Temple Dedicación & Apostalic Words

Not gonna lie, that's probably not even Spanish for temple dedication but it sounds like it so we are fixin to roll with it. A lot has happened this week I have a cool story but it's long so I'll hit yall with the deets (details) and then if yall dont got time you can move on with your day. Elder Cook came, I shook his hand no big deal. He shared an AMAZING message on how to be a true disciple of christ, and that is to BECOME LIKE Christ. I learned a lot. I'm a better missionary because of it. We slept over with other missionaries twice and had to wake up at 4:00am to drive to Baton Rouge for that conference too. Those were the only deets. (Details) Story time: So yesterday was the temple dedication for the Baton Rouge Louisiana Temple, and our ward (the Meridian ward) was one of the locations they were broadcasting the dedication. So we weren't holding a Sacrament meeting or any church at all because of the dedication. One problem was, people could only watch it if they had a temple recommend. Well an inactive member, sister Cullum, and her sons girlfriend, Chloe, came to church. We had never met either of them, but sister cullum didn't know that the dedication was happening but we didnt want to turn them away, so instead we took them into a room and were going to teach them a lesson or two... about the gospel. Elder Sewell and I were kind of sad that we couldnt watch the temple dedication at first, but then as we started talking to them we found out that sister cullum, didnt have a very strong testimony and barely came to church, but Chloe, didn't know a whole lot about the church, in fact she didn't know a thing about our church. Other than sister cullum was a member. So we taught them the gospel of jesus christ, then the first vision and let me tell you there were tears from all of us in that room. When elder sewell and I taught we quoted Joseph Smith's first vision and recited it to them, and when we did the spirit was so strong and we were all crying and it was SOOO cool. Anyways I invited chloe to read the book of mormon and told her moronis promise in moroni 10:3-5 and the spirit was so strong. Chloe then wanted us to teach her all of the lessons and so we gave her our number and set up a return appointment. Well I thought that was going to be it, but after we said the closing prayer, Sister Cullum asked if we had been to the Church in quitman, which is a small town about 40 minutes south of us, we told her no and she said she would take us right then.... Elder Sewell looked at eachother and realized we only had a dinner appointment later that night so we had the time. So we drove forever, to this church sister cullum was telling us about. Apparently her great grandpa built this church and he wasnt even a member but he joined a little after he built it. She was still a little teary eyed and the spirit was so strong as she told us the history of it. It was built in 1901 and was only about 15 ft by 15 ft and it was sooo cool I will add a picture below. But But after we wrapped up there she asked us if she could make us lunch at her home... Elder Sewell and I agreed and went and had lunch at her house. So she cooked a big hefty lunch and it took her about 2 hours so the whole time we were answering Chloes questions and questions for Sister Cullum as well. It was awesome because now we have a new really promising investigator and so we will be teaching her now. I don't know how long God had been preparing Chloe for that message but let me tell you there have been a lot of behind-the-scenes moments to get her to church that day, and us elders were fine to not participate in the temple dedication so that we could take part in Chloes search for Chirst. Long story sorry I hope yall enjoyed. I hope it made sense too. Love yall -Elder Wilssssonnnnnnn 1)the little church we drove to. 2)Elder Sewell and I at the church 3)I ran out of lettuce for my roast beef sandwich so I replaced the lettuce with another slice of bread. Bob Ross watched. 4)Elder Norman burned his tie after his 6 months. I dont have enough pictures so that's why I'm putting this in.

Ups and downs and UPS

UP: We are teaching a lady named JoAnn who we truly love and she is the best lady in the world. She's a Baptist and a half though, and she's pretty committed to her church and her pastor, but she LOVES our church and we have had members over for some lessons and she loves the members and she's basically ready to be a member at the church of jesus christ of latter-Day saints. Infact we have a baptismal date set and everything. All she needs to do is come to church 2 more times. DOWN: SHE NEVER COMES TO CHURCH. She always gets super excited and she moves her schedule around so she can make it to our church, but then Sunday rolls around and she doesn't show up. UP: She made us a great southern meal on Wednesday with cornbread, okrah, colligreens, sweet potatoes, chicken and koolaid... so we forgave her. CONCLUSION: Missions always have more ups than downs. And that's the same way with life. It just depends on how you look at it and your ATTITUDE. If you are sitting around feeling sorry for yourself, and just being miserable... then you aren't converted to this gospel. This Gospel brings us Hope, something not a lot of people have these days. So suck it up. Look forward and look for the blessings. Look at what God sends your way, maybe a hurricane, or maybe it's a day full of sunshine... either way its God building you into a better version of yourself. BE THANKFUL FOR WHAT YOU HAVE GOSH DANG IT. alright love yall, until next week ladies and gentlemen, I'm going through one heck of a hurricane but boy am I loving it. Love elder wilson. 1) big ol Mississippi pothole 2) I forgot to add this picture from when we went to the OPENHOUSE, the couple in the middle is the pattersons I love them and they feed us every week. And the lady on the right is Daniella, she's a non member we are teaching. She has a cute little girl named grace!

Templeeee openhouseee

So although my area is about 4 hours away from the temple I got to go TWICE this week. It was soo awesome, both times with friends we were teaching and wow I loved it and they loved it and just a lot of love was going around while we were there it was just awesome. We spent ALL DAY Tuesday and Saturday just driving to the temple with our friends and spending time in the temple it was wayyyyyy cool. I'm loving mississipi right now I dont have a whole lot to say just so much has happened but I feel like yall dont care too much about the little things so I'll leave you a cute lil spiritual thought. And something that has kinda been on my mind and bugging me lately. It comes from 2 Nephi 2:14: "And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon." Something I noticed in these past 7 weeks I've been in Mississippi, is that everyone here knows that Jesus Christ lived and that God sent him to Atone for our sins and they have no doubt about this. The struggle here is just to have them realize that The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christs true church here on Earth. And that there is a lot more to it. But back at home there are a lot of people that, because they have all of this knowledge of Christ and God just ready at their hands, they feel like they can just go to church and have people teach them about christ and that's all they need. That knowledge. But without diving into your scriptures yourself and spending your own time by yourself understanding what God is wanting to teach you through scripture study, that knowledge that you have is going to sound crazy. We need faith. That is the most important thing we can have now days. So all of you reading this, I do not care how busy your schedules are right now nothing is more important than strengthening your own testimony, so I'd like to challenge each of you to set aside AT LEAST 30 minutes a day for daily scripture study so that God can speak to you personally. Reading a chapter a day just isn't going to cut it, and it didnt cut it for me. Because as you all know you see the end of the chapter and you just read words until to your done. But if you set aside time to actually dive in and pray and have God guide you in your studies I promise he will answer any question you are having with life through the book of mormon. Sorry that was super preachy but like it was much needed. I know it. I love you guys obviously or I wouldn't care so much to tell you what was on my mind Haha. Love yall remember FAITH IS VERY GOOF AND IMPORTANT AND STUFF LOL LOVE Elder Wilson! Ps: I'm a good missionary pday was Tuesday bc its transfers week. My pics for you guys! 1)Derrick, his family, and the missionaries at the open house. 2)waaaambulance last night lol pop pop 3)Our friend Daniella @ the open house 4)Elder Ihrke and I in front of the temple! 5)A pretty pic of the temple by itself

SPOOKY WEEK

So this week was scary, one of our most spiritual lessons and coolest lessons almost turned deadly Haha. So there is a guy named Kenney who we met like 2 weeks ago but didn't want us back yet so we just stopped by on Friday and it was POURING rain like rain here soaks everything so we walk up to his door and its wide open and he was sleeping on the couch so we like wake him up and then he invites us to hang with him so we start talking and he asks great questions about death and where we are going so we teach him about the plan of salvation, but I knew satan didn't want us sharing what we were sharing with Kenney because the whole time his TV was blaring Tornado warnings and he was getting nervous but me and my companion were not scared at all we knew we had to share our message with him. And then when we were almost done with the plan of salvation there were a couple gunshots just right outside his apartment so he got up and we walked outside and sat under his porch and talked outside which took us away from the plan of salvation but then I asked why he was looking for christ in his life... and then what he told us was a story like none other, he apparently had gotten arrested multiple times for smuggling drugs and stuff across the country which was wack and he said after all of his family dying he wanted to know more about why we believe in christ and stuff and it was just an AWESOME lesson and we are going back tonight and we are going to share more but yeah, Friday was awesome. Tomorrow we are going to the Baton Rouge Temple Open House with a part member family and I'm sooo excited it's going to be awesome, it's like a 5 hour drive both ways though so that's going to be tough Haha. So I'll let yall know how that goes. Spiritual thought: I have learned a lot being out on the mission in these past 6 weeks, and its summed up pretty well in the end of alma 7:8 "but this much I do know, that the Lord God hath power to do all things which are according to his word" Basically don't forget that please. Love Elder Wilsonnnnnnnn lol 1) we did a district fire 2) I spray painted this on pday lol 3) I went on a run while listening to a cool talk called "self worth"-Hyrum Smith and took this pic just cuz. 4) cute little doggie that sleeps at the Elders house in the forest, mississippi area 5) me in the forest house petting the dog with the book of mormon in a hammock... pretty self explanatory

Dis week was rough but funny

Wow so this week was funny... on Thursday a part member family wanted help building their house, and my companion said he knows how to do flooring because that's what his dad does for a living back home. So we spent all day Thursday putting in their tile floors... but after doing one room for 3 hours we measured for the next room and realized we were off by like HALF an inch.... so we spent the next 5.5 hours ripping up the tile and scraping off the mortar from their floor and it was awful. So that was a backtrack in that family's progression to being baptized. On a better note we asked Derrick on Friday if he would be BAPTIZED!!!! He said no but it was still crazy we asked right? Hes the preacher we have been teaching for a while now and he loves us and he knows the book of mormon is true and knows Joseph Smith was a true prophet but just feels bad leaving all the people he preaches to, behind. So we are going to see if he wants to invite all of them to be baptized too. Jkjk that'd be awesome though. Life is awesome down here in the south and I love it and I love the people, the food is also a huge bonus. Infact last night we were at a members house and he made massive burgers and French fries, he said "You northerners probably think you're so courageous walking with Grizzlies in the mountains and what not, but have you seen what we eat down here in the south? That's a whole new level of courage." And I took that in and realized how unhealthy all the food is here ahhaha it's pretty dangerous stuff. Infact I could feel the French fries slowing my heart. Well I want to leave yall with a message before I go, philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me." I love this scripture because of its truthfulness, you learn pretty quickly while you're all alone that you are basically nothing in this world, and that's alright we are meant to be a little pathetic. We are weak. But we were made this way so that we could turn to Christ, and realize the only way we can become strong and courageous and genuinely Happy. He is our saving grace and because of him we are able to see our Heavenly Father again. So quit all pride and turn to Him. Love Elder Willlsooooooooon 1) elder sewell and I laying tiles (later ripped out) 2) elder sewell really mad sitting outside the house that we just laid tiles in 3) me n a book of mormon n a pond n some trees n some sunlight

Hunting fishing loving every day

Alright ladies and gentlemen this week was pretty rad. Some spiritual experiences and some fun experiences. So today for p-day we went fishing and it was pretty nice. It was a beautiful, cool morning, and we got the stuff and just fished for like 4 hours with all the Elders in my district. Me and my companion were the only ones who caught anything. Elder Sewell caught a massive catfish and he felt bad because he didn't know how we should kill it to put it out of its misery, so I picked it up and just kept punching the thing in the face to try to knock it out. But they have thick skulls so the dude just kept living. All the elders thought that was pretty funny to watch but I was genuinely concerned for the fish. We fished for like 3 more hours after he caught the big catfish and we just left it on the car hoping it would die and it never did. In fact we had Mr. Thorton (this Baptist guy that owned the property we were fishing at) show us how to gut a catfish because they are way different than normal fish, and the thing was still breathing after we ripped out all of it's important stuff. Crazy stuff. I caught a not as massive little fishy boy. He was kinda cute so I let him live. So spiritual: Friday I was like on cloud 9 I had just listened to Elder Hollands talk called "Feed My Sheep" and just was feeling like I had the potential to be the best missionary in the world. So I was getting frustrated with my companion because he wasn't necessarily raised the same way I was to where he will work hard for a little bit but then wants to rest or chill so I wasn't allowing us to do so, I told him to park and that we were going to go tracting because he hasn't taken me tracting until that point. He said okay so we parked and I said a prayer asking for NO FEAR. And a lot of other helpful stuff. We got out, walked across the street and saw an old lady and her daughter. We went right up and they were not having it but we asked if we could share a message and then went off about Christ and they were loving what we were saying they agreed with it and just loved it so they want us to come back next Friday. That was the first house and we had about 6 more encounters that want us to come back next week which is awesome we placed like 5 book of mormons and it was nice because hopefully my companion will wanna do that more often. That day just gave me lots of hope for the rest of the mission. I had to rush to type this all up so I'll hurry and leave you with a lesson I've learned in the last week. In General Conference the phrase "God will provide A way, not your way" was said a few times and that stuck with me. I know for a fact that when you pray and you ask heavenly father for help he answers. It may not be the way you want, but he will provide a way. A couple we are teaching was thinking about divorce and so the man's dad (our mission leader) was praying for them to hopefully stay together to save them both heartache. Later that day their baby girl fell off the bed and landed on her head. Ever since that terrifying moment and taking their daughter to the ER, the couple hasn't fought once and in fact threw away the idea of the divorce. There's not one prayer God doesn't hear. He works in mysterious ways and puts trials in your life only for you to learn and grow from. Just remember that. Love you all ELDER WILSONNNNNN TEHE 1) My fish vs Elder Sewells fish 2)Me trying to get a cute sunset pic out the car window and have my face and tag in it 3)Pouring rain while tracting comp got this cute pic