Gonna be swimmin'

Hello there my friends!

Hot week out here but we are alive! First off just wanna say the biggest miracle of the week was when the entire street lost power in the night except for us... the church is true! Other cool thing is we had a baptism! Isaí was baptized and I am so happy about it! He is legit the most solid convert and I'm so happy for him! We are working on helping him receive the Priesthood so he can baptize his wife on Sunday! 

So we have 2 baptisms this week. Víctor and Diana Luz. Víctor is the dad of a member and he wanted to change his life so we pulled up to teach him and now he is getting baptized on Saturday. He is such a nice old dude with a good testimony. Diana Luz is the wife of Isaí and she is super sweet. She is a little shy about the baptism but he is so sick so he is teaching her when we aren't at the house. He has told us how important an eternal family is to him so maybe in a year from now I'll have to come back and go to their sealing! 

We had a date with a lady for the 30th but she says she wants to prepare more so we moved it to the 15th of may. We also put 5 more people on date this week but not until the end of May. We are pretty sure one is already a member but we will figure that out. Setting a date with people isn't that hard honestly, but getting a solid convert is the tough thing. We are super excited to work with these people though because they are all awesome! 

I'm really hoping I stay in this area for at least another transfer but I don't think it will happen because so many people are coming to the mission and President Whitworth told my companion to make sure he learns the area so that was scary. I told president I want to stay for the 2 baptisms this week but I don't know if it will happen :/

Overall the week was dope and I'm hoping I can stay here a few more. The church is true and I love you all! 

Elder Wilde

Isaí's baptism!

Pounded 20 tacos by myself and I don't feel bad about it.

Got a hair cut today and clearly the woman had some issues with the razor.

Gringos

Howdy there my friends! Hot week here in Mexico and it is gonna stay that way for a while. Legit I about died Tuesday night when the AC didn't work and all the power was out. It was 90 degrees and humid as crap, but I made it and am living. I also got a new companion this week! His name is Elder Gardner and he is from Utah. He went to Westlake and is a funny guy. He is 2 transfers behind me in the mission. 

I was honestly a little nervous to get an American companion because of the language but it turns out I actually can speak Spanish and we had a pretty successful week. We found a good number of people to teach and I am actually super proud of how well we are working. The power of prayer is real and the gift of tongues is amazing! 

We had solid lessons with everyone on date and on the 22nd (Thursday) we have the baptism of Isai! I am SO pumped for him! He is just as excited and it is gonna be such a fun day. It's also his birthday so after we are gonna have a fiesta. With the other people on date we had some solid lessons and they are supposed to get baptized this next week. 

We had a cool lesson with a family on Saturday. Jaime is the dad, his daughter Melisa, and the nephew Cristian. Jaime and Melisa had a baptism date before the pandemic and it fell through. Since then they've been tough to put back on date. We taught them about real intent, shoutout Matt Riggs for teaching me about that. After sharing my thoughts with them the dad said he loved my thoughts and they were special... but he didn't accept the baptism date and so we told him to pray with real intent and see what happens. 

We had Zone Conference and I got to see my best friend after like 14 months of not seeing him! If y'all remember Elder Montes from the first time I was in Mexico you remember how much fun we had. I learned a lot of good things that will help me with the work. 

One thing I learned this week was the importance of thanking the Lord for what we have. I learned that when the AC went out and I was hating my life haha. Since that moment I have been thanking Him for AC in all of my prayers. The point is though, we have so much stuff it's ridiculous and what we need to do is give thanks! 

Anyways, hope y'all are doing well. Stay sweet. Love you all!

Elder Wilde 

La iglesia es verdadera (The Church is True)

What's up my dudes! This might be a long email so stay tuned. This week was actually way dope. I ate iguana for the first time, we put 2 more people on date, and my man Isai is still the boy. 

Okay so Tuesday I ate iguana. Don't worry, it wasn't Gerald. We let him go and now he's living his best life outside the church building. Iguana lowkey tastes like chicken but the texture is like fish. Kinda weird. Kinda good. It also came with iguana eggs which kinda sucked not gonna lie. The flavor wasn't awful but the texture was yucky. And the fact that I knew it was iguana egg was gross haha. 

So the people we put on date are named Gaby and Diana Luz. Gaby is a friend of one of the members and she met with the missionaries 15 years ago and now she's coming back to church. She's a super nice lady. She has a little bit of fear because she doesn't know everything so we explained that faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things. The other lady is the wife of Isai. She walked in at the end of one of our lessons with Isai right before the prayer. She stayed for the prayer and afterwards we invited her to join the video call the next day. We didn't think much of it because we had gone over like 5 times before that and she never joined us. We just figured she wasn't interested. Well the power of an invitation is crazy. She joined us the next day and we taught the plan of salvation and that caught her attention. A couple days later we met with them and taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and put her on date for May 2. She was a little hesitant at first but then we presented our little plan... listen to how sick this is. 

April 22 is the day Isai has his baptism. The following week he will receive the priesthood and that Sunday (May 2nd) he can baptize his wife. The church is so true my dudes. 

I'm gonna finish off my email with the story of Isai and why I love the dude so much. He lives across the street from the church, literally his front door to his house is the back door to the church. He told us he always looked for religions and wasn't interested in anything they said. One day he was in his bed pondering and said a prayer asking God to show him a sign. 2 days later he was watching YouTube videos and saw an Ad on how to pray. He filled out the information and thought nothing of it. We later called and started teaching him. When we gave him a Book of Mormon, he read 7 chapters before our next appointment. He is currently in Mosiah 4. (update: Isai just called me and he has finished Mosiah!) He told us when he received the Book of Mormon he knew for a fact this was all true. He told us the Book of Mormon strengthens the bible and he LOVES everything. He came to church with his family and saw the fast offering and tithing slip and says he wants to donate. I love him so much! 

I know for a fact I am back here for him. When I got to the mission, my President said he is surprised they let me come back. They were cutting people off once they had less than 6 months left. When I got back I had about 5 left. I kept thinking there had to be some reason that I got back here and it is totally so I could meet Isai. Not only are we helping him strengthen his testimony, but he is helping me strengthen mine! Everything happens for a reason! 

If you read this far, pray for Isai, Diana Luz, Gaby Torres, and Víctor Sanchez. Please and thank you! 

Love you all! 

Elder Wilde 

Gerald

What's up dudes! 

Crazy week that was long and short so let's see if I can remember everything. We obviously had an amazing General Conference, we put 2 people on date, and I caught an Iguana! 

I'll start with the Iguana. So Sunday after conference I walked out of the room we were sitting in and went to the doors of the church to look outside and I saw an Iguana. My companion came out and asked if I wanted to catch it so I said yeah. We opened up the front doors and went outside and then it ran inside the church and we trapped it in a room. I was honestly scared to grab it at first thinking it would bite me, but Gerald and I connected real well and became friends. We took him over to a members house to show them and they enjoyed that. 

The work is still going! We found 7 to teach this week. A couple of them might be solid but it's tough to know because all of it is over phone calls so it is a little difficult. We also put 2 on date this week. Isai is one that we put for the 22nd. We originally said the 28th but he said he wanted to be baptized the 22nd because that's his birthday. We put another for May 1st, his name is Víctor. He is the dad of one of the members and is super dope. Honestly its freaking hard to understand his accent because homie is missing some teeth but it's still fun to talk with him. 

Friday we had divisions with the DL. His name is Elder Pantoja. He is from Puebla and was originally in Chile. He's an interesting guy but it was fun getting to know him better. 

The highlight of the week was obviously General Conference. First off, 20 freaking temples? I thought they would announce 6 but I was way off. When he was reading the temples I felt the spirit so strong. The church is so freaking true. I loved all of the talks and I found it interesting to see how different everything was as far as recorded messages and certain speakers. The main thing that stuck out to me was knowing that we can do hard things. Honestly, coming back to Mexico wasn't an easy thing. Spanish is hard, the food is different, and I'm not in a nice house with a car like Gilbert. But, I know despite all of my "challenges" I am becoming a better person and the Lord is with me always. #TheChurchIsTrue

Love you all! 

Elder Wilde  

This Ain't Gilbert

Buenas tardes my dudes! 

Figured I should start my emails off in Spanish because I am in the Promised Land haha. First week back in Mexico went well! It's a little different than the first time and is still weird adjusting to the language and the culture but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it in no time. 

I am currently serving in Minatitlán, Vera Cruz. We cover 3 branches named Juarez, Santa Clara, and Pradera. I'm actually super stoked to be here because I've heard nothing but good things about it. The food is freaking good, especially memelas. They are like a giant taco but in the form of a pizza and it slaps. It's also nice because it's not as hot. I still sweat like crazy because of the humidity but at night it's pretty nice. 

My companion is named Elder Muñoz and he's from Mexico City. Dude is a homie and a hard worker. We get along pretty well and he helps me a lot with my Spanish. The goal is to get me fluent in Spanish and him fluent in English haha. 

But yeah this week was interesting. Adjusting to the Mexican culture is tough and fun. For example, in Gilbert I was honked at by members every second while riding a bike. Here when I get honked at, it's by a taxi and out of habit I always wave then we have to explain that we don't need a ride. We also have to cross a river in a boat to get to one side of our area. The thing that is the best though is all of the attention I get haha. I feel like a celebrity walking down the street and I have already had some pictures taken of me... I even had a 65 year old tell me I am her dream man. Gotta love the Mexican culture! 

As far as the work goes, it is a lot easier here than in Gilbert. We found 5 people this week which isn't too bad. We also had 5 at church and this week are probably gonna put some people on date. We do most of our teaching on phone calls just because we don't know where they live. And let me tell ya, understanding these people on the phone isn't easy, but I'm getting used to it. 

I've already met some dope members. One of the families lives right behind us and they are so sick. My Spanish is getting better because I just sit and talk with them. We go there because a girl that lives there isn't a member and we are trying to get her baptized. I love this family because they will straight up tell me when I don't say something right and then I'm able to correct it. Most people just lie to my face and say I don't need to fix anything so shoutout to them. 

Anyways, so to summarize the week, it was long and short all at the same time. Sometimes I was stressed as freak because the change, but other times I was straight chillin. I have learned what it means to trust the Lord. I probably won't learn the language as well as I'd like, I probably won't get as comfortable as I'd like, but I will see miracles as long as I trust Him. The church is so true man.

Love you all, stay sweet!

Elder Wilde

From Mexico to Arizona to Mexico Again

One year ago today I found out I would be returning home from Mexico because of COVID-19. Tomorrow I will be returning to finish my last 6 months! I am extremely grateful for the 10 months I have had in Gilbert, Arizona and all of the lessons I learned! The AGM will always have a place in my heart! I am also extremely grateful for Jesus Christ and the opportunity I have to represent Him. I love this Gospel so much!

One More Week

What's up everyone! 

I've only got one more week in Gilbert and it's kinda sad honestly. When I first got here in June I was ready to go to Mexico and couldn't wait. Don't get me wrong, I'm still pumped for Villahermosa but it is gonna be sad to leave here. I've learned a lot of things and have met a lot of great people! Especially the area I am in right now, there has been a lot of people who have become great friends. 

This last week was kind of weird. My companion Elder Barlow got transferred to Highland and I am in a trio with the Elders I live with until I leave. It was sad when he got transferred because we really got along! We now cover 2 areas so there is not ever free time which is good! 

There's not much in the area going on other than the few people we are teaching! I also finished the Book of Mormon again this week. I sat down and grinded through the last 100 pages so I can finish it in English again and switch over to Spanish. I am sending all of my English stuff home because I really wanna get my Spanish down! 

But as I finished the Book of Mormon again, I still have a strong testimony that it is true. Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. I love this Gospel. The Book of Mormon has the power to change your life and I PROMISE that. When you have doubts, struggles, or anything else, read the Book of Mormon. 

Love you all, 

Elder Wilde