Miracles Miracles Miracles!!!

Whatup whatup whatup whatup!!!

Dang this has been such a crazy, but yet awesome week! One of our baptisms was a man named Ramon Martinez who had been investigating the church for about 12 years now haha. His investigator sheet is pages long with hundreds of visits recorded, and three baptismal dates that he stood up on in 2009, 2010, and 2011. He got the interview done and everything, but just didn't show up at the baptism. So that was our whole focus with him, was teaching him about how hard Satan is going to work on this baptismal date, trying everything he can to get Ramon to back out. And we took this as cautiously as we could, visiting him every Sunday before church to make sure he was coming. It got pretty desperate at all of the reasons we made up to come by his house and make sure he was on the right path. Then this past Thursday, when we started to fill the font, we had previously decided that we were going to his house to haul him on over. It was his birthday so I got him a present as an excuse to drop by and take him with us, but once we got there, his son told us that he left to the church. It was about 30 minutes before the service...so we just about lost it and thought that he went A-wall on this whole deal...for the fourth time in a row, and was about to gain even more popularity than it already had around the whole Texas Dallas Mission. But we booked it to the church and found him there, patiently waiting and meditating. So the baptism went through, and it was truly a miracle. We totally felt overwhelmed to see the fruits of the labors of many missionaries before us, and on the receiving end it felt like we were supposed to catch a growing snowball with 12 years of momentum, but it was pretty neat...that is until Sunday. I didn't know this until the mission, but when converts are baptized, we have to wait until Sunday to confirm them a member and give them the Holy Ghost. Well we had passed by on Saturday just to secure it, and when we saw him he was sicker than a dog, and even though we offered a blessing, he said he was determined to make it on Sunday and that was the blessing he needed. Well the next day rolls along and Ramon wasn't able to make it to church, and it was there that we learned about how serious his sickness was. So on Wednesday, the day before his baptism, he felt this terrible sickness and ended up going to the hospital. He was somehow able to make it through that night and get to the baptism, and he felt rejuvenated as he was in the church, but after his baptism, things just got worse and worse. Apparently after his baptism, a lot of family went over to his house for some food and all that jazz (because Latinos seize any opportunity that presents itself to party), and they said that you could just see him getting worse and worse in only a few hours. And I can testify that Satan took advantage of those three nights that he had until his confirmation to do everything possible to keep him away from the Holy Ghost. It was very scary, but actually quite amazing to see the raw power that was exerted on him and was just plain dangerous. It ended up in two trips to the hospital and a few visits with the doctor, and as we talked to a few recent converts, they expressed to us what it was like...that one night where you don't have the Spirit constantly with you and the adversary is so clearly sending everything he can your way. It's like every bad memory, doubt, or temptation will come back all at once and you just feel alone and unprepared for all the opportunities and desires to sin again that are headed your way. They also said it was one of the greatest and most magnificent learning experiences that they ever had. One told us that after her baptism, all that would make her feel safe was reading her scriptures...so she read until she fell asleep, and if she'd wake up, she would keep reading and reading until church. After she was confirmed, she felt a great relief and weight just taken off her shoulders. So we talked to Bishop about it and felt strongly impressed that we needed to confirm him ASAP instead of waiting a whole week, and with his approval, confirmed Ramon Martinez only a couple of hours ago in his own home. So a couple of lessons I saw were, first off, how important the companionship of the spirit is! We all take it super for granted, but as you continue to learn about all the blessings that the Holy Ghost can give us, the protection he provides us, and more about his role as the third member in the Godhead, the thought that he can always be with us will never be taken lightly. As we talked with Ramon about the past five days...he expressed his shock and bewilderment at how for 47 years, he had never been sick, and this was his first visit to the hospital. He had lost the desire to eat, and was hit with a couple other powerful difficulties in his path, but we know that now he has the Spirit with him, and will be protected according to his faithfulness. Another principle that I thought was super important, is one that you see almost every day in missionary work, but hit me as an extra special one while I was giving the confirmation. We always need to be worthy holders of the priesthood, and are never off work, but always on call. Things will always come out of the blue that need divine help, and that is the whole reason why we hold the priesthood and magnify our callings, so that when the moment comes, the Lord is ready to bless others. Well, things are cutting kind of close in the mission as far as our baptismal goal goes for 2012...so this is a make or break week...but too much has gone into this and I'm convinced that the Faith of the mission and hundreds of others is sufficient! Well I love you all and hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas and enjoys this opportunity to reflect on the birth of our savior! I again, encourage everyone to study study STUDY the Atonement of Christ and can promise that with a deeper understanding of that Universally changing event, will come a deeper understanding of every topic or question in this life! Love y'all!

Elder Justin Wilson

Promise Yourself

Here's an optional paper that President and Sister Durrant want for their Christmas gift. What they want are 5 personal promises and a corresponding scripture, and then an experience that helped build our Testimony. I know I've talked about this story about five thousand times but it is one of my absolute favorites so I hope yall enjoy. And I'll call you sometime on Christmas Eve so we can figure out how to do skype an stuff on Christmas. Love yall!

Elder Wilson

“PROMISE YOURSELF”

ELDER JUSTIN WILSON

• “Enhance your wisdom by learning for the benefit of others”

• (Doctrine & Covenants 88:40)
• “Heed the promptings of the Spirit in order to be an uplifting example to others, especially your family”
• (Doctrine & Covenants 84:88)
• “Be a friend to everyone and always help them to feel better about themselves”
• (Luke 19:1-6)
• “Continue to read the scriptures every day for constant protection”
• (1 Nephi 8:24 & 1 Nephi 15:24)
• “Pray to discern between all things, even the good”
• (Doctrine & Covenants 88:67)

'CLICK!' After locking our bikes, I took a minute to wipe my brow and then shook my arm  that was dripping with sweat. It was somewhere close to 105 degrees outside, and the Texas humidity wasn't helping out one bit. We had an appointment with a less active member, but after knocking and waiting for five minutes, we realized she wasn't there. Discouraged and tired, we decided to fill some time and knock five doors down the adjacent street, as was the rule for our area which had been burned-out by knocking random streets. The thoughts of our Ward goals filled our minds as we walked on...25 baptisms in one year, and this area only had three...and it was the middle of August. We had been anxiously engaged along with the Ward members in Prayer and Fasting, and things were starting to take a turn, but not enough to meet what was expected. After being kindly rejected, but still rejected, we trudged onto the last door. After we knocked it, a woman opened the door, cradling a brand new baby in her arms. With awe and excitement on our faces, we asked her how old the baby was. To even more astonishment, we learned that it was only 10 days old, but still wondering our purpose on her doorstep, the woman asked why we were there. We then introduced ourselves as servants of the Lord with a special message to share. She invited us in, and then told us about the dangerous heart problems of her newly born child. As we learned of these medical difficulties the child was facing, we saw an opportunity to teach about the Restoration of the Lord's Priesthood, the same power with which he healed the lepers, made the blind see, and the lame walk. Desiring to share the blessings we had received, we asked her if she believed that what we had said was true. With an affirmative answer, she permitted us to place our hands on the head of her child, the Spirit that just days ago, was living in the presence of our Heavenly Father, and give it a blessing. The Spirit was overwhelming as we left, and as time passed, we heard the testimony of the mother. Sister Erika Martinez had been attending a church for some time, but after a while, found out that she couldn't afford entering the services and saw that it was just too expensive for her family. To make up for that, she decided to read her scriptures, and in the process, saw that Jesus and all of his disciples never charged for anything, even the most amazing miracles wrought by men. With that knowledge, she prayed that she would find the right way to receive the blessings of the Gospel. As time went on, challenges intensified, and so did her prayers, that “the Lord would send me something.” At the birth of her baby and learning of the medical difficulties it was going to have, along with seemingly countless other trials, she was at the point where she was going to give up...shortly which was followed by a knocking at her door. The moment she saw us, she said she knew that we were representatives of the Lord and had been an answer to her prayer. Erika Martinez and her daughter Emily were baptized on October 13 of 2012, helping the Oak Cliff ward eventually exceed their goal for 2012...and shortly after blessing the baby, the doctor informed Sister Martinez that her child had made a miraculous recovery from what seemed like a permanent dysfunction. 

Only 4 More Days Left To Live...

What's up yall?!? Dang this whole Christmas season deal came out of nowhere!!! But things up here in Greenvull are going fantastic and we just baptized a man who had to overcome some serious trials this past Saturday so we are super super super stoked for him! And we also had two baptismal interviews this past week so we're getting ready for two more services this week! The only thing standing in the way is that the world will end in about 4 days so...the bonus is that we have a baptism on the 20th! We think that he's just a little superstitious, but if that will get him in the water...it'll do haha. And then we have a Baptism on the 22, confirmation on the 23, P-Day on Christmas Eve...and then Christmas!!! Saweet  and to answer your question Mom, I do have a Christmas tree...and it stands triumphantly at about 1 feet tall....and proud of it!

And I also wanted to shout out to Karly who finally got her call to the Philippines! So stoked for you. It's going to be amazing to see a 6 foot 2 sister walking around with a bunch of 4 foot 11 Asian Islanders. That picture is just too rich! And also for this last week, he had a huge celebration of 12/12/12/12/12. And someone please make sure that Marcus reads this because it will be useless if he doesn't haha, but on the 12th second of the 12th minute of the 12th hour of the 12th day of the 12th month of 2012, in honor of its Mexican recognition as la Dia De La Virgin De Guadalupe, we chugged canned YooHoo's, following which we spun for 30 seconds around a glass YooHoo, jumped over it, and then I chugged the glass YooHoo, in honor of good times. And then I crushed the can. But my personal favorite highlight of the week was when Santa got completely mobbed by the whole Greenville ward. I remember our Primary President a couple minutes before the activity muttering to herself, "note to self...don't ever accept to put on the Ward Christmas party..." It was seriously open chaos, and to add onto that, only dessert was available for kids to just get a higher sugar rush. We had brought a bunch of investigators which made us a little nervous, especially when Santa made his surprise visit and became a magnet to every child in the building and almost got tackled. It was awesome, and one of those you had to be there moments, but it's was way sick!

But off on a random tangent, this past week I saw a serious principle take play in my life. It may not be so special to everyone, but I had this question that had been hanging around in the back of my mind for about 4 months! I had searched and searched and searched the scriptures to find out....where on Earth did the Asians come from?!? It is an honest question that has stuck with me the more that I have learned about the history of the world, human race, and continuing onto Israel and how they all broke off, but it for real had been bothering me forever! It was only a personal thing until one of our investigators told us that a family member doesn't believe in Christianity because it never talks about Asians. In the Bible, you can link a lot of races back to certain ancestors, but he had done some studying and came to the conclusion that Christianity was just the brainchild of Constantine. But while I was reading through the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith, I stumbled upon some information about Joseph of Egypt's marriage to an Egyptian Women. One person had a question about how would it be possible for a holder of the Priesthood to marry into the curse of the priesthood, which we find in the Pearl Of Great Price was preserved by Egyptus who was "of the Loins of Ham." (If you want to find out how he received the curse of the priesthood, look in Genesis to the part right after Noah got off the Ark to see what prank and scoffing Ham pulled on the Dispensational leader.) The question also arises through Ishmael, Hagar, and her son's standing with the priesthood. 

Well, I read about how through careful scripture study in Genesis paired with the history of Abraham and the book of Moses, the Semitic race was the first to enter into Asia and continue to spread. Through time, there was a group from the Semitic race called the Hyskos that came into Egypt and through some serious war, took control and dethroned the original Egyptian kingdom. During the reign of the Hyskos, Joseph was sold into Egypt and was eventually put at second in command. The woman he married, daughter of the king, was of the original Semitic race, therefore not carrying the curse of the priesthood and leading up the the original righteous son's of Noah (Japeth and Shem), confirming that Joseph married into a royal bloodline, which puts most of you...who are from the branch of Ephraim, at a royal powerful branch of the priesthood. But again, with time, the Hyskos were dethroned, chased back to Asia, and as we read in the scriptures, the reign of the Pharaoh "who knew not Joseph" (as we read in the start of Moses' story in Exodus) started. So those who carried the curse of the priesthood were put back into power, and that leads to the story of the Exodus of the House of Israel from Egypt. But the Semitic race branched off to India, and then China, and it just kept growing from there on out. I just can't wait until everything is revealed, and then we can find a Mongolian version of the Book Of Mormon- it's going to be so awesome! But yeah, when I found that, my comp thought that I was having a heart attack I was screaming so loud haha. It is absolutely amazing to just stumble upon truth, but if you have any questions or contradictions, please let me know! So much more that I've learned that I wish I could share! As cool as it is to get guns pulled on you and get chased by German Shepards while on bike and all those other awesome missionary experiences I have, I've learned that the most excitement out here in the missionary field comes through bringing others to the fold of God and purely learning! May not sound exciting, so that's why I challenge everyone to do it and find out how cool it is! Feliz feliz navidad to all and I hope everyone enjoys this awesome season! 

Love 
Elder Wilson

Tiempo Para Gozar La Virgin De Guadalupe De Los

What a week! So we started it off by picking up Elder Downer and we dove straight into the work! We seriously didn't even have time to set up new plans or to try and get something else going because we are already super super busy...so I just told Elder Downer that he'll catch on to everything here in Hunt County sometime. We did have a Zone Conference to get all 30 missionaries in the Dallas/Richardson/Hunt area all stoked and ready to go on our baptismal goal for the year. As of this week, we only have 57 baptisms to go and 90 some baptismal dates mission-wide! And we're looking to contribute at least four if not even more haha super super exciting! We also talked about how even though being on a mission may be a sacrifice, we are expecting miracles and have made our own personal sacrifices to show the Lord that we truly are in it. Elder Downer and I decided to only listen to Mo Tab, Hymns, and Christmas Music (which killer for me...being away from music I normally listen to is tough enough but this is really putting me on the edge of musical patience), fasting every Sunday, and then also cutting some hours off of our Preparation Day so that we can get straight to work. It puts things in a different light, and gives us another opportunity to see miracles put in our path! 

We set two more dates this past week and also got to start teaching Sam Elliot. And he speaks Spanish. So that was a money find haha...so I figured I could add him to my collection of teachee's along with Dirk Nowitski and Kenny Chesney. But this past week we had just about the creepiest brush with the Catholics ever! So for those of you who have any toleration for the Catholics and their Idol worship and would like to keep the little bit of patience that you have...I would encourage you to skip this part. So this last wednesday we were out knocking some doors about an hour after the sun went down, so while it was reasonably dark, and while we were walking, we heard the sound of a drum off in the distance. We thought it may be someone just practicing in a garage band or something like that, but as we kept walking down this street, the sound got louder and louder and louder. We were in a pretty sketchy part of Greenville (I thought that this Godforsaken town was just full of farm people, but it has ghettos that, again, rival Oak Cliff and as far as I know, has a more storied, dangerous history in these past few months than the Cliff), but hey, you go to the poor because the poor are the humble and the humble are the ones who will accept our message. But as we were walking down there, the streetlights seemed to get dimmer and dimmer, and then we started to see the silhouettes, of what looked exactly like zombies...just slowly stumbling down the street in a uniformed line. It pretty much stopped us dead in our tracks and we were just about convinced that the Apocalypse had started, but all of the sudden a van came flying by us and it stopped leaving a bunch of Mexicans piling out. It felt super weird there as we saw tons of those silhouettes doing whatever tribal thing they were doing...so we got a way bad vibe and just jetted on out. 

The next day, we knocked into Mexican lady who ended up inviting us to...yes...La Baile De La Virgin De Guadalupe. (Or the Dance of the Virgin of Guadalupe or "Virgin Mary".) So then she explained the whole significance behind glorifying the Virgin Mary from December First until December 23 and some idea about how that was when she started giving birth or something like that and something about the using of the drums, costumes, and the dance or "march". All I have to say is...after talking to what seems like thousands of Catholics......HOW IS SHE NOT AN IDOL?!?! They always use the term, "we don't worship her, we only respect her just like you respect the President." Well all I have to say is you won't ever see me praying, dancing, or decking my house with statues of any president,

especially the big "O". It's really sad how Jesus Christ gets the same amount of recognition with Catholics as David Archuletta does with the Mormons. It was easily the experience where I felt the farthest away from the states and I could just go on forever about how Catholicism is just fueling the world's "ripening for destruction" (fully supported by President Joseph Fielding Smith [see any document he has written that relates to the Catholic church.]) But enough about them and their Christmas...things are going just fantastic here and we're looking way forward to the wave of baptisms we're expecting!!! I love and miss yall ton's and I'm still waiting to hear where Karly got her call too!!!?!!

Elder Justin Wilson

Sprained Ankles, The Priesthood For Dogs, And All That Greenville Jazz

This past week has been full of all sorts of missionary goodness! But I still can't believe that I already finished my first transfer here in Greenville! That seriously has to be the fastest transfer yet. But Elder Larson is heading on out and I'm getting a new companion whose name is "Elder Downer"...so I really hope that his name was not given in the literal sense  but we're way too busy here to worry about that. I'm sure he'll be a big help out here haha. 

But this past week has been for real the most exciting time on my mission! So what's going on right now is that we have a mission goal for Baptisms, and in order to complete that goal, we need 100 baptisms in the month of December...and our monthly high has been 71 in September.......But with 200+ people working, sweating, praying, and fasting for the same goal, I am sure that it is achievable! So the circumstances that we are under right now is that as a Zone, we have promised 12 baptisms to the mission, and as for Greenville, we have 8 possible investigators that could come through before 2013...so this whole past week we have been setting dates, doing baptismal interviews, and then things started to go very well. This last Wednesday night as everything seemed to line up, I just remembered what went on with all of the investigators and people that we had baptized in Oak Cliff...and then I began to worry. When things go good for you as a missionary...you know something is about to happen, and you are so used to it that you can just see the adversary planning out some attack before it's even put into action. So with the excitement of the possibilities and the caution to prepare and arm every person that we know to defend themselves against whatever the Devil might throw at them, this has by far been one of the most exciting and yet trying weeks out on the mission. And to whoever is reading this and doubting that they should leave on a mission or believe that they can do some good elsewhere, I can testify that there is nothing more exciting or thrilling than being employed in the work of our Heavenly Father to truly help to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man". You deal with the eternal welfare of real people, and fight face to face with the embodiment of evil. I am seriously so pumped to keep this work going, even more so when I see some adversity come into play. Before we had set a baptismal date with the Kenny Chesney family this past week, they started telling us stories about how things just started coming out of nowhere. First off, their family just started to get sick while past injuries came back along with extended family members and neighbors that just start to laugh, mock, and spew out all the false ideas or twisted truths that they have on the church. It made me think of 1 Nephi 8:27 which describes the great and spacious building saying, "and it was filled with people, both and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine; and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit." It was crazy how even the kids had stories about what their friends said that was all negative about the church. And to add onto that, we had an appointment with them a couple days before and it sadly fell through, but a random Baptist Minister who they didn't know just came in and was telling all sorts of lies (and it also helped that it was his only purpose to be there...he didn't ask to help out with anything or show charity in any way.) 

So once we started talking to them about it, they started to say, "and he said this...but y'all had explained that last week and then he said this and the week before y'all had explained that the week before and..." It was truly amazing to see how principles that I had never really capitalized before, were things that we unconsciously discussed weeks and weeks before this adversity amped itself up. It is such a testament to me that while you are doing the Lords work and even though you may be unaware of it, he directly leads and guides everything you say and do. One of my personal favorites was when the Minister told this family that the Mormons believe they're "perfect." And for some reason these past few lessons we had been talking about the whole enduring to the end and how we always need to have faith, repent, and grow due to our countless imperfections. When Cory Vance (Kenny Chesney) told the Minister of the importance that we had placed on that, the man replied "Well then...they must not be true Mormons." Haha oh that is rich...the ones with the name of the church right over their heart aren't true members...good comeback. But it was absolutely amazing to sit there, and then hear this family testify to us...when the teachers became the learners...on how all of this adversity has shown them that all of this has to be true and that if there wasn't something worth fighting for, why would so many random things rise to the occasion to stop them? It just makes me think of a quote by Martin Harris; "The cunning of the Devil is never enough to match the Wisom of God." I just about cried. but I'm so grateful that I get to stay here longer and continue to help them to partake of these blessings. Another baller part of that lesson was when Jeremy, (the kid who said about two weeks ago that God told him that the Mormon church was false and led to a bunch of doubts that we had to help him overcome), when he asked us this AWESOME question...."Is it possible to repent if you have told someone that God said something that he didn't really say?" Me and Elder Larson both got a smile on our faces and after talking about the miracle of forgiveness offered to all, he replied, "...good...that's been haunting me so badly for a couple weeks now." Haha oh how the guilty are called to repentance! 

Which brings me to one of my absolute favorite parts...a new addition to my letters will have to be the "Baptist Pastor Quote Of The Week." This past week, we talked to this one Baptist guy that just loves the missionaries, but isn't really willing to change. Best part of the day was when I heard, "John 3:16...For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life....I don't know what that means...but it sure does fill a hungry soul." And that is our Baptist Pastor quote of the week haha. By the way, for their Independent Baptist church's Law Of Chastity, you can only go on dates with a chaperone, you may not hold hands or kiss before marriage, and the women are not allowed to wear jeans...so my discovery proves that the Amish must still exist! Oh yeah, and another jewel while here in Greenville, was when I was asked AGAIN to give a dog a Priesthood blessing....yup that's one of those "only in the South" stories haha. But as we saw more and more assaults come from the adversary (the least of which were angry Ministers...), we kept focusing on getting everyone to read their scriptures every day! 1 Nephi 15:24!!!! No better protection against the Devil...so read your scriptures!!! 

But while we spent this past week worrying about others, I was hit with a little surprise. One of our investigators named Carlos had just started basketball season, so we saw a golden opportunity to invite him to the weekly basketball game that our Priesthood holds every saturday morning. We picked him up and started getting the game going. Well, during the game, I went up for a rebound, and once I got the ball and was on my way down, I was sandwiched between two people and during my landing, I felt and even thought I heard this huge tear as I hardcore rolled my ankle. It was soooooo painful haha, even worse than fasting on a bike in the middle of July! I was even trying to think if it was comparable to getting smashed in the head with a golf club haha just kidding just kidding, but it seriously killed. So we called it a game, and as I tried to walk it off, It got worse and worse, and led to a day of me sticking my foot in a bucket of Ice-Water for 20 minutes in, and then 20 minutes out while elevating it. I sure hope that Shane will appreciate this because I will always remember when you tried to tolerate putting your whole foot into the icy water of Tahoe. So the icing my foot reduced the swelling from Grapefruit size to...I guess a little bit smaller, and then an awesome member got me an ankle brace which has been a huge help in order to keep this work going and get our Mission's goal completed!!! I'm not going to lie though...icing that sucker totally killed...but it's slowly and surely getting better! Well I could keep going on forever but due to the time, I gotta make it a wrap and thank you all so much for your support and prayers! They really do make such a difference and are needed to help us get a miracle here...an achievable miracle for sure but yet a miracle. I love and miss yall tons! And someone please punch me if I say "yall" or "fixin' to" a couple months after my mission...it's already starting to bug me haha.

Love

Elder Justin Wilson