Happy Thanksgiving!!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Funny story, last night reminded me of this season of gratitude. We woke up around 1:15 only to realize our apartment was filled with smoke, and literally the vents were shooting out buckets of smoke from what seemed like our multiple chain smoker neighbors. To make a long story short, we opened up all the windows and doors, and may or may not have gotten our slickers on and curled up in the fetal position on the front porch. Luckily for us we picked the one and only freezing cold night in Louisiana to sleep on the porch. But as I have been reminded, in the eternal perspective, the finer things in life, just don't matter." Still many things to be grateful for :)
This week was filled with Thanksgiving miracles. Unfortunately not a whole lot of time today, but I will share a few treats with y'all. It is seriously one of the greatest blessings to be a missionary during the holidays. I am pretty sure more miracles await during this time of the year than any other there, and Tuesday was a testimony of that.
On Tuesday, we decided to go to this apartment complex and start sharing little Thanksgiving messages with everyone we could. It is hard to even express the joy and miracles that were seen. It was probably one of the most memorable tracting experiences of my mission as specific prayerful desires were answered. The Lord was opening doors before we even knocked on them :) We went to one of the corner buildings, started from the top, and I am not even kidding when I say literally everyone invited us in. We almost lost track after about 14 doors. Every single door in that building except one, because no one was home. We expressed that we were there as representatives of Jesus Christ sharing a Thanksgiving message abut him. We met sooooo many full families and shared gratitude scriptures from the B.O.M. It seemed as if every single one of them was prepared for the message. So many had seen missionaries before, and knew it was a familiar spirit. We spent 4 hours "tracting" but it was one of the most joyful missionary experiences ever. We went back the next day to follow up with many of them, and had several incredible Restoration lessons with President Varner with us. One lady used to go to the church with her Aunt before she passed away and so is really excited to come. Many were so sincere in seeking the truth, and it was just amazing. Heavenly Father really is hastening the work here during the holidays!
Our little Haitian family that we met is doing really well, and the little boy gave the closing prayer a day this week and said, "Heavenly Father I am going to talk to you every night and I want to get to know you better." It was precious.
We met with our investigator Allison again this week, and she was able to make it to church. We taught in Mosiah 18 about being baptized, and though she didn't fully commit it was the perfect lesson for her to re-commit to reading the Book of Mormon everyday and coming to church every week. She seemed to love Relief Society, which was a total relief (no pun intended) after a "bless the man's heart lesson of gospel doctrine." Our friend Arthur Brazel has made a 2 Sunday consecutive appearance and is doing great! He is in the process of receiving a calling, and so we are praying for Ward mission leader :)
Quote of the week: After approaching this man on the street we realized he had a gun under his arm, and so I said, "Hey sir, are you packing heat?" Looking back about 6-8 seconds later realized maybe not the greatest conversation starter, but he was like, "Yeah, it's legal, aren't you packing heat in those little bags?" I responded, "Well, if the word of God is heat then we are packing a whole lot of heat." Haha it was pretty funny and we actually got to teach him a little message as well :D I sure do love the South.
Well, I am so grateful to be a missionary here in Louisiana during this Holiday season. The people here are so unique and can be stubborn at times, but I love serving them. Everyday my testimony of the restoration of Christ's church grows. The fullness of the gospel is real and all we have to do is ask. God lives and loves us, and that is why he sent his son Jesus Christ. We can find gratitude knowing that he blesses us more than we even know.
Love,
Elder Wilson
