Homecoming Talk

As Mormon said, “I cannot ‘include’ the hundredth part of” the records which he was given. (Words Of Mormon 1:5) Brothers and Sisters, I felt somewhat of this same difficulty as I was thinking about how I could sum up two years of life changing experiences for others and even more so for myself, and roll it all into 25 minutes. I thought I could spend time addressing each of my areas, no matter how hood or country they may be, or talking about my companions and blessed I was to be able to serve alongside so many great companions, what seemed to stick out to me the past few days was an experience from the first day I was in the field out in Oak Cliff. (Share the Maria Herrera De Garcia y su da me el cinto historia.)

While I don’t think that our Heavenly Father needs to go to such an extent to discipline and to teach us, I have come to know that at times he does need to grab us by the shoulders and shake us a little bit to get a point across.

Beside all of the great stories I’d be able to tell, I decided I’d share with you one of the shortest verses in all of canonized scripture which seems to me to be one of the most insurmountable commandments given from the Lord. As a backdrop, It is given during one of the most pivotal points in the Book of Mormon, where Christ speaks to the “more righteous part” of the Nephites, people who, days before his coming, had passed through all manner of trial and tribulation. They had seen cities being destroyed, family smitten even unto death, storms deform the land in which they lived, and complete darkness for the space of three days; time sufficient for them to weep over losing almost everything they had held dear to them. Days later the previously prophesied Christ made his first resurrected appearance to the Nephites that had survived the turmoil the Americas had faced earlier, and after teaching many lessons and giving much direction, he stated in 3 Nephi 12:48, “Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in Heaven is perfect.” I don’t know what they were thinking then, but my heart goes out even more so to this little group of Nephites who had earlier been so wicked. As the scriptures say, it was the more righteous part of the people, the ones who received the prophets and stoned them not and the blood of the saints didn’t cry up against them. But that was the one glimmer of hope for them as they lamented after the destruction of the only 18 dominating cities mentioned of the Nephites. They cried, “O that we had repented before this great and terrible day…” How those sinners turned disciples must have felt with the overwhelming commandment given of reaching perfection.

Many times in my life I have felt the same frustration that I’m sure the Nephites felt beyond the awe of such a sermon , “How on Earth are we supposed to accomplish something that seems so unreachable,” but luckily, at the ripe old age of 19-21, I was able to see and get a grasp on what my Heavenly Father sees in me, as well in all of his children, and how he sees us getting there.

When God sent his son to give us the commandment of reaching perfection he wasn’t using poetry or just shooting a dream out there, but he meant what he said and was giving pure doctrine. And as far as how we get there is through Christ and that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone and that’s what I’m going to talk about, but on a side-note, I wanted to share an experience that I keep very close to me. As I was set apart in the office of President Lindberg two years ago, I don’t remember much, but I do remember how I felt and one line.

He blessed me that my testimony of the Savior will increase a hundredfold. At that time I thought that it was something that sure sounded neat, but it wasn’t anything that I always pondered on or had expectations for, and eventually got pushed to the backburner on things that I had on my mind. But then one night, I was lying in bed during the second best part of missionary work (next to baptisms) is when you’re done with the day and are finally supposed to sleep, and then you just think. It was the only freetime we seemed to have, and as I was thinking, for some reason, what President Lindberg said just flew right back to my mind. Feeling lucky that I was able to remember anything from such an amazing experience, I felt prompted to write it down and got out of bed to find any loose leaf paper where I jotted the quote down on some random envelope. For a long time the quote stuck with me, and as my mission was nearing a close, I looked back at everything that had happened and saw President's words, to me, turn into a prophecy fulfilled.

Before the mission, I was able to learn and appreciate of the Atonement that Christ had completed for us, but my relationship with him wasn’t much more than that, or from what I saw then. But like the Nephites that he visited, I felt like throughout the course of my mission, I truly got to know him and see his attributes. I learned that to reach perfection, we had to do more than accept him, but live like him.

As the foundation and one thing he was more than anything, is that he was perfectly obedient. He knew that it truly is the first law of heaven, and he knew that as he was obedient, he would receive divine guidance, which truly is the key to every calling.

One of the most inspiring leaders from my mission shared a story with me about the time that he was called by President Boyd K. Packer to serve as the Stake President in Longview, Texas. For a training, the Stake Leaders were brought into the High Council room, and President Packer asked everyone what some of the problems are in the stake. Some would say “home teaching” or “missionary work” or “teaching classes”, and President Packer would write each one down on the chalkboard. After a few minutes of that, he said “These are all really good, answers…”, then erased the whole board, and wrote down Personal Revelation.

Personal Revelation, which is the way that our Heavenly Father and the spirit communicates with us, is key because we don’t know the answer to every problem or situation, but our Heavenly Father does. We cannot live the commandments without this constant communication with God and heeding the council which he gives us and permits us to perform to the greatest of our abilities.

And it was amazing to be able to draw strength from the scriptures, learning of Christ’s life, and trying to direct my life in the same manner. And I began to see how Christ directed his life on these different principles such as Personal Revelation, I began to see miracles in my life as I tried my best to follow his example.

Riveroll Family Story

The attribute of Hope

The Renne y Sandra Story

The attribute of Diligence

The Erika Martinez story

The attribute of Patience

The last 6 weeks story

the attribute of Love & Charity

My page that I wrote in Sacrament meeting    

Hard work is planning, and then doing what you’ve planned to do.

3 Nephi 7:7&11&14

3 Nephi 8:24-25

3 Nephi 9:13

3 Nephi 10:4&5&12

Welcome Home Justin!!!

HOME

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." - Isaiah 55:8

It seems like the whole two years I've looked back at that day when I found out that due to those 'petit mals', or small seizures, I'd have to wait even longer. I'll never forget how frustrated I was when I found out that after waiting for what already seemed like forever, I'd have to continue in a space of nothingness where I couldn't progress towards anything. No matter what I started, I knew I'd have to leave it for the two years that were looming off in the distance. After those extra 6 weeks, I finally made it through and blissfully started what became the greatest experience of my life. As great as every experience was, I feel like there wasn't a day that went by that I  didn't wonder why the Lord had delayed my report time. It just kept bugging me and bugging me. Before the mission, I seemed to have all of my life plans worked out, and as the report date came and was even more delayed, I saw that apparently everything I had planned was not the Lord's plans, and I definitely wasn't thinking what he was thinking.

After some time full of countless miracles and experiences that I'll cherish forever, those last 6 weeks finally arrived, the time where I would have gone home, but the time where someone else saw it was necessary to keep me here. I figured that I'd been out in Gilmer for 7 and a half months, I had lived the dream there, and decided it would be the most fun to go back to the city and finish my mission in Oak Cliff- the area I had loved so much.  I had it all figured out and just about had all the weekly planning done for what I was convinced would be my new area, Oak Cliff East! It was going to be so awesome, and the greatest part about being an old missionary out in the Texas Dallas Mission is that President Durrant is known to send you wherever you want to go and will almost bend over backwards to meet needs and desires. I figured that my relationship with President even gave me that much more of the advantage...so I scheduled an interview with him after one of our meetings and as you all know, to my surprise, left that interview with the knowledge that yet again, my plans were not the Lord's plans neither my thoughts his thoughts.

With an eye of Faith and what seemed like an unquenchable desire that I would do whatever the Lord had especially planned me to do, I felt like I did nothing special, but just carry on what I'd been doing for the past 23 months now by working my heart out. I truly can't tell you how many times in my mission, and especially these past few transfers, how many times I've prayed to know the "why" the Lord had delayed my Missionary service. I didn't feel like I was asking for a sign, but I wanted to see something, anything! I wanted to know why, out of all the places on this planet I was sent to spend almost half my mission in what many people have dubbed a "podunk town" called Gilmer. This past week I truly have never felt so grateful and so in debt to someone I have come to know and love as my Heavenly Father. Through the course of my mission I have learned that he really does love us and isn't some distant spirit being off somewhere in Space, but gave us families as an example of our relationship with him and truly does care about every single one of our desires. I was recently able to see him answer more than just one prayer coming from more than just one person.

I'm going to backtrack a little bit to the time when I just got in the area with Elder Browning and started working in the beautiful area of East Texas! I was so pumped as I felt like we were truly our own mission! So far away and separated from the city in location, people, and even the way we worked. We were always scrambling around to find people that we could teach and became interested in a couple that our Ward Mission Leader was trying to set up with us. The couple, Mason and Kristy, were about my age and had gotten married a few weeks after I arrived in Gilmer. I didn't know anybody out here too well, but everyone was excited about their marriage. It was the talk of the town on the Baptist and the Mormon side (which covers just about all of Upshur county) due to the fact that he was Baptist and she was Mormon. We figured that would be a perfect opportunity for us to bring the blessings of the gospel, especially a temple sealing, to the new couple, but as the church started getting involved, we were disappointed to find out that Mason's family was not only active Baptist, but that his Dad was the Pastor. On top of all that, Mason was diagnosed with Leukemia and with not too much time, began his prescribed and yet strong doses of chemotherapy. With those flags in the air and other details involved, we were completely pushed to the side and investigating the church was completely out of the picture. We accepted the truth, more sourly than we should have, I'll admit, but returned to finding and teaching.    

Time went on and two companions later, Elder Trias and I continued the work we had been doing before. As December rolled around, we started seeing a lot more of Mason and Kristy and would always chat with them about how the treatments were going and talked about visiting with them. I still have no idea how we kept running into them, but we eventually found out that his strong treatments were just about finished and that they finally wanted to meet with us! We were sooooooooo stoked to get to talk with them (and that they had somehow gotten over the taboo'd idea of meeting with Mormon missionaries when your Dad's a baptist preacher.) I remember setting up the first appointment with them, and for some odd reason, it seemed to fall right where my last 6 weeks began. In-between that time frame my request to leave the area was shot down and I anxiously, or more so frantically, prayed that I would be able to do whatever the Lord wanted me to and that I would come to know it. I would pray pray pray...then wake up and realize that I was still on my knees, and continue my prayer and then go to bed. Meanwhile, the lessons with Mason were going better than I had seen before. The things we taught started making more sense to him and the questions he had felt like questions I had been specifically trained to answer. It was really a surprise to me when I saw how easy it was to teach him specifically and bringing the teachings and answers to his level just felt like second nature. I don't know if it's making sense to y’all, but I just felt so comfortable in every situation and things just happened for us. It was so amazing as I heard him give some of the most powerful prayers I've heard in my life, asking his Heavenly Father if this all really was true, expressing his desire and hoping that it all was true. I normally challenge people to be baptized on the first visit, but this time, for some reason, I waited and took a different route. But again, it just felt like second nature, and after a few visits, he accepted the challenge, and a few visits even later, we settled on a date for him (we just about jumped out of our chairs and took our Stake Dancing skills to their living room when he told us the date.)

The big obstacle for him was to inform his Baptist family that...he was going to be baptized in the Mormon Church. (To put it in perspective for those who haven't been in the South...hearing your child is becoming a Mormon is like your doctor calling you and diagnosing you with cancer. Quite ironic, isn't it...) So we prepared for the bad news and tried our best to come up with what would be the most effective damage control, but when Mason dropped the news on us, he told us his Dad said he was 'happy for him and that he found something that makes him happy'...and not only that...but supports him in his decision?!?!? Huh?!?!?!? We would have danced even more if we weren't so dumbstruck and I probably would have had something worthwhile to say if it didn't take me about 10 minutes to pick my jaw off the floor...but that's really how it went!!!!! (Hallelujah)

So in an answer to so many prayers that Kristy and her family had given (remember how I said everyone's related here...), we set up Mason's baptism for the 16th of February. We had given out invitations like we normally do and Mason got his parents to commit to come, but when it all started, we had no idea just how big it was going to be. We always have a good turnout to baptisms here, but we were starting to overflow 10 minutes before the service started! (That's over  45 minutes early in standard Mormon time!!!) So we took the party to the chapel and to our surprise, almost filled up there too!!! It was such an amazing service with so many people to support such an event and the spirit was tangible there.

As great as it all was, the crowning moment for me was when Kristy's Mom came up to me after the service and food part, when people were wrapping it up and heading back home. In that quiet hall, she started telling me about when she first saw me stand up as Bishop introduced me to the congregation, and how she knew in that moment, I was sent here to teach Mason. She said she felt it so strong that she knew that I was going to teach him when he would be ready. She talked about how it just amazed her as to how long I stayed here and how I went by transfer after transfer without moving, but she kept it to herself that I was staying until Mason was ready to listen. She began to cry as she thanked me for the Spirit we've brought to her home as we've taught and the changes that she's seen because of it. I know that it's not because of me that all of these things are happening, but I do know that like President Monson has said before, there truly is nothing like when the Lord uses you to answer one (or many) of his children's prayers.

Que se acuerdan Isaiah 55:8&9..."For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Les Quiero Mucho y espero que vean la mano de Dios como yo la he visto

Elder Wilson

Oh It's Fun To Find All The Time! Yes It's Fun To Find Especially From 6 to 9! And Baptize on P-Day haha that too!!!

BEEP! ....

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BEEP!.....

Thankfully Cody can wake up better than I can and turned the alarm off at 5 in the morning. I kicked myself out of bed to get ready for another one of those freezing missionary showers haha (the Lord knows he's gotta wake you up somehow so he has his ways....) So we got ourselves awake and ready as fast as our tired bodies would let us and began to venture out the door at 6 in the morning to embark on one of the longest awaited exchanges in the Texas Dallas Mission!!! 

As we started the day out, Cody and I decided that we'd put a new definition with the phrase "work your life out in the service of the Lord" and matching one of the mission songs, go find, especially from 6 to 9. The song says:

"Oh it's fun to find, all the time! Yes it's fun to find especially from 6 to 9! It's getting kind of late, and your appointments all fell through...you're feeling kind of down because you've got nothing to do...start knocking on doors, and talking in the streets! You'll be surprised at how many families you'll meet!..."

And it keeps going on from there, but as you can tell it references the 6pm to 9pm hours...but we thought we'd give the song a run for it's money and go find people from 6am to 9pm...because it's fun to find...all the time!!!

So we got out the door by 6 and while we were without the car that had gotten hit earlier on in the week, we walked our way on over to Wal Mart while contacting people at the gas stations on the way. We for real got the weirdest looks as people saw us going around and teaching about Jesus Christ so early in the morning and it was pretty awesome to contact those Mexican baptists...so groggy as they had just got outta bed to go to the store and buy some milk haha oh just too classic. The worst part was just how cold it was-- never been anywhere colder in my life. Period. But a special thanks to all those who sent me all the Winter clothes to help me battle just another one of those days that never got above freezing haha. It was killer and we just about froze our faces off as we realized we could barely talk to anyone, but as time went on we went tracting and then it started to snow. Overall I've just gotta say that I miss the city or more populated areas because of how much fun tracting is! We froze our butts off. We found 11 new investigators in one day!!!! (I've never seen anyone get a day higher than that in my whole mission !!!!) As crazy as it was and as cold as it was and as tired as we were, the 15 hours of straight work were so much more than worth it...gives us the right to chime in with President Spencer W. Kimball in saying "My life is like my shoes, worn out by service."

We could barely believe that we were working together for the longest time and it seemed like every few minutes a reality check would come in and we'd realize that we were hanging out together not as just friends like so many times before, but this time as companions in the work of the Lord!!! It made me think of the time we walked and rode the bus all the way down to Valencia to watch that lame movie Hancock...and while we did just about as much traveling, this time was so much more satisfying!

So I figured I'd put in a few highlights from that day...

There was one dude who tried to sneak out his side door as we knocked the front one, but we caught him trying to sneak behind his gate, but we caught him and told him to Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!!! Yeah he definitely felt uncomfortable as he tried to wiggle his way out of the fact he was running from the Lord's servants. The good thing is he got the picture and will be called to even more Repentance later on by the Mount Pleasant Elders.

We taught the Restoration that day like it was nuthin but a G Thang....fo reals!!! But my favorite was when I was using one of my favorite examples to explain the apostasy and how you can compare the primitive Church of Jesus Christ to a Vase, held by my arm (which represents the Authority). When you take away my arm the vase falls into hundreds of pieces, and that is truly what happened as the Church of Jesus Christ fell into hundreds of thousands of pieces, just a ton of teachings that many would take and start a church around. The idea is that so many people were using so many different pieces to start what they thought was the church of Jesus Christ, but in truth, they couldn't bring it back to the vase that it looked like before. As Elder Bench, bless his heart, explained it in Spanish, he said that all the people used, (instead of pedacitos which means pieces, he used galletas which means cookies...) So in translation he said that people were picking up different cookies and building churches around all these different cookies, but all they had was just a bunch of cookies instead of what the vase looked like before. So in truth....all they had was a bunch of cookies. I knew something sounded wrong and as I translated it in my head, I just started laughing out loud in front of everyone. Haha sorry man but love you Codes!!! Was a triumphant day for sure.

And as if this past week wasn't good enough, we got the Zone Shirts made and publicized!!! We handed them on out during my last training which was crazy to think that it's the last one I was going to give...but the truths the truth and I had to accept it. As we drove back home and had the normal thrill of the day by checking mail...there they were...the trunky papers. So I opened the letter and read what I'd seen so many other missionaries read before. We would always make fun of those missionaries and how little time they had left, but this day the tables turned and it was another reality check hitting home. It's just so hard for me to believe that these two years that I'd looked forward to for all my life are almost over.

Also worthy of mention is that another accomplishment has been made...we tracted out a whole city in just one day!!! Elder Trias and I decided to set apart a day to knock every door in a whole city, and met our goal in the roaring metropolis of Rhonesboro Texas!!! Aint nuthin but a G thang.

So as you can tell, busy would be an understatement for our work out here in the Gilmer Stake, but one of the biggest blessings of this week were the lessons we were able to teach to Samantha Martin. She's a girl that used to live in Newport,  Maine (within the boundaries of Dad's old mission), but was getting into all sorts of trouble like teenagers normally do. Her Mom didn't know what to do with her, so her Aunt (Hermana Robertson) decided to take her in to live the Mormon life out in the country. She had been living with the Robertsons for a few months when we got to start teaching her. We jumped on the opportunity to start teaching and got to finally get in and set a Baptismal Goal with her. She had loved all of her experiences in the Young Womens program, how she feels at church, and just living with the Robertsons who had set such a great example for her by living the high standards that we have set as members of the church of Jesus Christ. As we invited her to be baptized, she was so excited to be apart of what she had come to love and accepted the invitation for the 8th of February. We figured it would work out perfectly and she was apparently planning on staying out here in Texas until June, but as time went on, we found a bump in the road. Her family (who are not members) began to miss her, kept calling her and reminding her of how much fun doing this and that was, basically inviting her back to the old ways. Then her parents got a ticket ready for the 11th of February, and with that, Samantha, who was at first so in love with the Church and so excited to get baptized, began to rethink her decision.

I can't lie though, when she told us that she didn't want to get baptized anymore, Elder Trias and I didn't feel worried at all. I was pretty surprised since it's normally a panic moment when you see that what you've put so much into is falling right between your fingertips, but we've been out on the mission long enough to know that no matter what, anytime before a step of progression is made in any form (but especially Baptism), we won't be the only ones upping our game... The adversary will always come in, finding any entrance he can take, and throw a monkey wrench into the all the plans that we've set. As annoying as it is, I've seen how much the mission has blessed me personally to deal with these situations. I feel like I've seen (in the little sliver of life that I've lived) that Satan will always throw temptations and problems at us, but it's really how we deal with it that refines us and makes us who we are. So instead of panicking and giving up, we finally felt grateful for all the other obstacles that Satan had thrown at all of our converts that had prepared us to deal with this case. Her date was going to be moved to the 10th, but she told us at Church that she just wanted to call it off. She was nervous about being the only member in her family and not knowing too many members up there, but we knew there had to be someway to overcome these obstacles. So we set up a time to visit with her that night and when we went home, we created a battle plan to salvage the months of progress she had made by not only learning the things we taught, but living them with better support than she could ever ask for around her. Looking back on our visit to their house that night, I still feel like we just showed up and the spirit took over for the lesson.

It seemed to be a compilation of so many small things that I had learned on the mission taught with the Doctrine of Christ and using the chapter Alma 47. Of course it's a chapter that talks about nothing but secret combinations and all that sweet stuff, but it drives home some of the most important principles in life and helps us understand how Satans going to try to get us, and how our Heavenly Father is going to try and get us. But no matter what they do, the choice is ours and the end of the story depends on what we choose to do. At the end of such a powerful lesson, the words just fell out of my mouth, "So Sam, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized tomorrow?" Yeah, it was a little different from the memorized invitation, and after a long space of silence where she sat and thought about it...she finally accepted!

We normally have a reverent manner in everything we do, but all the kids in the family just started jumping and shouting as they were so excited for their cousin! It made me think of all the little McKeon cousins and how excited they get at family reunions when they get to be all together! So we put together the program and took off, but right before we left I thanked Hermana Robertson for letting us come over in the midst of the chaos with people moving into their home and the millions of things they had to do that day on their property. She then told me about how she saw how easy it would have been to cancel it and tell us that they were too busy and will work with Samantha in a few years or something like that, but she heard a voice in her head telling her, "Don't become a stumbling block. This is my work. This is what they are here for."

We had one of the greatest Baptismal Services yesterday and the spirit was stronger than so many I had seen before as Samantha was baptized, and let me tell y’all, there really aint nothing else like a Preparation Day baptism. It was also very special to me as I knew that Samantha was returning home and going to be a great asset to the area that Dad had served in what must be 30 years ago (sorry Dad haha but I had to put it in there.)

Yesterday, we almost had our planners full of appointments and just didn't have time to prepare for this week, and it truly has to be one of the best feelings ever. We are seeing miracles every day out here and I'm so grateful for all of y’all that are praying for me extra hard because we can see the proof of it out here. I know that this is the Lord’s work and that no mortal hand could have or even would have started what we are now actively apart of. There truly is nothing else like being a full time servant of Jesus Christ and in this short time that he's given me to do so, I've seen myself come to know him so much better and have become so much more grateful for what he's done for me. In our Ward Council this past week, Bishop put me on the spot and asked me why I thought that missions were so hard. After my answer, he talked about the refining process of a mission, and how while I may bless the lives of many people, nobody will leave what I've done more blessed than I. Every time I reflect on that, I can just hear the truthfulness of the scriptures ringing in my ears when the Savior stated, "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it."

Les Quiero Mucho Y Que Dios Da Valor,

Elder Wilson