Week 9 - October 19, 2015

Hey, hey, everyone!
 

Hope you all had a majestic week! haha, I just hit my
two month mark... I feel like I left yesterday!
Well, I remember last Monday where I was thinking to myself... "When is
it gonna get cold?" ... Thursday, WOW I freaking froze!  It's so cold
here now!  Haahha

This email could be rushed!  I'm actually going out to lunch with Chad
Lewis.  He played for the Philadelphia Eagles and he's taking us out,
so I'm pretty excited for that! 



Anyways this week was great.  They all are, difficult but great!

On Sunday in church this lady that lived next to me in Shanghai spoke
and she said two things that caught my attention:1) What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
2) Are you facing your fears more than you're facing God?
Think about those to yourself, I'm interested to hear all your
responses!

Sunday was however the best day of the week!
This recent convert to our church was born without arms and has some
problem with his feet and he lives by himself in an apartment
building, amazing guy.  We went over and shared a message with him and
just talked with him because he gets lonely.  I asked him how he came
to join The Church of Jesus Christ.  He told me that he was a heavy
smoker and drinker and one day he just felt like he hit rock bottom
and needed to change.  He said that a man on the street put a necklace
around him that said, "Jesus," and that he needed to somewhat alter his
ways.  He said that two missionaries lived in his apartment awhile ago
and that he wanted to talk to them so he did.  They gave him a Book of
Mormon and met with him regularly.  He said he didn't at first want to
be Mormon and that he tried everything he could possibly do to
disprove the missionaries and disprove the Book of Mormon.  Anyways he
read the whole book and prayed because he promised the missionaries he
would.

One day he said he was sitting down and he turned on the TV and
some PBS or whatever the history channel was on and he was watching it
and it was discussing how "foreign people" were living in the lands of
the Americas before Columbus sailed over and how they have no records
of who these people were, but he said he opened the Book of Mormon and
knew exactly who those people were and that he found his answer to his
prayer in a way... Since then he has never missed a single week at
church and is just an amazing person!

 

Also on Sunday, this man hadn't been to church in five
months, but we finallllyyyyyyyyy got him to come.   He is extremely
disabled, can't move at all.  We went over to his house super early and
we told him that we would help him get ready.  So we walked into his
apartment and he only had on his tidy whities.  Omg!  It was so funny
So Elder Andrus and I  literally dressed him up made him look sooo
swaggy and we got an awesome pic with him







On Thursday, we went over to the ladies house (don't get too excited,
just two elderly woman) and we discussed with them the gospel of Jesus
Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving  the Gift of the Holy Ghost, enduring to
the end), but we wanted to make it fun for them because they tend to
get side tracked, so me still being a child at heart, made up some
little thingy and I'll explain the steps... Bear with me it's the
funniest thing ever in the end:

1. Faith - we got a little box and filled it with NASTY Chinese candy
that I got from the Assistants to the President because they knew I
lived in China.  Anyways we filled it up and taped the box shut and
wrote on the sides of the box, "Blessings of faith," "Yummy Candy," and
"What do you hope for and believe is in here."  I told her that even
though she can't SEE what's inside the box she has evidence that there
IS candy inside because a) I told her there was, and 2) it said on the box,
and I told her that if she had faith she would receive blessings, but
she had to wait till the end to receive those blessings (eternal life)
just like we can't see God or Jesus but we have evidence and faith
they exist.

2. Repentance - I wrote down "mistake" in pencil on a piece of paper
and had an eraser behind my back.  I told Arlene that I wanted her to
get rid of that mistake on her own.  Fortunately, she replied the way I
wanted her to by saying, "I need an eraser to get rid of it, ya dummy," and
so I told her, "Well, I have an eraser, but you need to ask for it..."   So
she said, "Okay, give it to me."   So I said, "First, you have to tell me what
I'm getting at!"  She had no idea, so I
told her that she couldn't get rid of a mistake unless she asked for
forgiveness (or the eraser).  I told her to pretend that I was God for this split
second and all she had to do was ask me for the eraser or forgiveness
to get rid of that mistake!  She gasped.  Lol

3. Baptism - I had scribbled and wrote a bunch of stuff on a gross
piece of paper and basically said, "This is life pre-baptism and then
post-baptism, you have this beautiful clean piece of  paper.

4. Holy Ghost /Spirit - After baptism, you receive the Holy
Ghost/Spirit, so to act this out and its purpose.  We used Wayne, the
Black guy I talk about.  He was with us.  I tied a tie around his eyes
and hid a piece of candy in the room and told him to find it on his
own.  He said he couldn't because he couldn't see (obviously) and so
then I told him that I would be the Holy Ghost and would guide him to the
candy.  I explained how the Holy Ghost guides us and comforts us in
times of need if we are doing everything right.

 


5. Endure to the end - I explained how we simply can't just stop
living the commandments and doing what we are suppose to be doing or
else we wouldn't receive that final prize...

THIS IS WHERE IT GETS GOOD
So we gave Arlene the box to open and she opens it and she is like "IT
IS CANDY," and I was like, "What kind of candy?" and she was like,
"Halloween candy!"  And we were like, "Really?  Why don't you read us what
it says?" and she was like, "I can't read this," and we told her to try it
out and she was like, "I'm not eating this FOREIGN stuff!"  Then Elder
Andrus told her to try it out and she did and she was gagging and just
cringing.  I have the video.  I'll send it.  I was sly recording it all!

MIRACLE STORY:  The Spanish Elders in our apartment were missing until
like 10:00 and we were suppose to be in by 9-9:30 at latest, so we
were like, "What the heck is going on?"... So we are talking to them when
they got home and they were like, "We almost just got robbed," and we
asked them to explain... Two Latino men came up to them and one of the
Elders said he could clearly tell they both had guns on them, but they
came up to them in the street, both Elders said there was NO ONE
around... And they said that they were getting really close to their
faces, and  one of the elders said someone down the street yelling in
Spanish, "Is it done?" but  the Elders said out of nowhere, they both
just turned around and started walking really quickly away, and so the
Elders turned around and nobody was in site, no police no nothing...
And the Elders said that the two guys were both just swearing at each other
and that one of them shouted, "I couldn't do it."  Then the Elder
proceeded to tell us that they knew that those two men either SAW or
FELT something that was provided from "someone above to protect them"
idk... Pretty amazing experience, I trust both those guys a lot and
I've heard a lot of stories out here like that...

Some quotes for the week:
Scripture quote
"Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said? - if ye will
not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall
receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these
things shall be made known unto you."  1 Nephi 15:11

Random quote
"Happiness and inter contentment happens when your heart stays focused
on being grateful for everything that the gift of life offers, the
good, the bad, the hard and the easy, the defeats and the victories"

My gma hooked me up with the best early bday present I could ever ask
for.  She took all my Warriors t-shirts from the playoffs and made it
into a blanket, I'll attach it!



Take care everyone!

Elder Wilde