Buena Semana

Hola!

Had a great week in Caballito! We are starting to become a part of the ward here and it is really exciting. Our new ward mission leader is a teacher in the MTC here in Argentina and is a total stud and is super motivated. 

We´re teaching a brother and sister, Rebeca and Moisés, from the Dominican Republic and they came to church yesterday! They are 19 and 20 and just super fun to be around. Moisés said the prayer at the end of one of our lessons this week and my companion asked us all to stay still a little bit after the prayer and we did and I asked Moisés what he was feeling and he said, ¨How beautiful.¨ Pretty incredible experience, and we could all feel it. 

I hope you guys are all doing wonderful! Heard it rained like crazy, haha, hope you didn´t drown! We are enjoying some very mild weather here, it´s quite nice. Love you guys!

Elder Wardle

Elder Wardle and Elder Young in Front of Buenos Aires Temple

It's Getting Really Cold!

Subject: It´s getting really cold

Hola :)

So we had quite an eventful week. Tuesday we had a zone conference with President and he is super awesome. We found out he retired when he was 36 or something like that. He is filled with energy and the Spirit. Thursday my companion had an interview with him and I got to talk with Sister Ayre, and she is hilarious.  They just seem like a normal young Mormon couple, weird that they´re serving here in Argentina haha. 

Then on Friday we got to go to the temple because while I was in Congreso last month we broke the record for baptisms and confirmations in a single month in a zone. Pretty incredible.  So all the missionaries that are in Congreso now, and all that were in Congreso the past transfer went and it was awesome. Elder Young is training one of the new 18 year olds in Chacabuco.

My companion and I are getting along, he´s really funny and we have fun. Sometimes it is just hard when we aren´t seeing much success in what we´re doing. We made some goals to change some things and we´ll see how it works out. The Lord is helping me to learn patience in this area and with my companion, and I´m learning that I´m not a very patient person, though I do feel good about my progress and my efforts. Kind of a different feeling when I realized that my priority before investigators and baptisms and all that is my companion. We´re working a lot together to help us progress and then we go to help others. Alright, enough of that. 

We´re really cold haha.  My companion dies because he is from a much hotter climate and freezes every day. I love you guys, enjoy the heat!

Love,

Elder Wardle

LOTS OF RAIN!

Buen dia todos,

We are working here in Caballito, just not seeing a lot of results but are helping a lot of less actives. We´ve been walking a lot too, but my companion says its good because he needs to lose weight. We are starting fresh here in this ward because the bishopric is new, most of the leadership in the ward is new and my companion and I are very new, so we´re all learning a lot right now. 

Not much else to report, I guess. Just enjoying the rain haha. The members here are wonderful. So warm and welcoming, they just need a bit of a jumpstart so we can help them with the missionary work in the ward. Lots of them say that this is a difficult ward for missionary work, but it isn´t the area, it´s our faith and what we do that affects how well the work is going.

I know that this is the work of the Lord, and we can always always receive miracles by being obedient to the commandments. I´m so grateful for loving parents and family that helped me learn that simple lesson. If we keep the commandments, God will bless us incredibly. It´s up to us. 

Love you all, keep praying and reading. Something President Gulbrandsen always taught is the OLA, which means wave in spanish. Orar (pray), Leer (Read) and Asistir (attend church). If we do these three simple things, this wave, or ola, will carry us to the celestial kingdom. In his farewell talk to the mission, he said that everytime he sees us after he will ask us, ¨How´s it going with the OLA?¨ So I´m going to be a little annoying and ask all of you (and while saying this, I have no idea who actually reads this email besides Mom, but whatever) HOW´S IT GOING WITH THE OLA? Thank you all for your support. 

Love,

Elder Wardle

Winter in Buenos Aires = Rain, and lots of it

New Pics from Argentina

FIRST WEEK in CABALLITO

Hola!

So we´re in a super rich area, which is super interesting and we only had about 6 lessons this week. But its alright. 

The first night we were here we had the ward list and we went to the first name that looked good and it was the brother in the ward that was replacement bishop for four months. Their previous bishop moved and they didn´t call another one until this past Sunday, the 30 of June. Brother Boyer, who was in the bishopric, is from Canada and served his mission here, so he always speaks to me in English haha.

There are a bunch of members here who speak English, which is really weird but fun. A couple just returned from serving as mission president in Paraguay this past week and they are going to be awesome, I know that. 

And besides that we´ve just been walking a lot through the city, a little lost, but learning the area and getting to know the area. I´m really excited to be here. It´s extremely different from Chacabuco, even though we share a border haha. 

Happy Fourth of July to everyone haha. I totally forgot about it and then we were calling members in the evening and one of the members told me which was kind of a shock.

My companion is really funny. He´s from Salta and talks just like a pure Argentine, as Argentine as you can get basically haha. Elder Pastrana is in the zone and doesn´t really like the accent here, but I always have and he told me during the zone meeting, Ïf you want to speak like an Argentine, just listen to your companion haha¨. Very blunt and says crazy things sometimes but we´re getting along. 

Thanks to everybody for writing me. You guys rock and are always in my prayers. 

Love you!

Elder Wardle

Got Transferred and New Mission President!

Hola todos,

Well, I finally got transferred from Parque Chacabuco to just right above it in Caballito. We live about 15 blocks from my last apartment. I´m opening an area with Elder Caballero from Salta, Argentina. He´s about to complete a year in the mission, so we´re young and we´ll be figuring out what to do in this area because we are both new. Exciting but a little scary. Looks like President opened up a few areas this transfer.

President Gulbrandsen left last Friday and President Ayre came in. It was really sad to see the Gulbrandsens leave, he taught us a few things before he left which rocked. 

We got to have a meeting with President and Sister Ayre yesterday. They have four kids and brought two of them with them, one is 14 and the other 11. He served in Panama/Costa Rica 20 years ago and Sister Ayre´s spanish is already pretty good. He told us a story about how after his mission he started a bungie jumping company in Provo. Yeah, we´ve got the coolest president haha. He is extremely humble and full of energy, we´re really excited to have him here.

Alright well this transfer will be super interesting, I know I´m going to have to stretch and learn a lot because my companion and I know nothing. We don´t even know where the chapel is. I´m excited though, all the sisters (this is a sister area) that have been here were telling me that this is their favorite area.

This last week in Parque Chacabuco was awesome. We didn´t have any baptisms, but two confirmations and our highest attendance so far. Sad to see it go but I know this area is going to be awesome. 

Elder Young and I were sad to say goodbye to each other, we thought we were going to have another transfer together, but he´s going to be training this transfer, so I´m excited to hear about that. 

Alright well I guess that is it. Hope you are all enjoying the heat of all heat. I´m a little bit chilled right now to be honest haha.

Love,

Elder Wardle