Craaazzayy Mission Life!

Okay so it's not really that crazy but hey I couldn't think of a better subject for it. :P

So a week ago, Monday, was my first P-Day and the reason I didn't talk about it was because it hadn't happened yet when I was emailing haha. We went to Cafe Rio which to me is like a crappy chipotle (sorry if any of you guys out there like it hahaha). My companion loves it and hates chipotle though which is weird. After that we went and got our mail then played sports as a zone. We played basketball and I cracked two of my nails so they were bleeding like crazyy but they're pretty much healed now mom so don't worry!! ;) Then we played rugby which I was surprisingly good at never playing before that.

So we gave two people blessings this week, and the first one was a mom who was really concerned and upset that her son was hanging out with bad people and that his friend had a step dad in drugs and alcohol and stuff so she broke down and asked for a blessing. Then yesterday (Sunday) after dinner a guy named Brother Marr asked for one because his back was giving him a tonnn of pain. Both of those were really cool experiences :)

So on Wednesday I got myself a new bike! Instead of getting another Walmart bike (by the way I brought it in because that stupid peddle fell off, and that was apparently the FOURTH one that did that this week. hmmmm.) haha. But I got my money back for the bike instead of swapping it out for a different one. Then I was like I'll probably be better off buying a stolen one, so we went to one of the local pawn shops and after bargaining with the guy I got it for 155 cash out the door. :) Dad, be proud of me hahaha :) But it's a super super nice bike. The chain is a little squeaky but after a little WB-40 it'll be perfect. :)

So Carl, our landlord, got an idea from watching Tangled that Disney movie. He wants to build a lantern like the ones in the end of the movie!! haha :) He's this old man but can literally make anything its awesome. He lives off the land. anywaysss so we got this really light plastic and attached a tin foil tray to the bottom, then soaked cotton balls in gasoline and lit them on fire and the hot air filled up the plastic and it lifted off the ground and flew away! He thinks it went about 2,500 or 3,000 feet up in the air because it was a tiny speck before we lost it. (It was about 5 feet in diameter not those small ones in the movie) :) I'll attach a picture of it.

So I had my first baptism on Saturday! :) Well first was Ethan but the first one in the field. So.. I had my second baptism Saturday! ;) His name is Cameron Bagley (Elder Weier pronounces his "a"s weird so he says "bag" like the a sound in "age" so its like bagely or something haha. :) ) He is such a sweeet kid! Talking about Cameron now. ha. He reminds me a lot of the little kid on Modern Family hahahhahaha :) I'll attach a picture of him too.

Saturday night we went over to this guy's house, Brother Haws, and he is this guy that smokes and drinks and cusses and stuff but is a less active member. So we just stopped by, and he was telling us about how he got an invitation to have a calling. He was getting really mad telling us about it, but by the end the Spirit was really strong and he seemed like he was really soaking in what we were saying. It was awesome :) Apparently he thinks that because he has those problems and others he wouldn't tell us that he felt like he didn't deserve it and couldn't handle the workload. But like I said towards the end he was starting to come around and realize maybe it was ideal for him to. :) The Spirit was so strong!

We went on exchanges (kinda) and we taught this guy named Thomas. We taught him about some of the commandments, like chastity, tithing, the Sabbath day, and word of wisdom. He was a little shaky in believing in the modern day prophets though. So he had a little bit of trouble believing that those commandments came from God instead of just man's thoughts. But the Holy Ghost was telling me to say Ether 12:6 about how we have to have a trial of our faith before we are able to receive a witness that something is true. So in this case, following the prophet to know if what he is saying is true or not. He said he really liked that :) This work is so exciting!!

ELDER WILSON. OUT!

Cameron, Me, Elder Weier, Cameron's: grandpa, dad, step mom. :)

This is a picture of the video on my camera of the lantern haha. it was a video and I can't get a picture from it so I took it with another Elder's camera. :)

First Week In The Field!

I got here last Tuesday night and it doesn't feel like I've only been here like 6 days. Time has been flying by when I've been getting down to work! So in this mission we're riding bikes (yes!! We won't get as fat!) and driving cars about 50 50. But the area I'm in right now is going to be a part of the new mission called Utah Salt Lake City Central. It's only going to be 4 zones, 20 stakes (Trust me its not that much hahahaha. A stake here is like 10 blocks no lie.) and 160 missionaries!!! It's gonna be packed here. haha. and everyone will be on bikes. not even the AP's (assistant to the president). Right now I'm living in a member's home which is pretty weird at first but I've come to really love them! haha. Their names are the Andreason's. (spelling?) They're an old couple and we live in their attic haha. It gets sooo hott!! We have this huge fan thing that sucks out all the air and blows it outside and when we open the windows it sucks all the cold air in so it's like a huge wind tunnel haha. But we forgot to turn it off one night so we woke up to hurricane winds and like 30 degrees and like 3am!! haha.

So I got here tuesday night, but we just had an interview with the Mission President and then slept over and we met our companions the next day. I met my companion Elder Weier, and he is really cool! He likes to work out, is really chill, and is a good person. We got done with the meetings and things around 3:40, and a member picked us up, the one that we live with. We got to the house, dropped off my suitcases, and went to work. we went tracting over in some apartments and found a less active and he said he's been trying to get back to church so we invited him to come with us and he can sit by us. then we went down a floor and our phone died! So we had to go home and charge it but we're like alright just one more door. So we knocked, and a lady answered and invited us in with her friend there. Then they asked us to share a scripture out of psalms with them about strength. haha we couldnt find any but we read a scripture mastery and that made them happy. Then she asked if we could give her a blessing and she asked me! My first day haha holy crap. So I did, and it was the sweetest experience ever. I literally felt the power of God going through my head, shoulders, arms, and hands to her head and when I was done with it she was in tears. I felt impressed to say that Heavenly Father is pleased with the effort she was making and that He wanted her to continue reading the Book of Mormon that she had gotten. Sorry this email is so long! haha.

So then later that night we went to a lutherine family that Elder Weier had already scheduled. We showed up, the mom answered and she like shuit it in our face and said she didnt want anything to do with us. she said to go talk to her husband on the side of the house, so we did and we got into a litle like Bible bash with him. then he said to go talk to his wife again so we were like oh man. this is awkward. But she answered the door and was like oh come on in I'm Sister Sharp! I'm just kidding we really are members. They freaking punked me!! hahaha. I guess it was Elder Weier's idea. but they're a really cool family.

Okay so another funny story! :) We were riding to our dinner appointment, and all of a sudden my freaking pedal just like fell off!! My foot slipped off and I'm pretty sure got stuck under the wheel or something because I flipped and somehow got under the bike! hahaha. and I think I ran over myself because there was a tire track accross my sleeve. I took a picture of it haha :)

So on Saturday when we were walking home, this guy stopped us and asked if we could give his mom a blessing! So we went into the house (which was literally like 5 million degrees haha) and I sealed the blessing then the guy that stopped us gave it. She had a hurt back and he wanted to give her a blessing. It was a cool experience.

-Elder Wilson

The guys haha (I MEAN ELDERS)

The first one is a picture of my District at the MTC in front of the Temple. From left to right it's Me, Elder Clark, Elder Piutau, Sister Ellsworth, Sister Neslen, Elder Stuart, Elder Denny, and Elder Faumui. :)

Elder Wilson is official!!

This is the famous tree at the MTC that literally smells like butterscotch! soo gooood.

There was a ton of Koreans on our floor so naturally there was a photo shoot.

Elder Denny and I pointing on the map haha

The rest of our district!

I ran over my arm somehow!! hahaha

The peddle that fell off

The seat cover ripped the very next day that I bought it. haha.

Seems like I just got here!

haha the subject of this letter said "like I just got her" before I caught it! That might have made some certain people a litle jealous. ;)

hahahaha :D

So, this week has been crazy! but also crazy awesome!! hahaha :)

The food here is usually mediocre, but this week we had papa john's pizza! It was really kinda weird eating it because it seems like we've been cut off from the real world forever!! haha. The months here have been dragging on. ;) IT'S ONLY BEEN TWO WEEKS?? Oh and for one of the firesides we had, the speaker showed us a TV commercial. It felt like I was sinning!!! hahahahhaa. But it was about these two people on an escalator and it stopped and they were "stuck" there and were kinda freaking out and yelling for help and everything haha. He told us we shouldn't be like them and that we should go through our problems easily and not freak out over the little things.

So saturday night there was this guy that came into our room and he was going to sing in the sunday fireside, and he just grabbed my chips that my mom sent me, opened them, and started eating them!! That wAS PRETTY ANNOYING. woah sorry for the caps haha. no time to go back and fix it though! This 30 minute thing is waayyy too short. ha.

So I was teaching an investigator named Heidi, and we were talking about things and then all of a sudden the spirit told me I should invite her to be baptised because she was ready. Like it literally was like "say this"!! So I was like alrighttt I'll go for it! I invited her and she said yes! It was completely not even what we were talking about which was pretty sick.

Sunday, we woke up at 6:30, but I was soo tired that I crawled back into my bed haha :) We ended out of bed getting up around 7:20. But hey we're supposed to be up at 6:30 and I was!! hahahha. dont judge me, I repented. ;)

The movie that night was soooo spiritual and awesome! It was about the apostasy and basically proving that it really happened and how the authority was taken off the earth and how there needed to be the true church, the true gospel back onto the earth--the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--.

Oh so I found out that I'm completely GARBAGE at sand volleyball. Me and my district played two days ago and I can't run in the sand!! I kept tripping and diving but it was so hard! haha. volleyball in the gym is way better. oh and if any of you are reading this and are going into the MTC, try out 4 square!! It's so legit and not just for elementary school haha. It's intense here.

I was a host yesterday and that was a pretty cool experience. I got to see all of the deer in the headlights brand new missionaries coming in and guiding them to where they're supposed to go haha :) instead of getting a typical one though, Elder Clark and I were assigned to host foreign missionaries!! Ours were portugese and didn't speak anyy english. well kinda but to the point where we couldnt communicate very well hahahaha.

OH! So I found out that I'm going to be leaving the MTC this tuesday May 15th at 5:00 pm instead of wednesday! I'm going to be leaving with Elder Piutau and Elder Denny and Elder Clark are leaving the next day on wednesday. I'm super pumped! Elder Piutau is sooo tight and he loves to work out just like I do! haha :) <--- the smile is for loving to work out

 And I found out that DearElder.com is still going to be working (I'm pretty sure ha) but it will cost money just like buying a stamp. or you could just mail it regularly too (For the people who write me letters hahaha). But thank thank thank thank thaaannkkk you to the people who have! I love getting them! It makes us missionaries so much happier knowing people still care about us haha ;)

But the MTC seems like it takes forever, but honestly looking back at it it really flies by. When sunday comes, every day after that literally does fly. haha. I love being here though, I love feeling the Spirit and being able to be here with it every day here.

Agh my time's out, so I've gotta go. I love all of you!

-Elder Wilson

First Week of the MTC!!

Hey everyone! YES I'M ALIVE ;) They wouldnt let us email or reply until our Pday which is on thursdays. That includes letters too so if you haven't gotten a reply from a dearelder.com letter you sent me, that's why!!

Just wanted to start out by saying that I love my district here and the whole MTC in general! The spirit is all around us here and I love every second I get to feel it. We start out everything in a prayer. Studying with companions, personal study, meals, lessons, everything!! :)

TO MOM: ;)

Yeah the dear elder letter got to me okay! :) and I also got the two packages you sent! :)

So to answer your questions...

1) my Pday is on thursdays! At least here in the MTC, it might change in the field.

2)we leave the MTC on may 16th which leads me to my next answer...

3)Yes I'll be here for mother's day :/

4)I wont be able to vcall home for mother's day because there's a total of 3 phones and like 2000 missionaries ;(

I love the MTC! It's a super awesome experience being here with all of these missionaries. The elders in my district are soo awesome!! I have a big samoan Elder, Elder Faumui who is serilously so awesome!! He is full of the spirit and is just a big teddy bear! He cares about everything and everyone. Elder Piutau is a tongan so he's pretty big too! He's pretty chill. Actually really chill haha. He's always rapping and stuff like that haha :) Elder Denny is my com[panion. He's a short latino guy and he is ALWAYS talking like a mile a minute hahahahaha. And he';s addicted to diet coke. then Elder Stuart. He's a tall guy, like 6'3" haha and he's such white trash! He tries to rap too  haha its so funny :) but he's so nice! and he's our distric leader. Then there's elder clark. He is sooooo chill. Me and him are definitely the closest. We're super in common and have the same personality and everything! Right now he's actually right next to me emailing his family right now. He and I are always talking about stuff and getting to know each other really well :) I love our district!! (A district is a group of like 4 or 5 companionships grouped together) We get along really really well. oh yeah and there's a sister com[panion ship who are pretty cool too! Sister Neslen and Sister Ellsworth.

The MTC is flying by really fast!!!! They say that in the MTC the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. That is so true!! Yesterday I was an investigator (someone interested in learning more about our church) and I felt the investigator needed to be baptized in the role play we were doing, and so I prayed and asked Heavenly Father to have the missionary ask me to be baptized, and right after I finished the missionary asked me!!! It was so awesome. I love the gospel so mch! It's awesome. I feel like I've called it awesome way too much but it really is!! hahaha. So many of my prayers have been answered here! :)

Another cool thing that happened was a few days ago (monday night) we were all doing personal study when we got a page over the intercom for our district to come down to the main office for a TRC ( paid actors playing as investigators). NONE of us were prepared at all!! So we said a prayer as a district, and were relying on the Spirit. We opened the door to an old man who was from Haidi, with a thickkkkkk african accent!! Anyways after 5 minutes we finally were able to get inside the door by saying that we were mormons. (Yes I tried saying we were missionaries, from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and a bunch of other things, we thought that saying mormons would be too obvious!) I felt the spirit sooo strongly the whole time! :) I was able to answer every single one of his questions! Ah it was such an AWESOME ;) experience!

The sundays here are truly amazing. There's a devotional that someone from the church (apostles, people of the seventy, ect) gives us and that was super awesome!! The speaker was super good. He talked about how we need to be happy, have fun, and be good. And talked about how we can do those things. The songs we sand were really spiritual too! Anyways, after we went to that there was a video that David A. Bednar gave (it was a video of when he gave a talk at the MTC a while ago). Holy crap that was so so so so good! It talked about how Christ had unconditional love and never thought abiout Himself, ever. And how we need to be like Him! I feel so horrible now, thinking about all the times I've been sad and down. When I am I turn inwards, as everyone does usually, and not outwards (helping others). when we do that it gives us more happiness, and helps them too! I'll definitely be trying to do that more.

Well I have 4 minutes left, and the time is in red now so I need to hurry it up hahaha. But I can't upload any pictures to the MTC computers, I will be able to when I get out in the field most likely. I can print some out and send them in the mail but that will be about it! I'll try next week (THURSDAY IS MY PDAY) <---In the MTC.

Shout out to Natalie Wilson, Kelsey Barney, and Bracin Walker!! I've been thinking about you guys NON STOP! I love you and I'm praying for you! (As well as a lot of other people too). I love you everyone!!

I love all of you who are reading this!! And mom please forward it to as many people ask for it! ;)

-Elder Wilson

phew, 1:09 left! ;)