There are a lot of missionaries in the room right now, so I'm sorry in advance if this email doesn't make sense. This week was pretty cool. We found a new person! And potentially another family. Her name is Alma! I wonder if she knows her name is famous yet. We are going to stop by there tonight before all of our correlations with the wards that we cover.

This week we went on exchanges with some Elders in my district. Elder Wood and Elder Ross. Elder Ross was supposed to come to my area with me and Elder Wood stay there, but at the last minute Elder Ross was sick and so he stayed there and Elder Wood came to my area. He's a hard worker and we got along really well. :) We went to the Watson's where Jeremiah lives with his mom Thyssen, and he made us some shakes like he usually does when we go over there. Except this time they were nasty! He put in chocolate protein powder, grapefruit, oranges, and ice-cream. Then he had us try some testosterone powder chunks and those were seriously the nastiest thing I have ever tasted. It tasted like alfalfa, throw up, feces and dirt. After mouthwash, mints and brushing my teeth I could still taste it. And our breath smelled like that as well. haha. So that was interesting. The next day we went by with Elder Judkins and made him try some too. He only did a sip and almost barfed. haha. :)

We had a zone conference on Wednesday that was really good. It David Brashnahand gave a presentation to help us get people to stop smoking. He was it was extremely effective! So we're going to try it with Heather. Well her, and John. In the presentation we were told to get a bell so that we can ring it as part of the lesson. So we went to the store and I got a ridiculously loud cowbell. :) I keep thinking of the SNL with Will Ferrell video! hahahaha. We also found a bunch of old progress records (a sheet with a list of the people the missionaries were working with that week) in our apartment, so we spent some time going through all of them and writing down all the investigators that didn't become members later on. So we got a list of about 32 that we can stop by! Pretty exciting. 

It rained on Friday, that was weird. But it was pretty cold rain!! And then it froze later that night so it was interesting riding our bikes on that. Elder Judkins ate it and I almost did. I barely caught myself with my foot! haha. But overall it's starting to warm up so that's good. Except for yesterday we got 4 inches in an hour. That was cool. And it's still snowing! So it's hard to ride bikes but it's worth it because we get a good workout. 

The work is really picking up around here, it's exciting! The Olsens are still on track to be baptized February 9th! They are so awesome. I can't get over them, haha. I'm not talking them up either, they're just as good as I say they are!

Love, Elder Wilson

haha we found this on the door we had an appointment at

The Olsens!

Hello family and whoever else is reading this! How was your week? Mine was amazing, thanks for asking. ;)

So we have more news! We have three new people that have accepted baptism. A family, actually! Their names are Veronica, Matthew, and Valory Olsen. They also have a little boy named Aiden but he's only 3. But they are SUCH an awesome family. I know I say that about everyone I meet haha but still!! (Maybe that's just because everyone is so awesome.) They are super willing to hear what we have to tell them, and they're always wanting to have more. They're willing to follow God and keep His commandments, and that's all that He asks of us! They're going to get baptized on February 9th. 11am to be exact! I'll see if I can attach a picture of them in the next week's email. So yeah they're exciting. They want us to come over every single day!

Other than them, this week has been pretty usual. Cold weather, icy roads, rusted chains from the salt on the road (the oil we put on them only lasts about 2 days then the rust kicks back in). 

I went on exchanges with Elder Dean earlier this week. (wow, that seems like such a long time ago.. this mission thing needs to SLOW DOWN). He's a really awesome guy. Elder. Missionary. He's hard working and has a fun time doing it which is the perfect mix for a good, well-liked missionary. Nobody likes a missionary robot but the opposite, a lazy missionary, is just as bad. But he went to BYU-Idaho the same time that I did and apparently he saw me there! With my black morph suit and white tie, hahaha. That was cool to find out. We're on the same track, Fall/Winter so we're going to probably room or at least hang out while we're up there. We're into a lot of the same things.

District meetings are on Wednesdays now, which is really weird because it makes the week seem longer! I guess I shouldn't be complaining with all my talk of things needing to slow down but still. At district meeting I taught about how they/we need to improve our teaching skills. And how we all need to help keep the investigators that we have, and to not let them "fall off date". Elder Wood said it was a really good district meeting and that he learned a lot, so that felt good. 

Things are going well out here, I hope things are going well back home! And wherever whoever is reading this!
I love ya!

Elder Wilson

 The District! Left to right, top to bottom: Elder Wood, Elder Wilson, Elder Mo'unga, Elder Dean, Elder Ross, Elder Judkins, Sister Norman, Sister Despain, Sister Guerrero, Sister Cordoba.

 Oh Elder Judkins...

Can you imagine my excitement when I read this text from Lloyd??

Keep Trudgin' Along! [Literally]

There's a ton of snow! I love it. It's hard to ride bikes through now that it's all frozen over though, haha. We have to ride in the ruts that we've made in the past with our bikes. It snowed 6 INCHES in one night! I'll attach the picture showing it. That was hard to ride our bikes through! It wasn't that slippery yet because it hadn't frozen yet but it was just so thick that it was physically hard, haha. But it kept us warm peddling hard so that's good.

This week went by so fast! It doesn't seem like it's been a week already since last Tuesday. Last Tuesday we had correlation with our wards, and when we were in the middle of one of them we got a call from the zone leaders. They were planning on going on exchanges with another district leader but that one was throwing up (it's going around!) and so they asked if we could do it last minute. So we had to cancel our last correlation and we went home so Elder Judkins could pack up a few things for it. I was with Elder Reed, and Elder Judkins was with Elder Quesne (cane). He's a pretty good missionary.

On Thursday we had zone conference. I love those, they're always so inspiring and uplifting! Turns out we're changing our district meetings to Wednesdays now, not Thursdays anymore. And they changed up our mission vision and the standard of excellence key indicators. (Sorry if you have no idea what I just said.) The rest of the day, and a lot of the days in this past week, were spent trying to contact some people that we call "potential investigators". Those are those who we met and they said they'd be interested in hearing more about the Church and wanting to learn more. But the frustrating thing is that it's so hard to catch people home! They just don't know what they're missing out on. I'd say that's the most frustrating thing as a missionary. We met with a guy named Carlo and his wife Nina, and they've been through 20 sets of missionaries. He keeps saying that he's catholic and that he doesn't want to change that. Although, he did say that if he's wrong and the Mormons are right, he's sure that God will forgive him and let him change. hahaha. I kinda laughed at that. (inside, don't worry!) It's a good point but I've just never heard that before. He deeply respects the LDS religion though, so that's good.

I got a list of names for Jesus Christ (Mediator, Savior, Redeemer, etc) that I found in the Book of Mormon and in total I've found 148!! So I'm going to write them all on the back of a picture of Jesus Christ and then laminate it. I think it will look really cool. :) It's amazing how much He's mentioned in the Book of Mormon! It really is "another testament of Jesus Christ". (like it says on the cover of it). It's so hard to imagine how people can't believe that it's the word of God! JUST READ IT you'll know! I think people like Carlo and others are just afraid to find out that if the "mormons" are really right then they'd have to change! It's so obvious after reading it and praying to find out if it's true that it is. There's no doubt in my mind! 

I love this work. I hope all of you are doing well back home, and know that I love you!

-Elder Wilson

#218

 This was the temperature at 3pm! The hottest part of the day! haha.

9 1/2 inches of snow in a few days. Pretty awesome!

The tiniest rabbit I've ever seen! (Especially compared to Sally... RIP)

 It's difficult to smile when your face is frozen

LOOK HOW CHEAP GAS IS IN UTAH

Gettin' pretty cold up here!

Hey everyone! This week was pretty good! For the most part. It's getting pretty cold, hitting low teens and sometimes lower at night. But I heard it's supposed to snow here pretty soon again so it should be getting a little warmer for that.
I ended up getting sick (the flu) Friday night and I'm just now getting over it completely. But Friday night I was up every 10-30 minutes taking lovely trips to the bathroom to empty my stomach, haha. I lost count at the seventeenth trip. I think I lost about 15 pounds! But it's all good, I'm good to go again.

We had another baptism! Thomas Pinchback got baptized Saturday (which I had to miss because I was staying in) but I heard that it was really spiritual and a really good baptism. I wish I could have been there! Elders Dean and Mo'unga did splits with us so that we could still do the baptism and keep all 6 of our appointments later on that day. Elder Mo'unga stayed in with me and watched all the church movies that we have at our apartment while I pretty much slept the whole day. Elders Dean and Judkins went out to cover our area that day. But the next day I was feeling up to go and so we went to Church and the confirmation went pretty well! Thomas wanted the Bishop to do his baptism and confirmation because he was the one that has helped him out a lot over the past few weeks. Thomas is such a great guy, super humble!

I had another district meeting, which went pretty well. I like doing the intereactive things with the district, it really gets them going and excited about missionary work. Because if we're all just sitting there with one person doing all the talking, people tend to zone out! Which is never good. But I think they all took something home with them that they can improve. Elder Judkins and I included.

So something really really cool! Remember Lloyd?? Well he wants to get married to his girlfriend, but in order to get married in the temple he has to wait a year from becoming a member. So he wrote the first presidency to ask if he can get married in August instead of waiting until October, and he got told by all his friends that he was probably wasting his time and that they were too busy for him but he got a PHONE CALL from PRESIDENT UCHTDORF saying that he could! And that he wanted to meet with Lloyd and his girlfriend for dinner!! That's totally awesome!! So I'm waiting to hear how that went. That all happened the day after Christmas, too!

Well, I hope you're doing well, and know that you're in my prayers!
Love,
Elder Wilson

Some fun pictures with the Sharps!

Sister Watson was finally able to leave her house!! :) 

When we went over there, she asked us if we could help her get up the stairs to go outside. 

And when we did she was so happy!!

Look at this creepy picture we saw in the church!! hahahaha.

Okay don't judge, it was super cold!! haha or maybe I'm about to sneeze.
Back to front: Elder Dean's arm, Elder Mo'Unga, Elder Judkins, and I.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Heyy everyone! I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year! :) I for sure did.
It was pretty weird being away from home during the holidays, but it wasn't all that bad. As long as you spend it with good friends, I think it's ALMOST as good as with your family. ;) New Years Eve was pretty crazy. We spent it at the Sharps, remember them from my first area?? There was four missionaries there, not as much as when we went there for Christmas, then there was 8! haha. But it was fun. We lit off those sky lantern things that are in Tangled, (LOVE that movie, btw) and they lit off a firework but it turned out to be like a bottle rocket firework! It shot out about 8 fireworks and they all exploded into those huge explosions in the sky. BUT Brother Sharp put it upside down on accident, so the first one went off, and it shot straight at everyone and hit his truck, then they all started shooting EVERYWHERE and randomly exploding!! We were taking cover behind everything because the explosions were so random hahaha. A couple went like 30 feet down the road, and some other ones exploded right next to us haha. It was exciting. :) Definitely something to remember for my first New Years on the mission! haha.

But there's exciting news! Tommy Watson got baptized and confirmed. :) His baptism went really really well. The Spirit was there super strongly, and everyone could feel it, it was awesome. Thomas came and when he was on his way home, without anyone even asking him he just said "Man, that felt really good. Really good." He's excited for his baptism this Saturday, the 5th! But Tommy was beaming from head to toe after his baptism. I could tell he was a little nervous going into it, and so was Elder Judkins (it was his first actual baptism). But afterwards they both were fine. I was nervous about confirming him the next day at church, but after some prayers I felt reassured everything would be alright. And it was! A lot of people came up to me afterwards and thanked me for bringing the Spirit in so strongly early on in the meeting. And Tommy is going to be a really great member, I can already tell!!

We've been super busy lately. I love having too many people at church to be able to sit with them! haha. And we're teaching a low of 3 lessons a day, and the most we've taught was from 1pm until we have to go home at 9pm!! But it's good, it keeps us on time because we have to be out of the lesson and get to the next one within an hour. Heather Post is back on date! She is super excited about getting baptized, she can't wait. And she is really enthusiastic about quitting some of the addictions that she needs to get off of before she's able to get baptized. So that's good. :)

I hope everyone had a really good Christmas and New Years, and I hope to hear from you soon!
Love, Elder Wilson

We went into a place to eat, came out about an hour later, 

and there was already this much snow on our bikes!!

 Haha this is the Baucom's. Melissa and Bryan. This is the family we Skyped home at!

 This is Tommy! He is so cool. haha :)

Tommy got baptized!