I can see clearly now that the rain is gone!

Hey family whats up!! So dad and mom thanks for the emails, its nice to know that 2 members of my family have enough time to email me. lol That's hilarious about dad and the dogs lol I can see him trying to take off his BOOTS and the dogs messing with him and then sleeping with him on the couch. That's crazy that so many people are working on their mission papers and then on top of that how many young men from our ward are already out in the mission. Isn't Regan almost coming home!? holy jazz.. Well hey family this week was pretty much the same except that it only rained once!!!! Its almost spring here I'm so excited to start wearing only a camisa blanca again and start feeling like a real missionary again. So I have not been taking alot of pictures because I am tired of not having pictures of baptisms! But the 5th of September we should have two!!! I am working extremely hard for it. We visited her last night and she had 4 friends over, all with pages of questions about life, the scriptures and church. All her friends are Catolica and she told them that we have all the answers. It was a very fun hour and a half lol.. But its true this church is the true church of God. So we finally have investigators here in Longavi. The work is progressing and I am learning more than I ever thought I could. I wont lie I'm really ready for a gringo companion lol or at least some one who can do some of the work too.. lol So I would like mom to know that I flossed every day this week! and I worked out. Now that its not to cold I can do stuff, before it was to cold to ----.(pass gas) I left Katia our golden investigator that we contacted in the rain a copy of the Liahona the general conference one and she is going to read the talk about the Book of Mormon by Jeffery R. Holland lol.. she told me she is going to read them all. lol Life is good, the Church is true and I love my family and friends. Peace out!!!

Hey family, I will start by answering some of the questions that mom and dad asked. I still have not received my credit card, and yes dad there is a baptismal font here in Longavi. That's really funny about Kayman and Jared with different kinds of music. Don't worry Kayman I would have listened to country music with you, Jared just doesn't like it because he hasn't met the right girl yet... lol.. get on it Jared. So August is weird here in this part of Chile, it rains one day and its sunny the next. It only rained 3 times this week it is getting a lot better. So this week I'm still a missionary lol.. And don't worry I'm not homesick. Its just really hard when you always have to do everything, I teach the lessons, I resolve doubts, I do everything that's all I'm going to say. I just can't wait to get a companion that is like a friend. I have never had a hard time with getting long with someone or being patient for a long time, then I came on a mission. lol.. I'm so excited about Landon!!!! He better email me himself about it maybe a video even or at least a foto. I am extremely excited for him. I love that kid, I have never spent more time playing video games with someone else. So we have a family we are teaching and this week the mom was like Elder Ward I have something to tell you. I was like shoot, because the last week we went over the Word of Wisdom. She was like Elder, I need a new Book of Mormon. At work they tried to get me to drink cafe, (coffee) then they made fun of me, so I shoved the Book of Mormon at them and told them to read it and try to deny it. Yes I gave her a new Book of Mormon lol, I was extremely happy for her, she is ready for baptism she just is lacking assistance because she is still working on getting Sunday morning off. But she is converted its amazing how powerful the Book of Mormon is. So I got my package this week, I wrote a little thing in the Latin Book of Mormon (this is what he asked for his birthday) for Elder Castillo he loved it. Now I just hopes he reads it. I m doing good family, I'm loving a lot of things down here. I got to start working out.....


Love Elder Ward

Where To start...

So to start out this email, No I have still not received any mail! But hey we have a training Wed so maybe I will get some mail then! Thanks for all the emails I got this week, I'm sorry I'm going to be a little lazy today and not reply back to all of them. And mom, do not worry, we don't use a heater... We just freeze at night lol. but hey one more month! Its starting to warm up, I'm really jealous of the Vegas weather, it doesn't thunder here, or lightning. You just cant go anywhere better than Las Vegas. So this week, to start off we had a mini cambio Tuesday that was really fun because it was with Elder Garey. Its a little lame that he only has a little more than 4 months left. I will have to find a new mission buddy. lol. The next day we did contacts all day, and I was testifying to this family outside of the bus stop right, and everyone starts laughing. I look down and there is a dog peeing on my leg. Sweeeeet huh? But don't worry yourself I didn't let it affect me and kept working all day. The next day we chopped more wood as a service project, and I bought gloves! They are not very comfortable though. If I look fat in the picture its because I'm back up to 80 kilos. And its not all muscle like before :( oh well, I guess I will have to start working out in the morning again. Later that day we had a lesson with one of our investigators. After the opening prayer she starts crying and telling us something. I couldn't understand her at all. I looked at my comp and he looked at me. She stoped talking and I looked at my comp hoping he would share something. And he just looked at me, I grabbed my scriptures and prayed. I opened my scriptures and shared, she talked more and cried more. My comp said nothing. The spirit guided me to another scripture and I shared my testimony and then she cried more and told us more. Then the spirit told me to share two scriptures and share about the beauty of repentance. She thanked us and we left with a prayer. She was happy when we left and we made goals with her. But remember how I said I didn't understand a thing? Yeah the whole lesson I didn't understand a thing she said to me until we starting making goals. After the lesson my comp asked me how I knew what to say, and how what I shared was exactly what she needed. I told him I didn't understand a dang thing. He didn't believe me at first. But another testimony to me, that the guidance of the holy ghost is real. Only that we must learn to recognize it and be worthy of the blessings. Throughout this week I thought alot about temptation. And how I don't remember before this life, But Satan and his followers do. We had another really good lesson with the family we are teaching. She had a huge doubt about the priesthood only being held by men, but don't worry, the Proclamation to the World about the family took care of that real easy. lol We also taught them the Word of Wisdom and they are dropping everything! Because they feel so strongly Jose Smith was a prophet and about the Libro de Mormon. Awesome right? So this week I got a little frustrated because I always have to answer the questions always. Why cant my comp help me out sometime. My zone leader talked with me and asked me how i haven't gone home yet, i asked him... What? lol he was like dude you have had 2 of the hardest companions in the whole mission. Well someone has to help them, and be strong enough not to fall doing it. Its tough, almost 10 months of always having to be the strong one. why... I'm praying that it will change with my next comp. This week I had a really rough day. I was studying and like a lot of times studying I get really into it. And sometimes I feel like I'm studying in my front room, or in the car like I did before the mission and forget that I'm in Chile. I learned something new and I jumped up and ran out of the room because I had the urge to share it with dad. To realize that I was 9000 kilometers away in Chile. It hit me hard, after I read a talk MAN DOWN by Henry B Eyring, some of my friends came to mind. I cried, it was hard. And my comp didn't even ask me if I was OK. But hey we are strengthened by everything right? I'm still learning and helping investigators. We should be baptizing this family in the next 3 weeks. I'm enjoying the mission. I love you all, and I hope all is well.
Love Elder Matthew James Ward

Hola Family

Hey family whats going on, so I'm still here in the rest stop in the middle of nowhere with a pretty boy de peru. lol six more weeks lol we should have a baptism this month coming up though so its all worth it. Its not all about baptisms. I learned that a lot this last 6 weeks here in Longavi, I am serving in meaningful ways. If it means helping my companion find his testimony and teach him correct doctrine, or listening to people for hours about there trials and afflictions. I don't know, but I am serving. I am content with knowing that when I am serving them I am serving my God. This last week went by really fast, I learned a lot and hope that me and my comp can continue to build a relationship. Slowly we are. I want to thank everyone for the emails that I received this week, I was very happy to have so many great emails. bro Jared, !esta o no! I happened to read D & C 121-3 this week lol I think its the Lord speaking to me. lol So this week we had some really intense lessons this week, my comp is mad at me because I'm not by the book on the lessons and I take over, he says. If the spirit tells me something, I'm going to do it. If someone needs to be taught something for their spiritual progression I'm going to take the time to teach it. If someone just needs us to listen, we listen. Holy jazz, talk about rain this week, we had a day that it rained big time all day. Just to make our day better every appointment fell lol members too, we tried everything. Contacts all, all day 10 hours of contacts. A first for me in my life lol oh and how I hope its the last lol. and to add to it we got rejected all day but hey, im serving lol right. I hope you guys are receiving blessings for this! lol So this week I started a list, every question and the answer in the Book of Mormon. So far I have 56 questions about life or the gospel of Jesus Cristo and the answers in the Book of Mormon, its absolutely amazing! Definitely a true book, plus I love to watch people ask a tough question and see their reaction when I take them to the index and show them how to find the answer-then the answer. It is amazing. lol I didn't take any fotos this week sorry, out of batteries and I have about 4 dollars to live off of until next Monday and 3 dollars are going to fast offering. Not buying batteries lol.. Maybe I can find some in my meletas. Well I'm doing good family and friends, the gospel is true.

Love Elder Matthew James Ward