Christmas in Uruguay

the temple here in montevideo

Me with my new companion in the missionhouse.

Us with our nice christmas tree :) ¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everybody´s christmas went as great as mine did! It was so nice to be able to see and help the people here remember Christ´s birth and life yesterday. Also, it was so awesome and unreal to be able to skype my family. Thanks for the new ties!

This week was really good. My new 'oro' is named Elder Whiting. He is awesome. He is from Idaho, and has a lot of the Idaho personality. He is super humble and I am super excited to be able to work with him. This is his 2nd try on the mision, about a year ago he was called to this mission, but in the MTC had to go back home. but he changed some things around,and decided to come back on out! He is 20. I love him so much,and it feels so good to have a good, normal companion who had his heart in the mission. We will have lots of good sucess together. 

So, christmas here is pretty much like the 4th of July in the US, but on mega sterroids. They just get all together as families and friends, barbeque, and at midnight they pretty much just blow up the world! it was the crazyest experience i have ever had on midnight christmas eve when they all let off their fireworks! We were trying tosleep, but literally it sounded like Pearl Harbor was happening above our house. It was so awesome to see. 

I love Uruguay, it is so awesome. Oh, and yesterday I ate about half of a barbequed lamb. It was way good :) I love the mission and i hope it never ends. 

Enjoy the cold weather, and feel free to send some my way if you want. 

Elder Wilson

Skyping with Covey

This is what we were treated to on Christmas Day.

We are grateful for modern technology that allows us to interact with a missionary on the other half of the world.

He was grinning and joking and so happy the whole time.

We love you Covey! See you in 1.5!

We get to see Elder Wilson on Skype in just a few days!

[Note from the blog updater: This weekly email was kind of short because Elder Wilson had to take time telling us exactly how to SKYPE him on Christmas Day! We can't wait to talk to him and see his face!]

This week was really good. On wednesday we had the Mission Christmas conference in Montevideo, where all the 210 missionaries in the mission came in together. It was really really awesome and spiritual. Also it was fun to see all of my missionary friends that i know from the MTC and my old areas and everything. There is a really awesome spirit when you get a whole bunc of missionaries together. Also, each day I grow more and more to love President and Hermana DaSilva. They are the best mission presidents in the world. 

We have found lots of great new people to teach, and now we are workng hard to progress them towards baptism. A lot of my investigators are progressing, but they are really stubborn, and are progressing kinda slow. So we are always lookin and searching for new investigators to teach and progress. 

So far in my mission I have learned a lot about the importance of setting and reaching goals, and especially of compromisos.. uhh commitments. If the investigators can keep commitments, they are guaranteed to progress. It is really sad when they dont keep their comitments. 

Oh, tomorrow, my companion Hermano Rodriguez will leave the mission, and I will get a new 'oro' to train. He will come from the MTC in Argentina. So more updates on that next week. This transfer has been crazy! 3companions, 2 oros and a priest! I have learned a lot. And had a lot of fun. We are working really hard. 

Next email I will try to tell you a little bit about some of the weird traditions that they do here in Uruguay. 

Elder Wilson.

PS Merry Christmas!

The New Companion Polka, and ants that eat all of Covey's chocolate cake

A few of the african-style ants that I was talking about. I accidently left out a piece of chocolate cake on the counter, and they ate the whole thing! So im pretty upset with them right now.

A little bit of Uruguayan landscape. This is what almost all of my area is like.

My new companion Angelo Rodrigues

Bueno, this week started out really crazy for me, but now things are all settled down. My old companion Elder Rodrigues did not leave untill thursday in the night, so for 5 days this week we had to arrainge a priest from the ward to be my companinon, and my 'corto plazo' stayed wiht my companion in the house. Then, tuesday morning, President Arnold called me in the house (the area president, the one who gave that awesome talk a couple years ago in General Conference) and explained to me his game plan to try and keep my companion in the mission. It all started with a spiritual whitewash in the temple. On tuesday we went to the temple and spent 7 hours doing about everything that is possible to do in the temple. It was so amazing to be able to spend a ton of time in the temple. then me and my´'corto plazo' went back to the area and worked the whole rest of the day, and myu companion stayed in the temple for another 7 hours. On wednesday, he had an interview with president Arnold, the temple president, and president dasilva (three spiritual powerhouses), but despite all of our best efforts, he still sadly decided to use his agency and go home :( It was really sad to see him leave, but there is nothing I could do.

 

My corto plazo is awesome. He is a 16 year old priest from a city call 33 about 2 hours from here. He has such an awesome testimony, and a ton of energy and animo. Its lots of fun to work with a youth like him. He's got so much energy! We come home, both exhasted from the days work, physically and spiritually, and I stay tired till bed time, but he recoveres in about 5 minuits, and then starts jumping around, and just being a 16 year old youth. its way fun, and we are working hard and have lots of animo (I honestly dont know what the english definition of animo means, but ask a spanish speaker).

 

We are working hard, and having lots of sucess here.

 

I love you all, keep my investigators in your prayres!

 

Elder Wilson

hardest week yet

me+ my new/old companion Elder Rodriguez+ cristian (baptim)+ cristian´s cousin (who we are teaching now)+ and Hno. Silvetti (who did the baptism)

the young men of the ward. We play futbol on Pdays. They are awesome people.

Bueno, this week has by far been the craziest week I've ever had! First of all the important stuff. Cristian Torrez got baptized! he is 23 years old, and we found him through his mom. We were teaching his mom (who was not progressing) and we were about to drop teaching her. Before he had always gone into the other room, but one day I dont know what happened to him, but he came in to eat something, I said ¨cristian, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and get baptized?¨ and well, he got baptized! And he got the priesthood on sunday, which was awesome to watch. I love being able to see the converts get baptized. 

ok, now onto the less important, but maybe a little more interesting things... this has been the hardest week on my mission too. On tuesday I went into the mision home bright and early and got my 'oro', my new companion. His name is Elder Rodriuez de Hondures, he is 25 years old, and I love him soooooo much... but the problem is that he doesnt love the mission so much... we have been working together really close with President DaSilva and the assistants, and He is going home today in a couple hours. I learned a ton this week, working, crying, and trying to help him, and it is really really sad to me to see him making the disision to give up and go home.. really sad because I love him. ha, maybe it was for a reason that president assigned him to serve here right next to the airport. haha its been an interesting experience as a trainer :)  

so, in a couple hours I will get what is called a 'corto plazo' which means short time. And what will happen is a 17 year old priest from here in Uruguay has been called to be my companion for the next 6 weeks of the transfer. I am really excited to meet him in a couple of hours, and we are going to keep on baptizing every week here in Areoparque.

more details to follow on this next week. 

I love everyone! pray for me, and especially the investigators! And my new companion.

Elder Wilson 

In which Covey becomes a trainer, baptizes a 10-year-old, and gets well-cooked

This week we had a really good baptism. we baptized this one kid named Agustin Gonzales. He is 10 years old, and here is why his baptism is so awesome. His family (all the people in the picture) are members of the church, and were way active, they were all leaders and awesme membersof the ward. But about 4 years ago, something happened, and the entire extended family went inactive. While we were teaching agustin, one by one we got the whole familyinvolved. Through him and his baptism, the whole family has now re-activated in the ward. It is really exciting for the ward.

I am really nerveous! tomarrow are transferers,and I am assigned to be a trainer!! My companion is leaving, and I am going to train my "oro" here in areoparque. It is going to be a really great experience, and I know i will learn a ton! ha I feel like i am still just a "oro" (oro means gold, and thats what they call new missionaries here. I think they are called greenies or something up there), and now i get the chance to train, its a lot of responsibility, and i really am really excited to train him. More updates on that next week!

Its sad that my compañero Elder Banegasleaves though, he is really good and we worked together really well and had lots of baptisms here in areoparque (which is an area a little infamous for not baptising at all). with him, my spanish and ability to teach increased a lot, and we had a lot of fun and spiritual experiences. 

oh, we talked to cristina this week ( the one who i explained in the last letter home), and it looks like she wont get baptised at this time,  but we still have lots of faith in her. What happened is that she met some apostate mormon, and heard all sorts of lies, which gave her some doubts. But we are just working with her to develop her testimony in the Book of Mormon. If soemone believes in the book of mormon, any doubt they might have can be resolved.

I love the bookof mormon. One of the biggest blessings of being a missionary is that we have the chance to be able to relly study and memorize that book. Every page has awesome scripture, and it has every thing that mankind needs to know to be happy in this life and forever. I love it. 

Gotta go! I am getting well-cooked down here :) Its weird to think that you are all freezing in the winter! I love the misson. 

Elder Wilson

one temple trip, one baptism, and one non-baptism

This was a really great week for us! It started out with us being able to go into montevideo and be able to go to a session in the Temple! It felt so good, I love being in that sacred building, and being able to perform the sacred ordanances of the temple. It is such a strong spiritual blessing to be able to go, and I was able to recieve strong personal revelation, and also be able to be able to recieve revalation for my companionship and the people in my area that I am teaching. It was nice to be able to be in the temple and reflect over what I have done on my mission so far, what I have done well, and what i can do better. I really have a really strong testimony of Temples, and miss being able to go multiple times every week before the mission, but I am here to do ordanances for the living, not the dead!

After the session in the temple we had a really good zone conference with president da silva, it was a really really good zone conference. we read over the creation of the world in the book of Moses, and applied the principles to what we are doing as missionaries, and in the misson Montevideo Uruguay. One thing that we talked about was the order and organization of everything... literally everything that God does. And if we in our lives, or misiones, want to enjoy the guidance of the spirit, we have to have things in order, and do things the way that the lord wants us to. 

This week we had the baptism of Laura, the 18 year old daughter of Zily who got baptized a couple weeks ago. Laura is an increadibly awesome woman, but her biggest challange is that she is the most shy person i have literally ever met. I honestly think that The whole 3 weeks that we have been teaching her she only said Sí to agree to keep the commitments. In the baptismal service, i think she almost died of emberasment because there were lots of members (for this reason I dont have a picture of her, she wouldnt let us take one with her). But at the moment of her baptism, the spirit decended so strongly, more stongly that I have ever felt it in one of my converts baptisms, and I felt the strongest impression that she is going to be a really really big help to the church. For a moment both me and my companion got the same picture in our minds of her dressed in white going into the temple to recieve her endowments. it was a really special moment, all the members were crying. 

The other baptism that we had planned this week had a slightly different ending. Her name is Cristina, a señora of about 45 years, who was an absolutely golden investigator. She read the Book of Mormon like a profet, she went to church activities, she had one foot in the water, but on the day of her interview I called her to set the time, and the first thing she said was ¨no me voy a bautizarme¨ and hung up. Oh, at that moment I fealt really bad and devistated. After that phone call we wernt able to find her for 3 days to see what happened, but yesterday we made contact! And set up a charla with her for later this week. Im really anxious to see her, and see what happened. But we have lots of faith in her, she is soooo good. It is so interesting to see all of the tricks that satan plays on the people who are about to get baptized! Please pray for her. 

well, time to go! I love everyone.

chau

Elder Wilson