First off, Wilton was able to get BAPTIZED!!!! Wow, I have to say his conversion has probably been one of the most rewarding experiences of my whole mission. When he bore his testimony I was holding back tears and it was an amazing experience. Wilton has really come to love the book of mormon and apply it to his life. When we found him he was a completely different person.... He was in the road with piercings everywhere and a tad drunk. He had problems with almost every single part of every single commandment. When we first found him and taught the restoration he was with about 8 or 9 friends that were all doing the same crappy stuff together but wow it felt like an Abinadi experience because it seemed like we were just teaching a ton of people and no one was listening, but we kept teaching. And when we talked about the power of the gospel in changing people's lives we caught the attention of Wilton. We didn't know of course in that moment but when Sunday came, he and his best friend were the only ones who showed up. He immediately started participating in all of the classes and asked us to come visit him personally. When we got there we started teaching him about repentance. He wanted to know how to find the strength to leave behind his addictions. He explained that he had been trying to leave behind his addictions for years but had never been able to. Not even a day. That's when we gave him the Book of Mormon and a promise that if he would read the Book of Mormon every day, and pray to God asking for help to leave behind his addictions that he would be able to do it. And he did it, every day, and he started devouring the Book of Mormon and pouring out himself to God, to the point that he started memorizing things like Lehi's vision and the profecy about the olive branches. He read and memorized everything he could find about Prophet Russel M Nelson. It was incredible to see. He was doing amazing, we would invite and he would do it, he had completely left everything behind when we noticed that we hadn't seen his friend in a while. We asked him about his friend. What he told us is that this guy had been his best friend since he was little. They had done everything together, but when they both went to church the friend decided he didn't want to change so WIlton dropped him and decided to follow the church instead. He said it was one of the hardest things he has done but that he now knows what he wants in this life and in the next. And now he is baptized. I could go on and on about his story because there is so much to it but I just want to testify of the power of the gospel in our lives. I've felt it personally and seen it many times in the lives of those around me. And a lot of it has to do with the simple things, reading and praying.
The rest of the week was taken up by office work. We have had a missionary with us recently that has some back problems so we were in the hospital figuring that out, helping out a sister who lost her insurance card who also has back problems........yeah......., and fixing the sisters car that broke down. Hahaha but its been all good. The Elder that we were with had to go home for further treatments so I had to get all the flights and stuff worked out and yeah... it was just one thing after another that came up and it made for a super busy week. We also moved into a new house and transfers are coming up so that's been pretty crazy too, figuring out flights and people going home and others coming so it's all just a good time. Other thing, our mission received over 1,000 online self/friend references this last week, and i had no idea (due to the emergency transfer into the office and the lack of ANY training on what my job entails) that i am in charge of overseeing all references and following up with all the Elders and also contacting all the people that live in our mission boundaries but where missionaries can't make it to due to living condition there.Sooooo that has been a ball of fun also. But yeah life's really good. I'm loving the office these days now that I feel like I have a hold on things. My mission president and his wife have been so helpful and I've come to have an amazing relationship with them and a better understanding of the difficulties and the inspiration and everything that goes into being a mission president. I thought my job was hard.... haha but the mission has been the most rewarding thing i've done in my life. I can't wait for the last half of it!!
-Love Elder Thornton
Elder Stevens, Elder Bentes (the one that has been having back problems), his companion - Brother Nhamotocue and Elder Thornton
New house
Wilton's baptism day
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