August 2017 All At Once

Taking a break during a tough day! 

  Decisions, decisions!

August was a very different month for Elder Wilcox.  He was assigned to work in the Monterrey Mission Office and he is very busy. Emails have gotten much shorter and come on random days and at random times when he has a few minutes to check in.  Here is a recap of August 2017.

The first part of August Elder Wilcox was working very hard. His emails are typically very short and this is what he wrote on August 7, 2017.

Yesterday we ate with a family and they have a returned missionary.  She was sharing her testimony with us and it was really awesome. It just reminded me why I’m here, to bring souls unto Christ and that is my purpose for this two years. The problems with my companion this transfer caused me to lose focus of that. So I decided I’m going to try to focus on the people here and what they need. 

He was very happy to learn that he was being transferred to an extremely wealthy area of Monterrey called Zona Roma. His new companion was Elder Privera from Costa Rica, who spoke English. He was sad to leave the Mitras Zone because he had started to develop relationships with the people there. He felt they were just starting to trust him.  But he was also going to be senior companion this transfer so he was looking forward to that.  Elder Wilcox was transferred to Roma on August 8^th.  But on August 10^th he and his companion had dinner with some members of his new ward.  He said their home was a mansion and he was surprised at the amount of wealth that surrounded him. He had never been in a house that big, with servants and such. This is what he told us:

 My area in Campestre was super rich. I ate dinner in a freakin’ mansion. It was so crazy, every house was really nice. The little I worked there was very hard, but we had some cool people in our ward.

Shortly after that dinner on August 10, Elder Wilcox received a phone call from his mission President informing him that he would be doing a “cambios chicos” (basically a quick change) and he needed to report to the mission office first thing in the morning.  Elder Wilcox was being assigned to work there. One of the Elders who had been working in the mission office had become ill and unfortunately needed to go home rather suddenly.  Elder Wilcox has now been assigned to serve as the Secretary of Materials for the Monterrey West Mission.

Just like when he is doing regular mission work, he was also assigned a new companion.  Elder Figuero is from Morelos, Mexico and is 19 years old.  He lives in a very nice home with the other missionaries who work in the mission office. Elder Wilcox said this:

My new house is super big. All the mission secretaries live in it along with the Assistants to the Mission President. It’s a really, really nice house, and super modern. I will take pictures.

We still haven’t received any pictures.  Elder Wilcox is very excited to be in the mission office. He said there is a lot to learn and his days just fly by because he has so much to do.  The best part is being inside for most of the day because the summer weather in Monterrey has been awful.

On August 14^th he wrote:

The weather has been really weird. Like for a couple of days, it will rain, and then it will be super hot. Today it is 37° Celsius (that's almost 100° Fahrenheit) with 80 percent humidity, so it’s been really hot and sticky.

Even though Elder Wilcox is working in the office, he and his companion still do regular missionary work.  But it is challenging to find a balance. 

On August 21^st he described what working in the mission office is like:

I am learning to work in MS Excel, so that has been challenging.  There is also a lot of stuff to remember, but I’m kinda of settling in and working things out.  I order all of the pamphlets, pass along cards, Books of Mormon, and just every bit of materials that we use for the mission.  I also help prep for Zone Conferences and the activities that happen so that keeps us really busy too. 

Different things happen all the time. This week we have an Elder with us who has bronchitis, I’m really not sure why he’s here, but he can’t be in the sun so we have not been able to go out and do actual missionary work in our area.

A typical day is - we usually get to the office at 8:30 ish. We start working, doing office things (ha! it just depends on what needs to be done). At around 2PM we usually go have food at a Church member’s house. Then we normally leave from the member’s house and go work in the mission field.  But like I said, because of this sick Elder staying with us, right now we can’t go out. So we just come back to the offices after we eat and just kinda do random stuff. I have been using this time to study the language and work on the computer learning how to do this new job. Nothing super big has happened this week. just trying to settle in here and figure out how everything works. It’s cool, but I just feel like I’m always forgetting something hahaha, but what else is new?

Like I said, there is a lot of stuff to do here and it kind of goes by which week we are in for missionary changes. So some of the stuff I have to do is more like prep work for something that will happen in the future. For example, I have to put together sets of bed covers and pillows for new missionaries who are coming to the mission.  They won’t be here until September 18^th, but I have to make sure we have everything we need and it is ready when they arrive.

August was a sad time for our family.  On August 17th our beloved sister-in-law, Brett’s Aunty Christine, lost her battle with cancer.  We emailed Brett’s Mission President and his wife asking them to break the news to Brett personally.  President McArthur was so very kind and allowed Brett to call home. It was great to hear his voice and share our memories of Christine.  During that phone call, we learned more about his new assignment.  Not only is Elder Wilcox responsible for ordering materials, he also has to manage the large inventory of items needed to help the mission function. When he has time to get away from his desk, he has taken the initiative to reorganize closets and other storage spaces.  He is gaining some fantastic professional experience right now.  While we spoke he bore a beautiful testimony about our Savior, the Lord’s plan for each of us and how he knows that we will see Christine again.  This young man has grown so much and we are so proud of him!   

July 31, 2017 Sex In Parks - What?

July 31, 2017

I don't really have a lot of questions for you this week.  Please just tell me about your week. 

This week we had a baptism on Sunday. Then on Tuesday we went over to the house of the girls we baptized and they made us homemade compichanas. They are tacos with meat of trompo (al pastor) and just regular bistec (steak). And they were super good!

One funny story that happened, we were talking to this girl who we are teaching and we had to teach the law of chastity. For some reason, she asked me if there are people that have sex in parks in the US like they do here in Mexico, and I said, of course, there are, there are always people doing dumb things. Then she asked me if that has happened to me specifically. BUT I didn’t catch the part where she said just me. I thought she just asked it again. SO I said, of course, it happens...... basically I said I had sex in a park lol, but I didn’t realize what I had said until after I left. So the next time we went to teach her I had to tell her that I didn’t understand! Hahahaha whoops. I don’t really get embarrassed anymore ha-ha I just think it’s funny.

Today we got to go paintballing again! and it was so much fun! But it was super, super hot though. Even still it was super fun. It was way better than the place we went to in Nuevo Laredo. This one was a legit paintballing place. I got to shoot my comp today with a paintball gun. lol it was really fun for me idk about him. but I enjoyed it

Today we also had a stake meeting on how we need to have people living within the boundaries of the ward go to that ward and it was kind of a mess. They tried to show us a way to look up houses on lds.org but it didn’t really work and then the point of it was kind of lost. But it was still good to have them try and work it out.  It was like a Stake Council thing. Other than that nothing really happened. It’s been really boring with my comp. 

Did you get transferred?

We won’t know until next Sunday night, but I’m positive one of us will leave. I told President I can’t work with him lol.  And if I have to continue working with him, I’m just going to troll him and just have fun with him every time he complains or throws one of his temper tantrums. 

 If you got transferred where are you going?

hopefully the celestial kingdom (funny kid)

Who is your new companion?

hopefully Jesus 

If you didn't get transferred what is your plan to work with this guy so you don't go crazy?

I am going to do as much as I can to have fun and troll the freak out of him ha-ha, but in a way that’s fun.  Well fun for me lol. Sorry kid

Not much else happened this week.  I love you guys! 

July 24, 2017 More Q & A

July 24, 2017

How have you grown, like what are things that you know now, or understand now that you didn't before your mission?

I think the biggest thing is how real Heavenly Father is.  Before it just seemed like this far concept that everyone talked about, but here, seeing people change their lives because of the Gospel, I really have a testimony that God the Father lives alongside His son Jesus Christ. 

What is something that you have learned from having this companion? 

That and patience and love are hard.

What is your favorite thing about your mission so far?

I think the best part is teaching and learning. I love learning new things and I’ve learned a lot about myself, a different culture, and about the Gospel. But being in a different country is really cool too. It makes me want to travel a lot after my mission. 

What is your least favorite thing?

As of right now not being to go surf and cool down. The heat is terrible here, especially walking all day. 

How many emails do you get each week? Or maybe a better question is how many people do you email each week.

I email mostly you guys. I get like random ones from my friends and Jared and his friends but not too many. I get it, they have lives and email is weird haha. I was horrible at emailing Jared. KARMA.. 

Tell me about your week, details, highs, lows, bests, worsts.  

My companion is tough so that is probably a low.  But things were pretty normal for the week. Then we had a baptism with two girls!! wohoo! they are so awesome. One is 10 and the other is 9. They are so cute hahaha and they know everything they needed to know to get baptized and it was awesome! Their parents are menos activos and have been to church the past 2 weeks so hopefully they keep coming! We have another investigator who is super cool but she didn’t go to church the past 2 weeks so we gotta talk to her to see if we can get her to go. But other than that we don’t have too much going on, it’s been pretty mellow.

Describe a typical Sunday to me.  

We get up at 7ish and get showered and study. I usually just read some scriptures or something and then at 11 we will go to the church, usually walking. After sacrament, we teach a gospel principles class then go to priesthood. After church, we will kinda hang around a little and talk to members. Then we usually have to walk to our lunch appointment.  After we eat, we try to visit people that didn’t go to church and the less actives.  Sundays are the hardest to contact people because everyone goes somewhere or they have been drinking too much from partying so they can’t talk to us.  

Then it’s time to go home where we usually read or go to sleep. 

I love mom and I miss you! Thank you for everything! I miss you guys so much! 

July 10, 2017 Q & A with Elder Wilcox

July 10 Question and Answer time with Elder Wilcox:

What can you tell me about your area? Like what city or cities do you cover, is there street names you can give me? Dad has been looking it up on Google maps. 

Um our area is huge right now. Canon Huasteco 1131 in Sombrillas is our address. We have Perimetral norte and sur Rincon de la Villa idk haha there’s a lot.  We are in the colonials Lopez Mateos, Sombrillas, Rincones, Tepeyas, and a lot. Our main city is Santa Catarina. But then we have like neighborhoods, (colonials) within that.  It’s a lot but it’s fun to have somewhat of a new area to explore. 

Last week you said you have somewhat of a new area, what does that mean, did they add streets to your area?  Do you only cover one ward?

So we have two areas that cover our ward. It was us up top of the ward and then we had hermanas (Sister missionaries) who had the area below us but the mission took the hermanas and put them in other areas and we got both of the areas. Usually they would send other missionaries in that area but they gave us the whole ward. That isn’t common here because we don’t have bikes or cars or anything, bu yes we only cover one ward. 

How are things going with your companion? What is his name?

Things are going better, I have just decided to be as positive as possible and not let him ruin my mish because I’m here to have fun and work hard so…... His name is Elder Mendez. He is like 19 and he has been out about 10 months I think. 

Do you still eat with members every day?  

yes we have the members feed us every day except Mondays. 

Are you getting more people to be engaged in helping you, or is the attitude still the same for them?

um no not really. there is a little change in the attitude but no one has done anything. 

Did you ever get to visit with that little girl that was crying?  

Yeah we tried. She’s not little haha, she’s like 18 but she wasn’t home and she hasn’t answered our calls. She works a lot so we are still hoping she will come back or something will change. 

Do you have air conditioning in your apartment? 

it’s a house, we live in a house. And yeah it’s like a super old built in one. It doesn’t get super cold but it blows a lot of air. 

When you cook, what kinds of food do you make?  

I haven’t cooked in a while because we haven’t paid the gas bill, lol mission life. But usually I will cook eggs and chorizo in the morning and at night pasta or hard boiled eggs or something super simple. Sometimes rice, it just depends. But we usually don’t eat in the house too much. 

How far is the grocery story from your apartment?

It’s like a 20 min walk. down the hill 

What kind of fast food places, if any, are around you?

There is a KFC and a Dominos but they are pretty far from us. The majority of food places are just little family owned shops or like taquerias and all that good stuff.  But we don’t really eat out too much. There’s not time and we don’t have the money usually.

Tell me about your week…………..

Well my week was pretty good I guess. It’s been a little weird getting used to the huge area and we really haven’t found too many new investigators. The people that tell us to come back almost never want to hear us or they just tell us to come back to get us away. We had a zone conference and we talked about being more united as a companionship so I got a little humbled and I hope my comp did too. But it was good and I learned a lot there.  I realized that no matter what happens I can have a good time in my mish if I want to. We have been going with a part member family investigator, she is super cool. her name is Martha and she has 2 kids and a husband and she’s super ready to be baptized but we just gotta invite her and see how it goes. Other than her we don’t have any real investigators, we have a lot of men iOS actives that we are going with but the thing with my comp is that he never wants to work up in the area Arriba. We always end up down in the area down low. I think it’s because he was in the lower area before when he started his mission so he knows the area and doesn’t really want to work up in the area that I had before. He’s pretty hard headed so I have just been going with it and I trying to not really mind but we have to work both areas. Lately we have been just going with Marta a lot and trying to get her ready to be baptized. Not too much else has happened.

July 3, 2017

It’s been super hot. We have had to walk up and down the whole area and its freakin’ huge. But it’s been kinda cool to have somewhat of a new area.  The president added new parts to our area so there are members in the lower part of the area that we never visited before. Yesterday (July 2) got into this really minor car crash with a member. The member was turning on to this kinda busy street, into the first lane and there was a Chevy truck that changed lanes at the same time and side swiped the front of our car. It happened super slowly so it didn’t really do any major damage but the wife of the guy driving the truck got so mad.  This lady kept telling our ward member that it was her fault, but I think it was the truck’s fault. We had to wait there for an hour for the insurance to come and all this stuff, it was lame and kinda funny. I’m surprised there aren’t more accidents here. Everyone drives somewhat crazy. There are rules but I feel like everyone does what they want. 

My new companion’s name is Elder Mendez.  He is from the Dominican Republic.  He has a reputation for being a tough person to companion with and so far that has been true.  It’s been hard, but I am trying to stay positive.  He can be funny sometimes, and he is good with little kids.

I had an interesting experience yesterday. We were walking home and we passed by a girl that was sitting out front of her house and she looked like she was crying. She is 18.  At first, I didn’t think I should talk to her because I feel like it’s kinda awkward to talk to someone while they are crying. so we kinda passed by a little bit more but then I just blurted out "Buena’s tardes" and then I started talking to her. it wasn’t me that did that I really feel that the spirit kinda just made me do that. and we talked to her and she ended up being really cool. So we are going to try and go back with her tomorrow. but I really feel like the Spirit just took over. It’s nothing big but that’s what I remember the best out of the week. 

I love you and miss you all! 

Elder Wilcox

Two For One - emails from June 12th & 19th

June 12^, 2017

My week was pretty good. It’s been pretty hard to get people to come to Church, so it’s been a little tough. But we are still happy and excited. This city is so pretty, there are a lot of hills and we are walking straight up sometimes, it’s super gnarly. I don’t know how people built these streets or the houses it’s so crazy, but so very cool. We have such a great view of the whole valley.

It has been so freakin’ HOT! It’s been in like the 40 Celsius and that’s really hot (104° F for us Americanos). So that’s not fun. And our ward is really dead. They don’t help us really at all and they don’t really have trust in us. I think there were some dead missionaries here that did some stupid things so now we get to deal with that and we are trying to figure out how to build that trust with them.  The bishop is cool, he is super young or at least he looks young. He reminds me of Sheldon but a little different. He likes us and is trying to help us but like I said, it’s been tough. It doesn’t mean we can’t have success, we just have to work a lot harder. We had Elder Pine of the 70 come and talk to us and he was super cool.  My Spanish is really improving I can pretty much understand everything that is said now, and that is really awesome.

June 19, 2017

Okay so last went pretty well, but this week has been pretty hard. Our area is super dead, and it has been discouraging.  And to make it all so much better, my companion had to have surgery on his nose to make it easier for him to breathe. Now he can’t work for a week at least. We really haven’t had any progressing investigators this whole change and it makes me feel like I’m not being a very productive missionary. Right now I don’t know how to change these things or how I can work differently for the Lord to see results.  I love this work and when we get someone that really is interested in the Gospel there is nothing like it. I can’t explain the joy and love I feel for these people coming unto Christ. The hardest thing is finding these people that are ready to hear it and accept it. I am going to have a lot of time on my hands this week so I think I’m really going to study the things that I need to work on as a missionary. Our purpose is to bring others unto Christ and baptize them, not for numbers but for people’s salvation. We can’t enter into the Kingdom of God without baptism, so that’s one thing I will be focusing on this week.

Even though it’s been really hard lately, it just means were going to see some miracle happen soon. I know with all my heart this Gospel is true, I know I am called to serve these people and to bring them unto Christ and I know it’s not going always going to be easy, so I’m going to do my best to show them how much our Heavenly Father loves them by being the best example I can be.

For our P-Day we went to a trampoline place today for like an hour and that was really fun. We went for a district activity and it was awesome, but it was super-hot. It’s been insanely hot here. It’s not even the hottest it will get yet. We shall see how that goes.

Love you,

Elder Wilcox 

Pictures from Mitras, early June 2017

Hey that's Elder Wilcox's MTC Companion!  

A Trip to the Temple - June 7, 2017

Email June 7, 2017

Okay, so this past week (May 29^th – June 7^th) was pretty cool. We got to change our P-day which made the week feel so long so that kinda sucked lol.  But on the bright side, it’s been like 10,000,000,000 degrees here and it’s been sooo sick! and so sweaty and awesome and fun! That was a little sarcasm in case you couldn’t tell there but it actually has been a good week. We have found a couple new people to teach who are super cool. One of the people is from a part member family, her uncles and aunts and her grandpa are members but her parents aren’t. She is super interested and likes what we have to teach. She also went to church, not this past Sunday but the one before, and we visited after.  She asked about the priesthood, so we taught her about that and she was just really awesome. She had really good questions and it was a really powerful lesson. We felt the Spirit really strong and I feel like we explained everything very well.

 Another cool thing is we went to the temple today (June 7^th), it was so beautiful. The layout of the temple is like almost exactly like the Newport Beach temple, which actually kinda made me home sick for a sec, but then I was like nah. 

After that we went to the church for our zone activity. We LARPED (live action role played?) and then we had a water balloon war. It was also a thousand million degrees so it was good to get a little wet. lol I got sunburnt again but that’s my life so it’s cool (uh NO it wasn’t cool, I can’t really show the picture he sent but it was AWFUL). We had divisions this week again. My companion, Elder Elizondo, is a district leader so he goes on splits or divisions with our district and I went with one of the zone leaders because they are in our district. It was cool, their area is so huge. They have bikes but they don’t have gears and it is super hilly here so it was so hard to pedal. The other Elders have some cool people in their ward. Our ward is struggling honestly, they don’t want to work with us and we are working really hard to gain their trust, but it has been hard.   

Still I like this area. I do feel like more like Mexico than Nuevo Laredo, but it’s still really Americanized. I don’t know how to describe it, it just feels like I’m in a weird part of the US most times but there are times where it really feels like Mexico too.

Working with Elder Elizondo again feels like we never really were a part. ha-ha he is cool. Although our Mission Prez told us after this change one of us is for sure leaving, but we don’t know who. Elder Elizondo actually might have to get surgery on his nose.  I don’t think he will go home though.

You asked me where we email from, so we are in an internet café that used to be a home.  It is set up with cement partitions between computers so we have privacy.  ha-ha everything is cement here in Mexico. It’s set up kind of like cubicles. No one can really see unless they look around the sides.

My mission is going really well. It’s hard sometimes but I think I have grown a little. I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned up to this point is that the Gospel is very personal. If we don’t convert ourselves to the Gospel first as missionaries, there is no way we can teach other people to live it. And we need to convert ourselves to the Gospel not the people in the church, because if someone we don’t like does something and we don’t have a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ then we will just leave the church. That’s something I’ve seen here and I’m sure it’s the same at home. When we have faith in Jesus Christ and we really learn for ourselves what the Atonement means for us, in our own lives, then we literally can do anything. Anything in the world is possible, and that’s not an exaggeration. It will be hard sometimes and it will take some work on our part but through Christ it is possible, anything is possible.  

Love you all,

Elder Wilcox

Pictures from Cerro de las Mitras May 2017

With Elder Elizondo again! 

A new area - Mitras Zone

Emails from May 15th and May 29th 

I got changed in early May, I left for Monterrey at 6ish on the evening of May 14^th and then spent the night at the Mission Home in Monterrey.  I am back with Elder Elizondo my trainer ha-ha. it’s kinda weird but they say it happens sometimes. Not sure why but God does so that’s all that matters. I’m stoked to be able to see more of this mission but I didn’t want to leave some of the people in Nuevo Laredo! Everyone in that ward is super nice and super cool but I know that the Lord needs me somewhere else and that the people in my new area can really be affected by me and my companion. As I packed everything the morning that I left I realized how much random crap I have so I’m going try and get rid of some stuff down here in the Mitras Zone. We are right at the base of the Cerro de las Mitras.  We are about 45 minutes from Monterrey.  I love my new area! We are literally on the side of a mountain and it’s so pretty! We can see the whole valley from our area, the view is so rad.

hahahahahah  It’s like going from South Central LA to downtown HB, it seems a lot safer. I haven’t heard any gunfire yet, but we will see. 

The hills suck but I’m getting used to them and walking is different but its fine. It’s been pretty hot, but then it just randomly rains.  Like one night it rained so hard it was crazy, for like 40 minutes, and then just stopped.

Finding new people is super hard. People like to talk to us but they never come to church. The ward is not super helpful here, which is the most important part. It’s tough because they say they will come out with us and then cancel at the last minute.

So those Rockport shoes that we bought ended up stretching out and being too big for me and giving be blisters. lol so I had to buy some good shoes to walk in again here cause I had to leave my bike in Nuevo Laredo. We went to the huge mall that is kinda near us and that was cool. It’s really expensive there. Like everything is normal price like in America but obviously, we are paying in pesos. My shoes were like 1500 pesos. 

Our P-Day activity is still playing soccer and hanging out with our district and some other missionaries of our zone. We still have a lunch with members every day and it’s always lunch. That’s just the way it is here. I think the Stake Presidents and the Mission President decided on lunch.

Not much else to tell!

I love you! 

Elder Wilcox

May 8 2017 - A Trip to the Border

On the bridge between Texas and Mexico

So this past week was pretty cool.  We went paintballing for an activity for the zone and it was so fun! We played with a member who is on a team and we played for a while mixed together. Then later they did their team against us missionaries, and we literally got destroyed. It hurt so bad! but it was so fun!

Later we found some really cool people and now I guess one of our investigators wants to marry me and my companion. So there’s that.

There is a tradition here in Mexico when it’s your birthday they always smash your face in the cake. So we were at a member’s house eating some super good carne asada tacos and after they had a cake just for dessert. But Elder Estevez was like smash it in his face!! it’s his birthday on the 12th (this happened on the 6th) I was like no man!! I still have 6 days! But he was so determined so he tried to grab me and I was fighting him off for a good 5 min.  Then Elder Szendre who is like 1,000 feet tall (actually 6'7) grabbed my legs and Estevez had my arms, my comp was just watching, then Estevez had the cake in his hand and I got one hand free and pushed it into his face Hahahaha but not enough to stop him. So after that he smashed the cake in my face. and it got all in my nose and everything! ha-ha but it was super funny. I’m sure I’ll get some more cake in my face soon.

A few nights ago it was super windy and we were just hanging out at the house at like 9.  We were studying and stuff and then the power went out. We thought we heard our neighbors yelling so we went to check on them. Nothing happened with them they were fine, but the police were outside our house for a tiny bit down the street in a truck so we were kind of checking them out, and then this huge BANG went off. We all ran inside the house scared out of our minds. it sounded like a big rifle. and we looked outside and everyone was running away from where the noise came from.  But there was nothing else, and the power went out again, (it kept cutting in and out).  We waited a while and then slowly checked outside.  Everything was super mellow so we went out and there were sparks flying in the wind down the street. It turned out that the wind caused the transformer to blow up. Hahahaha it caught the tree on fire a little it too. Finally, like 15 min later, the fire dept. showed up and put it out.  It's funny because I was telling one our new converts that I can’t tell the difference between fireworks and gunfire around here. She laughed and said, what you hear at night in NEVER fireworks. Oh well.

 Today we went to the border. We were on the bridge that crosses to Texas and it was super cool! I’ll try and send some pics.  The Rio Grande is literally across the street from our house. 

I love you,

Elder Wilcox

Email 4-17-17

New Missionary Haircut 

I think I told you I got a new companion and he is Danny Perez, Josh and Moroni’s cousin! He is so cool! I love him so much, he is awesome. We have been having a great time. The mission is awesome and I’m having a great time. I’m doing great! My Spanish is coming along and I’m understanding a lot and I feel like I am really helping some people.

We have one really cool family that we are actually going to go eat with after we email.  Her daughter has Down Syndrome or something like that, and she said when we contacted her that she had prayed to Heavenly Father for the first time in a while and she felt like we were her answer.  

I know I don’t tell you much but honestly, it’s not that I don’t want to talk we really just don’t have much that goes on. But this week we have been contacting a lot.  We don’t really have any new really strong investigators, so we have been looking around. We contacted TWO PEOPLE THAT SPOKE PERFECT ENGLISH SO WE ARE GOING TO GO BACK WITH THEM. They were super cool. They seemed really nice and humble but we won’t know for sure till later. The past couple weeks have been really slow with investigators. but we are powering through it. Life lesson, don’t let the little things get you down. we have to look at the big picture because we are here to learn about Heavenly Father and how we can return with him. All the little stuff doesn’t matter. 

The weather has been okay for the past couple of days but there are some days where it gets really hot!  It can get super crazy, we had three thunderstorms in the past week. and yes we rode through the rain again.  There is literally no other way.  It wasn’t too bad. but it had started to flood a good amount when we were riding. Don’t worry though, the water doesn’t move, it just sits in the street so we won’t get swept away and drown... LOL

My companion is literally just like me.  We have the same sense of humor and we just tell a bunch of jokes all throughout the day.  He is super good at teaching too. One scripture that stood out to me is from Doctrine and Covenants.  I can’t remember the exact section so I will send it next week so please remind me It says we are promised so much from Heavenly Father but when we don’t live correctly He doesn’t have to keep His promises. I thought that was super cool.

We had a guy tell us that he thinks the God is an extraterrestrial ha-ha he just talked and talked about how God isn’t from here, he is an alien.  He just kept going and going forever.  Then we went back to talk to him and we were in a middle of a lesson outside his gate. and a car showed up and honked.  He said "they are here for me, I got to go" and gave us the pamphlet back and just left Hahahaha so we were just like what the heck?

Did Dad get to play Turtle Bay? It’s a super big course! I want to play it again really bad.

Yesterday was Easter and the tradition here in Mexico is to fill egg shells with confetti or flour and then the smash them on your head.  We went to eat at a recent convert’s house and we ended up having a war with those things in her house ha-ha it was super crazy and messy.  Really fun. 

I love you so much dad and I miss you a lot! I hope everything’s is going well! 

Email April 3, 2017

My companion got transferred and my roommate, Elder Kirkman got transferred too. Elder Perez is going to be my new companion! He is the cousin and nephew of Brother and Sister Perez in our ward.

Conference was great!! It’s so much different in the mish, I appreciated it so much more, and to be able to hear our prophet speak is such a blessing. it was so sick!  And yeah we watched at the church! 

So I read an article in the Liahona (Church Magazine) where a single mom was struggling to make ends meet and she didn’t know what to do.  She had talked to her bishop and asked what his advice was. He said that he thought she should go to school and try and work things out. I think you should as the bishop for some advice, even if it’s financial help. Heavenly Father loves us so much, and he wants the best for us, he gives us so many ways that we can get through our problems. sometimes we have to wait a little bit and struggle so we can really appreciate things. I know with all my heart that if you pray, read your scriptures, pay tithing, even when it seems like if we pay our tithing we won’t have money, when we do these things that Heavenly Father has asked us to do, we have a promise from Him that he will help us. Sometime it’s hard to see the end, but when we put TOTAL confidence and faith in Him, he WILL gives us answers and the means to do the things we need to do. 

I love you so much and I hope that you know how much I have a testimony of these things. before my mission I knew these things. but I didn’t have a very strong testimony in them, but now I truly know that Heavenly Father is there for us.  He has answered so many of my prayers over the few months that I have been out.  We need to pray with full confidence that we will receive these things or we really won’t get them.

Love,

Elder Wilcox

New Companion - April 2017

Brett's new companion: He is the cousin of some friends from our home ward. He is from Orange County Ca.

March Gallery of Photos

In March the Elders returned to the Mission Home for training.