Family and Friends,
Hey everybody this week was so good! I hit my 14 month mark this past week and it is scary that I will be in single digits next month...Where is the time going? First I want to tell you all about a miracle that happened at taco bell this week. We were on exchanges with the assistants...I was with Elder Cook. We decided to roll through the bell. Well... We were ordering and the cashier asked where we were from and we told her. She told us that she had talked to missionaries down in San Diego and then she moved up here. She continued to tell us that the missionaries had helped her out a lot in the past. So they will be going by her house in this next week!
We had mission leadership council last Tuesday and it was a really good meeting. We talked about how to correct missionaries in the Savior's way. As we all were learning and being edified the theme of the meeting was to counsel. If you notice in the scriptures it talks a lot about counseling together to make decisions. We even call a quorum of our leaders the "council of the twelve." As we counsel and figure out how to best move the work forward we can have better, more effective ideas than just having a single man make decisions...a scripture that has been ringing through my mind as I have been writing this letter is in Alma 37:36-37 and it reads:
As we heed this counsel Alma was giving to his son Helaman we too can be "lifted up at the last day." Recently I have really been pondering my mission. As I was doing that I was thinking about what my personal motto would be if I had one. The words that seemed to ring through my mind were, "ALL IN." With a tag to the scripture Matthew 6:24. Ever since I have thought of this I have had more motivation. I think about my missionary purpose and vision. And then combine it with some personal revelation that I have received. It has been a great tool for self motivation and desire to serve the Lord. I feel like when you are a missionary you always want to give more. So I have decided to just give everything and go all in. I think that this can also apply to life. I have always been taught to finish something when I start it (thanks Mom and Dad). I think this is something that we all can work on...including myself.36 Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.37 Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.
Now I would like to share a little bit about how our week went with investigators and prospective elders. We picked up a new investigator this week! His name is Marcus. We tracted into him the other week and were finally able to teach him. He had a lot of good questions. Basically what he believed in is that he can take all positive principles from different religions and apply them into his life. That is what he has tried to do his whole life. We taught him the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We really emphasized the pattern of Apostasy and how some truths were not lost, but a lot were. This man really liked to talk, but we ended up reading a scripture out of the Book of Mormon about our duty as sons and daughters of God. There is nothing more rewarding than showing someone their true identity in the eyes of God. Because some people do not understand that our Heavenly Father prefers the title of Father! He loves us all! It was just a good lesson and hopefully we can get back in there soon.
Kirk, one of our progressing prospective elders took us out to dinner the other night and then we had a lesson with him. He recently started coming back to church and does not hold the Aaronic priesthood yet. It was an amazing lesson about repentance and God's love for us. We taught him about how repentance is a daily process that helps us change. It is a gift from our Savior, Jesus Christ that allows us to become like Him and our Heavenly Father. It was such a great lesson and we were able to invite him to continue to repent and get ready to receive the priesthood. He is excited for these changes in his life. It is amazing to see the growth of the people we teach day in and day out. Being a missionary is a blessing you only know when you do.
We were blessed to have two of our investigators at church this week! Josh and Juan came! The attendance was weak because of Labor Day weekend, but we think they enjoyed. Josh comes every week and he is preparing for his baptism. We have had such a great experience teaching him the lessons and helping him come closer to the Savior. He is in 2 Nephi and always has really tough questions for us to answer. The Lord helps us out to answer these questions. We knew that Josh was going to come to church so we were trying to get someone else. We decided to call Juan and see if he would come. When we called he told us that he was getting ready for church! And it was his first time coming. It is always so awkward when it is someone's first time...also because of the low attendance, but hopefully he liked it. We were also blessed with a new potential that came to church. She is living with two different members right now because of her not having a place to stay and it seemed like she really loved church. Keep praying that we find new people!
I love the work and I love you all! Have a great week!
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Love,
Elder Willden
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