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.