Greenie

What’s up everyone? This week was probably the most tiring week of my entire mission. I have never spoke so much Spanish in my entire life. I am training a brand-new missionary, Elder Black from Salt Lake, he went to Highland High School, likes country music, and is a cool dude. He is still learning Spanish so he was just like me when I started the mission. Doesn’t understand anything and is still learning a lot about how to speak. But he is in good spirits and loves the mission so far. That being said I have to speak and translate everything for him which is kinda fun, but wow it is exhausting. But it has made me realize how much Spanish I do know and what I still need to work on. It is a good time. 

 As far as the work goes holy flip we have so many people to teach it is a blessing. The mission is just a lot better when you are super busy. But right now we have 4 people on date for baptism and we are just working really hard to help them live the commandments so they can be baptized. One of them in specific is named Yulisa.

 

Yulisa is amazing. She has prayed about our message and loves church but she is struggling to stop drinking beer. She has quit drinking coffee but now it is about quitting the beer. I have so much faith that she can do it but we need a lot of prayers for her. Her baptism is scheduled for the 6th of May so we hope she can be ready by then.

 

We are also teaching Ashley still. She has now had 2 baptismal dates drop but she is always at church. She says she wants to wait to be baptized with her brother but this week we are gonna explain why she shouldn't do that and how baptism is a very personal thing.

 

Yesterday I had the opportunity to give a talk in Sacrament meeting. I spoke about forgiveness and I learned so much it was amazing! I truly know that it is never too late to ask for forgiveness from our Heavenly Father. He loves us perfectly and wants us to be forgiven. This is why we have the atonement of Jesus Christ. I highly recommend reading about this in Alma 36. It is a great chapter. But I love this gospel and even though the mission hasn't been easy, it has been worth it. I am loving all my experiences and just trying to work hard and not regret anything!

 

Also my boy Spencer could use a lot of prayers his way. Love y'all have a great 

week!

 

Elder Wilde

PS Super crazy thing this past week. I was getting out of my uber and all of the sudden I hear this "Bro!" it was my neighbor Steven from home! Seriously what are the odds? He is from Santiago and was here visiting and I just happened to be hear picking up my new comp. Just another reminder that the Lord is in all of the small details. 

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Weirdest Day on the Mission?

 

• So this transfer flew! We had a lot of success and I will luckily get to stay here in Villa Vasquez and try to keep the work going. With that my comp will be leaving to the good old area of Santiago and I will be receiving a brand new missionary. So I don't know who yet but tomorrow when I show up at the office we will go in a room and the dude will come find me and that will be my comp. Kinda exciting. Hopefully my 8 1/2 months on a mission can teach this kid how to be a good missionary haha. 
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  But other then that the work here is CRAZY! This email could get long. First things first our friend Ashley is gonna be baptized this coming Sat. Her step brother was baptized like a week ago and he helped us hype up baptism. Ashley came to church yesterday and kept asking me if she could see the pool she was gonna be baptized in lol. We are excited for her. 
  
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  Before I get into our other goated investigators, I had the weirdest experience of my life yesterday. So there is this recent convert named Rafeal and we call him Raf. Well we visited him on Saturday and he was in bed in a diaper cause he was super sick. Then Sunday morning at church everyone was talking about how he passed away. So we were shocked then after church we went to his house with our Elders Quorum President and we shared a little message with his family and we sang 2 hymns and they turned out to be legit solos for me so that was lit. Then Raf’s casket was still in the house so I had the unique opportunity to see Raf’s body without his spirit. I didn't know how to word that but you know what I mean. So yeah yesterday was really weird. 
  
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  But now for cool investigators. There is this chick we are teaching named Yulisa. She is about 30 something and I love her!! She is the coolest ever! She is reading in the Book of Mormon and she came to church yesterday. We had such a good word of wisdom lesson with her last week, like literally it was insane. She committed to stop drinking coffee before her baptism on May 6th. We went back to her house 2 days after the lesson and she was like dang my head hurts really bad and we were like dang we are sorry and she is like I haven't been drinking coffee and we were like let’s gooo! So she is progressing a lot and we are so happy for her. 
  
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  Another girl we are teaching is named Yeudica. She is also goated. Last lesson we were about to share a scripture but I had the impression to just ask her what questions she had. We ended up teaching the word of wisdom and law of chastity and she was down to follow both. She said she is trying to quit coffee but can't so we are gonna bring a member who has experience to help us out. She also works at like a little bank thing that just sells lottery tickets so coming to church is so hard for her but she said she is gonna try everything in her power to come next Sunday. 
  
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  Overall the work is poppin! I have truly seen the blessings from being obedient. Our teaching pool is overflowing and we have so many people with potential. I am sad to see my comp go he is a good dude but I am super excited to train a brand new missionary! 
  
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  Love you all!! 
  
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  -Elder Wilde
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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What a Week!

This week was so freaking eventful wow. We were supposed to have the baptism of 2 of our friends but only 1 of them came. So I'll explain that for a hot sec lol. 

So basically we are teaching these 2 kids named Ezequiel and Ashley. They are both 10 and somewhat step siblings. I say somewhat cause their parents aren't married. The father of Ezequiel is excommunicated, but he served a mission and he likes the church. His girlfriend aka the mom of Ashley, is Evangelical and doesn't love the church. So there is some contention in the house and that is kinda a bummer. So on Saturday Ashley told us she was ready for her baptism but then it was pouring rain and she didn't come because she then decided she wasn't ready. I personally think her mom is telling her she isn't ready but who knows. On the bright side Ezequiel was baptized and it was a good night. The next day he showed up 2 hours early to the church to be confirmed. He was super hyped to say the least. The kid is a goofball, but I love him. 

This past week was "Semana Santa" So they don't go to school and they basically chill and do nothing. Well yesterday a member invited us over so we went over and she brought out 2 massive bowls filled with "Habichuelas con Dulce" or should I say milk, with black beans, with sugar, with raisins, with cracker, with Yuca. It was AWFUL. I have no Idea how anyone could ever eat that and enjoy it. It was rough but don't worry I finished the whole thing even though I almost threw up like 3 times. 

Other then almost dying we had a great lesson with out friend Yulisa. She is a legend and just started to read the Book of Mormon on her own! She has read the first 3 chapters and she always texts us and tells us her favorite verse. We have a baptismal date for her this 6th of May. But we are gonna drop 2 bombs this week one of them being the law of chastity and the other the word of wisdom. I am not too worried cause if she has a testimony of the Book of Mormon then she should have a testimony of Joseph Smith and then these things will be easy to teach. She also makes insane natural juices for us and it's a dub. She also loves President Nelson. So she is basically perfect which is scary cause there is always something that goes wrong with these type of investigators lol. 

But other then that it was a good week! Easter was fantastic. I know Jesus Christ lives and loves all of us. It is fascinating to think that He lived on earth just like us and was a normal man just doing pretty incredible things. These last 8 months of my mission have really taught me to love Jesus Christ and my relationship with Him has grown more than I thought possible. 

Love you all! 

-Elder Wilde

Conferencia General

Well this week was one of the longest weeks of the mission. I was convinced that March would never end haha. But it did and here we are on the 3rd of April! 

So first things first thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes! My birthday was so good and I feel very happy to tell people on the streets I'm 19 not 18 haha. Speaking of which we told these kids we are gonna baptize this week that I am now 19 and his first question was "How many kids do you have?" So if that tells you anything about the DR.. haha. 

This week was very long but wow I learned so much. On Friday we had our Zone Conference. It was one of the best Zone Conferences I have ever had. I learned so much about how to better my Missionary skills and planning. It is always so much fun seeing other missionaries from the mission who I am homies with. One thing that I loved which President Breton said was "you guys need more vitamin T. Vitamin Trabajar. (Trabajar in Spanish means work.)" So it was fun to hear him make a joke but a joke that was so valuable. 

Conference this weekend was so good!! Conference as a missionary is truly like Christmas or the Masters. Just a good day. I learned so much about our Savior Jesus Christ. I loved how the focus was on Him and how they made it clear that Easter is just as important, if not, more important than Christmas. I love hearing the Prophet speak. It brings me so much peace knowing we have a prophet of God on the earth. Also shoutout to my best friends aunt for being called as the Young Women’s General President! So insane! She is going to do amazing things!

We are set to have the baptism of two of our friends named Ezequiel and Ashley this week. They are both 10 and the funniest little kids. We are basically best friends. 

My basically older brother Spencer could use some prayers headed his way this week! So pray for him when you say your prayers!

Love you all and have a great week! 

-Elder Wilde