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

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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

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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

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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