Wednesday, January 18, 2017

JANUARY 17, 2017

Hey y'all Happy MLK Jr. day! As all of you can probably imagine it is a huge holiday down here in New Orleans!

I first wanted to share about the MLK jr. day holiday down here where we had a blast! On Sunday right after our Church all of the missionaries in the New Orleans Zone (like 40 of us) met up at a super awesome old St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church to participate in their program and reach out to them. All of us missionaries were able to sing Love one another, called to serve, I am a child of God, and a few other hymns for the large congregation. That was such an amazing experience!! President and Sister Hansen also came down and were able to share testimonies to the congregation. Pres. Hansen was pretty bold and shared the B.O.M scripture in 2nd Nephi 26:32-33 that talks about all men coming together and partaking of the goodness of God. That Christ is no respecter of persons. It was powerful. Then we were able to enjoy the what felt to be rock concert to finish off the church service :) It was legit! Then yesterday (Monday) for MLK jr. day the 40 of us missionaries we were also all able to participate in the parade march in downtown New Orleans. It was so much fun. We all lined up holding signs of Martin Luther King jr. quotes and scripture references and paraded all across the city in memory of that wonderful leader . We got to talk to so many different people while sharing short pass along card messages with them. I feel like we reached out to so many people yesterday and became an influence for the better. I also thought that we really helped to reach out to some of the members of the community while sharing our testimonies and singing with them at their Church. That was such a privilege to share that day with them. What was also really cool  was Monday afternoon while heading over to one of our appointments this little African American kid waved at us and beckoned for us to stop. He then told us that he saw us in the parade and wanted us to teach his family. His parents were busy at the time, but we made sure to set up a time to go back again. That was really awesome. I also had a nice interview with President Hansen on Sunday and received some fantastic advice especially on teaching studied up ministers and students.
Here are a couple funny sights of the week:
1) We were biking along and say this guy literally carrying a full size mattress on his head while biking down the street. You gotta do what you gotta do I guess haha :D
2) After coming out of a lesson we saw this guy totally trying to steal our bikes that were locked on a street sign and just startled him and started teaching him about Christ-like attributes. It was so funny because we started teaching him about being trustworthy and honest :) Now that would be an awesome conversion story haha. 

Here are a few other highlights of the week: 
We had many investigators attend Church this week, but specifically two of the ones that we invited from our lessons. Lily and Kristi were able to make it to Church and we sat with them and explained all of the different parts of the program. They seemed to really enjoy the meetings and classes. It was especially cool when during the lesson on priesthood in gospel principles Lily leaned over and asked if that was the same priesthood that I gave her a blessing that made her back feel better the other week. I assured her that it was and she smiled. Hopefully that deepened her testimony of the priesthood and helped her feel the spirit. We went and met with her yesterday and she continued to tell us how much she loved Church and wanted to go every week. We taught a wonderful lesson on ordinances and further on the priesthood and then committed her to baptism on February 18! 

The last experience I want to share is with the less active that we have been working with named Grant Hiatt. We went to see him and found out that his family situation isn't going too well right now. We have been trying to help him remember the spiritual experiences that he had on his mission and he continues to share mission miracles with us. We told him that we would continue to pray for him. We hadn't ever really shared spiritual messages with him from the scriptures since he would usually anti us, but this week I had the courage to ask if we could share a scripture with him. He agreed and I shared the scripture in D+C 122: 6-8 that talks about Joseph Smith going through so much persecution and hardship, but that the Lord promised that it was for his experience and for his good. The spirit was so strong and we all started to tear up as we shared this scripture together. Tears flowing down his face he thanked us for being there and never giving up on him. We have made a lot of progress with Grant and hopefully can get him to come back to Church soon! 
I could go on all day, but overall a fantastic week! I love y'all and am so grateful for you.
Love, 
Elder Wilson