Hey Y'all,
What a crazy week! Elder Jensen had to stay in the Hospital until Saturday night, because his appendix ruptured Tuesday morning and caused a big ol' mess so that made it pretty interesting for me haha. I ended up sleeping on a Hospital bed sofa for 3 nights last week and endured the constant flipping on of the lights as the nurses came in and out throughout the nights haha. It's all good though I was just glad I wasn't in the hospital bed. I experienced several companionship studies with President Hansen as well, but luckily avoided all role plays :) It was pretty classic. President and Sister Hansen took really good care of Elder Jensen and I was kinda just there haha. I was able to get a ton of reading scriptures in though and also got to go with a few other sets of missionaries on exchanges as we took turns taking hospital stay shifts. That was good! On Saturday night we went to the mission home and I got to experience my first night at the mission home haha. I hadn't even seen it yet. We stayed there Sunday night as well. The Hansens were so nice though. We were kinda on our toes the whole time, but I think it turned it out alright. I only said one completely unrelated and outlandish comment though so I think it was a success. That fruit salad and the root canals man let me tell ya :) Sister Hansen totally spoiled us with her delicious cooking too! I definitely reaped the benefits of that. Elder Jensen is still really sore and tires out easily, but we are going to try our best this week. Hopefully we get a car for a week bless his heart.
Although it was definitely a very chaotic week, I was grateful for the opportunity to go out with several different sets of missionaries and get some great missionary work in. On Thursday I was able to go in a trio with two Spanish missionaries Elder Ainge and Elder Johnson and had a blast Spanish tracting. Elder Ainge is Danny Ainge's son so we had some fun B-balling it up in the ghetto to loosen up before hitting some doors :) He is going to play basketball at Utah State next year too so that will be awesome. We talked to several people outside of their trailers and let me tell ya that one year of Spanish in High School really paid off with a few words here and there haha. They gave me a few lines to say and pointed at me during the lessons so I pitched in a little bit and that was awesome. I said something once and they laughed at me, but hey I said my couple lines! Although I couldn't understand much of what they were saying I could definitely feel the spirit when we testified of Jesus Christ. Yo se que el libro de Mormon es verdadero. Enough said!
Later that day I went on an exchange with Elder Dover from Guyana and we were able to follow up with some of me and Elder Jensen's investigators. He taught me a little Guyanese so that was fun! One of our investigators that we have been teaching has been super busy lately, but we committed her to read 1st Nephi 1 for this week. We are going to try inviting her and her roommates to Church this week! We also talked to an investigator that we hadn't been able to contact for a couple weeks named Heather. Her aunt is a member of the church down in Slidell so she has some serious potential! We then tracted an entire section of the apartment complex and were able to teach 2 new investigators and get a follow up appointment. That was awesome.
The miracle of the week I wanted to share was in a trio with Elder Fisher and Elder Starnes: We already had such a great day teaching some of their investigators and teaching two hardcore baptist women who's husbands were Ministers the restoration, but in the evening we were able to meet with one of our investigators at the Institute building. His name is Jackson and he is pretty atheist right now, but like 15 mintues before he asked if he could bring his girlfriend. We excitedly responded yes and we had a wonderful lesson with them. Savannah, Jackson's girlfriend, has a bunch of Mormon friends and has even gone to church 6 times already in the past few years. She seems like the key to getting them both to Church! We talked about faith and prayer and she told us that she grew up Pagan and converted to Southern Baptist at age 14, but has slowly drifted away. She wants to gain a stronger relationship with Christ if he is there she said. Sounds golden right?!? Well the only road block is her boyfriend Jackson and we committed him to pray last week, but still feels like he didn't get an answer. We shared Alma 32 about experimenting on the word and continuing to have a sincere desire. It was cool though, because Savannah said that she was going to have them read the Book of Mormon together! The miracle of the story though is that earlier Saturday morning as I prayed in the Hospital after what felt like an all over the place week I asked if I could just finish the week off with a testimony builder experience. We then started listening to a talk called, "Are Mormons Christian?" I can't remember who spoke, but he shared how we shouldn't just say yes but that we should take that chance to bear our testimony specifically on the 1st Vision and share that story with whoever asks. Miraculously and as an answer to my prayer as we sat listening to some of Jackson and Savannah's questions, she asked me if Mormons considered themselves to be Christian. I was a bit taken back by that question at first, because it didn't feel quite real. As I started to answer her question by sharing Joseph Smith's story of the first vision the spirit was so strong, it was amazing. Since we were in the Church as well, I looked around at all of the paintings on the walls and then asked Savannah to look around and see if she could further answer that question for herself. 5 out of the six painting were of Jesus Christ and one was of the First Presidency even our living prophet on the Earth today, Thomas S. Monson. I loved seeing and admiring the paintings of Jesus Christ that show our true faith. I hope that Savannah could see for herself the love we have to our Savior Jesus Christ. He means everything to me and this is his Church and his Gospel restored on the Earth today. I know that with all my heart. They have already been inside the church so we are hoping to get them to come on a Sunday!
Well, that's all folks! I love y'all, stay prayed up!
Love,
Elder Wilson
