Transfer Week!

What's up family and friends?! This week is transfer week, and I am pretty interested to see what will happen. They have officially changed transfers to Fridays which means we will now receive transfer news on Wednesday. But I will see what happens this week and let y'all know the next! As far as this last week goes it was pretty good!

We had the baptism of our friend Jorge Luis and it was super fun. The water was freezing cold and it was green but other then that super lit haha. Jorge Luis has been taught for a lot of months but always said he wanted to wait for his baptism. Then he came to his sister and brothers baptism and it made him change his mind. He is a super good kid and wants to go to the temple so bad. He doesn't like the sound of me leaving this area either which is sad haha. He keeps saying that he hopes I stay for at least 6 more weeks. We shall see! 

As for our other investigators we honestly don't have too many. Dolkyris is the only one we have that is progressing a lot but the other ones are super fresh and we haven't had too many lessons with them. We are gonna work super hard to get a strong teaching pool this week! 

Yesterday at church was a rather eventful day. I had the opportunity to speak about Missionary work with members and basically just hyped up the members hoping they will help us more haha. I also blessed the sacrament and then after the sacrament meeting the branch president was like "Hey can you teach young mens today?" So then I taught young mens for an hour. It was lit. Teaching wasn't bad at all cause we kinda do that all day everyday lol. 

But the mission is super lit! I have been loving it more and more each day. It is so hard, but so worth it! I love being in the DR but wowww is it HOT!! Love you all! 

-Elder Wilde  

Rain

What's up everyone?!? This week was a good week but man it was a long one. We had a pretty successful week as far as teaching goes but it was a boring week as far as fun goes haha.

This week we have been focusing a lot on an investigator we have named to Dorkilis. She is amazing! She is 27 years old and is part of a different church but has A LOT of questions about our church. We were at the place she works a couple of days ago to teach her and I suddenly felt impressed to change the lesson plan and teach about the Law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom, It was super good. She seems in accordance with both, but we will have to help her quit the coffee. Basically all Dominicans pound coffee lol. 

So I don't know if you remember but Ashley was baptized a few weeks ago and so was Ezequiel.. well now their 15 year old brother wants to be baptized! So this Saturday we have a date for his baptism and we are hoping that all goes well so we can get him baptized as well. He has been coming to church and LOVES it! We are super excited for him. 

Other than that not much happened this week. Last night it POURED rain and the streets all flooded. But because it is the DR and it is so hot here in Villa Vasquez they were all dried up in a few hours. We have a cool friend named Alex who lives in D.C. so he speaks perfect english has no interest in the church and drinks A LOT but he invited us over for dinner next week so we are gonna check it out. He is cool lol. 

My testimony of this gospel grows everyday. I love the Book of Mormon with my whole heart and love having the chance to share it every single day. I love Jesus Christ and am in awe of the sacrifice He made for every single one of us. I love this church! 

-Elder Wilde 

Bautismo

What's up everyone!? This week was a great week but wow it was pretty long. We have been so busy so let’s get straight into it! 

First off we had Zone Conference last week which was so much fun. This one lasted FOREVER. We got there at 9:30 in the morning and didn't get home til 6:30 at night. It was a good Zone Conference and I learned a lot about the importance of returning to the people we find. Also we talked about how it is important to teach using our own words and not memorized phrases. 

Thursday was a LONG day! Before our investigators are baptized they have to have an Interview with the District Leader, so on Thursday we were trying to figure out the interviews and it was just a big pain. We ended up spending the whole day trying to get them done and eventually we were successful! Friday we had the baptisms of Ashley, Maripili, and Kiara. It may have taken us a few times to fill up the font, but we made it work and they were all so excited. It was a very spiritual meeting. 

Saturday was like our only day of full work this week. We had a lot of success finding some people who are interested and one even asked how can she be baptized! We are hoping there is a lot of progress with these new friends. 

Something I was thinking about yesterday was how our purpose as missionaries is to help others come to Christ through baptism. I am gonna try harder to be more bold and emphasize that baptism is the goal. Everyone in this country will let us in and share, but hardly anyone wants to do something about it and progress. So I am gonna make it my new goal to be more bold and as I do this,  I know the Spirit will help me. 

Love you all! Hope you have a great week! 

-Elder Wilde 

Interviews

What's up y'all? So this week was like a quick week but the days felt sooo long. It was kind of brutal not gonna lie. We also fasted Saturday and the morning of Sunday and it is so hot here so we almost died, but we didn't ;). But overall another good week! 

Well today marks 9 months as a missionary which seems pretty crazy to me. I am grateful for the time I have spent in this country to share this gospel. Some days I imagine my life without the knowledge I have of this gospel and I think to myself how bad that would be. I consider it a huge blessing to know that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us so He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die for our sins, temptations, pains, sicknesses, EVERYTHING! Truly an incredible thing. I love this church. 

As far as the missionary work goes it is moving along good but with lots of difficulties. We visited Yulisa last week and her husband still doesn't want her to be baptized. She was also drinking but she  told us she still wants to work through it and progress in the church so we are happy about that. We are also teaching Yeudica still who couldn't come to church cause work but she quit the job and this whole last week was sick so we haven't talked to her in a hot minute but we still have hope. 

We had interviews on Saturday with President Breton. We were in a lesson in the morning and got a text from the AP's that said "Hey you guys are having interviews this afternoon with President." So it was a fun little surprise. He is a really good dude and makes me feel good about my decent broken Spanish. He told me I speak really good Spanish and need to help my companion learn it. So it feels good getting compliments from the big guy. 

Still love life on the mission but this transfer I have missed the things from home a lot more cause my comp and I have a lot in common so we talk about that stuff too much haha. Plus he is new and I guess it helps him adjust. But one movie I miss is Old Yeller. Might make fun of me for liking it but it is a fantastic sad movie. You should give it a watch. 

Remember to pray and read the Book of Mormon. Makes life cooler. 

-Elder Wilde  

Challenges

What is up everyone?!? This week was a real fast week on my end which was nice but lots of little challenges in between the week. But overall still a fun week. 

So first things first our friend Yulisa. I am gonna back track to my first transfer when I was with my boy Elder Fuhriman back in Santiago. We were teaching a girl named Angelica and her parents told her she could not get baptized. I remember how devastated Elder Fuhriman was and I was kinda like whatever cause I didn't speak much Spanish at all neither did I understand it. Well the same thing kinda happened with Yulisa and I am pretty devastated.  Yulisa has done so much in her life to be worthy and ready for baptism. Her date is for this Saturday and she has stopped drinking alcohol and coffee. Well yesterday we were waiting for her to come to church and then she texted us and said that her Husband is Jealous and Angry and doesn't want her to go to Church. So now we are gonna have to move her baptismal date and we are gonna keep working hard to get her baptized  cause she truly has a testimony but now we have a challenge with her husband. 

Other than Yulisa we have 3 little friends named Maripili, Ashley, and Jaylin who are all gonna be baptized on the 13th of May. So pray that they can keep strong these next 2 weeks to be ready for baptism. 

I was reading about the 2,000 stripling warriors yesterday and I love that story so much. 2,000 boys that went to war who had never fought in their lives and not 1 of them died in battle. It is truly an amazing story and makes me think of the mission. These warriors had so much faith in God it was easy for them to risk their lives. I am trying to grow my faith in God and realizing that even though I am not being asked to go to battle I am being asked to give up everything I love for 2 years. I truly love the mission and all I have learned even if it is the hardest thing I have done at times 

Love you all! Have a good week!

-Elder Wilde