Monday, July 2, 2018

APRIL 9, 2018

Alright from Louisiana!
This week was another fantastic week!!

We met this way nice lady named Donna last week and ended up doing service for her in her yard. Next thing we knew we were sitting down listening to her whole life story of speaking in tongues and being filled with the holy ghost, etc. She shared with us some interesting experiences to say the least. "Satan has been trying to kill me all my life." haha she is a great lady. Anyways, she gave us the huge tub of Jambalaya, and poor Elder Jensen hadn't experienced that kind of Jambalaya yet and I may or may not have forgotten to warn the guy. Bless his heart!  "Sweet this will keep us fed the next couple days." (I just smiled) Half way through bowl,  he said, "Man if this is Jambalaya then I hate jambalaya." LOL!!!! I assured him that it wasn't the real deal, because good gravy that stuff wasn't even of this Earth. She told us she put puree'/liquid crawfish in it, and I think she might have put her dying cat along with it.... Bless her heart though! It's the thought that counts I guess. I love Louisiana :P

We have been working with this great guy named Danny and this last week we had a great lesson with him. He has been reading the Book of Mormon with the ward and is just cooking right into 2nd Nephi! Hopefully the Isaiah chapters don't slow the man down, because he is greasing up those hotcakes if you feel me. Almost like ordering "something deluxe" at the McDonald's and ending up with a platter of hotcakes. Still trying to figure out how this applies to Danny reading the Book of Mormon, but anyways he is doing great. We had a lesson with him about baptism and read Matthew 7 and then 2nd Nephi 31 and committed him to baptism on April 28th. We are excited!!

Miracle: After a couple months now the schedules FINALLY matched up and we were able to have a get together with Chris and Paige Caronna along with Steve and Baeli Short. Everyone made it off work barely in time and it just all worked out somehow :) Chris made dinner for everyone over at his house and it was just so great. Everyone seemed to have a great time getting to know each other and Steve and Chris are going golfing, and Baeli and Paige are going to start some personal progress/book of mormon studying together! We shared the short Restoration video and talked about it together, and then Paige texted us on Sunday saying she loved Moroni 7 and Mosiah 2! Things are going great. Please pray for them.

Another highlight was bringing our investigator Raymond to church. He seemed to really enjoy it, but almost Hijacked the gospel principles lesson on the Priesthood. Apparently he used to be a pastor and everything so you can just imagine that, and we are definitely going to have to teach more on the priesthood haha. It was pretty funny!

I wanted to finish with a few thoughts that I have been thinking about and reminded of. On my mission I have had the opportunity to meet so many members of the church ( many even RM's) that sometimes find themselves checking things off a list like: serving a mission, going to the temple, being sealed, blessing their baby, etc. They then find themselves not attending church anymore or reading their scriptures because they have "checked everything off the list." I have had much time to think about this especially throughout my mission and am reminded by the counsel given in the scriptures and by Prophets. Our testimonies and ultimately our faith are living things that require nourishment. Like any other living entity without the proper nourishment will dwindle and could even die. As the well known example in Alma 32 shares, in order for a seed to grow we must nourish it, and in the same sense, in order for a fruitful tree to continue to produce fruit we must never stop nourishing it. I love the quote by Joseph B. Wirthlin, "Faith is not so much something we believe; faith is something we live." We cannot simply believe or "have faith," we must do it and live it. Are we simply doing the steps or are we actively taking the steps? I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is something we must live even when it is tough, but further testify of the joy and blessings that come from following the Savior Jesus Christ's example. It truly is the "Good news." The Book of Mormon contains convincing evidence of these truths, but it is up to us to constantly find them, apply them, and live them!
Hope y'all have a blessed week!
Love, 
Elder Wilson