Subject: Where am I?!?!... Venice?!?! ….
Ya, so I'm a zone leader…. I got moved from Villa Montes to the zone Montero. Its like an hour outside of Santa Cruz. I'm in an area called Pampala Madre, in English it means Field the Mother. But ya I'm just trying to get used to everthing. Being zone leader isn't too hard, just more time consuming. The only thing is that we have to give a lot of classes and training...which...well... I'm just terrible at right now. But basically I just have to give a good example. My comp is helping me out a ton. This is his last change and he wants to end well, so we are working super hard. The area is great, we had 13 people in church yesterday and 9 people with dates. The reason for the success is because our branch looks like a ward from the states, its awesome. I just have to keep the ball rolling after Elder Vasquez leaves.I had a pretty great first day. I was in a trio with another zone leader named Elder Anderson from AZ. The first night it rained harder than I've ever seen in my life. We woke up to flooded streets the next day in most places the water was past my knees. We would spend like 15 minutes at each intersection trying to figure out a way cross. But then me and Elder Anderson said ´´forget it´´ and just trugged (I actually spelled that right)through the water. My zone is pretty cool. Elder Cockram from my group is in my zone. My amigo Elder Thompson, who's ending this transfer is opening an area here too. And another Elder named Elder Manrique is here too. It's so weird being in charge. I need to be a little more vocal I don't really say much. The people here are awesome. There's a convert here that reminds me so much of Eduardo from my first area in Lima. He name is Juan, I wanna bring him to the states too haha. But he' awesome, he's always helping us out with visits. We are teaching a little grandma named Mercedez. She doesn't see or hear too well, so we teach with a lot of pictures. We wanted to teach her about baptism but she couldnt see the picture in the pamphlet we had. So we took a 2 foot by 3 foot painting off the wall and stuck it in her lap... it was just so funny looking. ´´OH, now I see´´. She's such a sweet little lady. She's getting baptized the 30th. So ya, I'm just trying to get use to this whole thing. I have less than a week doing this. And tommorow we have zone conference, so I get to teach a class in front of President Maynes, that'll be interesting.I might end my mission here in Montero... thats crazy. Before I forget... I dont know if this exists, but is there some kind of sunblock that's also a bug spray? Cuz... that'd be awesome
Crystal- What are you going to study?
Mom-Dad- Thats good to hear about Kay's septic flowing again.
Grandma- Thanks for the news.
EE- ya I saw a couple of my buddies. Elder Jacobsen is now a Zone leader outin the Amazon, Elder Evans, Elder Ward and Elder Allen are all Zone Leadersin Santa cruz. With each trasnfer more and more from my group will be ZoneLeaders, so we´ll be seeing each other a lot.
Kim- Brennen is a funny kid.
Well... this is just funny. I'll get a hang of this more hopefully thisweek. Love you guys, talk to you when I'm 21.
Love Elder Wilson
playlist
Jan 18, 2010
Jan 13, 2010
1-11-2010 E-MAIL
Subject: What do you mean ''Im invited''?
Hey everybody, Well I really have no idea why but Im in Santa cruz again. But I'll explain that a bit later. Evelyn FINALLY was baptized this week. It was the most stressful interview and baptism of my mission. Since the zone leaders have to travel almost 2 hours to get to us we had to call them with a for sure time of the interview. Problem was we called their pension.(cook) a broken cell phone. So we just prayed and waited. We had said that 4 would be a good time to do it, so we just hoped they'd get some inspiration and show up. Everything worked out well and she got interviewed. Then came the baptism: Everything was perfect,we found her and then brought her to the chapel at 5. A ton of the young women and their leaders were there to support her. But oh. Woops. NO PRIESTHOOD. There has to be at least one more holder of the priesthood there. We called, the president, in the country, mission leader and his dad, in the country. Our penshes husband, phone is dead, secretary, phone doesnt work.''ARE WE THE ONLY TWO HOLDERS IN THE WHOLE CITY?!?!?'' we said. But after everything we decided to call the secretary again and this time we got a hold of him and he was able to save our rears. We were expecting somthing to happen on Sunday, but everthing worked out great. Evelyn was there 40 minutes early, she even beat us to the chapel. Stressful, but good time, I learned a lesson about faith and hope... Pres Hinckley always said ''don't worry, it'll work out'', I'm trying to say that more. Pres Maynes came down for a late Christmas Conference. I don't do his talks justice when I explain, but this one was just amazing. He talked about the trials we have in the mission, and picked me as an example. He got really close to me and started talking about how all the trials that come with Villamontes make me feel as if I were taking one or two steps towards Calgary. That it makes me realize and appreciate the Atonement. We were looking eye to eye the whole time he explained this. I felt like I was on fire (in a good way). Oh. he's just the man. I hope one day you all get to meet him and listen to him speak. Ok so after the conference we are all leaving and I say goodbye to the assistant and he says '' hey Elder Wilson, we'll see you on Tuesday''.''what?''. ''ya, youre invited to ZONE LEADER CONFERENCE''. ''WHAT?!?!'' So ya I dont know what is going on. All I know is I'm done in Villamontes, and now I might be a zone leader. but I tihnk I'm District Leader, but this time with and actual district. But tomorrow I get to be with President Maynes again, so that'll be neat. Next week I'll be able to tell you guys more, I am clueless right now.
KK-sounds like you guys are having fun!
Mom-Adrian was my boating buddy before the mission haha.
Crystal-ya, I definatly dont have to worry about ice here.
Valynn- Thank you for the story about Kyle. I do my own laundry, and our pensh gives us lunch. I really dont ever eat dinner haha. No one does.
G-ma, thanks for the news.
EE-photography, solid hobby.
Ok, well, love you guys. There should be more news next week.
Love, Elder Wilson
Hey everybody, Well I really have no idea why but Im in Santa cruz again. But I'll explain that a bit later. Evelyn FINALLY was baptized this week. It was the most stressful interview and baptism of my mission. Since the zone leaders have to travel almost 2 hours to get to us we had to call them with a for sure time of the interview. Problem was we called their pension.(cook) a broken cell phone. So we just prayed and waited. We had said that 4 would be a good time to do it, so we just hoped they'd get some inspiration and show up. Everything worked out well and she got interviewed. Then came the baptism: Everything was perfect,we found her and then brought her to the chapel at 5. A ton of the young women and their leaders were there to support her. But oh. Woops. NO PRIESTHOOD. There has to be at least one more holder of the priesthood there. We called, the president, in the country, mission leader and his dad, in the country. Our penshes husband, phone is dead, secretary, phone doesnt work.''ARE WE THE ONLY TWO HOLDERS IN THE WHOLE CITY?!?!?'' we said. But after everything we decided to call the secretary again and this time we got a hold of him and he was able to save our rears. We were expecting somthing to happen on Sunday, but everthing worked out great. Evelyn was there 40 minutes early, she even beat us to the chapel. Stressful, but good time, I learned a lesson about faith and hope... Pres Hinckley always said ''don't worry, it'll work out'', I'm trying to say that more. Pres Maynes came down for a late Christmas Conference. I don't do his talks justice when I explain, but this one was just amazing. He talked about the trials we have in the mission, and picked me as an example. He got really close to me and started talking about how all the trials that come with Villamontes make me feel as if I were taking one or two steps towards Calgary. That it makes me realize and appreciate the Atonement. We were looking eye to eye the whole time he explained this. I felt like I was on fire (in a good way). Oh. he's just the man. I hope one day you all get to meet him and listen to him speak. Ok so after the conference we are all leaving and I say goodbye to the assistant and he says '' hey Elder Wilson, we'll see you on Tuesday''.''what?''. ''ya, youre invited to ZONE LEADER CONFERENCE''. ''WHAT?!?!'' So ya I dont know what is going on. All I know is I'm done in Villamontes, and now I might be a zone leader. but I tihnk I'm District Leader, but this time with and actual district. But tomorrow I get to be with President Maynes again, so that'll be neat. Next week I'll be able to tell you guys more, I am clueless right now.
KK-sounds like you guys are having fun!
Mom-Adrian was my boating buddy before the mission haha.
Crystal-ya, I definatly dont have to worry about ice here.
Valynn- Thank you for the story about Kyle. I do my own laundry, and our pensh gives us lunch. I really dont ever eat dinner haha. No one does.
G-ma, thanks for the news.
EE-photography, solid hobby.
Ok, well, love you guys. There should be more news next week.
Love, Elder Wilson
1-4-2010 E-MAIL
Subject: They've gone A-wall on us!
Hey everybody, Well New Years was, well less exciting than usual. We had to be in the house at 9pm sharp, so we left our Branch Activity after the first 10 minutes. But the week went really well. Evelin and Yanete came to church, AND WEDIDN'T EVEN HAVE TO GO GET EM. amazing. Evelin didn't get baptized last week, but this Saturday fosho. And Yanete (Im still not sure how to spell her name) is being baptized the 16th. We found a lot of new people this week. We are working with two new families Ariel y Claudia and the Cardona family. And a lady brought a family to the New Years activity, but we only talked to them for about 20 seconds then left. But the member knows them so we'll visit them this week.I sent a package of letters last Monday, and they told me that it'll be there in two weeks.a guarantee but in Bolivia. So the package might get to Pasco b4 I do.Our zone leader came to visit us for two days, not horrible, but really not that much fun, haha. But ya funny story about that. First of all, mom you can testify that I'm good at getting up on time. And in the mission honestly I'm really really good at getting up at 630, I've slept past 630 MAYBE ten times in 18 months. Well one of those times was Wednesday, when my ZL called to say he was coming. I'd forgotten to set my alarm, and he called at 635.So the phone wakes me up, I look at the clock and read 6 15, not 35. Then I answer the phone like a zombie, and he asks me if I was sleeping. And I answer (rather irritated) ''Of course I was sleeping''. I'm not sure if I explained the story that well but I made an idiot of myself, and my leaders think I'm a lazy bum. its neat.I actually have a few funny stories from this week. After email we went and took some pictures of Villamontes. and I took a bit of a spill. I was taking a picture of a statue called El Soldado Desconocido. And I didn't see a little white fence circling the statue. So I trip over the fence, and it wouldn't have been a problem, except for the fact that I was holding my camera so I couldn't use my hands to brace me. So as I'm falling I'm saying to myself ''Well. I don't want to land on my camera.. SPIN MOVE!''. So I some how twist myself around, landing my ribs square on the corner of the sidewalk. Ya did not feel good. I was walking kinda funny for a few days cuz I sprained my ankle too. But I'm all good now. Funny story number two. Every Sunday night I report my numbers to my Zone leader, normally at 10pm. I called him 3 times and he never answered. So I assumed he'd just call me. We waited till like 10:35 for his call, then we went to bed. 10 minutes later we hear a knock on our door. It's a member with her cell phone. ''Your zone leader wants to talk to you''. So I answer the phone ''ELDER WILSON WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? Me, the assistanst and PRESIDENT MAYNES have been trying to call you for THREE days.'' Turns out our phone is messed up and doesn't accept calls. So everyone thought we had gone a-wall or something cuz they were calling in the morning when we were supposed to be studying.nothing. And at night when we were supposed to be sleeping. nothing. I'm pretty sure President Maynes was getting ready to come hunt us down. Anyways. everything is good now haha.
Mom- These were questions I had. I just wanna know if we are following the rules here or not.
Valynn- Happy Birthday Kaitlyn! The weather here is hot and humid. Its normal for this region. But the humidity bugs me still. If you think its crazy that I was 9 when Kaitlyn born, think how old I was when Jamen was born.
EE- Its hot and really sticky here. Thank you very much for the pictures. All the grand kids look the same.
Kim- New Years was actually pretty quiet. There weren't even many fireworks.Ya, we were in the house at 9pm. and Im pretty sure our leaders were calling, and thinking we were clubbing or something. EE says Liam looks like Kyle? What about Jace?
KK-Everyone is growing up so fast and making me feel old.
ok, love you guys. Talk to you later
Elder Wilson
Hey everybody, Well New Years was, well less exciting than usual. We had to be in the house at 9pm sharp, so we left our Branch Activity after the first 10 minutes. But the week went really well. Evelin and Yanete came to church, AND WEDIDN'T EVEN HAVE TO GO GET EM. amazing. Evelin didn't get baptized last week, but this Saturday fosho. And Yanete (Im still not sure how to spell her name) is being baptized the 16th. We found a lot of new people this week. We are working with two new families Ariel y Claudia and the Cardona family. And a lady brought a family to the New Years activity, but we only talked to them for about 20 seconds then left. But the member knows them so we'll visit them this week.I sent a package of letters last Monday, and they told me that it'll be there in two weeks.a guarantee but in Bolivia. So the package might get to Pasco b4 I do.Our zone leader came to visit us for two days, not horrible, but really not that much fun, haha. But ya funny story about that. First of all, mom you can testify that I'm good at getting up on time. And in the mission honestly I'm really really good at getting up at 630, I've slept past 630 MAYBE ten times in 18 months. Well one of those times was Wednesday, when my ZL called to say he was coming. I'd forgotten to set my alarm, and he called at 635.So the phone wakes me up, I look at the clock and read 6 15, not 35. Then I answer the phone like a zombie, and he asks me if I was sleeping. And I answer (rather irritated) ''Of course I was sleeping''. I'm not sure if I explained the story that well but I made an idiot of myself, and my leaders think I'm a lazy bum. its neat.I actually have a few funny stories from this week. After email we went and took some pictures of Villamontes. and I took a bit of a spill. I was taking a picture of a statue called El Soldado Desconocido. And I didn't see a little white fence circling the statue. So I trip over the fence, and it wouldn't have been a problem, except for the fact that I was holding my camera so I couldn't use my hands to brace me. So as I'm falling I'm saying to myself ''Well. I don't want to land on my camera.. SPIN MOVE!''. So I some how twist myself around, landing my ribs square on the corner of the sidewalk. Ya did not feel good. I was walking kinda funny for a few days cuz I sprained my ankle too. But I'm all good now. Funny story number two. Every Sunday night I report my numbers to my Zone leader, normally at 10pm. I called him 3 times and he never answered. So I assumed he'd just call me. We waited till like 10:35 for his call, then we went to bed. 10 minutes later we hear a knock on our door. It's a member with her cell phone. ''Your zone leader wants to talk to you''. So I answer the phone ''ELDER WILSON WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? Me, the assistanst and PRESIDENT MAYNES have been trying to call you for THREE days.'' Turns out our phone is messed up and doesn't accept calls. So everyone thought we had gone a-wall or something cuz they were calling in the morning when we were supposed to be studying.nothing. And at night when we were supposed to be sleeping. nothing. I'm pretty sure President Maynes was getting ready to come hunt us down. Anyways. everything is good now haha.
Mom- These were questions I had. I just wanna know if we are following the rules here or not.
Valynn- Happy Birthday Kaitlyn! The weather here is hot and humid. Its normal for this region. But the humidity bugs me still. If you think its crazy that I was 9 when Kaitlyn born, think how old I was when Jamen was born.
EE- Its hot and really sticky here. Thank you very much for the pictures. All the grand kids look the same.
Kim- New Years was actually pretty quiet. There weren't even many fireworks.Ya, we were in the house at 9pm. and Im pretty sure our leaders were calling, and thinking we were clubbing or something. EE says Liam looks like Kyle? What about Jace?
KK-Everyone is growing up so fast and making me feel old.
ok, love you guys. Talk to you later
Elder Wilson
12-28-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: EL AÑO NUEVO 2010
Hey everybody,It was great to here everybody this week. I had you guys call too early though, the kids were all half asleep. I swear we were usually all up by like 6 for Christmas. And I’m pretty proud that I talked for less than an hour, way better than the other two times. Ha, I heard a voice I didn’t recognize ask me about what words I'd forgotten in English, and I thought it was Matt, so I started saying words in Spanish that I don’t always remember well in English. The only response I got was ‘’I don’t speak Spanish, this is Chris’’…whoops. Christmas was pretty quite. The town was dead until about 4 in the afternoon. Here Christmas Eve is the big deal, and Christmas day is recovery time, so we didn’t do anything. I wanted to bake the cookies but I'm not sure how much a cup of butter is in grams. Can someone look that up for me.I'll give them away or something for new years. After Christmas day our week ended really, really well. We had three investigators in church yesterday, and all three have baptism dates, two for this week. But we are worried because two of them might be moving to Santa Cruz. Last week we lost two families who moved to Santa Cruz too, nuts. Today they are going to give us the final word. Two other people, Rolando and his step son Lisandro accepted dates last night, but haven’t been to church yet. But things are looking better here. We are really trying to focus more in the people that are showing progress. It's tough but if there is someone that just doesn’t comply with the invitations we give, we have to focus in teaching or finding people more prepared. I lost so much time here trying to get people to do the simplest things, like praying for 10 seconds.I totally forgot the point I was going to make.I'm in a different internet right now and the connection is WAY faster, so I finally opened those photos from Dad. Beau! Hahaha. Where is his girlfriend from? So funny story, Yanete our investigator was talking about how her brother got stepped on by a horse and got the tip of his finger cut off. Then she says ‘’we still have the finger’’ and pulls a little plastic off a display shelf in her store, takes off the top and… BAM… severed finger. Interesting conversation piece. Oh and I finally found the post office so today I am going to send all those letters for my friends(for realzies), and this week I'll write some for all you guys.
Crystal- Don’t worry about the chocolate, we just refroze it and ate it. The chocolate orange was sooooo good. Emily is leaving in March? Wow.
Mom- Thanks for taking care of all my schooling and license stuff. Let me know what classes I'm going to be taking. Ill be sure to write both Grandmas. How is Grandma Wilson? I cant think of anything I need right now,just more pictures/cards.
EE- I'll be waiting for pictures!
Valynn- Ya things are tough here, lots of problems, but we’ve already been seeing progress. That’s crazy/scary about the breakins.
Grandma Gulliver- So it took me 21 years and two continents to do it, but last night I finally met someone else named Melba. I’m pretty sure you’re the only two in the world.
Well… I can’t think of anything else to say. Actually I have two random
questions that I need answered.1- Does it say anywhere that a woman HAS to wear a skirt to church?2- Does it say anywhere what should be done with the sacrament bread after the sacrament?
Ok, well if someone could answer those questions for me that’d be super.Love you guys, be safe during New Years. Chris, happy b-day. Talk to you all next week.
Love Elder Wilson
Hey everybody,It was great to here everybody this week. I had you guys call too early though, the kids were all half asleep. I swear we were usually all up by like 6 for Christmas. And I’m pretty proud that I talked for less than an hour, way better than the other two times. Ha, I heard a voice I didn’t recognize ask me about what words I'd forgotten in English, and I thought it was Matt, so I started saying words in Spanish that I don’t always remember well in English. The only response I got was ‘’I don’t speak Spanish, this is Chris’’…whoops. Christmas was pretty quite. The town was dead until about 4 in the afternoon. Here Christmas Eve is the big deal, and Christmas day is recovery time, so we didn’t do anything. I wanted to bake the cookies but I'm not sure how much a cup of butter is in grams. Can someone look that up for me.I'll give them away or something for new years. After Christmas day our week ended really, really well. We had three investigators in church yesterday, and all three have baptism dates, two for this week. But we are worried because two of them might be moving to Santa Cruz. Last week we lost two families who moved to Santa Cruz too, nuts. Today they are going to give us the final word. Two other people, Rolando and his step son Lisandro accepted dates last night, but haven’t been to church yet. But things are looking better here. We are really trying to focus more in the people that are showing progress. It's tough but if there is someone that just doesn’t comply with the invitations we give, we have to focus in teaching or finding people more prepared. I lost so much time here trying to get people to do the simplest things, like praying for 10 seconds.I totally forgot the point I was going to make.I'm in a different internet right now and the connection is WAY faster, so I finally opened those photos from Dad. Beau! Hahaha. Where is his girlfriend from? So funny story, Yanete our investigator was talking about how her brother got stepped on by a horse and got the tip of his finger cut off. Then she says ‘’we still have the finger’’ and pulls a little plastic off a display shelf in her store, takes off the top and… BAM… severed finger. Interesting conversation piece. Oh and I finally found the post office so today I am going to send all those letters for my friends(for realzies), and this week I'll write some for all you guys.
Crystal- Don’t worry about the chocolate, we just refroze it and ate it. The chocolate orange was sooooo good. Emily is leaving in March? Wow.
Mom- Thanks for taking care of all my schooling and license stuff. Let me know what classes I'm going to be taking. Ill be sure to write both Grandmas. How is Grandma Wilson? I cant think of anything I need right now,just more pictures/cards.
EE- I'll be waiting for pictures!
Valynn- Ya things are tough here, lots of problems, but we’ve already been seeing progress. That’s crazy/scary about the breakins.
Grandma Gulliver- So it took me 21 years and two continents to do it, but last night I finally met someone else named Melba. I’m pretty sure you’re the only two in the world.
Well… I can’t think of anything else to say. Actually I have two random
questions that I need answered.1- Does it say anywhere that a woman HAS to wear a skirt to church?2- Does it say anywhere what should be done with the sacrament bread after the sacrament?
Ok, well if someone could answer those questions for me that’d be super.Love you guys, be safe during New Years. Chris, happy b-day. Talk to you all next week.
Love Elder Wilson
12-21-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: Merry Christmas
Hey everybody, Well its Monday again. Things are going pretty well here in Villamontes. We had a way better week as far as work goes. Last Monday I finally sat for a few hours and mapped out each family in the branch, so now we were are planning we always have someone to look for. Its nice cuz now we can knock doors and ask people for help in finding a member, and normally the people dont blow us off. Then after we can talk with them a bit and take out an appointment. Its neat. We also taught a man named Rodolfo this week. His wife is a member and he has been going to church for a long time. We prayed with him and said he already knows its true but he's not ready to be baptized. We are pretty excited to keep working with him. But he didnt come to church yesterday, we have a family home evening with him tonight so we'll see what happened. Mom, we made the stars in primary yesterday. It was nuts but it worked out fine. One kid wouldnt stop eating the glue. he's 11. Speaking of church. none of our investigators came. It's so hard to get them to come to church here. We need to think of more we can do to bring them to church. We've been calling to remind them and when we can we send a member to get them. We are normally in the chapel doing having some kind of meeting, but I think Im going to stop going because we basically just sit there and waste time talking about problems without looking for a solution. And plus if I stop going and start passing by the houses of investigators,we'll start having more success. There is so much drama here in this place. I have a talk this Sunday, i think Im going to talk about building up Zion and talk about in Alma when the members were a . Stumbling block? Cuz wow, I am getting tired of hearing from less actives and just people in the street that they dont want to go to church because of something a member did. So ya we are going to review some scriptures about the consequences of all that junk. But ya anyways, Im really looking forward to talking with everbody. President Maynes has a way of making us want to follow the rules. So this call I really want to try and talk for the time it says in the manual:40(ish) minutes. Last time you guys made a list of questions for me, you could do that again if you want.
Valynn- I got a ton packages this week, but I dont think I got yours yet. Ill be waiting to hear about what happened to Kyle.
G-Ma-thanks for the news, talk to you this Friday.
Dad- We are really going to work hard on Christmas day. Im trying to upload your photos but they arent working. If each photo is under 1mb it works, but over that, the computer falls apart.
EE-got your photos, thank you much.
KK- Christmas really isnt big here, its pretty depressing. I've only seen a handful of houses decorated here.
Kim-We'll be visiting lots of members on Christmas, IDK if they'll give us anything to eat haha. Yes your pictures came this week, thank you very much.Jace is huge.
Mom- Tell Parker to just email me through you guys, it'll be way easier. I read Matt's letter, Im glad Im not a zone leader. Im just district leader.well, pretend district leader. Let me know what happens with my classes and housing. And please don't forget about my license haha, that's got to be renewed too. And. umm. I started thinking about the newspaper thing, and read in the manual about things we should read. And I could definitely use the time to read something that helps me as a missionary. So ya, you guys don't need to send me it anymore.
Well everybody, I love you, talk to you in a few days.
Elder Wilson
PS This week we visited a guy with a pet monkey. I want one. And I got bit by a parrot.
Hey everybody, Well its Monday again. Things are going pretty well here in Villamontes. We had a way better week as far as work goes. Last Monday I finally sat for a few hours and mapped out each family in the branch, so now we were are planning we always have someone to look for. Its nice cuz now we can knock doors and ask people for help in finding a member, and normally the people dont blow us off. Then after we can talk with them a bit and take out an appointment. Its neat. We also taught a man named Rodolfo this week. His wife is a member and he has been going to church for a long time. We prayed with him and said he already knows its true but he's not ready to be baptized. We are pretty excited to keep working with him. But he didnt come to church yesterday, we have a family home evening with him tonight so we'll see what happened. Mom, we made the stars in primary yesterday. It was nuts but it worked out fine. One kid wouldnt stop eating the glue. he's 11. Speaking of church. none of our investigators came. It's so hard to get them to come to church here. We need to think of more we can do to bring them to church. We've been calling to remind them and when we can we send a member to get them. We are normally in the chapel doing having some kind of meeting, but I think Im going to stop going because we basically just sit there and waste time talking about problems without looking for a solution. And plus if I stop going and start passing by the houses of investigators,we'll start having more success. There is so much drama here in this place. I have a talk this Sunday, i think Im going to talk about building up Zion and talk about in Alma when the members were a . Stumbling block? Cuz wow, I am getting tired of hearing from less actives and just people in the street that they dont want to go to church because of something a member did. So ya we are going to review some scriptures about the consequences of all that junk. But ya anyways, Im really looking forward to talking with everbody. President Maynes has a way of making us want to follow the rules. So this call I really want to try and talk for the time it says in the manual:40(ish) minutes. Last time you guys made a list of questions for me, you could do that again if you want.
Valynn- I got a ton packages this week, but I dont think I got yours yet. Ill be waiting to hear about what happened to Kyle.
G-Ma-thanks for the news, talk to you this Friday.
Dad- We are really going to work hard on Christmas day. Im trying to upload your photos but they arent working. If each photo is under 1mb it works, but over that, the computer falls apart.
EE-got your photos, thank you much.
KK- Christmas really isnt big here, its pretty depressing. I've only seen a handful of houses decorated here.
Kim-We'll be visiting lots of members on Christmas, IDK if they'll give us anything to eat haha. Yes your pictures came this week, thank you very much.Jace is huge.
Mom- Tell Parker to just email me through you guys, it'll be way easier. I read Matt's letter, Im glad Im not a zone leader. Im just district leader.well, pretend district leader. Let me know what happens with my classes and housing. And please don't forget about my license haha, that's got to be renewed too. And. umm. I started thinking about the newspaper thing, and read in the manual about things we should read. And I could definitely use the time to read something that helps me as a missionary. So ya, you guys don't need to send me it anymore.
Well everybody, I love you, talk to you in a few days.
Elder Wilson
PS This week we visited a guy with a pet monkey. I want one. And I got bit by a parrot.
12-14-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: BAPTISM
Hey everybody,We had a great week here in the really dirty south. It has been raining and the water has turned brown. So it looked like we filled the baptismal font with beer on this week. Pastor was baptized on Saturday and confirmed yesterday. He asked me after his baptism how he should dress for church and I told him just to come in the best clothes he had. He showed up in a shirt and brought us his tie to tie for him, it was pretty great. Its so much easier to stay excited and positive when people are being baptized. We had a great conference down in Santa Cruz. I got to see Elder Puglisi,Elder Duncan, Elder Allan and Elder Evans. Elder Gavarrett was awesome. He's really calm. which is not what we are use to with President Maynes. But wow,he just taught everything so simply. And at the end he told us about how he has received special testimony of the Book of Mormon and then he gave it to us. sorry Im not explaining that really well, but he actually asked us not to tell other people much about it. We had some travel problems coming back from Santa Cruz. No one bought our tickets so we bought them at the lsat second. Normally we spend about 120 Bolivians on out tickets. these ones were 25 B's. need I say more. The song Ridin Dirty comes to mind. There was actually a fight that broke out in the middle of the ride. it was just neat .After the trip I had divisions with my buddy Elder Hanks. he'll be sitting in his house on Friday. He can't believe it and neither can I. When I met him he had one month more than I do right now.So IDK when I'm doing my precall. I already know it'll be Christmas morning,I think I wanna call at like 9ish your time. Mom Ill call the house first and if not be sure to have your cell ready. Try and figure out how expensive it is to call Bolivia, and Ill see how bad it is to call you guys from here.I think its cheaper if you call me.
Mom- Ummmm.. sorry I don't remember who Wayne Monson is. Who is Karalee getting married to? There aren't nativity sets where I am. I should have thought about that when I was in Santa Cruz. But Ill see what I can do.
Crystal-No news is good news right.
Valynn-If the kids are upset about the tree, tell them I haven't seen a pine tree in a long time. Last year I saw the Christmas broadcast, but not this year.
EE-my comp. is watching Japanese cartoons on the internet right now.
KK- I don't know how they celebrate Christmas here but I am sure it will involve beer.
Chris,Valynn- Thank you very much for the pictures. All the kids are HUGE!
Grandma-Thank you for the update!
Well everyone I gotta go, I love you so much. Talk to you in 11 days. but for only like 40 minutes, sorry.
Elder Wilson
Hey everybody,We had a great week here in the really dirty south. It has been raining and the water has turned brown. So it looked like we filled the baptismal font with beer on this week. Pastor was baptized on Saturday and confirmed yesterday. He asked me after his baptism how he should dress for church and I told him just to come in the best clothes he had. He showed up in a shirt and brought us his tie to tie for him, it was pretty great. Its so much easier to stay excited and positive when people are being baptized. We had a great conference down in Santa Cruz. I got to see Elder Puglisi,Elder Duncan, Elder Allan and Elder Evans. Elder Gavarrett was awesome. He's really calm. which is not what we are use to with President Maynes. But wow,he just taught everything so simply. And at the end he told us about how he has received special testimony of the Book of Mormon and then he gave it to us. sorry Im not explaining that really well, but he actually asked us not to tell other people much about it. We had some travel problems coming back from Santa Cruz. No one bought our tickets so we bought them at the lsat second. Normally we spend about 120 Bolivians on out tickets. these ones were 25 B's. need I say more. The song Ridin Dirty comes to mind. There was actually a fight that broke out in the middle of the ride. it was just neat .After the trip I had divisions with my buddy Elder Hanks. he'll be sitting in his house on Friday. He can't believe it and neither can I. When I met him he had one month more than I do right now.So IDK when I'm doing my precall. I already know it'll be Christmas morning,I think I wanna call at like 9ish your time. Mom Ill call the house first and if not be sure to have your cell ready. Try and figure out how expensive it is to call Bolivia, and Ill see how bad it is to call you guys from here.I think its cheaper if you call me.
Mom- Ummmm.. sorry I don't remember who Wayne Monson is. Who is Karalee getting married to? There aren't nativity sets where I am. I should have thought about that when I was in Santa Cruz. But Ill see what I can do.
Crystal-No news is good news right.
Valynn-If the kids are upset about the tree, tell them I haven't seen a pine tree in a long time. Last year I saw the Christmas broadcast, but not this year.
EE-my comp. is watching Japanese cartoons on the internet right now.
KK- I don't know how they celebrate Christmas here but I am sure it will involve beer.
Chris,Valynn- Thank you very much for the pictures. All the kids are HUGE!
Grandma-Thank you for the update!
Well everyone I gotta go, I love you so much. Talk to you in 11 days. but for only like 40 minutes, sorry.
Elder Wilson
12-7-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: House Arrest
Hey everyone. We had a pretty great week, it started out last Monday with Pastor and Yael getting married. Pastor is going to be baptized this Saturday, so we are pretty pumped about that. We also have three other people that have accepted baptism dates. Evelin is going to be baptized the next Saturday, the 19th. And Mario has finally accepted a date for the 26th. We are also working with a family of 8, and one of the daughters has already accepted a date. The rest of the family is praying for their answer.We had an awesome experience with Mario. When we met him almost a month ago he was so excited to be baptized, and slowly he lost his excitment. When we went to his house this week he didnt want to talk about his baptism. But we asked him to kneel down with us and pray about it. After the prayer we all felt the spirit and invited him again to be baptized and he accepted, soo cool! We didnt have a lot of time to work this week. On Wednesday my comp got sick and we stayed in the house for all but 2 hours of the day. And yesterday they had elections here (Evo won boo) and we were shut up in our house again. Being in the house all day seems nice, for the first hour, then its just super boring. But on Sunday we had two other missionaries here with us.So we were able to talk to them all day. One of the Elders is named Elder Ocampo from Argentina. He just finished being assistant, he's one of the best Elders I've met on the mission. I started talking to him about his family and he said his family has never written him on his mission... he has 20 months. I felt so spoiled to hear this. Thank you guys for always writing me, cuz I'm not as strong as some missionaries. This week we are taking another trip to Santa Cruz. Elder Eduardo Gavarrettof the 70 is going to have a conference with us. It should be pretty great to listen to someone who, like President Maynes taught us, has the power of an apostle. Also there should be about 5 or 6 zones with us, so I get to see some of my boys, which'll be nice too. I'm having a bit of seperation anxiety, I haven't seen most of them in 5 months.
Crystal-I'll try and remember to ask about the Christmas story... if there's time.
Mom-Ya I was going to talk to you about my license and my classes. Yes I deferred, and the people in the office told me that cuz I'm an RM I basically do whatever I want, they told me I can return in the Fall of 2010. IDK what classes you should sign me up for, I'm going for a Chem degree, so IDK... surprise me! And we need to renew my license cuz Idk if I can pass the tests anymore. All I have heard about the Christmas call is that they are very short... 30 minutes. IDK if you guys should call me or if I should call you, In peru it was cheaper for you to call me, but Idk bout here. I'll ask Sister Maynes this week. Villa montes has more trees that Pasco, but no grass. Its a ton of sand.
Dad-I share the stuff I get with my comp, but the Elders in my zone get pretty jealous, cuz no one else gets mail. You guys dont need to send my so much... I just want PICTURES. Its way easier to stay in touch with people with internet.
Kim- My comp is doing a bit better this week. Slowly we'll be progressing.
EE-Well no one went to church this week, not even us. Its illegal to have any sort of meeting here during elections. Christmas here is way different. Everyone eats some lamb. In Lima EVERYONE eats fruit cake...and they LOVE IT. Im really hoping thats not the case here.
KK- Hey you have artic winds too? Cool. In Santa Cruz they still get wind from the South Pole that drops the temp by like 20 degrees. Its a wierd place.
Well I love you guys, I'll let you know how the conference goes with Elder Gaverrett and how the baptism of Pastor went.
Love, Elder Wilson....18 days
Hey everyone. We had a pretty great week, it started out last Monday with Pastor and Yael getting married. Pastor is going to be baptized this Saturday, so we are pretty pumped about that. We also have three other people that have accepted baptism dates. Evelin is going to be baptized the next Saturday, the 19th. And Mario has finally accepted a date for the 26th. We are also working with a family of 8, and one of the daughters has already accepted a date. The rest of the family is praying for their answer.We had an awesome experience with Mario. When we met him almost a month ago he was so excited to be baptized, and slowly he lost his excitment. When we went to his house this week he didnt want to talk about his baptism. But we asked him to kneel down with us and pray about it. After the prayer we all felt the spirit and invited him again to be baptized and he accepted, soo cool! We didnt have a lot of time to work this week. On Wednesday my comp got sick and we stayed in the house for all but 2 hours of the day. And yesterday they had elections here (Evo won boo) and we were shut up in our house again. Being in the house all day seems nice, for the first hour, then its just super boring. But on Sunday we had two other missionaries here with us.So we were able to talk to them all day. One of the Elders is named Elder Ocampo from Argentina. He just finished being assistant, he's one of the best Elders I've met on the mission. I started talking to him about his family and he said his family has never written him on his mission... he has 20 months. I felt so spoiled to hear this. Thank you guys for always writing me, cuz I'm not as strong as some missionaries. This week we are taking another trip to Santa Cruz. Elder Eduardo Gavarrettof the 70 is going to have a conference with us. It should be pretty great to listen to someone who, like President Maynes taught us, has the power of an apostle. Also there should be about 5 or 6 zones with us, so I get to see some of my boys, which'll be nice too. I'm having a bit of seperation anxiety, I haven't seen most of them in 5 months.
Crystal-I'll try and remember to ask about the Christmas story... if there's time.
Mom-Ya I was going to talk to you about my license and my classes. Yes I deferred, and the people in the office told me that cuz I'm an RM I basically do whatever I want, they told me I can return in the Fall of 2010. IDK what classes you should sign me up for, I'm going for a Chem degree, so IDK... surprise me! And we need to renew my license cuz Idk if I can pass the tests anymore. All I have heard about the Christmas call is that they are very short... 30 minutes. IDK if you guys should call me or if I should call you, In peru it was cheaper for you to call me, but Idk bout here. I'll ask Sister Maynes this week. Villa montes has more trees that Pasco, but no grass. Its a ton of sand.
Dad-I share the stuff I get with my comp, but the Elders in my zone get pretty jealous, cuz no one else gets mail. You guys dont need to send my so much... I just want PICTURES. Its way easier to stay in touch with people with internet.
Kim- My comp is doing a bit better this week. Slowly we'll be progressing.
EE-Well no one went to church this week, not even us. Its illegal to have any sort of meeting here during elections. Christmas here is way different. Everyone eats some lamb. In Lima EVERYONE eats fruit cake...and they LOVE IT. Im really hoping thats not the case here.
KK- Hey you have artic winds too? Cool. In Santa Cruz they still get wind from the South Pole that drops the temp by like 20 degrees. Its a wierd place.
Well I love you guys, I'll let you know how the conference goes with Elder Gaverrett and how the baptism of Pastor went.
Love, Elder Wilson....18 days
11-30-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: Going to the chapel and we're gonna get married
Hey everybody. So ya sounds like this week was pretty nuts with Liam arriving the night b4 Thanksgiving. I cant believe Thanksgiving has already past. I remember just reading the emails about Halloween. crazy. Well Im back in Villamontes, I was only in Yacuiba for a day then my comp showed up. His name is Elder Monsalve from Colombia. He is really hard to understand sometimes. He's a good guy. We've got some obedience things to talk about though, cuz he listens to music every night and he put ''Buy movie'' on his to do list today. But ''poco a poco'' we'll get things ironed out.We had a pretty good week, we talked to a lot more people in the street. But also didn't teach as many lessons as normal. We are really excited because we are teaching four families right now. We ate lunch yesterday with the Ardutuaga family, they're a family of 8, and they're awesome. I tried calling them on Saturday night with the only cell number I had, but their speaker was broken, so they couldn't hear me. The daughter picked up the phone and spoke really fast and I only understood a part about calling on a different phone, but they never explained that THEY couldn't hear ME. So I ended up calling like 4 times and yelling into the phone and I could tell they were getting more irritated each time. It was a mess, but they ended up calling us back so things worked out. I tell a lot of ''you had to be there'' stories. 81 people came to church yesterday, that's really good for our branch. But Mario, Evelin and Pastor didn't come to church again. We asked the members to help us out with them, cuz we don't have time to pass by all their houses. So the next time we have church (in two weeks) they'll be there. So we have a wedding to go to today, that's pretty awesome. Pastor is getting married to his Girlfriend Yael. I just got off the phone to confirm everything. We need to go buy the cake for them, we'll see how much they charge the Gringuito.I got a little sick this week. I had the same symptoms as last time when I was sick for about a week, so I called Sister Maynes right away and got all drugged up. Its really tough here, cuz we visit really humble families, who get really offened if we say no to food or drinks. But normally Ill be sitting there drinking and saying to myself, ''yup. defiantly river water''.But now Im all better. And hey, I finally got bit by a dog, my mission is complete. It wasn't much of a bite, last night I was talking to a lady and when I turned around I stepped on her dogs tail, so he just bit my leg to say ''GET OFF''. But he didn't even break through my pants, let alone break the skin, so its not a big deal. So, I didn't send that package of letters I talked about last week, sorry. Maybe this week haha.Im pretty excited cuz I just found out one of my favorite people in the whole world lives in an area like mine. Elder Meridith is in a place called Camiri about 2 hours north of me. Hes out there just with his comp. So we are going to see if we can't organize some kind of activity with him.I heard of a really interesting dessert yesterday ''gelatina de pata devaca'' (cow foot jello). Someone should look that up and investigate a bit more.So this week we don't have church. The 6th is election day and its illegalto hold any type of meeting. We aren't even going to leave the house cuz sometimes it's a bit dangerous with demonstrations and sore losers.
Mom-The only bug story I have is the fleas. Im good with Gatorade, I still have a lot. But I do need gum, I promised Pastor I'd get gum from the states for him, can you send me a pretty good amount to give him. He chews it instead of coke leaves now.
Dad- Im really trying to develop more charity for people out here.
Crystal-What are the in laws like?
EE- Elise and Chase first of all congratulations. And second I live in a town with nothing to do for recreation, Ill take any story/news I can get.
Valynn, I ate BBQ and ice cream cake the day after Thanksgiving, so im going to count that as my feast.
Kim- I kinda celebrated, I drew a turkey next to every date I wrote. I was in a place called Yacuiba for just a few days cuz me and my buddy Elder Hanks did have comps. But Tuesday morning they showed up so Im now back in Villamontes.
kk- They don't know what Pie is here. Ill have to eat some when I get home, hopefully it wont, lets use the word, ''shock'' my system.
Well, I gotta go. I love you guys Ill talk to you guys in a few weeks.
Elder Wilson
Hey everybody. So ya sounds like this week was pretty nuts with Liam arriving the night b4 Thanksgiving. I cant believe Thanksgiving has already past. I remember just reading the emails about Halloween. crazy. Well Im back in Villamontes, I was only in Yacuiba for a day then my comp showed up. His name is Elder Monsalve from Colombia. He is really hard to understand sometimes. He's a good guy. We've got some obedience things to talk about though, cuz he listens to music every night and he put ''Buy movie'' on his to do list today. But ''poco a poco'' we'll get things ironed out.We had a pretty good week, we talked to a lot more people in the street. But also didn't teach as many lessons as normal. We are really excited because we are teaching four families right now. We ate lunch yesterday with the Ardutuaga family, they're a family of 8, and they're awesome. I tried calling them on Saturday night with the only cell number I had, but their speaker was broken, so they couldn't hear me. The daughter picked up the phone and spoke really fast and I only understood a part about calling on a different phone, but they never explained that THEY couldn't hear ME. So I ended up calling like 4 times and yelling into the phone and I could tell they were getting more irritated each time. It was a mess, but they ended up calling us back so things worked out. I tell a lot of ''you had to be there'' stories. 81 people came to church yesterday, that's really good for our branch. But Mario, Evelin and Pastor didn't come to church again. We asked the members to help us out with them, cuz we don't have time to pass by all their houses. So the next time we have church (in two weeks) they'll be there. So we have a wedding to go to today, that's pretty awesome. Pastor is getting married to his Girlfriend Yael. I just got off the phone to confirm everything. We need to go buy the cake for them, we'll see how much they charge the Gringuito.I got a little sick this week. I had the same symptoms as last time when I was sick for about a week, so I called Sister Maynes right away and got all drugged up. Its really tough here, cuz we visit really humble families, who get really offened if we say no to food or drinks. But normally Ill be sitting there drinking and saying to myself, ''yup. defiantly river water''.But now Im all better. And hey, I finally got bit by a dog, my mission is complete. It wasn't much of a bite, last night I was talking to a lady and when I turned around I stepped on her dogs tail, so he just bit my leg to say ''GET OFF''. But he didn't even break through my pants, let alone break the skin, so its not a big deal. So, I didn't send that package of letters I talked about last week, sorry. Maybe this week haha.Im pretty excited cuz I just found out one of my favorite people in the whole world lives in an area like mine. Elder Meridith is in a place called Camiri about 2 hours north of me. Hes out there just with his comp. So we are going to see if we can't organize some kind of activity with him.I heard of a really interesting dessert yesterday ''gelatina de pata devaca'' (cow foot jello). Someone should look that up and investigate a bit more.So this week we don't have church. The 6th is election day and its illegalto hold any type of meeting. We aren't even going to leave the house cuz sometimes it's a bit dangerous with demonstrations and sore losers.
Mom-The only bug story I have is the fleas. Im good with Gatorade, I still have a lot. But I do need gum, I promised Pastor I'd get gum from the states for him, can you send me a pretty good amount to give him. He chews it instead of coke leaves now.
Dad- Im really trying to develop more charity for people out here.
Crystal-What are the in laws like?
EE- Elise and Chase first of all congratulations. And second I live in a town with nothing to do for recreation, Ill take any story/news I can get.
Valynn, I ate BBQ and ice cream cake the day after Thanksgiving, so im going to count that as my feast.
Kim- I kinda celebrated, I drew a turkey next to every date I wrote. I was in a place called Yacuiba for just a few days cuz me and my buddy Elder Hanks did have comps. But Tuesday morning they showed up so Im now back in Villamontes.
kk- They don't know what Pie is here. Ill have to eat some when I get home, hopefully it wont, lets use the word, ''shock'' my system.
Well, I gotta go. I love you guys Ill talk to you guys in a few weeks.
Elder Wilson
11-23-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: Asistant to the zone leader
Hey everybody,Well we got a phone call Saturday night saying that my comp had an emergency change, so last night he hopped on a bus for Santa Cruz. And since my zone leader Elder Hanks in companionless and so am I, I get to play zone leader for a few days till my comp gets here. So Im not in my area right now Im down in Yacuiba, so now Im only in 100 degree weather instead of 120. It looks like Ill be here for a few days, cuz we called the office this morning and they havent decided who our comps are going to be. So I might be heading back to my area on Wednesday, but honestly I wouldnt be suprised If Im here for a week. Im really anxious to get back to my area, its a really critical time for my investigators. There are three people that are SO close to being baptized,but all these stupid things keep happening. First we have Evelin, she only has to come to church one more time and she can be baptized. A young woman passed by to pick her up, but she didnt want to come, so we ran up to her house b4 the meetings starting. She told us her mom was sick and so she couldnt come. We also have Mario, we didnt have enough time to pass by his house b4 or after church, so we arent sure why he didnt come. And then Pastor… oh Pastor. We had a really great visit Saturday night, their son has a broken arm, but he’s crazy and broke the cast, then kept running around and fell and fractured his arm more. So we gave him a blessing and he calmed down right away and went to sleep. The spirit was really strong and Pastorand his girlfriend Yael said they are putting their papers in tommorow to get married. But they didnt come to church either, so we passed by so Elder Hurtado could say goodbye and Pastor was working outside… and chewing coke leaves. Everybody here chews coke leaves, its such a huge problem. So now Im not sure when he can get baptized. Its just so tough here, Im having problems getting people motivated to come to church, everyone we talk to feels its true. But when it comes down to it they dont want to make much effort to apply it. So now we are realling looking at the people we have,and the ones that dont want to progress, we’re going to have to stop teaching. We can only bring people to a certain point, then they have to make the choice. AAAAAAAAAAAnyways, I have all that to do when I get back to my area. The weather is starting to change. Its raining a lot now, so the humidity is just insane. I’ve never sweated as much as I did yesterday, the humidity just sucked all the energy out of us, but Ill get use to it in a week or two…. Or three.I sent a big package of letters for my friends I cant write through internet. Ill try to get another sent off with letters for the fam… IDK when though.So, I need to really really strong super glue. I’ve heard that Gorilla glue is pretty good, but if somebody could find one that is water proof, that’dj ust be neato.
Crystal- Thats what life is about, making an impact in the lives of others.I get sooo frustrated sometimes out here, but now looking back and reading my journal, I see that I’ve been able to help some people.
Valynn-I was planning on going out to eat on Thursday in Villamontes, but now that I’m living with a American for few days, looks like we’ll be celebrating it a tad early. So its snowing again, it seems like just last week the snow melted up there.
Mom, Dad- Being in Santa Cruz has taught me that numbers arent important. But honestly, in South America, the best way to help people is to bring them to Christ through baptism. So…. Numbers are kinda important, but its more important to just love people.
EE-haha, now theres less than 2 missionaries in my area ¡ zero !.
KK-well… at least Ill be able to help a lil bit on the house.
Kim-I havent recieved your pictures yet. Theres a blockade between us and Santa Cruz, so IDK when anything will show up.
Well everybody, Im really going to need your prayers this week. I love you guys so much. Thank you for everything.
Elder Wilson
Hey everybody,Well we got a phone call Saturday night saying that my comp had an emergency change, so last night he hopped on a bus for Santa Cruz. And since my zone leader Elder Hanks in companionless and so am I, I get to play zone leader for a few days till my comp gets here. So Im not in my area right now Im down in Yacuiba, so now Im only in 100 degree weather instead of 120. It looks like Ill be here for a few days, cuz we called the office this morning and they havent decided who our comps are going to be. So I might be heading back to my area on Wednesday, but honestly I wouldnt be suprised If Im here for a week. Im really anxious to get back to my area, its a really critical time for my investigators. There are three people that are SO close to being baptized,but all these stupid things keep happening. First we have Evelin, she only has to come to church one more time and she can be baptized. A young woman passed by to pick her up, but she didnt want to come, so we ran up to her house b4 the meetings starting. She told us her mom was sick and so she couldnt come. We also have Mario, we didnt have enough time to pass by his house b4 or after church, so we arent sure why he didnt come. And then Pastor… oh Pastor. We had a really great visit Saturday night, their son has a broken arm, but he’s crazy and broke the cast, then kept running around and fell and fractured his arm more. So we gave him a blessing and he calmed down right away and went to sleep. The spirit was really strong and Pastorand his girlfriend Yael said they are putting their papers in tommorow to get married. But they didnt come to church either, so we passed by so Elder Hurtado could say goodbye and Pastor was working outside… and chewing coke leaves. Everybody here chews coke leaves, its such a huge problem. So now Im not sure when he can get baptized. Its just so tough here, Im having problems getting people motivated to come to church, everyone we talk to feels its true. But when it comes down to it they dont want to make much effort to apply it. So now we are realling looking at the people we have,and the ones that dont want to progress, we’re going to have to stop teaching. We can only bring people to a certain point, then they have to make the choice. AAAAAAAAAAAnyways, I have all that to do when I get back to my area. The weather is starting to change. Its raining a lot now, so the humidity is just insane. I’ve never sweated as much as I did yesterday, the humidity just sucked all the energy out of us, but Ill get use to it in a week or two…. Or three.I sent a big package of letters for my friends I cant write through internet. Ill try to get another sent off with letters for the fam… IDK when though.So, I need to really really strong super glue. I’ve heard that Gorilla glue is pretty good, but if somebody could find one that is water proof, that’dj ust be neato.
Crystal- Thats what life is about, making an impact in the lives of others.I get sooo frustrated sometimes out here, but now looking back and reading my journal, I see that I’ve been able to help some people.
Valynn-I was planning on going out to eat on Thursday in Villamontes, but now that I’m living with a American for few days, looks like we’ll be celebrating it a tad early. So its snowing again, it seems like just last week the snow melted up there.
Mom, Dad- Being in Santa Cruz has taught me that numbers arent important. But honestly, in South America, the best way to help people is to bring them to Christ through baptism. So…. Numbers are kinda important, but its more important to just love people.
EE-haha, now theres less than 2 missionaries in my area ¡ zero !.
KK-well… at least Ill be able to help a lil bit on the house.
Kim-I havent recieved your pictures yet. Theres a blockade between us and Santa Cruz, so IDK when anything will show up.
Well everybody, Im really going to need your prayers this week. I love you guys so much. Thank you for everything.
Elder Wilson
11-16-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: Flying first class...er...maybe not
Hey everybody, Santa Cruz was so great, we didn’t have any general authorities come… but we had President Maynes. He basically retaught us how we should be teaching. He wants us to teach with questions that make the people think hard, or express their feelings. And I'm reallllly bad at it haha. But we really tried to ask more questions this week and the spirit was way stronger in our lessons and testified to the investigators, it was awesome.But ya the conference was great, on Monday we went and ate Mexican food at a restaurant called... MEXICAN FOOD haha. My buddy Elder Evans showed up with his zone, so I got to talk to him. Then after we were able to go to a grocery store that sells a ton of American products, so I picked up some Listerine and some ´Degree deodorant. Then on Tuesday we had our conference and I saw two of my favorite people in the world, Elder Meredith and Elder Jacobsen, they’ve both been in the same zone since we showed up in Bolivia. The conference was so amazing, President Maynes teaches like a mad man. Then after the conference he said that we are probably going to be coming back to Santa Cruz for Christmas. We ended up staying in Santa Cruz an extra night and flying home because there was a blockade in a town in between us and Villamontes. Pres Manyes told us we were flying home and one of the missionaries got all excited, then President Maynes said ‘’you haven’t seen the plane’’. We flew from Santa cruz to Tarija (outside of the mission,don’t tell anybody) and that flight took about and hour and a half, and everything was great. We flew in a 20 passenger plane, so it was little rougher than normal. BUT THEN… we had just a 20 minute flight from Tarija to yacuiba (next to Villamontes), and we hit a bunch of turbulence. Now I pride myself on never throwing up in planes, or boat, or roller coasters. ButOHHHHH MANN, those were some of the longest minutes of my life.’ JUST LAND THE PLANE, JUST LAND THE PLANE’’ was all I was thinking. One Elder got sick,that wasn’t too cute. It was a rough time. But ya after all that we finally went back to work in our area. The weather has been crazy here, it rained last week from Saturday to Tuesday, then we came back and it was back at 115 for a few days. But last night it rained like crazy and right now its cloudy and cool. We had five people come to church yesterday so we are pretty excited about that. But at the same time we are frustrated because the two people that have dates for this month didn’t come. But I know they’ll get baptized,they just need to strengthen their faith a bit more. We taught the young men their class yesterday, without notice again. I really like being with the young men, I hope I get the chance to work with them after the mission. We talked about faith and about every 5 minutes we said ‘’ you can show your faith by going on a mission’’.We also have been deacon hunting this week because we just figured out that I am in charge of the deacons quorum. There are 9 in the ward but I only know 2, so we are going to help those little guys start to come with their families.I'm kinda bummed right now cuz my buddy Elder Allred is going home this week, he is such a goofy kid, and probably the best zone leader I've had. Then 3 weeks later my other zone leader Elder Hanks is finishing too. Crazy. Two funny stories. So last night we are walking down a dark street after a rainstorm and we can’t see anything. And normally theres huge puddles in the street, and we both say, ‘’oh no, we can’t see if there’s water or not’’BOOOOM a huge lighting strike lights up the sky and the road and we see that everything is clear…. It would be funnier if you were there. Another thing we are trying to do is ask the people to kneel down with us and pray about the Book of Mormon. We’ve had some really good expericene with it. After the pray we ask them how they feel, and almost always they say something like ‘’ peace, or love, or joy’’. We prayed with a man named Ronaldo and I asked him how he felt and he said ‘’nervous’’. But it kinda caught me off guard, and I had no idea what to say, so we just sat there on our knees staring at each other for a bit. A tad awkward. But ya everything is going well here. Thanksgiving is almost here, and I get to call you guys in 41 days.
Valynn-Suit coat? Never. I’ve warn it two times since August. Kyle makes me laugh.
Mom-Elder Holland? So jealous. Tell Vince hi and that I love him and tell him not to get married till I get home. I got the 4 packages. My zone leader called me and told me he hated me cuz of the mail I get. And don’t worry I read the news only when I have spare time.
Mason- We didn’t have a GA come this week, but I think next month we will. Not sure though.
Crystal- Anthony is our cousin right? If I were you I'd send the package a little over a month b4 the day you want it here.
EE-good luck having a baby!
Mike
Hey everybody, Santa Cruz was so great, we didn’t have any general authorities come… but we had President Maynes. He basically retaught us how we should be teaching. He wants us to teach with questions that make the people think hard, or express their feelings. And I'm reallllly bad at it haha. But we really tried to ask more questions this week and the spirit was way stronger in our lessons and testified to the investigators, it was awesome.But ya the conference was great, on Monday we went and ate Mexican food at a restaurant called... MEXICAN FOOD haha. My buddy Elder Evans showed up with his zone, so I got to talk to him. Then after we were able to go to a grocery store that sells a ton of American products, so I picked up some Listerine and some ´Degree deodorant. Then on Tuesday we had our conference and I saw two of my favorite people in the world, Elder Meredith and Elder Jacobsen, they’ve both been in the same zone since we showed up in Bolivia. The conference was so amazing, President Maynes teaches like a mad man. Then after the conference he said that we are probably going to be coming back to Santa Cruz for Christmas. We ended up staying in Santa Cruz an extra night and flying home because there was a blockade in a town in between us and Villamontes. Pres Manyes told us we were flying home and one of the missionaries got all excited, then President Maynes said ‘’you haven’t seen the plane’’. We flew from Santa cruz to Tarija (outside of the mission,don’t tell anybody) and that flight took about and hour and a half, and everything was great. We flew in a 20 passenger plane, so it was little rougher than normal. BUT THEN… we had just a 20 minute flight from Tarija to yacuiba (next to Villamontes), and we hit a bunch of turbulence. Now I pride myself on never throwing up in planes, or boat, or roller coasters. ButOHHHHH MANN, those were some of the longest minutes of my life.’ JUST LAND THE PLANE, JUST LAND THE PLANE’’ was all I was thinking. One Elder got sick,that wasn’t too cute. It was a rough time. But ya after all that we finally went back to work in our area. The weather has been crazy here, it rained last week from Saturday to Tuesday, then we came back and it was back at 115 for a few days. But last night it rained like crazy and right now its cloudy and cool. We had five people come to church yesterday so we are pretty excited about that. But at the same time we are frustrated because the two people that have dates for this month didn’t come. But I know they’ll get baptized,they just need to strengthen their faith a bit more. We taught the young men their class yesterday, without notice again. I really like being with the young men, I hope I get the chance to work with them after the mission. We talked about faith and about every 5 minutes we said ‘’ you can show your faith by going on a mission’’.We also have been deacon hunting this week because we just figured out that I am in charge of the deacons quorum. There are 9 in the ward but I only know 2, so we are going to help those little guys start to come with their families.I'm kinda bummed right now cuz my buddy Elder Allred is going home this week, he is such a goofy kid, and probably the best zone leader I've had. Then 3 weeks later my other zone leader Elder Hanks is finishing too. Crazy. Two funny stories. So last night we are walking down a dark street after a rainstorm and we can’t see anything. And normally theres huge puddles in the street, and we both say, ‘’oh no, we can’t see if there’s water or not’’BOOOOM a huge lighting strike lights up the sky and the road and we see that everything is clear…. It would be funnier if you were there. Another thing we are trying to do is ask the people to kneel down with us and pray about the Book of Mormon. We’ve had some really good expericene with it. After the pray we ask them how they feel, and almost always they say something like ‘’ peace, or love, or joy’’. We prayed with a man named Ronaldo and I asked him how he felt and he said ‘’nervous’’. But it kinda caught me off guard, and I had no idea what to say, so we just sat there on our knees staring at each other for a bit. A tad awkward. But ya everything is going well here. Thanksgiving is almost here, and I get to call you guys in 41 days.
Valynn-Suit coat? Never. I’ve warn it two times since August. Kyle makes me laugh.
Mom-Elder Holland? So jealous. Tell Vince hi and that I love him and tell him not to get married till I get home. I got the 4 packages. My zone leader called me and told me he hated me cuz of the mail I get. And don’t worry I read the news only when I have spare time.
Mason- We didn’t have a GA come this week, but I think next month we will. Not sure though.
Crystal- Anthony is our cousin right? If I were you I'd send the package a little over a month b4 the day you want it here.
EE-good luck having a baby!
Mike
11-9-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: Lil Vacacion
Well... I'm in Santa Cruz right now, and not sure why. Our zone leaders called us on Thursday and said we have zone conference down here, so we took a little trip down here. Me and my zone leader Elder Hanks had a good time remembering country songs during the 9 hour bus ride. I guess a couple more zones from out of town are here too, but they aren't telling us whats really going on. We are guessing a general authority is coming to visit us,hopefully President Nash... or maybe apostle... but well find out tommorow. I normally have a list of all the things that happened during the week, but i didnt bring much to write on. Its actually been raining a lot in Villa Montes. Its like the Lord forgot about spring time so he made it all up in 2 days. Saturday night it was POURING, I finally got to use my rain coat and gave the poncho to my comp. My comp tried jumping a puddle and totally biffed it in the mud, it was pretty funny. We couldnt find many people to teach that night, but we had a good time just being soaking wet and having people look at us wierd. This week we really focused on talking with more people in the street. Pres Maynes (and Preach My Gospel) want us to talk with 140 people in the street. Before we would only talk with 80-90. This week we talked with 90 in 4 days, which is good, but we still didnt get to 140, so thats our big goal for this week. The branch is getting better, Pres Miranda is making some more callings, cuz we really need to get more organized. And now people are actually coming to clean the church on Saturday, in a few weeks I think we'll be able tol eave it all up to the members. So Saturday night I talked to our first counselor, who was supposed to give a talk. He told me he couldn't come and so he wanted me to give it. so I prepared a message in about 5 minutes. I was the last speaker, and the sunday teacher and my companion were the first two speakers... combined they spoke for 15 minutes. So that left a half an hour for the big gringo. IDK how good my message was, but I'm just surprised I had enough words to last that long. Gotta admit I was proud of myself. So ya I'm pretty excited about tommorow, there's a real good chance I'll see somebody from my group. I miss them all so much, I haven't seen anybody except Eld Puglisi in four months. So I really don't know what's going on yet, I'll fill you guys in a bit more next week.
dad- Ya I've already become use to the heat. According to most people it got up to 50 degrees (120 F) last sunday, but we still worked like normal. Good luck in Arizona.
mom- I need to buy batteries to see if my CD player works, but honestly we don't listen to much music. I haven't been taking very many pictures here. We don't do as many activities like in Peru, so I don't have many chances to take pictures. Tommorow I'll take a few. My garments are good. Honestly I can't think of anything I need. Just send me pictures haha, PLEASE, and that flowery shower scrubber.
Crystal- Well this second I'm not out in the middle of no where. But ya I'll be back out there on wednesday. I'll be there for at least 3 more weeks. But really I think I'll be here till the middle of Janurary when it starts getting REALLY WARM. But President Maynes called me and said that I'm not going to spend my ''whole life'' out here. But I'm not really sure what that means. I have 8ish months left, that might mean 7 months... IDK.
EE- be sure and email me some pics.
kk- muchas gracia por the photos. the kids look so big.
Well, time for me to go, I love you guys. talk to you in 38 dias. Mike
Well... I'm in Santa Cruz right now, and not sure why. Our zone leaders called us on Thursday and said we have zone conference down here, so we took a little trip down here. Me and my zone leader Elder Hanks had a good time remembering country songs during the 9 hour bus ride. I guess a couple more zones from out of town are here too, but they aren't telling us whats really going on. We are guessing a general authority is coming to visit us,hopefully President Nash... or maybe apostle... but well find out tommorow. I normally have a list of all the things that happened during the week, but i didnt bring much to write on. Its actually been raining a lot in Villa Montes. Its like the Lord forgot about spring time so he made it all up in 2 days. Saturday night it was POURING, I finally got to use my rain coat and gave the poncho to my comp. My comp tried jumping a puddle and totally biffed it in the mud, it was pretty funny. We couldnt find many people to teach that night, but we had a good time just being soaking wet and having people look at us wierd. This week we really focused on talking with more people in the street. Pres Maynes (and Preach My Gospel) want us to talk with 140 people in the street. Before we would only talk with 80-90. This week we talked with 90 in 4 days, which is good, but we still didnt get to 140, so thats our big goal for this week. The branch is getting better, Pres Miranda is making some more callings, cuz we really need to get more organized. And now people are actually coming to clean the church on Saturday, in a few weeks I think we'll be able tol eave it all up to the members. So Saturday night I talked to our first counselor, who was supposed to give a talk. He told me he couldn't come and so he wanted me to give it. so I prepared a message in about 5 minutes. I was the last speaker, and the sunday teacher and my companion were the first two speakers... combined they spoke for 15 minutes. So that left a half an hour for the big gringo. IDK how good my message was, but I'm just surprised I had enough words to last that long. Gotta admit I was proud of myself. So ya I'm pretty excited about tommorow, there's a real good chance I'll see somebody from my group. I miss them all so much, I haven't seen anybody except Eld Puglisi in four months. So I really don't know what's going on yet, I'll fill you guys in a bit more next week.
dad- Ya I've already become use to the heat. According to most people it got up to 50 degrees (120 F) last sunday, but we still worked like normal. Good luck in Arizona.
mom- I need to buy batteries to see if my CD player works, but honestly we don't listen to much music. I haven't been taking very many pictures here. We don't do as many activities like in Peru, so I don't have many chances to take pictures. Tommorow I'll take a few. My garments are good. Honestly I can't think of anything I need. Just send me pictures haha, PLEASE, and that flowery shower scrubber.
Crystal- Well this second I'm not out in the middle of no where. But ya I'll be back out there on wednesday. I'll be there for at least 3 more weeks. But really I think I'll be here till the middle of Janurary when it starts getting REALLY WARM. But President Maynes called me and said that I'm not going to spend my ''whole life'' out here. But I'm not really sure what that means. I have 8ish months left, that might mean 7 months... IDK.
EE- be sure and email me some pics.
kk- muchas gracia por the photos. the kids look so big.
Well, time for me to go, I love you guys. talk to you in 38 dias. Mike
11-2-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: Espatulaso(ask Matt)
HEy everybody, sounds like a lot is happening back home right now. Sounds like everybody had a great Halloween weekend. Here in Bolivia they have some type of festival but they don’t call it Halloween. Last night and tonight everyone goes to the cemetery and place candles and other things on the graves of their family members. So ya it’s a bit different than in the states, and plus its really hard to work, cuz EVERYONE is in the cemetery. Our week was soooo much better. I think I have found two GOLDEN investigators in my mission. The first one was Maribel in Cieneguilla, and this week we met Mario. We had an appointment fall through so we just contacted him while he was working on his chain saw. He use to be in another church and started talking to us about all these things he’s read and studied. ‘’I’ve read lots of books, one book, I don’t remember what the title is, talks about Christ. The last part I read was about these people that built these boats that went under water. But inside the boat, they had these glowing rocks’’ TIME OUT! He’s read the Book of Mormon FOUR times. He came to church yesterday and then we went back to his house and he accepted a baptism date for the 21st. He’s so funny, he’s 62 and just the most humblelitt le guy ever. I know that the Lord prepares people, and that he uses the Book of Mormon to prepare them. We actually set a goal before meeting Marioto really hammer the Book of Mormon, so the people understand that everything our church teaches depends on it. We also talked to Jael,Pastor’s wife, and she told us that they are getting married on November 10th, so Pastor also she be baptized this month too. SUPER EXCITED. Our Branch is really starting to work more, the members are taking more responsibility. Yesterday we didn’t have to do anything. We showed up and the sacrament was already prepared, every class had a teacher. But I’m still 2nd counselor so we are working on that. And they are starting to do their home teaching, which is just soooo important for activation. And an RM who was living in Santa Cruz moved back this week, so hes going to be a huge help. And guess where he served? Lima East, he went home with my trainers Elder Dodds and Elder Melander. So I’m not complaining… more I’m bragging that I’m still alive. I live in one of the hottest places on the planet. It’s still spring time… and yesterday it was at least 108 degrees. It’s just funny. We’ll be walking in down some dirt road in Bilbao and just start laughing… cuz there’s nothing else I can do. I always say to myself, at least I will never be this warm again, cuz I won’t be walking around in a shirt and tie. But ya, things are looking up here on the surface of the sun. Funny story, I woke up at about 4 and saw that the door to our balcony was open. I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly and my first thought was ¡LADRÓN!(burglar). So I sneak into the other room and grab the first thing resembling a weapon I could find… A SPATULA!!! So I did a thorough search of our 100 square foot apartment, then felt like an idiot and went back to sleep. I think this is a ‘’You had to be there story’’, but it made me laugh.
Valynn- Car?hahahahahah. No, no one has a car or a bike. Maybe in Brasil, or Chile, or Argentina. But if we had a car or a bike, it wouldn’t be for long,somebody would rob us. The weather is very hot, I heard that it got up to 113 yesterday, but I don’t know. Tell Austin he is one of my favorite people in the world and that he needs to write me. And I do remember Spencer, his last name no though.
Mom-Wow, sounds like a lot of things are happening health wise up there. Umm, I thought of something I really want. Can you send my the words to some Christmas songs ‘’Walking in a Winter Wonderland’’, ‘’Let it snow’’, ‘’have yourself a merry little christmas’’ and ‘’Im dreaming of a white christmas’’Im always singing em but I cant remember all the words and it drives me nut. Oh and send it in English please haha.
Crystal- Don’t get the pig flu. The weather is very very hot.
Elise- we have hot water… but for some reason I don’t feel the need to use it. I take a cold shower b4 I go to bed now. We had two people come to church this week. Muy Bien.
KK- That’s great that Emily doesn’t have any health problems. And Im just going to assume that have a hygroma with problems is a good thing. Yes your packages arrived… to my zone leaders… an hour and a half away. But Im going down to Yacuiba so ill get em Thursday.
Well, I love you guys a ton, thank you for your prayers. Im praying for you all too.
Love, Elder Wilson
HEy everybody, sounds like a lot is happening back home right now. Sounds like everybody had a great Halloween weekend. Here in Bolivia they have some type of festival but they don’t call it Halloween. Last night and tonight everyone goes to the cemetery and place candles and other things on the graves of their family members. So ya it’s a bit different than in the states, and plus its really hard to work, cuz EVERYONE is in the cemetery. Our week was soooo much better. I think I have found two GOLDEN investigators in my mission. The first one was Maribel in Cieneguilla, and this week we met Mario. We had an appointment fall through so we just contacted him while he was working on his chain saw. He use to be in another church and started talking to us about all these things he’s read and studied. ‘’I’ve read lots of books, one book, I don’t remember what the title is, talks about Christ. The last part I read was about these people that built these boats that went under water. But inside the boat, they had these glowing rocks’’ TIME OUT! He’s read the Book of Mormon FOUR times. He came to church yesterday and then we went back to his house and he accepted a baptism date for the 21st. He’s so funny, he’s 62 and just the most humblelitt le guy ever. I know that the Lord prepares people, and that he uses the Book of Mormon to prepare them. We actually set a goal before meeting Marioto really hammer the Book of Mormon, so the people understand that everything our church teaches depends on it. We also talked to Jael,Pastor’s wife, and she told us that they are getting married on November 10th, so Pastor also she be baptized this month too. SUPER EXCITED. Our Branch is really starting to work more, the members are taking more responsibility. Yesterday we didn’t have to do anything. We showed up and the sacrament was already prepared, every class had a teacher. But I’m still 2nd counselor so we are working on that. And they are starting to do their home teaching, which is just soooo important for activation. And an RM who was living in Santa Cruz moved back this week, so hes going to be a huge help. And guess where he served? Lima East, he went home with my trainers Elder Dodds and Elder Melander. So I’m not complaining… more I’m bragging that I’m still alive. I live in one of the hottest places on the planet. It’s still spring time… and yesterday it was at least 108 degrees. It’s just funny. We’ll be walking in down some dirt road in Bilbao and just start laughing… cuz there’s nothing else I can do. I always say to myself, at least I will never be this warm again, cuz I won’t be walking around in a shirt and tie. But ya, things are looking up here on the surface of the sun. Funny story, I woke up at about 4 and saw that the door to our balcony was open. I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly and my first thought was ¡LADRÓN!(burglar). So I sneak into the other room and grab the first thing resembling a weapon I could find… A SPATULA!!! So I did a thorough search of our 100 square foot apartment, then felt like an idiot and went back to sleep. I think this is a ‘’You had to be there story’’, but it made me laugh.
Valynn- Car?hahahahahah. No, no one has a car or a bike. Maybe in Brasil, or Chile, or Argentina. But if we had a car or a bike, it wouldn’t be for long,somebody would rob us. The weather is very hot, I heard that it got up to 113 yesterday, but I don’t know. Tell Austin he is one of my favorite people in the world and that he needs to write me. And I do remember Spencer, his last name no though.
Mom-Wow, sounds like a lot of things are happening health wise up there. Umm, I thought of something I really want. Can you send my the words to some Christmas songs ‘’Walking in a Winter Wonderland’’, ‘’Let it snow’’, ‘’have yourself a merry little christmas’’ and ‘’Im dreaming of a white christmas’’Im always singing em but I cant remember all the words and it drives me nut. Oh and send it in English please haha.
Crystal- Don’t get the pig flu. The weather is very very hot.
Elise- we have hot water… but for some reason I don’t feel the need to use it. I take a cold shower b4 I go to bed now. We had two people come to church this week. Muy Bien.
KK- That’s great that Emily doesn’t have any health problems. And Im just going to assume that have a hygroma with problems is a good thing. Yes your packages arrived… to my zone leaders… an hour and a half away. But Im going down to Yacuiba so ill get em Thursday.
Well, I love you guys a ton, thank you for your prayers. Im praying for you all too.
Love, Elder Wilson
10-26-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: I OWN THIS TOWN!
Hey Everybody, Well first of all: ¡congrats Kaylene and Josh! It's hard to believe that when I get home Jace will be more than a year old and Emily will be 8 months old and… Liam? IDK how to spell anymore will be 7ish months old. Crazy. Well, I guess we’ve passed the test of being practically by ourselves out here in Villa Montes… Cuz now we really are alone. The other two missionaries Elder Cajahuaman and Elder Michel both were moved… and nobody came to replace them. So now we have the whooole city to ourselves. I'm still with Elder Hurtado, so I have another 6 weeks to better my patience, but I know it’s good for me. We ended up moving from the flea house to the house the other Elders were in. It's sooooo nice. It's tiny but it looks like it could be part of an apartment in the states… tile floor… a ceiling, THE WORKS. But ya so we are totally alone. We are too far away from the zone to go to meetings so every Thursday our district (me and my comp) have our district meeting. It's just funny, but we try to take it serious. Pres Maynes called me and told me how much trust he is putting in us to be out here. He said it's up to us to be obedient, and the only person who will know how we use our time here is the Lord. He told us we have to be obedient and work really hard with the members to have any success here. I love Pres Maynes! He’s so great; I guarantee you’ll all be able to listen to him in General Conference in a few years. We had another crazy week. We had problems moving, and lost tons of time in that. Then the day that the other elders left we had a little camp fire activity planned, but a huge windstorm came in and knocked down trees and cut the light out. And then Sunday… we only had 49 people come to church, and no investigators came, I was so frustrated. But we have a lot of hope for this week. Our Branch President, President Miranda is finally healthy and back. And he talked to the priesthood about helping out more with visiting less actives and giving us references. The members had the idea that with 4 missionaries they didn’t have to do much, but now that there’s only the two of us they see the need to help. So we lost 2 missionaries but we’ve gained about 30 members to help us.So ya we have a lot of work on our hands, we have half a city to get to know haha. Its going to be a busy week.
Aunt LaRae- Thank you so much for your email. I think about Brian too whenever I teach about the Spirit World. I’m not sure if the Drakes remember me, but Bro Drake taught our Priesthood class in the MTC in Peru. They are so great.
Mom-My fleas are gone and my stomach is fine. I figured out how I got sick,I drank a juice at a members house cuz I’m just tired of drinking pop all day, but I don’t think the water had been boiled. I’m loving the packages,but I feel kinda spoiled haha. Dad is leaving again?
Crystal-I know what you mean about time flying… I now have less than 8 months. TWO THIRDS! My comp is fine, we just washed the wound with alcohol,now he is terrified of dogs. I honestly don't need anything. I spent about 3 dollars and fixed some holes I had in my pants, so all my clothes are fine now. Don’t worry about letters, Its basically impossible for me to send letters from here, I've been wanting to write Kort and Jarred and cyd and Beau and Vince forever, but I don’t even know if there's a post office here.
Valynn-Tyler Jamen and Kaitlyn are really getting older now… crazy. I always remember how strong the church is in the states, that’s what we are trying to establish here… it’s a work in progress lets say.
Grandma- Thanks for your email, I received two emails last week. I'm not sure how many you sent.
EE-Thanks for looking! I think the flea problem has left already. Good luck with waiting for the baby.
Kim- Oh Brennen… I feel a lot healthier now, but I lost a lot of weightreally fast this week… maybe I should keep drinking the river water. We have three people that should be getting baptized this month: Pastor, Rosa and Juan Carlos. But NONE of them came to church. So we need to get them a little more excited about it. Well, thanks for your emails everybody, I love you all so much.
Elder Wilson
Hey Everybody, Well first of all: ¡congrats Kaylene and Josh! It's hard to believe that when I get home Jace will be more than a year old and Emily will be 8 months old and… Liam? IDK how to spell anymore will be 7ish months old. Crazy. Well, I guess we’ve passed the test of being practically by ourselves out here in Villa Montes… Cuz now we really are alone. The other two missionaries Elder Cajahuaman and Elder Michel both were moved… and nobody came to replace them. So now we have the whooole city to ourselves. I'm still with Elder Hurtado, so I have another 6 weeks to better my patience, but I know it’s good for me. We ended up moving from the flea house to the house the other Elders were in. It's sooooo nice. It's tiny but it looks like it could be part of an apartment in the states… tile floor… a ceiling, THE WORKS. But ya so we are totally alone. We are too far away from the zone to go to meetings so every Thursday our district (me and my comp) have our district meeting. It's just funny, but we try to take it serious. Pres Maynes called me and told me how much trust he is putting in us to be out here. He said it's up to us to be obedient, and the only person who will know how we use our time here is the Lord. He told us we have to be obedient and work really hard with the members to have any success here. I love Pres Maynes! He’s so great; I guarantee you’ll all be able to listen to him in General Conference in a few years. We had another crazy week. We had problems moving, and lost tons of time in that. Then the day that the other elders left we had a little camp fire activity planned, but a huge windstorm came in and knocked down trees and cut the light out. And then Sunday… we only had 49 people come to church, and no investigators came, I was so frustrated. But we have a lot of hope for this week. Our Branch President, President Miranda is finally healthy and back. And he talked to the priesthood about helping out more with visiting less actives and giving us references. The members had the idea that with 4 missionaries they didn’t have to do much, but now that there’s only the two of us they see the need to help. So we lost 2 missionaries but we’ve gained about 30 members to help us.So ya we have a lot of work on our hands, we have half a city to get to know haha. Its going to be a busy week.
Aunt LaRae- Thank you so much for your email. I think about Brian too whenever I teach about the Spirit World. I’m not sure if the Drakes remember me, but Bro Drake taught our Priesthood class in the MTC in Peru. They are so great.
Mom-My fleas are gone and my stomach is fine. I figured out how I got sick,I drank a juice at a members house cuz I’m just tired of drinking pop all day, but I don’t think the water had been boiled. I’m loving the packages,but I feel kinda spoiled haha. Dad is leaving again?
Crystal-I know what you mean about time flying… I now have less than 8 months. TWO THIRDS! My comp is fine, we just washed the wound with alcohol,now he is terrified of dogs. I honestly don't need anything. I spent about 3 dollars and fixed some holes I had in my pants, so all my clothes are fine now. Don’t worry about letters, Its basically impossible for me to send letters from here, I've been wanting to write Kort and Jarred and cyd and Beau and Vince forever, but I don’t even know if there's a post office here.
Valynn-Tyler Jamen and Kaitlyn are really getting older now… crazy. I always remember how strong the church is in the states, that’s what we are trying to establish here… it’s a work in progress lets say.
Grandma- Thanks for your email, I received two emails last week. I'm not sure how many you sent.
EE-Thanks for looking! I think the flea problem has left already. Good luck with waiting for the baby.
Kim- Oh Brennen… I feel a lot healthier now, but I lost a lot of weightreally fast this week… maybe I should keep drinking the river water. We have three people that should be getting baptized this month: Pastor, Rosa and Juan Carlos. But NONE of them came to church. So we need to get them a little more excited about it. Well, thanks for your emails everybody, I love you all so much.
Elder Wilson
Jan 11, 2010
10-19-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: Two Thirds
Hey everybody, This week has just been nuts, really full of ups and downs. I'm really glad its finally over. We had a REALLY REALLY big flea problem in our house, we still aren't sure how they got there. But they were every where and crawling and biting us all day. I ended up getting sick for a couple days, I'm not sure if it was something I ate, or the fleas. But it was probably both. I tried to beat it with pepto, which usually works, but I ended up calling sister Maynes, and she gave me some anti biotics. Poor sister Maynes, she has to hear all the ''details'' of what happens to us. But ya I was feeling pretty bad all week. And then Saturday morning was really one of the toughest days of my mission, I haven't been that homesick in months. I just couldn't stop thinking about how easy it would be to go home and just lay on the couch. I ended up having to pray and just ask for something that would make me feel better. Heavenly Father told me to read D&C 121 and 122. that always shuts me up. After that things got a lot better. Crisitian was baptized and confirmed, and he has been talking about preparing for a mission, that's pretty exciting. We also fumigated the fleas yesterday, so we are sleeping more peacefully. And yesterday was fast Sunday for us, I directed haha, and we had a really spiritual meeting. But then right after, one of the speakers fell off the wall and landed on a kid. kinda killed the spirit. Right now we have quite a few people who are listening and have received answers. but few of them are coming to church. We need to assign people to pass by and get them, but there are few people that live close to them. We are working with a man named Pastor, he and his wife are submitting their papers today for marriage. So he might be getting married and baptized this week, his wife is already a member. We also have a project on our hands with a lady named Elfy, her husband is a member, but she says she has prayed thousands of times but never received an answer. So we are trying to figure out what we can do to help her feel the spirit more. We are pretty pumped to have our first convert here in Villa Montes. I was looking in Preach My Gospel at my list of converts, and I really doubt I'm going to baptize as many people as Senior Companion as I did as Junior Companion. But all the people I do baptize WILL NOT go inactive. And when I was junior we baptized a lot of kids without their parents, which I will never do as a Senior Comp. OK I've been forgetting to ask for this forever, but there are two things I could really use: one of those body scrubbers that look like roses. And RUBBER BANDS, they are impossible to find down here. And I could sure use some more pictures. All my photos are from last august. well almost all ofem.
Mom- I'll think about things me or my comp need for Christmas. We have finally read all those pages you sent about activities, and tomorrow I'm going to run them past the branch President. Thanks for all the prayers and packages mom.
Valynn- We have a few people progressing, two have baptism dates. We have activated one family so far. Does Cody still live in Pasco? I heard he and Shawna were moving to Moses Lake.
Kim-Well my Branch President is back. but he went to La Paz. I have 6 weeks here and still haven't had any kind of meeting with him. President Maynes said he might close this area just because there are going to be less missionaries here in the mission after this next transfer.
EE-I could really go for some flea repellent, things I can put on under my clothes, everything I do have says should wear it over clothing. And maybe some kind of bug repellent I can put in my dresser.
KK- Sounds like the house and the baby are coming along great. I didn't get your packages yet, but they take a little bit more time to get out here tome. When did you send em?
Love you guys, have fun trick or treating Elder Wilson
Hey everybody, This week has just been nuts, really full of ups and downs. I'm really glad its finally over. We had a REALLY REALLY big flea problem in our house, we still aren't sure how they got there. But they were every where and crawling and biting us all day. I ended up getting sick for a couple days, I'm not sure if it was something I ate, or the fleas. But it was probably both. I tried to beat it with pepto, which usually works, but I ended up calling sister Maynes, and she gave me some anti biotics. Poor sister Maynes, she has to hear all the ''details'' of what happens to us. But ya I was feeling pretty bad all week. And then Saturday morning was really one of the toughest days of my mission, I haven't been that homesick in months. I just couldn't stop thinking about how easy it would be to go home and just lay on the couch. I ended up having to pray and just ask for something that would make me feel better. Heavenly Father told me to read D&C 121 and 122. that always shuts me up. After that things got a lot better. Crisitian was baptized and confirmed, and he has been talking about preparing for a mission, that's pretty exciting. We also fumigated the fleas yesterday, so we are sleeping more peacefully. And yesterday was fast Sunday for us, I directed haha, and we had a really spiritual meeting. But then right after, one of the speakers fell off the wall and landed on a kid. kinda killed the spirit. Right now we have quite a few people who are listening and have received answers. but few of them are coming to church. We need to assign people to pass by and get them, but there are few people that live close to them. We are working with a man named Pastor, he and his wife are submitting their papers today for marriage. So he might be getting married and baptized this week, his wife is already a member. We also have a project on our hands with a lady named Elfy, her husband is a member, but she says she has prayed thousands of times but never received an answer. So we are trying to figure out what we can do to help her feel the spirit more. We are pretty pumped to have our first convert here in Villa Montes. I was looking in Preach My Gospel at my list of converts, and I really doubt I'm going to baptize as many people as Senior Companion as I did as Junior Companion. But all the people I do baptize WILL NOT go inactive. And when I was junior we baptized a lot of kids without their parents, which I will never do as a Senior Comp. OK I've been forgetting to ask for this forever, but there are two things I could really use: one of those body scrubbers that look like roses. And RUBBER BANDS, they are impossible to find down here. And I could sure use some more pictures. All my photos are from last august. well almost all ofem.
Mom- I'll think about things me or my comp need for Christmas. We have finally read all those pages you sent about activities, and tomorrow I'm going to run them past the branch President. Thanks for all the prayers and packages mom.
Valynn- We have a few people progressing, two have baptism dates. We have activated one family so far. Does Cody still live in Pasco? I heard he and Shawna were moving to Moses Lake.
Kim-Well my Branch President is back. but he went to La Paz. I have 6 weeks here and still haven't had any kind of meeting with him. President Maynes said he might close this area just because there are going to be less missionaries here in the mission after this next transfer.
EE-I could really go for some flea repellent, things I can put on under my clothes, everything I do have says should wear it over clothing. And maybe some kind of bug repellent I can put in my dresser.
KK- Sounds like the house and the baby are coming along great. I didn't get your packages yet, but they take a little bit more time to get out here tome. When did you send em?
Love you guys, have fun trick or treating Elder Wilson
10-12-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: Arf!Arf!
Hey everybody, Sounds like winter arrived in Pasco. Here, well… its not, last Monday it was 102, but after that its been in the high 80s. But we had a really great week. We saw a lot of success with two investigators, Cristian and Pastor.Cristian made the hour trip down to Yacuiba for General Conference, and yesterday for District Conference. He got to listen to all the general authorities last week, and then yesterday he listened to President Maynes,who will be a general authority after. And Pastor has been investigating forever, but he couldn’t be baptized because he wasn’t married, there were problems with his paper work. But we solved it all last week, and today he is going in to get all the IDs and stuff, and he and his girlfriend are getting married and he is going to be baptized next Saturday. We are pretty excited about all of that. Me and my comp are getting a long way better now,we have learned how to work and teach better, and the little things that use to bother us, we just don’t pay attention to now. We went down to Yacuiba on Friday for our zone conference with President Maynes. He is so amazing. He teaches us things that just blow my mind. He taught us about how to teach just with questions, and how the people end up teaching themselves through the spirit. The spirit was so amazing. Pres Maynes also told me in my interview that there are a lot of Elders that are finishing in these next couple months, and that he is thinking about taking out two of the 4 elders here. That’ll be nuts. But he didn’t say it was for sure, and that I shouldn’t say anything. But I figure you guys are not going to be talking to anybody in the branch here any time soon. 2 funny stories. So we are walking through the poorest part of our area called Bilbao when I look over and say to myself ‘’well that’s a big dog…with its mouth open… and well hey that’s my companions leg… that’s not good’’ My companion got to experience what dog teeth feel like before I did. I had fun explaining to him that if the dog ends up being sick, or something happens to it… he has to receive 10 shots in his stomach. But we talked to the owner and the dog has been vaccinated, so we’re good. We just have to check up on the dog for a week.Story 2: Yesterday we show up for District conference and my Branch President, President Miranda, comes up and asks me if I’d seen Omar, the First Counselor. I said no and then Pres. Miranda said I needed to give an interview. So I walk into one of the classroom and asked who I was interviewing ‘’Me!’’ he said…. That was weird. I haven’t even given a real baptismal interview yet, and now I am interviewing about temple worthiness. But it actually is really simple, there's just the list of questions… butman…. Im 20!.
Crystal- No news is good news. What does Matt do again? Mom, you finally did it, I’ve been waiting for 15 months and it finally came… an Ensign mormon ad cutout as old as me. Pres Maynes brought me three packages yesterday with the huge thing of Gatorade and all the pages of ideas for activities. Thanks a ton mom, love ya. And I'll be praying for Uncle Joe.
Kim- IDK why, but I have the flu too, even though it’s the middle of summer…well, its spring time actually. I hope you guys get better soon. And Yes, my Branch Pres is back.
Valynn, Shingles… I was going to write and complain about flea bites, but now no.
Elise, In Perú they had Halloween, I'm not too sure if they celebrate it here. I was never really running the ward, cuz I never knew what I was doing. I'm just in charge of visiting people, trying to reactivate them. Well Everybody, take care up in the states, or like they call it here ‘’LosEstados Juntos’’
Love you guys, Elder Wilson
Hey everybody, Sounds like winter arrived in Pasco. Here, well… its not, last Monday it was 102, but after that its been in the high 80s. But we had a really great week. We saw a lot of success with two investigators, Cristian and Pastor.Cristian made the hour trip down to Yacuiba for General Conference, and yesterday for District Conference. He got to listen to all the general authorities last week, and then yesterday he listened to President Maynes,who will be a general authority after. And Pastor has been investigating forever, but he couldn’t be baptized because he wasn’t married, there were problems with his paper work. But we solved it all last week, and today he is going in to get all the IDs and stuff, and he and his girlfriend are getting married and he is going to be baptized next Saturday. We are pretty excited about all of that. Me and my comp are getting a long way better now,we have learned how to work and teach better, and the little things that use to bother us, we just don’t pay attention to now. We went down to Yacuiba on Friday for our zone conference with President Maynes. He is so amazing. He teaches us things that just blow my mind. He taught us about how to teach just with questions, and how the people end up teaching themselves through the spirit. The spirit was so amazing. Pres Maynes also told me in my interview that there are a lot of Elders that are finishing in these next couple months, and that he is thinking about taking out two of the 4 elders here. That’ll be nuts. But he didn’t say it was for sure, and that I shouldn’t say anything. But I figure you guys are not going to be talking to anybody in the branch here any time soon. 2 funny stories. So we are walking through the poorest part of our area called Bilbao when I look over and say to myself ‘’well that’s a big dog…with its mouth open… and well hey that’s my companions leg… that’s not good’’ My companion got to experience what dog teeth feel like before I did. I had fun explaining to him that if the dog ends up being sick, or something happens to it… he has to receive 10 shots in his stomach. But we talked to the owner and the dog has been vaccinated, so we’re good. We just have to check up on the dog for a week.Story 2: Yesterday we show up for District conference and my Branch President, President Miranda, comes up and asks me if I’d seen Omar, the First Counselor. I said no and then Pres. Miranda said I needed to give an interview. So I walk into one of the classroom and asked who I was interviewing ‘’Me!’’ he said…. That was weird. I haven’t even given a real baptismal interview yet, and now I am interviewing about temple worthiness. But it actually is really simple, there's just the list of questions… butman…. Im 20!.
Crystal- No news is good news. What does Matt do again? Mom, you finally did it, I’ve been waiting for 15 months and it finally came… an Ensign mormon ad cutout as old as me. Pres Maynes brought me three packages yesterday with the huge thing of Gatorade and all the pages of ideas for activities. Thanks a ton mom, love ya. And I'll be praying for Uncle Joe.
Kim- IDK why, but I have the flu too, even though it’s the middle of summer…well, its spring time actually. I hope you guys get better soon. And Yes, my Branch Pres is back.
Valynn, Shingles… I was going to write and complain about flea bites, but now no.
Elise, In Perú they had Halloween, I'm not too sure if they celebrate it here. I was never really running the ward, cuz I never knew what I was doing. I'm just in charge of visiting people, trying to reactivate them. Well Everybody, take care up in the states, or like they call it here ‘’LosEstados Juntos’’
Love you guys, Elder Wilson
10-5-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: General Conference...#3
Hey everybody,This week was pretty great. We had our little branch caravan travel down to Yacuiba for 2 days to watch conference. I learned sooo much during conference. Theres so much I fault as a missionary and I need to start working right now to fix some of it b4 all of this ends. But I'll talk more about that later. The day b4 the conference we moved, I was pretty bummed about that, cuz our old house was amazing. But we are pretty sure the lady someone was using the electricity off our meter, cuz we were paying a ton of money. The week wasn’t too great if you look at the numbers, we had tons of activities and service projects this week, on top of that we didn’t work for 2 days. But things are looking up this week and month. Cristian came with his family to conference. He's progressing really well and should be getting baptized in two weeks. We also have three ladies that are showing a lot of interest and we are trying to fnd ways to get them to church.We had a talent show last Wednesday, it went pretty well. We started an hour late so we had to leave b4 I could do my magic show.I got the two packages, thank you much. Turns out though they have instant oatmeal here, so its 100 times cheaper if I just buy it here. But ya, CONFERENCE. There were 6 talks that really stuck out to me. I learned from Elder Scott what I can do to improve my teaching. I remember when I had around 3-4 months and would think… man when I have over a year or 15-16 months, I hope I'll be able to teach well…. Well… NOW I hope when I have 18-20 months I'll be able to teach well haha. Pres Uchtdorf (spelling)gave such a great talk about love, I know that’s one thing I really need to work on is just loving and finding the positive in everbody. Elder Watsonand Pres Monson talked about anger and just not worrying about the little things… another thing on my to do list. And Pres Monsons message about service was just amazing. MY favorite was from Elder Regnund (I think that’s his name) he talked about being lazy when he worked in the hospital, cuz he started to forget the basic things like reading and praying. It was so great to be able to listen to all the leaders and just feel the spirit. Having Americans with me and speaking English didn’t hurt either. The conference motivated me to just be better, just love God and love his children. It was so great.
Mom- thanks for the package. I have one suggestion though. Send candy that are really well sealed, like air tight sealed. Ants tear through that paper like…well… paper. Yes I did meet the Branch President, hes still not at 100%. I'm glad to hear the cruise went well. I found my interest again in history since I've been out here. I really wanna travel all around when I'm older, especially Europe. My clothing is fine. My shoes are my soldiers,they are going to last me the whole mission, love em. My socks are fine. My neck has shrunk, so my collars are still fine, normally that get all nasty and raw, but I have like an inch of space. MY pants are good too. Its really so much cheaper for me to just buy stuff instead of you sending it.It'd be better if you just return em, or you can save em till I get home.
Dad- that’s too bad you didn’t get to listen to priesthood, Elder Ballard gave such an amazing talk about fathers and their sons. Thanks for everything you’ve taught me dad, and don’t forget, even though mom says I'ma man… I'm not haha. So I'm still going to need TONS of help after the mission still. You’re my hero.
EE-54 days wow. Good luck getting everything ready.
Crystal-Elder Holland is so amazing. I don’t think I could ever pick a favorite. Did you learn any Spanish? Vamos a ver si entiendes esto:¿Aprendiste algo de español? (Google translation)
OK love you guys, talk to you next week.
Love Elder Wilson
Hey everybody,This week was pretty great. We had our little branch caravan travel down to Yacuiba for 2 days to watch conference. I learned sooo much during conference. Theres so much I fault as a missionary and I need to start working right now to fix some of it b4 all of this ends. But I'll talk more about that later. The day b4 the conference we moved, I was pretty bummed about that, cuz our old house was amazing. But we are pretty sure the lady someone was using the electricity off our meter, cuz we were paying a ton of money. The week wasn’t too great if you look at the numbers, we had tons of activities and service projects this week, on top of that we didn’t work for 2 days. But things are looking up this week and month. Cristian came with his family to conference. He's progressing really well and should be getting baptized in two weeks. We also have three ladies that are showing a lot of interest and we are trying to fnd ways to get them to church.We had a talent show last Wednesday, it went pretty well. We started an hour late so we had to leave b4 I could do my magic show.I got the two packages, thank you much. Turns out though they have instant oatmeal here, so its 100 times cheaper if I just buy it here. But ya, CONFERENCE. There were 6 talks that really stuck out to me. I learned from Elder Scott what I can do to improve my teaching. I remember when I had around 3-4 months and would think… man when I have over a year or 15-16 months, I hope I'll be able to teach well…. Well… NOW I hope when I have 18-20 months I'll be able to teach well haha. Pres Uchtdorf (spelling)gave such a great talk about love, I know that’s one thing I really need to work on is just loving and finding the positive in everbody. Elder Watsonand Pres Monson talked about anger and just not worrying about the little things… another thing on my to do list. And Pres Monsons message about service was just amazing. MY favorite was from Elder Regnund (I think that’s his name) he talked about being lazy when he worked in the hospital, cuz he started to forget the basic things like reading and praying. It was so great to be able to listen to all the leaders and just feel the spirit. Having Americans with me and speaking English didn’t hurt either. The conference motivated me to just be better, just love God and love his children. It was so great.
Mom- thanks for the package. I have one suggestion though. Send candy that are really well sealed, like air tight sealed. Ants tear through that paper like…well… paper. Yes I did meet the Branch President, hes still not at 100%. I'm glad to hear the cruise went well. I found my interest again in history since I've been out here. I really wanna travel all around when I'm older, especially Europe. My clothing is fine. My shoes are my soldiers,they are going to last me the whole mission, love em. My socks are fine. My neck has shrunk, so my collars are still fine, normally that get all nasty and raw, but I have like an inch of space. MY pants are good too. Its really so much cheaper for me to just buy stuff instead of you sending it.It'd be better if you just return em, or you can save em till I get home.
Dad- that’s too bad you didn’t get to listen to priesthood, Elder Ballard gave such an amazing talk about fathers and their sons. Thanks for everything you’ve taught me dad, and don’t forget, even though mom says I'ma man… I'm not haha. So I'm still going to need TONS of help after the mission still. You’re my hero.
EE-54 days wow. Good luck getting everything ready.
Crystal-Elder Holland is so amazing. I don’t think I could ever pick a favorite. Did you learn any Spanish? Vamos a ver si entiendes esto:¿Aprendiste algo de español? (Google translation)
OK love you guys, talk to you next week.
Love Elder Wilson
9-28-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: James youre killing me man
Hey everybody,Sounds like things are going pretty well up north. Things are going pretty well down south too. This week we've been focusing on working with inactive families, there a few spots where 5 or six families live right next to eachother, so we are trying to get them activated, and then they can help us activate others, and bring investigators to church. The big problem we have here is just lack of man power. No one comes to prepare the sacrament, so we have to come early and get everything ready. So then we don't have time to bring investigators to church, so first we need to get more people coming,and then give them some responsibility so we can do our real jobs. But things are getting better. We had 3 people come to church yesterday. All three should be getting baptized b4 November. Church went pretty well yesterday, a lot of familie showed up. I taught primary with a 2 second notice that was really neat. I think we all know that me plus pressure equals bad We had the best service project in the history of ever this week. They told us we needed to clean up the lot where one day the chapel will be. And the president said all we need to bring are matches. So we had a good time setting giant fires on a windy day when it was about 95 degrees. Brought me back some good memories.Things with my comp are pretty good, we are polar opposites, so I think I have a lot to learn from him, but he needs to learn some things from me too. Hes more positive and cheerful than I am, so Ive been trying to let that rub off on me, its working out more or less. This shuld be a pretty good week, we have a talent show this Wednesday. Im going to do a little magic show. problem is I rmemeber one good magic trick,so its going to be more like a comedy routine. But it should be a good time. And I am soooooo excited for general conference. There was actually a chance that we weren't going to be able to go, cuz the only chapel around here is an hour away. But now we are going to spend the whole weekend in Yaquiba with the zone. Ive been counting down for two months for this. So two stories. Last night we were visiting an inactive member named Martin, and the tv was on behind him, and I could only see a corner of it. After about 20 minutes I recognized the music that was playing, and looked up. the new (well new for me) James Bond movie was playing. I had about 2 weeks in the mission when that came out, needless to say Ive been wanting to see it.It was a tough visit. And we visited another lady who is more or less active, but she works a lot on Sunday selling empanadas. When we talked about the Sabbath day she said''but, if I don't work on Sunday, I won't be able to afford my tithing''. I don't really have a joke for that, but I don't think a joke is needed, just read the quote again.
Valynn- we just found out something very awesome about our area. we can go. ready for this.. FISHING! I am so excited for that. But today its really cold, so we are going to wait till next week to go. But Ill probably be doing that every week that Im here, cuz theres nothing else. But that's ok,cuz fishing is one of my favorite things in the whole wide world. Jamen take my advice, GO TO THE STAKE DANCES
Grandma- thanks for the news, good luck with Roxy. The model airplane was really cool.
EE- I have to go to another city to watch conference.
Crystal- Practice is the best way to learn, I guarantee youll pick up some spanish b4he leaves. But don't try and teach him English, its waaaay harder.
Mom, Dad- thanks for the ideas, and the packages, I haven't received anything since Ive been in Villa Montes. I received that package with the hiker meals a whiel ago. I think theres some stuff waiting for me in Yacuibathough. And have fun on the cruise. Well, take care everybody, youre in my prayers.
Love Elder Wilson
Hey everybody,Sounds like things are going pretty well up north. Things are going pretty well down south too. This week we've been focusing on working with inactive families, there a few spots where 5 or six families live right next to eachother, so we are trying to get them activated, and then they can help us activate others, and bring investigators to church. The big problem we have here is just lack of man power. No one comes to prepare the sacrament, so we have to come early and get everything ready. So then we don't have time to bring investigators to church, so first we need to get more people coming,and then give them some responsibility so we can do our real jobs. But things are getting better. We had 3 people come to church yesterday. All three should be getting baptized b4 November. Church went pretty well yesterday, a lot of familie showed up. I taught primary with a 2 second notice that was really neat. I think we all know that me plus pressure equals bad We had the best service project in the history of ever this week. They told us we needed to clean up the lot where one day the chapel will be. And the president said all we need to bring are matches. So we had a good time setting giant fires on a windy day when it was about 95 degrees. Brought me back some good memories.Things with my comp are pretty good, we are polar opposites, so I think I have a lot to learn from him, but he needs to learn some things from me too. Hes more positive and cheerful than I am, so Ive been trying to let that rub off on me, its working out more or less. This shuld be a pretty good week, we have a talent show this Wednesday. Im going to do a little magic show. problem is I rmemeber one good magic trick,so its going to be more like a comedy routine. But it should be a good time. And I am soooooo excited for general conference. There was actually a chance that we weren't going to be able to go, cuz the only chapel around here is an hour away. But now we are going to spend the whole weekend in Yaquiba with the zone. Ive been counting down for two months for this. So two stories. Last night we were visiting an inactive member named Martin, and the tv was on behind him, and I could only see a corner of it. After about 20 minutes I recognized the music that was playing, and looked up. the new (well new for me) James Bond movie was playing. I had about 2 weeks in the mission when that came out, needless to say Ive been wanting to see it.It was a tough visit. And we visited another lady who is more or less active, but she works a lot on Sunday selling empanadas. When we talked about the Sabbath day she said''but, if I don't work on Sunday, I won't be able to afford my tithing''. I don't really have a joke for that, but I don't think a joke is needed, just read the quote again.
Valynn- we just found out something very awesome about our area. we can go. ready for this.. FISHING! I am so excited for that. But today its really cold, so we are going to wait till next week to go. But Ill probably be doing that every week that Im here, cuz theres nothing else. But that's ok,cuz fishing is one of my favorite things in the whole wide world. Jamen take my advice, GO TO THE STAKE DANCES
Grandma- thanks for the news, good luck with Roxy. The model airplane was really cool.
EE- I have to go to another city to watch conference.
Crystal- Practice is the best way to learn, I guarantee youll pick up some spanish b4he leaves. But don't try and teach him English, its waaaay harder.
Mom, Dad- thanks for the ideas, and the packages, I haven't received anything since Ive been in Villa Montes. I received that package with the hiker meals a whiel ago. I think theres some stuff waiting for me in Yacuibathough. And have fun on the cruise. Well, take care everybody, youre in my prayers.
Love Elder Wilson
9-21-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: Just another day in Paradise
Hey everybody, well things are starting to calm down here. And actually Idk why, but the weather has been a lot cooler this week, it changes super fast here. We'll see how tomorrow is. We are starting to organize ourselves a bit better here. We found a better map and so we are trying to mark where some of the members live. Problem is the addresses just say the street name, and each streets goes for about 30 blocks, so thats pretty difficult..We had 4 people come to church yesterday, that was pretty neat. Two of them need to get married b4 they can be baptized, but one needs to wait till her hubby gets divorced from his ex. And the other doesn't have ID. Those are two very big expensive problems here. We also had two people accept a date to be baptized... but they didn't come to church haha. But they are sure they want to be baptized, so thats good too. My first transfer here isn't looking too good as far as baptisms so, with general conference and district conference we won't be having meetings in our town for 2 weeks, and a person needs to come to church 3 times to be baptized. So maybe by the end of October some of them will be baptized. But we are just trying to help the branch out here. I like the food here in Bolivia so much more, and being on the border with Brazil and Argentina helps. Here they eat real corn, there's another type called choclo thats about 10 times bigger with no taste, thats all there is in Peru. And this week I got to eat... MASHED POTATOES. Normally the people here put the potatoes in a blender and make puree, but my pensh knows whats down, so she makes it the correct way. I love it. I have another calling now... Sunday school teacher for the youth, I taught the lesson about the Willie and Martin Handcart company. But theres only one Sunday school manual in the branch haha, so I just sort a winged it. It went alright but no one was listening. Things with me and my comp are going well. We started off kinda rocky. He's a perfectionist and I'm... well 'm not. But we are working better now, and are able to teach with a stronger spirit. Cool story, we showed up for lunch yesterday and our pensh told us to walk across the street and invite this soldier over to eat. She said he'd been sitting there for a while. I just thought that was so great. Idk if too many people from the states would've done that... I'd be lying if I said I would do it.
Crystal- I have no idea what the branch pres has, but they said he's back in town, but still in his house, I might be able to meet him finally.
Valynn- the first week 60 people came... for the first hour, but after only about 40... stayed For the rest of the classes. So yesterday right after the closing prayer we ran to guard the gate, almost no one left this time, after seeing the missionary gauntlet waiting for them, so we had about 80 people stay this time... big improvment. We are slowly trying to reactivate people.We were given two families to visit this week... we never found them, but they ended up coming to church anyways. The city is split in two parts, I have the eastern half, and there are a couple paved roads, everything else is dirt.
Kim- Tell Brennen happy Birthday! I'm trying to look at my calendar to remember peoples birthdays... but I'm only trying, not doing... should probably get on that. After the first day I calmed down alot... my comp is a different story. I'm trying to show him that if we are working and being obedient things will work out. But he's freaking out cuz he didn't write neatly enough in his planner. But ya, we are very slowly seeing results.
Dad- We are trying to organize some activities to get the people excited about church. No one here has problems with americans. We ate lunch with a soldier yesterday, so he was Pro Evo Morales, and he just wanted to know what the states were like. We have a few strong members, but they always give excuses for why they can't have callings. Also theres a lot of stupid drama thats getting in the way of the branchs progress, so we need to work on that too.
- Tell Beau he has to write me a ton when he gets home, I imagine he's going home to Utah right? And tell Kort and Cyd they should email me once in a while throug you guys, letters dont really work too well anymore. A package sounds great right now. It'll probably take a long time to get tome though. And mom PLEASE send ideas for activities, we aren't doing too well with thinking of things to do.
EE-good luck with Bunny, just what a baby needs.
KK-Emily... good choice. K,
gotta goLove you guys
Hey everybody, well things are starting to calm down here. And actually Idk why, but the weather has been a lot cooler this week, it changes super fast here. We'll see how tomorrow is. We are starting to organize ourselves a bit better here. We found a better map and so we are trying to mark where some of the members live. Problem is the addresses just say the street name, and each streets goes for about 30 blocks, so thats pretty difficult..We had 4 people come to church yesterday, that was pretty neat. Two of them need to get married b4 they can be baptized, but one needs to wait till her hubby gets divorced from his ex. And the other doesn't have ID. Those are two very big expensive problems here. We also had two people accept a date to be baptized... but they didn't come to church haha. But they are sure they want to be baptized, so thats good too. My first transfer here isn't looking too good as far as baptisms so, with general conference and district conference we won't be having meetings in our town for 2 weeks, and a person needs to come to church 3 times to be baptized. So maybe by the end of October some of them will be baptized. But we are just trying to help the branch out here. I like the food here in Bolivia so much more, and being on the border with Brazil and Argentina helps. Here they eat real corn, there's another type called choclo thats about 10 times bigger with no taste, thats all there is in Peru. And this week I got to eat... MASHED POTATOES. Normally the people here put the potatoes in a blender and make puree, but my pensh knows whats down, so she makes it the correct way. I love it. I have another calling now... Sunday school teacher for the youth, I taught the lesson about the Willie and Martin Handcart company. But theres only one Sunday school manual in the branch haha, so I just sort a winged it. It went alright but no one was listening. Things with me and my comp are going well. We started off kinda rocky. He's a perfectionist and I'm... well 'm not. But we are working better now, and are able to teach with a stronger spirit. Cool story, we showed up for lunch yesterday and our pensh told us to walk across the street and invite this soldier over to eat. She said he'd been sitting there for a while. I just thought that was so great. Idk if too many people from the states would've done that... I'd be lying if I said I would do it.
Crystal- I have no idea what the branch pres has, but they said he's back in town, but still in his house, I might be able to meet him finally.
Valynn- the first week 60 people came... for the first hour, but after only about 40... stayed For the rest of the classes. So yesterday right after the closing prayer we ran to guard the gate, almost no one left this time, after seeing the missionary gauntlet waiting for them, so we had about 80 people stay this time... big improvment. We are slowly trying to reactivate people.We were given two families to visit this week... we never found them, but they ended up coming to church anyways. The city is split in two parts, I have the eastern half, and there are a couple paved roads, everything else is dirt.
Kim- Tell Brennen happy Birthday! I'm trying to look at my calendar to remember peoples birthdays... but I'm only trying, not doing... should probably get on that. After the first day I calmed down alot... my comp is a different story. I'm trying to show him that if we are working and being obedient things will work out. But he's freaking out cuz he didn't write neatly enough in his planner. But ya, we are very slowly seeing results.
Dad- We are trying to organize some activities to get the people excited about church. No one here has problems with americans. We ate lunch with a soldier yesterday, so he was Pro Evo Morales, and he just wanted to know what the states were like. We have a few strong members, but they always give excuses for why they can't have callings. Also theres a lot of stupid drama thats getting in the way of the branchs progress, so we need to work on that too.
- Tell Beau he has to write me a ton when he gets home, I imagine he's going home to Utah right? And tell Kort and Cyd they should email me once in a while throug you guys, letters dont really work too well anymore. A package sounds great right now. It'll probably take a long time to get tome though. And mom PLEASE send ideas for activities, we aren't doing too well with thinking of things to do.
EE-good luck with Bunny, just what a baby needs.
KK-Emily... good choice. K,
gotta goLove you guys
9-14-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: ''Lets see what ya got''
''And Elder Wilson is presiding this meeting''..... WHAT?!?!Ok...I dont even know where to begin, this week has been insane, the craziest in my mission... so far. My area got switched, Im training, Im opening an area, and Im SECOND COUNSELOR in the branch. This is nuts. MY area is called Villa Montes, its down south, close to Argentina (hi Beau, if you're still there). We are out in the middle of no where, there are two other Elders in the town, and they are the only elders we see. Once or twice a month we go to the big city (Yaquiba) where the other 12 elders are. Our branch presidency is...well, different, our branch pres is sick, and has been in the hospital for 2 motnhs. The first couselor is a stud, but has only 6 months as a member. And then theres... me. I was sitting on the stand yesterday thinking ''who do they need to give the sacrament to first?..wait, ME!'' Our branch has close to 1400 members and 60 came on Sunday, so we have lots and lots of work to do. We are trying to find a map cuz I have to figure out how we are going to set up a visiting teaching program. I am also programing all the talks for the next month, doing the tithing in the ward,and also teaching primary. Oh ya, and I'm on a a mission too. On the way out here on the bus I was talking to my new zone leader Elder Hanks, and I was freaking out a bit. But he told me that President Maynes likes to do this. He likes to give Elders their test, or the opportunity to have responsibility. President Maynes is basically saying '' Lets see what ya got''. So far its going good. I was freaking out on Thursday, but I'm trying to do what President Maynes told me, and that is reactivating members. I'm kinda flattered for being put out here, because this means President Maynes has a lot of trust in me, cuz honestly there's no one out here to watch us, just us. President Maynes is so great, he said ''it you need anything just call me''. My Pensh is awesome, Hermana Cielo. We had an ''asada'' on Saturday, its a Argentinian BBQ, it was sooooooooooo good. Argetinans cook like Americans,it was one of the best meals I've eating in the past 15 months. My area is far from being Jungle, it looks like Ringold, full of juniper trees. Its super dry and super hot, honestly it looks like the basin. And mom there aren't any mosquitos, honestly that might be why I'm here. I called Sister Maynes and told her I was being eaten a live, so this might be the only answer to me not getting Dengue. My comp is Elder Hurtado. He's very... new. Good kid, but we need to put some life back into him, the CCM tends to suck all personality out of you. I'm kind of bummed about not being able to see the other Elders, there are a few elders that came with me to Bolivia, I don't know them too well, but they are really cool. So ya, Things are nuts but good out here. We are working hard and have a HUGE amount of work ahead of us to help out this branch. I cant think of anything really I need from you guys. My P days are really boring here, so if you could send me some sports news to read that'd be neat. Pictures too would be awesome. Also, send me ideas for activities to do, cuz honestly I'm branch President right now...this is so nuts.
Kim- There's such a difference between people from Bolivia and Peru. The Bolvians are just sooo much better. I cant judge Peru too much, cuz I was in the worst parts of the worst city in the country, and maybe the worst on the planet. It's super hot and dry. It gets up to 50 degrees celcius. Mom, sitdown b4 you think about how much that is in Farenheit.
Mom-I actually had the spirit help me out this week. I got up to go to the bathroom, but took a step inside and then thought ''I need to turn the light on!'' I turn it on and WOW, about 40 ants were running around on the ground. And these aren't "Bug Lifes" ants, these are Amizonian ants that just don't mess around. Needless to say I would have had problems if they bit me.
KK-Ya, idk what I need, haha, ya, just send pictures and letters, IDK when my mail is going to get to me, cuz it goes from santa cruz to yaquiba, then it sits there till we make the hour drive down there, or somebody comes upto see us. Well, Im just gonna keep on keepin on here....yup.
Love you guys, Elder Wilson Ps Happy Birthday Jamen
''And Elder Wilson is presiding this meeting''..... WHAT?!?!Ok...I dont even know where to begin, this week has been insane, the craziest in my mission... so far. My area got switched, Im training, Im opening an area, and Im SECOND COUNSELOR in the branch. This is nuts. MY area is called Villa Montes, its down south, close to Argentina (hi Beau, if you're still there). We are out in the middle of no where, there are two other Elders in the town, and they are the only elders we see. Once or twice a month we go to the big city (Yaquiba) where the other 12 elders are. Our branch presidency is...well, different, our branch pres is sick, and has been in the hospital for 2 motnhs. The first couselor is a stud, but has only 6 months as a member. And then theres... me. I was sitting on the stand yesterday thinking ''who do they need to give the sacrament to first?..wait, ME!'' Our branch has close to 1400 members and 60 came on Sunday, so we have lots and lots of work to do. We are trying to find a map cuz I have to figure out how we are going to set up a visiting teaching program. I am also programing all the talks for the next month, doing the tithing in the ward,and also teaching primary. Oh ya, and I'm on a a mission too. On the way out here on the bus I was talking to my new zone leader Elder Hanks, and I was freaking out a bit. But he told me that President Maynes likes to do this. He likes to give Elders their test, or the opportunity to have responsibility. President Maynes is basically saying '' Lets see what ya got''. So far its going good. I was freaking out on Thursday, but I'm trying to do what President Maynes told me, and that is reactivating members. I'm kinda flattered for being put out here, because this means President Maynes has a lot of trust in me, cuz honestly there's no one out here to watch us, just us. President Maynes is so great, he said ''it you need anything just call me''. My Pensh is awesome, Hermana Cielo. We had an ''asada'' on Saturday, its a Argentinian BBQ, it was sooooooooooo good. Argetinans cook like Americans,it was one of the best meals I've eating in the past 15 months. My area is far from being Jungle, it looks like Ringold, full of juniper trees. Its super dry and super hot, honestly it looks like the basin. And mom there aren't any mosquitos, honestly that might be why I'm here. I called Sister Maynes and told her I was being eaten a live, so this might be the only answer to me not getting Dengue. My comp is Elder Hurtado. He's very... new. Good kid, but we need to put some life back into him, the CCM tends to suck all personality out of you. I'm kind of bummed about not being able to see the other Elders, there are a few elders that came with me to Bolivia, I don't know them too well, but they are really cool. So ya, Things are nuts but good out here. We are working hard and have a HUGE amount of work ahead of us to help out this branch. I cant think of anything really I need from you guys. My P days are really boring here, so if you could send me some sports news to read that'd be neat. Pictures too would be awesome. Also, send me ideas for activities to do, cuz honestly I'm branch President right now...this is so nuts.
Kim- There's such a difference between people from Bolivia and Peru. The Bolvians are just sooo much better. I cant judge Peru too much, cuz I was in the worst parts of the worst city in the country, and maybe the worst on the planet. It's super hot and dry. It gets up to 50 degrees celcius. Mom, sitdown b4 you think about how much that is in Farenheit.
Mom-I actually had the spirit help me out this week. I got up to go to the bathroom, but took a step inside and then thought ''I need to turn the light on!'' I turn it on and WOW, about 40 ants were running around on the ground. And these aren't "Bug Lifes" ants, these are Amizonian ants that just don't mess around. Needless to say I would have had problems if they bit me.
KK-Ya, idk what I need, haha, ya, just send pictures and letters, IDK when my mail is going to get to me, cuz it goes from santa cruz to yaquiba, then it sits there till we make the hour drive down there, or somebody comes upto see us. Well, Im just gonna keep on keepin on here....yup.
Love you guys, Elder Wilson Ps Happy Birthday Jamen
9-7-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: Sleeping Beauty
Hey everybody, so things are going pretty well. This week was pretty long,with some really really slow days. We had problems finding the people who we had appointments with, or finding people to teach, so are numbers are looking too hot for this week. We had the oporutunity to bless two babies this week. One little girl was 8 months old, her dad came to our house and told us about how the family had no money to pay for the treatment. So we helped him out a bit and went to give her a blessing, this Sunday he said she was doing better. But we also had a sister from another stake come talk to us. Her name is Sister Espinoza, she has a 1 month old baby boy named Helamán. The bones in his skull didn't form right and his brain isn't protected and isn't developing right. We went to the ICU in the hospital to give him a blessing. It was pretty emotional watching Sister Espinoza and Helaman. And when I was leaving the hospital I started thinking about a talk from Eld Christopherson about the covenants we make and the protection we recieve from them. Sister Espinoza knows that no matter what happens to Helaman, she'll see him again. I've been thinking about that little guy all week. Thinking about that makes me want to work harder, so other families can feel the same protection from the covenants we make. Sister Espinoza came to our ward yesterday and told me that Helaman has stableized a bit more, so thats good to hear.I also got to baptize a sister named Fanny this Saturday. Her husband is an RM that just reactived himself (I think that works in English too). Her hubbys name is Saulo. He also was called as our mission leader yesterday, sot hats going to be a good time. And yesterday we were sitting in church, and my comp got really excited all of the sudden and said some lady showed up that they use to teach. But the thing is the lady refused to give the elders her address. And after the 1st hour she took off again and my comp was says ‘’come on!’’. So we end up basically stalking this lady to find out where she lives, we were hiding behind bushes and everything so she wouldn't get mad. And then later that night we pretended to knock doors to contact her. IDK if that’s how the manual says we should do it, but Pres Maynes says we should be Inspired Missionaries, so we just did it, and now we have a new investigator.
Mom- We actually taught Lehis dream too this week. Something Pres Maynes taught us was that all the people in the field could see the brightness of the tree, and wanted it. But they didn’t know where the path was.
Grandma- Thank you very much for the update, BYU (The Lords Team) vs #3 Oklahoma, the church is true.
Crystal- Ha, I don’t really have any horror stories… well nothing too bad. But Santa Cruz is way safer that good ol Mexico. Was Matt in Mexico City?
Valynn- the heat isn’t too bad yet, but its ‘’Spring Time’’ and its like 91degrees.
KK- I like Emily, but just so everybody knows I've got dibs on Hadley and Annie.
Elise- I'm not in the jungle, Santa Cruz is a city with 7 rings, and I'm right on the 4th ring.Mom- I think you still have my password and stuff, sister Maynes emailed mesome pictures of when we arrived, but this computer is really slow and Idon’t think I can send em, but you can get on and look at em.Ok everybody, thanks for the support and the prayers. I love you a ton.
Cuídense, Elder WilsonPS 27 days till Conference!!!!!PS#2 I bought a bug net, that covers my bed... but its sky blue with lace on top. Cecily would love it.
Hey everybody, so things are going pretty well. This week was pretty long,with some really really slow days. We had problems finding the people who we had appointments with, or finding people to teach, so are numbers are looking too hot for this week. We had the oporutunity to bless two babies this week. One little girl was 8 months old, her dad came to our house and told us about how the family had no money to pay for the treatment. So we helped him out a bit and went to give her a blessing, this Sunday he said she was doing better. But we also had a sister from another stake come talk to us. Her name is Sister Espinoza, she has a 1 month old baby boy named Helamán. The bones in his skull didn't form right and his brain isn't protected and isn't developing right. We went to the ICU in the hospital to give him a blessing. It was pretty emotional watching Sister Espinoza and Helaman. And when I was leaving the hospital I started thinking about a talk from Eld Christopherson about the covenants we make and the protection we recieve from them. Sister Espinoza knows that no matter what happens to Helaman, she'll see him again. I've been thinking about that little guy all week. Thinking about that makes me want to work harder, so other families can feel the same protection from the covenants we make. Sister Espinoza came to our ward yesterday and told me that Helaman has stableized a bit more, so thats good to hear.I also got to baptize a sister named Fanny this Saturday. Her husband is an RM that just reactived himself (I think that works in English too). Her hubbys name is Saulo. He also was called as our mission leader yesterday, sot hats going to be a good time. And yesterday we were sitting in church, and my comp got really excited all of the sudden and said some lady showed up that they use to teach. But the thing is the lady refused to give the elders her address. And after the 1st hour she took off again and my comp was says ‘’come on!’’. So we end up basically stalking this lady to find out where she lives, we were hiding behind bushes and everything so she wouldn't get mad. And then later that night we pretended to knock doors to contact her. IDK if that’s how the manual says we should do it, but Pres Maynes says we should be Inspired Missionaries, so we just did it, and now we have a new investigator.
Mom- We actually taught Lehis dream too this week. Something Pres Maynes taught us was that all the people in the field could see the brightness of the tree, and wanted it. But they didn’t know where the path was.
Grandma- Thank you very much for the update, BYU (The Lords Team) vs #3 Oklahoma, the church is true.
Crystal- Ha, I don’t really have any horror stories… well nothing too bad. But Santa Cruz is way safer that good ol Mexico. Was Matt in Mexico City?
Valynn- the heat isn’t too bad yet, but its ‘’Spring Time’’ and its like 91degrees.
KK- I like Emily, but just so everybody knows I've got dibs on Hadley and Annie.
Elise- I'm not in the jungle, Santa Cruz is a city with 7 rings, and I'm right on the 4th ring.Mom- I think you still have my password and stuff, sister Maynes emailed mesome pictures of when we arrived, but this computer is really slow and Idon’t think I can send em, but you can get on and look at em.Ok everybody, thanks for the support and the prayers. I love you a ton.
Cuídense, Elder WilsonPS 27 days till Conference!!!!!PS#2 I bought a bug net, that covers my bed... but its sky blue with lace on top. Cecily would love it.
8-31-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: READY FOR THE HEAT?...
Hey people, so my R button doesnt work too well so sorry if this is a bit confusing. So you all can email me now, well family members can. But I think I'm just going to send one email cuz I get kinda confused sending emails to everyone.So we had interviews this week. I LOVE Pres Maynes, he's powerful and really funny at the same time. In my interview we start talking about Bolivia and he says '' you ready for the heat? Its going to get up to 33 this week. '' then we both kind of just sit there for a sec cuz neither one of us really know how hot 33 is. Then he says '' lets google it!'' so we spent most of my interview doing math problems. But I love being here working with him. But ya its starting to warm up here. Its up in the 90s with about 90%humidity, so ya, the gold bond is being used. I did divisions with my zone leader Eld De Young, he was trained by my buddy Eld Hale, so we had a good time talking about good old Bryson, and also about country songs. A girl named Mitzy was baptized this week. After the baptism she started swimming in the font. not exactly the most touching moment I've had on my mission. But we are going to see a LOT of success here in September. There are around 10 who should be baptized this month, our ward is so great they help us soo much. And we have changes this next week, but here they do em a bit different. If you have a change, they just call you Wednesday night and you have to leave that next morning. But theres little chance that I'm getting changed. So its sounds like every one had a good time with the baby shower and I FINALLY found out whos having what. And now everyone is going back to school. good luck with that.
Mom, Dad- I got the other package you sent with the gold bond, much abliged. And I'll be waiting for the next. I'm going to have your Christmas presents made this week. but I might just keep em till I get home, cuz I might be a little hard getting them through customs.
Crystal- Tell Ashley and Dallin congrats.
Hollands- theres not really anything I need, just send pictures.
Elise- how do you pronounce Liam? ''lee-um'' I've been speaking spanish too long.
kk- I'm glad to hear you and baby are doing well. Any names yet? When I read your email I thought it said that Josh went to Portland to BE a UFC fighter not see.
Kim- don't worry if he cries that means hes normal. Well, talk to you guys next week,
love Elder Wilson
Hey people, so my R button doesnt work too well so sorry if this is a bit confusing. So you all can email me now, well family members can. But I think I'm just going to send one email cuz I get kinda confused sending emails to everyone.So we had interviews this week. I LOVE Pres Maynes, he's powerful and really funny at the same time. In my interview we start talking about Bolivia and he says '' you ready for the heat? Its going to get up to 33 this week. '' then we both kind of just sit there for a sec cuz neither one of us really know how hot 33 is. Then he says '' lets google it!'' so we spent most of my interview doing math problems. But I love being here working with him. But ya its starting to warm up here. Its up in the 90s with about 90%humidity, so ya, the gold bond is being used. I did divisions with my zone leader Eld De Young, he was trained by my buddy Eld Hale, so we had a good time talking about good old Bryson, and also about country songs. A girl named Mitzy was baptized this week. After the baptism she started swimming in the font. not exactly the most touching moment I've had on my mission. But we are going to see a LOT of success here in September. There are around 10 who should be baptized this month, our ward is so great they help us soo much. And we have changes this next week, but here they do em a bit different. If you have a change, they just call you Wednesday night and you have to leave that next morning. But theres little chance that I'm getting changed. So its sounds like every one had a good time with the baby shower and I FINALLY found out whos having what. And now everyone is going back to school. good luck with that.
Mom, Dad- I got the other package you sent with the gold bond, much abliged. And I'll be waiting for the next. I'm going to have your Christmas presents made this week. but I might just keep em till I get home, cuz I might be a little hard getting them through customs.
Crystal- Tell Ashley and Dallin congrats.
Hollands- theres not really anything I need, just send pictures.
Elise- how do you pronounce Liam? ''lee-um'' I've been speaking spanish too long.
kk- I'm glad to hear you and baby are doing well. Any names yet? When I read your email I thought it said that Josh went to Portland to BE a UFC fighter not see.
Kim- don't worry if he cries that means hes normal. Well, talk to you guys next week,
love Elder Wilson
8-24-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: staying Focused So mom, I wrote a letter about this, but it was sent back to me. but I really want you guys to know this. I've seen so many good missionarie sarrive at 18 or 20 months and just tank. They just totally stop working. I REALLY REALLY don't want that to happen to me. So once I hit 18 months, I really need you guys to help me stay focused. I need you guys not to tell me how close I am to finishing, or about things we are going to do when I get home. I am really trying to make up for lost time out here. I feel like when I was in Lima I was just a mediocre missionary. And now that I'm here I feel re-energized, so I'm just trying to work as hard as I can while I still can and not worry about anything else. But ya, you guys need to help me keep going. Thank you for all your support these past 14 months. You guys helped me pass the BIGGEST trial of my life (so far). I love you all soo much.
Cuídense, Elder Wilson
Cuídense, Elder Wilson
8-24-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: 14 months...
Hey everybody Well its Monday again and things are going really well down here. As far as work goes we had an amazing week. The ward has given us a bunch of great references of people that are ready to be baptized. We met one lady and found out her hubby is a returned missionary that went inactive, but a few weeks ago decided he wanted to come back to church. Turns out he served in Lima East, so me and him have fun making fun of Lima together. But its really great watching him turn his life around. His wife Fanny and his stepson Guimer are getting baptized on the 5th so we are pretty excited about that. Hes trying to get everything takin care of so he can bless his baby on the 5th too. Theres also a guy named Daniel that told us he wanted to get baptized during the first visit, we have citas with both of them today.I did divisions this week with Elder Puglisi’s comp. It was a LONG day.The kid is really nice, good heart, but tries my patients. My comp said this week we are doing divisions again, but this time me and Poogles are going to be together, that’s going to be fun. So I received a letter from Cyd that she wrote in March, that was neat. She talked about NCAA Basketball ending… and its about to start again. And then I received two letters from KK that said ‘’JUNE’’ on them. I was really confused cuz she said ‘’it was so great to be able to talk to you on the phone’’, that’s when I realized they were from LAST June. IDK how that works, but mom I got the package you sent on the 4th, looks like the mail isn’t to shabby here.I feel kinda proud of myself, my pants have holes in the crotch, so its not too attractive when I sit down for lessons, so I cut up a sock I had and sewed them into my pants, it looks gorgeous. We had Zone Conference today with Pres and Sister Maynes. They are amazing. He just taught us pure doctrine for about 3 hours. And then two of the sisters taught a little class about challenging people for baptism. ‘’Elder Wilson and Elder Milián are going to be the missionaries’’ I wasn’t too worried about that part, but then they said ‘’and the investigator will be…President Maynes’’. He TORE US APART, it was bad. Its not fun being made examples of… I’m not sure if that makes sense in English. But Pres Maynes is just amazing, listening to him just makes me want to be better. And Sister Maynes is just so nice; she takes really good care of us.
EE-My house is ok, the floors are cement. The bathroom isn’t to great but they are building a new one and it should be done within a week. No one was baptized last week, but one girl is getting baptized this week. Then the next week Fanny and Guimer are getting baptized. Ok I still haven’t received and answer about this: are you having a boy or girl? And how are KK and her baby doing?
G-Ma- I just asked my President today and he said you can write directly tome too. Yes I am still interested in sports, Id love to hear some news every now and then. Bolivia is just better than Peru. Santa cruz is the riches part of the country, and everyone takes care of things here. And to top it off everyone is really nice. Its great.
Mom-I got a dear elder from you asking about finding info on the Mission. Just go to google and type in ‘’mission Bolivia Santa Cruz’’, you might want to try adding ‘’lds’’ too. Im sure you can find something through there. And I thought of something I could really go for here, instant oatmeal would just be super. And ya anything that’s easy, and I mean REALLY easy to cook,I can handle. I have limited resources here but I can make due. OK you guys, take care of yourselves. Ill keep goin at it down here.
Love, Elder Wilson
PS…So ya I just realized I have 14 months as a missionary. And I have a feeling I said this last week, but im just going to say it again cuz I havetime. When we were leaving the MTC we ran into one of my friends cousins who was ending his mission. He was really sad and was talking about how he didn’t want to go home and that he didn’t know what he was going to do with his life. I remember thinking ‘’ that’s the dumbest thing Ive ever heard’’.But with every month that passes I feel more and more like that Elder. Somedays I put my shirt and tie on and b4 I put on my tag I look at the mirror and it freaks me out not seeing that on my chest… IDK how im going to actwhen I get home……. BIG GULPS HUH!?
Hey everybody Well its Monday again and things are going really well down here. As far as work goes we had an amazing week. The ward has given us a bunch of great references of people that are ready to be baptized. We met one lady and found out her hubby is a returned missionary that went inactive, but a few weeks ago decided he wanted to come back to church. Turns out he served in Lima East, so me and him have fun making fun of Lima together. But its really great watching him turn his life around. His wife Fanny and his stepson Guimer are getting baptized on the 5th so we are pretty excited about that. Hes trying to get everything takin care of so he can bless his baby on the 5th too. Theres also a guy named Daniel that told us he wanted to get baptized during the first visit, we have citas with both of them today.I did divisions this week with Elder Puglisi’s comp. It was a LONG day.The kid is really nice, good heart, but tries my patients. My comp said this week we are doing divisions again, but this time me and Poogles are going to be together, that’s going to be fun. So I received a letter from Cyd that she wrote in March, that was neat. She talked about NCAA Basketball ending… and its about to start again. And then I received two letters from KK that said ‘’JUNE’’ on them. I was really confused cuz she said ‘’it was so great to be able to talk to you on the phone’’, that’s when I realized they were from LAST June. IDK how that works, but mom I got the package you sent on the 4th, looks like the mail isn’t to shabby here.I feel kinda proud of myself, my pants have holes in the crotch, so its not too attractive when I sit down for lessons, so I cut up a sock I had and sewed them into my pants, it looks gorgeous. We had Zone Conference today with Pres and Sister Maynes. They are amazing. He just taught us pure doctrine for about 3 hours. And then two of the sisters taught a little class about challenging people for baptism. ‘’Elder Wilson and Elder Milián are going to be the missionaries’’ I wasn’t too worried about that part, but then they said ‘’and the investigator will be…President Maynes’’. He TORE US APART, it was bad. Its not fun being made examples of… I’m not sure if that makes sense in English. But Pres Maynes is just amazing, listening to him just makes me want to be better. And Sister Maynes is just so nice; she takes really good care of us.
EE-My house is ok, the floors are cement. The bathroom isn’t to great but they are building a new one and it should be done within a week. No one was baptized last week, but one girl is getting baptized this week. Then the next week Fanny and Guimer are getting baptized. Ok I still haven’t received and answer about this: are you having a boy or girl? And how are KK and her baby doing?
G-Ma- I just asked my President today and he said you can write directly tome too. Yes I am still interested in sports, Id love to hear some news every now and then. Bolivia is just better than Peru. Santa cruz is the riches part of the country, and everyone takes care of things here. And to top it off everyone is really nice. Its great.
Mom-I got a dear elder from you asking about finding info on the Mission. Just go to google and type in ‘’mission Bolivia Santa Cruz’’, you might want to try adding ‘’lds’’ too. Im sure you can find something through there. And I thought of something I could really go for here, instant oatmeal would just be super. And ya anything that’s easy, and I mean REALLY easy to cook,I can handle. I have limited resources here but I can make due. OK you guys, take care of yourselves. Ill keep goin at it down here.
Love, Elder Wilson
PS…So ya I just realized I have 14 months as a missionary. And I have a feeling I said this last week, but im just going to say it again cuz I havetime. When we were leaving the MTC we ran into one of my friends cousins who was ending his mission. He was really sad and was talking about how he didn’t want to go home and that he didn’t know what he was going to do with his life. I remember thinking ‘’ that’s the dumbest thing Ive ever heard’’.But with every month that passes I feel more and more like that Elder. Somedays I put my shirt and tie on and b4 I put on my tag I look at the mirror and it freaks me out not seeing that on my chest… IDK how im going to actwhen I get home……. BIG GULPS HUH!?
8-17-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: Sand Blast
Hey everybody, so, its Monday again. Time is going faster and faster with each week.sounds like everything is going well in the States… and France. Things are going great here. I had a little transition phaise coming over from Peru,everything was so different and it freaked me out a bit, but now i feel like Im back to normal again. Im starting to get the area down now, which is really hard, cuz NO ONE here has addresses, so we have to draw little maps and say ‘’Point to your house’’. I feel like a better missionary here, we are working really hard, and finding a lot of people. If things work out,four peolpe should be getting baptized this week. The weather keeps changing on us, one day the ‘’Sur’’ come and its super cold, then the sun comes out and burns us alive. Or we get a nice combo of the two, heat, with wind. So the wind kicks up a ton of sand, which then sticks to the sun screen on my face, lips, eyes, and ears, its neat. Last P Day was pretty great, having Elder Puglisi with me is so much fun, I love that guy. We got permision to go to the center of the city to go shopping. Theres a store that has a bunch of US products. I found some Jiff Peanut Butter, BBQ sauce, which is working out real nice, and ¡ROOT BEER!.We also wanted some pancake mix, so we were looking at all the brands and trying to find out which one was the best buy and then one of us looked up and said ‘’or we could just buy ten pounds of it’’. So now we have enough pancake mix to last us till we get home, and it only costed $11. And the best part is the pancake mix is from Washington. And this week me, my comp, and Eld Puglisi and his comp Eld Ñaupari (good luck saying that name) are having a lil barbeque. Theres also a member that can make scripture cases out of almost any animal skin you want, so we will be working on designs for our too.I got to baptize a kid name Oscar this week. We gave him some pants to use,but they were too big, so we used staples to tighten them up a bit. So i dont know if i ever let you guys know what my area is called, my ward is called La Cañada, and my stake is La Pampa, we are in between the 5th and 6th rings. My ward is super cool, its really strong and the members absolutley love the missionaries. And I dont know if you guys heard, but pouch doesnt exist anymore. So now it is a lot harder for me to send letters, I wrote a letter to mom and dad, and one to Cyd and another to Kort, but they all were sent back to me. I have to get permision to go to the city center to send my letters, so ill work on that.Funny story, the people here are way chil. We were driving on the bus, and a guy gets off, then 5 seconds later the bus driver just walks off the bus,and leaves the engine running and everything. My first thought was that the guy hadnt paid and the driver was gonna chase him down. But no, the driver just had to go potty.
Chris and Valynn- the food here is different, theres not a lot of flavor,but its ok cuz in Peru there’s flavor, but the flavor a lot of times was disgusting. My comp is awesome, his name is Eld Milián. We work hard and get along really well. I still have cold water, but only for a bit longer, we are hooking up a heater right now. I forgot what HTML is, but yes I can recieve attachments through email.
KK tried to send me something but it didnt work, not sure why. I think I actually have been on the same swing you guys went on, me and Brett went on one in Reno too.
Dad- thanks for the email, Im glad to know the job went well. ‘’Sent from my iphone’’
Crystal- Yes, i think skydiving would be a good experience for him too. Ive never had problems with dogs, they are better here. But in Lima we always had a book of mormon in our hands, so when a dog tried to do something I just hit it with the word of the lord.
EE- Santa Cruz doesnt have as many restauraunts where I am, but its cool cuz im eating less. But they do have these things called salteñas, they are like little chicken pot pies, sooo good.
Mom- I have my rain coat still. I need more multi vitamins. I am finally starting to take the garlic pills cuz there are mosquitos here. Ive been cooking a lot of eggs in the morning and eating PB and J sandwhiches for dinner, but I cant really think of anything Im craving right now. Oh and when does Beau get home? Its just in a few weeks isnt it? Ok, gotta go, love you guys.
Hey everybody, so, its Monday again. Time is going faster and faster with each week.sounds like everything is going well in the States… and France. Things are going great here. I had a little transition phaise coming over from Peru,everything was so different and it freaked me out a bit, but now i feel like Im back to normal again. Im starting to get the area down now, which is really hard, cuz NO ONE here has addresses, so we have to draw little maps and say ‘’Point to your house’’. I feel like a better missionary here, we are working really hard, and finding a lot of people. If things work out,four peolpe should be getting baptized this week. The weather keeps changing on us, one day the ‘’Sur’’ come and its super cold, then the sun comes out and burns us alive. Or we get a nice combo of the two, heat, with wind. So the wind kicks up a ton of sand, which then sticks to the sun screen on my face, lips, eyes, and ears, its neat. Last P Day was pretty great, having Elder Puglisi with me is so much fun, I love that guy. We got permision to go to the center of the city to go shopping. Theres a store that has a bunch of US products. I found some Jiff Peanut Butter, BBQ sauce, which is working out real nice, and ¡ROOT BEER!.We also wanted some pancake mix, so we were looking at all the brands and trying to find out which one was the best buy and then one of us looked up and said ‘’or we could just buy ten pounds of it’’. So now we have enough pancake mix to last us till we get home, and it only costed $11. And the best part is the pancake mix is from Washington. And this week me, my comp, and Eld Puglisi and his comp Eld Ñaupari (good luck saying that name) are having a lil barbeque. Theres also a member that can make scripture cases out of almost any animal skin you want, so we will be working on designs for our too.I got to baptize a kid name Oscar this week. We gave him some pants to use,but they were too big, so we used staples to tighten them up a bit. So i dont know if i ever let you guys know what my area is called, my ward is called La Cañada, and my stake is La Pampa, we are in between the 5th and 6th rings. My ward is super cool, its really strong and the members absolutley love the missionaries. And I dont know if you guys heard, but pouch doesnt exist anymore. So now it is a lot harder for me to send letters, I wrote a letter to mom and dad, and one to Cyd and another to Kort, but they all were sent back to me. I have to get permision to go to the city center to send my letters, so ill work on that.Funny story, the people here are way chil. We were driving on the bus, and a guy gets off, then 5 seconds later the bus driver just walks off the bus,and leaves the engine running and everything. My first thought was that the guy hadnt paid and the driver was gonna chase him down. But no, the driver just had to go potty.
Chris and Valynn- the food here is different, theres not a lot of flavor,but its ok cuz in Peru there’s flavor, but the flavor a lot of times was disgusting. My comp is awesome, his name is Eld Milián. We work hard and get along really well. I still have cold water, but only for a bit longer, we are hooking up a heater right now. I forgot what HTML is, but yes I can recieve attachments through email.
KK tried to send me something but it didnt work, not sure why. I think I actually have been on the same swing you guys went on, me and Brett went on one in Reno too.
Dad- thanks for the email, Im glad to know the job went well. ‘’Sent from my iphone’’
Crystal- Yes, i think skydiving would be a good experience for him too. Ive never had problems with dogs, they are better here. But in Lima we always had a book of mormon in our hands, so when a dog tried to do something I just hit it with the word of the lord.
EE- Santa Cruz doesnt have as many restauraunts where I am, but its cool cuz im eating less. But they do have these things called salteñas, they are like little chicken pot pies, sooo good.
Mom- I have my rain coat still. I need more multi vitamins. I am finally starting to take the garlic pills cuz there are mosquitos here. Ive been cooking a lot of eggs in the morning and eating PB and J sandwhiches for dinner, but I cant really think of anything Im craving right now. Oh and when does Beau get home? Its just in a few weeks isnt it? Ok, gotta go, love you guys.
8-10-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: Ok, I know this is kinda cliche but.... WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE!!!
Hey everyody, so Im finally here in Santa Cruz. This place is awesome. This email is going to be really random cuz Im trying to explain a lot of new things. We met Pres Maynes in the airport when we arrived and then we spent a lot of time that night at his house. He is amazing. He runs the mission a lot differently than Pres Leyva did. Here we are not micromanaged so much, he just tells us to get it done and follow the rules. I get to cook now,that is pretty great. Today we need to go shopping for some better food to cook though. The rooms here arent as nice as the ones in Lima, but I dont care. So everyone said that Santa Cruz was really hot and that we should just leave all our warm clothes in Peru… I am really glad I didnt listen. I heardalot about the artic winds from Argentina. ARTIC is definatly a good way to describe them. It is really really cold here right now. But it only lasts about a month. The first day we were here it was 80 degrees, right now its about 50, pretty big change.I am in a place called La Pampa, and my ward is called La Cañada. Im in between the 4th and 6th rings of Santa Cruz. I am pretty pumped cuz me and Elder Puglisi are in the same district. We got to spend 2 days together with our group, but now we are all spread out. Ha ha, Eld Duncan went to the zone that is in Brasil. We are probably not going to all be together again till we go home, that was pretty depressing to think about. Me and Eld Puglisi were talking about that, that being in Peru and always having to do papers together and going to Chile together gave us the chance to become closer than most groups normally do. But ya so im in La Cañada. The climate here is normally like Florida, it looks a bit like it too. Santa Cruz has more of a small town feel, I love it. The people here are way more easy going too. My ward is really cool , the members help us a bunch, and for that the work is super strong here. Two people were baptized this week, and two more should be baptized this week, and at least one more the week after. My compis Eld Milián from, I just cant let this place go, Perú. Hes from way up north, next to Ecuador. Hes really cool, he has one change more than me. He has trained a few times during the mission, and sometimes forgets that he only has 42 days more than me in the mission. But he is helping me adjust to a new mission, cuz things are a lot different here. But ya I am doing awesome right now. Oh and funny story, on Tuesday when we were leaving we went on three buses to the Church Offices, and on the way we were filling out paper work, so I thought we just had to do more paper work in the offices… Nope. We walk in and find 3 members of the seventy standing there. And my first thought was ‘’Oh no, I should have shaved this morning.’’ But Pres Nash, Eld Gavarret and Eld Pino wanted to have a little meeting with us b4 we took off. Oh, RULE CHANGE, I can recieve emails from siblings and parents from their own addresses, so now you guys dont have to write through mom. They didnt say anything about Grandparents, but I asked the Pres today, so we´ll what he says next week.
Dad- Changing countries hasnt affected me too much, cuz I think this country is better than the other. Living conditions are a little less than in the Peru. A lot of times were are branch Presidentes in the jungle, in the city no. Are you guys having the fam reunion this year?
Mom-the people are nicer here, so that makes them a lot easier to love and get along with. Be careful with what you send to here, relations are the greatest, so the packages will probably be opened.
Crystal- ya, Santa Cruz is way better than Lima, it is one million times fresher and cleaner. Spanish here is little confusing, they dont pronounce their s, or thier z. And they conjugate differently, the use ‘’Voz’’. I dont think Matt heard it in Mexico, but he’ll probably know what it is. Like they dont say ‘’ven’’ they say ‘’vení ’’, its wierd but I like it.
kk- sorry, i couldnt get the photos to go through. Well my email is longer today because I have DOUBLE the time to write here.Its gonna be a good 11 months.
I love you guys a ton, take care -Elder Wilson
Hey everyody, so Im finally here in Santa Cruz. This place is awesome. This email is going to be really random cuz Im trying to explain a lot of new things. We met Pres Maynes in the airport when we arrived and then we spent a lot of time that night at his house. He is amazing. He runs the mission a lot differently than Pres Leyva did. Here we are not micromanaged so much, he just tells us to get it done and follow the rules. I get to cook now,that is pretty great. Today we need to go shopping for some better food to cook though. The rooms here arent as nice as the ones in Lima, but I dont care. So everyone said that Santa Cruz was really hot and that we should just leave all our warm clothes in Peru… I am really glad I didnt listen. I heardalot about the artic winds from Argentina. ARTIC is definatly a good way to describe them. It is really really cold here right now. But it only lasts about a month. The first day we were here it was 80 degrees, right now its about 50, pretty big change.I am in a place called La Pampa, and my ward is called La Cañada. Im in between the 4th and 6th rings of Santa Cruz. I am pretty pumped cuz me and Elder Puglisi are in the same district. We got to spend 2 days together with our group, but now we are all spread out. Ha ha, Eld Duncan went to the zone that is in Brasil. We are probably not going to all be together again till we go home, that was pretty depressing to think about. Me and Eld Puglisi were talking about that, that being in Peru and always having to do papers together and going to Chile together gave us the chance to become closer than most groups normally do. But ya so im in La Cañada. The climate here is normally like Florida, it looks a bit like it too. Santa Cruz has more of a small town feel, I love it. The people here are way more easy going too. My ward is really cool , the members help us a bunch, and for that the work is super strong here. Two people were baptized this week, and two more should be baptized this week, and at least one more the week after. My compis Eld Milián from, I just cant let this place go, Perú. Hes from way up north, next to Ecuador. Hes really cool, he has one change more than me. He has trained a few times during the mission, and sometimes forgets that he only has 42 days more than me in the mission. But he is helping me adjust to a new mission, cuz things are a lot different here. But ya I am doing awesome right now. Oh and funny story, on Tuesday when we were leaving we went on three buses to the Church Offices, and on the way we were filling out paper work, so I thought we just had to do more paper work in the offices… Nope. We walk in and find 3 members of the seventy standing there. And my first thought was ‘’Oh no, I should have shaved this morning.’’ But Pres Nash, Eld Gavarret and Eld Pino wanted to have a little meeting with us b4 we took off. Oh, RULE CHANGE, I can recieve emails from siblings and parents from their own addresses, so now you guys dont have to write through mom. They didnt say anything about Grandparents, but I asked the Pres today, so we´ll what he says next week.
Dad- Changing countries hasnt affected me too much, cuz I think this country is better than the other. Living conditions are a little less than in the Peru. A lot of times were are branch Presidentes in the jungle, in the city no. Are you guys having the fam reunion this year?
Mom-the people are nicer here, so that makes them a lot easier to love and get along with. Be careful with what you send to here, relations are the greatest, so the packages will probably be opened.
Crystal- ya, Santa Cruz is way better than Lima, it is one million times fresher and cleaner. Spanish here is little confusing, they dont pronounce their s, or thier z. And they conjugate differently, the use ‘’Voz’’. I dont think Matt heard it in Mexico, but he’ll probably know what it is. Like they dont say ‘’ven’’ they say ‘’vení ’’, its wierd but I like it.
kk- sorry, i couldnt get the photos to go through. Well my email is longer today because I have DOUBLE the time to write here.Its gonna be a good 11 months.
I love you guys a ton, take care -Elder Wilson
8-3-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: PACK............... YO................ BAGS!!!!!!!!
Feel free to send your mail to Santa Cruz! In about 18 hours (12:45 pm) i will be on flight to La Paz and then to Santa Cruz. I just came from a little good bye lunch with Pres Leyva, solid guy. But ya so right now im just packing up all my stuff, or well, Im actually It was really hard to say good bye to the people in Cieneguilla. I got a little choked up saying goodbye to Maribel, she is the best convirt Ive had by far on my mission. The worst part is that area is not offically but basically is being closed. And when i left from Las Flores I was able to tell them that Elder Duncan was coming to take my spot. But now when they ask me I have to give them the bad news that there werent be elders here.They were all pretty bummed. I had a little going away thing on Saturday with Hermana Flores, I tried beer for the first time, it was really good. Ok I hope everyone is still reading, we cooked chicken that was marinated in it, so the acohol evaperated. But it was a fun little shin dig. So ya Im just super pumped about going to Bolivia, I am a little bummed about leaving some of my buds here in Peru, but Im promised them Ill be back within a few years. Oh and as for the whole Senior Companion tihng. Im Co-Senior Companion...but my comp is my district leader, so basically instead of being junior im Senior B, not really a big difference. The assistance talked to me and were like ‘’we´re sorry this is so dumb’’. So I still am not really Senior comp ,but i got over it a long time ago. I might go up right when I get to Bolvia TOMMOROW, or Ill be junior till changes a few weeks, Im not really worried about it any more. Oh and Kortney and Cydney, my buddy Bassler gave me the good news that he has made contact with you two... good luck with that. Whoever gets down here to Cieneguilla first can marry him.... Im sorry, but I saw an opprotunity for a really funny story so i told him how to find you guys.
Mom- Idk what Im gonna need, more gold bond and bug spray probably. I havent been using much buy spray here, cuz theres not that many bugs, but ill be using it everyday there. My shoes are good, the moon shoes might last the whole time, or atleast 18 months.
Kim- Ya, feel free to send some more photos, I can always use those.
Dad- we only have two people close to baptism right now. If youre one of the 3 nephites what does that make me?
Grandma- Be careful with roxy in the house.
KK- So... youre having a girl?
Love you guys, see you in Santa Cruz Elder Wilson
Feel free to send your mail to Santa Cruz! In about 18 hours (12:45 pm) i will be on flight to La Paz and then to Santa Cruz. I just came from a little good bye lunch with Pres Leyva, solid guy. But ya so right now im just packing up all my stuff, or well, Im actually It was really hard to say good bye to the people in Cieneguilla. I got a little choked up saying goodbye to Maribel, she is the best convirt Ive had by far on my mission. The worst part is that area is not offically but basically is being closed. And when i left from Las Flores I was able to tell them that Elder Duncan was coming to take my spot. But now when they ask me I have to give them the bad news that there werent be elders here.They were all pretty bummed. I had a little going away thing on Saturday with Hermana Flores, I tried beer for the first time, it was really good. Ok I hope everyone is still reading, we cooked chicken that was marinated in it, so the acohol evaperated. But it was a fun little shin dig. So ya Im just super pumped about going to Bolivia, I am a little bummed about leaving some of my buds here in Peru, but Im promised them Ill be back within a few years. Oh and as for the whole Senior Companion tihng. Im Co-Senior Companion...but my comp is my district leader, so basically instead of being junior im Senior B, not really a big difference. The assistance talked to me and were like ‘’we´re sorry this is so dumb’’. So I still am not really Senior comp ,but i got over it a long time ago. I might go up right when I get to Bolvia TOMMOROW, or Ill be junior till changes a few weeks, Im not really worried about it any more. Oh and Kortney and Cydney, my buddy Bassler gave me the good news that he has made contact with you two... good luck with that. Whoever gets down here to Cieneguilla first can marry him.... Im sorry, but I saw an opprotunity for a really funny story so i told him how to find you guys.
Mom- Idk what Im gonna need, more gold bond and bug spray probably. I havent been using much buy spray here, cuz theres not that many bugs, but ill be using it everyday there. My shoes are good, the moon shoes might last the whole time, or atleast 18 months.
Kim- Ya, feel free to send some more photos, I can always use those.
Dad- we only have two people close to baptism right now. If youre one of the 3 nephites what does that make me?
Grandma- Be careful with roxy in the house.
KK- So... youre having a girl?
Love you guys, see you in Santa Cruz Elder Wilson
7-27-2009 E-MAIL
Subject: Todavía aquí
Hey everybody, well I'm not in Bolivia yet, I don't know any other news on it. I ended up going with an Elder from my Group so he could do his paperwork and met some Bolivians from other missions. Now everybody has done thep perwork and been interviewed, so we are just waiting for all the paperwork to be finished in Bolivia. I'm just really trying to stay patient and not think about it.Well the work in my area is a bit better, we have a baptism date with a girl named Pamela this week. She told us yesterday she thinks things are moving too fast, so we are going to talk to her tonight to see what her plans are. And we are still working with the girl named Leydi. She is 17, so that is making a lot of problems with getting her married, because her parents live way out in the Jungle. But ya, we are working with them,hopefully Pamela will be baptized b4 I leave, Leydi is going to be a while still. It's getting pretty tough to work out in our area. My comp is pretty ridiculous, he's really upset cuz the President has had him in Lima for most of his mission. So he doesn't want to work. And this weekend my pensh got upset at us, but it wasn't a very big deal, and she even came and apologized to the both of us. But my comp is still mad, and to get back at her he'sdoing a little hunger strike. He's eaten two meals in since Saturday. Our penshs husband came in to our room and called him a little child, it was funny. So I'm doing my best to keep the peace between everybody. Honestly hei s making me look really good right now haha.I am so proud of my convirt Maribel, she is so strong already. The best feeling I have in the mission isn't when I baptize someone, it's when they come the next day to be confirmed. And then after, when they KEEP coming. So, I'm not sure why, but I'm having problems speaking spanish. It's really wierd, I guess I just have to talk more and more.
Love, Elder Wilson
Mom, Valynn- Sounds like everybody had a good week swimming. Its already starting to warm up again down here.
Crystal-Jenna is pregnant?
KK- Those two are going to be so different when I get home.
Chris- Thanks Chris, I am REALLY REALLY trying to remember that.
Hey everybody, well I'm not in Bolivia yet, I don't know any other news on it. I ended up going with an Elder from my Group so he could do his paperwork and met some Bolivians from other missions. Now everybody has done thep perwork and been interviewed, so we are just waiting for all the paperwork to be finished in Bolivia. I'm just really trying to stay patient and not think about it.Well the work in my area is a bit better, we have a baptism date with a girl named Pamela this week. She told us yesterday she thinks things are moving too fast, so we are going to talk to her tonight to see what her plans are. And we are still working with the girl named Leydi. She is 17, so that is making a lot of problems with getting her married, because her parents live way out in the Jungle. But ya, we are working with them,hopefully Pamela will be baptized b4 I leave, Leydi is going to be a while still. It's getting pretty tough to work out in our area. My comp is pretty ridiculous, he's really upset cuz the President has had him in Lima for most of his mission. So he doesn't want to work. And this weekend my pensh got upset at us, but it wasn't a very big deal, and she even came and apologized to the both of us. But my comp is still mad, and to get back at her he'sdoing a little hunger strike. He's eaten two meals in since Saturday. Our penshs husband came in to our room and called him a little child, it was funny. So I'm doing my best to keep the peace between everybody. Honestly hei s making me look really good right now haha.I am so proud of my convirt Maribel, she is so strong already. The best feeling I have in the mission isn't when I baptize someone, it's when they come the next day to be confirmed. And then after, when they KEEP coming. So, I'm not sure why, but I'm having problems speaking spanish. It's really wierd, I guess I just have to talk more and more.
Love, Elder Wilson
Mom, Valynn- Sounds like everybody had a good week swimming. Its already starting to warm up again down here.
Crystal-Jenna is pregnant?
KK- Those two are going to be so different when I get home.
Chris- Thanks Chris, I am REALLY REALLY trying to remember that.
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