that a recent baptism of a family of six from the area next to ours actually belongs to our ward, and they live in a puebla about twenty minutes outside of the city. (Driving time, walking it is more like an hour) Anyways tomorrow we and the whole ward council are going to go visit them to fellowship them into our ward, should be fun!
Anyways, Brenda Mendosa has been progressing perfectly and she is going to get baptized on Saturday, please pray that everything goes well for her! (and us, too!)
Thanks for all the help,
Elder Varney
Also we got to teach seminary one night because the teacher's car broke down, and I learned that teenagers are always teenagers, no matter where in the world you are. And I realize I'm saying that while I'm still a teenager... Oh well, whatever. Lastly this week stake president called and informed us that a recent baptism of a family of six from the area next to ours actually belongs to our ward, and they live in a puebla about twenty minutes outside of the city. (Driving time, walking it is more like an hour) Anyways tomorrow we and the whole ward council are going to go visit them to fellowship them into our ward, should be fun!
Anyways, Brenda Mendosa has been progressing perfectly and she is going to get baptized on Saturday, please pray that everything goes well for her! (and us, too!)
Thanks for all the help,
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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HE IS HOME! Here is some final pictures that his Mission President sent just before he came home: -
Rollin with the punches! This week we had lots of "punches" I guess, but it wasn't too much bad stuff. We ended up having to ...
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The final chapter... Or at least the final transfer. Almost the same thing. Breaking out a brand new daily planner for the last time... Fe...