Week 49 - July 25, 2016

Wow wow wow! 

What an incredible week we had!  We have been so blessed!
We had three baptisms and were able to take a truck load of people to
the temple open house!
 

Miracles!
 

This week Amy got baptized in a river and then she was confirmed the
next day -- her mother is now super interested after the baptism,
coming to church and annnndd coming to the temple. She will be
baptized in the next three months, no doubt.
 

 

Then the next day, Josue and Siclali were baptized by her father!
Their family has now been reactivated.  They have come SOO so far and
have made so many changes in their lives.  It has been almost 5 months
of teaching them and it was such a strong testimony to me when they
thanked me that I never gave up on them even after so many set backs!
I definitely know as we reach out with love to those who are in
trouble we can help them all.

Matthew 18:12-13
12 How think ye?  if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be
gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the
mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?
13 And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth
more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.

D&C 18:13-16
13 And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth!
14 Wherefore, you are called to cry repentance unto this people.
15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying
repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me,
how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!
16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have
brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your
joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

The temple was so incredible.... Absolutely amazing. I don't even know
how much or what I can say about it... Such an undeniable Spirit that
is inside of those walls and around that area.  Miracles will be coming
for the next month and a half!

Love you all!  Thanks for all your support!  Pray for destiny Cain (16
years old).  She will be baptized on the 7th of August!

Elder Wilde

Week 48 - July 18, 2016

Hello, all!
 

Well, come tomorrow the Sisters are gone and we have the whole ward to
ourselves - I'm very excited.  We were preparing for it all this week,
so we were super super busy.  We taught a lot and have baptisms every
week the rest of the transfer!  We have been blessed.
 

I really don't have too much to type this week.
I did teach this Black girl this week and it was like I was back in
Phila.  I miss those people.  I forgot how funny they are.  Seriously
just so loud and laugh at everything.  I thought this one chick was
about to die of laughter.  Good times, good times.

We are excited for the temple next Sunday.  We are taking some solid
people.  

Last night we had a lesson with an inactive member and his non-
member family.  We use to go make crab pots, but finally we were like...
We need to just go be bold and teach them, so one thing led to
another and she is Catholic (but she doesn't believe it at all), so
after an hour or so, they all committed to come to the temple and take
the discussions together.  I'm beyond excited for that, Except not
excited because I may leave in three weeks :((
 

We went tracting one day and these kids had a lemonade stand, and oh
man, they were such cute kids so I gave them 5 bucks and we were just
talking for a bit and after my third cup of lemonade, they got really
sassy and said we couldn't have more? 

So we drove down the street and
parked our car and the first house we came up to I had a super strong
prompting from the Spirit that this lady was prepared and that I had
to be more bold and more persistent with her.  She opens the door and
she is immediately like, "I'm sorry, I'm not interested," and I said,
"You don't even know what we are going to say.  How could you know?"  She
replied, "I'm just done with religion and don't want anything to do
with it," and I told her, "Forget religion!  God loves you.  He loves your
family (her three kids were standing next to her) and he has a
provided a way for all of you to return to him together!  Don't you
want that?"  And she was like, "Of course I want that," so I said then,
"Please let us in and let us tell how that is possible." --So she allowed
us to come in and we taught her the Restoration and why we have temples and
talked about the scripture in Matthew 16:19:  "And I will give unto thee
the keys of the kingdom of heaven:  and whatsoever thou shalt bind on
earth shall be bound in heaven:  and whatsoever thou shalt loose on
earth shall be loosed in heaven."  Anyways 20 minutes later, she thanked
us and said she wants us to come back and wants to learn more.  Pretty
cool!
 

We had interviews with President this week, he's awesome.  That guy is
soooo filled with the Spirit it's crazy.  He's incredible.  His wife
lived in the Walnut Creek and he lived in Concord.
Well, I'm loving it and excited to continue to work!  I love this work!
 
One of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon.  Christ visits the
people here in the ancient Americas in his resurrected body and he
tells this to them:  "Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust
your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the
nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God
of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the
sins of the world."
 
His invitation and short and simple is, "Arise and come forth unto me."
Wherever you are and whoever you are, he will take you at that very
moment and help you.  "Thrust your hands into my side, feel the prints
of the nails in my hands and in my feet."  He invites us to try to
understand what he has done for us, the pains, the trials and the
heartache he went through because he loves us and wants to help us.  "I
have been slain for the sins of the world."  Lastly, because of Christ we
can all return to our Father in Heaven.  The path is not always the
easiest and not always convenient, but it is always worth it.  I'm
thankful for the Savior and his Atonement.  I love to study and feel
the Spirit as I come to understand more and more of what he has gone
through for each one of us.  Because of him, we can do all things.

Happy bday, Elder Drake.

Love you all,
Elder Wilde

Week 47 - July 11, 2016

Hello, everyone! 

Our Fourth of July was a little sad.  It was pouring rain so we weren't
able to see fireworks, but we went to a member's home and had a great
dinner and played games with them and an inactive family, so it was a
good time! 

We had a superb week, definitely blessed with miracles!
Last week we paid our fast offerings and my companion had one $20 bill. 

I told him he should just pay that (which is a ton for a
fast offering), so he did.  The next day in the mail he received $20
from someone!  Just very interesting.  We were both laughing about it. 

Amy is doing great.  She is still on to get baptized on the 23rd,
confirmed on the 24th, and we will take her to the Philadelphia temple on the
24th as well.  Super excited !
The Hispanic family , Martinez came to church again (3rd week In a row
- unheard of!) and their three children will be baptized on the 31st!
Super excited for that.
Patty is having a really hard time quitting coffee and cigarettes.  Her
body has had some withdrawals but she is definitely working hard and
hope she can be prepared for August 7th! 

Last night was awesome.  We had dinner with an investigator, Nick, at a
member's home.  We played this one game called "Chronology."  It was
intense.  I'm thankful we had to go before the game ended because I
wasn't winning, but I guess it was suppose to be an "Educational way to
learn."  I don't know about that! 

After dinner we went on splits, and we told the Lord this week we
wanted two new investigators who were prepared to be taught.  Elder
Makuakane and another member went off and saw some folks who just
moved back into the area and they were able to teach them and we
scheduled another time to come back.  They are super solid and very
excited to learn more about the church.  It was a miracle!  We had an
awesome week!
 
Something that really stuck out in my studies this week was Matthew 25
where Jesus gives the Parable of the 10 Virgins and the Bridegroom.  We
all need to be continuing to strengthen our testimony each and
everyday.  We cannot simply depend and rely on the good works of others
all the time and their knowledge and their testimonies.  We need to
always be prepared and have that firm foundation! 

I was reading a little about the great apostasy of the early Christian
churches and lightness vs. darkness in my free time at nights.  Isaiah
prophesies that when Christ dies, the world will be filled with
darkness (spiritual darkness) and that there will be false churches
that rise up and people will be lost.  He says "For, behold, the
darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people."
Darkness is the iniquity, and the apostate churches and the false
doctrines, etc. where Christ is no longer leading and guiding these
people -- in John it says:  And this is the condemnation, that light is
come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because
their deeds were evil."  Because of the wickedness after Christ died,
people lived in darkness and got involved in false traditions but
there was a promised restoration in the latter days where Christ would
spring up and restore his church and Isaiah says:  But the Lord shall arise
upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness
of thy rising." 

I know that that light is back and the church of Jesus Christ has been
restored.  I'm so grateful to share the gospel of Jesus Christ who
is the light with all of these people!
 
How great, how glorious, how complete
Redemption’s grand design,
Where justice, love, and mercy meet
In harmony divine!
 
Please continue to pray for us.  We need all the help we can get!  The
sister missionaries are moving out and going to work in the
Philadelphia temple so we are taking over their area as well!  Who
knows?  Maybe I'll stay another transfer! 

 Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple

Just want to congratulate Michael Anderson on his mission call to Peru
and my friend, Ben Hayden, on his call to Hong Kong!  Those missions are
lucky!
 
Pray for my older brother this week, too.  He will have surgery on his leg!
 
Love,
Elder Wilde

Week 46 - July 4, 2016

Happy 4th of July! 

We just had a great Stake (multiple churches)
breakfast and tonight we are going out with a family to see and watch
fireworks!  Very excited.
 

We had an awesome week.
 

Amy had a great time in Utah and she was able to see Temple Square and
felt the Spirit there for sure!  She was able to meet my family, too,
which was pretty cool.

 (Elder Wilde's family was able to meet Amy out in Utah, who they have been working with and lives in Elder Wilde's mission.)

We had a great miracle happen this week.  I have been praying for this
Hispanic who is inactive and has three unbaptized children.  We saw
them Saturday night and I told them I would fast for them in hopes
they would be able to bring their family to church and meet with the
bishop and prepare their children all to be baptized on the 31st.
Sunday they all came to church, met with the bishop, the father is
getting his life back in order and is preparing himself to baptize his
children on the 31st.  Please pray for them.  I went up with the kids in
church yesterday and helped them bear their testimony.  Cutest thing
ever.

Patty is doing well; however, we taught some of the commandments and
get this:  she drinks "4-5" pots of coffee a day (is that even
possible?) and smokes 10 cigarettes a day.... So I made her a little calendar
that would help her get off of both of those things by the 31st of
July.  She has the desire, pray for her as well!
 

One of our investigators is 17.  He drag races and we have met with
him a few times!  Anyway, he is super awesome, and he invited us to see
his drag race, so Saturday morning we went with a member who is
fellowshipping him and saw him and it was great.  We met the family and
everything.  He went and did a little race.  His car has like 1,000
horsepower and did a wheelie.... It's super nice.  We are going to
invite him to be baptized this week!

 (Elder Wilde shows a picture of his dog, Roscoe, who looks very much like the dog that the gentleman behind him is holding.)

We got to meet our brand new mission president this week.  His name is
President Randall.  He is stellar.  I'm so excited to work with him, and
his family is awesome too.  I have so much respect for people who leave
everything behind and lead and guide over 200 missionaries full time
for three years!  After that, we went with some other Elders and got
some cheese steaks in Philly and we took it to a park.  Out of
nowhere a huge rainstorm came and we all got absolutely drenched...
That was an unhappy but funny moment - come what may and love it!  I
also got to see my trainer and some other great missionaries, so
that's always nice!

Because it is the Fourth of July, I just wanted to end on saying how
grateful I am that the Lord blessed us with this land that we could
have freedoms that many people throughout the world couldn't have.  I
know that this is the Promised Land and that Christopher Columbus was
led here by the Spirit of God and that the founding fathers were Men
of God and were all called to help create the Constitution - it is a
divine constitution and because of the Constitution, the restoration of Jesus Christ's
primitive church could occur.  I'm thankful that I'm able to share the
gospel with the people in the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Mission.

I invite you all to read these talks discussing the founding fathers and
the Constitution.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1987/10/our-divine-constitution?lang=eng

https://www.lds.org/new-era/1976/07/gods-hand-in-the-founding-of-america?lang=eng

Love,
Elder Wilde

 (Elder Wilde included this picture of a throw-back time when he was companions with 

Elder Andrus.)