Week 41 - May 30, 2016

Hello hello!  What's it?  (My comp says that all day to me.) 

This house said no missionaries.  When he came to the door and said, "Do you not see the sign?"  I said, "Sir, that's a man and woman, we are two Elders!"  He didn't like that.

Elder Wilde and his companion.

 I found a turtle on the side of the road, we took it home and built a

home for it.  Saving lives and animals.  : - )

This week was quick, very hectic.  Tuesday was interesting.  We had a lesson with Rosa, then a few hours
later she texts me and basically says to call 911 because she and her
husband got in a fight.  Anywho, three hours later, a member was taking
us to an appointment and we felt like we should go over there so we
did, and we were there for like two hours talking to the police, and if
we didn't show up, then she would have been put in jail because the
cops didn't believe her.  If we wouldn't have come, Italo, her son
would have been taken from Social Services, so definitely a prompting
from the Lord that we acted on that really blessed Rosa because her
son was able to stay with a member of the church, and she had many
people to vouch for her.  She is staying in some sort of women shelter.
I'm not really sure what it is, but pray for her.  She is going through a lot. 

On Thursday, we went out to have lunch with a less-active member and
another member to fellowship and get to know him.  At the end of i, I
tried giving back the 5 left over dollars from the meal to the member,
but he was like, "Just keep it, you'll need it more then I do," so I did
and the next day coming home (I was with a different missionary in his
area) we accidentally got on the highway and we we came up to a toll
booth, and neither of us had any money in our wallets, so we were both
like...." Well, this sucks.  We have to pay a $25 fine now..."   But instead, we prayed and right after the prayer I remembered that in my suit
pocket I had 5 dollars, the exact amount to get through the toll.  That
was just a small blessing--we were very appreciative though! 

Amy is doing really well, her baptism is on the 12th.  She is very
excited.  We watched the hour-long Joseph Smith:  Prophet of the Restoration video with her, and she was like "IT ALL MAKES SENSE, WHY
DONT PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THIS?" and she told us she had been receiving
answers to her prayers.  She's awesome, she has an open mind, a sincere
heart and faith which is they key to receiving answers.  She loves
reading the Book of Mormon and is even trying to get her parents to
take the discussions now too.  But apparently the Jehovah Witnesses
ticked them off too much they are a little turned off meeting with
missionaries of any sect.  

We have been teaching this 20 year old named PJ.  He has a baptismal
date for early July, he's solid.  But we went to his house for a lesson
and his mom kicked us out and told us not to come back... She is
"Baptist" and "already saved," whatever the heck that means. Anywho, we
were a little frustrated and then we were talking about him in one of
our meetings and our Bishop was like... "Wait a minute, Our family
knows him!"  Super small world, so we are going to start meeting at his
house.  Super cool.  The Lord prepares people and situations in different
ways.  

We started teaching this lady named Crystal, she is in her mid 30's.  We knocked on her door and she was blasting Eminem, that was a tender
mercy.  Anywho, she invited us in, but we couldn't because we didn't
have a male so we came back the next day and she was like, "Tell me
about the Book of Mormon, tell me all about!"  She has had really good
Mormon friends and thinks very highly of us but never really knew
much.  She went to so many different churches and they all turned her
off so she was done from going to different churches.  She was telling
us how the Baptist Church just goes off on the Mormons during their
sermons and spends most of their time preaching about how other
churches are all wrong and not really teaching doctrine or anything.  She said that most churches are in it for the money, (which is true...
Grateful nobody gets paid in ours) and so anyways we taught her the Restoration; she loved it.  She had so many questions which we answered
all of them.  At the end she was like, "You're the only church that
could answer all my questions and more with simplicity."  I turned to
her and I said, "Mam, the gospel is simple.  Your Father in Heaven loves
you.  He has a plan for you and your family.  He has sent us here to
invite you to follow it," and she told us she would do whatever it
takes, so that was cool. 

Anyways, those were just a few neat experiences from the week.  I read
a super old conference talk that was interesting.  Talks about the
Catholics and Mormons.  I'll copy and paste.  

"I think if people were just open-minded, it wouldn’t be so hard for
them to know where to find the truth.  Of course, we take the Bible as
our guide to help us in our search for the truth.  I have always been
greatly impressed by the experience that Elder Orson F. Whitney had.  He was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, and he related this in
one of our conferences.   would like to read it to you.  He said:
“Many years ago a learned man, a member of the Roman Catholic Church,
came to Utah and spoke from the stand of the Salt Lake Tabernacle.  I
became well-acquainted with him, and we conversed freely and frankly.
A great scholar, with perhaps a dozen languages at his tongue’s end,
he seemed to know all about theology, law, literature, science and
philosophy.  One day he said to me: ‘You Mormons are all ignoramuses.  You don’t even know the strength of your own position . It is so strong
that there is only one other tenable in the whole Christian world, and
that is the position of the Catholic Church.  The issue is between
Catholicism and Mormonism.  If we are right, you are wrong; if you are
right, we are wrong; and that’s all there is to it.  The Protestants
haven’t a leg to stand on.  For, if we are wrong, they are wrong with
us, since they were a part of us and went out from us; while if we are
right, they are apostates whom we cut off long ago.  If we have the
apostolic succession from St. Peter, as we claim, there is no need of
Joseph Smith and Mormonism; but if we have not that succession, then
such a man as Joseph Smith was necessary, and Mormonism’s attitude is
the only consistent one. It is either the perpetuation of the gospel
from ancient times, or the restoration of the gospel in latter days.’”

Love you all, have a wonderful week.

God bless you,  Elder Wilde

Week 40 - May 23, 2016

Hello, there!

What a wonderful week it was here in Cecil County :)  The mushroom farms
are continuing to smell more and more, the rain continues to douse us,
the Amish are parking their buggies in car parking spots and taking up
everyone's parking spaces, and the flies are more annoying then ever!

We had a very successful week.  We found a family of six who are just
AWESOME and then we found a couple in their mid 40's and a Hispanic
family and a young man, 20 years old named PJ (he is elect for sure, I
could tell by his name).

We have a few more people who have accepted a baptismal date, very
exciting!  We are being very blessed.

Amy is preparing for her baptismal date in two weeks which we are all
excited for.  Watching her change, learn and gain a testimony has been
super cool.  It is just nice to teach someone the basics of the basics
and then watch her learn for herself if all this is true.  She loves
it.  Her boyfriend gave a talk in church yesterday about "How the
Missionaries (us) Teaching his Girlfriend has Strengthened his
Testimony."  It was sweet.  We got a few shout outs :) ha!

I shall share a few neat experiences -------------------------------- 

Saturday we are coming back from the northern part of our area, had a
few lessons up there, and it just started pouring, and we were both
like......... We don't want to tract in the pouring rain.  We prayed
about what we should do then sat there and conversed and we decided we
should text a member and ask if we can stop by and say hi.  The member
replied instantly and said he would be home in two minutes and how odd
it was that we texted him because we was about to do the same.  When we
got to his home, he was with one of his non-member friends who I've
taught before, but he lives out of town and only comes here on
occasion.  The member told us he had just come back in town today and
that he was out of the house all day, but the second we texted him,
they were pulling into the drive way.  I'm pretty close with his non-member friend.  

We joke around a lot and obviously I talk to him about
the Church.  It was just a neat experience.  The Spirit definitely
impressed both of us to text the member and get over there - obviously
we were suppose to be there to see his non-member friend and
fellowship with him, so that was really cool.  He'll get baptized soon.
Then shortly after, the member asked to take us out to dinner and we
would never deny dinner, so we said, "Sure."  The Sisters are teaching this
14 year old young boy, who is very sweet.  Anywho, the member
and I were in the car and we both just kind of started talking about
him, and we were like... he needs to come to dinner with us.  We drove
to his house and he was like, "Elder Wilde, go get him..." (he had no idea
we were coming), so I went inside this kid's house (the door was open)
... and his dad was just SCREAMING at him and he was like, "Oh hey, youre
the guy from the church!"  "Yes, that is I," and I told him come to dinner
with us.  "We want you to come with us!"  He was like... "Man, thank you so
much for coming.  My dad is in one of his moods and I needed to get out of
here..."   We had an awesome night.  He is super excited to get baptized
in the church.  Just another spiritual prompting we acted on and
amazing things came from it! 

 Ministering means doing “the work of the Lord on the earth” and helping others to become true followers of Jesus Christ.

One of the families that we tracted into, the couple.  We knocked on
their door and I gave my little church missionary intro thing and they
were like, "No, we are okay......." and I definitely felt prompted from
the Spirit to ask again and be a little more bold, so i said, "Hey,
please let us in.  We have a message that you have been waiting to hear
that can change your life, so please let us in".... They let us in...
we had an amazing spiritual lesson... The Spirit confirmed to them the
church was true and.......... yeah, they are amazing and will
hopefully getting baptized in eight weeks.  They have already read bits and
pieces of the Book of Mormon and were so interested and enlightened.  It
was so cool to listen to them ask questions and talk about it.  

I've
had a few instances on my mission where I felt the Spirit tell me to
not give up and that I needed to ask again and be more bold.
Whenever I act on that prompting, we get in the home and have a
wonderful time.

This one was kind of funny - so back in my hey day, I use to love
skateboarding.  I was pretty good, too.  Seems when I get good at
something, I tend to give up because I get bored.  Maybe that's not the
reason, I don't know.  Skateboarding, soccer, etc.  

Anyways, we were
trying to contact a part-member family and there was this group of
teenage kids skateboarding.  I went over to them and I was playing
really dumb.  I was like, "Hey, can you do a jump?"  They started laughing,
"This white boy" (they were Hispanics...), talking to us
calling an ollie a jump" and anyways, I was like, "Hey, show me how to do
it and if I can do an 'ollie,' I get to teach you a message about Jesus
Christ!   They all started laughing, and they were like, "You won't be able
to do it, especailly not in those shoes!"  So I said, "Ok, give me three
tries.  They all agreed to let me teach them if I could do it (first of
all, I know I'm suppose to be Christlike, but they sucked at
skateboarding.  It was hilarious to watch them), so my first attempt I
purposely failed and then same with my second and they were all
laughing.  Then I was like, "Hey hey, I have one more try!"  So my last try,
I did a really really good ollie, picked up the skateboard handed it
to the kid and said, "Here, you can use this to sit down on," and then I
taught all of them.  It was funny.  Sorry, Dad, my shoes were a little
scuffed after that." - I polished them up though :) 

 Anyways, lots of other awesome stuff happened this week.  
Something I really learned this week which has been a
continuous thing I have learned throughout my mission was to NEVER
EVER delay a prompting that the Spirit has given you - always act on
it right away and do as much as you can to be in tune to the Spirit.  I
definitely have seen MIRACLES orchestrated by God for sure on my
mission, many undeniable experiences that has built my testimony.  I'm
grateful to be a set apart, ordained minister of the Lord.  It's the
best.  I love helping people, the gospel blesses lives.  Wouldn't want to
be doing anything else!  

God bless - 

Elder Wilde

P.S . Go, Warriors :-) 

Week 39 - May 16, 2016

Hello there!
 

Man the week flew.  It was a busy one.  Very very busy.  Went to the
temple, got a new car, meetings, service, planning, exchanges,
transfer calls, trainings.  Lots of stuff going on for sure!
 

I don't really have too much to write about this week, I think I'll
just share a bit out of a lesson we taught the other day to some less
active members.
 

We are often asked the typical, "If God exists, why do bad things
happen to good people?" or "Why am I facing hardship even if I am
following the gospel?" stuff like that, and I often think to myself...
Nowhere In the Bible, Book of Mormon, conference talks does it ever
EVER say if you follow the gospel your life will be easy.  It never
anywhere says if you follow the gospel you won't have problems in your
life.  That is not a promise that has been made.  The promise that has
been made is that if you live the gospel of Jesus Christ to the best
of your ability, your faith will become unwavering and whatever things
happen in your life you will be able to get THROUGH it not around or
over or underneath but through it.  

I often think of some of the
greatest people such as Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ, Moses, Nephi,
Abinadi, etc.  These are men who did everything to their best ability in
living and keeping the commandments and they lived a harder life than
most.  They were persecuted, mocked, tortured, this that and more.
They went through so many different trials, but each one of them
relied on the Lord (except for Jesus Christ obviously), relied on the
teachings, and were able to get through whatever they were facing.
This scripture never says life is going to be easy if you follow
Christ, it says if you'll follow Christ you will be ready when the
hard times come.

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our
Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your
foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds,
yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his
mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to
drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the
rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation
whereon if men build they cannot fall." Helaman 5:12
 

People begin to murmur when they don't understand God's plan for them.
It is so very interesting because there are definitely two types of
people.  There are people who do have faith and do understand God's
magnificent plan for all of us, and there are people who don't have
faith and don't know God's plan.  You can see so easily the difference in lives

 these people have. 

One lady that we work with has had four members of her family pass away this
month... Yet she is all smiles all around.  I asked her I was like....
"How are you still happy?  How are you handling this?  Four deaths in a
family, that is out of this world!"  And she was like, "Elder Wilde!  You
know exactly where they are and what they are doing and so do I!  Why
should we have to worry?"
 

Then there are those people who don't have the knowledge of the
restored gospel of Jesus Christ and they have no clue where the person
is and they are very very sad and resort to worldly devices to help
them.  You see them question the divinity of the Godhead amongst other
things.  It's very sad to see because they go on to make poor decisions
and then just more sadness comes to them.
 

There is an AWESOME conference talk entitled, "Hold on Thy Way" and Elder Koichi Aoyagi says some very interesting things.

Hold On Thy Way 

(Click on the link above to read or listen to the entire talk Elder Wilde is talking about.)

The principle is that the God who created the heavens and the earth
knows the grand design of this earth, that He has dominion over all
things in the heavens and the earth, and that in order to bring to
pass the Plan of Salvation, He provides us with many different
experiences--including some trials--while we are on this earth.
 

And the Lord said the following to Joseph Smith:
"Know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience,
and shall be for thy good. …
“Therefore, hold on thy way … , for God shall be with you forever and ever.”
The trials of this earth--including illness and death--are a part of
the Plan of Salvation and are inevitable experiences.  It is necessary
for us to “hold on [our] way” and accept our trials with faith.
However, the purpose of our lives is not merely to endure trials.
Heavenly Father sent His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, as our Savior and
Redeemer so we could overcome the trials we face on this earth; in
other words, He makes our weak things become strong, He atones for our
sins and our imperfections, and He makes it possible for us to obtain
immortality and eternal life.
 

President Henry B. Eyring stated: “The test a loving God has set
before us is not to see if we can endure difficulty.  It is to see if
we can endure it well.  We pass the test by showing that we remembered
Him and the commandments He gave us.”
“Hold on thy way” is a key choice during times of trial.  Turn your
heart to God, especially when you face trials.  Humbly obey the
commandments of God.  Show faith to reconcile your wishes with the will
of God.

I am so very grateful for the wonderful opportunity I have had the
past nine months to teach the Plan of Salvation, God's beautiful plan to
people who have been searching, to people who have had questions that
could only be answered by Jesus Christ's restored church on earth.  I
am grateful for the knowledge and comfort it brings into my life and
into the lives of others.  Hold on thy way and trust in the Lord. 

Love you all!

Elder Wilde

Week 38 - May 11, 2016

Hey there!

Today is my Pday.  I actually just got home from the Washington DC Temple.
I was so happy I was able to talk to my family this week.  It was so
great seeing them.  I love them to bits and pieces!  Talk again in 8
months :-))  HAPPY MOTHERS DAY AGAIN!

 (Elder Wilde was so happy to wish his mother a Happy Mothers' Day!)



(Elder Wilde's family, minus his older brother who is attending college after returning 

from his two-year mission.)











(The four Wilde brothers.)

So this week I got a new companion, my old companion went home to
Washington State.  My new companion... I can't say his name right and
it has been three days.  It's impossible to say.  He's from Hawaii.  Super
jacked short Hawaiian.  He's hilarious!   We have had a great time the
past few days.  His name is Elder Makuakane!  He's been out for almost
six months.

Anywho, it's been a super great week so far and it's going to continue
to be a great week.  I don't have all that much to report on
considering I just called home.

I'll share today's temple experience and send a few pics.
























Well, it was a rainy day unfortunately.  On the way there, I said a
little prayer for it to stop raining and within two minutes or so all
the rain was gone away, it was incredible!  The two ladies we took--Rosa
and Cece--absolutely loved the temple.  They did baptisms for their
family.  Rosa was crying so much during it; she felt the Spirit so much
and she was so happy that she was able to do this for her
grandparents.  It was beautiful to see her like that!  I'm so happy to
know that the truth of being able to do baptisms and other ordinances
for ancestors was restored to the earth allowing us to give us and
them the opportunity to be with eachother again someday!

 (Rosa's Text of Appreciation after the baptisms of her ancestors.)








Love you all.  Hope you have a wonderful week.  Sorry so short this
week, not too much to report on!

Elder Wilde

Week 37 - May 2, 2016

Hello! 

Wonderful week here in good ole Cecil County!  I am excited I get to talk to my family on Sunday!  It's been about 4 1/2 months, but it felt like a few days for sure.  I really do not have all that much to report on this week, so I'll just talk about Rosa and her baptism. 

So about 7 weeks ago, my last companion and I were having a hard time helping our investigators progress further.  We were at a dinner appointment and I was telling the member that we have all these people who are not progressing.  He told us to drop them, which I basically said ..."Umm, not going to do that."  He then came back around and said, "Do you have faith that the Lord will provide people for you to teach if you take a chance?"  I was very hesitant and then he basically rebuked me In a loving way.  He was just like, "Maybe it's not the area that is hard.  Maybe it's the faith of our missionaries in this area."  So we went home that night and in my head I was like, "How dare he?  I work my tail off and he says that?!"  But then, of course, when I really thought about it, he was right.  That night we told ourselves we would spend ONE day, completely tracting and finding, the whole day, but we wanted to know where to go.  We wanted just one prepared person to be there.  

We both felt inspired to choose this small dinky neighborhood, which we were sure had been tracted before.  Anywho we went, after two hours of rejections from all these Catholics, we came to a split in the road, about to give up we said, "Let's knock these last three houses on the right and then head out."  The first house we knocked, Rosa came to the door and she didn't understand my English, so then she started to close the door and I remember just raising my voice, "NO NO NO VAS NO VAS."  (Don't go, don't go), so she came back and in my broken Spanish, I tried talking to her.  She agreed to have us back the next day. 

We came back and she told us her life story.  She claims (but I know she wasn't) she was baptized into the church eight years ago in Mexico, but she moved from Mexico to Italy and left the church (she says because it wasn't as strong there) and went to all these different churches trying to find the truth.  (That's how I know she didn't join the church because she would have already found truth).  So then after a while of going to different churches, she moved here to MD so that her autistic son can get better education.  She married this man who is extremely abusive, physically and verbally, and is still married to him.  Anyways, we met with her, she came to church, and ever since then she has just been incredible.  She reads and reads and reads and goes to church, she prays.  She's amazing.  During all this, her husband took her scriptures and ripped them all to shreds.  She went and pieced them all back together and taped them.  She threw all of her coffee away on the spot during our lesson.  She always tells us (and it's funny to listen to her nice little English), "This church true because Joseph Smith prophet, Book of Mormon true, priesthood and revelation" to which we say, "YES!"  

Anyways, her baptism was beautiful.  I was able to baptize her.  She was crying and crying and so happy.  Sunday she was confirmed, she went up and bore her testimony to everyone.  It was wonderful.  The ward LOVES her.  We are hoping to take her to the temple next week... Her reaction to that was, "Is good for Mother's Day gift!" 

I just love this story because it was a smack in my face basically saying that the Lord has prepared people everywhere in the world to receive missionaries and members.  Where they are is the question, but it is definitely our part to find them and help them.

Anywho I read a talk this week I really liked.  It is called, "A Pattern For Peace."  I'm going to share a few parts I liked. 

In our journey through mortality, as glorious as our intended destination may be and as exhilarating as the journey may prove, we will all be subject to trials and sorrow along the way.  Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin taught:  “The dial on the wheel of sorrow eventually points to each of us.  At one time or another, everyone must experience sorrow.  No one is exempt.”  “The Lord in His wisdom does not shield anyone from grief or sadness.” However, our ability to travel this road in peace is, in large part, dependent on whether or not we too have a hard time thinking about Jesus.

Peace of mind, peace of conscience, and peace of heart are not determined by our ability to avoid trials, sorrow, or heartache.  Despite our sincere pleas, not every storm will change course, not every infirmity will be healed, and we may not fully understand every doctrine, principle, or practice taught by prophets, seers, and revelators.  Nevertheless, we have been promised peace--with a condition attached.

In the Gospel of John, the Savior taught that despite the tribulations of life, we can be of good cheer, we can be of good hope, and we need not fear, because He declared, “In me ye might have peace.”  Faith in Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice is, and forever will be, the first principle of the gospel and the foundation upon which our hope for “peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” is built.

In our search for peace amidst the daily challenges of life, we’ve been given a simple pattern to keep our thoughts focused on the Savior, who said:  “Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me. I am Jesus Christ.”

Learn, listen, and walk--three steps with a promise.

No wonder in my mission we say, "Learn it, live it, share it."  It is definitely a promise, and it is definitely one I have seen come true.

God bless. 

Elder Wilde