the bad news and the good news

This week was one of my favorite that I have ever had in the mission. Me and elder whiting are working super hard to complete with our purpose as missionaries, and we are really seeing the blessings of that. For example, this sunday there were 75 people in attendence at sacrament meeting, and 15 of those were investigators, which was such an amazing feeling. Also, the Lord is blessing us by giving us a ton of awesome investigators through the members to baptize. I love the mission. 

But it was also a little sad this weekend, because we have an investigator named Blanca who has been withus for about 3 monthes now,and she was going to get baptized on saturday, and on friday she had her invetview and everything, but on the day of the baptism her abusive spouse didnt let her get baptized. It is sad to see, but we will keep working with her and him untill he can soften his really hard heart. OH, Also, remember Cristina Gonzales? Who we have been with for like 5 months now. She will get baptized this sunday! So keep the prayers up for these people! 

I am still loving Areoparque, and am excited to be here for another 6 weeks. It still is super hot during the day, but it is starting to get a little bit fresco at night. Last night I slept with a sheet on for the first time in 3 months. Usually I just sleep on top of the bed.

Bad news: washing machine is broken, so were back to doing the laundry by hand :(

Good news: the mission means everyting to me. 

Elder Wilson

weekly letter

Whew! I feel great. This morning I went running for the first time in 9 monthes, and I was suprised because I didnt have a heart attack! So thats good news. It was actually a pretty cool experience because it was doing a sort of Monsoon storm. A TON of lightning and it was raining buckets. We got completely soaked through. And also the lovely dogs that followed us trying to eat a little bit of our heels kept us motivated to keep the pace up. It felt good, and we set the goal to run three times a week. 

Last night they announced the changes (transfers) and I was really scared that I was going to leave Areoparque, but my prayrs were answered and I get to stay at least one change more!!! Im super excited to be able to stay because there is so many miricles that are passing here in the area, and we have lots of great people to baptize. Also, it will be a cool experience to spend 6 monthes (1/4 if the mission) in one area, to really get to know the people, members, non-members... I mean I've literally knocked EVERY SINGLE HOUSE in the area like 2 times. I love it. 

My ORO Elder Whiting is doing good. I love him so much. But he is still really struggling with the language, so keep on praying for him when you can. We work good and hard together though. 

I am excited because some relly cool Elders that I was district leader of back in the MTC are coming to my district now, so it will be fun to be district leader with them for the second time!

The most important thing is that we are really focusing on baptism. baptism.` baptism. My purpose for being here in the mission is to baptize. I love working on that and seeing the way that the lord blesses us so that we can be able to reach the goal. For example, all the time that I have been here we have been working super hard on geting the members to really take over the missionary work here in Areoparque.. I mean the missionary work really belongs to the members and not the misisoaries. And this week we really saw some awesome fruits of our labors. The members practically handed over to us 4 awesome people to teach and baptize, and all of them already have baptismal dates (which we always try to put in the first lessons). so thats really good. I thing that sometimes its easy for the missionaries to feel like they are working against the members, but really its impossible to do the misionarry work with out them. so, all you members who read this letter!! DO IT: baptize your friends and family if you love them. 

Oh and also the new presidants of the misson have been anounced. Presidant Armstrong of the USA. who comes the 1st of July. 

I love the misson! I hope it never ends. 

Dont stop writing me! :)

Elder Wilson

commitments vs. commandments

a picture of those giant famine-crickets that love to spend time with us in the house.

A picture I took from the bus. The Uruguayan coast and a little resort-island offshore. The people get a little offended when we tell them that we cant go to the beach... they take it a little personally.

A picture that we took after a zone conference. There are a lot of really good missionaries in my zone and district. The zone that am in has the Mission offices, the assistants, and everything. A few areas in my zone are pretty urban, going into Montevideo. 

This week we saw a ton of awesome miracles. We have been prayrfully been going through the Area Book (the binder that has all the old teaching records of everyone) looking for people to get baptized. And it has been really awesome to be able to see the Lord guide us towards the people who are ready to recieve the baptism invitation and a baptismal date. The lord literally kind of takes the people who are ready and throughs them into our pathway. 

Also, we have been working super hard in order to meet our daily, weekly,and monthly goals that we have set and commited to. I have learded that when you set a goal before the Lord, It becomes a commandment. For example, when the people of ammon set their own goal to never take up arms again, and commited it before the Lord, they were more willing to die than to break the goal that they had set. So, really, when me and my companion commit before the lord that we will find 2 new investigators today, it becomes a commandment before the lord. And since the lord always provides the way so that we can complete the commandments, he will provide the miricles. We will find 2 news today when p-day ends... so that system will really help us out throughout the duration of my mission and my whole life. 

Well, I am really loving the mission. I cant believe that time is flying by so fast, just a couple days ago I was saying how i cant beleive that i am already 1/4 done, but new im 1/3 done!! ahh. I still feel like my companion, just arriving. 

Well, gotta go baptize!

Pray for the investigators in AeroParque!

Chau.

Elder Wilson

what a birthday looks like in Uruguay

Me blowing out my delicious birthday cake. We had to use make-shift candles. Im super old. I dont want to be 20. But I guess thats how life works :)

Missionaries love their packages! Thanks Granny and Grandpa! Those were the most delicious Mac and Cheese I have ever eaten. Seriously...

 Baptism of Marcelo Rodrigues. We had it on sunday after the services. (it was the first baptism of a person completely covered in tatoos that I have ever seen. It was awesome.

So first things first. We had the baptism of Marcelo! This baptism and his process of conversion is one of the most awesome ones I have ever seen. He really changed his life in able to be baptized. He is honestly the most humble person I have ever met. He has lived on the streets, and really gone through a ton of really big trials in his life, but as he said, God called him, and he has to answer. I am so excited to see him smiling all the time, and see him progress in the church... speeking of progressing in the church.. Biatrice and Cristian Torres (some other recent converts that you might remember) all went to the temple this week with the ward. It makes me so happy to see them reallyprogressing in the gospel and recieving callings and everything. haha, especially Biatrice, she goes around in her neighborhood every day and looks out the less active members to get them to come to church too. 

I love this area so much (I always hint that in my letters and interviews with the president so that maybe he will keep me here longer), and have really been able to see the work here progress with the ward and everything... hope my time here is not coming to and end. 

My birthday was really special... we got up at 6:30 and worked till 10:30 then went back to bed. But lots of the members made us super delicious cakes. mmm

One thing that I love about being a missionary is being able to recieve specific and direct revelation over how I can help the work to progress in our area and in my district. There is one area in the district that is really struggling to baptize and it has been awesome to be able to recieve the revalation needed to help them. 

Also, Cristina Gonzales (ya that one) is doing really good, she recieved her answer and will be baptized ( she saw the baptism of Marcelo and that really touched her) we are just working on the when. But she will, i am sure. Also her friend Nancy will too... she just needs to get married first... more next time. 

Gotta go. 

Baptism!

Pray for my investigators.

Elder Wilson

Elder Wilson shows us his new scripture cases and tells us the secret

the baptism of Magela and mikiela. Just so you know, all the people in uruguay arnt grumpy, they just have really distinct ways of smiling. and the other people are some of the members.

The baptism of Biatrice

For christmas I bought myself these scripture cases. they are hand painted and burned on leather. They are super awesome.

So, this week went really good for us. one thing that we focused on this week was meeting with the goals that we have set for ourselves. the daily and weekly goals that we set. and we have seen lots of miriclews for that.

 

Right now we are working with this one man named Marcello Rodrigues. He has 38 years, and his mom is inactive. Before, he lived in a different place, and was almost almost baptized, but in the end, didnt get baptized because he had some serious problems with the Word of Wisdom. Then he moved, and lost contact with the missionaries and everything. But he said one day he was preying to see a sign to change his life, and he walked outside, and saw tow white shirts and ties walking towards him.... So long story short he will get abaptized this weekend.

 

Out of time!

 

keep on praying for me and especially my investigators!

Happy birthday to any friends that might happen to be having their birthdays today or around this time of year :)

 

Alma 26:12 thats the secret

 

Elder Wilson.