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.

Happy Thanksgiving!!! we completely forgot untill 10:25 in the night, 5 minuits before lights out, so we had a rushed little celebration. Luckily I had a little chunck of chicken that I had made last week that we shared real quick. Its the closest we had to turkey. But the best part about Thanksgiving is that it means that we can now sing the christmas hymns in lessons and studies. I love singing, and have really seen it change that hearts of lots of investigadors, we always sing a hymn to start off lessons and companion study, and in the shower, and in the street. so, we get lots of singing done. I especially love to sing the christmas songs. Honestly, they are better in spanish than english, the lyrics are better in my opinion. But thats OK because some of the other hymns have better lyrics in english than spanish. 

Right now we have LOTS of great investigadors. the most amazing ones are Miriam and Marcet. They are an older couple (He has 69 years of age!, the oldest ones Ive ever taught) and she all her life has been a HARD CORE evangelist. But the Lord has prepared them so perfectly to recieve us. It is amazing just how naturally they are accepting the truiths of the Restored Gospel. She says that we are filling a whole in her heart that she didnt even know existed. Ha, also they try to grandparent us a little. Yesterday we went after church to teach them, and they would not let us escape undill they had forced about 20 grilled cheese sandwiches, a whole pizza, and two bowls of icecream down our throats :) It was a struggle because we had another lesson to get to, and we are on a diet, so that was funny. Oh, also, our bishopric thinks that he looks exactly like President Benson haha. 

So, today I have 18 months as a full time missionary. On saturday I got what they call the "trunky call" when they call you and ask what airport you are going to and everything. And the worst part is that my ORO Elder Whiting is the mission secritary, and he called me, my own son, to plan the end of my mission. But like I said last week, I still see HUGE mountians of work to climb that are laying ahead of me. 

I am happy and healthy. and hungry. I am greatful for the trust that the Lord has placed in me in being able to help out with the most important work that ever has or will exist. 

Elder Wilson