Super Dead

Hello everyone! This week was a slow one and there isn't too much to talk about. We visited a lot of inactive families and most of our appointments fell through. Only a couple things happened. 

This week we attended a funeral. I don't know if funerals are weird here or if it is just the family but it was like a 3 day process. They love when the white guy talks so I gave like 3 different talks about the plan of salvation so that was pretty sweet. The thing that was scary was it was in their house and behind me was his dead body. He was super dead. (not funny but had to quote Hot Rod). Anyways, I noticed that as I started to talk the words would just flow out of my mouth and I didn't need to worry about my Spanish. The spirit was so strong and it was awesome!

I had another cool experience on Friday. We visited a few inactive families and one of the families we visited I was able to share a message with them. My comp was with the little girl at the table and I decided to share something with the mom. I asked her which story in the Book of Mormon was her favorite. I could tell that she wasn't too familiar with the book because she replied "Lehi and the gold plates". I went on to explain how much I love the story of Nephi and his family. I said how much I love his obedience and faith. I invited her to read the first few chapters of the Book of Mormon with her family and then attend church on Sunday... and she did exactly that. She came to church with her daughter and it was awesome! She told me her goal for the new year is to teach her little girl more about the Gospel and it made me so happy! 

Saturday has become a tradition to play soccer. We invite everyone who we see. We found 2 kids named David (12) and Omar (14). We played for a good 45 minutes in the rain. It seemed like every 5 minutes a group would show up and in the end we had like 30 youth there! Omar asked me what happens at the church and I explained to him what we do, what we believe, and so on. He then asked what it takes to be a missionary. I had one of the members explain a little bit about that then I finished it off. I invited both of them to church and they said they'd come... but they didn't. Well that didn't work.

One of the families in the ward literally has a party every day so we end up there for dinner most of the time. Because my Spanish is at the level of a 2 year old, I spend my time with the 2 year olds. I just throw a ball around or play with their toys with them. Ya know, anything to please the rugrats. One of the little boys called me "Papí" so that was probably the highlight of the week. 

That is it my dudes. Sorry for the Hot Rod quotes haha. Love you all!

Elder Wilde 

Soccer in the pouring rain!

Me and Elder Lopez

My cool speaker that I just bought.

You ball bro?

Hello and Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a safe New Year's and has a great 2020! 

This week, just like every other week had its ups and downs. The highlight of my week lasted about 30 seconds and I have thought of it a lot this week. We were walking down the street and someone yelled at me saying, "do you speak English?". Well this happens at least 5 times a day and so I always reply to them in Spanish saying I am from somewhere in Mexico and it is a great reaction. Well this time after I said I was from Oaxaca, he said, "my cousin said you speak English so I wanted to talk, I am from Detroit. You ball bro?". So I immediately ran over to his car and talked for a second.  I invited him to come play fútbol with us that night but before I could catch his name the driver drove off because there were cars behind them. I was praying so hard that he would show up but he didn't. I kept thinking about what I could have done different to help him out. As I continued to pray asking for another chance with him, I had a thought pop into my head saying I did enough. All I did was introduced who I was and why I am here in Macuspana. It may not seem like much but I was able to get him thinking about the church. I am hoping that I run into him again and that he will say something to me! It won't be that hard to find me because I am a tall white boy with a shirt and tie. 

The next day we did divisions with the Zone Leaders and it was awesome! Elder Haines came with Elder Oliveira and I and it was a great day full of work. We found 5 new people that we are going to try to start teaching. Elder Haines is the best missionary I have ever seen. He can talk to anybody and be their friend just like that. He is a great example to me and is a great example of a true disciple of Christ. As the day went on we ended up teaching a lesson to our investigator Daniel. We taught about the commandments and it was a good lesson. Elder Haines covered almost all of the topics then when it got to the law of chastity he said, "Elder Wilde would like to explain this now". Well teaching this to people is already difficult and could be a little awkward (especially when it is to a 23 and 15 year old) but doing it in Spanish is even worse! Haha, lets just say it was a fun experience. They didn't seem too excited about this because they didn't wanna change their lifestyle so we are going to try to work with them on this! 

I think the biggest thing I learned this week is that everything happens for a reason. There are times where I find myself asking God why I am in the current situation I am in or why things are tough. I may not see it at the moment but I know I will look back someday and see why certain things are happening. I was reading in Mosiah this week and one of the chapter headings says something like, "the Lord makes their burdens seem light". I love this. The Lord isn't going to take away our burdens, but he will definitely be there with us to carry what we can't and make them "seem light". 

New year. New "Come Follow Me". What makes it even better is it is on the Book of Mormon! If you guys haven't noticed, I kinda love this book. I am hoping everyone can take the time to study this by themselves and with their families! I know that there will be blessings in your life if you do!

Love you all!

Elder Wilde

(also got myself a dope NERF hoop, so I am gonna be ballin'... What it do baby!)

So grateful for these two! Elder Lopez and Elder Montes are so great!

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!