The Spirit is the Real Teacher

Familia, y Amigos,

Hello again!! I hope you all had a great week. This week I learned a lot here in Omaha and we had some great experiences.

On Wednesday, we had Specialized Training and it was the last meeting that we will have with President Kunz. It was a powerful meeting and I learned a ton. But I will miss President Kunz as the mission President. I have learned so much from him. He is constantly filled with the Spirit and I will miss that. Even though I think the mission will be different with a new mission President, it sounds like President Weston will be great as well. He's coming from Utah... haha yeah! But I think it will be cool to work with two different mission Presidents and learn from both of them.

From our specialized training, we learned a lot about the importance of the Spirit and teaching people, not lessons. Elder Pese and I have been trying to make some changes to work more with the Spirit, and I felt like it clicked during one visit in particular with a lady named C. We have seen her a few times and had taught her the Plan of Salvation, but this time we taught her the Restoration, and it was probably the best lesson that Elder Pese and I have taught together. We felt like the Spirit was there, we had really good unity, and the Spanish just flowed. We asked a lot of questions and I think that's what made everything so different. I was so pumped when we finished the lesson and she told us that we could come by again today. There was only a two-day gap. I was so stoked. I felt like that meant she was really interested. So, we were super pumped about that. But we hope to do better at working with the Spirit more.

And then throughout the week there have been several little tender mercies that I've seen and it's been awesome. This week we also brought out the bikes and so we've been riding a lot. We come home with our shirts flippin' soaked, so that kinda stinks but it feels great afterwards.

Really quick, I have a funny story. On like Tuesday, we were walking down the sidewalk to go see an investigator and on our way we were kicking rocks between each other's legs, and after a little bit we said hi to this one guy that was outside, and then after talking to him we got walking again and we walked into a tree branch. haha. But I was wearing my glasses and when I was trying to walk under the branch, one of the leaves or something caught onto a part of my glasses and it pulled my glasses off my face. hahha I felt like an idiot, but it was hilarious!! haha

Other than that, it was a good week! haha But anyway, I hope you all have another great week! I love you all. Thanks so much for all that you do and for your support!

Love,
Elder Vawdrey

Little by Little

Familia y Amigos,

Hello again... I hope you all have enjoyed another week of life and hot weather! yeah! haha I'm craving an otter pop right now...but anyway.

This week was very different compared to the rest of my mission thus far. We found out that we have bed bugs and this week was also the "apartment cleaning check," so we spent 3 straight days just cleaning our apartment of former missionaries' stuff, washing ALL of our clothes, turning upside down our beds and desks and dressers, and etc. Flip, I'm glad my parents didn't make me clean like that back at home. haha But, I think we are safe from bed bugs for at least a month...or so we hope...and our apartment looks brand new. It feels good to have the place free of old stuff even though it was a pain to get it all done. We were supposed to get the apartment checked by somebody but nobody even came. We were kinda frustrated, but I remembered a quote from the quote book my mom sent me: "The best part of having done something is having done it." or something like that. haha I don't care if someone comes and checks it anymore, it just feels nice, and I think the spirit is stronger during our studies because we cleaned.

But we have one pretty solid investigator right now, JG. He has been to church 4 times and is a referral from members in our ward. We are planning to have dinner with the members and JG this week and after we will teach a lesson with them, so we are pumped for that. But other than JG, all of our other investigators seem to just be floating around right now. This next week we have a specialized training about Finding, so I'm looking forward to that. But, we need to think of new ways to find investigators.

As for something else that I'm SUPER pumped about is that I finished El Libro de Mormon in Spanish this week for my first time!! boo ya! My goal was to finish it by my 1-year mark, and I beat it by 2 days! yeah baby!

But this week it hit me again about how good things come slow. I sometimes still get frustrated with my Spanish...but oh well. I realized that I just got to focus on one thing at a time, one day at a time, and then overtime, I will hopefully know a lot more! haha I guess that is my spiritual thought for this letter...Little by Little.

Thanks to each of you for all that you do, your support, and your examples. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Vawdrey

P.S. I learned how to say one of my favorite quotes in Spanish the other day. Los hereos no nacen, sino que se hacen! "Heroes aren't born, they're made!"

Grab a milk!

Familia y Amigos,

Buenos Dias! I hope you all enjoyed your first week of summer. And I don't know what it's like out there in good old Utah, but here It's starting to get really hot!! holy cow. The humility is killer. Let me just say, it is so nice to have an air conditioner in the car and apartment!! haha

This week, I have learned that you gotta expect the unexpected. Things wont always go as you had planned. As for my companion and me, we decided that we wanted to try and find a tender mercy from the Lord each day. And the first day we did it...I think it was Friday, we definitely had one. We were walking out in the flippin' hot sun and we weren't having much luck with getting in to visit with the investigators we wanted to see. We decided that we would walk away from the area that we were in to a different area (like a 20-minute walk). Well...as we were walking, we just got talking about food...you know us. We really like food. haha And we actually started talking about milk and how we wish we had some milk right now. So we were getting pretty dehydrated with the heat and no water so we decided that we would stop by Subway on our way over to the other area to grab a quick cup of water. When we walked up to the register to ask for a cup of water, a guy that was standing back by the door just came right up to us at the register and asked us: Hey do you want something? And at first, we were like "Oh no, we're good." But then he was insisting that we get something. After a minute of him insisting to buy us something, we were like "All right, we'll get a cookie." haha And then he was like, "Hey get them both a milk too!" haha... We both thought it was hilarious that right before we walked into the restaurant, we were talking about how badly we wanted milk, and then here we are with a cup of milk. What makes this story even better is that the guy that bought us the milk, his name was Jesus! How cool is that?

This was an experience that I will never forget. It was something super simple and easy to overlook, but this experience helped me to realize that God knows who we are, He knows our thoughts, and He knows our needs, and if we look for Him, He will help us out. Oh, and also something I thought was really cool is that the guy that bought us the milk wasn't even a Mormon. He had a nice family but said that he has a lot of respect for Mormons... and his grandma is a Mormon. So that was a really cool experience.

Now to switch gears a little bit, this week, we found out that we have BED BUGS. FLIP. haha Our apartment manager told us that we have to take EVERYTHING out of our apartment so that he can spray all the apartments with some stuff. So that was pretty frustrating to hear about that. But hopefully it will kill the Bed Bugs quick and that we wont get eaten by bugs.

Now as for investigators, we didn't have a lot of special things happen this week, but we did get a referral from a member for a guy named JG, and he has been to church three times. He seems pretty solid. So we are hoping that he continues to have interest in the church as we go over and visit with him!

It's been a good week. We bought some otter pops to help us stay hydrated! I suggest it for you all back at home too. They're good :) I love you all. Have a great week and thank you so much for all of your love and support!

Love,
Elder Vawdrey

What's your potential?

Familia y Amigos,

This week is transfer week... and good news! I will be staying here with Elder Pese. That is what I was expecting and hoping for and also the other two Elders that we share an apartment with will both be staying as well! We are all super stoked!!

But, as for this past week, in our district meeting, I set baptismal goals for the month. And after each companionship shared what their goal was, our district leader asked: "Okay, now how are you going to achieve that?" Right then, I realized that we really didn't have a plan. So we talked about it for a bit and came up with the conclusion that we just need to invite our investigators to be baptized more. So that night, we saw an investigator...A, and we had the plan to set her for baptism. When we walked in, we asked her what she remembered from our last visit and she remembered like everything, it was so sweet. We had talked about the importance of authority and so when she told us that she remembered all of that, we were both just like... "Dang, it's time!!" haha So we set her for baptism! She has been taught by several missionaries in the past, and so we are hoping that this time she will keep progressing. She is from Guatemala and probably one of the nicest people I have met.

Then, just yesterday we had another District Meeting, and our leader taught us about the importance of Charity and how Charity means Seeing the potential that others have no matter where or who they are right now. And then we talked about the Potential of each child of God. We each have the potential to become like our Heavenly Father. Do we believe that? We were sent here to be happy, to learn and progress, and to overtime become like our Heavenly Father. We set our own limits. With God's help we can become who he wants us to be and who we want to be. So, always remember your Potential! We learn little by little. But if we trust in the Lord, we can do it! That is something that I am going to commit myself to do better this week. Remember my potential. Because we can only see the potential of others if we first see the potential in ourselves! Ah... some good meetings this week.

Anyway, I hope you are all doing great. Thanks so much for your love and support. It means so much!! Have a great week, and remember YOUR potential!!!

Love,
Elder Vawdrey

Elder Pese - Had no tissue, so he found some newspaper in the truck!

The Paleta man we see walking our streets every day

The Omaha Spanish District

Count your many blessings!

Amigos y Familia,

Hello once again...and mom, sorry that this e-mail is a day late. Because of the holiday yesterday, the libraries were closed and we weren't able to find a computer to use and send e-mails. But thankfully we were able to get to the library today to send a quick little something something. haha But how are you all? I hope you all had a great week last week.

This past week for me has been full of learning and enduring.

Right now, 4 of us Spanish Elders share an apartment in Omaha and it is a blast. However, we only have one car so we have to share it. dang. haha but I'm grateful we have one at least haha. But because of the first week of the transfer, our monthly allotment on miles just went by super quick and so all this week we had to walk so that we can stay below the monthly allotment. So, it was a sacrifice to walk around everywhere and it made me appreciate having a car, but thankfully it's been nice weather and our investigators live somewhat close to our apartment.

This week, we were able to find a couple of new investigators so that was really exciting. Because we didn't have the car we were able to do some street contacting and that was awesome. I think a lot of people saw us more and we were able to talk to more people because of it. So, even though we didn't see all the people we really wanted to, we were able to still see several and find several others as well!

One individual that we have really been trying to work with is E. He is going through a lot of trials right now and so we feel this is the perfect time to share a message about Jesus Christ and His Atoning sacrifice. We have met with him a few times, but it just seems like he doesn't really take it in. He loves our visits and talks a lot, but he just doesn't seem to show a lot of interest and really just doesn't commit to it. From this I have realized the importance of Agency. I so badly wish we could just tell people how to truly find true happiness... I love the quote that says: "If you want to help someone get to an island, don't tell him/her how to get there; just show him/her the blessings, and they will want to find their way there." When we remember the blessings that come from living the Gospel, we will want to live it. So we are hoping that when we see him tonight, we can be in tune with the spirit and show him the blessings that come from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Another reason why this week has been a learning one for me is because I have been thinking a lot about what it means to "do your best." I have often felt that if I'm not the best or don't have baptisms, then I'm not good enough. Well, this week I feel like I got humbled and finally am realizing that numbers truly don't matter. Doing your best doesn't mean that you have to be the best at whatever you do, it just means that you do your very best and strive to improve yourself one step and one day at a time. It's a process...and it's a long one, but I've seen great blessings already come because I've realized that more. I'm grateful for the opportunity that I have to learn patience even though I know I don't always have much of it and it's hard to get...but I know that anything is possible, especially if it has to do with the Gospel and we rely on the Atonement of Jesus Christ for help. I know that the Atonement is real. Christ really did suffer for us and wants to comfort us in times of trial. He has a plan of Happiness for us. It's only during the times that we forget that He is the Master when we begin to be impatient or feel our trials are overwhelming. So from me this week, I would hope that you all choose to rely on the Atonement of Jesus Christ more in your lives. It's truly the way to happiness and joy in this life and the next.

One way that I realized the blessings more this week from living the Gospel is because we had the privilige to attend the temple this week. Wow, I don't think I've felt the spirit that strong in the temple before. There is amazing peace and joy that is only found in the temple. It's worth shooting for. There's always something we can do better. We just have to take one thing at a time and focus on the most important things.

 

I love you all. Have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Vawdrey

The Spirit is the Real Teacher!

Familia y Amigos,

Wow, another week in the books. I hope you are all doing great and have plans to enjoy another week wherever you are!

As for this past week here in Omaha, Wednesday was a big day....we had Zone Conference. In the conference we learned a lot about the importance of being converted to the Gospel and helping our investigators to do the same. Our Mission President talked about how too many of us just have baptisms as a statistic...and we need to throw that out the window. He mentioned how a person has to come to church 3 times before baptism...but that's a MINIMUM. I thought it was a really good conference and I like what he said about how if we are converted, we will know how to meet the needs of our investigators through the Spirit and we will have more progressing investigators. When I heard that, I was like, boo ya...I need to convert myself more!!

But I feel like a learned a good lesson this week. We ended up knocking a lot of doors and the first day we just had absolutely nothing going for us. And then the next day, it was getting late and we just thought we should hit up one more door before we finished it up and the lady that answered the door, N, was super willing to visit with us and then we scheduled a return visit with her. This was a tender mercy from the Lord to me, I felt like. But, I learned a lesson from it that it's only the Spirit that really teaches people...it doesn't matter how many times you've been to church or how many scriptures you can quote. All that matters is if you are converted. So that is something I want more.

Then, lastly we had a bomb visit with an investigator and a member came with us. The Spirit was really strong as the member shared his testimony about the Restoration and so I'm excited to see what happens with our investigator, E!

But I'm sorry, there isn't much to report for this week. We did a lot of organizing in our area and area book, so hopefully these next few weeks we can get more things rolling here with investigators!!

I hope you all have a great week! Thanks so much for all your support and examples! I love you all so much!

Love,
Elder Vawdrey

PS:
Dad, congratulations on completing another marathon!! That is so sweet. I'm sure that's pretty tough to make time to run with all of your other responsibilities. Wow. But, way to go! And thanks for your letter again this week! I'm so grateful that I have such great parents and they write me each week.. and my brothers and sisters as well. I love you guys!!

Mom, thanks for your letter and attached missionary journal haha. It's fun to hear your experiences from your mission as well. But hey, you might be interested in hearing that I went on an exchange with Elder Harker this last week. My companion went on an exchange with our district leader, so I went with Elder Harker and we worked over in his area. He is a very hard worker, wants everyone to hear the Gospel, and walks really fast. haha We were able to find some good potentials for him I think for this next week, so we will have to wait and hear what happens with that. But, this morning I went running with him...and he reminds me a lot of Robby Lee. And flip, he runs quick, I was having a hard time keeping up with him. We ran on a muddy trail and my legs are sore. haha but it was nice to go on a run with him.

Angi, good luck with finals!! Ah, it's gonna feel so good when it's done. I hope it turns out as good as you hope!

Tyler, good luck getting a road bike. Good luck with finals for you too. Work hard!

JJ, congrats on getting your Arrow of Light! That's sweet. And tackle football? That's sweet!! You'll be a great player.

JoJo, good luck with soccer.

Family, thanks so much for your weekly e-mails. I love hearing from each of you. I'm glad all is well and that summer is almost here! whoot. Have a great week!

The blessings are flowing!

Familia y Amigos!!

How are you all? I hope you had a great mother's Day!! It was a blast to talk to and see my family on Skype yesterday and to find out that everything is great and that the family is continually striving to increase their testimonies. I just want to say thanks again to my mom. I'm so grateful for you and your great example. Everything that I have and am is because of you. And I hope you had a great rest of the day! Love ya.

Virtual family hug

As for a quick report on this past week, Elder Pese and I feel like we learned a ton. We changed the areas a little bit between the 3 companionships here in Omaha, so we are in the process of finding out which members are in whose area. So as for this week, we pretty much had to just do missionary work by our own efforts. And I realized that missionary work is very difficult if we just try and do finding ourselves. I'm so grateful to be serving in a ward right now and to be serving in another area where the members are so willing to help us out.

But this week, Elder Pese and I knocked a lot of doors and just felt like we were teaching basically the same thing at each house. We thought it would be good to always talk about the Restoration but after each lesson we just felt like the lesson didn't go well. We decided to change things up a little bit.. and so we tried to ask more inspired questions to the people we contacted and wow it made such a difference. I feel like I am starting to understand better the voice of the Spirit and that it truly is the Spirit that guides this work and helps it move forward. Without the Spirit, your teaching will go no where. so anyway, long story short, Elder Pese and I felt like we had some really solid visits this last week and we felt uplifted after several of them. I think that is how I can realize if the Spirit directed the lesson or not.

But things are going good here. Another really exciting thing that I just heard about today was back from when I was serving in my first area...Sioux City, Iowa. When I was serving with Elder Thayne and Elder Jones, there was a night when we just had no one to go see and we had been knocking a lot of doors. We didn't know what to do and so we decided to say a prayer in the car to find out if there was someone the Lord wanted us to see? Well, after the prayer we shared whatever came to our mind. Elder Thayne and Jones didn't have anyone in mind...having been just new to the area. But there was one name that came to my mind, that I had never taught a lesson to before but we contacted her once at the door. But I said her name, M, and we went and saw her and we were only able to set up an appointment. But, I just heard from Elder Jones today saying that M just got baptized and her son as well!! I am SO pumped!!! YEAH!!! I feel so grateful for the many blessings that the Lord constantly gives us and helps us to know that what we are doing is the right thing to do. Missionary Work is so great. It has it's long days, but moments like this are priceless and make all the long days worth it. I'm so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows our needs, our thoughts, our worries, and our interests and is always right there to help us out. We just need to show faith and he will be there. Really quick I heard an analogy the other day that I really like.

This life is like us on a row boat. You need a paddle on each side of the boat in order to go straight and fast. Our sunday school teacher related it to the importance of our personal agency and trust in God. If all we ever do is just trust in ourselves and say we can do it on our own...our boat is just going to go around in a circle. Likewise if all we ever do is rely on God to show us everything that we should do, we also just go in a circle. So moral of the story, we need to trust in the Lord as we exercise our agency. whoot. love it!!

Anyway, have a great week everyone. I love you all so much. Thanks so much for your love, support, testimonies, and examples. You're actions speak louder than your words. Thanks :)

Love,
Elder Vawdrey

P.S. here are some pictures from the last few weeks. Enjoy :) haha    Elder Pese in the dryer, my bad sunburn, us on Mormon Street, burgers at King Kong, and some of the cutest kids ever !!

Elder Lobster

Let see...permanent press?

King Kong burger...appropriately named!

Mormon Street!

Some of the cutest kids ever!