May is come and gone

Is there some type of magic that happens when you go on a mission?? Because it seems like time flies by way to fast out here. It's not bad that time is flying by but it's just really weird. This week, things that were super awesome happened to us! When I feel like I'm not doing the best that I can, I get on my knees, and ask God to help me become stronger. And He does listen, no falling down spiritually/emotionally after that. He always is there for me, for you, for everyone. Because He cares enough to answer everything you and I can come up with. This week I was getting down on some things, but really humbling myself and getting on my knees to ask Him for help helped me so much. I felt so at peace, and was ready/ excited to get out there and do the work!! It was awesome that as small of a concern as mine would reach all the way up to Heaven and that He loves me enough to be able to answer my question. He is real! I can't believe how some people can come to the conclusion that He doesn't exist. Mind boggling.

Aubrianna and Nick are going to get baptized this week! They're both excited for it. And so are we!

So on Thursday, my back went out. But it wasn't from me doing anything super strenuous or hard at all. In fact I was just in the process of sitting down, hahaha. All of a sudden my back tightened up and it felt like there were knives stabbing my back! So I fell to the ground and tried to relax the muscle that was tightening up. But I kept laughing because of how random it was! Elder Franco was laughing at me too. After some ibuprofen and a little rest, it felt a little better but I'm still not 100% yet. I went to the doctor to get checked out, and he prescribed me some muscle relaxers but I haven't gotten them yet. I want to make sure I really need them first. But that same day a few hours after I had to give the opening prayer for the zone specialized training meeting. It took me a while to get up the steps, haha. 

But ZST was really good! They focused it on teaching simply and also how to get the concern out of the people we're working with even when they don't tell us flat out what it is. The way to do that is through asking inspired questions to them to draw the concern out of them. Elder Franco and I were able to do that, so that was awesome. 

Friday was Elder Franco's birthday. 21 years old. To celebrate it, we went out to eat with a member, Jed Heath. We went to Chilli's and that was super good. We also went to temple square with Aubrianna and Kodie! They really liked it. We took them to look at the model of the temple and talk about it as well. Then we talked about President Thomas S. Monson, and watched with them the video on families. They really liked that. 

There was a referral that we got from Elder Quesne for a lady that really wants to learn more about our church and about the Book of Mormon. We went by, and she is an awesome lady. She doesn't want to get baptized yet, because she is in an internship in her church right now, and getting paid for it so she doesn't want to lose her job. But I can tell she really has a strong curiosity so that's exciting. 

Other than these things, nothing else super significant happened this week. Elder Franco and I are getting along pretty well so I can't complain there. I hope you all have a fun week this week!
Love, Elder Wilson

Elder Franco was leaning back in his chair and it snapped in half!! hahahaha. 

 Somebody didn't lock up their bike very well... ;)

We were teaching a lesson outside when we heard this huge BOOM, then we went over to where it came from, and it turns out a lady was driving her car and somehow managed to hit a tree, hopping over the curb and the hit was hard enough to make the air bags deploy. Crazy! She and her daughter were hurt, but it wasn't too bad.

Another Great Week

This week was filled with miracles, AGAIN!

First off, we had an Apostle of the Lord come and visit our mission. That was legit. (for lack of better words, haha) It wasn't Elder Holland which I and a lot of other missionaries were anticipating, but instead it was Elder Ballard. He said some pretty good quotes! I'll share some of the ones from the notes I took.

"We are literally His spirit children. He cares about everyone. We need to be spiritually prepared enough to be able to radiate the Spirit. The Spirit is the true teacher. We are the beacons that use it. Don't under-estimate it. Be upbeat and happy. Be anxiously engaged to let people FEEL that it's true. We are representatives of Jesus Christ." The Spirit was super strong while he was talking with us! It was kind of funny though, because I'm pretty sure that's the only time I've ever seen my mission president scared. haha ;) Elder Ballard opened it up to questions, and someone said "Elder Ballard, how would you suggest for us to effectively use the hour of personal study time that we have? It seems like an hour is way too short!" He then said "Get up earlier!" hahaha. it was cool to see him laugh and joke around even though he's an Apostle. Another good quote was:

"The Father speaks through His son. We can be Their voice. We have to be master teachers, otherwise Satan will win. He is raging in the hearts of men everywhere. He will win the battle if we don't try our best." I thought that was so cool. If we're not trying as hard as we can to learn and to grow and resist the evil he puts in our path, then he will win. He's working full time and putting in a ton of overtime hours trying to win as many as he can. That's why there's so much evil going on out there in the world.

We had interviews this week with President Moffat, that went well. We did role plays on the first lesson. For 15 minutes! I was kind of afraid that we wouldn't do very well, but it ended up being really good. Elder Quesne is an assistant to the president now and he was role playing as our investigator. He's usually a pretty hard one to teach to, but he was super easy it seemed like. Afterwards he told us that whenever a companionship teaches him in a role play and they're animated and not boring then he is an easier investigator. He told us we did a really good job. "If 5 was a perfect score, then I'd give you a 4 or a 5." Pretty dang awesome. :) I love being a missionary!!

Roy and Kodie both got baptized, and that was a really good experience too. Roy's was first, at 3:00. there was a few people there, including President Swain the first counselor in the mission presidency. But it went well. I baptized Roy. And I didn't baptize the phone this time! ;) While we were changing I guess the people there all signed something hey could give to Roy from the Primary. That was a really good idea because then he'll remember the people that care about him. He said he felt really really good after the baptism! Obviously that was the Spirit. :)

Kodie's went really well too. But can I say that I absolutely HATE mormon standard time?? The baptism started at 6:00pm, and at 5:50 there was only a few people there. I was thankful that nobody from the presidency weren't there to see that nobody showed up at first. RIGHT at 6:00, a million people showed up. Including some missionaries with someone they're teaching. But his baptism went really well. While they were changing, I went up there and read the account of Joseph Smith's first vision. Then I testified that I knew it was true. I was really hoping and praying that it would go well, because there were a lot of people there that weren't totally familiar with the church. I asked Elder Franco how it went when I sat down, and he said that it brought the Spirit in really strong and that he saw people crying. That was awesome to hear.

Kodie and Roy were both confirmed in church the next day. Kodie's was done by his grandpa, and Elder Franco did Roy's. Elder Franco was super nervous to do it, but he did just fine. After it was done, Roy jumped out of his seat and tried to run back to sit with his family but someone from the circle grabbed him so he could shake the people's hands hahaha. It was funny. Kodie and Jesse both got the priesthood which was awesome. Jesse asked me to do his. I can tell he really is trying to change his life which is the most rewarding thing to see as a missionary. We had to speak in sacrament meeting in the second ward, and the told us the night before. haha. It's all good though, we missionaries are always prepared right?? ;) On the program for the names of the people that were speaking, it said "full time missionary" and the second speaker was "full time missionary". hahaha super generic. They went really well though. :) The Hoersters wanted us to come over for dinner sunday night so that was cool. We had some bomb "Frito's surprise". Basically a taco salad but way better haha. :)

Other than that, we found a few more people to teach which is awesome and we're going to temple square with Aubrianna and Kodie which should be awesome.

Thanks for reading this HECKA ;) long email!!
Elder Wilson

 Roy's Baptism!

Kodie's baptism!

Happy Mom's Day!

This week was awesome. I probably say that every week. But it's true! Jesse's baptism went really well. He felt really really good! I love it when people we're teaching feel the Spirit. Quana and David showed up to watch it. Jesse wanted me to baptize him, so that was really good. And I didn't baptize the phone this time!! ;) He got confirmed by the senior couple named Elder Morris. That was a really amazing experience. Jesse got up and gave me a big hug afterwards.

Wednesday we had a zone training, which is pretty much like a district meeting but with the whole zone. We talked about how we have a lot of people on date as a zone, and how we need to focus on keeping them on. Two wasy they said we can do that is by getting a good fellowshipper/friend for them, and to give them a calendar for them. Then we played baseball with the bases being called "on date", "fellowshipper", and "calendar".  Home plate was "baptism". So if they rounded all the bases, they got baptized! That was a good object lesson. I was in the outfield and almost caught a few! I wonder how that would have worked into the analogy though. haha.

We went to temple square with David Green. He's pretty interesting, haha. But he has a good heart. The Sisters there were very good at teaching, which really helped. We took him to the statues of Joseph Smith getting the priesthood and talked about them there. He had a few questions that we were able to answer, then took him to the model of the temple and explained a little more about it to him. He said it was really beautiful. Then we took him to the statue of Christ which is always a really spiritual experience there. He got down on his knees and started praying in front of the statue, but the sisters stopped him. hahaha. 

We got the 5 people that are on date to be baptized out to Church today! Barely. Well, actually the Lord did. we didn't do anything. It was pretty much a miracle. Nick and Roy were sleeping, and we woke them up and got them out to Church. Aubrianna didn't want to go at first, but when we came back 2 hours after picking up Kodie her brother, she was dressed and ready to go! :) She sent us THE MOST AMAZING text ever a few hours after Church got out:
"I'm ready. I want to be baptized.

-Aubrianna."

Totally made made our day!! So she's "on date" for June 1st. They're going out of town this week until Friday so we can't meet with them for a while but they're pretty solid so we're not too worried.

I got to talk to my mom and family Sunday. That was awesome!! I'll hopefully be able to get a picture from the Skype conversation that we had up here on the blog. :) Well we did something called Google Hangout (which I personally prefer Skype better since it isn't as laggy but it was good still). My family looks so awesome!! Sydnee looks older (in a good way!) and her main man David looks good too! Except he disappeared halfway through the video and never came back haha. Natalie looks grown up and so does Luke. Craig looks about the same but taller! And my dad and mom obviously look younger ;)

The mission is going great, the Church is true, the Lord is amazing. 

I love you!
Elder Wilson

 Jesse's baptism! He wanted me to baptize him.

Elder Franco and I! We got caught in a photo shoot from these two little girls that stole our cameras. 

As you can see this picture was very unexpected.

The Skype call! (I got a video of it but it's too big to put up on here)

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil!

iHappy Siete de May!

This week was awesome!! SO MANY good things are happening in our area. Courtney and Quana both got baptized Saturday, and this weekend we have Jesse Delgado, next week it's Roy Oldcraine and Kodie Hoerster, then on the 25th we have David Green and Said Huante!! So awesome. :)

Elder Franco and I are getting along really well. He is from Southern California, right next to Disneyland. His sister works there so he gets free tickets! Pretty awesome. He's a good missionary. I've been so lucky with companions. The Lord really is a merciful God! ;)

We took Courtney to Temple Square to do a tour of the grounds there. She really enjoyed it! She knew a ton already. Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, Jesus Christ, everything. It was pretty cool. She got baptized on Saturday! Satan was trying really hard to get them both to not happen, but God will prevail! First Courtney's dad was pretty angry the morning of the baptism and we were afraid that he wouldn't let her get baptized. But he cooled off enough to come to it. But when we got there, there were some Tongans already there, setting up for a baptism they were having. At the exact same time as Courtney's. Turns out they didn't even bother to look at the schedule for the building. Freaking annoying. It worked out though, they had theirs in the Relief Society room while we did it in the baptismal room then moved to the chapel after the actual baptism happened. The rest of it went really well though, so that was good.

She got confirmed Sunday and asked me to do it. That was really awesome. I had no idea what I was going to say beforehand so I said a prayer. Then right as I started all of a sudden words just kept flowing out of my mouth. And it felt like someone's hands were on my shoulders! It's hard to describe in words but it was such an amazing feeling. This work that I'm a part of is 100% true. :) How else could that happen??

Quana Delgado's baptism went a lot smoother. No hiccups! Well actually there was one. Brother Cook used the jumpsuit that we were planning on using for Quana's baptism. So we had to hurry back and throw it into the washer/dryer before hers started. Barely got it back in time! She felt really good, too. :) She asked me to baptize her which was really amazing. Her brother in law, David Green who we picked up later on came to her baptism. He is pretty crazy but he's cool. haha. He is just really paranoid about a lot of things. But he is really wanting to follow the Savior's example and that means getting baptized. :) The Delgado's had us over for dinner Saturday night which was really awesome. They're an amazing family. 

Sunday a member came up to us and said that his friend Said (haha funny that I just said that word in this sentence. Now three times. ;) ) ANYWAYS. He came up to us and asked if we were free at 2. We were, so when we met up at Max's house Said was just pulling up. (It's pronounced "sigh-eed" by the way). he is a really cool guy. He's 14, and wants to learn more about the Church. He was raised Catholic and has a lot of questions that he said weren't able to be answered by the people at his church. So he asked us, and we could. That was definitely with the Spirit though. He's the true teacher. :) So we invited him to be baptized after we had taught him about how the Church was restored and he accepted. :) 

The Lord is working so many miracles in my life right now! For instance, at the baptism on Saturday, I accidentally baptized our cell phone. hahaha. It was in my pocket as I walked into the font and I didn't realize it until I walked back into the back to change out of the wet clothes and I felt a lump in my pocket. Pulled it out, and it was a blank white screen. AH! So I took out the battery and dried it out as best as I could. Then after the baptism was all over Elder Franco and I prayed that we could get a miracle of the phone working again. After the prayer we put the battery in, turned it on, and it worked perfectly! So amazing. Something as little as that He still cares about! :)

I love you, I love this Gospel, I love God.

Elder Wilson

 The District! From left to right: Elder Beesley, Elder Carey, Elder Franco, Sister Beesley, Elder Chandler, Elder Chiavordini (shev-er-dee-nee), Elder Torres, Elder Durfee, Elder Wilson, Elder Ross, Sister Neil, Elder Neil. The zone leaders are also in the district but they weren't here when we took this!

 Courtney's baptism! 

Quana's baptism! That's Jesse is on the right.

This week was AWESOME! So many miracles happened. Pretty amazing.

It's crazy that one year ago I was walking into those MTC doors not knowing what I was getting into! haha. I'm really glad that I went though. I wouldn't have been able to have met so many amazing people! Including missionaries. Some definite long time friends have been made out here. 

We went to temple square with Jesse and Quana. I included a picture of it. They really loved it! Especially Jesse  He felt the Spirit big time. And he accepted baptism for May 11th! We told him that it means that he has to be following the Word of Wisdom for at least 2 weeks, and he accepted it. He knows he needs to get off of the addictions he has. So that was cool. 

Travis, one of our investigators, got handed over to the YSA Elders because he's in the agegroup of 18-30. But I let him go knowing the Lord would provide us with new people to teach. AND HE DID! :) We picked up Quana and Jesse's kid Roy. He beforehand wasn't interested in learning about the Church or the Gospel, but after we went to a baptism to show Quana what it was like, Roy really wanted to. So he's now on date for May 18th. He's really excited! 

The weather is so nice. It's PERFECT in the mornings and nights, and a little hot in the afternoon to be in church clothes. Oh weird tangent, have any of you tried the bacon milkshake at Denny's? If not, you're not missing much. Bacon is amazing but the shake had a whole thing of maple syrup in it which made it super rich. Anyways, we met with Courtney and we're planning on going to Temple Square with her this Friday. Quana and Courtney both had their interviews for baptism and they're both good to go for this Saturday! It was announced in Church as well which is awesome. 

Speaking of Church, I ran into someone I definitely was not planning on meeting! Olga, one of Sydnee's friends from college! I was standing there talking to some people after Church and she came up to me! It was pretty cool. We took a picture together. I don't have it so hopefully it will make it up here on the blog. 

Cody sadly fell off date because he didn't come to Church, but it's okay. We'll get him on date for the 25th of May. He still really wants to be baptized so that's good. He's really progressing well though and fits in with the kids in the ward. When he went to mutual he had a fun time!

The talks in Sacrament meeting on Sunday were really good. It was Brother Sharp and his new wife Hannah Sharp. Apparently he is related to the Sharps in my first area! He has a Sharp Yard t-shirt which made me wonder if he was or not. But yeah. They're a really cool couple that got married a little less than a year ago.

Oh yeah, transfers! haha. I'm staying here, Elder Turner is leaving. I'm getting Elder Franco. I heard he's pretty quiet so I might have to get him out of his shell! This should be fun. He's been out about 3 transfers I think.

Love ya!
Elder Wilson

 This is one of the Senior couples! He came over to inspect our apartment for cleanliness 

(don't worry mom, we passed). 

 We went to temple square with Quana and Jesse!

Elder Turner and I! Sadly he has to leave. He and I got along pretty dang well! 

 I ran into someone I definitely was not planning on meeting! 

Olga, one of Sydnee's friends from college! 

1 year down, 1 to go!

Except for the fact that it doesn't seem like it's been a year at all. Maybe for the people back home, but out here the time flies way too fast. The work is too exciting, too many people to worry about, too much stuff to do!! I feel like I'm just now starting to get the hang of things.

Oh, I reached the 500 car mark this week. Pretty cool seeing that I also hit my year mark this week. :) For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, well ask someone that does. hahahaha.

We got another person on date, Courtney Strong! Troy's sister. She is super solid and loves to learn. I'm pretty sure that I talked about her in the last email home but I don't have time to go back and look so sorry if I'm repeating. But she's 20 and wants to go to the family ward instead of the singles ward because she feels more comfortable there and also her brother goes to the family ward here. She's on date for May 4th which should be good. 

Quana is also on date for May 4th. She has stopped smoking, and really has that desire to be baptized. Her husband does too but he has some struggles he's still going through. But we're going to temple square with them this Thursday to go on a tour of temple square to show them what it's like. Those tours are always so good! And you can feel the Spirit so strongly. 

We found another new investigator, too! He's on date for May 18th. He's 12 years old and really really wants to be baptized. His parents are totally for it too which is awesome. :_)

We had a lot of appointments fall through this week which sucked but we're keeping our heads up high and pushing forward. There's a lot for really great potentials in our area and as we're talking with everyone we pass on the street we're finding more and more people that are willing and wanting to learn more. :) It's only a matter of time before the Lord sees our diligence and blesses us with more people to teach. Today and tomorrow we're jam packed with appointments again which is always really good but we have to make sure we are tight on the time schedule so that we're not late to every other appointment the rest of the day haha. 

There are some interesting members here in this area. A lot of cool ones don't get me wrong, but there are also a lot of the ones that are just strange. One of the members that likes to host the lessons at his house (and usually sets them up before we can say not to) that goes into WAYY too deep of doctrine and discussions that it just confuses the person we're teaching. Pretty annoying. Also he talks so long that it makes us late to the next appointment. Okay I'm sorry for venting! (notice how I didn't use names though.. ;) )

Although the really cool member's name may or may not be brother Stauffer. 

We went on exchanges this week with the Spanish Elders. Their apartment if you can even call it that is a dollhouse that the members built in their backyard. So it's a tiny bathroom, a tiny bedroom, and a tiny kitchen/living room/study area. AND IT'S INFESTED WITH ANTS. The huge half inch long ones. pretty crazy. oh and their bathroom is filled with mold. I felt like a germophobe and I'm not even close to one. Anyways, I went with Elder Durfee. He's a really good missionary. he knows the language really well and he knows how to work. I even participated in the lessons a little bit by him translating what I said into English. I know enough of the language to know where he is in the lesson. 

Sorry, no pictures this week! Hopefully there will be some next week.
Love, Elder Wilson

Utah Weather is BIPOLAR.

The weather here has been insane. Yesterday it was overcast in the morning, raining in the afternoon, SNOWING around 3 or 4, then sunny and so hot that we started sweating by dinner at 5. Then it got really overcast and rained the rest of the night. We still have to wear suit coats which normally wouldn't be the best thing in the world but since the weather has been so cold it's not too bad.

So this week went pretty well. We found a lot of people that are interested in learning about the Gospel. And we set up appointments for today and tomorrow! We are completely booked. Today P-day ends at 6pm, then we have an appointment at 6, 7, and 8. Tomorrow we have district meeting until 2:30, then we have appointments at 3, 4, dinner at 5, then more appointments at 6, 7, and 8!!! insane. Then we're home by 9 so we are literally booked. But it's a good problem to have, so I am definitely not complaining.

So we were going to visit a referral one day and as we were walking up the stairs to an apartment complex I could smell a really strong scent. It smelled like laundry soap for some reason. Then I felt something drip on me. Yup. I looked up and the WHOLE stairwell was dripping a ton of soap down to us. At least I won't have to dry clean my suit for a while now. ;)

Then yesterday at the same apartment complex we were visiting a recent convert and her 3 year old little boy ran up to us. He wanted to pray so of course we all listened to him. All of us busted up laughing at his prayer though, because he said 

"Dear Heaven Father.... thank you for food... Coffee is for little kids. AMEN!!" Then ran away. hahaha it was priceless. He's a pretty crazy little kid.

We got a new person "on date" to be baptized, which is pretty awesome. Her name is Courtney Strong and her little brother just got baptized about a year ago. He's really strong. Spiritually. Pun intended. He passes the Sacrament, wants to go on a mission, goes to the temple a lot, he's just really solid. But he's been there to support her which has been really beneficial. She has a lot of really good questions which we're excited to answer because that means that she is really trying to learn. She's on date for May 4th. 

Elder Turner and I get along pretty well which is awesome because there's always those companions that you just won't mesh with. But we work hard, are obedient and still have fun. We're seeing some really great things happen in our area recently. Praying for miracles really helps a lot. It shows the Lord that you have the faith to rely on Him for things, instead of thinking you can do it yourself. It's pretty awesome that way actually, because when He answers your prayers it strengthens your testimony that much more. We ran into a few Atheists this week. It's so depressing that you don't/can't believe in God. I mean I can see how people might not believe that Joseph Smith really saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, but I do NOT see how they can't believe in God at all. He is ALL AROUND US. (Moses 6:63). But there's only one thing we can do as missionaries, and that is to invite people. To share what we know and what we believe, and let them choose whether or not they want to listen. (2 Nephi 2: 26-30). I'm starting to see what God sees in me. He lets me learn and grow and then I go and do something I know I'm not supposed to do. 

Anyways, I love all of you!
Elder Wilson

 This made our day.

Okay I know it's blurry but it was SO BEAUTIFUL I had to take a picture of it.