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.