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!