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