We've Only Just Begun

Week 6! I got my flight plans yesterday and we fly out Monday morning at 6:40! I am definitely not ready to speak Spanish to these people but I am ready to get the heck out of here! There are 13 Elders going to Villahermosa on Monday so I am super excited for that! 

As I say every week, this week was a normal week at the CCM. Class, struggling with Spanish, study... you know, the basics. I feel like my Spanish is basically the same as it was week 1. There are days when I feel like I am in high school Spanish class and understand absolutely nothing, then there are those days when I think I'm fluent. Sometimes when we practice teaching I just go off in Spanish and its kinda sick not gonna lie. 

So on Thursday a Latino came into our classroom and started talking with me for a little bit. He was a really nice guy and I liked talking to him. Then homie complimented my tie and said he wanted it. Well me being the nice person I am decided to switch ties with him. I got a cool tie in return but not gonna lie I only did it for the story to tell haha. 

On Friday we had a special devotional from Shayne Bowen of the 70 and it was amazing! He talked a lot about missionary work and the importance of the Holy Ghost. One of the quotes I liked from him was when he said "without the Holy Ghost, the mission is impossible." It is so true and I loved it so much! He also said "When you know it's going to be hard, it's not so hard when it's hard." It takes a while to think about but it is an amazing quote. We know that it is going to be hard but we know that through Christ all things are possible. 

Yesterday at devotional Elder McMaster sang "Homeward Bound" and it was amazing. The dude has a dang good voice, he reminds me of a young me. I definitely felt like a proud father. Everyone has been saying how good he did and how great he sounds but since he is humble I take the hype upon myself. 

I have been reading a lot in D&C and I started the Book of Mormon again! When people say the mission changes you, they're right. I don't know how but I love reading now haha! 

Last thing, Elder Gomez is a Latino in our house and he is going to Orem on his mission. So, I told him I have lots of friends and family there that will spoil him, so if you see him, you know what to do ;). 

There is literally nothing cool to talk about except that I leave Monday. I am not sure when my next P day will be so I guess we will find out. I am super excited for Villahermosa and the great experiences I will have there! I don't have any pictures because after 6 weeks in the MTC there is nothing to take a picture of... and I may or may not have left my camera in the house haha...sorry mom. 

Anyways, Love you all! 

Elder Wilde

Talk to y'all next time from Villahermosa!

Me and Elder Gomez

Me just chillin' with my 632 wipes. Thanks Mom!

This is Esteban Nava who works at the CCM. He sent me this photo of him and Carter this morning through Instagram! He seems to be a bright spot to so many missionaries!

Diarrhea Since Easters

What up Fam,

I think the title is pretty self explanatory. Elder McMaster is the last man standing and I don't know how! Other than that this week was good! Not much has changed because I'm basically in a prison and don't have anything other than class every day. 

Friday Elder Burr and I went to the migration office which was about an hour and a half away from the CCM so that was fun. I finally got to drink my first Mexican Coke and it was fuego!  I asked how much it was and spoke to the dude and it was sweet, well worth the 17 pesos. Then the lady in the office asked how old I was and I answered so basically I'm #fluent. 

There was a street taco stand and I really wanted one but the workers wouldn't let us have one... kinda happy I didn't! 

I know you think I am a Latino now because I can communicate like a 2 year old, but I am not. We had TRC this last week and that is where we talk to members from down here. My homie Moíses started talking and I understood nothing until I asked where he worked and he goes "New Era Cap". So me being the Latino I am, used my best buddy (google translate) to talk to him about my Cubs hats. Later on I found out he spoke English so we could actually talk. Then we had a 12 year old girl that we were talking to and I told her she can repent of her pescados not pecados... I said fish instead of sins haha! She just laughed so I told her my Spanish is very bad.

One of the instructors next door served in Villahermosa and he talked to us about it for a little bit! He said that the apartments have AC and that was the greatest thing ever. He told me baseball is way big down there and that got me more excited. He said there are monkeys walking around the streets and that got me even more excited! But with every positive there is a negative... he said you will definitely get sick your first few weeks. He also said that at night you can hear jaguars so that is kinda creepy but lowkey super sick! I can't wait to get out there!

Yesterday 240 new guys came so it is getting kind of packed! I saw my buddy Stockton Veenker and talked to him for a bit. It is always nice to see some old friends and talk with them!

Yesterday I finished the Book of Mormon again! Kinda proud of myself that it only took 2 and a half weeks. One thing I noticed while reading is how often it says we should put our trust in the Lord. I found a lot of good scriptures that have helped me when I struggle. There have been those days where I don't understand any Spanish and I am tired of being here, but when I read the Book of Mormon I feel the comfort of the Holy Ghost and it's amazing. Then if I am still feeling bad at the end of the day I sing Be Alright in the shower and I feel good after haha! 

That is it for this week! Love you all and go Nats! (Gonna be my Cubbies in 2020)

Elder Wilde 

Me and my buddy Stockton

Jonny boy and my mans Jake

Hacky sack with the boys, just hangin' the heck out

Classic tool pic

My boy, Xan

What it do baby

Howdy everyone! Week 4 here in the CCM and I'm still having a good time! Not too much that has changed here, still a bunch of Spanish and class. My Spanish is getting better! I can understand a handful of words in each sentence so that's good!

We will start with the bad things this week. There's a good amount of people getting sick, luckily I haven't been sick... yet haha! Also, the worst thing of this week was saying bye to the Latinos from our house! We knew them for 3 weeks and could barely even talk to them but we became best friends. Elder Garcia cried when he said bye to me and that was hard, I love that dude! I told Elder Garcia he could come visit Utah in 2 years and stay with us... (sorry mom). But some good news is we got new Latinos yesterday and they are awesome! One of them is from Chicago and speaks perfect English and Spanish. He is also a Cubs fan so I really like him! Latino people are the best!

Now time for some Spooky Madness! After lots of arguing and intense rounds, Reese's ended as the champ. It may not be that big of a deal to you guys at home, but this is all we got. We have been talking about the dumbest things because there's nothing else haha. And because we have no memes to look at, we quote movies and make our own memes. Elder Scott, Burr, and McMaster have been talking like Yoda and Luke Skywalker and it's hilarious!

Now time for the good spiritual stuff and there's a lot! Yesterday at devotional we watched a broadcast from the Provo MTC. Quintin L. Cook was the speaker and it was amazing. He started off by talking about the way they assigned missions and the spirit was so strong! A quote I liked from him was "The Lord is in charge, if I assign a mission incorrectly, the spirit immediately stops me and makes me go back". After hearing this, the spirit spoke to me and really let me know that Villahermosa is where I'm supposed to be. 

I got pretty bored this week so I read the Book of Mormon. Everyone who knows me knows I HATE reading. So I started reading and I didn't want to stop. On Sunday I read the whole book of Mosiah and yesterday I read 30 chapters in Alma. I have been learning so much and love this book so much! 

Last experience happened about 3 hours ago. As I mentioned earlier, Elder Scott and Simpson have been pretty sick so they asked my room to give them a blessing. I didn't give the blessing but the spirit still spoke to me telling me what needed to be said. Every time I thought of something, the person giving the blessing said it. The spirit was so strong I couldn't describe the feeling. I am so grateful for the priesthood!

I wanna end this with a challenge for everyone. As I have been studying the Book of Mormon, one thing that is mentioned in almost every chapter is the Atonement. I challenge everyone to start reading, or continue to read the Book of Mormon. I also challenge everyone to use the Atonement every day! There is no greater gift than the Book of Mormon and the Savior's Atonement! I am so grateful for this gospel and I love it so much!

Have a great week! Love you all!

Elder Wilde

I-I, I work out...

#TRUTH

Fresh haircut

idk It's Only My 3rd Week Out Here!

Week 3! There isn´t much new because we have the same exact schedule everyday! This last week I spent a lot of time reading the Book of Mormon and am already to the end of 2 Nephi so that is cool I guess. Elder McMaster and I taught the first lesson to both of our teachers! We taught Hermana Lopez first and it was incredible. We went 20 minutes of straight Spanish (with notes of course). We left the lesson thinking we are good enough to head to Villahermosa... then we got a slap to the face and got fed some humble pie. When we went to teach Hermana Hernandez it was probably the worst lesson ever! We thought we could use the notes from the previous lesson because it was just that good! When we started teaching our minds went blank and we had no idea what to share. This was a good learning experience, we learned that we need to plan the lesson according to the person. 

Conference was awesome! So many good talks I don´t have a favorite! But... a temple in Orem?? That made me so happy! Now I only have to drive 5 minutes instead of 15 ;). President Nelson is my boy but idk if I can wait until April 2020 to hear some big news or whatever it is. Our district thinks he only said that to get more viewers but I guess we will see haha. 

Our district just keeps getting better and better! We were all having a debate about what candy is the best so what does the inner athlete in me do? I bring up the idea of making a round of 64 candy tournament. "Spooky Madness" is getting big around the MTC! Not only am I the Elder who makes noodles in the shower, I am the Elder who made a dumb bracket that everyone loves. Straight up having a good time! I am mamas boy when it comes to candy, chocolate should always win!

There isn´t much to talk about. We are going to the temple in about an hour so I am super excited for that! 

I´ll end with my favorite thing from conference. I don´t have a specific talk I liked the best. One thing I noticed was that every talk said we need to trust the Lord. I really liked that because that is probably one of the biggest things I need to know as a missionary!

Love you all! 

Elder Wilde 

shoutout mama part2

New trend I made for devotional, tried to part my hair, but it didn't work LOL

"Elder Wilde es muy bonito" thanks Elder Garcia

Devotional trend

Elder Simpson loving devotional

Here is our Spooky Madness tournament

Ran into my buddy Elder Gassman at the Mexico City Temple Visitor Center!

Mexico City Temple

Me and my companion Elder McMaster at the Mexico City Temple

The boys

Our district temple trip

Mexico City, Mexico

Mexico CCM/MTC

Straight up having a good time

¡Hola! Week one complete! I still love it here! I have made a lot of new friends and have seen lots of familiar faces. I saw Elder Yandow and Hermana Weenig, they came in yesterday so I´m no longer the new guy haha! Also, I LOVE the Latinos! There are 4 in mi casa and they are my favorite humans alive! 2 of them speak English so they help me with Spanish and I help them with their English! 

This week I had a lot of great experiences and felt the spirit a lot! We had 2 devotionals this week. One on Sunday and one on Tuesday. We talked about the Character of Christ and Enduring to the End. Lots of great things were said! We also had fast and testimony meeting on Sunday and it was awesome! It was all in Spanish so the only thing I understood was "en el nombre de Jesucristo, Amén" and I think my 3 year old cousin could understand that haha.

Every night we have devotionals in our house and on Sunday night Elder Garcia, one of the Latinos gave the thought. He speaks no English so it made no sense. Then, he said "bless the American Elders to understand this and have the gift of tongues". After he said that, all of us understood what he was saying and the spirit was unreal. It really helped me gain a testimony that the gift of tongues is real!

Don´t let the spiritual thoughts change your mind of who I am. I definitely did some interesting things this week... I may or may not have made Cup of Noodles in the shower because we don´t have a microwave. It actually tasted really good and I didn´t get sick so I´m chillin!

We also had the chance to have a conversation with some of the members from down here! The first member we talked to was so nice and helped our Spanish and taught us some new things! The other members just laughed at us and I was lowkey butthurt, but I´d laugh at myself too if I listened to myself speak Spanish.

Elder McMaster and I planned a lesson in Spanish and it is actually really good! We practiced contacting and inviting someone to read a scripture. Hermana Hernandez was really impressed with us and I don´t think she knew what was coming. They don´t think I know a boat load of crap about the Gospel, but I dooooo. 

I am so grateful for the people that are here and all of the friends I´ve made! Elder Scott is in my district and he may be the funniest person I have ever met! He accidentally wore a Volcom shirt instead of his garments and he tells the funniest stories! He is one of the many people who I have become best friends with!

Love you all!

Elder Wilde

Mi familia!

District eating delicious food that we love

Mis amigos!

Shoutout Mama for the package!

I wasn't lying!

LEGO hands behind the house, so we made a gang sign (they mean peace I guess)

Me and Elder Yandow