Monday, December 15, 2014

December 15, 2014 email:

Elder Hunter and I had a fantastic week!  We went on exchanges on Tuesday with the Cleveland Spanish Elders who live right by us and I was with Elder Resseler.  It was a lot of fun.  I was able to participate very little in lessons, but it was fun to hear Spanish and sit there haha.  I added in as much as I could and it was a wonderful experience.  That morning as we were saying our morning prayers Elder Resseler prayed that we would be able to find someone who is struggling and in need to hear our message.  I thought that was profound and added my faith to his knowing that God would provide as we opened up our mouths.  We went all the way to 6 without finding that person.  We decided to go out and do some tracting and the 2nd door we knocked on a 27 year old man opened the door.  He had a few tattoo's and looked a little rough, but was the nicest guy ever.  He immediately invited us in to teach them for 15-20 min.  We were able to share the Restoration and get to know him a little bit.  He just got out of prison and he had been in there for 8 years!  He told us that he is having to go to court again this week and he might be getting locked up again.  He expressed his desire to change, but also expressed how hard it is for him when he has all of these bad influences in his life.  We were able to teach the Restoration to his needs and the spirit was so strong.  After the lesson as we were walking away I leaned over to Elder Resseler and said, "Do you remember what you prayed for this morning?"  he then said, "I am not sure, why what's up?" I then explained how he had prayed that God would guide us to someone who is struggling and in need to hear our message.  The spirit was so strong.  I know that if we pray for God to place someone in our path each day that we can invite to hear the gospel everyday that God will provide that.  But, we have to act, we have to search for that person and talk to everyone about the great blessing that we have received.  It is unfair for us to hold on to a gift that we aren't even fit to receive.  God gives to us freely and expects us to give to his children freely.  I have a testimony of giving, as we give we have room to receive much more.  Never hold back when there is someone with a need and we have it.  We are taught in Mosiah it is a commandment to take care of the poor and the needy.  We are also taught in one of Christ's parables.  The parable of the Sheep and the Goat.  To the sheep he said I was an hungered and ye gave me meat, I was thirsty and ye gave me drink, I was a stranger and ye took me in, Naked and ye clothed me, I was sick and ye visited me, I was in prison and ye came unto me.  Then, the people said when have we done these things and Christ tells them that they did it to there fellow brothers and sisters and welcomed them into the Kingdom of God.  Christ then said to the goats the exact opposite and they weren't allowed into the Kingdom of God.  Therefore we know that we must give in order to receive.
  After Exchanges on Wednesday we had Christmas Conference down in Baytown.  All of the missionaries in the mission got together from 9 am- 5 pm.  It was really long.  We watched a movie called silent night, needless to say I won't be watching that movie ever again :).  As a district we sang silent night in front of everyone...  That was interesting.  Overall it was really good to see some friends and reminisce.  At the beginning the Mission Presidency gave talks and they were really good and I was able to learn much.  
  We were able to see Jamie this week and her and Marvin got into a little fight and it escalated and Jamie pretty much dropped us.  She wasn't mad at us and we weren't getting involved she just feels like being a Mormon is too hard.  And she feels that she doesn't have an answer from God to know that what we have shared with her is true.  It was disappointing, but I am sure that the Lord will continue to work on her.  KORINA is back!  She got back this Sunday and we will be seeing her today.  We are going to try and get her baptized soon.  She really struggled in Oklahoma.  She said that she wasn't happy because people were always arguing and that she didn't feel as good as she did as she was going to church and meeting with us.  Its amazing how living the Gospel makes us happy!  But, we are really excited to start working with her again.  
  We also had our Ward Christmas Party and it was the weirdest Christmas Party I have ever attended.  We had dinner and then sang a few carols and a member who is blind put together a display with 12 people for the song called 12 days til Christmas or something.  It was a jumbled mess haha.  People were all over the place and wearing weird things it was so funny.  But, it was a good experience.  It made me miss all of the Ward Christmas Parties we would go to as a family.  
  Elder Hunter and I just had a really good week and are hoe'in to the end of the roe!  I love yall and am excited to be reunited with yall again! Have a good week!
Elder Willden

Here is a funny little email exchange between Mom and Elder Willden: 
And yes I did get the PACKAGE! :)  Elder Hunter and I have really enjoyed the nerf guns haha

On Mon, Dec 15, 2014 at 10:57 AM, Chase Willden <cwillden@myldsmail.net> wrote:
haha mom you know me I am a clean person... Well now I am :)

On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 5:00 PM, Rhonda Willden <rkhonda@comcast.net> wrote:
You got a 10 on apartment clean checks!!!! I have been wanting to see that for 23 months!!!:)

 On Mon, Dec 15, 2014 at 12:26 PM, Chase Willden <cwillden@myldsmail.net> wrote:
Holy crap I forgot today was the 15th tell Kolton happy birthday for me and that I will give him his birthday spanks when I get home :)



Missionaries are still a little goofy.  Chase sent us pictures of what they drew on Elder Hunter's wrists to be festive: 




December 7, 2014 email: 

Elder Hunter and I had a really good week this week.  We were really busy!  We received a referral from mormon.org and her name was Janet.  We called her and she said that we could come see her right then.  We quickly drove up to her home to talk with her.  Turns out her sister is a recent convert and she is looking for something in her life.  We were able to teach her the restoration and the lesson went really well.  We will actually be going by tonight to meet with her and her husband at 7, so we will see how it all goes with them.  We also received a referral from a member that is a doctor and works here in cleveland for one of his clients wife.  Her name is Ashley.  Ashley's husband is a member and his whole family is as well.  Her in-laws recently started going to our ward due to some changes in boundaries and she is genuinely interested in learning more about our church.  We were able to ride with the member who referred her to us, to their home.  It was a long ride because they live way out at the east boundary line in a small city called Rye.  (when I was in Kountze our west boundary line was Rye) We had a really powerful restoration lesson with her and her husband after dinner (which there is another funny story with dinner) and her husband was all teary eyed.  It was a very good lesson overall.  We will be going back to see them on wednesday this week hopefully.  So, with the dinner thing.  Before we went to Ashley's home we didn't know we were going to have dinner and a member signed up for dinner that night, so we went to the members for dinner and it was really good and we ate so much and got stuffed.  Right when we got in the car with the doctor to go see Ashley he told us that we were lucky and that they were going to have dinner for us and yall should have seen Elder Hunter and I's faces.  When we got there I barely finished all my food and Elder Hunter was struggling haha.  I was just messing with him saying that he had to finish all the food on his plate and I was laughing so hard just watching him try to get it all down.  He wasn't able to finish but he did pretty good!  
  On wednesday we got a call from the AP's asking us if we would be will to go to the temple the next day at 6:30 am, because the day they scheduled us to go there would be too many missionaries and we wouldn't all fit.  So, we got up at 3:30 and got ready and took off for the temple.  It was awesome, but I was so tired after.  They held a meeting afterwards with the temple president again and we were able to have an open discussion about the symbolism in the temple it was really awesome, I learned so much.  We also had to go to a zone meeting this week and to the nativity.  At the Nativity on Saturday we had to be there at 3:00 pm and we left at 7:00 pm.  We had to stand at the door greeting people for 4 hours.  It felt like forever haha.  It was a really good experience though being able to meet all sorts of people.  
  And I found out that Alex from my last area got baptized yesterday!  It took long enough!  I was so happy for her and glad that I was able to be a little part in her conversion.  And turns out some other people that my companions and I worked with will be getting baptized as well.  I found out that Ken Jones had to go to the hospital this past week and is having a hard time.  Turns out the doctor told him that he would be better off health wise to not live the word of wisdom.  Hopefully he doesn't go back to his old habits.  But, he is a huge help in the church though.  He has been helping out with trying to find out where less actives are and information about them supposedly.  He is a solid guy and I hope everything works out for him.  
  Elder Hunter and I are doing great!  We love it here in Cleveland and are having fun!  Love yall and hope yall have a good week!
Elder Willden
Temple Trip to Houston this week.





Helped at a Nativity Christmas activity in Kingwood.

An old abandoned car wash.

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