This week was an amazing week! The Lord's hand was most definitely seen and we were blessed to be a part of some incredible miracles!!
We met with Chris several times this week, and he is doing great. He has been super busy with work lately, but has been keeping up on his Book of Mormon reading :) One of the lessons we followed up with his reading of Moroni 7, and it talks about how we must do things with real intent (pray and read). It was cool, because he told us that he read the scripture and realized it was speaking to him so he re-read the first little bit of the chapter 3 or 4 times haha. He is doing great, and it has been such a testimony builder for me, because we met him at what seems to be the perfect time. He has been going through a 1 year sober program to clean his life up, and just last week finished the course! He has to wait a few months before the court trial finishes up, but that will just give him more time to learn, progress, and build that foundation on Jesus Christ.
As I have mentioned before Glady's Knight is coming to Slidell in about 2 weeks now to sing and bear testimony of the Book of Mormon, and so we have been inviting everyone and their dog to this event! It has been sooo cool. Like last night we ran into a neighborhood crawfish boil and ended up inviting everyone to the Glady's Knight. This one lady, Sharee, mentioned that she is "a recovering catholic" and actually lives 2 streets down from the church in Slidell!! Let's goo. She seems way excited to go. The guy hosting the crawfish boil didn't seem super excited about music, but sure wanted to get us out on his kayak/shrimp boat with him LOL ;) It was tough turning the guy down, bless our hearts. And then we went and did an exchange over in Hammond this week, and man that place is the promised land haha. We found 3 super awesome families that all seemed stoked about the event. This lady named Tasha actually came to the church in Hammond twice when she lived out in Pontchatoula, and has now since moved a few streets down from the church! She seemed so prepared and a total miracle that she has already stepped in the doors.
Miracle: Elder Jensen felt inspired that we needed to visit some LA's up in an area that we hadn't gone to before, so we decided to follow the prompting! The first miracle was knocking on the wrong house, only to find this way awesome guy that has always wanted to learn about the B.o.M. We had a great lesson with him! We then visited this guy named Jason Gore who actually served his mission here in Louisiana and moved back a few years after. He was the branch president down in Morgan City, and just a super great guy. He works in the oil industry, and just remarried a non-member a few years ago. We could tell he still had a strong testimony even though he hasn't been to church in a while. He told us he has been working on his wife slowly with the gospel as well. The miracle wasn't just finding him though. Turns out he was having surgery on his shoulder bright and early the following morning and has been way nervous about it. He had been thinking about calling someone in the ward to give him a priesthood blessing, but Heavenly Father sent us instead :) He shared so many mission experiences of following promptings from being obedient, and we were able to bear testimony of that. His wife Sharee had never seen a priesthood blessing, and so that was way cool as well. We also invited them to the Glady's Knight event and they said they wanted to go! The same night we felt prompted to flip a u-turn and head the opposite direction we were headed, and ended up visiting this family who's Dad just returned from work off the rig. We invited them to Glady's of course, and it was a total miracle again.
We have been taking out a Priest age young man teaching with us, Isaac Holbrook, and he ended up spending all Saturday with us. We had a blast, and hoping to help him get on a mission. He bore a testimony of how in the last couple weeks he has made it more of a priority to read and pray, and shared how it has only blessed his life. I love how missionary work has so many aspects of helping others. Honestly this week was something else. I could go on and on about the blessings Heavenly Father showed us this week, but words won't do justice regardless (or even irregardless :D).
We had zone conference this week, and so I wanted to conclude with my thoughts/testimony:
As a mission we read the Book of Mormon in 90 days, and President Varner asked several of us to bear our testimonies of our experience. I was grateful for the chance I had to reflect on the experience. I shared how there were sooo many days where I would start reading and just KNEW the B.O.M was true, and couldn't wait to finish it so I could receive a "full witness" However, I learned that you can receive a "full witness" of its truth every single time you read it.
I also found that the Book of Mormon in and of itself is a miracle that I can hold in my hands.
By small and great miracles I have come to see the Lord's hand in this work of bringing souls unto Him. The Bible dictionary shares, “Miracles should not be regarded as deviations from the ordinary course of nature so much as manifestations of divine or spiritual power. Miracles were and are a response to Faith.” Through reading the B.O.M again and furthering my testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ I can say as Moroni does in Mormon 9:11, 15, “God has not ceased to be a God of miracles. But behold I will show unto you a God of miracles.” As Moroni declares I have also gained more of a sure knowledge that God truly is a God of miracles. I testify of the miracles that have taken place in my heart as I have labored in the Lord's service and held fast to the Book of Mormon that I treasure.
Love,
Elder Wilson
