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