Golondrinas, Escunitla

Well I am going to be honest at this point my mind goes blank when I email so I really don't have much to say. Here I am in the area of Golondrinas in the zone of Escunitla. I am still a zone leader and things are going well. I moved from the mountains of the country to the coast and holy cow let me just say that it IS SO HOT HERE. I really have never felt heat like this. But it is a very blessed place.

My new companion is Elder Smith from California. He is a great kid and has a little bit less time than I do in the mission. On Sunday I gave a talk. It was pretty funny because they didn't really tell me beforehand...I was the last speaker and when I got up there we still had 25 minutes left. I made it for about 13 minutes and then I was out of words. Haha.

Leaving my old area was hard. It was actually just incredible to see the fruits of our work after 6 months of being there. We have a few families that are half-way to their goal of the temple so hopefully about the time when I am finishing they should be going to get sealed. That is really my dream. Well I love you all. I hope that everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving. I am will make sure to eat something good as well.

Elder Wilkes

Milpas Altas

Well I have a lot of emails today so just a warning this is going to be super short. Anyways this last week I did receive a visit and it was a good reminder of home. I think what I realized the most is that everything at home is basically the same the only thing that is different is me. I just have a little bit different of a mentality.

Anyways back to real missionary life things...this last weekend we had 3 baptisms. We baptized a family that were really, really prepared for the gospel. It was really such a sweet experience to finish in this area with a new family to help the work keep growing in Milpas Altas. Someday I know that I will return to this area and find a church and a strong ward here. Anyways other than that life is good as usual. Love you all.

Elder Wilkes

The Kind of Things That Get Me Pumped Up

Well this last week we had a really good week here. I forgot to say that I was writing today because tomorrow for our zone P-day we are going to the zoo. That was seriously the last thing that I wanted to do....but we have a zone that is half sisters so they kind of get mad if we just chose to play soccer. But anyway I am sure that it will be fun.

Well we had a really good day on Sunday. This week at the beginning of the week me and Elder Gallacher decided that we were going to have 8 people in church and 8 people preparing for baptism. Anyways we worked for those 2 goals this entire week and then on Sunday when we were in church we only had 7 people. But the whole time I could feel that really there was someone else there that was not a member. I knew that someone would be prepared for us. Anyways when we were just about to leave church on Sunday when the 2nd counselor in the bishopric came and pulled aside and presented a wife of a man who is member. They have gone pretty inactive...but then just showed up to church on Sunday. Anyways that was a cool miracle and today we are going to go visit them at 5.

Yesterday we had a meeting with all of the stake leaders and the missionaries and our mission President.. we put in a bunch of new plans and things that we are going to do so that we can see more success and that we can grow faster here. Really it's funny these days that those are the kind of things that really just get me pumped up.

Anyways we have changes next week and I am pretty sure that I am leaving my area... I get emotional even thinking about that. It's crazy how much you can grow to love certain people. Well I love you all.

Elder Wilkes

Here is a picture i took outside of our house today.