Family and Friends,

This week was super solid. We have been seeing so many miracles as we have been obedient and working hard. We have definitely had a lot of progress these past few weeks and I was so scared that I would be getting transferred and that I would not be able to see the fruits of our labors. But. We got transfer calls last night and I have been blessed to stay in the Brookside ward in Stockton with Elder Payne. Just now I was thinking about it and my favorite hymn keeps coming to my mind. It is, 219 "Because I Have Been Given Much." Last night I had some negative thoughts about who my companion is this transfer and why it was set up the way it is. Well, I decided to take it to The Lord. I opened my scriptures up to D&C 123:14-17. When I read that I felt the spirit so much. I did not feel like The Lord was chastening me, but I felt like he was telling me to be happy. Verse 17 stuck out to me the most. And this can apply to any situation or trial that anyone is going through. So apply it to you: 

"Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."

The thoughts that came to my mind are somewhat personal, but basically what God asks of us is for us to have good attitudes. Even through the rough times and he will reveal his arm in our lives. This applied to the work we have been doing in the Brookside ward and it applied to my personal trials at this time. I am thankful for Jesus Christ and the things he does to comfort us. I hope and pray that if anyone back home is going through a hard trial that they will look to the enabling  power of the Atonement.

So investigators-wise this week we have picked up two new investigators. Grace Gaea and Jonathan Payne. They are both on baptism dates. Grace will be baptized on May 14 and Jonathan will be baptized on April 22. These two have both been prepared for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Grace was a member referral from Washington. Her son had joined the church and told his mom, Grace, how he really enjoyed it and how he would like to send us there. Grace's Mom had just had a stroke and has not been healthy. This has really effected Grace and she is in a time in her life where the gospel can really bring peace to her mind. We went over and shared the message of the Restoration. She was so receptive. We asked if she wanted a blessing of comfort and she said that we would be more than welcome to do that. We gave her a blessing than asked her if she wanted to be baptized on May 14. She said, "Well if I don't do it now, I will never do it." Haha So we will be getting her ready for that date. Now for Jonathan. We were biking and ran into him. He was walking home from high school. He had told us how his previous church kicked him out because he professed to have a spiritual experience. He has been working to become an exorcist. We told him how the priesthood worked and we will be explaining that we don't need to perform exorcism. He accepted a baptismal date and we will be getting him ready for the 22nd!

Funny story, so our investigator Larry, the one that we had to pray over his house... Well he is a gangster haha. But really he is just a massive dude. And he called us the other night and told us about how he had just gone to the hospital because some guys and his old girlfriend came over to beat him up.. but this was his narration, "So Sophia told these guys where I lived and they came over and told me they were gonna shoot me and do this stuff to me. So I went outside to meet them and the first guy threw a punch, but I socked him and knocked him out. Then his little buddy tried to come get me, but I picked him up and threw him on his head. But... While that was happening Sophia came and whacked me in the head with a stick. So I had to go to the hospital." Hahah. This was nuts. Larry acted like it was just another walk in the park. I mean... he is from Compton. The cool thing about Larry is that he is Muslim and now he is starting to believe in Jesus Christ. He says that he is gaining faith. We will be extending a baptismal date to him here pretty soon. He definitely has to let go of the eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth logic haha. We will get him there.

Update on Andi. She is doing awesome and still progressing. She prayed that Elder Payne and I would stay and we did so her prayers were answered. She is doing so good! I am so excited about the work that is going on here.

I love the work.  

-- 

Love,

Elder Willden

Family and Friends,

This week was so so good! I decided to do something different in my studies for the rest of my mission. I will be memorizing a scripture a day. I have heard from multiple sources that an Apostle said if you do this you will develop a photographic memory. I have taken the challenge. The scriptures I memorized this week was: Ether 12:41, 2 Nephi 4:35, Alma 7:22-24, Moroni 10:3-5, Mosiah 3:19, and Helaman 5:12. It has been a great experience doing this because it not only helps me to be able to teach better. But it also gives me more of a testimony on the scriptures and how important they are in my life.

Last Monday I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Miller. He attended Lone Peak and we kind of knew each other when we were there. He is pretty close with Keenan Kelshaw and Jonny Christensen. We had a blast haha. I love getting to know everyone that is in the mission. There is another Elder here in Modesto that went to Lone Peak and I knew of him and saw him in the halls every day. It is weird to see them out here.

I really got to talk to an Elder this week about feeling the spirit. It is something that I have struggled with my whole life. I didn't know if the spirit was trying to communicate with me or if it was just my own wants and thoughts. As I have thought about this on my mission it really brings me to Moroni 7. When he talks about anything good that comes to your mind is from God. When we do the right things it is from the spirit. "And by their fruits ye shall know them." When you are doing good and it causes things around you to get better, it is of God and of the Spirit. But, this still does not explain the feeling they talk about in the scriptures that we get if we do good. This feeling is very hard to recognize; at least for me. But as I have been on my mission I have been able to find the way that I feel it. When I do something that is good that comes to my mind...after I do it I ponder. And I pray about it that night. And a feeling of peace comes over me. It is different for everyone, but in D&C 6:22-23 the Lord tells Oliver Cowdery that to receive further witness he would need to pray and then the Lord would bring peace to his mind. Isn't that what the gospel is all about? I mean it is called the message of peace. Let us all pray for a "further witness" and let God give us peace. It might not be what we expect, but if we submit to God's time and his ways, we will be blessed.

Elder Payne and I got to go out with the 2nd counselor in the mission presidency this week. His name is President Brown. His daughter is married to a Doug Willden in Utah and they live in West Jordan. It sounded familiar. I thought maybe we would have some relation and  Bandises might know or something. But we had a couple lessons when we were out with him that went really well. The first one was with Andi. Andi is so awesome. Please pray for her as she struggles with familial support. She is going to keep progressing, but she definitely is having a rough time. We are going out to eat with her and her husband this week. That should be fun. Our other lesson with President Brown was with the Mezey's. I don't know if I have talked about them yet. Liliah Mezey is a 9 year old that wants to be baptized. The whole family is members besides Liliah. Her baptism will be on Easter.

Transfers are the end of this week. Pray that I stay in Stockton lol. I will do whatever the Lord wants me to do, but I really like Stockton.

I love the work!

-- 

Love,

Elder Willden

Basketball is still a love.

Asparagus is my favorite now haha my pee is always smelling like death.

Family and Friends,

This week was AWESOME. I started off with a nice bicycle accident... I am still sensitive about this subject because I had a streak of no wrecks until last Monday night. So the story: We were riding to an appointment and I am just cruising on my bike...no hands...ridin' durty. Then all the sudden I heard a huge pop and my bike seat slid back. And as you can guess I started sliding back too. We were cruising at about 12-15 MPH and I did a back-bend onto my back tire and my helmet saved my head. So that's good. But, the good thing about this is that we got a potential investigator out of it. So after I crashed and was lying on the asphalt this guy came running out and helped me up and everything. Before I go on I am going to confess a sin real quick... So after I fell I let the S word slide right out and it was loud. First swear word as a missionary. I felt bad. Well right after I said it this guy comes running out and he was like... "HOLY SHI*" hahahah. I was so embarrassed and I did not want him to know I was a missionary because I swore. I felt terrible. But he jimmy rigged my bike until I could get it to the shop. So yeah... That is that.

So we had the second and last new missionary/trainer meeting on Tuesday. I absolutely loved it. There is a quote that I want to share from President Palmer. It goes, "The ironic thing about humility is that when you start to think you have it, you don't." Apparently there is a lot of new missionaries that are/were prideful. And some of the trainers I guess (probably for me). I have grown so much from this experience of training a new missionary. I cannot believe the Lord or my Mission President trusted me to do it, but it's been great!

Andi will be getting baptized on May 6th! We are so pumped for her. Our ward mission leader will be  baptizing her and she has asked that I confirm her. I have been blessed to be apart of her conversion. It is honestly such a cool story. She has had things in her life happen that has prepared her for this exact moment of time. God knows what he is doing. And Andi will be an amazing member of the church. I was able to testify of the Holy Ghost and how it works to Andi. The cool thing about this is that when you testify of something it strengthens your testimony in it even more. I know that the Holy Ghost has guided me through trials in my life and has always been there for me when I was worthy. I love this gospel and I love what I am learning out here.

Larry had a great experience at church last week. He told us about this the other night. He was wearing a jacket at church and while he was sitting in the Chapel and the chorister got up to lead the music. As she got up Larry started to get hot and just saw light in front of his face. He had to get up during sacrament meeting and go to the bathroom. He said it was an awesome feeling. 

I love the work!

-- 

Love,

Elder Willden

Monday, March 6, 2017

Family and Friends,

I would just like to start off my letter this week by giving a shout out to my oldest Sister Corie. I think that you are 25, but I could be wrong. Love you anyways. I hope you got the card I sent. This week was a very good week I have officially hit 8 months on the mission. Time is flyin' man! I was also happy to see my Sister's engagement pictures... it is definitely weird not being home while a Sister is getting a married. Nothing else I can say about it;) haha.

I am happy to say that I attended Cafe Rio 2 times this week. So... yeah it was a good week. So there were some really cool things that happened this week. Elder Payne and I went to a potential investigator's house and bonded with his black african geese. These things are not something to be trifled with let me tell ya. But we went in and with the Lord on our side we were able to bond with Drako, Matilda, and Daisy. I will send pics... I think. One more miscellaneous thing that happened this week... I put one of my suit pants on bent over and they ripped. I will send pics. 

So a couple crazy stories that happened this week. First off we attended a funeral on Friday and it was just a super good service. After the service we were in the hall and I was waiting for Elder Payne to come out of the bathroom. Well, these two guys that were dressed really weird said hello to me and it just felt creepy man... Turns out one of these dudes was at one point inviting missionaries to his house to curse them. But the issue was resolved and everything was good. He was wearing this really weird necklace with a jewel in the middle and looked like a creeper man. He had slicked back hair and it was just crazy. Well.... Second story. So we have an investigator named Larry, he is Muslim and lives alone. We were over there earlier in the week and shared a message centered on Jesus Christ. Muslims do not believe in Christ. Larry listened and told us he would be willing to give it a shot. At the end of the lesson I was saying the prayer and I felt a really weird feeling. As I was praying I heard whispering and it was really freaking me out. Elder Payne and I had debated on if we were going to go back or not. We felt impressed that we needed to go back to Larry's. We went in and started talking to him on Saturday night. As we were trying to get into the lesson Larry stopped us. He told us about how this girl that had been staying in his house about a month ago was doing Louisiana Voodoo in his apartment and how he felt uncomfortable ever since. Chills ran down my spine so hard... I was freaking out. So Elder Payne and I offered to bless his home and he accepted. We ended up praying over the house. That night he ended up praying in the name of Jesus Christ and he decided to come to church. It was super cool. He told me at church that he slept like a baby after we left.

Update on Ralph. We went and taught him and had to drop him. This is a really cool story as well. We went in knowing that we were only going to use the Book of Mormon. After long conversation and us reading 2 Nephi 29 (calling him out) he did not know what to say. The Lord promised that we would not be confounded in front of any man. And that is exactly what happened. I am not bragging about what Elder Payne and I did, but we were able to leave a man with a Theology degree speechless. And he expressed that he was not going to put any more time into this. We invited him to always keep the Book of Mormon close to him and to keep reading it. If he ever decided to progress we would be there.

Andi is progressing super well. This is definitely a once in a mission experience. We had dinner at her house the other day. We had taught her a lesson before hand on tithing and offerings. She had explained that she had already looked at tithing and figured out a way she could pay it. She said that since she is retiring and won't have income she is deciding to stop paying a maid to clean the house and use the money they would use for that and put it towards tithing. Her husband said that that would be fine. Now going into fasting... She said that she was going to fast this Sunday and that is what she did. She as well as us and some of the ward members fasted that she would find a baptismal date and that her Dad would be okay with her joining the church. She was really worried about this. She said that when she called her Dad he was actually really okay with it and talked to her about the Book of Mormon. She said that it was a miracle. I thought that that was awesome.

For my spiritual thought this week I want to write about a zone conference we had this week. It was all on repentance. I loved it. I studied purity a lot this week and also repentance. Something I really got from my studies is about the word and feeling of guilt. We need to feel guilty during the repentance process, but we need to feel the right kind of guilt. Are we guilty because we know our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ would not approve of our actions? Or are we guilty because the fear of what others may think? There are two types of guilt that stem from either pride or humility. fear of God, being humility. And fear of man, being pride. God always tells us to be humble and repent. This has really been a big thing in my life. I have been very prideful and still am. I definitely need to keep working on it. A scripture that always helps me is Mosiah 3:19. As we yield to the Spirit God can help us.

I love this work.

-- 

Love,

Elder Willden

Monday, February 27. 2017 

Family and Friends,

We started off our week super good. I got to play basketball for 4 hours. I definitely felt it through the week too. Thank heavens for deep blue. I might have to hit that Lone Peak conditioning when I get home haha.

So our teaching pool has been growing and growing. As we have been working hard: finding, asking, and cleaning our area book. We have been finding a lot more investigators. Currently our teaching pool, not all are progressing, is 20 investigators. We are really really busy. It has definitely been a good couple of weeks. Now that I am loving the work and we are busy I feel like I am going to get transferred. We will see what happens. I have been here for 6 and 1/2 months and it has been such an up and down experience. I hope that this area keeps getting better and better. I love it here in Stockton.

So we found Manuel and we finally got to teach him. His wife joined the lesson. We taught about temples and families. Manuel explained that he really had a desire to get into the Temple. We extended an invitation for them to get baptized on the 18 of March. We hope that they will accept they are thinking about it right now. Pray that they will find their answer.

Andi is also pondering a date right now and we have extended the 11 of March. I think she knows that she is going to get baptized she just doesn't know when. We taught her the Word of Wisdom and she thought she couldn't have caffeine. So she was dying haha I then explained that my Dad has a drink called Diet Coke with Lime that he drinks. She was relieved. I don't know what drink she is gonna choose but we will see.

My spiritual thought this week is about a quote I heard from Pres. Uchtdorf. It was a talk on pride. He said that, "Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking less about yourself." This hit me to my core. Because sometimes when we think of humility we think that we need to beat ourselves up. But in all reality it's about thinking of others and what you can do for them.

I love the work!

-- 

Love,

Elder Willden