4 May 2015 Letter

Greetings from Peru! This week was the best, as always. For p-day I got to know some of the guys as we played soccer at the stake center for a few hours. I really like the new guys and know they are all great missionaries. So this week I would like to touch on another conference talk by Elder Gérald Caussé, the First Counselor in the First Bishopric. He listed 3 things we should do:

1. Never tire of discovering or rediscovering the gospel.
2. Anchor your faith in the plain and simple truths of the gospel
3. Seek and cherish the companionship of the Holy Ghost.

We should always be seeking to repeatedly renew our testimonies in the Gospel. I was reading in Preach My Gospel in chapter 5 I think about Moroni's promise in his tenth chapter. It asks us as missionaries to continually be putting his promise to the test. Often we may think that once we have already received an answer that we are good to go. We should constantly seek the reaffirmation of the truth of the Gospel and strive to strengthen our testimony every day. I have been doing it and the fruits are really amazing. Think. Even the disciples, who were in the presence of the actual Son of God, needed constant reminders and miracles to fortify their testimonies. How much more we need to seek those testimonies is staggering.

This week I had the opportunity to fast. Looking back I know that what I fasted for, I am being blessed with right now. But fasting is a whole different world in the mission. It is a full 24 hours with all the crazy walking we do in the scorching sun. It is difficult. Usually in my house when I fasted, I felt hungry and thirsty, yes. But I always thought, Oh it is just because I am hungry or because I am weak. About one or two hours into my fast I had the strongest, strongest desire to drink water or buy a snack from the corner store. I realized I wasn't even really hungry. I was being tempted by the adversary, I never thought of my weakness or hunger as a temptation. Satan knows the power of fasting and prayer. Alma and the sons of Mosiah were blessed exceedingly because of doing so. And now Satan knows that I am stronger and am fasting for things that will bless people's lives. He was trying so hard with me. I have never had this much trouble in only 24 hours without food or water but I have never seen blessings like this. I encourage you all to fast and pray with a sincere desire or blessing in mind. When you complete your fast, you will definitely see the fruits.

This week I also really saw how much the people love the missionaries. Sometimes people call us Satan worshipers or followers of the devil. That we pray to a man who was a liar (Joseph Smith) or that we baptize dead people and will all go to whatever they think is hell. But this week a few times we had members and investigators thank the Father in their prayers for the angels he has sent, or his disciples. We were meeting with a family in our ward and two little kids were running around like crazy and the dad asked them over and over to calm down, that it was as if Jesus were personally there. Lots of the members say that and I can tell they actually believe it. I am honored to be here as a representative of Him. I know that is my calling and what I am doing right now.

I don't really have a lot of time this week. We don't have p-day today, only internet time, because tomorrow we have our temple trip and p-day so I am super stoked for that. I love all of you guys and hope you all have an awesome week.

Elder Wilcox



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