Well, I am playing catch up for the last couple of weeks!  and we could not access many of pics and videos  sent the week before Christmas.  Elder Willden said some of those were of the pranks he does to his companion.   -Rhonda

Written December 26, 2016
Family and Friends,

I had a really good week this week! I am going to focus on some things just like last week: Gonzalez Juana, Our mission's Christmas devotional, Manuel, Brett, and Christmas day (my favorite....maybe). This week was full of good experiences and I was able to feel the true Christmas spirit throughout the whole month and it has stayed with me today. Christ really does and should affect our lives daily. He is our Savior and Redeemer.

Gonzalez is a cool story. We went over to his house about a month ago; he had requested a Bible from headquarters. When we went over he took the Bible and asked for a bigger one. We had asked if he wanted a Book of Mormon and he was totally against it. Well... We did not make it back to his house for awhile. He finally just called headquarters again and asked for a bigger Bible. We took it to his house while we were on exchanges. While we were there he was asking a ton of questions about the Prophets in the Bible. We explained that it went Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus... Just a fly over of the Prophets. But instead of stopping there we said that we believe there is a Prophet that restored the gospel for today's generation. And he said, "Wow, tell me more about this!" So.... We did. We started talking to him and he said that he thought Christianity was just one religion. Which it is, but we explained that we have keys to salvation. He absorbed it like a sponge. We will see where it goes. We are going over there tomorrow.

Later in the week we had the opportunity to meet as a mission and have a Mission Christmas devotional. It was super good. We had a lot of musical performances. It was really spiritual. At the end of the meeting we were able to hear from President and Sister Palmer. It was super spiritual, but super funny. Sister Palmer talked about how one of her kids said they were going to start praying to Santa Clause because when you ask him for something he gives it to them. Sister Palmer said that she panicked and told her 3, almost 4, year old that Santa was not real. Haha when she said this President Palmer was behind her on the stand and he fake stabbed his heart. She then explained that Christmas is President's favorite holiday and that he was furious that she told her kid that. When he got up to give his talk he started with, "When Sister Palmer told our son that, it was the closest we ever got to divorce.... (everyone laughed) It's just wrong.." And President has a way with his jokes it was just super funny. Then he explained how Christmas is a time that we can feel the spirit of Jesus Christ more magnified when we are serving. And we should try to have this feeling year round.

So we got it approved to go to Oakdale on Friday to take Manuel to a baptism. It went super well except when we got in the car to go down there it smelled like Manuel was drinking coffee. We are going to talk to him on Wednesday to see if he is still ready for baptism. We hope he is. I love it here in Stockton, but I think Elder Lamm and I's time is running low here.

To talk about Brett, Alejandra called this week and asked if they were allowed to get married and have Brett baptized on the same day. We called the zone leaders and got it confirmed that that can happen. We called them and told them it was okay and we set a date on the phone. They will be getting married and baptized on January 11th. We are so excited for them. We have said many prayers concerning them and their family. Christmas night we asked Juan, Alejandra's Dad, to pray and he did. It was amazing. We hope this family keeps progressing.

Christmas Day was so cool. I got to SKYPE my fam. And friends. It was super cool, I thought I was going to cry or something, but I did not. It was great. Just good clean fun. Christmas is always good. No matter if you are at home or in the mission. I loved it. Brett and Alejandra got Elder Lamm and I some sweaters and beanies. We love them haha.

Spiritual thought for the week is from Luke 2. I thought this would be appropriate for Christmas and all. So reading through the chapter yesterday hit home for me more than ever. When it talks about the shepherds watching their flocks by night, it says after they received the news of Christ they left with HASTE to find the Lord. As they did we need to hastily search for the Lord at all times. The Christmas feeling we get at this time of the year can be a year round feeling. I love the quote, "Wise men still seek him." If we are wise we will search for the Lord all year round, every day, and in every moment of our lives. It sounds hard, but I invite you to have Christ in your heart year round and see how much of a difference it will make in your life. I love this gospel and I love my Savior.

I hope you all have a great week and a Happy New Years!

I love my family and cannot wait to see them on Mother's Day!

-- 

Love,

Elder Willden

This is a picture of me getting ready to work the corner.... Hahaha

(Sorry for the caption Mom... I am in Stockton tho)

Took this one while writing this email in the computer lab.

Written December 19, 2016
Family and Friends,

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! I had a very good birthday and I cannot wait for Christmas. Even though it was my birthday this week it was probably one of the most stressful weeks of my mission. I am not complaining because I know that it is making me stronger. The main things I want to talk about in my letter this week are: Our ward's investigator Temple trip, Vera (I have been spelling it wrong. I thought it was Vierra), Manuel, Church on Sunday. This week was definitely a CRAZY one.

So our ward planned an investigator trip for this past weekend. Elder Lamm and I had worked really hard to invite our investigators. The problem was that our investigators that were going to go did not have cars to get to Oakland. Well... Our Ward Mission Leader had kind of put it off for awhile... I understand that he is busy and the other guy who was in charge put it off for awhile and it ended up to where we were looking for rides the 3 days before the trip. Well it came down to Friday night (the night before) and they still did not have a ride for our investigators. This was super stressful because one of these investigators, Manuel, had been looking forward to this and our Ward Mission Leader said we were out of luck and needed to tap out. We did not tap out... It came down to us calling our Mission President and trying to get council. He got pretty frustrated when he found out about the ward missionary situation that we have. I am not gonna get into that. But it turned out that we went to bed that night not knowing if Manuel or Samuel and their families would have rides. I prayed that Manuel and if possible Samuel would have rides in the morning. Well we got up that morning and started studies like usual. Well, sure enough in the middle of studies Brother Roberts called (our ward mission leader). And he told us that Bishop had offered to take Manuel and his family. We were so happy. Bishop called us and told us he would not only be able to fit Manuel in the car, but he could also take Sam and his family. We were definitely blessed. They both had a great time and we were able to enjoy our Saturday doing the Lord's work.

Well the next person I wanted to talk about is Vera. We felt like we should go to her house one morning and we hadn't set up an appointment or anything. Well she let us in and we sat down. She asked us this question, "If I want to be baptized, why are there so many strings attached?" She asks these kind of questions all the time and it's just so we can explain it to her. We explained that it is not so much strings attached, but it is preparation for covenants with God. She has a hard time coming to church. Well, ultimately we will be going over there tomorrow to set a date for baptism. We are super excited.

To expand on Manuel's progress... He is super excited to be baptized. But he wants to see a baptism before his. The next baptism in our zone is on Christmas Eve. So he will attend that and we will be moving his baptism to the 31st of December. It will be super good.

At church this week we had a ton of investigators there. I say a ton because it is more than we have ever had. We had 3! Samuel, Uncle Larry, and Brett. I know they all felt the spirit at this meeting. Uncle Larry is a hard nut to crack. He left after first hour. He has very high walls, but God will slowly chip away at it. Brett and Alejandra came to church! It was a Christmas miracle;) I made fun of them and told them that haha. They are the best. They are progressing so much and we are excited to see what happens.

My spiritual thought stems off of the lesson Brother Roberts gave in Gospel Principles. We were talking about the Second Coming and the lesson started veering into deep doctrine. Well I think this really confused some of the investigators and members of the class. The spirit directed me to stand and bear testimony that all we need to worry about is the simple things. This gospel is simple. By small and simple things great things come to pass. If we are doing what we are supposed to do when the Savior comes it will be a great day. We are so blessed to have the restored gospel. I love this mission and the work I have been doing.

I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE Y'ALL!!!!

-- 

Love,

Elder Willden

Elder Willden celebrated his 19th Birthday with Alejandra's and Brett's family.

Friends and Family,

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

Elder Willden and Elder Hacking

Family and Friends,

Wow. It is December. I have had such a great week this week. It was the #LightTheWorld kickoff and my companion and I had the opportunity to do a lot of service! I will write about that later on. I wanted to start this letter off by saying that I am so thankful to be in the service of The Lord. These six months have changed my life forever and I will never regret the decision I have made to serve. When I was watching Chase or Carson out on a mission it felt like they were gone forever, but now I know how fast this is going to go. I feel like I have only been out a month and it is December. I am almost 19. It is absolutely crazy. It reminds me of when Jesus told his disciples that if they lose their life in the work they will find life. I can testify that I have found a better way. This mission has brought so much joy into my life. As you work hard and trust in the Lord he blesses you immensely.

The first service opportunity we had was at Uncle Larry's. This guy is incredible. He has been having some back pain so we went and helped his son get the yard picked up. Dad will like this one. We helped him prune and I got to cut everything and make it look good. I am thankful for a Dad that made me do the hard work, because now I can help other people. I was able to cut his lawn as well. Elder Lamm picked all the leaves up and we took a tree stump out. Just basically did all the things that was neglected for awhile. We were so happy to do it. Speaking of Larry. We were able to teach him the Restoration this week. Larry is Catholic and has been since birth. We asked him to read the Book of Mormon again and he accepted. We will be following up with him on that. He says he doesn't know if Joseph Smith was a prophet so that is what we will be focusing on. I have faith that he will gain a testimony.

After Uncle Larry's we were able to go to Vierra's. She had this HUGE burlap sack of walnuts for us to crack. It took forever, but as we cracked deez nutz we were able to talk to her about the concerns she had. She has A LOT of concerns. But she seemed to be receptive to what we were saying. I loved serving. I think that is the best way we can be like Jesus. That is basically what he did, charitable service.

Later in the week we were able to do some more service at Brett and Alejandra's. They were cleaning out their tough shed so we helped them out. I also copped some new toys;) haha. It was super fun helping them out. They are definitely some of my favorite people out here. We are going to start going through the lessons from the beginning with Brett so he is refreshed and can commit to live God's laws. We are so excited for them.

Spiritual thought for the week is a scripture that President Waddoups sent me in a letter he sent to me this week. Ether 12:41.

"And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father; and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. Amen."

He told me to memorize this scripture as we enter this Christmas season and that it will help throughout the whole year. I love this scripture. We should be seeking Jesus all the time. Not just when we feel like it. If we do his grace will abide in us forever. How nice would that be? Sounds pretty good to me. I will echo this invitation from President Waddoups and invite all of you to memorize this scripture. It is wonderful. The spirit can help us in all facets of our life if we are seeking Jesus in everything we do. I know this was a joke in the Transformers movie, but if we really did ask ourselves, "What would Jesus do?" When we are in doubt this question would save us from the pains the adversary inflicts on us.

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

-- 

Love,

Elder Willden

Helping a family clean out their tuff shed and found grandpa's hat:) So, naturally he had to try it on! 

Emailing us at the lab at the stake center

Still Goofy

Picture from 5 months ago after just stepping off plane in Modesto and
meeting Pres. and Sister Palmer

Friends and Family,

This week was a blur. We had a lot of ups and downs, but that is what the mission is all about. Elder Lamm and I had a really good Thanksgiving. We started it off by going to the Rhykus' house. They are members and they invited us to like a Thanksgiving lunch. Sister Rhykus is from Vietnam so it was pretty cool to hang out with their family. Brother Rhykus liked having us there because he can't speak Vietnamese and that is what Sister Rhykus' family speaks. We got to have these things called shrimp balls. Haha they were super weird, but they tasted alright. It is blended up shrimp and then it has fried bread around it. I liked them, but I don't love them. After the Rhykus' dinner we went over to the Parrish's. They are members, Henry Parrish is a recent convert and he is super cool. Haha. We got there and their dinner table was FULL. It was crazy. They cooked a 20 lb. turkey and a 10 lb. ham for six people. It was intimidating. I will send pics of that... After the Parrish's we went over to Brett and Alejandra's. They sent some pictures and videos home to the fam. They are super cool and the food was really good. None of the dinners were as good as Mom's though.

We have had a lot of set backs with some of our investigators, but the one that is progressing at a rapid rate is Manuel. We went to his house this week for an appointment and to our surprise he brought another one of his friends. He is so awesome. Her name was Ziona. We ended up teaching him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked a lot about the saving ordinance of baptism and asked him about his date on the 24th. He accepted and told us that he is very excited. I will keep you all updated on his progress. Pray for him as he gets closer and closer to this saving ordinance.

Pray for Brett. That he will feel the importance of priesthood in a home. That he will understand the seriousness of baptism and ordinances that help us come closer to our Heavenly Father. Pray that they will understand the importance of the temple. Brett needs prayers. So does Alejandra. Pray that she will have strength to stay on the path that Jesus Christ has laid before her. I love this family and want salvation for the both of them and John Luke. And her parents as well. They are great people.

Spiritual thought for the week is about Abinadi. The mission is super hard because for example in my last area I did not know if I ever touched anyone because there wasn't a lot of progress in numbers. But I have really thought about Abinadi. He preached the gospel and didn't know if he was going to touch anyone, but he insisted that he shared his message. Well... It got through and touched Alma which led to countless people joining the church. It is amazing how the Lord works.

I love the work. And love and miss everyone.

--

Love,

Elder Willden

Leaving homework on November 22 for Alejandra

Family and Friends,

This week was so good. I had several neat experiences being a missionary and I am so thankful God has put me in the position to serve him. People who contemplate going on a mission I just want to show them the blessings. But it is an experience that can only be described through personal experience. I would just like to say that this experience has already been a spiritual experience that trumps all others. We had our transfer calls this week. I will be staying in the Weston Ward with Elder Lamm. This is where I belong. And when I leave I will be super sad, but I am going to let God guide. I love it here.

So Manuel is progressing rapidly. Elder Lamm and I go over to his home for lessons and we are edified by his faith just as much or more than he is learning and accepting God's message. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. He listened and really had a lot of questions pertaining to the plan. After the lesson we talked to him about being baptized on Christmas Eve. He then asked, "Do you think I am ready?" Look as a missionary you want to get baptisms so any missionary would just go on and say YES YES YES. The spirit told me not to just go out and say yes like that. I recently had been studying about yielding to the spirit. So I was able to slow down and think about what I was going to say. The spirit allowed me to tell him, "Yes, I can feel your spirit and your attitude of missionary work and God wants you to be baptized on the 24th." This is not something I would've said without a prompting. Manuel went on to tell us it is weird that we said Christmas Eve. He told us that is when he would want to be baptized if he was baptized. He told us he would give us an answer this week. Which is great. Elder Lamm and I had a strong impression to ask him to be baptized on the 24th and it turned out to be the spirit prompting us to do that because the spirit knew what Manuel wanted.

Brett and Alejandra are doing great! We have really been working with them on marriage and things of that sort. It has been going good, but they definitely need prayers. I love this family.

I went on exchanges this week with Elder Jeong. He is one of the Stockton Zone Leaders. We had a great time. Haha. That night we had a double dinner. And it was a ton of food. We went to Denny's and then down to an appointment in south Stockton. This was great. It turned out we got to give a lesson to Samuel after dinner. Samuel and his family are interesting. It was a good lesson. The kids were really loud, but the spirit was there. We took pictures so I will send those soon.

Spiritual thought for the week. I have been studying in Jesus the Christ a lot recently. Something that really stuck out to me was Jesus' divine purpose. In the pre-existance God presented a plan. Satan volunteered for the main role and told Heavenly Father he would change the plan a little bit and then the glory would be his. After Jesus heard this he told our Father in Heaven that he would be our Savior, Submit to the Fathers will, and give the glory to our Father. This was a supreme example of humility and love. I would invite all to go read the pre-existance in Jesus the Christ. It really gave me a new perspective on Jusus' role in our life.

I hope the Fam has a great Thanksgiving. I will be missing all of you.

--

Love,

Elder Willden

With Samuel's family.

Family and Friends,

I had a very good week this week. We started it off with a specailized training on our mission emergency plan and the new #LightTheWorld initiative. I thought that the meeting went really well. Fun fact: I learned that missionaries can jump into a pool! But... Only if you are on fire. Haha I want to swim so bad. I'll write a little bit more about the Christmas intitiative.

So we learned about the new initiative and what we are supposed to do. There is an event calendar that we will have and we will be doing a lot of service! We have pass along cards that has a link to the video. The video is GREAT! If you have not seen it go and watch it. It basically shows that we can strive to have the charity that Christ had. I said it shows because this video does not have words. Something our Mission President asked us was "What words do you hear?" I thought that that was super cool because as you watch it words come to your mind. So it makes it personal. The word that came to my mind the most was service. If we are serving we are doing something that Jesus Christ did his whole life. I absolutely love this new initiative.

We had some set backs this week, but I guess I should expect that being a missionary. We talked with Brett and Alejandra about their progress. They said they were probably not going to make it on the 11th of January. Alejandra feels rushed. I really hope they take our invitation to kneel down together and pray about the decisions they will be making. I think that that would really help them. I can feel all of your prayers at home.

Manuel came to church yesterday. Cool story about that though: That morning had been really hard because when we got to church we were expecting three investigators to come to church. With 20 minutes to church no one had shown up. The only investigator to show up on time was Samuel which we knew would come. We welcomed him and started sacrament. Half way through sacrament I was sulking and pouting that none of our investigators had come. We were singing a song and the chapel door opened. Manuel walked in with one of his friends. I was super happy and filled with the spirit. I immediatly prayed for thanks and for forgiveness for pouting and murmering in my mind. I am thankful for the joy that we recieve bringing people to the fold.

Spiritual thought for the week is a scripture that is very dear to me. It is Phillipeans 2:13-15. This scripture has actually meant a lot to me since I was 12 years old. But when I came out on my mission and turned back to it it answered a lot of my questions. I absolutely love it. I was looking over it recently and it really applies to the Light the World initiative. We need to shine as lights in this perverse nation.

I love the work!

-- 

Love,

Elder Willden

Family and Friends,

We received news this week that there are more opportunities for missionaries to go to the TEMPLE now! I have been wanting to go to the Oakland Temple ever since I got off the plane. So hopefully I am able to go soon. There are three requirements for us to go:

1: We have to be instrumental in the investigators conversion.

2: We have to make sure they bring a family name.

3: It has to be the investigators first time to the Temple.

That opens so many opportunities for us to go to the Temple and I am super excited for the day I get to go to either the Sacramento or Oakland Temples. 

Elder Lamm and I were able to pick up two new investigators this week! The Lord has really been blessing us. When I first got into the area we had two investigators...now we have nine. Elder Lamm and I have been working really hard and I am happy to say that Heavenly Father is acknowledging that. I have really enjoyed missionary work and will tell you my experiences I had this week with the people of Stockton.

We street contacted a man by the name of Manuel about 3 weeks ago. We were finally able to meet with him for the first time this week. We taught him the Restoration. He accepted everything and then he explained to us that he was given a Book of Mormon three years ago. He said that he has a testimony of the Book already which is super awesome. He came to church this Sunday, but did not come to the right time;) We talked to him about baptism and I thought that this was super cool. He told us that he has been baptized twice, but that he wants to do it the right way. I am really excited to watch him progress. Pray for Manuel!

The next one I want to talk about is a pretty cool one. We get a lot of church headquarters referrals. We received one this week for a lady by the name of Charmaine Epps. We went over with our Ward Mission Leader Brother Roberts. We taught her the Restoration and she opened up and told us about how she moved to Stockton recently because both of her kids were killed in Oakland. (I would not recommend Stockton haha) But on a serious note, we were able to explain that families will be together forever. She was super accepting of the message and we were able to commit her to read the Book of Mormon.

Brett and Alejandra are doing really good! We need to get them to church though;) Uncle Larry is reading the Book of Mormon again and we will be following up on that here pretty soon.

Cool story about Vierra Turner. She had a dream recently about the church. She said she was in a really stormy world. She looked and saw a steeple. She interpreted that it was a Mormon church. She went in and felt really warm. She said the feeling was indescribable. I thought that that was super cool. Please pray for Vierra and her progression.

Spiritual thought of the week. At the beginning of the mission I approached President Palmer and I talked to him a little bit. He ended up telling me at the end kind of joking, kind of not to "Not kick the pricks." I took this in a positive way. But I was recently studying in D&C 121. And it says in verse 38: Behold, ere he is aware, he is left unto himself, to kick against the pricks, to persecute the saints, and to fight against God. I then turned to Acts and it told the conversion of Paul. When he was Saul he was told not to kick the pricks. I thought about this and obviously I am not rebelling against God, but we need to submit to his will. Why kick back at him and fight what you are supposed to be doing? Jesus Christ was the perfect example of this. I invite you to read 3 Nephi 11:10-11. This is the perfect example of accepting his will.

I love my family and I love the work!

-- 

Love,

Elder Willden

Alejandra sent you enough pictures. i will do better next week;)

FAMILY AND FRIENDS,

I had a very good week this week! Hard work has really been paying off. We were able to meet some new people this week. Something that was really cool about that is that I was on the phone with President Palmer a couple weeks ago and we were reporting our weekly numbers. As I was reporting it sounded really sad because we had been struggling to get good numbers. As we approached how many new investigators we had I was getting nervous because we were at zero and I did not want to be embarrassed. When I told him zero he laughed and said, "Well Elders, you're gonna have to step up your game a little bit!" This made me laugh and a lot of stress was relieved as I told him we were going to step our game up. And right away, we stepped our game up! Haha. We worked really hard this week to find new people and to visit former investigators. As we did we were able to see the fruits of our labors and it has been so good. I will tell you a little bit about who we met.

The first guy I want to talk about is Uncle Larry haha. He was a former investigator that just fell through the cracks. We have no idea why he was dropped. Well we went over there and he let us in. We started talking to him and he explained that his nephew lives in an apartment in his backyard and that he was Mormon. He went on and said that his nephew has fetal alcohol syndrome. His name is Nick. We met Nick and he was offended in Pacific YSA. So he started coming to the Weston Ward. We started to talk to Larry about his position on the church. He told us that he was super close to being baptized, but he was offended. So pray for him to have his heart softened. We were able to go shopping with him today because we had no miles on our car. We were at the register and he stepped in front of us and payed for our groceries. He is super nice and we want for him the happiness that we have. Larry was raised right and he is very religious. We will work on him;) Once again he needs prayers though.

Update on Vierra. She went in for some medical tests the other day and she asked us for a blessing. The blessing went very well and she told us she was nervous for the appointment. The next day we went by to see how she was. She told us the blessing had worked and she sent us away (she was not feeling well). We were so happy that she recognized the priesthood working in her life. Please pray for Vierra. 

Spiritual thought for the week: It is on the Book of Mormon. As we were talking to an investigator his feelings about the Book of Mormon were so-so because of the violence. I don't think much of it because I was raised in the church. While we were testifying my testimony grew. If you think about it the Lord protected the Nephites when they were righteous. They were fighting not because they wanted to conquer, but because they were protecting their families, liberties, and religion. I absolutely love the Book of Mormon and the things it teaches all of us. I issue a challenge to all that read this. Think of a question. Any question and read the Book of Mormon. And I promise you that your question will be answered.

I love my family and wish them a Happy Halloween. Don't eat too much candy lol. 

--

Love,

Elder Willden

 Elder Capulac and I (He is the best Elder hahah)

MOM this is the journal I need.

I make some pretty dang good spaghetti! Not boasting in myself. It is through God the spaghetti is made.;)
{that looks like Penne to me, not spaghetti-Rhonda's comment}

Mane N' Tail Shampoo hahaha. Go watch blades of glory. This stuff is so good for your hair;)

DORITOS

 The "Look"