weekly letter

a picture of the salòn sacramental. (I hope its not violating any sort of church rule to take pictures of the chapel) We fill about 2 of those benches on sunday.

the church. The churches in Uruguay are always super huge and nice. I think its becaue the church wants to show off a little bit.

So, this week was a really good week. We have a lot of really good things happening and we are really excited for this next month. But let me explain an important thing about Uruguay. They are an amazing people, But they have problems with the rain. It rains a lot here, and one would think that they would adjust to it, but they really do not cope with it well. They refuse to go outside (which is I guess a little more understandible if you remember that EVERYBODY in Uruguay walks EVERYWHERE.. they cant just hide safe and sound in their fancy cars like we can.) But I am telling you all this because this sunday morning it rained and even though we had made really good plans with all of our investigators to come to church, nobody came :( So that is sad because the Church attendance is SUPER important for conversion and baptism. So, we will have to help our investigators better in that. Ha the whole church attendence was 23 people, and I was assigned to give a 22 minute emergency talk, which is always awesome because it is an awesome opportunity to get the members exited to participate in the Missionary work.

 

But seriously, its cold.

 

Thank you all for your support and prayres. Dont forget to pay your tithing. I love being here in the mission, and cant believe that its already already almost half way over. I am having so much fun.

 

Elder Wilson

 

PS, I am going to try and make the letters home a little bit better. Sorry if they are kind of boring sometimes.

winter sets in (and pics of the city)

A nice view of my area. There you can see the nice Uruguayan flag, our chaple (the one with the steeple) And in the backgound,  the catholic church. The chaples of our church are always the best in the whole city, and are always situated in really awesome places. 

Me and my companion Elder Vera on the Obelisco (hence the name of our aera Obelisco 1)

The main excitement here in las Piedras are the horse races that they always do every wednesday and thursday. It s a big deal, and they go on all day. The Hipodromo is right in the middle of our area, so lots of times we are walking by when they start. 

Hows it going! This was a really good week for us. for example, one day we were clapping doors, and we found this investigador de oro named Hector. He has been to a lot of other churches, and for good reason was generally fed up with all of the falseness of the popular churches here in uruguay, but we have been teaching him a lot, and he really is progressing super quickly. he went to church this weekend and will get baptized on the 4th of may. he is a miracle investigator, and will be the first of many to get baptized here in this area in a looong time. 

¡Hace Frio! the cold winter is starting to head in and it is starting to get waaay  cold. but I like the cold a lot better than the heat here. Its hard to imagine that it is starting to warm up .. I still have a hard time remembering that the seasons are swiched up for me. 

I love the mission so much and appreciate all your prayres. I love being able to devote all my time and energy to the work, and it is so nice to feel that the Lord is using me to bring his work to pass... sorry if none of this makes sense, my english is not coming out well today. 

till next week,

Elder Wilson

life in Las Piedras

The nice american breakfast that me and my companion made to celabrate me leaving areoparque. We had lovely pancakes with maple syrup (thanks to granda and grandpa), fried eggs and bacon (which is twice as good here in Uruguay)

A view from the front balcony of our appartment.

Hey hows it going! One week here in Las Piedras and I love it here. The people and dogs in this area are really awesome people. Last sunday we had the fast and testimony meeting (their area about 50 members that show up every week), and I decided to give my testimony to introduce myself, and I really feel that we will recieve a ton of support from the ward. 

In our area, we have four investigators with a baptismal date, three young men and a young woman, who will be awesome converts, especialy because the wards here are always looking for youth. We are really excited for these baptisms. But we really are in the search for new investigaators right now... when I agot here there was not one single progressing investigator to work with, but we are really starting to see the changes. 

The zone Las Piedras is in a really tough spot right now. Last change there were a lot of problems, and about 1/3 of the zone was whitewashed this change. There is a ton of potential in this zone, and I am really excited to be able to work my head off to be able to help make these changes come to pass. Although the change comes at the level of each area individually, being a Zone leader means that I just need to help guide the elders and inspire them to acconplish all that the lord expects of uss. Its stressful but a lot of fun. And stress is good. the lord works through stress. I cant even imaging just how stressed guys like moses and moroni were!

This thursday we had interviews with the president. He came here to the zone. It was the last time for me to be interviewed by him before he and Hermana DaSilva go home. He is such an awesome man, and he is one of the people that I have met in my life that I will always remember. And the Hermana also. 

Anyways, thank you everybody for your support. Pray for the zone and for my investigators! 

alma 26: (I can't remember the verse but its in the middle of the chapter and has to do with repentance faith etc leading to millions of people to repentance) is my scripture of the week. 

new area and new companion

So here I am in my new area Obelisco 1 in the city of Las Piedras. So
far I am really impressed with the area. The members are really good,
you can really tell that a lot of good missionaries have been here
before me, and I am just building over their work. The leaders of the
ward really have a lot of conficence in us and what we can do. But
also, the Ward is not super converted to baptism, they have a little
bit of fear about it, I think it is because they have a little bit of
fear about the retention (there have been some recent convert
retention problems here in the past). But i am really excited to be
here and be able to change things around and wake up the ward a little
bit to the importance of the Missionary work. We will baptize here
every week.

Also, it is the best area in the mission as far as the physical part.
It is all close together so you dont have to waste time in
transportation, it has every shop you need, the church is an awesome 3
story building, the food is great, and it has the best house in the
mission. A third story apartment with two balconies ( the missionaries
blasphemously call it the celestial kingdom).

My companion is Elder Vera of Peru, and is a really cool companion. He
has 21 months in his mission, and just last change he was made a Zone
Leader, so we are learning together how we area going to lead the zone
and change the area. He is a convert of 12 years and is the only
member in his family. His special talent is his ablility to teach.

My zone is really big with 22 elders and 4 sisters, and it is an
amazing zone. There is a lot of stuff that we are going to have to do
to help bring sucess here, because there have been some real
problems.. for example, recently the zone has been having real
problems baptizing and retaining, but thats why I`m here! I know that
the Lord put me here for a reason, and me and Elder Vera are going to
do our all to improve the level of sucess here, and it all starts in
our own area.

Well, gotta go, thank you all for your prayers, and support.
Keep me in your prayers!
Elder Wilson.

PS the letters came! (all 22 of them :))

General Conference, missionary style

Milagros, Jessica(her sister,) Her mom (in the yellow) and her aunt (with the baby)

 Us with milagros

View from the Office missionaries house/mansion

another view from the awesome house

First things first, Milagros got baptized! She is this awesome girl that was coming to church with her aunt, and we taught her and baptized her. She is really an awesome convert, although she isnt super old, she is really really smart about the things of the gospel. She already memorized a few of the articles of faith, and really understands the importance of the gospel. The baptismal service went good, but the only thig was that the water heater was broken, and the poor girl had to get baptized in freezing water! But she took it like a champ and got baptized anyways. 

This weekend was aweosme, We spent it in Malvin (the stake center) and we were able to see General Conference. I love general conference so much, For a missionary it really is one of the most exciting things that there is. More exciting than Christmas ha. I absolutely love the spirit that you can feel in conference, and espicially the direct and specific revelation that you recieve in each talk. So many things to apply to the area and the mission and the life. 

After priesthood session ended (at 11 our time) President Da Silva took me by the sholder and told me that he needed to talk to me. My first reaction was OH no what did I do... But he pulled me aside and told me that I am going to recieve the assignment next change to be a Zone Leader! Tomorrow I am moving to lead the Las Piedras zone! I am super excited to take up the responsibility, and I know that i will have to be really humble and even more converted to the mission in able to do all that the lord wants from me. I was really suprised because I am still a young elder in the mission, but I am sure that the lord will qualify me for the work. 

I love Areoparque so much, and feel sad to have to leave the people I love so much, but I am sure that if I work hard I will love Las Piedras even more. 

oh, and to anyone who has written me a letter in the last 3 ish monthes, sorry but there is a little problem with the mission mail, and I haven't gotten them. So, sorry, but I will respond ASAP.

I love the mission, and thanks for your prayres. Next week, more details on my new area and zone. 

Elder Wilson