September Blew By!

This week was a lot nicer, weather wise. It's starting to cool down! Today I was actually a little chilly, I'm wearing a long-sleeved shirt today! :)

So last P-day I went to Taylor's bike shop which is this really high-quality bike repair shop that missionaries get a discount at, and got thorn resistant tubes, slime, and these strips that go in between the tube and the tire. So that should hopefully be the end of my flat tires! ;) We taught Aubry Tuesday and we did the rat trap lesson which is a really good lesson. We demonstrate that it works by smashing a pencil, then we have them look up a bunch of scriptures on faith, and while they're doing that I unhook the springs. After we're all done with the scriptures, I Set it up again (unhooked) and ask them to demonstrate their faith by touching it. Nobody will! It's really funny. But she sat there not wanting to for half an hour before she finally did.

After we taught Mackenzie on Wednesday we went to the Montes family, and a guy named Saul lives there. He is really interested in our church! But he said he would probably prefer it to be done in Spanish so sadly we had to give him up to the Spanish Elders. But I knew that we'll be blessed with finding someone else. The Lord provides! Then we taught Mikayla and then went over to the Warnicks for dinner. They got this bomb Chinese food! Really really good.

On Thursday our zone had interviews with President Moffat. So we studied for a little bit, and rode our bikes over to the building. Like I said it was just our zone, so there weren't too many people there. But I got interviewed, and it went really well. Then Elder Bloomfield did and the rest of the zone. Then we got trained on how to teach the importance of church attendance.
We got a call from a guy named Lloyd, and in the voicemail he left us (we were in a lesson so we couldn't answer) he said that he wants to more about our church and that he really wants to set up an appointment to meet with us! :) Talk about faith being put to the test and it working out! I love it! Ether 12:6 even though I quote it probably way too often, we don't receive a witness until AFTER the trial of our faith. So if we take that step of faith towards something we know we should do, even if it's scary, the Lord will bless us. :) This really is the Lord's Church back again on the earth. :)

Friday we were pretty busy! We had lessons planned at 2,4,5,6,7, and 8 o'clock! First we had weekly planning in the morning and went around and contacted the part member list for a while, until our appointment at 2. Then we went to Mackenzie's to teach her, then over to Mikayla's to teach her. We had a lesson that was cut a little short because of time unfortunately, but it was still good. We talked with Kempton Smith for a while and got a return appointment. Then we went to the Warnick's to help them move furniture around. They are switching one of their kids' rooms with the office, so there was a lot of moving that had to be done. Then we went to our last appointment and it turns out that the mom is best friends with Sister Gallegos (Sorry if I spelled that wrong!) family back home!!

Saturday we had lunch with Elmer! That was good. He's still doing amazingly well. Apparently he has a girlfriend now! I told him I'll give him 5 months until he's engaged when he's attending the singles ward. ;)
After lunch we taught Mackenzie and she was able to pay attention really well because her mom wasn't there, and the kids were playing in a different room. Normally there are the three kids (all under 5) running around laughing and screaming and there's a little dog running around as well. So it's usually pretty chaotic there but it wasn't too bad. We also had a lesson with Russ Howell again so that was good. :)

Sunday was the Brigham City dedication for the temple. That was pretty cool :) I liked the atmosphere of it. It was an extension of the temple, so we had to have a recommend to attend. Then we went around tracting different areas, then went to the church to set up for Mackenzie's baptism. I was really worried because the grandma wasn't answering her phone so I couldn't get a hold of anyone over there. But they eventually showed up, about 6:58 when it starts at 7. So we didn't have time to take pictures beforehand. The program went well, but Mackenzie was so nervous to go into the water! She sat on the steps for what seemed like 10 minutes but probably only about 2 or 3. I was just standing there in the water trying to assure her that it was okay, that it was the same as we had practiced it. Eventually she did, and she really liked it she said. The rest of the baptism went well. Elder Bloomfield gave a talk on the Holy Ghost which was really good. :)

This week was really busy with all the people we were teaching, but it was really rewarding with the things that I learned and the Spirit I've felt. :) I GET TO GO TO GENERAL CONFERENCE!! I'm going to the Saturday afternoon session. So make sure you watch it and look for me! :) I'm sending a picture of my ticket so you can know which row I'm in. ;)

I love you!
Elder Wilson

This reminded me of home, with everyone always scrambling to find a prom dress that's modest and cheap. This is a great idea!

The "Hungar" games hahaha this was at the church building. :) 

This is the pass that we had to have to get into the dedication meeting.

My General Conference ticket! I'm so excited :)

This is the picture after the baptism that we took. Mackenzie, her great grandma and her little brother, Zach, Elder Bloomfield, and I.

Septemburrrr!

It's actually starting to get kind of chilly up here at nights! That means winter is coming! I can't wait to be cold. Ah! This week went by really slowly, but I really liked it.

Last P-day, we went to walmart to go shopping and we asked Jordan Simpson if he could give us a ride. When he picked us up, he had a girl in his front seat. I figured it was his sister, but it turned out to be someone that we had been trying to get an appointment with forever! The Lord works in mysterious ways. :) Anyways so she's only 16 but she is pretty mature for her age so she had a couple of religious questions for us. We made a return appointment for Sunday which went really well!

On wednesday we went over to Mackenzie's house to talk to the dad to let her get baptized on September 23rd. He agreed! :) Then we raced over to the mission building because the whole mission went on a field trip! We went to Ensign Peak and hiked up to it. Then we went to "This is the place", where Brigham Young said that this is where Zion will be built. That was really interesting. It was like a little Pioneer village with people dressed like Pioneers, and the houses were all old like the original houses there. That was a really neat and Spiritual experience. I took a lot of pictures, so I'll try and limit the ones I upload!

On thursday I had my first district meeting. The AP's showed up. Of course they would! haha. But it went really well. I trained my district just fine and the things that I prepared really helped them out, I could tell. The AP's told me afterwards that it was really good for my first district meeting. They said things I did well, and things I could improve on for the future. It was a little stressful, but then again not really! I kinda like it. I'd say the most annoying thing about being a district leader is having to be a babysitter for the missionaries in my district. But being a district leader is really a good experience, I like it.
Afterwards Elder Bloomfield and I went around talking to people on the street. We had a lesson with Russ Howell again today, and I asked if he found out that the LDS church was God's church truly restored to the earth again if he would be baptized. He said "Yes, absolutely!" So we'll see how he progresses. He is on vacation until Thursday though in California. Jealous! ;)

Elder Bloomfield and I went around contacting the referrals we received, but none of them were home. Then we went to Mackenzie's house to teach her a lesson, but she wasn't very focused. I was nervous because her baptism interview was on Saturday, so we went over the questions and she kept "forgetting" what they were. We would tell her the definition of a word, like prophet, and then right after I was done I'd say so... what's a prophet? "Uh... I forgot." It happened about 4 times for each word! haha. I eventually just wrote down all the words she needed to remember on a piece of paper. When we went back on Saturday, she had remembered every single word! Prayers really do work, because let me tell you I was praying really hard, haha.

She passed her baptism interview on Saturday with flying colors. I promised her I'd make her a duct tape scripture box to put her Book of Mormon in after the interview so she was really excited.

We went to Mackenzie's to teach her and to read from the Book of Mormon. Jordan Simpson came with us, that was cool. Then we went to dinner and had some really good sandwich things. BBQ'd chicken with slices of pineapple on this pita-like bread. Then we had an appointment with Mikayla but she was busy so we couldn't teach her. We got an appointment with the next door neighbor though! The Montes family. Then we taught a less active family later at night. Good week!

Love, Elder Wilson





 Le Bus hahahaha





 Teeter-totter crossing?





 The Sign on top of Ensign Peak





 The view from the top of the hill! So incredible. 



  President Moffat was giving us a lesson about the history of Ensign Peak which was really interesting.




 Elder Bloomfield and I on top of Ensign Peak!





 The hike was only about a mile or two so it wasn't that bad.





The Mission! There's more on the trail behind me, but so far we're up to 94 missionaries! We are going to have 150 by December. In a 5 square mile mission!





The receipt for the sandwiches we ate! That price was AFTER a half off discount if you look closely! 





 This was Brigham Young's house that they transported to This Is The Place.





Roping missionaries is always a safe, enjoyable sport. 





 We had a devotional meeting at the end of the day in this building. I guess this was the first church they built when the Pioneers came to the valley!





The "This Is The Place" entrance 



So we went into the church at around 8:45 to get a quick drink of water before we went back to our apartment at 9, and we heard this crazy loud Mexican music blasting in the gym! So we went in there and there was apparently a fiesta going on hahahahaha. It was fun.

September 11th!

 This week went by really fast. Elder Bloomfield is still pretty quiet but he's a really cool guy, and a great missionary. I like serving with him and being his second transfer trainer because it really shows me how much of an example I need to be. That and being a district leader's shown me how I naturally react to different things, and I really feel like it's pushing me to be a better missionary.

When we went to teach Aubry on Tuesday, Sister Greenwood came with us. She put in a lot of good insights. We answered questions that she had about scriptures, and she seemed pretty confident about the answers that she got. It's cool to see her and others that we teach progress.

On Wednesday Sister Lynn's phone wasn't working so we rode over to their house to set up an appointment later on in that day when Mackenzie would be home. For the next hour or two we contacted part member families to see if anyone would be interested. After our lesson with Mackenzie we went to Malaysia Fogle's house to teach her. She is an unbaptized girl, and her younger sister Britan isn't either. Their parents  won't let them until they are 16. I want them to look up D&C 68:25! haha. The sins are on the parent's heads if they knowingly withhold their kids from getting baptized. Obviously I wouldn't ever tell them that, but it still crossed my mind, haha.

We had a meeting with our zone on Thursday. President Moffat focused the meeting on how to find people. I found it super useful! I felt like he was applying the whole meeting directly towards me. Obviously that was the Spirit! So I applied what we learned when we got out and talked to a boy sitting on a hill all by himself. He wasn't interested at first, but after talking with him for a while he got more interested. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he sounded interested in it! Then later on we saw a girl sitting outside doing her homework so we went up and talked to her. We got an appointment with their whole family. After that we taught a family where the guy is about to leave for his mission, Tom Seipel.

We taught Mackenzie about keeping the Sabbath day holy, and that was the most focused she's ever been in a lesson. She really understood it well! She told her mom that she had to do her shopping before Sunday so that she wouldn't be breaking the Sabbath! :)

Our appointment with that family, the Montes, fell through which was disappointing but we won't give up on them yet. They are a Spanish family but they speak English and the kids are more comfortable in English. They're a really nice family, just moved in from Texas. They seem really interested in learning more about the Church, they said they had never heard about it before. The dad said that after moving here he's noticed how “different” we are than everyone else he's seen (religion wise) in a good way. So he said that sparked his interest.

Sunday we contacted a referral that we received at church. He apparently said that if we mowed his lawn or did some type of service, then he'd let us in for 5 minutes. That proved to be false; he shut us down the instant he opened the door. Haha. Then we went to Mackenzie's house to set up an appointment for Monday the next day.

Yesterday morning we did service for the Michael's. I'm pretty sure we uncovered a spider's nest because there were probably about 50 spiders that started crawling everywhere. Freaked me out for a while since we didn't have gloves. But after we finished that we went back home to change into regular missionary clothes again. We got a list from our Ward Mission Leader of all the houses in his ward that weren't members. That was a miracle list! It's really hard to know who is a member and who isn't. So we started using that list until our appointment at 4 with Mackenzie. We taught her the law of tithing and the Word of Wisdom. She understood them really well and she actually pointed out a few people that she knew of that weren't following it and said she was going to have to change that about them! It's really cool that she's able to pick things out like that really easily. Tom Seipel came with us, that guy who is about to leave on his mission. He's a really cool guy. Later at night before we came home we talked to Russ Howell to see how he was doing, and ended up getting an appointment for Thursday so that should be good. It started raining like crazy yesterday so I broke out my rain coat for the first time in a while. Using the hood and the helmet makes my head look extremely long and weird. But hey whatever works, right? Anyways this week was a pretty productive week. The district is going well, and the zone leaders have said I'm doing a really good job so that's always a good thing to hear.

2 Corinthians 12:10:
I love this scripture. When people persicute us for being missionaries, it sometimes gets you down but if you really think about it, that makes us "weak", and Christ/His atonement can lift us up and make us better people than we were before. So this is something I need to apply in my life, maybe you guys back home should do the same! Be glad when people put you down for being "churchy" or "mormon" because in the scriptures they always say that the person who "loses" his life for Christ, he'll find it. (Matthew 10:39)

Hope all is well at home,
Love Elder Wilson

 PS. For any of you who were FREAKING out about that tie in my last email, I only wore it for that picture!! haha. I changed right afterwards.

 

They just refinished the floor at the stake center! It's really fun to play on now.

A rainbow came out after a crazy intense storm that happened.

The hood+helmet. haha.

LOOK AT THIS SUNSET! Without any editing, that's what I took with my camera.

For lack of a better title...September!

Last P-day we played disk golf with a member in our area. He had some
disks that he let us borrow. Disc golf is basically like golf, but you
throw Frisbee into baskets instead of golf balls into holes. After
that, Elder Conley and I went and said bye to Elmer, Brother Vancott,
and the Warnicks. At the Warnicks, we did the spoonful of cinnamon
challenge. That's crazy! Don't ever try it. Then we came home and he
finished packing.

Wednesday was transfers. We put Elder Conley's things into the back of
a member's truck and drove him to his new area. Then we said goodbye
and I got my new companion, Elder Bloomfield. He's from Auburn,
California! Pretty lucky how I always get the ones that live close to
me. He's a really nice guy. Very quiet, but very nice. He's opened up
though which is really good :) We get along really well. We went
around trying to find people to teach by going through the referrals
we've gotten and also tracting. That was more or less productive. Then
I played a trick on him by going to the Warnicks and having brother
Warnick pretend to be a mean, non interested person. I stuck my foot
in the door as it was closing and said “I don't think you want to do
that. This message that we bring will benefit you and your family.”
Then he let us in! Elder Bloomfield was so shocked haha. (Elder Weier
and the Sharps did it to me so I had to return the favor! ;) )

On Thursday I had to go to a district leader training meeting which
was very informative. It also settled my worries about being a good
district leader. He talked about our responsibilities as a district
leader, how to do district meetings and call ins, etc. Then we tracted
around a little more, taught Mackenzie. After the lesson my tire was
completely flat so we walked over to the Simpson's to get a
patch/slime. It started RAINING! That felt so good. :) Elmer had to
cancel his appointment because his back was hurting, but we went by a
house that Elder Conley and I had been trying to get into for 6 weeks
and we actually got in! Elder Bloomfield and I set up an appointment
with him.

Teaching Mackenzie is pretty hectic because she has 3 siblings that
are all under five years old, but every time the Spirit starts coming
in, they sit down and are quiet. I love the Spirit! :) Then we taught
the guy in the house we've been trying to get into, Fred Johnson. He
talked for a while, but he's a really great guy. We saw Elmer again
finally, that was really good to teach him again. We taught him about
repentance. Then we went home, and Brady Simons picked us up to go to
Mackenzie's house. Brady Simons is a super amazing guy who is about to
do his mission papers. We taught her about repentance using the bowl
of water, putting sins in the water (pepper) then using Jesus Christ's
atonement (a drop of dish soap) to remove our sins. It's a pretty cool
representation especially for younger kids. Then we went to Temple
Square. It was Mackenzie, her mom, her great-grandma, Elder
Bloomfield, Brady, and I. It was an awesome experience. I can tell
that Mackenzie and her mom/grandma got a lot out if it which is what
it's all about. When we got back we helped Brother Simpson with his
yard. It started pouring at 6:30 so that was a little annoying. It
started hailing as well. We taught Oscar though, at the church. We
might drop him since he's still praying to see Satan.

Sunday was Elder Bloomfield's first 9 hour Sunday block on his
mission. I think he was pretty tired towards the end of it. I love
fast Sundays though, because that's when I get to bear my testimony. I
love feeling the Spirit! After church we got a few referrals from an
auxiliary leader so we contacted them. One didn't answer and the other
one was blatantly not interested.

We taught the Smiths again yesterday, and that went really well. Elder
Bloomfield jumped right in with the lesson, so that really helped it
move along well. He's a really good missionary. We taught them about
the Plan of Salvation, and they had a lot of really good insightful
questions about it.

Love, Elder Wilson.

 Our district the last day of transfers at leatherby's having a fun time!

 The Warnick kids, Elder Conley saying goodbye!

Miranda, Mackenzie, Lynn, Me, Brady, Elder Bloomfield. We did have

sister missionaries with us, I think the cameraman just cut them out.

 The Tabernacle!

 Elder Bloomfield and I