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...