Happy New Year's y'allers!! Hope everyone stayed low and frosty and had a fantastic holiday! But hey let's be honest, it couldn't have beat getting the LSU football game updates at every door we knocked on yesterday afternoon haha. Except the fact that it was a blistering 34 degrees outside.... and we were freezing our buckets off. Anyways, I almost busted out the Geaux Tigers Jesus pass along cards, but I guess those are still in the approval process in SLC :) Maybe next year!
This week was really great! We pulled our socks up and gave it our all. We have been doing a whole ton of finding as you can imagine, since we got doubled in here but it has been awesome! The Lord truly does prepare people for us to find and teach no matter the circumstances. We were out trying to contact a less active in this trailer park and ended up meeting this guy named Alvin. He has 8 kids and has been totally seeking the truth. He was like, "You know, it's weird that y'all knocked on my door today because I be thinking about how to help these kids find Jesus since they be trippin." (paraphrased, definitely said it better than that haha) We ended up talking to him for a bit about the Restoration, gave him a pamphlet, and went back the next day. He had read the entire thing and was sooo interested in getting a Book of Mormon. We had misplaced it, and so didn't have one on us for some reason, and he was like, "Bruh, I want that book." haha so we totally went back and got it for him and had an awesome lesson with him. He was having some car troubles or he would've made it to church! Way excited to follow up with him.
Miracle: In that same trailer park we were walking down the street, and this car stops right next to us. These 2 girls roll down the window (prob around 23) and asked us what we were doing. Anyways, we shared a little bit and then they told us to come back the next day. We did, and they then told us the full story. Apparently Tashila, and her sister Kya were driving down that road listening to a song about Jesus, and both just started crying from feeling the spirit. They then saw us walking and both felt prompted to stop the car and talk to us. They had no idea why, but just felt like they needed to. We taught them the full restoration lesson, and they were all over it. Unfortuantely, (but I guess still fortunately) Tashila was moving to Lafayette the very next day so we have to hand her off to the missionaries over there, but so incredible that we met her at the perfect time.
Update with Therese: She is doing great!! We had several lessons with her this week, and after the plan of salvation lesson we committed her to baptism. She still has a few struggles she is working passed, and so after praying we all felt like Feb. 17 was the day to set. A little bit away, but she is super excited about it. The ward has fellow-shipped her soooo well, it has been great!
Also, this week we were asked to speak in the ward on Sunday. It was actually really great to be able to introduce ourselves and try and get the ward on our side here! We both spoke about building up of the Kingdom of God here on the Earth. What better topic for missionaries to speak on than that am i right? It was such a blessing for me to be able to prepare the message, because it helped me to key in on some of the most important aspects of missionary work: befriending those around us, and doing service for them. Both of these are perfect segways into sharing the restored gospel with others. I also tried tieing it all in with faith. I love the quote from the Bible Dictionary, "True faith always moves its possessor to some kind of physical and mental action. When we have true faith, we will always strive to act. I believe that the same is true when we start losing our faith, it is because we have stopped acting on the faith that we once had. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and know that it is true. I know that when we do act on our faith, that we find a certain happiness that we won't be able to find anywhere else. With a new year brings new experiences and new obstacles, but it also brings a new opportunity to change and improve.
I love y'all so much and am thankful for each of you in my life. I hope everyone has a blessed week and stays prayed up!
Love,
Elder Wilson
