Cooper Winegar: April 2022

What's up what's up, hope everyones doing so great. Personally, I'm having a blast here. Not sure what's happening here, but Mexico kinda decided to start being insanely hot and have loads of cockroaches everywhere. All good though because the mission work is cruising out here! Before I get to all that though here's a quick fun fact list.

-Black Widow friend that lived outside my window for a months went missing. Me and my comp panic cleaned our room after and destoyed the web, I'm hoping we killed all the spider baby/eggs ahaha

-Hit a dog with a rock (out of self-defense)

-Paid our water bill last week, and the next day we didn't have water in our house. I was kinda confused how that works, but after four days it came back hehe

-Learned about how, while God is in charge of everything, our entire life is actually controlled by vibrations. Very informative hour and a half lol

-We had 7 of the people we've been teaching come to church!!

The last one was a HUGE miracle. For the past ten weeks that I've been here, we've only had one person come to church consistently... and we ended up baptizing him.

The biggest miracle though was that we got our friend Aurora to come to church. For the past 2 months, she's refused to come to church with us. Rightfully so, because she has a fear of churches. She has visited about 8 different churches (including our church) and said that she's felt weird in every single one. We convinced her to give our church another chance, and after church yesterday she told us that she didn't feel good, but she didn't feel weird!! She already told us that she wants to come back next week though, but this time with her 4 year old son

This last Tuesday we also had exchanges!! Me and Elder Bermudez had a party and taught a bunch of lessons, one with my favorite family that we've been teaching. The mom is a less active member, but the son isn't baptized. And better yet, the mom also has a sister with three kids that all want to get to know the church! All of them came to church on Sunday which was so awesomeee

Quick little spiritual thought is in Alma 36:27, if you have time to go read all of this chapter, go do it. It's all about Alma the Younger and him telling his awesome conversion story to his son Heleman. Anyways, the scripture says

27 And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me.

run

I know that when we trust in the Lord, he will deliver us from all manner of afflictions. It will not be easy, but I promise that he will always help us come on top in the end.

I love you guys all so much, let me know how you are going trust in the Lord just a little bit more this week! BYE

-E. Winegar

Picz are me and piano, me and my comp X3, Me and dog, and me and E. Bermudez

The future ain't what it used to be

Monday, April 25, 2022

What's goood everybody! Like my good friend James Oborn said in an email I read 5 minutes ago, it feels like I've done it all this week! Don't know how to really explain it, so maybe reading about my week will help you understand.

This last Tuesday, on the 12th of April, I was apart of what I have deemed to be the most successful exchange I will have on my mission. Me and Elder Pace went on an absolute grind and found and taught 11 new people to teach in the course of 8 hours. We have had almost no success in our area for the past 2-3 weeks, and to see our "luck" make a complete 180 in such a dramatic way was incredible. I know that God put us exactly where we needed to be that day. I also know that God has a plan for each and every one of those people that we found, and I am so excited to see what it is.

Buuut funny story is that the very next day I ended up getting destroyed by food/water poisoning! While the little kid that gave me a tall glass of refreshing sink water had good intentions, it did not lead to a great outcome for my fragile American body. I thoroughly enjoyed my night of pooping and puking my guts out hehe

Oh happy late Easter by the way, I had high hopes on Sunday that one of the new people that we found this week would be more motivated to come to church with the whole "Pascua" thing. But nah, 9AM is pretty early for most people here, but we're gonna keep working with all of them.

Other little detail is that yesterday I had the opportunity to speak in Church again! As I was frantically throwing notes late last night (that I ended up forgetting at the house lol), I was drawn to studying the atonement of Jesus Christ. Something that I found interesting was that Jesus went to the Temple two times in the days leading up to his time in the Garden of Eden.

Another thing that I love is that Jesus almost always taught by example. He never taught anything that he wasn't already doing. So, I'm guessing that if The Savior went to the Temple twice leading up to his time of unbelievable hardship, I would say that it's something we should try to follow as well.

This week I challenge all of you to find time to go to the temple! Go and feel the peace that comes from being in the House of the Lord. Unlike Jesus, we don't know always know when our times of unbelievable hardship will come. But, if we try to go to the temple regularly, I promise that we will be able to see the help that we need to to overcome our trials.

Dueces

-E. Winegar

Pics include me taking a pic at 5:30AM during my sickness, taking a pic outside a gas station while my comp buys me gatorade, Breakfast quesadilla party, Me standing in a soccer field, and standing by a sign that made me laugh.

Super Sick Week Ft. Elder Winegar

Monday, April 18, 2022

What's up best friends? Welcome to back to the Weekly-Winegar, where this week I talk about what happened during my week. Enjoy.

This week had lots of miracles, but also lots of..."meh". While the "meh" moments outnumbered the miracles, I would love to talk about the miracles.

First miracle is that in the course of the past two weeks, my Spanish has almost tripled. Not sure how, just kinda happened haha.

When I first got transfer news two weeks ago, I was really nervous because I already knew my comp, E. Medrano, and knew that he doesn't like to talk much. I was super worried about how on earth we were going to teach lessons, because I myself didn't really know how to speak Spanish.

To my surprise though, I have been teaching almost every lesson solo and without a crazy amount of confusion!

Even if it was scary, I know that the Lord placed me in this companionship at this time because he knew what I needed to learn and grow.

Other miracle this week was from a fast I did on Sunday! We had a statistically bad week and it was getting me pretty down, especially because I felt like I was doing everything I could. BUT after fasting, we ended up having success with almost every contact and lesson we had. We are now set up for a week full of lessons and contacts, and it was almost all after the fast.

I know God listens to our prayers and fasts. As we humble ourselves and endure the trials we are given, pushing forward with these prayers in our hearts, we will see the blessings in due time.

Two other fun mini stories is that we had a four hour painting service project this week. After I painted alone for 2 and a half hours, me and E. Medrano decided to go buy him a paint brush and we actually started making progress. Who woulda thought ahaha.

Other story is that we have a little black widow buddy in one of our windows outside in the same room where we sleep. She's pretty sick, but now I'm bit scared cause an Investigator told us that she went to the hospital from a black widow bite. I'm not too worried though because I'm pretty sure it was from the scorpion antidote she applied instead of her Black Widow antidote lol.

Love each and every one of you with all my heart!! Keep living righteously, hold on to your faith, and love everyone.

BYE

-E. Winegar

Pix

Left over b-day pics, before pic of the gate we painted (it was dark when we left so we didn't take an after pic), walking, and pics that make me laugh.

Very good mission Email

Monday, April 11, 2022

What's up gang, it's Elder Winegar, back at it with another awesomely exhausting week. BUT first, I just wanted to thank all of you for making me feel special on my birthday today!! The love I have received has been so motivating, I think about, miss, and love all of you so much.

First sweet story I have is that we went to a closed area in the mission!! We went to Sombredete, a super sweet little town out in the middle of nowhere Zacatecas.

About a month ago, E. Medrano (my comp) and his old comp made the two and a half hour bus ride out to Sombredete to baptize a little girl. Super awesome for them, except they forgot to get a signature for the paperwork. All good tho, we went down to Sombredete, swiped that sig, and went right back to Durango. Got some amazing naps there and back too ahaha

Other silly mission moment was when we flooded the church. Wasn't my fault, I swear. The missionaries that share the church building with us pretty much just got too distracted by general conference (eventual segway) and let the baptismal font overflow into a good part of the church. Their baptism went great though, pictures will be attached.

This week with my new companion has been a tough change. Despite my most heartfelt efforts, it just felt like everything I did, fell short. My intentions were in the right place, I was doing everything I should have been doing, and yet I watched every righteous expectation I had get crushed.

As I went into General Conference with low moral, I prayed that I would receive counsel or comfort. While I received answers from many different talks, the one that stood out the most was from D. Todd Christofferson.

There, he explained how obedience is great, but does not bring out exact, expected blessings that we want, like some kind of cosmic vending machine. That when God puts us in the refiners fire, we should not get angry and turn away from God, but grow closer to him.

He went on to discuss different prophets, but ended on one of my favorite prophets, Job. Taking a dramatic quote that I'm pretty sure was from Job (lol), said:

Though God slay me, yet will I trust in him.

Though God puts us through trials that we often don't understand or think we can come out of, I know that if we trust in the Lord and his plan for us, we will overcome whatever challenge a better person with a greater understanding and appreciation for this gospel.

The second the last conference session ended I knew this would be long ahaha. So so sorry, thank you all again, love yaaa

-Elder Winegar

Pics are fam history, some Sombredete pics, and a flooded church. If you would like deluxe pic edition, lmk because I couldn't send all of them lol.

Email about my Mission LOL

Monday, April 4, 2022

Hey all! I've hacked into Elder Winegar's email to announce his B-day tomorrow, April 4th. Please do me a favor and help me FLOOD HIS EMAIL with birthday wishes this week. ¡Feliz cumpleaños!

Gracias, Coop's Madre