Real Happiness

is not the destination. It is the ride. I know that for a fact now. These last few weeks have been some of the most pleasant of my entire mission, because I gave up worrying. I gave up freaking out when things didn't work out right, or getting disappointed when people or plans let us down. I'm enjoying every moment, even if it means a door slammed in the face, or a lesson that falls, or investigadores that don't progress, I don't care. This life is to be enjoyed, and wouldn't you know it, it's actually pretty darn enjoyable, even with all the problems!

So yeah, I'm trying to change my attitude and have more patience and more love. And it's helped me a lot. We're actually seeing a lot more success now in our sector. I don't have a lot of time to tell you about Alan this week so I'll give you his whole story next week. Sufficeth to say that he will be getting baptized this weekend and we're super happy for him. We're also working with part member family that is extremely prepared and the wife and family already love the church and even had us over for lunch yesterday. We're going to try to set a baptismal date with them tomorrow.

There have been so many miracles happening in the mission lately it's insane. So many people that have been what are called "eternal investigators" that out of the blue feel the spirit and decide to get baptised. It's so fantastic and we feel so grateful for what God is doing here. Ever since President Monson made the announcement about missionaries, we can truly feel that the Lord is indeed "hastening his work." These are the last days, and we are in the process of gathering Isreal in preparation for the second coming. We are trying to flood the earth with the book of Mormon, because that book, combined with the Holy Spirit, is the most powerful tool for conversion that exists. We have seen it change lives, and I have seen it change my own.

This past friday we had an awesome mission-wide activity in Renaico that we enjoyed very much. Every zone had to have a t-shirt, a song, a cheer, a flag, and two talents. It all went really well and helped our zone get a lot more unified.

That's about all the news I have for right now! Times up so we'll see ya next week!

Much love,
Elder Wilcox

The Gospel is true. What else matters?


Our awesome bidet, getting ready for the huge mission activity, including our zone's shirt complete with yellow capes, and a bunch of photos from the activity, etc. Also, a few photos from a brief birthday party celebration at the house of some new converts and investigators in Las Américas. A white board with the lyrics of the song our zone sang at the activity, ten bucks if you can translate it with all the Chilean idioms, confiscated some more cigarettes from a recent convert/less active member that wants to quit smoking again. That's it.