Merry Christmas from Elder Willden

Letter to all:

So I have been transfered to Zone Jonotepe.  One of the best zones weather wise but they sent me to the hottest place in the zone haha oh well.  I´m in a city called Nandaime about 45 minutes outside of Jinotepe and 2.5 hours outiside of Managua.  The city I´m in is a lot bigger than the Bello Amanecer but still they say It´s a very small city here but it´s big compared to where I was.  The houses are nicer, the people are a little richer, but there are still areas with plastic and wood houses.  My companion is Elder de Oliviera from San Pablo Brazil, one of the first 2 brazilians who have ever served in Nicaragua.  He was baptized 3 years ago and his family is catholic and never supported him going on the mission.  He´s been here a change less than me.  I have the same district leader still he got exchanged over here with me.  Elder Cratty is in my district, from Parump, Nevada he´s a good friend of Ben Rencher.  

It´s a litte tough at first being transfered to a new place but I´m getting the hang of things around here.  We have a possible baptism for the 29th.  The only problem with her is that her mom isn´t supporting her disicion.  This P-Day we did some sight seeing at a nearby volcano, Mombacho.  I met a guy from New York, he lives just outside of Palmyra, he told me he had been to the pagent a couple times.  It´s strange to see people whiter than me haha!

Have a great Christmas, remember always to give and to help in this time of year.  Think in Christ not in what you want for Christmas.  I love you all!

Elder Willden

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mombacho

http://vianica.com/attraction/5/mombacho-volcano

17 December 2012

17 December 2012

Letter to all:

This week went well.  Henry finally came to church again so things look good for him; hopefully he can get baptized this Saturday then!  We brought a young man (Ivan) 17 years old to church, we had to walk 30 minutes to his house and 30 minutes back to the church so he could know where church was at.  

We had a 1 day division; I went with Elder Vargas from Costa Rica 18 years old.  I´m already seeing 18 year old missionaries!!  Strange!  His maturity surprised me, we taught multiple powerful lessons that day, and the spirit was strong!  We taught a lady whose companion was cheating on her. We began to teach her it would be okay and that the Lord will help heal her heart.  Elder Vargas shared a story about his parents’ divorce that touched her and she began to cry.  We gave her a blessing of comfort.

Later we passed by the house of some less actives and they told us that the mother was making strange shouts in the night and has been seeing shadows in the night, it seems like a bad spirit is in their house.  We came by yesterday to dedicate the house and bless the mother but they weren´t there.  Hopefully we can find them and help them with that problem this week.

Tomorrow I find out if I have changes, I believe I will be leaving this area but I´ll let you all know next week.

Have a great week; remember the best Christmas gift you can give to anyone is the restored gospel.  Joseph Smith said the most important duty we have is to preach the gospel!  I spoke about this in my talk on Sunday.  I got after everyone a little bit, the members haven´t been helping us much lately but, we´ll press forward!  Some scriptures from my talk: DC 18:14-16,DC 1:223,DC 71:1, DC 118, Moses 1:39.

Bye!

Elder Willden

Sharing the Gospel one person at a Time

10 December 2012

Letter to All:

Hello!  We were planning on a baptism for this week and a marriage but they don´t have enough money right now so they postponed it until he gets his paycheck.  Hopefully it comes in time to do it this week.  It´s been a little bit of a difficult week, a lot of appointments have been falling through, people not coming to church and dropping more investigators.  We have to keep looking for new people to teach.  But we´ll find those people god has prepared for us.  

We were teaching a young man named Ivan about the gospel of Jesus Christ and in the middle of the lesson the Spirit just testified and I felt it very strong and my companion looked at me and smiled.  We planned a baptismal date with him for the 29th.  Later we talked to an investigator José and we told him basically that we cannot waste our time with him if he isn´t willing to make changes and come to church as he was drinking beer in front of us.  I wasn´t very happy and he wants us to keep visiting him but I told him our time as missionaries is too important.  I don´t like dropping investigators but it has to be done.

The pictures are of a part of our area called Cuajacillo, there are a lot of trees and farm animals over there.

Have a great week everyone!  Read 2 Nephi 4

Elder Willden

6 “Wherefore, redemption in and through the Holy Messiah; he is full of grace and truth.

8 “Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.”

 9 “Wherefore, he is the firstfruits unto God, inasmuch as he shall make intercession for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved.”   2 Nephi 4

A Wonderful Baptism

3 December 2012

Letter to All:

Well this week we had two baptisms!  Gloria and Paola were baptized Saturday.  It was great, they were both happy and excited for their baptisms.  Elder Wheeler did a great job baptizing.  

Now we have to keep looking for new people to bring to the gospel, we have a baptism planned for this Saturday so we´ll see how it goes down.  We have had to drop investigators recently but something Bryan told me really stuck, that the Lord will give us someone even more prepared for baptism.  A missionary´s time is very important and if I use my time how he desires and use it  well, he will bless me to find those chosen people.  Satan really works on the investigators and it saddens me to see Satan winning sometimes.  But I know that I will be blessed to find those truly searching for the gospel.

I read Ether 12:6 to a less active who has problems with coffee and it helped him a lot.

Elder Willden

Nothing extraordinary this week...

26 November 2012

Letter to All:

This week I found out that changes are going to be a week early and there will be changes the 19th of December, I think I´m going to get sent somewhere else.  It´s a bit of a bummer because I won´t be able to spend Christmas with people I know, oh well!  Our baptism didn´t go through this week but she´ll be ready for Saturday.  Saturday we´ll baptize Paola and Gloria, it should be a great baptism!  December will be a great month for baptisms, everyone is getting lined up.

It´s been a long week though, appointments falling through all week, that´s what happens when you start teaching a bunch of new investigators, but a few are very positive.  We started teaching 2 different young men both are 17, they seem very positive.  We are starting to contact in places far away because we are running out of people to contact in the city.

Nothing extraordinary this week...

Bye

-Elder Willden

Missionary Shoes - Take a Beating

19 November 2012

Letter to All:

I cleaned my shoes very well so I could show you all before and after pictures of what happens to my shoes daily.

This week went well, we have 2 baptisms lined up for this Saturday, Paola and Henry, so it should be a pretty good week!

This past week went by very fast. Now we are on week 8 of training with Elder Wheeler.  The time goes by way too fast sometimes.  We have been working very hard and It´s getting hard to set appointments because we fill the days up with appointments fast.  Sadly many appointments fall though, but that´s something you just have to get used to with the people here.

Sadly the lady we contacted that had been taught before will no longer take lessons from us.  The husband hates us apparently.  It makes me sad to see how so many evil men impede people to being baptized in the true church of God.  I told her she is always welcome in the church, and we keep seeing her around in the streets.  I pray one day the husband will soften his heart.

These next 2 or 3 weeks should be great ones, especially because we have some solid baptisms lined up. 

Good luck to all, you are all in my prayers.

Elder Willden

Elder Willden's Christmas List - #1 New Shoes!!