Baby It's Cold Outside

I'm sure the weather in Utah is worse, but right now I am freezing here. Its pouring rain and is about 40 degrees... this isn't supposed to happen in Arizona. Aside from the cold weather, the week was actually pretty good. 

We are still spending a lot of our time working with members trying to get them to help us with the work. It has actually been pretty effective. There is a family in the ward who has helped us so much, in fact we had a girl come to church because of the fellowship! 

The girl that came is good friends with one of the Young Women. She has been going to activities for the last few months and she came to church for the first time yesterday. She said that she wants to keep coming too! I spoke as well and I really enjoyed that. Since being on the mission I have loved speaking at church! I volunteered myself so they let me do it haha. I usually have some notes written out so I have something to go off of, but yesterday was different. Because of the girl that came to church, I really wanted to speak to her. So I didn't even use my notes and I went up and just spoke with the spirit and bore testimony. A lot of my talk was focused on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I think it was successful.

To end out a spiritual note, I'm going to share a little thought I had this week. First off, I just wanna say how true the Book of Mormon is. The feeling I get when I read it is literally the best. There's not too much that beats it! I studied in Jacob 5 and I made sure that I was understanding everything because usually when I read that chapter, I zone off because it's so long. This time I used last year's "Come, Follow Me" manual to study. The thing that stuck out to me was how the Lord works with us. This is including missionary work and whatever we are doing in our lives right now. He knows us. He doesn't just watch over us from a distance, He makes sure to work with us. 

Love you all! 

Elder Wilde 

The Zone!

On That Grind

What's up my dudes! 

Normal week out here but it was chillin. We taught a lesson to Gloria and that went well. She has a lot of questions for us about the Book of Mormon so I enjoyed answering those. We spent lots of time visiting members and introducing Elder Beckman to them. 

So our lesson with Gloria was at the park again. We haven't really gone through a full lesson. We just talk about the Book of Mormon with her and man does she have questions. And they are not just basic questions, she knows what's up and I love it. I think she is impressed with how amazing the Book of Mormon is! I explained Alma 40 to her and she was loving the doctrine. We also talked about 2 Nephi 31 and she asked if we are just trying to baptize people... trick question haha. Like lowkey we are but I explained to her people choose to be baptized because they know the Book of Mormon is true. We invited her to read and pray about it so she can know for herself.

Training has been chill so far. I miss Elder Packham but it's nice that he's in the same zone as me. He has become one of my best friends so I'm super grateful for him and all he taught me!

Sorry for another short email but I'll end with some spiritual stuff. I studied about Captain Moroni this week because I was wondering how I can be a good leader for other missionaries. I read Alma 48: 11-18 and made a list of all of the things that make him a great leader. There is a pretty good list and it made me reflect how I am as a leader. I love verse 17 in that because Mormon is saying if everyone was like Moroni, the devil wouldn't have power over the hearts of the children of men. How dope is that? Definitely a cool thought I had while studying so I invite all of you to look at these verses and learn from them! 

Love you all! 

Elder Wilde 

Hijo #2

What's up everyone! 

Transfers were this week and I will be training a new missionary again! His name is Elder Beckman and he is from Spokane, Washington. He is originally assigned here and is a cool dude. I was hoping I would get a kid who is learning Spanish but it's alright! I also really wanted to stay with Elder Packham but we are in the same zone still so I'll be able to see him a bunch! 

As far as the work... we finally found a person to teach! We went to an apartment complex and started walking around to talk to people. I was being negative and didn't have faith and when I realized that I said a prayer in my heart to repent for being a bum. After that we saw a lady in the park and talked to her for 20 minutes. Her name is Gloria. She mentioned how she goes to a church and I asked her what her favorite Bible verse was. I used that to say mine is James 1:5 and I tied that into the restoration. We then taught about the Book of Mormon and we set up an appointment to go back tomorrow! It was a really cool experience! 

As far as the rest of the work, it's slowly getting there and I think we will soon have lots of people to teach! 

I wanna close with a little spiritual thought from Come, Follow Me. As we study about Joseph Smith History, my testimony has been strengthened. I love how Moroni tells him his name will be used for good and bad and its crazy how true that is today! I also love how Joseph recognized that he made lots of mistakes and he says he's sorry. I don't care what anyone says about Joseph Smith, all I say to that is I know Joseph saw God and his Son, Jesus Christ. So if you ever question that, do what Joseph did and ask of God (with faith!) and I promise you'll receive an answer! 

Love you all!

Elder Wilde

Gilbert Temple

More service helping a family move

Just doing a little service for this guy and his friends by cleaning out their pen.

Rakin'

What's up dudes! 

Good week out here in Gilbert and we did a lot of service. Not really anything neat honestly haha we raked 69 bags of leaves and man did that suck haha. We helped some people move too. Other than that we didn't have the most exciting week. 

Elder Packham and I have planned to have a successful week this next week so hopefully I can report on some good stuff next week. We have like 30 people that we can potentially pick up to teach, we just need to figure out how to get in contact with them. We also have transfers next week so we are hoping we stay together so we can continue to put in work! We have been working with the members and are praying we can help some people receive the Gospel! 

New Years was weird because we were in the house at 6:30 and just studied. I was in bed at like 9:30 so it wasn't much of a party for me! I hope 2021 is a little better than last year and I hope that I can return to Mexico sometime this year! I made a lot of goals for the year. Basically I just want to read the scriptures a lot! 

A little spiritual thought I have came while I was reading 1 Nephi 17-18 when he's building the boat and I love how every time he needs help he cries out to the Lord and I think that's something super important for me and you. We can't do anything alone and we need the Lord's help. Nephi is my man and is always so diligent in doing that. 

Anyways, love you all and Happy New Year! 

Elder Wilde