One Year

Dear Family and Friends,

Well its sounds like this week has been quite a fun week for you guys. The pictures of the Rodeo, and of Sara and Reggie, looks like you guys had a lot of fun. Happy Birthday Reggie! hope you had a good first birthday and i am pretty sure that you will have a pretty cool second birthday haha Anyways, here in my house i live with 3 other missionaries, and 3 of us are from the same group. So there on the day of our year mark we all burnt a shirt. There are traditions here in this mission when you have 6 months you burn a tie, a year you burn a shirt, 18 months pants and 24 a suit. So i have burnt a tie and a shirt and i will burn pants but i probably wont be burning a suit haha so that was a lot of fun talking with them about how fast this last year went and all the things that happened in the mission in this last year. So the year mark was great and thank you mom for the packages that made it even better. Well this week was a good week, we worked really hard. During the day we worked with all of our investigadors and during the nights we went around visiting all of the inactive and less active people in the ward. So it was a lot of worked but it payed off because we had 10 more people in church this week then what we did last week. There was a little over 50 people in church, the branch presidents goal is to have 100 people attending church by the end of the year. It will take a lot of work but with the help  of the Lord we should be able to meet that goal. Well our investigadors are progressing right a long we are teaching a Lady named Claudia and she is completely ready to get baptized but she isn´t married to her boyfriend but we are going to work with that. However, she is super cool, she is reading the book of mormon and is in 2 nephi and she said that she has recieved her answer and wants to get baptized so we are pretty excited about that. Also, Elder Garcia my last comp told me that Isabel from Enriquillo got baptized yesterday and that another lady that we were teaching is getting baptized in the 2 weeks so i was super happy to hear that things are still rolling there in Enriquillo, and that Isabel got baptized. Anyways here in Barahona things are looking on the upside and things are rolling pretty good. With our investigadors we have been sharing a lot about faith because there are  alot of them that are learning and progressing but havent taken that next step of faith with their commitments. There is a scripture that i really like that talks about faith and its in helman 14:13 and its when samuel the lamanite is giving his sermon to the nephites. He says that if we truely have faith in Jesus Christ then we will repent of our sins and so that we can recieve a remission of them through his atonement. In other words we will be willing to give away all of our sins and our will, to do his will. I really like that scripture about faith and i know that through having faith and trusting in Christ and his atonement we can recieve a remission of our sins and be able to experience true happiness in this life. Anyways i hope everything is going good for you all back home. I love you all

Elder Wadman

Dear Family and Friends,

Well first off congradulations Tasha and Ryan with the baby! I cant wait to meet Sara Ann when she is a year old! And Reggie when he is two haha I saw the pictures and it looks like kenzi jack brady and gabe will be helping out a lot with her, so congradulations! Well mom it sounds like you made it through girls camp and that it was alot of fun too. Well I am here now in Barahona and it is quite the paradise. From the top of our house i can see the beach and there is always a nice breeze from the ocean that hits us. Well, i spent all day tuesday traveling and i got here in Barahona at 9 at night. The buses to bring us out here were full so we spent about 7 hours at a bus stop waiting for a bus to bring us out here but in the end we made it. My first morning here we woke up early and we ran out to the beach, so now i can say i have been to the beach in the DR. So that is really cool well half of my area is up in the mountains and when we are contacting i feel like I am at home up in the mountains... and then i see dominicans and palm trees  and i remember that i am still here in the DR. But the area is really cool.  Yesterday we went to church and this branch needs a lot of work. The branch president is strong but he doesnt have much help. We went to church and with our investigadors there were 41 people at church and besides the branch president, and a couple kids that are about to go on missions, there wasnt anybody there who has the melchezidek preisthood. So it is a little weak but with the Lords help we should be turning it around. I talked with the branch president and he is going to give us a list of all the inactive priesthood members in the branch and we are going to start visiting all of them and start getting them reactivated. We are going to try and work with the Branch President a lot and be the help he needs to get this place turned around. So i am excited for the oportunity to work in this area and get things rolling. The people here are super nice, everybody says hi to everybody and everybody wants you to come in and sit down and talk to them, so they are easy to love here. The literacy rate is a little bit lower here than in the city but the people are nicer here than in the city. My companion is a mexican named Elder Vicente and we live with a missionary from Honduras and one from Peru so i am still sticking with the 24/7 spanish. So thats always good to keep practicing the spanish. My new house has got water and power 24/7 so i am basically just living the dream right now haha. Well we have a couple of investigadors that are progressing and i have a feeling that with the Lords help we definately can work some miracles here in Barahona. So I that is what is going on with me these days but I hope that everything is going well for you guys back home and that you are having a fun summer. I love you all

Elder Wadman

ps here are some photos         

                       

Barahona

Dear family and friends,

Well, the pictures of San Diego sure made it look like you guys had a fun time! Even though we were supposed to go last year and we didn´t, i am glad that you guys got to go this year and have fun. Well I am getting transfered and i am getting sent out to Barahona, Barrio 3. Well, for the last year i have been in the city and havent been anywhere close to the beach. Now I am getting sent out to the country and if you guys check out a map, Barahona is right on the beach and where i am going to live is about a 10 minute walk to the beach! So i am pretty excited for that, my first time out of the city and right next to the beach. Me and my companion will be serving in a branch and i cant remember what they told me his name was but he is mexican so it will still be spanish 24/7. So I am excited to go out and serve out there, and i know that that is what the lord wants but its hard beacuse we are having a lot of success here. Yesterday we had almost 20 investigaters in church and two families. The church was so full that there were people sitting outside on chairs because they couldn´t fit in the chapel. Afterwards the bishop came up to us and said the lord is working miracles here in enriquillo and truely he is. My first sunday here there was about 115 people in sacarament meeting and yesterday there was a little over 180 people. So the Lord truely is working miracles here. Also Isabel is going to be getting baptized in a week from saturday and there are a couple other baptisms on the way. So it is a little tough to leave for this but the missionary that is going to replace me is Elder Peterson aka my trainer in the mission, it is his last transfer and he is going to finish here, so i know this area is in good hands because he is a really good missionary. So that is what is going to be happening in this upcoming transfer. I know that there is a lot of work to get down out there in barahona and i have hear that out there in the country everything depends on the missionaries. If the missionaries dont work then the branch doesnt work so I am excited to see what the future has to bring. I definately will be sending a lot of photos home of the new area and of the beach. They told me that we can wake up really early and run to the beach and see the sun rise on the ocean so maybe I will check that out. Anyways, that is what is going on with me, oh by the way our new house is awesome, there is always water and a have been taking real showers for the last week, so it has been really nice, we will see if the new house in barahona is nice but i heard that they have 24/7 power so that will be cool. So everything is going really good for me and I hope you guys have a good week this week and that everything is going good for you all back home. I love ya all

Elder Wadman

Dear family and friends,

Well, It sounds like it was a great week for you all. I saw the pictures from the 4th of July and it looks like it was a fun time. All though it sounds like there was a lot of sickness this last week and that not everbody was up to ¨full capacity.¨ Well I hope this last week was fun. I forgot to say happy birthday to Gabe too, so happy birthday Gabe. And tasha I got your letter today, thank you for the letter and the drawings from the kids. Also, congrats to Brad and Teri! Now there will be 3 new ones in the family by the time i get home so it will be exciting to meet all the new ones. Well, this last week has been pretty cool for us, we found a family that we are teaching now. Our first lesson with them we asked the dad what he wants to learn from our visits and what motivated him to let us come by and teach him. He said that he wants to know how he can raise his kids up well, so they make the right choices. We told him about how the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses the family. And that through keeping the commadments of God he and his family will be blessed. Then we told him the best way that he can raise his kids up is by being an example of righteousness. And it was a very spiritual lesson, then our next lesson was very spiritual again and he told us that he believes what we have taught him to be true. and they are planning to go to church with us the sunday. I was pretty excited about it, we have been looking and praying to find a family for a long time, and now we found one so we were pretty stoked. Also everything with isabel is just peachy, she is reading the book of mormon and is getting excited for her baptismal date so thing here are going really good. Oh and tomorrow we are going to move, we have been trying to move for 6 months and now we are finally going to move. We cleaned out or new house the other day and it is a lot nicer than our house right now, so I am pretty excited for that too! Anyways everything here is going really well we have one week left in this transfer, and we will see if i stay here again in Enriquillo, i hope so, but we will see what happens. Anyways I hope you guys have a good week this week and that everybody is doing good, love you all

Elder Wadman

Dear family and friends,

Well, it sounds like you guys had a good week! I sure was excited to see a
picture of that big bailer! I tried to explain to my dominican comp why it
is so cool that we have that now, i dont think he really understood the
significance of it. Mom showed me all the pictures of the kids being up at
the house and helping with everything out on the farm, it looks like you
had a fun time. Also, Happy Birthday Grandma Montgomery, and Brad! And
Happy 4th of July this week! I have talked my comp and the other two guys
that live with me into having some mashed potatoes and beef to celebrate.
They all said that they want too, so it will be good little break from rice
and chicken and a good time to celebrate the red white and blue. Anyways, i
am sure you guys will have a fun week this week. This last week was a
really good week. We had some pretty cool experiences. First off, we havent
recieved a referal from the ward in a long time, so we have been working
and praying for this for the last couple weeks. So on friday we were out
tracting, and we had knocked doors for a while and my comp said, we are
going to go look for a referal. And i said ok lets go look for one. So we
pasted by a members house and they werent there. so we went to the next
members house. There was a member outside with one of his friends, and he
said hey you guys need to teach my friend the gospel so we set an
appointment with him. Then in less than 1 hour we recieved 4 more referals!
It was quite the miracle for this ward and then we recieved another one
last night, so i think the lord has heard our prayers, and the members are
getting on board. Second, yesterday in church we had another miracle,
between the two companionships here in this ward we had 14 investigators at
church. And it was perfect because it was fast and testimony meeting and it
was super spiritual everybody that shared their testimony. So after
sacarement we went to the investigators class (our sunday school). One of
our investigators tapped my comp on the shoulder and she was crying. She
said that she needed to walk outside, so me and my comp decided to go with
her. When we walked outside i was thinking, oh shoot what happened, why is
she crying. So i asked her if everything is ok, and she said i feel
something. And i said what do you feel? And she said i cant describe it but
i feel it right here and she put her hand on her chest. I said is it a good
feeling? And she said yes ive never felt like this before, and started
tearing up again. I told her that that is the spirit testifying to you that
these things are true and she said I know that they are true. Wow it was
quite the experience to be there and see and feel the spirit testify to
someone like that. Well, she has a baptism date and will be getting
baptized in this month. So yeah yesterday was an awesome day, and this week
has been an awesome week. Things are going good here in Enriquillo,
and we are finding alot of people that want to come unto christ and
accept his gospel. Anyways, i hope that everything is going good over
there and that you guys have an awesome 4th of july, and good week.
Love ya all

Elder Wadman