First off, pray for the missionaries that were
hurt in the Brussels bombing a few days ago. Can't believe that
happened. They need all the support they can get.
I'm on to the last
week of this transfer. We have transfer calls this Saturday! I'm
nervous but at the same time excited. I'm hoping there are some big
changes to our area (boundaries), and I've requested a Spanish
missionary to come here so we could teach Hispanics as well. The
Sister Missionaries definitely have "The Promise Land" when it comes
to areas. We drew the short end of the stick, doesn't surprise me.
It's okay though!
(Elder Wilde: "So that tie was so bad, long story."
(Elder Wilde: "We had a little mini-missionary for the week. He is 16.
We taught him a little dating strategies lol.)
the wonderful opportunity to teach two classes in church this week
(and hopefully for the rest of my time here). Our first class, Gospel
Principles, the person teaching wasn't there, so I volunteered to
teach. That class (new members, investigators meet) was filled, every
seat was taken! It was so amazing. Anyways, I opened up with the "He
is Risen" video.
showed in his Gospel Principles class.)
We had a great discussion. I basically asked them questions the whole
all learned together. I taught in Elders Quorum as well. That was
great. I'm going to copy and paste bits and pieces of my lesson:
- How does the Atonement demonstrate the love of Heavenly Father and
Jesus Christ for us?
As a young missionary, Elder Orson F. Whitney who later served in the
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, had a dream so powerful that it changed
his life forever. He later wrote:
“All at once the circumstance seemed to change. … Instead of
before, it was after the Crucifixion, and the Savior, with those three
Apostles, now stood together in a group at my left. They were about to
depart and ascend into heaven. I could endure it no longer. I ran from
behind the tree, fell at His feet, clasped Him around the knees, and
begged Him to take me with Him.
“I shall never forget the kind and gentle manner in which He
stooped and raised me up and embraced me. It was so vivid, so real
that I felt the very warmth of His bosom against which I rested. Then
He said: ‘No, my son; these have finished their work, and they may go
with me; but you must stay and finish yours.’ Still I clung to Him.
Gazing up into His face--for He was taller than I--I besought Him most
earnestly: ‘Well, promise me that I will come to You at the last.’ He
smiled sweetly and tenderly and replied: ‘That will depend entirely
upon yourself.’ I awoke with a sob in my throat, and it was morning.”
- How might we better appreciate the significance of the atonement/Resurrection?
Without the Resurrection, the Gospel of Jesus Christ becomes a litany
of wise sayings and seemingly unexplainable miracles--but sayings and
miracles with no ultimate triumph. No, the ultimate triumph is in the
ultimate miracle: for the first time in the history of mankind, one
who was dead raised himself into living immortality. He was the Son of
God, the Son of our Immortal Father in Heaven, and his triumph over
physical and spiritual death is the good news every Christian tongue
should speak.
Surely the resurrection is the center of every Christian’s faith; it
is the greatest of all of the miracles performed by the Savior of the
world. Without it, we are indeed left hopeless. Let me borrow the
words of Paul: “If there be no resurrection of the dead, … then is our
preaching vain, … and we are found false witnesses of God; because we
have testified of God that he raised up Christ. … If Christ be not
raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” - Howard W.
Hunter - He is Risen
I'll share one miracle this week - probably one of the biggest of my
mission so far.
Elder Tryon and I are basically about to drop our whole teaching pool
- so for the whole week we told each other that we wouldn't teach, we
would just find, and we prayed and prayed and prayed that we would
find ONE elect person, just ONE who was prepared. Thursday night we
planned for our day and I felt and knew it was the Spirit that told me
to go tract a specific area. I put it in, but I KNEW I knew gosh
dangit that that area had been tracted 10948 times. It looked like a
waste of time on paper, but we went. We got there and it was door
slammed in our faces over and over. Anyways, we had a few more minutes of
tracting and we came to the
end of the block and could either go left or right. On the right was a
few torn down houses and worn down with a few for sale. On the left
was the humble abodes that if anything, looked like they had the most
potential. I felt that we should go right and knock on a house with a
broken manhandled car in the front, got onto the deck (pretty sure the
wood was going to break), and I knocked on the house. This Hispanic lady
came out, and we asked if we could share the video. She, not
understanding what we were saying, was reluctant and so Elder Tryon
started to walk away, and in my broken Spanish I was like, " Yo soy
un missionario para la inglesis de jesu christo, yo tengo un video, to
quires ver, Es muy Bonita, creo que te gusta!"
She agreed to watch it
and after, she told me that she was born a member of the church in
Mexico, moved to Italy and that she had no idea where the church was
there. Then she moved here and nobody knew she was here, we didn't
have her records.. She has no phone, car anything. Anyways we told her
we would be back. We came back and talked to her more - and Sunday
came around and she came to church. The cool thing about this story is
that she told us she had been praying for two nights (two days before
we came over) for someone to help her - I'm sure we were the answer to
her prayers, and that's why we felt we needed to go to that area. It
was an amazing experience. I'll attach a picture.
Love you all. I hope you remember the Savior, Jesus Christ in your day
to day life. I love Him. I'm grateful to be a part of his church. I
would do anything for it. I'm grateful for the atonement, I feel so
blessed to be able to teach people about it and utilize it everyday.
God bless.
Elder Wilde
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