Week 5 - September 21, 2015

What's good, my fam?

First thing first... I feel like I emailed you all yesterday?  This

week FLEW by... It's true when they say that weeks turn into days!

Seriously so fast...

Also, I love how Bracken said that his mission was the best.  It's hard

to contend with Australia, considering I'm pretty sure he is on

vacation but who knows.  However, let's not forget that most of the

United States history began in Philly... Oh wait also, let's not

forget that the priesthood was restored here, too... Pretty

sure nothing like that happened in Australia :)  Speaking of, I had the

chance to watch the Priesthood Restoration and let me tell ya...

Absolutely incredible!  I don't know if you all watched it or not, but it should

be on lds.org and it was straight fire!  Elder Nelson gave the talk

and he spit some TRUTH!  It was incredible... Just go watch it! 

Dedication of Priesthood Restoration Site
(Click on the link above to watch the entire dedication or just the portion where Elder Nelson speaks.  In addition, you may scroll down and view a short video of events that transpired there when the Priesthood was restored in 1829.)
 

Lots of interesting things happened this week, I'll just talk about a few of

them - Tuesday I had golden re-training where I went and got my last

thing of training in and I got to see everyone from the MTC and

it was so good... Just listening to everyone's experiences so far

hahah quite funny... 

 (Trainer for Elder Andrus along with Elder Andrus who is the trainer for Elder Wilde, and Elder Wilde who is a future trainer for some other new Elder who will enter this mission.  Elder Wilde called this picture, "My grandfather, father, and me.")

(Philadelphia skyline.)

(Eating a true Philadelphia cheese steak.)

Philadelphia is most definitely diverse, to say the least... We had a  less-active member running in the middle of the road trying to end her life.  Then she called us telling us about

it and we were like uh.... What the heck are you doing?  So we got

an appointment with her the next day, and her arms and legs were just

cut everywhere and we were like omg what are you doing to yourself?

She's been having some relationship problems with some of her

friends.... Let me rewind, this woman is white, 60+ years old, no job,

crazy.  We meet with her two times a week and she treats us as more of a

therapist then missionaries, so finally this week I got in there and

just basically set everything straight -  I told her basically this -

"Listen, we are 18 and 19 year old boys out here serving a mission, we

teach the doctrine of Christ and help apply it to your lives so you

can be happier - that is what we are here to do.  We will listen to

your problems but you need to go to the bishop to talk about it if you

want relationship answers."  Obviously I said it very kindly and what

not - anyways we read a scripture from the Bible which told her that

this body she has isn't hers and that God gave it to us so we could

dwell here on earth and that by disrespecting her body she is

disrespecting God.  Then we read her some 2nd Nephi Chapter 26 verse

30 talking about charity and love, and then some Mosiah Chapter 2

which has some love one another stuff in it.  Anyways it was probably

our most powerful and spiritually lesson elder Andrus and I have ever

had.  She was so touched by the Spirit and so were we.  It was quite

incredible to say the least.  Anyways we were like, "Now listen up!  You

need to get to church.  God promises us that when we follow his

commandments we will be blessed immediately, and church is a place

where we can worship with people who worship the same thing as us."  

So she came on Sunday after not attending for four months.  She was just

in tears at church and thanked us so much for being there for her and

helping her - quite a surreal experience.  

We had six less actives commit

and go to church this week after not have been going for the past four

months - just watching their body emotions and the way they listened

and talked in church... One of them said, "I'm finally home."  I was like

"Yeah, you're home, so you're gonna always come now, right, - yes!"

Lol good stuff. 

We got dropped by two of our investigators with

baptismal dates because they need time on their own to figure out if

it's right for them.... That was a downer, but whatever.  God

works on his own time yfeel?  However, now we have two more with

baptismal dates - Kevin and Sarita - both killin it, doing great.

Sarita's dad has been coming for a few months, and then he just went MIA on

us... We hadn't heard from him in like a week, missed two lessons,

wasn't answering phone calls ... Met with Sarita - check this... HE'S

IN JAIL!  Some immigration problem... That put us in shock! 

Anyways,

we had a swag dinner with some members named the Gabrielsons, two

brothers and their wives.  They were so chill, really young still in

college, had an amazing time... Felt like home!  Never laughed so hard in

my life, my abs were hurting... 

Then this morning a member took us out

golfing to a country club...  It was so fun lol, great

time.   Elder Andrus is pretty good.  We go back and forth on holes.  

We were at the park the other day just passing through and these kids

were like, "Yo, white boys - what you got huh?"  Lol I gave Elder Andrus

an under the legs off the backboard dunk and these kids were looking

at us cluelessly like, "What just happened?" It was so funny.  I should

have recorded it. 

We saw two Black chicks just beat the crap out of

each other.  We were planning at the church next to the window.  They

were killin each other ... Hahahaha  I wanted popcorn.  I found some

dreads on the side of the road after lol . 

Check this out... So we had

a meeting we had to get to ASAP... And so we saw this bus coming and

we knew it wasn't the right bus but it was heading in a similar

direction so we were like, "Let's get on it and hope for the

best................"  Wrong choice.  We got dropped off in the middle of

who knows where.... Had to walk five miles back to get to

civilization, horrible.  Kind of funny though, but it sucked... 

So,

Sunday night we were walking back after dinner and it was like 8:15ish

and I was like, "Yo, Elder Andrus.... Let's just street contact for

a bit..."  And so we start walking and this guy comes up to us and he's

like, "Man, why do the Eagles lose so much?" and so we start talking sports for

a bit and then I'm like, "Man, the Eagles can only pray to the man above

to get a win right now.."  And he was like, "Absolutely!"  Then I was like,

"OH, SO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD, HUH?"  Lol funny way to bring up God.  Anyways he

was extremely interested.  His name is "Hat Man" because he makes hats

for a living... I know I know what the ... Lol, but he was SO

interested and we just had q great conversation, and we are meeting

with him this week!  Cool stuff... 

Also, let me tell ya, these people

live and die for their Eagles... Like legit... EVERYONE is geared up

on game day... And then the riots happen afterwards, which are Kind of

sketch.  

Also, Elder Andrus makes fun of Roscoe and Roxy... I have given him some

lashings at night.  I wait til he's asleep and then whip him with my

belt.  But that's only because he whipped me because my shoe laces come

untied so much. 

It was another great week.  There is so much more I

could tell ya, but my brain turns to mush after a little while!  Hope

you all have another lovely week!  Love you :)

P.s. Tell my younger brothers to write me... Bunch of losers.

Love you!

Elder Wilde

 

  ( Small World:  The card above is from a family the Wildes were good friends with in Shanghai.  They now live in Philly and are looking forward to seeing Elder Wilde at some point during his mission) 

We thought it was appropriate to add a portion of the letter Elder Wilde wrote his dad:

Not gonna lie, I knew that I had to serve a mission, it's something I just knew I needed to do. I wasn't like thrilled out of my mind to leave my boys, fam, girl, all that for two years - but everyone was like, "It's the best two years of our lives," so I was like... "Ok, how is that possible?"  So I did it and went on this mish... I know that it is the best two years... A) you get to serve GOD... Our creator, and Eternal Father that has given me the most amazing life... Who I am ever indebted to, as King Mosiah says in the Book of Mormon.  B) As I serve him, I get to change people's lives... See smiles on their faces, help them... And that is where true happiness lives - not helping yourself - helping someone else... When I walk out of someone's house,,, I have NEVER felt so at peace and happy before... Of course there are so many other things... But those two stick out to the most.  Now having said that, my area is hard, walking all day in the heat is brutal.  It's not a nice area whatsoever, it's sketch; however, I know the man above has got my back, so I truly am not scared... I love you father, you're a good man, and a fantastic example - us kiddos look up to you.