tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81204976931625121452024-03-14T02:47:03.041-07:00Called To Serve. Kara's Argentina Adventures.Karahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08553561437513240985noreply@blogger.comBlogger116125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-4154025500867174142012-07-30T10:03:00.005-07:002012-07-30T10:04:09.010-07:007.30.12<div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Hey there familia!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">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. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">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! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">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!!!! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Love,<br />Hermana Van Wagenen</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAxMDwMaVH-qsktS6OAHP4UXpZp2boxVktkpwR_zy9EvN7zRMkVH_ScvA1qgVJvUvtgx_JMTYcaVKMoERGTvTSiBJLjerNeC_kS0a1UxtsXMSCdnOm5qh16QMPis9slLESZGGA6asgQD8G/s1600/P1130187.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAxMDwMaVH-qsktS6OAHP4UXpZp2boxVktkpwR_zy9EvN7zRMkVH_ScvA1qgVJvUvtgx_JMTYcaVKMoERGTvTSiBJLjerNeC_kS0a1UxtsXMSCdnOm5qh16QMPis9slLESZGGA6asgQD8G/s400/P1130187.jpg" width="300" /> </a></span></div>
<span id="goog_655137675" style="font-size: small;"></span><span id="goog_655137676" style="font-size: small;"></span>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-22429378265250285822012-07-26T10:59:00.005-07:002012-07-26T10:59:57.754-07:007.23.12<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">¡Hola!</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">¿Como estan todo? Espero que todo esten muy bien. :) I hope you are</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">all enjoying your little vacation in Newport this week! Well this past</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">week was a pretty good week. The only down side is that I have been</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">kind of sick with a cold and a bad cough and my voice kind of left. So</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">that makes it a little hard to teach but I am getting better. The</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">weather here is so bipolar because last week it was super cold and we</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">were sleeping with heaters and all our clothes and now today it is hot</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">outside and we are in tshirts but at least it is nothing like the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">summer killer heat. Its a nice day.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Things are going super great! Adelaida is doing great! I think I told</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">you that last week we put a baptism date with her for the 28 of July</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">and after we put that date she was telling and inviting everyone to</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">her baptism. This past saturday we invited her to a baptism and she</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">showed up in a skirt (this was the first time she came in a skirt)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">with all of her books she has recieved. She is basically already a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">member its awesome. So we need all of your prayers this week that</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">everything will turn out well and nothing comes in the way of her</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">baptism this saturday. Her family still doesnt listen to us or go with</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">her but I am super grateful because they are at least supporting her</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">and not an obstacle for her. She said that every Sunday her husband</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">wakes her up to get ready for church and takes her to church in his</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">moto. It is def a blessing that he is supportive of her because there</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">are so many husband that are not supportive at all of their wives that</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">want to be baptized. I am praying that her husband and daughters will</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">go to her baptism this saturday and will feel what she feels and be</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">open to listen to the lessons too..</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">This past week we found new investigators. This kid named Andres</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">(18yrs old) and his sister Diana (12 yrs old). We taught them the plan</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">of salvation and put a date to go back. When we went back they had</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">told us that the day before their aunt had died (it made me realize</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">the spirit must have told us that we needed to teach them the plan of</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">salvation because it was exactly what they needed at that time) when</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">we went back diana had read the whole pamplet we had given her and was</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">super excited for our visit she basically taught us the whole plan of</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">salvation and had invited her friend to come listen to what we were</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">teaching. Her and her friend ended up going to church with us</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">yesterday. It always seems to be the kids and teenagers that are super</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">open to everything. The members were asking me if she was my sister.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">if my sister came from the united states to visit me because</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">apparently she looks a lot like me. haha (see pic below)</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Well that was basically our week. Sometimes I get down because our</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">area is SUPER small and I feel like there is not one left that hasnt</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">listened but then everytime we find someone who really is prepared. It</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">reminds me everytime that the lord really is part of this work and he</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">is preparing people to listen to us that he has called us here to this</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">small little area because their are people that need to listen to our</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">message. I really do love this work. It is so incredible to see the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">excitement that people have when they feel the spirit and really have</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">testimonys of the gospel. I am so greateful to my heavenly father for</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">have given me this opportunity to help people feel this same happiness</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">that i feel because of the gospel in my life. Thanks for all of your </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">support. It is very appreciate. love you lots!!</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Love,</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hermana Van Wagenen</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizjsoAgoxkqUYFQUiX4cXVgBONndpFODDNJ0yeHLBvuaX9S53iW0sD1ye_tFfJ65hGL1B0OmWJKeoVaybVsX3Vy33ckzMsO16-hRJshmY-E0SWMHfLokHEr9Pu2qg-q2wVJWOgi83RvLzo/s1600/P1130155.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizjsoAgoxkqUYFQUiX4cXVgBONndpFODDNJ0yeHLBvuaX9S53iW0sD1ye_tFfJ65hGL1B0OmWJKeoVaybVsX3Vy33ckzMsO16-hRJshmY-E0SWMHfLokHEr9Pu2qg-q2wVJWOgi83RvLzo/s400/P1130155.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">mini mtc: the group that went out with my to do contacts</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCvh8TNU40ctXF1LlLFNFXEpEWI-eReuCubr-Lx-6rI-gMHehFnjY-kqxXybal_iV25gs9NHfDGzOud-tq5kR5-f7jgWpir_VqHn7bUnyb8ZnQ3dD4mtCo6MLbV0kk-sAIBFAmALYlIv80/s1600/P1130157.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCvh8TNU40ctXF1LlLFNFXEpEWI-eReuCubr-Lx-6rI-gMHehFnjY-kqxXybal_iV25gs9NHfDGzOud-tq5kR5-f7jgWpir_VqHn7bUnyb8ZnQ3dD4mtCo6MLbV0kk-sAIBFAmALYlIv80/s400/P1130157.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">with my old comp Hermana Green at the mini Mtc last week</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj53KuVarP628cYGjrcMYcVfLex2dZJpC5fvKzC3pa_TIXysFuPgBgRL0dR8cu6ZZ61H8DoAZbv4uEKFY25KTvj7uu6QjaXswTtUaZl1q6yZ2yDOy8x3ykswOahBa4mL0TPXElW6272z6O5/s1600/P1130160.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj53KuVarP628cYGjrcMYcVfLex2dZJpC5fvKzC3pa_TIXysFuPgBgRL0dR8cu6ZZ61H8DoAZbv4uEKFY25KTvj7uu6QjaXswTtUaZl1q6yZ2yDOy8x3ykswOahBa4mL0TPXElW6272z6O5/s400/P1130160.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">with my old comp Hermana Vera (the mini missionary) and her BFF</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1xpoC5mVbRhke44aZs5-moHgRR_2Nx0laDddEBCvGRIci8ef9QlJVQ0o37WbKNa6ZQMUxndvucrNQDUbGo2D60AQYcIAKkiBCwYHjmreq66zYbH4dIeQik0ZtUjhZ7UVImQptokGVQs8i/s1600/P1130161.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1xpoC5mVbRhke44aZs5-moHgRR_2Nx0laDddEBCvGRIci8ef9QlJVQ0o37WbKNa6ZQMUxndvucrNQDUbGo2D60AQYcIAKkiBCwYHjmreq66zYbH4dIeQik0ZtUjhZ7UVImQptokGVQs8i/s400/P1130161.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">my comp and I (i am a giant) haha</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7V5bOkgsr8BHNrMnYDOMCIP1w_jNfQWbBHJrSkUaevaFyPZ-xTgqcGr2fPvqV_7AyW1hYVkGkVDv66hYFP-kLn47nU-OfWvxdw9W4_RfSJFYd-SI1L3eC6woQYizLYZzGKVikv8X_Ho-W/s1600/P1130168.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7V5bOkgsr8BHNrMnYDOMCIP1w_jNfQWbBHJrSkUaevaFyPZ-xTgqcGr2fPvqV_7AyW1hYVkGkVDv66hYFP-kLn47nU-OfWvxdw9W4_RfSJFYd-SI1L3eC6woQYizLYZzGKVikv8X_Ho-W/s400/P1130168.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Diana (the investigator) and i after church yesterday</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-70212348992108489992012-07-26T10:46:00.002-07:002012-07-26T10:46:12.356-07:007.16.12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Hey there.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">I hope everyone is doing great. I didn’t hear from anyone besides mom, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">grandma and grandpa. Hope everyone is great! ¨Finding Joy in the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Journey¨is my theme for this transfer I put it as a quote on my </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">planner and I think it fits well as a missionary.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Updates from over here in Argentina. Well this past Saturday was a fun </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">crazy day. It started out with interviews with our mission president. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">The interviews were to update temple recomends for the rededication of </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">the Buenos Aires temple in september that sadly I wont be able to </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">attend because it is a few weeks after I finish. I am super sad but </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">whatever hopefully I will be able to read it later. Then after </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">interviews the stake did a mini MTC for all of the youth. They gave </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">them all nametags that said Future Missionary with their name and they </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">were assigned companions and had classes to learn how to be a </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">missionary and they had studies and everything like they do in the mtc </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">and then in the afternoon 2 or 3 companionships were assigned to 1 </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">missionary and we went out and contacted people. It was actually </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">pretty fun but I ended up having to talk to everyone because the kids </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">were scared to talk. haha but i thought it was such a great idea for </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">the youth to experience a little bit of what a mission is like.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Adelaida is doing great. No she didnt make is for her baptism this </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">past saturday but yesterday we were able to put a new date with her </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">for the 28 of July. She is excited and already wants to pay tithing </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">and everything. The members say that she acts like she is already a </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">member because on sunday during relief society the teach talked about </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">missionary work and she talked as if she were a member and how she </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">wants to share the gospel with others. haha She knows that this is all </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">true but she says that she still fills like she needs to know more and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">she want 1 or 2 more months but we put a date with her for the 28th </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">and she accepted so were are praying like crazy that everything goes </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">through and that she feels ready and prepared for this. Its difficult </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">when we know that an investigator has their answer but they dont </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">recognize it.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Other than that things are going great. I seriously feel so grateful </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">to be here on my mission and to be on a mission at this time. I really </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">have a strong testimony that God answers our prayers and that I am </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">suppose to be on a mission. It continues to be an amazing learning </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">experience every single day and I love it so much. Its amazing how </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">from every difficulty we learn from them and are able to better our </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">lives. A mission is a refiners fire and it is difficult but amazing. I </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">am grateful that God answered my prayers and sent me here to Argentina </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">to do his work. It truly is the best! Thanks for all your support and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">everything you do. Love you all lots!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Love,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Hermana Van Wagenen</span></span>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-58057737552321369512012-07-26T10:40:00.002-07:002012-07-26T10:43:02.950-07:007.9.12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Hey there!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"> Well as you have probably realized yesterday was a holiday here in the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">great Argentina it was independence day but sadly independence day </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">here is NOTHING like 4th of July for us. They seriously didnt do </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">anything here to celebrate their independence. It made me miss the 4th </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">of July (but don’t you worry I def represented my country 4th of July/</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">see pic below)</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"> This week was a good week. Things are still going super great with </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">our investigator Adelaida. She has gone to church 3 times and has a </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">baptism date for this Saturday but she doesn’t feel super sure about </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">everything. She was to be positive that what she is doing is right. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Its difficult because we see that she has received many answers that </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">this is true but she doesn't recognize it. Last week our mission </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">leader gave her the gospel principles book to take home and she told </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">us that she already read the whole book and has been studying it and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">looking up all of the scriptures. She asked us what is D&C she said </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">she was searching all over her books and couldn’t figure it out and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">said that she found in the index of the BOM some things that said D&C </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">too.. hahaha It makes it nice when an investigator likes to read </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">because they can learn things on their own and we don’t have to teach </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">as much just answers questions and explain doubts she has. The other </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">day she told us that she was thinking about Joseph Smith and how she </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">doenst believe in him and then that night she had a dream that she was </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">walking in a forest or something and was kind of lost and was about to </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">walk across a bridge and then Joseph Smith came in her dream and lead </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">her along the way. Umm hello! Yes that it exactly what prophets do </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">they lead us along the way. We just have to help her recognize these </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">things are answers that Joseph Smith really was a prophet. We are </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">praying hard that she can recognize her answers and that her family </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">will also follow her. .</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"> Things are great! Today I was reading a talk from last April </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">conference called Waiting on the Road to Damascus by Pres. Uchtdorf. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Its awesome! It talks a lot about recognizing answers to our prayers. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">I think its something we all struggle with sometimes. its a really </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">awesome talk. I am thinking about sharing it with Adelaida! Well I </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">hope all is well and you have a wonderful week!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Love,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Hermana Van Wagenen</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC9bSIC3CT5NWdhwz65e7AfcF-9qgKNCkfaf8sQl9HN_jEezDn1BPLdvIJQd0Gu-alXZfzBuebMQXSBh9Dn7Ql4gy9rYo7cU_I9z1NwtmovEtaG6kauD_dAKXGqpzbR_ONEBrJ0kBZri0y/s1600/P1130131.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC9bSIC3CT5NWdhwz65e7AfcF-9qgKNCkfaf8sQl9HN_jEezDn1BPLdvIJQd0Gu-alXZfzBuebMQXSBh9Dn7Ql4gy9rYo7cU_I9z1NwtmovEtaG6kauD_dAKXGqpzbR_ONEBrJ0kBZri0y/s400/P1130131.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-14804975221454278652012-07-02T12:08:00.001-07:002012-07-02T12:08:48.348-07:007.2.12<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<pre style="line-height: 17px; white-space: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(I posted her past 4 emails. Sorry for slacking!)</span></pre>
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<pre style="line-height: 17px; white-space: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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</span></pre>
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<pre style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">saying bye in the terminal to my comp Hna Sallay</span></span></pre>
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<pre style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Our investigator Adelaida with her husband (i really like this pic)</span></span></pre>
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<pre style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">casino. haha</span></span></pre>
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</tbody></table>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-20609021964312728532012-07-02T11:48:00.000-07:002012-07-02T11:48:49.807-07:006.25.12<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hey,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!</span></div>
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<br />Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-9086902951003242812012-07-01T13:32:00.002-07:002012-07-01T13:32:48.447-07:006.18.12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hey there!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> 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. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> 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.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Love, </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hermana Van Wagenen</span></div>
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</div>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-78926369352543080032012-07-01T13:30:00.001-07:002012-07-01T13:31:19.192-07:006.11.12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">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. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">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..</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">-Hna Van Wagenen</span>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-25186986601129286972012-06-06T23:07:00.000-07:002012-06-06T23:08:12.584-07:006.4.12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">hey there! </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">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! </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">love, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">Hna van Wagenen</span>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-61897291661082072102012-05-28T09:46:00.003-07:002012-05-28T09:56:04.616-07:005.28.12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">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. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">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!!! </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">Hna Van Wagenen</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMLEEh2fxXEviM3bs_hdnPz6pTmar_oKlZ5ZcV2GyPZiqK9dvY5RQDVHLH9734SE3_dtxYuXYpkENzuQ3RlpbJ0Oij88OHdhy1AuahvzlwQnPhVhB_SPJFIij_rb1UuXjfqWqyL0SbG0Rh/s1600/P1130042.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMLEEh2fxXEviM3bs_hdnPz6pTmar_oKlZ5ZcV2GyPZiqK9dvY5RQDVHLH9734SE3_dtxYuXYpkENzuQ3RlpbJ0Oij88OHdhy1AuahvzlwQnPhVhB_SPJFIij_rb1UuXjfqWqyL0SbG0Rh/s400/P1130042.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-81796962953946199902012-05-21T09:44:00.004-07:002012-05-21T09:45:09.051-07:005.21.12<div>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Hola! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">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!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Hna Van Wagenen</span></div>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-58047791307701541842012-05-21T05:27:00.004-07:002012-05-21T05:28:55.934-07:005.14.12<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Love,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">hna Van Wagenen</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs28cyjdq01MNpE0FIrpQHp3RtceUxOAcrFdVWGTtLCfJrOiwswQgU3dX1F9Scr6JqCzhm-pCmyzjbGFQeXLq6QYcuuoxtZeT20LJkPS2fPuJBw0KqaTwjEVxnDBFaLDCN1GtJdIYuEcSh/s1600/P1120902-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs28cyjdq01MNpE0FIrpQHp3RtceUxOAcrFdVWGTtLCfJrOiwswQgU3dX1F9Scr6JqCzhm-pCmyzjbGFQeXLq6QYcuuoxtZeT20LJkPS2fPuJBw0KqaTwjEVxnDBFaLDCN1GtJdIYuEcSh/s400/P1120902-3.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-75520531542485302702012-05-21T05:07:00.002-07:002012-05-21T05:08:27.041-07:005.7.12<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hey fam!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">Well first I just wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Kylie and Heather! Hope you had a great day!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">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. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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! </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Love,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hna Van Wagenen</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ps today we went to a different computer place where I can send pics so I took advantage. Enjoy!</span></div>
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<br />Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-36376851387746972522012-04-30T10:13:00.001-07:002012-04-30T10:14:44.063-07:004.30.12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hey!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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! :)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!!!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Love, </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hna Van Wagenen</span></div>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-11317632370002205472012-04-28T03:35:00.001-07:002012-04-28T03:37:19.578-07:004.23.12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hey there,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">hna van wag</span></div>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-29708649485214401502012-04-22T00:18:00.001-07:002012-04-22T00:20:20.464-07:004.17.12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!!!!!</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">well love you lots. until tomorrow....</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">hey!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!!!<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />love, <br style="line-height: 17px;" />hna van wagenen</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-44038433545095394662012-04-22T00:02:00.002-07:002012-04-22T00:09:23.990-07:004.9.12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">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 </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">is time
going???? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">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.</span><br />
<pre style="line-height: 17px; white-space: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!</span></pre>
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<pre style="line-height: 17px; white-space: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!!!!</span></pre>
<pre style="line-height: 17px; white-space: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Love,</span></pre>
<pre style="line-height: 17px; white-space: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hna Van Wagenen</span></pre>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-76457044973463621832012-04-21T23:56:00.003-07:002012-04-22T00:00:41.850-07:004.2.12<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hola!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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. </span></div>
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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!!!</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;">Love,</span><div style="line-height: 17px; text-align: left;">
Hermana Van Wagenen</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;">Photos.</span></div>
eating empenadas.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizg387XhelQBQQ01ImFIlefLKYz_Df9SpwVGiAxA4LXL1rV7KakKMXES3y1Q1vJG2gwjs5ilmr7J4R6ny6ioJGi9z9iAy3JtauNGLrAYhblqZ7blbFdre9uB1uivG-ZsHwNMiinMSbYDSZ/s1600/DSCN0617.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizg387XhelQBQQ01ImFIlefLKYz_Df9SpwVGiAxA4LXL1rV7KakKMXES3y1Q1vJG2gwjs5ilmr7J4R6ny6ioJGi9z9iAy3JtauNGLrAYhblqZ7blbFdre9uB1uivG-ZsHwNMiinMSbYDSZ/s320/DSCN0617.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">we bought matching cat pjs (we know we are weird) haha </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim21hYnBWt0DGTlu6kvVdUMrN-a96e0PsLmD7nczBgqFoxYUHBMzB8yqWaRkvbYo49ABh9FsT6yd9g4oQ94jTKt007nHJCAKw4kQZaZi9NhAo_FVw0g2ooKQpH7Mkqbgp8iWDmx6CgXbg5/s1600/DSCN0610.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim21hYnBWt0DGTlu6kvVdUMrN-a96e0PsLmD7nczBgqFoxYUHBMzB8yqWaRkvbYo49ABh9FsT6yd9g4oQ94jTKt007nHJCAKw4kQZaZi9NhAo_FVw0g2ooKQpH7Mkqbgp8iWDmx6CgXbg5/s320/DSCN0610.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">Our ZLs</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkJyZFil5YVNV2qgJS8xepR81Ci6KK2pHX6XH8BbLGCyU3Kkn1CToQWec-Vx1dNvkq4qwfRi5VDfHFcPyNCBhOsgxw8n4yXS_Xsw3BKQEKMKKs1Pwc8eESrA0MonfxqvTSndS6UEQlOyWU/s1600/DSCN0606.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkJyZFil5YVNV2qgJS8xepR81Ci6KK2pHX6XH8BbLGCyU3Kkn1CToQWec-Vx1dNvkq4qwfRi5VDfHFcPyNCBhOsgxw8n4yXS_Xsw3BKQEKMKKs1Pwc8eESrA0MonfxqvTSndS6UEQlOyWU/s320/DSCN0606.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The move from apts</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMAy3FFRxpcCet2BHkXTLUItgyHZTJ8k8cKes2Q5OwNM1rVVUBaxvOpe2-eToD9neTlPwzgQBivxZeUPNP2xR0a0iGqpBI6JdbJnYApnSm3Ogr0iZHIVLG0wQnNnJ9ucQvb5tvfTUmgOz1/s1600/DSCN0529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMAy3FFRxpcCet2BHkXTLUItgyHZTJ8k8cKes2Q5OwNM1rVVUBaxvOpe2-eToD9neTlPwzgQBivxZeUPNP2xR0a0iGqpBI6JdbJnYApnSm3Ogr0iZHIVLG0wQnNnJ9ucQvb5tvfTUmgOz1/s320/DSCN0529.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-26997863969752182382012-03-26T14:19:00.001-07:002012-03-26T14:22:06.456-07:003.26.12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;">hey fam!</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;"><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;"> </span><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;">Well this week I would just like to express to you all the importance of references! honestly my testimony of references has grown so much. Here in my area we have this family the Cabana familia and they have basically become our family here. They are amazing. Well the mom out of nowhere has come to us with names of a bunch of different people she knows and she has gone to them and asked them if we can stop by and made appointments with us. I am not going to lie. References are the way to success in missionary work. Literally all of our investigators that are truly interested and understand our message are the references of this family. </span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;">The other day we asked the daugher of the cabana familia (Rocio) to go out and help us with some appts and as we were walking in the street her friend ran up to her and greeted us all and invited us in her house. She told us that she is a religious person and that she also left to do a 6 week mission. She then asked us what our message consisted of. We then shared with her the whole restauracion and the spirit was so strong in the mission. We then invited her to General Conference this weekend and she didnt even hesitate to say yes. She told us that she felt so good from our visit and asked when we could pass by again and invited to have dinner with her family this week.( can you say AMAZING) We then left her house to go home for the night and Rocio ended up staying and hanging our with her for the rest of the night. Rocio told us that Erika (the girl) asked her several times throughout the night about the conference and told her that she wanted to go saturday and sunday with her. I am just saying this is pretty much a miracle and it is all because of a member. </span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;">My testimony of references has grown so much in this past week. i know without a doubt that missionary work wouldnt function without the help of the members and their references. Truly the members know the people and they know the people that could be ready to hear the gospel so my invitation to you guys this week is to think about your friends, the people that you pass or see at the store and share the gospel with them. Share your testimony with them and how the gospel blesses your. You never know when it will affect a soul. LIke the scriptures say God is happy if we can save one soul but how does he feel when we save several souls. It truly is an amazing work. Its not easy but it is incredible to see peoples faces as they feel the spirit teach them and touch their heart. Things are good. I am happy and things are starting to look up in our area. we are excited!! love you all have a wonderful week!</span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;">love, </span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;">hna van wagenen</span></div><div style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-size: 13px; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 17px; "></div></div></div>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-32650283992476668002012-03-26T14:15:00.002-07:002012-03-26T14:18:29.240-07:003.19.12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;">hello,</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;"><br /><div style="line-height: 17px; ">well another week has passed. man do the weeks just seem to be flying by. This past week was a pretty normal week but we actually had to drop two of our investigators this week. and it is two our our investigators that have gone to church and everything. It really stunk. One of our investigators is called Isabel. She is very catholic but after teaching her for several weeks someone we finally got her to come to church with us (a miracle!) We tried putting baptism dates with her but she just didnt want to accept because she has already been baptised in the catholic church and she just cant change. The catholic people here are very into the traditions of their fathers. So we had to let her go because she just became very closed off with us and didnt really want it anymore. It really is hard to lose an invitigator like that. but I guess that there is someone else here that is prepared to accept. So the other day we were taking a taxi to the church and we started talking to the taxi driver about the church and he told us that he knew a little bit about the church because not that long ago his friend got baptized and he went to his friends baptism. He then went on telling us that he saw a huge difference in his friend after his baptism and he just had a light about him. We then invited him to know more about the church and he said honestly i would love to learn more and i have so many questions about life that i want answered. I want the missionarys to come teach me. ( can you say that he is like chosen! super prepared to have the gospel in his life only that he doesnt live in our area.... sad day!) We are kind of in a slow part of the work right now it just seems like all of the work that we are doing just doesnt seem to be going anywhere. It makes things a little bit hard but we just keep going and keep trying to study and see what we can do as missionaries to better our teaching skills. Preach my gospel really is incredible. It has so many amazing things in that book. </div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><br /></div><div style="line-height: 17px; ">Well that was pretty much my week. Nothing too exciting just another week in the crazy life of a missionary. I continue moving forward and learning lots. I feel like my view on life has truly changed and I am learning things and growing in so many ways it is awesome! the mission is hard but so worth it. I am happy I love my companion the people here is Formosa(my area) are amazing. They are some of the most friendly people I have ever met. The members have become my family. THey are amazing. I feel grateful to have been sent to this area because it truly is a big difference to my first two areas. well gtg love you all lots! have an awesome week. </div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><br /></div><div style="line-height: 17px; ">love,</div><div style="line-height: 17px; ">hna Van Wagenen</div></span></div>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-63011790744538317992012-03-12T10:38:00.000-07:002012-03-12T10:40:34.655-07:003.12.12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;">Hola Familia! </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;"><br />Well another week has passed and I am not going to lie this past week was one of the harder weeks I have had in the mission. I feel like we worked so hard this week working with the members and working hard to help our investigators progress and go to church on sunday and then on Sunday when we passed for our investigators they either werent there or made up excuses. It is just so frustrating when you feel like you have worked so hard all week and then sunday is the day to see your work when they go to church on sunday and they dont go. It just makes me feel like all of the hard work that we have done was pointless. Its like the people here just dont want to make time for God. As I was really sad yesterday after church because none of our investigators went to church it made me think a little bit more into things. I thought.. look at how sad I am to see that these people dont want to make time for God I cant even imagine how sad God is when he sees that his children reject him and dont want to make time for him. It has gotten me to think a little bit more about life. Everything we have is from God. We are here on this earth because God sent us, God has given us our bodies and blesses us everyday but what are we doing to thank God. We have so much to thank God for and it just hurts me to see these people that just dont want to make time for God. We are here everyday calling people to repentance and teaching people how they can be saved but they just dont want it. It is def not an easy job. I am not going to lie. but Its like we are put a little bit more in the shoes of our savior Jesus Christ who died for us and did so much for us but people just dont want to follow him. When I feel like I just cant go anymore because its too hard I just think of my savior and how much more he went through for us and how this is only a little thing that I can do for him.<br /><br />Things are good i promise. I truly am happy I love my comp. The area is hard but we just have to keep going and keep working. I am truly grateful to be here because I am learning and growing in so many ways. I am truly learning the purpose of life and the things that are most important in my life. I thank you all for your love and support. I know I couldnt do this without you guys. I am truly grateful. Love you all lots. Have a wonderful week.<br /><br />Love,<br />Hna Van Wagenen<br /><br />p.s. We did an activity this past week with our zone and the 2 branches and ward. It was a carnival type thing. These are some pics from it.<br /></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNAqVKTI_fegYZlg01DfykFIHVm_Gd4T_z3uGRCscZ6WvC2o99Au52KBdz_5WISktVGHhyphenhyphenlD9jJ0yM2RXuZCuAFmuIq4jjE_13ZLVHByuTWA8aQY_c8yp958yD165-I13Pasuq-F3Y44a5/s1600/P1120685.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNAqVKTI_fegYZlg01DfykFIHVm_Gd4T_z3uGRCscZ6WvC2o99Au52KBdz_5WISktVGHhyphenhyphenlD9jJ0yM2RXuZCuAFmuIq4jjE_13ZLVHByuTWA8aQY_c8yp958yD165-I13Pasuq-F3Y44a5/s400/P1120685.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5719066662520673634" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1nzluvQQuiMEjKbdEyNMrBXimjL84kj-Ni1eHhyaEvrTiNexwd83WRFE4wKFG3uvf5cOoCPQDsxVLygymXa3O-PU-O4Ls6Vh9Zh-DJTTu49RfR1NUzIDenSJPNeoLnVRn8XotbzoBq-eB/s1600/P1120689.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1nzluvQQuiMEjKbdEyNMrBXimjL84kj-Ni1eHhyaEvrTiNexwd83WRFE4wKFG3uvf5cOoCPQDsxVLygymXa3O-PU-O4Ls6Vh9Zh-DJTTu49RfR1NUzIDenSJPNeoLnVRn8XotbzoBq-eB/s400/P1120689.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5719066661815348770" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPXkEzlIYGArZxnH_saysQasYqiAXwJ38CIfX52H8j51d4RV39O46LR2Kk-cWC6cSE2DtqiHfx2UHUi29rLGxiiEPaSLQ_Nu4arYTKd9N3Z6tCUC1Vue6ldCtaDpDZEf9yhyx4S9K9gYrh/s1600/P1120691.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPXkEzlIYGArZxnH_saysQasYqiAXwJ38CIfX52H8j51d4RV39O46LR2Kk-cWC6cSE2DtqiHfx2UHUi29rLGxiiEPaSLQ_Nu4arYTKd9N3Z6tCUC1Vue6ldCtaDpDZEf9yhyx4S9K9gYrh/s400/P1120691.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5719066654536120610" /></a></div>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-83368352831849162302012-03-05T14:42:00.003-08:002012-03-05T14:57:48.199-08:003.4.12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;">Hi!<br />Well it sounds like the news from the week is the new dog. Your letters made me laugh. That is so something that dad would do. Have you came up with a name yet? haha I love that you wanted to name the dog Shelley. what a crack up. let me know when you come up with one.. hmmm I cant think oh anything<br /><br />Well another week has past. I am not going to lie it is kind of freaking me out how fast the time seems to be passing. It seems like when things are going well (good area, good comp) the time just seems to fly.. ahhhh!!!! Things are going well. My comp is Awesome. It is crazy because she only has like 3 months in the mission but she is just not afraid to open her mouth and speak the langauge. I was def not like that when I was still new. It truly is awesome because we work together well and I dont feel like I have all the load on me. We split duties up which is awesome. The area is good. We have an investigator that the hermanas we teaching before I got here for the whole transfer and now we have been teaching him for these past few weeks. He got in an accident serveral years ago and I think after the accident he was pretty messed up and like a child. NOw he is more normal but the problem is that he cant walk well. He has to use a walker. He has gone to church 4 times and absolutely loves it and thinks that he is a member. He wants to get baptized but the problem is that he doesnt want to get baptized until he can walk prefectly normal again and he smokes. Ahhhh so we are kind of frustrated with it a little bit because we feel like we have been doing so much to help him stop smoking and help him to understand the importance of getting baptized NOW! I guess the mission really teaches us how to have patience huh? haha we made a goal with him to pray and ask God if he needs to get baptized for the 17 de Marzo. We know that God will tell him yes but it is a matter of him recognizing this answer from God. SO this is one of difficulties right now but I have faith that everything will work out.<br /><br />I seriously feel so happy and grateful to my heavenly father that I am here on the mission. This past week we were heading to the church for a meeting with our president of the branch and we were already kind of late and as we were walking my comp stopped and said no we have to clap at this house. So we clapped and a lady came out and without even telling her who we were invited us into her house. She is a solo mom with 4 kids and lives there with her 14 year old sister. We shared with her our message about familys and how we can have an eternal family. The spirit was so strong and they were so happy. I dont know what will happen with this family. I really hope that we will be able to continue teaching them and bring the gospel in the lives but I just feel so happy to see the light in the peoples faces when they feel the spirit and here us tell them that god truly loves them and our message is a happyness and peace. It is such a privelage to be able to bring this happiness taht I have into other peoples lives. I know that the gospel truly brings happyness into my life. and I know that we are literally sons and daughters of God and that he wants us to be happy and enjoy this life. I know that prayer is so important and that the scriptures are truly a blessing in our lives. I lvoe this gospel. Well i am out of time but I love you all lots. Have a wonderful week.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;"><br />Love,<br />Hna Van Wagenen<br /><br />Pic 1: my comp and I celebrating our 5 months and 1 year mark with Cake. yummm!!! :)</span></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv6sXIuEtzE8alUfynusdejCJwOcfcxt9kRvu9H1Dkv0N8cFZQKfNyv0Gwf-vDceYdVz2Lw7rIIrpbZyNkN1vhRR6uI_e8VBvgDyGHJaTuWCHZZ0e5XoSsQnxC6rCUKvI9l3mKyQAUuV9h/s1600/P1120654.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv6sXIuEtzE8alUfynusdejCJwOcfcxt9kRvu9H1Dkv0N8cFZQKfNyv0Gwf-vDceYdVz2Lw7rIIrpbZyNkN1vhRR6uI_e8VBvgDyGHJaTuWCHZZ0e5XoSsQnxC6rCUKvI9l3mKyQAUuV9h/s400/P1120654.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5716549043204625970" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;">Pic 2: Moving to our new apt</span></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhycBm4w1_Sqdww9PaMnvmYUbZ3WaheA1AOpCyDmqeCmqKjQCqYRUuzQ7YOllQuYkjiPKPy1qWDEgI6aFx_ImnfbRILlbeZ9IOHrVNeG5PZBtLglElLAFcWmT-i6fshrNtWxFB40d3P7fNZ/s1600/P1120639.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhycBm4w1_Sqdww9PaMnvmYUbZ3WaheA1AOpCyDmqeCmqKjQCqYRUuzQ7YOllQuYkjiPKPy1qWDEgI6aFx_ImnfbRILlbeZ9IOHrVNeG5PZBtLglElLAFcWmT-i6fshrNtWxFB40d3P7fNZ/s400/P1120639.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5716549029856495634" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;">Pic 3: running into my mtc friends at transfers</span></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimZQRy5bEPcSjt3I-LrVjzj27eNXxTqBgB2Gep6QwNTSh_8QozQlF7uFUhjYCct2UkUZnl7Y36N687ZzGGn_SytLbG5e1f-RD0W1f4d_QAUlbSYLTRIdpQkMonEAgVJi9hsQ2cGZVQ2pHR/s1600/P1120619-1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimZQRy5bEPcSjt3I-LrVjzj27eNXxTqBgB2Gep6QwNTSh_8QozQlF7uFUhjYCct2UkUZnl7Y36N687ZzGGn_SytLbG5e1f-RD0W1f4d_QAUlbSYLTRIdpQkMonEAgVJi9hsQ2cGZVQ2pHR/s400/P1120619-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5716549025812372930" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;">pic 4: a day of lluvia. mucho lluvia</span></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipbULIeyIILXR0505fu4dGJBgoEL8vZ3EpAGzOIrvJTlCyA87292-3gaB-ntfUGQ-GWrY8vEzj6FiqYaBg9T2AyPPQTua3Vv5_agK0efVTM_KP0_4Pd-POp36ApB7a5-vOGGToIKwlnVkp/s1600/P1120604.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipbULIeyIILXR0505fu4dGJBgoEL8vZ3EpAGzOIrvJTlCyA87292-3gaB-ntfUGQ-GWrY8vEzj6FiqYaBg9T2AyPPQTua3Vv5_agK0efVTM_KP0_4Pd-POp36ApB7a5-vOGGToIKwlnVkp/s400/P1120604.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5716549023654829138" /></a></div>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-83966350863653814592012-02-29T14:53:00.002-08:002012-03-05T14:57:48.199-08:002.28.12<div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;">(Sorry for slacking...two posts added...so read them both!)</span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;">Hi!</span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;">First of all I just want to say that I have the cutest nephew in the whole world. Seriously man the little bust is just adorable. Well I dont even know where to start with this week. I was so convinced that I was going to stay in my area for one more transfer but the lord knew that it was time for a change. Mom you were right. haha I dont know how you knew. I am now serving in Formosa. Formosa is what all of the missionarys in the mission call "Los Cielos de la Mision" (the heavens of the mission) because everyone says that the people here in Formosa are very humble and very prepared to accept the gospel. I have wanted to be in Formosa and now I am here. The only bad part about Formosa is that it is also the hottest part of the whole mission but luckily we do have air conditioning in the apartment so I sleep good at least! :) My companions name is Hermana Pack she is from Vegas and is pretty much amazing!!! This is her 3 transfer so she just finished her time with her trainer and now I am with her but I am very lucky because she speaks very well and she isnt scared to speak even if she says something wrong. It is awesome. We have made a goal to not speak english at all so we are constantly speaking in castellano (espanol) and it is really good because it is the only way we are going to learn and get better.</span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;"> </span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;">This week has been super crazy because I got here in my new area and unpacked my stuff and then was told that we were going to be moving houses so then i had to repack all of my stuff and with the help of the elders we had to move into a new house and now we are living with the other sisters. It is very interesting because I have never lived with another pair of sisters in the mission so it will be interesting. The thing that is awesome about my new area is that there are a lot of missionarys here because in my other area it was just us and a set of elders in a little city. So we are around a lot of other missionarys. ( haha mom you always said that it would be good to be around other people) Things are seriously amazing. I am so happy and I love my new area. I know that I am here for a reason. Really i was ready for a change and i already love my new area. The thing that is a little bit different about here is that the members here actually love the missionarys. Today we went to central to but food to go and as we were waiting a man came up to us and introduced himself and her is a member in a different branch and bought our food for us. WOW how nice. The people here are so humble. There dont have a lot of money but they are always wanting to help. It is def very different from my other area which had a little bit more money and werent very loving with the missionarys. I feel so grateful to be here. Our area is VERY VERY VERY SMALL: It is like 6 blocks one way and 6 blocks the other way. EVERYONE knows who we are and EVERYONE has prety much already talked to the missionarys. It is a little bit hard but I know without a doubt that there are people here and are ready and being prepared to accept the gospel. I am still new and getting to know everything but things are good. I love missionary work and I am truly to grateful to have this opportunity to be a missionary. The mission def has its difficult moments but it is so amazing to feel the spirit everyday and be able to share this happiness and joy I have with these people. It is amazing!! Thanks for everything truly. I am grateful for your letters and love. I hope you have an incredible week. UNtil next week....</span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;"> </span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;">Hna Van Wagenen</span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;"> </span></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;">ps i wanted to send you pics and me with my new comp but i forgot my camera. next week i will try and remember</span></div><div style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-size: 13px; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 17px; "></div>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-6955956275116887412012-02-29T14:27:00.004-08:002012-03-05T14:57:48.199-08:002.20.12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;">HOLA!</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;"><br />Well this week has been an interesting week. Man do we live the life as missionarys. haha. So on monday night I was sleeping and in the middle of the night my fan totally stopped working. Basically it is imposible to sleep without a because if you dont have a fan you are in your bed literally sweating your face off all night. It is miserable. Well the past few weeks my comp has been sleeping on the floor with her mattress because our other fan broke off its stand and is basically 1 ft tall so i have decided to join her on the floor and i have been sleeping on the floor all week. Super fun! Also yesterday (Sunday) we were in the apt in the afternoon studying and the fuse blew up and we were without electricity so when we got back to the apt at 930 we pretty much couldnt do anything and we ended up taking our matresses outside and were about to camp outside last night because we coudlnt stand the heat of the apt but luckily at like 1230 in the night the electricity came back and we were able to go inside and sleep with our fan. man is it crazy the things that happen in the mission. haha we def dont life the LIFE but it has made me super grateful for little things that we do have. maybe we dont have air conditioning but at least we have a fan because there are so many people that dont have a fan in their house. I really dont know how they live but ya.<br /><br />This past week was an ok week. Really nothing super exciting. On tuesday we had zone conference we had to travel 2 hours to a city named Posadas and that we fun. I really enjoy zone conferences because it always gets me super pumped to keep working and to be a better missionary. The mission is really focusing at this time on working hard with the members because really missinary work isnt successfull if we are not working with the members. So they invited a bunch of members from the area and we did practices with them and learned how to better recieve references from the members. It was a great conference.<br /><br />On sunday our investigator Ricardo came to church FINALLY!! ahhhh we have been teaching him for several weeks now and he has had a baptism date but he lacks going to church. He is a 15 yr old kid and his dad is a member but he always seems to go out on saturday nights and is out super late with his friends which causes him to not be able to wake up to go to church on sunday. ughhhh how can we help them to not leave saturday night. hahaha This past week our investigators who we have been teaching for several weeks who have baptism dates told us that he was still married because they never did the divorce. ughhh after 3 weeks of talking about marriage and now he tells us that he has to get divorced and he knows nothing about his ex wife because it has been like 30 yrs since they were together and we have no idea how to find out about her. ughhh super frustrating. I hope we can figure it all out because they love church and really want to get baptized. why isnt anyone married here!!!!!! ahhhhhhh<br /><br />Well i am doing great I am out of time man does the time go by super fast. but i love you all lots!! hope you have a wonderful week. Missionary work is just the best. We have transfers on wednesday. I was pretty convinced that I was staying here but now people are telling me that they think i am leaving. I really have no idea. I would be happy to stay one more transfer but we will see what the lord has in store for me. Well until next week.<br /><br />Love,<br />Hermana Van Wagenen<br /><br />Pics<br />1: Hermana Cepeda and I after Zone Conference</span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSep7vSfDk-cY9mGDX9HDNIA3Bmv4PhRcyQ9dfAO7eIQekbGGN7uWjHoN6Yobct8G1Q0U7XWrPl2nfuGB-tOpBgMYC91RN9jZ0QF9Z6ilCY2hnP6J9RypsUiwRSf8qt9vhUggAz2kb-Zqg/s1600/P1120570.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSep7vSfDk-cY9mGDX9HDNIA3Bmv4PhRcyQ9dfAO7eIQekbGGN7uWjHoN6Yobct8G1Q0U7XWrPl2nfuGB-tOpBgMYC91RN9jZ0QF9Z6ilCY2hnP6J9RypsUiwRSf8qt9vhUggAz2kb-Zqg/s400/P1120570.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714689382090196386" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;">2: My zone with our matching t-shirts</span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOvees5Suxqcwk5pnGp5dN1OfU1wy6rMuMSsa92X1kXC0JiWbbK1bzu2h6GNaE1diUQxmgHSSKuLNX2Mb210S7tjkqPjydv-ori9NRnfCM_QnWeeAfhWPUHrToVdXI5MJlxV5k6p1soPUL/s1600/P1120568.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOvees5Suxqcwk5pnGp5dN1OfU1wy6rMuMSsa92X1kXC0JiWbbK1bzu2h6GNaE1diUQxmgHSSKuLNX2Mb210S7tjkqPjydv-ori9NRnfCM_QnWeeAfhWPUHrToVdXI5MJlxV5k6p1soPUL/s400/P1120568.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714689379978996674" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;">3: ARGENTINA</span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX9YBC4KihHg7Y7lTCxJGxd5LdM-pz0NK-I6fbtv-inQk_tjHHO51Loi02Ym1Du-v4XwYFxiBaV2HYE4awGcfrOqi84ayWZFgIAiyOJ2MfrrfMhSkiZWklAFC-CFEXx4cAs1s-9t3KMXR8/s1600/P1120527-2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX9YBC4KihHg7Y7lTCxJGxd5LdM-pz0NK-I6fbtv-inQk_tjHHO51Loi02Ym1Du-v4XwYFxiBaV2HYE4awGcfrOqi84ayWZFgIAiyOJ2MfrrfMhSkiZWklAFC-CFEXx4cAs1s-9t3KMXR8/s400/P1120527-2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714689372981987698" /></a></div>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120497693162512145.post-73733267461494395462012-02-13T14:48:00.001-08:002012-03-05T14:57:48.199-08:002.13.12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;">HOLA!</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;color:#999999;"><br />How is everyone? oh how I love mondays to be able to hear from you guys. We truly are blessed to have internet because I couldnt imagine only being able to send letters. What a blessing. Well things are going great here in Obera. I am not going to lie we kind of had a bad week this week. After working hard all week to help our investigators we had 5 secure investigators who said they were going to go to church on Sunday and when sunday came none of them showed up. Man is it a bummer when that happens. It makes everything we did during the week feel pointless. but I try to not let it affect me because i know we have to move forward and work harder this week. I know have a little more than 5 months here in this branch and it has been such an amazing experience to see the change in the branch in this short time. Since I have been here they have called a new branch president and basically reorganized the whole branch we also only had 4 missionarys here and now we have 6 missionarys. It has been so cool to see how much the branch has grown in this time. The attendance in church has grown and lots of the less actives are starting to come back to church. . I told you how there are 1500 members here so there is still a ton of work to do but I have been super grateful to have the opportunity to be apart of this and to see changes. We have transfers next week and I am really hoping that I stay here for at least one more transfer. I am super happy with my comp and my area right how and I am really not ready to leave my area yet. We will see what happens. We never know... <br /><br />Last night we were waiting for the bus to pass to take us back to our apartment and as we were waiting I looked up at the sky and was watching the stars and it just got me thinking about the creation. How amazing is God. Everything we have here is from God and it is incredible. It is just one more reason to know that God exists. It is so crazy when we talk to people and they say that they dont believe in God. I just truly dont understand because if you just look around for a minute you can know that God exists without a doubt. I feel blessed to have grown up in this gospel and knowing this because there are so many people in the world so lost. I just wish that i could help all of them but most of them are closed off and just dont want to listen. I pray everyday that I can find those people who are waiting and prepared at this time to recieve the gospel in their lives at this time. I truly love this gospel so much! It truly does bless familys and helps us to be better people and to be prepared to return to the presence of our heavenly father. I love you all so much and I am so grateful for your support and your letters. You rock. have an amazing week!<br /><br />love,<br />Hermana Van Wagenen</span></div>Heather Van Wagenenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403582341214513741noreply@blogger.com0