November 25, 2013

My week was a great one! Monday was the kickstart of it all! We had a cottage meeting which is basically meeting with a plethora of people at a members home! We picked up 6 new investigators including the rest of Shereca’s family! Which is so great that she chose to live the law of chastity and move back home. They are getting so close as a family and much happier I have been told! It also helped the family respond positively to our message and also fed us 2 times this week! At the cottage meeting we picked up 4 potential Priesthood and they all seem very promising at this point. We did have Shereca’s baptism this Sunday so another early morning to fill the font, but we had a great turnout other than Emsley (Shereca’s dad) didn’t show. The family stayed for church and had a great experience. We have been focusing a lot on building member missionaries and to go along with that this week we are strengthening the branch councils and trying to get everything unified and flowing well. Building that foundation so the work can progress like crazy. So this week we had a 4 hour branch council, hopefully they will be shorter and run smoother as soon as we get people’s roles and duties straightened out!! But the rest of the week was pretty much the same stuff. We did have a Zone Conference on Friday with Elder Anderson from the 70 who talked a lot about consecration and just the covenants we have made thus far in our lives! It was there that Sis Brown saw my elbow and told me I had to go to the doctor. He wasn’t quite sure what it was but it’s kinda like a sist and I have to go into Kingston to see a surgeon due to the size of it. But no worries all is well!! :) To top it off with the awesome Sunday, we met again with the William’s family Sunday night. Had an awesome plan of salvation lesson and Pansy gave an awesome opening prayer. Emsley gave a very sincere closing prayer. It was a fantastic lesson, the spirit was powerful. We were able to talk about temples a little bit and got them on date for Dec 8th as a family! And we found out Emsley’s concern for not coming to church. Sounds like he has been ripped off a lot in his life, but he was so surprised when he found that we don’t have give an offering before, during or after the service!! Haha. So hopefully we will see him there next week with the family. Then we can kick the parents rum drinking habit :) Love you all, it is a great opportunity of ours as a whole to be a part of the work of salvation. I hope all are taking advantage of being able to share the joy we all have with others. I loved the First Presidency message for December that as we share we won’t lose friends, if anything they will respect you more for sharing something that means so much to you! I loved the idea of giving a Book of Mormon with your testimony in the cover as part of a Christmas package. We are having a Christmas devotional broadcast across the island that I think will be a huge missionary tool! So many ways to share!  Much love!!

Elder Wilkerson

Elder England, Oniel, Elder Wignal, Elder Wilkerson, Shereca, and Elder Hunt

Shereca's baptism

Sorry

Sorry about the posts that have come up white.  I think I've got it fixed now.

November 18, 2013

This week was up and down, but the negatives were nothing due to the awesomeness of the spiritual side! Tuesday we were heading home from an appointment up in Georges Plain, it’s about a 45 minute bike ride there, and Elder England blew out his tire. All the shops were closed so I tried to tow him and hold the bike! Drag him, all sorts of things. Elder England tried to wave down a flat bed semi and we just got chatted! So we came to the conclusion which is the first thing we should have done. Said a prayer to find out if we were suppose to find someone by walking or just need to be humbled by walking or something else and if nothing else please provide a ride for us according to our faith. The very next car after the prayer and probably the only Chevy truck in Sav picked us up! No charge and very kind! Very awesome experience to start the week off!! Wednesday was zone meeting. The taxi down was very awkward and I felt like throwing up, but the meeting was fantastic! Learned about working effectively with the branch mission leader... too bad we don’t have one currently, but soon to come!! It is essential for this work to move forward in Sav!! Thursday Elder England has been struggling to be focused on the work so he asked for a Priesthood blessing. It was an awesome experience for both of us. I don’t remember a thing I said, but words just kept coming and coming and spirit was soo very strong. Fantastic way to start the day and a bonus- we were able to use that experience to enhance the spirit at a lesson as he shared his experience! That just set the tone for the day and when I blew out the tube and tire on my bike it was just like so easy to shrug it off and say okay. God needs us to find someone else, maybe down town! And we did! Potential Priesthood! That’s what the focus is on in the branch right now anyways so very awesome!! Friday had a trade off with Elder Wignal so I could interview his candidate for baptism. She’s solid! Wish we could find some solid Priesthood like her!! Steve is back from Canada, but will soon go back in like 3 weeks!! I’ve also been working on a goal with my speech. Every time I even slip up saying freak or crap I read James chapter 3. I think it has been helping, if nothing else it really makes me sit back and think of all the dumb things I do without even realizing  I’m doing them! Time to change!!! Saturday was transfer calls. Elder Hayes is leaving to Kingston, Elder Wignal is recieving Elder Hunt. We are getting two more missionaries in Negril and we are ready to baptize Westmoreland!! And we gotta have the faith too! This is the last transfer before we apply for a Stake so we gotta build it up the best we can!! Sunday was fantastic! Got up at 4:30 a.m. to fill the font for the baptism starting at 8:30, cleaned the church and set up for all meetings! 3 baptisms in the district. Annyia and Serena were baptized out of our area! But just to show how much the Lord is moving his work forward, this is the first time we have broken the record for the mission for baptisms in one week. The old record was 10 in a week. New is 20 for the mission, 11 coming from our zone!! Very cool indeed!! This week was fantastic! Hope yours was as well!!! Keep choosing the right! The church is true and the greatest thing that will influence your life to make it the best it can be, if we apply the atonement and church teachings!!! Much love,

Elder Wilkerson 

Sis. Murdock - one of their fellowshippers

Our zone in Mobay

November 11, 2013

This week was another rough one! But we still did many good things! I have been looking at trials a lot differently! The hard times are there and try not to get frustrated but just learn from the negative situation! We did have some great investigators lined up for baptism but just having some temporary set backs! Shereca is like my most changed investigator! She stopped partying, drinking, coffee and smoking the day we taught it! She is pounding into the scriptures and just getting soo involved at the church. She told her boyfriend about the way she wants to live and a little bit of heart ache there but as soon as we clear up the law of chastity she wants to get baptized so bad!! It might be in Mobay, cuz she is thinking about moving there so she can live the law of chastity! Saffia was not ready to baptize so quit talking to us! But we are just building up her faith now and hopefully we can keep meeting with her! Serena is also ready for baptism, but we have got to clear up some things with her mom! Dang parents! But hey, at least it shows they care, thankful for that much! We picked up some great new investigators this week and had 4 at church and 3 less actives back! Very cool to see our little chapel packed!! One of the sweet scriptures we found this week since we are working on our language as followers of Christ is James chapter 3, the whole thing! James throws Down! You can’t feel bad and good at the same time when reading that!! Check it and challenge everyone to watch what we say, especially when we get frustrated!! as I did a little bit this week! Another word in my studies that stuck out to me besides "remember" is "nourish".  Jacob chapter 5 says it like 18 times!! So cool! I love studying the scriptures! I probably should just read them! But I love getting deep in them! Not a whole lot to talk about this week! We have transfer calls on Saturday and it sounds like the district is going to be getting bigger! I’m excited to see what will be happening! We have a lot of Jamaicans coming in this next transfer! So yah, that’s kinda a quick wrap on the week! Love yall! You’re in my prayers! Keep fighting off Satan and grasping firm! 1 Nephi 8!

Elder Wilkerson

Remember to nourish!

Dinna

New furniture

Waiting!

November 4, 2013

This last week personally was super long! It was rough and really struggling with the District and getting them excited to do the work.  It seems to me as if they don’t really know why they are here and that’s why they are struggling with obedience which ties into failure in missionary work! My companion and I try to lead by example, but it’s still rough!! In District meeting we discussed a few parts from adjusting to missionary life book about handling stress, very good.  Then we talked about a talk that has hit home not just in missionary life but over looking the rest of my exsistence! It’s called The Fourth Missionary by Lawrence E Corbridge. Wonderful talk for anyone wanting to change desires and become a better person in general! 24 page talk so we just discussed some key parts! It was soo good, but the problem is getting it from their minds to their hearts and making the change! That’s what I’m trying to do!!! I had a trade off with Elder Barker after district meeting til Friday morning.  Can I just say I love my companion, the way we get along, in and out of the work, and not being mission dead or disobedient. That bugs.. Went and taught a few lessons as he had lots of work to do as being the Branch President. He needs better use of time.. but we will work on that!! Probably won’t baptize this week. Saffia and Shereca didn’t make it to church and  they were our top progressing, but we are just working with members a ton more cuz our teaching pool is getting pretty small!! We actually found a great area that missionaries never went to cuz you gotta taxi there, but it seems as if there are a lot of prepared people out that side of Blue Hole! So gotta budget real  well this month due to much taxi riding!! Oniel blessed the sacrament!  That was cool. We dressed  better than the branch presidency! Very cool!! We had the helping hands service project this week. The representatives said we were the most organized through all Jamaica! so that’s cool. Hopefully we’ll receive some pics from that soon!! It took 5 hours to do the road clean up that we did! It would have been so much quicker if we had the great machinery we are so blessed with in the states..(weed eaters, lawn mowers, chain saws) instead we had machetes, brooms, and rakes! Eh, it got the job done!! There is no Halloween in Jamaica, but there is a big nasty party in Negril. Lots of deaths that day due to all the "big partiers" ride motor bikes!! Oh, by the way, I have a small confession... as we ate many of Elder Englands snacks this week.. many had chocolate on them. First I worked around it.. but with the cookies and cream ice cream IT isn’t half bad... it’s probably like 40%  bad and 60% bearable so don’t get your hopes up but it’s alright! Well, that is bout it for my week! Not too

many like super awesome experiences, just the little daily miracles and the way the Lord puts his hand in my life that is changing me line upon line, one step at a time! Loving my mission even though at times the stress is surreal! Love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!!!

Elder Wilkerson

Ice Cream!

Helping hands