Elder Kolton William Willden

Family and Friends,

This week was a super good week.

We started the week having interviews with President Palmer on Tuesday. This was a super cool experience and just a jumpstart for my week. We talked about The Atonement and how it is personal. President said something that has really caught my attention for the week. He said, "How can you not look at yourself in the mirror and say 'he did this just for me?'" The Atonement is so personal. And I have said this before and I will say it again...I feel like no one will ever fully understand The Atonement. This really fit well with what I told him in that interview as well. I think I shared this last week, but once we use The Atonement we can develop our own personal testimony of it. And that is what missionary work is all about...It's about giving people that chance to use The Atonement.

Elder Lamm and I had a pretty cool experience contacting a referral this week. We went to the complex we were supposed to go to and it turned out the address did not exist. Well... God put us there for a reason, so we looked at the address and it was apartment #7. These apartments were based off of alphabetical order so we correlated the number with the letter and it was "G". So we knocked on apartment G and asked if there was a Book of Mormon delivered to the home. The man said no. We asked him if he was familiar with our church and he said yes. His name was Eric. Eric then invited us into his apartment. (That NEVER happens). We went in and we were able to share The Restoration and he accepted a Book of Mormon. He said that he used to play basketball with the "Mormon boys." haha so that is an opportunity for me to play ball. haha I'll take it. But yeah that was a super cool experience and I know that God guides his missionaries.

We went to Brett and Alejandra's this week and we were able to share a scripture with them. The scripture we chose was Helaman 5:12. This really applies to their situation because as they are trying to make good decisions. Satan is working really hard on them. As we build upon the rock of Christ he will help us when the wiles of the devil come. I loved being able to share this with them. They need your prayers as they strive to do their best.

Also an update on Vierra. She is doing alright. She has been kind of sick the past few weeks. We were able to go over there and share Moroni 7. This chapter is packed with principles. We shared that with her and then something really cool happened. We have been asking her about baptism and we feel like she keeps getting annoyed with us and taking it as sarcasm. But I felt impressed to bring it up last night. I just flat out asked her, "Vierra, do you want to be baptized?" Sometimes you just have to be blunt. She said that she really has been thinking about it. And she brings up the fact that she has already been baptized when she was a baby. But we asked her, "Wouldn't you like to make that choice? And wouldn't you want to show Heavenly Father your faith in Christ?" We feel, and I feel, like it is going to take time but we will be filling the font pretty soon. Seeing these people that I love make decisions to come closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ makes me so happy.

My spiritual thought kind of goes off the things I have been talking about already. The gospel of Jesus Christ is so simple. So why do we sometimes try to make things so complex. Be simple. Be that person that does the simple things. Plain and precious things are what makes our lives better. It says that many times in the Book of Mormon; maybe not in the context that I said it, but it still applies. I love this gospel and it's simpleness. I have a testimony of that in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Have a great week!! I love you all.

Love,

Elder Willden