Hey everyone hope you're all doing great. We're doing pretty good here in The Noria. 

Anyways, this first few weeks with Elder Arena have been really good but really busy for us. We didn't receive much help from the office getting the things we needed to set up a new zone but we've finally got just about everything settled in. We were able to help a 17 year old kid named Edson get baptized last week. He is the brother of a recent convert named Ana Ybañez. They are really cool kids and have stayed pretty active since being baptized. Edson was kind of a wild kid at first. He works a lot and was always working on buses or painting houses and it was hard to find him. He would always listen and have a lot of questions and seemed very interested. Well about two months ago he was working so much that we hardly ever saw him. One day one of President's assistants, Elder Vera, came with me on a work visit and we randomly passed by his house and he was there. We just taught him the importance of going to church and then told him that what we really desired for him was to be baptized. He just looked over at his sister and she nodded her head saying yes and he just said alright. haha It was kind of a funny experience how he so easily accepted to be baptized after so long but it was cool that he made the right decision when he felt the spirit. 

I had the opportunity to baptize him and when we entered into the water it was really, really cold. He didn't want to enter in at first and was shaking but when I started saying the prayer he stopped shaking and didn't start again until leaving the water. After we got out of the water he told me that it startled him. When I started the prayer he said the water felt warm and when I said in the name of Jesus Christ the water was really hot. He asked me what it was and I told him I wasn't sure but maybe it was a sign from God that it was the right decision to be baptized. After the ordinance, a member got up to share their testimony and what they said in their testimony really moved Edson. He said pretty much what happened in his baptism that you just feel warm and clean coming out of the font. It was a really cool experience and I know it will help Edson stay active after being baptized. 

Well I hope that Sadie has a great birthday and that everything goes good back at home this week I'll be sure to let you know if they throw eggs and flour all over me like they did last year and I know that this will be a very special birthday for me.

 I love you guys and miss you a lot,

 until next week, 

Elder Wilkinson