Dia De Gracias!

First off...I gotta give a huge shout out and congrats to Hermana Starke for getting called to serve in Costa Rica!?! What a dream mission haha I just hope that my Texican Spanish will be able to keep up with all the homies serving/have served in Peru, Chile, El Salvador, Mexico, Florida, Argentina, Paraguay, Nicaragua, and of course Costa Rica haha. This past week I was able to learn a very important lesson through the scriptures, and wanted to extend an invitation to everyone who wants to be more Christlike. As I have looked for key attributes and characteristics that our Savior had, one stuck out to me in Luke Chapter 19 and I thought it went along perfectly with Thanksgiving. So during the travels of Jesus, his fame began to grow and continued to do so as he entered Jericho. As he came to enter the city, there was a bunch of excitement with the citizens and many came to follow him to see what the famous "celebrity" was going to do in their city. As more and more people came to follow him, there was a man named Zacchaeus who "sought to see Jesus...; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature." As I thought about it, all of us know so many "Zacchaeuses" or people that maybe don't fit into "the press" because of whatever reason...they're too short, too tall, not smart enough, not happy enough, and all that jazz. Well Zacchaeus "ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house." I know that these first few verses display a very simple and common principle that we seem to hear all the time, so I wanted to put it into a more nowadays analogy. So what I got from these first few verses would be like if I was going to a Brad Paisley concert...and halfway through, he would just point me out and say "Justin, come on down here and were taking a road trip!" And then we'd get on his tour bus and head on down to Cancun, Mexico while I serve as his translator and all that haha but enough getting carried away with that. The whole reason I bring that up is because we gave it try to go out of our way and give some random "surprises" to a very large and struggling family, and I want to promise everyone that you will feel 10 times more humble, grateful, and happier if you give someone something to be grateful about in comparison to filling out any list of things you are grateful for. So reach out to the Zacchaeus or Zacchearina that you know and help them enjoy this Thanksgiving! Then maybe you can enjoy it just as much as I have, especially when we cleaned the septic tank another family of Zacchaeuses. Greater love has no one than he that cleaneth the septic tank of his friends haha...it was shockingly disgusting. But on the bright side, I got to wear jeans for the first time in 3 months haha bonus!!! 

One of the capping moments of this past week was when we spent about 15 minutes running around the church trying to find this 15 year old kid that we're teaching. His Dad had to go to the Hospital that day, but he still got someone to drop him off while we were doing stop by's and reminding everyone to come to church. So we came to church to see our choir practicing, only a couple of members...and no Jeremy. So we kept running around frantically asking members if they'd seen a short 15 year old kid, only to be met with a negative response. We were so worried do to the fact that he was just barely trusted with us, and as we took a second to sit down, relax, and try to figure out where our short and nervous new investigator could possibly be, we looked up at the choir to see short little Jeremy singing his heart out haha. And he performed with the whole choir during sacrament meeting on his first time going to church haha....I'd like to see anyone else try and wave that flag! Well I hope you all know how grateful I am for you and your support! Thank you!!! I love and miss yall!

Elder Justin Wilson