Baptism

What's up everyone?!?! This week was a pretty good one and honestly went by pretty quick. Can't believe we are already 1 week into 2023. Not too many crazy things happened this week other than we had the Baptism of our dear friend Maria. 

Maria is somewhere in her 80's and LOVES the Book of Mormon. We have been teaching her the last 4 weeks and she loves everything about the church. Well Saturday was her Baptism and wow it was amazing. She showed up 30 minutes early just beyond happy to be there. A few ward members came and she was so happy. I had the opportunity to baptize her and it is always so cool to me that we have the authority of God to perform these ordinances. 

Now the kinda sad part. We normally do the confirmation the next day in sacrament meeting. Well sadly she didn’t make it to sacrament meeting cause her 6 year old grandkids wouldn't get out of bed. She came to all of 2nd hour though and after she paid her tithing and then asked when the men are gonna put their hands on her head for that gift. We told her it will have to be next Sunday and she was very sad about that. We went and visited her later in the day and reminded her why it was important that she is there on time and she said "Ohhh I will be there very early next Sunday" So hopefully it all works out. 

We are teaching a lot of people right now. The only problem is that most of them are more interested in learning english from us or just us ourselves. So we have had to tell a few people why we are actually here and then they understand haha. 

My Spanish is finally starting to feel pretty decent. My goal was to feel comfortable by 6 months and I'm awfully close to that so I was reflecting on where my Spanish has come from and wow it has made a huge improvement. I know it is all from the Lord and that I need to keep doing my part to continue being blessed. 

Speaking of doing my part, we had a few lessons with inactives this week. We talked about how enduring to the end is SO important. We basically said there is no excuse to not come to church. So yesterday one of the inactives came with her kid and her son bore his testimony about the church and how he knows Christ lives. It was so awesome and we are gonna continue to work with the inactives to make this ward breathe again. They have 20-30 active members and a little over 400 inactives.

I hope this week was full of so much good! Not gonna lie, I'm super ready for transfers but still got two more weeks to grind. I love you all and miss everyone so much. I miss golfing a lot so hit the links if you get the chance. Also wouldn’t mind if y'all ate some taco bingo and thought of me ;) 

I know Christ lives. I know He died for us. I know He is our brother and friend. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and with the power of God he translated the Book of Mormon. I know that book is true. I know it will help you in your life and will bring answers to all of your questions if you have faith. 

-Elder Wilde 

This is Rio Mar which means sea river. It is pretty lit, but smells horrible.

This is John and he is Haitian. He doesn't know Spanish, but he is teaching us Creole and we are teaching him Spanish and English. 

This is Verenice and she is the goat! She is a returned missionary and helps us a lot.