Monday, April 30, 2018

Family and Friends,

This week went by so quickly! We were very busy with zone conferences. We split them into two days. We did the north zones in the mission on Tuesday and the south zones on Wednesday. This zone conference was focused on working with members now that we have technology and more phone safety. I thought that it went very well this week. We had the zone leaders give trainings on Mosiah 5. The spirit was very strong as the missionaries re-evaluated their commitment to the Lord. I also felt the spirit strongly as I evaluated myself and where I was at. We have to constantly re-commit ourselves to the Lord or we can find ourselves getting complacent. 

We had an exchange this week with the Turlock zone leaders. It was super good. I will send a picture of me and the elder I was with. He is actually from Kaysville so that's cool. We went out and did a lot of proselyting that day, definitely more than we usually get! It was so nice. While we were planning our day in the morning we planned to go to "airport." This is the sketchy side of Modesto. I thought it was baby-food compared to Stockton, but we enjoyed it! Had some wonderful contacts. We were also able to place a Book of Mormon. It is the best when you are able to have a gospel conversation with someone and they are willing to listen. During exchanges we had to go to a special webinar from Salt Lake. It was to train us how to use our technology (again) haha. After everything we went out to Oakdale for the evening. We had set a goal previous to going out that night to share the "Because of Him" video 2 times. Well, on our second time sharing the video we had such a wonderful experience. We approached this woman and asked if she believed in Jesus Christ. She answered yes. So we pulled our phone out and showed the video. As the video was playing we could feel the spirit very strongly. We knew this lady was feeling the spirit as well. With tears in her eyes she accepted our invitation to send some sister missionaries by. Another observation I made during this contact was that this lady's son ran to us as we were showing the video and he was very engaged. I know that everyone can and will feel the spirit as they learn of Christ. Missionary work is the best!

We had a great opportunity this week to teach one of our prospective elders. It was sad though because he will be moving to Wyoming this week. We taught him of obedience and how it brings blessings. It was a very good lesson. Whenever I teach I learn something new about the gospel. It is pretty cool because sometimes you say things that are completely directed by the spirit...then you think "oh...that's true!" After our lesson with Kallan we drove up to Lodi....that was a long drive. A lot of fields too because we had to drive through Oakdale. A lot of driving this week!

I was given the opportunity to give a talk in church on Sunday! It was on forgiveness. The Bishop asked me to also introduce myself and talk about my conversion. It went pretty good! I felt a little bit under-prepared because I didn't have a ton of time to prep. But I definitely enjoyed being able to speak. I got to share some experiences that have happened in my life. I also got to reflect on what the spirit was telling me so that I can apply it into my own life!

I appreciate all of your love and support! I love my mission and I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I feel your prayers. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

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Love,

Elder Willden