Happy New Years! [Eve]

First off, before you skim over my letter and don't read it, check out this video!! It is really good. But before you do that, are you familiar with Lot and his wife from the Old Testament? You can read two of the verses here. But basically the Lord commands Lot and his family to get out of Sodom and Gomorrah because it's very wicked and is about to be destroyed. And to NOT LOOK BACK. When they're leaving, Lot's wife looks back (spiritually as well) and is turned into a pillar of salt. She longs to still be there, in her heart. So watch the video and think of how it applies! It's pretty awesome.

You don't have to wait until New Years to make a resolution to do better, to be better. Every day is the beginning of the rest of your life. (It just so happens to be New Years day tomorrow, so use it as the first day anyways!) I love these videos.

I hope everyone's Christmas was awesome! Mine definitely was. We were able to Skype home and talk with our families. That was good to see them. Everyone looks so much more grown up! I didn't get trunky from it though, don't worry! I honestly have too much to worry about out here and too much stuff I have to get done that I don't have time to think about anything else. The rest of Christmas was really good too. We were able to spend it with the Pickles. They're an awesome family! They had us over for breakfast, and we hung out with them playing some games and stuff like that. Then we went over to a church building later on and played basketball and some other games with a TON of other missionaries. Two zones combined, so about half our mission. That was a lot of fun. I brought a bag full of candy and chocolate that we had collected over the holidays and I was pleased to see that most of it was eaten! haha. Elder Smith and I are trying our best not to gain weight. ;) 

We had MLC yesterday (Missionary Leadership Council, it used to be called ZLC or zone leader council but now the sister training leaders are invited and so obviously since it's not just the zone leaders there anymore it has to be called something else). That was awesome! We talked about how the mission is doing, and what it needs help with. We talked about who we think should be in leadership (and who should NOT be, haha), what we all need as a whole to do better at, etc. It's always really cool to be a part of that. Usually it's at the mission office, but this time we were able to go to President Moffat's actual home to have it. That was awesome. (It's pretty nice. ;) ) 

We took the Millers to temple square on Friday! That was awesome! But it was way too crowded. Too many people were there trying to see the lights and everything. But it was cool. We watched the family video with them. That was way good. They really liked that I think. They are the perfect family though. So awesome! I wish all of you could meet them. JaNeina is going to be baptized this Saturday!!! She's really excited and so am I! :) Well, and Elder Smith haha.

This week was awesome. Happy New Years!
Love,

Elder Wilson

 Merry Christmas! This was our Christmas Card

 I found the tree of life!!!

I found these perfectly shaped snowflakes on the window of the car!

The group at the party!! So much fun.

 Me and Elder Conley

 Elder Bowie and I

 Elder Bowie, Elder Leyva, Elder Wesley, and I

 Elder lamb and I

 The California group!! Elder Bloomfield, Elder Franco, Elder Nuttall, Elder Gold and I

Elder Villayvong, Elder Haught, and I

MERRY CHRISTmas!

I hope this year's Christmas is awesome for everyone out there. I hope that all of you remember what the true meaning of it all is! And, I hope that everyone is able to feel of this amazing Spirit that is all around us.

So guess what? We had a Christmas conference as a mission and someone came to visit! Guess who?

ELDER JEFFREY R. HOLLAND. Oh yeaaahhhh. That was so awesome!! If I had a favorite Apostle, he would definitely be it. He talked about our mission and how it was a pilot program for a lot of things, like our mission president already being a mission president beforehand, him living in his home and not having to move, using senior couples who serve from their homes and are full-time proselyting missionaries, and a few other things. I'll just type them up from my notes because they're so much better than me trying to paraphrase them.
"I need you today to see yourself a century in the future. It seems to me that I have thought of my mission every day for the last 50 years. Don't miss one day. I don't care whether or not you like your companions or not. This is the most sweet and spiritual experience you will probably ever get. Hang on to every MINUTE of it! Squeeze the very life out of it. You're supposed to go through the bad, so that you can appreciate the good.

I wanna know what you're gonna say at your homecoming. I wanna know what you're going to tell the little deacons sitting there listening to you. To the laurels deciding to go to college, get married, go on a mission, at the crossroads in her life. They need to hear the power of Almighty GOD (Pounding his fist on the podium) in your voice when you testify. Not the stupid stores of you teasing your companion. You hold the baton of this great work now. The same one that Isaiah, Moses, Ezekial, Jeremiah, Amulek, all the great prophets held. You do not have the right to dishonor this work. You're standing in the same circle as the best men in history when you put on that badge.

You don't have the right to go home and be an idiot. Nothing is more important than what you're doing right now. Don't ever think that you can go home and set all this aside. Go back to 'real life'. This IS real life!! (He pounded his fist on the podium again). Capital R, capital L! I don't understand how a missionary can go less active. We are God's investigators. He wants US to do the things that we want OURS to do. Change habits, leave our bad influencing friends, repent, pray, listen, everything! Never ever ever be the same again. This is the pivotal moment in your life.

Promise me that on this Christmas Eve, that you will not ever ever EVER leave it or dishonor it. That this will sink into every fiber of your soul. Don't any of you ever be homesick! It's not worth it.

Man I could go on and on. To me that was better than General Conference! haha. We got to shake hands with him one by one. When I got to him, he shook my hand, then as I was about to walk away he kind of held on and said "Thank you, Elder." So awesome!! I know this probably sounds so stupid me typing this but trust me it was so powerful. I KNOW that he is an Apostle of the Lord. The way you felt when he walked into the room is undeniable. There's no way he couldn't be.

The rest of the week went pretty well too. But none was as good as this morning, when he came to visit the mission. That was so awesome. We had district meeting, and an exchange as well. Christmas is awesome!! I love this time of the year. Have an awesome Christmas everyone!

I love you!

Elder Wilson

 We made a snowman!! He used to be as tall as I was, but he slumped over from being melted. 

This is our Christmas setup! Pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Which I do. 

 Elder Smith, Elder Wilson, and Elder Mintey. And a photobomber.

 Elder Wood!

Elder Dean and I at the Christmas conference

Not too bad of a week!

This week was pretty good. We have a lot of people that we're working with!

We had zone training this past week. It went really well. It was Elder Smith's first one as a zone leader but I think he handled it pretty well. We trained on how we as missionaries need to be proactive and not reactive, and we can do that by planning ahead. We listed a bunch of things we can do to plan ahead, preventing problems before they happen. Then we took them into the gym for "gym time" for an activity on demonstrating what the difference between being pro and re active is. They had a big area with a lot of pieces of paper on it. if they stopped on the wrong paper, they had a dodgeball thrown at them. That was a lot of fun. Then I gave them a piece of paper with a map of the ones that would make them have to dodge a dodgeball. The Assistants came and loved it. I think that it really helped out the zone helping them realize that they need to not go through the motions but really step it up and be proactive!

We also went on exchanges. I went with Elder Lamb again, and he came to my area. He has a lot of potential to be a great leader. I just want him to make sure he gets the language down well enough first. But he will go far I think. It was awesome being on exchanges with him though because we didn't have to leave the apartment until 1pm!!! (8-9 personal study, 9-10 personal study, 10-11 first twelve weeks training, 11-12 language study, and 12-1 lunch! haha.) So we skipped the cold that day. Although it has been warming up lately which makes it feel a lot better. It's probably about 30-35 degrees but I don't even need gloves because it feels so much warmer!! Crazy. 

We picked up a few new people to teach, and they all accepted baptismal dates. One has cerebral palsy and so he was a little scared of the water. Actually a lot scared of the water. But we explained how he would be baptized and that he would be able to stand in about waist high water. And we would hold on to him the entire time, and he would only be under the water for a split second. He was really excited to be baptized after that, because he knows everything is true, he just was a little scared which is completely understandable. Other than that, Tiffany accepted another date after "falling off" date the other week. She is excited for her baptism too. 

We've been having a couple of ward parties which have been a lot of fun. We have been bringing the people we're teaching and they seem to love it. That always makes me happy when i see them fitting in with the rest of the ward here. How's things going back home? Hopefully everyone is ready for Christmas. It's coming up so soon!!

Love ya! Merry Christmas!
Elder Wilson

 Hudson's baptism!

Yeah, winter's finally here.

I don't think it's been above freezing for the last week! But it's all good, that just makes us try to get into doors more. haha. Plus, I was always complaining about it being too hot earlier in the year so I have no room to complain! ;) I haven't slipped once, but Elder Smith has. He ate it on some ice in a parking lot the other day. But don't worry, I didn't laugh. Too hard.

Hudson got baptized!! I'll attach a picture of it. My camera died, but I knew it was low so I had brought my camera charger and so i juiced it up for about 10 minutes and I was able to take a few. He is such a cool guy. He is way smart! And knows everything about the Gospel and the Church. It makes sense though, because he has been coming to church for 6 years. But his mom finally allowed him to be baptized so he was able to. The mom wanted it to be a really small baptism, so we didn't have any talks or anything. We had to convince her to have an opening and closing song even! Pretty crazy. But oh well. He really enjoyed it. Now his brother just needs to make up his mind to be baptized..

I went on exchanges with an Elder from Australia, Elder Bowie. He's a pretty cool guy. He still says some of the Australian lingo like boot for a car's trunk, car park for a parking lot, "no joy" instead of bad luck or no luck, and just some other stuff like that. haha. It's pretty funny to hear the members try and guess what he's talking about. 

Man. Other than that, nothing really happened this week! We did pick up a few new people that we're teaching, Callie and Jesus. (hey-soos) They accepted a baptismal date for January 4th! That will be pretty cool. She has grown up here in Utah but knows nothing about the church. And he is from Venezuela so he doesn't know too much about it either. They wanted their daughter to be baptized as well, but she was only 4. And we didn't want to bring out the big guns in Moroni 8 or D&C yet. ;) They just moved in to the apartment complex we cover.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! People are always nicer around this time of year, which is good. People always offer us chocolate and cookies and hot chocolate, it's pretty funny. Don't forget the real meaning of Christmas!!

Love,
Elder Wilson

The Snow Has Come.

The first day of real snow is today. I'm pretty sure it's here to stay, too. Which is not good. We had to shovel our landlord's driveway this morning. But I didn't mind because it is always fun the first couple of times that you do it! I'm sure it will get old really quick.

When Elder Smith and I met up, I first went over the Zone Leader responsibilities with him. He's going to catch on really quick. He's a good missionary. He's also really mature which is good because we need to be as zone leaders. He has already graduated from College with his degree! He is an electrical engineer. But yeah, he's a really hard worker. We have already gone to some meetings together and I can tell that it's going to be a good transfer. I'm pretty sure I said that in the last email but OH WELL.

Thanksgiving was pretty good. We did a 5K called "Beat the President". I'll attach the picture. Even though it's a horrible picture, without anyone looking and I was still trying to get in position hahahaha. Oh well. Maybe you won't spot me. But Elder Reed left some socks here so [after I washed them] I wore them to the race! I ended up placing 2nd overall. And definitely beat the President ;) I'll see if I can get the picture of the winners! If not you'll just have to believe me. For thanksgiving dinner, we went to a member's house. There was a ton of people there! About 30. But there was tons of food so it didn't run out. (so don't worry mom, I got fed well!) ;)

So we tried to play a prank on Elder Smith when he got here. Me and the Millers. We pretended to have a beer sitting out (it was cream soda) and Mike Miller said that he finally got his answer. He knew that this was the right decision. He knows he has to quit drinking alcohol, and so he committed to do it. But then he's like BUT I'll only do it if you drink my last one with me. And poured us a glass. Elder Smith was like uh... no. I'm not gonna do that. haha. But then I tried to reason with Mike for a while. He said that was the only way he would do it. So I shrugged, clicked my glass to his, and together we said "For Elder Reed." It was pretty awesome hahaha. But Mike has been apologizing ever since, he thought that he offended Elder Smith or something! But really he was cool with it haha.
Speaking of Mike, something really really awesome happened with him and his wife. We went over there to talk to them, and just to see how they were doing. Then they had us sit down, and Mike told us about an incredible blessing that he had gotten from his friend Tim. He said it lasted for half an hour (which is extremely long for a blessing), and during it he had a pure knowledge that he NEEDED to be baptized. I don't want to go too much into it because it is pretty sacred to him. But let's just say that he absolutely knows he needs to now. Before, he was just kind of aiming towards it. And then his wife, Janeina, had an awesome experience too. She had a dream that her dad came to her (who has passed away) and she was asking him a lot of questions. The coolest part though was that her dad wasn't able to use his legs in this life, and was confined to a wheelchair. But in the dream when he came to her, he was able to fully use his legs and was standing talking to her. Pretty awesome. One of the questions was if she should be baptized. She told us that after the dream was over, she also had an absolute knowledge that she needed to be baptized. So she told us she wants to be baptized on December 14th. And she wants me to do it, she said. That was awesome.

Tiffany is also really solid for baptism. She is shooting for the 21st of December but she needs to get over a few speedbumps before that can happen. I really hope that we can get her ready in time. She told us that she is really really excited for it and wants to come to church every week. She's really excited to learn about the gospel too. So things are going really well with her!

And the rest of the week was just as good!

I love you!!
Elder Wilson

 Elder Wood, Elder Wilson, and Elder Dean

 My 5K socks!

I beat the president!

TRANSFERS!

This week was so awesome!!!!!

Well, I guess to start off, I'll get the business out of the way first. No, I didn't get transferred so I'm still in this area until at least January 8th! That's when the next transfers are. My new companion is Elder Smith and he is from Iowa. He's 26! Just turned 26 yesterday actually. He's pretty legit. We are going to get a long really well I think this transfer. He's also a super hard worker so we are going to get so much done this transfer. We have a lot of people we're working with!!

Lloyd, one of the people that I was working with over a year ago who got baptized, GOT MARRIED!!!! For time and all eternity, not just until death does him part. That is so comforting to know. That when we get married in the Temple, it doesn't matter what curveball life throws at us. It's forever!! He got married to Allison Tamietti, the one he was dating when I was teaching him over a year ago. They invited us to see it happen, so Elder Reed and I did. They got married in the Draper temple. That is such a beautiful temple. And in a beautiful area, too! A ton of million dollar homes. But yeah that was so amazing. I had been to a sealing before for a family in my ward back home, but I think that this was way better! The actual ceremony was really short, shorter than I expected it to be. But extremely powerful. There was no way that you couldn't know that it was divinely approved. Words can't describe it unless you are actually there.
Then we all went outside, and waited for them to come out so we could ambush them with pictures. Haha! They looked so happy. Even though the wind was blowing and it was probably 30 degrees, they were still glowing. :) I was really honored and humbled that I was able to be invited to see it happen. There wasn't very many people there to support him, so I'm glad that I could. :) Turns out that his dad had  disowned him. :/ He's a baptist minister. He's really against the Church. When he found out that he was getting baptized, he was furious. When he found out that he was dating Allison, he was also really mad. But they broke up for a little bit, and his dad was really happy. He gave him a house of his own, a car, and let him take over the family business. (A car dealership). But Lloyd got back together with Allison, and he took it all away from him when he found out that Lloyd was getting married. He didn't even come to the wedding, or the reception afterwards. :( But that just proves how awesome Lloyd is, still going through with it because he knows it's the right thing to do!! (I hope he doesn't get too mad at me for putting this up here if he reads it, I just thought that it was an amazing experience.)

Then on Thursday we got to go to the temple again! This time as a mission. We went to the Jordan River Temple. That was an awesome experience, full of the Spirit. I got some answers to some questions that I had been having. I love receiving revelation in the temple. If any of you can go through but haven't in a while, get a question in mind, and go to the temple!!!! When I was in the temple, I bowed my head, and asked Him once more to demonstrate His love for me. Before I could get the whole sentence out, I instantly felt an overwhelming peace come over me. Literally it felt as though I was being hugged. It's impossible to describe in words. The scripture came to my mind afterwards. Matthew 6:8. "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him". So awesome. :) I love God. I'm so grateful that I am here at this time. I'm so grateful that I'm a missionary!!!


And then the third awesome thing that happened this week was that Ashley Moreno got baptized!! She was really nervous though, so we cancelled our dinner appointment and took her to see a baptism. She was a little less nervous afterwards. Her hsband Jon was able to baptize her though! That was pretty neat. He was just as nervous. But they practiced in the hallway how it was going to happen and when they were ready they came in and sat down so the program could start. But they both did really well. She said she felt really good afterwards. :) Obviously, how couldn't you? You just entered the gate to the strait and narrow path! Of course God will be pleased! ;) She got confirmed the next day at church.

We're also working with the Millers and Tiffany!! They're both working towards baptism and are doing great. I'll talk about them more in the next email!

Love ya,
Elder Wilson

LLOYD GOT MARRIED IN THE DRAPER TEMPLE!!!!!

 Lloyd's wedding was so awesome. So spiritual being in the sealing!

The draper temple is gorgeous!

 A huge mansion up by the draper temple

 Ashley got baptized!

 Elder Reed is going home, and this is a member that wanted to see him before he went home.

 It's the longest-acting patriarch in the whole church! 40 years he's been a patriarch!! 

Elder Reed is officially GONE. haha. It's a weird feeling.

NOVEMBER

IS

ALMOST

OVER

ALREADY.

How is that possible. Anyways, this week went pretty well. Except my journal fell apart which makes it hard to write in and type up for this email. Oh well I'll try my best. The weather is getting steadily colder and colder, too. I think this time it will be here for good. 

Ashley Moreno, someone we're working with, got interviewed for her baptism this last week. She is good to go for this weekend! That will be exciting. Her husband quit smoking cold turkey in order to be able to baptize her. It's been really hard. Within the last few months alone, he's quit drugs, alcohol, AND chain smoking. He's really strong. And they just moved here from Idaho to get away from the bad influences they were having out there. Since then, they've been meeting with us, he's been changing his life, he got 2 jobs to help provide for his wife, kid, and kid-on-the-way, and they are so much happier because of it.

This last week we had district meeting which was pretty awesome. Because it was at our mission president's HOUSE! (Outside of the mission). It's pretty nice. We got to have it there because our district had the most on date out of our whole mission. He cooked us steaks and we had a lot of other super awesome food too.

We had a lot of lessons cancel on us early on this week. We also had a lot of problems come up for our people we're working with, and the missionaries in our zone. Stupid concerns and easy to fix things, but it's still a huge headache. But we didn't let it get us down. What doesn't kill you just makes you stronger, right? It's actually pretty true. You really see what you're made of when you go through the bad. I've seen that in myself, and also the people that I see out here in the mission. 

One of the Elders in our zone had an interview for someone they're working with for baptism. Her name is Nissa Vegh. She met Elder M. Russel Ballard!! How awesome is that? She felt like she needed to go to a certain restaurant she said, and turns out Elder Ballard felt like he needed to as well. That's where they met! He sent her flowers and a signed book, and she invited him to her baptism. That would be cool to have an Apostle of the Lord come to your baptism. Maybe even get a picture with him! haha. :)

But yeah, other than that nothing really exciting or new has happened. And once again, I'm sorry for the lack of pictures. Wait, here's one. I'll attach it I guess!

Love ya!
Elder Wilson

Slow down!!

Zone training meeting happened this week again. I love doing that, because it is basically like our district meeting as a zone. So we can all participate and learn from each other. We trained them on how to help people they're teaching resolve their concerns. They needed that. We all needed it, we learned from it! I have made a list of a lot of concerns that people have and handed it out. They liked that a lot too! haha.

Anyways, this week was a really good week! Elder Reed and I spoke in church. He talked about the restoration of the gospel and I talked about God's plan of salvation. They both went really well! I was relieved. I don't know how many times I have spoken in church, but t's still nerve racking until you get up and actually start talking. Then it's alright. That's when the spirit comes in.

Jonathon and Ashley. Where do I begin. Yeah, Ashley is still on date to be baptized, but she wants her husband to do it and he needs to be obeying the word of wisdom before he can. He's trying to quit, but he says it's really hard. Which it is, I can't blame him. But I just hate how Satan uses small things to become addictions and prevent us from doing good things. It's way annoying. But teaching them at their house is very chaotic. There's a dog running around, about 15 kids, their 1 year old baby, and Ashley and Jon don't have the longest attention spans as it is. Needless to say we are still able to teach, haha. But yeah. I'm definitely not complaining! Right?

Do you remember Erik and Katherine foster? Probably not. It was about 3 months ago in Bennion East stake. (I was still with Elder Reed back then. Crazy.) But anyways she has terminal cancer, and he has dementia. It's a really sad situation. But Erik is getting baptized this Saturday! That's super awesome. But at church this last Sunday, apparently Katherine fainted and was really really sick. They took her back to her apartment, and she was giving her "last words". She thought she was dying. So the missionaries told us and since we had taught them for a while, they said it would probably be good if we went by. So Elder Reed and I went by to visit her and Erik to see how they were doing. He's excited for his baptism which is awesome. He's a big teddy bear. (Literally, he's about 6'2", 280lbs. but has the nicest heart you'll ever meet) And she was doing better by the time we got there. 

We met with the Miller family. (Bryon's family). They are way awesome!! Super nice and all want to come closer to God. And to join His church. How cool is that? We had to get clearance from our mission president for something but it's all good. So we're meeting with them soon. I love that family.

We're working with Bryon Miller, Ashley Moreno, Hudson and Alex Craig, Muwahib and Heam Obied. All of them are working towards a baptismal date. So awesome!!

Hope all's well back home. Later!

Elder Wilson

Halloween!

So for Halloween, I dressed up as Elder Reed and he dressed up as me. Although the only thing we did was switch our nametags. Is that apostate? Hopefully not. How was everyone else's?? Hopefully it was really good. We went knocking doors and people were questioning if we were real missionaries or not. haha.

I HOPE YOU ACTUALLY READ THIS EMAIL INSTEAD OF SKIMMING OVER IT.

So we had a General Authority come to our mission. He's from the first quorum of the seventy. That was awesome! He is really inspired and absolutely sent from and called by God. I can safely say that I KNOW that. We had a one on one interview, and he told me things about me that I had not ever told anyone else. How in the world could he know that if he didn't really have God's power in him? We talked for a while and I learned a lot of cool things from him. Then we went out and he talked to and taught the rest of the missionaries. (He met with some other missionaries one on one, but not very many). He Told us how we can become better missionaries, more effective missionaries, and so forth. He showed us moses 4:15 and asked us where we were going in life. Or on our missions. Were we really doing the things that the Lord would want us to do? He said that this mission is what shapes our future. If we're not obedient to God here while we have nothing to worry about besides serving him 100% of the time for 2 years, then how will we ever be obedient afterwards when life gets in the way again? "We can't just flip on the obedience switch". That makes so much sense. That was an awesome experience to have a servant of the Lord to come and talk with us. I'm definitely starting to realize that this life is seriously SO MUCH MORE than what we think of it right now. Or at least what most people in the world think about it. 

We found a lot of people who are wanting to come closer to God by being baptized. The first is a lady named Ashley and her husband, John. He is a member already, but he doesn't come out very often. He's returning back to church though which is awesome. She wants to be sealed to him in the temple so they can be married AFTER this life, and he definitely does too. They also want their kid to be raised up well and with a solid foundation. So we extended November 23rd to her and she accepted it. She realized that she needs to take those baby-steps towards God, one of those being baptism. She asked us for a blessing, and so we gave her one. She is awesome.

Then also, we found 2 guys who want to be baptized too on Sunday. Alex and Hudson Craig. They have been going to church for 6 years now with their grandparents. But until recently their mom wouldn't allow them to be baptized. She didn't think they understood it well enough or really had the desire. But I think after going for 6 YEARS finally convinced her that they were ready. haha. So they're on date for November 30th. The weekend after Elder Reed goes back home. I can't believe that he's leaving! And I definitely can't believe that I've been with him for 4 MONTHS NOW. That seems so crazy. haha. But it's been a lot of fun.

Things are going well. Our zone is really picking up which is awesome. I love this work!!

Oh, and now we're about to go play glow in the dark volleyball and glow in the dark ultimate frisbee. Should be pretty epic. Gonna tape glowsticks to us and everything.

Love you!

Elder Wilson

So... we found a tongue. Pretty gross. We think it's a human tongue but we don't know. 

You can see the clamp mark where someone clamped it down to pull it out and cut it off even!! Nasty. 

The first of the snow...

AWESOME WEEK

Man this week was totally awesome. So many cool things happened!

First off, last tuesday Lloyd and his fiance picked me and Elder Reed up to go to the temple!!! That was his first time going through the temple, and he wanted me to be his host through it to show him what to do. That was super humbling to be able to do that! Elder Reed and I were both able to be his hosts. Usually there's only 1 allowed, but since they found out we're missionaries and need to be together always, they allowed it. Man the temple is an awesome place. He loved it. We checked out one of the Sealing rooms, and Lloyd was amazed at the mirrors that seem to go on for ever, symbolizing eternity. I had realized before, but this last time I really tried to notice just how many symbolic things there are in the temple. I felt so close to God when I was in there. The Temple is incredible. so peaceful. I love it! It really is God's house!!

Tearsha Wallace got baptized!!! It was a really good baptism. She had her friends all participate which was cool. Ray, the one that went to general conference with us gave one of the talks, and her chaplain from the army was the one that baptized her. She is definitely one of my favorite people to have taught while on my mission. She soaked every thing we taught her with no questions or concerns! She was very, very prepared by God. 

I went on exchanges with Elder Lamb this week! (The one that Sydnee taught in the MTC). He came to my area since he probably couldn't do very well in his area yet (first week out). He's a good missionary. He wants to do the right things in his mission and I think with a little bit of guidance he will be able to grow into a really good missionary! (Good companions to keep him developing well) He has a good trainer now though which is good. I think he'll go far.

We had interviews with President Moffat this week. That went really well. We also got some training from the assistants and that was good. But the coolest part was at the end, when President called Elder Reed up to the front and asked him to tell us how he's had so much success on his mission. That was a cool experience. I was looking around, and all the missionaries were paying close attention. Elder Reed started to tear up when he was talking. He said " This time is too short. Don't waste it." Pretty powerful. I could tell that he was really getting sad that he has to go home soon. But I think it was really good, the missionaries really learned a lot from it. Myself included.

Anyways, this week was pretty dang awesome. So hopefully all of yours are as well. Love ya!
Elder Wilson

Life is good.

Life really is good though, if you think about it. Sure, everything might be crazy in the world but if you look for the positives rather than the everything else life seems a lot better. For me at least! Hopefully you all feel the same. But this week was awesome. And it doesn't look like it's going to end anytime soon!

Olivia was baptized! She's that 9 year old I was talking about. She is really smart. She knew everything she needed to know for baptism already and was excited for it. The only problem was she was only here once every OTHER weekend. So that made it hard for us to teach her and get a day to have the baptism, but eventually it happened. And it went really well! She had a lot of support from her family and friends and the ward there so that was nice. She said she felt really good after her baptism. To this day, I haven't heard someone that DIDN'T "feel really good" after their baptism. Yet again, another witness that this gospel is true. :)

There was something I forgot to tell you about Shawn's baptism though! His was a very unique baptism. He had a ROCK BAND AT IT! hahahaha. Apparently there was a family reunion that was taking place and they didn't know we were scheduled to have a baptism. So literally throughout the entire baptism there was rock music going on. It was a little hard to focus when Love Shack and other 80's music was blaring from the gym. haha. But the cool part was that when the actual baptism was happening (instead of the talks or music), the music stopped!! Pretty awesome how that worked. Coincidence? I think not! ;)

Other than that, Shawn is still solid. He's come out to lessons with us to teach other people we're working with and he was a little apprehensive at first but I can tell he's gonna be a good missionary if he decides to go on one. I really think he should! He even had a box for the tithing that he had been saving up for when he became a member!!!!! He had been saving it for over 5 years. Guess how much??? Check the picture!

Tearsha Wallace is coming up this weekend! (The one we took to temple square last week). She passed her interview, and is excited for her baptism. She is having her chaplain baptize her! He was the one that started it all, when she was in Afghanistan for the Army. She got interested in religion while there, and he told her about all different ones but she was interested in the LDS religion. So she learned, started reading the Book of Mormon, knew that it was true and from God, and we randomly tracted into her a while later! So that was a cool experience to go through. 

We went on exchanges with Elder Bloomfield and Elder Haught. I took E. Bloomfield to my area. It was good to be comps with him again! It was over a year ago that we were last time. He has opened up a lot from when we were together last. He really knows the scriptures well too! That was awesome. He helped teach the people we were working with, and he went with me to a district meeting. We went to Elder Chandlers. He has the biggest district I think in the mission, with 5 companionships and 2 senior couple companionships totaling 14! But yeah. It went pretty well. He's a good district leader, and hopefully he will continue to grow and develop well.

I met Elder Lamb! (The one that Sydnee taught when she was in the Mexico MTC). He's a solid missionary I think. obviously I don't know too much about him but we've gone to lunch and helped fix a bike or two, so we've talked a little bit. We're going on exchanges this next week and I'll go with Elder lamb and E. Reed will go with Elder Durfee, one of our district leaders. So that will be exciting! I'll let you know how it goes. 

Love you!

Elder Wilson

 Olivia's baptism!

 Our flyers that we put up around the church!

Shawn's tithing! 4,687 DOLLARS AND 94 CENTS! The bishop was very, very surprised. hahaha. When Shawn walked up to him and said he had some tithing money that he had been saving up, the Bishop was like "Oh, you have some coins in here or something...?" As he was opening the box. then when he opened it and saw a HUNDRED DOLLAR BILL sitting on top he was like OH! Well, let's go into my office so we can count it in private. hahahaha it was so funny to see his reaction. 

We saw a complete rainbow the other day, that was pretty cool.

Transfers! (for other missionaries)

Another 6 weeks has already gone by, but Elder Reed and I are both staying here together. So that means that by the end of this transfer, I will be with him for 3 transfers or 4 1/2 months! Pretty crazy. In this mission that never happens since the areas are so small. But I'm cool with it because he's a fun companion and we get a lot of work done. This is also his last transfer so I'll be killing him! (That's what it's called when you're someone's last companion and 'send them home'.) But he's not trunky and thinking about home so that's good.

This week was awesome! Shawn Barlow got baptized. And his whole family came! Well most of it. He has 28 brothers and sisters but I think about 2/3 of his family ended up showing up. I'll send a picture of them. They're really cool! He's going to be a stud member of the church. And he's thinking about going on a mission, hopefully he will go through with it. I know he would be an awesome missionary!! 

We took Tearsha to temple square last tuesday too. I'm attaching a picture of it. She is ALSO awesome! She loved it. We told her about prophets, forever families, and temples. She said she didn't have any questions but she learned a lot from it. She was gone this past weekend to visit her fiance in washington and she should have gotten back late last night or this morning. 

We had zone training meeting, that went really well too. Elder Reed and I made it fun but at the same time still instructional. The activity we did was a lot of fun. We made everyone run across the gym while everyone in a district shot nerf darts at them. That represented us as a zone finding a lot of people to teach, but not holding them (resolving their concerns.) Then we brainsormed ways we can hold people better and wrote them on a chalkboard. Then they all hid behind it as they walked past those shooting nerf darts at them. Most of them got through to "baptism" that time, symbolizing that when we do everything we can do then people get to baptism a lot easier and a lot more frequently. They all said they enjoyed it and learned from it, which is awesome! 

Elder Reed and I also had dinner with some people we met a while ago. They are so awesome!! haha. They even made us pumpkins, that was pretty cool. 

We have a lot of progressing investigators too which is really exciting.I'll tell you more about them next week! I'm running out of time this week, sorry.

Love you!

Elder Wilson

 Tearsha! We took her to temple square.

Shawn's baptism. He's on the top left by me. This isn't even his whole family! 

There was probably half missing he said. hahaha. They're awesome. 

The pumpkins that those awesome members made for us!

October... is... awesome.

"President Ezra Taft Benson taught: "We are commanded by God to take this gospel to all

the world. That is the cause that must unite us today. Only the gospel will save the world

from the calamity of its own self-destruction. Only the gospel will unite men of all races

and nationalities in peace. Only the gospel will bring joy, happiness, and salvation to the

human family" (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson [1988], 167)." -Preach My Gospel, p.2

Such an awesome quote. And I would say from the looks of things, it's pretty fitting. Especially now, 25 years later. THAT'S why missionary work is so important. THAT'S why there are so many missionaries going out into the field right now. THAT'S why the Lord is hastening His work. God is in control, no matter how crazy things get out in this world. Eventually, "All that is unfair about life

can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ." -Preach My Gospel, p.52

We just need to involve God in our lives more, and He will help us get through anything and everything we go through.This life is the time we have to prepare to meet God. He's our loving Heavenly Father. So why wouldn't He try and help us? 

General Conference was so awesome. There were so many good talks given that really helped out me in my life, and I'm sure many others in their lives. I love the fact that even though they prepare their talks months in advance, if you go into it having questions in your mind or written down, THEY ARE ANSWERED. How is that not evidence that these really are God's servants here on earth? Man. 

We got to go downtown with Tearsha and her friend Ray. They're both super awesome. Ray was baptized in January this year and he and Tearsha grew up together in the same high school. He is on fire! He kept saying things like "oh wait, that's only for people with the GOSPEL in their lives..." but then she would respond "HEY! the 26th isn't THAT far away, give me a break I'm working on it!!" hahaha. Her baptism is going to be awesome. We took a picture outside of the conference center, I'll send it home. We got about 3 pictures taken of us so maybe we'll be in the Ensign magazine, look for me! ;)

We had some cool experiences traveling there, though. There were a lot of peolpe that asked us where they needed to go. And each time we replied "just follow us". It's cool though because we're representatives of Jesus Christ and that's what He told us when He was here on the earth. Well actually He still does today, haha. And Quinten L. Cook walked right past us when we were getting out of the conference center! He walked past too fast for us to say hi to him though sadly. Oh well.

Shawn Barlow is getting baptized this friday, and then Olivia on the 19th, and Tearsha on the 26th. Things are getting exciting!! Well, they're always exciting. hahaha. We're taking Tearsha to temple square tonight so I'll have pictures of that too. But that will have to wait until next week.

This week was so boss. I love my mission. Every single day something awesome happens. Look for cool miracles and spiritual things that happen in your life. I know they're there!

Love ya

Elder Wilson

Elder Reed, Elder Wilson, Tearsha, and Ray at the conference center downtown!

October

Nadira got baptized!!! And so did Jasmine!! I'll send you pictures. They were both really good baptisms. Nadira started crying and we asked her why afterwards and she said because she felt the Spirit so strongly. Now let me ask you guys a question. If this wasn't the right thing to do, and if this wasn't God's true Church, WHY would He give her such an overwhelmingly good feeling at her baptism and the next day at her confirmation??

Personally, that's just a testimony builder for me.

Jasmine's baptism went really well too. Her husband was able to baptize her. I could tell that she was really nervous beforehand, but after she came up out of the water then she had this huge smile on her face and she knew that what she had done was the right thing to do too. I love my mission!!

So I found out that I'll be able to go to conference with Elder Reed this weekend. yeahhh buddy! We're going to the Saturday morning session. And we're taking Tearsha and her friend who was baptized in January. That should be a lot of fun. We have some pretty good seats. She's excited to see conference too!

We went to Elder Durfee's district meeting this week. He's one of our new district leaders, but he did pretty well. He was having a hard time thinking of a fun activity to do for the meeting to show some type of principle that we all could work on so he asked me for a suggestion. And he used it! It was a lot of fun. He's a great teacher, too. 

We went on exchanges with Elder Banks and Elder Davidson, the assistants. They are both really fun to be with. I went with Elder Banks to his area. It was fun talking to everyone we saw and seeing some crazy weird people in his area. He's such a boss missionary. He said he wants to be comps with me so who knows, maybe he'll pull some strings!

The weather is cooling off a lot which is nice. Bring on the winter! Actually, let me enjoy fall a little bit first. Then bring it on. haha.

I love ya!
Elder Wilson

September weather is PERFECT.

We had a really good week this week! Some new people we're working with, some older, and a lot of people wanting to come closer to Christ. :) A lot of problems came up this week. Which sucked. But it's okay, because we got through it [with a lot of prayer]. I can't believe that September is already almost over. Winter's coming. Yeahhh buddyy.

Since we have two brand new district leaders this transfer, Elder Reed and I split up to go see their district meetings. They were pretty good! The one I went to was Elder Durfee's. It was a little boring but that was because people were talking too long for the accountability from last week. Elder Chandler is the other brand new district leader. His was pretty good too, Elder Reed said. For the most part, I'm pretty impressed with our district leaders!

We met with Tearsha a few times this week. She came to church, too which was super awesome! She brought her friend's two year old girl and I'm pretty sure everyone thought it was hers. But it's all good because she's engaged to be married so she has a ring. People probably thought she was married. ANYWAYS she is pretty excited about getting baptized. She knows almost everything already, and doesn't really have too many concerns from what we've seen. She's set to be baptized on October 19th.

Shawn Barlow. He's a cool guy. But we had to push his date back until October 11th because of two weddings for his family, and they couldn't do it the day before or even two days before. That was a LONG story and a big headache for Elder Reed and I but finally that's how it turned out. But he pinky promised [haha] that he wouldn't push it again. So we're holding him to that!

Elder Reed's birthday was on Saturday. I called up dinner and told them it would be his birthday, and they ended up going all out! We got there and there was a happy birthday sign on the door. He was like what the heck? How did they know?? I played along with it. They had a birthday cake for him. It was pretty fun! I think he enjoyed his birthday. He finally was able to open some presents that his family sent to him about a month and a half ago. He's an awesome companion, a lot of fun and a lot of hard work too. Well we do a lot of hard work. He isn't a lot of hard work. Do I even make sense?

Sunday wasn't too much of a headache. I love it when it's like that. Tearsha came to church even though she was babysitting that girl. I was surprised how well the little girl behaved. She just laid down on Tearsha's lap and fell asleep. Shawn went to the single's ward. Olivia came to church too. We picked her back up, and her mom is on board for her to be baptized on October 19th. So much work is going on here in this area, I love it! I want even more though! haha.

I love you!
Elder Wilson

 My side of the room!

Elder Reed almost pooped his pants when the door opened and this beast of a dog ran out at us. 

This haircut is mission approved, right?

Crazy awesome week!

This past week we pretty much had 2 P-days this last week. We went up on wednesday t Brighton Canyon for an all mission zone conference. It was so beautiful up there, it was incredible how many trees and scenery was up there. I can't imagine how someone seeing that can't believe that there's a God. It's so obviously beautiful and perfect. Anyways, we talked about how we need to talk with everyone and how to resolve people's concerns if they come up. We went on a hike around a small leake which was pretty breathtaking too. I took a lot of pictures, it will be hard to decide which ones to send home! Afterwards Elder Reed and I along with 4 other companionships volunteered to stick around for a service project. We hauled some cut iup trees for firewood to some people around the area. Then they fed us some soup/bread that was super delicious.

We have 8 people who have accepted baptism! It's super exciting being able to witness so many cool things happening in my area. 

Shawn Barlow: he's a 23 year old guy that is super legit. He is from a polygamist family. He has 24 brothers and sisters!!! But he's proud of it, he's not ashamed to admit it. He has been going to the LDS church for his whole life though and wants to join. But he had to meet with Elder Baxter from the 1st quorum of the seventy to get the OK to join. He passed obviously, because he's solid, and now he's on date for September 26th. He's really cool.

Nadira Mohamoud is a muslim lady who moved here from canada and from before that somewhere in Africa. She has a heart of gold. She has a true desire to follow Christ and do everything that He would want her to do. She has a hard time giving up coffee, but she's doing really well. I can't wait to see her progress in the Gospel. She's on date for September 28th. 

Suleka Nur is also a muslim lady. She's best friends with Nadira. They came over to the states together which was a cool story. But she also wants to be baptized, and wants to follow Christ as closely as she can. She's on date for September 28th as well, but she's hard to get a hold of so she might have to be pushed back a little bit. But she still really wants to so that'll be good.

We picked up tearsha wallace yesterday. She is in the Army and has been for 6 years but you wouldn't expect it from seeing her, hahaha. She's a nurse administrator and has been in the army for about 6 years now. But while she was in Afghanistan she was reading the book of mormon and she knew that it was true. She's been to the LDS church before, and loves it! She accepted baptism without any concerns. Pretty awesome. She's super solid. And she's engaged to be married to someone she met in the army, too which is exciting. She's on date for October 12th.

Then there's the Miller family. It's a mom, a dad, a daughter, and a son. They all want to be baptized and they're super nice. They've grown up around the church for their whole lives but just have never joined. Probably got offended by someone sometime. But yeah they are pretty cool as well. They're on date for October 12th.

We went on some exchanges with other missionaries this week, too. I went with Elder Durfee to his area. It's spanish speaking so I didn't get a TON out of it but it was still fun! hahaha. He's a really good missionary and loves the work and the people he's working with. He's probably the best district leader we have in the zone. 

Anyways sorry if it's too long! Love ya!
Elder Wilson

 A shot of part of the lake

 The forest

 A cool view [I thought] of the path we were walking on around the lake

 Isn't this so awesome looking??

The group that did the service project on Wednesday.

An all around AWESOME week

So many things happened this week! Funny experiences and miracles!! Except so many things happened.

First off, the apartment we moved into was super dirty. Mold in the bathtub, dirty floors, toilet, everything. So it took a while, but now everything is super clean in our apartment. Mom, you'd be proud! ;) It's crazy how much the Spirit can be in the home when the place is clean. 

We picked up a lot of new people this week. One night we were teaching Nadira, one of the people we have "on date", and she called and told us she had someone she wanted us to meet. When we got there it turned out to be a lady named Seleka. She was mad at us that Nadira had agreed to baptism and that Nadira was getting baptized without her!! so naturally we asked her if she wanted to get baptized on the same day. So right now they're both scheduled to be baptized on September 28th! Pretty exciting.

Then yesterday night we went by to see a family that the Bishop told us we should stop by and see. They have grown up here in Utah and have loved the LDS church and the morals it teaches. They've had some pretty good friends growing up here that were LDS which helped too. Their name is the Miller family. It's a mom, a dad, a daughter, and a son. We taught them about how the Church was restored to the earth again, and invited them to be baptized. They all said yes! So right now we have Olivia, Nadira, Seleka, and the miller family-totalling 7 people working towards a baptismal date. Pretty awesome and humbling!

We went on exchanges with Elder Haught, one of our district leaders. His district had nobody on date when he whitewashed into the area. (two elders/sisters going into an area when they hadn't been there before so they have to start from scratch.-- we had 4 in our zone!) So he was struggling and we wanted to help him out. When I went there with him we talked with everyone we saw, did some service for some people, and set up some potentials. That was good. He's a good missionary that tries hard, but I just hope the Lord will bless him for his efforts soon so he doesn't get down on himself. 

Our first Sunday here was pretty crazy. It was our first Sunday in the area so we wanted to go to all of the meetings that we could, so that the wards that we cover will get to put a face to a name. It's frustrating covering 4 wards sometimes because we can't make it to all the meetings. They overlap too much. I sometimes wish I only had 1 ward but in Utah that wouldn't work since there is such a high population of LDS living here. 1 stake here is about as big if not a little smaller than a ward back home. But something in one of the meetings was pretty funny. We were sitting there and the people started arguing with each other!! Like raising their voices arguing. Pretty crazy, haha. They were ganging up on the ward mission leader. Then the relief society president [ironic that that's her calling haha] stepped in and started defending him a little bit. Elder Reed and I were both sitting there like is this really happening right now? haha. 

Another funny thing was when Elder Reed and I were about to go to a dinner appointment we had and we were a little bit early so we decided we'd knock on a few doors before we went to their house. We knocked on one, no answer. Then the second one we knocked on there was a screen door and the main door was open all the way so we could kind of see inside of the house. It was hard to see because of the screen door, but about 20 feet away from us, sitting on the couch watching TV, was a 300 pound, NAKED fat man. I had to bite my lip not to bust up laughing right then. He said he was busy and to come back later. hahaha.

Gotta love the mission! It really brings out the crazies.

Anyways, I hope all is well back home. Actually not just well, but AWESOME! 

Love, Elder Wilson

Remember that movie "Better off dead"??? This totally reminded me of it!

 It was some weird nasty tasting jello thing at some ward party we went to. 

It started crawling off my plate...

Our zone!
Left to right: Elder Leyva, Elder Bass, Elder Haught, me, Elder Brannum, Elder Bloomfield, Elder Pittman, Elder Chandler, Elder Mintey, Elder Reed, Elder Durfee, Elder Dean, Elder Franco, Elder Montesdeoca, Sister Rodriguez, Sister Guerrero, Sister Porter, Sister Crockett, Sister Swearingen, and Sister Nero.

Transfers!!

Tomorrow is transfers, and I will be transferred over to another area in the bennion zone along with Elder Reed. We're still the zone leaders here, but the zone leader area is switching. So Elder Chandler and Elder Mintey are going to be here and Elder Reed and I are going to be a few blocks north. Not too bad. At least we won't have to ride up a 1/4 mile hill to our house each night anymore. And we have a weight bench in the new apartment. Yeahh buddy. But the sad thing is that we're going to have to say goodbye to all the people we are teaching here and the members we've gotten in contact with. :/ That's going to be hard.

We went on an exchange with the assistants again this week. I went with Elder Quesne to their area. They cover the YSA ward for Midvale and Murray, so that was fun. Plus we got to be in the car haha. 

Eric Foster is doing well, judging on the stuff that he's going through. He has dementia and his wife has terminal cancer. He gets pretty depressed sometimes and I can't blame him for it at all. Especially since I have never gone through what he's going through. (obviously). It's hard to watch it but he's a strong guy. This last Sunday he was dressed all ready to go to church, but he got a phone call saying that his daughter had died from a drunk driver accident. Man that was hard. He's a really really good guy though. And a blast to hang out with. I wish I got a picture of him in his purple suit!! Oh well.

Jasmine is going strong too. She really really loves going to church! And she got her husband to go which was cool because he hasn't been in a long time. She joined the choir too! She's going to sing in church in the end of the month which should be awesome. And she's going to sing in stake choir! Apparently she's won an award for regional... something. haha. some kind of contest. She and Eric are still on date for September 21st which is exciting. Something cool happened with her though!! She had a really big tea drinking problem which she has to be off of in order to be baptized so that was a roadblock. But we told her to pray about it to see if God wanted her to follow it. (She wouldn't agree to just drop it right then). So we went back the next day, and she hadn't prayed yet. The next day we went by again and she said she got a really strong answer to stop! Plus she ran out of sugar so she can't make any more. She said that was God's way of saying no too haha. 

Things are going really well out here. I love my mission! I never want it to end.

Love, Elder Wilson!

Double rainbow.

Nestor!

The weather has been soo nice lately. Overcast, colder, and off and on rain. I love it!! Elder Reed have had lunch on the trampoline in the backyard because it feels so great. Although, the "farmer's almanac" says that this winter is supposed to be super cold, more than it has been. BRING IT ON!! hahaha.

Nestor had his baptism this last Saturday!! It went really well. We got there and he wasn't there yet. That was pretty nerve-racking. I don't know why they love doing that to us missionaries!! haha. Anyways, he eventually showed up at 2 which was when it was supposed to start. It all worked out well though. Nestor's baptism was pretty dang spiritual, too. As we were standing there in the water after I baptized him, he was just standing there smiling! :) He kept saying "Man, I feel REALLY good right now." This kid is awesome. After his baptism it started pouring hail and rain so we asked a kid in the ward if we could borrow some ugly ties because we didn't want our silk ties to get ruined. (You've gotta wear the nice ties to a baptism! ;) ) 

So many people came to church this week! We had Eric Foster (on date for September 21st), jasmine pew (on date for September 7th), derrick, and Klari! :) They all really liked it which was pretty awesome. Derrick doesn't want to agree to baptism just yet, but we'll get him. ;) haha just kidding. I think it's really his dad who is holding him back. He is atheist and I think that rubs off on his kids which is unfortunate. Oh well. Alex translated for Klari and she had a good time at church.

We taught Klari again this week. We taught her the plan of salvation and she really liked it! Man, I'm so sad that she is leaving this week for Hungary. :/ She's so awesome! I really hope she'll get baptized in Hungary. And that the elders over there don't screw it up, hahaha just kidding. She's genuinely interested and wanting to change. I'll attach a picture of her and the translator we used, Alex.

Another person we're working with is Andrew and his fiance Vicki. They don't come out to church that often, but they agreed to come this past Sunday. (They didn't end up coming though.) They're good people, but they've been through some hard times. My heart really goes out to people like that. I want to help them as much as possible! The best way I know how is through the Gospel. It really can change people's lives and I've seen it done. I love it.

So there's not too much of an email this week, sorry about that. But hey there's always next week. This week was pretty good, though. Anyways, hope all's well back home. Love ya!

-Elder Wilson

Nestor!!