Hey! Ah it is so great to hear from you as usual! I love when I open up my email and I have a long one from the both of you! It seriously makes me so happy you have no idea. And the pictures!! Ah the pictures are soooo great. So great. I love the ones of us hunting dad those are such great memories. And I also love my wrestling one haha those were the days! I seriously replay my whole senior year of wrestling in my head at least once a week haha. I miss it so much. Those were some good times. I never thought I would miss wrestling like I do but I guess what everyone says is true! I just miss everything about it and this last year was the best! I had some good matches haha. Anyways, Mom I didn't know that we got a dog! Sheesh haha as long as it doesn't bark like an annoying weiner dog haha. Thank you so much for those pictures. All of them are seriously so great. Hey by the way, I sent you a letter and I'm not sure if it got home. Please let me know if it did! And please send written letters and some pictures in the post if you can. I would really love that! I don't know if you've sent the family history papers yet but I would really like those as well! I miss you all so much! But I can see the Lord's hand in all of your lives and I have received a Spiritual witness that God is watching over each and every one of you and that He has such tremendous blessings in store! They all come based upon the principles of righteousness and how we live them. I am so proud of Gage and him doing FHE! That is so great. I would seriously love to hear his testimony. I would love you hear each and every one of your testimonies. Baring testimony can be so powerful. It invites the spirit like nothing else. I can't believe how cute Emm is still getting! You better get her a body guard haha. And I can't believe Brays is 15. WOW!
I am so proud of you mom and the things that you are doing. I know it is hard but we cannot become like God easily! Salvation is not easy because it is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was and never has been easy for anyone. But boy will it be worth it! I have experienced tender mercies from the Lord in my short time out here that give me a glimpse of my Savior and the love that He has for us. We really cannot even comprehend! I do think sometimes we forget of the simpleness of the way sometimes. As the Children of Israel were going to the promised land they began to complain about their situation. They then began to be attacked by fiery serpents in Numbers 21 and they didn't know what to do. God told Moses to kill one of the serpents and put it on the staff and 'All that look upon it might be saved'. The snake represents Jesus Christ our Savior because Serpent actually represents diety. So many people didn't look!!! They just didn't look at the snake on the staff so many of them perished. The ones that did look though were saved. How remarkable is that? I love that. Sometimes we forget how truly simple the way is. I know with all my heart that if we look to Christ, we will be saved. It elaborates in Alma 37:44-46 if you want to look it up. He says it better then I could!! haha.
It has been a tremendous week. I have been able to feel the love of my Savior so much! I know I cannot comprehend the love that Him and my Father in heaven have for me but I feel it stronger each and everyday! Even when we go through hard times and trials, when it's all done and I stop feeling sorry for myself, I see a valuable lesson that I have learned that I know my Heavenly Father wanted me to discover.
I have been studying a lot lately about patience as well as gratitude. Patience is certainly one of my weak points and I am doing my very best every single day to better submit to the will of God and to ''be still' and know that God is there. He has an Eternal perspective on all things and He knows what is best. Whenever I feel like I can't understand something or I find myself questioning, I turn to Mosiah 4:9. I have complete faith that me Heavenly Father is there watching over me and that He knows what's best. I am so grateful to have a loving Heavenly Father and that I can speak to Him at any hour of the day!!
I read the talk by President Uchtdorf titled 'Grateful In Any Circumstance'. He talks about how gratitude is the catalyst to all Christlike attributes. He also talked about not just being grateful for the things or blessings that we receive, but for the circumstances that we are in. I know we will all experience things in our life and our very world will feel like it is tearing at the seams. Bu when we can have an attitude of gratitude then everything can change. There is one thing that we can ALWAYS choose and that is our attitude.
We have been teaching this wonderful young man named Connor. We taught him the Plan of Salvation this last week and it went so great! He really has a desire to read the Book of Mormon and find out if it is true. He even said a prayer with us! He is really hard to get an appointment with because he is so busy but I am so excited for him! We have been working hard on finding new investigators and I know with all my heart that as we diligently strive to find those prepared souls, god will put them in our path.
We were tracting earlier this week and we tracted into this older man who was an Atheist. He believed in science. We had a long conversation about how science and religion can go together to support each other! He was very nice and had a lot of good things to say, he just didn't want religion. At the end I bore my testimony about our loving Heavenly Father and that He is there and He can answer our prayers. Anyone can find out. I also told him that I know with all of my heart that we are on this earth for a reason. that we are working towards something and striving for something! Tears started to swell in his eyes and he said 'I wish I could have the faith and belief that you have.' I told him he could! But everyone is just too scared to put the effort in. It was a great experience.
Sarah also came to church this week! The sisters have been teaching her and I think she is really progressing still.
I also heard a great quote in church yesterday that went 'If someone was to accuse you of being a christian, would there be enough evidence to persecute you?' So good!!
Well I hope you all have a wonderful week and always remember that I love you with my whole heart!!
Love
Elder Wilcox
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