Oh The HUMANITY!!!!

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         

Estan Atrapando La Ola?!?! Por Su Puesto Estoy Atrapando La Ola!!!

Wow what a week it has been. Well sorry for the cliffhanger Mom but there has been so much stuff going on and it's been so crazy, but way way way successful and quite an eventful week. So last week President sent me on quick notice to open up a new area in Garland! It was pretty crazy and I'm not going to lie, I was way way bummed at first because we had 7 baptisms planned out in Plano as we had worked to get the area ready to blossom, but again, the key to missionary work is just work, so whenever I just work my heart out I get over whatever buggin me. At first It was tough getting started in a new area, but after putting our all into it, we were able to set 8 baptismal dates in a week, my mission high! We also set one during the weekend which puts us at 9 baptismal dates total and more coming up, which is way awesome because now we're leading the mission! Another awesome awesome experience was when we (Only the mission) got to meet with and shake the hands of Elder D. Todd Christopherson, Elder Donald L. Hailstorm, and three other members from the Second Presidency of the Seventy and Area Seventies. It was such an inspiring meeting and it was amazing to feel the apostolic power, messages, and to recieve the apostolic blessings he gave us as his "companions in the Apostolic commission to Preach the Gospel!" He's one of my favorite members of the Twelve because of his simple but profound messages and the perfect wave he has in that hair of his haha. Well Elder Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy came to our Stake this Sunday and we got to introduce him to a bunch of our new investigators! It's like a guarantee to baptism if they meet and shake the hand of a general authority haha love it! We saw each other all the time before the meeting, after the meeting, and at the mission meeting the other day, so we're pretty much on a first name basis as he came u and started shadow boxing me haha. As we were just messing around with each other I was thinkin "I wonder what'll happen if I just call him 'Don'"...but I'll never loose
respect for our General Authorities haha so it was way fun spending all that time with him. He's so going Apostle, especially because of his completely perfect part in that regal hair of his haha, but it was definitely an awesome weekend that I wont forget. Well with all that,
I wanted to give yall a little slice of what brings me the most joy I've felt out here on the mission and give you some info on what's going on in the live's of my best friends here in Dallas! It has been one of the greatest parts of my life to help them learn and participate in the ordinances of the Eternally Saving Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Manuel Jara is already ordained an Elder and is, as far as I've heard it, the new Elder's Quorom Secretary. His family preparing to go through the Temple this September.

As some of yall may know, Jacobo has married an already Endowed sister in Carrollton, and will be recieving the Melckezidek Priesthood and going through the temple the 25 of August.

After teaching Adrian and Berenis Urena, their Father has noticed a change in them, especially after their baptism, and months and months after their baptism (and visits from us relentless missionaries :), he has finally met with the bishop to set up a time in which he can be baptized.

Erika Martinez is happily living the Gospel and is teaching everything we've taught her to her mother and other members of her family! Their baptisms will be approaching very very soon and Erika is preparing her children to serve missions. And to the surprise of many doctors, her child that we blessed at 10 days old is still living, and was somehow miraculously healed from the previously diagnosed heart conditions.

Karina, the mother of David and Henry Arbaiza, is finally working things out to marry Carl! After teaching him for so long as the first family I found in my mission, he'll finally be able to get baptized.

My main homie from Greenville, Jason Walker, has quite some interesting coincidences with me. He was released from the Georgia mission on September 19, 1992. Shortly after his mission...some events happened and he left activity from the church until Elder Larson and I started working with him in his hometown ward of Greenville. A few weeks ago, he was able to go to the temple for the first time in 20 years, and after living a single life, will finally be able to marry the love of his life from back in High School and be sealed for time and all eternity this summer.

Just as we expected, Brittany and Carlos Riveroll are not only diligently dragging their Mom to church with them, but also their Dad! He was far from interested before their conversion, but they are helping their family prepare to someday enter the Temple. Carlos also has been ordained with the Aaronic preisthood and is always helping the Deacons in the sacred ordinance of the sacrament. I won't be surprised when he becomes Deacon's Quorum President anytime soon.

I recently recieved a letter from Tommy and Jaime Phillips explaining how happy they are as an active couple in the Gospel and Church of Jesus Christ! Tommy (Previously Jehovah's Witness) has done the Temple baptism for his father and many other family members. They said, "We are so excited to see you at our Temple sealing this October!"

Well, life can be tough at times, but I can testify that the cure to anything is being employed in the service of the Lord.

And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father! And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

Well, all I gotta say is..."He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."

*Are You Catching The Wave After Asking The Missionaries?!?!?!

Wow wow wow wow wow....after such an amazing conference which is better than Disneyland to any missionary, I thought I had this week's letter all figured out...that is until I read a few E-Mails today. At first a saw one from a certain "Cody Bench" and the caption was "I Got My Mission Call!" I thought "wow how sweet of him to let me know where he's going..." So I read it, checked the date on the message and thought, "Wow, what a terrible joke....April Fools was like 6 days ago...." I had gotten way excited, but knowing Cody for all the 19 years of his life, I figured that he got his call, would be leaving sometime soon, and had to leave reality while playing some sort of prank on everyone he knew. So I just moved on to all my other E-Mails, and by E-mail 3 I thought "Wow, I mean the Lord has only so many blessings to send around and I mean one can only be so lucky, so it's probably a flash mob...", and it took me about 4 more to grasp the reality that CODY IS COMING TO THE MISSION!!!!!! All I gotta say is welcome to the greatest mission on the Planet Codes and during interviews this transfer...I have a word or two to say to President Durrant on some requests I may have in the future haha. Dang so stoked outta my mind!!!! I will make sure that you have all of the hot spots on the mission and that you learn sometime or another that the TDM is the greatest thing next to sliced bread and grated cheese!!! 

I've also gotta give a welcome to Hermana Starke for getting things amped up at the MTC and especially wish the future Sister (no idea how they say it in Tagalog) Karly Manwill! Just two more days to go!?!? Wow life is Seriously not even real...at least I can say (in my old person voice...) "back in the day when I left on my mission there were only 50,000 missionaries..." but how great it is to see hundreds of my friends responding to the call and hastening the Lord's work! What I wanted to share today is a message that I hope every missionary comes to understand which if you do, you will always overcome when the trial is put in your path. So as I said before, General Conference is even better than Disneyland to a missionary and makes me feel like Samuel-the-whiteboy standing on top of walls with my not quite as white shirt and tie proclaiming to the whole city that the Prophet of God chosen by Christ will be speaking to the world! Hearken to his words for he is the "watchman" which has been prophesied by Abinadi!!!(Mosiah 15:29) I always get so stoked about the whole idea of hearing the message from the Living Prophet of which we testify 24/7 along with his counselors and the Apostles. 

So as the Saturday started off, it was better than any season starting kickoff I'd seen with the announcement of 65,000 missionaries worldwide along with President Packer and Elder Ballard starting off the sessions with some amazing messages! Every time someone gets up to the pulpit is like scoring a touchdown with how excited we are, continually getting us more and more amped. Well for some reason, as it came up to the Preisthood Session (which is hands down my favorite part of Conference), those feelings and all the excitement took a U-Turn and my feelings got worse and worse and worse until they were at the lowest they had ever been in the mission field. I was more depressed than I had ever been, and I seemed to be feeding those thoughts as I was trying to understand why on Earth I could possibly feel like I did. I thought, "I'm out here on the mission...these are supposed to be the best two years of my life....I'm also watching my favorite part of conference! What is going on?!?!" I tried to think of blessings I had, but it was like a fuse that would give light for a second and then die as more and more negative thoughts just kept coming to me. It was during the first
three talks that thoughts kept coming saying "Yeah when you were a deacon, you could've done this" or "wow, you really failed at that as a teacher..." and all these thoughts of things that I didn't do or places where I fell short as an Aaronic Preisthood holder led onto my
mission. Thoughts of "Yup you sure missed that opportunity...", "There's not even close to enough time left for you to meet that goal...", and the worst of all, "Do you honestly think you're meeting other's expectations?!?!?!" would repeat themselves over and over and over again. Never had I felt so alone or confused in all my life and I just about screamed in my head "What is going on?!?!? I'm listening to servants of God surrounded by Priesthood holders singing my favorite hymn "Hope Of Israel"....and I feel lower than I ever have before." After that thought, time seemed to slow down, and as President Utchdorf started his talk, everything seemed to fade out of existence and I felt like it was just me and the screen in the chapel. It felt like there was nobody else as President Utchdorf finished his introduction on titles, looked at the camera, and said "The First title we have is Son Of Heavenly Father. We must never forget that even though Satan is giving you the most destructive thoughts you've had, you are a literal Son of our Father In Heaven. Satan will do
whatever he can to try to erase that thought from your mind...." and as I was hearing this, I just thought, "Wow....it's like a response in a normal conversation! I had these thoughts like 2 minutes ago!?!" And I don't even know if that's what he said or if he used that sort of
phrase telling me that Satan was currently working to his full capacity to bring me down, but it's what I heard, and I will never forget it. As I caught hold of his words, they brought me up higher and higher and higher as he completely terminated other worries I have had throughout my mission and I was able to see that as Satan came at me with full force, so did the Savior. From that talk to the other it brought me higher and higher, prouder than I had ever been to be a missionary and especially made me feel really close to my family knowing that they would be watching it at the same time, especially in the Priesthood Session during President Monson's talk as I remembered always going to those sessions with Dad, and even though we were a ways apart and our callings were different, I felt a piece of home. 

After what I called "The Hat-Trick Priesthood Session" (due to the First Presidency's back to back talks, I'm sure Elder Stead is so tired of hearing that terminology), but the Savior's retaliation was able to continue to grow and build onto some of the greatest inspiration I have recieved on my mission and led me to a Gold Mine that I couldn't beleive I and all the Texas Dallas Missionaries had been missing for so long! After all these ideas came to me on what I decided to call a "Youth Blitz", I called up our Branch President and asked if we could go over to his house to display our ideas for just a half hour. We definitely took more than a half hour, but because of the revelation I recieved after the lowest point on my mission, this
area is going to change forever. Not only will we increase in baptisms and people accepting the Gospel, we will have young men and women ready to hit the mission field running at full speed. I love this Gospel. I love this work. I love the mission, and I want to know when President Monson will be inspired to let missionaries serve as long as Mission Presidents so I can get a whole 3 years in. It's crazy being the 3rd oldest in my District of 8 and having already seen 3 out of the 4 conferences I get on my mission! I know Christ lives, this Church is true, it is the only Church that can be led by Jesus Christ, and to know the truth of all things, you need not test or question every jot and tittle pertaining to it. We are all Sons and Daughters of our Heavenly Father, so think like one, and live like one.

Les Quiero Tanto!!!
Elder Justin Wilson

Mom...You Would Have Been So Proud Of Me!

Hey hey hey howdy hey! Dang weeks are just flying by like days and I feel like I wrote yall yesterday...but I guess a lot has happened in the past week. I'll try and keep it simple. And I'm not going to lie...after a year and some of this...communicating in e-mails just drags on....so as I was thinking...I remembered that "Re-Runs" were popular and thought it would be a good idea to send whatever I sent a year ago and yall could enjoy that haha. Go ahead and tell me what yall think and I'll take it from there. But I first of all wanted to let yall know that the members had me give a musical number for a Branch activity where everyone acted out Lehi's Vision. It was pretty crazy because they didn't ask me or anything...and I think most of yall know what my thoughts are on singing to anyone except for my steering wheel...but then I thought about you Mom and how you wanted me to embrace High School choir...and how I did not...embrace it. I just thought about how proud you'd be watching me sing my little heart out in Spanish in a suit with my name tag and the whole nine yards. So go ahead and try to wrap your head around that...I know it's difficult to imagine, but I did it and it's over with, and you would have been so proud of me Mom! 

We had two investigators at this activity so that was neat, but this other family that we're working with is just about driving me up the wall. I'm not even going to go into detail on how things are going, but in their situation, they just don't seem to understand the blessings that come from the Gospel, and a good explanation of what they're going through is like....If they were drowning in a lake and we were to throw them a Yellow Lifevest. With only their head just barely above the water, they are complaining about how they were thrown a Yellow one instead of a Red one. It's way frustrating and sometimes I just feel like saying "Look! It's either this way or the highway. I know yall believe in the popular verse 'I am the light and life of the world' that all the Catholics have a poster of. This is the only way so yall just need to quit complaining and take it!" But whenever I think like that, I always take a step back and think "Well there's probably a lesson to be learned here..." So we're making progress with them...not at all like I'd like it to be or as fast as I had hoped, but progression. And I'm thinking wayyyyy outside the box and am teaching them from pretty much every side and every way possible, but it's looking good as far as the big picture goes. 

We also had a pretty sweet experience this past week as we are getting things started on the 'Just Serve' program that the church is piloting out here in Dallas, and as encouraged by the General Authorities, we went to some of the other faiths to see if we could somehow offer service. Given the way that all the other "Christians" have treated me while tracting and throughout all my mission...it became the bane of this week as we decided to do something exciting and humbly grovel at the feet of...(as sarcastically as I can ever say it) our "Christian Brethren" for an opportunity to serve them. Like I said...we tried to make it an interesting week and decided to start with our prime enemies....'The St. Mark's Evangelist Catholic Church.' All they were missing was the name 'Jehovah's Witness' to make them the Ultimate 'Trifecta of Doom!' As we walked up to the office to look for our opportunity to serve, I

really tried my best not to imagine the size of the comet that will fly down from heaven to destroy thier whole campus...but it went just as I had imagined...we talked to the Facility Manager and after a couple smart remarks and me biting my tongue while patiently answering questions about how Mormons actually can be in the same building as an Evangelistic Catholic, and how we do actually look for opportunities just to serve others as disciples of Jesus Christ. His face was pretty priceless when he found out that service was the only reason we were there, but just like I expected as well, we got set up to see if we'd actually come to 'serve.' They got us an opportunity to do some paperwork (putting one apostate paper inside of a binder and repeat the process about 10000 times) with "our lady crew." I knew he was testing us so I couldn't turn him down, and we showed up at the scheduled time. In the 'Just Serve' program, they said that the only point is service (hence the name), and we should only wear our tags, normal clothes, refrain from contacting, and if questions are ever asked, just set up an appointment to answer them later. Well, we showed up with normal clothes and the tag, and I remember the smirk on that lady's face as she said "Welcome Welcome! Let me take you back and introduce you to the crew..." I just sighed and whispered to Elder Stead, "Just wait till they tell us they're all out of water and only have coffee left..." So, again, just like we expected, we came in and met the crew of about 6 Catholic ladies, the youngest of which was probably 65+. I knew that dude was testing us again, so we grabbed that bull by the horns, became our charming selves, and to put it shortly, have 6 Catholic Grandma's out here in Plano Texas. So if yall ever need a place to stay or something to eat or are itching for a game of bingo...just give me a call and i'll hook it up for you out here in Plano Texas! 

Love yall and hope that you have a fantastic Easter! It truly is an amazing time to follow the example of our Savior and do as he did. I encourage all of you to read over the sacrament prayers and remember the covenants that you renewed yesterday. It seems like we are better at living up to those commitments on the Easter weeks than normal, so I invite yall to think about how you celebrate Easter, and just live that way all year long.... I hope all my little cousins are thinking "JELLY BEANS AND PEEPS ALL DAY FOR A WHOLE YEAR!!!" I love and miss yall!!!!

Elder Justin Wilson

St. Patricks Day???

*(Justin's reference below is from the little "half-way" package we sent him. Each of us contributed. Joe's contribution was half a roll of toilet paper). 

I'm not going to lie it was pretty funny yesterday while Elder Stead and I got matching St. Patrick's day ties, leprechaun hats and all that jazz along with the sister's matching their fully green outfits, and we show up at church seeing that not a soul was wearing green. It was odd having grown up in an Irish-Holiday embracing family, and it seemed like all the hispanics we're avoiding what I found out to be a totally white people holiday, but I guess I have that much more to look forward to cinco de Mayo! This week has had absolutely beautiful weather and made me feel like I was back home in the sunny 80 degree days watching Audi R8's roam the streets right next to the Ferrari and Maserati dealerships, but the work is going very well here. There's a family that we're working with and hoping to get them all baptized on the 30th of March and another person we met from Honduras that is super prepared that we're looking to baptize along with her Daughter in April. It was kind of a bummer because some of the families we were going to baptize got lost in our plans, but will still receive the blessings of the gospel. For example, the Laffe family we were going to baptize is getting a big job transfer out to Florida, and they already have contact with the missionaries and ward out there, so they'll still become members along with their Mother, but it's just a bummer that they left our area, along with a few other people. So I guess I should have been more specific in my prayers as to "where" and not "when" I wanted these people baptized, but we're still seeing miracles and loving the area that is growing more rapidly than it had before so I truly can't complain, especially after my favorite dinner appointment where my three year old homie started hand feeding me my food because she thought I was eating too slow haha! It's crazy to think that all my friends will be entering or leaving the mission field in just a couple weeks and how many people are still turning in their papers. Thanks to everyone who is preparing to leave because your service is most definitely needed out here! *I also wanted to say thanks for all the year mark stuff haha. Dad's made me think of one of my favorite quotes that I've heard out here that says..."the mission is like a roll of toilet paper...the less you have the faster it goes!" Love yall and hope life is just fantastic!
Elder Wilson

August 25, 2013

Whats happenin yall!?!? I don't have a ton of time today because we're going to hit up the Big  D today, but I had just a couple cool stories to tell yall. So this last Teusday I was on exchanges with Elder Adams (who actually turns out to be Riley Coggin's roomate up at the Y haha, I've apparently walked into his room all the time just to get Riley's stuff so that he could basically live at our place and I've said Hi a couple times. I just remember seeing him watch Harry Potter on his computer haha.) But we were on exchanges out in Carrolton (another cash money city in north Dallas), and I found out that my beloved brother Adib Jacobo, that I baptized from out in the Cliff, had moved to their branch!!! And thats not all...I don't know if y'all remember it or not, but he was the one that was looking for a lady friend down here, and apparently a month ago he got married to a member who's already endowed!!!!! So we had a little reunion with him and his awesome new wife and talked about the good old days back in Oak Cliff, casting spirits out of his house, cleaning out a whole sleeve of Tortas for lunch, and then our competition to see who could eat more Jack In The Box tacos back when Elder Rodriguez and I were tearing it up as the dream team in Texas! Then we talked about the temple and I remembered that he was baptized on the 25 of August, and then they told me about how it was their plan to get Jacobo endowed on the 25 of this August, and after that, they're going to get sealed! I was about to cry it was so amazing. 

And another little jewel from this past week was when we started looking for a couple families to teach yesterday. It was really a normal Sunday where we left to find a couple part member families to teach, and some of them lived in an apartment complex, so we parked our car (Shelly, the infamous purple Fusion in the mission) and walked out to cross a big street...and we hadn't been out of our car for 30 seconds when we saw this huge Red Van careening down the street with the window rolled down as a family yelled "ELDERS!!!!!" Then as we saw that they didn't finish what they wanted to say (since they were coming down the road at 50+ mph), they flew across all 4 lanes to take a U-Turn at full speed....truly faster than I've ever seen before in my life. As they took this Italian Job-like U-turn, we were able to see their car just tatted up with BYU stickers, and then I just thought oh no...here comes the Utah part of the mission. It rememinded me of the fact that our branch area covers the area of a whole stake and how we're supposed to gather any Spanish speaker. While the Hermana's have the "ghetto" part of Plano that covers 2 wards, we have the better part with Ferrari and Maserati dealerships and we cover 6 English wards....so our area is loaded with your stereotypical Mormon members....but I guess welcome to the rich part of Dallas. I was just so used to being the only missionaries within 900 square miles in Greenville, and it made me miss the diversity of hearing "[EXPLETIVE] YOU!!!!!!!" everyday down in Oak Cliff. So the family pulled up at 600 mph, of course still in their
church clothes, and gave us every question in the book. It was just so stereotypical that I just couldn't help myself from laughing. They begged to give us a ride, and while we told him we were just going to walk to the complex, he asked for the number and everything whipping
out his cell phone and putting the adress and all the info we had in his GPS. I truly felt like a celebrity as they introduced us to their teenage daughter, told us what ward they were in, asked us how much time we had in the mission, talked a little about what they've done in
missionary work, and just about asked us if we miss Utah yet. So I would just like to say that my respect for any Utah missionary had grown a hundredfold for having to put up with that every day. I can't imagine it haha. So next time yall see that family van speeding down the freeway, the question is....Soccer Mom...or Mormon Dad to the missionaries rescue? Well I love yall and hope you enjoy this Spring Break!

Elder Justin Wilson

Mas Milagros!!!

Dang this area is crazy busy! We got it to the point where everyone
was set up for baptism, but then things just started falling apart,
and as I said last week, our Faith was just riding a line. But through
lots of work and of course, Miracles on the Lord's always delivering
part, we were able to salvage one of the lost baptismal dates and
baptize Perla Janeth Rocha Rodriguez de Lopez yesterday. It was an
awesome baptismal service that President Durrant and his wife came to and we were also able to get a lot of branch support there. From what I heard, the last baptism in the branch with a miracle family had only about 15 people in the crowd, but yesterday we got to fill the whole room, and then needed to get more chairs during the service! 

 

But I did find out that the bummer was that as missionaries, we aren't allowed to see the CES Firesides...which is a super bust because Elder Bednar spoke at UTA yesterday which is only a matter of minutes away from us...but apparently the purpose is to prepare the young adults to get married, have families, and live in this crazy world, which is a little different than our purpose as missionaries haha. There was also another family that we are working with that we got to take on a Temple tour and I just wanted to thank you so much Mom for setting up the tour with President Martz around the L.A. Temple for that one Youth Conference. I remembered all sorts of bits of knowledge and symbolism about the temple from that trip that I was able to use and share with our investigators as we walked around the sacred grounds of the Dallas Temple. So many people think that as missionaries we are just chomping at the bit to get people baptized that we'll just throw anyone in! But it is all about the Temple and I am super grateful to Bishop Eddy, President Lindberg, and to everyone else who made it possible for me to work at the temple before my mission! It made me super gung-ho on the Temple and I always make sure that my investigators know that "The House of The Lord" and becoming a "Forever Family" is the ultimate goal! I remember super well after that Temple tour, where we found out that even the flowers, grass, and type of stone used is all symbolic, when President Lindberg personally asked me, "So do you know what the symbolism is behind the title, 'Holiness To The Lord, The House Of The Lord'?" After thinking for a minute, I remember coming up with something, whatever came to my mind at the time, and then he simply said, "There's no symbolism" (because the temple IS the House of the Lord- not just a symbol for it)So I hope that yall are taking super advantage of the Temple and the blessings it brings! Love yall!

Elder Justin Wilson