What a week it has been! I have really had to lean on the Lord for the past week. I thought that missionary work would be easy because of the intensive basketball training I have been through...Oh boy. It is nothing like that. It is more mentally draining and physically draining than anything I have ever done. After all of that though I will say it is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done in my life! I have a testimony of missionary work and that we are truly called by God to represent his son. I can see it in peoples faces when we enter there home. It is so humbling to watch people as I speak and I am guided by the spirit. Something I have learned is that we are not only teaching investigators or less actives by the spirit, but we are also teaching ourselves by the spirit. As times get worse and worse people are being prepared to make there choice whether to accept the gospel or reject it. You cannot just sit on the fence anymore and I have really seen that in Manteca, California. People are calling us over to them and asking us about the gospel and we get comments like, "The way the world is going, I think we are going to go to church again." And that is when we get really excited and we get to talk about God's divine plan and Jesus Christ's sacrifice for us.

The Book of Mormon has been playing a huge role at this point in my life. Testifying about that book not only helps me to feel the spirit, but it helps me feel joy and happiness.

This week we got to ride to French Camp. It is a little town at the very Northern part of our mission. It is about a five mile  bike ride. We got up there and I was able to see all of the fields that people grow produce on. Both of my bike tires got holes in them because of the goat heads though... They are little stickers that get onto your tires. I fixed them up though so it is all good. While we were at French Camp I was able to try some of the hole in the wall Mexican food. OH MY GOODNESS... It was so good. I got there carne asada tacos and they were so so good. And cheap! I absolutely love all the food I am eating here haha. My thighs are getting bigger... Don't get me wrong I am still a chicken, but they are getting bigger due to all the bike riding. God is blessing me in ways I would have never thought. I am eating things I would have never thought I would eat.

So I have been saying that the members are super nice here, I will give you an example of two members that are so nice. Their names are Sister Rojas and Brother Checketts (They are dating haha). They fed us 3 times this week and the food was so good. Brother Checketts has gone through a lot in his life and he just loves the missionaries. Sister Rojas is very similar. Sister Rojas is illegal, but she is trying to get a green card so her and Brother Checketts can get married. (That's what I think) haha. 

My companions are still cool haha. We had exchanges this week and Elder Maxwell went to Tracy! So it was just Elder Spikes and I in Manteca....The two rookies. It went so well though. I thought it was going to go bad because right when Elder Maxwell left all of our appointments cancelled on us. But everything happens for a reason and we had a lot of street contacting that went very well. We were also invited over to the Lockwood's. These members are great people. He cuts hair for a living so we get to have our hair cut for free! I am pumped. He cut's famous peoples hair in LA.

Investigator wise we are still doing okay. Mark had his baptism date set for Saturday, but we had to push it forward. He has been dropping all of our appointments. We have set times to go over there though and I think he is going to make it happen. We love Mark and want him to keep progressing so please pray for him so that he will be able to gain a testimony of baptism. Marilyn was interesting this past week. Her husband came home from a half way house and he absolutely despises missionaries. So we went to her house and he yelled through the window to go away. We went back the next day and he opened the door and said, "No disrespect, but we are Catholic and we don't want to talk to you." This caused some confusion because Marilyn wanted to talk to us. She told us that a week ago. I ended up asking him 4 times if we could speak to just Marilyn, to see what she thought. And he would not allow it so we had to leave. He ended up going back to the halfway house because he could not handle being in front of drugs. Haha I have to tell you Manteca is full of drugs. The locals call druggies tweekers, so they call Manteca, Mantweeka. hahah. So yeah he went back to the home so we were able to talk to Marilyn as well. Pray for her please. We have another guy named Curtis. He is less active and wants to come back. He really struggles with a lot of things. Pray for him to be able to quit smoking and drinking coffee. He is a very interesting guy and I cannot get into details, but please pray for him and his welfare.

I love the work and the people here!

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Love,

Elder Willden

Me and Elder Maxwell biking to French Camp. Haha Elder Spikes was in front.

The tacos that were very very delicious.

Me and Larry. The funniest guy in Manteca. 

Me and Jesus. Look at him every morning.