August is OVER?

So transfers are tomorrow, and I found out that Elder Conley is
getting transferred to an area called Little Cottonwood in Murray. So
that was sad.
Andd I found out that I'm becoming District Leader! And I'm finishing
up the training of an Elder. His name is Elder Bloomfield. I haven't
met him yet, but I'll let you know in the next email.

Last Tuesday we did laundry, emailed and went shopping. I got TWO cans
of beans since I love them soo much. :) Then at 6 we taught Oscar
Sanchez, but we wanted to teach him in the church so nothing crazy
would happen. He was a little scatter brained and got off topic
easily, but he received it pretty well. Then we taught Aubry Hock.
She's progressing. We clarified a few scriptures for her that she had
questions about. I really like doing that because it increases my
knowledge about the scriptures! When you teach people about things you
learn them better yourself. After we read the scriptures we watched
the Mormon messages DVD, which is soo good. A video on there really
hit home with her, she almost started crying! So her faith is getting
stronger. :)

Wednesday we taught Elmer. He's still going great! He attended the
single's ward and loved it. He went to a family home evening thing
that they were holding. He even went on a date this week. After that
we went to leatherby's for lunch. A little boy walked up to us and
said it's my birthday, and for my present I want to pay for you. How
cute is that? We taught Mackenzie that 9 year old, the Plan of
Salvation. She understood it pretty well. She's never been to church
in her life so she doesn't have any knowledge of things. After
Mackenzie we went around and tracted/contacted referrals and we got a
few really good contacts. Then we taught the Andrus family. They have
a little Autistic girl, she's so cute!

On Thursday we were riding our bikes to go tracting, and the light for
us to cross the crosswalk wasn't lit. (The hand was up). So I started
to stop, and Elder Conley was flying, so he tried to get out of the
way but didn't, and clipped my tire. He crashed, breaking the derailer
on his bike. But he didn't get hurt! So that's good. We took his bike
in to get repaired, and mine to have the shop true my tire. It's
pretty wobbly. Then we went to district meeting which went pretty
well. After that we went on splits with Elder Harvey and Aveiro
because Harvey was sick. I stayed with Harvey while Elder Conley went
out with Aveiro. He and I talked and he's a really cool guy. During
this transfers they're making a whole zone just for Spanish speaking
Elders, so he won't be in my district anymore. He goes home next
transfer. Luckily I haven't gotten sick yet! (Knock on wood)

I can't believe it's already September already! On Friday we had a
mission-wide meeting that took the place of our companion study. That
went really well, he showed us some really great stories from the
scriptures and showed us some really inspirational scriptures. I love
President Moffat! He's such a good mission president. He knows so much
about the scriptures and everything about missionary work. I can tell
that I;m going to learn a lot being here with him. I have a few really
good quotes that I want to share with you. They're from a book that I
found while I was at Elder Harvey's apartment. “This inspiring book
was never tampered with by unauthorized translators or biased
theologians but comes to the world pure and direct from the historian
abridges. The book is not on trial- it's readers are.” This is talking
about the Book of Mormon, obviously. Another good quote was “It is the
word of God. It is a powerful second witness of Christ. And,
certainly, all true believers who love the Redeemer will welcome this
additional evidence of His divinity.” :)
Here's another quote that I saw on our landlord's fridge. “The issue
for us is trusting God enough to trust also His timing. If we can
truly believe He has our welfare at heart, may we not let His plans
unfold as He thinks best?” -Neil A. Maxwell. The Lord is in control!
If we let Him guide our lives and trust that anything and everything
we go through is for our good, then we'll be a lot happier throughout
life and will be able to have the eternal perspective that we all need
to have.
After the mission conference, we came home and did weekly planning and
companion inventory. Comp inventory is where you discuss with each
other their strengths, and what they need to work on. Then we taught
Mackenzie, and picked up 2 potentials.

Saturday morning we went to Sister Estes house to see if she knew
anyone that we could teach since she's the Relief Society President.
Then we taught Elmer at his house and watched a general conference
talk from a DVD of the latest general conference that Elder Conley
bought. That went well, and when we were at lunch afterward we met a
guy named Joseph, and he's getting the lessons over in West Jordan. He
seems really really cool. Then we taught Mackenzie Michael and he dad
was there so we met him. He and the mom are divorced, but he was
staying at their house for the weekend for some reason. He's less
active but is wanting to come back so that's really good. It'll
benefit him with us coming over as well as Mackenzie. After that we
had to do splits with Elders Harvey and Aveiro again so it wasn't
super productive for me at least. (I went out with Aveiro so I was
stuck in the language barrier again.)

Church went by really fast on Sunday. Most likely because I prayed to
get something out of church so I was able to focus a lot better
because of it. Mackenzie didn't come to church, her dad said she
didn't have a dress to wear. I tried to explain that she doesn't need
to wear a dress to church, but then he said they were in Park City
shopping. So she has to move her baptismal date back to September
29th. After church we went to dinner and then we went to the Young
Women President's house to see if she knew anyone that would benefit
from us teaching them. She gave us a few but we already had some of
them. Then we stopped by Mackenzie's house and taught a quick lesson
to her. She's really excited to learn and be baptized, so it's a shame
that she couldn't come to church. :/

Love, Elder Wilson

  A bunch of sunflowers!

Okay I know I promised I wouldn't talk about food as much 

but this was really really good pizza!! hahaha. 

This signpost always makes me laugh.

It's been a week already?

So last Tuesday after emailing, we went to the mall to meet up with
Elder Davidson. He's had a package AND a letter for me for 2 WEEKS.
Anyways then we taught Oscar which was weird because he said he prays
for the Devil to come so he can “fight” him. There was such an evil
presence there. Elder Conley and I both felt it. I won't go into
details since there was some crazy stuff that happened, but we both
got out of there pretty fast, haha.
Then we went around trying to find people by going to the part member
list and trying to find people that weren't members that would be
interested in learning more. Sister Veith wanted to get a blessing
because she was throwing up for 4 days.

I can't believe it's already halfway through August! On Wednesday we
had a meeting at the mission home for all the missionaries. It was
pretty far away, so we got a ride. Turns out we were supposed to bike,
haha. There were a ton of bikes there. The meeting was really good, we
learned about how we need to know preach my gospel really well and how
to do companion study. The rest of the day we just basically tried to
find people, but with no success. We did find this guy named Jake
Smith who wants us to stop by and give them the lessons and he said he
had a 15 year old boy that might be interested in the church so that
was cool. :)

We got a call from the Assistants on Thursday saying that they were
coming over! They ended up talking about how it's important that we
need to invite everyone we teach to be baptized. They were going
around to everyone saying that. But we need to do as well. We had
district meeting after that which went well. We did service for
brother Simpson, which consisted of us helping him tear up his front
yard so he could put grass in. That took an hour and half. After that,
a guy named KB who's going to college in a week came out with us, and
we went to the condos. Unproductive. Haha. Dinner was good though, and
after dinner we taught a family and that went well. At 8 we taught
Aubry. She's improving!! She still had questions for us, but they were
questions about not understanding the scriptures! Not deep doctrine
questions that just make her even more confused. She's been reading
and praying! :)

On Friday we noticed that our sink was flooding. BUT before you jump
to conclusions since I know you will, we scrape off our food into the
garbage before we wash our dishes. ;) So we told John Smith our
landlord, and he came down and tried to fix it. First he tried using a
jagged tool sticking it down the pipe, but then he tried using a
plunger! Haha. That didn't work either. Then when he put a bucket
under the sink to catch the water, it overfilled and was spraying
everywhere hahaha. He ended up having to call the plumbers, which told
him that it would cost $500 to fix! Outrageous, but he didn't compare
or try and talk them down any. Anyways, we went out and tried to find
people, and then came back home so Jeremy could pick us up. He drove
us to the Condos where we tracted, unsuccessfully. But then we had
dinner! Pizza :) I haven't had pizza in a while! We got a lot of
referrals from there though, and they own property up in Idaho! 8
acres for $17,000. He built roads, his own trailers, a cabin, so many
things! My dad would be his best friend, haha. :) We started exchanges
with Elder Harvey and Elder Aveiro on Friday night, too. They're
Spanish speaking and I went over there.

Elder Aveiro (I think I've already told you about him) is from around
England, so he has an English accent. But since he speaks Spanish, I'm
sure it sounds pretty interesting to the natives! We woke up and
exercised, (he was still wearing his silk pajamas hahaha) and then we
studied. I ordered a mini PMG online which is so cool! (From LDS.org,
so don't start your judging, haha.) Then he did language study for an
hour which consisted of me sitting there trying my best to understand
what he was saying. He and I then went out to a lesson that we had,
but the guy had moved and Elder Aveiro didn't know where he lives now.
So we tracted around there, with no luck. I had to ride Elder Harvey's
bike, and his legs are so much shorter than mine, so after I had
raised up the seat the handlebars were really low. So I had to lean
way over. When we were riding around, we saw Elder Conley and Harvey
stopping at a house, so we waited until they went inside. When they
did I rode up, laid his bike down, hopped on mine, and rode off
hahaha. Elder Harvey doesn't get letters, so I wrote him one and
pretended to be a girl from his hometown in Texas. It was a pretty
good day. Except I couldn't understand the lessons we taught! So I
would sit there and smile, say gracias if they gave us water, and use
my limited Spanish from high school to understand the questions they
asked me. :)

Sunday we had the usual long church, but two of the people that we're
teaching came to church! Crazy Mike, and Jo Little. (That's Jo's real
name) Mike is getting off drugs/smoking, so he's always tripping out
haha. But anyways, once we got out of our meetings, we went to dinner.
The family was really funny and they cooked a really good dinner. Then
we went to teach Aubry, but we went to a fireside with her instead. It
was so good! President Shulte the stake president talked at it. It was
about the restoration and how we can relate it to our lives. It was a
really well put together talk. He related Joseph Smith's first vision
and leading up to it, and picked little things out of JSH that I had
never even noticed before. If you have the chance, read it! I can tell
it really hit Aubry.

Yesterday we had a lot of people to stop by! We got 26 referrals for
people to stop by that members said might be interested in us coming
by. We taught Elmer in the morning (Well watched some Mormon Messages
from a DVD that we have), and after wards we went around trying to
contact everyone. We stopped by house where it's the grandma, her
granddaughter, and he daughter. So I'll say names to be less
confusing. Lynn Ryan is the grandma, her granddaughter Miranda, and
Miranda's daughter Mackenzie. Mackenzie is 9, so we taught her and the
family the restoration, and she accepted a date to be baptized! Then
later on we went to stop by and teach Jake's son. We taught them the
teabag lesson which is an interactive object lesson that kids really
love.

This week went by so fast! I don't know about you but it feels like it
was just P-day.

I LOVE YOU!
-Elder Wilson

Our district! Plus our zone leaders. Left to right! Elder and Sister

Lauritzen the senior missionaries, Sister Veith, Elder Aveiro, Sister

Brush, Sister Paongo, Elder Harvey, Elder Quesne, Sister Young, Elder

Redd, Elder Conley, and I! 

 A funny text from Elmer! He went to the single's ward for the first

time, so we asked him how it went. :)

Elder Conley's "young money", he sold his bike.

 An AMAZING car that I found. Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution!

Beware of the Ligers... hahaha I couldn't help but think of Napoleon Dynamite!

August 14, 2012

Last P-day we went to go email and do the regular P-day things, and
then we went and played basketball at the stake center for about 3
hours long so my feet were very tired at the end of the day. After
that we went to dinner because one of the sisters volunteered to cook
for us (the entire district, not just Conley and I! ;) ) So that was
cool. Then we went to our lesson that we had with Sheri Snyder, but
her daughter and niece weren't there. After we taught her we went to
the park to try and find Nick but with no success. Then we went to the
Warnick's house, which is a member house where the mom and dad knew
each other growing up and eventually got married! They're pretty cool.

Wednesday is the most depressing day! It's a whole week until P-day
again hahaha. It was SO HOT this week! It was 102 a couple of days
this week! I probably sweated about 5 pounds. There was also a huge
fire. The smoke from it blocked out the sun so it cooled off a little
bit. We weren't super successful in finding new people to teach, but
Jordan Simpson came out with us again so that was cool. There's a
place that gives out free pie if you buy something so we bought a soda
haha :) Hey, being frugal is a good thing right?

On Thursday we went and this guy named Jeremy Lance who is leaving for
a mission in October came out with us. We went to Elmer's place and
watched a video about Jesus Christ and the miracles He performed. Then
we had lunch at Jeremy's house. He had some home-made salad he made.
It had garlic, cloves, wheat, cucumbers, tomatoes, and some other
weird things. I'm not a picky eater, but that was just plain weird.
Hahaha. The garlic was super strong! Then we also ate at this thai
restaurant, and we had these really gross coconut drinks. There was
stuff floating in it!! I almost gagged. I emailed a picture of it.
Anyways so after that we had district meeting, and that went really
well. We had dinner at our house and then went over to Daniel's house
(that guy that came to church randomly) but he just wants welfare from
the church. Shady. Then we taught Aubry, but she had 2 pages of
questions for us so that went well. Then we taught Brittany and her
cousin Kristin.

On Friday we woke up and went to the stake center to play basketball
with our district and zone leaders. But the only people that ended up
showing up were Elder Conley/I, and the four sister missionaries.
Elder Harvey was too lazy and the Zone leaders were going to but for
some reason never showed up. Lame. So we all played basketball then
took a picture. After that we came home, studied, taught Elmer and
went around trying to find people. Nick was shady as heck so we got an
appointment with him and met him at this house at this house I guess
he's staying at. Then that Jeremy Lance guy came out with us again,
and then he went home. (he only came out for about an hour or two). We
taught Aubry Hock again, and that went.. well. We watched finding
faith in Christ (which she needs to do for herself, find faith in
Christ) but she didn't get anything out of it. Then we answered all
her questions (2 more pages of questions), which she never fully felt
like they were answered. Even though we were explaining everything
perfectly simple and to the extent that she or anyone should be able
to understand them. It's frustrating because she doesn't take things
seriously, but she wants to have her questions answered. God doesn't
work that way!! We have to work for our answers, and prove that we
really want to get an answer. He doesn't just give us things, we would
take Him for granted.

Saturday was a lot better. :) Well for the most part haha. We woke up
and went straight to the church to set up for the baptisms that we
were having. Nick and Elmer were getting baptized. So we set up the
baptismal font, and then went to go pick up Nick. We called him
beforehand, and when he answered he was like “I don't feel good. Call
me when I feel better.” What the heck? How are we supposed to know
when that is? Haha. So we just went over there to where he's staying.
(In a tent in the backyard of a lady, a step up from the park at
least!) We walked in the gate, and the tent was unzipped so we saw him
sleeping. I called his name after Elder Conley and I were silently
arguing who was going to wake him up. He rolled over, and flipped out!
“Who let you in here?? Why did you just walk into my house? Would you
just walk into someone's house if it were open?” I looked at Elder
Conley and he was trying his hardest not to start laughing. After he
finally got up, he lit a cigarette and started smoking! One of the
stake president's counselors was in the car waiting for us! So he saw
the whole thing. It was all bad. So needless to say, he did not get
baptized.
Elmer's baptism was really good though! :) He had so many people
there! We set up 70 chairs, and all but about 10 were filled! The
Spirit was really strong too. The guy who was supposed to give the
talk on the Holy Ghost wasn't there, so I scrambled to get the talk
together. I finally got my thoughts together as the time came to go
up, so when they called his name I paused just in case he was there.
Right when I was standing up he stood up! Perfect timing. But his talk
was really jumbled. It was about 20 minutes long, and he talked about
the atonement, then baptism, then the Holy Ghost, then back to the
atonement. It was kind of odd, haha. But the baptism overall was
really amazing.

On Sunday we had a meeting at 7am! So we woke up at 6, got ready and
left. We didn't end up getting home until 5pm! Elmer got confirmed at
church which was really good. His dad gave him the confirmation. Then
we went to the usual meetings and when we were done we went home to
change out of our suits and went to dinner. Dinner was at the Wirfs'!
That means a BBQ! Brother Wirfs loves to barbecue. And he's really
good at it, too. We were fasting so that was the perfect meal to end
our fast.

Monday we woke up and played basketball with the district. After that
we came back to our apartment and did studies. After studies we went
out to eat with the Sharps!! They picked us up and we went to an
Italian restaurant. It was really good! Davin still wanted to sit by
me haha :) Then they gave us a ton of York mints! I love those. So
that started the day off really well. After that we went around trying
to find people, but it didn't really work very well because nobody is
home from 1-4. We had dinner at the Jackson's, who has a daughter in
my stake back home! (Sister Janet Ralph) They're a fun couple. The
husband looks like an older version of Paul Blart in mall cop, or king
of queens! Hahaha :)

Thank you everyone for all the support you give me! It means a lot. :)
I love you all!

Love, Elder Wilson.

P.S. Beans? Yeah, I love 'em. :)

A funny statue that was in the restaurant! 

 Do you see the floating things in it??

Roasted Coconut Juice. Wouldn't strongly recommend it.

 A cool picture of Jesus, but this version is colored. 

My camera has a setting that can make it so only red pops out.

 Elmer's baptism!

 Every one of these chairs PLUS 3 rows MINUS 10 chairs= 60 people

attending his baptism

Look at the fire! Freaking crazy. This was before it blocked out the sun.

 The district playing basketball!

 John Smith, in the flesh.

Elmer, his dad, Elder Conley and I!

The trio!

Elmer, Elder Wilson and The Savior!

Us messing around, having fun!

A pose that apparently all the old Apostles used to do. haha.

 A crazy house that's in our area! An IGLOO! hahahaha.

Temple Square! ..and Spiders!

On Tuesday we went upstairs to eat breakfast with the Landlord's
because they always fix us a nice breakfast on P-days. Then we did
laundry and went to teach Elmer. SUPER SOLID. This was the best lesson
we've had because he was still pumped about the answer to the blessing
on last Monday. Then we went and emailed, and shopped for things we
needed. We played an intense game of basketball, that was fun. The
Simpsons and some other people from the ward and this missionary who
came back home from the MTC. Then we went to dinner at Sister Ralph's
mom's! (Janet Ralph from my home stake back home). That was pretty
sweet. They're really nice.

On Wednesday we helped a lady down the street from us move. That took
about an hour, then we went and taught Elmer. We taught him about the
Sabbath day and why we need to keep it holy. And about tithing and
fast offerings. He had no problems with any of them, and was actually
excited to keep them! He's so awesome. I wish everyone reading this
could be able to meet him!! Then we went to Elder Harvey's apartment
to do splits again and I had to stay there so I didn't get a chance to
do anything. After that we went to dinner which was really really
good, then went to sister Greenwood's where we found Abby. The 3 of us
(plus a young woman from her ward and her fiance), so really the 5 of
us went to Abby's house to teach her again. But the dad answered and
said to not ever come again and accused us of some false things. Very
not receptive. Haha. It's always so sad. That's the WORST thing about
my mission, or missions in general I've found. When you as a
missionary have something so precious and so so soo many people just
regard it as nothing and shrug it off. If they would just LISTEN to us
and test the Gospel out, they would see it in their lives bless them
so much! It's disappointing. But not discouraging, don't worry! ;)

Thursday August 2nd! We had zone meeting, which went well and then we
came home and cleaned up our apartment in case President Moffat came
because he wanted to go to a lesson with us. Turns out the lady
canceled, so he didn't come. We taught Nick, and he agreed to be
baptized August 11th! We interviewed him and everything that night, so
that was cool to see him finally progressing. For so long he has just
been spinning his wheels. (This is Nick the homeless guy.)

On Friday we met Elmer, and we went to temple square! It was a very
peaceful and awesome place. We took a tour of the visitor's center,
the tabernacle where general conference used to be, and went through
the place with all the artifacts from the early church history. There
were two sister missionaries that gave us the tour, but they were
pretty bad. Haha. They knew the information well, but they weren't
talkative at all. Elmer was and IS super solid though, so that's a
relief. Otherwise I might have been worried! Then as we were walking
back to the car, I saw Natalie Savage! She's a missionary at temple
square I guess. So we got a picture together for proof. After that we
went out to eat at this Greek food place, that was cool. I had a gyro
(I think that's how you spell it) but it's pronounced like the
currency in Europe-the euro. After that we came home and helped an old
lady move and she gave us an old shirt for us to wear so that we
didn't get our white dress shirts dirty. I kept it! Haha she gave it
to me don't worry. It's plaid but it's pink and yellow, and personally
I think it looks pretty good on me! ;) Elder Conley got one too. That
lady is really nice. Her husband died around 45 years ago but she's
holding up well. And we found out that because we came over she came
to church again! :) We went to dinner at our Landlord's son's house.
There's an upstairs, a main floor, and two basements!! The stairs go
down and there's a typical basement, but then after that there's
another basement and there's a racquetball court down there! Or a
volleyball court, or a basketball court. So cool!
Then we stopped by a referral we had gotten, and it's this 22 year old
girl who has been reading Preach My Gospel! She's interested and wants
to learn more, but doesn't really have a testimony of God or Jesus
because she can't see them. Faith! That's what we were teaching her.

On Saturday we taught Elmer Mirza at the church. We watched the
restoration movie, but it was the really old one hahaha. 1978! Then he
had his interview for baptism. Elder Conley and I went with Elders
Harvey and Aveiro his companion to Arctic Circle to eat lunch. I got a
bomb pastrami burger. Then we went around trying to find new people to
teach. We knocked on member's doors to see if they had any people they
knew that would be willing to hear about the Gospel. Then dinner, then
to a lesson with Aubry Hock that 22 year old. She came to church last
week and was really touched by the Spirit so she wanted to have us
come over and teach her. Like I said earlier she's been reading Preach
My Gospel, but has a ton of questions so we answered them. Elder
Conley and I bore our testimonies, and the Spirit was SO strong. It
felt like my chest was on fire! I love feeling the Spirit so strongly.
:)

On Sunday we had meetings, then church, then meetings, then church
forever. Sundays are so long! Hah. But today was fast and testimony
day so that was good. I bore my testimony in the 1st and 5th wards. I
felt the Spirit soo strongly it was awesome! I prayed that I would the
night before and I did! I love that when I've been feeling it lately
it's literally like my chest is on fire. Elder Conley doesn't seem to
believe me when I say that I feel the Spirit like that, which really
sucks (stinks, my bad) because it feels so good! Anyways, so we met a
new potential investigator named Daniel. He's a Latino or Hispanic
guy, but doesn't speak any Spanish hahaha. But we met him AT CHURCH.
He said he was curious about the Mormons so he came. We have an
appointment with him tomorrow. Then we had dinner with a ton of
people! One big family. But they were way legit and funny. :)

Yesterday (Monday) we did our normal morning routine of working out,
eating breakfast and studying, then went and taught Elmer. This time
we showed him the more modern restoration DVD made in 2004. It's super
good, I recommend it to anyone and everyone. He thought it was really
good too. Then we went around trying to find people to teach which was
not very successful. Two of our appointments fell through because they
were shady, but the last one she was there so that's good! Her and her
daughter and niece were there so we found 3 new ones! Pretty cool. :)

So overall it was a pretty good week! Temple square was beautiful. And
a lot of fun with Elmer!

Love,
The Elder Wilson.

 This was a rug at a member's home, completely hand sewn!

 The gang in the visitor's center! Plus the two sister missionaries.

LOOK HOW FAR AWAY THEY ARE FROM ME hahahaha.

The Tabernacle

Elder Conley, Elmer and I in front of the Salt Lake City Temple! 

 The Man! (And Elmer)

A pretty shot of the Temple

 They're doing construction or renovation on the Temple

 The man that carved this was incredible! John Rowe Moyle.

Another beautiful shot!

 A Scottish bagpipe player!

Joseph Smith getting the Melchizedek Priesthood 

And the Aaronic Priesthood

  Service... DONE!

Sister Cooney

 This was the LONGEST sacrament meeting ever! (Look at the times)

 We found a newspaper from 2 days after my birthday!

The movies that were coming out during my birthday. 

So crazy! (Mightneed to zoom in)

We got these sticky pads that attract the spiders and then they

stick to the pad so they can't get off. WE GOT 66 SPIDERS!

I can solve the rubik's cube in 1 minute 47 seconds!

This is proof that we met Natalie Savage! Super cool.