Elder Hunter and I had a really awesome week and sad week.  I will start with the sad and get it over with.  We were able to meet with Thomas and we had an awesome lesson and he solidly committed to come to church.  On Sunday we were waiting for him and he never showed up so we texted him at the beginning of church asking him where he was and to make sure he was okay.  He texted us back saying that he was getting dressed this morning and ready to go when he received the answer that Joseph Smith was a false prophet and that he will be discontinuing our meetings, but he is going to continue reading the Book of Mormon to make sure that was the right answer.  Hopefully he will come along sometime in the future.  A member that we took with us to see him (Brother Parente) asked to have his phone number so he could call him.  Brother Parente called him and bore his testimony about the Book of Mormon and what we as missionaries shared with him and invited him to listen to the missionaries again.  Hopefully something works out with that.  We were just really sad to lose him.  Satan works in mysterious ways, but we are sure he will come around sometime.

  Now for the good news!  We went by and saw Korina on Friday night and she told us that she wants to start attending our church again and be a part of it.  Because she has been going and visiting other churches and she said that it just doesn't feel the same as when she comes to ours, she just feels good!  We are now going to continue our teaching with her and if she stays in town next month (She might be going to Oklahoma with her mom for a month) she will be baptized on the 20th of December.  She came to church on Sunday and is progressing very well.  It is amazing how the Gospel just makes you happy! 

 We are meeting with Jamie again.  She is so excited for a hopeful baptismal date on the 20th of December.  She is doing a lot better though, she didn't come to church this week because on Saturday night her daughter that she never gets to see was given permission to sleep over at her house and Jamie wanted to spend as much time with her as she could and they decided that they would just wait for next week to come to church.  So I will keep y'all updated on her!

  We were able to see Mathew as well this week and he is doing okay.  He expressed to us that he is so grateful that we were the missionaries that came by at this time and that we have helped him so much.  Hopefully we can continue to help him.  He said he was going to be at church today and never showed up so hopefully everything is alright with him.  We will see him again sometime this week and I will let y'all know what happened.  He is really smart though and just soaks up everything we teach him like a sponge.  He keeps telling us that he used to avoid Mormons and he would act like he wasn't home when we knocked on the door, but now he say's that we are ahead of the times.  Like we have so much knowledge and he just wants to learn more and more.  It's amazing how there is no limit to how much you can learn when it comes to the Restored Gospel.  

  We also had an awesome miracle this week!  We were going through some Former Investigators in our area book and found some people we wanted to try.  As we were going by and trying them there was a particular one that we knocked on the door and it was an older couple.  They told us that they had just moved in and that the people we were looking for just moved out.  They invited us in though and we had an awesome Gospel discussion.  We taught the Restoration in a format that I have never taught it in.  We started talking about Joseph Smith then it morphed into how God calls prophets and the how God loves us and we are his spirit children then to how Jesus Christ established a church and then to the Book of Mormon.  They were totally open and wanted to learn more.  A lot of their beliefs lined up exactly with what we believe.  We invited them to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and also to read the Restoration Pamphlet.  They also expressed to us during our conversation that they were looking for a church because they just moved in, so we invited them to ours they said they would come when they can, but they couldn't come this week due to having Grand Children coming over.  We are really excited to work with them and we will be seeing them tonight with one of our members.  

  Elder Hunter and I are doing really well.  We working hard and having fun like usual.  I love y'all and hope that y'all have an awesome week!

Elder Willden

It is officially cold here.  It got way down in the 30's this past week brrrrrr.  Love you Mom!

Elder Hunter and I had a fantastic week this week!  We are having a good time going out and working and having fun together.  We were able to add a little bit to our teaching pool this week and missionary work here is moving forward.  We were able to teach Thomas Smith again this week and we invited him to be baptized and he willfully accepted the invitation.  He has been keeping his commitments and you can tell that he is a sincere seeker of the truth.  While we are able to discuss the gospel his eyes get all teary because of his solid testimony of the Savior.  He didn't live the best lifestyle throughout his life and has found the Savior and has gained a testimony of the happiness it brings to follow his teachings.  We were able to teach him the Plan of Salvation, the most profound message we have to bring to the world.  It was a very spiritual lesson and I was uplifted and edified from it as I think everyone who was there was.  We will be going back to see him tomorrow and will be following up with the commitments we have left in the last lesson as well as the baptismal date that we invited him to.  

  I was able to read a talk this week by David A. Bednar titled Bear Up Their Burdens With Ease.  It is a powerful talk and I learned something I personally thought was profound from it.  In his talk he talked about our own personal loads and how they help us to return to our Heavenly Father.  He then talked about Amulon and how he persecuted Alma and his people.  Alma and his people had done nothing wrong, yet they had been taken captive and placed very heavy burdens upon them.  He then talked about how we should pray for Help and Strength through our trials and yoke ourselves to the Savior so our burdens can be made light (not taken away).  We should not be praying for Heavenly Father to just take away our trials, because if we don't bear our own burdens and face them then we become agents that are acted upon, instead of agents that act.  I found that very profound that as we pray for the Father to strengthen us and comfort us that he will, and we will be able to overcome our problems and challenges.

  We were able to see Mathew this week and we set a return appointment and then he just disappeared.  We are worried about him because he doesn't live the best lifestyle and we aren't sure what happened to him.  Hopefully all is well and he just went out of town for a while.  We were also able to teach a lady named Jamie.  She was a Media Referral like Thomas.  Her husband is a member and was recently converted and she wasn't baptized because she is still smoking.  They recently moved down here from New York and she is really struggling.  We were able to teach them about the importance of scripture study and talked about baptism and she wants to get baptized so we will work on getting her there.  We were informed this Sunday that she was taken off to the Hospital for some psychiatric problems and hopefully she will be back soon so we can continue teaching her. 

  We were also able to teach a lady named Dena.  On Sunday we went by to see if her son was there because he had met with missionaries before and she was there and we started talking to her and she expressed a desire to go to church and to learn more and we invited her to listen to our message as she willingly accepted.  We were then able to teach her the Restoration and the lesson went great!  I personally feel that, that lesson was the best lesson Elder Hunter and I have taught yet!  The spirit was really strong as we were able to testify of the Restored Gospel on the Earth today.  I love how the Restoration flows and how it is so simple and easy to understand the importance of it and we talk about Christ's Church, the falling away, and the bringing back of it.  After the lesson we gave her our classic invitations and also invited her to read 3 Nephi 11.  We will also be going back to see her this Saturday and hopefully her husband will be there so we will be able to teach them as a family.

  I love y'all and hope y'all had a fantastic week as I did :D.  Have a great week this week and be safe!

Elder Willden

This is an old picture from Channel View, TX.  The fire chief let them play in his firetruck.

"Elder Hunter and I got some glasses to look professional so people will listen to us haha."

Elder Hunter and I had a fantastic week this week!  We had an experience yesterday that I will never forget.  We were going to teach Mathew and he lives fairly close to our apartment so we decided to walk over to his trailer and talk to anyone we saw on the way.  As we were walking there was an older guy on his front porch smoking a cigarette.  He was wearing an Alabama hat so we had an immediate conversation starter.  We began talking about Alabama how he has family there and I have family there as well.  The conversation morphed into what we share as missionaries.  As we were talking about prophets we then asked him the question, "If there was a guy on the earth right now like Moses would that be important to you?"  He immediately answered back, "Are yall Mormon?" We said yes and he told us that he doesn't believe in the Mormons.  We then asked him what he doesn't believe about us and he could only say I don't believe in the Mormons.  I was shocked at how someone could not know anything about our message and say that he doesn't believe in that.  As I reflected on it, I thought about it on the flip side, How many of us say I am a Mormon and don't know hardly anything about what we believe.  Back at home I had a very limited knowledge of what I believed.  I didn't know what the difference was from a Jehovah's Witness and a Catholic.  I didn't even know what the Restoration was.  I had seen the 20 min. movie, but I could not explain it.  I only knew the very simple and basics of what we are taught in church.  The reason for that is because I was not studying my scriptures daily and prayerfully.  I was crippled by my own lack of diligence.  It is so important that we don't cripple ourselves by allowing meaningless things to take up our time so that we don't allow the scriptures to be a part of our lives.  I love the scriptures, like Nephi I delight in them.  As I read I am uplifted and edified.  After reading my scriptures everyday I just feel happy.  Scriptures are the medicine for happiness as we apply the principals into our lives.  I know that as we read the scriptures that we can be free of the chains of the adversary and we will not be crippled.  When someone asks you what you believe your mouth will be filled and the spirit will testify to your words.  I invite everyone reading this email to make a personal commitment to start reading the scriptures daily and if you already are then to continue that pattern. 

  We were able to see Mathew a few times this week.  He is doing okay.  He has the mouth of a sailor, but we are going to work with him on that.  We are going to have to work pretty hard on him to get him ready, but he will get there.  We were teaching him about the Plan of Salvation and he was just loving it!  He loves the idea of the three different Kingdoms of Glory.  We also were talking about the importance of living what we know and why we can't just live in sin.  It was an interesting lesson, but a good one at that.

  We had an awesome miracle this week as well!  We received a Media Referral which comes from Salt Lake that some missionaries had ran into a guy that seemed really interested.  We went over to meet him, his name is Thomas.  As we pulled up to his house he was outside working on his yard.  We began talking to him and he was a really nice guy.  He asked us if we had a Book of Mormon that he could have to read.  We quickly gave him the one in our hand.  He was so grateful.  It was like we gave him the most precious gift anyone could give.  After we set up an appointment to come by on Saturday and left.  We went back and taught him the Restoration.  It was very spiritual and he just soaked all of it up.  After we asked him a question he told us that he has just been looking for truth and that's all he cares about.  He could care less what religion it is he is just looking for the truth.  We are very excited to continue to work with him.  

  We were also able to meet with Bino this week.  He didn't read what we committed him to so we read with him.  We talked about the Book of Mormon and about the importance of church.  It was a good lesson and we will be seeing him sometime this week and hopefully we can get him to church.  

  We also had stake conference this week.  They called a new Stake President and a new Counselor.  It was awesome.  There were two Seventies there and they both were able to speak.  One of them was Brother Corbridge.  He wrote a famous talk amongst missionaries called The Fourth Missionary.  It was a good conference and we all came away uplifted and edified.  We didn't have any of our investigators there because none of them wanted to drive from Cleveland to Kingwood to go to church.  

  I hope yall have a good week and have a good start to the Holidays:)

Elder Willden

These are pics of Elder Willden's and Elder Hunter's Halloween pumpkin carving this year:

This was an inside joke.  Every time Elder Hunter calls me dude I look over to the side and talk to my imaginary friend John and say, "Did you hear something John?  I think I did too."  

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This letter came today from Chase's previous companion.  Of course, I cried:)


Hey Mom!!!!!

How are you doing?! I feel as if I haven't heard from you, it's been a while. Especially since Chase is no longer my companion but you know what?! He's still my brother and I love him! 

I want to thank you for the amazing birthday package I received last month. I shared it with the entire zone! You must forgive me for thanking you so late. I'm slowly getting out of the habit of procrastinating. hehehe I promise that I don't do the same with missionary work! =)

Chase and I had our last(Hopefully not, because there are still two other young adults that we've thought together that will eventually be baptized.) celebration as Carisil Lumapas shared he testimony at her baptismal service. The spirit was so strong and so many non-members were there which is great!

I don't know if Chase told you but I get super anxious, stressed, and nervous, when planning an event because I want everything to go perfectly according to plan. hahaha It turned out to be amazing!

I know for a fact that last night Chase and I were reminded to cherish forever the experiences we've had while serving the YSA branch! We were surrounded by so many people we loved.

Thank you so much mom for everything you've done and do for us! I love you! Elder Sully Guerrier =)   

Happy Birthday BAILEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   You are officially 18 olds!  And thank you mom for the money I would be starving without you :D

PICTURES AT CARISIL'S BAPTISM ON OCTOBER 18, 2014:

I am now in Cleveland, Texas.  It is just like Kountze.  We are basically in the middle of nowhere.  We drive a truck and there are a lot of humble country people.  My new companion is Elder Hunter.  He is from Provo, Utah and has been out for 1 week in the field now!  It has been crazy trying to get to know the area and go out and meet people.  It puts being outgoing to the next level!  From what he was telling me, Brandon Davies from the BYU Basketball team grew up for some of his life in his home.  Elder Hunter graduated this year and he played soccer throughout all of his high school career.  He is a good, hard working missionary and we will have a good two transfers together!  

When we first got here to Cleveland we were so lost!  The GPS was a life saver and even with it, it is not always correct.  But, we managed to make it through the week and meet a lot of people.  Don't ask me what their names were again because I couldn't tell you, but that will come over time.  On Wednesday we were able to meet our ward mission leader.  He lives way out in the middle of nowhere and has a lot of land.  His name is Brother Roberts.  He went to BYU and was very good at shotputting and supposedly holds a record there and here in Cleveland.  Everyone knows him and respects him; so he is a great tool for missionary work.  But, while we were there he gave us some of the wild hog jerky that he had from one of the pigs he decided to shoot cause it was in his yard either this week or last week.  It was okay, but at least I can say I have had wild hog now!  All the people in the ward on Sunday warned us that you never know what you are going to eat when you go to the Roberts; so I am excited to have a meal with them this week!

  As Elder Hunter and I were going to throw away all of the junk mail that we receive every week we stopped and talked to a girl on the way.  She asked us a question she said, "Why do people hate Mormons so much?"  We were then able to answer her question by teaching her the Joseph Smith Story.  It was really awesome and she was really interested in learning more, so we set up an appointment for the following day.  We went back by and were able to teach her the Restoration in its entirety and it was a great lesson we then committed her to read 3 Nephi 11, be baptized, and to come to church.  It took a while to get her to commit to it, but we were able to.  By the way her name it Korina.  Later that day we received a text from her saying that she was able to understand it and that it was really good!  Then, Sunday she came to church and really enjoyed it.  After church we read the introduction to the Book of Mormon with her and part of 1 Nephi 1.  She is progressing so fast!  Now I will tell you the back story on her.  She is from Oklahoma.  Her mom brought her down to Houston to live with her mom's boyfriend.  It didn't work out and her mom went back to Oklahoma while Korina just stayed here with her Aunt and Uncle that she doesn't really know.  She is only 16 and she just sits at home everyday and isn't really doing anything with her life at the moment.  But, the Gospel will help with that.  We were also able to commit her to be baptized on 15th of November, so we will see how it all works out.

  Other than that, we haven't really had many people to teach because the Elders just baptized the few people they were teaching; so we are working on building up a teaching pool which should be easy to do considering the fact that there are a lot of nice people here that are willing to spend a few minutes to learn about Jesus Christ.  We also met another guy this week who came to church, but wasn't interested in taking the lessons.  His name is Ronnie.  He is an older guy and this guy loves Jesus.  He invited us into his home and I have never seen more crosses on a wall than this guy had.  His house was kind of a mess though and he offered us some water so we took it.  We watched him take out the ice with his hands that were all grimy and set it on his semi-clean counter then proceeded to grab the cups and set held them at the side of the counter while he moved the ice over the semi-clean counter into the cup.  It was sick!!!!  And, he filled them up with water and handed them to us.  Both of us only took one sip haha.  I couldn't take it!!!!  But, we had a good conversation about Jesus then he tried to show us that we can't have anymore of God's word (about the Book of Mormon), but also tried to say that we could receive revelation.  It was really frustrating because he didn't even know what he was talking about so we couldn't have a good conversation about the scriptures.  Then, he told us that he wasn't interested in learning more, but would come to church and we just closed with a prayer and left.  Its interesting because after this was when we talked to Korina.  He actually showed up to church though and said that he enjoyed it.  He was an interesting guy.

Overall I am doing great.  I love this area and I love this ward!  The ward is amazing!  They are so loving and caring and they look to help the missionaries.  I love y'all and hope that Bailee has a fantastic Birthday week!  And that we all have a fun safe week!  Love y'all!

Elder Willden

Sorry for the late email.  We have been busy trying to say goodbye to everyone we need to.  Obviously from that you know that I am getting transferred.  This is going to be the hardest move for me yet.  I love this place and all of the people I have been able to meet.  They are simply amazing.  Just before we came to email we were at the Stewart's house (The Patriarch and his wife) and they gave us some cake and ice cream and then they gave me a Texas Belt Buckle as a departure gift.  They have had a profound affect on my life and I will always remember them and all they have taught me.

  This week has been a good week though.  Carisil wasn't able to be baptized this Sunday because she had to work and Warren was going to be out of town (the person baptizing her).  So, she will be baptized this week.  We were going through the baptismal questions with her this past week and she answered those questions the best that I have ever heard them answered.  She knows the doctrine and she lives what she knows.  Now here is the bad thing.  This transfer they are taking YSA out of our area and moving it to another set of missionaries.  Therefore neither Elder Sully and I will be the missionaries working with her the rest of the week.  But, we will both be at her baptism.  I was pretty mad about that when I first heard it, but I am dealing with it.  All will go well and she will be baptized and continue on in the church.  She was saying that she is planning on going to BYU Provo or Idaho in January so I am sure some how or another y'all will be able to meet her.  

  Ken Jones is still doing well.  He and his wife fed us dinner yesterday and it was really good!  We were also able to talk to his wife about the church.  It was awesome!  She has been researching the church and has loved what she has found.  We talked about the church welfare system and many other programs of the church.  Then we started talking about Joseph Smith because she had seen the Joseph Smith Movie.  And, it evolved to the Golden Plates and how we got the Book of Mormon and we were able to read many powerful passages out of the Book of Mormon with her that describe what it is all about.  Like 2 Nephi 25:26, Mosiah 3, and etc...  It was just a great conversation and hopefully now the Elders will start to work with her and she will get baptized in the near future.  Ken Jones continues to read his scriptures and progress though.  

  Jamie and Andy didn't make it to Stake Conference this week.  They said they didn't have enough gas and that they are trying to make it last because they don't have any money for a few days until he receives his pay check.  They did say that they are excited for Sunday next week to take the sacrament and etc...  But, they have been reading a lot lately, they are in Alma 2.  I hope all goes well with them and that they will continue to read their scriptures and go to church and pray to our Father in Heaven and I know that if they do, they will become some of the leaders in the church.  They have good hearts and bright minds and as they develop their talents and skills, I think that their children will follow their example and that their kids will be a light and beacon to those around them of the Restored Gospel. 

  We were able to teach Alex this week as well and she is doing fantastic!  She prayed about if she needs to be baptized or not and received the answer that she needs to.  We committed her to get baptized two weeks from this last Sunday, so hopefully the new Elders will be able to carry that out.  It is amazing how if you ask a specific question to God with real intent having faith that you will receive that....every time you will receive an answer.

  Overall everything is doing great here in Channel View and will continue as Elder Sully carries on the work here.  I really love this area and all of the people in it!  I love my mission and everything I have learned, and I love y'all!

Elder Willden

Elder Sully and Willden at Zone Conference

Some of the Zone missionaries at Conference

Elder Willden, Debra and Berlinda

Elder Willden and the Webb Family

Elder Willden, Warren and Carisil

General Conference was LEGIT!  I really enjoyed all of it!  I packed up all of my notes that I took during conference in an envelope and  will be sending them to y'all.  I really loved all of it.  One of the ones that stuck out to me was by Lynn Robbins.  I love how he explained that we need to stand for what we believe and never give into peer pressure.  And, I loved how blunt D. Todd Christofferson was when he explained that truth is truth!  Overall, I was spiritually filled and it was an awesome conference!

  We have been working with Carisil a lot for the past week.  Carisil will be getting baptized this Sunday!  We were having a lesson with her and she exclaimed that she didn't feel like she was ready to be baptized.  As we asked some more questions and read a few scriptures she told us that she didn't feel worthy of being baptized right now.  We then asked her the question, "Would God want you to feel that you are unworthy or tell you that you are unworthy?" She then replied as expected, "no"  we then added the following question, "Then who would put that into your mind or want you to feel that way?" then a moment of silence passed by with tears and she replied, "Satan"  we again sat in silence for a few seconds as tears continued to flow.  We then told her that as we make good steps in our lives Satan will do everything he can to pull us down, we need to blot his voice out and listen to the encouraging voice of the Spirit.  It was awesome!  We then re-invited her to be baptized on the 12th of October and she said yes.  We are super excited for this baptism!  Thank you for all of your prayers in her behalf and the prayers for my companion and I, so that we could have the Spirit in order to teach.  

  Erika still has yet to talk to her parents.  We think because her parents are very strict she is afraid to bring anything up to them.  We recommitted her to talk to them and it was a solid commitment so we will see if she kept it sometime this week.  But, she continues to read and pray and keep all of the commitments that we leave.  

  Ken Jones gave us a call today and told us that the Spirit told him that we were hungry and needed some food, so he made us some sandwiches.  We were able to go over to his house before we came to email and eat them with him.  He used to work at a sandwich shop and those sandwiches were like professionally made.  We sat down and talked for a bit and he showed us some of his Kung Fu stuff haha.  We were also able to talk about General Conference, because he had watched all of the sessions.  He really enjoyed it and it was fun to talk about all of the different things that we learned.  Ken is a character and I love the guy.  He calls us his sons :) haha.  

  We haven't been able to see Jamie and Andy too often this week.  They are doing well though from what we know.  They still struggle, but the Lord always strengthens them.  I can't wait until they are able to be sealed in the temple!  That will be a special moment.  And I will most definitely be coming out here to Texas for that occasion:).  

  It was a great week!  All is going well in Summerwood!  We are going to be going to MLC on Tuesday and will be doing Zone Meeting on Friday in the meantime we will also be planning a baptism.  Our schedule is packed!  But, we like it that way.  The mission is the best thing ever!  Also, President and Sister Drake are doing just great as far as I know.  They seem to have everything down now and are driving and influencing the mission for good.  I LOVE Y'ALL!

Elder Willden