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