Another Great Week

This week was filled with miracles, AGAIN!

First off, we had an Apostle of the Lord come and visit our mission. That was legit. (for lack of better words, haha) It wasn't Elder Holland which I and a lot of other missionaries were anticipating, but instead it was Elder Ballard. He said some pretty good quotes! I'll share some of the ones from the notes I took.

"We are literally His spirit children. He cares about everyone. We need to be spiritually prepared enough to be able to radiate the Spirit. The Spirit is the true teacher. We are the beacons that use it. Don't under-estimate it. Be upbeat and happy. Be anxiously engaged to let people FEEL that it's true. We are representatives of Jesus Christ." The Spirit was super strong while he was talking with us! It was kind of funny though, because I'm pretty sure that's the only time I've ever seen my mission president scared. haha ;) Elder Ballard opened it up to questions, and someone said "Elder Ballard, how would you suggest for us to effectively use the hour of personal study time that we have? It seems like an hour is way too short!" He then said "Get up earlier!" hahaha. it was cool to see him laugh and joke around even though he's an Apostle. Another good quote was:

"The Father speaks through His son. We can be Their voice. We have to be master teachers, otherwise Satan will win. He is raging in the hearts of men everywhere. He will win the battle if we don't try our best." I thought that was so cool. If we're not trying as hard as we can to learn and to grow and resist the evil he puts in our path, then he will win. He's working full time and putting in a ton of overtime hours trying to win as many as he can. That's why there's so much evil going on out there in the world.

We had interviews this week with President Moffat, that went well. We did role plays on the first lesson. For 15 minutes! I was kind of afraid that we wouldn't do very well, but it ended up being really good. Elder Quesne is an assistant to the president now and he was role playing as our investigator. He's usually a pretty hard one to teach to, but he was super easy it seemed like. Afterwards he told us that whenever a companionship teaches him in a role play and they're animated and not boring then he is an easier investigator. He told us we did a really good job. "If 5 was a perfect score, then I'd give you a 4 or a 5." Pretty dang awesome. :) I love being a missionary!!

Roy and Kodie both got baptized, and that was a really good experience too. Roy's was first, at 3:00. there was a few people there, including President Swain the first counselor in the mission presidency. But it went well. I baptized Roy. And I didn't baptize the phone this time! ;) While we were changing I guess the people there all signed something hey could give to Roy from the Primary. That was a really good idea because then he'll remember the people that care about him. He said he felt really really good after the baptism! Obviously that was the Spirit. :)

Kodie's went really well too. But can I say that I absolutely HATE mormon standard time?? The baptism started at 6:00pm, and at 5:50 there was only a few people there. I was thankful that nobody from the presidency weren't there to see that nobody showed up at first. RIGHT at 6:00, a million people showed up. Including some missionaries with someone they're teaching. But his baptism went really well. While they were changing, I went up there and read the account of Joseph Smith's first vision. Then I testified that I knew it was true. I was really hoping and praying that it would go well, because there were a lot of people there that weren't totally familiar with the church. I asked Elder Franco how it went when I sat down, and he said that it brought the Spirit in really strong and that he saw people crying. That was awesome to hear.

Kodie and Roy were both confirmed in church the next day. Kodie's was done by his grandpa, and Elder Franco did Roy's. Elder Franco was super nervous to do it, but he did just fine. After it was done, Roy jumped out of his seat and tried to run back to sit with his family but someone from the circle grabbed him so he could shake the people's hands hahaha. It was funny. Kodie and Jesse both got the priesthood which was awesome. Jesse asked me to do his. I can tell he really is trying to change his life which is the most rewarding thing to see as a missionary. We had to speak in sacrament meeting in the second ward, and the told us the night before. haha. It's all good though, we missionaries are always prepared right?? ;) On the program for the names of the people that were speaking, it said "full time missionary" and the second speaker was "full time missionary". hahaha super generic. They went really well though. :) The Hoersters wanted us to come over for dinner sunday night so that was cool. We had some bomb "Frito's surprise". Basically a taco salad but way better haha. :)

Other than that, we found a few more people to teach which is awesome and we're going to temple square with Aubrianna and Kodie which should be awesome.

Thanks for reading this HECKA ;) long email!!
Elder Wilson

 Roy's Baptism!

Kodie's baptism!