Hey y'all,
This week was definitely one for the books! I don't even know where to start. Heavenly Father has been blessing us a lot this week. We have been seeing so many doors being opened with finding former investigators and part member families too.
We have been meeting with Alvin and Therese several times and both are doing well. Alvin told us yesterday that he wants to start bringing his son Christian who is 9 to church with him. We asked him if he had prayed about the Book of Mormon, and he replied, "I keep inviting you back because of the answer I am getting." There ya have it. Way neat!
On exchanges last week I got to go with Elder Bagley and we had a blast tracting out in the cold! It isn't supposed to get cold here I thought, but regardless we bundled up, put on our slickers, and it was awesome. We ended up tracting into this way nice couple that we were actually referred to by their neighbors, and they invited us right in. We talked with them for a little bit, and then Bill offered to give us a ride and throw our bikes in the back of his truck. We totally took him up on it and ended up teaching him about the Book of Mormon in the car, and everything :) I mean he couldn't go anywhere so it was perfect haha!
Miracle: The other day we were going through a list of 30 people that Bishop had given each companionship to verify the address and phone number for. Well, after 29 calls of disconnected numbers the very last call was to a guy named Steven. He answered the phone and tells us that they love missionaries and would love for us to come over. Well, turns out this guy hasn't been to church for many years, but is a RM that served in Taiwan about 18 years ago. He just recently married this girl from Boston while attending Harvard residency. They have a 3 month old baby and so recently he has been thinking about how they should raise her and of course started thinking about church. His wife, Courtney, comes into the room and he starts asking her if she had heard much about Mormons. And then, subtly he asks us if the missionary lessons have changed and we said yeah. So he was like, "So Courtney would you be open to hearing the discussions the missionaries give?" She was like, "Yeah I would totally be open for that." Let's gooo!! It was way awesome and he totally set us up :) We are planning to set something up for this week!
One experience I want to share from this week was the opportunity to go back to Baton Rouge on Saturday for the baptism of Johane and her boys. I am so grateful that I was able tom get permission to attend that. Johane is the lady from Haiti that has 4 boys. Mitrel is 11, Miguel is 10, Michel is 9, and the youngest one, Ayden, is 2. The Mom, Johane, has so much faith. About 2 weeks ago she kicked her boyfriend out of the house so that she could prepare to be baptized. And you can imagine that from a Haitian lady :) The baptism was such a special and humbling experience for me that I will remember forever. I was able to be one of the witnesses to the baptisms and then I had the opportunity to confirm Mitrel and Michel members of the church and confer the gift of the Holy Ghost. I had never done that before, but Heavenly Father helped me :) The spirit was so strong with those boys it was amazing. Words cannot express the feelings that were shared. I will never forget the day Johane drove passed us and waved saying "Come, teach my family." And then week after week reading the sacred pages of the Book of Mormon with her precious boys. Tears fill my eyes as I remember one of the most heartfelt prayers given by Michel, as he shared, "Heavenly Father thank you for sending these men to share this book with us. I want to get to know you better. I promise to talk with you everyday." At times I wonder why I and many of us complicate things so much. The truth is that Heavenly Father wants to be a part of our lives, and he asks us to do simple things so that we can draw closer to him. Seeing the faith of these boys has renewed my testimony of the scripture in Mosiah 3:19 "the natural man is an enemy to God, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy spirit and becometh as a little child submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love willing to submit to all things the Lord seeth fit." I remember the first day we brought the Book of Mormon to them and their eyes lit up. We started to leave, and the 3 boys continued to read out loud together.
I remember the day that Mitrel came running up to us one of the days that we came saying, "Did you know there were large plates and small plates?" I smiled as he began to read about them both :) I am so grateful for my mission and the blessing it has been for me. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is real, and that is because the spirit has reconfirmed that to me time and time again.
I love y'all and thank you so much for your prayers and support.
Love,
Elder Wilson
