The Temple is a Place of Peace

Dear Family,

Well we had another really good week here as always. This last Wednesday was really sweet because I got to go to the temple for the first time in like eight months. It was really cool and the whole time I got to sit next to our mission president and wow he really taught me a bunch of cool things. Temples are really such places of peace. Even though we woke up about 4 to get there it was worth it.

This last Sunday we ended up having 3 baptisms. We had the baptism of Luis Antonio. He is nine and had been going to church but had never actually gotten baptized. His mom doesn't live with them so it was good to see his feel love from all of the ward members. We also had the baptisms of Jose Daniel and Lili who are the husband and daughter of the lady who got baptized last weekend. It was very sweet and their son Jose Pablo who was the very first out of them all to go to church finally has gotten over his addiction to marijuana and is going to get baptized of Sunday! So that is going to be very exciting to see for their family.

This last week when his mom found out that he was smoking.. she locked him in his room with the word of wisdom phamplet and told him to read it until he had it memorized. It was seriously the funniest thing ever. It is incredible to see the changes of people. The first time we knocked on their doors the dad was just standing outside without a shirt with a bunch of beer cans by him.

On a positive note we found a giant family and had 15 investigators come to church on Sunday! It was so crazy because on Saturday we were there visiting them and right when we finally got everyone settled down in walked like 4 missionaries from another church and started handing out papers about how Mormons don't believe in Jesus...we didn't think they were going to end up coming but in the end they went to church.. Well I am very excited for Conference this weekend! Hope everyone is too. love you all.

Elder Wilkes

Virtue, An Attribute of Jesus Christ

Well we have gone through another week here in Antigua. The time is passing so quickly that I can not even believe it.

This last weekend we did have 1 baptism. It was Janet Cardona. She is really amazing. we only found her 3 weeks ago and was baptized as quickly as possible. Her daughter and husband are preparing to be baptized this Sunday! So that is going to be really exciting. her other son, Jose Pablo was going to get baptized but was having problems with the word of wisdom. He got so sad because he could not get baptized in the end. He actually kind of ran away... so pray that we can find him! Also this last weekend we had a really cool miracle on Saturday. We were driving home from our meeting with the ward mission leader and he told us about a family of members that live in our area. The live like in the mountain not even close to anyone else. Anyways we felt like we should go visit them and we went and they have a kid who is 9 who never got baptized but has been going to church like every week. So he is also going to get baptized this weekend.. I really know that god wants us to have success here and is we are worthy of what he has planned he will give it to us.

Anyways we got a few new rules as a mission to be able to raise the mission to the next level... it really makes me think of the level that the prophets and apostles live on. one thing that i have noticed here is just how sad the world is. really how strong people are here to live and to be faithful in the church. I know that virtue is the hardest attribute of Christ to obtain but it also it one of the most important things in our life. What do we do as members of the church that makes us have more virtue?

Love you all,
Elder Wilkes

The Most Important Thing is Faith

Well it was another good week here in Guatemala. I was looking at all these pictures today and wow i don't even recognize anyone anymore. Ward looks like a full grown man so that was very interesting to see. We had a crazy week last week as usual.

Anyways we did not have any baptisms this past week.  The young man that we were going to baptize decided to wait and get baptized with his parents this weekend. So this weekend we are preparing a family of 4 for baptisms. They are a family of 4 that are neighbors with our converts.

On a cool note all of the converts went to the temple this past Saturday. Three of the families that we have recently baptized all went and the work is working very hard with them to prepare for the temple in one year. What should happen is that in my last month all of the 3 families are going to get sealed in the temple. Many on the converts gave their testimonies on Sunday and just cried. They really are so humble in temporal circumstances that they never even imagined going to a building so beautiful.

Well I really have no idea what to say.. I was thinking lately with my companion about what a missionary really needs to have to be able to have success. Really the most important thing is faith. I think that sometimes as members of the church we doubt or question to many things. But really the one thing that i have learned on my mission is that with faith all things are possible. Love you all. Have a great week!

Elder Wilkes

P.S. Que Dios les bendiga. Elder Gallacher quiere que todos sepan.

The Power of the Spirit

Dear Family,

Well this last week everyone we had changes! My new comps name is Elder Gallacher. He is from Sandy and went to Brighton High School. We entered into the CCM together. We were really good friends.. so it was a very exciting change. I am so excited for these next weeks.

Anyways this last week in Guatemala was elections for president.. lets jsut say that things have been kind of crazy. On sunday night a bunch of protestors lit a bunch of tires on fire in our area..also broke into the school where the voting took place and lit all of the tickets on fire hahha so in my city nobody won for mayor. or we still dont know..

But on the bright side we did have so sweet experiences last week:

The best thing that happened to me last week was a way cool experience we had the afternoon after changes.. We were walking down the street to a second visit of a family that we found. on our way the spirit told me not to go there. I was confused because this was a super positive family. Then I remember this door I knocked a few weeks ago. Anyways we were told to go there and we did. and we found a man who was drinking named juan carlos. anyways we had a powerful visit with him and then he came to church on Sunday. It is incredible how the spirit can guide us in every single moment.

Also on saturday the same thing happend. There is a boy named Juan Pablo who has been coming to church with his neighbors. He is 17 and really has no direction in his life. Anyways he is going to get baptized on Sunday. This last saturday we went to visit his parents and we had such a powerful visit with them. Anyways they ended up going to church on sunday and also are very interested in baptism. I love the gospel and the power of the spirit.

Do we really enjoy the spirit like we shoudl everyday?

Love you Ball hard
Elder Wilkes

A Run Down of Last Week

Dear Family,

Well it is another week here in the internet. These are really the hardest 75 mintues to stay awake in the whole world..

Anyways we have changes tomorrow. My companion Elder Stewart is going to leave. Also Elder Thomas is going to leave and get a real trainer. I am very thnakful for everything that I learned from them.

Well here is a little run down of last week:

Monday:  Well we got special permission from president to leave the zone. We went to like the best mall here that is like 30 minutes from us. Anyways pretty much consisited of us eating Taco Bell. Elder Stewart bought new shoes and then we went home and we cleaned the house.

Tuesday: We had a pretty normal day.. we found 3 new investigators and we did divisones with a kid from Mexico...he was super hilarious and we had an all around great day. For lunch we ate subway. there are only 2 in the whole mission.

Wednesday: We had a good day. We did get in a fight as comps so the spirit was not really with us from like 2 to 5. On the bright side I gave a drunk guy the pen of Elder Thomas.

Thursday: We had a good day and we did weekly planning which is the longest 2 hours all week.

Friday: We had a conference on the tv with President Nelson. The conference with him got canceled because elections here are on Sunday and things are getting pretty crazy.. so we watched it and it was so inspired. I was receiveing a ton of revelation and then the transmition got cut off so that was a bummer.

Saturday: We had to go sign new house contracts and we had to do a ton of surpirse baptismal interviews. The buses stopped and we had to call a member to come get us and we didnt get home till like 10 so we had to call president..

Sunday: We had a good baptismal service with 10 people, as a zone. I have some good pictures but I forgot my camera... President Markham baptized a family of 4 so that was really cool.. we stayed up really late working on dats. We cant sleep on Sunday until we finished..

Yesterday the highlight of the day was playing street soccer with a plastic ball... Elder Stewart and I beat Elder Thomas and our convert Nilson 17 to 3...

Well that's about a recap of everything. I love you all. Have a good week.

Elder Wilkes