Triple bonus! An email, a letter, and a hand-drawn picture from Covey

The picture:

The caption says: This is little picture I drew one rainy p-day in Argentina. It is a pretty accurate picture of the streets of Buenos Aires. Did you know that like 14 million people (and like 30 million stray dogs) live in Buenos Aires? Sorry, didn't have time to finish it! But it is a little taste of my life on the mission. Love, Elder Wilson

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Transcribed handwritten letter:

Familia,

Thank you for the weekly letters that you send! I love to know how you are all doing! Don't be afraid to write a lot, trust me, I read it. I am glad to hear that Brooke's openhouse-reception thing was a success. Thanks for all your hard work to keep the yard looking nice.

Do all the people have good friends? Does everybody feel comfortable in Alpine? I can't believe that Summer is over! These last few months have gone by so fast for me... and I bet for you too.

How many of the family are taking Spanish classes this year? If you are, you should write me a little part en espanol with your weekly letters. The food here is really good, but hard to describe.

Here are three things that I miss from home that you should not take for granted:

1. the music in sacrament meeting - to have an organ and a bunch of people singing with power
2. to have the temple so close and easy to go to. I don't think I will ever be able to go here.
3. bicycles / scooters / etc. I walk probably 10 miles a day.

Anyways, I miss you all and thank you for your support. Thanks for the package that you sent me!

Hasta Luego,

Elder Wilson

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Weekly email:

This week was really good! Me and my companion whitewashed this area when we first got here (It has already been a whole transfer that I have been in Uruguay! I cant believe how fast it has gone), and now things are starting to all fall into place in the district and run more smoothly. Yesterday we gave a lesson to the branch about how members can work with missionaries. The problem is that members think that they should teach the doctorine to their friends which I understand because as members we have such strong testimonies and want to share them (1NE 8:11-12), but the reality is that members SHOULD NOT TEACH THE DOCTORINE TO THEIR FRIENDS but rather just invite them to church activities, or to their houses or whatever and through that set up appointments for our friends and family to be taught by the missionaries. That was kind of the base of our lesson, and it went well.

 

But the work is going really well right now my area, we expect lots of good baptisms this month, and really hope to animate the branch. One investigator that I want to talk about is a 13 year old young woman named Valeria. We met her in a contact, and taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and gave her a Book of Mormon, and we have been teaching her for a week and a half now, and she has already read the whole book all the way through! She is amazing -  has´nt missed a  church activity since we started with her, but the best part is that she is pretty popular at her school, and through her we have found lots of really good other  people to teach, her friends and family, which is really a blessing to us and the branch because we are scrounging to build the youth program down here.. right now it consists of 1 active youth.. so we feel really blessed to be having such great investigators.

 

And it is starting to be spring down here and warm up. Uruguay is so beautiful, and I love serving here (Its the best place in south america). The culture is so unuique, and I am learning so much.  But people are the same everywhere around the world. Sometimes its weird to think that I am half way around the world from where i grew up.  Did I mention that I almost got hit by a strey horst cart yesterday? Thank you all for your support, and dont forget to invite your non-member friends to hear the gospel! It will change their lives forever, and their family. ¡La obra missional es la obra lo màs importante en el mundo! And nothing will make you feel better than to see your friends and family members join the gospel.

 

Thanks,

Elder Wilson

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This week was really good! Me and my companion whitewashed this area when we first got here (It has already been a whole transfer that I have been in Uruguay! I cant believe how fast it has gone), and now things are starting to all fall into place in the district and run more smoothly. Yesterday we gave a lesson to the branch about how members can work with missionaries. The problem is that members think that they should teach the doctorine to their friends which I understand because as members we have such strong testimonies and want to share them (1NE 8:11-12), but the reality is that members SHOULD NOT TEACH THE DOCTORINE TO THEIR FRIENDS but rather just invite them to church activities, or to their houses or whatever and through that set up appointments for our friends and family to be taught by the missionaries. That was kind of the base of our lesson, and it went well.

 

But the work is going really well right now my area, we expect lots of good baptisms this month, and really hope to animate the branch. One investigator that I want to talk about is a 13 year old young woman named Valeria. We met her in a contact, and taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and gave her a Book of Mormon, and we have been teaching her for a week and a half now, and she has already read the whole book all the way through! She is amazing -  has´nt missed a  church activity since we started with her, but the best part is that she is pretty popular at her school, and through her we have found lots of really good other  people to teach, her friends and family, which is really a blessing to us and the branch because we are scrounging to build the youth program down here.. right now it consists of 1 active youth.. so we feel really blessed to be having such great investigators.

 

And it is starting to be spring down here and warm up. Uruguay is so beautiful, and I love serving here (Its the best place in south america). The culture is so unuique, and I am learning so much.  But people are the same everywhere around the world. Sometimes its weird to think that I am half way around the world from where i grew up.  

 

Did I mention that I almost got hit by a stray horse cart yesterday? 

 

Thank you all for your support, and dont forget to invite your non-member friends to hear the gospel! It will change their lives forever, and their family. ¡La obra missional es la obra lo màs importante en el mundo! And nothing will make you feel better than to see your friends and family members join the gospel.

 

Thanks,

Elder Wilson

horses, floods, and atheists who believe in God

Here is how we have to study to avoid getting frostbite

ya, that's snow

just your standard shot of uruguay. the soccer is so important here! they are still celebrating when they won Copa America a month ago.

Wow! i feel like i was just writing a letter home a few hours ago! Time goes by so quick, if i am not careful, i will wake up one day and realize that the mission is over. But this week went really really good for us. We are being so blessed to find lots of really good new investigators. One of the challanges that the branch here has is that everyone is pretty old. the youth program consists of usually 3 people, but this week we have found lots of youth-age people who are going to get baptized in september. It is going to be a real blessing to the branch.

The nice thing about the weather down here is that I havnt had to drink any water for the last week... I kind of just get my weekly supply absorbed through my skin. There is a storm that comes every year around this time called Santa Ana, and it has rained steady every day for the last week solid. Its wet, but we really have some cool experiences in the rain. For example, we cross flooded streets up to our knees in water, and do a LOT of service helping people de-waterize their houses. Also, we ride horses sometimes. oh, speaking of horses, last thursday was the Uruguayan Independance day, and their was a 200 horse parade and a huge festival in the city centro, it was really cool to see. I love the culture here, it is so unique.

One thing that I am learning is just how important it is to have faith in your investigators. Really, its wrisky to put faith in people, because of agencey, its not the same as putting faith in Christ who will never let you down (Hel 5:12), but I have realized that it is important to always have faith in the truith of what you are teaching. Because conversion is a bit of a science experiment.. if you do this and this and this ===> conversion, its the lords formula, and he has promised that if you do those certian things, conversion will happen. So I have really learned to put my faith in those things that have been promised by the Lord, and to apply those solid truiths to the lives of the investigators, and especially to my own life.

The gospel is so true! I have met lots of 'athiests', but I still have never met anyone who does not believe in god...

Time up, I love you all who read this, and thanks for your prayres and support!

Till next week,

Elder Wilson

What a crazy week I had!

 What a crazy week i had!

First of all, on friday I had my first Zone Conference with 3 other zones, it was really really good, and the fun part of it was that President Da Silva for some reason chose me to teach a 10 minuite part of it in front of all the missionaries. It went well though. President and Hermana Da Silva are such good presidents, and I have so much respect for them. Oh, then on sunday I was given the chance to give a suprise 20 minuite talk in front of about 200 members at the District Conference (like a stake conference for branches), and it went really well too, even though I was scared out of my pants! But it felt good to be able to be helped by the sprit to talk for 20 min straight in spanish. It was a really cool experience.

But the week in general was really interesting. At the beginning of the week it was really really hard. Almost all of our good investigators that had baptismal dates we had to put off because of problems with the commandments - the biggest problem in Uruguay is called´´pareja´´which is that no one gets married because... well just because. It was really hard for me and my companion, and especially a really big test of our faith. It was like this almost all week, and we were not finding any new people to teach, but we just decided that instead of giving up we would just keep on pushing and pushing and pushing. But still nothing was happening.. till yesterday, after church we went out to work and all of the blessings came. We are literally seeing miricles. In those 4 hours after church we found 3 new beautiful ´golden´ families, and 4 other people to baptize. It was a miricle. yesterday I learned what the lord really means in 3 NE 22 7-11 (i think thats where..) and why he ´hides his face´ for a moment. it is in these moments that we must really build our faith, and we really do come out way stronger, and develop our faith. the lord pours out blessings. this is my testimony this week.

time up! till next week! I love the mission.

Thanks for your prayres!

Elder Wilson


the sun really knows how to rise here!! it is always sooo beautiful. for some reason way better than in the USA

love prayers and small branches, not stray dogs or blisters

Everyone

 

Ok, so I finally get a little more time to write! First I want to talk about the most important part - the baptisms and the investigators. Last week I had my first baptism! It was Hermana Beatrice, who we found on the first day clapping doors. the spirit was soooo strong in the first contact we had with her, because at first she was not interested at all, but we testified and her  heart softened... and well two weeks later she got baptized. It is so amazing to see the power of the atonement in her life, she had lots of problems, but i guess i can just summerize it like this. the first couple lessons I never saw her smile once. in fact she usually was frowning. But now, every time i see her she has the biggest smile on her face ever. That is the power of the atonement, and that is why i am serving a mission (plus another good thing about her baptism is that appairantly she really likes cooking... yess). We have tones of investigators right now, 14 progressing investigators, but each of them have really really really complicated lives, so each day we have to work soo hard to keep on modiviting them to make the tough changes in their lives and feel the power of the atonement. But it is so amazing to see the changes that they have already experienced!

 

We are working hard to always be searching for new investigators, and especially we are working hard to improve thae way that the branch works with the missionaries, because the members are by far one of the the strongest tools that missionaries have to baptize. The rama avereges about 20 people per sunday, but the members are so awesome and have such strong testimonies.

 

The apartment has a nice view (see pictures attached) and i live there with my district leader Comp, and the two Zone leaders. it is nice to be able to live with such great example missionaries, and thy are all training me to be a district leader and zone leader and just a good missionary.

 

Pres. Da Silva is amazing!

 

Ive lost like 10 pounds since ive been here. but the food is amazing. really reallly realllly good. 

 

I love prayres. and scriptures. and prophets. and small branches. not strey dogs. or blisters.

But the mission is the best thing that has ever happened to me! Thanks for all the support! and the letters, keep it up and keep me in your prayres!

 

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half of my area, just open ´campo´ where i spend lots of time walking. but it is way pretty  - just watch out for the strey livestalk

the other half of my area, just a sleepy little city where everyone knows eachother

the baptism of Hermana Biatrice, more details in letter

First Baptism and other things summed up in 3 minutes or less

My week went so great! I got my first baptism, and have lots of good investigators. I am really excited and having a really good time and working hard. Sorry, but ive only got a few minuits to type today. Thank you all for your prayrs! I will try to get more time to explain everythiong that is happening next week. I love the Mission!

in Uruguay at last!

¡Hola!

 

Here in Uruguay at last! It is so beautiful, clean, relaxed, and humble. I love it! Sorry, I dont have much time to write this week, but I will put down what I can. My trainer is Elder Aleman from Huston TX, he is completely fluent in español, and has only been out in the mission for 4 monthes, so we are learning together. He is awesome. Uruguay is beautiful. I am in a little city called Rocha about 3 hours outside of Montevideo. It is just a small little city that has the perfect balance of city and country. I feel like im in Italy but 50 years ago. My appartment is... very humble. but i like it because the view is way pretty. Ill try to sent a pic from the view sometime. The branch is small. The language is somewhere beetween portuguesa y español, pero i can pretty much pick everything up and say alot. We have a few good investigators. Beatrice is the best and is getting baptized this saturday. It is so cool to see the atonement change her life in only the few days that I have been here. I love my mission. and so do my feet. Our area is massive (about an hour and a half to walk a cross the whole thing) and Ive3 already lost a few pounds. food is good... when we get it. It is freezing all the time, and everything is semi moist. Somehow every building is way colder than outside, and i cant remember a moment that I havent been abel to see my breth. especially in my apartment where the water freezes. But better cold than hot! I will enjoy the cold while it lasts. Love it!

 

Sorry I cant write more, but details will come.

 

I love the mission and the church is true.

 

Later,

Elder Wilson