Hey y'all,
This week was absolutely incredible here in the Big Easy (Big Cheezy)! So many things to share, so little time. The weather has been crazy. Some days I feel like I am in the middle of an Idaho Fall and then the next day feels like a blazing summer day. It has been pretty neat though!
This last week we were able to attend an Interfaith Prayer Meeting. A few of the members of relief society told us about it and asked if we would be able to make it. We agreed to make it and were thrilled about meeting with some of the other prominent leaders of different faiths and express our thoughts and beliefs with them. It was really nice to see so many people from different Churches and organizations come together to try and benefit the community. It was funny though, because when we got there and looked at the program we saw that we were on it. So we ended up giving an on-the-fly sermon about missionary work to the congregation haha. It went pretty well though we felt like actually. I just bore my testimony about how serving the people in the community has been such a blessing and how religion and following Christ can lead people to do good continually. Religion truly is a blessing to society as it motivates people to help one another and become promoters for peace. Also, during the meeting there was a little bit of time for people to share experiences and how they are trying to benefit society, and so what was super cool though was that Mr. Moore bore a powerful testimony about how learning the truth of the gospel from the missionaries. That was really cool to see him share how he felt about us teaching him and his desire to continue to bless the lives of others with the new everlasting truth that he has found. It was pretty classic though, because the very last speaker was finishing up her thoughts and then all of a sudden just yells, "Do I smell fried chicken!?" and just totally walks off without any other thoughts. Everyone immediately started leaving the room and heading for the fried chicken before anyone else could say anything hahaha. Then a baptist preacher just started praying for the food out of nowhere so we were good to go. It was so funny! People here love their fried chicken I guess :)
Saturday then came around and we had an amazing baptism for Mr. Moore. He has a bit of a tendency to show up late, as do most people I have met :D , so we told him that the baptismal service would be at 5. We then told everyone in the ward that it was starting at 5:30 haha. After much nervousness and anticipation while entertaining the ward members that showed up early, he showed up at 6. Well, at least we tried bless his heart! The baptism went super well and was such an amazing sight and feeling to see an investigator that we have taught every lesson to and worked with every step of the way enter the waters of baptism and be washed clean. Brother Johnson was able to baptize him and it was incredible. I was overjoyed to see Mr. Moore come out of that water with a smile on his face and happy as ever. It was my first ever baptism on my mission, and I will never forget the experience of teaching him and seeing his eyes light up with the truth of the gospel brought into his life. As hard as the road may have been to get him to this point, it was completely worth it. The spirit that I felt teaching this wonderful man will forever be a part of me. I am so glad that I was able to start teaching him. I remember the first time I met Mr. Moore was when we were watching general conference at an interfaith healing center building and he walked into the room and started watching with us. Now about two months later he has been baptized, confirmed, and excited as ever to share the gospel with others. He told us afterward that he knows a lot of the ministers around her since many of them went to school with him at the Baptist Theological college here in New Orleans, and he wants us to come with him to teach some of them! Who knows how it will all work out, but I just found it so cool that he wants to share the light of the gospel and bring others into the fold.
Yesterday at Church he even came 15 minutes early so that he wouldn't miss being confirmed a member and given the Holy Ghost. I am so excited for what the Lord has in store for Mr. Moore and know that he will be a blessing to so many people here in New Orleans. His wife was also able to come to the baptism and to Church, and we are more than excited to potentially start teaching her soon!
Yesterday it was also amazing to see Sonny D, the recent convert that was shot 9 times a few weeks ago, wheel himself into church. He was shot in the arms too and so it was incredible to see him have the strength to do that. He looked so good! He also brought 4 of his non-member friends and family! They seemed to enjoy all of the meetings and then one of them asked us afterward a bunch of questions about the Book of Mormon. We had a really great lesson with them about the prophet Joseph Smith and the priesthood right after the block. We also had the chance of teaching primary sharing time. It was pretty awesome teaching the little critters and singing in the children's songbook. We had a fun lesson about being reverent that ended up being not so reverent :)
One other cool experience that I would like to share is when we taught a man named Phillip. A few weeks ago we ran into him and he asked us for a Book of Mormon in the Twi language. We found out that he was from Ghana Africa and had met with the missionaries there in the past. We ordered him a Twi B.O.M, but it didn't come for a few weeks and we weren't able to meet with him. Well, this week it arrived and we were able to meet up with Phillip again. He didn't speak English super well, but was such a nice man. He is such a cool guy and he QUIETLY listens to what we say and then asks us questions. What? I know crazy right. We had a great lesson with him and we are hoping he starts coming to church.
The missionaries got to decorate the Christmas trees at the church and I made sure to check every bulb :) Well, that's all for this week folks. I love y'all so much and am thankful for the prayers in my behalf. I hope everyone has a blessed week!
Love,
Elder Wilson
