Monday, September 25, 2017

Open your mouth and DRINK IT!!!! (Week 58, Rhiwbina, Cardiff, Wales, Elder Yim)

Hey Everyone!


First off, major shoutouts to the homie DRECK on his mission call to
Oregon! And a major happy birthday to one of my fav homies Ben Edwards!
I'll add a little "memory Monday" throwback pic with these homies!!!!


This week flew by so fast, the weeks keep getting faster and faster and
faster and I can't help but to feel a sense of urgency and how we don't
have a lot of time out here so we need to use it to the max!!! I actually
gave a training on that during district meeting last week! It was a solid
week!! We took things to the next level this week through district finding
in Pontypridd and holding a district fast and more!!


There's a few cool experiences I wanna share from this week:

  - while in Pontypridd I was with elder Haynes and we got to this door
  where three of the most worldly university students you'll ever meet lived,
  they weren't interested in the slightest until they decided to ask us why
  bad things happen to good people-good question-I bore my testimony and
  testified to them of the plan of Salvation and why we are here and the
  spirit was so strong, it literally smacked them because they had nothing to
  say after and it was cool because I knew that they knew they felt
  something, the ponty sisters are gonna go back and see them this week!
  - We met a young mom while knocking doors on Thursday who said to come
  back on Sunday and we went back yesterday, to be honest I really didn't
  think she was gonna let us in or talk more but to our surprise she let us
  right in and we taught her the restoration. It was perfect for her because
  she used to be catholic but isn't very active in church anymore and she
  wants her kids to be raised in a church, she was more than happy to read
  the Book of Mormon and pray about it! Rack up another tender mercy!!!


There was a ton of stuff that happened this week including basketball,
dinner with the homie Lxeon, two exchanges with the zone leaders, and more!
We knocked one door and this girl and her mom opened up and the mom was
pretty rude to us and as we walked away the daughter straight up rebuked
her mom for being rude! What a homie! Also in church yesterday a girl who
just got back from Spain on her mission gave her homecoming talk and she
knew Claire gentry, who is finishing up her mission there, which was crazy,
such a small world!!


I felt overwhelmed at a few points this week due to health issues, harsh
rejection, being bashed a ton, bad weather, and multiple people I know
choosing to let doubts get at them and if there was one thing I learned
this week it was a principle taught in the last general conference from
elder choi who said "Do not lose your faith because of the people around
you, but build a strong relationship with Jesus Christ. Don’t look around,
look up!” and he went on with some advice he gave to his missionaries when
he served as a mission president saying "I used to tell them, “Go out in
the rain, look up to heaven, open your mouth, and drink it! When you look
up, you will be strengthened to open your mouth to everyone without any
fear.” It was a symbolic lesson for them to look up when they faced
challenges even after their mission." Whenever I turn to God with all my
problems, doubts, whatever it may be, he strengthens me and gives me what I
need to endure. When I left I chose Alma 36:27 as my missionary plaque
scripture and I can testify that I am seeing that scripture come to
fulfilment in my own life. Build your foundation on Jesus Christ and you
will never fall. He has made some of my hardest times the happiest times.
Next time it "rains" in your life look up and DRINK IT!


Conference is this weekend and you can listen to a prophet of god THIS
Saturday and Sunday!!! Check it out at LDS.org. I'm so grateful that god
loves us enough to bless us with a modern prophet. His love is truly
perfect and unfailing. He loves each of you and I do as well!


Elder Varner









Monday, September 18, 2017

king of the court!!!! (Week 57, Rwibina, Cardiff, Wales, Elder Yim)

if any of you had an idea of how hyped I am for this upcoming week! this week is gonna be so lit! I just can feel it! the last week was actually pretty good, my health wasn't the best but oh well, we met some cool people and had a lot of "good touches" as my homie t money would put it! also I hit my 13 month mark yesterday, and it's so crazy how fast time is going by! It is actually getting faster and faster and I kinda want it to slow down!

we had dinner at vyyerena's this week and we sat there for maybe five minutes tops with her and then her partner came in and she left for a bit and we talked to her partner, Jxxames, for over 30 minutes about good vs evil and how serving others brings true joy. a month ago jxxames would always leave the room when we came and now he loves talking to us and a friendship is really starting to develop, he's starting to trust us a ton and we are starting to ease into the gospel with him, he has so much potential!

on Tuesday we asked our beast Ward mission leader for some advice and he told us we should start working in a place called thornhill. I had worked there a few times but no one was ever interested and we got some harder rejection. when he told us we should start working there I felt like Alma when he was told to go back to Ammonihah after facing much rejection. we haven't had any success there yet but I know it'll come!  at one door, a young mother opened and we talked with her about how families are eternal and she wasn't too believing of that, I bore my testimony of how families truly are forever and she totally felt the spirit, you could literally see that she was feeling it and she knew she was feeling something, she then declined our offer to teach her and her family, but it was so cool cuz the spirit was just so present!

lots of random stuff this week but here's a few honourable mentions:
  • some guy wished us a merry Christmas because he thought we were jehovah witnesses, either way, Christmas in September?!?
  • winter has pretty much arrived, I guess the UK just decided to skip over Fall and head straight into winter, it's been getting so cold here!
  • Had a visit with an awesome couple, the Nyyaylors, they are pretty much a senior missionary couple, they spend all their time visiting people and when we stopped by they fed us a ton of food, gave us a few referrals without us even saying a word, and even had their professional nutrionalist friend give me advice for my stomach problem over the phone. god bless the naylors!
  • we helped the gxxould's move a bunch of stuff and they told us that because of our help that the wife was able to make it to her job and that their daughter made it to an audition in Bristol. It was nice to hear that something we did really helped someone.
  • #starspangledbanner at district meeting
  • a lit basketball evening, we got twelve homies there and we did king of the court! you know I was king!

I've been thinking a lot about having an eternal perspective and how important it is. Spencer W Kimball once said “If we looked at mortality as the whole of existence, then pain, sorrow, failure, and short life would be calamity. But if we look upon life as an eternal thing stretching far into the premortal past and on into the eternal post-death future, then all happenings may be put in proper perspective.” We can feel peace and hope when we remember that life is eternal, and that one day we will be victorious over all the trials we are facing in this life. Hold on, believe in good things to come. One day things will truly be better. Even if you feel broken, know that one day you will be made whole, and you will feel a fullness of joy, whether that comes in this life or the next, just keep pressing forward.

The last few weeks have definitely been rougher on me with health problems and the slowness of the work here, but I really, fully heartedly know that this week is going to be so much better and I'm looking forward to telling you about it next week. Don't worry about me, I'm ALIVE AND WELL AND STILL HAPPIER THAN IVE EVER BEEN! I love these Welsh homies and I love you all, and I'm so grateful for each of you. don't ever fredette that! now go serve someone who is feeling down!

Elder Varner








Monday, September 11, 2017

operation talybont!!!! (Week 56, Rhiwbina, Cardiff, Wales, Elder Yim)

hey hey hey! whats up fam!

the time has been flying out here, I know I say that every week but it seriously has! this was a good week, but the work is so slow here though. we are really struggling to build a teaching pool and im not gonna lie it's frustrating because I feel like we are working so hard and we just aren't getting anywhere with it. I know that things are gonna start heating up with the work soon, just gotta keep doing our part and working our hardest, we don't control other's agency, we just invite them to act. I'd love any finding advice though if any of yall have some! we are really trying to work with members now so we will see how that goes, just gotta trust the process and trust the lord and be patient! we are starting to work in a little uni village area called talybont that we think might be private property so we are going all mission impossible status and have come up with a plan to creep in and knock a few doors at a time to not get caught haha

man we had such a sick hoop session on Saturday night, like so sick!! there was one point in our game where I just was draining back to back to back shots, I seriously felt like Jimmer! made me miss the good ole church ball days haha! we had an awesome district meeting as well, I gave a training on enduring to the end and how charity and love is such a key part to that. love is the best motivation to keep going! our district is great right now as well! it's me, elder yim (Hong Kong), sister Olsen, and sister swasey (both from Utah). It's a pretty cool district.

we had plenty of little tender mercies along the way this week, whether that be someone just taking the time to talk to us for a few minutes or random last minute lessons, it's been good. even though you can count the amount of lessons we teach each week on one hand, I feel like we are doing what the Lord wants us to do and I feel like he is shaping me into the servant and son he wants me to become. it definitely can be rough sometimes out here but it's been a blast so far and I love these people, it's not supposed to be easy, just worth it. it is so worth every minute out here, and it's so cool to read journal entries from the beginning of my mission and to see how much I've changed and how much stronger my testimony is, I know that Jesus Christ lives.

lastly I thought I'd share a quote with yall: president uchtdorf said once "So often we get caught up in the illusion that there is something just beyond our reach that would bring us happiness: a better family situation, a better financial situation, or the end of a challenging trial. The older we get, the more we look back and realize that external circumstances don’t really matter or determine our happiness. We do matter. We determine our happiness." Happiness is a choice which we make every day. We can choose to be happy no matter what the circumstances of our life are. Our focus, not our circumstances, determine our life. And if we choose to have that focus be on Jesus Christ and his gospel, we can be happy no matter what. So, CHOOSE today to be happy, don't wait. Don't wait for better circumstances to come to choose to be happy, or one day you may look back and realise that you chose never to be happy. Choose today to be happy!

A major shoutout to all my homies who are finishing their missions and have gotten back recently including the homies benjo wenjo, Austin cook, the biggest patriot I know-Jacob Buchanan, kolton McCluskey, cayden norton, and Ben hill! I know there's more but I don't have a perfect memory right now-anyways thank you for being amazing examples to me!

I realise today is the anniversary of 9/11, and many are suffering due to natural disasters at this time. May our prayers go out to them from the bottom of our hearts, may we stand a little taller and help others, may we be a little kinder, go out of the way to help others, be a friend to the lonely, reach out to those in need, we need more of that in the world we live in. I love you guys and trust that you'll be the kind of person this world needs at this time. Now go have a lit week! Look unto Christ in every thought, doubt not, fear not ðŸ˜˜

Elder Varner











Monday, September 4, 2017

the book of mormon has arrived! (Week 55, Rhwibina, Cardiff, Wales, Elder Yim)

hello, my name is elder varner, and i would like to share with you the most amazing book. well for those of you who have seen the book of mormon play* then you get that reference! the play is kicking off in london and they are advertising it EVERYWHERE! we are gonna get so many questions from those who go and see it soon!

wise chav advice of the week
*riding our bikes to get to somewhere in Ely (ft us and 15 chav kids on bikes*
us: "Hey how are you doing?" (as we are riding past them)
chav kids: "don't wear a helmet, BE A HELMET!"

words to live by...this week wasn't anything too crazy but it was a really good week! everyone was sick this week with colds: members, investigators, and me haha but it's all good cuz we found a few really cool uni students that we are seeing tonight and I got some high hopes! I found out last night that I'll be staying here in Rhiwbina with elder yim for anotha six weeks! Sister Ackley is leaving and our district is getting sister Olsen, we are hyped for this upcoming transfer cuz we have some amazing stuff ahead in this area!

 we worked in Ely again this week, always nice to be in the hood, we befriended a few 12 year old chav kids which was interesting. We told them how the peace sign backwards in America is totally ok (doing that here is flipping someone off) and then we left and knocked on a door of this African family and the kids were standing at the fence and they did the peace sign backwards at one of the girls who was at the door and she grabbed a shoe and chased that chav! It was so random, Ely, what a place.

we had a mission conference last Thursday with elder De Feo of the seventy. It was a great meeting and he talked a lot about melting hard hearts and the mantle of being a missionary. We truly are witnesses of Jesus Christ in all things, in all places, at all times. As members we need to always stand as a witness of Christ. It was sweet to see more people from my group again as well!

I came across a quote that I just love so much and I wanted to share it with all of you, to those religious friends of mine and also my non religious homies. Gordon B Hinckley once said "Many of you think you are failures. You feel you cannot do well, that with all of your effort it is not sufficient. We all worry about our performance. We all wish we could do better. But unfortunately we do not realize, we do not often see the results that come of what we do. You never know. You never know whether you do any good. You never know how much good you do." I know for me personally, I've felt like I haven't helped a lot of people recently, and I felt pretty down about that and how the work has been pretty slow here with friends of ours and members. And coming across this quote really changed my perspective. I know that as we do our best, even when our efforts don't seem to be doing much in whatever it may be, we are touching and changing lives. I hope and pray that I continue to be an effective tool of the Lord's in helping others around me.

also a major happy birthday to T-CHAZZY today and congrats [to Taylor Lewis on your call to FRANCE]!!! hope you have a great day! You're awesome! All of you are awesome and I flippin love you all! Now go find someone who is going through a hard time, someone who is ill, lonely, sad, and go serve them!

Elder Varner