How
ya, Phil! Ok, I'm gonna stop saying that. How are you, everyone!?
I seriously feel like the days get faster and faster! I woke up yesterday and was like, "Oh, man. It's only Thursday... " It was Sunday 😑
Okay, that's a lie, but it truly goes by SOOO fast! I feel like every
week gets better and better, too, because I'm learning more and more and
just understanding a lot more!
So, as a missionary, you have five standards of excellence and you are
"asked" to meet three of them per week. It's really hard to meet
three.
The requirements are: 1. 3 investigators at church
2. 3 new investigators
3. 5 less active/recent convert lessons
4. 5 lessons taught to investigators
5. 5 lessons taught with a member present
This week we hit 4/5 of them which was really good!
I seriously feel like the days get faster and faster! I woke up yesterday and was like, "Oh, man. It's only Thursday... " It was Sunday 😑
Okay, that's a lie, but it truly goes by SOOO fast! I feel like every
week gets better and better, too, because I'm learning more and more and
just understanding a lot more!
So, as a missionary, you have five standards of excellence and you are
"asked" to meet three of them per week. It's really hard to meet
three.
The requirements are: 1. 3 investigators at church
2. 3 new investigators
3. 5 less active/recent convert lessons
4. 5 lessons taught to investigators
5. 5 lessons taught with a member present
This week we hit 4/5 of them which was really good!
Anyways, I'll share some experiences of this week!
1. Last night we had an appointment fall through which sucked, but
anyways "when one door shuts another opens," haha. So when I first got
to Philly, we met this lady on the street, homeless, drug addict,
alcoholic, etc. She has a belief in God + Christ, but she was just a
disaster and "pushed them out of her life" - fast forward to last
night, seeing her for the first time in a month and a half. She is on a
car, just out of it... So I was like, "Wait, I know her!" So we walked up
to talk to her. She was on heroine and drank tonnnnsssss, so we kind
of were just like, "Hey, here's our card and address to our church.
Come here or call us if you need anything..." She didn't have a phone,
so that was worthless but anyways we walked on and I just got an
impression I was like.............. "We didn't even help her......." So
I was like, "Let's go back." We went back and she was just BAWLING on the
side of the road, so put her arm around me and helped her to the side
of the road and sat her up against the wall. She told us her life
story which was just like ... Wow!
Anyways, so we basically told her
ya know, all this stuff. The heroine and alcohol abuse is destroying
your life, etc." She agreed and said Satan had a firm grasp on her - so
we showed her this little video that Elder Andrus and I watch. It's
our like only music we have, so it's our lifeline haha. But we showed her
it. It's called, "Come unto Christ," and she just bawled for like half
way through of it and then she started leaning on me and passed out on
me.... So we woke her up and we asked her if she was hungry and she
hadn't had food in 2 days... So we ran back to our apartment and
grabbed basically what we had left, packed it all up, and ran back to
her, but she was gone... So we ran up and down the streets and found
her finally and we just sat with her and fed her. It was really a
great moment and I just came to realize that there are so many people
out there that have it WAY worse then we do, and if we can do something
small, that will mean something MASSIVE to them...
2. New missionaries came into the field last week and one of them came
to our area on exchanges. His name is Elder Moreno. He is from Cape
Verde, Africa. He was super shy and wouldn't talk and if you know me,
you know that I don't like that, so I took him with me for a little
bit and just started talking and talking and he finally opened up to
me and my eyes were just opened so much. Yes, my Asian eyes opened. He
told me that he is 22 and was raised Catholic. He read the Bible
countless times and was about to become a Catholic priest. However, he
had one question that bothered him, so he prayed and asked, "Why is
there no prophet on the earth today if God always calls a prophet for
each dispensation?" He said the next day two missionaries showed up to
his doorstep. Elder Moreno was like, "What do these fools know?" so he
invited them in to try and bash with them, but the missionaries just
brushed everything off and gave him the lowdown about the church and
basically finished off the meeting with, "We have a prophet on the
earth today." Then he gave Moreno a Book of Mormon. Moreno said that he
didn't want to be Mormon AT ALL and that he would do everything to
prove the Book of Mormon wrong. He read it five times and said he could
not prove it wrong and that he knew it was true, and that it was the
word of God and that all his questions had been answered. He was soon
baptized. He loved what he heard so much that he wanted to serve a
mission ASAP. A year later, he is now in Philadelphia. However, Moreno
said he sold EVERYTHING in his household, worked for months and saved
up what he could to get out here... It gets better - his mother left
him and his family when they were young and he raised his three
brothers by himself - he never met his father.... Moral of the story
is, what have I given up? What did I do... Nothing. I left behind
nothing compared to him... I was soooo put in my place and humbled
after that conversation... Anyways, I asked him if he ever had a
slurpee before and he replied, "What is that?"... So I bought him one
and told him the first one is on me! He replied after taking his first
sip, "Can a mission be 10 years long?" ... Then we are walking home and
he saw a squirrel and yelped and was like, "WHAT IS THAT?" I was like,
"What? The squirrel?" He was like, "We don't have those!" SOOO funny... He
said all they have back home are snakes and sharks... Lol, anyways
really amazing story.
1. Last night we had an appointment fall through which sucked, but
anyways "when one door shuts another opens," haha. So when I first got
to Philly, we met this lady on the street, homeless, drug addict,
alcoholic, etc. She has a belief in God + Christ, but she was just a
disaster and "pushed them out of her life" - fast forward to last
night, seeing her for the first time in a month and a half. She is on a
car, just out of it... So I was like, "Wait, I know her!" So we walked up
to talk to her. She was on heroine and drank tonnnnsssss, so we kind
of were just like, "Hey, here's our card and address to our church.
Come here or call us if you need anything..." She didn't have a phone,
so that was worthless but anyways we walked on and I just got an
impression I was like.............. "We didn't even help her......." So
I was like, "Let's go back." We went back and she was just BAWLING on the
side of the road, so put her arm around me and helped her to the side
of the road and sat her up against the wall. She told us her life
story which was just like ... Wow!
Anyways, so we basically told herya know, all this stuff. The heroine and alcohol abuse is destroying
your life, etc." She agreed and said Satan had a firm grasp on her - so
we showed her this little video that Elder Andrus and I watch. It's
our like only music we have, so it's our lifeline haha. But we showed her
it. It's called, "Come unto Christ," and she just bawled for like half
way through of it and then she started leaning on me and passed out on
me.... So we woke her up and we asked her if she was hungry and she
hadn't had food in 2 days... So we ran back to our apartment and
grabbed basically what we had left, packed it all up, and ran back to
her, but she was gone... So we ran up and down the streets and found
her finally and we just sat with her and fed her. It was really a
great moment and I just came to realize that there are so many people
out there that have it WAY worse then we do, and if we can do something
small, that will mean something MASSIVE to them...
2. New missionaries came into the field last week and one of them came
to our area on exchanges. His name is Elder Moreno. He is from Cape
Verde, Africa. He was super shy and wouldn't talk and if you know me,
you know that I don't like that, so I took him with me for a little
bit and just started talking and talking and he finally opened up to
me and my eyes were just opened so much. Yes, my Asian eyes opened. He
told me that he is 22 and was raised Catholic. He read the Bible
countless times and was about to become a Catholic priest. However, he
had one question that bothered him, so he prayed and asked, "Why is
there no prophet on the earth today if God always calls a prophet for
each dispensation?" He said the next day two missionaries showed up to
his doorstep. Elder Moreno was like, "What do these fools know?" so he
invited them in to try and bash with them, but the missionaries just
brushed everything off and gave him the lowdown about the church and
basically finished off the meeting with, "We have a prophet on the
earth today." Then he gave Moreno a Book of Mormon. Moreno said that he
didn't want to be Mormon AT ALL and that he would do everything to
prove the Book of Mormon wrong. He read it five times and said he could
not prove it wrong and that he knew it was true, and that it was the
word of God and that all his questions had been answered. He was soon
baptized. He loved what he heard so much that he wanted to serve a
mission ASAP. A year later, he is now in Philadelphia. However, Moreno
said he sold EVERYTHING in his household, worked for months and saved
up what he could to get out here... It gets better - his mother left
him and his family when they were young and he raised his three
brothers by himself - he never met his father.... Moral of the story
is, what have I given up? What did I do... Nothing. I left behind
nothing compared to him... I was soooo put in my place and humbled
after that conversation... Anyways, I asked him if he ever had a
slurpee before and he replied, "What is that?"... So I bought him one
and told him the first one is on me! He replied after taking his first
sip, "Can a mission be 10 years long?" ... Then we are walking home and
he saw a squirrel and yelped and was like, "WHAT IS THAT?" I was like,
"What? The squirrel?" He was like, "We don't have those!" SOOO funny... He
said all they have back home are snakes and sharks... Lol, anyways
really amazing story.
3. Last Monday after our P-day was up, we walked outside the church and
a man was looking at the building but neither elder Andrus and I
looked or paid attention... But Steven, who is leaving for his mission
in Sacramento and is in the area we serve in, was with us driving
us around because we had lots of appointments. He was like, "What are you
doing, Wilde, go talk to him! So I did and when I first glanced at
him... He looked like he was a part of the Italian mafia or
something.... If that's even a thing? Anyways, tattooes everywhere,
gelled slick back hair, short and stubby, motorcycle all that stuff,
but I went up and talked to him... He was waiting for his 10-year-old
daughter to get dropped off by the school bus so he could walk her
home safely because the area was dangerous. He said that he works from 1 am to 11 am so that he can spend the day with his daughter.... Once again,
put in my place... You can't judge a book by its cover! He ended up
attending church on Sunday and was one of our new investigators and
absolutely LOVES the church.. I took a pic on his motorcycle. lol It's
swag!
4. It was around 8:55 p.m. and we were walking home and we just got this
vibe that we should knock on some door close to our house. We were
like, "Oh, the lights are on and we have a few minutes to kill," so we
knocked and with open arms these random people let us in.... To our
surprise, the lady in the house said that she said a prayer that
someone would come and help her because of all he trials she was going
through.... And yet we enter in a few minutes later.... We shared some
scriptures that talk about enduring trials and not getting yourself
down and always putting your trust in Him, etc. She was just in
tears... So as we left to shake everyone's hands goodbye, I went and
shook hers and she just started kissing my hands. She was on her knees
and just kissed my hands and thanked me... I didn't even do anything,
yet she was so thankful for the message we shared and she and her
friends & family all asked us to come back... Incredible... Once
again, there are people out there that just need a little bit of
lovin! Hahah
NOW FOR THE CRAAAAZY PART
Okay soooo We live next to a Baptist Church 😑 and it's just like tons
of people screaming loud things, getting pumped about
Christ and stuff.... So we are just walking and we noticed a few
bullet holes in the window... I asked some guy that walked out
of the place what happened and he said that someone came and shot
through the windows the other day!
Anyways, last week it was Elder Wasden's birthday, so he had a bunch of
stuff and candy and cake mailed to him, so we feasted... I have gained
10 pounds... And my button to my pants popped off
. . . no Bueno ! Thisweek I'm turning 19--pretty stoked. We are going to the Priesthood
Restoration site which I'm almost positive but correct me if I'm wrong, is
only found in Pennsylvania and not Australia or Nicaragua, most
definitely not Nicaragua. It's a few hours away, so I'm pumped for
that and then it's Halloween! We are actually not allowed to go out past
6 p.m. this week, I think because the week of Halloween bunches of people
dress up in costumes and stab each other,,, idk, that's what our
Mission President said, some mischief! Hahah
HAVE A GOOD WEEK EVERYONE!
Love,
Elder Wilde!
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