Goodbye, Feb! Hello, Transfers
Man, this week went by in the blink of an eye...
Monday we had dinner with our Mission President and
his family, that was tons of fun. They have such a great family. This
week is transfer week so we have been crammed getting ready for
transfers, as well. It's been great!
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we had trainings
with the new missionaries that came out five weeks ago and we also had
trainings with all of the mission leadership. It was a lot for sure, but I definitely enjoyed it. President Randall is seriously the most
incredible person, I have no idea how he does what he does. Baffles me.
We got to see Tom this week. Tom is doing well. He is getting baptized on Sunday. He is super excited, great, great guy - pray for him.
The highlight of the week was teaching Meredith.
Meredith is a graduate student at Temple University. She is studying
Counseling. She had a boyfriend on a mission and he introduced her to
the Book of Mormon. She read pretty deep into it until he wrote her off
basically. They then reconciled just before his mission was over and she
went out to his homecoming in Provo the other week. She went to church
and toured Temple Square but didn't make anything out of it. On her
flight back to Phila, she had a layover in AZ. During her layover, she
said that she had the most overwhelming spiritual impression that she
was in the wrong and that she should have never have put the Book of Mormon down and that she needed to get back and begin reading again and
meet with the missionaries. So, yes this is where we came into play :)
We taught her twice this week, both lessons were phenomenal. She wants
to get baptized on April 9th. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ
and Plan of Salvation - she wanted to learn more about repentance and so
we gave her a talk to read about repentance, "The Divine Gift of
Repentance," by Elder Christofferson:
(Click on the link above to read, listen to, or watch the talk that Elder Wilde is referencing.)
After reading the talk, I asked her this
question: "We would love to hear your thoughts on this question: With
this new view of repentance, what change or what action are you going to
make/take in your life? It could be forgiving someone , it could be
sacrificing something, it could be obedience to some principle, what is
it that you need to do to repent and access the atonement?"
She responded: "It's interesting you ask that
because I have been trying to not drink which normally isn't that
difficult, but since this weekend, I am around my family and drinking is
such a huge part of Greek culture. Just being in a party setting, I
figured it would be really difficult and I probably wouldn't be able to
abstain, but last night, I didn't drink anything and it wasn't hard at all
not to.. and it was almost easy not to (which has never been true
before) so it really stuck out to me when I read 'one's very heart and
desires change, and the once-appealing sin becomes increasingly
abhorrent'."
SHE IS INCREDIBLE!! I'll attach a pic of us at the temple.
(Elder Wilde and Elder Andrus with Meredith)
(They, also, had a Skype call lesson with Meredith while she was in Florida during the weekend.)
Kelly is doing well. She has been super-swamped with
her double major, school work, and AA program she is involved in - we
are meeting with her this upcoming week. We are excited to see her
again, it's been too long :/
Tai, our Vietnamese buddy, has committed to be being
baptized on March 19th. He has been to church eight weeks in a row now...
are you kidding me?! This guy is amazing.
I got to Skype call my older brother in to a
baptismal interview this week - that was pretty cool. His Mandarin is
incredible. We interviewed a 16-year-old girl together.
I love the quote from Jeffrey R. Holland: "If we
give our heart to God, if we love the Lord Jesus Christ, if we do the
best we can to live the gospel, then tomorrow--and every other day--is
ultimately going to be magnificent, even if we don’t always recognize it
as such. Why? Because our Heavenly Father wants it to be! He wants to
bless us. A rewarding, abundant, and eternal life is the very object of
His merciful plan for His children! It is a plan predicated on the truth
“that all things work together for good to them that love God.” So keep
loving. Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep growing.
Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever."
Love you all, thank you for your support - Work Hard & LOVE!
Elder Wilde
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