September Blew By!

This week was a lot nicer, weather wise. It's starting to cool down! Today I was actually a little chilly, I'm wearing a long-sleeved shirt today! :)

So last P-day I went to Taylor's bike shop which is this really high-quality bike repair shop that missionaries get a discount at, and got thorn resistant tubes, slime, and these strips that go in between the tube and the tire. So that should hopefully be the end of my flat tires! ;) We taught Aubry Tuesday and we did the rat trap lesson which is a really good lesson. We demonstrate that it works by smashing a pencil, then we have them look up a bunch of scriptures on faith, and while they're doing that I unhook the springs. After we're all done with the scriptures, I Set it up again (unhooked) and ask them to demonstrate their faith by touching it. Nobody will! It's really funny. But she sat there not wanting to for half an hour before she finally did.

After we taught Mackenzie on Wednesday we went to the Montes family, and a guy named Saul lives there. He is really interested in our church! But he said he would probably prefer it to be done in Spanish so sadly we had to give him up to the Spanish Elders. But I knew that we'll be blessed with finding someone else. The Lord provides! Then we taught Mikayla and then went over to the Warnicks for dinner. They got this bomb Chinese food! Really really good.

On Thursday our zone had interviews with President Moffat. So we studied for a little bit, and rode our bikes over to the building. Like I said it was just our zone, so there weren't too many people there. But I got interviewed, and it went really well. Then Elder Bloomfield did and the rest of the zone. Then we got trained on how to teach the importance of church attendance.
We got a call from a guy named Lloyd, and in the voicemail he left us (we were in a lesson so we couldn't answer) he said that he wants to more about our church and that he really wants to set up an appointment to meet with us! :) Talk about faith being put to the test and it working out! I love it! Ether 12:6 even though I quote it probably way too often, we don't receive a witness until AFTER the trial of our faith. So if we take that step of faith towards something we know we should do, even if it's scary, the Lord will bless us. :) This really is the Lord's Church back again on the earth. :)

Friday we were pretty busy! We had lessons planned at 2,4,5,6,7, and 8 o'clock! First we had weekly planning in the morning and went around and contacted the part member list for a while, until our appointment at 2. Then we went to Mackenzie's to teach her, then over to Mikayla's to teach her. We had a lesson that was cut a little short because of time unfortunately, but it was still good. We talked with Kempton Smith for a while and got a return appointment. Then we went to the Warnick's to help them move furniture around. They are switching one of their kids' rooms with the office, so there was a lot of moving that had to be done. Then we went to our last appointment and it turns out that the mom is best friends with Sister Gallegos (Sorry if I spelled that wrong!) family back home!!

Saturday we had lunch with Elmer! That was good. He's still doing amazingly well. Apparently he has a girlfriend now! I told him I'll give him 5 months until he's engaged when he's attending the singles ward. ;)
After lunch we taught Mackenzie and she was able to pay attention really well because her mom wasn't there, and the kids were playing in a different room. Normally there are the three kids (all under 5) running around laughing and screaming and there's a little dog running around as well. So it's usually pretty chaotic there but it wasn't too bad. We also had a lesson with Russ Howell again so that was good. :)

Sunday was the Brigham City dedication for the temple. That was pretty cool :) I liked the atmosphere of it. It was an extension of the temple, so we had to have a recommend to attend. Then we went around tracting different areas, then went to the church to set up for Mackenzie's baptism. I was really worried because the grandma wasn't answering her phone so I couldn't get a hold of anyone over there. But they eventually showed up, about 6:58 when it starts at 7. So we didn't have time to take pictures beforehand. The program went well, but Mackenzie was so nervous to go into the water! She sat on the steps for what seemed like 10 minutes but probably only about 2 or 3. I was just standing there in the water trying to assure her that it was okay, that it was the same as we had practiced it. Eventually she did, and she really liked it she said. The rest of the baptism went well. Elder Bloomfield gave a talk on the Holy Ghost which was really good. :)

This week was really busy with all the people we were teaching, but it was really rewarding with the things that I learned and the Spirit I've felt. :) I GET TO GO TO GENERAL CONFERENCE!! I'm going to the Saturday afternoon session. So make sure you watch it and look for me! :) I'm sending a picture of my ticket so you can know which row I'm in. ;)

I love you!
Elder Wilson

This reminded me of home, with everyone always scrambling to find a prom dress that's modest and cheap. This is a great idea!

The "Hungar" games hahaha this was at the church building. :) 

This is the pass that we had to have to get into the dedication meeting.

My General Conference ticket! I'm so excited :)

This is the picture after the baptism that we took. Mackenzie, her great grandma and her little brother, Zach, Elder Bloomfield, and I.

Septemburrrr!

It's actually starting to get kind of chilly up here at nights! That means winter is coming! I can't wait to be cold. Ah! This week went by really slowly, but I really liked it.

Last P-day, we went to walmart to go shopping and we asked Jordan Simpson if he could give us a ride. When he picked us up, he had a girl in his front seat. I figured it was his sister, but it turned out to be someone that we had been trying to get an appointment with forever! The Lord works in mysterious ways. :) Anyways so she's only 16 but she is pretty mature for her age so she had a couple of religious questions for us. We made a return appointment for Sunday which went really well!

On wednesday we went over to Mackenzie's house to talk to the dad to let her get baptized on September 23rd. He agreed! :) Then we raced over to the mission building because the whole mission went on a field trip! We went to Ensign Peak and hiked up to it. Then we went to "This is the place", where Brigham Young said that this is where Zion will be built. That was really interesting. It was like a little Pioneer village with people dressed like Pioneers, and the houses were all old like the original houses there. That was a really neat and Spiritual experience. I took a lot of pictures, so I'll try and limit the ones I upload!

On thursday I had my first district meeting. The AP's showed up. Of course they would! haha. But it went really well. I trained my district just fine and the things that I prepared really helped them out, I could tell. The AP's told me afterwards that it was really good for my first district meeting. They said things I did well, and things I could improve on for the future. It was a little stressful, but then again not really! I kinda like it. I'd say the most annoying thing about being a district leader is having to be a babysitter for the missionaries in my district. But being a district leader is really a good experience, I like it.
Afterwards Elder Bloomfield and I went around talking to people on the street. We had a lesson with Russ Howell again today, and I asked if he found out that the LDS church was God's church truly restored to the earth again if he would be baptized. He said "Yes, absolutely!" So we'll see how he progresses. He is on vacation until Thursday though in California. Jealous! ;)

Elder Bloomfield and I went around contacting the referrals we received, but none of them were home. Then we went to Mackenzie's house to teach her a lesson, but she wasn't very focused. I was nervous because her baptism interview was on Saturday, so we went over the questions and she kept "forgetting" what they were. We would tell her the definition of a word, like prophet, and then right after I was done I'd say so... what's a prophet? "Uh... I forgot." It happened about 4 times for each word! haha. I eventually just wrote down all the words she needed to remember on a piece of paper. When we went back on Saturday, she had remembered every single word! Prayers really do work, because let me tell you I was praying really hard, haha.

She passed her baptism interview on Saturday with flying colors. I promised her I'd make her a duct tape scripture box to put her Book of Mormon in after the interview so she was really excited.

We went to Mackenzie's to teach her and to read from the Book of Mormon. Jordan Simpson came with us, that was cool. Then we went to dinner and had some really good sandwich things. BBQ'd chicken with slices of pineapple on this pita-like bread. Then we had an appointment with Mikayla but she was busy so we couldn't teach her. We got an appointment with the next door neighbor though! The Montes family. Then we taught a less active family later at night. Good week!

Love, Elder Wilson





 Le Bus hahahaha





 Teeter-totter crossing?





 The Sign on top of Ensign Peak





 The view from the top of the hill! So incredible. 



  President Moffat was giving us a lesson about the history of Ensign Peak which was really interesting.




 Elder Bloomfield and I on top of Ensign Peak!





 The hike was only about a mile or two so it wasn't that bad.





The Mission! There's more on the trail behind me, but so far we're up to 94 missionaries! We are going to have 150 by December. In a 5 square mile mission!





The receipt for the sandwiches we ate! That price was AFTER a half off discount if you look closely! 





 This was Brigham Young's house that they transported to This Is The Place.





Roping missionaries is always a safe, enjoyable sport. 





 We had a devotional meeting at the end of the day in this building. I guess this was the first church they built when the Pioneers came to the valley!





The "This Is The Place" entrance 



So we went into the church at around 8:45 to get a quick drink of water before we went back to our apartment at 9, and we heard this crazy loud Mexican music blasting in the gym! So we went in there and there was apparently a fiesta going on hahahahaha. It was fun.

September 11th!

 This week went by really fast. Elder Bloomfield is still pretty quiet but he's a really cool guy, and a great missionary. I like serving with him and being his second transfer trainer because it really shows me how much of an example I need to be. That and being a district leader's shown me how I naturally react to different things, and I really feel like it's pushing me to be a better missionary.

When we went to teach Aubry on Tuesday, Sister Greenwood came with us. She put in a lot of good insights. We answered questions that she had about scriptures, and she seemed pretty confident about the answers that she got. It's cool to see her and others that we teach progress.

On Wednesday Sister Lynn's phone wasn't working so we rode over to their house to set up an appointment later on in that day when Mackenzie would be home. For the next hour or two we contacted part member families to see if anyone would be interested. After our lesson with Mackenzie we went to Malaysia Fogle's house to teach her. She is an unbaptized girl, and her younger sister Britan isn't either. Their parents  won't let them until they are 16. I want them to look up D&C 68:25! haha. The sins are on the parent's heads if they knowingly withhold their kids from getting baptized. Obviously I wouldn't ever tell them that, but it still crossed my mind, haha.

We had a meeting with our zone on Thursday. President Moffat focused the meeting on how to find people. I found it super useful! I felt like he was applying the whole meeting directly towards me. Obviously that was the Spirit! So I applied what we learned when we got out and talked to a boy sitting on a hill all by himself. He wasn't interested at first, but after talking with him for a while he got more interested. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he sounded interested in it! Then later on we saw a girl sitting outside doing her homework so we went up and talked to her. We got an appointment with their whole family. After that we taught a family where the guy is about to leave for his mission, Tom Seipel.

We taught Mackenzie about keeping the Sabbath day holy, and that was the most focused she's ever been in a lesson. She really understood it well! She told her mom that she had to do her shopping before Sunday so that she wouldn't be breaking the Sabbath! :)

Our appointment with that family, the Montes, fell through which was disappointing but we won't give up on them yet. They are a Spanish family but they speak English and the kids are more comfortable in English. They're a really nice family, just moved in from Texas. They seem really interested in learning more about the Church, they said they had never heard about it before. The dad said that after moving here he's noticed how “different” we are than everyone else he's seen (religion wise) in a good way. So he said that sparked his interest.

Sunday we contacted a referral that we received at church. He apparently said that if we mowed his lawn or did some type of service, then he'd let us in for 5 minutes. That proved to be false; he shut us down the instant he opened the door. Haha. Then we went to Mackenzie's house to set up an appointment for Monday the next day.

Yesterday morning we did service for the Michael's. I'm pretty sure we uncovered a spider's nest because there were probably about 50 spiders that started crawling everywhere. Freaked me out for a while since we didn't have gloves. But after we finished that we went back home to change into regular missionary clothes again. We got a list from our Ward Mission Leader of all the houses in his ward that weren't members. That was a miracle list! It's really hard to know who is a member and who isn't. So we started using that list until our appointment at 4 with Mackenzie. We taught her the law of tithing and the Word of Wisdom. She understood them really well and she actually pointed out a few people that she knew of that weren't following it and said she was going to have to change that about them! It's really cool that she's able to pick things out like that really easily. Tom Seipel came with us, that guy who is about to leave on his mission. He's a really cool guy. Later at night before we came home we talked to Russ Howell to see how he was doing, and ended up getting an appointment for Thursday so that should be good. It started raining like crazy yesterday so I broke out my rain coat for the first time in a while. Using the hood and the helmet makes my head look extremely long and weird. But hey whatever works, right? Anyways this week was a pretty productive week. The district is going well, and the zone leaders have said I'm doing a really good job so that's always a good thing to hear.

2 Corinthians 12:10:
I love this scripture. When people persicute us for being missionaries, it sometimes gets you down but if you really think about it, that makes us "weak", and Christ/His atonement can lift us up and make us better people than we were before. So this is something I need to apply in my life, maybe you guys back home should do the same! Be glad when people put you down for being "churchy" or "mormon" because in the scriptures they always say that the person who "loses" his life for Christ, he'll find it. (Matthew 10:39)

Hope all is well at home,
Love Elder Wilson

 PS. For any of you who were FREAKING out about that tie in my last email, I only wore it for that picture!! haha. I changed right afterwards.

 

They just refinished the floor at the stake center! It's really fun to play on now.

A rainbow came out after a crazy intense storm that happened.

The hood+helmet. haha.

LOOK AT THIS SUNSET! Without any editing, that's what I took with my camera.

For lack of a better title...September!

Last P-day we played disk golf with a member in our area. He had some
disks that he let us borrow. Disc golf is basically like golf, but you
throw Frisbee into baskets instead of golf balls into holes. After
that, Elder Conley and I went and said bye to Elmer, Brother Vancott,
and the Warnicks. At the Warnicks, we did the spoonful of cinnamon
challenge. That's crazy! Don't ever try it. Then we came home and he
finished packing.

Wednesday was transfers. We put Elder Conley's things into the back of
a member's truck and drove him to his new area. Then we said goodbye
and I got my new companion, Elder Bloomfield. He's from Auburn,
California! Pretty lucky how I always get the ones that live close to
me. He's a really nice guy. Very quiet, but very nice. He's opened up
though which is really good :) We get along really well. We went
around trying to find people to teach by going through the referrals
we've gotten and also tracting. That was more or less productive. Then
I played a trick on him by going to the Warnicks and having brother
Warnick pretend to be a mean, non interested person. I stuck my foot
in the door as it was closing and said “I don't think you want to do
that. This message that we bring will benefit you and your family.”
Then he let us in! Elder Bloomfield was so shocked haha. (Elder Weier
and the Sharps did it to me so I had to return the favor! ;) )

On Thursday I had to go to a district leader training meeting which
was very informative. It also settled my worries about being a good
district leader. He talked about our responsibilities as a district
leader, how to do district meetings and call ins, etc. Then we tracted
around a little more, taught Mackenzie. After the lesson my tire was
completely flat so we walked over to the Simpson's to get a
patch/slime. It started RAINING! That felt so good. :) Elmer had to
cancel his appointment because his back was hurting, but we went by a
house that Elder Conley and I had been trying to get into for 6 weeks
and we actually got in! Elder Bloomfield and I set up an appointment
with him.

Teaching Mackenzie is pretty hectic because she has 3 siblings that
are all under five years old, but every time the Spirit starts coming
in, they sit down and are quiet. I love the Spirit! :) Then we taught
the guy in the house we've been trying to get into, Fred Johnson. He
talked for a while, but he's a really great guy. We saw Elmer again
finally, that was really good to teach him again. We taught him about
repentance. Then we went home, and Brady Simons picked us up to go to
Mackenzie's house. Brady Simons is a super amazing guy who is about to
do his mission papers. We taught her about repentance using the bowl
of water, putting sins in the water (pepper) then using Jesus Christ's
atonement (a drop of dish soap) to remove our sins. It's a pretty cool
representation especially for younger kids. Then we went to Temple
Square. It was Mackenzie, her mom, her great-grandma, Elder
Bloomfield, Brady, and I. It was an awesome experience. I can tell
that Mackenzie and her mom/grandma got a lot out if it which is what
it's all about. When we got back we helped Brother Simpson with his
yard. It started pouring at 6:30 so that was a little annoying. It
started hailing as well. We taught Oscar though, at the church. We
might drop him since he's still praying to see Satan.

Sunday was Elder Bloomfield's first 9 hour Sunday block on his
mission. I think he was pretty tired towards the end of it. I love
fast Sundays though, because that's when I get to bear my testimony. I
love feeling the Spirit! After church we got a few referrals from an
auxiliary leader so we contacted them. One didn't answer and the other
one was blatantly not interested.

We taught the Smiths again yesterday, and that went really well. Elder
Bloomfield jumped right in with the lesson, so that really helped it
move along well. He's a really good missionary. We taught them about
the Plan of Salvation, and they had a lot of really good insightful
questions about it.

Love, Elder Wilson.

 Our district the last day of transfers at leatherby's having a fun time!

 The Warnick kids, Elder Conley saying goodbye!

Miranda, Mackenzie, Lynn, Me, Brady, Elder Bloomfield. We did have

sister missionaries with us, I think the cameraman just cut them out.

 The Tabernacle!

 Elder Bloomfield and I

August is OVER?

So transfers are tomorrow, and I found out that Elder Conley is
getting transferred to an area called Little Cottonwood in Murray. So
that was sad.
Andd I found out that I'm becoming District Leader! And I'm finishing
up the training of an Elder. His name is Elder Bloomfield. I haven't
met him yet, but I'll let you know in the next email.

Last Tuesday we did laundry, emailed and went shopping. I got TWO cans
of beans since I love them soo much. :) Then at 6 we taught Oscar
Sanchez, but we wanted to teach him in the church so nothing crazy
would happen. He was a little scatter brained and got off topic
easily, but he received it pretty well. Then we taught Aubry Hock.
She's progressing. We clarified a few scriptures for her that she had
questions about. I really like doing that because it increases my
knowledge about the scriptures! When you teach people about things you
learn them better yourself. After we read the scriptures we watched
the Mormon messages DVD, which is soo good. A video on there really
hit home with her, she almost started crying! So her faith is getting
stronger. :)

Wednesday we taught Elmer. He's still going great! He attended the
single's ward and loved it. He went to a family home evening thing
that they were holding. He even went on a date this week. After that
we went to leatherby's for lunch. A little boy walked up to us and
said it's my birthday, and for my present I want to pay for you. How
cute is that? We taught Mackenzie that 9 year old, the Plan of
Salvation. She understood it pretty well. She's never been to church
in her life so she doesn't have any knowledge of things. After
Mackenzie we went around and tracted/contacted referrals and we got a
few really good contacts. Then we taught the Andrus family. They have
a little Autistic girl, she's so cute!

On Thursday we were riding our bikes to go tracting, and the light for
us to cross the crosswalk wasn't lit. (The hand was up). So I started
to stop, and Elder Conley was flying, so he tried to get out of the
way but didn't, and clipped my tire. He crashed, breaking the derailer
on his bike. But he didn't get hurt! So that's good. We took his bike
in to get repaired, and mine to have the shop true my tire. It's
pretty wobbly. Then we went to district meeting which went pretty
well. After that we went on splits with Elder Harvey and Aveiro
because Harvey was sick. I stayed with Harvey while Elder Conley went
out with Aveiro. He and I talked and he's a really cool guy. During
this transfers they're making a whole zone just for Spanish speaking
Elders, so he won't be in my district anymore. He goes home next
transfer. Luckily I haven't gotten sick yet! (Knock on wood)

I can't believe it's already September already! On Friday we had a
mission-wide meeting that took the place of our companion study. That
went really well, he showed us some really great stories from the
scriptures and showed us some really inspirational scriptures. I love
President Moffat! He's such a good mission president. He knows so much
about the scriptures and everything about missionary work. I can tell
that I;m going to learn a lot being here with him. I have a few really
good quotes that I want to share with you. They're from a book that I
found while I was at Elder Harvey's apartment. “This inspiring book
was never tampered with by unauthorized translators or biased
theologians but comes to the world pure and direct from the historian
abridges. The book is not on trial- it's readers are.” This is talking
about the Book of Mormon, obviously. Another good quote was “It is the
word of God. It is a powerful second witness of Christ. And,
certainly, all true believers who love the Redeemer will welcome this
additional evidence of His divinity.” :)
Here's another quote that I saw on our landlord's fridge. “The issue
for us is trusting God enough to trust also His timing. If we can
truly believe He has our welfare at heart, may we not let His plans
unfold as He thinks best?” -Neil A. Maxwell. The Lord is in control!
If we let Him guide our lives and trust that anything and everything
we go through is for our good, then we'll be a lot happier throughout
life and will be able to have the eternal perspective that we all need
to have.
After the mission conference, we came home and did weekly planning and
companion inventory. Comp inventory is where you discuss with each
other their strengths, and what they need to work on. Then we taught
Mackenzie, and picked up 2 potentials.

Saturday morning we went to Sister Estes house to see if she knew
anyone that we could teach since she's the Relief Society President.
Then we taught Elmer at his house and watched a general conference
talk from a DVD of the latest general conference that Elder Conley
bought. That went well, and when we were at lunch afterward we met a
guy named Joseph, and he's getting the lessons over in West Jordan. He
seems really really cool. Then we taught Mackenzie Michael and he dad
was there so we met him. He and the mom are divorced, but he was
staying at their house for the weekend for some reason. He's less
active but is wanting to come back so that's really good. It'll
benefit him with us coming over as well as Mackenzie. After that we
had to do splits with Elders Harvey and Aveiro again so it wasn't
super productive for me at least. (I went out with Aveiro so I was
stuck in the language barrier again.)

Church went by really fast on Sunday. Most likely because I prayed to
get something out of church so I was able to focus a lot better
because of it. Mackenzie didn't come to church, her dad said she
didn't have a dress to wear. I tried to explain that she doesn't need
to wear a dress to church, but then he said they were in Park City
shopping. So she has to move her baptismal date back to September
29th. After church we went to dinner and then we went to the Young
Women President's house to see if she knew anyone that would benefit
from us teaching them. She gave us a few but we already had some of
them. Then we stopped by Mackenzie's house and taught a quick lesson
to her. She's really excited to learn and be baptized, so it's a shame
that she couldn't come to church. :/

Love, Elder Wilson

  A bunch of sunflowers!

Okay I know I promised I wouldn't talk about food as much 

but this was really really good pizza!! hahaha. 

This signpost always makes me laugh.

It's been a week already?

So last Tuesday after emailing, we went to the mall to meet up with
Elder Davidson. He's had a package AND a letter for me for 2 WEEKS.
Anyways then we taught Oscar which was weird because he said he prays
for the Devil to come so he can “fight” him. There was such an evil
presence there. Elder Conley and I both felt it. I won't go into
details since there was some crazy stuff that happened, but we both
got out of there pretty fast, haha.
Then we went around trying to find people by going to the part member
list and trying to find people that weren't members that would be
interested in learning more. Sister Veith wanted to get a blessing
because she was throwing up for 4 days.

I can't believe it's already halfway through August! On Wednesday we
had a meeting at the mission home for all the missionaries. It was
pretty far away, so we got a ride. Turns out we were supposed to bike,
haha. There were a ton of bikes there. The meeting was really good, we
learned about how we need to know preach my gospel really well and how
to do companion study. The rest of the day we just basically tried to
find people, but with no success. We did find this guy named Jake
Smith who wants us to stop by and give them the lessons and he said he
had a 15 year old boy that might be interested in the church so that
was cool. :)

We got a call from the Assistants on Thursday saying that they were
coming over! They ended up talking about how it's important that we
need to invite everyone we teach to be baptized. They were going
around to everyone saying that. But we need to do as well. We had
district meeting after that which went well. We did service for
brother Simpson, which consisted of us helping him tear up his front
yard so he could put grass in. That took an hour and half. After that,
a guy named KB who's going to college in a week came out with us, and
we went to the condos. Unproductive. Haha. Dinner was good though, and
after dinner we taught a family and that went well. At 8 we taught
Aubry. She's improving!! She still had questions for us, but they were
questions about not understanding the scriptures! Not deep doctrine
questions that just make her even more confused. She's been reading
and praying! :)

On Friday we noticed that our sink was flooding. BUT before you jump
to conclusions since I know you will, we scrape off our food into the
garbage before we wash our dishes. ;) So we told John Smith our
landlord, and he came down and tried to fix it. First he tried using a
jagged tool sticking it down the pipe, but then he tried using a
plunger! Haha. That didn't work either. Then when he put a bucket
under the sink to catch the water, it overfilled and was spraying
everywhere hahaha. He ended up having to call the plumbers, which told
him that it would cost $500 to fix! Outrageous, but he didn't compare
or try and talk them down any. Anyways, we went out and tried to find
people, and then came back home so Jeremy could pick us up. He drove
us to the Condos where we tracted, unsuccessfully. But then we had
dinner! Pizza :) I haven't had pizza in a while! We got a lot of
referrals from there though, and they own property up in Idaho! 8
acres for $17,000. He built roads, his own trailers, a cabin, so many
things! My dad would be his best friend, haha. :) We started exchanges
with Elder Harvey and Elder Aveiro on Friday night, too. They're
Spanish speaking and I went over there.

Elder Aveiro (I think I've already told you about him) is from around
England, so he has an English accent. But since he speaks Spanish, I'm
sure it sounds pretty interesting to the natives! We woke up and
exercised, (he was still wearing his silk pajamas hahaha) and then we
studied. I ordered a mini PMG online which is so cool! (From LDS.org,
so don't start your judging, haha.) Then he did language study for an
hour which consisted of me sitting there trying my best to understand
what he was saying. He and I then went out to a lesson that we had,
but the guy had moved and Elder Aveiro didn't know where he lives now.
So we tracted around there, with no luck. I had to ride Elder Harvey's
bike, and his legs are so much shorter than mine, so after I had
raised up the seat the handlebars were really low. So I had to lean
way over. When we were riding around, we saw Elder Conley and Harvey
stopping at a house, so we waited until they went inside. When they
did I rode up, laid his bike down, hopped on mine, and rode off
hahaha. Elder Harvey doesn't get letters, so I wrote him one and
pretended to be a girl from his hometown in Texas. It was a pretty
good day. Except I couldn't understand the lessons we taught! So I
would sit there and smile, say gracias if they gave us water, and use
my limited Spanish from high school to understand the questions they
asked me. :)

Sunday we had the usual long church, but two of the people that we're
teaching came to church! Crazy Mike, and Jo Little. (That's Jo's real
name) Mike is getting off drugs/smoking, so he's always tripping out
haha. But anyways, once we got out of our meetings, we went to dinner.
The family was really funny and they cooked a really good dinner. Then
we went to teach Aubry, but we went to a fireside with her instead. It
was so good! President Shulte the stake president talked at it. It was
about the restoration and how we can relate it to our lives. It was a
really well put together talk. He related Joseph Smith's first vision
and leading up to it, and picked little things out of JSH that I had
never even noticed before. If you have the chance, read it! I can tell
it really hit Aubry.

Yesterday we had a lot of people to stop by! We got 26 referrals for
people to stop by that members said might be interested in us coming
by. We taught Elmer in the morning (Well watched some Mormon Messages
from a DVD that we have), and after wards we went around trying to
contact everyone. We stopped by house where it's the grandma, her
granddaughter, and he daughter. So I'll say names to be less
confusing. Lynn Ryan is the grandma, her granddaughter Miranda, and
Miranda's daughter Mackenzie. Mackenzie is 9, so we taught her and the
family the restoration, and she accepted a date to be baptized! Then
later on we went to stop by and teach Jake's son. We taught them the
teabag lesson which is an interactive object lesson that kids really
love.

This week went by so fast! I don't know about you but it feels like it
was just P-day.

I LOVE YOU!
-Elder Wilson

Our district! Plus our zone leaders. Left to right! Elder and Sister

Lauritzen the senior missionaries, Sister Veith, Elder Aveiro, Sister

Brush, Sister Paongo, Elder Harvey, Elder Quesne, Sister Young, Elder

Redd, Elder Conley, and I! 

 A funny text from Elmer! He went to the single's ward for the first

time, so we asked him how it went. :)

Elder Conley's "young money", he sold his bike.

 An AMAZING car that I found. Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution!

Beware of the Ligers... hahaha I couldn't help but think of Napoleon Dynamite!

August 14, 2012

Last P-day we went to go email and do the regular P-day things, and
then we went and played basketball at the stake center for about 3
hours long so my feet were very tired at the end of the day. After
that we went to dinner because one of the sisters volunteered to cook
for us (the entire district, not just Conley and I! ;) ) So that was
cool. Then we went to our lesson that we had with Sheri Snyder, but
her daughter and niece weren't there. After we taught her we went to
the park to try and find Nick but with no success. Then we went to the
Warnick's house, which is a member house where the mom and dad knew
each other growing up and eventually got married! They're pretty cool.

Wednesday is the most depressing day! It's a whole week until P-day
again hahaha. It was SO HOT this week! It was 102 a couple of days
this week! I probably sweated about 5 pounds. There was also a huge
fire. The smoke from it blocked out the sun so it cooled off a little
bit. We weren't super successful in finding new people to teach, but
Jordan Simpson came out with us again so that was cool. There's a
place that gives out free pie if you buy something so we bought a soda
haha :) Hey, being frugal is a good thing right?

On Thursday we went and this guy named Jeremy Lance who is leaving for
a mission in October came out with us. We went to Elmer's place and
watched a video about Jesus Christ and the miracles He performed. Then
we had lunch at Jeremy's house. He had some home-made salad he made.
It had garlic, cloves, wheat, cucumbers, tomatoes, and some other
weird things. I'm not a picky eater, but that was just plain weird.
Hahaha. The garlic was super strong! Then we also ate at this thai
restaurant, and we had these really gross coconut drinks. There was
stuff floating in it!! I almost gagged. I emailed a picture of it.
Anyways so after that we had district meeting, and that went really
well. We had dinner at our house and then went over to Daniel's house
(that guy that came to church randomly) but he just wants welfare from
the church. Shady. Then we taught Aubry, but she had 2 pages of
questions for us so that went well. Then we taught Brittany and her
cousin Kristin.

On Friday we woke up and went to the stake center to play basketball
with our district and zone leaders. But the only people that ended up
showing up were Elder Conley/I, and the four sister missionaries.
Elder Harvey was too lazy and the Zone leaders were going to but for
some reason never showed up. Lame. So we all played basketball then
took a picture. After that we came home, studied, taught Elmer and
went around trying to find people. Nick was shady as heck so we got an
appointment with him and met him at this house at this house I guess
he's staying at. Then that Jeremy Lance guy came out with us again,
and then he went home. (he only came out for about an hour or two). We
taught Aubry Hock again, and that went.. well. We watched finding
faith in Christ (which she needs to do for herself, find faith in
Christ) but she didn't get anything out of it. Then we answered all
her questions (2 more pages of questions), which she never fully felt
like they were answered. Even though we were explaining everything
perfectly simple and to the extent that she or anyone should be able
to understand them. It's frustrating because she doesn't take things
seriously, but she wants to have her questions answered. God doesn't
work that way!! We have to work for our answers, and prove that we
really want to get an answer. He doesn't just give us things, we would
take Him for granted.

Saturday was a lot better. :) Well for the most part haha. We woke up
and went straight to the church to set up for the baptisms that we
were having. Nick and Elmer were getting baptized. So we set up the
baptismal font, and then went to go pick up Nick. We called him
beforehand, and when he answered he was like “I don't feel good. Call
me when I feel better.” What the heck? How are we supposed to know
when that is? Haha. So we just went over there to where he's staying.
(In a tent in the backyard of a lady, a step up from the park at
least!) We walked in the gate, and the tent was unzipped so we saw him
sleeping. I called his name after Elder Conley and I were silently
arguing who was going to wake him up. He rolled over, and flipped out!
“Who let you in here?? Why did you just walk into my house? Would you
just walk into someone's house if it were open?” I looked at Elder
Conley and he was trying his hardest not to start laughing. After he
finally got up, he lit a cigarette and started smoking! One of the
stake president's counselors was in the car waiting for us! So he saw
the whole thing. It was all bad. So needless to say, he did not get
baptized.
Elmer's baptism was really good though! :) He had so many people
there! We set up 70 chairs, and all but about 10 were filled! The
Spirit was really strong too. The guy who was supposed to give the
talk on the Holy Ghost wasn't there, so I scrambled to get the talk
together. I finally got my thoughts together as the time came to go
up, so when they called his name I paused just in case he was there.
Right when I was standing up he stood up! Perfect timing. But his talk
was really jumbled. It was about 20 minutes long, and he talked about
the atonement, then baptism, then the Holy Ghost, then back to the
atonement. It was kind of odd, haha. But the baptism overall was
really amazing.

On Sunday we had a meeting at 7am! So we woke up at 6, got ready and
left. We didn't end up getting home until 5pm! Elmer got confirmed at
church which was really good. His dad gave him the confirmation. Then
we went to the usual meetings and when we were done we went home to
change out of our suits and went to dinner. Dinner was at the Wirfs'!
That means a BBQ! Brother Wirfs loves to barbecue. And he's really
good at it, too. We were fasting so that was the perfect meal to end
our fast.

Monday we woke up and played basketball with the district. After that
we came back to our apartment and did studies. After studies we went
out to eat with the Sharps!! They picked us up and we went to an
Italian restaurant. It was really good! Davin still wanted to sit by
me haha :) Then they gave us a ton of York mints! I love those. So
that started the day off really well. After that we went around trying
to find people, but it didn't really work very well because nobody is
home from 1-4. We had dinner at the Jackson's, who has a daughter in
my stake back home! (Sister Janet Ralph) They're a fun couple. The
husband looks like an older version of Paul Blart in mall cop, or king
of queens! Hahaha :)

Thank you everyone for all the support you give me! It means a lot. :)
I love you all!

Love, Elder Wilson.

P.S. Beans? Yeah, I love 'em. :)

A funny statue that was in the restaurant! 

 Do you see the floating things in it??

Roasted Coconut Juice. Wouldn't strongly recommend it.

 A cool picture of Jesus, but this version is colored. 

My camera has a setting that can make it so only red pops out.

 Elmer's baptism!

 Every one of these chairs PLUS 3 rows MINUS 10 chairs= 60 people

attending his baptism

Look at the fire! Freaking crazy. This was before it blocked out the sun.

 The district playing basketball!

 John Smith, in the flesh.

Elmer, his dad, Elder Conley and I!

The trio!

Elmer, Elder Wilson and The Savior!

Us messing around, having fun!

A pose that apparently all the old Apostles used to do. haha.

 A crazy house that's in our area! An IGLOO! hahahaha.