Hard work pays off

Alrighty now another week here in Macuspana! This week was full of some fun activities, one was the good ole game of futbol. I already suck at soccer and when I have to play against people who have played their whole life... lets just say it was a good experience. On the bright side, there were a couple dudes who were out of shape so I could at least keep up with them. The next day, after feeling bad about myself for sucking at soccer, I saw some people playing a real sport... BASEBALL. This was a tender mercy from the Lord. It was a father and a son playing catch and I went up to them and said I like baseball and talked for a moment. They didn't care about our message but it was still fun to talk to them. It reminded me of the good days when I would play catch with my dad and after 2 minutes he would complain about his shoulder hurting... good days!

Hard work pays off. After lots of long days in the heat, walking until I can't feel my legs, we finally have an investigator. Not the most ideal situation considering he is 23 and is engaged to a 15 year old... but, he is really interested in hearing our message and I will take it. We also met a couple of brothers named Alexander and Cesar. Alexander is 18 and Cesar is 12. I don't think I have ever had someone love me as much as Cesar does. We are hoping to visit them this week and start to teach them. 

This week was an interesting one. I started off the week wondering how I am going to make it through this transfer. The work is slow, the language is slow, everything was just slow. After a lot of time reading and praying, I felt peace and love from the Lord. I have been working on having patience, charity, and love. It is definitely not easy but it is possible. I was able to finish the Book of Mormon again this week and I love the classic scripture Ether 12:27. I also love Moroni 7: 47-48. If you have a chance, read them because they're the best! I am grateful for the Book of Mormon!

Love you all!

Elder Wilde

A Hermana in our ward named Diana gave us all a Christmas gift. They can't say Wilde so they say Walle...like the Pixar movie. It is pretty funny!

Just playing a mean game of UNO

This is my buddy Cesar! He is pretty awesome and we have our own handshake. It's pretty cool.

White Christmas

Hello and Merry Christmas! White Christmas down here in Macuspana... not because of snow, because I'm the only white dude around here haha. Christmas time is definitely different here, but it's awesome!

This week we had a Christmas activity with the ward and it was great! We had about 60 people show up and a lot of inactives and a couple non members! The way they celebrate Christmas here is a little different and kinda weird. The games were all really weird, but that wasn't the fun part. The piñata. Now, whoever made the idea is a genius, but also an idiot. Those things are the most dangerous weapons on this planet. 3 kids got hit by the piñata and stick within the first 5 minutes and people just laugh and keep playing... who do they think they are haha! The next day at church I was thinking that we would have a lot of people show up, but no, we had 19. That kind of sums up the work here in our area. Maybe if we told them there would be a piñata they would've come. 

Our one "investigator" Sandy owns a little shop where they paint little statues and this week we helped her out. While we were there we met 2 of her friends and taught them a little bit about who we were and what we were doing. They were both pretty interested and I was really happy because the work here has been tough. Later on that night when we returned to the house I asked Elder Oliveira when we are gonna meet with them again and he looked at me and in his very, very broken English said "they like boys"... sooooo yeah our 2 "news" are probably not going to make much progress. 

This week was a slow one not gonna lie. Lots of Spanish and not very many opportunities to teach. This has probably been the toughest week in the mission but I have learned to rely on the Lord a lot. Lots of prayers and studying the scriptures have helped a lot. Grateful for Jesus Christ and the opportunity we have to celebrate his birth. 

Also, I found out that "Montés" means "Wild", so technically Elder Montes and I are brothers haha. 

Love you all!

Elder Wilde

Painting with Sandy

Ward Christmas Party!

Thank you for all of the messages! I loved them!

Best Day Ever!! Thanks for the Dew in my Christmas package!

Transfers

Alrighty, we had transfers this week and I now have a new companion! His name is Elder Oliveira and he is from Brazil soooo he speaks no English... yayyy! I am in the same area so that is good! Not gonna lie, I was a little nervous to have a companion who doesn't speak English but it turns out I know more than I thought. I'm excited to see what this next transfer has to offer!

Earlier this week Elder Brown and I taught a lesson to a man named Juan Carlos. He is technically in the Macuspana area so I don't know why we taught him but we did. Anyways, it was a good lesson and he seemed interested. I was able to share a short testimony at the end and the Spanish just flew out of my mouth and the spirit was super strong so it was a really cool experience. I am hoping that he will progress and eventually be baptized. 

Friday we had a service project for a hermana in our ward and we shoveled dirt... a lot of it. Basically what we did was took dirt from their front yard to the backyard and dumped it on more dirt. Not sure who it was that said "you know what would make this dirt prettier? More dirt!". Kinda felt like a pointless project but we did it anyway. 

Saturday, Elder Brown and Montes were sick so I went on divisions with Elder Lopez and went to the ward activity. While I was there everyone was talking to me and I understood most of it but there were still some doubts with my Spanish. When I got back to the house I said to Brown, "I don't think I can handle a Spanish speaking comp, it is tough". Well sure enough, I now have a comp who doesn't speak any English!

I have only had him as a companion for a couple of hours and I like it so far. I know it is going to be tough at first but I know the Lord will be there for me and will help me along the way. One thing I have learned since being out here is that I can't do anything by myself and I need to rely on the Lord all the time. It is going to be a fun transfer and I am excited to see what happens!

Love you all,

Elder Wilde

Elder Wilde, Elder Brown, and the Lopez-Melo family

Elder Wilde, Elder Brown, and the Lopez-Lopez

Meet my new companion Elder Oliveria

Buzz Me Bro!

Alrighty, this week was slow. Elder Brown was sick almost the entire week and so we didn't do as much as we hoped. We spent a lot of time in the house waiting for him to feel better and so that meant lots of study time for me. On the days that we did go out, we didn't have too much luck. Because it has been hard to find new people to teach, what we try to do is reactivate some less active families. We have been visiting members and becoming close with them so that is great! Every time we go to a members house I share a scripture and my testimony and that has helped my Spanish a lot! 

Now, because this week was really slow, Elder Montes and I decided to have some fun... we both buzzed our heads! I don't know why we did it, but we did! 

With it being the Christmas season, I have thought a lot about Jesus Christ. I mentioned a couple emails ago about the talk in the Liahona about Joy. All we have to remember is Jesus Christ is Joy. Everything we have in our lives that brings us Joy is because of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for everything Christ did for me!

Also, thank you everyone for the birthday wishes! For my birthday we painted a members house and they gave me some really good tacos for my birthday! Then later that night we had cake and it was a party. Sorry for the short email, not too many cool things this week!

Love you all!

Elder Wilde 

Before

After

This was hilarious!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Knee deep in the water somewhere

Alrighty, I wasn't knee deep in the water, but I did flood our house... oops! Long story short, I was filling up a bucket of water and halfway through, the water shut off in the house. The water was off for about an hour then we decided to go to the store. We get to the store and I say to Brown, "I either turned the water off or all the way up". Well sure enough when we got home, there was water running down the stairs :). On the bright side, our floors have never been so clean before! Nothing got ruined and the other guys didn't care so that's good. It was a fun night not gonna lie. 

We had a 3 week training in Villahermosa this week and it was awesome! I got to see all of the boys from the CCM and I loved it. It was nice to have some people who finally understood my jokes haha! The training was all in Spanish and I actually understood almost all of it, mainly because it was Americans who were speaking the Spanish. There are some great people here and I am grateful for them!

Sandy (one of the ladies we have been teaching) owns a cool little shop where they sell statues and little figurines. After we finished our lesson, she asked us to help her paint some stuff. If you know me, you know that I can't paint to save my life so it was a struggle. The people in the shop already laugh at me for not understanding them, then my painting skills gave them another reason to laugh at me. All I can do is sit there and laugh with them. 

Even though the people here don't celebrate Thanksgiving, I still took a little bit of time to reflect on the things I was grateful for and man was that list long. As I thought about this, I remembered how much the Lord has done for me. A little challenge for everyone this week is to say a meaningful prayer of gratitude. Don't ask for anything, just say what you're grateful for and you will see the blessings. 

Love you all! 

Elder Wilde

(also got my bday package a little early, shoutout mama)

The boys are back! Elder Burr, Elder McMaster, Elder Wilde, Elder Beus

Love these guys!

Birthday package!!

Alligator scripture cases

Whistle while you work! Cleaning up the flood.

Look how clean these floors are!