Miracles!

So, if you are the type to read just a few lines when emails are long,
skip to Monday because it's crazy awesome what happened. BUT if you
want to read the rest, I promise it's good too. ;)


So this week was super crazy awesome. I'll start off with Tuesday
which was last P-day. Pioneer day! It's bigger here than the Fourth of
July is. Haha. We met with Elmer Mirza (that super solid Pakistani
guy) at 10am on our P-day. We read from the Book of Mormon with him.
After that we went to the stake center to email. We got picked up by
this guy to go to the mall. We walked out there, and he has a Mercedes
convertible. Unfortunately it was raining. I get in the back seat, and
when they pushed the seat back for Elder Conley to get in, there was 4
inches of room. Literally haha. So I sat completely sideways in the
back, with no seat belt to be found anywhere. He couldn't put the top
up because we would be hitting our heads on the roof. So we were just
casually driving down the road, me scrunching down as far as I can,
getting soaked. Haha. I was above the edge of the windshield so the
rain was pelting me in the face.

Then we did P-day activities and had dinner at the huge Samoan
festival going on. They love missionaries so they would all walk up to
us and say Elders, have you had dinner yet? Have some food! That night
we sat on a hill outside our house and watched the fireworks
throughout the valley. It was pretty cool.

Wednesday we had zone conference which took forever as usual, but it
was really really beneficial. We learned how we can help our
investigators keep their commitments and how to keep them progressing.
We stopped by Mickey to see how he was doing, and he said that he
wants to be baptized! He didn't accept a date though, because his wife
won't allow him to be baptized. :/

Thursday we had to go on splits with our district leader because his
companion fell off a truck when they were doing service and broke his
wrist/ankle. Either I or Elder Conley would stay at their home with
his cripple comp, while the other would go out with Elder Harvey (the
DL). We stopped by and saw Nick and Elmer though, so that was good. I
LOVE BEANS!

Friday Elmer invited us over for lunch. He fixed us Pakistani food! It
was really good. Then we went out with Elder Harvey again, and this
time it was me who went out on splits. We covered his area this time,
and since he's Spanish-speaking, all I could do was stand there, say
hola, then gracias if they gave us water. Then adios as we were
leaving hahaha. PS Elder Harvey almost crashed three times on his
bike. Haha :) We taught Nick the homeless guy which at first was
horrible because he is always so sporadic and not focused, but towards
the end we invited the Spirit by teaching doctrine (that and singing
hymns invite the Spirit so fast!). He got really quiet and said he'd
read the Book of Mormon and the section we asked. You could really
tell he had the desire to.

Saturday we took our current investigators to baptisms from our old
areas. Elmer went with us to one of Elder Conley's old areas'
baptisms. That one was really spiritual and he got a lot out of it.
You could tell he felt the Spirit very strongly. Afterwards he was
going around meeting everyone and inviting him to his baptism! It was
really awesome :) Then we went to Dominic and Sonya's baptism. THEY
GOT BAPTIZED! :) And married! Elder Davidson baptized both of them.
They looked so happy! They held hands and put their heads against each
other, it was really cute. We took Nick to that one. Then we taught
Russ and Mickey Howell that night, and Russ was a lot more open to us
this time and not in a bashing mood.

Sunday was crazy long. We had a meeting at 8 in the morning, and had
church from then until 6PM. 3 sacraments meetings, a ward baptism, and
2 correlation meetings. But on the bright side, Nick, Elmer and Joe
went to church! Joe is a less active member that we're working with.
Nick talked to a welfare specialist who is in our ward, so hopefully
he'll be going down there to welfare square and getting a job. The
baptism went well, it was for a guy who was ex-communicated and
getting re-baptized. That was cool. The wife isn't a member so we
tried to get to know her a little bit, but it didn't work out too
well. Then we had dinner which was pretty good, and went to the
Simpsons' for desert. They are a pretty cool family. There's a guy who
is our age, 19, and is preparing a for a mission. We suggested coming
out with us for a day and he actually seemed pretty interested!

Monday. Holy wow. We went out with Jordan, and it was seriously the
PERFECT day for him to come out with us. There were SO many miracles
that happened! So Sunday night I prayed that when he came out with us
it would be good for him and give him the desire to go on a mission.
It was answered!! :) First off, he came over and studied with us. Then
we went out and taught Elmer. That went really well! After the lesson
with him, he was seeming a little quiet and troubled, so I asked what
was wrong. He told us that he thought he might have to push back his
baptism date a little because he was stressed out. He might have to
take on a second job to keep up with house payments. They were behind
about 5 months. We gave him a blessing of comfort and in it, promised
that all his financial problems will cease if he has faith and
continues on the path to baptism. He thanked us, and we left. 20
minutes later when we were at lunch he texted us and asked if he could
call. So I said yes of course, call now! He told us that he got a
package in the mail from his bank and that they forgave him all his
debts and that they wouldn't have to refinance their house. He was so
touched by the Spirit, and was saying This is such a testimony
builder! and The Priesthood is real! Blessings really work! So
crazy awesome. Then after that we went and stopped by Sister Greenwood
and she told us that she was just trying to look up our number to tell
us something but she wasn't able to find our number anywhere and
that's when we knocked on her door. There's no coincidences in
missionary work, only miracles. :) We went around to houses in her
neighborhood for a while, and then went to this girl named Abby's
house. She was just pulling into her driveway when we were walking up.
So we asked if we could come inside and talk for a little bit. We
ended up teaching the first lesson, invited her to be baptized, and
she accepted! Freak. Then we went outside, checked our planners, and
we had just randomly planned to go by Abby at 4. It was EXACTLY 4 when
we got inside her house! The grandfather clock let us know about that.
Haha. Without even consciously thinking about it we went over exactly
as we planned to. We pray to be inspired as we plan for the days, so
that was another miracle. Then we saw the sisters, and we had given
Sister Veith a blessing because of her foot. She pulled a muscle
playing basketball. 2 days after we promised her a speedy recovery in
the blessing, her foot was healed completely! Then we stopped by a boy
named Gabriel Groves. He has such a sweet Spirit. He's 10, has autism,
and as a brain tumor. His doctors give him until he is 16 to live. :(
:( That made me cry a little yesterday. That's just too close to my
own personal life. :/ But anyways, we gave him a blessing along with
his younger brother and his mom. The mom told us that she was praying
that we'd stop by to be able to give them blessings. Miracle! Then we
went to an FHE (Family Home Evening). We've been there before, and
last time the wife asked us to give her a blessing that he foot and
leg would be healed. She got injured while they were on a hike. Turns
out, the foot was healed the exact same night. Then, to top it all
off, Jordan was ecstatic about going on a mission! Answer to my
prayer? YES. That was 7 miracles that we noticed. There's miracles
happening all around us, all the time. We just have to pray for them
and look for them in our lives. I love this gospel. Look up Mormon (in
the Book OF Mormon, ha) chapter 9 verse 15. ...God has not ceased to
be a God of miracles. I LOVE THAT SCRIPTURE.

When we were coming out of lunch today, we saw the Sharps!!! They were
taking Elder Weier and his new companion out to lunch haha. It's
always amazing to run into them or hear from them.

So hopefully that wasn't too long, but I really wanted to tell
everything that happened in my week!

LOVE,
Elder Wilson.

P.S. CONGRATULATIONS to Kyle Tracy for getting called to freaking
Australia!! That is so awesome.

 Dominic and Sonya's baptism!

 You know you're in Utah when the speaker's name in sacrament meeting

is Hyrum Smith.

 A text that we got from Elmer that gave us a smile!

Welcome Home Sydnee! :)

It's weird not to include Sydnee's email in the list of emails sent out. (my family). Welcome home Sydnee! Now go start dating those lucky boys! ;D hahaha :)
So I'm in my new area now, Taylorsville. It's pretty good, but ghetto hahaha. Well not really, but for Utah it is. Us missionaries call it "shady" hahahahaha. Elder Conley is my comp, he's from Washington (the one above Oregon) and is pretty cool. We get along really well.

After emailing on Tuesday, Elder Davidson and I went to the mall with Elder Weier and Livingston. We walked around for a while, and they almost bought some stuff but didn't. Then I saw a backpack, and I need a new one soon so I bought it. But it was $64 and so I regretted it, so I returned it haha. :) After that we went and played basketball and that was fun. After P-day was over, we went around so I could say goodbye to people. :( It was hard to say goodbye to Dominic and Sonya, and David Carr. I also said bye to the Sharps since I was leaving the area. :/

Wednesday I said goodbye to Elder Davidson/Weier/Livingston. We took a picture together! Haha. Elder Livingston gave me his monopoly!! It's the electronic kind that has credit cards and stuff instead of real paper money. Then I drove to meet my new comp, Elder Conley in Taylorsville. He's from Moses Lake, Washington (the state). He's pretty cool, he likes the same things I like. We went to Leather by's, they have one out here! We get it free too which is legit. I got a hamburger which was scrumdidilyumptious and then we went around trying to find people. Turns out the stake got split and the sister missionaries took the other half. All 8 of the people Elder Conley and his comp were teaching live over there! So we had 0 going into the transfer.

On Thursday we had district meeting which was pretty cool. We did role plays which I usually hate but they weren't so bad. I feel so excited to share the gospel with everyone. The Spirit can affect people different ways it's awesome! Comfort, peace, excitement, joy, so many.

On Friday Elder Conley and I went and contacted people on the unbaptized list. We made an apostasy chart to show how apostasies happen all throughout the bible! Pretty cool. Because that leads up to the great apostasy, and Joseph Smith :) Anyways, so we went around trying to find people. And I got my hair cut at 2:30 b a member. We went out to eat at Cafe Rio (which I actually really like now! I must have gotten a weird thing on the menu last time.) But we were super super full. Dinner was at 5:00 so we weren't very hungry, but luckily it wasn't that big of a dinner. They're big U fans just like the Sharps are! Then we went around and tried to find more people to teach, without a lot of success. We went tracting in some condo's and they weren't very receptive haha. :) One guy opened the door, and I started to ask”Hey, how are you doing today?” But before I could finish, he was already closing the door hahaha :)
So we had a lesson at 8:00 with a homeless guy named Nick Immoos, and that was interesting. He loves to talk, so he would go on tangents about random things and I felt like we were fishing, trying to reel him back into the conversation. The member we brought would always talk with him on those tangents, which was a little frustrating. Then the member tried to invite him to baptism! All the wrong way though. And taught him about Joseph Smith when we weren't to that point yet (so it wasn't relevant to anything and didn't make sense to Nick). Haha. It was a horrible lesson, but afterwards was really awesome! The Sharps dropped by and gave us some of their home-made ice cream that they used to make when Elder Weier and I went there. That was super awesome. :) Apparently the new Elder there isn't too... good haha. He is pretty off I guess. But they still have Livingston!

On Saturday there was a carnival at 9:00 in the morning for the entire stake, members and non-members. So obviously, we would want to be there! ;) there was breakfast which was really good, and then a jump house for the kids and fun stuff like that. We met this guy named Russ Howell who is 62 but was the first professional skateboarder! He's pretty cool. After the carnival we went back home to get our backpacks and then we went and tried to find people. Eventually dinner came around, and it was with the Wirfs'. They are pretty legit. The dad has a bunch of Apple stuff! Computer, laptop, monitor, keyboard, etc. freaking sweet haha. You know how much of a sucker for Apple things I am! ;) And he has 11 terabytes of storage which is 11,000 gigabytes! Crazy. They had turkey burgers and hot dogs, and both of those were really good. After dinner we went and tried to find people from the referrals they gave us, and 1 wasn't interested, 1 wasn't home, and the last one was friendly and let us in.

On Sunday church started at 9, but we had a meeting at 8 with all the other missionaries in our area. 2 sisters, 2 Spanish elders, and 2 senior couple missionaries. There are 2 other sisters in our district, but for some reason they weren't in the meeting with us. So after that we went to 1st ward, and walked over to the apartment to get our people that we were teaching to come to church with us. One didn't answer, but the other two did. So we sat by them at church which went well. Then the 1 o'clock church came, and that was probably the best one (except one speaker talked for no lie 45 minutes hahaha). Elder Conley and I had a meeting at 4 which was correlation with all the missionaries and all of the WML's for our wards. We let them know who we're teaching, and they let us know who they found that might be interested in hearing from us. Then we had dinner, and afterwards we went round trying to find people. If you haven't noticed, we do that a lot. ;) We met up with Russ, who is super legit haha. Then we found 2 Indian families which are super nice.

Yesterday (Monday July 23rd) we taught someone named Elmer Mirza. He's a Palestinian guy but he's soo awesome! We met him Sunday night and when we taught him yesterday he said that he was praying for God to enter his life. The same night was when we ran into him!! Once again, God is real. ;) But he is soo willing to hear about the gospel. He's even been to church once before! :) (This last Sunday actually, the day we met him). So that was super cool. He wanted to be baptized! So he's on date for August 4th. He even knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet! When we got to him in the lesson, Elmer interrupted us and was like hey guys, I already know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. :D How cool is that!? He was so prepared by God. He wanted us to come over every day to meet with him! :)
After his lesson, we went and had lunch then went and taught Russ. He had run into some anti material online, so we had to bash with him a little bit. I hate bashing because the Spirit leaves so quickly :/ that's the only way people will understand! If the Spirit is there to testify in their hearts. But after that we went to dinner, which was nottt very tasty. Haha. I mean it wasn't horrible, but it had a ton of curry in it so it tasted a lot like I was eating cinnamon haha. After that we had a lesson with Nick the homeless guy. He wanted to meet at a park gazebo, so when we walked up he had a freaking laptop sitting there on the table! I asked myself how in the world are you homeless but have a cell phone and a (really nice) laptop!? Haha. But I realize now that I was judging him too fast. There's some things that we don't know about people. About everyone. And THAT is why we should never judge, and always look for the good in people because it's always there. So we taught him, and it went well. He's cautious about going down to welfare square to get a job, even though the Bishop has already called down there to give him a referral. He's just scared he'll get stranded down there. So we're going to try and arrange a ride to take him down there. After the lesson we stopped by a Samoan celebration. It's this HUGE thing that there's a lot of tents set up where they have food stands, and music, and a ton of awesome islanders. :)

I love you all!!
Love,
Elder Wilson!

Me and Elder Davidson! 

Elder Weier, Me, Elder Livingston, and Elder Davidson!

My new comp, Elder Conley and I cheesin' for the camera.

Some crazy awesome shots of the sun coming through the clouds :)

3 week transfer: Complete.

I can't believe it's been 3 weeks already with Elder Davidson! We got along so well and it's going to be sad leaving him. So my new area is going to be taylorsville, and my comp is going to be Elder Connely (spelling?). We haven't gotten the solid details yet, but the Zone Leaders called last night and told me my new area and companion but said they wouldn't know all the details until today. (Tuesday the 17th).

Okay so last tuesday we played rugby as a zone, and I broke my arm... well shattered it actually. haha. I'm in a sling right now and I might have to come home for it to heal. :/










JUST KIDDING :D but we did play rugby though! we're only allowed to play 2 hand touch, not tackle. I was surprisingly good! I really like it though. After zone we went home, changed back into pros clothing (the saddest part of P-day), and went to dinner. we had super tender ribs and a pretty good fruit salad. Some of the food I've had here have been questionable. Like one time we were tracting and this old guy let us in and had us try this weird drink called clamatoe juice. It's tomatoes juice mixed with clam juice. Yuck! haha he poured himself a glass, and said to kind of to himself "I think I'll have some myself". So when the glass was poured, Elder Davidson reached over and took it and drank it! He thought the old man had poured him a glass hahahaha. The old man was like well.. oh okay. haha Elder Davidson was embarrassed when I told him that later. Then this investigator we have gave us a taste of a smoothie he had just made. Mango, banana, strawberry, pineapple--that all sounds pretty good right? well he threw in Jalapenos!! It was really warm. he didn't put any ice in it haha. it was gross.

On Wednesday we went to go see Dominic. I guess he and his wife got in a fight, and long story short he's missing. :( we were praying this whole week that he will come back and they'll get back together. :/ We gave Sonya a blessing of comfort, and gave her a lesson basically, where we told her everything would be okay if she had faith. She also agreed to stop drinking (which is what influenced that fight), and to be baptized on August 4th!!

Thursday was a slower day at first. We had lunch as a district, (some really nice lady paid for us! :) ) Then Elder Weier taught our district meeting; stressing baptism as usual. haha ;) no it's important to remember we're ultimately here to baptize. I just love helping out those that need our help to get back! :) That's what the new mission is focusing on, too, which is way nice. Then we had dinner!  The Sharp family took us out to eat!! :) Elders Weier, Livingston, Davidson and I went to this really really good BBQ place and then had some really good pie as well. It was nice to be able to see them again. Davin still wanted to sit by me! haha :)
So I noticed today (not at dinner) that people everywhere gossip. So that means that people gossip about me! I used to worry what they would say about me, but I realized that if we're doing all that we're supposed to do, being nice to everyone, and being a good example even when we think nobody is watching, then we don't have to worry what people are saying about us. It's so rewarding, and relieving really, that we don't have to worry. There's always somebody watching us. I want everyone to say oh Elder Wilson is so legit! I want to be companions with him! That's the best compliment anyone could give. Because it not only makes you feel good, but it makes you want to go out and keep being a good person. More Christ-like! :)

Friday the 13th! President Moffat stopped by this morning and told us that we were going to be taking on the mid-singles branch as well as our current stake. The mid-single branch is 190 stakes!! 900+ people are actively attending, and they have 6 relief societies. It's crazy. It covers the whole valley, and we're still on bikes! The branch president, president Norton doesn't seem to have too much confidence in us, but Elder Davidson and I were determined to take the assignment on and do it well. We're going to have members give us rides to the lessons. The Lord only gives us what we can handle in this life. So if He thinks that we have potential enough to handle this, then I don't want to be the one to let Him down. Elder Davidson and I are going to work our tails off with this new assignment (well we were, until I found out I'm getting transferred. he's getting a greenie!! I'm going to be praying for him haha. )
Also on Friday, we started a fast for Dominic to come back home. Sonya the wife and Rosie their 12 year old daughter joined in in the fast! :) I said the prayer to start off the fast, and it was so so so cool. I literally felt a warm sensation come over me, and that was the Holy Ghost letting me know that everything will be okay with that family. The Lord has a plan for us all. Everything happens for a reason.
We also gave a man a blessing that he will be healed from his Vertigo which he has been having. So that was cool too :) Gosh this church is true, I just wish everyone would just realize that! Get it through our thick skulls that what the Mormons are talking about really is the truth! haha. :)

So on Saturday we were fasting for Dominic to either come home, or somehow make contact soon. He doesn't have a phone so we had no way of contacting him. We went over to Sonya's house to have a lesson, and to break the fast. THE MIRACLE HAPPENED!! Dominic called the night we began the fast, Friday night! He said that he was okay, but that he needed to stay away a little longer. So Sonya let him know that she loves him and that she and their kids really miss him. And us missionaries! ;) Gosh that was so cool :) The church is true! So we taught a lesson to Sonya and Rosie then Elder Davidson and I broke our fast at Wendy's. mmm! :) Oh and later that night we had Samoan food too. They ahd these unripe bananas covered in this weird coconut sauce. haha. that was really gross. Elder Davidson said they tasted like potatoes to him but whatever hahaha. The rest of the meal was really good though! :)

On Sunday we got up and went to 2nd ward. Sonya and Rosie didn't come :( But the weather outside was sooo good! Sunday and Monday were overcast and a little rainy and SO NICE. probably about 70 degrees. Anyways so after church brother Marriot invited us over for lunch and it wasn't quite ready by the time we got there so we watched recordings of General Conference. I have no idea what it is about that but it always puts me to sleep! (Well I guess it could have been because of the extremely comfortable lazy boy chair I was sitting in. :) ) The lunch was a feast! salad, sandwiches, baked potatoes, watermelon, so many things. then we had homemade apple pie.

Monday we met Elder Weier and Livingston at the church and talked about DLC stuff. Then we were going to visit Sonya, and when we went and were riding down the street, Rosie was playing in the street and ran towards us. She said she had something to tell us that was really exciting. DOMINIC CAME HOME!!! Freak yeah. Fasting works! Heavenly Father answers our prayers! That was so awesome. Dominic and Sonya had to go shopping, so we couldn't teach them a lesson then. It started POURING. we were completely soaked! haha. we went to see James McReynolds and his girlfriend was there (the one that he wants us to teach).

This week was a really good and crazy week. Elder Livingston told me that Taylorsville is a really nice place. So I'll see how that is. I'm going to miss this area a lot. Come what may and love it, right?

I don't know what my new address is yet, but I'll let you know next P-day most likely.
I love you all, keep praying and reading those scriptures!

Love,
Elder Wilson.

  We had some of this peanut butter that was definitely not expired at all.

 You know you're jealous!

May flowers bring...July showers??

So this week we randomly had a thunderstorm! It started raining like crazy. But I'll get to that later. :)

On tuesday we had a mission conference where we met our new mission president. President Moffat is pretty cool, but he's kind of strict. Which will be good, because that's what will keep me being a good missionary and keep me on track. I think I'm going to be okay with all the new rules and stuff but one is going to bug me. we're not allowed to go to the temple. what the crap? why?? There are 4 temples within 20 minutes of us. In the south mission we went once a transfer. Ugh. I love going to the temple. :/ But yeah so we did that meeting for about 4 hours, then elder davidson and I went around trying to find people. We found the street from his dream though which was awesome! I love this new mission don't get me wrong. Hopefully I'll be able to get over this soon! I'm starting to already. But I was reallyyyy looking forward to going through the Salt Lake City Temple. I'm so close to it! haha.

Happy fourth of July! On wednesday we went out to try and find new people to teach by OYMing and by contacting referrals. we're getting a lot better at OYMing! More confident I should say. We tell ourselves: this isn't our time, it's the Lord's. So we can't get in the way of His work. Shouldn't, rather. We have to extend the invitation to improve their lives to everyone, because we never know who is needing or wanting it. We talked to a guy we found through a referral, but he wasn't interested in religion at all. But we talked to his mom and thought she might be, so we set up an appointment to come back and see her. :) Then we went to a 4th of July block party to try and find new people (non-members). Turns out everyone we talked to was either not living in our area, or not interested. haha. So we went home and may or may not have blown up an apple! Elder Davidson may or may not have had a bunch of little fireworks. :) I may or may not have recorded it. :) aaaand it may or may not be too big to attach to this email. :)

On thursday we had interviews with President Moffat. Which took up from 1pm until about 5! Which really sucked because we had a ton of lessons planned and they all had to be rescheduled for later times. So after the interviews (which by the way I told him how I felt about not being able to go to the temple, and he basically said that I need to suck it up. In a little bit nicer of a way. ;) ) so after them, we went and saw Dominic and moved him up to the 28th of July. He seemed alright with it. He really has the desire to learn and do the right things. Also on thursday, IT RAINED. Poured, actually. may flowers bring July showers..? My back tire went flat TWICE to our ride to interviews this morning. So I was pumping it up in the rain, but we have to use a little basketball pump because that's all we have. So we had to pump that little thing like 100 times for it to inflate the tire. I couldn't tell if I was sweating or if it was the rain dripping down my face. haha. we also saw David Carr. he's a less active but he's a really great guy.

Friday we got our first letter to our new address! Except it was from the relief society president giving us the dinner appointment schedules. haha. :) So it doesn't really count. on friday we had 6 lessons lined up!! and 4 non members! But three fell through. :( W went to help move Landon Peck that 10 year old who is going to get baptized on July 28th, and his dad and his 16 year old sister mikael to their new house that took forever haha :) the 1 hour turned into 3, and that made our appointment have to cancel with a guy named Rich. :( He really needs to hear the gospel, he's pretty down. Then we went and saw West and Mandy, but they weren't home. Shocker haha. After that we went around to people we thought could benefit from hearing from us. We met a lady named Brenda Reece, and the Spirit when I saw her was just like "you need to go talk to her". So I walked up to her, and she said "I'm glad you two found me, I've been looking for you!" This church is true!! the gospel is true! The Holy Ghost really can guide us! :) There's also another really cool story that is kind of similar. It was yesterday (monday July 9th), and by the way it was really really weird not being able to wake up and have P-day. We woke up and were sad that we didn't have it! haha. we only had one lesson scheduled, and that was with a less active. He is soooooo awesome!! His name is James Mcreynolds. He's 20 and is really really chill. He's a good guy with a big heart. He told us that he had been starting to pray and ask for God to be more in his life and to give him direction. 8 days later, we knocked on his door :D ah! that is so so so cool. :)

Alright so back to the timeline. Saturday was a good day, but was kinda slow. We were able to teach a few lessons, and then we went over to the Macky's house for their son's birthday party and then they said to come at 3 for the food part. So we got there at 3:15, and the food didn't come until about 5:15! then we ate and had a lesson with Dominic at 6. Which he forgot about so we were about to walk home (my tire went flat again) but then we saw him walking back with his kids with groceries! He said he was really sorry he forgot and he told us he wanted to come to church! We didn't even bring it up! :) He's really cool. Then we went and OYM'd at the Springs apartment complex and helped out these guys with a really heavy bookshelf thing. Then we went to go see that lady Brenda Reece, and she wasn't home. :( So we went to our WML (Ward Mission Leader)'s home and talked to him about the new mission and what was happening with it and stuff.

Sunday was a crazyyy busy day. We tarted our day out at 7:45 by going to a meeting, and didn't end it until about 8:45! We had 4 lessons planned with non-members. Brenda, Dominic, West and Mandy, and Anna Gallardo (that mom that we thought might have been interested). Breanna is a member, but her daughter is not and she wants there to be. We taught them and put her daughter on date for August 11th, 2012. West and Mandy are super shady and flaky as poop so we couldn't teach them unfortunately. Dominic is the man. he came to church!! Elder Davidson gave him church clothes so he wouldn't feel too out of place. But he was getting involved in the lessons and church so that was pretty awesome. We had a lesson with him at 2pm and he agreed to get married! He's common-law married which means that he has been together with his girl for 7+ years (I think it really is around 12), so the state recognizes them as being unofficially married. He has to be married before he can get baptized, because of the law of chastity. He wants to follow Jesus Christ (So much in his life, and to be a good example to his kids and everything like that. He's had some bad things happen in his life but he's looking for work and has an interview with the bishop to see if he can get a job at deseret industries. That would be really really good for him. He's on date for the 28th of July. I think he'll make it :) Delmy Gallardo (anne is her first name but she goes by Delmy) is a 7th day adventist or however it's spelled. She let us come into her home, but that's about it hahaha. When we would teach her doctrine, she would combat it with mixed up doctrine from her church. It's frustrating when people aren't even open to hearing different sides or points. So at the end of the 1 1/2 hour lesson, she politely said that she doesn't want to hear from us anymore. The Lord still needs to prepare her I guess. :/
Continuing on Monday's day, after teaching James Mcreynolds, we went and tracted and went down the enchanted street. At the very end of the street we found a Bosnian family. They have a daughter around 17 probably, a grandma, and a mom/dad. They seemed like they might have potential interest about learning about the "Mormon" religion. maybe that's the reason that we're supposed to go down that street! :) We're going to keep trying though.We found a family who is less active, and they said that they want their son to be baptized!! So we set up and appointment with them. The mom isn't a member and she asked if we could give her a blessing. So we did. They're a good family :) Hopefully she;'ll want to get baptized as well! :)

I'm sorry this was such a long email!! there was a lot of stuff this week. haha. :) I love all of you! Happy early birthday Dad! You're the besttttt!! :)

Love,
Elder Wilson!

Boundaries of our new mission! :)

Replica of what Laban's sword would have looked like! 

One of our less active families had it and let us see it! 

And hold it! it was pretty heavy. haha :)

We can drink caffeine sodas now! Part of the new mission.
So we celebrated. ;)

There's some huge fires going on. All that is smoke, not a cloud

 If you've ever seen Diary of a Wimpy Kid, 

this piece of swiss cheese melting on the asphalt reminded me of it!!! hahahahaha.

No children!! haha.

Don't worry, we definitely are absolutely 100% mature every minute of every day. :)

Transferssss

So first things first: My new address is:
Elder Bryce Wilson
6748 Hallowdale Drive
Cottonwood Heights, UT  84121

NOT THE SOUTH MISSION HOME ADDRESS ANYMORE! I stayed in the new mission so the new policy is that the mail goes to our actual houses that we live in. It's probably gonna change every transfer so the mail is gonna be kind of craazyyy. In 3 weeks we have another transfer July 18th. If mail goes to the old address (The mission home or an old house) I'll still get it but it will take longer to get it because it will have to be forwarded to me where I would be living currently.

So transfers: We had transfers, and it turns out that I only transferred within my district. And I got companion named Elder Davidson!!! From my home stake!! Freaking legitimate. :) He's a little older, 23, but we get along really well. We have matching ties! So I included that picture. He and I like a lot of the same things, and he is seriously so spiritually strong. I'm learning so much from him already! He dominates in lessons (spiritually-- in a good way hahaha) and I feel bad when I interrupt him when he's teaching to say something that I feel inspired to say because I don't want to throw off his train of thought or the Spirit or anything! So that's something I'm trying to work on. he says he really doesn't mind when I chime in, and so that is my goal to be more talkative in lessons.
Speaking of lessons, we have been teaching a lot of inactives and trying to get them to come back to church and realize what they're missing. Elder Weier would always hate to teach the less actives because he said it was "a waste of time". That always really bugged me because we're out here for the Lord's work. I'm pretty sure that Jesus Christ would want to rescue his lost sheep that have gone astray. So I'm really glad that Elder Davidson has the same vision I do. To focus on the non members still, but to teach the less actives and help them improve their lives. We're still trying to find the non members, but it's hard to find them. We have 4 that we're teaching right now and always want to find more! This work is really really exciting.

Tuesday: I found out about transfers on tuesday, and that was a bummer to hear about. I wouldn't be with Elder Weier anymore, and I would be with Elder Davidson in Elder Davidson's area. Which means that I would be leaving the Sharps, Birdie, brother Haws, and all of the other amazing people in that stake. :( I'm going to send you some pictures of the Sharp family, and with their basement which is super crazy awesome. It's totally decked out in UVU stuff. they're die-hard fans haha. They're such a good family. they even gave me a tie with a Utah logo on it! (the utah utes haha). They have so much love for each other and everyone around them so it's really great to be with them and feel the spirit that's alwayss there. That's another thing. Since I've been out here as a missionary, I can tell which families and homes have the spirit in them just by walking into the room. It's seriously incredible.

Wednesday was transfers, and we were all moved and ready by 11 am in Elder Davidson's area, so he and I went out and started working! He's such a hard worker it's awesome. And he has the Spirit really strongly too! We had 4 lessons planned, but one of them fell through so we only were able to teach 3 that day. But every day has been a steady flow of lessons! The rest of the day we're either visiting people's homes asking for referrals to people that might want to hear about the gospel, OYMing, or contacting referrals that we had gotten previously. He's such a hard worker! We get along really well and flow well in lessons.

On thursday we had 4 lessons, and two of them were really really glad that we stopped by because the things we said really helped them in the struggles they were having in their lives at that time. That's so awesome to hear as a missionary!!! The only thing that Elder Davidson could improve on would be his confidence level at OYMing people. So usually I am the one that speaks up and introduces us. But I have to work on that too, having the confidence to talk to everyone that we pass. I really want to talk to everyone that we pass though because you never know who needs to hear the gospel, has been wanting to find it but doesn't know where, or just needs some comfort. The worst thing that's going to happen is that they will just ignore you or say they're not interested. That goes for you guys at home too! Talk to your friends about the gospel. Casually if you have to! When someone asks you about your weekend, TELL THEM ABOUT CHURCH don't just say what you did on Saturday! ;)

Elder Davidson and I play chess in our free time (lunch/dinner breaks and at night) and I've beaten him once! He's beaten me 4 times though haha. We had a South mission farewell on friday, where every missionary that was going to the new mission came and we had lunch, a meeting, and other things like that. We taught a lady named Kari, and her family. We had to "drop" her, or hand her off to the ward for fellowshipping, because we had taught them too many times already and she was a less active. So that was hard. Then we OYM'd, and went to another lesson. On our way there, our ride asked us if we ahd a dinner appointment and we didn't so he took us out to eat at McDonald's haha. So when we got to the lesson it turns out that that was a dinner appointment!! So we had to force down a second dinner haha. Then we taught the family but I wasn't able to say very much because Elder Davidson was saying everything that I was going to say! Literally!! The spirit was so awesome. It IS awesome.

On saturday he and I taught at a youth conference thing for the youth in the stake. We taught them how they can be examples to their friends. it could have been a little more smooth but it went pretty well. :) Afterwards we OYM'd, and found a family that needed help moving so we helped them out! They were really really thankful. It felt really good to help out :) They were inacvites but lived outside of our boundary, so hopefully they start coming back to church! I love planting little seeds of faith :) Then we stopped by some people and on the way someone stopped us and asked us to give them a blessing. Then we went to a person's house and it was just what she needed she said! :) then we went to the Leaupepe's house, and gave a guy a lesson there. he's trying to get over smoking but they're a really really really good family. And they're Samoan! :D

Elder Davidson had a dream about 4 years ago about a street with a bunch of trees lining it and in the dream he was trying to find something but could never find it. HE FOUND THE SAME EXACT STREET THAT WAS IN HIS DREAM. Out here on the mission. And back then he had no desire to even go on a mission, so it was super crazy. So we're going to go down that street and won't quit until we find the thing that he needs to find. Whether it be someone that needs or wants to hear the gospel or what we don't know. But that was really really cool. :)

 Elder Davidson and I with our matching ties haha :)

The little pins are missionaries' home towns. Look how many there are from my home town! 

Lincoln, Antelope, Rockling, Rio Linda, all around there. It's awesome! 

Elder Davidson got a bunch of these in a package hahahahaha.

 10,000 PERCENT OF VITAMIN B!?

Elder Davidson accidentally hit a mercedes! He flipped over his handlebars hahaha

How often are you going to see TWO stop signs??
Utah drivers are so crazy that they need to be reminded twice to stop I guess. ;)

The Sharp family- I'm going to miss them a ton.

Davin!! He's a future missionary hahaha :)

Their couches are even UVU! hahaha. It's awesome.

 A pillow from their couch haha :)

A signed football from the whole UVU team!

A panoramic shot of their basement :)