7.30.12

Hey there familia!

Sounds like you guys had a blast this past week at newport I am happy to hear that. Man it has been a while since I have gone to Newport. haha Well it looks like this information is true. I recieved a call last friday informing me that I will be going home a week earlier than I thought. I am not going to lie as soon as I heard it tears started coming to my eyes because its earlier than I was expecting and it comes a lot faster. I had already had in my mind that I still had a little bit of time and now its like bamm! but it will be ok. 

Well I am happy to say that Adelaida got her hair wet (as grandpa says ;) ) this past weekend. I think it was the best baptism in my mission. Adelaida seriously was a golden investigator and before she was baptized she was asking us about callings and assignments in the church. She is ready to work. She is awesome. It looks like the branch president is thinkin about calling her to teach gospel principles. WOW! RIght before she was baptized she came to me and gave me a huge hug (pic below) and said Gracias Hermana! I seriously am so grateful to my heavenly father to have been able to know her and be apart of her conversion from the beginning all the way to her baptism. She is going to be such a great help in the church. We were also super excited because her husband and one of her daughters went to her baptism. She said that her husband was very suprised after because it wasnt what he was expecting He thought we were a church that yells and sing but I think he really felt peace and loved that it is like a family. He is very supportive of her and that is a great start! Her daughter ended up showing up on sunday in church with her because she liked it! Ahhhh I hope so much that her family will be able to follow her! 

Other than Adelaida we have our awesome little Diana. Our little 12 year old investigator that everyone thinks is my little sister. She absolutely loves the church and is already sharing the gospel with her neighbors and friends. She says ¨oh i was telling my neighbor about OUR church the other day¨haha its super awesome! just kind of hard because i want so bad that her family will be able to support her and go with her. Because its kind of hard for a 12 yr to go by herself. Truly things are super great right now! I feel so happy and grateful to be a missionary right now and to be able to know the people that i am meeting. Really it is an experience incredible. Everyday I think the lord for this time i have to serve him. Everything is great!!! Love you all lots!!!! 

Love,
Hermana Van Wagenen

 

7.23.12

¡Hola!

¿Como estan todo? Espero que todo esten muy bien. :) I hope you areall enjoying your little vacation in Newport this week! Well this pastweek was a pretty good week. The only down side is that I have beenkind of sick with a cold and a bad cough and my voice kind of left. Sothat makes it a little hard to teach but I am getting better. Theweather here is so bipolar because last week it was super cold and wewere sleeping with heaters and all our clothes and now today it is hotoutside and we are in tshirts but at least it is nothing like thesummer killer heat. Its a nice day.

Things are going super great! Adelaida is doing great! I think I toldyou that last week we put a baptism date with her for the 28 of Julyand after we put that date she was telling and inviting everyone toher baptism. This past saturday we invited her to a baptism and sheshowed up in a skirt (this was the first time she came in a skirt)with all of her books she has recieved. She is basically already amember its awesome. So we need all of your prayers this week thateverything will turn out well and nothing comes in the way of herbaptism this saturday. Her family still doesnt listen to us or go withher but I am super grateful because they are at least supporting herand not an obstacle for her. She said that every Sunday her husbandwakes her up to get ready for church and takes her to church in hismoto. It is def a blessing that he is supportive of her because thereare so many husband that are not supportive at all of their wives thatwant to be baptized. I am praying that her husband and daughters willgo to her baptism this saturday and will feel what she feels and beopen to listen to the lessons too..

This past week we found new investigators. This kid named Andres(18yrs old) and his sister Diana (12 yrs old). We taught them the planof salvation and put a date to go back. When we went back they hadtold us that the day before their aunt had died  (it made me realizethe spirit must have told us that we needed to teach them the plan ofsalvation because it was exactly what they needed at that time) whenwe went back diana had read the whole pamplet we had given her and wassuper excited for our visit she basically taught us the whole plan ofsalvation and had invited her friend to come listen to what we wereteaching. Her and her friend ended up going to church with usyesterday. It always seems to be the kids and teenagers that are superopen to everything. The members were asking me if she was my sister.if my sister came from the united states to visit me becauseapparently she looks a lot like me. haha  (see pic below)

Well that was basically our week. Sometimes I get down because ourarea is SUPER small and I feel like there is not one left that hasntlistened but then everytime we find someone who really is prepared. Itreminds me everytime that the lord really is part of this work and heis preparing people to listen to us that he has called us here to thissmall little area because their are people that need to listen to ourmessage. I really do love this work. It is so incredible to see theexcitement that people have when they feel the spirit and really havetestimonys of the gospel. I am so greateful to my heavenly father forhave given me this opportunity to help people feel this same happinessthat i feel because of the gospel in my life. Thanks for all of your support. It is very appreciate. love you lots!!

Love,

Hermana Van Wagenen

mini mtc: the group that went out with my to do contacts

with my old comp Hermana Green at the mini Mtc last week

with my old comp Hermana Vera (the mini missionary) and her BFF

my comp and I (i am a giant) haha

Diana (the investigator) and i after church yesterday

7.16.12

Hey there.

I hope everyone is doing great. I didn’t hear from anyone besides mom, grandma and grandpa. Hope everyone is great! ¨Finding Joy in the Journey¨is my theme for this transfer I put it as a quote on my planner and I think it fits well as a missionary.

Updates from over here in Argentina. Well this past Saturday was a fun crazy day. It started out with interviews with our mission president. The interviews were to update temple recomends for the rededication of the Buenos Aires temple in september that sadly I wont be able to attend because it is a few weeks after I finish. I am super sad but whatever hopefully I will be able to read it later. Then after interviews the stake did a mini MTC for all of the youth. They gave them all nametags that said Future Missionary with their name and they were assigned companions and  had classes to learn how to be a missionary and they had studies and everything like they do in the mtc and then in the afternoon 2 or 3 companionships were assigned to 1 missionary and we went out and contacted people. It was actually pretty fun but I ended up having to talk to everyone because the kids were scared to talk. haha but i thought it was such a great idea for the youth to experience a little bit of what a mission is like.

Adelaida is doing great. No she didnt make is for her baptism this past saturday but yesterday we were able to put a new date with her for the 28 of July. She is excited and already wants to pay tithing and everything. The members say that she acts like she is already a member because on sunday during relief society the teach talked about missionary work and she talked as if she were a member and how she wants to share the gospel with others. haha She knows that this is all true but she says that she still fills like she needs to know more and she want 1 or 2 more months but we put a date with her for the 28th and she accepted so were are praying like crazy that everything goes through and that she feels ready and prepared for this. Its difficult when we know that an investigator has their answer but they dont recognize it.

Other than that things are going great. I seriously feel so grateful to be here on my mission and to be on a mission at this time. I really have a strong testimony that God answers our prayers and that I am suppose to be on a mission. It  continues to be an amazing learning experience every single day and I love it so much. Its amazing how from every difficulty we learn from them and are able to better our lives. A mission is a refiners fire and it is difficult but amazing. I am grateful that God answered my prayers and sent me here to Argentina to do his work. It truly is the best! Thanks for all your support and everything you do. Love you all lots!

Love,
Hermana Van Wagenen

7.9.12

Hey there!
     Well as you have probably realized yesterday was a holiday here in the great Argentina it was independence day but sadly independence day here is NOTHING like 4th of July for us. They seriously didnt do anything here to celebrate their independence. It made me miss the 4th of July (but don’t you worry I def represented my country 4th of July/see pic below)
     This week was a good week. Things are still going super great with our investigator Adelaida. She has gone to church 3 times and has a baptism date for this Saturday but she doesn’t feel super sure about everything. She was to be positive that what she is doing is right. Its difficult because we see that she has received many answers that this is true but she doesn't recognize it. Last week our mission leader gave her the gospel principles book to take home and she told us that she already read the whole book and has been studying it and looking up all of the scriptures. She asked us what is D&C she said she was searching all over her books and couldn’t figure it out and said that she found in the index of the BOM some things that said D&C too.. hahaha  It makes it nice when an investigator likes to read because they can learn things on their own and we don’t have to teach as much just answers questions and explain doubts she has. The other day she told us that she was thinking about Joseph Smith and how she doenst believe in him and then that night she had a dream that she was walking in a forest or something and was kind of lost and was about to walk across a bridge and then Joseph Smith came in her dream and lead her along the way. Umm hello! Yes that it exactly what prophets do they lead us along the way. We just have to help her recognize these things are answers that Joseph Smith really was a prophet. We are praying hard that she can recognize her answers and that her family will also follow her. .
     Things are great! Today I was reading a talk from last April conference called Waiting on the Road to Damascus by Pres. Uchtdorf. Its awesome! It talks a lot about recognizing  answers to our prayers. I think its something we all struggle with sometimes. its a really awesome talk. I am thinking about sharing it with Adelaida! Well I hope all is well and you have a wonderful week!

Love,
Hermana Van Wagenen

7.2.12

(I posted her past 4 emails. Sorry for slacking!)

Well this past week we had transfers and happily I can say that I stayed in the area. I´m not going to lie I was praying that I would stay because I truly did not want to go to a new area and finish my mission in a new area. I am grateful to still be here because there are certain people here that I honestly consider like family and I just feel like there is still things that I need to do here in Formosa. Its crazy because this past week I realized that the Lord is truly who does transfers. My new comp is Hermana Ovando. She is from the south of Argentina (usualla …something like that) This is her 4th transfer in the mision so she is still pretty new. Well we are teaching a lady named Adelaida (attached pic) and she is pretty much amazing! Did i tell you about her? Well she said that she was praying that the lord would show her the truth and we happened to show up at her door. Ever since we have started teaching her about 2 weeks ago she has been reading everything we give her and is so excited. About a year ago elders had passed by and visited her and given her a book of mormon but she never even looked and it and almost through it away but decided not to and now she says. that for a reason she felt she shouldn't throw it out. She has been reading the book of mormon like crazy and loves it! She has already gone to church 2 with us and says that she just feel something different and there has been so much more peace in her home ever since we started visiting her. It has just made me realized that the lord really is preparing people. Sometime I get kind of down and feel like there is no one and then this happens. Really the lord knows us and gives us hard times so that we can truly appreciate the good times. I feel grateful that the lord has given me this opportunity to help Adelaida find this happiness that she is looking for. Missionary work really is the best! It has its super hard times but when there are good times they are amazing! I am so grateful to still be here in this area to keep helping Adelaida have a strong testimony and help her family also follow. Well hope you have a great week! Love you lots!

Hna Van Wagenen

saying bye in the terminal to my comp Hna Sallay

Our investigator Adelaida with her husband (i really like this pic)

casino. haha

6.25.12

Hey,

Well this week was a seriously crazy week. Pretty much all of the problems of everyone came out and put on us. Thats the life of missionarys. Well things were going super awesome with our inv Blanca. We were preparing her and getting her ready for her baptism for the 23 of June she was also super excited and loved the church and honestly didnt have any doubts. Well last monday we went to visit her and out of nowhere came all of the doubts. She asked us about her baptism and after she is baptized what she has to do. She basically told us that she feels like the church is taking her away from her studies and that lately she has been not going to well in school (which really has nothing to do with church) and that she can follow through. My heart seriously dropped. We tried explaining to her that really the church is here to help her with her schooling not take her away from it. we told her she needed to pray for the help of the lord and that we were going to pass by the next day to talk a little more with her. When we passed by on tuesday night her mom came out of the house and said that she didnt want to come out and talk to us. ahhhhh so sad! so basically everything fell through. We later found out from her mom and others that friends have been saying things to her about the church like that we cant listen to music or dance or use jewlery. (which is soooo not true) and i think that scared her alittle bit and put lots of doubts in her head. So basically we are super sad about Blanca but that doesnt mean we give up there is still hope.

but other than that things are great. We found a awesome investigator this past week. She had listen to the missionarys before but truly  didnt havemuch interest then because she was involved in another church. but now she is not going to any church because she had problems and she is looking for the true church! Awesome! we will show her the true church! :) i seriously lvoe missionary work. It is hard but amazing whenyou found those people who are truly prepared to listen and accept the gospel. the lord truly is preparing people. i know that without a doubt. i am so grateful to have the gospel in my life. i know that it brings so much happiness. well gtg they are kicking me out of this computer place. haha. loveyou lots!!! have a great week!

-Hna Van Wagenen

6.18.12

Hey there!

I just wanted to wish a Happy Fathers Day over there. I hope you had a great day and gave reedsif some lovin! haha Over here things are going good. I told you about Blanca right? Well we are getting her all ready for her baptism this saturday. she is super awesome! We found her one day clapping doors and she accepted to go to church with us the next day and that sunday when we went to her house to pick her up she was standing outside her house at 8 am waiting for us to go to church. and ever since then we have been teaching her. She told us that she felt something different in church. Something warm and a peaceful feeling. She said it made her happy. She said she has never felt that before. We explained that this was the holy ghost and this is how God answers our prayers. The thing is that she is 14 (kind of young) and her mom supports her with everything and is always listening to our lessons and likes it all but she is kind of lazy and basically told us that she doenst really leave her house for anything (for example to go to church) and she likes to worship her little virgin mary. I am praying that with time her heart also can be touched and she will be able to follow with her daughter.

    This week something kind of sad happened. We have been teaching this kid named Fabio ( i think i told you about him) he was super in drugs and now he is in a treatment that is helping him. Well he has been progressing great and everything he went to church with us and had a date for this saturday to be baptized. but on thursday when we went to visit him we was super weird and didnt want to read or pray or do anything. We basically told us that he doenst know if he can keep the commandments  and continue. He said he hasnt been praying all week so i think that just made him fall completely down. Satan is powerful and if we are strong he will get to us. So i basically thought we had lost Fabio but members are miracles and we had a member go visit him and shared his testimony with him and Fabio ended up coming to church yesterday. This was seriously a miracle and we are praying that he can realize that the gospel really is going to help him and bring happiness in his life and that drugs and alcohol wont bring happiness to his life. 

    Other than that things are great!  This week was a little bit of a sick week. My comp and I got colds but we are getting better. It sounds like pretty much all of the missionarys in the mission have been sick this week. haha but we are feeling better so thats good.  Hope everyone is great and that the girls enjoy their week at girls camp! Love you all.

Love, 

Hermana Van Wagenen

6.11.12

yep you all asked me... its getting cold here.... its kind of hard to type because my hands are kind of col. haha we dont have a heater in our apt so its pretty cold at night so we decided to search for rocks in the street and clean them obviously and we have been putting them in the oven to heat them up and then stick them in our beds to keep us warm at night. Kind of crazy. Haha but you gotta do what you gotta do. Haha but it is kind of nice to have a break from the killer heat. I am enjoying the cold a little bit. 


Other than the cold things are good. We have two investigators who are seriously awesome! One is Fabio he is a kid that is 16 and about a year ago had the elders visiting him but really wasn’t prepared at that time. He was super in drugs and not it a great environment. Well since then he has been changing his life around and is in some treatment to help him get out of the drugs. He went to church with us and has a baptism date for the 23 of June. We have gone to visit him with a recent convert that is 18 and he is like obsessed with this member. It def helps so much when investigators become friends with the members. Makes things so much easier. Our other awesome inv is Blanca. She is 14. We are teaching he with her mom but her mom is lazy and doesn’t want to do anything out of her house. But she is very supportive of Blanca. My hopes are that Blanca will be able to help her mom and with time help her mom have the desires to know more. This is a big problem with people here is that they can be very lazy and not wanting to get our of their chair and leave their house. Most of the people are literally in their houses all day drinking their matay (hot tea that has a special cup and straw and they pass around and share with everyone) But ya we are pretty excited about these two awesome gators. Finding awesome people is not easy.THings are great! Sometimes is gets hard becuse our area is sooooo small I have 4 months here and i feel like i have already clapped every door or talked to everyone here but i have faith that the lord is preparing people at this time and we just have to keep searching and we will found those people Love you alll lots!!! have a great week..


-Hna Van Wagenen

6.4.12

hey there! 
hope you all had a great week. Mine was good. Honestly nothing super exciting happened this week. Another normal week. ONly that I am a little bit worried about Ricardo (our new convert) because it looks like he has been drinking again! ughhhh We passed by yesterday in the morning for church and his mom answered and said that he has recently gotten home and had been drinking. uhhh i dont understand. It is super frustrating because we feel like we have done everything and he was sooo excited and happy about everything I am wondering if his friends have said stuff to him. I think the hardest part with him is that he doesn't have very many good examples in his life. Do you have any suggestions on how we can better help him? Other than that we have some investigators that have been progressing and that we are working with. Its funny because that are all teenagers. It always seems like teenagers are a little more open to us than parents. but really things are going great. My comp is great! We have pretty similar personalities so it is fun because we really understand each other in many ways. She is a great comp. I have realized that really every comp is a blessing because you are able to learn new things and it seems like with every comp I am learning something that i need to get better at. I truly am grateful for everything. For this time i have to serve the lord. Although I miss my family tons I know I am suppose to be here and there is no where else I wouild rather be than sharing the gospel and strengthening my testimony every day. Love you all lots! have a great week! 


love, 
Hna van Wagenen

5.28.12

Hey! Well this past week we had zone conference so I attached a pic with the hermanas in my zone and another with Hna Heyman. (mission pres wife) the other pic is a day last week of lots of rain. Here is formosa it is seriously crazy when it rains because the streets flood up. Sometimes i wonder if argentina doesnt believe in draining systems. and then the streets that arent paved fill up with tons of mud. So basically we are walking or sliding around all day in mud. It is def an adventure. my comp and I just say "oh Argentina" I think we have a lot/hate relationship. haha but the zone conference was awesome. Pres Heyman talked a lot about the holy ghost and how it works in the conversion and how we can get answers. I seriously love zone conference because it always seems to come in a time that I am a little down about the work and it always seems to help me get excited and rejuvinated again and have hope that there really are people prepared. 


On friday we were searching for an old investigator from elders years ago and as we were searching we found this lady with her daughter named Blanka. Her daughter commited to go to church with us on sunday adn when we passed on sunday she was ready at 8 waiting for us. Ahhh it reallyis the best when we dont feel like we have to force people to go to churhc but people really have the desire to go to chruch with us. Sometimes i feel like i need to convince people but then i realize that i really am not here to convince people. We can do all we can but people have their agency to chose if they want to do it or not. I just love when we find people who really ust want to go. Blanka is 14 i dont know why but it always seems to be teenagers that are interested I think sometimes older people are a little harder and set in their ways. but really thinks are going well. THe experiences that i am going through and the things that go on in the mission and really helping me to realize in my life what really matters and what i want. I thank my heavenly father everyday for these experiences and for this time i have to serve him and help these people in argentina really feel his love and understand the plan he has for us. Thanks for all your support. lOve you lots!!! 


Hna Van Wagenen

5.21.12

Hola!

This past week was a good week. Pretty normal week nothing too exciting happened. We had transfers on wednesday but here we didnt have changes I am still with the same companion Hernana Sallay. Which is honestly good its kind of nice sometimes to not have changes because you are accustomed to each other and you dont have to worry about showing and teaching someone the area. It was nice to not have changes it was a super calm transfer. and we are here excited for the new transfer to keep working hard here in Centenario II. So this week some elders gave us a reference of some guy named Omar that they have been teaching that has a baptism date but just moved into our area. So the other day we were searching for this direction and we found the house and started talking to a guy that was sitting in front of the house. He told us that he wasnt Omar and there wasnt an Omar that lived there nor close. So basically we had the wrong address. but the weird part about the story is that the guy that was sitting outside of the house then asked us oh you guys are friends with Ricardo huh? we just looked at each other and laughed. I swear Ricardo knows everyone! Apparently Ricardo is one of his really good friends and has been talking to him tons about the church and the things that he is learning and had invited him to his baptism. So instead of finding this reference we found a friend of Ricardo. so we then shared a little of our message with him and then put a appt to go back. Hopefully we will be able to teach him its looking like we need to take advantage of Ricardo and get those references from him. Especially because right now he is super excited about everything. Other than that nothing too exciting happened. oh yesterday just as sacrament meeting was about to start one of the speakers didnt show up so I had the lucky opportunity to give a talk on the spot. I talked about the importance of praying daily with family, daily scripture study with family, family night, and going to church. THese 4 things are seriously essencial for every family. I have realized how grateful i am for my parents and that they always did these things. I dont think i realzed until my mission how importance every one of those things really are. THat is one thing that i am learning a lot of my mission is how i want to raise my future family and the things i want to do in my house. so ya that was my super on the spot talk. oh isnt the mission just great! doing things that i was always super scared to do before. Well that was my week. Hope everyone is great! love you!

Hna Van Wagenen

5.14.12

Happy Mothers day! I took this picture of feliz dia mama for you mom and I also took one for both my grandmas. Hope you all had a great Mothers day! Well the happy news of the Hjek is that Ricardo was baptized on Saturday. Really Ricardo was a Miracle we found him 3 weeks ago and put a date with him in the first lesson and he was baptized for his date. He was seriously glowing and so happy. There is nothing better in the misión than to see that. Wow super awesome. And then on Sunday he was confirmed and then he got up and bore his testimony in sacrament meeting. Wow how awesome! He is just full of energy and excitement and ready to complete with everything. I think he will be a great help for the branch. I am pretty excited for him. Another piece of good news is that my companion from my other area wrote me today and told me that a family that we found that was less active and we baptized their son well they are super active and preparing to go to the temple. Wow things like that just make me super happy there is nothing better in the misión than that. Things are good. Sorry the letter is short but i dont have much time. I hope everyone is great and has a great week love you lots!!




Love,

hna Van Wagenen

5.7.12

Hey fam!

Well first I just wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Kylie and Heather! Hope you had a great day!

As for my week. It was a good week! We actually found some pretty cool people this past week. On wednesday we found a couple we clapped at the house and the husband came and talked to us and invited us to share with him and then out came his wife and daughter to listen too. We were excited. We taught them the plan of salvation and how there is a way that we can live with our families forever. We invited them to be baptized and they accepted a date as a goal if they recieved there answer. Wow! Super awesome. We then passed on saturday and only the wife was there so we taught her and finished teaching the plan. She was excited and loved it and understood perfectly she told us that she wanted to go to church but she said that her husband was a little bit iffy about everything and she didnt know if he would take her in the moto. So then on Sunday morning we got a text from her saying that her husband doesnt agree with the things we are sharing and doesnt like it and wont allow her to go to church and she also asked us to not pass anymore. Man is it so sad to see someone super interested in everything but her husband wont allow her to follow. We made it super clear that is was depending on her salvation. I guess we did our part and there isnt much that can be done. I guess part of missionary work is planting the seed. 

As far as Ricardo. Well the past week was kind of interesting. Basically Ricardo dissapeared and we couldnt find him for like 4 days. Im sure you can imagine that we were freaking out a little bit. Because his baptism is this saturday and he still has a lot of things we need to teach him. Well After almost having heart attacks we found him on thursday and were able to teach him. Luckily it was only because he started working we started thinking that something happend and out of nowhere he didnt want to talk to us anymore. but everything is good. He is still super excited about everything. Yesterday we had stake conference and we were in the choir so we couldnt sit with him but he just did his thing. and after he was chatting with all of the elders/ our mission pres. It is so awesome when you have a inv that is not shy because he doesnt mind talking to everything and telling everyone about his baptism. haha so this saturday we will be having the baptism of Ricardo. We are excited! 

This week I was studying a lot about the holy ghost and my purpose as a missionary it was good. Truly missionary work is impossible without the holy ghost. The only way that people convert to the gospel is through the holy ghost it has nothing to do with our words  nor if we speak good or bad the language it is all about the spirit. Well thats all for now. HOpe you have a great week! Love you all lots!!

Love,

Hna Van Wagenen

ps today we went to a different computer place where I can send pics so I took advantage. Enjoy!

4.30.12

Hey!

well this week is going to be another week of writing fast because i dont have a lot of time and this comp is super slow and its hard to write really fast. ohhh Argentina! :)


well this week was great. Our inv Ricardo that we found this past week is doing awesome. is progressng like crazy. we only found him a little over a week ago and on sat we went to a baptism with him and he was telling everyone my baptism is the 12 of may. he is super cool and when we have lesson he is super attent and has a pen in his hand to take notes. he wants so bad to learn. he askd us to write questions for him so that in his free time he cant study the pamplets and find the answers. wow! the coolest inv ever! he tells us everyday how happy he is and how much he loves the church. it is so cool to see his excitement and he is learning about these things. on sunday we had a lesson in church and the pres of the branch talked about how important it is that the members bring their scriptures and manuals to church every sunday because no one brings theirs. well after church as we were walking home ricardo told us... you know hermanas i made a big mistake this morning. and we thought.. oh no what did he did. did he smoke or something this morning and he told us I forgot to bring my book of mormon. we just looked at each other and smiled. oh how sweet. haha please pray for him that he can keep progressng and that he can quite smoking that is the only problem right now is he smokes. we are trying to help him wiht that. we need your prayers!


Thanks for everything. Thanks for your prayers I truly feel them and I feel the love of my heavenly father guiding me and helping me do this work. It is def not easy but I know my heavenly father is helping me stay  strong and keep going. I couldnt do it without him. i love this work and I am grateful I have to be a part of the work of the lord. I hope you have a great week! love you all lots!!!


Love, 

Hna Van Wagenen

4.23.12

Hey there,


Well I wanted to tell you about a crazy experience that happened this past week. On friday night we left the house of one of our investigators when the zone leaders called us because we were having an activity that night of a tour of the church and we were going to watch the movie "on the way home" well the zone leaders called because they needed us to go buy popcorn and oil for the activity. It was about an hour before it started so my comp and i were going to stop by our apt realy quick to pick up the stuff and then pass for our investigators to go with them to the activity. I then felt like we should stop by our investigator (Marion) house first to see if she was going to go so my comp agreed and we were on our way to her house and as we wer about in front of her house a man starts talking to us in the street saying.... hey come talk to me, i want to talk to you. we looked at each other scared and kept walking because men always are saying stuff to us being creeps. he then kept saying things.... dont be scared seriously i want to talk to you come here!. i then stopped and turned around and said is there something that you needed? he said ya i want to talk to you come here. we were both scared and my comp was still super far away and didnt say a word. he then started getting closer to us and said hey do you think you can come teach me. Some guy gave me your book and i have been reading it. i want to learn more. still a little hesitant I said ok we have church sundays at 830 and if you want you can go there and learn more. I then also decided to invite him to the activity that was goign to start in like 15 minutes. He said wow thanks for inviting me ya i will go. we said ok see ya there and left.


We then left and went to the church for the activity. As we were there waiting for people to show up he shows up with his bike really happy. (wow we thought he really wants this) the elders talked to him and he just loved it. we then passed on saturday by his house and he told us that he has had a rough life and he wants to change his life around. he accepted a day for the 12 of May. He came to church with us yesterday. can i just tell you that this is pretty much a miracle. this has never happened before but he is prepared. for some reason i felt like we should pass by the house of marion before looking for the popcorn. RIcardo would not have been put in our path. i know that the lord answers prayers. I know that the gospel can help ricardo find the peace and the happiness he is looking for. we are pretty excited right now. Ricardo = un milagro.


that was our amazing story of the week. i dont have much else to tell. hah things are good. I am loving the scriptures more and more everyday. if you dont love the scriptures. read them. you will love them! hope that everyone is great! love you all


hna van wag

4.17.12

well today was a long day i had to wake up at 3 in the morning to travel to the mission office today to do documents for my visa since i have almost been in arg for 1 yr. we just got back into our area and it is already 845 at night so i have no time but i am going to ask for permission to get on tomorrow so i can write you guys. i love you all lots!!!!!


well love you lots. until tomorrow....


hey!
well today i literally have no time to write. yesterday (p-day) i had to travel to the mission office (3 hrs away) to do documents to renue my visa and we ended up getting back at 830 last night so I am here tuesday morning just to write really quick and let you know that i am doing good! We had a normal week this past week. nothing too exciting. Our investigator Erika (i think i have talked about her before) well she accepted a date for baptism this week for the 28 of April. She is awesome so we are working really hard with her right now so that she can recieve a testimony and enter the waters of baptism. Pray for us and for her so that she can pray and recieve her answer!!! we need all the help we can get. Our other investigator Marion (the 13 yr old with the baby) still hasnt prayed to know if these things are true. its kind of frustrating because we are constantly talking about prayer and the importance of praying to know that its true. i think she seems to think she needs a lot of time to pray when really just a few minutes. so we are working with her so she can pray and get an answer too... but other than that things are good. i love my comp. she is awesome. we work and teach really well together which is awesome! well gtg sorry the letter is super short but i love you all lots!! ave an awesome week!!!

love, 
hna van wagenen

4.9.12

Well we had transfers this past week and I thought for sure my comp and I were going to stay together for another transfer because we were both newer in the area but I guess thats not what the Lord wanted so I am still in this area but with a new comp. Her name is Hermana Salley. She is from Utah entonces another North American. haha but she is great an awesome missionary! Its always fun to have a new comp because there is always new things that you can learn from everyone so a new transfer it is! ahhh how the transfers seem to be flying by it really had felt like we had just started the previous transfer. Where is time going???? You guys asked about easter and yes people here celebrate more the last week of christs life. On friday there were groups of people walking about with big crosses and thurday night the whole city was really quiet and they all cook on thurday because friday they dont cook. but honestly if someone hadnt told me that it was easter i wouldnt have known because they honestly dont do much here.

Things are going well in our area. Man is our area super small. We
seriously can walk our whole area in 15 minutes. TINY!!! i think is
probably one of the smallest in the mission. It def has its negatives
and its positives. i feel like it is easy to get kind of tired of this
area but I am trying to stay excited and positive. We just have to
find things to make it entertaining and not get bored of walking past
the same houses 10 times a day. haha but the work is going better. We
had a really down and hard transfer as far as the work last transfer
but things are starting to look up a little bit. A couple of weeks ago
we got a reference from a member of this girl named Erika. and well
she is pretty much awesome!! In our first lesson with her she invited
us to come over another day to have dinner with her. uhhh ya that
doesnt happen a lot with investigators in the first lesson. She is a
member of the adventista (i dont know what its called in english)
church. which is supposively the secretary of Joseph Smith broke off
from him and created a church and supposively she was the prophet. i
dont know exactly but that is what i have heard. so we were pretty
scared to teach her because i think they have a lot of similar beliefs
like us. but this girl loves our visits! Well she came to church
yesterday and the member told us that she loved church! She said that
she wants to see a baptism and i guess told the member that she wants
to come to church next sunday and if she feels good and prays about it
she wants to get baptized! Wow i am not going to lie we were pretty
excited to hear this! today we have plans to put a date with her! Pray
for us!

Things are going good! truly I am loving this area. THere are some
members here that are just Amazing and are like my family! It truly is
nice to finally have an area where the members are like this because
in my first two areas most of the time the members could care less
about us. I truly am grateful to finally feel support of the members.
It has been a blessing here. It helps me to keep going and working
hard and not get tired of the area. Well love you all lots! have a
great weekk!!!!

Love,

Hna Van Wagenen

4.2.12

Hola!

Wow wasnt General Conference amazing! Man I swear General Conference has become like Christmas for me! My companion and I had been counting down the days for Conference for the past month and now it is already past and gone. There were some pretty amazing talks at conference. There is such an amazing spirit that the prophets and apostoles have when they teach and testify of our savior Jesus Christ. I dont know how anyone after listening to Conference could deny that this is truly Christs Church. We were able to bring 3 of our investigators to conference on Sunday and I think they were able to really enjoy it. 

This week I have really been studying and pondering the life of Christ. I have been trying to figure out how I can be a better disciple and representative of Jesus Christ. Man I have realized that there is so much to learn and its not going to happen in one day. It is a life long process to be more like Christ. I am on a mission at this time to be a representative of Jesus Christ. One of my fav parts of being a missionary is when we testify we can testify to the people as representative of Jesus Christ. What a privelage I have at this time to bring people unto christ to show them the path and the way to get back of our Heavenly Father who loves and more than we truly understand. I am truly learning my priorities in life and our purpose of this life here on earth. God truly has a plan for us and we are blessed that through the restuaracion of the gospel God has called prophets to reveal the secrets of God. (Amos 3:7) I thank my heavenly father everyday that I have the gospel in my life and I want more than ever for the people here in Formosa to also have the blessings of the gospel in their lives. Thanks to you all for your support and love. It is truly appreciated more than you understand. Love you all lots! Enjoy spring break this week!!!

Love,

Hermana Van Wagenen

Photos.

eating empenadas.

we bought matching cat pjs (we know we are weird) haha 

Our ZLs

The move from apts