Привет, мои дорогие 😘
Sorry, I suck at emailing haha.
First things first. We had Zone Conference a couple weeks ago, and that was a blast. The highlight of Zone Conference was... me legitimately ripping my pants lol. That's right. Sister Wirthlin is calling all the people up whose birthdays were recent, and I stand up, hit my table, don't think much of it, until every single Elder on the right side of the room starts busting up 😂. One of them mouths to me, "You ripped your pants," and boom there it is. So I awkwardly stand there while people sing Happy Birthday, and then on the way back to my seat my mission president goes, "You're a holy man, Elder Wilde!" Everyone was DYING, including myself 😂. Unfortunately, the picture doesn't do it justice, but go and take a look haha.
On another note, our apartment started smelling like something had literally died In the walls. I have never smelt anything worse. The smell lingered for like three days, and even finally we found the source. A HUGE pile of mold had built up behind our fridge. It was nottttt pleasant at all. Elder Ospina was a G and cleaned it out (it was soooo deep), in return I cooked us a nice dinner haha. It's already starting to grow back again, so let's see if we can get that same deal going haha.
This week we had another mission "Harvest Day." Elder Ospina and I went around the city and drew the Plan of Salvation around different parks with chalk. It was super fun! We even got to try to talk to some people face to face while doing so. Let me tell you something, y'all, it feels 20x better getting rejected in person than by online message. I honestly miss the feeling lol.
Highlight of the day though was that as we were drawing in one of the parks, this little girl kept coming up to me and handing me leaves and sticks and screaming with laughter. It was adorable haha. I said to her dad, "She seems interested in knowing more about this, maybe you are too?!" We both laughed, and it was a soft denial haha. Worth the shot.
This week, I was on a virtual exchange with an Elder in my district, and he shared something from his studies that I really loved.
He opened up to 3 Nephi 11, and explained the pattern of revelation found there in verses 1-5. It went like this...
1-3: The people of Nephi hear the voice of the Lord, but are distracted, and therefore do not understand it.
4: The voice comes again, and they are attentive now, but their hearts were not open to it; therefore, they understood not.
5: The voice comes a third time, and now they are attentive, open, and ready to receive, and therefore they not only received the message but understood it.
I believe revelation comes, but I believe we are often not ready to receive because of our own actions, whether it be lack of faith, lack of attention, etc. We know that God wants to speak to us, he wants us to receive his word, but we need to take the steps to receive his word. I know that receiving revelation can be hard, and that it can be this abstract concept to some. It sometimes is an abstract feeling to me. However, I also know that if you're not willing to take the counsel of receiving revelation, you then give up every possibility of receiving. God doesn't give to those who decide to come to the door step and end up not even knocking, but instead gives to the person that comes to the doorstep consistently, without leaving. It's easy to say you don't believe God doesn't answer prayers if you aren't willing to even pray. I have come to realize you receive a whole lot less when you try a whole lot less. We need to be attentive, open, faithful, prepared, consistent, and so much more, just as the Nephites had to be, literally while they were hearing the voice of God. May we follow their example.
All my love,
Elder Wilde
