Week 25: January 23, 2017

Well another week down on the mission with a new companion and a new area! Tuesday started at 5:30a and we took a taxi to the transfer chapel. We talked to a lot of the missionaries there and I found my new companion, Elder Pinto. 

He is pretty cool! He is from Honduras. He has 13 months on the mission. He can´t speak English but that’s aright. My Spanish is progressing a lot and it honestly isn´t that bad speaking it 24-7. There is another American in my house and he is from my group of missionaries. We barely speak English though so the other guys don´t feel left out.

My area is split in two halves. We take one and the other guys take the other. We have more members in our area which is a win. It is a lot more country here. Lots of dirt and hills. Technically this is the capital but we are on the furthest edge. People don´t really call it the capital though. The people are more humble here because they are a lot more poor. A lot of these houses here are built out of scrap wood and tin. 

My ward is pretty awesome so far. The bishop is the bomb and is super engaged in the work! Getting people to leave with us and find references for us. The members also help us. 

We play soccer or basketball every morning at the church. Saturdays we have a bunch of members come play too. I am pretty out of shape. The house is pretty nice though. It is nice to only have 4 missionaries. We have an extra room for all our bags and supplies. The only crappy thing is the kitchen sink doesn´t work, nor does the shower start without doing some tricks with pliers, and the washer thing doesn´t hold water. There isn´t power all the time but we have back up batteries so its fine. It isn´t that bad though in general. 

Elder Pinto (my companion) dropped a bunch of the investigators that weren´t progressing so we have been doing a lot of contacting. It was kind of a slow week because of that but it has to be done. We will see if we get any promising investigators here soon!

It has been a pretty good week and it was nice to have a change! I will see what this next week has for me and try to make the best of it! The time out here flies by so fast!

Elder Wolfe

 Elder Wagher in La Fe

 Jeff's new area, Los Alcarrizos Barrio 4

 Goats will eat anything!

 These are the  missionaries serving in Jeff's new area.  Next to Jeff is Elder Pinto, his new companion from Honduras.  He speaks only Spanish.

Week 24: Good-bye La Fe

Group 1-16-2017

This was the last week of this transfer. I was with Elder Wagher from Gilbert Arizona. He was an awesome companion! I learned so much from him and I loved the way he teaches. He is like me in the sense that we like our stuff clean and it's some of the little things in life that make a big difference. We got along very well and it sucks that I have to go. 

As you can tell I am being transferred. My work here in La Feis done. It was by far my favorite area! (It's my first one. HA!) But no for real it was a lot of fun. It is so cool to see people progress and see their lives change from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was also great to see the less active members come back and see how much better life is. Such a great time here and I will never forget the people here!

My new area is name is Los Alcarrizos Barrio 4. I hear so many good things about this place. I hear that the members there are awesome and there is a lot of people that live there. It is still technically in the capital but it is on the edge. It is a little more country in the sense that the people are a lot more poor and not as many paved roads. I am moving on Tuesday morning about 5:45 A.M. :) I am sad to leave the area I have now, but I am excited for a new beginning!

This week was pretty good. Last Monday we were going to go play tennis with a member but he left his tennis stuff in his other house. Instead he took us to Price Mart. This store is owned by Costco and is EXACTLY the same as it. The same smell the same look and the same stuff! It was so awesome to go there and I got a super nice basketball for the streets very cheep! They also had some other great items in bulk that I got.

Tuesday was terrible. I had immigration to get some residential thing and get this green card thing. The part that sucked was we were there waiting for 8 hours. The part that sucked more is that the Dominican company can't find my papers or another Elder’s so nothing happened and they just sent us home. I wasn't super happy about that... The best part was that all off the missionaries from my group from all missions was there! Super fun to talk to them but still wasn't worth 8 hours of waiting.

Wednesday was pretty good. We got this solid reference from a friend and set a baptism date with him. Thursday was pretty much the same. We where having a lot of appointments fall through but we at least got to set a date with this older couple. 

Friday was long. In the morning we had a zone meeting. After that we went and ate lunch at Burger King. We went and picked up the missionaries from the MTC. I took out a Elder Ellis from Utah. He was good friends with my companion in the MTC, Elder Williams, before the mission. We had bad luck and all the appointments fell through so we did some serious contacting. We didn't get home until 9:30 that night. We left the house that morning at 8 so that's why it was long.

Saturday was very fun. We went and pulled out our funds for the next 2 weeks then got a couple things. Preaching wise was pretty sucky but we did at least get to help a member move some stuff. We don't get to do service that often. We then went and taught the English class. We played basketball with a bunch of the young men and a investigator for a while with my new ball! That was so much fun. I miss sports and I hear they play a lot of ball in my next area so I can't wait! That night I received my call of where I am going.

Sunday was also good. We had a area conference that was broadcasted to all the Caribbean. It was awesome because we got to hear from the old area president and Elder Neil L. Anderson from the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. Always great to hear from the Apostles called of God just like the times of old in the Bible. We said good-bye to people all day and had a couple good lessons. 

It was a solid week in general. I am excited for my new area and my new companion. He is from Honduras and doesn't speak English! My Spanish is about to get so much better in the next 6 weeks at least! Lets go! Talk to you guys in a week!

Elder Wolfe

Week 23: Everyone is out of town!

Group 1-9-2017

Well this week I completed 5 months on the mission! It has been flying by! I am learning so much and my life has already been changed so much for the better. This week was kind of rough teaching wise because everyone is still out of town. We got some serious contacting time in though.

Last Monday I went to another area while my companion and another Elder went and played golf. I was with Elder Mayhew. He is from my group. We just played basketball all day at his chapel and it was awesome to chat. Like I said, everyone is out of town. We didn't get to have a ton of lessons. 

Tuesday Elder Wager had a big meeting so we had splits and I was with an Elder from here. He's pretty cool and we had a couple of good lessons. We found a golden investigator this week. He stopped us on the streets and told us to pass by his house. He is a very smart guy that has visited a lot of different churches but he doesn't like them and he saw us and felt like he should talk to us! Super cool and we passed by and he said that he loves our church and in the end wants to be baptised. Super cool to talk to him. 

Splits with the CCM was a lot of fun! I took an Elder out from Wyoming. He was going to BYU and he wrestled for them. We had a good time together and again had some great lessons!

In general it was a pretty good week. Not the best but still fun! Can't wait for the week to come!!

La Fe

Jeff's desk in his apartment.

Week 22: Pressing Forward

Group 2-1-2017

I can't believe it but another week is already down! They are going by so fast! This week was pretty good. Not super outstanding because Elder Wagher was sick and he had to go to the bathroom a lot and was not doing hot.

Lesson wise we didn't have any amazing outstanding ones. I am learning a lot how to teach better and so it flows better. We are working with this less active family and we are starting to get them back to church. 

Caridad, the lady I baptized, has a daughter that we are teaching and that daughter also had a daughter we are starting to teach. Hopefully they progress. 

We are trying to find a lot of new people but we have been finding a lot of less actives we are trying to get back. My ward had about 600 people signed up but only about 80 people show up to church consistently. The church is new here and the missionaries got baptisms not converts. Sad to see but we are getting them to feel the truth again. 

I got to give a priesthood blessing this week. That was fun! Had some pretty funny experiences. One I cannot share to the world. A lot of drunk people for new years and that made it really hard to find people and a lot of the members are gone on vacation. That was the only downside to this week. 

New years we had to come in at 6. That Saturday the other guys had a baptism and my Mission President was there. He said we can watch movies too so we watched the new Harry Potter and the new Tarzan. Pretty cool movies! 

Anyways, fun week! Loving the mission! Learning a lot! The time is flying by!

Christmas attire!

He got this knife in a Zone gift exchange.  He's lovin' it!

Week 21: Christmas Chat with the Family

Christmas 12/25/2016

Jeff Skyped with us for 3.5 hours.  Ryan Gochenour told Jeff he was called to Oklahoma City, OK.  Jeff was thrilled and advised him to be one of the good missionaries like we have in our ward at home and not one of the disobedient ones.

Zach and Jennica came over as well.  We had a good chat with him and asked him a million questions.

Grandma Joyce, the Mortensen's and the Shafer's all Facetimed in as well.  It was so exciting to see his face, hear his voice, hear him speak Spanish (mind blowing!), and be the Jeff we know and love.

He encouraged us all to read the 3 chapter of Preach My Gospel.  He loves the Plan of Salvation!!!  He has the ZEAL of missionary work.

It was great day!!

Week 20: First Baptism!

Group 12-19-2016

Had another good week here! We had exchanges on Tuesday. I went with Elder Rodriguez and my companion, Elder Wagher, went with one of the assistants to our area. I was in Christo Rey and it was a . . . .day. He isn't a good missionary and he doesn't want help so I just did my thing and talked when

I was supposed to. 

We had a zone meeting on Wednesday that was really good! The assistants were there and the messages were really good. We made some new goals and then went to eat together as a Zone. It sucked in the sense that I was one of the first to order and I got my food last. It took them 2 hours to make a simple burger. Oh well, the day went on and all of our appointments fell through.

We had some good lessons on Thursday. We also had a good meeting with our ward mission leader. He is awesome and is up for anything and wants to work. We then went to a less active and had a solid lesson with him. He really wanted to go to church for the first time in years but Sunday morning he got in a bad car crash. We then went to Caridad who had a baptism this weekend. She is so awesome and is a true convert! Her testimony is so strong and we are now teaching other members of her family. We also went to a members house that day and they just kept feeding and feeding and feeding us! We tried to tell them no but that didn't settle. We ended the night at a investigators house but we are about to drop them. That is always sad to not see them keep there commitments. It is exactly what God and Jesus Christ think 24/7. The thing that I am learning most is, is how we always win in God's plan. If we keep his commandments we will be blessed every time. You also receive eternal life if you follow him. Yes, you can have "fun"here on earth and do the worldly things but the happiness is only temporal. God’s plan is eternal. We just have to look at the bigger picture.

On Friday I got to take Elder Paige, a new Elder from home, on splits. Super crazy to hear all the people going on missions. It was really fun to talk with him and work with him! We didn't have too many lessons because they were all falling through. We had one really good one. I told them I don't know what we are going to teach her because she is a abnormal situation and we just have to go off the spirit. It went so well and the Spirit was so strong and she was crying! Good lesson!

I had my first baptism today! We had it in the morning. We got there early to fill the font. We cleaned a little too. It was pretty good! The talks were alright and not many people could show up because it was on a Saturday morning. We did it then because there was activities that night. I got it right the first time and she loved it! She said she hasn't felt better! Super awesome morning. That night we also had a Christmas concert at the mission president’s house. That was awesome and a lot of fun. Talked to Elder Pearson for a long time. Another Elder I know from home.

Sunday was good over all. Caridad got The Holy Ghost. Elder Wagher spoke. We had a lot of less actives show up. We had good lessons. We walked a lot of our area trying to find new places to work. A lot of walking but a awesome day! Awesome week! Elder Wagher is a awesome Elder!