Hey yall, sorry this is so late today!!!! I forgot my day planner without all my notes about what I wanted to write about and all the awesome scriptures that I had found so I'm sorry if this email isn't as great as previous ones!!! I'll do my best to remember everything and hopefully I can go back and write letters to my fam that will include the scriptures/stories I wanted to share but forgot about!!!
Life is good here in the mission... it was FREEZING this last week. When it gets cold here, it doesn't get cold like it does in Utah... you get cold to your core here in GA with the humidity. My bones felt like the were freezing... it was crazy! Even "snowed" which everyone got excited about haha. Pretty much just a layer of frost... Elder Schlesinger laughed at how big a deal everyone was making about it. It's an awesome day today though! Nice and warm like we like it.
Elder Schlesinger is still having a rough go... we had to stay in the apartment for most of the day a couple times this week and one day we even did an exchange with the office Elders so I could go out to our appointments. I went with Elder White, who is also from Utah (can't remember exactly what part!). He's been out 14 months and is super cool! He has hearing aids in both ears but he hears the Lord just fine cause he's a powerful missionary!!! We went out and had a great time... talked a lot about missionary work and learned a lot from each other. He's one of my favorite missionaries out here that I've met for sure.
So we have another investigator with a baptism date! His name is Alex... he's incredible!!! He's only 17 (about to turn 18) but he's had a REALLY rough life. Drugs, drinking, girls, violence... just about everything you can think of, he's gone through it. He's still struggling with some things but he's made soooo much progress. He has court on Wednesday and so we're waiting to see what happens with that, but if all goes as planned we're hoping to get him baptized in about a month... but we'll see!!!
We had an AMAZING dinner appointment this week with an incredible family down here... the husband is a less active we've been working with but he's awesome. They made us flank steak, pita bread, potatoes, steamed veggies, kale and spinach salad, chicken ka-bobs... so good!!! The wife had some sort of Lebanese garlic sauce stuff that was soooooo good! I can't remember the name of it (I wrote it down in my notes that I forgot) but I'll send the name of it to my fam so they can post it up on here... everyone has to go find some and try it!! So good. That family has become my family here in Peachtree City... I love talking with them and they're so caring and supportive of me. I always feel like I'm at home when I'm over there with them. They take good care of us!!
We had stake conference this Sunday... Elder Hymus of the 70 was there... I got to meet him before the meeting started but I didn't even realize he was in the 70 until they announced it!! Haha, I felt kinda dumb for not knowing but he gave a stellar talk. All the missionaries in the zone sang in a "missionary choir" along with the perspective missionaries from the stakes... we sang Army of Helaman!! Only my most favorite song... (I had a hard time not crying as we sang it during practice in the morning) There was a lot of talks about temples... and just let me tell you, temples are so amazing! The work that goes on in the temple is the most important thing to do outside of missionary work... and guess what? Temples and missionary work go hand in hand! Temples are the "headquarters" for missionary work... everything about the temple filters out into missionay work... I hope all of you take advantage of the temples that are so readily available to you in Utah... its such a blessing. Just know this.... if you do nothing else this week, go to the temple. Also, I had this revelation given to me during a talk... whenever you read about temples, apply those things to yourself. "God has commanded His people to build Temples"... but guess what? That's just the literal structural temple... we're temples too!!! We've been commanded to build ourselves as temples. Just a way of changing your perspective on things... you know when they talk about the peace you feel when you go to the temple? How its a fortress of good in a world of evil? All those things should be able to be applied to yourself too... we should be able to turn inwards and feel that same peace and protection from the evils of the world within ourselves... and that's why going to the temple is so important. It empowers you to do that!!!! And know this... after you attend the temple, literally legions of angels go forth with you into the world. Please, if you're able to... make going to the temple at least once a week a TOP priority in your life. You'll be so blessed...
We have a new family we're teaching and they are so AWESOME!!! I wish I had time to tell you everything about them, but lets put it this way... the dad plays lots of video games at the age of 50, he has his own dedicated gaming computer, has a MASSIVE collection of action figures, they have a home theater in their living room and they have a collection of samurai swords hanging on the wall. Very cool story though... the mother is friends with a member down here... the member friend felt prompted to give her a BoM... but she didn't give her just any BoM... she gave her the one she grew up with and took notes in all throughout seminary, etc. When she gave it to the mother of this family... the mother told us that had it just been any normal copy of the BoM that she would've just trashed it, but beacuse it was such a personal thing for her to give her the one she grew up with, she felt like she should at least give it a shot. Long story short, she read it, knew it was true and now she's saying things like this "You read it... and it's truth! It's just the truth!" ... "I want to be baptized into this church and I want my whole family to be baptized into this church"... so crazy how prepared she is!!!! And it all came about because a friend followed the promptings of the Lord... I can't express to yall how important it is to look for missionary opportunities througout your life... we are all called to be missionaries! The Lord is hastening his work and we've all been called to gather his sheep and bring them into the fold in these last days... you can do it! Don't be afraid to talk to people about the gospel... when you talk them about it, you'll enable the spirit and the angels around you to help you say the things that need to be said. Just go forward with faith and he'll do the rest!!! But anyways, back to that family... we're just waiting for the Dad to jump on board... and I know he will. They're all about their family and once we got talking about eternal families and temples... (I cried during this)... the spirit was just so strong!!! I let them copy my family proclomation and invited them to read it... and I just know they're going to feel the spirit and see how this church and the gospel will help and bless their families. I can't wait for them to go through the temple together and get sealed... that's what missionary work is all about!!! I even told them, the only way I was willing to put off my own eternal family and come out here to serve was because I wanted every family to have that chance to be sealed and be together forever... its what gets me up in the morning. Just knowing that I might be able to be used by the Lord to give a family that chance to be together forever... nothing more amazing than that.
Everyone keep praying for Elder Schlesinger though... its been interesting working around his situation... I've started teaching lessons over the phone even haha. He's really having a hard time though... but just like all trials in life, he'll be blessed as he endures with a smile and good attitude and has faith in the Lord and his plan... and you know, faith is so important... it enables you to overcome any challenge you face in life. Just knowing that whatever is happening is happening for a reason and knowing that no matter how hard it gets that he's right there with you... its just so empowering. Faith, patience, love and prayer through all things... I tell myself that every day and it helps a lot!
Oh! I just remembered!!! We went in and helped out with a young womens activity this week which was a blast!! They had a "get to know the missionaries" game to start off which was fun... and then we split them into two groups and taught them each about missionary work. We even got them to role play talking to people about the church... it was a blast! I hope we can get involved with the ward and their activities like that more often... it was so much fun teaching them and working with them.
Alright yall, I gotta get running... sorry for the lack of scriptures to read and other stories.. hopefully I can get those to you via my letters. Keep doing the right things, pray for help, have faith, patience and love in all things that you do. I pray for yall every morning and night... the Lord is there for you! He always is!!!
Keep writing letters too!!! I promise, I read every single one!!! Thank you sooooo much for writing me. You have no idea how much it means to me.
ps: Next week is transfers... crazy how fast time flies!!! I'll let yall know next week if I'm moving out or staying.
Love yall,
Elder Wahlen
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