Vegas!!

What up Familia,

So today we drove all the way to Las Vegas the breeding grounds for sinners and the home of some very dirty things haha. Well when we got to the Consulate it felt like I was already in Mexico because they had colors all over the place everyone spoke Spanish and I was the 6ft 4in white kid waiting for my turn. It blows my mind that people actually go to Vegas because as we were driving by I realized how big of a dump it is, everything looks a bagillian years old and dirty. Anyways the UVU game looked like a ton of fun I have never seen that gym so full even when there are multiple teams there. I knew Maddy would do good she always does. Yes I got your box as well as the two from Aunt Ashley Adam and Zian. They got me a pretty cool tie and a wolf tie pin they look awesome. Grandma Brenda also sent me a box with some goodies and pictures, it is literally the best getting boxes full of stuff from everyone because I don't think it is going to last after I get to Mexico. I'm still not sure on when I leave yet my companion Elder Day leaves the 14th and he thinks I leave two days before him so that would put me leaving the 12th of October. Oh yeah Dad I saw a big horn sheep on the way back from Vegas standing on on of the cliffs. The weather has been so nice this past week not to hot and perfect at night time. Last week I got to talk with Jace Clinger for awhile it was just like old times I hadn't had the chance to email him in a long time so that was supper nice to talk for awhile. Mom how is Kevin Hillyard doing do you know if he made BYU or not or if he put his papers in? Could you find my blessing  by the way? That's so awesome that Eli made the play I'm so proud of him and that's going to be way fun to go see. Ok Mom I put a ton of pictures from when I was at the MTC and some from here on a website and it's called Outlook.com.  I love you all and can't wait to hear from you again. Gave work hard on your math bud I know it's not fun, but you can do it.

- Elder Wolford

The Visa is here!!

Mi Familia,

Well Saint George is really awesome and I love it down here. So just the other day we had a zone meeting about the number for last month and our goals for this month which took about 4 hours of my life. Anyways after this meeting my companion Elder Day and I had to talk to one of the Brothers in the mission office about getting own new phone and as We walked in there the lady at the desk looked at me and said, " Oh good your visa is here." Finalmente está aquí!!! She said she would hold the paper work at the office for me until I was closer to leaving, but I have to drive to Las Vegas sometime in the next two weeks to go to the Mexican Consulate. Apparently that's all I really had to do to get my visa because if I would have went earlier my visa would have got here a lot faster. Crazy huh. I think I leave for Mexico on October 14 which is Isaiah's birthday so that will be fun. I'm learning a lot here which is good because it will help me before I go to Mexico and My trainer is so awesome he has told me so much and helped me to prepare myself for a ton of things that are out in the mission field. The past few days there was a massive fire in the mountains up here and it was pretty big I've got some pictures of it. Yesterday was a good day because we had a broadcast from BYU for all of southern Utah and it was great and really funny. Mom sister Tylor contacted  you the other day by sending pictures right? Anyways so yesterday we were talking at dinner about how her son had Facebook on his mission and then my companion said, " I'm going to be completely honest with you we looked you up before you got here because I was worried I was going to get another weirdo for my comp and I wanted to know if you were normal or not." I was like really. It was pretty funny and this family is really awesome and man does she know how to cook. The food has been so good now that I'm finally out of the MTC prison food haha. Jace emailed me the other day I was worried because his email was on my other account, but that's when I got an email from him it was great. Funny story time so last Monday night I had dinner and a members house and it was normal shared a quick little message and then that was it right. Well I got an email from Maddie and she said I just had dinner at her best friends house and they have been friends since elementary school. What are the odds right? Elder Day thought it was pretty funny and got a kick out of it. Another night when we had dinner at another members house the husband was from Mexico and he started telling a whole lot about what to expect and some friendly tips to help me when I get down there. I can't wait the excitement is killing me. During one of our lessons with one of our investigators he told me I need to pack some heat and carry a machete so that no one would bother me. A lot of people have told me try to blend in and don't have fancy things that would attract someone's gaze, but that is going to be really hard for a 6ft 4in pasty white kid from America to do. Well hope I can hear from you soon love you all 

- Elder Wolford

First Week in St. George& New Address

Hola Familia,

Wow there is so much stuff that has happened over the last few days and it is literally blowing my mind. Well so if you didn't know already I got to see Dallin H. Oaks last Tuesday before I left the MTC and it was so awesome. I can't wait to tell the other Elders who left before I did. Man was getting here a hassle first off waking up early was not fun and then I had to take a bus, to get on a train, to get on a tram, to get to the airport to go through security, to get on a plane just to come a few hours away. While I was waiting in the baggage line a lady asked me where I was going and said if I want she can send a picture to my mom and of course I said yea. Oh yeah it was great getting to hear from most of you the other day while I was waiting for my flight. Well when we started to board I found my seat and plopped my bum next to a middle aged woman and continued to talk with mom. After I hung up I apologized and started to talk with this lady about everything. Then I asked her to get baptized on the spot. No I'm just kidding, I asked her why she was flying to Saint George and she said she was from Philadelphia and she is on a little vacation with her husband. Then I asked if she has been to Utah before and she told me this was her first time. What are the odds that she is not a member now right, so I asked if she was and she said no. Just what I wanted an opportunity to teach someone about Christ and give them the book that has saved many souls as well as my own. I talked with her the whole flight from when we took off till we landed about a ton of stuff mostly about family and religion though and by the end I told her what it can do for her and as well as the blessings that come. I pulled out a Book of Mormon and gave it to her and then we stated to get off. It was nuts. 

I have almost been in the field a week now and it is so wonderful because now I actually get real food and since I'm still in Utah the church is pretty strong here, but all I do is put on a name tag and start helping people and the members treat us like celebrities. Sometimes they pay for our food, groceries, or just come up and give us money. The sad thing is though even though it's all great and all I won't have these blessings in Mexico, but it's cool that I get to experience both sides. The first day out in the field my companion and I taught a couple of lessons and did some other things, but it was crazy because they literally throw you out into the fire. The next day my companion had a district meeting same with another trainer, so they put me and another new Elder that came in the same day I did together and dropped us off in a sketchy part of town and told us to get to work. So Elder Holt and I start knocking on doors and doing what I thought we should do even though we had no training. I'm telling you this place was sketchy because every house looked like a crack house and most had Pit Bulls foaming at the mouth ready to kill and I'm pretty sure I saw some missionary name tags in the yard from previous missionaries that tried to knock on their door. 

I had dinner last night with a family and their son served in Philadelphia the same time as Isaac's older brother Jake Meline and they had a picture of him on the fridge. Another thing that was funny was a kid paid for our food one day a Red Robins and he was there when we had dinner last night it was pretty funny. So I'm living with members and they are absolutely the best people on this earth because they do so much for us and they really do care how we are doing. They have had missionaries live at their house for about 5 or so years and if you want to send me letters and packages my address is 1009 North 2050 East St. George, UT 84770. Yesterday was my first sacrament meeting completely in Spanish and it was fantastic everyone seemed normal and they were happy to see the Elders and I understood about 10% of what everyone was saying, it was great. This week has been really funny because everywhere I go people always ask my companion Elder Day, "What happened to the other guy?" Great now what I think they think is, " Who is this joker fresh out of the MTC?" Speaking about the MTC Daniel's brother is a teacher there now for Tongan and Haden Wall is there right now. Sacrament was so good because everyone was speaking Spanish and I got really nothing out of it other than a really good feeling and also getting showed up by a kid that was whiter than me and a little girl who spoke flawlessly in Spanish. 

Honestly the field is not as bad as I thought, I would have to say the MTC was pretty much the worst of it so far, but our Heavenly Father seems to do that. When we start to get comfortable with something He throws us a little curve because he knows we are ready to grow and progress even more. Teaching people is a ton of fun and same with getting free stuff. Read Alma 32 it is a great chapter and helps us realize that we need to continue to nourish our spiritual seed because it is the little things that help us continue to grow and produce good fruit. We don't want our seed to get weak and dry up to wither away because it is hard to bring a dead plat back to life so just like in Kung Fu Panda Oogway say's, " If you love it, nurture it, and care of it, it will turn into a beautiful peach tree." I'm so excited to be here in Saint George because I know someone needs me down here or I need them. It's actually pretty crazy the odds of my companion Elder Day and I being comps together. Because I was supposed to be in Mexico and he told me that he has never heard of a visa waiter for Mexico and my flight plans got changed right so that's my part of the story. Now for Elder Day's part. So he actually could be home right now if he went out when he was supposed to, but before he left on his mission he broke his arm and couldn't even dress himself so they pushed his availability date back a transfer. So he could be home right now if he didn't break his arm. Anyways that would have changed his whole mission because of the people he would be with. So then before I came out everyone in Saint George was waiting to see who their new companion was going to be as well as to see if they were getting transferred. Elder Day was not supposed to be my trainer at all because I was supposed to go to Gunnison with some other guy, but one Elder wanted to get out of Cedar so he denied the transfer because he was not being moved from Cedar and he wanted out so they put him in Gunnison where I was going and they moved Elder day's old companion to Cedar and I got paired up with Elder Day it was flipping crazy what had happened here before I even got here. Well I love you all with and can't wait to hear back from you my P-Days are now on Monday and I have a lot more time than 60 minutes and I can also I-message you too.

- Elder Wolford 

Seek and Destroy by Metallica

Querido Familia, 

 Well as all of you know by now my visa has not arrived yet so I will be serving in the Saint George mission for some time and I have no idea how long, but for some reason Saint George needs me before I go to Mexico. These last few days have been pretty crazy because everyone in my district has been getting all their stuff together and packed up ready to go. It is pretty hard these last few days because At first I was leaving the same night as my companions Elder Smith and Elder Gwilliam, but after my flight plans changed they put me back 2 days which meant everyone in my room was leaving except for me. That was pretty hard for me because I became really good friends with Elder Smith and since he lives in England who know if I will get to see him again. They left Monday morning. Luckily though the Panama Elders in my district didn't leave until this morning so I spent all day with them yesterday and spent the night in there room both nights. I was blessed with another day to pack early so I wouldn't have to do it tonight. Anyways I woke up at 3:30 and helped them get everything cleaned up and carried some of their bags down from the top floor and walked with them to the travel office. This hurt my heart so much because over the last few weeks of being a district leader and zone leader my assignment was to watch over and take care of these Elders and they became like my little brothers. I said love you, goodbye, good luck and see you in two years. Now began my walk back to the residence alone with everyone in my district gone and I went into the room with no one in it. I got down on my knees and wept for five minutes. I loved every single one of them so much and now I was all alone....then I remembered I was never alone and that someone promised me that He would always be by my side to help me in times of need and I kind of got a little spect of how He felt when he lost connection with his Father in Heaven. This MTC experience has changed me so much and now it's time to go out in the field and teach my fellow brothers and sisters about our loving Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ our Savior. Wow do I love learning more about the gospel. Ok last week when I wrote I said that I had an experience that I couldn't talk about yet, well I think now is a good time to share. So there was an Elder in my district that suffers from depression and he has a really hard time keeping positive thoughts. Anyways every week he would see a counselor and take a little test to see where he was at and If he scored to high on this test there was a possibility of him being sent home unable to serve. Ok going back a bit this Elder and I became pretty good friends because during the end of the first week when I was brushing my teeth he started singing Seek and Destroy by Metallica and I started to sing along. He stopped and was like who sang that? It was me. From there we shared a lot of stories and tales about our lives and Gabe would love him because he is crazy too. This Elder skated through fire on his board and since gasoline is slippery when it's on fire he fell off his board right into the fire. He jumped out and ripped off his clothes it was insane. Ok this is were it gets personal. So his companion and another Elder came up to me and said we need to talk and this was right after I wanted to punch my companion in the face so I told them let me shower first so I can clear my mind. After some thinking in the shower I was able to calm down and clear my thoughts. Elder Cragun and Elder Nellis pulled me into the foyer to talk about the other Elder and his situation. Others from our district kept interrupting so I had no idea what they wanted to tell me. Some time went by and finally all the other Elders left except the one that we were going to talk to each other about. He then says to me, "If you don't already know I suffer from depression and this last week I scored pretty high on the test and I might be going home....I don't want to go home." This literally destroyed my heart because that is one thing I would never want for anyone to go through and I really loved this Elder and I could not bare to see him go home. He is a convert, his family are members, but he wasn't until he had a change of heart so here at the MTC he was one of my biggest examples because of the faith he had to come serve a mission. Back to the story. I sat there looking at him for a second and didn't know what to say, tears started to form in my eyes and roll down my face. When I started to speak I just poured my heart out and told him how much I love him and how much our Father in Heaven loves him. When I was finished I asked if he has had a blessing since he has been here and he said no. Then I asked if he would like one. We all sat there for awhile and he finally said yes, then I asked who would you like to do it and he said, " Elder Wolford would you do it?" We all went into his room and I started to bless him and I can't tell you how I felt the Spirit was so strong and I could feel how much the Lord loved him. I don't remember what I said all I remember is after I was done he got up and hugged me really tight and I just held him as he started to cry on my shoulder. I'm so blessed that I have the opportunity to help my fellow brethren like at that time and in that moment I realized it is exactly what the Savior does for us he helps us up when we fall, he is there to carry us when we can go no further, and he is is there when we need to cry on his shoulder. I know I was sent here for a reason and for a purpose and now Saint George needs me now for some reason and I can't wait to find out why. I know this church is the true church of God and that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God that translated the Book of Mormon for us today and through Jesus Christ we can do anything and everything. I love you all so much and want you to continue to read the scriptures because it will bring you closer to Jesus Christ and our Father in Heaven. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior and Redeemer, amen.

Mom I have no idea if it will be Spanish or English I will find out later. My Spanish is alright and it's enough to get me by, but I'm no where close to being great. Love you and call you later.

- Elder Wolford