Wedding Planners

Hello everyone! 

Hope all is well where you are because I'm chillin out here in Balancán! This week wasn't too exciting, literally the only thing we did was planned a wedding... kinda haha. 

So I think I talked about it last email but we are teaching Karen and Jonás and they both are on date to get baptized but before doing that they need to get married so we have been trying to figure that out and I am hoping this week we can get it done because Karen is supposed to get baptized on Saturday. She has wanted to get married for a while but Jonás has some commitment issues and isn't too sure yet so pray that he wants to! 

Today we also went to Palenque and saw the ruins that I've been waiting to see the last 22 months. They were pretty cool not gonna lie. The only sucky thing is we couldn't go inside the temples so that was a bummer but it was fun because we went with the district and had a good time. It was fun to read the different signs and hear the stories of all of the legends about the ruins but we were all like "dudes we have a book that will tell you what really happened". 

This week I listened to a lot of BYU devotionals and I learned a lot. I listened to one about the difference of avoiding temptation and resisting it and that was a great one but the one that I liked the most was called "Quick to Observe" by Elder Bednar and it was so good! I highly recommend listening to it! It talked a little bit about Mormon how he was quick to observe at such a young age and how we need to be the same as him. 

Love you all! 

Elder Wilde  

54 Baptisms! (not clickbait)

What is up everyone! 

It was a fun week out here in Mexico with some cool things. We put a couple people on date, found some cool people to teach, and we went to the temple! It is true that we had 54 baptisms but they were all in the temple but it's still pretty awesome. 

So let's start with the temple. We went on Saturday with a recent convert named Hilsy. She was baptized a couple of months ago and she is pretty solid. She has been wanting to go to the temple for a while and now it is finally in phase 2B down here so we were able to go with her and do some baptisms. The temple is the best and I love it so much. 

The people we put on date this week are pretty sweet. They are a couple who live together, Karen and Jonás. Jonás has a boy named Eduardo who was baptized a couple of months ago and we are planning on having him baptize Karen and Jonás. We still need to help them get married so pray that everything will go smoothly. The best part is when we asked Jonás to get baptized, he said ¨yeah, what time were you thinking?¨ We thought he was for sure gonna be hesitant but he accepted it because he wants the gift of the Holy Ghost. 

We had a lot of other lessons and found some new people. I am getting really excited to work in this area these last couple of months. President told me I won't be leaving the area so I am super pumped to keep working. I am hoping this area will be loaded with work by the time I get home. 

Just to wrap up on a spiritual note. This week I studied about angels. I read the talk "I Believe in Angels" by Carlos A. Gadoy and I loved how he talks about angels being on this side of the veil. A member I met in Arizona told my companion and I that we should introduce ourselves as angels. Usually I would think that is a little weird but this man was a mission president so I trust him. This week I did that. We were talking with Karen and she mentioned how she wants to follow God and she wants to know what is right but she didn't think she had the answer. That's when I remembered the advice from the member so I told her that my companion and I were angels sent to her at this time. I explained how we read in the scriptures so much about angels and how they speak the words of Christ. She was like ¨oh shoot maybe you´re right¨ (not a direct translation haha). Anyway, the moral of the story is angels are real and the church is true. 

Love you all!

Elder Wilde 

Week of Meetings

Hello everybody!

I hope all is well! Not gonna lie this was a pretty boring week as far as lessons and stuff but we had a lot of meetings that I learned a lot in. We had zone conference, interviews with president, and a district conference. 

Because of the covid numbers we had to do interviews and zone conference over zoom which kind of sucked because staring at a screen for 6 hours isn't fun. The good thing about it is there were a lot of things that stuck out to me. We talked about the Book of Mormon. For those who have read my emails the last 22 months know that I love the Book of Mormon so much! We talked about ways to use it and one of the questions was the importance of Moroni 10: 3-5. I look at these verses like a formula. It mentions a few things we need to do. 

Pray in the name of Christ + have faith in Christ + sincere heart + real intent = answer through power of the Holy Ghost. 

Now that is a pretty simple formula I think. I was able to share my thought at the zone conference about real intent and how we need to help those we teach pray with real intent. 

Interviews with president were awesome as always! Not gonna lie it was kind of weird when he kept saying "you go home in a few weeks". We talked about my area and how there are so many inactive members and we made a plan to go knock on all of their doors and invite them to church. After the interview I got pretty pumped and I told president I'm gonna baptize 10 people before I leave haha. 

Honestly there isn't much that happened this week and that's why I don't have any pics (sorry mom I love you). 

Love you all!

Elder Wilde 

Gerald and Hector

What's up everyone! 

Hope you all had an amazing week! It was a pretty normal week here in the beautiful town of Balancán. We had a lot of lessons and found some people to teach so that is always fun. We did divisions this week and I went with Elder Bencomo to an area called Zapata and it was fun. The highlight was catching the baby iguanas and keeping them with us for the day. 

Let's start with the iguanas. Gerald and Hector were the best pets ever. We caught them and they were crazy at first but then they started to like us and would just sit on our shoulders as we did work haha it was a good time. During video calls we would put them on the wall behind us and it was an all around great time. The only bad thing about it is that Elder Bencomo tried to grab one by the tail and then it fell off. Elder Bencomo is a good dude. He is from Chihuahua but speaks perfect English because his mom is from Utah and doesn't speak Spanish. During divisions I also got to translate for some lady who wanted to make a phone call to the US and that was an interesting experience. 

Out here in Balancán I am just living my best life. We are still doing lots of work with inactive members trying to help them out and find new people to teach through them. It is still a little tough with all of the covid restrictions so all of you reading this in the US, be grateful that you can walk outside without a mask because here people are still driving in their cars with them. I don't understand why they do that but it's what they think is safe haha. 

This week at church during our Sunday school lesson the question was ¨What has the Savior done for me?¨ I think that is a great question to ponder because everything we have is thanks to Him. I made a list of all of the things that he has done for me and the list kept going on and on. As I continue to study the scriptures and learn more about Him I think about how lucky I am to be in the situation I am. 

Love you all!

Elder Wilde 

Balanyork

Hello everyone!

Hope all is well in the US because I am chilling here in Balanyork haha. That is a nickname missionaries in the past have for Balancán. Where I'm at is a tiny town with one store and a whole lot of nothing, so the nickname coming from New York doesn't make much sense but it's fun to say. This week was basically just adjusting to the area and meeting some people. 

I got here on Wednesday and Thursday morning and my companion, Elder Gallegos and I, were told we are no longer allowed to have in person lessons which sucks real bad. The only exception was if we already had them set or if it is at the church. We made sure to get all of our in person lessons in so I was able to meet some people. There aren't a lot of people here so I think I'll meet everyone in the next week or so. But yeah we had some good lessons this week and it has just been an interesting experience overall. 

Now there may not be a lot of stores and stuff here but there are crocodiles and monkeys! There's a little pond about 40 yards from our house that has a bunch of crocs so sometimes we go feed them. The monkeys are pretty sweet not gonna lie. There are 2 types, the cute little ones that you wanna hold, and the big boys who scream loud and want to attack. So far I have only seen the little boys close up and the big boys I saw from a distance. We can hear them screaming in the morning and its actually scary and does not sound like a monkey. 

My little spiritual thought this week is how grateful I am for the sacrament. At church yesterday we had a solid 14 people including us. I was able to give a talk and I mentioned that the sacrament is the highlight of the week and we need to work to invite everyone to church on Sunday to partake of it. Don't take the sacrament for granted because it's amazing and we are so blessed to have it. 

Love you all! 

Elder Wilde 

Bye bye Mina

Hello everyone!

I hope all is well! This week was weird honestly so let's see if I can remember what happened as I write this. First off, we received transfer news and I will be going to the other side of the mission to an area named Balancán and I'll be finishing the training of Elder Gallegos. Don't know much about the area or the companion but I'm excited. It might be my last area too so that's weird! We had a couple cool lessons this week so let me talk about those. 

First cool lesson was with some guys we met last week because they said something to me in English so we contacted them. I'm pretty sure I talked about them last week. Francisco and Rafael are brothers and they have a bunch a friends and it's confusing because 3 are named Eric. Part of the reason they wanted to listen was because I said we will have an English class afterwards but as we taught they were all so pumped to hear about another book that talks about Jesus. We have visited them a few times and they literally only want to talk about the Book of Mormon. 

They best lesson this week was with Isaí! If you guys go back to last transfer, Isaí is the guy I baptized and my favorite person ever. He isn't in my area but we went on divisions for a lesson and I was able to talk with him. He is so solid it's amazing. My man already has read all of the scriptures and is preparing to go to the temple in the next couple weeks when it opens up. When I walked in their house I could feel the change and the happiness that they have from the Gospel. I love that family so much! 

Just wanna finish saying that God loves you and the church is true. I have learned so much since being back in Mexico and look forward to learning more in these last few months!

Love you all!

Elder Wilde

TikTok Fame

Qué onda dudes! Slow and hot week with some interesting stuff. But the best part was remaking one of my tiktoks with a family and it was so terribly made but at the same time my favorite thing ever haha. The work was real slow this week because every lesson fell, literally it was bad. But I learned lots of stuff from it so let me tell ya. 

So last week we killed it with numbers, found a lot of people and put a lot on date. Maybe I got too cocky but this week was rough. We still managed to find 5 people which isn't terrible, definitely better than 0 so I should be grateful. We had so many appointments set up and when it was a phone call they didn't answer and when it was in person they weren't home. BUT I still managed to learn some stuff. 

First lesson learned, don't be discouraged when something doesn't go right. This week I read a little bit about Alma getting roasted by the people of Ammonihah and he left the city pretty depressed but then the angel pulled up and told him he needed to go back. Sure enough he did and found Amulek. Similar thing happened with us. On Monday night we went to a lesson and the people said "don't come back here we don't want to learn" and so I left pretty bummed but then we met a sick family and they invited us in and we talked about the Book of Mormon. We found them because they shouted "hello brother how are you?" And I always use English as an opportunity to contact someone. Well it worked and we set up an appointment with them. 

We pulled up to the appointment the next day and homie weren't there, so we left to the next one and luckily found one of the kids in the street with 3 of his friends and he hyped us up saying how cool our "Mormon Book" was. Well we set up the appointment for another day and that fell as well. 

The other lesson I learned was to never take the First Vision for granted. We taught a lady who was baptized a few years ago but honestly she doesn't remember anything that was taught. It was so fun to visit her because she's just this nice old lady who loves the bible. Anyways, we taught the restoration to her and when we explained the First Vision she said "that is an incredible experience! How did a 14 year old boy have that much faith? We are so blessed to have him in our life!" I was like you tell them Yolanda, she was spitting straight facts! Man am I so grateful for that experience in my life!

Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ. He translated the Book of Mormon. It is so true. I love this gospel it's the best!

Love you all!

Elder Wilde