last letter home!

So, I can not believe that I have finally come to my last week writing home. The last two years have passed like a dream. But it has been the best dream Ive ever had :) The other day I sat down and tried to write up all of the blessings I have recieved in my time here in the mission, and as the list got longer and longer I was fill filled with a huge sense of gratitude and amazement of just how much the Lord had taken me and formed me in order to do this huge work. I have learned that going on a mission should never be motivated as a sort of 'personal investment', i mean that you go just thinking about what you can gain, like a stronger testimony, or gain life skills, or whatever, the motivation for going on a mission should be simply  to serve the lord and bring souls unto christ. But, as I have worked hard to do that, the lord has taken me and 'qualified me for the work'. It is this qualification process that makes the Mission the best personal investment that exists. 

Today I am going to go around with my companion and visit some of my converts, and I am so excited to see these people that I love so much. When I am on the airplane taking off from Uruguay, I am going to be able to see a few of the areas that I worked in, and will be able to look down on the country that I love so much and say a little prayer in my heart that the Lord blesses them. i didnt cry when I left home and came on the mission, but I sure will when i leave the mission. 

I love the Lord, and I have learned to be a deciple of christ. I know that Repentance and Covenants brings forgivness of sin, and salvation. I love teaching the Gospel. It is my favorite passtime, and I think that it will be the thinig that I miss most after the mission - sitting down with a 'lost sheep' and teach  the path to happiness, then seeing the light of the gospel enter into their lives. You can see the light first in their eyes, then their whole face, then it spreads to their house and family members.Teaching is a guarenteed chanal to revelation, and I will miss it a lot.

I have had a perfect mission - perfect companions, areas, presidents.. everything. My mission means everything to me, and I hope that it never ends. 

Thanks for all your support, and we will see each other soon! 

I know that about 200 years ago Joseph Smith saw our heavanly father and his 'beloved son', and opened up the doors of heavan again. i know that the atonement of Jesus is a real power. After seeing it work in the lives of others - and especially my own life, how could I not believe it? He loves me so much that he has showed me all of my faults. That might be one of the greatest things that I have learned on my mission. But he has lovingly helped me start to patch them up.

I love Uruguay, and hope to be back ASAP!

Elder Wilson

may 11

So, this week has been very exciting for me. Elder Gonzalez and his wife are here doing a mission tour, and I have been traveling around with them and president Armstrong as they have been visiting all of the mission. 

I cant write too much today, because we have to leave for a city called Maldonado which is a couple hours away. We are going to pick up Elder Gonzales´ son who is coming into the airport, and drive him to Maldonado to be with his parents who are already there. 

Being able to be around a member of the 70 is a big blessing and I have learned a ton from just being around them. 

Well, got to go and keep on working! I love being a missionary so much! There is nothing better than share my testimony of Jesus Christ and his atonement, then teach the gospel to those who accept him in their lives. 

Thanks everybody for your support and prayers - I feel them especially in the moments of tryal and sadness when the people that I love reject the gospel in their lives. 

Elder Wilson. 

may 4

we went with president to a awesome korean restaurant on pday. We went because Elder Ha, one of the office elders, is korean. It was really fun and good food too. 

So, first things first, we had the baptism of patricia and sebastian! it was amazing... But the water heater is apairantly broken, and the water was cold.. but the physical shock of the cold water just makes the experience of the baptism only more impressive. They are great converts, always reading the book of mormon and inviting their friends to also have the gospel. 

I think that the best experience that I had this week is that I was able to go back to Roca, which is the area that I started my mission out in. It, for me, was one of the most sacred experiences of my mission. I was able to see my converts from before the misson, and I loved being with them. Carlos, one of my baptisms there, opened the door and immediately broke into tears and gave me a big old hug saying 'my angel'. it was really neet to see the affects of my mission and the changes in the people that I have taught. I love rocha with all my heart. It is so beautiful, the city itself, but especially the people are beautiful.

We found a new family that we are teaching, that have a baptisma date for the weekend after i leave the mission, so I will keep you updated on the details of their progress. 

I am excited for this week because we are going to be accompanying President Armstrong and President Walter Gonzalez all around the mission to different conferences. I am excited to see what i will learn. 

Thanks for everyting, and pleae prey for our investigadors Sandra and her family. I love the mission, it means everything to me.

Elder Wilson

April 27

602 - A little 'welcome back' reception we had for Sister Armstrong when she came back after a few monthes of medical absence.

778 - me and my Elder Looney at the sister conference that we had about a month ago. that was kind of an awkward experience to be honest... but I guess thats how sister missionaries always feel being the minority

Hola!

This week has been super busy getting everything prepared for when Elder Gonzales (Who was part of the presidencey of the 70, but now is the area president here) comes in 2 weeks to do a tour of the mission. Our investigador Patricia and her son Sebastian are going to get baptized today at 5:00. Her conversion story has really strengthened my testimony of the Book of Mormon in conversion. She has had to change her life and overcome a lot of strong opposition in order to make it to her baptism. She is a very smart lady, she is a lawyer, and when we started teaching her abot 4 weeks ago she started reading the book of Mormon from the start. She has already made it through about half of the book, and this testimony has really been a great strength to her as she has prepared for her baptism. If only everyone in this world read in the Book Of Mormon as much as she does!

Also her son sebastian is an amazing story of conversion. He is 9 years old, and super smart too and seems more like a 12 year old.... For example he has like 20 trophies for winning chess competitions... but up until 3 weeks ago he was an "athiest" (or at least thats what he has said to his little nun teachers that he has in his catholic school - he is actually the only student in his class that is not baptized catholic because he always refused it. He tells stories about how the nuns think he is the devil-child and so on... its actually pretty funny from my perspective). When we started teaching his mom, he did not want anything to do with us, he always sat on his computer and played video games, but I guess that he was always listning because one day he came over and just said, "I want to get baptized with my mom" (she about had a heartattack our of shock) and we asked him why and he said " Because i want to be like Joseph Smith, and go on a mission like you guys". It is a cool example of how the spirit works in the hearts of children too. Now every day he brings his liittle Book of Mormon to his catholic school and reads out of it out loud to his classmates and shares his testimony about the apostacy, restoration and joseph smith to the teachers... were not sure if the nuns will let him in next year.

Anyways, I love the mission, my companion is amazing (i still get along with him after 8 monthes of being his companion), my Mission President is amazing, and the people of Uruguay are amazing.

Thanks for all your support and prayres.

Elder Wilson

pictures and Patricia

616 - me and elder looney searching out the lost sheep

568 - us on top of themission car

602 - Montevideo is beautiful!

Letter home

I cannot believe that it is already the endish of April! Time goes so fast!

I am doing great! Last week we had a really cool meeting with all of the District and Zone leaders in the whole mission, and it went really great. It was a very spiritual meeting. One cool  change that has happened in the mission department in the whole world, it that now a new leadship position exists, called ‘sister trainer-leaders’. Basically, for every 20 sister missionaries there is a companionship of sisters assigned to help them receive capacitating and help for personal problems. They administer under the direction of the mission president and the assistants, so it has been a real blessing to be able to work with them. Sisters are amazing, and a very important asset to the mission. They are very much more sensitive in general, and especially about the spiritual things.

In our area, it has been a hard week, mostly just because we have not had as much time as we would like to work in it, we have been overloaded with things to do in the offices and other problems to solve in the mission. But Patricia is doing great. Her testimony and conversion s amazing! She is already almost done reading 2^ndNephi, and the biggest miracle of this week is that her son Sebastian, who is 9 years old, finally accepted the invitation to get baptized, and will be baptized together with his mom. This makes us super happy because the family is sooo important to the church.

It feels so strange to know that this is my 4^th to last p-day that I will have in my mission! Ive still got 4 weekends left to baptize! I still do not realize that my last transfer has come… it hasn’t hit me fully, and I don’t think that it will till I’m on the airplane. But I am not at all ‘trunky’ I don’t think, this is the best time of my mission, and I feel the spirit stronger than ever. There are a lot of lessons that I still need to learn though, so these next weeks need to be the best ones in my whole mission J I love my mission, it means everything to me.

I am so greatful for all of the blessings that I have received. Last week I made a list of things that the lord has blessed me with in my mission, and I had to stop in the 4^th page because I realized that I could go on forever! Nobody will ever regret serving a full time mission; it has changed my life, and still will.

Thank you all for your prayers and support!

Till next week,

Elder Wilson

April 13

This has been a crazy weelk! First of all, we all loved the Conference! Especially because of all of the wonderful talks about Missionary Work! The spirit of the misionary work that we are feeling is really incredable. All of the members are starting to catch the wave. Me and my companion are going to make a document that has all of the amazing quotes from General Conference about the missionary work, and give it to all the mission to use with members. 

Here is a crazy experience that happened during the General Conference. So, Patricia, our amazing investigador that is getting baptized this next weekend, came to the sunday evening session of conference, and half way through the session, a strange person that was sitting next to her grabbed her sweater which happened to have had all of the money that she needed to get through the week, and snuck out. A few minuits later, María Pía, her little daughter, told her that she had seen him off with her stuff, so she left to find him, and went home obviously devistated and desperate because now she had no way to feed her kids that week. Thats not a good experience to happen in the church! We had no clue that this all had happened, but when we found out we were really scared that she was going to get offended and not want anything more to do with us, but then one of the biggest miricles that I have ever seen in my mission happened. The Relief Society pres. felt like she should call her just to see how she was doing, and when she found out what had happened, she went with the bishop to her house, talked out the problem, gave her the needed money to get through the week, and really just ministered to her needs. Now she is even stronger that ever in her testimony about the trueth of our chruch. it was a huge testimony to me about the power of members to help those who are needy, and that if the Lord wants someone to get baptized, he is perfectly ready to send a miricle on down in order to overcome the opposition. 

We were super overwhelmed this week because we had 26 new missionaried come to our mission! This is a record number, so it was a huge deal to prepare and have everything happen right. But in the end it went very smoothly, and I felt the spirit really strong when we were capacitating them and introducing them to the mission. We are amazed by the number of sister missionaries that are coming to the mission, and very grateful for their service. 

Ive got a lot of mixed feelings right now, because it is officially my last transfer in the mission! I am what you call a 'valiente', or last-transfer missionary. I am going to be sure to make this be the best time of my mission. We have so much to do. Thanks for all your support! Prey that Patricia can stay strong in this week before her baptism!

Elder Wilson

Last week has been amazing! First off, we had the baptism of Cesar and Alejandra! They are some of the most amazing converts that I have had on my mission. Cesar, just to rimind you of his story, just got out of jail after four years there, where he dedicated himself to the study of the Bible, and came looking for us to teach him the gospel. His testimony is amazing. Yesterday he came with us to a lesson with a new investigador that we found, and he bore his testimony about the power of conversion and repentance. The heavans really just opened up, and the spirit was so strong, and the investigador (Ivanna, who is a 23 year old) accepted to be baptized the 27th of this month. Alejandra's conversion story is no less amazing, she was a reference from Pedro (a member from our ward, who was baptized a little more than a year ago). She grew up as an Evangelical, but had a really hard childhood and youth, and recently had separated from her huzband. She lives alone with tatiana her 7 year old daughter, and was really preying hard that God would gide her to the right path. Long story short, she was invited by her ex- brother in law to church, and got baptized a couple weeks later. She is also acompanying us in a lot of lessons, and the level of conversion to the LDS doctorine is truely amazing. 

The bapismal service was amazing too. We had 60 people show up, which is amazing, especially in this ward where the sacrament attendence is about 50. It was a huge blessing because the investigadors felt the support of the members, and the members have gotten really excited to participate also in the missionary work... for example, this week we have found 3 awesome new investigadors from member referencias. The lord is really blessing this ward right now. 

Im am so excited for General Conference today! I cant wait to see what personal revelation the lord is going to throw at me... I use the work throw because I feel like it the best word to describe the huge amount that comes... maybe pour on me is a softer way of saying it. I was in this same church a whole year ago for General Conference. i'm expecially excited to hear the church stats report, and see the new temples that are announced and the number of misionaries that are serving. I have thought up a few questions that have been on my mind for awhile, and im sure that I will be able to recieve some answers today, this sort of instant communication with god is invaluable and sacred, and only happens once every 6 monthes, so I plan on taking full advantage of it. I also invite everyone who reads this to really take full advantage of general conference too. 

It has been an interesting last couple weeks because we have been working a lot with President to do the transfers, which happen on tuesday. President Armstrong is a truely inspired man, and I am trying to learn as much as possible in the moments that I am with him. Later I will tell the amazing story of the miricles that happened to his wife, who was home in the USA sick, so that she came back to the mission. 

Anyways, enjoy conferece! 

Elder Wilson

sister missionary conference

This week has been great!

First of all, on thursday we had a special conference with all of the Sister missionaries in the whole mission. At first it was one of the most awkward moments of my mission for me and my companion. haha we dont really understand sister missionarys very well. But the tyuith is that it was one of the most amazing capacitation meetings that I have ever had in the mission, and I gained a lot of respect for the sister missionaries that are serving. Now we have 28 sisters in the mission, but we expect more than 68 of them in the next three monthes! this is something that has been on president and our minds for a while, because we need to figgure out how to reorganize the mission in order to adjust to this historical change. Also, frequently there are problems with sister missionaries because we have discovered that a lot of them have a certian image in their minds when thewy arrive about what the mission is like (EFY part 2, or even the comfort of the missionary work in the United States), but then they get here and realize that 1. Uruguay is not a first world contry 2. walking is not an option but a necessity - no cars  3. carpet does not exixt here 4. Ice cream is rare... and the list goes on. This, to some sisters, causes some emotional problems, and a lot of them have a hard time adjusting. So, this meeting was really good to help the sisters that we have now prepare themselves for the huge avalanch of sister missionaries that are coming, and be ready to train them and help them adjust. It was a very inspired meeting, and I am so impressed by the spirituality and skill of the sister missionaries. I am really excited to see the amazing changes that are to come in the mission. 

A couple days ago a couple ladies came to the church, and asked if we could visit them because they were looking for God in their lives. MIRICLE! Yesterday we were able to have our first lession with them, and it was one of the mist spiritual first lessons that I have ever had. Patricia and her 2 kids accepted the Gospel of Jesus christ and the baptismal commitment. They have been super prepared to recieve it in their lives. We are so grateful to God for this blessing, especially because Cesar and Alejandra are getting baptized tonight at 6:00, and we are desperate for more investigadors to teach after their baptism. 

Thank you all for your prayres and support and emails. I love you all! 

Elder Wilson

email me! and a story about wine

***** NEW WAY TO COMMUNICATE WITH ME*****

The First Presidancey has changed the rules, and now anyone can send me emails. and I can email anyone (family, friends, converts, priesthood leaders, etc.), so you can email me now! No promises that I will be able to write you back in the same week that you write me because we are not given time to respond, maybe just a quick message I will be able to get off, then I will write a good hand written letter. Thanks! Spread the news! I use email on saturday mornings. 

covey.wilson@myldsmail.net

This week has been wonderful. First of all, our investigadors Cesar and Alejandra are progressing super well for their baptism next week! We are super excited for these baptisms because they both are such great investigadors, and also becasue its been like half a year since there has been a baptism in this area. 

One of the highlights of this week is that some of my old investigadors from Maroñas and Las Piedras are going to get baptized this week. The most importand thing to me in the whole world is the conversion of the people that I am teaching or have taught, so it makes me so happy to hear about their conversions. 

The weeks fly by soooo fast as a missionary. 

funny story. So Alejandra (the investigador) called us to remember the time of the lesson we were going to have with her, and she asked us "want a little cold wine when you come"... no, we dont drind alcohol... "would you like me to make you a coffe to drink then?"... and we said no, we don't drink it, so she responded "well, alright, I guess I'll just make you a little tea then"... ummm we don't drink that ether... "Really, weird, well I guess we can drink some mate" (mate is the traditional drink here, that the members can drink, but the missionaries can't)... well sister, we actually don't either... "What! What do you drink then!, ummm well Ive got some Coca Cola at least!" (the misisonarys are forbidden from the coca cola also)... we dont drink coca cola ether, you just  give us some water, and we will explain it all to you when we have the lesson! IT was super funny, and luckily she is a really awesome person and completely accepted the Word of Wisdom when we taught it to her. I love the mission. 

Elder Wilson

NEW WAY TO COMMUNICATE WITH ME

***** NEW WAY TO COMMUNICATE WITH ME*****

The First Presidancey has changed the rules, and now anyone can send me emails. and I can email anyone (family, friends, converts, priesthood leaders, etc.), so you can email me now! No promises that I will be able to write you back in the same week that you write me because we are not given time to respond, maybe just a quick message I will be able to get off, then I will write a good hand written letter. Thanks! Spread the news!

covey.wilson@myldsmail.net

This week has been incredable! I want to tell you about Cesar. We had fast sunday last week, and as a companionship we fasted that someone would be placed in our path to be able to baptize in this month. God answered. Sunday morning Cesar miraculously showed up in church. He is 23 years old, and 4 days earlier he had been reliesed from 4 years in prision. In the prision he dedicated to reading the bible (he read whole thing about 12 times he said), and changed his way of thinking and his desires. He was well dressed and didnt carry any looks of his previous life, and in the fast and testimony meeting he stood up and bore his testimony and explained his conversion process. It seemed like he was reading straight out of Alma 36. ALL the members were touched very deeply by his pure and sincere testimony, and the whole tone of the sacrament meeting changed. It is a modern day miricle. He has a baptismal date for the 30th of this month. It is an amazng experience to be teaching Alma the younger the gospel of Christ. 

Do your duty, its the best,

To the Lord leave the rest. 

--Pte. Monson

Also, we found another lady who the day bofore was super depressed and contemplating sewicide, and was sittin in a park thinking things over and drinking some mate, when along came a gust of wind and a paper blew into her shoe and got stuck there. It was a paper of some church inviting all people to come unto christ through baptism. she took it for the sighn from God that it was, and the next day she was sitting in her house and felt impressed to go out front to check on what the weather was, so she went on out, and saw us two heading on down the street. She thought that we were probably sent by god too, so she called us and invited us to come into her house and teach her and her 40 year old son. So we were there teaching her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and when we got to the part of baptism and opened up the pamphlet to  the part about baptism she saw the picture of Jesus geting baptized by john, and her face got really serious and she started crying. We were confused, and asked her what had happened. She responded by explaining what had happened to her the day bofore in the park, and went and got the piece of paper that had gotten lodged in her shoe, and, low and behold, it was a torne out part of the exact same page of pamphlet that we were showing her at that very moment... yeah so if you dont believe the story about Cesar, or that miricles dont happen to missionaries, try to explain this one. She accepted a baptismal date too. 

Do your duty, its the best,

To the Lord leave the rest. 

--Pte. Monson

I love the mission! I love Uruguay. Recently as AP ive been traveling around it a lot, and it is beautiful.

I look foreward to reading the emails that you all can send me now! 

Elder Wilson

AP

So, here are the pictures of the baptisms of Jesica and Beatrice. Also I put in a picture of me Elder Looney with President. This picture is the one we used for our part of the presentation to the OROs

So these last days have been some of the crazyest ones in my whole mission. Being AP is a big change in the responsibilities that we have to do. So, here is a short run down of what my schedual is like on a normal day. Up at the normal time (6:30), have the normal excercize and study schedual. At 10 we get into the offices. In the offices we have a ton of work to do, mostly just things to make sure that the mission is running smoothly and preperation of capacitations that we will have to give. Also, we frequently are called over to the mission house to have meetings wiht President Armstrong. Then we try to always get out by 4:00 to be able to work in our area. 

It is a super exciting, interesting, and stressful time for the office elders and President fiirst of all because the mission is changing. inthe next 3 monthes we will be recieving 70 new missionaries and only loose 20... with half of these incomers being Sisters. This represents a huge amout of preparation and work in order prepare the mission for them. Also, it is a time of challange for Pte. because his wife has been home in the US for a month now because of medical problems... and it looks like she will be gone a couple monthes more. You can probably imagine the amout of weight that he is having to carry on his sholders, and all with out his companion. So it is a wonderful oportunity for me being his assistant to make his load as ligh as possible, and take on us certian jobs that the President usually would do. 

I love my mission president, and sostain him with all my heart. Also, let me tell you for a sec about who I live with... the office elders are Elder Ha (the first Korean elder to ever come to South america in the history of the church) elder Santos (who is brazilian, so we are pollishing up on our portugues), elder Whiting (YA! my ORO, we are living together again! super amazing) and Elder Looney (who I was already comps with for 3 changes I love him a ton.) 

So, more to come! Iove all of you!!

Elder Wilson

Please prey that we can have time to work in our area, and sucess there! 

AP

Hola, 

So, I am just writing for a second. President called me to be his new assistant. My Pday is now saturday, so I will write you to tell you everything then. My companion is Elder Looney (who i was with for 4 monthes before). Also, beatriz got baptized!!!

I love you all, 

Elder Wilson

feb 18

The lid of a tupperware that a member gave us. Its a popular company here for plastic ware. Im famous in all the world.

 A picture of our house. Its the 2nd best house in the whole mission... it has a kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom and a study room. the first 3 room house that ive ever had :)

So, Fist things first, Jesica got baptized!!! She really is an amazing baptism. She is the niece of a member who we receantly re-activated. The service was super good because like 20 members of her family who arnt baptized came. It was a really great spiritual baptismal service, and loke 50 members were ther to spport her. 

Also, next week we have the baptism of Beatriz. She has been investigating the chruch for about 4 years now, but wanst able to be baptized because she lived unmarried with the father of her 4 children. the problem is that he didnt want to get married. We went over to have alittle leccion with her, and she told us that after a ton of thought and prayer she kicked him out so that she could get baptized. It has been a long process for her, but I could see the happiness in her face when she told us, and I know that even though its sad to see them not get married, she is making the best choice for her eternal family. 

I love teaching the Gospel, it is my favorite passtime. 

oh, also, I was able to do an exchange with Elder Aleman, who is my trainder! haha I always called him one of the 3 nephites becasue he always seemes to be inthe mission and never "die"... but he is serving as a district leader right now and I am his Zone Leader. It was so amazing to be able to work with him and remember old times a year and a half ago in the streets of Rocha. we both have grown and changed so much. He end the mission next week, and I will miss him a whole ton. 

Thanks for everything! This chruch is so true. Im so excited for my brother John that he got his mission call to Colombia!

Elder Wilson

Feb 4

The baptism of Alexandra and Tomas with her huzband who did the baptism.

First things first, We had baptisms!! Tomas, Alexandra, and Patricio all got baptized this weekend, plus Myrian who I was teaching in my last area. I love baptisms so much. 

Tomas and alexandra are part of an incomplete family. William (the huzband) has been a member since really young, but inactive for all his life, but like a year ago the missionaries found them again and since then they have been fighting to get all of their problems worked out, get married, and finally baptized. For me it is a privelidge to be the Missonary that was able to see them all dressed down in white to get baptized, but the "credit" for their baptism and conversion cannot go to any missionary, it was 100% the spirit that converted them. 

Patricio is a 11 year old who is amazing! after his baptism he even got up to give his testimony about how he felt and everything... it went kinda like this "so... when I got baptized I felt all my sins get relieved out of me, and now I am a member of this chruch to stey and go on a mission like elder Wilson and Vera. Amen". ha it was a cool moment. In the picture you can see all of his family members. His parents are doing great on thier own path to conversion. They need to get married first, which sometimes takes awile, but they are awesome and love our lessons and going to church and everything. 

also, myrian, from Belloni my last area, we had dropped her because of some problems she had not wanting to progress. It was really sad for me. she is one of the only investigadors that i havd cried for when we dropped her... but appairantly she called the missionaries there this week, and said that she wanted to get baptized! miricle. I am super happy for her and thankful to the lord for answering her prayres and mine too. 

Every time the person who is doing the baptism says the words "having been commissioned by Jesus Christ" the spirit always comes down (like a little dove) and testifies that baptism is the door to salvation. That is why I love baptismal services so much. The parents of Patricio were both crying they felt it so much. I really have grown to understand better the role of the Holy Spirit of the Promise. There is no better feeling than knowing that my actions and covenants are pleasing to the Lord, and love to feel him saying "well done, my good and faithful servant". I have learned to recognize this spirit and look for it in my work, and it really has helped me keep on progressing in my work. 

oh, also I am 21 now... nothing really exciting happened on my birthday at all. haha I completely forgot it was my birthday till noon. haha so I sung myself a little birthday song, and that was the extent of my celebration. 

I love my mission, it means everything to me. 

Elder Wilson.

So, new area! It is way different from my old one. A big change in scenary. Maroñas was the poorest part of montevideo, and where I am now is one of the more richer parts. I feel like I changed countries because everything is so different. The ward is amazing, almost a little bit unreal for me because everybody comes all dressed up nice with their cars and happy families and everything.. I feel like Im back up in the wasach front again, back in my home ward. Its a big change for me, and its going to take some time getting used to the change in style. 

Our house is amazing. Its got a garage and everything... oh, but one problem... when there are rainstorms (which happen about every other day at this time of year) the roof starts to have problems and the water falls throught the roof like crazy... Its like niagra falls right on top of my companions bed. ha funny for me, not so much for him. 

Elder Vera is excelent. It had been 6 monthes since I had had a latino companion, so its nice to be back with one. He is a convert, is 25 years old and lives in Madrid. He is really focused and serious, which is good.

The area is doing good. Last thursday we were able to go into downtown Montevideo because some of our investigadors are got married, and will get baptized next week, And we had 8 investigadors in church, so that means that there will be some good conversions to come. 

We have a few investigadors who are fully converted to the gospel, but who cannot get baptized because they are living with their "spouse" unmerried, which is really common here. The problem is that it their huzbands dont want to get married to them, even though they have been together for years and have kids and everything, and they are having to make the REALLY hard choice of breaking up their families in order to live the Law of Chastity, or stey together and not recieve the Gospel. Men are so horribly prideful. I have known so many wonderful woman on my mission who are so converted to the gospel and ready to live it, its always the men that make it hard for families to recieve the blessings of the Gospel. 

So prey for them! 

I am happy and really excited to work my self to death here in what could be my last area in the mission. 

I hope everyone is doing good, and know that Im thinking about you.. well mondays from 10-6:00 at least.

Elder Wilson

First things first:

FLABIA GOT BAPTIZED!!! It is the biggest miricle baptism that I have ever experienced in my whole mission. Her whole family got baptized about 8 monthes ago, but she was not able to participate, and since that time and 2 years before when the missionaries first found the family, she has been the work of every missionary that has passed through this area, but she never progressed at all. We have been working with her a ton to try and help her get over what was stopping her to get baptized super hard, but it looked like there was not any progress, untill last monday when we went to her house to have a lesson with her, and she just said, "ok, its my time, I was preying and saw in my mind Elder Wilson promising me in the pre-mortal life that he would baptize me, so I know to do now." It was my first and last time getting my white pants wet, but a really spiritual experience for everyone that went. Her huzband and kids are all really happy. 

... and she chose the right time to have me baptize her, because tomorrow I am leaving the area! After 6 monthes here it is going to be really hard to leave, I have some super excelent converts here and great relationships with the members and ward and stake leaders. But I just will go and do the same thing in my new area.

I am going to Barrio 13 (Montevideo 13th ward). I will be a Zone Leader there too, which is a suprise for me because Ive been a Zone Leader for over a year now! I´m the longest running Zone Leader that has passed trought the mission, but Im excited to keep developing and using my leadership skills. And Barrio 13 is an excelent ward. All the misionaries call it the Washach Front ward, because it is the most simmalar to the chruch up in the USA that there is in Uruguay. My new companion is Elder Vera from Spain. I know him pretty well from working with him and going to the MTC with him. We are going to have tons of sucess together. 

Anyways I learned that EVERYTHING is possible for the Lord. "If Flabia can get baptized, ________ is possible too." thats the phrase of the week.

I love you all and thank you for your prayres. 

Elder Wilson

Letter home

So, this week was excelent. Let me start off by telling a cool story. so, every night when we plan what we will do the next day, we put goals about what we will achieve in some of the key indicators (lessons with member, other lessons, new investigadors, etc), and the next day we set off to work with all our might to get them. On tuesday we had the goal of getting 2 lessons with member. We had already gotten the first one, and all the plans we had for the second one had fallen through with only an hour before we had to be in the house. So, we had to make the choice with my companion of if we should just give up on that little goal and move on to other things, or if we should keep fighting for the goal. We really had no idea how we could possivly get a lesson with member, but we diciede to say a little prayer, keep doing what we could to get one. Then we started walding, doing  a few contacts, but really just thinking about how we could possibly get that lesson, when suddenly from behind we hear someone yell Hermanos (Brothers!), which is usually bad news because that means someone just sent a rock in our way, but we turned around and saw a young man waving to us and coming out of his house, followed by an older man. turnes out that it was a young man, who was not a member, and his uncle, who was in the stake presidancey of the other stake who had come to visit his sister. They invited us in, and it was one of the most spiritual finding experiences of my mission. We got the lesson with member, but more importantly found a new amazing family to teach. I have no doubt that the angels led us walking by on that street. and I have no doubt that the Lord always wants us to get our goals, and knows the best way to get them. 

I love the mission. Prey for the baptisms in my zone for this week! And especially in my area. 

Elder Wilson

Merry Christmas (and happy new year)

Merry Christmas!!! It was an amazing christmas for us here. Let me give you the run-down. On the 24th we went out to work like normal all day, but at 8.00 we had permision to go to a Members house and have dinner with them untill 10.30. We went to this member named Gustavo Castro, who is amazing, and had an amazing turkey dinner with all of the four elders in my house. Then we went home and it was soooo hot that day. In our house it was 105 degrees 95% humidity, so like usual, we threw out our matresses under the stars and slept... or at least tried to. So, like I explained last year, christmas here is more like a reenactment of pearl Harbor, or like the 4th of july on sterroids. At midnight the whole world is blown to peaces by fireworks. we got up onto our roof to see them all go off, and it really was one of the greatest experiences in my life. 

Then the next day, christmas day, we got up normal and opened our christmas packages. Thanks so much for the package that my family sent me! it was amazing, and had everything that I could have needed or wanted. Then we had district meeting in the morning and then had christmas lunch with a member family. we had pig. all of it (see attached picture), then went to a members house to use their skype to call the family. 

I loved being able to call my family, it was so great to see all them. Haha actually it was a little weird to try and think of the things that I wanted to say and everything, but I enjoyed every moment of it. Its funny to see just how much all of my younger siblings are just changing right on up (that includes mckay, emma hanna carley, nick and adyline). 

Anyways, I am doing great and working really hard to help the people I love to recieve the Gospel. Prey for them! its hard to recieve the Gospel, but I have such a great testimony that the Lord is very powerful to change and prepare people to recieve it. 

I love you all!!! And a happy new year. 

Elder Wilson

 before and after shoes. Thanks for the new ones!

Merry christmas! and a yummy head to eat!

pictures pt 2

So this week was really great, on friday we had the christmas conference with all the mission together, and it was a really great and spiritual experience. I love hearing the testimonies of our Leaders in the mission. President and Sister Armstrong are wonderful, and I love them a ton. It was cool because they had their children and grandkids there too, and it was fun to see just a nice American family. 

The misson is such a wonderful time. I love it. About once a week we need to travel to other areas to de interviews or exchanges or meetings or whatever. We go on busses all the time, and I can never sleep or study, not because I dont want to or its super crouded or anything, but I can not stand to miss one moment of this beautiful, beautiful country. Every morning when I watch the beautiful Uruguayan sunrise, I just imagine how excited Jesus must have been to give this earth to us. 

Tomorrow is christmas. Its going to be a really neet experience to have my second Urugayan christmas. Its a lot different from the christmas experience up north. I am going to work as hard as I can to be able to baptize. Right now we are seeing a LOT of opposition in our area and zone, but thats fine with me. The bigger the opposition, the bigger the victory that comes after. This is going to be an amazing time in my mission. 

I hope that everyone up home has a wonderful time with their families and loved ones. I shure will have a good time with my loved ones here. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Elder Wilson

pictures!

Letter Home. 

So, here I am with my new companion Elder Robertson. He is awesome. He was honestly not the most focused missionary in the MTC when I lived all day every day with him, but he has had a huge change of heart during his time here, and is one of the most powerful missionaries that I know. We get along just dandy and are working really hard together. (although he kind of got into a bad start here ha, first day he fell straight into a ditch full of nasty south american street water, and a huge brick thrown at his face, but other than that hes doing great)

As far as investigadors go, we had a lot of opposition this week. Marcet had his job hours changec on him and now has to work on sunday mornings, so that really is a big test of his faith. He is doing the possible to try and chane his work hours again, but it is really a tough challange for him in order to get baptized, and his wife Myriam does not want to get baptized alone.. so we are fasting and preying really hard for them. Its really the hard part of being a missionary. but, like president monson said "do your duty , its the best, to the Lord leave the wrest." We are doing our part, and I am sooo excited to see the miricles that the lord puts into our missions this week. 

So, this might be my last time writing everyone, because the world ends this friday. Bye, its been good, I love you all... but seriously, a lot of people are freaking out right now about it. ha we pretty much just go around and the people all stop us to ask us if its true and we just say "i dont know, are you ready? we can help you." so thats a kind of fun new prosilyting style.

Anyways, thanks for your support and pleast prey for my investigadors. I am happy and healthy.

So, changes came last night. Aftrer 4 and a half monthes together I am going to be separated from my companion Elder Looney. I am staying a fourth change here in Belloni, and my new companion is Elder Robertson, who was the first missionary I ever knew in my mission. We met in the airport in Salt Lake, then were in the MTC together. I am super excited to be able to work with him. Also, I am excited because coming to live in the same house as me is my old companion from the MTC Elder Cannon. It is going to be an aweosme change with them, and i know that we area going to do a lot of great miricles with them. 

Good news: My awesome convert Edison Anza is engaged to the awesome Relief Society president Hermana Dora. They are two of the most converted members that I have known here, so I am so excited for this. It makes me so happy to see my convert prepare to recieve all of the blessings of the gospel. 

Also, Myriam and Marcet are doing good. They are super prepared, and now have come to chruch 4 times in a row, the problem is that they dont realize that they are ready for baptism, and say that they want more time to know the way athat the church is and everything. Those things are important, but not in order to get baptized, so we are helping them understand that. Please prey for them, that they will have the courage to just take the step and get baptized. They are going to be the best christmas preasant that we could give to the Lord this year. Please prey for them. 

Also, we have an investigador named Flavia, whose family (huaband and 2 kids) got baptized about 8 monthes ago, but she never did because she cant overcome problems with the Word of Wisdom, but now she is making a comeback, and has the goal to get baptized on christmas day. She has so much potential. Please prey for her also. 

There are alot of things that are happening. The powerful spirit of christmas is working hard in the ward. The biggest presant that we could posibly give to our God, as the 3 wise men did, is ourselves, to consecrate our hearts and souls to his cause. Our heart is the only gift that we could possibly give him, because he already owns all the rest. 

I know that this work is true, and that the worth of sould is great in the sight of the Lord. There is a lot of work to do! 

Elder Wilson. 

PS, I took some really awesome pictures this week... but my computer that im at is not letting me send them. sorry. nest week.