I have had an amazing week. It has been busy busy busy. First off though we had Stake Conference and it was super cool. Our Stake President talked about how we need to build our spiritual, physical, and emotional storages. So when scarcity comes we will be okay. Also, some BIG news we had some changes made to the boundaries in our stake. There used to be 9 wards. Now there are 6. The Weston Ward is gone. As of January 1 Elder Lamm and I will not have an area, but transfers are on the 3rd of January so it will work out. I am expecting a little bit of change though. I am nervous. I do not want to leave the people of this area. They are so amazing and I have learned to love them.
Manuel has been progressing rapidly. The plan is to have him baptized on the 24th of December (Christmas Eve) and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on Christmas day. We are so excited for him. He will be attending our ward temple trip on the 17th and we are super excited for the spirit he will be feeling at the visitors center. When we were telling him that he could not enter the Temple yet something really cool happened. We usually have people get offended and mad that they can't go in. But Manuel said, "Oh, so it is an honor to be in the Temple? I understand why you need to be baptized in the Temple." It was super awesome.
I went on exchanges with Elder Hacking this week and it turned out to be one of the busiest days of the week. We had to go to "tent city." This is a street called S. Harrison. It is nuts down there. This is where all the homeless (most of the homeless) people go to because of St. Mary's that is located there. We drove into that area and went and tried to park. But when we got out of the car a guy came up to us and asked for some tools. We said we didn't have any and he left, but there were a bunch of guys across the street staring at us and our bikes. Two white kids in a 2016 Carolla with bikes on the back+guys in a back alley in S. Harrison=Trouble. We got back in the car and rolled out. As we were driving away we pulled up to someone we thought was the referral we had in that area. Elder Hacking mistakenly rolled the whole window down. lol. You don't do that there. So this lady put half of her body in the car and started asking for money. Ummmm.... We had to tell her we cannot give money and she got super ticked. I am glad she did not jump in the car lol. Well when we were done with that we pulled up to the stop sign and this lady (different lady) started running at our car with a big old stick thing. haha. I thought for sure she was going to put some dents in the Carolla. Well, she didn't hit us. But Elder Hacking rolled the window down half way this time and she started talking (jibberish) to us. I asked if she wanted a #LightTheWorld card and she took it. As we were about to leave she asked if she could have my taco bell soda in the car. I gave it to her and she chugged the thing. It made me feel good to give. I mean that was nothing too big. But whenever we go down there and we are able to serve the people it helps my testimony of the Savior.
Brett and Alejandra are doing well. I will be celebrating my birthday over there. I am excited for that. We want them to progress so bad. Brett does not have trouble accepting any of the commitments except for obvious ones. Keep praying that they will get married. I hope I will be here for his baptism. I love this family.
Spiritual thought for the week is from Jesus the Christ. It is in "Notes to Chapter 17: Pleasure Versus Happiness." It obviously talks about the differences between happiness and pleasure. One of the quotes I love from it is this: "Happiness leaves no bad after-taste, it is followed by no depressing reaction; it calls for no repentance, brings no regret, entails no remorse; pleasure too often makes necessary repentance, contrition, and suffering; and, if indulged to the extreme, it brings degradation and destruction." This is so true. Why do we give in to pleasure and not wait for happiness? I have really thought about this and how it correlates with President Russel M. Nelson's talk on Joy. It is much better to wait for true happiness which is Godly, instead of giving into the counterfeit pleasure the adversary offers us. We have all fell victim to his lies and I hope that all of us have learned that happiness is eternally better than that of pleasure. I love this gospel and the happiness it brings us if we do things right.
I love my family and will be thinking of them this time of year!
Love,
Elder Willden
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| Elder Willden and Elder Hacking |
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