Well, quite an incredible week!
Elder Andrus and I found out that we are third cousins - we did some
family history work. We share a great great great grandpa Milo Andrus
who was a pretty famous person in the church in the 1800's. Family
history is remarkable... i need to be better at it! Pretty funny
stuff!
We were able to take Meredith to the temple for the first time this
week. We did some family history with her beforehand and she brought
some names of her own! She was so excited! After the temple, I asked
her how she felt and she said, "Well, I felt incredible after my
baptism, but after coming out of the temple, I feel 10 times better."
Meredith was also asked to speak at a recent convert fireside on April
23rd! She is going to do so great!
be a Gospel Principles Teacher and is teaching next week on eternal
marriage! She, also, is going to receive her patriarchal blessing soon!
She picked up one of our investigators and brought her to church without us
even knowing. She's pretty solid.
Tom received the Aaronic Priesthood this week. We will be going to the
temple with him on Thursday (yes, Meredith will also be going). He is
doing so well. He has read about 3/4 of the Book of Mormon now. Pretty
remarkable.
Unfortunately, Tai hit a major stumbling block with his family and won't
be able to be baptized for a few years. He is doing great though. He
has come to church for three months... consecutively, reading, and
praying. Amazing. Pray for him.
Elder Andrus goes home on the 18th, and I am getting transferred on the
18th as well. I will be training a new missionary for my last three
months of my mission.
Our mission President and his wife took us out to dinner and gave us
both ties and wrote us a nice little note - I'm going to miss serving
closely with them so much...
Scranton, PA. So, first order of business (probably not though...) I
need to go get pictures of all "The Office" stuff in the vicinity and
get myself a t-shirt from there as well. I am, also, only an hour away
from the Priesthood Restoration site and since we are so close, we are
able to take an investigator up there as long as we have a ride! I am
super excited for that, especially because this week Elder Andrus and
I were suppose to go to the Priesthood Restoration site for three days
to help out with a mission tour, but it got cancelled... Anywho, it is
bittersweet to leave this amazing ward behind and all of these people I have
been so blessed to work with.
Just to quote a little bit from general conference the other week:
"There is a place for everyone [in the church] who loves God and
honors His commandments as the inviolable measuring rod for personal
behavior, for if love of God is the melody of our shared song, surely
our common quest to obey Him is the indispensable harmony in it. With
divine imperatives of love and faith, repentance and compassion,
honesty and forgiveness, there is room in this choir [church] for all
who wish to be there. “Come as you are,” a loving Father says to each
of us, but He adds, “Don’t plan to stay as you are.” We smile and
remember that God is determined to make of us more than we thought we
could be.
I testify that this is His restored Church and is the vehicle for
bringing the teachings and saving ordinances of His gospel to all
humankind."
I thank God for the experiences he has allowed me to have -- Elder
Holland said it best when he said: "These kinds of sanctified moments
remain unuttered because expression, even if it were possible, might
seem like desecration."
Love,
Elder Wilde
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