Hey Y'all!
I hope everyone enjoyed conference as much as I did! Man those talks were superb! We watched conference with Brother Johnson in his little office at an interfaith organization. We were able to invite some investigators as well. It was really great! We are hoping that conference sparked some of those people's interest that that stopped in and listened for a little bit. One of my favorite talks was given by President Uchtdorf when he related taking for granted technology to the blessing of the gospel in our life. Sometimes we forget to recognize the blessing of the gospel in our lives. We truly have been blessed to be able to follow the Savior and live in a way that brings true happiness. "Remember the first time we felt the powerful divine feeling that we were children of the Most High?" I know that when we remember those special times that brought joy in living the gospel and anchor ourselves on those experiences that we will remember the blessings of following the Savior and feel the love from an ever loving father in heaven. Some wonderful talks!
This week was great! The food of the week had to have been the Alligator stuffed mushrooms, Turtle soup, and Calamari!! The calamari was interestingly slimy to say the least, but let's just say I had to spice that calamari up like crazy to get that down the pipe haha. I really enjoyed the Alligator and turtle though :)
Miracle of the week: I was given a simple yet insightful suggestion of sharing a powerful scripture from the Book of Mormon to spark our investigator's curiosity of additional scripture that can benefit us. I sought out to put this suggestion to use! This week we ran into an investigator that had been taught by the missionaries before, but after Katrina had lost sight of missionaries and the church. He told us that he loved being taught by the missionaries and that they brought a certain spirit into his home when they came. We were super excited to hear his willingness to continue being taught. He told us that he didn't have a ton of time on that particular day, but was more than willing to hear a short message. I proceeded to open up to one of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon, 1st Nephi 3:7, and shared my testimony that our loving Heavenly Father gives us no commandment or challenge that we must face in our lives unless he has a way in which we can accomplish or overcome it. I believe that he was especially grateful for this scripture because after he told us that he remembered this scripture from way back when the missionaries used to teach him. He testified of the truth of it in his life by sharing his experience when Katrina came in 2005. Through sharing a short yet incredibly powerful scripture from the Book of Mormon we were able to connect the account of the righteous Nephi in the Book of Mormon to our investigator's everyday life. It brought the spirit that touched my heart and hopefully his. I was grateful to be led to meet Ferd this week. We are planning on teaching him again this week and challenging him to come to Church with us on Sunday. The suggestion worked really well in bringing the spirit and I truly believe it reminded this man of the truth found in the Book of Mormon.
Sometimes it can be hard, because it seems many are super interested and intrigued by the messages we teach but then lose that motivation and desire to change. I have come to realize that the Gospel can be a hard path to follow, but a path that followed brings never ending happiness and true joy.
Well, that's all for this week folks. I am loving New Orleans and hoping the Saints will get playing better for the die hard fans down here! Maybe that will increase desire to be a LDS haha. Love you all. Thanks so much for your prayers. Hope y'all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Wilson
