Six Weeks to Sexy

Quarantine life, you know what that means... I'm about to get shredded. Basically since life keeps getting more boring I decided to work out to keep myself entertained Haha. Basically I'm tryna come out of this quarantine looking like freaking Arnold Schwarzenegger. Aside from working out physically I've had lots of time to work out spiritually. 

Before I start with my personal stuff I'm gonna talk about Julia, the girl we are teaching. So she still can't get that permission so we are thinking she'll have to wait until September for when she turns 18. She is planning on going to Gunnison, Colorado for school but she might be doing online if this stupid virus stays around. She has been talking with missionaries since October so she has a pretty strong testimony and our lessons are a little more in depth. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and her testimony on it is so freaking dope! Like when we teach her I feel like we are teaching a member. Sad thing is she's getting surgery on her nose the 19th so we offered a priesthood blessing and she got excited because she's never had a blessing before haha. So keep her in your prayers because she's awesome. 

Since we haven't done too much I've tried to study a little harder. Not gonna lie it can get hard to just sit and try to read so I've been trying to stay entertained while studying. I've been reading and listening to lots of conference talks, watching church videos, and even looking at a Book of Mormon picture book. You'd be surprised on how much you can learn from a picture book! I read a talk from this April 2020 conference by Joy D. Jones and I loved when she talked about President Nelson answering questions for the primary kids. 

He says, 

"So Moses had to walk all the way up to the top of that mountain to get the Ten Commandments. Now, Heavenly Father could have said, ‘Moses, you start there, and I’ll start here, and I’ll meet you halfway.’ No, the Lord loves effort, because effort brings rewards that can’t come without it."

I love the way I can relate to that. The Lord loves our effort and will bless us for it. I'm so grateful for a living Prophet and his testimony. 

Love you all, stay sweet

Elder Wilde 

Just doing some more studying!

'Merica

I'll tell ya what folks, if this weekend didn't make you wanna listen to country music, eat some apple pie, watch some baseball, and crack open an ice cold mountain dew, you're not American. Unfortunately, all I could do was crack open a few cold Dew’s and yell 'Merica. That was probably the most exciting part of this week. 

To start off on a good note, a member hooked it up with a bunch of groceries for us this week and that was super nice of her! She has a son on a mission in Virginia and was saying "if I do something nice for you then the members there will help my son!". Just shows how great the members are here!

This was definitely the slowest week of the mission for sure because we had like a 1% success rate. Like there really is nothing that happened this week haha. I try to look at the positives but it can be tough. 

We had interviews with president and we just had a normal interview and he asked how I was doing. I told him that quarantine sucks and how bored I get. He told me to focus on my personal study and it will get better, so I did that. I have been reading lots of conference talks from this last conference and of course the Book of Mormon. Straight up the Book of Mormon is the best and I love it. I like to think of how much I relate to it even when it took place over 2000 years ago! When I catch myself complaining about quarantine I try to remind myself about the missionaries in the Book of Mormon and remember how much harder they had it. Even though it's been a rough time in quarantine I still see God's hand in my life and try my best to share it with others. 

Love you all! 

Stay sweet! 

Stay free, 'merica!

Elder Wilde 

Got my name tag in English now.

How awesome are the members here in Gilbert! So grateful for the groceries!

Lot's of spiders and scorpions here

Just chillin'

Still Chillin'

What's up everyone, still chillin here in Gilbert. This week was a little more productive but not super eventful so I'll try my best to write a good email! 

Nothing really happened until Thursday because we finally got to meet with someone at the church! Her name is Julia and she just graduated. She is 100% gonna get baptized but the only problem is she can't get that paper signed by her parents. She's been taught since about October and she has a really strong testimony which is dope! Her birthday is in September so she will most likely have to wait until then for a baptism, but we are praying for sooner! She leaves to college in Colorado in August and we are really hoping we can get her baptized before that. She has a super strong testimony and is going to be a solid convert.

Then comes Friday and we get a call from a random number. It ended up being the missionaries from the Portland, Oregon mission and they were passing over a person for us. Her name is Lori and she just moved into our area this week. She worked for a member up there for 13 years but after talking to her about the church she wasn't too familiar. We helped her move in and she was super cool. She is moving in with her boyfriend who is this big strong dude but he ended up being a teddy bear... at least for now! We talked a little about how we want to share a message but she honestly wasn't too down and kept saying "well I wanna settle in with work and move in so I'm always busy". I told her that we do basically everything over zoom and then told her we would keep in contact. The thing that gave me hope is she likes to learn about why people believe certain things so maybe she will wanna listen to us!

Friday morning I spoke at devotional and it was kinda fun. My topic was chapter 4 of Preach My Gospel which is "How do I recognize and understand spiritual promptings" or something like that. All I did was talked about some of my experiences in Mexico and shared a few scriptures. I think it was decent because a few people hyped me up after so that was nice. A thing I talked about that I really like is how important it is to stay in tune with the spirit. It is crazy how quickly the spirit can leave if we aren't doing what's right so it is super important to do our best to choose the right. I feel so much better when the spirit is with me and I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to feel it every day! 

Love you all, stay sweet

Elder Wilde 

Had to get a new suit this week. This quarantine is getting to my waistline

Lots of Nothing

What's up everyone, 

Another week gone by and not too much to tell. Basically the whole quarantine life sucks but you gotta look at what we can do rather than what we can't do. Missionary work in the states is a lot different than in Mexico haha.

I'll start with the fun stuff. This last p day we went golfing and to the batting cages! I wouldn't say I'm the best golfer but I did better than the other elders so that made me happy. After that we went to the batting cage and it felt good to take some hacks! There were some 40 year old dudes next to us living in their glory days and one tried to give me advice on my swing, so naturally I went and showed him up on the fastest machine. Homie didn't say a word after that haha. 

Tuesday we had a district council and when we shared goals they all laughed when I said we are gonna find 10 people. My thought was "well in Mexico we can find 10 a day, it'll be easy to find 10 in one week." Well then reality hit and every person we called didn't answer and that 10 went to a fat 0 haha guess the goal will be different this week!

Now for the rest of the week... not too much to say. We did a few service projects and it was nice to get out of the house and finally meet people! It's fun to do zoom calls but talking in person is so much better. The members are super good when it comes to giving us people to teach, only problem is we can't go to their house and when we call on the phone they never answer. We are focusing on getting 2 kids that just graduated. One girl has said she will be baptized but needs to turn 18 first and the other boy has shown interest and has been to church. Good thing is that he is a baseball player so I am anxious to meet him! Now we just pray we can get in contact with them.

Both of those referrals came from the YW president and she is super dope! We did a service project for her and when she noticed I was wearing my Cubs stuff she said "my boy got to shave one of the players heads for the Respect Bald fundraiser they do". Kinda got a little jealous not gonna lie! She showed me the pic and it was Ian Happ so I thought it was pretty cool. Only problem is her boy still doesn't know who the Cubs are... kinda sad haha. 

That's the best I can do for this week, don't expect too much from my emails as long as quarantine lasts.

Love you all!

Elder Wilde 

Batting Cages! Channeling my inner Clark from Benchwarmers.

Caught a scorpion. I call him Gerald.

Haircuts!

Guess Who's Back!

Long time no see my dudes! 

So most of you guys probably know that I'm chillin in Arizona right now, shoutout Corona. I've been here about a week now and it is dope! We can't really do too much but gotta do what we can. For those of you wondering I am covering an English area so I will have to find ways to speak Spanish! 

I got here Tuesday and we spent most of the day at the mission office doing an orientation that wasn't boring at all... after that we went to the chapel and met our companions! My comp is from Las Vegas and his name is Elder Greer! He was originally assigned here and has been out almost 4 months so he's new! We then came to our house and settled in. The first 2 days it was just me and him in the house and it was super boring! Not gonna lie I was wondering why I even came back out, but as usual after praying a bunch I felt peace. 2 other elders showed up and now we have 4 in the house. Their names are Elder Remington and Elder Waldrop. They're both from Utah. 

As far as missionary work goes we are serving in the Gilbert 3rd ward and Higley Grove ward! Elder Greer and I are white washing the area so it has been a fun experience! We are only allowed to meet over zoom calls and can do service projects as long as they're outside. Not the most ideal situation but we make it fun! I have met a lot of awesome people down here already! The members are super cool and treat us really well, it also helps when you have family here that brings you treats (shoutout RaLyn)! But yeah like I said we just do zoom calls with families and it's cool to meet new people and hear their testimonies! It's a little weird to do things in English but it's also really fun because I feel like I can relate with people a bit more! 

As far as Spanish goes, I'm talking to people from Mexico to try and keep up! Elder Remington was originally assigned to Argentina but because of covid he only made it through the MTC so his Spanish isn’t the best. I have been teaching him and it is actually super fun! I love seeing the progress I've made because I remember when I was in his shoes and was struggling to say a prayer in Spanish! 

This week we were able to do a zoom call as a mission along with the Phoenix mission with Elder Soares and it was awesome! Both he and his wife spoke and I loved it! He delivered a message that I needed to hear and I knew it was an answer to my prayers! He confirmed that through our faith in Jesus Christ everything is possible! 

Love you all! 

Elder Wilde

Elder Wilde and Elder Greer

Just chillin in my new place

"I met your awesome son today...he almost had me convinced to being a Cubs fan. He shared with us a powerful testimony and we feel blessed to have him in our ward."
Joe Curtis

I Hate Goodbyes

Well I think everybody knows what is happening, I am very sad about it! I honestly did not think that it was going to get to this point. We found out last night and it was pretty hard for me. I have learned so much in these last 6 months here! All we can learn here is that everything happens for a reason and the Lord knows everything! On the bright side, this week Elder Hunter and I worked our butts off and got lots of work done!

We set 6 baptismal dates, and had 3 lined up for the 29th. Due to the circumstances we are going to try to baptize them tomorrow! It is a family of five (Gilberto, Rosa, Estrella, Gilberto Jr, Gabriela). The mom and dad aren't married so we spent a lot of time this week trying to figure some stuff out. We taught some amazing lessons with them and the spirit was incredible. When we went back to teach the plan of salvation, we asked the dad, "did you pray about the Book of Mormon?". He replied, "I know with all of my heart that this is the true church and I want to be baptized. We talked with a family and have decided this is the church for us." Talk about the greatest words to ever hear! I am praying so hard that we can baptize them before I leave! 

The other baptism date was Omar. He is the one I met a few months ago from playing soccer! We stopped visiting him because his parents don't like us too much. We would swing by every now and again to see if we could find him but we couldn't. One day he texted us and said he missed us and wanted to meet! When we went he said that he had been reading the Book of Mormon every day and he loves it! He also told us that when he is 18 he wants to serve a mission! The problem with him is that we can't get permission, in fact the parents don't want to meet us haha. 

This was probably one of the funnest weeks I have had so far in the mission. We worked so hard in the hot sun and it was worth it. I was able to share my testimony to touch the hearts of others. I also had my testimony strengthened because of them. I am still in shock of what is actually happening. Last night as I tried to sleep I was thinking of the positives of what is happening and one that I thought of is how lucky I am to be a missionary during this time. We are teaching every day talking about how we need to prepare for the second coming of Christ. It is so close it is unreal! This is where the test is going to get harder! We need to trust the Lord so much right now! I would be lying if I said I didn't shed a few tears last night, but I was also crying tears of joy because of the great things that are happening in my life! I am so, so grateful for this Gospel!

Love you all! Stay healthy! See ya when I see ya!

Elder Wilde 

Birthday Time

What is good my dudes! 

So this week was chillin but really weird too. Basically with the whole coronavirus crap everyone is freaking out even tho it isn't even here! We had a sacrament meeting in a members house so it was dope! We also bought my homeboy Anthony a cake for his bday!

It is tough in this area but it we are still grinding. We want to find someone solid to teach, not just someone on the street that blows us off. The family we spent the most time with this week is the family of Hermana Sandra. She is an inactive member and is super chill. She hooks it up fat with references. We contacted her neighbors and her friend. We were also able to have a sacrament meeting in her house and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was actually a pretty cool experience because it counted as attendance for the 6 investigators we had there! I taught most of the lesson and it was a very spiritual and fun night. Even with church being cancelled, I still go to church every Sunday!

Yesterday we also went to a baptism in Villahermosa for one of the families Elder Hunter found there! I was able to give a talk and explain a little about the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end! It was a really fun experience to share my testimony and insights on this topic. It is super cool because when I speak, I don't know what I say, the spirit just flows. Shoutout to Heavenly Father, He always has my back. 

Highlight of the week though was definitely buying Anthony a cake. He is the 5 year old son of Sandra. They didn't have money for a cake so we bought him one and he was so excited! The kid loves us so much and I freaking love him!

Time to get a little serious now my friends. Little rumor is that people are freaking out about the sickness. I didn't realize how much of a bubble I was living in right now. It is probably a little scary for everyone right now but it is gonna be okay. The Lord knows everything! All we can do is keep doing what is right and the Lord is gonna bless us all! 

Love you all and I'm praying for you!

Elder Wilde 

Anthony's Birthday cake!

Me, Anthony, and his little sister Yenifer 

Anthony always wants to put my tie and name tag on.

Joslyn, Anthony, Yenifer, and Anthony. Yep, both boys are named Anthony

Baptism we attended in Villahermosa.

I am so happy for this family!