Family and Friends,

This week has been a very good week for my me and my companion. So with this past transfer our district has been changed up a little bit. We have a new District Leader and new missionaries we are with. I will definitely miss Elder Hacking. He is a legendary missionary. And he came straight outta Ephraim so he had to put a lot of work in to be a legend. My new district leader is Elder Sirstins. He came out with me. During district meeting we came up with a phrase that I think has a lot of meaning. It is: serve to love, love to serve. I think this is something we all should think about when we are in our daily lives.

Something super cool that happened this week was that I met one of my favorite football players of all-time. So as some of you know I was number 17 in High School football. Well this past weekend one of our part-member families took us to in-n-out burger and their was a guy their and he started talking to me and Elder Payne. He said he had a buddy who was Mormon and that he really looked up to. He said that his name was Lavell Hawkins and he had previously played in the NFL and the CFL. I told him I was from Utah and he explained that the buddy he was talking about was Austin Collie. He said that he played with him in the CFL and roomed with him and John Beck. I heard him, but I did not realize how close they were. As I was telling him how I used to watch him growing up first at my favorite college, BYU, and then in the NFL for my favorite team the Colts... He pulled his phone out and said that he was going to call him up. After that I was just freaking out like a little 5 year old at a candy store. Well... Long story short he got Collie to answer his phone and he talked to me for a little bit. He gave me some encouragement and asked how long I had been out. I told him how I used to watch him play and how he was a big role-model in my life. He was a solid guy... Super nice and was not stuck up like most ball players. He told to me to teach Lavell and that he would come out to the baptism. Haha. Well, Lavell is not in our area so we have given the info to the other Elders. But that was one of the best things that happened this week.

Investigators-wise we had a very good week. Andi is really progressing and I have a very cool story about our last lesson with her. We had a couple members go over to her house with us. Well, we started our lesson with her asking questions that were super deep. We could really tell that she has been studying and she really did know her stuff. We were able to answer all of her questions to the best of our ability and we made sure that we let her know that all of these things can be confirmed by God through prayer. The lesson went on and we taught her the Plan of Salvation. Once we were done teaching we gave her an invitation to read 2 Nephi 31. As soon as I said 2 Nephi she explained that she really liked 2 Nephi and that it was her favorite. She got emotional and started talking about a chapter that had really affected her. She brokenly quoted the scripture 2 Nephi 4:29 "Do not anger again because of mine enemies. Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions." I recognized this scripture because of the spiritual experience that had burned in my heart 10 months ago as I was preparing for a mission. I asked her if it was 2 Nephi 4 and she told me that it was. I was able to explain to her that that chapter had really affected me before my mission. Before she had even told us all of this she said she felt like Elder Payne and I were a specific companionship that she needed. This really built my testimony that we are here for a reason. My mission scripture is 2 Nephi 4:35 I know that if we ask God not amiss we can receive the help that we need. I love this gospel. Something really cool that she said also was that she felt like she already knew these things and that she is familiar with them. She is gifted. And God loves all of his children.

There is something else I want to share that happened this week that was really cool. We were at Ralph's house and his lessons have always been hard because he was always asking super hard questions. Well this particular time him and one of his friends were asking so many questions it almost felt like they were attacking our religion. Toward the end of the lesson he came out and told us that he was trying to help us by proving our religion wrong. Ralph is a really smart guy so we just testified and told him that what we taught is true. And they asked questions like, "Even with all of these holes you can believe?" I didn't want to try to fight them so we asked Ralph if he had read the Book of Mormon. He answered no. We asked him if he would read and pray about it. He replied that he trusted in his knowledge to know it wasn't true and that he didn't have to read it to know. We told him that we would have to back off and told him that our invitation still stands to him to read the Book of Mormon and he would come to know it is true. When we said that he was confused. I think he thought we were going to try to fight him with words. We didn't. We testified and told him the promises of faithful action. He then said "wait!" And told us that if we read Mark he would read any book inside of the Book of Mormon. We assigned him to read 3 Nephi. He accepted and now we are praying for him. In preach my gospel it talks about being backed up to a wall and just having to bear your testimony. This WORKS. Even when it feels like we have nothing to say and feel as if someone is out talking us; we can bear testimony and they cannot say anything. The Holy Ghost pricks our hearts and it is something we can never forget. I will never deny my faith. I might throw a fit and complain, but this church is true. I know it without a shadow of a doubt. If you have not had a spiritual witness of this gospel just look. Act in faith and God will show you things you would never expect. The Book of Mormon is true. As Elder Holland's Grandpa said, "No bad man could write a Book like that, and no good man could write a Book like that without being called of God."

I love the work

-- 

Love,

Elder Willden

Shaved my legs... Thought all of you would enjoy it.​​​​

-- 

Love,

Elder Willden

Family and Friends,

To start off my letter this week...Transfer calls came! I will be staying in the Brookside Ward. This will be 8 months in Stockton! How crazy is that? Well, I really have enjoyed it out here in Stockton. I little on the sketchy side, but that's okay. The Lord has blessed me so much to be able to stay and to get to know the people in Stockton. They are very nice people and love supporting the missionaries. I am very sad to see some of the missionaries I really love leave this area.

Something great that happened this week.... We found MANUEL! Elder Jeong and I were on exchanges and we found him @ his house. We rolled up and he was walking into his house. And when we got up he gave me a hug and told me that he had missed me. He explained that he had been in Modesto for a month. I asked him if he was married... jokingly. And.... He said that he was married. We have an appointment with him on Wednesday! I am so pumped for that. I will keep you updated on if he is getting baptized.

Another investigator that is really progressing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ is Andi. She is the one that lives up in the gated communities. At first everyone was telling her that she was crazy including her husband. But now things have changed to where this weekend we invited her and one of her friends to dinner. They came and Andi brought her husband. It was crazy. We were on the phone with her the other day and she was telling us that she has been switching off reading the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, or the Pearl of Great Price. She also said that when she has breaks at work she will listen to hymns or watch bible videos. She has only been investigating for 3 weeks. It is crazy. We have an appointment with her this Tuesday so please pray for her.

So last week I told Sister Palmer that Bailee might be getting engaged and she said to keep her updated. So last Tuesday I was still heated because Bailee did not tell me about it. And we saw President and Sister Palmer at a baptism here in Stockton. So I went up and talked to Sister Palmer and I was telling her how Bailee was now engaged and that she did not even tell me. She was so nice about it telling me it was going to be okay haha. Then President was like, "Get over it." and then he went on laughing about how I can't control those things. President is so funny. It made me laugh. I love President and Sister Palmer.

So something funny that happened this week. While Elder Jeong and I were on exchanges we obviously found Manuel as previously mentioned. Well to celebrate I drank my very first Monster energy drink. My family knows me and they know that this probably was not a good idea... It was not. I was up talking until 3:45AM. I was so tired the next day. Technically it was not disobedient because we were in bed with lights out. But my body would not let me sleep. It was NUTS.

My spiritual thought this week is on a talk by Henry B. Eyring. It is called Mountains to Climb. I really like the beginning where he talks about how he prayed for a trial. And he then continues to explain how he had the hardest trial of his life come from that experience. He later explained how trials later in life were a lot harder than that. I don't know how to explain the full talk so I invite you to go listen to it.

I love the work.

-- 

Love,

Elder Willden

Thank goodness Alejandra loves to help them out at costco!
Happy Valentines

Family and Friends,

To start my letter off this week I want to congratulate my Sister Bailee for getting engaged! I don't know his last name, but hopefully I will by next week;) (she does not write me). SHOTS FIRED. I guess I am a little upset because these past few weeks a lot of my pants have been ripping due to weight gain. And my butt hurts from my pretty much plastic bike seat. I hope I can have children when I get home. I say that because it has also affected my goodies. Well we will see what happens... To be continued.

So some more news I have... Our legendary ward mission leader is moving to UTAH. I really hope that you guys will be able to meet him. His name is Chris Roberts (Brother Roberts). He is working for work day is SLC. He said that he will be coming to my homecoming, but that is light years away so I am glad I will be able to see him there. So Elder Payne and I had a roof leak because of all the rain and so the apartment complex came and fixed it and gave us a gift certificate to "La Boulangerie." It is a little sandwich shop next to our apartments. It was pretty good. But for two sandwiches, chips, and drinks, it costed $25. People out here are crazy if they go there for that. It wasn't enough food. But I would say it was pretty dang good.

Before I get into our teaching pool and what went on this week I want to tell some funny stories that happened this week. So the first one that happened... We were riding bikes down the road and this lady tells us to pull over and she would meet us in a parking lot. Well, we get in the parking lot and she tells us how she was baptized Mormon and needed a Book of Mormon. She then proceeded to tell us that she has bi-polar manic attacks and how she just got out of a doctor appointment. She started showing us all her pills and everything. After she showed us that she turned up her radio and started singing and dancing to us. Ha. She said she is in the Bible because her name is Mrs. Rhoda. Well sure enough she is in the Bible. She let Peter in when he escaped prison. So later in the week we go to this appointment we had set up and we committed this guy to baptism. We were super pumped and excited. And then the next day we get a text from this guys daughter and she said he wanted to be baptized, but did not want to join the church... UGH. Well we will see what happens.

I am going to ask you all to pray for some people. Larry Lockmiller, Andi Zastrow, Eruch, Ralph, and the Vasquez family. Thanks so much.

My spiritual thought for the day is something I learned in a zone conference we had this past week. So as we were talking about distractions something came to my mind that I got from Mom. I told my zone that my Mom was crazy;) And told me that if you don't like a certain type of food, you just eat it until you like it. So we compared this to music in this certain situation. So I thought about how maybe if we don't like something at first we just need to keep doing it and eventually we will get used to it. And one of the Sisters out here said, "The food thing makes sense because if we stop feeding our body with junk, we can't just stop eating." We have to put good food into our bodies. As do we need to feed our spirits with positive things.

I love the work.

Love,

Elder Willden

Someone brought them a bedtime snack!

Dinner at Glennon Home

Still loves Cactus Cooler

Does not know what fruit this is.....anyone?