1 Baptist + 1 Guatemalteco + 1 Salvadoranian = 3 Mas Bautismos En Texas!!!!

I could not believe it. I kept running it through my mind, thinking about all the times that we parked our bikes in front of their house. All the times that we tried to drive home a principle or teach any facet of doctrine, thinking about all of the obstacles that seemed to come time after time.

Then, I looked back and remembered the first time that we saw him....dancing on his roof one Friday night because he was so drunk. I remember hearing the crunch of broken glass as we walked up to him, beer bottles scattered all over the yard, if you could call it a yard. With "La Que Buena" radio station blaring in the background, he would laugh, take a sip from his Modelo Cerveza, and exclaim his love of talking about "The Word of God."

Elder Moffitt and I, with very wavering Faith on the chances of this man ever listening to us, but having prayed many times to find someone that would be baptized, set up an appointment for when we could come by. We prayed that we could find him at a time when he would sober up a little, but we finally were able to meet with his wife and learn that drinking was not a hobby of his, but a way of life. 

So we continued to pray for this couple as we took advantage of every opportunity we had to come by and teach. As we did so, he continued to express to us his desire to stop drinking along with the damage it's done to him and to his family. As drunk as he always was, we always wanted to drive home one point- that through God, all things are possible.

Then one day, he gave it a shot, and even though he was surrounded by friends and co-workers that continued to drink, he was determined to stop. That one day turned into two and two turned into three until we hit a week. As he made his way down this path, we witnessed how his fight to stop came with a fight to know, a fight to know whether or not all that we had told him was true.

At first he didn't care...he was already an active member of a church in Oak Cliff called "La Luz Del Mundo", a church established by a few Return Missionaries that had apostatized many years ago and began to use the story of the boy prophet Joseph Smith and all his revelations for the riches of the world. Then, when Elder Moffitt left, Elder Duce came into the picture and he started to listen. We began to see that all he had was a desire to search, not a desire to know, but a small spark began to work inside him.

As two very young and inexperienced men taught and bore testimony, we saw his desire to search become a desire to know and we began to see the prayers of his wife being answered before her eyes. He had now gone two weeks without drinking, and after weeks and weeks of him declining our invitation to come to church, he finally committed. And with the help of others, he came. Throughout the process, as we continued to teach and continued to testify on the truthfulness and power of the Book of Mormon, wondering how he had been overcoming his temptation to drink without it, he finally confided in us that his education consisted of only two years in El Salvador, leaving him unable to do more than write his name.

With a stronger testimony of how his Heavenly Father had helped him progress as far as he had to this point, we continued to come over and read with him, teaching him to the best of our abilities. He reached week three without drinking, and that is when I received a call that I would be leaving Garland. I was being sent out to Gilmer Texas, and with a bittersweet emotions, we went to their house my last night in Garland.

He spoke just like he had before, testifying of the power of the Gospel and the messages that we've shared. He thanked us for the spirit that he had felt and the change we had brought into his life. I was very happy, but still a little glum as I looked back at all the times I challenged him to baptism and how he wouldn't commit if any shadow of doubt still existed. But we had done the best we could and I knew that he would continue to progress farther with Elder Duce and his new companion, so I bore my testimony with him and shared how much I'd love to make it to his baptism. With that and a few pictures, we said goodbye and headed back home.

I never stopped thinking about them and continued to pray for them. Then a few weeks ago, I got a call from Casa Linda, informing me that Renne Hernandez and his wife, Sandra Ochoa had finally committed to be baptized on the 28 of July! I just about started dancing. I felt on top of the world! It was so legit and as I followed up with them yesterday, Elder Duce got to tell me about how awesome the service was and how Sandra and Renne only had to get dunked twice haha. I'm so proud of my Greenie and how he was able to carry the work through, and even more so for Renne and just to see how far he had come. My favorite part is how when you see a drunk guy dancing on a roof, a normal reaction wouldn't be "oh sweet, looks like there's another baptism!", but through God, all things are possible. (Especially in the Texas Dallas Mission!)

So you can only Imagine what an awesome week it's been for me, even more so since we got to Baptize Raigan Maddox, our miracle Baptist that I talked about last week. It had to be the greatest Service I've been to with more support than I've seen at a baptism along with 8 non-members that came (most of them were Raigan's friends that we're going to start teaching thanks to her inviting them.... missionary work is a lanslide/domino effect....so just invite someone!!!!!!!!!!!! Y'all have no idea of the effects it can have!!!)

We also taught the intermediate part and I think Elder Browning and I have this presentation down!!! It's a way legit lesson of the Plan of Salvation, The Gospel, and The Restoration all warped into 12 minutes with piano in the background haha it's getting way awesome! It hit home with some of the nonmembers and opened up a lot of doors for us and was quite the experience! For now, Raigan is on vacation with Lori (her friend that originally invited her to take the discussions) heading up to New York to live out some of my dreams and visit Palmyra and the Sacred Grove. Well I love y'all and hope you can someday get a piece of what its like in The Dream Mission!        

Les Quiero Tanto!!!

Elder Wilson

Rain Makes Mud! Mud Means....Muddin!!!

Howdy yall! Dang it has been quite a baller week fo sho!!! I know I say it all the time...but every time I think about it I just have to say that Gilmer is the chosen Missionary land! Full of adventures, miracles, trials, everything you could want (besides a taqueria-- I'm still trying to get over that....very sad fact...I WANT TACOS!!!!)

 Out of everything that went down this past week I figured I'd start on out with our big miracle of the week. When I emailed yall last week I talked about how we had a pretty intense "Grace" vs "Works" lesson with our Baptist investigator Raigan, who brought out Romans 10 and just vented on how she's already saved. We had to go over everything we taught and put it as clearly and non-offensively as we could, and even though it seemed to make sense logically, it was tough for her to grasp since it was apparently "so different" from what she'd been taught all her life. 

She was kind of flipping out about it, so Elder Browning and I decided to set up another lesson about the Atonement...because if you truly understand the Atonement, everything in the Gospel makes sense. So we assigned her some chapters to get her in the right mindset for our next lesson. When that Tuesday finally came, we sat, ready to lay down a super powerful lesson on the Atonement. We had our opening prayer and then Raigan cut in and said, "Alright before we get into anything too deep, I just had some news for yall." We had been dropped by way too many people in this area and the thought immediately came to our minds..."Oh no...she's gonna drop us too." She then said, "I just wanted to let yall know that I received an answer. I know this church is true, and I'm going to get baptized!" 

She was so stoked when she said it that I almost got carried away and just about started break dancing on the table! But as missionaries we're supposed to keep ourselves in a pretty reverent manner, but maybe they'll change the rules on that someday too! (Speaking of which, I'm going shoppin and I'm gonna get myself some khaki pants booya!) I just love how the Lord delivers at the right time and answered ours and Raigan's prayers! It is quite a thrill hearing about when your investigator finally receives the answer and has the experience where every time their Faith or Testimony is in jeopardy, they will look back and think on that experience and can't deny that it happened. There's really nothing like when they tell you about it and giving it over an email wont even do half the justice, but I'll just let yall know that she got it! 

I want to direct part of this message to the Youth in the Church. Yall really don't know how big of a role yall play in the conversion, retention, and overall effect you have on missionary work! The church wasn't introduced to Raigan four weeks ago when we started teaching her, but it was introduced when she had a friend who decided that she should invite her to a Stake Dance about 6 years ago. Her friend (who is now on a mission in Spain [Hermana Muse]) only did small things like that to make an influence on her friends and to be an example to others. Another friend of Raigan's in our ward (Lori) invited her to take the discussions and Hermana Muse got the word that Raigan was investigating the church and sent her a copy of the Book Of Mormon with her Testimony written on the inside. As Raigan's friends did these small things, her Baptist Barrier (which blocks any Mormon Doctrine) was lowered and allowed her to listen with an open mind to the Doctrine of our Savior. 

In short, the stage for Raigan's conversion wasn't set by us or even recently by her friends, but started a long time ago. So, invite your friends! There are so many activities that we have along with Church every Sunday, so I encourage yall to act on these opportunities! Just because you don't see results instantly doesn't mean it's over! One of my favorite quotes says "No action is wasted in the work of the Lord." That includes every small invitation you make. Remember, "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. (Alma 37:6)" So have confidence in our message and our Gospel, and enjoy watching your actions take effect as you become tools in the hands of the Lord. "Pray as if it all depends on the Lord, but act as if it all depends on you"-President Gordon B. Hinckley

Well yall can see that the results of that in this case means another soul joining the Kingdom of God this Friday so we're way stoked about it! 

On another not so reverent occasion we were doing service for Grandpa Bill by putting up another Chicken Coop for him on his 80+ acres of land. This guy always buys new chickens, more than he probably needs but I'm no farmer so I just get the service done haha. But at least we got to continue making our country songs with Red-neck common occurrences and we're about to release our new single "Chicken Wire Anthem." We worked on it for a while with some of his Grandkids that were visiting from France and it was pretty crazy being back on the side of not understanding what they're saying. All we've heard is Spanish and English and we get comfortable in understanding both, but they also spoke Spanish so we couldn't speak in code around them like they were doing to us! Ah dang I've gotta learn Italian now and then I can say whatever I want around them haha. 

Grandpa Bill's property is pretty much a trek from one spot to another, so we had to take the Rhino (Four-Wheeler) and the ATV's out to get around. It may have rained the same day....and we may have found some puddles...and some mud....and we may have possibly gotten a little carried away when we finished our service project....but it was way legit. Probably the best service project I'd done in my life!!! I drove the Rhino while we always had someone in the passenger seat and just for kicks and giggles, we would always have one or two people on the back- hanging on for their lives! It was way to fun commuting around Grandpa Bill's 80 acres in the ravine and all that jazz chasing down cows and what not haha. Well, I'll let yall observe the results of what happened when Elder Browning rode on the back of the Rhino and you can draw your own conclusions on how everyone else looked at the end. 

Les Quiero Muchisimo!!!

Elder Wilson