Hey y'all
Temple in POCATELLO, ID that is just absolutely incredible! Enough said. It was a great week.
Love,
Elder Wilson
Just kidding this week honestly was really great! Two of our investigators, Sufyan and Tarif, are from Palestine here at school for a few years and are coming right along. They are both muslim and love talking about prophets. What is really cool is that they practice what they preach about not drinking alcohol,eating pork, and other things. I think the word of wisdom lesson will go great :) We had an awesome restoration lesson with them and specifically asked them, "If they could ask a prophet one question what would it be?" They gave some good questions like why do bad things happen to good people? It was really cool, because we could then share scriptures from the Book of Mormon. 2nd Nephi 2:11 and then on to more uplifting scriptures, Mosiah 2:41. We then told them about General Conference and how we can write down our questions and God will answer our questions through prophets and apostles. They were super interested about that and it was soo cool, because Sunday morning they watched the entire session and told us how much they loved President Uchtdorf's talk. He gave an wonderful talk on The Great Awakening and Joseph Smith as well as the fruits of the spirit being love, joy, kindness, peace, and so many other wonderful feelings that allow us to know the goodness from darkness. That is so true. When we feel the spirit inside, we know that we are doing as our Heavenly Father would want us to do. I know that all things that are good come from God, because he loves us. President Uchtodorf came in clutch!
Another awesome experience this week was on Tuesday night we went with our ward mission leader Deric Masten to see these 4 guys that live in the same apartment here at LSU and went to High School with Deric. We went over to their apartment and one of the guy's Thomas had his Mom cook us delicious gumbo and jumbablya for dinner. We then had a really good lesson with them about the Book of Mormon. At first it was just Thomas and James that stayed for the lesson, but halfway through all four of them were sitting at the table invested in what we were sharing with them. We found out how much James had been reading up on the B.O.M and so I think he is super interested. I think what is going to be hard with them is just helping them give up some of those party school habits, but they can do it! It was great to have Deric there with us since he is still in Band with them and everything. He helped bear a powerful testimony and it is always nice when investigators can see what a normal member looks like :)
We had Mission Leadership Conference on Tuesday which is always great to hear from Pres. and Sister Hansen and then bring it back to all of the other missionaries in the zone. They started telling us a little about the new mission president coming here in July. He will be President Varner and sounds like a great guy. He played football for BYU and I think is in some sort of Real Estate business in SLC. That will be a crazy transition this summer, but it will be great! Pres. Hansen then showed us the new Easter videos, and I am super excited to start watching those with everyone! So then on Thursday, Elder Teare and I had the opportunity to share the instruction with the zone.
We did an exchange with New Iberia which is like 2 1/2 hours away so that was a fun drive! Elder Solomon and I had a great time though and found lots of new people to teach! We went to Free Speech Alley and it was his first time, so that was fun. Definitely one of the best parts about serving on LSU so it is fun to do exchanges on those days.
Adventure of the week:
I had my first ever Crawfish boil this week!!! Surprisingly I never had any down in New Orleans while I was there. It just wasn't in season at the time. Apparently it is crawfish season now so tis the season! It is so crazy because you buy like bags of crawfish. The family that had us over bought almost 50 pounds of crawfish! You throw them in a big pot and boil them with tons of Louisiana spices and seasonings. It makes them all juicy and spicey and they even throw in corn and potatoes just for the fun of it haha. Luckily there was a big group of us otherwise I would have been in trouble haha. You grab the entire crawfish and then break the tail off and eat the small amount of meat inside the tail. You can also eat the claw meat which is pretty good. It is pretty tasty, but just the process of getting the meat is a bit nerve wracking honestly. The corn after it has been soaking in the spices juices becomes so spicey it is insane. My mouth was on fire almost quite literally for 6-8 hours afterward! Also your hands start burning at the touch as well haha.
I absolutely loved General Conference and the messages that were shared. I am pretty sure they were all directed right at me :) We are given opportunities to serve because it is what will help us keep our focus on the path back to our Heavenly Father. In order to be ALL IN we need to stand up on the inside. We cannot be afraid to unroll our spiritual sleeping bags as Gary B. Sabin shared. Even though it may be hard at times we can't allow ourselves to withhold our testimonies with others. Whether that be opening our mouths or the actions we make it is imperative that we share the light of the gospel. Sometimes I find myself afraid to bear my testimony with others, because I think they may throw it back in my face. However, I need to remember it is those times that require us to dig deeper than we ever have before that allow our testimonies to grow the most. I know that our Heavenly Father lives and loves each of us. He sent his son Jesus Christ to make all the difference for us. May we all find our own personal testimonies of the Book of Mormon as our dear Prophet Thomas S. Monson has directed. The gospel is perfect, but the people that live it are not. It is up to us to find the truth.
I love y'all! Have a blessed week!
Love,
Elder Wilson
