Christmas in Uruguay

the temple here in montevideo

Me with my new companion in the missionhouse.

Us with our nice christmas tree :) ¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everybody´s christmas went as great as mine did! It was so nice to be able to see and help the people here remember Christ´s birth and life yesterday. Also, it was so awesome and unreal to be able to skype my family. Thanks for the new ties!

This week was really good. My new 'oro' is named Elder Whiting. He is awesome. He is from Idaho, and has a lot of the Idaho personality. He is super humble and I am super excited to be able to work with him. This is his 2nd try on the mision, about a year ago he was called to this mission, but in the MTC had to go back home. but he changed some things around,and decided to come back on out! He is 20. I love him so much,and it feels so good to have a good, normal companion who had his heart in the mission. We will have lots of good sucess together. 

So, christmas here is pretty much like the 4th of July in the US, but on mega sterroids. They just get all together as families and friends, barbeque, and at midnight they pretty much just blow up the world! it was the crazyest experience i have ever had on midnight christmas eve when they all let off their fireworks! We were trying tosleep, but literally it sounded like Pearl Harbor was happening above our house. It was so awesome to see. 

I love Uruguay, it is so awesome. Oh, and yesterday I ate about half of a barbequed lamb. It was way good :) I love the mission and i hope it never ends. 

Enjoy the cold weather, and feel free to send some my way if you want. 

Elder Wilson

Skyping with Covey

This is what we were treated to on Christmas Day.

We are grateful for modern technology that allows us to interact with a missionary on the other half of the world.

He was grinning and joking and so happy the whole time.

We love you Covey! See you in 1.5!

We get to see Elder Wilson on Skype in just a few days!

[Note from the blog updater: This weekly email was kind of short because Elder Wilson had to take time telling us exactly how to SKYPE him on Christmas Day! We can't wait to talk to him and see his face!]

This week was really good. On wednesday we had the Mission Christmas conference in Montevideo, where all the 210 missionaries in the mission came in together. It was really really awesome and spiritual. Also it was fun to see all of my missionary friends that i know from the MTC and my old areas and everything. There is a really awesome spirit when you get a whole bunc of missionaries together. Also, each day I grow more and more to love President and Hermana DaSilva. They are the best mission presidents in the world. 

We have found lots of great new people to teach, and now we are workng hard to progress them towards baptism. A lot of my investigators are progressing, but they are really stubborn, and are progressing kinda slow. So we are always lookin and searching for new investigators to teach and progress. 

So far in my mission I have learned a lot about the importance of setting and reaching goals, and especially of compromisos.. uhh commitments. If the investigators can keep commitments, they are guaranteed to progress. It is really sad when they dont keep their comitments. 

Oh, tomorrow, my companion Hermano Rodriguez will leave the mission, and I will get a new 'oro' to train. He will come from the MTC in Argentina. So more updates on that next week. This transfer has been crazy! 3companions, 2 oros and a priest! I have learned a lot. And had a lot of fun. We are working really hard. 

Next email I will try to tell you a little bit about some of the weird traditions that they do here in Uruguay. 

Elder Wilson.

PS Merry Christmas!

The New Companion Polka, and ants that eat all of Covey's chocolate cake

A few of the african-style ants that I was talking about. I accidently left out a piece of chocolate cake on the counter, and they ate the whole thing! So im pretty upset with them right now.

A little bit of Uruguayan landscape. This is what almost all of my area is like.

My new companion Angelo Rodrigues

Bueno, this week started out really crazy for me, but now things are all settled down. My old companion Elder Rodrigues did not leave untill thursday in the night, so for 5 days this week we had to arrainge a priest from the ward to be my companinon, and my 'corto plazo' stayed wiht my companion in the house. Then, tuesday morning, President Arnold called me in the house (the area president, the one who gave that awesome talk a couple years ago in General Conference) and explained to me his game plan to try and keep my companion in the mission. It all started with a spiritual whitewash in the temple. On tuesday we went to the temple and spent 7 hours doing about everything that is possible to do in the temple. It was so amazing to be able to spend a ton of time in the temple. then me and my´'corto plazo' went back to the area and worked the whole rest of the day, and myu companion stayed in the temple for another 7 hours. On wednesday, he had an interview with president Arnold, the temple president, and president dasilva (three spiritual powerhouses), but despite all of our best efforts, he still sadly decided to use his agency and go home :( It was really sad to see him leave, but there is nothing I could do.

 

My corto plazo is awesome. He is a 16 year old priest from a city call 33 about 2 hours from here. He has such an awesome testimony, and a ton of energy and animo. Its lots of fun to work with a youth like him. He's got so much energy! We come home, both exhasted from the days work, physically and spiritually, and I stay tired till bed time, but he recoveres in about 5 minuits, and then starts jumping around, and just being a 16 year old youth. its way fun, and we are working hard and have lots of animo (I honestly dont know what the english definition of animo means, but ask a spanish speaker).

 

We are working hard, and having lots of sucess here.

 

I love you all, keep my investigators in your prayres!

 

Elder Wilson

hardest week yet

me+ my new/old companion Elder Rodriguez+ cristian (baptim)+ cristian´s cousin (who we are teaching now)+ and Hno. Silvetti (who did the baptism)

the young men of the ward. We play futbol on Pdays. They are awesome people.

Bueno, this week has by far been the craziest week I've ever had! First of all the important stuff. Cristian Torrez got baptized! he is 23 years old, and we found him through his mom. We were teaching his mom (who was not progressing) and we were about to drop teaching her. Before he had always gone into the other room, but one day I dont know what happened to him, but he came in to eat something, I said ¨cristian, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and get baptized?¨ and well, he got baptized! And he got the priesthood on sunday, which was awesome to watch. I love being able to see the converts get baptized. 

ok, now onto the less important, but maybe a little more interesting things... this has been the hardest week on my mission too. On tuesday I went into the mision home bright and early and got my 'oro', my new companion. His name is Elder Rodriuez de Hondures, he is 25 years old, and I love him soooooo much... but the problem is that he doesnt love the mission so much... we have been working together really close with President DaSilva and the assistants, and He is going home today in a couple hours. I learned a ton this week, working, crying, and trying to help him, and it is really really sad to me to see him making the disision to give up and go home.. really sad because I love him. ha, maybe it was for a reason that president assigned him to serve here right next to the airport. haha its been an interesting experience as a trainer :)  

so, in a couple hours I will get what is called a 'corto plazo' which means short time. And what will happen is a 17 year old priest from here in Uruguay has been called to be my companion for the next 6 weeks of the transfer. I am really excited to meet him in a couple of hours, and we are going to keep on baptizing every week here in Areoparque.

more details to follow on this next week. 

I love everyone! pray for me, and especially the investigators! And my new companion.

Elder Wilson 

In which Covey becomes a trainer, baptizes a 10-year-old, and gets well-cooked

This week we had a really good baptism. we baptized this one kid named Agustin Gonzales. He is 10 years old, and here is why his baptism is so awesome. His family (all the people in the picture) are members of the church, and were way active, they were all leaders and awesme membersof the ward. But about 4 years ago, something happened, and the entire extended family went inactive. While we were teaching agustin, one by one we got the whole familyinvolved. Through him and his baptism, the whole family has now re-activated in the ward. It is really exciting for the ward.

I am really nerveous! tomarrow are transferers,and I am assigned to be a trainer!! My companion is leaving, and I am going to train my "oro" here in areoparque. It is going to be a really great experience, and I know i will learn a ton! ha I feel like i am still just a "oro" (oro means gold, and thats what they call new missionaries here. I think they are called greenies or something up there), and now i get the chance to train, its a lot of responsibility, and i really am really excited to train him. More updates on that next week!

Its sad that my compañero Elder Banegasleaves though, he is really good and we worked together really well and had lots of baptisms here in areoparque (which is an area a little infamous for not baptising at all). with him, my spanish and ability to teach increased a lot, and we had a lot of fun and spiritual experiences. 

oh, we talked to cristina this week ( the one who i explained in the last letter home), and it looks like she wont get baptised at this time,  but we still have lots of faith in her. What happened is that she met some apostate mormon, and heard all sorts of lies, which gave her some doubts. But we are just working with her to develop her testimony in the Book of Mormon. If soemone believes in the book of mormon, any doubt they might have can be resolved.

I love the bookof mormon. One of the biggest blessings of being a missionary is that we have the chance to be able to relly study and memorize that book. Every page has awesome scripture, and it has every thing that mankind needs to know to be happy in this life and forever. I love it. 

Gotta go! I am getting well-cooked down here :) Its weird to think that you are all freezing in the winter! I love the misson. 

Elder Wilson

one temple trip, one baptism, and one non-baptism

This was a really great week for us! It started out with us being able to go into montevideo and be able to go to a session in the Temple! It felt so good, I love being in that sacred building, and being able to perform the sacred ordanances of the temple. It is such a strong spiritual blessing to be able to go, and I was able to recieve strong personal revelation, and also be able to be able to recieve revalation for my companionship and the people in my area that I am teaching. It was nice to be able to be in the temple and reflect over what I have done on my mission so far, what I have done well, and what i can do better. I really have a really strong testimony of Temples, and miss being able to go multiple times every week before the mission, but I am here to do ordanances for the living, not the dead!

After the session in the temple we had a really good zone conference with president da silva, it was a really really good zone conference. we read over the creation of the world in the book of Moses, and applied the principles to what we are doing as missionaries, and in the misson Montevideo Uruguay. One thing that we talked about was the order and organization of everything... literally everything that God does. And if we in our lives, or misiones, want to enjoy the guidance of the spirit, we have to have things in order, and do things the way that the lord wants us to. 

This week we had the baptism of Laura, the 18 year old daughter of Zily who got baptized a couple weeks ago. Laura is an increadibly awesome woman, but her biggest challange is that she is the most shy person i have literally ever met. I honestly think that The whole 3 weeks that we have been teaching her she only said Sí to agree to keep the commitments. In the baptismal service, i think she almost died of emberasment because there were lots of members (for this reason I dont have a picture of her, she wouldnt let us take one with her). But at the moment of her baptism, the spirit decended so strongly, more stongly that I have ever felt it in one of my converts baptisms, and I felt the strongest impression that she is going to be a really really big help to the church. For a moment both me and my companion got the same picture in our minds of her dressed in white going into the temple to recieve her endowments. it was a really special moment, all the members were crying. 

The other baptism that we had planned this week had a slightly different ending. Her name is Cristina, a señora of about 45 years, who was an absolutely golden investigator. She read the Book of Mormon like a profet, she went to church activities, she had one foot in the water, but on the day of her interview I called her to set the time, and the first thing she said was ¨no me voy a bautizarme¨ and hung up. Oh, at that moment I fealt really bad and devistated. After that phone call we wernt able to find her for 3 days to see what happened, but yesterday we made contact! And set up a charla with her for later this week. Im really anxious to see her, and see what happened. But we have lots of faith in her, she is soooo good. It is so interesting to see all of the tricks that satan plays on the people who are about to get baptized! Please pray for her. 

well, time to go! I love everyone.

chau

Elder Wilson

Areoparque

This week was really good, I am really growing to love the area Areoparque more and more. We have been working really hard here and are seeing lots of sucess. Remember how I said that when I arrived here a few weeks ago the Ward here was not really working well with the Misionaries? Well, we have been working really hard to work well with the members and leaders and gañar the confianza uhh confidance of the ward. We have seen a lot of progress. Now we are having almost every single lesson with a member and are progreassing a lot with that, which is leading us to get more and more good investigators through the members. I really have no problem clapping houses, its fun to do, but it is so painfully ineffecive to find new investigators! 

I love being able to spend all my heart might mind and strength in the lord here in my mission. I know that after the mission life is going to get really really busy and quick, and I wont be able to spend so much time specifically on the Lord. And the scary part is that my mission is flying by so quick! I feel like I just got here in Uruguay a couple weeks ago, but its already been almost 6 monthes since I gave my farewell talk and hopped on the plane! But i love my mission. If anyone is reading this who is deciding wether or not to serve a mission, Do It! it is the best thing you will ever do.

The mission is the best marriage prep, father prep, work prep, school prep, leadership prep, deciple prep, cooking prep, budgeting prep... well just life prep class anyone could ever take.But those are selfish reasons to go.  the best part about being able to serve a mission is that you get to help out the Lord in his ¨work and glory.. to bring to pass the imortality and eternal life of man¨, and when you do that you get to see a little bit of what he means about the pure love of christ. I dunno, the best part of the mission is the love. 

Anyways... Im reading the Old Testiment right now, and am learning a lot of  good things, but it really is a BIG test of faith to belive some of the things that it says. I would recommend a study of the Book of Mormon before the OT :)

I love everyone. Thanks for your prayres. 

Elder Wilson

ants and white pants

zuly and bryan, with the bishop doing the baptism. The rest of the kids are children/grandchildren of Zuli and friends of Bryan.

another Uruguayan sky. sorry, but when I dont have any good pictures I just put the ones I have takin of the sky. Its hard to take pictures here, because I dont take my camera out.

This week went really good. We had the baptisms of Zuly and Bryan. Zuly is a 47 year old woman who we fould just knocking doors. Her Husband died just 2 years ago, and it was/is really hard for the family. She progressed really fast to her baptism, now we are teaching her 18 year old daughter Laura. Laura is a really good investigator, but she is reaaaallly shy. I think that the only words we have ever heard her say are yes when she commits to live the commandments. 

Bryan, the other baptism, is a 14 year old boy, who his friends brought to the church, we taught him, and he got baptized. It is really good for the ward, because they are in desperate and constand serch for priesthood holders. He is a really good kid, and it is good for him to have the help of the Holy Ghost because his house has a really hard environment. It was kind of funny, but we had to almost literally drag him out of the bathroom and into the baptism because he was WAY emberassed to be seen wearing funny looking white clothes in front of his friends. But he is a really good kid. 

I have a personal goal to never get my white pants wet on my mission. I dont want to have to perform a single baptismal ordanance, but rather have members of the ward perform the ordanance. This will help the inviestigators feel more loved in the ward, and also will help animate the members of the Ward to use their priesthood, and develop their testimonies, and also it helps the members have more trust in the missionaries. This week the bishop did the baptisms. 

Also, I am really really really happy because I saw in the weekly newsletter that the people I had been teaching forever in Rocha got baptized 3 day after I left! It feels really good to be able to look back and see how peoples lives have changed. 

Our goal is to have every single lession with a member, and so far we have seen lots of good results from our work. it takes a lot of faith, coordination, diligence and hard work to work well with the members, but the results are really good. I fermly believe that Bryan and Zuly got baptized because they had had a member in every lesson with them. 

I am getting really good at cooking too. 

One fun fact about Uruguay is that they do their ants Jungle style, or in other words, they have huge lines of millions of ants eating everything in their way. I will try to get a picture, they pass through (literally) our house usually every wednesday. 

I love the mission. I miss you all... I cant remember exactly when Thanksgiving is, but if its this week, Happy Thankgiving!!!

Elder Wilson

a funny story and a brand new clothes washer

Happy haloween! I think its a great pagan holiday, and I feel especially glad to not be a Jehovahs whitness today, they are generally unhappy on "holidays". I decided to dress up like a missonary today. And i will trick or treat a few houses after pday ends.. we "trick or treat" every day as missionaries.

This week has been great. me and elder banegas work together really well and we are having a lot of sucess. we expect lots of baptisms this change... um i think they are called transfers up in the US. With elder banegas my spanish is getting a lot better, because we are not tempted to talk in english. 

My area is really good, but it is really hard. we lose lots of time on the busses traveling  back and forth, and we are can only be in certian areas when it gets dark. it really just consists of a bunch of small little towns. I doubt that it even appears on the maps. But we do have the airport in our area, and it is really weird to always have plains flying by overhead. I went 3 monthes with out seeing a single plane, and now i see them every couple minuits. oh, but one really cool thing about my area is that the compound where the national selection Uruguay team practices in in my area, which is really awesome. Ill try and get a pickure one day. 

But the people here are really awesome, and I love being here. On my mission I learn so much every day, and I can really feel my life changing along side of my invistigators. My mission means everytihing to me, and sorry all you guys up north, but you are all seeming to be more and more of a dream to me. 

Oh! and a miricle happened on saturday, we were studying together, and guess who came-a-clapping on our door. Presidente y Hermana DaSilva! The miricle is that they brought with them a brand new clothes washer! I have been doing my laundry by hand every day for the past 5 monthes, and it feels sooo nice to relax and listen to the machine do it for you. I really do love my president. They are really good, strict but very nice. President daSinlva is a ameritest (cant remember how to spell that one) member of the quarum of the 70, and is a really good president. And this is the best mission on the face of the planet. 

funny story. We had a person who was having a hard time keeping the commandments, so we decided to read the good ole classic 1 NE 3:7 to try and modivate her and get her to accept a baptismal fecha. But she opened up to 3NE 3:7 and read that one instead... a little hard to explain that verse, but it worked and she accepted the challange and has a baptismal fecha hahahah the lord works in way myserious ways sometimes. 

Anyways, I hope everything is good, thanks for all your prayers, and pray for my investigators more than me... well both if you can. 

Elder Wilson

Covey's new area!

a family that got baptized yesterday that I taught, but didnt get to see the baptism.

in the house of a recent convert

a pic of my new house with my companion in front (elder banegas)

New area! Aerio parque is awesome! Remember how i said that Rocha was like a little european city? Well my new area is nothing like rocha. areoparque is 100% latino! the houses, the music, the food, the cucurachas, the people, is all really latin american. It is about 35 kilometres outside of Montevideo, and is pretty campo (I cant remember what that word is in english). I am serving in a ward here, which is nice because there is lots of leadership and priesthood members. Unfortunately the elders before us were a little bit un-productive, and did not have much sucess baptizing, and kind of lost the confidence of the members. But we are working reallly hard to turn this area into a really productive area. Already we have made lots of progress with this and the leaders and members are starting to participate in the work and trust in us.

My new companion is Elder Banegas de Honduras. He had a year on the mission, and I am really excited to work with him. He is way humble and has a really strong testimony, and is willing to work hard. We are going to have lots of sucess here. estoy seguro. Its really fun to have a latino companion.

The people here talk really really different than the rest of the spanish speaking world. The people are way nice and humble, and the weird thing is that missionaries have been here forever, so everyone knows who we are and has at one point talked to us.

The area is way big in space, but just mostly consists of small little neighborhoods, so we spend a lot of time on busses going back and forth everywhere.

I know that I am going to learn a whole lot here about how to be a missionary. I love the misson and am ready to accept the challenge of a new area.

plus the dogs are nice here. nicer... well i think so anyways.

Thanks for your prayres, pray for my investigators.
Elder Wilson

Covey baptizes Grisel, gets bitten by a dog (twice) and gets transferred to the most dangerous area of the mission

Grisel´s baptism. this is her and her husband Emilio. We hoped that they would get baptized together, but he still isnt ready to accept the commitment, but we keep on working really hard with him to get him to humble up a little and get baptized.

The sun really knows how to rise here. Sorry all I seem to send home is pictures of the sun rising and setting, but the problem is that dont take my camera out of the apartment ever, so I never am able to take any good pictures of the mission life.   But thats ok because the sun is really beautiful.

So, last night change calls came, and I am leaving Rocha tomorrow. It is really sad for me to leave this city that has been my home, my work, my everthing for the last three months. I love this little city so much, it is so beautiful, the country is so beautiful, and I know almost every single person. I and I really was hoping that I could stay for at least another 6 weeks. Especially it is sad because 3 of my investigators that we have been working with for such a long long time and have progressed so much are going to get baptized this saturday, and I will not be able to be there to see them. But its ok, all that matters is that they are getting baptized. And I am really excited to go somewhere fresh. My new area is called Aerio Parque, in Montevideo, and all that I have heard is that it is the most dangerous area in the mission. I am really excited to go work there.

 

But this week was really good, lots of our invesigators progressed a ton, and we found 2 awesome families. The weeks go by so quick! One thing that I really focused on this week was the power of testimony. In 2 aspects: realizing how strong my testimony is and how much power it has, and second, sharing it. It is like president holland pointed out in his talk in priesthood session: satan tried soo hard to bind our tounges so that we do not bear our testimonies to others. I love being able to bear testimony to the people in contacts about the divinity of Jesucristo to all the people that I can. That is one of the greatest blessings that misionaries have, to be able to bear testimony. I hope that all of the members of the church have courage to bear their testimonies. Also, i have  been taking Elder Scotts advice and memorizing one scripture per day. Now, I have 24 new friends, or memorized scriptures. Like elder scott said: scripture is pure truith, and I love reciting scripture in lessions and contacts. the scriptures have so much power.

 

Ther have been some people asking me why I dont like dogs anymore. I love the sinner but I hate the sin. the concept of the DOG is really good, but the dogs down in this side of the world are pretty wicked. I got bit pretty bad  this week twice. thats why i dont like dogs.

 

Also, thank you all for your letters, Missionaries love getting letters, and i am no exception. And i promise that i will write back to every single letter. But It would be nice if you sent a stamp inside the lettter so that I can send you a letter back, or else I have no way of sending it.

 

Thanks

Elder Wilson

a baptism! and LOTS of walking

We had a baptism this week! (picktures to come). Her name is Grisel, and we have been working with her for a few monthes now. It was such an awesome baptism, even though the water was freezing cold (the heater at the church was a little broken). She has done so much and changed so much in order to prepare herself for her baptism. It felt so good to see a baptism, and see the happiness it brings to families. Also, it makes me so happy to see my converts becoming really active in the church. Beatrice (my first convert) comes to every single church meeting, and recieved a calling in the Relief Society! She is nothing but smiles whenever we see her, and it feels so amazing to contrast her attitude and level of happiness that she feels now to when she opened the door for us. (Alma 26 - I sometimes feel like this). And Valeria is coming to everything and always inviting all of her friends and everything. Right now we are (trying) to teach her Mom, and we are teaching her cousin. Her cousin is awesome! She is deaf and Mute and cant read, so it really helps us teach by the spirit (because thats the only way we can communicate with her), but she is awesome, and i never thought that I would be learning a little sign language on my mission too!

This week we had Interviews with President DaSilva, and it went really good. He is such an awesome mission president. he used to be a member of the first quarum of the 70, and he knows how to really lead a mission. I am in the best mission in the world. Also, we are a little scared that this might be our last week together with my first comanion! Next week is changes, and we think that one of us will get changed. He is an awesome missionary and a great trainer. 

I did the math, and i have already walked more than the distance of my house in alpine to my house in Oregon and half way back. But its fun, I feel like a real missionary in old times (especially because this country is re-winded 20 years back). 

I love the mission, and thanks for all your prayres!

general conference week

What an awesome week the entire curch had with General Conference and some awesome new temples announced!

 

Bur first, Ive been thinking that I need to up the quality of my emails home. The problem is that I am working like a maniac all day-every day of the week, having more than 1000 cool experiences every day, without even thinking about what I am going to put into my little emails home on monday. Then before I know it, I am sitting here in front of the computer trying to write out some semi-ledgible summary of my week. Its really hard, so I am sorry if my emails in the past have been really kind of unorganized.

 

Here is one of the really cool experiences I had this week: We were, like always, walking out on some dirt road in the middle of nowhere Uruguay. And up walks one of our old investigators, sipping down some mate, like always, that we had to drop about two monthes ago because of some problems with the commandments. We expected to just say hi, but when he came up to us, he announced: "OK mormons, I made up my mind. I am going to get baptized in your church, and nothing will stop me this time. Its true what you said that wickedness is not happiness." It was so awesome! The coolest part, is that we, the missionaries, did not do a single thing. His decision came through his agencey, and especially because the Spirit had been working on him in ways that we could not see. I learned that day that we as missionaries really cannot see the fruits of our works in any way, and that the Lord has a plan for everybody. This was a really great experience  for me, and really increased my testimony.

 

I loved Conference. We got to see it in English, which was really nice. I love hearing those warm voices of the apostals and prophets that I grew up listening to. My favorite talks that really stood out to me were Elder Packer´s talk to the youth and Elder Christoffrisen´s (i dont know how to spell that one). Especially Elder Crist.´s talk really helped my understanding of my role as a missionary grow. When I first got out here on my mission, it was weird for me to call people to repentance, but as I have grown in my love for the people here, it comes more and more easy to do it.  Helping people repent is truely an expression of love.

 

The cool thing about my mission, is that I can feel it changing my life. I can feel my life after my mission changing and developing even though that life is still almost 2 years away. I love my mission, it means everything to me. I learn so much every day, and I love just helping people change. Right now we are fighting so hard to get a baptism. We have so many good people who we are working wigh, but its disappointing when we have to push their baptisms back because they do not keep commitments. But everybody´s got their agencey.

 

Anyways, Back to work! Thank you for your prayres and support. Missionaries need it!

 

Untill next week,

Elder Wilson

devotion

This is a picture of the Church Building here in Rocha. Here in Uruguay all of teh church buildings are really nice. Everyone in Rocha knows who we are and what church we are from because our church building is really nice.

This is a picture I took from the Central Plaza. The plazas here are really cool, and expecially on good days everyone just comes and passes time. Maybe also you can see a little bit of just how Eueropean it is here.

another one of the main plaza

This week was beautiful! the weather was so nice, and we got a lot of good work done. Uruguayans are kind of whimpy when it comes to weather -  when its nice, they are happy, when it is bad, they are depressed - so it was really cool to see all of the people out and about  and super happy. We had a really good Zone conference on thursday, all about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

One thing that is kind of fun about serving here in a hardcore religious country is that most people here already are pretty devoted to their religion. And we get lots of chances to talk to some pretty hardcore religious people and really dive into the scriptures with them. We always have to be really careful to not bash with them, and the thing that I love about geing a missionary for this church is that we work with feelings more than logic. Because NOBODY can deny the things that they feel, but it is easy to deny logical arguments. The people of Uruguay have lots of respect for us, the missionaries, and I love talking to so many people each day.

 

 The work is going well for us, and we are really working hard to progress our investigators and help them keep commitments so that they can be baptized. I love to see in the eyes of my investigators that their lives are changing and that the atonement of Jesus Christ is healing up all their scars. I love being able to give all my life right now to the service.

 

I am really excited to be able to watch General Conference this weekend. We are going to be able to see it in English in the church. I love reading the words of the Modern day prophets, and apply thier teachings to my life and the life of my investigators. I am excited to see how many of the investigators we can get to come to church with us to watch General Conference, but we are going to try our hardest to get all of them to come.

 

I love the mission so much, and the time is flying so fast. Thank you for all your prayers and letters.

 

Till next week,

Elder Wilson

Weekly letter

My apartment in candlelight. I feel like a real religious man studying the Bible by candle light. it adds to the effect, especially reading from Revalations.

the sun rise over the atlantic. Soo beautiful.

The church in La Paloma, it is so tiny, I will try to get a pic of my church building next week so you can compare.

Wow, this week was crazy for me. First of all, remember how we are all stuck 6 in the house together? that makes things crazy to begin with, but this week, there was a problem with our appartment building and we had no power! so we spent the whole weed without power and without phone, was really strange, but it was fun to have the experience. Then, on thursday, I went on a intercambio (I honestly dont remember what that is called in English..) to this coastal town called La Paloma. It is soooooo beautiful, and love it a lot. I was there for two days, and in the morning for exercise we ran down to the beach and saw the son rise over the atlantic. I have never seen something so awesome as that before, it left me awestruck all day. I think that when you are on the misson and all spiritually in tune and everything you can enjoy nature better, and have more appreciation for the beautiful world that Dios ha creado (exept for dogs, Im having a tough time enjoying that creation right now).

 

But this week was also a little disappointing, and I learned a lot. We had Carlos, a awesome man that we have been working with since my second week here, all interviewed and ready for baptism, with all the members invited, and the font full and everything.... but no carlos. Satan was working realllly hard on him the night before to try and descourage him to not get baptized. His really athiest uncle showed up at his house and all night had been persuading him that he was not ready. The uncle even tried to lock him into the house to not get baptized and took his phone, and everything (a little bit like the male version of Cinderellas step mom). We passed by his house so many times, but never could get a hold of him. So we had to postpone the baptism, and it was really bad because the members were just starting to put a lot of trust in us too. But just last night we were able to make contact with him again, and keep helping him to baptism. I have so much love for him, and he really has such a strong testimony and has changed his life so much. Also, sunday was hard because every single one of our investigators did not come with us to church. It felt so weird to be in sacrament meeting without a single investigator, and I put a goal that that would never happen to me again on my mission - to be without investigators at church. It just felt wrong to be alone at curch.

 

One thing that I love a lot about my mission is the love that I feel. I am learning more and more what Moroni is talking about in chapters 7 and 8, about the ´perfect love of Christ" and how it  "casts out all fear". Because of the love I feel for my investigators and contacts I have the confidence to call them to repentance, and change thir lives.

 

I love the mission, and always am working hard to get better and better at everything.

 

Thanks for all your prayres!

Elder Wilson

ps. it takes about a month and a few days for mail to arrive for me, than more to write back, so sorry if it takes a while for me to write back, but I promise that I am replying to every single letter I get.

weekly letter

The sun really knows how to get things done here.

 Valeria, her dad, her grandma, and her greatgrandma. and the person who did the baptism.

This week was so good! First things first, Valeria got baptized! (remember her?, she was the one I wrote about last time who was progressing like crazy)  It was such a great baptism, and lots of our investigators were able to attend. The spirit at every single baptism is so so strong, that is a promise of the lord, and it is so nice to see the "athiests" all crying and feeling the spirit and becoming converted too.

 

Its a little crazy because we have 6 elders living in a 2 person house right now.. but a lot of fun.

 

Last week we had sooo much to do, that each day we literally ran like 3 miles to get everywhere on time... the things we do as missionaries...  I love it. And it is really good that we have too much to do than we can handle as opposed to not having much to do. It means that we are working hard. We have a lot of good things happening, and it is awesome to see miricles happen each day to spread the gospel of christ.

 

I love the mission and I know that I am progressing a lot. I love Uruguay. But mostly I love Jesus Christ.

 

Elder Wilson.

Triple bonus! An email, a letter, and a hand-drawn picture from Covey

The picture:

The caption says: This is little picture I drew one rainy p-day in Argentina. It is a pretty accurate picture of the streets of Buenos Aires. Did you know that like 14 million people (and like 30 million stray dogs) live in Buenos Aires? Sorry, didn't have time to finish it! But it is a little taste of my life on the mission. Love, Elder Wilson

___________________________________________

Transcribed handwritten letter:

Familia,

Thank you for the weekly letters that you send! I love to know how you are all doing! Don't be afraid to write a lot, trust me, I read it. I am glad to hear that Brooke's openhouse-reception thing was a success. Thanks for all your hard work to keep the yard looking nice.

Do all the people have good friends? Does everybody feel comfortable in Alpine? I can't believe that Summer is over! These last few months have gone by so fast for me... and I bet for you too.

How many of the family are taking Spanish classes this year? If you are, you should write me a little part en espanol with your weekly letters. The food here is really good, but hard to describe.

Here are three things that I miss from home that you should not take for granted:

1. the music in sacrament meeting - to have an organ and a bunch of people singing with power
2. to have the temple so close and easy to go to. I don't think I will ever be able to go here.
3. bicycles / scooters / etc. I walk probably 10 miles a day.

Anyways, I miss you all and thank you for your support. Thanks for the package that you sent me!

Hasta Luego,

Elder Wilson

_________________________________________

Weekly email:

This week was really good! Me and my companion whitewashed this area when we first got here (It has already been a whole transfer that I have been in Uruguay! I cant believe how fast it has gone), and now things are starting to all fall into place in the district and run more smoothly. Yesterday we gave a lesson to the branch about how members can work with missionaries. The problem is that members think that they should teach the doctorine to their friends which I understand because as members we have such strong testimonies and want to share them (1NE 8:11-12), but the reality is that members SHOULD NOT TEACH THE DOCTORINE TO THEIR FRIENDS but rather just invite them to church activities, or to their houses or whatever and through that set up appointments for our friends and family to be taught by the missionaries. That was kind of the base of our lesson, and it went well.

 

But the work is going really well right now my area, we expect lots of good baptisms this month, and really hope to animate the branch. One investigator that I want to talk about is a 13 year old young woman named Valeria. We met her in a contact, and taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and gave her a Book of Mormon, and we have been teaching her for a week and a half now, and she has already read the whole book all the way through! She is amazing -  has´nt missed a  church activity since we started with her, but the best part is that she is pretty popular at her school, and through her we have found lots of really good other  people to teach, her friends and family, which is really a blessing to us and the branch because we are scrounging to build the youth program down here.. right now it consists of 1 active youth.. so we feel really blessed to be having such great investigators.

 

And it is starting to be spring down here and warm up. Uruguay is so beautiful, and I love serving here (Its the best place in south america). The culture is so unuique, and I am learning so much.  But people are the same everywhere around the world. Sometimes its weird to think that I am half way around the world from where i grew up.  Did I mention that I almost got hit by a strey horst cart yesterday? Thank you all for your support, and dont forget to invite your non-member friends to hear the gospel! It will change their lives forever, and their family. ¡La obra missional es la obra lo màs importante en el mundo! And nothing will make you feel better than to see your friends and family members join the gospel.

 

Thanks,

Elder Wilson

untitled

This week was really good! Me and my companion whitewashed this area when we first got here (It has already been a whole transfer that I have been in Uruguay! I cant believe how fast it has gone), and now things are starting to all fall into place in the district and run more smoothly. Yesterday we gave a lesson to the branch about how members can work with missionaries. The problem is that members think that they should teach the doctorine to their friends which I understand because as members we have such strong testimonies and want to share them (1NE 8:11-12), but the reality is that members SHOULD NOT TEACH THE DOCTORINE TO THEIR FRIENDS but rather just invite them to church activities, or to their houses or whatever and through that set up appointments for our friends and family to be taught by the missionaries. That was kind of the base of our lesson, and it went well.

 

But the work is going really well right now my area, we expect lots of good baptisms this month, and really hope to animate the branch. One investigator that I want to talk about is a 13 year old young woman named Valeria. We met her in a contact, and taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and gave her a Book of Mormon, and we have been teaching her for a week and a half now, and she has already read the whole book all the way through! She is amazing -  has´nt missed a  church activity since we started with her, but the best part is that she is pretty popular at her school, and through her we have found lots of really good other  people to teach, her friends and family, which is really a blessing to us and the branch because we are scrounging to build the youth program down here.. right now it consists of 1 active youth.. so we feel really blessed to be having such great investigators.

 

And it is starting to be spring down here and warm up. Uruguay is so beautiful, and I love serving here (Its the best place in south america). The culture is so unuique, and I am learning so much.  But people are the same everywhere around the world. Sometimes its weird to think that I am half way around the world from where i grew up.  

 

Did I mention that I almost got hit by a stray horse cart yesterday? 

 

Thank you all for your support, and dont forget to invite your non-member friends to hear the gospel! It will change their lives forever, and their family. ¡La obra missional es la obra lo màs importante en el mundo! And nothing will make you feel better than to see your friends and family members join the gospel.

 

Thanks,

Elder Wilson

horses, floods, and atheists who believe in God

Here is how we have to study to avoid getting frostbite

ya, that's snow

just your standard shot of uruguay. the soccer is so important here! they are still celebrating when they won Copa America a month ago.

Wow! i feel like i was just writing a letter home a few hours ago! Time goes by so quick, if i am not careful, i will wake up one day and realize that the mission is over. But this week went really really good for us. We are being so blessed to find lots of really good new investigators. One of the challanges that the branch here has is that everyone is pretty old. the youth program consists of usually 3 people, but this week we have found lots of youth-age people who are going to get baptized in september. It is going to be a real blessing to the branch.

The nice thing about the weather down here is that I havnt had to drink any water for the last week... I kind of just get my weekly supply absorbed through my skin. There is a storm that comes every year around this time called Santa Ana, and it has rained steady every day for the last week solid. Its wet, but we really have some cool experiences in the rain. For example, we cross flooded streets up to our knees in water, and do a LOT of service helping people de-waterize their houses. Also, we ride horses sometimes. oh, speaking of horses, last thursday was the Uruguayan Independance day, and their was a 200 horse parade and a huge festival in the city centro, it was really cool to see. I love the culture here, it is so unique.

One thing that I am learning is just how important it is to have faith in your investigators. Really, its wrisky to put faith in people, because of agencey, its not the same as putting faith in Christ who will never let you down (Hel 5:12), but I have realized that it is important to always have faith in the truith of what you are teaching. Because conversion is a bit of a science experiment.. if you do this and this and this ===> conversion, its the lords formula, and he has promised that if you do those certian things, conversion will happen. So I have really learned to put my faith in those things that have been promised by the Lord, and to apply those solid truiths to the lives of the investigators, and especially to my own life.

The gospel is so true! I have met lots of 'athiests', but I still have never met anyone who does not believe in god...

Time up, I love you all who read this, and thanks for your prayres and support!

Till next week,

Elder Wilson

What a crazy week I had!

 What a crazy week i had!

First of all, on friday I had my first Zone Conference with 3 other zones, it was really really good, and the fun part of it was that President Da Silva for some reason chose me to teach a 10 minuite part of it in front of all the missionaries. It went well though. President and Hermana Da Silva are such good presidents, and I have so much respect for them. Oh, then on sunday I was given the chance to give a suprise 20 minuite talk in front of about 200 members at the District Conference (like a stake conference for branches), and it went really well too, even though I was scared out of my pants! But it felt good to be able to be helped by the sprit to talk for 20 min straight in spanish. It was a really cool experience.

But the week in general was really interesting. At the beginning of the week it was really really hard. Almost all of our good investigators that had baptismal dates we had to put off because of problems with the commandments - the biggest problem in Uruguay is called´´pareja´´which is that no one gets married because... well just because. It was really hard for me and my companion, and especially a really big test of our faith. It was like this almost all week, and we were not finding any new people to teach, but we just decided that instead of giving up we would just keep on pushing and pushing and pushing. But still nothing was happening.. till yesterday, after church we went out to work and all of the blessings came. We are literally seeing miricles. In those 4 hours after church we found 3 new beautiful ´golden´ families, and 4 other people to baptize. It was a miricle. yesterday I learned what the lord really means in 3 NE 22 7-11 (i think thats where..) and why he ´hides his face´ for a moment. it is in these moments that we must really build our faith, and we really do come out way stronger, and develop our faith. the lord pours out blessings. this is my testimony this week.

time up! till next week! I love the mission.

Thanks for your prayres!

Elder Wilson


the sun really knows how to rise here!! it is always sooo beautiful. for some reason way better than in the USA

love prayers and small branches, not stray dogs or blisters

Everyone

 

Ok, so I finally get a little more time to write! First I want to talk about the most important part - the baptisms and the investigators. Last week I had my first baptism! It was Hermana Beatrice, who we found on the first day clapping doors. the spirit was soooo strong in the first contact we had with her, because at first she was not interested at all, but we testified and her  heart softened... and well two weeks later she got baptized. It is so amazing to see the power of the atonement in her life, she had lots of problems, but i guess i can just summerize it like this. the first couple lessons I never saw her smile once. in fact she usually was frowning. But now, every time i see her she has the biggest smile on her face ever. That is the power of the atonement, and that is why i am serving a mission (plus another good thing about her baptism is that appairantly she really likes cooking... yess). We have tones of investigators right now, 14 progressing investigators, but each of them have really really really complicated lives, so each day we have to work soo hard to keep on modiviting them to make the tough changes in their lives and feel the power of the atonement. But it is so amazing to see the changes that they have already experienced!

 

We are working hard to always be searching for new investigators, and especially we are working hard to improve thae way that the branch works with the missionaries, because the members are by far one of the the strongest tools that missionaries have to baptize. The rama avereges about 20 people per sunday, but the members are so awesome and have such strong testimonies.

 

The apartment has a nice view (see pictures attached) and i live there with my district leader Comp, and the two Zone leaders. it is nice to be able to live with such great example missionaries, and thy are all training me to be a district leader and zone leader and just a good missionary.

 

Pres. Da Silva is amazing!

 

Ive lost like 10 pounds since ive been here. but the food is amazing. really reallly realllly good. 

 

I love prayres. and scriptures. and prophets. and small branches. not strey dogs. or blisters.

But the mission is the best thing that has ever happened to me! Thanks for all the support! and the letters, keep it up and keep me in your prayres!

 

_______

half of my area, just open ´campo´ where i spend lots of time walking. but it is way pretty  - just watch out for the strey livestalk

the other half of my area, just a sleepy little city where everyone knows eachother

the baptism of Hermana Biatrice, more details in letter