Anyways, I just wanted to send a quick email assuring everyone of my safety here in Mandeville. My new companion is Elder Holdaway, and he is from the Boise area. I am looking forward to working hard with him and finding those that are prepared for the gospel, because I know they are out here! This week was filled with many hours of "friendly" Catholics showing us the outside of their doors haha, but regardless miracles were ever present.
Miracle: At church on Sunday we were introducing ourselves to tons of ward members and just trying our best to meet the ward, when a lady walked in named Therese. She isn't a member and is going through some hard things with her family situation and finding a job. A friend of hers told her about the church, and so she decided to try it out. We were able to sit by her, and she seemed to love sacrament meeting. It was probably a perfect first service, because all of the speakers shared the stories of Jesus Christ's birth. We had been working hard the entire rest of the week after transfers and getting here to Mandeville, and so it was a total tender mercy for sure. A ward member then invited her over to their house for Christmas day and we had a great lesson about the Book of Mormon with them. She seems so prepared, but just needs a little help with some drug addictions. It is so amazing that she found the gospel, and I know that through Christ we truly can overcome all things. I also know that Heavenly Father always blesses those that seek him. I have found that sometimes the Lord blesses us for our efforts in ways we don't expect. Instead of just sending us to where Therese was and inviting her to church, he prompted someone else to invite her to church and met us there. The work will always go forward!
We are going to search out some of the more ghetto parts of Mandeville and start working more there, so hopefully that will help the transition a bit and make me feel a little more homely like in NOLA and BR haha.
One more miracle I would love to share this week was out in the sticks of a town called Lacombe. It is a little bit outside of Mandeville and we decided to try and find some people out there. Well, after a while of finding we both felt prompted to knock on this specific door that was all lit up with Christmas lights. After we knocked, a guy answered and looked at our named tags and immediately invited us in. He then introduced himself as Arthur Wilson!!! It was way cool, and as we talked with him he mentioned living in Kansas City and knowing many Mormons. We shared the Christmas Light the World, and he was excited when we said we were going to come back again after he gets back from his Holiday trip.
Well, I will leave it at that for this week. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord, and fixing to keep rippin and running! Love y'all!
Love,
Elder Wilson
