Monday, September 18, 2017

Family and Friends,

I mentioned in my letter last week that I was getting a new companion... Well he is here! His name is Elder Stewart. He is from Roosevelt, UT. We both played basketball in high school! The branch down here has nick-named us the "Twin Towers of Turlock." I think that we are the tallest companionship in the mission. We get along very well and I am excited for this transfer with him. It will be a 7 week transfer and then we will have a 5 week transfer after this one. So basically this is going to be the greatest transfer of all time lol.

President Palmer took our district to Apricot BBQ in Patterson this past week. It was super good BBQ. It is super crazy though because this transfer we were assigned to the Crows Landing district which is a 45 minute drive from where we live so it has been pretty crazy. We go to Modesto every week anyway, but it is just pretty hard because we have a mileage allotment and we are all over the place!

 Juan is getting baptized this Sunday! We are so excited for him. We are wrapping up the lessons this week and his interview will be this Saturday. Something happened last week in one of our lessons with him that I thought was really cool. We were teaching him and just reassuring him that he was ready for this step in his life. After we shared a scripture he told us that when his dad and sister were investigating the church several years ago he wanted so badly to learn more and to take the lessons, but he didn't speak up. And unfortunately the missionaries did not ask him if he wanted to learn more. So I feel very lucky that we were able to find him and teach him. He is so ready to receive this message and enjoy the happiness that comes from it. 

We taught Josh this week as well. He is doing good! It was a good lesson on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and receiving the priesthood. We shared the bible video of Jesus Christ in Gethsemane and then read a little bit of Alma 13. It was a good lesson and the spirit was so strong. I feel like the best lessons that I teach and where I am able to feel the spirit is on The Atonement of Jesus Christ. It is everything.

We had a new leadership training this week. It was basically about being loving leaders and not speaking ill of others. I always appreciate the reminder to be like our Savior in everything that we do. Elder Stewart and I enjoyed it and are trying to apply that into our companionship. We are having such a good time down here in Turlock!

My spiritual thought this week is from the young adult broadcast that Elder Bednar spoke at. It was sooooo good. He talked about how we need to be a "welding link" in our generations. What touched my heart from this broadcast is that we cannot have any grey areas in our lives. We need to be all in. As we do this we will bless our posterity. Elder and Sister Bednar did a super good job and I invite you all to watch this. Especially Corie, Chase, Bailee, and Kyle. I appreciated everything that Elder Bednar taught!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!  

-- 

Love,

Elder Willden