I'm So Tired!

WOW I’m so tired... I get home at night and Elder Hadfield makes fun of me because all I want to do is go to bed. I enjoyed all of the emails this week its crazy how fast this last week went. We had a few days of just pure rain and contacts. Contacting for hours and not being received by anyone. The amazing thing is that it doesn’t even affect me anymore. I’m just happy to be working. It’s just sad that we have not been getting into houses lately. Me and Elder Zepeda get along really well and work well together, I actually don’t like doing mini cambios anymore because I just like staying with him. We have been comps forever. I had a woman ask me for my shoes. She told me if I was a true disciple of Christ I would give them to her. So when I took off my right shoe and she saw the damage they had, huge holes, my right shoe is bad. She changed her mind and actually apologized to me afterwards for trying to test/mock me as a missionary. I also went out to Constitution this week with Elder Hafen from Las Vegas. I learned a lot on this trip, probably one of the best of my mission. It amazes me the trust that the sister missionaries have in me. I learn a lot from other missionaries and enjoy looking at them and trying to think of them how their parents do or even their Heavenly Father. Me and Elder Hafen also had a very nice lunch on the beach in constitution. It was nice to relax and talk with him. We also had interviews this week; my interview with President Humphrey was really interesting. He let me know of the options for my last cambio.  One is to die as a zone leader in a struggling zone. The other is a lot cooler; he might take 4 hermanas out of a sector and put me there. I would possibly train and be a district leader. He has been thinking about it for a long time and said I’m the one he feels for the job. So I’m nervous but also very excited to find out the cambios next week. Sunday was fun, we left church and got hit with a crazy storm on the way home it was like the movies!! I was completely drenched in about 20 seconds. Hey I love you all and thanks for the emails! I can’t wait to hear from you next week and see you in 9!!

Love Elder Ward

Hey family and friends, thanks for all of the emails. I really do enjoy reading all about what is going on in your lives. And the time you all take to remember me and write me. So I’m glad to hear that Cody will be home on WED! That’s crazy I remember saying bye to him when he left. Strange I remember saying bye to Jared before he left and just crying lol. And to think that was four years ago. Crazy. Mom and dad have to feel old. So I heard from the office i have mail that has just been sitting there for weeks. It’s a great perk of being on the outside part of the mission. lol I enjoyed the pictures from Melissa also. It seems as if you all go to Deer Creek a lot! I could only imagine Adam on a scooter! Whose idea was that? A while back I watched a man get pegged by a truck on a scooter. So as for me here in the mission I’m still continuing to have experiences. This week I was just obsessed with studying and trying to learn. Trying to view the world around me in a different way. I would actually get really upset when personal studies were over and I am forced to stop and study with my comp lol. Cool but not as cool lol. We have been teaching a young woman who has been going to institute she is awesome should be baptized in two more weeks. Me and Elder Zepeda work really well together and teach well together, it has been four months together now. It’s going to be hard to say bye to him soon. I’m scared that I might get transferred next time. LAME a New area for six weeks. Contacting this week was really tough; I had people tell me some very rude things. And we have been teaching a less active family that I’m just in love with. It killed me to see them not come to church this week. It amazes me how Satan has so much power over the hearts of men. He twists the views of men. Telling them that providing for them temporally is so important that the man has no time and just completely neglects his family in the spiritual matters. Which are the only things of which that will last.  I am getting to know the missionaries in our zone really well. I don’t know I just love to see and listen to them. We are all so different but yet the same things make us happy. I know maybe missionaries might not always be perfect, most of the time those who are looking at them are less perfect. Missionaries are asked to do a ridiculously large amount of things. It’s tough. I’ve studied the plan of salvation a lot this week and I love it I am learning so much. It’s like things are just unfolding in front of me. I just don’t know how I would live without the knowledge that I have. But we all progress personally. This morning we had an experience, we were playing soccer... And I was on the side lines waiting for my teams turn. When a younger missionary slips on the ball and breaks his ankle, it was very bad. Of course like everything else no one knows what to do and everyone looks to me and Elder Hadfield. Elder Hadfield gets everyone calm and out of the way as I am talking to the hurt missionary and trying to get him a little more comfortable. And as Hadfield got the chapel keys for the gate so the ambulance could get in and he also was talking to the mission president and office couple about the insurance and getting the hospital ready to receive  him. I was the lucky one who got to keep him calm (the injured elder) and talk to him for the 25 minutes waiting for an ambulance to come. He is going to be fine, Hadfield accompanied him to the hospital and they got him all better now he just has a few month recovery, but he will have to go home he will be home tomorrow. I didn’t enjoy it, what annoyed me more than anything is the other Elders. Not being able to help at all and acting dumb. And especially more after, when all of their comments were about themselves, maybe not being able to play anymore, or even making fun. And it hurts man, like how can you possible see something like that and not feel for the person or his family. Especially afterwards I was just pondering on what God wanted me to learn, because things don’t happen by chance. It once again reminded me how small I am. And how even though we are the perfect creation, and have dominion over all things. We are still very mortal and weak. So it’s been an interesting pday. I’m honestly waiting for my mission to be over, so many experiences good ones and ones that I would much rather forget. Well I have interviews this Wednesday I’m excited, I hope president will tell me about the upcoming cambios. Well I love you all and don’t worry about me. I will see you all in ten weeks!!!

Elder Ward

I’m Staying Here!

We had cambios and I will be staying here! We are all so excited here in Talca well at least for that. All three of us are all staying here, but Elder Doxey had to leave he is going to be home tomorrow. Man it was so tough saying goodbye to him. And he wasn’t even my companion all we did was live together for 4 and a half months. I hate it; it feels like everything that I have come to love in the last two and a half years has just been taken away from me when I begin to love it the most. I want it to stop, when will a relationship that I make last more than a few months. And will the relationships that I had continue after the mission? I hope so I have amazing friends and family. These are just a few of the thoughts of a missionary who has almost been gone for 2 years. This week went really well I am learning a lot about the convenios that we made and make every week. And also what perfection is, and why God will sometimes ask more from us than what we can actually give. To where we fail most of the time. I love hearing what people are learning about, or thinking about what I’m learning about. Because you can almost always find out in some way what is going on in a person’s life by what they are learning. Because you’re usually learning what you need from god at that moment. I got to do an interview for a man this week that really humbled me, he committed to pay tithing and he only has three weeks left of work and then has no idea what to do. But he told me that he would rather have his family in God’s hands than his own. It’s amazing how sometimes God just loves to slap you in the face with some humble pie. Just look around there are so many things in this life to help us stay focused on the reality of our need for God and our Redeemer. And not all the time are the things we just see but most of the time things that we feel. I absolutely love the mission and I’m learning a lot of things.  I enjoy the hard days more than the easy ones sometimes. Man I cannot wait until I can do what I want when I want though lol. It was like every day at the climax of my studies the time was up and I would beg for more time! I hate it; one hour is not enough sometimes. I miss going out to a "spot" to study, getting in the car and parking at a good view and studying for hours. Well hey 12 more weeks and I’m home its crazy, I have a feeling I’m going to feel very strange. I won’t be strange though, just feel that way!  And hey I was serious about the cup cakes from Jessica one for every month I had to suffer without them! And I will probably eat all of them in one sitting!!!!! I hope everything goes well working on the explorer and that dad takes some time to relax. Also I can’t wait for my package!!! lol last one! I would have loved some fireworks. jkjk And I just love you all!!! Can’t wait to hear from you next week and see you in 12!

Love Elder Matthew James Ward

Next week I will send some pictures it’s been a few weeks lol......

Hey Everyone Another Week

Hey every one another week has passed and your also probably wondering why I’m writing on Tuesday and not on Monday.  It’s because our president decided to take all of the zone leaders all the way down to Concepcion for consejo de lideres because he was super excited because the mission baptized a lot of people this last month.  So I spent Sunday and all Monday either in meetings or in buses. We also had a big soccer tournament held by our president. I was a goalie and I destroyed the whole time only a few goals were scored on us and we played for 2 hours. I’m doing great,  I’m feeling better Hermana Humphrey has been taking care of me she gave me a bunch of medicine and I should be fine in a day or two more.  It’s great to hear that things are going good at home, dads email cracked me up lol.. Some other missionaries asked me if dad always wears Hawaiian t shirts lol... I’m learning a lot and am enjoying the mission its amazing me at how fast it is going.  I can’t wait to go to the temple I miss it so much. Well I’m running out of time we were given like no time to email but whatever..... I will just write a big email next week.  Next week is cambios and it’s a big chance I will leave.  I have been here for 18 weeks and me and my comp both die at the same time.  So one of us will be leaving president told us yesterday as he was driving.  But hey we will see what happens. I love you all and can’t wait to hear from you next week. And I’m super stoked for my package!!!!

Elder Ward