Misson Week 20 - Elder Wright from Wisconsy

Dear family and friends, 

Scripture of the Week 

Moroni 7:40-42 - "And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope? And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his ressurection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise. Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope."

It was a pretty good week. Kind of weird and tough, but it was a lot of fun. We got to meet with Audrey again and watch General Conference with her. She enjoyed it and told us more about her husband passing away so that was kind of sad. Audrey's awesome though. We love going over there. We also met with a less active member named Debebe. I'm not sure if I've mentioned him before, but he's super cool. He's from Ethiopia and he always gives us orange juice and some kind of packaged pastry when we go over. We talked with him a bit and watched another conference address, this one given by Henry B. Eyring. It was very good and talked about having the companionship of the Holy Ghost. Debebe really liked it and he seemed excited to meet with us again this Tuesday. 

We didn't knock doors a ton this week or anything and there were many times when we were walking to appointments and there just didn't seem to be any people outside that we could speak to. Heavenly Father heard our prayers though and we actually got contacted two times. It was kind of funny. On Fridaynight we were walking back to our apartment and a guy standing outside of a restaurant just started talking to us like we were already having a conversation with him. "So what organization are you from?" Haha he was drunk and on some sort of other drug but he was super cool and he gave us his address and number and told us to call him. On Saturday we were walking to a dinner appointment and some guy just shouldered past Elder Wilson on the street and then another guy behind us said, "Be careful where you walk here." We turned around and it was this young Dutch guy getting his bike ready to go. We started talking to him and he was super cool and interested in what we're doing here. He also is super into conspiracy theories like New World Order and that fun stuff so that was kind of funny. We didn't get actual return appointments or anything out of those two experiences but it was cool. 

Our dinner appointment Saturday night was with Oma Buntin. I love Oma Buntin. She's one of my favorite members and although her dinners are sometimes a little mysterious, she puts so much love and care into it that we just kind of push through it. During the first dinner appointment that we had with her, Elder Childs told her I was from Wisconsin in South America. Wisconsy (that's how Oma says it) is an island in between Argentina and Brazil. It's pretty mountainous. The tourism there is pretty bad because of the corrupt government. We do have the Packers though. I just decided to go with it and now, seven weeks later, I'm in pretty deep. Any ideas on how to break it to her that Wisconsy is actually in the continental United States?

This mission has been one of the best experiences of my life so far and I have been a witness to God's love for His children countless times. It has been a blessing to serve for the past several months and I have come to a greater realization of Heavenly Father's eternal love for us and the plan that gives us the opportunity to live with Him and our families for eternity. Jesus Christ died for us and through His infinite atonement we are made clean. It's a continuous process that is available to all of us if we are willing to take that first step.

Love you all and I definitely recommend the talk "Meeting the Challenges of Today's World", given by Elder Robert D. Hales. Especially for you young people.