Happy New Year's to all! I'm so excited for 2017 and what it has in store!
We had a wonderful week here in Phila. We
set two more solid people with a baptismal date and are super pumped
for January because we have two people already set to be baptized
towards the end of this month.
This week was the
first week we really had time to spend working in our area and will
probably be the first full week we have the entire transfer!
This week we have
golden re-training which is where all the Goldens who have been out a
month come back together and we train them three separate days in three
separate groups. We also have MLC (Mission Leadership Council) meeting
this week, too. We are super busy.
The next week we have Mission Leadership Trainings for all the District Leaders and Zone Leaders - we are excited for that too!
Then we have to get transfers all figured out and then we will be onto the next transfer. Time sure does fly!
This week I got to
go on two exchanges. My first exchange was with Elder Martinez in my
old stomping grounds of South Phila. I got to see some recent converts
(I guess they aren't "recent" anymore lol) and a few other families that
I worked with. It was a great time for sure. We had a very powerful
lesson on finding peace through Jesus Christ with one of the less active
members who was a recent convert at the time I got there. He is one of
my favorites and we were both in tears at the end of the lesson.
Definitely love him a lot, he said at the end of the lesson he was going
to start coming back to church. Love him.
This week we
focused on testifying of repentance and the role of Jesus Christ. I'm so
grateful for the gift of repentance. I was able to bear my testimony on
repentance and the Savior at church. Repentance is not for perfect
people, it is for progressing people. Our past is to be learned from,
not lived in.
Ben, our Chinese investigator, brought his friend, James, to church. He loved it.
Jamie, a former
investigator, after having lost contact with missionaries for quite
sometime, finally was able to come to church and she is ready to start
taking the discussions again - she's a great person.
I got to go on
another exchange which was also so amazing. I brought Elder Haws to my
area. He is from Ethiopia. He has to be the most Christlike person I
have ever met... absolutely incredible. Wow. I can't believe how amazing
he is!!! He came from an Islamic background. He said that after being
taught for quite sometime by the missionaries, they were about to give up
because he wouldn't accept Christ as his Savior, but then they read 2 Nephi 31:20-21 which reads:
"Wherefore, ye must press forward with a
steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love
of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting
upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the
Father: Ye shall have eternal life.
And now, behold,
my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor
name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God.
And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true
doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is
one God, without end. Amen." He said he felt the Spirit so strongly
testify to him that Christ was the only way to salvation that he
accepted it right then and there on the spot. We had a great time and
got to teach some great lessons. It was an odd day - lots of
miscommunications throughout the day but everything has a way of coming
together. Christlike adaptability!
I was reading in the Doctrine & Covenants this week in Section 19 and verses 16-18 stuck out to me:
16 For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
17 But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;
18 Which suffering
caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of
pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and
spirit--and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink--
I am thankful for
my Savior, Jesus Christ, who suffered, bled and died for us all that we
may be able to be forgiven of our sins as we repent. He invites all of
us to come unto him and be perfected. This New Year's I hope we all make
goals (that we stick to) that will enable us to make changes that bring
us closer to our Savior.
Happy New Year!
Love you all,
Elder Wilde
Who said I wasn't on a Chinese related mission?!
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