Oct. 29, 2018

Hello everybody!

So as it turns out, half of my area is the Hood of St. Louis. In fact, my apartment is at the edge of it. So yeah, have heard gunshots and found bullets, haha. A semi-automatic went off down the street from our apartment one night and a single shot went off right outside the house of a member as we were giving our lesson, which is interesting. We're safe though because everybody knows we're disciples of Christ and respects us for that. Also, our area has an earlier curfew so we're not out late in the evening. Life is certainly interesting!

This past Sunday, we had stake conference which was also my first time attending the adult session of conference. It was a great experience! The main messages was to follow the prophet's counsels because they come from the Lord. Also, we need to get more involved in missionary work. That message has been a common theme throughout a lot of recent messages from church leaders who are called of God. On a side note, I found Dwight Shrute from The Office! The 1st counselor in the stake presidency literally looks, acts, and talks like a sixty-year-old Dwight, haha. He even has a wood-carving hobby! It's so funny.

I think each week I'll include a fun fact about St. Louis since there is so many fun quirks about it. So the fun fact for this week is that there is enough abandoned homes and buildings to house a large portion of America's homeless population. The trouble is they're just falling into disarray now because nobody wants the burden of them. In fact, there is so many abandoned buildings held by the city that they don't have enough workers, bulldozers, and money to tear em down. So they sit and start to be reclaimed by nature. Some of them are beautifully overgrown with wildlife, others are just boarded up or burnt to a crisp. In fact, one neighborhood we visited had been completely abandoned which felt like an apocalyptic setting. Each day is an adventure into something new.

The St Louis mission is starting to pick up speed. Before, many people were against the church and strict to there own beliefs. However, people are now starting to open up to us. I think it might be because of all the scary stuff happening around the world and people are looking for answers and peace, something the Book of Mormon and the Gospel of Jesus Christ has a plethora of.

Once again, the work goes on but needs everybody's help. This past General Conference, they devoted the whole Saturday afternoon session to talking about missionary work and lots of great thoughts were shared about it. Nobody should be kept from this great message. To help this message go forward, we all need to share. I would encourage all members to reach out to someone who could use the peace of Christ in their lives. And for all of you who are not members, please give the message a chance. It won't cost you anything to try it, but you have the chance to gain everything from it. The Book of Mormon is true and you can find that out for yourself. Jesus Christ once again heads HIS church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and you can find that out for yourself. God is our loving Heavenly Father who cares for us and does what's best for us, just not always in the way we'd expect, and you can find that out for yourself.

Remember who you are!

Love, Elder Wilson