6-8-2009 E-MAIL

AREA: CIENEGUILLA
COMPANION: ELDER


Hey everybody! Things are going pretty well up here in Cieneguilla. We moved our room up the hill a bit, so that means we got about a 20 minute walk up hill everyday for lunch, dinner, and at night when we finish everything.But it is sooo worth it. The lady we live with is a member, first good thing, she lived in the states, second good thing, she knows how to cook American food(kinda), third good thing. And we have an American bathroom...tile floor, slidng glass door, and HOT WATER! It's nice, we probably have some of the nicest living conditions in the mission right now. This week my buddy Eld Ferrer hit his year mark so we had a little party. And then we did divisions later that week so we told the lady we live with that today is America Day and we need to eat only American food. We had hotdogs and Coke and ice cream. BAD IDEA I got pretty sick from that after. Speaking of Ferrer we also had interviews with the President this week, mine was about 20 seconds long. But in Ferrers the President asked him if he was friends with Bolivian missionaries and he said yes and the President said he should say his goodbyes soon. Idk when we are leaving but it's soon. I'm supposed to go to the Bolivian embassy this week or the next, then we just have to wait.We have a few newbies that appear like they'll progress, a girl named Yosselin and a lady named Sulema. And Idk if you guys remember Dylan from my old area, I found a kid like him here, his name is Benji. He's 9, but Elder Duncan never baptized him, cuz no one else in the family is interested, and it's just a bad idea to baptize kids without having other members in the house. But this kid is amazing, so we are trying to find a member family to basically adopt this kid, and if we do I'm baptizing him. We taught him Saturday night, and we had a really good lesson... until, his dog comes up behind us and starts throwing up. Sorta ruined the moment. Kim-ya it's always hard to go up and talk to people, I almost have ONE YEAR but I still have problems with that. That should probably be one of my goals, to be less fearful of people and more fearful of God. Mom- That is so awesome to hear that Raul and his family are still going strong. And when Elder Duncan talks about Satan being at their heels, he's not joking. They are the first people I'm visiting when I go back. I got your packages, and I found out real quick they had Gold bond inside, cuz it broke open on the ride here from Peru and was all over the other stuff, but I saved most of it and got it back in the container. I don't need anything right now, I can find basically everything in my area. I'm sure it's different in Santa Cruz, not as many US products so once I get there I'll start asking for more I think. B4 I forget, mom, how does my debit card work when I take out money from ATMs, does it charge me a ton? Crystal- Yes I got the book two weeks ago, sorry I thought I wrote that already in an email. Feel free to send pics, those are always super. I don't even know what its gonna be like to hit a year. When I was with Eld Ferreron his year mark he just said ''I get to count DOWN now''. Valynn- Ya me and my comp get along fine, for some reason he has somthing against some of my Bolivian friends, so that has caused some problems, but ya WE get along fine. We need to work more than we do, but it's hard being in this area, and being district leader(my comp, not me), cuz we are always traveling and wasting time waiting for the bus. EE-I can't believe graduation has come again, crazy. Is Quentin going on a mission? Who else younger than me is going or is already gone? And who's back? Is Andy Fowells back? KK-yes, please, send photos, have fun swimmin!

Love, Mike

6-1-2009 E-MAIL

AREA:CIENIGUILLA, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER


Hey everybody, sounds like things are warming up in the states, THAT IS NEAT. It's starting to cool down here, but it never really gets cold. Well right now I'm at interpol with some of my buds from my group. We've been doing emigration stuff for... BOLIVIA. They told us the goal is to get us out by the end of June, so I'll probably be leaving around Christmas. But we are pretty excited, we just have to do some paper work and go talk to some Bolivian officials and then I will actually be able to GO TO MY MISSION.We had a conference with all of Lima this week. Elder Snow from the presidency of the seventy spoke, in english. He spoke on the importance of the spirit. We had a pretty up and down week work wise, we had one investigator come to church, and one of our best investigators basically told us to stop coming. Her mom doesn't like us and has managed to turn her against us too.It is so frustrating trying to deal with people who are so prideful that they won't just listen to the most correct message in the world.Well, Idk what else to talk about, we are going to eat some Papa Johns,that'll be nice. I also had a Peruvian delicasy last night... ''cui'' or''cuy'', look that one up, its good. I also had these shiskabob things called anticucho or cow heart, also quite rico. KK- Swimming sounds fun, Im gonna get the worst sun burn of my life that first day when i get home.Dad, Mom- The members here help us, some of em. It is starting to cool off here, but I've already had one Peruvian winter and its not that bad. They say Bolivia has ARTIC WINDS, so I think it's a bit colder there. I'm very interested to see whats in my one year box, send me a shirt to burn. But I hope you guys sent it already, cuz my packages take like a month to gethere.Valynn- I love how camping in the states is more advanced that just livingin Peru. Well, love you guys a ton, take care in the heat.

Elder Mike Wilson

PS me and Elder Puglisi and Elder Meredith are planning road trips for after the mish. Our dream is to rent a car and DRIVE to Peru. Central America and the Andes are going be a pain but we are gonna make it.

5-25-2009 E-MAIL

AREA:CIENIGUILLA, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER


Subject: CH-Ch-ch-CHANGES

Hey everybody. So we have changes today but we haven't received them yet.I'm pretty sure I'm not leaving my area, but my new comp might be going up to zone leader. Everyone says these changes are nuts so we'll see. We finally baptized someone in Cieneguilla. His name is Jayson, his buddy is a member and hes been going to church for like a month already. The work is slowly progressing, we found a girl that is going to get baptized the second she switches jobs. We asked her to pray, and she actually did, which most people don't do. The next day we came back and asked if she got an answer and she said ''IDk why, but I just started crying''.. Oh ya. It was awesome. IDK how we ended up doing this, but me and my buddy Elder Ferrer ended up doing divisions basically all week. So I got to know what it's like to have an American comp, and it's amazing, so much fun. We cooked fajitas again,it was amazing.I'm sorry I really don't have much to say this week. I'm gonna find out th changes in like an hour. I think all my buddies from Bolivia in province are coming back so that's gonna be awesome. We have a Lima wide conference with Elder Snow this week, so I get to see all of them, and people from the other 3 mission here in Lima. I think I'm also gonna find more out about Bolivia today so I'll let you guys know about that.I do have a funny story from yesterday. Our convert Jayson didn't show up to be confirmed, so we leave sacrament to go track him down. And we jump on the bus and my comp is like ''Got money?'', and I say," yes" thinking he's asking if I have money to pay for me, but he meant round trip for the both of us. So we are like one sol short of what we need. So when we get to Jayson's house we find he was on his way to church and wasn't in his house.But we ended up having to bum money off of our convert's mom, it was just super. Alright I gotta go, Elise and Crystal happy birthday.

Love you guys, takecare, I'll fill you in next week. Bye Bye

5-18-2009 E-MAIL

AREA:CIENIGUILLA, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER


Subject: PACK YOUR BAGS!... Well... in like a month

Hey everybody, it was so great to talk to everybody and hear some people speaking english. So ya, had a suprise change this week they called us at 11pm and we had to be in Lima in the morning. The big reason there were changes is cuz a bunch of elders got in trouble in another zone, so they sent my comp to where they were. But also the president wasn't too happy with us cuz our numbers were really really bad. But my new comp is really cool, and knows how to work and better yet, work through the members. But he also knows how to have fun. He's already taught me a ton, I think he might end up being my fav comp. Not much has happened since I talked to you guys.I'm pretty sure I'm going back in June. Living next to the church offices,we find out news pretty quick. My buddy talked to the lady who does all the visa stuff and I'm supposed to go to interpol tommorow to start working on papers. I'll keep you all updated. We are kinda bummed in my area cuz we had 5 people with baptism dates, but only one came to church yesterday. But we'll go burn em and make em come next week. Today I get to cook brownies for a fam home evening, I'm a tad excited about that. Sam- got your email, nice to hear from you.EE-ya I remember Sally... I think.Valynn- ha when I read your letter I thought it said ''birth bath''... in the backyard? Alright then. KK- I sound more mature? Haha. Some days I feel like that, but other days Ifeel like I'm more retarded than when I left.
Well, I gotta go, talk to you guys next week.

Love you all, Elder Wilson

5-11-2009 E-MAIL

AREA:CIENIGUILLA, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER GUZMAN


Hi everybody. Mom, Happy Mothers Day, sorry, they don’t have any cards here to send, but I’m calling this week so its ok. We had a solid week, last Monday… I went to Chilis (the restaurant) and ate… FAJITAS. They were soooo amazing. And today, we are going bowling haha. It's tough living in ‘’America Town’’.Work wise the week started off really bad. In two days we taught ONE lesson. The president himself called us to see what was going on. But in our area if we have an appointment fail on us, it's really hard to find someone else to teach. Lots of times we are out in the boonies. But the week ended really well, we actually have someone with a baptism date! And we should be committing two more people this week. And the best part was that 7 people came to sacrament meeting yesterday, it was great. I really felt like my teaching went up a level this week, we had some really great lessons. Lots of times I get nervous and just start rattling off Preach My Gospel Word for word. But we are supposed to listen to the spirit and say what he tells us to say. So I really concentrated this week in not being nervous and just listening, it worked out WAY better. So it went from summer to winter in one day. Yesterday we woke up and it was about 15 degrees colder and foggy. Its funny how people handle the cold here, it was like 50 degrees yesterday and everyone had on their huge winter coats.

So I'm probably calling at 8:30 Peruvian time (I think 6:30 Pac Time) on Saturday. And I'll probably call for about 90 minutes. Crystal Ya we’ll see how the speaker phone works out. The reason you haven’t seen pics is cuz I've been lazy and haven’t sent anything since Janurary… gotta get on that. Kim- Ya I'm super excited to talk to you all. Your pics just showed uptoday, I haven’t been able to open em yet though.G-Ma My old area was like Matts, I was the only white guy. All the drunk people yelled at me… so basically everybody yelled at me. I want real milk,that’s the only thing I haven’t been able to find. I have a big thing of Nesquick and I still haven’t opened it cuz of that. Is Matt still sick? Valynn- I'm really sad you guys can't come, but ya we'll try the speakerphone thing. KK-ya good luck with potty training. You could have Brian go in the streetlike everybody here!

Love you guys. Talk to you in a few days!

Elder Mike Wilson

p.s. Fajitas are sooooooo good

5-4-2009 E-MAIL

AREA:CIENIGUILLA, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER GUZMAN


Hey everybody,First of all sorry about not calling. The President told us that we can only call today or tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be calling today, but if not it's tomorrow. And I can call from the 10th of May till the 16th. I wanna call on a Saturday, so I think it'll be best to wait a week and I can call the night of the 16th. If we do that I'll be able to talk a bit longer. This change is going by super fast. We already have 3 weeks and we are working on the 4th. I know I always say this, but the weeks are going by so fast it's ridiculous. We had zone conference this week with two other zones,I got to see Elder Hale one more time b4 he goes home, and I saw Elder Smith too. It was a really good conference we talked about planning better in our areas, something we are not doing very well, but I think I'm gonna be senior comp in a couple weeks, and if not then the next transfer, so I can start applying these things more. But other than that it was a pretty long week.We had a couple of those days when no one is home, and we just walked around all day, good for exercise, bad for missionary work. And the work in our area isn't so hot right now. We can't get many people to come to church,everyone works in restaurants that are busy on Sunday, so no one can progress nor get baptized. It's pretty frustrating. There are two people that have come twice though, so we are going to start focusing on them. Cuz I really want to baptized someone this month, haha. But the ward is awesome,and they help us a ton, they always give us references its great.

Mom- I think I've told you I'm in the old area of my buddy Elder Duncan,well there's a lady here that wants to send photos of Eld D to his family. Ithink you have the email address of Elder Duncan's mom. The address is tosoam@hotmail.com. The lady just speaks spanish though, so tell Eld Duncansmom she can write her and just say ''soy la madre de Elder Duncan, puedeenviarme las fotos'' Mom#2-I don't really need any clothes right now. I'm trying to save spacefor going to Bolivia, idk when I'm going but I'm just trying to use up all the stuff you've sent me b4 I leave, the weight restrictions are pretty bad.I'll be sure and pray for KK. Just to warn you guys, I might only be calling for 45 minutes, I'm not sure how my comp feels about calling. If he's gonna be strict about the time limit. But ya if I call Saturday after we work I'll be able to call longer, maybe, MAYBE 90 minutes, but that's pushing it. Soya other than family, don't call anybody. But Kort and Jarred and Cyd can come if they're in town. I don't even remember Easter haha, I don't think we did anything. The couple missionaries live in the zone I'm in right now,which is the closest thing to America here. But during Easter I was in the ghetto. And during our baptisms the water is usually pretty clean, but one time we had an ant infestation in the chapel and they were all in the water during the baptism. Not good.

Crystal- I really don't know what kind of candy you should send me, right now I can find close to everything, and I think its cheaper if I just buy it here. I could go for some jerkey though, I love bbq or smoked jerkey.

Thanks EE- Sounds like things are picking up for you and Chase. that is neat. Have fun getting bigger too. Well mom, if you're at home listen for the phone, my zone leader just told me we are calling today, and if not be sure your cell phone is turned on.And tell Crystal and EE to have theres on too, cuz im not sure I rememberyour phone number mom.

Love you guys

4-27-2009 E-MAIL

AREA: CIENIGUILLA, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER GUZMAN

Hey everybody, so first of all we had interviews this week, so I just had to
ask my Pres whats going on with Bolivia. He told me he didn't find out who
was going to Bolivia until one week b4 they were going. So he really doesn't
know anything. So I'm gonna be here atleast till the end of May. But my
zone is awesome, and my area is pretty nice, so I can wait here. The work in
our area isn't so hot right now. And well we aren't exactly working like
crazy. My comp has 22 months, and it shows. But we get along fine, so I just
gotta push him a bit more. But we did better this week. Our Ward gives us a
ton of references. Right now we have a lot of people with potential, so
we’ll get some baptismal dates this week I think. But I found out that this
first fam I baptized in Las Flores was completed this week. Eld Duncan and
Murillo got the parents married and then the dad Raul got baptized, soo
great.

So I'm now in the doublé digits in months, that's pretty weird, I'm gonna
hit the year b4 I know it. So I'm gonna call for a Little bit this week,
mom, probably Saturday, just to figure out when I'm gonna call for the long
one. Right now my plan is to call May 9th, the day b4 Mother's Day, so if
people wanna come for the weekend they can. Idk how long I'm gonna be able
to call for, I’ll bring it up with my comp. Mom, you need to ask Autsins mom
if he knows and Elder Laura, he's in Costa Rica with Austin, and he's from
my Ward here in Lima. We are gonna go visit his fam and look at his
pictures. I know like 15 Elders in Costa Rica, so it's gonna be cool to see
them.

Crystal- that reference book would be a huge help, thanks
Grandma- I'm sure Matt will be fine, dont worry.
Kim- It's good to hear you guys are doing good. Ya my area is pretty rich, I
live in a rich suburb of lima. Everything is rich except for where we live
haha. It's a hot desert here, but it's starting to cool down. From 11am to 1
pm its still pretty rough outside though.
Mom, Dad- My road is called Avenida Bolivar, idk my house number but I live
next to a soccer field. It's between zone E and G… I think. Just me and my
comp live there. It's pretty nice, our pensh bring our food to us on a
platter. And last week I got your pckg with the vitamins and cds. Gracias
Mom, do you know who my buddies are in the mission? Do you talk with their
moms? Dad, do you speak Spanish anymore… ¿Entiendes lo que te digo?
EE- Here in Lima I can't listen to other music apart from Hymns. But in
Santa Cruz I think I can. Good luck being pregnant.
KK- Haha, the only birds I notice are pigeons, but I’ll keep an eye peeled
this week.
Valynn- Sounds like the yougins are keeping you busy.

Well, you guys take care of yourself, I'll be calling some time Friday or
Saturday, more likely Saturday, just to set up the BIG call. I love you guys
so much
Cuídense, Elder Mike Wilson

ps I'll try and get some cds burned of photos, sorry I haven't sent anything
in forever.


p.s. So I found out a bit more about my area, I'm starting to figure out how to
get around, its really simple, there's just 4 super skinny canyons. But our
relief society pres told us theres a place 3 hours away from here... and
it's our area. we basically have from the edge of lima, till... forever.
It's so much different from my other area. Well gotta go love ya

4-20-2009 E-MAIL

AREA: CIENIGUILLA, PERU

COMPANION: ELDER GUZMAN





My area is huge and awesome. It's out in the

middle of nowhere. The Ward is cool, and There's some Americans in it which

is wierd. My zone is awesome, there's a ton of American stuff to buy in the

city. My comp is cool, Elder Guzman. But, we're not exactly working our

tails off here, we went home teaching last night, and nothing else. The area

is a dessert, which means it's hotter than Las Flores, but dry, no humidity.

Well my area is nuts. Its super skinny. My house

in up in one of the canyons, and you can be on one side of the canyon and

throw a rock to the other side. But it is so long. I could cross Las Flores

on foot in 5, at the most 10 minutes. But it takes 30-40 min to cross my

area in bus. My area is called Cieniguilla. For all the time I was in Las

Flores, my buddy elder Duncan was here. His made quite a legend for himself.

Crystal- if you dont like snow come to lima haha.

EE-we do all sorts of stuff on pday. Today we are gonna play basketball and

soccer with another zone, should be pretty great. Or we go to famous places

in Lima… there's like 4.

kk- I'm glad to hear they remember me haha.

Mom- ya after I wrote you last week I found two of my friends who came from

Cocha, and they are leaving in 4 days for Bolivia. NOw I just gotta be

patient and keep working here till I leave.

 

Sorry this email is so short but I'm totally fine, and happy. I can

definately wait here till I leave for Santa Cruz.

Love you guys so much. I’ll be calling b4 you know it. Take care

Elder Mike Wilson

4-13-2009 E-MAIL

AREA: CINAGUILLA, PERU
COMPANION:  ELDER MURILLO


First of all ¡ME VOY!. I am actually leaving Las Flores. And I’m…. Going
back to my old zone haha, where I was with Dodds. My area is called
Cinaguilla. It is almost 2 hours outside of Lima… that makes me happy. That
night me Evans and Duncan got ditched by our comps in Lima we ended up
sleeping out there. I can’t tell you how excited I am right now. Elder
Duncan has been there for 7 ½ months, and he’s swapping area with me haha.
Im gonna miss Elder Murillo a lot, he taught me so much and helped me out a
ton. At first my ZL told my I was going to be district leader, haha. But no
im still jr.
Second Kim and Mason congratulations. I look forward to getting to know
Jace after the mish. Sounds like things are going well and everybody’s safe
and sound.
3rd. I have absolutely no idea what’s going on with Bolivia. Mom, ask the
other moms if their sons are ACTUALLY in Bolivia or just THINK they are
going. Cuz me ZL asked my pres and he still hasn’t heard a thing.
We ended the transfer well, we were going to baptized a lady and her two
kids, but ended baptizing just the kids. But she’s still getting baptized this month.
We had a talent show this week, it was pretty good. We had one lady dress
up like some Cuban singer and lip sing, I cant really describe how funny it
was but you’ll see the video in a bit. I’m gonna burn like 4 cds of all my
photos and video since Janurary and send em.
I just realized I call home in way less than a month, ill call the first
part of May for… ‘’5’’ minutes to set up the real call. But let my know if
its better to call on mothers day or the day b4.

-Kortney- I finally took a pic with a guinea pig.
Crystal- Ya I hope my convirts go on missions. I think Cesar, we baptized
him 2 weeks ago, might go. Thatd be so amazing.
Uncle Ron- thank you for your email, it’s always nice to hear that people
are enjoying my emails.

Well I hope this email makes it through!
Love you guys! Ill be writing next week from one of the richests parts of
Lima haha. Crazy.

Cuídense
Elder Michael Wilson

4-6-2009 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER MURILLO


Hey everybody, sounds like everythings going pretty well at home. Things are
going great here. I'm starting what I think is my last week in Las Flores…
I’ve had 29 of em.  But I'll find out next week if I'm really leaving or
not. Last week was pretty great, we had an awesome PDay, we climbed a huge
hill in our area and could see probably 2/3 of Lima, we took some pretty
great pics up there. I did divisions and spent 2 hours in a place called
Caja de Agua (Box of Water), the rules say gringos are allowed there, but we
stayed out of the most dangerous parts. I was with a brand new elder, Elder
Nicho, he's got about 2 months down. The time with him helped me realize my
teachings not that bad, cuz I was the one who had to save the lesson a
couple of times. We had a lady named Rosa miss her baptism yesterday, she
just didn’t show up. It's so frustrating here, every person you meet says,
‘’YA! I'll be at your church Sunday at 10Am sharp, but then nobody comes’’.
But what ever we'll keep working with her and another lady named Rosa
(theres a lot of them) for their baptisms for April 11th.
Conference was nuts, I felt like I got more out of it then last time.
President Monson’s talk about the German woman watching her 4 children die
in the snow just killed me.
Most of the talks were about preparing ourselves, and doing the basics
like we’ve always been taught. Wow, it sounds like things are kinda crazy
over there right now. It got me thinking ‘’what’s the US going to be like
when I get home?’’. But ya we’ll get to that in 15 months. One thing that
made me say ‘’whoah’’ was Elder Packard of Ballard ‘’the generation of fun
and games is over’’
After conference Betsi, the first person I baptized, brought her hubby
Raul to conference. We taught them in the chapel after conference, the
spirit was SO strong, the strongest I’ve ever felt so far in a lesson. We
taught him the first lesson, and committed them to get married the 18th of
April, and then Raul will get baptized later that night. I’m really going to
have a hard time saying goodbye to my converts on the cerro, especially this
family.
Also funny story about the baptism last week with Cesar, I'm pretty sure I
didn’t mention this: We didn’t have any clothes to baptize him in. But a
week b4, a little girl got baptized by her dad, and he used my pants. But
when he gave them back, the girls ¿tunic? (spelling) was in there too. That
was all we had, so we used it. Cesar looked beautiful with that nice little
bow on the back, haha. We were able to hold it in with him, but after he
left we were dying laughing.

Crystal- Gracias por the marriage advice, I'll look for a girl closer to
WA. And did you see Tim Bleazard in the choir?!?

Kim- ¡Good luck with the surgery! I'll be praying for you.

EE- The biggest difference now that I get along with my comp is that we have
the spirit. If you don’t have the spirit, you’re not doing things the Lord’s
way. I'm glad to hear Rolands doing better.

Mom/Dad- one of the packages made it here, it had the new address. I’m
pretty sure the other one got lost. I actually have heard some things this
week about us going to Santa Cruz. We might be going next week actually
haha. But I don’t know, my Zone leaders have a conf today with the Pres, so
they’re gonna find out a bit more for me. But ya if some have gone in,
that’s really promising. I just hope my whole group gets to go together,
we’ve talked a lot about having the moment together in the airport.

KK- don’t worry if you don’t write me, Im fine. How far along are you? Haha,
that’s a really funny story about Brian. Ya if you send me a package be sure
and use the new address, or else we’ll have troubles.

Well I love you all a ton. I’ll keep working here while I still can, and ill
let you know what happens with Bolivia.


Love Elder Mike Wilson

3-30-2009 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: EDLER MURILLO


Hey everybody, sounds like things have calmed down after all the weddingstaff. Things are going awesome here. This transfer has been flying by. Weare already two thirds done. This was a tough week, everyday we had tons ofpeople fail their citas with us. And on Friday we had one of ourinvestigators, Cesar, fail his interview, so we were pretty bummed aboutthat. Our DL told us he just said he didn’t want to get baptized yet. We gotpretty bummed but we just kept going. The next day we still had one lady,Viviana to baptize. I baptized her, it was great. Then on Sunday Cesar cameback to church and we talked to him and resolved some of his doubts. Then weasked him againg about baptism and he said yes. Then he asks, ‘’when shouldI get baptized?’’ and My comp Elder Murillo goes… ‘’RIGHT NOW!’’ So wecalled our ZL and baptized him a few hours later. It was great. I'm learningso much from my Comp, about just having faith and trusting that things aregonna work out if we just put our part in.

I finally cooked the spam mom sent me, it turned out pretty great. Even my pensh liked it and she has hated all the other things I've cooked.We still have a ton of people to baptize b4 I leave. There are 5 people Iwanna baptized b4 I leave, the husband of Viviana, Bruck (Brooke), a familyof three and another lady named Rosa. We´ll see how it goes.And I just found out like 10 minutes ago, that the stake presidency isthinking of closing my Ward haha. My ward is the smallest and is surroundedby 4 other wards, so they my cut it up between the othe wards.

Josh- Happy late B Day, sorry, I wanna try and keep on top of B Day whileim out here.

Mom-Good to hear mail is on the way haha. With the change in address themail has been pretty messed up, hopefully things will start getting to me.Be sure and use the new address I sent

. Kim- April 10th got it. The work´s going awesome here since my birthday. Ibaptized 1 person my first 7 months in the mish and 12 the last two months.And I can not wait for conference, it’s a whole nother deal on the mission…especially in another country.

Cystal- Ya its cool to talk about worldly stuff, haha. But just don’t remindme about Disney world. And Things are amazing with my comp, we haven’t hada single problem this whole time.

Grandma- Im starting to see how the time flies, I remember thinking how faraway conference was. Then after that ill be calling b4 we know it, and thenill complete my YEAR haha.

EE- wow I really hope Roland gets better, keep my updated.

Valynn- All the gringos listen to conference in English, its not the sametranslated. Its so much better listening to their own voices. I misscrashing in the family room for conference. Haha and after awhile everybodyis asleep cept mom. Ya the language is going great, afer 6 months mostelders have it down. Every now and then I dream in Spanish.

Well I gotta go. Everybody take care of yourselves, have fun in the warmweather.Love Elder Michael Wilson

3-23-2009 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER MURILLO


Hey everybody! Sounds like things are calming down now that the receptions
over. Kay, b4 I forget our mission moved its offices, so send your packages
and letters to this address.
      
         Mision Peru Lima Este
         Calle Los Agrólogos 368
         Urbinizacion Las Acacias de Monterrico
         La Molina, Lima 12, Peru

Anyways, this week has been really quiet, not a whole lot happened. Nobody
got baptized this week; our whole zone is having a tough time this month.
But we have three people ready for this Saturday. We taught a lesson this
morning to a kid named Cesar and we committed him to baptism. I've never
seen anyone change so fast. We met him 2 weeks ago, his girlfriend brought
him to church. He didn’t want anything to do with us, I thought we should
move on and find somebody else, but Elder Murillo said we should keep going.
And with every visit, he made HUGE progress. We taught him yesterday, and
whenever we mentioned a baptism date he'd be like ‘’whoah! Calm down hang
on’’. But this morning he just nodded his head. This is teaching me I need
to have more faith in people, and I just need to go into every lesson
believing that the person will not say no. One part of faith is believing in
God, another is to believe in his children. That part I'm slowly working on.
 But ya things are going well here, this transfer is going by soo so fast.
The weathers starting to calm down a bit more, which is super nice. Its way
easier to climb around those mountains. But I'm starting to run out of those
multi vitamins mom, if you could send me some more in April. And I need some
baby wipes, NOT antibacterial wipes. Anitbacterial has alcohol… which burns.
I'll let you guys imagine how I found that out.
  Elise, congratulations, thank you for helping me with my goal. And no I
haven’t heard anything bout Bolivia, its only the things you guys tell me.
  Kim- when is your due date?

    Well I gotta go. Things are going well here. Everybody take care of
yourselves.
                     Love Elder Wilson

3-16-2009 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER MURILLO

Hey everybody!
 Sounds like things are going well up there, getting ready for the wedding
and all.
  Things are just peachy here. I got to baptize Yeraldin this Saturday,
she looks a lot like Kaitlyn. She was the last of the group of girls we
found in the cerro, now we have a lot of work to do with all their parents,
we cant leave these girls without baptizing there parents too.
 I got to dedicate the home of Betsy and Camilla and Nichol this week too
that was really cool. We felt the spirit really strong.
 I found out the secret to living without tv, music or movies for 2
years…. WARD COUNSEL, that is some entertaing stuff. It made me remember why
I want to be secretary of the young mens for the rest of my life, I felt so
bad for the 1st counsellor. He opened up the floor to the leaders of the
ward to give ‘’suggestions’’ on how the ward and the bishopric can improve…
that’s when the young womans president yells ‘’YOU FORGOT MELUSKAS
BIRTHDAY!!’’… every little thing that had ever happened to anyone in the
ward in the past 4 months came out. The best part was watching 2nd
counsellor just cracking up in the back. It was a mess, but it was really
funny to watch.
 The weathers pretty nasty here right now, the temperature has dropped,
but the humidity has sky rocketed, you feel like you have a blanket on all
day, and all night.
Mom- I got the ensigns today, thank you much. But please DON’T send them
in Spanish, they already give them to us. And don’t worry about me feeling
neglected, I'm fine, and you all have stuff to do too.
Grandma- Thanks for the news about basketball, when its over can you send
me some news about the games? And about who won it all?
Crystal- congrats, I hope mexico was super, you reminded me one thing I
really need to work on is following promptings, sometimes I'm a wuss about
it. But last week I felt like we should climb this hill to this house, and
we ended up finding a lady named Rosa. We committed her to baptism the first
visit. It was neat.
Valynn, ya I talked to Derrick for just a few minutes. Ya I'm doing fine
here, staying healthy, I still haven’t gotten sick. But the rice makes me
bloat up… not cool. Sounds like your having fun with your puppy.
EE-good luck with the job, what kind is it? And yes Te amo means I love
you… or more like I love thee.


PS you guys need to look for a fruit, idk if its in the states, but its
called ‘’maracullá ‘’ here. It’s the greatest thing I've ever tasted.
Love, Elder Michael Wilson

3-9-2009 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER MURILLO

Hey everybody, sounds like the wedding turned out well. I'll admit reading
about everyone being together makes me pretty homesick, but it's all good.
Me and Kim can have a little pitty party about it when I get home.
 Turns out missions are way better when you have a companion. This week
Elder Murillo has been explaining a lot of little things to me. About every
conversation ends with the question ´´you didn’t know that? ´´ and then I
explain to him that I never actually had a trainer in my mission. But things
are going so much better; we are actually studying together, and actually
planning, and TALKING TO PEOPLE.
And like Elise said having Elder Torres for my comp has made me way less
picky about my comps. There are some little things about Elder Murillo that
would have bothered me b4, but now they don’t matter at all.
  We had an awesome week. Elder Torres left my area Monday morning, but
Elder Murillo didn’t come till Wednesday night. So for 3 days my comps were
our 18 yr old mission leader kevin and another 15 year old Fito. So I got a
little crash course in what training is like. I liked it quite a bit, I
worked them hard haha. Fito is really quiet so we’d be walking and I'd just
tell him ‘’ you're contacting the next person we see’’, he didn’t like that
too much.
  We had 2 more people get baptized this week, Javier and Kati. It was so
great, we had to break into the font again the ring of keys we had didn’t
have the font door key, I love Peru. We didn’t have time to clean the font,
but it looked clean, so we just filled er up. Too bad dead ants blend in
with black grout. Once the font filled up we had about 200 of the poor
little guys floating around, but we only had about 5min till we had to
start, so they all got baptized too.
  The really cool thing that happened this week was when we talked to
Kati's parents about being baptized. Cuz we had talked to the mom b4 and she
said Kati wasn’t ready. But then we came back when the dad(Hector)was there
too, he said it was ok. But the mom Maria said no. That’s when Hector took
the lesson over for us and taught for about 20 minutes. First he just said
‘’ Maria you're just scared, God wants Katy in this church, he has a purpose
for her’’. Later we asked him to read one scripture in Galatians about the
fruits of the spirit. After he started talking about how God had sent us
(the Elders) to the house to teach with the spirit…. ‘’Ya thanks Hector,
that about sums it up’’ After, Maria said it was ok.
  Its been an awesome week, things are going great. I'm still a horrible
teacher, but I'm going to improve a ton this change. Everybody take it easy.
                                         Love you all
                                          Elder Michael Wilson

3-2-2009 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER MURILLO


First of all HEEEEEEEEEEEEES GOOOOOOOOONE. Its been a long 4 and a half
months, but now, things are looking up.
 And my new companion…. Elder Murillo (ll= y sound). Haha, he´s been the
other area of my district for the last 3 transfers, and has been living like
4 minutes from my house, so we already know each other really well. He´s
from Ecuador and he's awesome. This next six weeks are gonna be a good time.
The funny thing is right now I live outside of my area in an area called los
jardines. And Elder Murrillo right now lives in the boundries of my area.
But now he's going to move out of Las Flores to Los Jardines…. So… he can
start working in … Las Flores. We both just started laughing when they read
the changes.
 So I have 8 months. Its so crazy. Time messes with you out here. We'll be
watching conference b4 ya know it then I'll be calling  again… and then the
YEAR.
I got the package from Valynn, thank you much. But I only talked to Derrick
Durrant for like 5 minutes, he seemed really cool. I sent some letters home
with them for you all. One is for Crystal and Matt. Mom told me a while ago
I should send one to be read at the wedding, so I did finally but Idk if its
gonna get to you guys in time. He's got them right now, so you can give him
a call.
  My area is still doing good, we´ve got this little guy named Javier ready
for baptism. Hes 11 yrs old and looks like an umpa lumpa, he's hilarious. I
gave him a Book of Mormon Saturdy and he shows up to church and is like
´´Elder Wilson… you didn’t sign anything in it´´. ´´haha, lo siento
Javier´´. But we might have 2 other people getting baptized, Kati and
Geraldín but we have to talk to their fams a bit more first. It's amazing
how much this area has changed since I've been here. Our zone was ´´The Bad
Zone´´ where they sent the bad elders. But now we baptize almost more than
anyone in Lima.
    Mom-Ya Pres Leyva told me a bit about Elder Christopherson. That is
very exciting. I would love to go, but now I've become use to Lima and can
definitely wait. Whatever happens I'm good with it. Those snow things are
called Snowcats, we´ve had some fun times in those.
  EE- Avalanche huh? Haha, I cant wait to get home haha.

Valynn- Ya lots of Elders still remember Derick Durant. Haha those stories
about Jamen and Kyle made me laugh really hard.
 kk-Im glad to hear Brian is still talking about me. Honestly one of my
fears is that he forgets me. All the other kids are old enough that im
pretty sure they wont forget… maybe Kyle haha.
Crystal/Matt- Hey I hope my letter makes it to the wedding. But if not,
good luck, love you guys.
              Alright well I gotta go. Things are going awesome now. Me and
Elder Murillo are going to have a good time these next 6 weeks.
                        I love you guys so much, have fun at the wedding.
                                    Elder Michael David Wilson

2-23-2009 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


Hey everybody,
  Well its been a good week. We had another person get baptized from our
hill ´´The Money Maker´´. Her name is Susan. The baptism was so nuts, we
only had keys to the front door to the capilla. And we wanted to sing hymns,
but almost everyone at he baptism were brand new members, so they didn't
know any of the songs. And the hymnarios were in the bishop’s office… which
was locked. But theres this weird little glass window above the door, so we
took the window out and had our mission leader climb through, I got it on
video… it’s a good one. Then after we figured out we didn’t have keys to get
into the font. We’ve climbed into the font b4, but this time it was totally
full. But right as we were getting ready to hop the railing the bishop
showed up. We started super late but its all good. When things go wrong in a
situation, it just makes it more memorable. I just sat and laughed.
 Our last P day was amazing, in the spirit of Los Carnivales we  played
with water balloons. The Zone leaders wanted to play some type of balloon
toss game, but 3 minutes in we were just like…´´ya…whatever,´´ and started
peggin each other and filling up tubs and drenching each other. It was a
good time.
 So… I have one week left. That is neat.  We were hardly together at all
this week. We are always doing divisions… basically to get away from each
other haha. I'm excited to get a new comp, there is a slight chance I might
be made senior comp, but probably not quite yet, but we’ll see.
  The work here is going really well. I had one convert in my first 5
months here, and 7 since my B Day. And we still have a lot of people who
should be getting baptized. But the thing is we still don’t work that hard,
we could be doing much much more. I'm laying down the law with my next comp,
even though I'll probably be jr comp.


Mom- that’s good Martin did a good job speaking, I love that guy. He’s going
to be awesome.
Dad- Now that you mention being in an area for 13 months… I really wouldn’t
mind  being here for a long time. I have an awesome ward, awesome room, and
still tons of people. But I do miss American Elders, haha, I still have a
tough time joking with most of the latin elders, they have a way different
sense of humour than me. Take care in CA, how long are you there for?

Valynn- 2 things. 1 can you send me some Purrell (no idea how to spell it)
the hand sanitizer. And tell Elder Durrant NOT to take the package to the
office. The elder in charge of the mail is horrible, and it won't get to me
4 ever. He was in an area called Los Jardines (the gardens) so he knows the
lady that cooks me breakfast, it’s the wife of the bishop, sister Haidé
(´´I-Day´´), can you tell him to take the package to here house?
Elise- Ya my mission is flying by… well most days its flying by, when I take
it one week at a time it goes so fast its ridiculous. But when I sit there
and think how many MONTHS I have left, it seems like 4 ever. And the
weirdest think I've eaten is cow intestines, but they tasted like shrimp.



Well I gotta go I love you guys so much. And I´ll have a new comp the next
time I write!
Love, Mike

2-16-2009 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


Hey everybody, first off send my love to Martin, he´ll do awesome over
there.
Well I think all my packages got to me today that was nice. One got to our
office January 19... I don't understand that. Anyways ya thanks for thinking
about me and sending me nice things.

It was a good week, not too eventful. Our investigator Susan didn’t end up
getting baptized this week, but she will this Saturday. But I ended up
baptizing an 8 year old named Adrian, he was supposed to get baptized by a
member but wanted us to do it. We did some killer service this week, hauling
bags of rocks up a hill, it killed all of us. But it's already starting to
cool down a bit so that made things a bit better.

We had a little movie night with our families on the hill (cerro). We
watched the Testaments and most of them cried. But the cool thing was we
watched it during a rain storm, so the entire time we had water coming in
through the roof, so that made it pretty memorable.

I only have 14! 14 more days! I’m so excited. We did our weekly goals and
all I wrote was ´´JUST HANG ON!´´. But now my district thinks I'm gonna be
senior comp in two weeks…. Yaaaaa. Not too sure about that. At 8 months it's
not out of the question to be senior comp, so I's possible, but we´ll see.
Its more the fact that I know my area so well and have really good relations
with the members and investigators.

And one thing. Can you guys send me some Ensigns with the conference talks
in them. Mom, I think you have a bunch saved from years past, I wanna start
studying some more of these talks, cuz I get a ton out of them.

Valynn- Honestly I totally forgot about Valentines Day till I read your
email. The mission has weddings every month, and they were on Valentines
Day, but we didn’t have anybody to take to the weddings, so it was a normal
day.

Mason- Ya I've done things like that with my comp. I remember one night I
just said ´´what does it matter right? You’re leaving in a few weeks´´. But
now I just don’t really care haha. I'm just doing what I need to do.

Kim- We have changes every 6 weeks. And this transfer ends march 3rd. And
since my comp is for sure leaving the area, it's almost certain that I'm
staying. But  our President has taken out both elders from one area two
times in our zone already. So I might be leaving. But more than likely I'll
be here again this next transfer. And the next transfer starts in march and
ends 6 weeks later like the 14th or April or something.

Well, ya, good week, pretty tranquila. Everybody stay warm, and I will too.
Love you guys
Elder Wilson

2-9-2009 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


Hey everybody!
 First of all mom, no I didn't get any of my packages, even though the one
from the lady came almost three weeks ago, its been sitting in the office.
Elder Hale told me his dad had to call to get them to send it. The elder in
charge of the mail is on a power trip and does this for no reason. So ya,
just call and ask for Elder Clark, he's not the mail guy but he speaks
English. Things get moving when parents call. I'm just mad cuz the cookies
are rotten by now. But I forgot to say in last weeks email that I got the
pkg with the ball and paddle and the toy gun.


 ….annywho. Things are going pretty great down her in the Los Flores. I
FOUND MY CAMERA CHIP! Awesome. The weeks are starting to go buy really
really fast now. We had another lima wide conference so I got to see all my
buddies. Elder Godoy of the 70 spoke, he was amazing. I ended up translating
for a missionary couple that don’t speak Spanish, so I didn’t take many
notes, but I listened much harder than usual, cuz your mind can't wander
when you're translating. He talked about the pre earth life and how we've
actually been training for our missions for atleast 5000 years.

Ha, not much else is going on. Camilia is back from the hospital, but she's
going  back in for surgery on her brain, I don’t really understand medical
terms in Spanish yet  so idk what she has. And we´re preparing Mishells
sister Susan for baptism this week, so that'll be neat. We might also get
some of our investigators married this week, but we’ll see about that. And I
got some more letters that had been sent to Santa Cruz… in July haha. I got
some from Cyd, Crystal and Valynn, the news was a tad old, but its all good.

Mom-Ya the Zimmermans are in our mission, I'm not 100% sure what their
calling is though. And Matt Mackay is getting married? Is it to Jenny? 

Dad- a kid in my ward is going to Argentina on his mission, and his pres is
from utah, Pres Lindahl, he served a mission in Uruguay Paraguay, and he's
in his late 50s so idk if you know him or not.

Valynn- Ya I really feel the spirit in the hymns now. Love at home is one of
my favorites.

Grandma, thanks for the sport update.

kk- ha I remember mom told me when I went through for the first time ´´now
mike, just trust us, don’t freak out´´. You guys are moving upstairs?...whos
living downstairs?...me in 16 months?


Alright guys you take care, I love you all soo much.

Elder Mike Wilson

2-2-2009 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


hey everybody. Missions are wierd. In my first seven months, I really tried
to work hard and to get my comp to work all day. But this change I turned
the pressure down a bit and just tried to maintain some peace, and.... BAM
we get 6 people to baptize. I baptized a girl named Mishel Matyory
Velazques, heres a fun one, Ñaña. and my comp baptized Josi and Nichol. It
looks bad baptizing just young girls, but their parents gave them permision,
and now we are teaching the rest of their families, so its all good. Well we
moved again, to a way nicer room. The owner of the house has a fridge he
lets us use, so thats.... awesome. Its getting really really really hot
here. The humiditys starting to get to me a bit, we need to buy a fan for
our room, its a bit stuffy.
Carnivales started yesterday. Its basically a month long water fight…. And
EVERYBODYS invited whether they like it or not, including us. A lady almost
got me yesterday from her roof, she had a big tub of water but it missed.
This other kid tried to hit us with a catapult thing, but that didn’t work
out too good either.

Other funny story, we met the family of Kati (Kathy), one of the girls we
are teaching. And her dad walked in sporting a very very very small speedo.
But hes a good guy, they seem pretty interested, and they support Kati 100%
in going to our church.


So we went to Pieros B Day party (Piero is the son of Betsi who i baptized
last week). Now the kids only 3, but he can already dance. Its that latin
blood. then afterwards they all played this game where everyone gets to hit
the loser, but it turned into HIT ELDER WILSON, so after a while we ran out
of the house, and then about 20 little kids chased me and my comp and my
pensh about 10 blocks  down the street. Everyone thought wed robbed
something. Which is funny, cuz how dumb would I have to be to commit a
crime, im literally the only white person for 5 miles.

Some bad news, Camila, Pieros sister got really sick Saturday night, shes
got a lot of health problems. Shes in a hospital in another mission, we
still haven’t received permission to visit her.

We have another mission conference this week, one of the area authorities is
coming to talk with us. But honestly im excited more cuz I get to see my
boys. Everyone is still in Lima cept for Elder Meredith. But he went to the
jungle, so I don’t feel too bad for him.


Mom- I don’t know elder Errils. Ive got gold bond and some Peruvian talcum
powder too, the powder smells like lime so im good

Crystal- The package didn’t show up today, it should have, but well see bout
next week. Good luck with wedding plans. Im starting to see how fast the
mission really goes.

Well I gotta go guys. Love you all, take care of yourselves.
               Love Elder Mike Wilson

1-26-09 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


Hey guys, first all, sorry about my last letter. I was soooooo upset when I
wrote. But I'm feeling a lot better. I was talkin to my buddy Elder Evans
the day we got ditched by our comps and he asked me, ´´so have you gone
through your crisis yet´´, well now I can say I have. Tuesday I totally
broke down, it was bad. I had to kneel down and just pray for help. After
that I've been great. I've really tried to be more positive and happy. Me
and my comp have only fought once this week, which is AMAZING.
Now I can finally say I'm getting LOST IN THE WORK. We had a ton of success
this week. We had THREE, that’s right THREE baptisms on the 24th and they
got confirmed yesterday. I baptized Nichol, and her mom Betsi, and my comp
baptized the oldest sister Camila. We've been helping this fam a bunch and
our ward has adopted them and their nieghbors. They are really poor and live
on the hill (cerro, get it?). We brought them one of our big bottles of
water cuz there are 7 people living there but they don’t have enough money
to pay the water bill. But they are so awesome. We are teaching all their
neighbors now. It looks pretty bad but we have a ton of investigators who
are girls from 9-13. But we are now teaching most of their parents. And I'm
going to start teaching English classes up there in the hills too, cuz it's
super far from the capilla and its expensve for them to get over there.
 But ya, things are going better. Out of nowhere we have a ton of people
interested, and I have Betsi and her fam to play with. I'm glad I have
atleast 3 months more in Las Flores.

Kim got your package today… sort of. The BBQ sauce broke in the bag. The big
card with the drawing wasn’t ruined, but its stained pretty bad. (Mint
chocolate with a hint of Kraft BBQ…. Not tasty haha). The stationary has one
corner stained but its ok, thanks.

I sent a Picture CD, and I REALLY hope you guys get it, cuz I lost one of my
chips. I still have my big one so don’t worry, but just let me know when
that shows up in the mail.

Mom- Thanks for the pick me up. Im starting to think part of my comps
problem is that he's anti American. I love it, he´ll say things about the US
and he went there once, to the ghetto of LA for 2 weeks. … Whatever.

Dad- My comps name is Israel Torres.

Valynn- Funny you should mention the purpose behind my pres leaving me with
my comp, cuz I asked him in the letter why, his response ´´no sé tampoco´´,
which means ´´I don’t know either´´´. But I love my pres and trust him, so
I'm just dealing with this.

KK- I know this time with my comp has changed me, I always use to be sad
with him, but now I'm finding more joy in the work, and once he leaves, I
will LOVE my mission.

Funny stories.

Yesterday in our new members class the door handle broke, so at the end of
class we climbed out through the window.

Saturday was my first baptism where I performed it. I always pictured this
amazing moment, but all I thought after was ´´Freak! Did I do that right?´´.

Last night I played a game with my fan club. It was some weird patty cake
type thing, and I was like, ya that’s cool whatever. But then somebody lost
and they all yell ´´ DARKNESS! DARKNESS´´….. What? Then they all get in a
line and the loser runs through and they all get to smack them as much as
they can. The loser of the patty cake game runs the GAUNTLET!

Anyways love you guys, Don’t worry I'm feeling better. I'm super excited for
everything your sending me, thanks a ton. Talk to you next week.

                 Elder Mike Wilson





ok, I still have 13 minutes, I always think I have way less time than I do.
I guess I could use this thing on my wrist to keep track of the time.

Well anyways I'll tell you about the fam we baptized. We contacted Camila,
the oldest months ago. And we always passed by, some times we'd talk to her
on the door step but never got into the house. The lessons are way better
inside then in the street. Then one day we were walking and I hear ´´WISON,
WISON!´´. It was Piero, Camilas little brother, with Betsi, the mom of the
family. We talked to her and she said we could come and teach her. The first
lesson I literaly made it 10 seconds and she just starts crying. Turns out
shes 32, and has 6 kids, with two 1 yr old twin girls. And her husband left
her. (I'm not a big fan of Peruvian men). We explained that we can help her
with the gospel and humanitarian aid. After that each time we came over,
there was another friend from the cerro(hill). So we've been getting a ton
of new people. We have 5 families we are teaching up there, and I think
they'll all get baptized b4 I leave (the earliest I leave Las Flores is the
middle of April). The families love us. They make me sing songs in english
for them, but I always do it cuz they find us people to teach. We are hoping
to baptize two of Nichol's friends this week, and we are making plans with
their parents to start teaching them (the parents) also.
Im starting to really love the people, it was tough at first.

You guys should read the talk ´´the atonement and missionary work´´ by Elder
Holland. That talk is so amazing, it was one of the things I read when I had
my crisis this week. Made me cry. I've never felt so touched, and so burned
at the same time. Also there's a talk called beware of pride, I think by
Pres. Benson. I've never considered myself cocky... but wow am I still
prideful. But ya those two talks have really helped me out this week, and
I'm really trying to apply both to my mission.

Ha I still have 5 minutes.  But I don't really know what else to say. Dad,
idk if its happened alreay or not, but let me know who won the superbowl.

Peace, Mike

1-19-09 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


Mom, i got your phraises for the day, im really gonna try and use them this
change. I still have some time, so ill try and talk a bit more.

Ill share what i learned from Elder Duncan that day i worked with him. Every
time we see him we use the same phraise, ´´ he just rocks it´´. He doesnt
let anything bug him, its great. He was sick that day, and had a broken arm,
and he was totally happy and was like, ´´man i gotta get back to my area.´´

Im letting all the little things bug me on my mission, i just gotta learn to
go with it. The mission has changed me, about 95% has been good haha. But i
feel like im more negative than when i left, and youre not supposed to be
like that.

I also learned something from elder Evans. EVERYBODY loves him all the
elders all the members all the investigators. Hes just so happy all the
time. We were standing here and hes like, ´´I love the mission´´. It really
worries me, but i truthfully can not say i love it yet. I know for a fact im
supposed to be out here, but im just really havign a tough time staying
happy and positive. IDK.
love ya guys

1-12-09 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


Hey everybody, sounds like all is well back home. Things are going ok here.
Im about 95 percent sure that one of us is leaving this week. Ive made it 11
weeks in my …. Situation, so I can last one more. Right now we are trying to
get Eduardo ready for his mission. We are going to take him shopping today to
get all the last things he needs. Last p day we went to the Limá zoo, it was
pretty cool, it was funny though cuz they had the ´´exotic´´ plants section,
and there were a bunch of pine and birch trees. And someone let Kortney know
I got the pic with a llama finally. I also read all the letters from the
missionaries from the stake, I felt really guilty cuz everyone is so excited
about the their missions… and im still having kinda a tough time. But that
will change in a week. (im so certain cuz Pres Leyva said hes going to
separate us). Yesterday was great, we had 13 investagators in the capilla.
We normally have about 3. So that was pretty great. 12 of them came in one
taxi that was pretty funny.
I learned a great lesson about obedience. Sometimes there are rules you
don’t want to follow, but whenever you follow them you are blessed. And many
times its not how you expected. This family that came to church, we’ve been
teaching them for like 5 weeks, but they are never home, but we tried to
talk to more people and do more contacts (contacts don’t really get you
anywhere in this area) and suddenly one day the mom of the fam actually let
us into the house. Now they hopefully will be baptized in the first part of
Febrero.
 Korts package came today with the T shirt…. That’s gonna raise some
questions here. I also have 21 dear elders to read, it’s a bit confusing,
but ill suck it up. I do enjoy getting the letters, but sometimes they come
super late. Well try the emails through dearelder for a while and see how it
goes.
 Mom good luck with wedding plans. Dad don’t burn anything in the kitchen.
Chase don’t lose your arm.
                       Love you guys, talk to you next week.
Elder Wilson

1-05-09 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


Hey everybody, sounds like new years was a good time and now things are
starting to get back to normal. That's the same story here. Limas a bit
crazier here cuz right now is their summer break, the nights are really
loud…. Well, LOUDER. And it's definitely summer now, cuz wow… its hot, I
really hope I get sent to a province, its way cooler there. Everyone lights
off fireworks for new years here. But they also make these giant dolls and
set them on fire in the streets, it's… interesting. We bought some Peruvian
fireworks. The wrapping for them were old shopping reciepts… they were
pretty good ones.
We moved this week. So now it's me and my comp….. allll by ourselves. We
fought a bit less though this week. You can tell we both are trying to end
this thing on some kind of good note. But ya, the room is… oh what's the
word… SMALL. Not joking, its about 8 feet by 20 feet. I gave a tour this
morning on my camera, so you'll get to see it in a while.
We had interviews the 30th with Pres Leyva. I just told him I'm always
unhappy cuz we aren't working hard at all, he got pretty mad and said he'll
do something about it. So I'm pretty sure I'll be getting a new come in ¡14!
Days. I knew coming into the mission I'd have to deal with comps that I
didn't get along with. But the reason we always fights is because we just
don't get things done.  He just doesn't care anymore; he's got less than 2
months. But I know I've changed a lot with him, I've learned to stand up and
call someone out when they're doing something wrong. But I haven't been
fighting too much with him lately cuz were trying to keep the peace. I just
can't wait to get away from him though. I'm just always sad and depressed.
This week we are having a bit more success, we found two families that seem
really interested. We are going to keep teaching them, but chances are I'll
leave b4 they get baptized, which is too bad but it's all good.
My buddy Eduardo leaves for his mission in 10 days, so we're helping him
prepare. His fam aren't members so the ward and the missionaries are helping
him get everything he needs. He's starting to get pretty nervous. But he's
going to be really great, he can talk to anybody.
Mom I got your package with all the letters, I think they're emails from my
friends; I didn't get a chance to read them. Also I got the package from
Marlene, and there were fruitsnacks in there! Did kortney help with that
too? As always thanks you guys for the packages. Ha, but now I have to
figure out where to store them in my room.
Some bad news, Pres Leyva said I can't write to your emails, so we'll have
to stick to this way.(sending them to Mom first) Sounds like I've got a lot
of bbq sauce coming. We'll see if the Latinos like it, cuz they don't like a
lot of other American food. Like peanut butter, Eduardo told me yesterday on
a scale of one to ten peanut butter is a ½.

Alright well I gotta go guys, be safe in the snow, love you guys.

Elder Wilson

PS I'm gonna try and start writing more letters to people too. But the
problem is, I still dont know much doctrine, and I teach really badly, so
most of my free time I'm trying to study something. But once I get things
more under control I'll start writing. So you should be seeing some letters
in about 10 months

12-29-2008 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


ha, dads story about getting a gun made me think of The Christmas Story when
all he wants is the BB gun and everyone said ´´you'll shoot your eye
out´´….hilarious. Dad maybe next year you'll get your fighter jet you've
always wanted. 
OK first of all if I'm not mistaken, I don't think I talked with Tyler.
Sorry bout that bud. The call was super nice, and I had a pretty tough time
hanging up. For mother's day I'm pretty sure I'll be talking for longer
haha.  It was so great to talk to everyone.
It was a pretty great week, christmas, the phone call, I burned a tie for my
6 month mark. And We got a lot of work done in my area… because I was with a
zone leader for 2 of the days. His name is Elder Morote, he's a stud. His
house is about 45 min from my area, that'd be hard to deal with. But in
those 2 days, we found more new people, and got more references, than me and
Elder Torrez have had in almost 2 changes. It was really nice.

I can't remember who said it in the email, but I should look at the positive
things of my time here. I know I'm definetly learning  a lot. I'm growing
and learning to be more motivated and selfsufficient, cuz I have to be the
one that schedules, and says when we should leave the house.  I really want
to be senior comp, some elders make it by their 8 month mark, that'd be
nice. I just wanna train, I'd love that. Just train for the next 12 changes
(the rest of my mission).  But this time with my comp is making me a much
stronger person.
I got Elise's package with the hoop in it, I haven't seen what the other
things are in there. I ate one of the bfast bars, they were pretty good.
All the packages are very much appreciated.

I remembered some things I need. There's these super nice scripture markers
I bought in the mtc but I broke 2 and the other one just ran out of crayon
stuff. But crystal I bet they're in the byu bookstore, there called Eagle
Scripture markers. If you could send me some that'd be so great. Also, I
really miss bbq sauce, could someone send me some for my bday? Oh and next
week send me one email address for each family, and I'll try and get them
approved by the president.

Well not much else is going on, January should be good, we're gonna work
with the nuevos we found, one family looks really great Bruk, his wife
Viviana and there son Matias. I gotta keep working on my teaching, cuz it's
really bad still, and I'm  not trying to be humble here folks.
Love you guys Elder Wilson

12-8-2008 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ

Hi everybody,
 So first of all changes are today, and I'm staying in good ol Las Flores.
My companion is staying here too….we´ll try and make this change better than
the other one, cuz well, we're not exactly buds right now. I got 8 packages
this week. 3 were from kk with the ornaments, one was from the ward (tell
them thanks I'll send them a letter soon). And the others were from home,
covered in the virgin maria. I don’t think I'm missing any packages, they
all were send nov 19.
We had a pretty good week. This area is really tough, and the people that
are interested are barely home. But we are starting to teach a kid named
Irvin from the jungle, he's buddies with Eduardo, he's awesome, we took him
to the Christmas Devotional last night. I got to do some cool service this
week, cutting a mans lawn with hedge clippers, it was tiring but really
cool. Now in Santa Cruz they do it with machetes, which is better.
Speaking of Santa Cruz the meeting was to tell us to forget about it. It
was basically to tell us that we are not working hard because we are thinkg
about how different this place is than Bolivia. And they told us that most
of the missionaries will finish here and not there. So ya, idk what to say
or think about that whole situation. But I got to see Jacobsen, Ward, Duncan
and Evans, that was awesome. We all went to McDonalds after.
It sounds like I can call you guys for Christmas, should I wait to open my
things over the phone?
Kim- I'm glad Brennen enjoyed the pkg, haha and there's going to be a
another Mason, haha. For Christmas here everyone gets drunk and lights off
fireworks, it sounds like the 4th of July. We have p day that day so we´re
going to be cookin all the food I got.
Valynn yes I got the pkg of Tyler's baptism. Don’t let Kyle kill himself.
Mom- I have a cd player already, but honestly we don’t listen to much music.
Be sure Vanessa knows that Hale is leaving.
OK I gotta go, love you guys so much, talk to you in a bit.