Well as some of you may know a tornado has blown straight through the Fort Worth/Dallas Texas area and even though we were biking just as fast as we could to escape it...we still got swept up in the mess and I'm currently e-mailing from a local coffee shop in the middle of Kentucky. But on the real this has been quite a crazy week and I thought yall would enjoy hearing that as I'm catching the wave, I caught one of the mission's first 18 year olds. It's super crazy because out of all the people that came into the mission we only got two Spanish speakers even though about 16 left and it is absolutely insane!
I just think it's funny that he is coming from the MTC where so many of my friends are kicking it. He actually reported on the same day as Jessicah. He's from the Land of Potatoes (I always mess with him about that...but it's in Spanish and he cant speak it yet so everyone just laughs, he thinks it's a good joke, everyone's happy :) and his name, ironically enough, was one of my slang words back home....Elder Duce! He's a cool kid but I'm not gonna lie...It's pretty tough training him since he has questions and comments on just about everything. And as gung-ho as I was about only 6 weeks in the MTC...I'm kinda re-thinking it looking at my experience with 9 weeks of Spanish and his with just 6...so it's a work in progress, but it is awesome to see him grow as I continue to put him in difficult situations--like surrounding him with 10 Mexicans and just biting my lip while he tries to remember something. You learn things pretty fast when you're stuck in situations like that and I'm not planning on easing him into the mission.
I talked to him about goals he has for his mission the third night he was out as I was able to see how he worked, taught, and how his Spanish was. So I just gave it to him straight up that if he wants to accomplish those goals he's gonna have to work his behind off and that I'm just going to start him off running. After all, the first lesson I stuck him in was the Law Of Chastity haha not too many people can wave that flag! It scared me half to death when I saw him keeling over during the lesson due to a stomach cramp, and then I just remembered that I hadn't scheduled any time for us to eat and we were just on bikes, so I had to remember when I was in his position and get him some food, but I just want to make sure he learns everything I learned in the past year and can have a mission full of memorable, once in a lifetime experiences.
I especially want to make him as bold as he can be since he's a short kid from Idaho that can't speak Spanish. So what we've been doing is really pushing the "contact everyone we see" and I even did something I've always wanted to try as we headed down to a training this Friday. We took DART down there, and since I was a trainer, I just thought I finally needed to do it and was determined to give it a try at least once. So as we got on the bus, Elder Duce quickly found a spot to sit down, but after swiping my card and boarding, I stood up in front of everyone and said, (this was how I planned it out...I don't remember if it came out exactly this way...but here it goes)
"Brothers and Sisters, we are Men of God and have received his promise in the scriptures that there are elect people in these last days that will accept a message about Modern Day Prophets, so we are going to go by each one of you and ask if you are one of the elect." I was scared outta my pants and the look on Elder Duce's face was priceless, but we were able to talk to some people and they anxiously asked us where our church was located and had all sorts of questions, so for all missionaries, it's a contacting idea I highly recommend!
We were also able to have a baptism this Saturday from our work in Garland 1st, something which I was very Happy for Elder Duce to have since I didn't baptize anyone until my third transfer. I'm so grateful for everyone in the mission that was able to put me in the train of thought that "The Field Is White and Already to Harvest", because after a while here, I thought we'd have more luck panning for gold than baptizing anyone. But thanks to many, I have re-focused on the Lord's promise and we will have another baptism this week from some more work from the Garland 1st area.
I'm also ingraining in his head that we invite everyone to baptism ASAP and that everyone we see is getting contacted and baptized! I remember when my mission started and "Hard Work" was planted in my head as "how many doors you've knocked", but I'm still going to give him the best I've got and make sure that he reaches his potential! Oh and by the way (I thought you'd enjoy this one Dad) I finally blew out the crotch in my black suit pants. After our baptism (which is quite a miraculous story that I'll share more about next week) I just started thinking, "Wow it feels like I've been out here a while...", and then I just started thinking, "Hmmmmm.....I wonder how long I've been out here....", and as I was thinking, I swung my leg over my bike as I was getting ready to ride and hear this loud "RRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!"
It was a blunt answer to my question. It looks like I've got quite a bit of sewing to do. Well we're going to work like baptizing missionaries and are on our way to clean the font for this Saturday! I love yall and thank you so much for your prayers and letters! They really get me past the hard times which seem to come like a dime a dozen out here in the mission, but the blessings and the good times always out-weigh anything!
Les Quiero Muchisimo!!!Elder Wilson
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