Wassup,
This week we had a pretty great week of teaching! It was a bit difficult being that everyone was busy with Thanksgiving, but we worked hard nonetheless!
I hope y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were able to eat a bunch of delicious food! The members here in New Orleans fed us really well too so no worries there :) It was definitely an interesting Thanksgiving and wasn't quite the same without playing in the annual family Turkey Bowl, but it was still pretty great!
On Thanksgiving we were able to go to the huge New Orleans Convention Center downtown and help out at the soup kitchen/community outreach festival there. It was put on by the Sheriff's office and it was just a city wide event where everyone (mostly homeless people/ families in need) could come and eat a nice Thanksgiving meal and receive clothing. There were about 6 of us missionaries that were able to go with Brother Johnson and hand out clothing to those that were in need. It was a very humbling experience for me as I was able to think about all of the things that I am grateful for and everything that I have been blessed with in my life. I was able to think about how truly blessed I was to grow up in a family where I never had to worry about having enough food to eat or having clean clothes on my back. It was an amazing opportunity to give back a little bit and help bless the lives of some of the less fortunate people/families in New Orleans. We were able to hand out more than 5,000 pieces of clothing that had been donated by various dry cleaners and good wills. That was super cool! Later in the day we went over to the Bishop's home for a very nice dinner as well. Luckily, they are from New Jersey originally, so we were able have a delicious traditional thanksgiving meal :) I was a bit worried, because a fishy thanksgiving dinner without turkey just wouldn't be the same haha. For desert we had some Southern sweet potato pie though so that was pretty tender!
Oh, funny story about how we acquired the trailer to use to move all of the pieces of clothing that we were going to give away. Our investigator Mr. Moore told us that he had a large trailer that we would be able to use to get the clothes and that we just had to go grab it real fast. We figured that we were just going to pick it up at his house, but jokes on us we forgot that we were missionaries so free labor is kinda a given haha. We arrived at his "house" and saw his trailer that was completely engulfed by trees and shrubs. That trailer hadn't seen the light of day for at least 5 years, for sure. So, we finally cut down all of the shrubbery with our hand pruners that he gave us and realized that there was just a pile of garbage (gross wood, pipes, etc) on this trailer. Well, to make a long story short it took us more than 3 hours to unbury this trailer haha. When we finally got to the bottom of it we came across the entire wooden bottom of the trailer was completely termite infested. ("TERMITES! break my phone cancel my load" ) Hopefully someone will get that quote :) It was absolutely ludicrous at best! we were using shovels and such to kill them haha. Basically, the bottom was completely eaten through and was going to need to be entirely replaced. The classic part was that once we removed everything we found out the tires were all chained up and locked up so no one could steal the trailer. (like anyone would honestly, but I guess you never know in Louiville) Mr. Moore assures us that he has the keys though so we weren't too worried. However, he comes back (I kid you not) with an entire backpack filled with lanyard after lanyard of keys. I bet there were over 5,000 keys in that satchel. Could gravy! After like 15 minutes of trying to find the right key he goes to find something to cut the locks. In the meantime we were hacking away with the hand pruners haha. We ended up cutting one of the locks, but it was pretty barbaric. Mr. Moore finally comes back with a Table saw (yep, a table saw) and cuts the locks without any gloves or eye glasses or anything. It was so funny. Brother Johnson helped him get the trailer all fixed up and told us later that it was just such a scam haha. That was pretty classic. Only in Louisiana :) Regardless, the trailer fulfilled its purpose!
Mr. Moore was also able to pass his baptism interview last Monday night! We were a bit nervous given his colorful background, but honestly I don't think I have met anyone without an "interesting" background haha. Repentance and the Atonement is a real thing thank goodness! Unfortunately he was going to be out of town on Saturday for Thanksgiving and everything, so we are planning on it being this coming Saturday. Again fingers crossed, and please keep him in your prayers. I am super excited about him becoming a member of the Church, because he is going to be an amazing contribution to the ward and I know he will be able to bring so many others into the true gospel. He was talking to us the other day about all of his friends that go to some of the other baptist Churches and how he wants us to come with him to teach some of them at some point. That will truly be a blessing to be able to teach more people about the gospel with such a faithful recent convert. He is such a good man, but just needs a bit of direction. As difficult as the road has been to help him come closer to Christ and accept the fullness of the gospel, I love that man.
I love my mission because I never know what I am going to get it. Every week is so different and crazy nonetheless. I never know if the person that answers the door is going to speak English, Spanish, or somewhere in between (mostly somewhere in between :) )The amount of people that I get to talk to and have the hardest time understanding is incredible. I never thought that understanding what people are saying (especially in English) would be difficult. (Don't even get me started about trying to talk to someone on the phone haha) It is honestly ludicrous, but I love it. I know that the this work is true. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone and it is up to us to embrace the truth and live by its precepts. As hard as it may be sometimes to understand the magnitude of the importance, it is truly nothing less than a blessing that we have it in our lives. I love the people that I serve and pray that I may touch the lives of others for the better.
I love y'all so much! I hope you have a fantastic week!
Love,
Elder Wilson
