Cooper Winegar: August 2022

What's up guys, probably just had the most bizarre week of my mission thus far, so for those of you that like to read these emails I'll try to do it justice lol.

Wednesday we had like 8 lessons which was nuts, and about half of them were with people we hardly ever talk to. Our guy Francisco that is on date to be baptized is doing awesome, but he also hasn't come to Church the past two weeks cause he just started working again, but that's okay we still have time to help him out.

Juan Carlos who was the dude drinking in one of my emails a while back is doing good too! We missed an appointment that we had with him, but he said that while he was waiting for us he started to read the BOM, and he said it helped his testimony a lot. So proud of my buddy, he even came to church again this past week.

Unfortunately we had to drop one of our fav families this past week because the wife feels super uncomfy with the chats. We also found out that they aren't reading the BOM nor praying, so that was frustrating. They were adamant in their decision tho, so bye bye familia Heim :')

Last dude I wanted to talk about is crazy awesome. Ivan comes from a mega catholic family (like house crawling with virgenes de guadalupe statues, paintings, etc.) and has loads of uncles who are pastors. Ivan even went and studied in a bit time Seminary for about a year to become some sort of pastor too. His faith started to falter a little bit there after seeing some leadership corruption and just the general culture/beliefs of the catholic church here in Mexico.

Cool thing is tho is that during this time, he had a sweet friend that was a member. They would talk about their beliefs and just hang out, and he just couldn't get over how happy and put together this guy seemed.

Fast forward a little more, Ivan dropped out of Catholic Seminary to figure out who God is, and now, remembering the example of his good friend, wants to learn everything about the church!! He's got loads of potential and I'm so stoked for him. Also I feel like I'm living the talk "conversion of a Catholic" so that's super fun ahaha.

But ya, other crazy thing was when I went to the hospital!! I've been having stomach problems for about 2-ish months, but last Thursday I got way sicker than all the other times. My fever wasn't going down and my body wasn't responding to the meds we had so we left around 11 pm to go to the hospital.

We waited there for about an hour, and when they finally let us in they pretty much told me that they don't know exactly what's happening to me, but that I'm probably intolerant to a certain food or that I have an infection in my intestines. And then we left without doing any real tests or anything, which was cool. lol.

From there, the medicines they gave me weren't really helping, but I finally started feeling better Saturday morning, and Sunday was all better. Final diagnosis was a super inflamed intestines that at one point was bleeding a little bit hehe. Fun stuff, but not we're okay!

So super sorry for this long email, but thanks if you got to here. I love you guys all a ton. I love this church. I find comfort in the fact that God puts us where we need to be, especially if we follow his commandments.

Love you guys, keep saying your prayers ;)

-Elder Winegar

##pics##

-me and Elder Estrada

-my cat

-baby baby cat

-freaky arm kid

-me at the laboratory to take a poop test

-freaky arm kid again

-dying

-first scorpion I've found on the Mish!

Ups and downs, and a hospital trip

Monday, August 29, 2022

Hey guys how's it hanging, just ate a sandwich so hopefully that helps me pound out this weekly.

It's raining here tons every evening still which is super cool. Except that now my boots have a hole in them, which makes me feet super wet. No worries tho because I switched over to my nicer Sunday shoes until I can get those bad boys patched up.

We had surprises exchanges on Friday, which was super sweet. They came to our house at 6:30 am and called us 2 minutes after our alarm went off, very cool.

Helped an investigator family move to a house that was a block away from their house! Their old house was filthy so it was cool seeing them happy in their new house. We'll be visiting them this next week too so yay.

We had a sweet good Samaritan moment too, we were walking and just started helping a lady weed without asking her and she started freaking out, she was so excited. She kept saying that she'd been waiting for someone to help her out, but all the men and women and catholic people just kept passing her by, but that who woulda thought that the two kids in the white shirts would be the ones to help her out. We taught her a mini lesson after and she loved everything we told her, except she told us we couldn't come back for security reasons. Bummer.

Met a dog that I named Rafael, until my companion corrected me and said he's actually called estevy (pic included)

Had the opportunity to bless a person in a coma with some members! It was insane and definitely one of the most spiritual moments I've had on the mission. Even though she wasn't instantly cured, the members, the family, and even the drunk dude from the street that tagged along, said that they felt the spirit and knew that everything would be okay. That this was a blessing from God.

We got to visit the same family a little bit later in the week and they're awesome. They're the first family I've met that is actually super educated on the Bible and not Catholic, so that was scary at first. But they loved it hehe.

Got a crooked haircut that I will not be fixing.

That's pretty much it, but huge shout out to all the people starting up school again! It can be something super hard, but you guys can do it. If you need some motivation, go look up John 16:33, its a favorite of mine.

love ya guys peace out byee

-Elder Winegar

~~Pics~~

-Rafael

-cookies

-other pic with estevy

-pizza

-truck

-virgin of Guadalupe

-fresh cut

Giga mega email

Monday, August 22, 2022

What's up guys, kinda feel like i just barely wrote out last weeks email, so that's cool how time works. This week was freaking bomb, me and Elder Cruz went to work and we saw some cool miracles and such.

First of all we had three people come to church, but each one isn't related and they all have families and they're all guys. It was crazy to get them all there because normally it's super hard to find and teach guys because they're just dumb, but these three guys all have desires to get baptized someday and all of them wanna share the gospel with their families. Clutch.

Gave a talk last Sunday/yesterday, very fun.

Water filter isn't working because we don't have enough water pressure in the house, but I thought my body could handle the half filtered water. Apparently not, as I spent half the week running to and from the toilet. All good now tho, but if you read this please go drink some tap water, you lucky dogs.

Francisco Luna is one of the people we're teaching and we got him on date to be baptized! Last week he said he wanted to wait a looong time to get baptized, but this week after explaining to him that he could still go to parties as long as he doesn't drink, he was fine. I wasn't thinking about the baptism invitation until my companion out of the blue asked him if he wanted to be baptized now. He said heck ya without hesitating, so we'll be getting him in the water in about a month:)

It's been raining like crazy here the past few days, often times the streets get flooded because drainage systems here suck. Pic included

Sick dope boss week. Remember to be obedient and to follow the commandments. Go read 1 Samuel chapter 15 to go read one of my favorite stories about obedience and blessings. Peace out bye

Elder Winegar

-Our profile pic that one of our investigators edited, silly guy

-Torta

-Street with my birthday

-Juan Carlos

-Flood

-Rainbow

-Post p-day

hey hey

Monday, August 15, 2022

What's up squad, first time in a while that I've had a sec to write out a quality email, but we'll see if I even remember things that happened this past week.

First of all, this area is freaking awesome. The other Elders before me were working like crazy and built up a huge teaching pool. They also were best friends with the entire ward so they've been super helpful and we've been having family home evenings almost every night with them. Other crazy fun stuff is that we have a washing machine in this house and we live on the top floor of a three level apartment building, so we have a fun little view hehe.

But ya my companion right now, Elder Cruz, is a machine. He's been out for less than 5 months, but all he wants to do is work. It's been super cool having a companion that isn't afraid of anything that just talks to anyone and everyone in the streets. Super humble guy that is here just to love everyone that he can, shoutout elder cruz<3

Little highlight was a family home evening we had on Thursday. Elder Cruz and I were rushing to it from a different lesson we had and we didn't really have anything planned out, but we figured we'd pound something out on the fly. We got there tho and this family of four planned out the ENTIRE thing. We talked about the story of Job with an investigator that was there and the spirit was crazy strong, I couldn't stop smiling it was so sweet. At the end of it, we talked about baptism a bit with Juan Carlos (investigator homie that was there) and he told us that he believes in everything, but that he isn't prepared. Bummer.

More good news tho is that on Sunday we had 5 people show up to church! The fam of 4 that showed up was sweet, they're getting ready for their baptisms, they just don't know it yet. The other older dude, Ernesto, was awesome too. He ate up the Sunday school lesson and made some friends at the Church, he told us that he'd for sure be coming back the next week. Craziest part is that all 5 people showed up in their Sunday best, which never happens. Big time miracles.

Little bummer tho was that on that same Sunday, we went to go visit Juan Carlos to see what was up with him. He said he was feeling a little sick that morning and that he wouldn't be able to come to church. We got to his house tho and found a perfectly healthy, half-drunk Juan Carlos, hanging out with his buddies in his mechanic shop. He was super friendly with us but we didn't know what to say to him. Little step back for us, but we'll see what's going on with him this upcoming week.

All in all, definitely a major miracle week. After being in Vicente Guerrero for just one short transfer, I have been so much more grateful for everything that I now have. The opportunity I had to work with a tiny branch, start from 0, and to work with a brand new missionary was awesome and I'll always hold it close to my heart. I invite all you guys to take a second to see the good in your life, to feel happy and to say a prayer to thank Heavenly Father for everything.

Love you guys, love to hear from you all, peaceee

~Pic time~

Actually not much to explain, enjoy friends hehe

Boujee

Monday, August 8, 2022

What's freakin up guys, I told myself that I would never send out an audio recording because I am better at writing things and I also am always super scattered at these things, but thats ok. It got super late and I figured I would sent a quick audio because honestly lots of crazy things happened. So lots of lots of crazy things, usually I don't like to go through every thing, like daily Stuff.

I wanted to start out with a crazy little exchange I had on Tuesday. We came up to Durango on Sunday, and on Monday of last week me and another Elder went to a place called Jump Jump Durango and we just jumped on the trampoline just the two of us for and hour and a half. It was awesome. Very random but it was cool. On Tuesday we had a crazy exchange. I was in a different area. I was journaling about it the other day. And I just thought, "Wow, I'm in Mexico." It was something that felt normal at the time but something I look back on I think wow thats crazy. It says, "We had a few lessons but we couldn't do too much normal missionary work. At food time we went to a family house. We got stuck between some super awkward marriage problems with crying kids. The one legged step dad left angrily and the mom had to go to her chemo appointment. So we were left to cook some sort of chicken soup for the kids. As we were in the process of boiling the frozen chicken we ran out of gas. Having no idea what else to do we just put a lid on the pot and called Arizona's Pizza and played Monopoly Deal with the kids. Fun Stuff." But after that we got to the lunch like 3 hours late. So I honestly just couldn't believe that really any of that happened. Like it just seemed normal in the time, "oh yeah theres this one legged dad going around that's really upset," but yeah, kinda crazy.

We had a sweet zone conference. Me and Elder Licona ended up getting to our area Vicente Guerrero really late at night. We were an hour and a half late to the branch family home evening that we planned out. Turned out that no one came. That didn't matter because we watched Johnny Lingo for a bit so that was sweet.

Friday we had a sweet baptism. We baptized Kayla, freakin slam dunked her into that water. It was in the house of her grandfather who has a little concrete pool thing and so it was awesome. Super spiritual stuff, the water was super cold but Kayla the 9 year old girl was an awesome sport. Even though it was cold she got right in and was all, "Alright I am ready to be baptized." So I baptized her and after that we had a little birthday party for her too because it was also her birthday. That was awesome.

Sunday when we went to confirm Kayla my companion confirmed her. When we finished she started crying. She went and hugged her grandpa. She wouldn't let go, she was hugging her grandpa for probably 30 seconds and when she pulled away she hugged all of us too. It was pretty powerful. Awesome spirit stuff. She's going places that little girl.

Another crazy thing on Saturday we got the transfer news after just being in Vicente Guerrero for one transfer I got moved here to Madero, back to Durango, its a neighbor of the area I was in for 5 transfers, like 8 months. So I'm stoked to be here. I think I was a missionary here in Madero for like 3 days. This place is sweet. We live in a third floor apartment, freakin bougie out here. We have a washing machine!

P day was sweet. We had a super awesome bonding moment with Elder Licona. He is going back to Vicente Guerrero to be with a person who just barely finished his training and he's gonna finish his training. It is looking pretty rough there so I'm nervous to see how they'll do. But they'll do awesome, they'll do great. I believe in them. And it's also not my problem anymore. It'll be cool.

Apart from that things have been going little by little, poco poquito. Love you guys a ton. If you guys ever need anything let me know. I'm always here for you and all that classic missionary stuff. Those of you that always send me emails you're the best!

(speaking to companion in Spanish) Oh, also for all of you missionaries that want to hack the system. My companion knows a place on google maps called "meme lake". You go to Meme Lake and there is just lots of memes. Maybe we will use it, I don't think I will. I don't know. That was just a fun little easter egg that I didn't know could work. So if you missionaries listened to this the entire time then theres your little reward. Love you guys a ton I'm gonna go to bed or something like that, Peace out b town.

(Transcribed audio message by Julie Winegar)