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 

Merry Chrysler

What's up dudes! 

Hope everyone had a good Christmas! Mine was kinda nice... 70 degrees on Christmas is always good! We went to some members houses and they fed us well! And a lady in the ward hooked it up with some presents! 

I don't even remember if I wrote an email last week so here it is. We had Zone Conference on Monday and it was dope! It was pretty long and there were lots of fun games! At the end we watched a video of all the baptisms that happened this year and it was cool to see that even with Covid there were baptisms. 

Tuesday we went caroling as a district and it was actually super successful, so we did it again Wednesday! Even though I suck at singing the spirit was still there. It was cool to see people's reactions when we went by. 

Honestly I can't think of other things to write about soooooo here's a little thought from studies. I was reading Doctrine and Covenants 19 and I loved how much it applied to me as a missionary. I love how it focuses on the Gospel of Christ because it has blessed my life so much! 

Love you all so much 

Elder Wilde

MJ

What's up everyone! 

This week was actually kinda fun not gonna lie! I taught some cool lessons and saw some cool animals so it was awesome! I took a picture with MJ too (the goat) and when I first saw the goat I said, "look it's Michael Jordan" and an Elder I live with didn't know who that was... so I had a lot of teaching to do! 

Although the goat was cool, I saw something even better... a camel! His name is Humphrey but I call him Gerald. Now the reason I saw a camel is because we had a drive thru nativity and it was so cool. I only worked 1 of the 3 nights but it was so freaking cool! There were probably about 2000 cars that came through in the 3 nights and we got about 60 referrals as a mission! Such a successful thing and the spirit was super strong! 

The coolest thing that happened though was the lesson we had with Mo. This dude is from Mexico City and I think he should be taught in Spanish but he's too stubborn. He thinks his English is perfect but it really isn't 😂 but during our lesson I was able to speak some Spanish. Elder Packham said to him, "Mo, do you know why Elder Wilde learned Spanish?". That was the perfect time to testify and man did the spirit take over! I started off in English and before you know it I was speaking Spanish and the spirit was incredible. That was the first time I testified of the Book of Mormon in Spanish since March! For sure the highlight of the week! 

Also today we made gingerbread houses and it was Elders vs Sisters and we destroyed. The annual Wilde Family Gingerbread Wars definitely paid off! 

Love you all! 

Elder Wilde

Meet MJ

Coolest District around!

Gingerbread Wars

I Love to See the Temple

What's up everyone! 

Sorry I didn't email last week it has been busy as crap! So I got transferred to the Temple View zone. It's called that because I bike by the temple every single day and it is beautiful! I cover the Stratland and Maplewood wards and the members are amazing! My companion is Elder Packham and he's from Tooele. He came in the same day as Elder Walls so he's still fairly new! 

I am really liking the area. There is lots of work to be done and the people are amazing! We are teaching a dude from Mexico and he came to church and bore his testimony. He calls the Book of Mormon "The Book" and in his testimony he said, "The Book gives me power and its true". Talk about the spirit I felt from that! He isn't on date for baptism so you already know what I'm about to do tonight! 

It was sad leaving my other area because of the relationships I built over there! I'm happy I have Facebook so I can stay on contact with all of them!

I wanna end with how grateful I am for this Christmas season. The devotional by the first presidency yesterday was amazing and I loved it! The church is so true! 

Love you all

Elder Wilde

We also received this email from the Mission President today, so I am including it in this email.

Dear Brother and Sister Wilde,



I am happy to inform you that your son, Elder Carter Allen Wilde, has been called to be a District Leader in the Arizona Gilbert Mission. He has shown leadership ability and dedication to the work of the Lord.  I know he will do well in this new assignment.



We always appreciate the support your give Elder Wilde with letters of encouragement and love.



Sincerely,



Gordon K. Wright, President

Arizona Gilbert Mission

Paul and Beni

Me with the Greer's. I love these two so much!

Me with Brother and Sister Smith

New Companion Elder Packham from Tooele

Elder Walls, Wilde, Neff, Call

Service project with the Zone making Christmas Wreaths 

The Family...Davison's. They have been the best! I am going to miss them!