WEEK #12

Mar del Plata

Saying good bye to Hermana Godoya

During our service day on Saturday. We scraped posters off of all the poles and trash cans and stuff

Chorizo and pollo... sausage and chicken

Making pizza with Elder White

Hola Familia,

A lot of great things happened this week. We had four people come to church and all four have baptismal dates so we´ll see how they progress in the gospel. 

We´ve been teaching this man named Frederico and he wants to be baptized but we can´t get him to church. Anyways, we taught him the word of wisdom on Thursday and he said that he would stop smoking and drinking completely. On Saturday, we passed by his house to see how he was doing and he wasn´t there but his son, Frederico, was there. We just simply invited him to church. And Frederico (the son) came, but Frederico (the dad) didn´t. haha I sat by Frederico during all of church and he gave some great answers during the classes. He told me how he had been reading parts of the Book of Mormon of his father´s and how whatever he would read that day would bless his life specifically for that day. I bore my testimony to him of the Book of Mormon and after the class I asked him if he wanted to be baptized. He said he didn´t feel like he needed to because he was already baptized in the Catholic Church. So I shared with him a story in the Book of Mormon about authority when Alma was the only one with authority and so Ammon and the people of Limhi waited patiently to be baptized so that they could be baptized by proper authority. I told him the importance of reading and praying and finding out for himself the way I had and the way everyone does.. by simply asking Heavenly Father and being willing to act. After Sacrament Meeting I felt impressed to ask him again. And he said that if he received an answer to his questions, that he would be baptized in a few weeks. I´m so excited about that because he´s incredible humble and he told me how important it is that we become more like Jesus Christ and how important it is to always be learning and improving. 

This experience was incredible for me and it strengthened my testimony of the gospel and especially the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon answers the questions of the soul and anyone that is willing to act on the questions they have WILL receive an answer.

Olga and Jorge came to church today and they accepted the baptismal date for Sept. 27, but it might be a little later. And the other at church was a man named Domingo. And he lives by himself and he was willing to come to church and accept a baptismal date so he came! We´ll see how the future goes with Domingo. He´s the greatest!

Okay so now for the funny story of the week. At 8 at night we found ourselves on the sand on the beach because two people that we found on the street live there in a little shack. It was weird haha. We passed by the next day and there were even more bums and one had a bottle of cologne and was spraying our scriptures as some sign that he liked us? (Don´t worry, we´re not returning) But I smelled like a teenager for the next few days because my scriptures smelled like cologne. I HATED it. but I know you guys will find it funny. All is back to normal now and I smell more like a missionary hahaha.

Thanks for all the prayers and love and support. And good luck to all my friends that are about to go off on the journey of a mission. It´s incredible. Love you!

 Love, Elder Bosco II

Week #11

Hola familia!

Holy cow! Football in Provo is rocking! That´s what I´m talking about. It´s weird to think that there is still life in Provo haha. I´ll be fine without the card until then. And I have some stories to tell this week. I´m sure they´re going to make some of you laugh a lot. 

 

To answer the questions mom, we do a lot of contacting. It´s very hard to get referrals out of the ward members. A lot of our work is working with less actives and getting the ward excited and involved in missionary work. Baptisms will come, but I´ve realized just how blessed we are to have the ward and stake that we have. Many people magnify their callings and that´s exactly what the Lord needs. Even dad is singing in a choir! (Oh and I forgot to tell you last week that Elder White and I and the Hermanas sang in Sacrament Meeting-The Baptism song. You can share that with the primary kids. The Hermanas and Elder White have killer voices. I was probably the weak link, but it was great!) We´re also in a choir that was approved by Hermana Parreño because it´s about missionary work and it´s focused on it. But like I was saying, MAGNIFY your calling. The Lord needs each one of us to reach out and help people. I had no idea how much of a difference it would make. 

 

But our ward is incredible. We had three investigators at church this week! But the sad part is we should have had 5. The two that didn´t show up were the ones most progressed. But it´s okay. At least others came. Marcelo came and we only talked to him over the phone. He has problems with the law of chastity and addictions and he told us that he wants to change. The other two, Olga and Jorge are a 60 year old couple that were investigators in the past. I love Olga to death. She has red hair and she doesn´t stop talking. I asked her if there was anything that we could help her with, and the next day, she asked us if we could help her children get visas. (Exactly, because we´re from the U.S. we should be able to get visas for Argentines. As if we have Pres. Obama on speed dial haha). But we taught them the restoration and they came to church so I can´t wait to see what happens with them.

Okay so this week we went on divisions or splits. I went with Elder Santos and it was a great learning experience. He´s from Brazil and Elder White said that some of the words he taught me were Portugese hahaha. Oh well... Later on in the week, we went on divisions again, but this time with members in the ward so that we could fulfill two appointments at the same time. And I went with Miguel, the blind man. I don´t want to ever leave Miguel because he is incredible. He blesses the sacrament, he baptized a recent convert, and he told us that his experience at the temple was incredible. 

 

Anyways, Miguel and I went to teach Rolando. (Family- Remember the magic man? With no teeth... And you couldn´t understand anything they say so they have to put the subtitles on in english. Dad should remember.) Well anyways, Rolando has two teeth. And his mouth was incredibly dry so all of his words were slurred. Oh and there weren´t subtitles.. oh yeah, and he only speaks spanish. I took a moment from my mission, I stepped back, and I looked at my situation. I was walking in the streets of Argentina with a blind man that only speaks spanish and we were going to teach a man that I could barely understand in English. hahahaha. But let me tell you this, that experience was INCREDIBLE. I understood enough to answer Rolando´s questions and to testify. And Rolando rejected the story of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. But I sure did testify. I remember praying that night and feeling an overwhelming feeling of my testimony growing. 

 

Whoever is reading this letter, I want you to know this: The power of God is real. The gift of tongues is real. Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon is true. It´s simple. But I know it. I did what Dallin asked us to do last week. And I´m going to ask you to do it this week. Pray to know if Joseph Smith is a prophet and if the Book of Mormon is true. I promise you that you´ll receive an answer and I promise you that it´s true.

Thank you for the love, support and prayers. I love you all so much.

Love, Elder Bosco II

Week #10

las calles de Pompeya [the streets of Pompeya]

​Mar Del Plata is incredible! The coast is so pretty!

Las hermanas! [the sister missionaries]

A milenesa Sandwich. They´re so good!

Hola familia,
If there is one thing that I learned this week is agency. Agency is the greatest thing in the world, but one of the worst for missionaries haha. We taught Cora and her husband Francisco and the Spirit was incredible. They´ve had many troubles with their marriage and they said they wanted that peace that was in their house forever. They agreed to be baptized... but they never came to church. We went to their house several times, we called.. nada. Hopefully they had a good reason and we can continue to teach them. I have a pretty funny story when we taught them the first time. Elder White put a cat meowing as his ringtone for a missed call and while we were teaching, somebody called and it was a missed call so the cat started meowing During the most spiritual part. But all was okay because Cora has a cat and Elder White looked at it with a weird look to blame the sound on the cat and Cora had no idea. I almost started laughing, but I didn´t.. thank goodness hahaha.

We also taught Julio. Julio is ready for baptism! He reads the Book of Mormon and he wants to be baptized... but he didn´t come to church. He had a good reason.. well kinda.. but it was tough not seeing him at church. We´re teaching him on Tuesday and I´m excited for that.

We had several opportunities to give Priesthood blessings this week and it´s incredible. The Spirit is always super strong and it´s incredible to see the difference in people´s lives. One of the people that we gave a blessing to has many health problems. He had a problem with a hernia (spelling??) and well... he showed us. He probably showed us a little too much. He just kept pulling his pants down a little more. It was really funny and again I almost started laughing. But I didn´t hahaha.

Anyways, we had no investigators at church this week, but hopefully some next week. We ate at some houses and people want to know where Grandpa Bosco is from. Where in Italy. North, South, What island, how he came over. So if you can let me know, that would be great!

Thanks for all the love and support and I hope all is well at home with school and football starting. Love you all !!!

Love Elder Bosco II


Notes to and about friends (and answers to some questions):

• Tell Chase congrats and happy Birthday last week! Chase is such a stud and I hope he has an incredible year. Go Bulldogs! 
• Tell my friends that are leaving good luck. 
• The mission is different but it´s incredible. Next, I don´t need a bike, we walk everywhere. I mean everywhere haha. And we sometimes take buses. 
• When I saw Russ for the first time, a missionary came in with cameras and started videotaping and it was really weird, and then Russ ran in, saw me, and gave me a huge hug. Haha it was awesome. We talked to each other for a while but once we left to our areas, we said goodbye again. There´s a chance I could see him again, but I doubt it. We´re pretty far away. Send a picture of us to Michelle and tell her about it. Thanks. 
• And we had a zone conference two weeks ago. It was great but I didn´t understand much. Russ isn´t in my zone but it was still a great meeting. Go Cougars!

Week #9

Hola Familia,

This week was great in Pompeya. I´m still getting used to the culture and the mission life, but all is going well. I want to share some stories of things that happened this week. 

Miguel, the recent convert who is blind, received his patriarchal blessing and Elder White and I got to go and listen to it. I didn´t understand much but I did hear that he would have the chance to have an eternal family. I began to think about that. What a blessing! Eternal families are incredible. No matter how hard it is to be away from home, it´s always comforting to know that I´ll be with you guys forever. Whenever I think about that, I feel peace and the love of God and I want others to feel the same so badly! 

While contacting, Elder White answered his phone and I knocked on a door so I was by myself speaking to the old woman that answered the door. I invited her to come to church and she said that she couldn´t. (I didn´t understand everything that was happening haha) Elder White was standing right behind me and we started talking to her. She began to open up and she started crying. Her husband is really sick and she was so grateful that we stopped by. I almost started crying because I bet she was going through such a hard time. We´re teaching her later this evening and I´m so excited. We left her with a prayer and right before we left, she clasped my hand and stared into my eyes. It was probably like 5 seconds but it felt like forever. She´s ready for the gospel, I could see it in her eyes. The Spirit was incredible. I had the feeling to ask her to give her husband a blessing and she told us to stop by Monday which is today. I´m excited to teach her.

We also found Pablo and Vileria. He was smoking, but they were open to the gospel. We taught them the first lesson and I can honestly say that I´ve never thought so clearly in Spanish, even though I still struggled a lot while teaching. The spirit was strong. The gift of tongues is amazing. However, they didn´t come to church yesterday. It was disappointing. Hopefully all is well. We talked to them yesterday and we´re going to keep teaching them. They have the cutest baby, Dillan, who is one month old.

Well it rains a lot in Pompeya and the umbrella I brought is weak! It broke the first day. So when I get my money, I´ll have to buy a new one.

Other than that, I´ve already learned so much on the mission and just how much I need to rely on the Lord. We´ve seen miracle after miracle with how much the Lord blesses His missionaries.

Thanks for all the love and prayers, they mean a LOT. And I hope all is well with my friends back home. 

Go Provo! Tell Chase congrats. He´s a stud.

Love Elder Bosco II

Never forget that families are ETERNAL. Like really... FOREVER!

Week #8

Ya Fue!

Hola Familia,

What a week! Traveling was crazy but I made it safely to Argentina. My companion is Elder White and he´s from Riverton. He´s been out a year and I´m SO glad he´s my companion. We got straight to work and I put my wallet in my bag before we went tracting, IN THE CHAPEL. Well we got back and on the way to our area, we noticed that our stuff was stolen. My wallet with some cash and my debit card card. My passport, temple recommend, and drivers license were safe though. And the robber stole the phone that I was going to toss anyway. [Wes had a pay as you go phone to call us from the airport] All is well, I hope he bought something nice with the cash. And I´m sorry for the extra charges that it takes to get a new debit card. I´ll be okay until it gets here. The robber took Elder White´s wallet and camera. I can´t believe he didn´t take my camera haha that was lucky. So we´ve been having a great time with the money that we have left for this month. I already feel like I´ve known Elder White my entire life. He reminds me of Lincoln Salmon. Imagine serving a mission with Lincoln, I know... the BEST! 

The week before Elder White came and got me, his ex companion almost burned the pension down so where we live is a bit interesting. It´s been a great adventure. We´re cleaning today haha. I´ve learned a lot this week about putting off the natural man. That is my ultimate enemy. If I can put off what I think I need, all is well and I´m happy. When I think of myself, it´s hard. That´s why the mission is so great. 

We serve in a beautiful area and the beach is part of our area but I haven´t had the chance to see it yet. The area is called Mar del Plata and the area is Pompeya. The Pompeya ward is so nice and they are all so welcoming. Our investigators didn´t come to church on Sunday, but I received compliments on my castellano when I bore my testimony and introduced myself. We´re working on getting the ward to work with us as missionaries. The person that works with us the most is Miguel. He joined the church 4 months ago and he´s blind. We sometimes take him to the church and read the Book of Mormon to him. He´s been a great example to me. 

Tracting is fun and interesting because so many people don´t understand the importance of the gospel! I bear my testimony as often as I can but for now, I´m learning a lot. Elder White has taught me a lot. I´m trying to eat healthy, but there´s so much deep fried stuff and Ive kind of been forced to drink the water. The Lord will keep me healthy haha. And my Spanish is decent. I don´t understand much, but occasionally I´ll understand a few sentences. It will come with time so I´m not too worried.

Tell Collin good luck for school and all of the farewells you go to, tell them good luck. If there is one thing I´ve learned this week, it´s this. Mosiah 3:19. Put off the natural man. When something happens that´s difficult or stressful. Have the faith to say ya fue, or in other words, oh well. And KNOW that the Lord will take care of you. He´s definitely taking care of me.

Thanks for all the prayers and love. I feel it every day. Love you!

Love Elder Bosco II

At the Argentina MTC (where they ate lunch)

Buenos Aires Temple (En Route to Bahia Blanca)

With Elder Isom (one of his best friends from High School)

Elder White (his Trainer and companion)

"The living conditions look crazy, and they are, but all is well! I´m a missionary, not a king!"

Week #7

Wesley left the MTC for Argentina today.
First we received this picture from Alexis' friend who takes the frontrunner to work everyday. Thanks Ryne. There were 80 missionaries on Frontrunner/trax that left the West MTC. 60 of them were going to Argentina. 12 0r 13 are going to Bahia Blanca.

He told us that he placed a Book of Mormon with two Norwegians who were on their way back home to Norway after visiting here.

Then we received a call from Elder Bosco from the SL airport. It was good to talk to him. Hard to say another goodbye though.

Before he left for Atlanta though he ran into Tom Holmoe on his way to somewhere else on Delta

Thanks Tom for delivering the letter and taking the picture!

He then called us from Atlanta for one last goodbye (no it doesn't get easier). And then just minutes before boarding their flight to Buenos Aires, was able to give away another Book of Mormon to a family who was looking for knowledge of Christ. Wow- What a day- and it's not over yet.

Elder Bosco should arrive in Buenos Aires at 9:00 AM Argentina time (6:00 am our time). Tuesday Morning and then take a plane? bus? to Bahia Blanca.  So, we probably won't be getting a letter until next Monday's  P-Day.
Best of Luck Elder Bosco II with the Best Two Years of your Life....
We will miss you. We love you. We know that you will be an AWESOME missionary!!

WE'LL KEEP YOU POSTED!

Week #6 Adios Provo - Voy a Argentina

Hola Familia!

I can't believe that I'm done with the MTC. It was been one of the greatest experiences ever. The Spirit is incredibly strong wherever you go. The presence of the Lord is definitely felt often. Thanks for the update on the family. I can't believe I'm leaving the United States for two years. Wow!! haha I'm sending home all of the stuff I don't need. Wish me luck on the packing and getting ready. It's going to be a long flight. I was pretty sad today because it was the last time that I get to go to the temple for a while. The Spirit was incredible. And I realized once again that this work is much greater than me. I read D&C 138 in the chapel and I'm not going to lie, I teared up a little walking to the endowment room. The work in the temple is real and the power that I receive from the temple is real. I asked the Lord if He thinks I'm ready for Argentina. And the greatest feeling of power came over me. I could picture the Lord coming up to me and saying, "Wes, stop worrying! You have been endowed with power from on high." I'm so grateful to have made covenants with Heavenly Father and I'm so grateful for the power that He's promised me. The temple is great. If you are reading this letter and you haven't been endowed yet. Do me a favor. Live in a way that will enable you to go to the temple. It has been the GREATEST blessing in my life. And I already know that it will bless me so much during these next two years. I also got to see Tom and Lori Holmoe in the temple. What a great blessing! They took a picture so hopefully you can get that from them.

Elder Bosco with Tom and Lori Holmoe

This week I wanted to share with everyone some thoughts that I had about obedience. Obedience is the first law of Heaven. We've been commanded, "...see that ye serve Him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength." If that's a commandment, how in the world am I supposed to do that?? Then a scripture popped into my head. 1 Nephi 3:7. "For I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them..." The answer came to me. The Lord has provided a way for me to serve Him with everything that I've got. It's rules, commandments, and guides. The White Hand Book has strict rules, but the rules all help us serve Heavenly Father with all that we've got. Even the rule of going to bed on time and waking up. I believe that as we strive to live these rules, the Lord will bless us with extra energy and strength so that we can serve Him with greater power. Also, showing Heavenly Father that we are willing to obey little rules shows Him that we are willing to obey the little promptings of the Spirit. He will continue to bless us with more as we show Him our diligence to be obedient. Another thing is that rules, whether given in the scriptures or by the General Authorities, are all the same. They are from the Lord. "Whether by mine own voice of by the voice of my servants, it is the same." (D&C 1:38) It's as if the Lord himself is telling us how to live our lives. The guidelines He's blessed us with are the scriptures and Preach My Gospel. I have a testimony of obedience. And I know that Obedience brings Power. Remember that. I hope to be an obedient missionary. It's one of my highest goals. President Monson said (paraphrased), "It's easier to keep the commandments 100% of the time than it is to keep them 98% of the time." Think of how you can be more obedient to the Lord this week and I promise you that He will help you accomplish your goal.

Thank you for all the letters, prayers, and love. Mom, I'm going to send home some letters for you to send to people. And Dad, can you do me a favor? There's a teacher here that is a HUGE fan of yours. His name is Hermano Stewart. I'm pretty sure his first name is Russell but I'm not sure how to spell it. If you could, could you send him a picture and a signature or maybe just a signature? It would make him so happy! Other Elders in another district were telling me how he was going to tease me until I got him one. But he hasn't talked to me about it. So I'm just gonna surprise him. haha thanks!

I can't wait to talk to all of you on the phone in the airport. It's going to be a looong flight. I think I'm going to buy a Spanish book with my extra MTC cash and study it on the plane. Wish me luck and keep me in your prayers. Voy a Argentina! Love you all!

Love Elder Bosco II

Elder Bosco and Elder Bates (they played baseball together a few years ago and will be traveling to their mission together)

MTC Branch Presidency  Bro.Hughes, Pres. Pickering, Bro. Hartman

Elder Dastrup (6'8" playing for BYU when he returns)

Gabriel- an investigator in the TRC

Elder Papke and Elder Bosco

Companions for a few more days- Elder Swanson and Elder Bosco