Leavin' on a Jet Plane!

Elder Varvel has finished his 6 weeks at the MTC, and is now in Texas! 

We sent him a 'Leavin' on a Jet Plane' celebration package. It had stuff to have a toast with his companion for making it through the MTC together. There were poppers for all of his District to celebrate with. And of course stuff to entertain him on the plane ride to Texas; a snack, fun stuff to color, and a bunch of word games that I made for him on the computer. I took information and facts from his mission prep, and his time in the MTC and made cross word puzzles, word searches, and other fun games with it. Some of them are pretty funny, and I can't wait to see if he figures them out!

'Leavin' on a Jet Plane' package

The best part was that he got to call home!!! He called from the Salt Lake airport and we got to talk to him for about 30 minutes before he had to board his plane. It's amazing how fast that time goes by. We had about a gazillion more questions for him, and things to tell him when his time ran out. It was so good to hear his voice! He sounded happy, and excited to be starting the next phase of his mission. He said there were 28 missionaries taking his plane to Texas. That would be such a fun flight to be on! We still don't know what area he'll be serving in, who his new companion is, his address, or any of that information. We aren't even sure when he'll have access to a computer again, or be able to write. We hope to hear from him within the next week and get all our questions answered. We're pretty excited for him to start sharing the Gospel and using all the things he learned in the MTC. 

Good luck Elder Varvel! You're going to do a great job!

Wet Wipes vs. Toilet Paper

We got an e-mail from Sawyer, and I seriously about died! I laughed so hard I cried! Caution- this is one of those stories where Sawyer shares way too much information. Consider yourself warned!

Here it is in his own words:

Hola! So, I have my first funny story about my mission and this one will be worth putting on my blog because I still laugh when I think about it. So ever since we got here, Elder Richards (aka: Captain America) has been trying to convince us that wet wipes are better than toilet paper. We never believed him and just made fun of him for using them. But the toilet paper at the MTC sucks really bad and after being here for 5 1/2 weeks it has started to feel like I am wiping with bark. So we are in the computer lab working on some language study and I am just so uncomfortable because the bark has made me chafe really bad. Elder Richards points at the wet wipes in the room and tells me to go use one because it will make me feel so much better and I will feel so clean. So me, being an idiot, decides to do it. Well...it turns out that those wipes were disinfectant wipes for surfaces! So as I  begin it feels really good and I am starting to believe Elder Richards. But then a couple seconds later it felt like someone was shooting a flame thrower at my behind! I don't think I have ever screamed as high as I screamed then. It burned for like an hour afterwards!!! But then to make it up to me Elder Richards let me use one of his baby wipes and it was sensational! The next day I went to the bookstore and bought my own box of huggies and I will never go back to normal toilet paper. 

And this is what happens when you live with 7 other guys for 6 weeks!

Dessert/Letter Writing Open House

We got an e-mail from Elder Varvel that made us kind of sad. He sounded a little discouraged. He has been getting e-mails, but the letters slowed down for a couple weeks. He wrote:

I haven't got many letters the past two weeks, so I'm starting to feel like I've been forgotten. You should tell everyone to write me because you never realize how important it is to a missionary to get a letter until you are actually the one waiting for the mail.

So we did what he said....we told people they should write to him! We even gave them some incentive. We held a dessert open house. People could come over on a Sunday evening, have some dessert, and write Sawyer a letter. We had all the note cards and stationary they needed set out on the table. We had a goal of sending him 20 letters. Our friends and family are so AWESOME, and we more than doubled our goal! We sent off 43 letters in a big envelope the next day! And that was just from the people that came over that night. Several people that couldn't make it, or that live far away also sent him letters. I was giddy with gratitude and excitement! I wanted my missionary happy, and to know that he hadn't been forgotten. That was definitely accomplished! 

The dessert bar!

We also took pictures of our friends that came over to write. They posed with our stand-in Elder Varvel. We sent all the pictures to him in his package of letters.

The Waters family

Sam!

The Russons crack me up! They were trying to be as serious as possible. It almost worked...and then there's Chase :)!

Katie, Chyanna, Emily, and Melissa

The McCalls pictures were so funny! Someone moved and was blurry in the 3 we took before this. This one was perfect, Owen rolling off the ottoman and all! 

Schnick!

The Hendrix family

Jason

Payton, Brad, and Marlee 

The Draper family

Christie Mae 

The Hughes Family 

Emersyn, Kassie, and Bailey. Bailey was a champion dessert maker!

Drew Dawg!

The Spence girls. They wrote their letter to Sawyer all in Spanish. I can't wait to see if he could understand it! 

Cute Savannah! 

Shannon and Madi!

This made us realize that we can be doing a lot more to support missionaries. I am now making it a goal to write to a missionary from our ward, or one of Sawyer's friends each Sunday. Thank you friends and family for your support! I can't wait to hear what he thought of his letter filled package. I'm sure he was overwhelmed :)! Stay tuned...

The Gift of Tongues

Elder Varvel's time in the MTC was quickly coming to an end. He has been really excited to get to Texas and be in the mission field, but speaking Spanish still made him nervous. He said he was understanding it really good in the MTC, but speaking it wasn't as easy. We sent him and his companion a 'Gift of Tongues' package. Everything in it was hot, spicy, sweet, sour, or anything else to wake up their tongues and help them with the language. We were hoping it would help kick start their last week of Spanish in the MTC. He said it was a big hit with him and the rest of his District.

'The Gift of Tongues' package

Good luck Elder Varvel! We know your Spanish will be great!

Pictures!

Elder Varvel sent us his first batch of MTC pictures and videos! 

Elder Varvel and Elder Checketts in class.

This is his MTC District. From left to right: Elder Richards, Elder Stoneking, Elder Mercer, Elder Baggaley, Elder Searle, Elder Checketts, Elder Varvel, Elder Stowe

Elder Varvel's name tag :)!

Pointing to Lubbock, Texas on the big map.

They are smelling the cream soda tree.

Elder Varvel's work space.

Computer time.

Elder Varvel and Elder Lindley at the Provo Temple. 

Provo Temple

Elder Varvel at 5'8", and Elder Checketts at 6'7". They make quite a pair!

Sawyer will be a biking missionary!

Apparently his 4th of July package made it :)!

This is the line of missionaries leaving the Marriott Center after a devotional.  I bet that is an amazing sight to see thousands of missionaries in a line from the Marriott Center to the MTC.

It's good to see that they still find time to goof off :)!

A tour of the residence, and an introduction to the district.

A line of missionaries!

What E'er Thou Art, Act Well Thy Part

We've been getting lots of e-mails and letters from Elder Varvel! He has been out for two weeks, and it seems like he's doing fantastic! He loves any communication with friends and family. He can receive e-mails throughout his mission at sawyer.varvel@myldsmail.net. He gets an hour once a week on the computer to read them and respond. He says he prefers letters though, because then he has a hard copy with him to read and reread throughout the week.

He sent an e-mail telling us about all the guys in his district. Here's what he had to say about one of them. "Elder Richards is basically Captain America...he is so buff. I have been following some of his workout routines and I really wish I hadn't, because now I can hardly move." That made us laugh!

He was able to go to the Provo Temple once, but now it's closed for cleaning. He might not be able to go again while he's in the MTC. He was bummed about that.

Elder Varvel and his companion had a hard learning experience while 'teaching' someone in the MTC. This is what Sawyer had to say about it.

In my e-mail I told you that we had an experience teaching Isaac that was really rough, so I will tell you more about that. We had been teaching him for awhile and we had been doing really well. He had been reading the pamphlets we gave him and the Book of Mormon. We even got him to pray and say yes to coming to church with us! But then the next lesson we taught went downhill. It was probably the best lesson we taught because we could feel the spirit so strongly and words were coming to our mouths that we didn't even think we knew. But it wasn't what he needed I guess, because when we asked him if he had faith in Jesus Christ and a belief in God he just kept saying no. That's when we realized that we really hadn't gotten to know Isaac. We asked him why he didn't have faith and he told us a story about his dad that made him lose his faith in God, but we couldn't understand any of it. It was really rough and since we couldn't understand him, we just moved on with the lesson. After that he didn't really seem interested in what we had to say. I was about to read a scripture and he just said, "Thank you for coming and I will see you next time." We left the room, and when the 'real' Hermano Torres asked us to come back in, he asked us how we felt. Elder Checketts started to cry and if I hadn't been in front of people I probably would have too. Elder Checketts said he had experienced something like that before. It is really rough! I felt so much love for Isaac and he isn't even a real person! It was a learning experience that I won't forget for the rest of my mission. We've decided that our next lesson is just going to be about Isaac, getting to know him better, and just being his friend. 

I asked him in another e-mail if they were still teaching Isaac. This is what he said. 

We are still teaching Isaac and it went soooo much better both times after that. On Monday when we closed the door, me and Elder Checketts went cheering and screaming, "He's getting baptized" down the hallways because the lesson went so good! It just gives a whole new perspective of having good days and bad days in the mission, but the experience as a whole is just amazing! 

It's going to be so hard celebrating the 4th of July without Sawyer tomorrow! We are going to the Stadium of Fire in Provo. We will be less than a mile from him, but won't be able to see him. The missionaries get to go out to the field and watch the fireworks show. This is what Sawyer wrote about that, "It's crazy to think we will be close enough to watch the exact same show, but still two years apart." That made me want to cry! We sent him a 4th of July package to help brighten his holiday. He said that every Elder in his district took a picture of him wearing his sunglasses with his headband on, and waving his little flag! I hope someone used his camera, because I'm dying to see one of those pictures! What a nut!

We got an e-mail from him today, and this is a little message he shared with us from a devotional he had been to.

There is a replica of a stone that President David O. McKay saw while he was on his mission that completely changed his mission. At the top of the stone is the message, "What e'er thou art, act well thy part." It really made a difference in the way I view my mission. Whenever I have a situation to deal with when I'm out here I ask myself how I can be the BEST missionary. Then when I get an answer, I act on it! That strategy can be used in any one's life. People should be asking themselves the question, how can I be the BEST brother/sister? How can I be the BEST spouse? How can I be the BEST Priesthood holder? How can I be the BEST parent? Then after asking themselves the question, they should find a way to do it! Abraham Lincoln once said, "Whatever you are, be a good one." What E'er thou art, act well thy part!