March and April 2010

Baptisms: Grace Torrez (March 2010) Lucia Rodriguez (April 2010) (that he told us about)

After the earthquake there were 6 missionaires in Matt’s zone that no longer had a permanent residence because their house’s fell down. They all fell over after the initial earthquake due to aftershocks. There were 2 elders on the island Juan Fernandez. The Tsunami that hit there was 25 meters high and hit 3 miles inward. They were ok. No missionaries were killed in the earthquake. They had to be in doors by 8pm due to robbers, but as far as Matt told us, he was not robbed. There was another earthquake on April 4. It was really loud and Matt wondered if it would be as big as the earthquake in February. He was able to listen to it coming, but it ended up being really weak.

At the beginning Matt had a hard time finding people to teach who spoke Spanish. He found people that spoke French and Korean, but not many that spoke Spanish. His Spanish on the other hand was getting better. His main complaint is Chileans speak the worst Spanish in all of South America. They drop letters and talk really fast.

In the earthquake the heater for the font broke, so at Grace’s baptism the water was really cold. The water also overflowed and was all over the hallway.

Matt had the privilege of destroying a house. There is a member in his area whose house had a lot of damage following the earthquake. They took apart her roof, a lot of the floor and took out a couple of walls. A lot of the ward was there to help.

Matt experienced his first conference in Spanish with the April 2010 conference. They had investigators coming to watch every session so he saw each session in Spanish. He was able to understand all of it. It is weird because the mouths of the speakers don’t match their voices, but all that matters is he got the message that they were giving.

Matt’s first Chilean Easter consisted of eating 3 hard boiled eggs. In Chile they have a holiday called Quzimodo. There was a large parade and lots of loud music.

In early April Matt had transfers and was no longer companions with Elder Francia (his trainer). He became companions with Elder Miller. Elder Miller is the district leader, which gave Matt the opportunity to learn a lot.

The Earthquake

The 2010 Chile earthquake occurred off the coast of the Maule Region of Chile on February 27, 2010, at 03:34 local time, rating a magnitude of 8.8, and lasting up to 90 seconds. The earthquake also generated a blackout that affected 93 percent of the country's population and which went on for several days in some locations.

Below is the letter received from Matt’s Mission President, President May:

Subject: A letter from Matt's Mission President

Dear Friends, Family, loved ones and parents of our dear missionaries of the Chile Santiago North Mission,

We know that many of you are often on the mission blog, so we decided to post our latest news as we have it currently:
Thank you for your love and concern on behalf of all the great people here in Chile. We especially appreciate your prayers for the welfare of your wonderful missionaries you have entrusted here to serve the Lord. We want you to know that all of our missionaries on the continent in our Chile Santiago North Mission are accounted for as of this moment. They are full of faith, happy and surprisingly so optimistic that it touches us to hear their wonderful outlook. We had one slight injury with an Elder, and he is happily here in the mission home doing fine, with his companion, where we can actually keep an eye on him! We are hearing of many miracles where we know they were protected by angels.
Now finally, after trying all day, just spoke to the Rundquists, our senior couple we have serving on Easter Island, and they too are fine. They are bringing our small flock of the branch for an evening of FHE/activity, to their apartment that is situated up on one of the highest hills. They are trying to gear up and be prepared for the possibility of the coming tsunami there. They too are cheerful and encouraged; glad they had recently been grocery shopping and happy that they can help the other members be safe too. What great examples to us!
However, our hearts are filled with prayers and concern for our last two, fine Elders we have presently serving on the Isla Juan Fernandez/Robinson Crusoe Island whom we haven’t heard from yet. There has only been spotty information rec’d here in Santiago regarding the status of all on the island, after the tsunami has already hit there. We don’t know the condition or status of our dear Elder Mitchell and Elder Marin at this time. Please, continue to pour out your hearts in prayer for their safety, well-being and protection at this time. We know that the Lord is mindful of them, and He loves His missionaries, so we are full of faith and hope and have asked our missionaries to continue to pray for them by name.
Our daughter Sarah, who is with us here in Santiago, is fine, as is our son, Elder Gregory May, who is serving in Chile Concepcion Mission (epicenter of the earthquake) , along with all of the missionaries accounted for in his mission too, thankfully. We have been in constant communication with Salt Lake City, and then trying to reach and receive calls from our dear missionaries, so forgive us for not calling back, answering email, and responding individually. We have had quite a bit of experience in our lives with earthquakes, living in So. California, including the devastating challenge of having our home in Valencia destroyed in the 1994 Northridge quake. Preparing to deliver our daughter, Sarah, now 16, that very morning, we learned so much through that experience that we are seeing come into play in this time in Chile. We know that the Lord is so aware and instead of trying to hustle our four small sons out of the way of the breaking glass, swinging chandeliers, crashing bookcases like we did in 1994, we now are thrilled to hear that our 170 ‘mighty Elders and Hermanas” are also safe and moving forward with faith wherever they are. They have been contacting each other, lovingly checking on the sisters, walking to each others apartments, helping with some of the clean up, etc. What incredible young people these are and we love them dearly. We see the Lord’s hand in these miracles.
Please pray for the people here in Chile, and especially our Elders Mitchell and Marin. May you parents know how we cherish and love your dear missionaries.
Con amor y cariño,
Presidente y Hermana Michael May

We did hear from Matt on February 28th. It was short and to the point but it let us know he was ok.

Yes i am still alive.
As all of you probably already know there was an earthquake here in chile. Don´t worry things are ok. at about 3:36 in the morning yesterday we woke up to shaking. there was no damage to our house an noone in m house was hurt. a board fell and hit my companion in the head but that was all. i dont have a lotof ime to write today but tomorrow i will write more concerning the earthquake. I´m just writing all of you to tell you that i am safe and out working like normal. a little earthquake can´t stop me. umm i don´t know much so if you could send me information about the earthquake here and in conception that would be nice. I have friends in conception so i want to hear how bad it was down there.

Matt's First Area (Sector)

Sector: Olivos
Mission President: President May

Matt loves Chile. It is an amazing place. His first companion was Elder Francia, from Peru. Matt had hoped for a companion that didn’t speak English, and that is exactly what he got. It was hard for him to communicate with him, but they made it work. Elder Francia has been a member for 2 years, and on his mission for 10 months. Elder Francia was also the District Leader.

The district was made up of 4 missionaries, and they all lived in the same house. The other companionship was Elder Elledge (AZ) and Elder Miser (KY). The house was small, so it was crowded. There was only room for him to have 2 hangers in the little closet things, so most things stayed packed in a suitcase.

People in Chile speak much faster than Matt was prepared for. Matt and Elder Francia continued to do language study where they spent 50% of the time teaching Matt Spanish and 50% of the time teaching his companion English. The service he completed in the MTC, helping others learn English as a Second Language, is coming in very handy on his mission. The mission schedule is a little different. They wake up at 730 a and work until 1130p with a break at lunch. They eat dinner when they return at 1130. Matt likes getting the extra work in.

There was one guy who said he could not speak Spanish so the elders could not talk to him, so Matt spoke up. Luckily the guy was receptive, and they even got a return meeting.

The summer Matt went to was not that bad. It only got 90 degrees at the hottest. They eat a lot of fruit. They eat large lunches so he has had to adjust to the change in the eating schedule. They eat lunch with members who feed them very well. When members can’t feed them, he cooks pasta, rice or makes a sandwich. They traveled 1 ½ hours to a place called Los Andes. They went to a store called Jumbo where he could get American products. He bought Dr Pepper & Peanut Butter. They ate a lot of PB & J Sandwiches after that, and absolutely loved it.

As the mission went on Matt has been to many trainings. He went to the mission home for a training, that was all in English. It was weird for him because he tries to do so much of the speaking in Spanish.

Olivos is really cool. It is just a little bit north of Central Chile. People don’t live in houses they live in something called a Pieza. It is a building with rooms on the outside and open area in the middle, and everyone lives in one of the rooms. Most of them are very small, and an entire family lives in the room. It takes 30-40 minutes to walk across his entire mission. The ward they attend is also part of a different area (sector) in the mission. The other sector used to be combined with his, but the missionaries didn´t work in the area that is now his sector, so the church split it up 3 months ago. The ward has like 500 members but only 60 attend every week.
The missionaries do a lot of walking and riding the bus. The public transportation is really good. The metro (subway) is pretty good too. It is just really really crowded. One time the door shut on him and that wasn’t too fun, but he survived!!

The MTC November 18, 2009 - January 18, 2010

Branch: 20
Branch President: President Dickerson


Elder Tialavea was Matt’s first mission companion. He was from San Diego.
Several weeks into the MTC he was later split from Elder T. and partnered with Elder Howard. He had a very tough district, with several missionaries who were struggling. He is a strong missionary and really enjoyed his district.

Matt did pretty well learning Spanish. He was able to help many of the other elders and sisters try and grasp the language.

He was exercising a lot. He would run 3-4 miles a day, play basketball frequently, and still he was able to gain at least 3 pounds. That is pretty typical of all missionaries though. The food down there is just too good, and so I think all missionaries gain weight in the MTC.

Matt had to spend Christmas in the MTC. We didn’t get to talk to him, which was hard. They don’t let MTC missionaries call because that would be a lot of phones and a lot of minutes, and there just aren’t the resources available. We did get a letter from him on Christmas Eve and again on New Years Eve.

Here is his Christmas Eve Letter:
“Very few people get to experience Christmas in the MTC. I'm really excited about being here. i will be celebrating it the way that Jesus Christ would want me to spend it. I heard that Elder Scott is going to come and talk to us this year. that is pretty exciting.
President Dickerson (my mission president) said that he has come the last 4 years, and that he shakes a bunch of elders hands, so we are going to go really early.
On Tuesday Elder Anderson can and talked to us. We were late so we had to sit in the overflow. It wasn’t too bad to be in the overflow. He talked about the condescension of Christ. It was a really good talk. He had his grandchildren sing a song for us. it was really neat.
Earlier that day we watched a talk that elder Holland gave back in 2000. it was about not going home. It was neat because almost the entire talk was from an inspiration on the spot about someone in the audience wanting to go home. he is such a powerful speaker. He said that there is no calling that has been harder for him for the amount of exp. he had as the mission. I’m so excited to go out and serve. He said that every good thing that has happened to him was because of the mission and that was really powerful for me. Then for like 10 min he went to a part that he wanted to talk about.
He talked a little about the atonement and how important it was. One thing that really stuck out to was when he talked about our trials. He said that in order to be Disciples of Christ we have to go through hardships. This way we can better appreciate what he did for us. I had never in my life thought about it that way. Salvation isn’t cheap. It cost the life of the best person to ever live on the earth. I liked how he put it because it was really nice. It makes me think about trials differently.
Out on the mission i have looked at all my trials differently. I see them as ways that God shows his love for us and for that i am so grateful.
It may be hard but they are but a small moment. My testimony of the gospel has grown so much here. I wish that everyone could just experience this. The mission is amazing. I am growing so much spiritually, and I’ve learned so much about Christ and his life.
I think that one reason I’m loving this so much is because of my district. I have a way fun district. We have fun, but still get a ton done. Tonight (Christmas Eve) we are all going to sleep in one room around our mock Christmas tree then get up early tomorrow and open up our presents. I'm way stoked”

And his New Years Eve Letter:
“Christmas here was great. My district and I put our presents around a fake tree that we made and opened them up on Christmas morning. It was killer. That day L. Tom Perry of the 12 came and talked to us. He shared some really good insights about what happened on the day that Christ was born. It was a pretty good talk. Then later in the day we had the first and maybe last annual MTC talent show. They had a lot of weird talents like human bagpipes. Overall it was pretty good. Then that night Greg Olson came and talked to us about his paintings. I really enjoyed his talk because he talked about what inspired a ton of his paintings of the Savior.
Christmas was good because I was doing something I could see the Savior wanting me to do. He gave his life for us and i was just returning the favor. I really felt the Spirit here on Christmas day.”

Matt had the opportunity to be a host missionary several times. One time he worked helping the international missionaries. He met a Korean elder who spoke Korean, Japanese and a little English.

Matt spent time at the TRC teaching lessons and completing other odd tasks. The temple closed for a few weeks while Matt was in the MTC so he had to go a 3 week break without the Temple. That was hard for him.

Matt left the super cold Provo area to depart to what he called “Summer”. Of course he was right, because as we had winter here, Chile was in the middle of Summer.

There is probably so much more that happened at the MTC, but much of the stuff was written in handwritten letters to mom or dad, so I don’t have the info here. Guess he will have to tell us all about it when he gets home.

Saying See You Later

In true Wagner fashion, we went to the Spaghetti factory to say our goodbys to Matt before dropping him off (literally at the curb) at the MTC. Mom borrowed a van so we could all drop him off. He was so excited to go. There were a few guys from his district there to meet him. That isn't normal, but it just happened to work out that way. It was good to know someone who knew where he was really going, would be the one showing him around.

The Farewell

Matt was scheduled to leave to the MTC on November 18, 2009. Below is his farewell talk. He did an awesome job.

I was asked to talk on baptismal covenants: keeping, making, and living them.
So, first let’s go over what the baptismal covenants that we make are when we are baptized. A covenant is a two way promise with the Lord. And, in order for us to get the blessings we have to keep our end of the bargain, we have to do certain things. So, I am going to go over some of those things that we promise to do when we are baptized.

The first thing that we promise to do is to take Christ’s name upon us. We have to put Him and His works first. We seek what He wants rather than what we wants, or what the world teaches us to want. We must separate ourselves from the world. In Mosiah Chapter 5 verses 8-10 it says “And under this head ye are made free, and there is no other head whereby ye can be made free. There is no other name given whereby salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ, all you that have entered into the covenant with God that ye should be obedient onto the end of your lives.” So we are told to take Christ’s name upon us. We are supposed to act like him everywhere we go. So this is not the easiest thing to do. One example with people it is as close as getting in your car and start driving. You start driving and someone cuts you off. The immediate reaction for some people is to start yelling, start honking, to drive up right behind them. But, this isn’t what Christ wants us to do. We should be forgiving and we should realize that what we are doing isn’t what Christ would like us to do. So one of the things is we are supposed to act like Christ and to take His name upon us.

The next thing we have to do is to keep His commandments. Robert D. Hales, in the November 2009 issue of the Ensign said “At baptism we make a covenant with our Heavenly Father that we are willing to come into His kingdom and keep His commandments from that time forward even though we still live in the world. We are reminded from the Book of Mormon that our baptism is a covenant to stand as a witness of God and His kingdom at all times and in all things and in all places even until death. That ye may be redeemed of God and be numbered of those of first resurrection, and that ye may have eternal life”.

President Brigham Young also said something similar. He said “All Latter Day Saints enter the new and everlasting covenant when they enter this church. They covenant to cease sustaining and upholding and cherishing the kingdom of the devil, and the kingdom of this world. They enter the new and everlasting covenant which is sustaining the kingdom of God. They take a most solemn covenant before the heavens and earth that they will sustain truth and righteousness instead of wickedness and falsehood, and build up the kingdoms of God instead of the kingdoms of this world.” In John 14:13 it says “If ye love me keep my commandments”. So this tells us that if we follow the commandments, we are not only showing our faith we are also showing our love. We must keep our thoughts and our actions pure. One thing is when we seek entertainment through, movies, books and music. We need to find uplifting music and in these times it is hard. It used to be rated R movie, don’t go there. But, now there are even some PG-13 movies that are inappropriate and not worth going to. We need to keep ourselves worthy so that we can enter the temple. When I was younger I always thought it was a good goal to make sure I go to the temple, but now I realize it was an awesome goal. The spirit and blessings that you get by going to the temple are too good for us to just lose sight of those and just do what we want to do. We really need to keep the commandments of the Lord.

Finally we promise to serve the Lord. We are told to separate ourselves from the world. It doesn’t mean that we have to isolate ourselves from the world. We learn in the second chapter in Mosiah that the best way to serve the Lord is to serve each other. In Mosiah Chapter 18 we learn the ways that we can do that. We are told to bear one another’s burdens that they may be light. Mourn with those that mourn. Comfort those that stand in need of comfort. We need to go out and we need to serve our fellow beings so that we can serve the Lord.

So if we take Christ name, keep the commandments and serve the Lord, we are promised many blessings in this life and in the life to come.

So now, I am going to talk about some of the blessings we will receive if we hold our end of the bargain. One of them is we will be numbered with those in the first resurrection. And in D&C Section 132 verse 19 it says “and shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities and power”. And in Revelations Chapter 20 verse 6 it says “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.” The first resurrection is where we want to be. It is people that are going to live with God and people who are going to have eternal life. This is something that we really want.
Another blessing is that we will be spiritually reborn. And so, lets look at baptism. When we are baptized, we are baptized by emersion, meaning we go all the way under the water. And this represents death. When we come back out we are reborn. And, when we are reborn we are able to grow spiritually and start basically a new life. In John 3:5 it states “Jesus answered, verily, verily I say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” So we need to be baptized so we can be reborn and go live with God.

In True to the Faith it states “Just as an infant enters a new existence at birth, you begin a new life when you enter into the baptismal covenant. You can grow in spirituality, and you can become more like the Savior in keeping the baptismal covenants“. So, just like I said before, we’re reborn and we will be able to grow spiritually stronger. Another thing is we receive remission of our sins. All of us, at one time or another we are going to sin. No one is perfect except for Christ. In Alma Chapter 40 it states “and No unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of God.” Because we sin, we are unable to inherit Gods kingdom. The Lord has prepared a way for us to this is through the remission of our sins. When we are baptized we are able to have those sins completely wiped from us. The atonement is applied to us because we are baptized, and because of our baptismal covenants. In Moses 1:39 it says “This is my work and my glory – to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” It only makes sense that if God wants us to return and live with him, and have eternal life, he will make a way for that to happen. And we can by renewing our baptismal covenants.

And one of the final blessings that we get is we are able to have the Holy Ghost as a constant companion in our lives. Before you are baptized you can feel the influence of the Holy Ghost, it can be there but it isn’t always there. When you are baptized and you receive the Holy Ghost with you, it can be there. You permanently have a member of the godhead with you. And, the Holy Ghost can help us in so many ways. He can direct you. He can protect you spiritually and physically.

I have a story about being protected physically. One day my family me and my family were taking a hike in the mountains. Me and my brother decided, “Let’s just run ahead of the group, just for fun”. And as we were doing that, we probably ran a minute or two minutes. We were not too far ahead of them but far enough ahead that we couldn’t see them. Not really paying attention. I heard someone say stop. I thought my sister said stop. So I stopped. I turned around and my sister wasn’t there. And so when I turned and looked forward there was this big old Bull Moose, literally, probably two feet in front of me. My initial reaction was to scream like a little girl and run as far as I could in the opposite direction. It turns out my sister didn’t yell, it was the spirit protecting me physically. And that is just one story. It doesn’t always going to happen that way. You aren’t always going to hear a voice. Sometimes if you are deciding “Should I do this”, between two decisions, if you will just pray about it one will feel peaceful and the other won’t feel peaceful. You will feel tense. And that is one of the ways the spirit answers. Sometimes you will just feel a warm feeling. And so that is some of the things that the Holy Ghost can do. The Holy Ghost is also a comforter

John Chapter 14 verse 26 “but the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” It is interesting that they say he is a comforter but in that same verse they also say that he teaches you. And so the way that the Holy Ghost comforts you is by teaching you truths. Because we all know we feel more confident, even if the outcome is bad, if you know what really happened you just feel better about the situation.

Dallin H Oaks said in the New Era 1999 “To have the continuous companionship of the Holy Ghost, is the most precious possession you can have in mortality.” I totally agree with this statement. I don’t know where I would be without the Holy Ghost. I would probably be dead because I would have run into that moose. The Holy Ghost protects me and guides me every day.

One day we were mowing lawns, and it is summer, and some lawns aren’t always the greenest so as we are mowing, a lot of dirt, and the dirt was flying everywhere. Not really noticing, when we were done I went and looked in the mirror and I was just caked with dirt and sweat all over. It wasn’t very pretty. I wasn’t comfortable being around other people because of how dirty I was. But after that I was able to cleanup and I felt comfortable with others. Likewise when we sin, we are spiritually unclean and we won’t feel comfortable being around the Lord. No unclean thing can dwell in the Lords presence. So, we have learned that through baptism those sins can be washed away and we can feel comfortable. But unfortunately Satan doesn’t want us to have things go well so he tests us and inevitably we will all fall and we will sin. After we baptize we cannot be baptized again. If there was no way for us to repent of our sins, we would all be lost forever, but the Lord has provided a way. The remission of sins is received by partaking of the sacrament. The sacrament is essential to our returning to our Heavenly Father. During the sacrament prayer we promise to remember Him always. We witness that we are willing to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ, and that we will keep his commandments. These commitments that we make in the sacrament prayer are the same we make when we are baptized. Partaking of the sacrament is just like being baptized again. This is the way that we can renewal our baptismal covenants.

It is not simply enough that we just take the sacrament once. We have to keep going. We have to strive to be proactive. We have to strive to always do right, and when we slip up and sin we have to repent quickly. It says in Second Nephi Chapter 31 verse 20 “Wherefore if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father, Ye shall have eternal life.” For us to have eternal life we have to endure to the end. We can’t just take the sacrament once, we have to do it every week. We have to try and do it all the time. At first it sounds easy. When you first get baptized, and you just want to renew your baptismal covenants, it sounds easy. You think, “It won’t be too hard. I will just go to church and take the sacrament, it will be easy.” But it isn’t always easy. It is just like a new year’s resolution. You will start doing it for a week or so and then after a week or two you lose sight of what you are doing and you stop doing it. And so we need to make sure and try and do that. Luckily the Lord hasn’t asked us to live perfectly from the moment we are baptized. The way I see it we just have to live as good as we can week to week, so that we can go to church and we can partake of the sacrament. And we don’t want to skip a week of partaking of the sacrament, because it is the same if we didn’t shower for a week, we would start to smell. If we don’t take the sacrament we have the same problem, but spiritually, and so we need to always make sure that we are taking the sacrament.

So in short, what does all that mean? It just makes me want to live more righteously. If I slip and I sin, I know that I need to repent quickly. I will be able to receive a remission of my sins.
Just want to bear my testimony that I know this church is true. And, I know that I am going to do what is right when I go on a mission I will be helping a lot of people. I love my family. I am thankful for all that they do, and for supporting me. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Call

Sorry if my screaming hurts your ears. Mom is on the phone with Michael who is at Debate Camp in Southern Utah.