12-1-2008 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


Ok so I had a really cool Picture to send you guys, but I just figured out
the computer I'm on doesn't have usb, so I'll just tell you. I was still
sleeping when the phone rang at 6am, and I said something like ´´this better
be an emergancy´´, Elder Hale answered it and then ran up and jumped on me
and says IT CAME IT CAME! Yes…, After more than 3 months, I finally got my
things from Santa Cruz, seven packages, very nice. I finally got the pics
from the fam reunion and more food than I know what to do with. Ha by the
way, no one needs to send me any kind of drink mix anymore I have 5 pounds
of it now. And I also got the big card from the Laurels, haha. Tell sister
Petty thanks. And to top it all off, when I showed up to go to internet my
zoneleader goes, ´´Elder Wilson, Te odio´´ (I hate you). Cuz there were 7
more waiting for me. Needless to say that pretty much made my week. Not much
else has been happening in good ol peru, on thanksgiving, we had interviews,
and Pres Leyba told us they are going to start sending us outside of lima.
The Bolivia Elders I mean. And I just found out on Wednseday all the Bolivia
Elders are going to meet together and they're going to tell us something….
Might be really really good, or really really bad, who knows. We also have
only one week less in this change, and I soooo want to get out of lima haha.
I would absolutely love to go to a province. But who knows we'll see what
happens.
Haha nothing else has really been happening, The Spanish (they call it
castellano here) is going pretty good. I can tell I'm way better than when I
arrived in Las Flores. My teaching is still pretty bad haha, I'm working on
that though.
Mom I had a question for you. I sent film from one of my disposable
cameras a while ago, did that ever show up? There were some pretty funny
pictures on there.
Sounds like everyone had a great thanksgiving, I wasn’t too homesick that
day. Kk, ha I don’t remember what I ate but I'm guessing chicken and rice.
But now I actually get to start counting down to the day I get to call you
guys, I just found out we can call from here instead of you guys having to
call me which sounds like it'll be more complicated. But I'll find out more
about it this week and fill you all in next email.

Alright well I gotta go, I love you guys soooo much, and I'll talk to you
all in a few weeks.
  Love Elder Wilson

11-24-2008 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


hey everybody,
This week was pretty good. It was pretty uneventful though. We had a big
missionary night this past Saturday and we taught about the Plan of
Salvation. The people came into the gym, and we pretented we were on a plane
and the plane crashed so we all died. Then we took them around to each room
and taught about each step and where we can go after this lfie. We had 120
people show up, which is AMAZING! for our stake. THe best was we had to pass
out flyers all week for it. So me and my comp climbed all over the mountain
next to our area, the mountains are always the poorest parts of lima. I feel
the most like a missionary when I'm up there, I wouldn't call it a pretty
view, but it's cool.  Also Eduardo's dad came to the activity, and he said
he really enjoyed it. We showed a video at the end, and he told us he wants
to show it to his family, so we'll have to find a copy of it for him.
We had english class again, but this time… people actually came, which was
nice ha ha. We have to keep looking for new people, it's so tough, people
here have a tough time keeping appointments, and most people work 6 hours a
day and don’t want to talk to us on their only free day.
Ok there's some stuff I need in a package, if you sent it let me know so I
stop asking for it. I need denture cleaning tablets, more vitamins and
stamps.
I got TWO packages today, that was awesome, one from kim with the
Christmas ornaments, and one from kk with the pumkin kisses. Thanks a ton
guys for thinking about me, getting things from home helps sooo much.
Mom I sent that letter you wanted today, idk when it'll get to you. I'm
also gonna try and get another cd sent off today, I have no idea where a
post office is here though.
-Mom dad, sounds like all is goin well at home. Dad, is Kellen Moore QB
for Boise?
Valynn and Chris- haha… I don’t think I'm speaking exactly like an RM
yet, give me 19 months.
EE- who was the elder that came home?
Grandma- thanks for the update, that’s too bad about byu.
KK-3 packages… that'll do. I got one today, did you send me any pics?
Tell mom not to throw away too much of my stuff.
Crystal- ya I know we´re all busy it's ok. Spanish? I feel like it's
still pretty bad, but I'm waaaay farther along then I was when I got to this
area. I might be able to make it in Pasco. I've heard at Christmas, I only
have 45 minutes to talk , and the thing is I think people have to call me,
I'm not sure though. Chocoalte chip cookies would be awesome(home made por
favor).

Alright fam, I gotta go, love you all, hopefully the cd gets to you soon,
there's a video on there with a crane, it might be the best thing I've seen
on my misson.
                     Thanks for keeping me in your prayers, I'm doing
the same for you all.
                               Love you all so much,
                                 Elder Mike Wilson

11-17-2008 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


ok first off... i got my first convert! His name is alejandro, he's buds
with eduardo. I forgot to bring my chip but I'm going to give the pics to
eduardo and he'll put them on his face book (elise you're all over that I'm
sure). it wAS funny cuz he's scared of water and can't swim so he was
freakin out and we had to do it twice cuz the first time didnt go...
smoothly. Today was a way better week cuz i knew i was building up`to this
on saturday, also i got a call from the office saying that i had to pay 33
soles for a pckg, so i knew that it was a big one. I got it today, it was
the really big one, haha i can't remember whats in it right now. We taught
our english classes today... no one showed up haha. But After like 45
minutes consuelo, one of our investegators walked in, she didn't even care
about learning ingles, she acutally can't read yet, but she just wanted to
talk with us. The crazy thing is she lives across town, and got lost but
kept trying till she found the church.

I heard a bit of good news about bolivia, that the ambasador is going back
in january, so thats pretty good.- still not gettin my hopes up.
haha i bought nun chucks last week. They're so cool, i gotta make sure i
dont hurt myself with them though.
what day is thanksgiving? im going to try and find a recipe for pum`pkin pie
in spanish and give it to my pensh, but idk.


OK this is very important, Crystal, one of the elders i live with is named
elder hale, his fam lives like 5 mintues from you. And his mom has a friend
who travels to lima EVERY Week, so you should really really call them and
try and figure a way to send me some stuff through them, elder hale is going
to email his parent and fill em in. their number is 225-8165. His mom sent
him peanut butter bars and they arrived in like 8 days. Thats a tad better
then 5 weeks. some good ol american cookies would be great. like hand made
cookies I mean. but ya if you could try and do that I'd very much appreciate
it.
ok question answeing time

dad- thanks for the news and the encouragment, things are geting better.
sorry for asking but whos in the heisman race?

mom- ill get those letters sent off this week for the missionary moms.

Vallyn, ya you can write dear elders that fine, they are slower but it is
nicer to have actualy paper, and i cant read it when ever i want. Thats good
that law passed. too bad people are upset.

ee thats awesome about the titans haha. Like it said there should be some
more pics of me on eduardos facebook in the next few days.

kk- ill be watign for the packages. im glad everyone is enjoyin my letters,
and be sure to let brennan know his is on his way, i sent his like a week
later.

kort- just stay away from 1030. I want my own room when i get back. Or
better yet my own bathroom, right now its 4 elders sharing one bathroom with
peruvian food, its a hoot.

alright yall i gotta go, love you guys so much. Talk to you guys in like 38
days!
Love, elder wilson

11-10-2008 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


IN A RUSH!

Ok new rule, instead of 45 minutes for writing we now have 30, I'm trying
not to complain at that rule so my emails are gonna be pretty rushed. also,
if anyone ever comes to lima, NEVER eat at the chicken restaurants, I got
pretty sick this week from that.  I was up all night in the bathroom, and
thats where I'll stop describing. We also switched pensions to a lady that
use to own her own resutaunt, sooooo good. I finally started getting Beaus'
email, but now I don't have enough time to read any of my buddies letters.
Bad news, Ermongenis told us he isn't getting baptized anymore, but he
accepted another appointment for Wednesday so we'll see what happens. His
fam is putting pressure on him to not switch churches. Alejandro is doing
pretty good, he said yes but he doesn't really have much of a testamony.
Consuelo is willing to get baptized but she has a pretty big problem with
the word of wisdom, so we'll have to fix that first. I'm just hoping
somebody will get baptized this month. Im feeling pretty frustrated, I'm
working, but we aren't getting much of a result, and I feel like my spanish
hasn't really been improving that much either. But whatever it's a new week.
Ok there's a few things I need that I can't find here. I need those denture
cleaning tablets for my retainer, and also one of those little cleaning rags
for my glasses, they dont have anytihng with fine enough material here.  One
thing that did cheer me up this morning is that I figured out I've lost
enough weight to fit into my spandex garments again haha, that was pretty
nice.
Mom, i got your package today with the 3 twix and cliff bars, bueno. I
don't really know how the call is going to work , but the week b4 christmas
I'll tell you whats going down. I guess its cheaper for you guys to call me,
so you'll probably be calling my apartment.YA its totally fine to send
multiple emails,  I'm just not supposed to be recieveing or sending emails
to different addreses. I guess that's not a rule in santa cruz. Lima Esta
has waaaaaaaay more rules than Santa cruz, thats not exactly making me love
this place. And I don't think we use skype, but honestly I'm not sure of
what skype is, heard of it though.
EE- we go to the temple once every 6 weeks.

Grandma- thanks for the updates on sports.
kk- ha thanks kk, I figured out that I wasn't missing anything.

Ok so I still have 10 minutes to write, I guess I don't have to fly through
this too too fast. This week we are going to start teaching english classes
in the capilla, hopefully we'll have a good crowd, our ward is a little iffy
on attending things, we had a mission night this week. 4 people came. And
three were the mission leader and his wife and kid.
Don't worry about me being sick by the way, I just drank a bunch of yogurt
and I got better after about a day. But I feel like I lost some weight cuz
of it haha.
Idk what to think of my comp, he doesn't really talk. ever. And he seems
like he's ready to go home too, he's not really a fan of getting up on time.

Ok sorry I gotta go, love you guys.

11-3-2208 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ

Dear fam,

wow you all sent me a ton of stuff this week, which is good, but i
gotta write this fast. After my last email I found out my comp was a
MEXICAN, I was so excited, I miss mexicanos so much… sadly when he arrived I
realized he was born with out a personality. He said about 3 sentences in
the first three days. But no, he´s starting to talk a bit more, so that’s
really nice. I have so much I can learn from him though, hes an amazing
teacher. He always uses stories and examples that keep the peops interested.
He came from a place called Bayovar, which is hands down the most successful
zone in lima. (las flores… well, were not.) And he’s totally changing the
way we do things. He focuses on soley on working through members and finding
people they know who might be willing to listen to us. I think its going to
work better than just contacting a large  portion of the day. We figured out
that in my 6 weeks here I did around 1200 contacts… and found 3 people to
teach. In 2 days of looking for friends of members we found 5. So November
should be a pretty good month.
I found out I am not ready at all to be senior comp. I basically was for
this week, cuz elder torres doesn’t know the area at all or any of the
investigators, so ive been doing all the plans at night, and when ever we
have our plan A and B fall through hes just like ´´ alright where are we
going´´… man Idk!
We went to dylans house this week, hes acting strange now idk what the
deal is, he missed church 2 out of the last 3 days. But while we were
teaching him his g-ma came in and starting talking to us. We had finished
and had to leave but she wouldn’t stop talking when ever she took a breath I
would say that ill say a prayer and start, but in the middle shed just start
going again. Dylan went to sleep after a while on the couch. Then I looked
over and say my comp had passed out too, so it was just me and Grandma
Haumani kicking it in the living room.
We also had a really great lesson with Alejandro. We came in he had 3 of
his friends there and they were all dressed kinda like gangsters. But they
all spoke English, so they wanted to talk to me, so I explained about my
mission and everything, then we started and they asked if they needed to go
and we said no. So all three of decided to stay. I felt like I gave the best
lesson ive given so far on the mission, I just testified the whole time, and
I could tell they could really feel something.
Ok I don’t have much more time, but theres some stuff I need. More
vitamins. And I need denture cleaner….. for my retainer, I hate that thing
but when I don’t wear it my teeth kill. I also need to find out how to send
Austin his letter, I don’t think I can send it through pouch, could someone
find out for me?
Got the Halloween package, ha mom thanks for the beans. Just to let
everybody know TWIX are NOT frowned apon at all.
Sounds like everyone had a good time with Halloween, they kinda have it
here, kids just run around saying ´´Quiero alowín´´

Crystal, my Spanish isn’t anything great but its getting better. I didn’t
get your jerkey package, mail here just sucks. And idk for sure the date for
Bolivia.

Kim, my bet is girl. I cant remember who elder Anderson is.

Mom- mayans didn’t bring our mail but they said they’ll send it, idk when
though.
My city is called Las Flores, but the county I live in is called san juan
lurigancho. Today was hot, its starting to get warmer each day. Dogs aren’t
a problem, they just bark, we always have a book of mormon in our hands so
we just smack them with it if they come up to us, or kicking work s too.

K gotta go bye bye.

10-27-2008 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION:ELDER MELANDER



Hey everybody,
So this was a pretty up and down week. First I'll talk about the
missionary work. The two people we had with baptismal dates are having
second thoughts. Ermogenis backed his till December, and Alejandro just
tells us now he doesn’t know. But we found this lady named Consuela who has
problems with drinking and wants us to help her. She went to church
yesterday and we commited here to baptism. We also found a man named Miercol
who seems very interested. And we have references for 3 baptism age kids
whos parents are inactive. But they want us to teach their children. It is
not out of the question for 8 people getting baptized this month.
 Well Elder Melander is basically done. He's at the missiuon office right
now. He'll come back and sleep tonight and then leave for the temple at like
5 and from there he'll go to the airport. We were pretty different, but we
got along ok, he's a good guy. I'm gonna find out who my new comp is today.
I want a latino but I really won't be surprised if they send an American to
my area. My Spanish would be so much better if I had to speak it all day. We
are also going to move houses, which is just neato. It's not a good idea to
have 4 gringos in one house, especially when one is going home. And also the
food was…. Questionable. Like it's not really exotic food like monkey brain
or something, but its just bad haha. Like yesterday for breakfast we had
bread, with a slice of fried yam, (not ham). HAHA. And a couple times we've
had to dump our soup back into the pot when the lady walks out. I'm not
exactly broken hearted about moving. And I'll get hot water again, but I'm
actually use to the cold water now.
 So ya the conference. It was sooo amazing. Elder Christopherson was so
powerful. He told us that our main goal is to baptize, to get people going
on the path to change their lives. And he really focused on using the book
of Mormon for everything, cuz that’s the physical evidence that the church
is true. And then at the end he asked if we could all come up and shake his
hand. He said he just wanted to shake our hands and look us in the eye, and
say our name, so he could feel like more of a companion with us. He was
awesome. Ha but when I shook his hand I totally froze and said nothing, just
walked away.
 But I had another surprise b4 Elder Christopherson arrived and while we
were all waiting. I was sitting with elder Jacobson, and I just look to the
back of the conference room and see this tall bald man. I thought to myself,
´´that man looks really familiar…wait.. THAT’S PRESIDENT MAYANS!!!!´´ I
finally met my mission president. I just went up and gave him a hug and
talked to him for about 10 seconds. All I said was that I was one of his
elders that never left for Santa Cruz, and he just said ´´ Don’t worry we'll
get you there´´. I had such an amazing feeling seeing him, it was way
different from the feeling I get when I talk to Pres Leyva, who is amazing
too. But after I talked to Pres Mayans I just said to myself ´´He was meant
to be my president´´. Some day I'll get there ha ha.
 I also got to spend a good 3 hours with Elder Puglisi, Meridith,
Jacobsen and Smith on the bus ride to and from the conference, that was sooo
much fun, I love those guys so much.
  I sent a bunch of pìcs from one of my disposable cameras home today, or
well the film from the camera, that pics are pretty heavy, so I just sent
the film through pouch. I think today I'm going to Eduardos house and
burning another cd of my pictures, so I'll send that next week. Also we went
and painted some of Eduardos house this week, and he put some pics of me on
his facebook, so Elise you can get on there and get those.
 Well I now have 4 months under my belt, it went too fast, b4 I know it
it’ll be Christmas. My Spanish is really improving now, because I'm starting
to read the giant grammar book they gave me, its like 700 pages or
something.

Dad- Thanks for the story that’s really funny.
Mom- I didn’t get the Halloween pckg yet. The only package I've received
since I've been out of the CCM (mtc) was the one with the twix and
glucosamine in it.
Thanks for the addresses I asked for, I'm gonna start writing people a
lot more. I'm gonna look for some pics to send Brian and Brennen today too.
And Kortney, I'm working on finding that llama picture for you.

Well I gotta split, we are going back to el hueco (the hole), which is the
giant market place. I bought some amazing ties last time, haha.

Love you guys

10-13-08 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU

COMPANION: ELDER MELANDER

Hi everybody, so b4 i start i have to tell you that you need to start sending your emails to mom, and then she has to fwd them to me…. I don’t really understand the rule, but hey. Any who, this week has been good not a ton happened. We commited a man named Ermogenis to baptism. And then right after we found out that Alejandro( another investagator with a bap. Date) broke his shoulder in the gym and has a half body cast on and isn’t getting it removed for a month. But the problem is he's embarrassed about the cast and doesn't want to go to church with it. So we'll have to wait a while b4 he can get baptized. Also yesterday was some festival for a saint, so there were all these parades for it, and everywhere there were these purple banners and decorations. They always have some festival, one every couple weeks. But all the difference is that usually there's a bunch of drunk people walking around. But when there's a festival they are drunk, walking around, with funny hats on. I have to admit, the drunk people are pretty funny. There's one guy that gets drunk, and then walks out to the same spot in the street and yells ´´THANK YOU!´´over and over. We did our first real service project here. We helped build a foundation of a house. But I don’t think many Peruvians took a physics class, cuz what we did was, we were digging this thing on the side of a mountain, but then we would haul the dirt and rocks… further up the mountain… so there's a good chance of a landslide there now. But anyways it was nice to have some excersize and to get dirty. Ya not much happened this week, we didn’t find too many people to teach. With out references nothing really happens. Ermogenis was a person we contacted, but he's probably only the 3 person I've contacted that I've taught, and we contact 200 every week. So we are gonna really start asking members for references. And also we are going to start teaching English ,it'll probably start after Elder Melander leaves, so I might be teaching it with a latin comp… which would be just…peachy. Today should be awesome, we get to go to the Peruvian Black market haha, I have so much I realized I need to buy. And they have some of the nicest ties ever… haha, love those things. I'm gonna try and burn another cd and send it to you all pretty soon, there's a video on there with this crane…. Its so amazing… you just have to see it. My Spanish is still coming bit by bit (poco a poco) I can understand most things when we talk about gospel topics. But if I'm in the street… I usually don’t understand anything, its pretty frustrating. But oh man when I get home I'm speaking this everyday, cuz there is no way I'm losing this after working this hard for it. I'm gonna have to marry someone from here so I have to speak it…. Alright maybe not.

Mom- Its not really getting any warmer here, it’s a lot tougher to wake up in the morning when you're cold… and there's no hot water haha. Elder Haleis always telling me how much nicer Santa Cruz is. I didn’t even know Jared was engaged. When are Ashley and Dallin getting married? I knew my pin number was something like that, I'll find out in about an hour if its correct. Did I send you those names last week of my mtc buddies? You should really find their families if you can. Also I wanna start writing Vince and Beau, and Austin, but I have no idea what their addresses are now, could you send them to me?

Kim- That’s so great you got to go to conference. I'm gonna try and go right when I get home. Also I got a letter from Emily Peck today, her dad was with mason in pharmacy (haha it took me so long to remember how to spell that)school. She was like ´´why are you still in peru?´´ Tell Brennan Mikey saysto behave.

EE- Watch out for those groupies. Elder Christopherson is coming the 22 ofOctober, its gonna be so great.

KK- what happened to Cecily?

OK sorry everybody, this email seems a little short to me but I can't really think of much else to write. I'm trying to think of some funny stories. Ok here's one: Elder Evans is in my santa cruz group and right now he's in a part of lima called Vitarte. And this drunk guy threw this rock at him, but he was drunk so naturally it missed. But then the guy ran up to elder evans expecting him to run, but he's like 6-4 230 so he just stands there. And the drunk guy doesn’t really know what to do so there both just standing there. So Elder Evans goes, ´´ would…. You like to hear about Jesus Christ?´´. And the guy just starts crying and kissing Elder Evans hand. Slowly he realizes that the guy thinks Elder Evans …..is ……Jesus. Ha, its probably a bit funnier to tell it in person. I already have a million stories from this place, I'm keeping a pretty good record in my journal, so I'll tell them all when there's more time. So I really need to start writing letters to people. I want to write one to all the kids at least. But we don’t have much time to sit and write, on pdays we have free time but we still have stuff to do. I was also going to try and send some pics with this email… but I left my camera at home. Ok well I gotta go, love you guys.

10-6-2008 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER MELANDER

Ok this week im writing this on Microsoft Word cuz it should be a bit more
reliable. Sorry about last weeks email, Ill write that one real quick again.
First of all, weve been told now that after this transfer, well be here for
one more, so we are shooting for going to Bolivia around kims b day. So
hopfully my Spanish will be good by then, cuz ill be ONE FOURTH done by
then. Funny story. theres another elder Wilson in this mission, and my zone
leader showed me apic of him, I totally know him, we were roommates at EFY
the summer b4 I was a senior. He was the guy that had the koala bear puppet.
Oh man he was a funny kid. Also we had zone conference with week. our zone
has the lowest baptisms in the mission. So we have some room to improve. But
last night we committed two guys to baptism for oct 25. I haven't really had
any baptisms yet, the first week I was in the mission elder dodds had 3, but
I didn't even know who they were then. We also commited 3 others right b4 I
left for here, so im not gonna count them either. Mom, b4 I forget, I cant
remember my pin number to my debit card, idk what you want to do about that,
I think you should just send it and ill delete the email after you send it,
just send it Sunday night so its not in my inbox forever. Myldsmail is
pretty secure but you can never be too careful.  That's cool you found those
elders moms. I know elder wilding and Allred(from Washington). I also met
one of the elders named cook, idk which one. But you need to find some of my
friends from the mtc (ccm). Morgan Jacobsen(or its son, not sure how it
ends). Aaron Puglisi, Tyler Meridith, Tyler Duncan, Garret Evans, Benjamin
Smith, and elder ward, im not sure what elder wards first name will be, its
either dallas or Andrew. Ok ill run through my list on my paper real quick,
its unorganized sorry, I haven't gotten any of my santa cruz mail yet, today
I got moms bday list, grandamas letter and all the cards from Hawaii. But I
really want more pics, also I never got the package with duct tape, but wait
one more week b4 you do anthing about it, I might show up next Monday. EE,
one of the guys in my ward found me on facebook, can you make sure you
accept him, his name is Eduardo. He just got his mission call to Uruguay so
I told him about dad a bit. Also that reminds me, dad and mason, can you
send me some of your cool mission experiences I love hearing those.
Conference was sooooo amazing, I got soo much out of it. I got kinda
homesick seeing Utah, and thinking about you all crashing in the family room
watching it. I know two the 70 now, Elder Gavarret, the one that talked
about all the peru stuff, I met him like a month ago. And then elder
nash(said the closing prayer), is the area authority for peru, he is so
amazing.  We had one room that was English so me , elder melander, elder
lopez, and elder hale all sat in there by ourselves. It was nice we grabed a
table to take notes and had snacks, haha it was really confortable. The
speakers spoke a lot about trials, so that's probably preparing us for
something. We were so bummed when it was over, it was just so awesome.
Also, in like 3 weeks Elder Christoferson is going to come down and talk
to us, that is going to be so awesome, Ive never been in the same room and
an apostle.

OK now to the questions
Valynn, Email is probably the safest way to write to me, but it feels really
good to get letters haha, so idk. A few letters now and then are nice, but
ya emails are fine. You liked my pics? Haha, ya that was where I slepped for
about a month, it was rough but I just passed out so it was ok. The less
disgusting looking bathroom is the one we used, but they were both in my old
apt. Now I have a bunk bed, but our bathroom is pretty disgusting haha. The
weather here is basically like seattle, just that wet cold, but its not bad.
But those pictures aren't of FOG, that's SMOG, lima is the dirtiest place
ive ever seen, everthing is covered in this weird polluted dirt, its really
bad.

Mom, I got your twix package last week, oh my goodness that tasted soo good.
I do get to eat American food in this area, we are going to mcdonals after I
write this. You have no idea how much I miss that shower, my bathroom
doesn't have hot water, when I get home ill act out my little shower ritual
to you, its pretty funny. Theres a lot of things out here you just have to
laugh at, so in the shower I just make a lot of noise to make myself laugh.
And as far as the google earth thing. im in this little valley right now,
and the mountains are like close to the size of  badger mountain.

Crystal-sounds like everything is going well, if you wanna send stuff use
the address mom used for my twix package, everything just goes to the
mission office and then I get it on Monday.
EE- sounds like the house is going well, we don't ride bikes here, which im
not upset about, and I wont in santa cruz.

Kim its good to hear your doing well. When you mentioned reunions I just
thought of how great its going to be after my mission to see all my mission
buds again, we are soo close. And now we are separated and I miss them so
much, we all helped each other through some really tough situations. Last
week I saw elder Jacobsen and elder evans. Weve only been separated for like
3 weeks, but I ran over and gave them such a huge hug. Im hopeing to see my
whole group when elder christoferson comes.

Ok fam I gotta go, love you all soo much.

9-29-2008 E-MAIL

so I'd just written a big long email but when i sent it if freaked out and erased it. So dont have any more time to write what i wrote, but I'll write a HUGE email next week. I'm doing fine though, everythings good. Mom got your package today with the twix... sooooo good. haha sorry about this. YAI'll write a bunch next week.

Mike

9-22-2008 E-MAIL

DATE: SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU

COMPANION: ELDER MELANDER

About 2 hours after I sent my letter my zone leaders figured out they hadn't read the spread sheet of the transfers right. All of the santa cruz elders got transferred. And all the santa cruz elders they pulled out got put into missions around lima. My new area is called Las Flores, it's the safest area in the zone they tell me. I'm with elder Melander. He is from......Michigan, but he doesn't like college football, so that was disappointing,we are pretty different but we get along fine. We also have 2 Santa Cruz elders with us, so it's 4 Americans in one apartment, which doesn't help my spanish but it's so fun. elder Delgado is from Vegas and Elder Lopez is from Boston, they've been telling me more about Santa Cruz. And the best thing is that they were told by the area presidency that they'd only be out for 2 changes which are 3 months. But ive gotten use to lima and i can live here till Bolivia opens up .

I have to tell you about this new convert in my ward. His name is Dylen, he looks like he's about tylers age but he's actually 11. His mother beats him so he lives with his Aunt now, who is not a member. But she recommended him to the elders cuz she wanted him in the church so he would stay out of gangs. He comes to church every day by himself, he's just so amazing. He's just this quiet little kid. But when we sit there with him i can just feel this power and this spirit he has. Ive never felt this from anybody, I justlove him so much, and I want to help him so much and im so worried about him now staying in the church. Ive only spent about and hour with Dylen, and i barely say anything cuz all i know how to say in spanish is gospel things.But tonight we are going back to have FHE with him. We told him we are goingto help him with his homework tonight too. When ever i see him I just picture how retarded i was at 11 years old, it just blows my mind how Dylen acts, and i just know Heavenly father has huge plans for him. So im glad im in Lima right now so i can watch out for him and try to show him what he needs to do to make his life better.

On a lighter note, I had a pretty funny experience last night with our neighbors. I knew they were from Santa Cruz and they started talking about an Elder MacLean. Idk if id said this in any other letters but one of the teachers in Provo went to Santa Cruz and me and elder mitchell talked to him like everyday about it. So i was like i might know him, so they showed me a picture of him, and it was him. But the best part was i looked on the back at his address... he's from Richland. Idk how but we never bothered to ask each other where we were from. He's at BYU right now but you guys should get a hold of his family for me. His name is Kyle MacLean and his fam lives on 1113 Foxtrot Lane is Richland. And the name of the people that know him are Micaela (like Mikayla) Cou´Mauya and Marcelo Villa Suerte (or it might beFuerte, i cant really read thier writing). Lets see what else is there... Oh i figured out how to sew. I didn't want to say anything till it got better but i cut my leg pretty deep on some glass in the street so i sewed my pants back together. But my leg is totally fine now.

Today i have to go to the office, and i think i might actually have some of my mail from Santa Cruz there. I hope some of my old district is there, those guys are soooo funny, we are all so close now, i love all those guys so much. Lima isn't really that humid actually, its just like Seattle pretty much, and Las Flores in even drier that my last area.

Tell Ashley and Dallin congrats for me that's so awesome .And since i moved areas i wont see Jenifer any more, but ya shell get baptized eventually. It was tough gettin her to church cuz it starts at 8, now we start at 10 so that'll be better. Well i gotta head out, but sounds like things are good at home, im doing fine here. Im basically an 8th done with my mission already, which isn't that much but its gone super fast. Spanish is getting a little better. I haven't been able to study a lot since ive been here (actually i haven't been able to study that much since ive been in the field) cuz our mission has to figure out what to do with all these santa cruz elders. But this week they are more settled in so it might be my first normal week here. OK Igotta go,

loves you guys a ton,Elder Wilson

Here are some pictures that we received from Mike. Sorry that I do not have any details on the pictures, but have fun looking!

Some of the Elders from the MTC

On their day trip out to see sites in Lima

Lima Peru Temple

I think this is his apartment....nice. :)

9-15-2008 E-MAIL

Hi family and friends. As you will read in Mike's letter, he is in the Lima Peru, East Mission because of the unrest in Bolivia. Please make note that his address has changed. His new address is posted on the side of the blog.

Thanks, Wilson Family

AREA: SANTA ANITA, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER ALLEN

"YOU ARE OFFICIALLY....TEMPORARILY HERE."

hi everybody. so we met the prez of Lima Este, and as of this moment we are now missionaries in the Lima Este Mission. the first presidency is waiting for an answer on what to do with us, whether to just have us wait it out here, or get officially reassigned to another mission. so....i guess you should stop sending stuff to bolivia. they are trying to get all of our mail to us from santa cruz. mom, i got your dear elder letter today, you guys have no idea how it feels to get a letter after like a month in a half of not getting anything. but, hopefully here in a few weeks ill get like 20 from santa cruz. i sent a CD home with some pics, idk when it'll get there or in what shape the cd will be in, they don't really have good protection for fragile objects. Prez Leyva told us a few days ago we'd be getting new areas but we didn't get them in our email today, so im staying in Santa Anita it looks like, but thats cool cuz we haven't6 baptized Jennifer yet and we have three other people getting baptized next Sunday.
Mom i cant really think of much i need rigth now, everything here is really cheap and they have a ton the US products here, we had pap johns a few days ago and i think we are going to some place to eat after this. Actually one thing i can't find is the pills for my knee, i really need to start taking them cuz me knee is starting to hurt a little bit. One thing thats really awesome about not getting reassigned is that almost my whole district is in my zone. i love these guys sooo much, we are so much closer cuz we've been together for more than 2 months. and we have another 6 weeks together.
How is every9one liking school now? I heard about jamen being left a long time at school, that's too bad. We are building a three story chapel across the street from our apartment, and its open this Sunday so we should get a lot of new investigators from the open house. that should be exciting.
My Spanish is getting sooo much better. there's no training better than just talking with people, its scary and hard, but great. Sorry my ideas are so jumbled up, but im just writing what comes to me. Is Vince close the the hurricane? I don't really now w3hat part of Texas Houston is in.
Ahh i cant think of any good stories to tell...i have them in my journal though. Ohh, a few days ago me and elder allen (another santa cruzer) had to go out and teach by ourselves, hahahha that was just classic, we talked to this old guy about the church, and elder allen started arguing with him...but about a totally different thing than what the old man was talking about. The old man was talking about how he think its awesome that we come out for 2 years and elder allen is like "we are the only church that prophets and apostles like the church Christ established."
i started reading some of the conference talks and there was one called "Today", cant remember who gave it. but the message was that you have no idea what is going to happen to you today, or tomorrow, so you have to make everyday count, I know thats such a cliche but its so true. Lots of days we sit there and go, we still have 21 months this is nuts, but we need to start thinking, we ONLY have 21 months left. There's a scripture in Jacob that i read a few days ago and its quoted in "Today". but it says that our lives pass away like dreams. so b4 i know ti this mission will be over, so i better not waste any time cuz i'll regret it later.
well i dont have much more to say, looks like im staying here for a while, start sending stuff here. But sent it to the Peru Lima East Mission, it some how goes through pouch, so its just one US stamp to get here.
Well...I gotta get off soon, Love you guys. Keep me updated on Bolivia.

Elder Wilson

9-8-2008 E-MAIL

AREA: LIMA, PERU

COMPANION: ELDER

Hi everybody, I cant remember what day i told you i email but it is for sure every monday, our schedule was really messed up last week. Im doing better this week. Pretty healthy, starting to lose some weight cuz all we eat is rice and chicken, but its all good. We sleep on matresses on the floor so i get kinda stuffy, but nothing too bad. P days are sooooo much fun, i get tos ee a lot of my district, i love these guys so much. Elder meridith was talking about it and said, "you know, this has been one of the toughest times of my life, but also i dont think ive laughed as hard as i have with you all". We are so excited to meet again that last day of our mission and talk about our experiences. Most of the time theres way less that 18 white elders that come in at one time, so we are gonna have a good time on at the end. IDK whats going on with Bolivia, Im not dieing here like i was last week, but i would still leave in half a second for santa Cruz. Can somebody get on the news and let me know whats going on with the government, i guess theres some type of uprising there.

But ya p day was really great, we went to this old catholic cathedral, and then went to the catacombs under it. it was really pretty and cool, but its funny, cuz you dont feel any type of spirit in there. Then we went to the Spanish Inquisition museum, that was pretty nuts, i got some pics ill send home eventually, im gonna try and burna cd and send it home, thats way safer than sending my card.

So one of our baptisms backed out, Monica. She was supposed to marry her boyfriend so she could get baptized, but his sister got really sick then ight b4 so we had to cancel the wedding, then when elder ruiz and allen went to talk to her she said she didnt want to anymore, we havent visited her anymore. Im getting along really well with my comp. But i can tell he is ready to go home, im not helping cuz im still talking a lot about home cuz i havent let go quite yet. And dont get me wrong we work hard, but its just when he teaches, his spanish is perfect, but i just... dont really feel anything, hes just kinda going through the motions. Idk i feel bad writing that but thats the impresion i keep getting. But Jeniffer is doing great we commited to baptism on the second visit,but we didnt catch her at the next apoitment on saturday and then she didnt get up for church on sunday. But i really think shes still wanting to do this.

Hows Martin and Jarred doing? Any news on either of them? Also mom can you make sure beau, austin, vince, shayne, brett and matt are getting my emails? and can you send me their ldsmail addresses? one more favor... I was thinking about music yesterday, and can youj ust make sure my I Pod is safe? haha sorry, but i just really dont want that thing to be broken when i get home, i dont care about any of my other things, but can you make sure my ipod is out of the reach of the little ones. Also I dont think you need to send my anything here, theres a ton of stuff here, and its sooooo cheap, really nice ties here are like 2 dollars, so im gonna end up coming home with like 40 haha. One thing i need is duct tape, i think i asked for it when i talked about my packages, but ya that works really well for warts, i started doing it but i kept borrowing duct tape from hermana Groberg so that was kinda a hassle so i didnt finish, but ya can make sure and send some to bolivia. Sooo ya i think thatsits,

IDK what my address is down here, sorry, but im betting ill be gone b4 anything you guys send get here. Elder Jacobson has a buddy in Santa Cruz, and he emailed him and said no one is doing transfers till we get there, so thats a good indicator we´ll be getting in soon. So ya just keep sending stuff to Santa Cruz. Itll be nice to have a lil party when i get there and find all these letters and goodies for me. Thanks everybody for your prayers and encouragment, they really worked. Im praying really hard for you all. I love you all so so much.Talk to you later...

Elder Michael David Wilson

9-2-2008 E-MAIL

AREA: LIMA, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER ALLEN


Hey everybody, so they moved us out of the CCM and I've been pretty bummed
about that, but most of us are in the same zone so we are all together right
now and we get to have p day together as well, but elder puglisi is in
another zone by himself wich really sucks. I'm comps with elder allen, and
we are combined with two lima este elders, elder dodds from cedar city and
elder ruiz from.... Santa Cruz, so he's telling us all this amazing stuff
about bolivia. We are in Santa Anita... i really have no idea where that is
haha. This place is going to take some getting use to. It is a dirty dirty
place, and i keep getting over charged on the buses cuz im a gringo and
don't know any better. The busses are pretty hilarious though, they drive
them like they are mustangs. Also im having some problems with peruvian
food... i dont really think i should go into detail on that one.

 we got some news about bolivia, its not looking like a conspiracy to keep
us out and the church has a bunch of people talking with the prez this week
in la paz, so they said we could move out any day, the max is probably 6
more weeks in lima. but please just keep sending everything to peru.(I think
he means Bolivia)

 the really nice thing about lima is it has tons of US products... i
bought some new soap and mouthwash yesterday. and we went to Pizza Hut, wow
is all i have to say about that, im gonna lose a bunch of weight out here
but gain it right back cuz im gonna eat for like 4 straight weeks haha.

 I've figured out that the only way not to get homesick is not to stop
working. just being here is really messing up the lima este mission and we
have a lot of dead time to just sit around. Yesterday i was feeling really
sick and laying on the couch thinking, how am i going to be able to do this
for 2 years. and i was going to write today that i am very close to coming
home. But then that night we started working, all of our contacts fell
through, but it's 100 times better to be out trying. But then Heavenly
Father always rewards us for trying... Elder dodds told me, he and i are
going to find a new ingestagator and baptize them b4 i leave. Well we found
her last night. Her name is Jenifer, her friend is a member and gave
referals (btw, EVERYDAY! be thinking of people for elders to teach, they
work so much better than when we make contacts in the streets.) But anyways
Jenifer is golden, we taught the first lesson and she was all over it. We go
back wednesday.

we went to church on sunday, church here is so loud, on men. but its awesome
to see all the little kids and have wards that are yours. The people here
are so great they help us out soo much, we ususally get about 10 referrals
per sacrament meeting (we have 3 wards).

Ok so thats all i really have to say... i dont really know when im leaving
they aren't really telling us much cept that they are trying hard to solve
it, but they said it doesn't look too bad. But please pray for it always. I
can last in lima for a while.... but this city is ridiculous, i gotta get
out where theres isn't smog everyday.

 Crystal, congrats on the job and the beau... is he an RM? Kim... that is
so awesome! How far along are you? Valynn.. I cant believe the kids are
going back to school already. thats nuts.

ok well i have more time so ill just try to think of some stories till my
time is up. Yesterday me and elder dodds were walking around and i saw like
three kids running and laughing... then i see one kid behind them chasing
them with... a piece of broken glass the size of his head.. then he just
chucks it at the kids but it totally missed, i just had to start laughing
and say this place is so nuts. I had a crazy homeless guy on the bus one
day, he was rapping/singing/ beat boxing in the front of the bus. Normally
I'd feel bad, but he was also really mean and he spit on somebody b4 he got
off.
I've only been out in the field for like 6 full days but i already feel
like i understand spanish soooooo much more, i really like studying it on my
own out of the manuals.

 So the best way to get pics home is just on a burnt cd, we can burn them
at any of the internet cafes for like one sol(33 cents). So I'll try and
send a cd home b4 i leave. Also im really glad you sent me those disposable cameras mom, cuz they
tell us not to bring out cameras everyday cuz they'll probably get stolen,
so i take the other one which has like 30 pics on it, so next time something
really ridiculous happens i can take a pic of it.

Oh and about that whole robbing thing, i haven't met any elders who've
been robbed, but everyone says u just have to keep a low profile, not have a
flashy watch stuff ,or pull out a bunch of money and run.But it also does
help that I'm waaaaay bigger than most people here,so that probably deters
some people too. The good thing is they don't know I'd just start crying..
drop all my stuff and run. Ha Ha

 Oh crystal i forgot to ask... do you have a friend named Tyson Wall?
Elder ruiz was talking about him, he's from west Jordon..I looked at a
picture of him and he kinda looked familiar, and the name is familiar
too.idk,just let me know, cuz that would be really funny. 

ok gotta go love you all, I'll email again next monday

8-26-2008 E-MAIL

AREA: PERU MTC
COMPANION: ELDER PUGLISI


This was the day Mike was leaving for Bolivia. I thought I'd share what
happened. We could use your prayers to help him get there soon.
Love,
Claudia

BOLIVIA HERE I CO....oh wait.

yaaaa...... So its 7 pm on august 26th and im still sitting in the CCM.
Turns out while we were here theres been some problems with the our visas.
So there are 20 elders who will be waiting in peru. IDK what the problem is
but the church has a bunch of lawyers over in Bolivia trying to fix it. The
plan right now is for me to be in the Lima East mission for 6 weeks. But we
could leave in like 3 days, i just dont know. They told us that really if
wed just gotten on the plane tonight they would have let us in but it would
have made some customs officials angry and make this thing tougher for the
next set of elders. So right now im pretty bumbed to be perfectly honest.
Ive heard so many things from the Santa Cruz elders that are here... about
like building chapels out of palm trees and just going out into the deep
jungle. And everyone says Pres Maynes is AMAZING. But Matt had to wait and
he's still alive so i guess i can too. And pres Nash (Love that guy, he use
to be over the tri cities) says that are calls will NOT be changed cuz our
calls are from the Apostles. And if they are I would be SOOOOOOOOO upset.

There are some cool things about this. Since the CCM is in the East
mission i get to sleep here every night, since thats easier than finding me
another place to stay. And my whole district is here too, so we get to see
each other every night, and i love those guys. Me and Elder Puglisi are
rooming together when we get home, and probably Elder Smith too. And i get
showers that won't kill me if i touch the shower head.

  So yaa about mail.... I have no idea what to tell you. I havent had mail
in a long time cuz everyone is sending it to Santa Cruz, and i dont think
its a good idea to send things here cuz i have no clue when im leaving. But
its also pretty depressing not to get mail... HAHA this is so frustrating.
So ya im still in good old Lima. I do like the place more when im outside
working so thats a plus, and I'll be way better at spansih for Santa Cruz
cuz of this, but we were all SOOOO excited to go so its tearing all of us
up.
 Well now that i got that out of the way i can tell you about this Park
thing we did on saturday, i have a pretty awesome story about it I'll share
at the end. So we went to the park from 9 till 6, and my job with Elder
Garcia was to contact people and try to convince them to go in, and also get
their information for missionaries. I now know the basic excuses that most
people give, mostly "No Hay Tiempo", or "Vivo muy lejos de aqui". its funny.
But we found some amazing people. We got i think 1,000 refurals that day.
Ok now i can tell you my awesome story. I have absolutey no doubt in my
mind now that Heavenly Father prepares people for us. So we find this little
short man named Franco, and we start teaching him, and he's not really over
excited but he's accepting it and says he's open to all religions, and he
said he'd have the missionaries over to teach him more. And then as we are
shaking his hand and thanking him he goes, "oh ya i forgot to tell you two,
last night i had this dream that I was standing right here in front of
Kennedy Park, and there were two glowing white people talking to me...."
Wow... It was crazy.

Ok so I've been on for a while, i better get off, i think i got everything i
need to say. I guess you should probably just keep sending my stuff to
Bolivia and they'll just keep it in the Mission Office.

Love you guys, sounds like everything is going well there, I'll be fine here
dont worry.  and hey... Im already a 12th done... so thats crazy i think. OK... Bye

8-19-2008 E-MAIL

AREA: PERU MTC
COMPANION: ELDER GARCIA


Subject: Give us freedom

Hey everybody, how's it going? Its almost noon right now, we got to go tothe temple today for that last time in 2 years. So me and Elder Puglisi stayed for about 3 hours. Things are going good here, I'm not fluent but I've come along way in 8 weeks. I'm just so ready to get out of here. This mtc is amazing for learning spanish. But I don't feel like I've learned much doctrine, and its very frustrating. Every day we have these fake situations, that either have to do with the word of wisdom, the sabbath day, or lesson 1. And now they are starting to repeat the same exact situations. We just keep saying that once we get out into the field it'll be different. So you know how we go proselyting every saturday? this saturday they are having a big mormon... convention I'd guess you'd call it, in this big park in downtown Lima. and there's supposed to be 2000 people there. So they're sending us down there for the day. Everyone we talk to says it's the biggest day for missionary work in Lima.

The elders in my district are soo funny. Elder Puglisi and Elder Meridith are awesome. I wish I could explain to you guys well how funny this place is. We just have to laugh at our situation sometimes, or else we'd go crazy. Ok, so I keep finding all these connections with people here. The area medical director is named Elder Terrance Drake, and he is amazing, he teaches priesthood for the gringos and he is the best teacher I've ever heard. And he's from Reno. So I asked him about Brian and LaRae. He knows them really well and called them as temple workers. He told me to say hi. And then President Nash of the 70 spoke to us last week. And he's from Seattle. Turns out he use to be AN area authority for Tri Cities and knows Pres. Montierth pretty well, he says hi too.

Ok sorry I don't have that much to say this week. I'm just ready to get out of here. I'll try and call when I'm heading to Santa Cruz. I'll probably spend the night in La Paz so I'll have lots of time. Ok I have something very VERY VERY important... the water here tastes like feet, so I'm gonna need lots of crystal light and gatorade mixes to put in my water. Ya that's about it... It sounds like I have a ton of mail in Santa Cruz so that'll be pretty nice. And ya, I just wanna get out of here. By this time next month there's a really good chance I'm gonna have some baptisms, so thats pretty crazy. Thats awesome Matt got one, I hope he gets to Mexico soon. Well I'll probably send another email on tuesday hopefully b4 I leave. AndI'll try and call too.

Love you guys.

Elder Michael D Wilson

8-12-08 E-MAIL

AREA: PERU MTC

COMPANION: ELDER GARCIA

ok, just to warn you im just reading off of a pad of paper so this is really unorganized. first, idk if i said this in my last letter but i forgot to tell kim and mason that when i flew to peru, i met a man who lives in yakima and has family in lima, that was pretty funny.

My bed bugs are gone, but my bites arent. and b4 i forget, make sure to put more minutes on that long distance card cuz its basically all the way gone. If i have any time im gonna try and call again in lima and la pazs airport. my new comp is elder garcia, hes a good missionary, hes 25 so hes pretty mature.

This last saturday only the gringos went proselyting, it was so fun. I went with an elder from salt lake named elder johnson. He actually was in the same zone as shayne in provo so thats pretty funny. We went to a richer part of lima, it was a lot more modern and nice, but the people are definatly not as nice. We only talked to one of the 16 families we were assigned to. We ran into some jehovas witnesses, that was pretty funny, they offered one of their booklets and we were like sure well read it, but then they refused to read ours. we tried street contacting without a guide, its really funny to see peoples reactions to us on the street, they get pretty mad sometimes. But we met a lady named roxanna ( a lot of peruvians do not have spanish names). She was like ive been searching for a church for about 6 years and ive actually been to your church. so she was pretty ready to be taught so we gave her some pamphlets and hopefully the elders in that area will teach her. We also taught a catholic lady the first lesson, it was the first time ive taught a lesson to a real person where i did a lot of the talking. the first time i said about 2 sentences, the spirit was really strong and she said she could feel our spirit, it was awesome.

I have cabin fever so bad. I just want to leave peru, i have enough spansih to get my message across, and i just want to learn the rest while im out there. Theres a ton of bolivian elders here, they say santa cruz is soooooooooooo much prettier than here, we cant see the sky cuz of the all the smog, and all the plants are nasty and black from polution. Santa cruz is green, and fresh and clear and doesnt smell like exhaust. we had the day out with the pres and it was amazing, the arcatecture here is so pretty, ill send my memory card some time to show yall. the bolivians speak so much clearer than peruvians - i love it! they told us about all the bugs and stuff here, its not a big deal though.

the elders have funny names now. one is elder bueno, another is elderfieztas(yes his name is elder parties) and our teachers name is hermano aguilar, which really isnt a word, but aguila is an eagle, and when u put the R at the end it makes it the verb "to eagle"... i know elders are wierd im sorry. i have a cool quote but not enought time to write it... haha sorry. Crystal, im so glad you sent a package! hopefully you sent it to bolivia. Mom i didnt buy a belt that day, but i can wait till i get to santa cruz. Valynn that message is from jarred bates, hes one of my young mens leaders. thats funny bout the elephant. and i really want a moped when i get home. ok maybe i have enough time for this quote i think it was from elder ballard: "if you could only see the end from he begining, you would never even think about going home." thats not really all of it but it gets the point across. if i get reael homesick send that to me.

love you guys! g2g

8-5-2008 e-mail

DATE: AUGUST 5, 2008
AREA: PERU MTC

Hi everybody, my companion just left like an hour ago. We werent the best of friends, but we got along ok by the end. Right now theres only about 30 elders in the mtc so tonight we get to go shopping and tour some places in lima. And we get pizza hut today for lunch(almurzo, theres one more word for jamen). tonight we are getting new districts, new leaders and new rooms. Im glad about the rooms part cuz i have bed bugs, which is sooooooo not cool. But ill talk more about that later. I got kk's package with the pics and mom i got the three packages from you. I got my cord and ive been trying to take some pics, ill take tons today on the tours. Two days ago i got dear elders from jamen, mom & kk. But they were from like July 22!, and yesterday i got grandmas package that she sent on the 29th. SO idk the deal there, dearelder is safer but slower. Valynn, i only have one dear elder from you, idk what happened to the others.

Ok so im starting to figure out what im going to need monthly in a package. SOAP, some type of bodywash\shampoo thing like i had, any brand but oldspice. I had to leave my mouth wash in utah, so please send me a few of those little travel sized ones every month too. I have some vitamins and ive been taking them, but the bottle says to take 4 a day, and down here i think im going to do that instead of one a day like usual. And ive come to a very sad realization... now that im here, and im use to Peruvian food.... American food gets me sick.... But it is SOOOOOOOOOOO good, so send me some in very small amounts. Im always craving junk food, twix, resses, skittles, startburst, oreos. But also i should probably have some granola, and jerkey, stuff that has some form of nutrition. Theres aslo some things i need send just once, i need a little calender that has peoples bdays and other holidays on it so i can keep up on that. Also can someone send me a little bouncy ball? only have 5 minutes left! ok, and dont send me any letters to peru, send them to the santa cruz mission home until i get a home address from bolivia. Tell kendra congrats. Sorry if i dont answer all your lettersa and stuff cuz i dont have time. Grandma, thanks for the letters. Jamen ask grandpa about my scout camp hell have stories, dont miss campouts, theyre great memoires. KK got your pics, thats crazy about josh thinking about baptism. Mom, got the cable, ill look fora belt today. EE tell mike betz thatnks for the letter, hes on my facebook. Kim thanks for letter. Kort send the movie to my house. I totally 4 got aobut reunion. Crazy about jeff and jason, gotta go!

love you all.

7-27-08 E-MAIL

AREA: PERU MTC

COMPANION: ELDER CLAMENTE

Ok, so I didn't understand when I got here, but we go out like normal missionaries... every saturday we are here. We went to Valle Sangra, which is the second poorest neighborhood in Lima. It was mind blowing. We were there for about 10 hours, mostly visiting less active members. We had a guide from the ward come with us so we didn't get lost. I've never seen anything like this. Remember in my first email I talked about those shacks on the side of the mountain? That's where we started. Most shacks were about the size of dad's office, and most did not have roofs. The first house we came to we didn't get in. And it was only one of the two times we got rejected all day. These people are so amazing I can already tell, even when they aren't really interested in what you're saying you still get to come in as an honoured guest. And I think it helped that i'm a gringo. But anyways we knock on the first house, and this three year old runs out screaming with an old plastic oil can and smacks a chicken with it. It was so funny. A few houses later we visited a funny little man and his wife. After a few minutes of talking we went into his house. He had about 20 chickens and ducks...and 2 turkeys. it was so great. At the end of the lesson he took out his camera phone and took pictures of me, and said his fam would go to church that next day. After we were done, he wanted to kill one of the turkeys so we could eat it. it was great. Im not emphasizeding cuz i dont have time,but the poverty here is unbelievable, and yet everyone is really really happy.The kids I can tell will be my favorite part of this. They are so cute - unbelieveably. Later we did contacts and I got to teach the first lesson in spansih for the first time. And it was a real person, I was terrified and said three sentences. Thats actually what happened all day. But this guys name was Juan and he said he would pray about the restoration. I have 6 minso I gotta wrap this up. This place is awesome, im totally going to be able to do this for 2 years. ok, now to questions.

didnt play football, it was only americans and I had to do my laundry.

my comp... he bugs me a bit cuz he's pretty pushy and controlling and Idon't have enough spanish to say anything to him.

my shedule is pretty normal, just like utah basically.

I cant print emails so its a bit crazy, but keep sending them I'll figure out how to type faster. 25 gringos are going to santa cruz and all the latins that are going come in a week and a half .

valynn- I got your letter, I wish I could swim with the kids right now. no diareah yet, the yogurt is saving my life here, I eat it every day, thef oods pretty good actually...well most of the time. Thats crazy about the bomb, haha!

Tell vince its totally cool about not writing, I cant really write him whileIm here either. ok 3 min. Ummm idk. tell everybody hey, make sure you find out when martin gets his call and where, try and get beau and austins emails to me. idk about the voice recorder thing, ill figure it out later, tell me more about it, the computers here are really slow. I need a few more pairs of socks. like two pairs of whites and twoblacks.especially when Im in the field. Im getting close to halfway done here! love you guys!

bye, bye,

mike

ps wheres the cord. did it get sent? bye bye

7-23-2008 letter

DATE: JULY 20, 2008
AREA: PERU MTC
COMPANION: ELDER CLAMENTE


We received a letter from Mike!

Dear family,

Ok, so this letter isn't going to get to you guys for about two weeks and I get to e-mail in two days, so I really don't know what to write. Elder Clamente and I are in the chapel because he want to play the piano. I think there is something wrong with my Spanish, because when I asked him how long he's been playing, he says, "dos anos, quince minutos cada dia." That means "everyday for two years he practices for 15 minutes." But that's gotta be wrong cuz he's amazing. Having a Latino comp. is really helping my Spanish already, but I need to work harder because we proselyte every Saturday all day. Yesterday we practice taught some Peruvian members and I had absolutely no idea what any of them were saying.

Tuesday morning is P-day and we get to go to Lima temple. Some of the native elders have not had the chance to be endowed yet and we had a class about temples. They are all so excited to go. During the closing song, Elder Chaca (sounds like "chalk" with an "a") started crying in front of us...broke my heart. Elder Chaca is my favorite, me always yells out "WILSON" like from Castaway. He's just a character!

Since my comp. is one of the elders that isn't endowed, I get to be his escort which should be neat, but I think our session will be in Spanish, which will be tough.

Peru is pretty cool. The food is getting better, we had fried chicken today. The bread here is just amazing. I don't know how to describe it, but it's like nothing I've had in the US. I really like the weather. It's a lot like the Oregon Coast except for the nasty dogs everywhere.

I gotta run.

Love, Mike

7-22-2008 E-MAIL

AREA: PERU MTC
COMPANION: ELDER CLEMENTE

We received a letter from Mike today. He seems to be doing well besides the expected confusion of being in a foreign country without knowing the language completely. Please excuse the grammer from his letter....he only has 24 minutes on the computer. So, by the time he gets his e-mails and writes there's isn't much time for details.

hola, hows everybody doing? its really wierd typing on a spanish keyboard,things have been moved around a bit. I sent you guys a letter last night, but it probably wont get to you for about two weeks. And it looks like i only get one letter a week out of here, so thats pretty lame. I guess ill just write to random people since im sending you all an email every week. I think im getting all the emails people have sent. I havent had any mail in a while, and moving countries is probably gonna make it pretty tough for the things that have been sent to provo. Dear elder looks like the best way to get things to me. My companion is pretty funny, hes not good at soccer which is very rare among south americans. But hes really good at piano. and i just figured out today he likes to make up his own words for things, like ¨planificacion¨. Hes pretty goofy.

Lima is so loud, we figured out here people dont use turnsignals, they just honk and that means they are turning, or slowing down. So it gets really really anoying. We went to the lima temple this morning cuz many of the latino elders didnt get a chance to go through b4 they came here. it was so confusing there. in a meeting last night about the temple,president groberg called out my name for a list of people that are going to help with anointments, which i dont really know what they meant by¨help¨, cuz they didnt want me to actually do them. But then we get there and i got stuck with all these missionaries that needed to go to imigration instead of the temple. I didnt figure that out for a while, but then i got into a spanish session and got to wear the very attractive headphones. and right when the session started the elder next to me goes ¨oh no, im gonna fall asleep i can feel it¨( we got up at five to go). So the whole time he told me to elbow him when he started to sleep. But after the session we get out.... and NO ONE from the mtc is there. it was just us four gringos sitting in front of the temple. we started talking to a peruvian member and he told us that a bunch of them were in the little store in the parking lot, but nobody was there. After an hour we were pretty sure wed been left. But then a few more elders came out of the temple. And then some worker from the mtc showed up and he was really mad and told some of us to get in his van. i still really dont know what happened but it was just super confusing. OH! i forgot, as we were sitting there somebody kept pointing at the street, so i turned around and saw... A BUS FULL OF WHITE PEOPLE! FROM UTAH! it was some lds humanitarian group, so we talked to them for a bit. OK ive run out of news. So now ill do some bussiness. (fyi after only a month of spanish i nolonger can spell anything in english.)

Everybody?- If youre just sending me a letter, use dear elder... i dont have the address on me right now and i only have a few min so ill send it in the next letter. Somebody remind me when you answer this. It goes to utah first though and then from there to me. I remeber it had bolivia on it so i guess they just track where i am and send it. But ,ya i need some more letters. i need pictures too but thos will have to be in packages, which are very expensive to send. Well i gotta run, the latinos want to play american football... tee hee.

Love you all

And...He's Off!

Michael is officially no longer on U.S. soil. He flew out last night to the Peru MTC. He will be in Peru for a couple of months learning the Spanish language and then will be assigned to his first area in Bolivia.

He had a three hour lay over in Atlanta last night, so he was able to call and say his final good-byes before he left the country. I can't even express how good it was to hear his voice one more time and know that he was okay and doing well. He is homesick, but said that he keeps reminding himself that "homesick has never had a fatal case".

Michael was picked up yesterday morning, at the MTC , to be taken to the airport. Apparently, the church does this in one big dump/drop-off. They loaded his bags, along with the other 45 missionaries he was traveling with, into a U-Haul type of truck. When they arrived at the airport their luggage was dumped into a big pile on the sidewalk and the chaos began! Michael's flight plans were to fly from Salt Lake to Atlanta and then take a 6 hour flight from Atlanta to Peru. On the flight to Atlanta, he flew with 45 other missionaries. I told him that that's the kind of flight I would want to be on. Flying with 45 missionaries...you know that that plane is going to be protected and have a safe trip!!! Michael sat next to a couple that were traveling to Florida on vacation. Mike said his conversation went something like this:

Mike: So, where are you guys from?

Couple: Salt Lake.

Mike: Oh, so are you members?

Couple: NO!

Mike: Oh, so are...

Couple: NO!

Mike said the remainder of the trip was very quiet. Maybe one of the other 44 missionaries were able to get to them!

He flew out of Atlanta at midnight and should be in Peru by now. He is nervous because they do not speak any English at the MTC there. He is doing well with his Spanish but it is still hard to go from speaking English one day to waking up the next and only speaking Spanish. He will do great though!

Picture time!

Here are a few picture that we took of Mike
while he prepared to leave for his misson!

(Dad, Mike and brother in law Chris)















(The Call)




















(Brother in law Josh and Mike)















(Right before Mike got set apart, we didnt dare wait to take pictures after)















(Nephew Kyle with Uncle Mikey)

7-3-2008 Letter!

DATE: JULY 3, 2008
AREA: PROVO, MTC
COMPANION: ELDER MITCHELL

We got a letter today from mike and I thought that I would share with you what he wrote... Here it is!

Well it's Saturday now, and Im doing laundry. We are done with the really busy first couple days. And today we finally had gym, which was a life saver. Classes are going really well, I'm really learning a lot. And spanish is pretty easy still, Monday we'll probably pass up what I learned in 2 years. The days are seeming to get a little shorter, I dont think I'll get cabin fever too bad cuz I just keep telling myself I get to go to Peru in 3 weeks. My teachers are super cool, one is named Brother Anthony, and everyone says to him "El es la leche"... which means "he is the milk"... its just funny. We laugh at really stupid things cuz we are windowless for a few hours at a time. But we had a sub one day and his name is Bro. Stocking. Turns out hes from Connel, and he gratuated in 05, so he knows Tony Lee, Chris Knight, all those guys. And he knows who the twins are. Hes a little Korean guy. The best part is he was Cyd's piano teacher.

So I have my first misson story.... so me and my comp Elder Mitchell (I'll talk about him later) are reading in this little plaza, and this Elder is telling us about how he got converted and we are reading a scripture with him, and all Elder Mitchell hears is "You got to be kidding me!"... Turns out there's pigeons in Utah, and they eat purple berries, cuz one took a pig poo off our building and landed right on my shoulder. And one of the Elders in my District is Elder Marks, and hes from Hawaii and he says its a blessing for that to happen.

Well my comps name is Elder Mitchell from Rexburg. He's awesome, we are getting along perfectly. He's hard working and we're learning together cuz we both dont know much. My district is great too. Elder Cunningham is the DL, hes from near Mt. Shasta in California. Some of the Elders are kinda goofy, but are really good Elders. We have 11 missionaries, 9 Elders and 2 sisters. 4 are going to spokane, Elder Cunningham, Elder Jacobson, Elder Jensen, and Hermana Weston. So have Chris and Valynn watch for them. And then me, Elder Mitchell and Hermana Combs are going to Santa Cruz.

Well all is going well. I hope everything is going well at home. And sometime this week i'll set up my email. Hope to hear from you soon.
Love you all
Elder Michael D Wilson