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.