This week was super busy but so tender!! One of the biggest miracles this week was getting back with the Noland family, (family on Meredith street that has been super busy the last several weeks) and Allison (the lady that we met a day after she received her first bible). Both meetings were incredible!
On Friday night we met with the Nolands and brought our mission president with us. It was so awesome, because Pres. Varner could relate to them so much about his grandkids/family and everything. John had a question about the usage of Jesus' name in the B.O.M, and it was actually quite the miracle. None of us had even thought about that before as far as the historical timeline, but the spirit sure knew the answer to it. We opened to 2nd Nephi 25 where Nephi starts prophesying about the Savior and when his name would be used, etc. We finished with Nephi's testimony in chapter 33 about coming to know if they are the words of Christ. It completely answered his questions and the spirit was felt. It is amazing to me to think that not only do things add up spiritually and scripturally, but the Book of Mormon adds up historically as well. John and his wife Lynn realized that they have been "letting the B.O.M collect dust" but seem re-energized now :D Needless to say President Varner was pretty stoked after that. Just doing what we can :)
Miracle: We recently met this incredible lady named Johann who is from Haiti. We taught her the first lesson and committed her to come to church. Yesterday she walks into church with her 4 kids ages 3, 8, 11, and 12. She is so awesome and seemed to love sacrament meeting!! Apparently she hid the car keys from her boyfriendso she could make it. Making the steps baby! Her boyfriend started cussing up a storm at us in his boxers with a cigar in his mouth and a whiskey bottle in his hand. It was one of those times where we kinda wished he would have laid his hands on us, but he didn't and that wouldn't be Christ-like!
Adventure: We were up in the northern part of Baton Rouge one of the days doing a bunch of work up there and came across an abandoned church building. Well, turns out it was the LDS church on Winbourne that had closed down after being flooded out last August. The outside looked great, but the inside was totally gutted out. It was pretty sad to see honestly, but just encouraged us more to get things poppin again and try and get that place up and running again. There were 4 wards in Baton Rouge with two buildings, but after the flood they combined them into 2 and consolidated into one building since so many members moved away. Almost the same thing happened down in New Orleans after Katrina. We found so many people interested in the message up there though, so I know in the Lord's time it is going to be back up and running. Great people up there! Rumor has it a few members had the calling of watching the parking lot to make sure no cars got broken into :) Also, we may or may not have been eye witnesses of a kid running around with a black spray painted beebee gun causing havoc among the neighbor kids. However, before we could yell Chris, 6 cop cars were on the scene. What a blessing indoor plumbing is.
On Saturday we were able to meet with Allison again. We thought she had fallen off the face of the Earth or something... again. Good thing she hadn't though! I guess it had just been crazy at work and just got distracted. She texted us this week saying that her nightmares started again, and at that point she realized that they had only stopped since we started meeting with her and so she really wanted to meet again! We had a great lesson on Alma 34. It is great how the scriptures can be really straight forward and makes it a lot easier than from us haha. Jk it really was all about the goodness of God and finding ourselves back on the path that brings the most happiness. There was also a little Thanksgiving nugget in there in verse 38: "That ye live in Thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you."
What a great time to think about everything Heavenly Father has blessed us with. I definitely would invite y'all to do that. I am really excited for Thanksgiving this year, because I couldn't be more grateful than to be out here serving the Lord. He has already blessed me more than I can begin to thank him for. And don't worry about me, as I have said previously the Southern people definitely know how to eat so I will be more than well fed :) Well, Happy Thanksgiving ya herd me!
Love,
Elder Wilson
Church in the front living room of their house. #onlyinthesouth
