Bolivia Time

We Believe

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Jun 8, 2009

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

Jun 7, 2009

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

MISSION HOME ADDRESS

Elder Michael David Wilson
Mision Peru Lima Este
Calle Los Agrologos 368
Urbinizacion Las Acacias de Monterrico
La Molina, Lima 12, Peru

POUCH ADDRESS

Only a single sheet of paper folded and taped can be sent via this address.

Elder Michael D. Wilson
Peru Lima East Mission
P.O. Box 30150
SLC, UT 84130-0150

ELDER MICHAEL WILSON

MISSION: Bolivia Santa Cruz ENTERED MTC ON: June 25, 2008 RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2010

COUNTDOWN

FAVORITE SCRIPTURE

2nd Nephi 15: 26-30
26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth; and behold, they shall come with speed swiftly; none shall be weary nor stumble among them.

27 None shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken;

28 Whose arrows shall be sharp, and all their bows bent, and their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind, their roaring like a lion.

29 They shall roar like young lions; yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry away safe, and none shall deliver.

30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea; and if they look unto the land, behold, darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof

Mike receiving his call!

Mike receiving his call!