Halfway There

Most people sing Bon Jovi when the hear "halfway there", but I sing Big Time Rush. Sue me. 1 year baby! Kind of a weird first year in the mission. 1 area in Mexico, 1 in Utah ;), and 2 in Gilbert! Along with 7 companions. Excited to see what this next year brings because clearly things don't always go as planned. 

This week was SO good! We got a couple solid referrals and set lots of lessons this week, but the highlight was definitely going to the temple with Elder Walls! I wasn't planning on going until right before we left when President called and asked me to be the escort! Best phone call ever. It was so nice to be in the temple! It's been a year since I've been able to go so I was super grateful for this opportunity. A cool experience I had in there was when I was in the Celestial Room and was pondering a lot of questions I had. As I sat there praying, a thought came to my head telling me to look up and look around. When I did that I noticed all of the newly endowed missionaries sitting with their families and man did that hit home. This is what it's all about. Being in the Celestial Kingdom with our families! The church is so true! 

The temple wasn't the only miracle that happened. We were sitting in sacrament meeting when we saw a lady walk in towards the end. We noticed that she got up and left, then immediately came back and sat down. Because we don't know people's faces we assumed she was a member. We later got a text from the Relief Society President saying that the girl is a non member and she is trying to draw closer to God. We got a date set up this week to meet! Out of the 8 interested people we have, we have 3 lessons set for this week! Pray for them! 

Another cool thing happened last night. We were sitting in our room when we noticed water dripping from the ceiling. We went upstairs to tell the guy that his bathroom was flooded. (This happened last month so we knew the problem). We stopped it before anything too bad happened, but the cool thing is the guy goes, "are you my missionaries?". Well it turns out that he just moved in and is going through a divorce and is a member. He said he is trying to get back on track and raise his 2 kids in the Gospel. It's crazy to see how God works sometimes. 

Just wanna end this email with the invitation to watch General Conference! I am SO excited! Can't wait to hear the words of President Nelson and his apostles!

Love you all

Elder Wilde 

Temple trip for Elder Walls at the Gilbert Temple!

Servin'

How we doin' my dudes. We chillin out here in Gilbert. Not literally though, it's still freaking hot! This week was a little slow but that's just how the mission is sometimes. We were able to go to church and do some service so that was fun!

We were able to help Elder Greer move some wood beams to his backyard and man was that fun. My forearms were tight for like 2 days after and we are going back tonight to help again! Usually I'd complain about how crappy this kind of service is, but when I'm with that family I am always loving life because they teach me so much! 

We tried to get in contact with some of the people we were in contact with, but this week was busy for all of them so we didn't have the busiest week. We have set up a few lessons for this next week so we are praying that they happen! 

This week was also Elder Walls' birthday and we partied it up. Like 3 different members brought a cake and dinner so we eating gooood. I also baked a cake because I'm a good trainer like that! 

Because we didn't have a bunch to do, I spent a lot of time studying this week. I was able to study lots of conference talks to help me prepare for this upcoming conference in a couple of weeks. I listened to the Hear Him talk by President Nelson and man do I love him. Every time I hear him speak the spirit testifies that he is a true prophet! I am so excited for conference! 

Anyways that's about it. Sorry the emails are shorter and shorter every week! 

Love you all 

Elder Wilde 

Service project with Elder Greer! 

No-No

Wassuh dudes! 

This week was chillin' as usual. I found out yesterday that I missed Alec Mills on the Cubs throw a no hitter... I guess me being on the mission does bless peoples lives! So yeah, he threw the no-no and we had lots of people say no to us, 'twas a lit week. 

Not too much new honestly. We just keep grinding with member lessons and stuff. We for a referral from the sisters in our district and are trying to get in contact with him but homie never answers. Aside from the lessons, we are doing a bunch of studying. I'm really tryna help Elder Walls learn the doctrine of the lessons and as I do that I learn new stuff too so it's awesome! 

I don't know if all of you saw the face to face with Elder Rasband, but it was so good! He talked about the Restoration Proclamation and I loved it. This is something we use in almost every lesson because of how important it is. As I watched the broadcast, the spirit was so strong. It really makes me so grateful to have a prophet and apostles in the world today! It also makes me even more excited for conference this next month! 

That's it for now, love you all! 

Elder Wilde 

World's Best Dad!

How y'all been? 

Because I've been chillin! I'm trying to learn the word y'all more because the missionary I'm training is from Arkansas and has that thick southern accent! His name is Elder Walls. He is originally assigned to Durban South Africa, but Covid said no to that and now he's fresh from the home MTC! He loves country music and plays baseball soooooo we get along pretty well! 

As far as the work, same stuff. We are still teaching Ari and she has such a good testimony! We need to get approval from the stake presidency because she is a returning member, but we are hoping it happens soon! The other lessons are usually just member lessons, but they're still awesome! 

I've tried really hard this week to be a good trainer! I think this has been one of the most diligent weeks since being in Arizona. My goal is to help Elder Walls be comfortable when teaching, so we do lots of teaching! He's been killing it so far and it's only been a week. We have had lots of good companionship studies and are learning new things from each other. I have also taken the role of being his temple prep instructor because in the next few weeks I get to go to the temple with him so he can receive his endowment! 

During my personal study this week I learned so much to where I can't even think about what I like best. I have been taking lots of notes and trying to learn as much as I can! I think the thing I picked out is how much I am grateful for a prophet. We have about a month until conference and it's like a little kid waiting for Christmas, I'm so excited! I'm hoping everyone can prepare for it! Yaint gonna be happy if you don't watch it! (Yaint = you all are not) I'd like to thank Elder Walls for teaching me to be a hick.

Love you all! Yeehaw 

Elder Wilde

Meet my new companion, Elder Walls!

Papa Wilde

What's up my dudes!

Pretty good week here in AZ. It was nice to visit a few members in their homes and be a little less restricted! Just a normal week of missionary work but I got some cool news and found out I'm gonna be training! I'm actually super excited to do this!

Friday we had interviews with president and he asked me to train because we have 51 missionaries coming in September. Transfers are the 9th but if everything goes as planned, I'll be getting the new missionary on Wednesday! I always thought the day I became a trainer would be down in Mexico and I'd be teaching Spanish but it looks like it will be a little different haha. I think this is a great opportunity for me to be a better missionary and learn lots of new things! 

We went to a couple homes this week and it was awesome! Teaching in person is so much better than over a phone. We had a lot of lessons over zoom, but I think the news is starting to get out that we can leave! I feel more like a missionary when I am in the house. We still have to wear masks and it gets freaking hot but we're still chillin. 

Another cool thing we did this week was we were able to help the Queen Creek zone with a plan of salvation drive by. They used chalk to write on the road and cars drove through. We were able to help teach some points and I actually enjoyed it a lot! 

Also a cool little random thing is I finally found some baseball cards at a Safeway today so my day got a whole lot better. The church is true! If y'all know any places in Gilbert that sell cards let me know because I can't find anything.

I need to be better at writing stuff down so I can have good emails haha. I think I'll wrap this up with some spiritual stuff. Last Monday when we met with Elder Greer and his wife, we talked about priesthood Keys and how important they are. He said when they met with President Pyper the week prior, he talked about this for an hour. I learned whole bunch and honestly I didn't realize how important they are! Tonight we have a lesson and he said this week we are going to teach him, so I'm hoping I do good haha. 

Love you all

Elder Wilde 

Love when I find baseball cards on P-Day!

Me and Elder Pierson

Tiktok With the Boys

What's up my dudes! 

Two new things this week. First, we remade one of my tiktok's with the house and man was it the funnest thing I've done in my time here! If my mom wants to add the video on here you can see how great it is! But the best thing that happened was we found out what Phase 1 means... and it means we can go to members houses! The church is true. Straight up so freaking happy! I am getting so sick of zoom and I wanna see people in person. 

A little rundown of what we can/can't do is:

- we can go to members houses for dinner and messages but need to wear masks and social distance.

- we can talk to people if they approach us.

- we can knock doors of interested people but can't go in yet.

We don't have everything normal yet but I'm good with this! 

As for the rest of the week we basically just spent it editing videos again. For some reason we are always having to do stuff like that and I don't like it that much, but this week we made a video about the Atonement that I really liked and it should get posted this week! So when it does check it out at Church of Jesus Christ in Gilbert ;) 

I think I mentioned last week how we would meet with the Greer family every Monday. In my month in this area and being able to do so, I have learned so much. The dude is in the general 70 for a reason. We usually go through the come follow me stuff and he helps me to look at the scriptures in a different way and its incredible how spiritual this guy is! I am looking forward to our meeting tonight! 

This week we are going to spend lots of time getting in contact with people to teach like Michael and Ari. Ari was at church and her daughter was baptized on Saturday so I am excited to keep working with her! 

Love you all! Stay sweet 

Elder Wilde 

Scorpion Huntin'

Wassuh dudes! 

We still chillin’ out here in mini Utah! This week was a little slow because we only taught like 2 lessons and we spent most of our time editing videos! 

First imma start by explaining my email title. Saturday night we went outside to catch some scorpions and after about 5 minutes a guy came up to us and started talking. We weren't dressed in missionary clothes so I think that's why he said something haha. The cool thing about this is when we walked out of the apartment I said "let's go back and get my phone in case something cool happens"... well something cool happened. We met our pal Michael. He asked our names and we didn't have our name tags on so it was funny to explain we were missionaries. He said he wasn't religious but was down to meet with us because he liked us haha. Honestly it was so nice to be able to talk to someone face to face (socially distanced ;))

Like I said this week we were editing a lot of videos and I have learned that if I have a job that involves being on a computer all day, I will die. I don't care if it brings the big bucks back home to future wifey, I ain't about that life. 

We finally got to go to church for the Cameron Ranch ward and it was so nice. We went to 3 different meetings and I loved it so much. The topic for the speakers was the Restoration and honestly I was hoping that I would get called on to speak just because that's a topic I can freakin testify about. We will have meetings with the Durango ward next week so maybe I will get to speak and share my testimony with everyone. 

Now gonna end on some spiritual stuff. We have meetings every Monday with the Greer family in our ward. Elder Greer is in the general 70 and is such a good guy! Like when we have member lessons we usually do the teaching but with him he teaches us. After our lesson with him Monday I was freaking pumped and was on a spiritual high. Basically how it is for me is when I teach and read my scriptures I feel soooooo good! So y'all make sure to do that because it's the best! 

That's it for now, thanks for coming to my Ted talk. Love you all

Elder Wilde