Hey y'all,
This week was seriously filled with miracles!! The butter is still churning away. I hope y'all like flapjacks! Anyway, there is so much to share and so little time. The lord was blessing us greatly this week, and I can't thank Him enough.
Miracle: We were doing an exchange with the New Orleans zone leaders, Elder Montague/Bertonneau and doubled in up here in Baton Rouge. We received a text from some other missionaries that morning at 8:30 telling us that we should visit a member in the ward that we haven't seen for a while. He is an older man and since he is a convert to the church especially loves missionaries. However, unfortunately since we have been so busy lately we haven't been able to visit him. So, we kinda brushed the text aside, because we were just so busy the rest of the day. Well, we attempted to do some service in the morning at a local food bank, but ended up having to leave a little early and decided that we were going to stop by Bro. Shute for a short visit since we had time now. We made it over to to his place around 11 and knocked on the door. We heard loud pleas for help. At first we didn't know what he was saying, but quickly found out he was yelling for help. We tried everything to get inside, but the door was dead bolted shut. Anyways, long story short. We made it in through the back and found Bro Shute on the ground pinned by a metal chair with one of the legs sticking in his side. Luckily, it didn't pierce him, but was in a lot of pain after falling at about 9 that morning. It was a miracle that we stopped by, because he told us that he was praying for someone to come and help him and said after more than an hour he started praying for missionaries to have a prompting to come. Sure enough, Heavenly Father answers prayers and even sent missionaries :)
We were able to teach the Clark family this week and our mission president came out with us! It was the parents, Hardy and Karen, which both are members of the church (Hardy served a mission about 20 years ago) and they have a 17 and 18 year old son and daughter. We had a great restoration lesson with them and just tried to tie everything in with a loving Heavenly Father wanting the best for families. Pres. Varner bore a powerful testimony of how the B. O.M has changed his life, and the only thing he wants his grandkids to know is true from him. The daughter, Sydney, who is 18 has a grandpa that was a stake president out in Denham Springs, Louisiana so he related that to her a lot. We then talked with Sydney about the YSA ward and the activities over there and the sister missionaries already visited her and she is super excited about it!!
On the lines of YSA, we also visited the amazing Porter family that we have been able to bring the sacrament to and afterward had a lesson in Romans 8 in the bible to break the ice for the lady, Robin who we went with to her church :) It was the first lesson she has sat in on for the full time so far too!!! We bore testimony that truly, "we know that all things will work together for good to them that love God." vs. 26. We then told Bria (22) all about the pumpkin carving activity this week over at LSU tonight. She was so excited about it! She told us that the day before she was talking to her Mom about carving pumpkins, because she hasn't ever done it before. And then she even went and bought one haha. It was so awesome!! Heavenly Father truly does know each of his children.
This week also included one of my all time favorite Less-Active lessons/visits. We went to see this guy named Arthur Brazel who served a mission in Uruguay about 20 years ago. We started talking about giving everything to the Savior and you will find yourself. Matthew 10:39 We then just started telling him our predicament of finding a family to teach. (Because of time/length of this email I will share next week about the miracle of a family we found) He started telling us some incredible ideas and even asked us some inspired questions that we knew were answers to our prayers. He then started asking us about door approaches/talking about families. Well, before we knew it we were doing a straight Role-Play and Elder Hoopes was the investigator haha :) Bro Brazel was killing it, and seriously sounded/felt like he had never left the mission field. We almost got him out teaching with us!! Regardless, we committed him to pray about being our ward mission leader :) His testimony is so strong, we think he is just a bit nervous/sick to his stomach or something. Bless his heart for sure!
The investigators that we have been teaching are all doing super well!! Liz made it to church yesterday and is still on track for November. I sincerely have a testimony of prayer. Heavenly Father truly does know each of us individually and is mindful of our needs. He will ALWAYS answer our prayers, but that doesn't mean we don't have to work our tails off sometimes to see it ;) We have to have faith, and sometimes do a little on our part. "For he that diligently seeketh shall find." 1st Nephi 10:19
Well, I love y'all so much, but I am loving the work here. This email doesn't do justice to the blessings/miracles that Heavenly Father is sharing with me. Thank you so much for your love and support. Have a blessed week!
Love,
Elder Wilson
Gotta love that straight hood tracting in the deep south!! We may or may not have heard a few gun shots. #armorofGod #bulletproof #it doesn't even phase us at this point. #I love Louisiana haha
