Eighty-eighth Week - September 28, 2015

Hello, family and friends!! 

It's been quite the adjustment out here in the Baulkham Hills, but it's been one of the greatest learning experiences of my mission.  As I think of the work out here, I reflect on Elder Back and Elder Bradshaw who worked in my home ward back in San Francisco.  Hills, gated communities, and relatively few areas to street contact people depict both what they and I have or are experiencing.  The upside to all of this is that where those Elders only had bikes, I have a car!  Regardless of which, it's been a great learning experience to see the importance and power of working with members.  There is one experience in particular that I would like to share which highlights the aforementioned point.

On Sunday, as Elder Ezra and I were in the chapel greeting and talking with various individuals, I met Hadi.  Hadi is the friend of a recent convert named Farhad who was baptized in Melbourne and moved to Sydney only a matter of weeks ago.  Hadi walked into the chapel with a Book of Mormon in his hand. As Elder Ezra and I were talking with him, he told us that his friend Farhad had given him the book and that since then, he had been reading it.  He said that Farhad told him all about the church and since then he has given up smoking and drinking.  He continued by telling us of the power he has found in reading the Book of Mormon.  If that was not enough, he finished up by asking us the question all missionaries dream of being asked, "When can I be baptized?"  We told him of the five discussions we teach people before they are baptized and set an appointment to meet with him later tonight where we will teach him the first discussion. 

I hope from this each of us can see the power that we as members of the church can have by just inviting someone to read the Book of Mormon.  How grateful I am for Farhad in showing me that our gestures of inviting others to learn more of the church do not have to be big but can come from small and simple things such as inviting a friend to read something that has been so pivotal in our own lives. 

I hope you all enjoy General Conference this coming weekend.  I will be watching General Conference next weekend and look forward to what our modern Prophets and Apostles have to say to us.  These are men called and ordained of God.  I invite each of us to listen to their words and thank our Heavenly Father for the blessing it is to have a modern day Prophet.

Thank you all for your continued support. 

Love,

Elder Wilde