Hey!! Oh my goodness I can't believe that Christmas is already here! How flippin crazy is that haha time just keeps on moving no matter what you do. Might as well enjoy it;) haha. I love your emails so much and I love hearing about everyone. I am very sorry to hear about uincle Mike. That is truly sad. I thought he was doing a lot better as well. I hope that Grandpa Bruce is alright. He has sure taken some blows lately. I love that man with all of my heart. I will cherish all of the great summers I got to spend with him! He has been such a great example to me. He has allowed the Lord to use him as an instrument. Amazing. This year has been a bit crazy hasn't it? 'Testimony and conversion is forged in the fire of affliction and trial!!' I love that quote.
I am so glad that you got the package that I sent as well as the camera card! You can just download all of those on the computer and print them out and then send the card back to me. I hope that everything fits and that everyone likes what they got!! haha. Oh tell aunt Lori that I say Hi!
I got all of the packages from home! They actually all came on my birthday so that was super amazing. I got a letter from Grandma Bobbie. And thank you so much for the Sweaters and shoulder straps! I am truly grateful:) I also got the big package from Grandma Kristine yesterday so it's here:) Oh dad and that Calendar is brilliant!! Oh I love that so much. Those are such good pictures haha takes me back to my prime;) haha.
Ok so we have had a change with the skype situation. I am going to have to skype around 3 over here which will be 8 in the morning at home. I really hope that is ok! It is a bit early and life is hard so we'll have to make it work;) haha. I will call home and get your address and then we can skype for 1 hour so if you have any questions you want to ask me have them ready!! haha.
Last week was such a great week. I am absolutely sure that Christmas had something to do with it! Elder Bradley and I have been trying to focus more on the Savior and His mission and His divine sonship and it has been truly amazing. The Savior had one of the most humble births known to man and was very much symbolic. His entire life was and is. How grateful I am for his love for me and for the rest of the world.
I had such an amazing experience at the temple on my birthday! I felt so blessed and so lucky to have that happen. I love the temple so much. I know that it is the house of the Lord. I felt the Spirit very strongly the entire time. As we were in the waiting room I was reading in the Book of Ether. I read Chapter 12 and I got to one of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon which says at the end of verse 6 'dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.'
I was pondering on what it meant by a trial of our Faith. Great things and great knowledge should not and can not be given to someone who isn't willing to search for them. To seek them out and obtain them. I was also pondering on what I can do to strengthen my Faith. If I want to strengthen my Faith then I need to do something that requires faith in the first place. Do I have enough Faith to talk to everyone in hopes that the one person that will listen, I will find? Also as I was studying. I thought of the message in the new Ensign about how all hard questions to answer in life and in the gospel can be referred back to one question and that is, Do I trust God more then anyone else?' Once we put our complete trust in God is when He can truly work mighty miracles within us and through us. That is when the mighty change of heart can occur which is spoken of in Mosiah.
Some of our investigators are gone on holiday and some of them are sick as well so we got to do some finding this past week which was good. We still haven't gotten in contact with Mark. We have been having Courtney start to teach us the lessons and it is going so well! We give her the pamphlet and she studies for it and then teaches us. This in turn brings up more questions from her and she is learning how to find things out through her own study. It has truly been amazing and it has shown to her that she knows a lot more then she thinks she knows. She is probably going to have to wait until she is 17 to be baptised but if she keeps this up then I have full confidence in her.
Bryan has been pretty sick lately but he is still progressing well. I think it is a combination of the seasons as well as the withdrawals from quitting smoking. He is still planning on being done by Christmas day and we are so excited for him! He has a real determination and it is so great to teach someone that is searching for the truth.
We also got Sister Wickham, who has been Less Active for a few years, to come to church this last Sunday which was really good. The ward showed her so much love and you could tell she was truly touched.
The ward also got us a huge package of gifts and we have 3 meal appointments and Christmas day and the day after so we are being treated like kings!! Haha. We had a mission Christmas party yesterday and it was so much fun!
Sorry this isn't a very long and elaborate email but I will see you in 2 days!! I love you so much and I hope that you have a good couple of days;)
Love
Elder Wilcox
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