7-29-13

Dear family and friends,

Well this will be my last email home to you guys in the mission. Well I dont know exactly what to say, but one thing i know is that im eternally grateful for my Father in heaven and his Son, Jesus Christ for giving me this opportunity to serve them and the people of the DR for these past two years. The time has gone by so fast and I couldnt have asked for anything more. I owe so much to the mission and to what i have learned during it. The most important thing that I have learned is that Jesus lives, He truly lives and is the Christ, my Savior and my Redeemer. This is His work and His church, I am so grateful that I got to be an instrument in His hands to bring this work forth. I truly have seen miracles in the lives of people here, the changes are immense that I have seen in others and in me for the better. Last week I was able to visit Los Alcarrizos, I visited Ana and Mari, and they told me that Ana now is the first counselor in the relief society and Mari is the second counselor. They are faithful and firm like the anti-nephi-lehi and a great example for me. I know that the atonement is real not only can it heal us from sin but also from heartache, pain, and affliction caused by stuff that happens to us. Or better said the atonement of Jesus Christ covers all and through it we can become completely healed from all sicknesses, all we have to do is come unto Christ have faith in Him and repent of our sins and he makes up for the rest. For that reason we have our purpose as missionaries to invite others to come unto Christ through faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. For the past 2 years I truly have been trying to complete with that purpose, and I will continue to do my best to complete with that purpose. I know that this is the Church of Christ, Joseph Smith truly saw God the Father and the Son Jesus Christ and the gospel was restored, for that I am eternally grateful. The Book of Mormon is true and a book that contains power to change peoples lives. It truly testifies of the truthfulness and the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the Father and the Son, my biggest desire is to please them and live in a way to glorify them. I have seen many conversion stories here in the missions but my biggest convert here in the mission was me, I am converted to the Lord and His gospel. Im so thankful for all of you guys and for all the help you have giving me during these past 2 years. I truly could not ask for a better family and friends. I love you all and I am exited to see you all on Wednesday. The Church is true and this is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Elder Wadman

7-15-13

Dear family and friends,

Well it sounds like you all had a pretty good week this last week and that you are going to have a pretty busy one in this upcoming week. Well everything here is going great, we are working hard and are finding some cool people. All still goes well with wenifer, she is progressing right toward her baptism and is reading a lot in the Book of Mormon she is very smart and is learning a lot. With Jorge all is going well but we might have to postpone his baptism because he hasnt gone to church for the last 2 weeks, he still is planning on getting married the 20th and really wants to get baptized but weve got to make sure that he has got the habit of going to church every week before he gets baptized, so we will see what happens with him. Life just keeps chugging a long here in Canastica, we are trying to get the ward excited about the missionary work. On Saturday we had a ward counsel and we determined what we are going to do get the ward focused and working on missionary work and on activating the less active people in the ward. We have been asking for referrals for people to teach and for less active members to go and teach too, and the work is getting going here. We also have found this lady named Nelyi and she is super cool when we contacted her she told us that she is Catholic but that she would be fine with listening to us. We shared with her and we invited her to read the pamphlet and to pray to know if it were true, when we went back she had read the whole pamphlet and had marked it and had questions ready for us, when we asked her if she´d prayed she told us that she had prayed and that she feels that the message is true, so we are super excited for her and for her potential. Anyways life is going great here, just seeing the Lord´s hand in the work, the church is true, this is the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love you all and I hope that you all have a good week this week.

Love Elder Wadman

Jul 8

Dear family and friends,

Well first of I have to congratulate Meg and Tyler with the new baby Trey, congratulations that is awesome! Im excited to be able to meet him and reggie and also russell and sara, the family sure is growing over there getting a little bigger and bigger everyday! Also, happy birthday to grandma Montgomery, Gabe, Brad, and happy 4th of July! Sounds like you guys had quite a week filled with all sorts of fun activities, I hope it all went great! Well this week was an awesome week filled with teaching and looking for new investigators. To let you guys know everything with Wenifer is going great she is reading all of the pamphlets and the book of Mormon and is going to church and mutual and truly is  gaining a testimony of the gospel, she is right on track for her baptism on the 27th of July. Also, Jorge is going to have his wedding on the 20th of July and then he too will be getting baptized on the 27th of July! It will be a great dual baptism and a great day to finish my last day in the field. We also will have to more baptism that are right on track for the 17th of August, so when we are celebrating my birthday over there,there will be two baptisms here. One of them is named Manuela and she is progressing rapidly for her baptismal date, she also is ready the pamphlets and the Book of Mormon, and she goes to church every week. She is right on track and is making great changes in her life. The other one is named Jose Manuel he is completing with all the commitments except for one really important one and that is that he has to work on sundayand he has been asking his boss for sundays off for a while and his boss hasnt let him go to church, but we are going to keep praying and keep helping him so that his boss lets him off or so that he can get a different job, but he really loves the lessons and has told us that he has received an answer that what we teach is true, so im pretty excited for him too. There also is one more family that goes to church every week, they read the scriptures, and keep the commandments, but the only thing is that they need to get married. And what happened is that he has some sort of problem with his birth certificate and he has to do a lot to get it fixed. Me and President Rodriguez talked about it and we made a plan for him to be able to get his papers fixed and once he does that they can get married and then baptized. I have been praying a lot for them to resolve this problem and I think we will be able to get it done. The work is going forward here in Canastica, lots of souls are ready to come unto Christ and have faith in Him, repent, get baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and endure to the end. We are doing are best to find and teach them and we are seeing the Lord´s hand in all of His work. I love the mission, the is the most important wok that the Lord has given us to do and as we go forward with faith, us as missionaries and members working together, we will find lots of people that are waiting for the restored gospel to come into their lives. Christ leads this church, he is at the head of it all and I know it with all my heart. Try and find someone to share the message with and invite them to listen, whats the worst that could happen? I love you all and I hope that you have a great week this week.

Elder Wadman

Jul 1

Dear family and friends,

Well it sounds like this last week has been pretty busy and that in this next week you guys are going to have a lot of birthdays and the 4th of July, Im sure it will be a fun time. Well Happy birthday to Gabe, and to Brad, and to grandma, I hope you guys all have a great birthday this year, and a great week this week! Well everything here is going great we are still on track with are investigadors that have dates to get baptized. With Wenifer she looks like she will for sure be getting baptized at the end of this month and with Jorge he is looking good for the end of this month too, we just got to get him and his wife married and then he will be all ready for his baptism. Also, on saturday we were contacting in the nightime, we had knocked on quite a bit of houses and we were about to go to a lesson but we decided to contact a couple more houses we contacted a man and his wife and we told them who we were and asked them if there was another time in which we could pass by and they told us yes. So last night we passed by their house and we shared with them a little bit about the blessings that are received through the gospel of Jesus Christ, they then asked us why there are so many different religions when there is only one God and we explained to them a little bit about the apostacy, and the restoration and we told them that they needed to pray to know for sure if our message was true. They accepted the invitation to pray and to read the pamphlet and they really have got true interest. The wife told us that she had shared before with missionaries and that she had even went to church a couple times but then she lost contact with the missionaries, but that she wants to learn more, and the husband told us what day we should pass by again to teach them, at a time that he would be there. Basically they are a golden family with a lot of potencial to progress, Im excited to see their progress and growth as they come into the true restored gospel of Jesus Christ. The weeks are going fast, sometimes too fast, I truly love the mission and all of the experiences that I have had. Im truly thankful to the Lord for this opportunity that I have to serve Him, the church is true, this is His work and I know that with all my heart. I love you all and am so thankful for all that you do for me, I hope you all have a good week this week and that everything is going good.

Elder Wadman

Jun 24

Dear family and friends,

Well it sounds like you all had a good week this past week and that you are all doing good. Happy birthday to Eric, I hope you had a good one! And happy birthday to heather tomorrow, I hope that youve got something fun planned to do. Well I am here in San Cristobal, in Canastica, my companion is elder Mendez and he is from the DR and I live with a columbian and a honduran, so its all spanish again in my house and its going good. Me and Elder Mendez have got some cool investigadors, first off we are teaching this guy named Jorge and he is the husband of a less active lady. The bishop told my comp and his old comp to go and teach the less active familiy, they invited Jorge to share and he has been sharing and going to church for a couple weeks now. When my comp explained his situation I asked him if he has got a baptismal date and my comp said no and that he needs  to get legally married to the his wife. So on Thursday we went to his house and we put a date for his baptism for the 27th of July, my last saturday of the mission and he accepted the date and told us that he has already bought rings for him and her, and he expressed to us his desire to get baptized and basically he is just golden, and another preciouse soul coming unto Christ, I am excited to be able to be here and help him. We are teaching another couple named Alexander and Virginia and they are so awesome, they have been going to church for almost 4 months straight now and the are reading like crazy in the Book of Mormon and in Doctrine and Covenants, they just got to get married legally to be able to get baptized, and he has some problem with his birth certificate, so we are putting some goals with him to do what he needs to do with his birth certificate so that they can get married and get baptized also. So there is quite a lot of work that we need to do here, and a lot of awesome people that we can help come unto Chirst. Watching the capacitation for leaders and missionaries last night got me super pumped to be able to be here full time in the most important work that can be done in this world, and that is preaching the true and restored gospel to all the world, what a maravalous work we have and what a great time it is to preach the restoration of the gospel. I love this time that I have, miss my old area, but already feel sad to not be able to be in this area very long, the ward here is great. Lots of willing brothers and sisters to help the work go forth, the Lord truly is hastening His Work. I love you all and hope that all is going well for you guys back home and that you have a great week!

Elder Wadman

Jun 17

Dear family and friends,

Well it sounds like everything is going just great back home for all of you. I want to wish dad and grandpa and all the other dads a happy fathers day yesterday, I hope you had a great day! Its good to hear that all is well with shambree and with meg and with the two new babies that are coming. It sounds like its all just going good back there. Well last night we received transfer calls and after 7 months here in this area I am getting transfered. It is crazy because I have came to love the people here in this ward especially the people that I got to help come to the gospel here. Ive got some mixed feelings about it because it sure is going to be hard to say bye to these people here, but I know that I worked hard here and I got to see the fruits of the labor and I couldnt have asked for a better place to be for the last couple months. I got to see Ana, Isamay and Mari enter into the waters of baptism, and Ana and Mari have already set the goals themselves to go and do take out their endowments. Ana in January and Mari next June, they are two strong women that will complete those goals. Yesterday, Mari was assigned to teach the relief society class after just a week of being baptized, it was a lesson from the teachings of Lorenzo Snow, I didnt even know about it but after all the relief society ladies told us that she taught it as if she had lot of years in the church, bishops wife came up to me after and told me that just for that lady alone I can go home happy, its cool to see how strong of a lady she is and how prepared she was to receive the gospel. Also, Isamay and her husband have got their goals set on a temple marriage and hopefully that can happen this next year too. They are great people here in Los Alcarrizos, great bishopric, and we have had a great ward mission leader, things are firing on all cylinders here and I know the work will keep going forward here and Im thankful for the time God has giving me to be here. Well, I am going to an area called Canastica of San Cristobal, its back outside of the city and from what I hear it will be a little countryish, my companion´s name is Elder Mendez, I dont know him but Ill get to know him. Im excited to go and work over there in San Cristobal and hopefully we can bring a couple more precious souls unto Christ in my time there. I love the mission and this time that I have been giving from God to do His work bring forth the establishment of His kingdom. I love you all and I hope all is well back home have a great week.

Elder Wadman

Jun 10

Dear family and friends,

Well it sounds like life is going just great back there for all of you guys. Mom told me that its hotter right now in Liberty than it is in the DR so Im glad to here that it is heating up back there for you guys. Well this week was an awesome week, on Saturday our ward all went to the temple so we had Maris baptism on Sunday right after church. It was such an awesome baptism almost the whole ward was there and the place was packed and we had some awesome messages there and then she was baptized and recieved the Holy Ghost right then and there. She was so excited for her baptism and had been anticipating here baptism for a while. She is going to be a very strong lady and is going to help this ward out a lot. I think I have only found a couple people like her on my mission that have been so golden. We knocked on her door about 7 weeks ago, and she hasnt had problems with any commandments she was already living the law of chastity and was already living the word of wisdom. All we did was knock her door and tried to let her feel the spirit and receive a testimony, well the spirit touched her and a few short weeks later she is baptized. Her daughter also went to the baptism and we have started teaching her too and are hoping to bring more members of her family unto Christ too. It was an awesome baptism and I am going to try to send some pictures home to you guys. Also, our other investigators are progressing along real well too. Rosani has got a baptismal date for the 6th of July we are hoping that she will keep on progressing and that she will be ready and prepared to get baptized. We also have starting teaching this other lady named Yudelki and she is really cool, we have taught her a couple times and we put a baptismal date with her for the 20th of July. We are hoping that she too can get prepared to be able to be baptized on that day. We have been praying a lot to be able to find the chosen ones and the ones that are waiting for us and the Lord truly is guiding us to them. The work is going good just enjoying this time that the Lord is giving me to be a missionary and try and find those that need the gospel in their lives. Anyways, life is great here I truly am enjoying it, I hope that everything is going great for you all back home. I love you all and hope you have a good week.

Elder Wadman