Elder Michael Wilson

2010-06-21T13:27:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,
Thanks for being part of Mike’s support group these past two years. His arrival time was changed to 4:41 PM, on Saturday. See some of you there.
Claudia

Subject: Time to leave

Dear Family,
Well... this feels weird. I have very mixed emotions about going home. ''This is like going to Disney World on the day your dog died'' said Elder Jacobsen. The reality started to hit me yesterday and a lot more today. And once I get home Ill start to miss it even more. Ive made so many friends here. the members and investigators and the missionaries. Its been a wild ride.

I just want to thank you all once again for your prayers and support. You dont understand how much youve helped me these past two years. I honestly wouldve have been home a long time ago if it wasnt for all of you. Im kinda short on words right now. Im sad to leave, but excited to go home. Im nervous and at the same time excited about the future. I just still cant believe its over. Ive learned so much and made changes out here that I never thought were possible.

Now to answer some of your questions. Im kinda nervous about eating a lot when I get home, cuz Im probably going to get sick. But I would really love some cinnamon rolls haha. And just a normal Sunday dinner. whatever you guys want to eat (apart from rice) is fine with me.

Well I cant think of anything else to say haha. I love you guys and will see you soon.

Love, Elder Michael David Wilson

E-MAIL FROM EMILY FOX

2010-06-21T13:18:00.001-07:00

* This is an e-mail we received from a girl in our home ward. The world sure seems small when things like this happen.

hi wilson family! as you probably know, coincidentally, i am in the same town as michael! i came here to do volunteer work with a micro finance org. i am staying at the house of one of his investigators. i have seen the missionaries a lot, as i´ve gone to ward activities, i had lunch with them and the investigator family, i also joined them in a lesson for the investigator family. he is a great teacher, and such a good obedient missionary! i just wanted to tell you and send you some pictures i took of him, in the act of being a missionary. :) i guess you´ll see him soon enough as he comes home shortly! anyways, i hope you are all doing well.

lots of love, emily fox

6-14-2010 E-MAIL

2010-06-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

Subject: El Pinultimo

hey everybody, sounds like all is well in the states

OK, so maybe you alreay know, but I still want to tell the story: So we knock on these investigator´s door, and a white lady comes out of another room.. I look at here and say to myself ''maybe shes American'', then she says in English ''I thought it was you''... it was Emily Fox. She works with a Non Profit Organization from Seattle... and she just happened to be sent to my area, and shes living with a family Im teaching. It was so funny. She took a picture of me and my companion as evidence and said shed send it to you guys.

Anyways, well this week was way better. I got a mouthful of Elder Smiths elbow playing basketball to start off the week, but then it got better. We were a little worried cuz the World Cup has started(oh by the way I realy like soccer now) and everyone is watching it. But we were able to get a lot done even though the games were on. We found a lot of families this week, so the Elder that replaces me will have a lot to work with. Having such little time left is actually helping me to work harder. I want to end strong. I just keep saying ''I only have a few days more to be able to be a full time missionary''. My companion told me he was worried about me being trunky but a few days ago he said '' it didnt happen''.

we had ward conference and activities every day of this week.it was pretty cool, the members got to know the investigators, and everyone opened up a lot more. Now we are going to have a small activity every Tuesday to help everyone become closer.

Reynaldo came to church, he'll get baptized the day I get home. We really gained his confidence this week, we taught him about the law of chastity and the word of wisdom. He told us the problems he has been having with this and that he is going to change. Hes a cool kid.
so... funny...well wierd story: we met a guy named Julio Cesar, he had this dog and he called it as the ''practice dog''.turns out hes a vet and he has to operate on the dog for practice. We looked a little closer and he was missing and eye, an ear, and had scars all over the place. ''what happens if it dies?''... ''i get a bad grade''. do they do that in the states? I dont remember that place anymore.

Valynn-swimming, thats a good sport, my buddies Elder Gonzales and Elder Duncan play water polo. I dont think I start school till September.
EE-I thought Dani got married a long time ago.
dad/mom-Ill get to work on the talk. Thats good that Josh had a good time. We should go camping. Brian is looking more like Kaylene. They told us they were making changes in the teaching in the MTC, I think its the same thing that Elder Nash has taught it about questions.
Kim-the drama is worse here I think. Well at least here more people go inactive when they get upset.
Crystal-sometimes I feel like Im more mature... sometimes

Well... see ya soon... cuídense
con amor Elder Wilson

6-7-2010 E-MAIL

2010-06-13T21:18:00.000-07:00

Subject: Time flies

hey everybody, Im glad to hear everybody is doing well at home. We had a pretty tough long week. The highlight was a new family we found coming to church yesterday. The dad has a pretty crazy work schedule, he rests for a month, then works for 4, so hopefully we can help him progress before he leaves. We have a lot of great people who can not be baptized because they have complications licenses or divorces. its really frustrating. It doesnt look like anyone will be able to be baptized while Im still here, which is a bummer, but the the important thing is that they will be baptized. The highlight of this week was meeting a man named Celso. He was sitting on the curb and we went up and started talking to him. He started to talking to us about just how sad and lonely he was, I just felt so sorry for the guy. But we were able to share some scriptures with him and invited him to church. He doesnt live anywhere close to our area, nor other missionaries so we couldnt visit him or send anybody else, but we'll give him a call later to see how hes doing.
We had the best service project ever this week. We thought we were going to help people move into a new house. But what we didnt know is that first we had to tear the old house down so they can build another one. So we just broke things for 2 hours. I really love the members here in this ward. Ive grown really close to them in just 2 months, Im going to miss them alot.

Valynn- Elder Maynes is my Mission Presidents big brother.
Dad- Im not a zone leader any more haha. the packages arrived this week.
Kim- training is just a different experience. my first one was just a stud, this time... its a process.
Grandma- youre so funny and sweet Grandma
Crystal-Thats a crazy pic you sent, that was a long time ago. I sent pics a long time ago, it might be those ones.
EE-Im trying to leave with a bang
KK- I might look different to Brian haha. My arms are tanned, if you compare them to my back and chest that havent seen the sun in 2 years.

ok gotta go, love you all,

see you soon-Elder Wilson

5-31-2010 E-MAIL

2010-06-03T18:51:00.002-07:00

Subject: ''we arent talking about... Hucklebery Finn!''

hey everybody, Well this week we had zone conference... my last zone conference. I got to see Elder Ramirez there, he is now with an Elder who has had many problems with obedience in the mission... hope that doesnt rub off on him. Me, Elder Meredith, Elder Smith, Elder Cope, Elder Alder and Elder Jacobsen all gave our last testimonies. I actually was the one that had the hardest time giving it. I remember listening to Elder Melander give his, and just having the perception that I would never ever give mine, that'd this would never really end. Its crazy how fast this has all passed.

We are starting to see more results from our work with members. We have tons of people who have potential, few came to church yesterday, but theyll get baptized. We had two people accept fecha yesterday, Shirley and Faustino. Faustino will be getting baptized b4 I leave.

I had a good interview with Pres Maynes on Saturday. We talked a lot about how I need to keep up all the good habits Ive made on the mission, Ill think youll all be surprised with how different I am. And we also talked about how I need to make sure I dont just go back to being the same old Mike from b4 the mission. Then he said something that made me laugh really hard. He gets really intense when he talks, and we were talking about living what we study and he said : ''people dont understand, the Savior was an actual person, its not like we are studying about... Hucklebery Finn!''...you had to be there.

Mom-Dad: Tell Shayne hi for me, cant believe hes home already. Here in Bolivia there arent flood drains, so you can imagine how it is when it rains. Im excited to be able to see Beau when I get back... havent seen him for almost 3 years
.Crystal-Happy Birthday. I wonder how Ill react when I get home... cuz right now I live in a place very very different.
Grandma- Tell Cherie congratulations. Atleast this time around Sister Wright has an idea of how fast the two years fly by.
Elise-Happy Birthday, does Beau come down often now?

Ok everybody, you all take care, I love each and everyone of you
Elder Wilson

5-24-2010 E-MAIL

2010-06-03T18:51:00.001-07:00

Round two

hey everybody,
Well Elder Ramirez left, and I’m training again. No one from my group is a zone leader, and almost all of us are training. My companion is from Antofagasta, Chile. His name is Elder Âlvarez. The word I would use to describe him is flamboyant. Hes a good guy, I need to help him a lot with his teaching. I knew that Elder Ramirez was a stud, but I took for granted how well prepared he was b4 he came. But we’ll just keep practicing and studying. It was pretty wierd getting the change news and realizing Im in my last area, with my last companion, it made things all the more real.And today they told us that tommorow we have zone conference. Its my last zone conference I have to give my last testimony... thats so crazy. but then I remembered, its probably the last time I am going to hear President Maynes for a long time... not too happy about that.
Funny story. Elder Jacobsen, Elder Cope, Elder Smith and I all stayed here together and all of us are training. But Elder Jacobsen's companion showed up a few days late, so he stayed with us. but we didn’t have another mattress... so he slept on our desks... poor guy.
We are making more of an effort to work with members, we've already seen results. we met a guy named Gary who lives with a member family, he acecepeted a date. I just realized I have very little time to end this letter haha.
Mom, there are a couple breakables in my bag, I’ll wrap them
Crystal-yes I remember Athena, were did she go?
EE-Tell Beau hi
Dad I need to get in shape
Kim-I remember I hated suits a ton b4 the mission
KK-hey its progrees.
Love you bye bye Eder Wilson

5-17-2010 E-MAIL

2010-05-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

Subject: I thought you were going to be like Abû!

Hi everyone,
This was a pretty great week. it started out with me and Elder Smith doing an interchange. we are both training, so we thought we shouldnt leave our companions together, but President Maynes told us we should. It was so fun, we've both improved our teaching a ton while training, and we just laughed all day as we were walking... Then a monkey bit me. Ya, one of our investigatores has a niehbor with a monkey, and they really love sun flower seeds. But I got a little too close and he chomped down on my finger. I was not happy. but the monkey doesnt have rabies so we're good.
After that whole thing we had a conference with Elder Marcus Nash, the President of the area South America North West, and before that he was president of our area... you guys probably knew that, But I was oblivious to it back then. He's amazing. We all met him and shook his hand, I told him I was from Pasco and he says ''I remember you!''... I had a conversation with him about that 2 years in Lima, it was cool he remembered. He taught us about a new way to teach, with questions that really make people express themselves. We tried it this week and really had some great experiences. People have been sharing with us more about thier hopes and fears in this life. Its really helped me develop more love for the people. Now when I meet someone, I think more about the chalenges they face.
After the conference I talked a little more with Elder Nash. He started raving about the Tri Cities, and about President Montierth. Im supposed to give him a hug for Elder Nash when I get home.
The area is coming along slowly, we talked more with the Bishopric yesterday about how we can help them with their worries, so that they can help us too. With their help we'll see more progress.
So I only have 5 Sundays left, and today I start my last planner... it's still not real. I talked to my friend Elder Anderson, who leaves in a few days... he still doesnt believe that hes going home. Im probably going to be the same.

EE- I have tons of people to meet when I get home haha
Valynn- it actually says in the manual that a missionary needs to be alone when in the bathroom... I dont want to know why the leaders had to put that in writing.

Mom and Dad- Im starting to realize that ending the mission doesnt mean I get to relax (well maybe a bit). But Im staying busy, but mondays are a bit hard to keep focused with four other Elders from my group. Oh and I tihnk if I stop working Pres Maynes would send me home without honor a day early.

Grandma- Im excited to see all the changes. But Im still not happy about the new high school.

Kim- my companion is doing really well. We find out on Wednesday if we stay together or not.

Crystal-Im still haning in there, i learned a ton from Elder Nash that i havent been doing for most of my mission, so Im trying to end well using the things he taught.

Ok fam, talk to you next week, love you, keep safe
Elder Wilson

5-10-2010 E-MAIL

2010-05-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

Subject: 6 hours

sooo... I hope you guys got me email last week, its showing right now that its only saved.. but whatever, Ill be talking to you today. It was really wierd dropping under 50 days left.
This week went pretty well. We are teaching a lot of lessons, so thats nice not having to just knock doors all day. But we would like to see more progress with our investigators. Ana is so ready to get baptized... but she needs to get divorced first and marry Felipe. Her hubby lives 8 hours away and they aren’t exactly buds. But their son is on our side and said he’d talk the dad into coming down... if he doesn’t come down, I’ll probably be married before them (which is a LONG time away).
I got to play wedding counselor again this week with Guisela and Abraham. Its tough cuz we aren’t supposed to give advice about relationships to people, so we have to do it through gospel priciples, teaching about Attributes of Christ. But we helped them out. Guisela is starting to gain a testimony, she'll be baptized once things cool down between them.
I met a guy named Mauricio, he’s really cool. He told us ''ya, I use to listen to the 7th day adventists... in prison''. He had a really rough past, got shot a couple times, and use to use drugs. He's kinda a differnt guy, but seems sincere, I think he'll progress.
we are trying to work more with members, I’ve never been very good about that in my mission. But it’s our only hope here in Estacion.

Crystal- Yes they celebrate Mother day here, but its on the 27 of May.
Valynn-My comp is really great, he showed up really prepared (10000 times more than i was). His only problem is that he gets really nervous when he teaches, and that makes the people nervous. We’re working on that with him. ¿Are we going to Florida or California?
EE- A Store?
Kim-we'll give the cell phone a shot. I’m glad you guys had fun on your trip.
KK- Emily looks ummm.... gordita in the pic.
Dad- Cool, I’ll get to see Bretts wedding, and a ton of the cousins.
Ok- talk to you guys in 6 hours.
love, Elder Wilson

5-3-2010 E-MAIL

2010-05-11T10:24:00.002-07:00

Subject: Shopping

hey everybody,
yeah so its May now. Reality is starting to set in a little bit. Deep down I really don’t believe I’m ever going home, but now that President Maynes even talks about it, its starting to sink in a bit. I’m starting to say I’m only going to do this one more time, for example fasting on the mission, going to zone conference. In the next confernce I’ll be giving my last testimony... thats so wierd.
I learned a lot about of lessons about my weaknesses and how much I still need to improve. We had zone conference and President Maynes talked to us about charity, and that part of it is looking at the potential people have, and not judgeing them. I realized I do that a lot, sometimes before we even teach them Im already doubting they will even be at the house, let alone progress. So I made an effort these past couple days after the conference to be more positive about people, it works out waybetter. We know that faith without works is dead, but I found out works without faith doesn’t work out either.
After the change in attitude things got a lot better, we've found a lot of people through references and have a lot more people listening to us. So things are looking up in Estacion. Ana is really excited and we are doing everything we can to get her divorce to go through.
My companion is doing really great. He came really prepared, his only problem is that he doesn’t teach simply, and so no one really follows his lessons. We've been practicing a lot one being clear, simple and direct, it works WAY better.
So Saturday I had my interview with President Maynes, we started talking about the things I learned from the conference, and I told him about charity. His answer was ''good elder, you work on that... for the next 55 days''
You'll all be happy to know that you all have presents now. What I bought for Kaylene and Josh is my personal favorite... I just hope none of it breaks on the way home. I also ran into one of my favorite people on the world Elder Meridith today... love that guy.
And I talked to Pres Maynes and I’ll be calling next Monday the 10th. But tommorow Ill do the precall I think, so well confirm everthing.

Valynn-Tell Jamen and Kateyln and Tyler good job
Grandma- are they spliting the stake?
Mom- Ill be home to help with chores in a bit. HAve you talked to Elder Puglisi's parents about houseing?
Matt- todavia no se jugar el futbol.
EE I cant believe I stil dont know Liam
Kim- Im still working hard, training keeps me motivated. Just on P-day I think about it. Jace is huge

KK tell cec Im proud of her.
bye bye
Elder Wilson

4-26-2010 E-MAIL

2010-05-11T10:24:00.001-07:00

Subject: Perseverar hasta el fin

hey everybody,
Ya, well this week was... just a trial. We have a lot of investigators, but we had a really tough time finding time with them, so we spent a lot of time looking and knocking doors. I had a really cool experience one afternoon: It was about 4 pm and we hadn’t gotten into a house yet, we were walking down a road and I said a little prayer for guidance. I got a feeling we needed to cross the street and knock at a house. The man who answered was named Jenaro and he accepted a baptism date, it was super cool. But he didn’t come to church yesterday haha, so we need to find him again.
My companion had his first experience praying about the Book of Mormon with an investigator, it works everytime. He also participated in his first blessing of health. He blessed a girl while she was throwing up (wish I had a camera), and about 20 minutes later she was fine.
Its finally starting to cool down, it feels so nice. I went to Santa Cruz on Saturday to get my warts frozen off and on the drive there I let the autumn air blow on my face, it was nice. And contrary to what most people think, having cold air blow in my face didn’t make my lungs explode (I have so many stories about stuff like that when I get home).
But ya I went to Santa Cruz for that wart treatment... Liquid Nitrogen hurts A LOT! We'll see if I can get these bad boys taken off b4 June 26th at 1:32 pm...pacific standard time.
We are really going to be working more with our members this week. We’ve had some results with our own efforts, but we are going to be visiting more families this week and meeting with the leaders so they can give us a bit of guidance. I got pretty frustrated this week, so we need to change things up a bit this week.
Ok well.. I love you guys, pray for me.
-Elder Wilson

4-19-2010 E-MAIL

2010-04-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

Subject: Prresident Maynes.... I LOST him.

Hi everyone,
So training is just... just funny. I wonder how Elder Dodds didnt ever laugh at me, actually I think he did. Im just trying to teach my companion to RELAX. He gets so nervous when he teaches. But he has made a lot of progress in just one week. Maybe Im trying to teach him too much at once, but he'll be such a better teacher once he gets a hang of teaching simply and sincerely, with good scriptures and good questions. But its a work in progress.
The area is really picking up in our area, its called Estacion for those who are keeping score. We have ten people that are showing a lot of potential. We've just been trying to stay positive and keep being obedient and diligent I just kept saying things will get better, and they did. We had some rough days of just walking up and down the streets trying to find members houses and people to listen to us. But we've found some neighborhoods on outside of the center of town, and people are just nicer there. We found a guy named Victor who told us that the Elders visited his family 15 years ago and that his family was so much happier than, hes super cool and want to get baptized. A new convirt named Felipe just got reunited with his wife(well, girlfriend) and his two kids. He use to be an alcholholic but she heard about how hes turned things around and came back... problem is now they are breaking the Law of Chastity... kinda an important detail. But they are making plans to get married.

So funny story para explain the title. So me and comp are in a hurry so we jump on moto taxis. My comp asks '' where are we going?'' and I just say ''just follow us''. Problem is he gets stuck at a red light, we pull over to wait for him, but they dont see us, and we dont see them pass. So then I realize whats going on, my companion is on a mototaxi, speeding down the road, cuz he thinks that we are way ahead of him, and we are speeding behind him, trying to catch him. And the whole time I’m just imagining the conversation con President Maynes '' I just flat out lost him!'' But we caught him, all is well.

Mason- We've had some great experiences already this week. We have to depend a lot more in the spirit.
EE-sounds like Liam is getting big.
Dad- The missionaries had my ward and the ward where Elder Smith is. But they worked more in Elder Smiths area, so we didnt have much to work with when we got here.
Crystal-what is Matt studying again?
Mom- haha, ya Idk what I’m going to do about work. Idk what the deal is with the package, the first one you sent hasn’t shown up yet.
Grandma- I almost felt bad for Bonderman, than I remember hes a millionare.
Valynn-I honestly think I was easy to train. And being trained by an American made things nice too, no language barrier. My companion is from Peru, a city called Trujillo (''True'' ''he'' ''yo''). I have to be extra obedient and diligent to show him a good example, and if not, I get to have a ''talk'' with Pres Maynes.
VAlynn-I dont even know if i can ride a bike anymore, cuz I was pretty bad before the mission.
kk-IDK what ever excuse you can give them.
mom-um... I dont really want to call on P-day. I might be able to do it on Tuesday.

Ok guys, thanks for your prayers, love ya, gotta go
-Elder Wilson

4-12-2010 E-MAIL

2010-04-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

Subject: ''These guys think we are perfect''

OK, lots of stuff happened this week. First off, I’m not with Elder Gonzalez anymore. I’m still in Montero, but I’m opening an area across the street from La Pampa... and... I’m training. My new compañion is from Trujillo Peru, his name is Elder Ramirez. When we went to go pick up our new campanions President Maynes pulled me aside and said that I was getting the best one and that he expects big things this transfer. He told all of us who are training (there are 19 new missionaries, and most of the Elders from my group are training) that we WILL have 42 lessons a week and we WILL have 140 conversations in the street. I found something really cool too, Elder Allan from my group is training in Villamontes. Pres Maynes said that there are 8 people with baptism dates there, Pres Maynes looked at me and said '' you contacted all of them''.
My buddies Elder Jacobsen and Eld Smith and also training here with me, its pretty sweet, there are 6 companionships, and 5 of them have someone from my group. Me and Elder Smith stayed together one night as we were waiting for our comps, and Elder Smith said ''man... these guys are going to think we are perfect''. And now, I’m WAAY better than I use to be, but man, now I have to be perfect!!
Eld Ramirez really wants to learn and watches and copies EVERYTHING I do. But its a good time and I like introducing him to things, his first lesson, first contact first planning session(that one was rough). Our area is kinda tough( ''Tough is relative''-Pres Maynes) but we have a few people that the other Elders left. And we were able to find a really great kid named Daniel who showed a TON of interest. But we are going to need a lot of help from members.
I had some great experiences this week. First off, we had lots of prayers answered. First, when we went and got our comps, Elder Jacobsen lost his bag in a taxi, it had his journal, his camera, his money and his passport. Im sure all of were praying for him, and the next day the taxi driver turned it in with everything. I have also been praying that we don’t have to knock doors all day, and that my comp doesn’t have to start his mission with out having lessons. Each day we are increasing our lessons, even though we still dont really know anybody.
But my other experience was in the priesthood session, Elder Rashband spoke about picking mission calls. It really wasnt anything he said, but during the entire talk, I had this overwhelming feeling of surity(is that a word) That i was supposed to be here, with these people, these missionaries, and with Pres Maynes. We actually all felt it together, pretty awesome.
Mom I gave Pres Maynes the ecliastical endorsment hes going to fax it. Thats crazy about flight plans, I’ll talk the next day, just let me know the topic b4. Send me a couple 15 1/2 inch shirst for my comp, he has like 3.

Valynn- sounds like I’ll have lots of activities to watch when i get home. we have been playing B-ball and soccer a lot latey. But Im still terrible

Crystal-thanks for your email. IDK how I made it 2 years haha.
Kim- 8 years... wow

Ok love you guys, talk to you later, pray for me and my comp
Elder Wilson

****Just to let everyone know, Mike arrives June 26th at 1:32PM!!!!!****

4-5-2010 E-MAIL

2010-04-06T13:57:00.000-07:00

Subject: highs and lows

Hey everybody, Well to be honest, this was a pretty tough week, our investigators have had a lot of problems this week. A few have even told us that they are just not ready to keep progressing. Its sad because they recognize that this is the truth, but still find excuses for why they cant do it. But we will visit them from time to time to see how they are doing.

This whole week has been La Semana Santa ( Holy Week), I dont really know if Catholics do that in the states. But it was pretty hard to find people in their houses, all day they had activities and at night they were in the cathedral. So ya, a pretty slow frustrating week. We are looking really hard for new investigators, cuz our other ones are now baptized, or are not progressing. We had some luck last night with the time we had to work and found one couple and an older man that seem promising. Yesterday we were locked in the house all day for elections. Some times things get a little heated, and being a big gringo doesnt help, so all the Elders just stay in the house. Speaking of politics, Evo Morales had a rally half a block from our house a few days ago. There was a crowd of about 500 people, so we went and saw him for a second. But I felt like everyone was staring at me so we left pretty fast. But ya FAMOUS PERSON.
We werent allowed to have church this week, so they taped conference and we'll
watch it next week. We have changes again next week, I really hope me and Elder Gonzalez stay together, but we'll find out ina little while. Its been a really fun change with him, and we have worked really hard too. Today we are going to start souvenir shopping, that should be fun. Mom sister Maynes is helping me find that Nativity set, we'll see what we can do.

Thanks for the BYU info. I need that eclesiastical endorsment. Mom it would be 100 times easier if some how you could do it for me. But Im going to print off a copy and do it with pres Maynes, its just going to take a really long time to get it to the States.

I dont really know what classes I wanna take. I kinda wanna start off slow. I want to get a chem degree, so science classes would be good, bio, physics and chem. Also math classes, and religion. But talk to the counselor and you can just suprise me.

Valynn- ya time is really starting to fly now, now that its April the reality is setting in a bit more.
Grandma- thnak you for the news, I be waiting to hear what happens.
Kim- they dont to a ton for Easter here, they go fishing cuz they dont believe in eating meat.
Kk- We dont get to watch conference till next week.

ok gotta go, love you guys.

3-29-2010 E-MAIL

2010-04-06T13:56:00.000-07:00

Subject: Tres

well another week has gone bye, and March is basically gone. I think you all can notice that my English has improved...a lot... I couldnt think of a bigger fancier word. But ya, that happens with an American comp, and never having time to study Spansih.
Well we started off this week with a zone conference. I got to see my buddy Elder Meridith... I just love that guy. The conference was great. President Maynes taught us about virtue and how it relates to the after life, but it turned into a Question and Answer session where we just picked President Mayne's brain. Hes a smart guy. I am really going to miss not seeing him. We also got to have interviews with him. We talked about a lot of interseting things... mostly about my plans after the mission haha. We talked a bit about what I want to do for a living, now Im not as dead set on being a dentist, but I need to weigh out a ton of stuff before I make that decision. We had a really cool little moment together, we were talking about how being a zone leader and being a trainer, Its like how a ward needs a good bishop, but also a great Scout Master. he told me ''if you really want to make a huge impact in the life of a person, be a scout Master''. And after he said that I felf the spirit in a way I normally dont feel, and Pres Maynes then said '' And the spirit is testifying to both of us that its true''.
We also ended the week with Elsa, Victor and Ronald being baptized, that was great. We've been working with the Family Torrez for about 15 or 16 weeks... man, totally worth it. We had some unfortunate things happen to us, and two of our investigators who were also going to be baptized arent looking so great right now... but we'll be helping them out. But we still have a TON of people here that are ready for baptism... there are 7 people who could do it in April... thatd be so great.
Me and Elder Gonzalez had a moment when we both said '' WHERE IS A CAMERA?''. So we get caught in a rainstorm, soaking wet, with an apointment to go to across town. But people here are afraid of rain, so theres almost no taxis. But out of nowhere our misson leader shows up on his motor taxi. So we jump on, elder gonzalez, and me hanging on tight behind him. Problem is there are huge puddles, so I need to lift my legs way up so the water doesnt splash all over me. It looked like on Dumb and Dumber when Harry is frozen to Loyds back... just trust me, it was funny.
We went to Santa Cruz today to have a little Language training thing. All the latin elders are going to study english and earn a certificate from BYU, so thats pretty cool. We also got permision to go eat in the center of the city... I went to ..... SUBWAY, I havent eaten that in 21 months.... it was just... just .. SOOO GOOD.

Chris- Thanks for the news.
Dad- The members do a pretty good job of befreinding people. It still feels hot here, the sun is just super strong. The wart war... eh... its going still, Im going to get liquid nitrogen treatment next month.
Mom- No package yet. Tell Quintin congratulations and to read nothing but the Preach My Gospel and the Book of Mormon while hes preparing. Im just figuring out how amazing those two books are.
Crystal- Thats actually something Ive been thinking about lately, how different Im going to seem for you guys... even like taste wise. For example... I LOVE spicy food now, I eat tomatoes, onions, even celery... even celery, still not that great. Ha, and beats, I love beats haha.
Grandma-Thats going to be wierd to see Elders after the mission in my house. There are RMs here that just try and burn us all the time and tell us what we are doing wrong, I hope I dont do that.
Kim- Ya, time is really flying by. The reality is starting to set in... Im not going to be doing this that much longer.
KK- Its still so weird to think there are 4 more members of the family I dont even really know.

Ok people, I love you all, happy Easter, not sure when it is really. Hasta la próxima semana
-Elder Wilson

3-22-2010 E-MAIL

2010-04-06T13:55:00.000-07:00

Subject: Buckle Up

hey everybody,
So we had another awesome week. I really need to keep this up to end my mission. All of the work we've been doing the past few weeks is going to pay off this Saturday. Five of our investigators are going to be baptized... thats going to be really really cool. The Torrez family and a man named José Luis are getting baptized in one ward, and Nelson and Ronald in the other. We also have the other Torrez family that are putting in their marriage papers... hopefully this very second and are getting married on Saturday also.
We had some really interesting experiences this week, three sad ones and one really nice one. We taught a young couple named Mario and Felicia, they called us into their yard one night to bless their daughter, which was really cool. But this week we actually went into their house. All they have is a hay mattress and some clothes, not much else. We came out both asking ourselves why we have so much and this family so little. Later we visited an inactive man named Claudio, they live in similar circumstances, but he has 5 kids 4 under 8 years old, and his wife abandonded him... what a terrible woman. And then yesterday we were sent to visit a sealed couple who is having marriage issues. The wife is amazing, and the husband works in the city gonvernment and has turned into just a dirty politician. We tried to talk to him about his problems and he tried to twist everything around so nothing was his fault... thing is, he did it really badly and just looked like an idiot. but there are things going on there that we shouldnt be giving cousel on as Elders, its a job for the Stake President.
But we did have a really nice experience in the little town we're in charge of, Yapacaní. we found two youth that have been going to church for 2 years. One is named Daniel, we met him and his mom. The mom started crying as she talked about how proud she was of here 14 year old son who goes to church everyday by himself.
So ya this should be a pretty great week. Tomorrow we have zone conference. Elder Gonzalez and I have a class to teach tomorrow about asking good questions... should probably get on that.
Dad- We dont ever recieve references from the church offices. I think that is put to more use in the States.
Chase- I cant wait to have my own troll some day.
Crystal- Thats good the boys like dinosaurs, cuz Im buying them little crocodile wallets... but it looks like dinosaur skin too... but lets keep that on the down low.
mom- Thanks for the ideas, I'm going to start buying presents this week. We arent going to be able to watch Gen Confer till the tenth cuz of the gonvernment stuff going Easter Weekend. If someone emails my old address it is forwarded to my new one.
Valynn- Tell Jamen to stick with leaders, that’s what I had to do sometimes. Who did Chris get to see play?
Grandma- Thats a bummer for BYU
KK- There are no possums here. Cokes all the rage here. Its basically legal here. EVERYBODY chews coke leaves like tobaco here.
We dont have hay anymore? ... well... I was planning on farming that again... oh well...
Ok everybody. please pray that my investigators can get baptized this week. Talk to you later.
Love Elder Wilson

3-15-2010 E-MAIL

2010-03-16T13:46:00.000-07:00

Subject: Good Week

hey everyone,
Well, ya, good week. Me and Elder Gonzalez got a lot done. We are asked to be examples of the zone, and we really feel like we did that this week. We had an all Bolivian Conference last week. We listend to Elder Ballard and Pres Eyring through satelite, it was really cool. Elder Ballard talked about some miracles he had seen in Bolivia over the years, and Pres Eyring talked about how we need to just be obedient and follow Gods will. We had Elsa and Victor Torrez come yesterday, they are so pumped to be baptized, they are so great. Theres also a pair of cousins, Ronal and Nelson that are going to be baptized on the 27th. Its going to be a good month, Raul and Miliana are saying they are nervous about getting married, so this week we have to help them out with that. We got to play family counselor yesterday with an part active family. We showed up cuz we were going to go out and work with the 19 year old son, but we got there right after the dad had beaten the son with a cable. We found out later the whole thing was because the son didnt want to give his TAPE to his little sister. Ridiculous... but ya we are helping them out. It makes me appreciate mom and dad more having experiences like that.
We went to an activity in the chapel and saw this white kid playing basketball. We assumed he was from Argentina, or maybe Spain... nope he was from... MICHIGAN. Had a nice little chat with him.
We also almost saw a drunk man quick draw one night out in the boonies. The guy pulled his gun out and was threatening to kill the other guy if he stepped onto his property... its such a neat place here sometimes.
OK I need some help... I’m starting to buy presents for people, I need to know if people would use wallets, or scripture cases made out of aligator skin... to me they look awesome, but IDK if you guys would want to use them up there in Sunday school or Relief society, or in a high councel meeting. So PLEASE let my know if you really want it or not, if not I’ll find something else.
Grandma- thanks you for the news.
Dad- so you still understand Spanish? Do you speak it? It is coolin down a bit here, today its nice and hazy, perfect for soccer and BBQ. I dont have much contact with the other missionaries either, so I dont get much news about my investigators.
Crystal- ya I’ll try to avoid throwing up on the stand.
Mom- Tell Quintin good luck, hopefully I’ll get to see him b4 he leaves. You can get a good start on Spanish is 3 months. I really like beef jerky and trail mix, you could send me that.
KK- I see little kids peeing like that all the time. we speak english as much as we can.
EE- what kind of photo job do you have?

OK everybody, thanks for your support and your prayers and your emails. I love you all, talk to you next week.

oh ps, I had to change my email address, the church has made a new email service with google. Its be better to send your emails to mdwilson@myldsmail.net ... bye

3-8-2010 E-MAIL

2010-03-16T13:42:00.000-07:00

Subject: ''Everyone is going home on the normal day...cept for you guys''

Hey everybody, Well we had a pretty good week. On Tuesday we had Concilio with all the Zone Leaders and President Maynes. My buddy Elder Meredith is a zone leader now too so I was able to see him. Concilio is always a great time, President Maynes talked to us a bit about Chile and said that the first thing the church does after a natural disaster is make sure all the Elders are accounted for, I don’t know why but that really touched me. Later on he started talking about how the transfers are going to change. Before , the Elder who were ending went home a week early. He said that doesn’t happen anymore. But then he asked all of us that are going home in June to raise our hands. Then he said, ‘’all of you will be going home the week before the transfers’’. And about half a second later Elder Jacobsen shot his hand upand asked ‘’WHAT DAY IS THAT EXACTLY?’’ ‘’June 25th’’. So ya… I know what day Im coming home, that’s pretty crazy. And today I got an email asking for your email, and the closest airport to my house. Times flying by. Me and Elder Gonzalez worked really well this week, we had to make up for lost time being losing one day for concilio. Its nice though because we try and work in the most efficient way possible. We were able to find a ton of people through the member´s references, and we ended up finding just random people in the street who were really interested. We received a reference for a family named Torrez. They are amazing, they accepted a baptism date after two days. Along with them we have another Torrez family that are going to be baptized at the end of the month, and two cousins, Nelson and Ronald that should be baptized too in March. And even though it rained, we had 5 people come to church. Things are going well. Me and Elder Gonzalez are realizing that we don’t have much time left, so we are trying to find the sincere people faster. Lots of time we talk to people about baptism in the street. If they say no, we normally just move on, it seems kinda harsh, but we know that there are people who are prepared, so we need to spend way less time with people that aren’t interested. I almost got attacked by a pitbull this week. Basically the most terrifying moment of my mission. But I used my Book of Mormon as a shield until the owner could get the dog away.

EE-Having an American comp is just super. He looks latin though so they don’t really treat us differently.
Kim- the two Elder the trained me were American, so I haven’t been with one since then, like 19 months ago.
Dad- I don’t really hear from my convirts right now. After the mission Ill try and get in contact with them.
Mom-Ill be waiting for the earthquake story.
Valynn- the weather WAS cold, now its super hot and humid again. I was getting excited for a while, thinking that summer was over… but now they are saying itll be cold in … JUNE
Crystal- haha, my Spanish is already getting a little rusty. One cuz I speak more English, and two, being zone leader means I NEVER have time to study Spanish anymore.

Ok, love you guys, get well soon all the sickies.
Love Elder Wilson

3-1-2010 E-MAIL

2010-03-01T10:35:00.000-08:00

Well... we see ya later Spanish

Hey there everybody,So ya things are going pretty great here right now, cuz I have my new companion. He name is Elder Gonzalez… and he's from California. It's not that I'm racist, but it's nice to live with someone from your home. It's areally good time. We are from the same group too, he goes home with me in June. We were already buddies so I was so happy when they called me and told me he was coming. He's a lot like Martin, not just the fact that he's Latin.He's super calm all the time. It's going to be a really great transfer! I've already learned just a ton from him. He teaches in a really different way,and its all rubbed off a bit on me. None of our lessons are repetative, we prepare a lot more for each situation and each lesson is geared more towards the investigator. The spirit is really strong when we teach now, which is good cuz our spanish is worse cuz we speak english ALL DAY. Our area is doing well. After 8 weeks of waiting the Torrez family FINALLY came to church. It was so frustrating, something always happened each Sundayand they couldn't come. But now they made it, and loved it. They are getting baptized on the 20th. We have quite a few people we are teach right now. We are making an effort to work more with our members. Yesterday we went to our other ward Villa Verde and made appointments with our bishop and mission leader, they are really excited to work with us to help the ward, its really struggling. And in just 15 minutes of talking with members we found two people whos family are members and want to get baptized. Our zone is also improving a ton. Last week was just terrible, but the missionaries have already found 7 more people and placed them with baptism dates, they are working hard. I got 3 more packages, thank you very much. I keep forgeting to tell you guys, but I really don't need any pens. I don't know why but I go through them really slowly. I've used like 15 in my whole mission… but I have like 50 to hold me over for these next four months. Also I'm thinking about doing a study abroad program in Spain, cuz I need to learn real Spanish before I take that Spanish exam at BYU. Cuz you just look into that a bit? How expensive it is any everything.
EE- All of the sudden the rain just stopped here. Its starting to become winter already here, the southern winds are coming from Argentina. So now my area has turned from a nasty mud hole to a dust bowl, which is better. Thanks for taking care of my FACE book, does anybody still talk to me onthere?
Valynn-haha, oh Tyler. One day you'll just be able to laugh when its his turn to have kids.
Kim-Actually we wouldn't have known about the earthquakes if it wasn't for a family in Villa Verde, they are worried cuz there son is in the mission where the quake was. Don't worry about keeping the email short, I have time.
Grandma There's a Prison Branch?
Crystal-Don't feel bad about the pictures, I don't send them to Pasco either. One year already?Mom/Dad Its tough knocking doors here. In other places the people let you know RIGHT AWAY if they dont want to listen. But here in their minds they can be saying ´´I´m never ever going to do the things you're telling me´´But then all they tell us is ´´Yes, Yes, Yes´´ and have no intentions to do it. Lots of time lost. Theres always a learning curve, even at 20 months. I've changed the way I teach about 5 time in the mission.

OK gotta go, love you guys. You should look for Elder Gonzalez´s family mom. They are from Clover City CA, I think its in LA county. OK

bye-Elder Wilson

2-22-2010 E-MAIL

2010-03-01T10:22:00.000-08:00

Subject: ...I wanna be jr comp hahah

Hey everybody... well its been a really interesting week. I thought I was only going to be with Elder Castillo, who has 2 months, but I am with another Elder too. So we are three missionaries working in three areas all at once...yaaaa. A tad bit stressful. Silvia and Juan Carlos were confirmed, that was a huge relief for us. Turns out Silvia came having only slept 2 hours, thats some great faith for a 16 year old, who met us 2 months ago. We also had a really great experience with a man named Alejandro. He went to church with his wife whos a member, so we went to visit them about a week ago. Only the wife was home, but she was really upset, she told us that in a few hours she was going to take the kids and abandon her husband. So we talked to her for a little bit, and the husband happened to show up. We gave a short lesson, but it wasn't anything special and he really didn't feel anything, but said he'd listen to us again. The next time we came, we knelt down with him and he prayed about the Book of Mormon and got his answer, now he wants to be baptized. This family was about to destroy itself a few weeks ago, but with a simple prayer everythings all better. We had a fun time for Elder Vasquez´s last day, but not on purpose. We spent about an hour trying to find a way to make it to a lady´s house in a part of our area that was full of water. Some little kids helped us out and brought this shipping crate thing and let us use it as a boat. It was great, I attached a pic of it. Now Im just waiting for my comp to get here, haha.

Mom- You should put this picture up in chapel, way better. Im trying to be a better leader. I dont really act like myself out here, Im waaayyy to serious.
Crystal-I actually saw like 2 seconds of the Olympics, some dude was bobsledding.
Valynn- This week was actually terrible haha. We only worked for a few days,and we are 3 Elders short. My actual comp will be here on Thursday... I think. I will be waiting for cinamon rolls when I get home. Are you sure Jamen is in high school?
Kim-I actually have two comps right now, Elder Castillo and Elder Lopez...with their time in the mission combined I almost double them. They look at me sometime as if to say ´´what do we do?´´... sometimes all I do is look right back at em cuz I dont have a clue either haha.
EE I am so jelous you got to see Colbert and Michael Buble.
Grandma- Yes I sing the hymns now, problem is I hardly remember them in English. And Im going to be really out of rythm in church back home, cuzhere they like singing the hymns at different beats.
KK-ya three days in the house with nothing to do but read... not that great.

OK, love you guys, next week I let ya know who my comp is.

Elder Wilson

2-17-2010 E-MAIL

2010-02-20T07:57:00.000-08:00

Its gonna be a interseting week.

Hey everybody, so ya sorry Im writing late, the 14th 15th and 16th we were stuck in our house during Carnival. Carnival is basically a nation wide water fight. Kinda cool but the people start playing a little rough so we dont work for those days. But it was kinda nice being able to relax a little bit. I cooked the mashed potatoes that you sent me, thank you very much. So we've had pretty intersting week. The rain has been giving us a lot of problems. On Saturday a girl named Siliva was baptized, but she didnt come to church on Sunday cuz of the rain. Right now we have two people that haven't been confirmed, so today we need to find them and make sure they understand how important the confirmation is. We got burned by the assitstants over all this, and I know I shouldn't make excuses... but come on! I cant control the weather. We've had a ton of rain here, one day I forgot my poncho in my pensions house, not a good thing. We had the baptismal interview with Silvia too, so we had to book it through the rain and lightening, it was scary but funny too. But it doesnt really flood here, the first day I was here in Montero it flooded but after that, nothing. Last week I did divisions with my buddy Elder Thompson, that was a great time. Him, my comp and another Elder in our zone are going home tommorow, and last night they told us that Im not gettiing another comp for a week. Whats going to happen is Elder Castillo (who Elder Thompson was training) is going to be my comp for a week. So I'm going to be the lone zone leader for a while. we'll see how that goes. We had an interesting experience this week: We saw this little old lady hitting this guy with a whip thing (they make little whips out of rope to beat their kids, its lovely), and we just assumed that the kid had disobeyed his mom. But later that night he showed up at a members house, so we started talking to him. The lady was his mother in law, and she didnt want him to come visit his new born baby. We ended up haveing a really good visit with him and sent the missionaries to his house in Santa Cruz.
EE-It doesnt really ''flood'', but some streets are tough to get through.But its alright now cuz Elder Thompson is going to leave me his boots when he leaves, thats going to help a ton.
Crystal- whats going on at your work?
Mom- I imagine the heavy flooding is in a place called Beni. Its more towards the north of Bolivia.Tell Vince and Cyd hi. Are they dating anyone? That's good the Olsens are in our ward, hows Parker doing? I think I got all your packages, thanks a lot. I can't think of anything I really need right now.
Valynn- They dont really celebrate St. Valentines here, instead they have Carnival. Tell Jamen and Tyler good job.
Dad- ya. Im need to work on being a better leader.

Ok, well wish me luck, thank you so much for your prayers and your support. I'll let you know who my new comp is once I know.

Love, Elder Wilson

2-8-2010 E-MAIL

2010-02-16T13:22:00.000-08:00

two is good, three, way better

Hey everybody…well, we had another crazy week. Two people were baptized this week, Juan Carlos and Alejandra... which normally is good, but not when three were supposed to be baptized and only ONE person was confirmed the next day. Another investigator Celso didnt show up Saturday morning for his baptism and told us yesterday he still has doubts. And Juan Carlos had a family emergency and couldnt come to church yesterday for his confrimation. But its all good, theyll be baptisms and confirmations galor(is this a word)this week. We also had our zone leader conference on Tuesday, always a good time... if your zone is doing well. And ours is... well doing better, so we didnt get burned too much. I love listening to President Maynes. Everyone always talks about how missionaries are like the 2000 Stripling Warriors, so that makes each Mission President a Helaman. We all have such a love for President Maynes, and he has an even greater love for us, even though we are a bit special. We also watched part of the video for the youth, A Brand New Year, really awesome. I always learn a lot about how I can be a better leader after these conferences. And I need to step it up, cuz my comp goes home in a week... so Im in charge. We saw something crazy this week, Elder Curo, our District Leader, came for an interview. After the interview we all walked to the main avenue so they could go back home. He said goodbye, and as he turned around a motorcycle was comeing, he turned right into the path of the motorcycle, and it was going to hit him right in thigh, all that was going to my mind is ´´well,hes going home´´. Idk how it worked but some how he was able to spin back around and the bike went speeding by. We are really protected out here. We are going to work really hard this week, cuz next week we are going to be shut up in our house for 3 days during Carnival. And plus this is my comps last chance to be a missionary. And with conferences and traveling we didnt get much work done this week, and are not showing a very good example, so we need to fix that too this week.I got my two B Day packages this week. The photos of Washington were a nice touch.

Valynn- My comp is a really good missionary. But we arent very close, Im not really sure why. But we dont have any problems either.
Mom- Way to go with serving people. I think what you described is a sleeper hold. Im glad to hear Cyd will be home this summer. What are Vince and Beau going to be doing? Tell Brett congratulations. I wont be driving while Im here, so i dont need the papers.
Kim- Dont worry about sending me things. Im really trying to end well,trying to lose myself in the work. Its changed me a lot, Ive been able to step up and face a lot of my fears.
Crystal-I dont know if Ill be living in Utah, but probably in Idaho.
Grandma- Thanks for the news Grandma
EE-Yes it is really really really green here, the only place in the states that looks anything like this is Florida.
KK-where I live there arent any pythons... but there are places in the mission with them.

OK guys, thanks a ton for you emails and for your prayers. Take care

Love, Elder Wilson

2-1-2010 E-MAIL

2010-02-02T16:24:00.000-08:00

Subject: Nos vemos enero

Hey everybody,We had a pretty good week, my birthday was pretty quiet, we baked some cookies at my pensions house. Yesterday one of our investigators Ana Karen was confirmed, my comp had to baptize her 3 times on Saturday cuz she flipped out each time she went under the water. Tommorow we have zone leader conference again. I havent heard anything from the office so I dont think I have to give the class. The month of Janurary was way better than December for our Zone, we finished with 8 convirts. In December it was just 3, so I think President Maynes is happy with all of us. We have a lot of people progressing right now. We are in charge of a little branch an hour outside of the city, and we just found out there are 4 youth out there that have been attending for months and want to be baptized. February should be a pretty great month. We need to help out that branch and the other ward we are in charge of. They both have a lot of problems. I bought a Book of Mormon in Portugues, I try to read it every now and then,it is prety much the same as spanish when you read it. It'd be cool to learn a bit, but I think I'll study it more after the mish. I barely have time to study Spanish let alone another language.So I sent a package about a month ago with some letters... did that ever show up? I sent a other one yesterday too. So yesterday a couselor from the Stake Presidency came in and lit us up cuz no one in our ward is supporting a regional encampent that Pres Nash (the Area President) set up. He talked about how the parents need to make the sacrifice to support this and that their children would recieve blessing from it. Mom, Dad, thank you for making the sacrifice, I was very blessed for going to all those activities.
KK-I miss snow... I miss nieces and nephews haha.
Elise-Ya the bugs are actually 100 times worse here, I have to wear bug spray litteraly 24/7.
Crystal haha, my buddy elder Thompson completes 2 years in like 20 days...And he still doesn't know what day he's going home. But my last transfer should end the 28 of June. I should be going home around then.
G-Ma- Thanks for the jokes and the news... when is the Super Bowl?
Valynn-My branch is pretty great, it looks like a ward, but not everyone is on board with tithing yet. But ya they help out a ton, they help with making the convirts and investigators feel at home.
Mom- The package hasn't arrived yet, probably this week. Do I need to do something with the license extension paper? If not you should just keep it.I dont need it and theres a risk of it being lost or stolen. Im glad Juan was able to write you guys, hes awesome, he helps us out a ton. Well everybody, Elder Cockram just told me we have 20 weeks left, thats nuts. I'm really trying to up my work ethic so I can end well.Talk to you guys next week.

Love Elder Wilson

1-25-2010 E-MAIL

2010-02-02T16:16:00.000-08:00

Subject: ´´Just be perfect´´...oh man

Hey everybody. Well I had a pretty good week. We had Zone Conference last week. My buddy Elder Meridith, who is doing what I was doing in Villamontes, was there too so I got to see him again. And I saw my buddy Elder Smith for the first time since we came to Bolivia. Whenever we get together we start to realize how close we are to ending and going home... just one hand left (5 months...5fingers). Me and my comp gave a class, I was really nervous, so I just said a prayer and it went really well. Plus we followed Pres Maynes so I was all pumped and inspired. We also had interviews this week. Pres Maynes talked to me about I need to be a leader, not a boss. He talked about showing an example for the zone.´´Just be perfect Elder´´ is what he said. Basically I just need to be more dedicated. Something I have found that really helps is setting personal goals at night when I pray and asking for help in achieving them. This week me and comp are going to do our 140 contacts... I have never done them all in my misson, so thats what I'm going to be praying for each night. We were hit pretty hard this week with vacations. 6 of our investigators traveled to Cochabamba. But we still have one girl who will be baptized this week. I also had my first experience of being kicked out of a house this week. I started talking about the Restoration and sometihng told me I should wait to say ´´Joseph Smith´´. I finished the first vision and the guy asked me what the prophets name was ´´se llama José Smith´´... ´´enough! Get out now!´´.We tried to reason with him and explain that if he had doubts he could just pray but he flipped out. So we just left. It didnt depress me, more amazed me how prideful he was. We are teaching an older couple, the Torrez family. They didnt go to church last week and we asked them what happened. The dad said ´´what's the name of your church?...oh...we went to ´´Padre de Sufrir´´ They went to some crazy evangelical church down the street from the Stake Center. They said everyone was screaming and they got scared and left.

Ok b4 I forget, Mom, Dad... you guys have Facebook?
Chris-Thanks for the tips on listening
Kim-I really do feel older... this morning I was studying and I stood up...but then didnt move. My comp asked me what I was doing ´´úmmmm...I dont remember´´My area is way wetter and muddier than Villamontes.
KK-I'll be baking those cookies you guys sent me a while ago. I can picture that being funny haha.
EE-I'm looking forward to meeting Liam too. I still cant believe you have akid.
G-Ma Wow, the Saints vs the Colts. Now I know to ask the people here ´´who won? The blue or the black?
Mom- the mission covers all my medical cept for vision and dental
Valynn- This B-Day has already been better. Some people showed up at six am to sing me happy B day. I dont miss Villamontes too much. Haha, my buddy Elder Blackburn(I wanna know how his family got that name) replaced me downthere... GOOD LUCK MAN!Being zone leader is just more time consuming. We have to do inspections and have meeting with stake leaders. The heat here is not as bad, but its humid.
Crystal-Today I'll be making cookies... and then I'll be washing clothes.

Ok so my area is the east part of the town. Theres an avenue (avenida)called Pampa. It runs north south, but then turns off towards the east. I live like 200 yards south of where the avenue bends. My area is all country.I need more baby wipes! Well guys, thanks for the photos and the B-Day songs. This mission is going by fast. See you before we know it.

Love Elder Wilson

1-18-2010 E-MAIL

2010-01-18T11:13:00.000-08:00

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

1-11-2010 E-MAIL

2010-01-13T11:08:00.000-08:00

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

1-4-2010 E-MAIL

2010-01-13T11:02:00.000-08:00

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

12-28-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-13T10:58:00.000-08:00

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

12-21-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-13T10:53:00.000-08:00

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.

12-14-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-13T10:50:00.000-08:00

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

12-7-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-13T10:45:00.000-08:00

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

11-30-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-13T10:39:00.000-08:00

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

11-23-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-13T10:34:00.000-08:00

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

11-16-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-13T10:26:00.000-08:00

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

11-9-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-13T10:21:00.000-08:00

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

11-2-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-13T10:15:00.000-08:00

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

10-26-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-13T10:08:00.000-08:00

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

10-19-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-11T21:05:00.001-08:00

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

10-12-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-11T20:57:00.000-08:00

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

10-5-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-11T20:50:00.000-08:00

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

9-28-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-11T20:43:00.000-08:00

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

9-21-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-11T20:27:00.000-08:00

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

9-14-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-11T20:16:00.000-08:00

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

9-7-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-11T20:10:00.000-08:00

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.

8-31-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-11T20:02:00.000-08:00

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

8-24-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-11T19:58:00.000-08:00

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

8-24-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-11T19:52:00.000-08:00

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!?

8-17-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-11T19:46:00.001-08:00

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.

8-10-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-11T19:34:00.000-08:00

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

8-3-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-11T19:25:00.000-08:00

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

7-27-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-11T19:20:00.000-08:00

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.

7-20-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-11T19:16:00.000-08:00

Subject: GET ME OUTA HERE

Hey everybody. So no, I'm not in Bolivia yet. I'll fill you in a bit more on what's happening. We went to do some more paper work at the Bolivia Embassy and they gave us this huge packet of all this information on us. Well we start fliping through it and find this paper in the back. ''what is this?''...''wait''... ''THATS A PLANE TICKET'', so we were all freaking out,the flight is for Wednesday the 22nd and midnight. But later they told us the flight isn't for sure, and that the tickets are only reserved. But we should be going before we hit August. It was such a good time, I spent two days with my whole group, some of them are comps right now till we leave.I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty jealous about that. And I told you guys I would call from the airport when I'm leaving. As far as I'm concerned that shouldn't change just because I'm going to be at the airport a year later than I was planning. But it might be pretty late, so be prepared. Anyways, I don't remember what I said in my last email. Not much has happened. We had changes and I'm still in Cieneguilla and I'm STILL Jr comp with 13 months (not cool). And my boy Eld Ferrer left and is in the mountains now, that was a bummer, but he's super pumped about being out there. I'm just trying to stay focussed and work. But honestly I'm pretty frustrated. I've had comps who are ending their missions for almost all my time in the mission. And they aren't really all about working hard. So we waste a lot of time. We have two people progressing right now. One lady needs to get married b4 she can be baptized, but that isn't going to happen till August. And a member brought her sister to church yesterday, and she said she wants to be baptized, so well start working more with her.
Crystal-Where do you work?haha
Mom- Good luck with the little ones
Dad-Have fun in France, I remembered this week about when you and mom wanted to take me to Spain after I graduated, but I said I just wanted to stay and be with my friends... Ya, I'm an idiot.

Love you all, pray for Bolivia please Elder Wilson

7-13-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-11T19:14:00.000-08:00

Subject: ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡Bolivia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey guys, well we went back to do some paper work for Bolivia... I am leaving VERY VERY soon. I usually have a little list of the stuff I wanna say, but I went on divisions last night and forgot to write it. Well changes came and I'm still jr comp which made me mad but the assistants called and said it was just cuz we are leaving soon. They didn't close our area, so we are scrambling to find new investigators. cuz our leaders told us we should focus all our time on the few people we had, and we baptized them, which worked out great, but honestly they were miracles. Sorry I don't really know what I'm talking about, I'm just really excited about Bolivia. We went to the embassy but they were busy so we have to go back tommorow. Next week I'll know a lot more info I'm sure. They actually showed us a paper with our flgiht plans out of Peru... but I'll let you guys know later what day I'm leaving. I want it to be a SURPRISE. Well I gotta go, I'm doing great, I'm feeling good, just super excited.

Love you all Elder Wilson

7-6-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-09T09:37:00.000-08:00

Subject: CH... CH... CH... CHANGES!!!!

Hey there everybody. Sounds like the summer vacations are going well for everybody. The weather here isn't hot, but its the Peruvian version of winter... like 50 degrees at night. Things are going pretty well. It looks like we ended up saving our area with the people we baptized these past few weeks, and they are going to leave it open. But we dont know the changes yet, so I'll have to verify next week. Last P day was pretty great, the sisters made peanut cookies. And me and Ferrer y Brinton felt bad so we ...''helped'' make home made root beer. Turns out we can't cook and the root beer was horrible, but it was a good time. We have also figured out just how HUGE our area is, it goes into another province. We have one guy who lives 6 hours away. The Bible teaches us to leave the 99 to search for the one lost... ROAD TRIP! Its just an idea but it probably won't happen cuz it's a bit dangerous cuz we'd have to travel in one of those buses that have all the chicken crates stacked on top.But we are going to have to start all over with investigators if they keep us open, cuz we've been spending this whole change working with the few people we have. But we have a family of 4 that might save us. Not much happened this week. We've been visiting the girl we baptized last week, Maribel, she's such a stud. We left her Ether 12 to read, and came back the next day and guess what... SHE READ IT, crazy. That usually doesn't happen. It's people like her that keep me motivated. And even though its a bit harder out here, there are people prepared out here. We have a lady named... well her name is Lady, and shes been to church close to every week since I've been here. But her hubby is a bum and doesn't want to get married, so we are really going to start working with those two. And as for Bolivia... ''NEXT MONTH''...(chuckle)
Dad- Have fun in France. That makes me glad I didn't have to deal with jet lag. Crystal- Sounds like a nice weekend, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you ate some corn while you were there.
EE- Ya I just heard that McNair was killed, bummer. Ya let me know about the baby. Valynn- Ya me and my comp get along great, he's a bit crazy though... and trunky haha.
KK- Thats good to know my trunky poster is giving missionary opportunities. Alright fam, until next time... Love you guys, I'll let you know more about the changes and all that good stuff.
Love Elder Wilson
PS You know whos gonna be home for the next 4th of July... ME

6-29-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-09T09:31:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody, sounds like summer is going pretty well up there. Down here it is finally starting to feel something like winter, which means we aren't sweating so bad every day. This was a pretty crazy week. We just ended the most successful month in the history of this zone. We baptized more than 40 people. The month before was the second most successful. It helps to stay motivated when you see results like this with your investigators. Our area improved too, we baptized two people this month. Last night Maribel was baptized. She's a 17 year old girl, and is the best convert I've had so far in my mission. She's the only convert I've had that actually prayed meaningfully about the Book of Mormon, and she had quite an answer back from it. Then she left her job so she could come to church. She's awesome. We are working with another guy Juan Fernando. His schedule is pretty nuts, but he is even more prepared than Maribel. But we were already planning on baptizing him if he went to sacrament meeting and a baptism. But he didn't go to the baptism this weekend or to the meetings. It doesn't look like we'll have time to baptize him. But honestly I'm not that worried, I know he'll be baptized, but it just won't be with us. The day I hit my year was a crazy day, we had baptism interviews all day... but NONE of the investigators showed up, so we were pretty bummed. But I think all but one ended up being interviewed later and got baptized. But when we went back to the house some members came over and we had ourselves a little shin-dig(thats a weird word). I burnt my shirt, that was a real nice feeling. After I bought some marshmellows, chocolate and the closest thing to grahm crackers I could find and we made some smores, soooo good. Oh and I have absolutly no idea whats going on with Bolivia. Last Monday Bolvian rep left Peru cuz things between the two countries aren't so hot right now. But I've heard that he came back and that we are leaving in like two weeks. But ten months ago they told me that too. I still have to be interviewed by this dude and wait for my Visa... again. Also Dad, I would just like to apologize for taking for granted the fact that whenever I did any kind of building project, my boss was a engeneer. Cuz wow, we built this patio cover thing, but the contractor was a 60 year old crazy latin lady. It took us three days to build this thing that should have taken 5-6 hours tops to make. The plans she drew up(on a post it note)were mathmatically impossible, but whenever I tried to explain it she'd just get mad and say I'VE DONE THIS BEFORE! Not a good time.

Mom-Thats good you guys got my photos, some are almost 6 months old

Valynn- ya it was pretty crazy to hit the year, now I'm starting to realize how short the mission really is. Every month passes faster than the onebefore.

EE- sounds like things are going really well for Chase, do you find out about the baby this week?

Kim- Thats good to hear that Brennen likes camping. Thats one thing I'm going to do a lot more when I get back.

KK-I got your photos last week, but after I had sent the email so I didn't get the chance to tell you.
OK, gota go, love you guys. Elder Wilson

6-22-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-09T09:24:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody, well idk anything else about Bolivia. I was thinking I'd be going to the Embassy today, but I'm not, maybe tomorrow. Eld Ferrer has the lady that handles all the Visas in his ward and he has a cita with her tonight, so he's gonna find out when I'm going. The work is actually getting better in my area, we baptized a girl this week, named Joselym. And we have another girl this week, her name is Maribel. She's amazing, she left her job yesterday so she can come to church. And we are working with a guy named Juan Fernando. We met him last Thursday, and Friday morning he accepted to be baptized. But the problem is normally he’s only in town on weekends, cuz he's training to be in the DEA of Peru. But I’ve never met anyone so prepared. And its all thanks to a member friend in the DEA. He told us he sees him reading the BOM every night but never bothered asking him about it.We asked him after the first lesson how he was feeling…’’ITS TRUE’’, oh wow it was awesome, he said everything made perfect sense and no one had ever taught him like that. We challenged him to get baptized and he said ‘’congusto'’(with pleasure, get it?) But the thing that scares me is we don’thave a lot of time to teach him, and we are probably getting closed. But the thing is I know if we don’t baptize him, he’s going search out other Elders to help him… But I wanna do it.I'm really going to miss my ward here, not that many people come, but there are 5 or 6 super strong families that keep everything going. And they love the Elders so much, and I feel so bad cuz they give us all this stuff,but they don’t have very much money. So we just do service haha.Oh ya and… I HAVE A YEAR, or well, I will in a bit. We're having a little ho-down in our house, its gonna be a good time.

Mom-I hope you feel better, I really don’t need any white shirts yet. I'll let you know when I do.

Dad- ¡Felíz Día Del Padre! And good luck in France.

I don’t get to study anything, its really frustrating, we are always having to go into Lima in the morning. Kim-ya send me some pictures. I feel bad that my area is getting closed.

Valynn- Bolivia and Peru are pretty similar, but Santa Cruz is all jungle.

EE-I'm just gonna burn my shirt, and some ladys in my ward are making me a cake. Let me know what you're havin.

kk-keep me up to date on the baby. And yes I'm afraid the food will be worse over there.

Love you guys Elder Wilson

6-15-2009 E-MAIL

2010-01-09T09:19:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody, how's it going. We had a pretty good week up here in Cieneguilla, we went to a little resort up in our area and played some soccer and American football. The place also had a monkey, so we took some videos with him. By the way I'm gonna try and burn some cds with my pensh lap top.I think we can do that. We also had a multi zone conference this week, and the elders who are ending their missions always give their last testimonies. The Assistant stood up and asked Elders Hale, Berger and Cook to come up and give their testimonies. I'm buddies with all those guys and it was awesome to hear them. and then they announce, '' we'd also like to ask all the other elders who are leaving for home to come up, Elder Jacobsen, Elder Ward, Elder Smith y Elder Wilson''.well I just threw a little party in my head. I also got a nice surprise from Elder Smith, I lost a towel when I was with Elder Dodds, and it turns out Elder Allen had it. 10 months later I finally get. Which is nice cuz my other towel hasn't been washed in 10 months, and well, it was due. This week I did divisions with Elder Ferrer and we got to eat with an American family. They gave us tacos, which were awesome, but the best part was. ROOT BEER, haven't had that in quite some time, it was great, we almost cried.Our zone leaders talked to us a little bit about our area. After this transfer there's going to be a lot less missionaries in the mission, so they have to close some areas. And since our area isn't exactly on fire, they've already told us to just try and baptize the people we have, but not to look for new people. So now we are just concentrating on the few people that can be baptized b4 the month ends, and also in just reactivating people.

Mom-I'm not in the group that's leaving this week, but they have told us that by the first week in July we will be out of Peru. I also got your one year packages today. I went to the office so I got them right as they arrive to the mission. I might have more mail that was already sent to my zls so we'll see tomorrow. And thanks for looking up those charges, I was getting a bit worried. They teach us to honor our parents so if you want me to spend more.I'll have to oblige.

Grandma- thanks for the gift, 25 dollars can go a long way in Peru, and waaay longer in Bolivia, its like 175 Bolivianos. OK love you guys, Ill let you know more bout Bolivia later.

Elder Wilson 10 DAYS!!

6-8-2009 E-MAIL

2009-06-08T14:00:00.000-07:00

AREA: CIENEGUILLA
COMPANION: ELDER

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

Love, Mike

6-1-2009 E-MAIL

2009-06-07T22:07:00.000-07:00

AREA:CIENIGUILLA, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER

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

Elder Mike Wilson

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

5-25-2009 E-MAIL

2009-06-07T22:03:00.000-07:00

AREA:CIENIGUILLA, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER

Subject: CH-Ch-ch-CHANGES

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

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

5-18-2009 E-MAIL

2009-06-07T21:58:00.000-07:00

AREA:CIENIGUILLA, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER

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

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

Love you all, Elder Wilson

5-11-2009 E-MAIL

2009-06-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

AREA:CIENIGUILLA, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER GUZMAN

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

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

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

Elder Mike Wilson

p.s. Fajitas are sooooooo good

5-4-2009 E-MAIL

2009-06-07T21:43:00.000-07:00

AREA:CIENIGUILLA, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER GUZMAN

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

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

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

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

Love you guys

4-27-2009 E-MAIL

2009-04-27T13:46:00.000-07:00

AREA: CIENIGUILLA, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER GUZMAN

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

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

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

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

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

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

4-20-2009 E-MAIL

2009-04-27T13:36:00.000-07:00

AREA: CIENIGUILLA, PERU

COMPANION: ELDER GUZMAN





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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

in Lima… there's like 4.

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

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

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

patient and keep working here till I leave.

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

definately wait here till I leave for Santa Cruz.

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

Elder Mike Wilson

4-13-2009 E-MAIL

2009-04-27T13:25:00.000-07:00

AREA: CINAGUILLA, PERU
COMPANION:  ELDER MURILLO


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

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

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

Cuídense
Elder Michael Wilson

4-6-2009 E-MAIL

2009-04-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER MURILLO


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Love Elder Mike Wilson

3-30-2009 E-MAIL

2009-03-30T20:38:00.000-07:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: EDLER MURILLO

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3-23-2009 E-MAIL

2009-03-29T20:42:00.000-07:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER MURILLO


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

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

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

3-16-2009 E-MAIL

2009-03-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER MURILLO

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


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

3-9-2009 E-MAIL

2009-03-29T20:39:00.000-07:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER MURILLO

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

3-2-2009 E-MAIL

2009-03-29T20:38:00.000-07:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER MURILLO


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

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

2-23-2009 E-MAIL

2009-03-29T20:36:00.000-07:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


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


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

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



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

2-16-2009 E-MAIL

2009-03-29T20:35:00.000-07:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2-9-2009 E-MAIL

2009-03-29T20:29:00.000-07:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


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


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

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

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

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

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

Grandma, thanks for the sport update.

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


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

Elder Mike Wilson

2-2-2009 E-MAIL

2009-03-29T20:27:00.000-07:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


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

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


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

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

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


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

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

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

1-26-09 E-MAIL

2009-01-26T12:17:00.000-08:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


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

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

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

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

Dad- My comps name is Israel Torres.

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

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

Funny stories.

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

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

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

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

                 Elder Mike Wilson





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

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

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

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

Peace, Mike

1-19-09 E-MAIL

2009-01-26T12:16:00.000-08:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


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

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

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

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

1-12-09 E-MAIL

2009-01-26T12:13:00.000-08:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


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

1-05-09 E-MAIL

2009-01-26T12:12:00.000-08:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


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

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

Elder Wilson

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

12-29-2008 E-MAIL

2009-01-01T15:39:00.001-08:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


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

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

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

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

12-8-2008 E-MAIL

2009-01-01T15:35:00.000-08:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ

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

12-1-2008 E-MAIL

2008-12-01T12:45:00.000-08:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


Ok so I had a really cool Picture to send you guys, but I just figured out
the computer I'm on doesn't have usb, so I'll just tell you. I was still
sleeping when the phone rang at 6am, and I said something like ´´this better
be an emergancy´´, Elder Hale answered it and then ran up and jumped on me
and says IT CAME IT CAME! Yes…, After more than 3 months, I finally got my
things from Santa Cruz, seven packages, very nice. I finally got the pics
from the fam reunion and more food than I know what to do with. Ha by the
way, no one needs to send me any kind of drink mix anymore I have 5 pounds
of it now. And I also got the big card from the Laurels, haha. Tell sister
Petty thanks. And to top it all off, when I showed up to go to internet my
zoneleader goes, ´´Elder Wilson, Te odio´´ (I hate you). Cuz there were 7
more waiting for me. Needless to say that pretty much made my week. Not much
else has been happening in good ol peru, on thanksgiving, we had interviews,
and Pres Leyba told us they are going to start sending us outside of lima.
The Bolivia Elders I mean. And I just found out on Wednseday all the Bolivia
Elders are going to meet together and they're going to tell us something….
Might be really really good, or really really bad, who knows. We also have
only one week less in this change, and I soooo want to get out of lima haha.
I would absolutely love to go to a province. But who knows we'll see what
happens.
Haha nothing else has really been happening, The Spanish (they call it
castellano here) is going pretty good. I can tell I'm way better than when I
arrived in Las Flores. My teaching is still pretty bad haha, I'm working on
that though.
Mom I had a question for you. I sent film from one of my disposable
cameras a while ago, did that ever show up? There were some pretty funny
pictures on there.
Sounds like everyone had a great thanksgiving, I wasn’t too homesick that
day. Kk, ha I don’t remember what I ate but I'm guessing chicken and rice.
But now I actually get to start counting down to the day I get to call you
guys, I just found out we can call from here instead of you guys having to
call me which sounds like it'll be more complicated. But I'll find out more
about it this week and fill you all in next email.

Alright well I gotta go, I love you guys soooo much, and I'll talk to you
all in a few weeks.
  Love Elder Wilson

11-24-2008 E-MAIL

2008-11-24T12:33:00.000-08:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


hey everybody,
This week was pretty good. It was pretty uneventful though. We had a big
missionary night this past Saturday and we taught about the Plan of
Salvation. The people came into the gym, and we pretented we were on a plane
and the plane crashed so we all died. Then we took them around to each room
and taught about each step and where we can go after this lfie. We had 120
people show up, which is AMAZING! for our stake. THe best was we had to pass
out flyers all week for it. So me and my comp climbed all over the mountain
next to our area, the mountains are always the poorest parts of lima. I feel
the most like a missionary when I'm up there, I wouldn't call it a pretty
view, but it's cool.  Also Eduardo's dad came to the activity, and he said
he really enjoyed it. We showed a video at the end, and he told us he wants
to show it to his family, so we'll have to find a copy of it for him.
We had english class again, but this time… people actually came, which was
nice ha ha. We have to keep looking for new people, it's so tough, people
here have a tough time keeping appointments, and most people work 6 hours a
day and don’t want to talk to us on their only free day.
Ok there's some stuff I need in a package, if you sent it let me know so I
stop asking for it. I need denture cleaning tablets, more vitamins and
stamps.
I got TWO packages today, that was awesome, one from kim with the
Christmas ornaments, and one from kk with the pumkin kisses. Thanks a ton
guys for thinking about me, getting things from home helps sooo much.
Mom I sent that letter you wanted today, idk when it'll get to you. I'm
also gonna try and get another cd sent off today, I have no idea where a
post office is here though.
-Mom dad, sounds like all is goin well at home. Dad, is Kellen Moore QB
for Boise?
Valynn and Chris- haha… I don’t think I'm speaking exactly like an RM
yet, give me 19 months.
EE- who was the elder that came home?
Grandma- thanks for the update, that’s too bad about byu.
KK-3 packages… that'll do. I got one today, did you send me any pics?
Tell mom not to throw away too much of my stuff.
Crystal- ya I know we´re all busy it's ok. Spanish? I feel like it's
still pretty bad, but I'm waaaay farther along then I was when I got to this
area. I might be able to make it in Pasco. I've heard at Christmas, I only
have 45 minutes to talk , and the thing is I think people have to call me,
I'm not sure though. Chocoalte chip cookies would be awesome(home made por
favor).

Alright fam, I gotta go, love you all, hopefully the cd gets to you soon,
there's a video on there with a crane, it might be the best thing I've seen
on my misson.
                     Thanks for keeping me in your prayers, I'm doing
the same for you all.
                               Love you all so much,
                                 Elder Mike Wilson

11-17-2008 E-MAIL

2008-11-24T12:30:00.000-08:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


ok first off... i got my first convert! His name is alejandro, he's buds
with eduardo. I forgot to bring my chip but I'm going to give the pics to
eduardo and he'll put them on his face book (elise you're all over that I'm
sure). it wAS funny cuz he's scared of water and can't swim so he was
freakin out and we had to do it twice cuz the first time didnt go...
smoothly. Today was a way better week cuz i knew i was building up`to this
on saturday, also i got a call from the office saying that i had to pay 33
soles for a pckg, so i knew that it was a big one. I got it today, it was
the really big one, haha i can't remember whats in it right now. We taught
our english classes today... no one showed up haha. But After like 45
minutes consuelo, one of our investegators walked in, she didn't even care
about learning ingles, she acutally can't read yet, but she just wanted to
talk with us. The crazy thing is she lives across town, and got lost but
kept trying till she found the church.

I heard a bit of good news about bolivia, that the ambasador is going back
in january, so thats pretty good.- still not gettin my hopes up.
haha i bought nun chucks last week. They're so cool, i gotta make sure i
dont hurt myself with them though.
what day is thanksgiving? im going to try and find a recipe for pum`pkin pie
in spanish and give it to my pensh, but idk.


OK this is very important, Crystal, one of the elders i live with is named
elder hale, his fam lives like 5 mintues from you. And his mom has a friend
who travels to lima EVERY Week, so you should really really call them and
try and figure a way to send me some stuff through them, elder hale is going
to email his parent and fill em in. their number is 225-8165. His mom sent
him peanut butter bars and they arrived in like 8 days. Thats a tad better
then 5 weeks. some good ol american cookies would be great. like hand made
cookies I mean. but ya if you could try and do that I'd very much appreciate
it.
ok question answeing time

dad- thanks for the news and the encouragment, things are geting better.
sorry for asking but whos in the heisman race?

mom- ill get those letters sent off this week for the missionary moms.

Vallyn, ya you can write dear elders that fine, they are slower but it is
nicer to have actualy paper, and i cant read it when ever i want. Thats good
that law passed. too bad people are upset.

ee thats awesome about the titans haha. Like it said there should be some
more pics of me on eduardos facebook in the next few days.

kk- ill be watign for the packages. im glad everyone is enjoyin my letters,
and be sure to let brennan know his is on his way, i sent his like a week
later.

kort- just stay away from 1030. I want my own room when i get back. Or
better yet my own bathroom, right now its 4 elders sharing one bathroom with
peruvian food, its a hoot.

alright yall i gotta go, love you guys so much. Talk to you guys in like 38
days!
Love, elder wilson

11-10-2008 E-MAIL

2008-11-24T12:27:00.000-08:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ


IN A RUSH!

Ok new rule, instead of 45 minutes for writing we now have 30, I'm trying
not to complain at that rule so my emails are gonna be pretty rushed. also,
if anyone ever comes to lima, NEVER eat at the chicken restaurants, I got
pretty sick this week from that.  I was up all night in the bathroom, and
thats where I'll stop describing. We also switched pensions to a lady that
use to own her own resutaunt, sooooo good. I finally started getting Beaus'
email, but now I don't have enough time to read any of my buddies letters.
Bad news, Ermongenis told us he isn't getting baptized anymore, but he
accepted another appointment for Wednesday so we'll see what happens. His
fam is putting pressure on him to not switch churches. Alejandro is doing
pretty good, he said yes but he doesn't really have much of a testamony.
Consuelo is willing to get baptized but she has a pretty big problem with
the word of wisdom, so we'll have to fix that first. I'm just hoping
somebody will get baptized this month. Im feeling pretty frustrated, I'm
working, but we aren't getting much of a result, and I feel like my spanish
hasn't really been improving that much either. But whatever it's a new week.
Ok there's a few things I need that I can't find here. I need those denture
cleaning tablets for my retainer, and also one of those little cleaning rags
for my glasses, they dont have anytihng with fine enough material here.  One
thing that did cheer me up this morning is that I figured out I've lost
enough weight to fit into my spandex garments again haha, that was pretty
nice.
Mom, i got your package today with the 3 twix and cliff bars, bueno. I
don't really know how the call is going to work , but the week b4 christmas
I'll tell you whats going down. I guess its cheaper for you guys to call me,
so you'll probably be calling my apartment.YA its totally fine to send
multiple emails,  I'm just not supposed to be recieveing or sending emails
to different addreses. I guess that's not a rule in santa cruz. Lima Esta
has waaaaaaaay more rules than Santa cruz, thats not exactly making me love
this place. And I don't think we use skype, but honestly I'm not sure of
what skype is, heard of it though.
EE- we go to the temple once every 6 weeks.

Grandma- thanks for the updates on sports.
kk- ha thanks kk, I figured out that I wasn't missing anything.

Ok so I still have 10 minutes to write, I guess I don't have to fly through
this too too fast. This week we are going to start teaching english classes
in the capilla, hopefully we'll have a good crowd, our ward is a little iffy
on attending things, we had a mission night this week. 4 people came. And
three were the mission leader and his wife and kid.
Don't worry about me being sick by the way, I just drank a bunch of yogurt
and I got better after about a day. But I feel like I lost some weight cuz
of it haha.
Idk what to think of my comp, he doesn't really talk. ever. And he seems
like he's ready to go home too, he's not really a fan of getting up on time.

Ok sorry I gotta go, love you guys.

11-3-2208 E-MAIL

2008-11-04T12:13:00.000-08:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER TORREZ

Dear fam,

wow you all sent me a ton of stuff this week, which is good, but i
gotta write this fast. After my last email I found out my comp was a
MEXICAN, I was so excited, I miss mexicanos so much… sadly when he arrived I
realized he was born with out a personality. He said about 3 sentences in
the first three days. But no, he´s starting to talk a bit more, so that’s
really nice. I have so much I can learn from him though, hes an amazing
teacher. He always uses stories and examples that keep the peops interested.
He came from a place called Bayovar, which is hands down the most successful
zone in lima. (las flores… well, were not.) And he’s totally changing the
way we do things. He focuses on soley on working through members and finding
people they know who might be willing to listen to us. I think its going to
work better than just contacting a large  portion of the day. We figured out
that in my 6 weeks here I did around 1200 contacts… and found 3 people to
teach. In 2 days of looking for friends of members we found 5. So November
should be a pretty good month.
I found out I am not ready at all to be senior comp. I basically was for
this week, cuz elder torres doesn’t know the area at all or any of the
investigators, so ive been doing all the plans at night, and when ever we
have our plan A and B fall through hes just like ´´ alright where are we
going´´… man Idk!
We went to dylans house this week, hes acting strange now idk what the
deal is, he missed church 2 out of the last 3 days. But while we were
teaching him his g-ma came in and starting talking to us. We had finished
and had to leave but she wouldn’t stop talking when ever she took a breath I
would say that ill say a prayer and start, but in the middle shed just start
going again. Dylan went to sleep after a while on the couch. Then I looked
over and say my comp had passed out too, so it was just me and Grandma
Haumani kicking it in the living room.
We also had a really great lesson with Alejandro. We came in he had 3 of
his friends there and they were all dressed kinda like gangsters. But they
all spoke English, so they wanted to talk to me, so I explained about my
mission and everything, then we started and they asked if they needed to go
and we said no. So all three of decided to stay. I felt like I gave the best
lesson ive given so far on the mission, I just testified the whole time, and
I could tell they could really feel something.
Ok I don’t have much more time, but theres some stuff I need. More
vitamins. And I need denture cleaner….. for my retainer, I hate that thing
but when I don’t wear it my teeth kill. I also need to find out how to send
Austin his letter, I don’t think I can send it through pouch, could someone
find out for me?
Got the Halloween package, ha mom thanks for the beans. Just to let
everybody know TWIX are NOT frowned apon at all.
Sounds like everyone had a good time with Halloween, they kinda have it
here, kids just run around saying ´´Quiero alowín´´

Crystal, my Spanish isn’t anything great but its getting better. I didn’t
get your jerkey package, mail here just sucks. And idk for sure the date for
Bolivia.

Kim, my bet is girl. I cant remember who elder Anderson is.

Mom- mayans didn’t bring our mail but they said they’ll send it, idk when
though.
My city is called Las Flores, but the county I live in is called san juan
lurigancho. Today was hot, its starting to get warmer each day. Dogs aren’t
a problem, they just bark, we always have a book of mormon in our hands so
we just smack them with it if they come up to us, or kicking work s too.

K gotta go bye bye.

10-27-2008 E-MAIL

2008-11-04T12:09:00.000-08:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION:ELDER MELANDER



Hey everybody,
So this was a pretty up and down week. First I'll talk about the
missionary work. The two people we had with baptismal dates are having
second thoughts. Ermogenis backed his till December, and Alejandro just
tells us now he doesn’t know. But we found this lady named Consuela who has
problems with drinking and wants us to help her. She went to church
yesterday and we commited here to baptism. We also found a man named Miercol
who seems very interested. And we have references for 3 baptism age kids
whos parents are inactive. But they want us to teach their children. It is
not out of the question for 8 people getting baptized this month.
 Well Elder Melander is basically done. He's at the missiuon office right
now. He'll come back and sleep tonight and then leave for the temple at like
5 and from there he'll go to the airport. We were pretty different, but we
got along ok, he's a good guy. I'm gonna find out who my new comp is today.
I want a latino but I really won't be surprised if they send an American to
my area. My Spanish would be so much better if I had to speak it all day. We
are also going to move houses, which is just neato. It's not a good idea to
have 4 gringos in one house, especially when one is going home. And also the
food was…. Questionable. Like it's not really exotic food like monkey brain
or something, but its just bad haha. Like yesterday for breakfast we had
bread, with a slice of fried yam, (not ham). HAHA. And a couple times we've
had to dump our soup back into the pot when the lady walks out. I'm not
exactly broken hearted about moving. And I'll get hot water again, but I'm
actually use to the cold water now.
 So ya the conference. It was sooo amazing. Elder Christopherson was so
powerful. He told us that our main goal is to baptize, to get people going
on the path to change their lives. And he really focused on using the book
of Mormon for everything, cuz that’s the physical evidence that the church
is true. And then at the end he asked if we could all come up and shake his
hand. He said he just wanted to shake our hands and look us in the eye, and
say our name, so he could feel like more of a companion with us. He was
awesome. Ha but when I shook his hand I totally froze and said nothing, just
walked away.
 But I had another surprise b4 Elder Christopherson arrived and while we
were all waiting. I was sitting with elder Jacobson, and I just look to the
back of the conference room and see this tall bald man. I thought to myself,
´´that man looks really familiar…wait.. THAT’S PRESIDENT MAYANS!!!!´´ I
finally met my mission president. I just went up and gave him a hug and
talked to him for about 10 seconds. All I said was that I was one of his
elders that never left for Santa Cruz, and he just said ´´ Don’t worry we'll
get you there´´. I had such an amazing feeling seeing him, it was way
different from the feeling I get when I talk to Pres Leyva, who is amazing
too. But after I talked to Pres Mayans I just said to myself ´´He was meant
to be my president´´. Some day I'll get there ha ha.
 I also got to spend a good 3 hours with Elder Puglisi, Meridith,
Jacobsen and Smith on the bus ride to and from the conference, that was sooo
much fun, I love those guys so much.
  I sent a bunch of pìcs from one of my disposable cameras home today, or
well the film from the camera, that pics are pretty heavy, so I just sent
the film through pouch. I think today I'm going to Eduardos house and
burning another cd of my pictures, so I'll send that next week. Also we went
and painted some of Eduardos house this week, and he put some pics of me on
his facebook, so Elise you can get on there and get those.
 Well I now have 4 months under my belt, it went too fast, b4 I know it
it’ll be Christmas. My Spanish is really improving now, because I'm starting
to read the giant grammar book they gave me, its like 700 pages or
something.

Dad- Thanks for the story that’s really funny.
Mom- I didn’t get the Halloween pckg yet. The only package I've received
since I've been out of the CCM (mtc) was the one with the twix and
glucosamine in it.
Thanks for the addresses I asked for, I'm gonna start writing people a
lot more. I'm gonna look for some pics to send Brian and Brennen today too.
And Kortney, I'm working on finding that llama picture for you.

Well I gotta split, we are going back to el hueco (the hole), which is the
giant market place. I bought some amazing ties last time, haha.

Love you guys

10-13-08 E-MAIL

2008-10-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU

COMPANION: ELDER MELANDER

Hi everybody, so b4 i start i have to tell you that you need to start sending your emails to mom, and then she has to fwd them to me…. I don’t really understand the rule, but hey. Any who, this week has been good not a ton happened. We commited a man named Ermogenis to baptism. And then right after we found out that Alejandro( another investagator with a bap. Date) broke his shoulder in the gym and has a half body cast on and isn’t getting it removed for a month. But the problem is he's embarrassed about the cast and doesn't want to go to church with it. So we'll have to wait a while b4 he can get baptized. Also yesterday was some festival for a saint, so there were all these parades for it, and everywhere there were these purple banners and decorations. They always have some festival, one every couple weeks. But all the difference is that usually there's a bunch of drunk people walking around. But when there's a festival they are drunk, walking around, with funny hats on. I have to admit, the drunk people are pretty funny. There's one guy that gets drunk, and then walks out to the same spot in the street and yells ´´THANK YOU!´´over and over. We did our first real service project here. We helped build a foundation of a house. But I don’t think many Peruvians took a physics class, cuz what we did was, we were digging this thing on the side of a mountain, but then we would haul the dirt and rocks… further up the mountain… so there's a good chance of a landslide there now. But anyways it was nice to have some excersize and to get dirty. Ya not much happened this week, we didn’t find too many people to teach. With out references nothing really happens. Ermogenis was a person we contacted, but he's probably only the 3 person I've contacted that I've taught, and we contact 200 every week. So we are gonna really start asking members for references. And also we are going to start teaching English ,it'll probably start after Elder Melander leaves, so I might be teaching it with a latin comp… which would be just…peachy. Today should be awesome, we get to go to the Peruvian Black market haha, I have so much I realized I need to buy. And they have some of the nicest ties ever… haha, love those things. I'm gonna try and burn another cd and send it to you all pretty soon, there's a video on there with this crane…. Its so amazing… you just have to see it. My Spanish is still coming bit by bit (poco a poco) I can understand most things when we talk about gospel topics. But if I'm in the street… I usually don’t understand anything, its pretty frustrating. But oh man when I get home I'm speaking this everyday, cuz there is no way I'm losing this after working this hard for it. I'm gonna have to marry someone from here so I have to speak it…. Alright maybe not.

Mom- Its not really getting any warmer here, it’s a lot tougher to wake up in the morning when you're cold… and there's no hot water haha. Elder Haleis always telling me how much nicer Santa Cruz is. I didn’t even know Jared was engaged. When are Ashley and Dallin getting married? I knew my pin number was something like that, I'll find out in about an hour if its correct. Did I send you those names last week of my mtc buddies? You should really find their families if you can. Also I wanna start writing Vince and Beau, and Austin, but I have no idea what their addresses are now, could you send them to me?

Kim- That’s so great you got to go to conference. I'm gonna try and go right when I get home. Also I got a letter from Emily Peck today, her dad was with mason in pharmacy (haha it took me so long to remember how to spell that)school. She was like ´´why are you still in peru?´´ Tell Brennan Mikey saysto behave.

EE- Watch out for those groupies. Elder Christopherson is coming the 22 ofOctober, its gonna be so great.

KK- what happened to Cecily?

OK sorry everybody, this email seems a little short to me but I can't really think of much else to write. I'm trying to think of some funny stories. Ok here's one: Elder Evans is in my santa cruz group and right now he's in a part of lima called Vitarte. And this drunk guy threw this rock at him, but he was drunk so naturally it missed. But then the guy ran up to elder evans expecting him to run, but he's like 6-4 230 so he just stands there. And the drunk guy doesn’t really know what to do so there both just standing there. So Elder Evans goes, ´´ would…. You like to hear about Jesus Christ?´´. And the guy just starts crying and kissing Elder Evans hand. Slowly he realizes that the guy thinks Elder Evans …..is ……Jesus. Ha, its probably a bit funnier to tell it in person. I already have a million stories from this place, I'm keeping a pretty good record in my journal, so I'll tell them all when there's more time. So I really need to start writing letters to people. I want to write one to all the kids at least. But we don’t have much time to sit and write, on pdays we have free time but we still have stuff to do. I was also going to try and send some pics with this email… but I left my camera at home. Ok well I gotta go, love you guys.

10-6-2008 E-MAIL

2008-10-06T15:59:00.000-07:00

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER MELANDER


Ok this week im writing this on Microsoft Word cuz it should be a bit more
reliable. Sorry about last weeks email, Ill write that one real quick again.
First of all, weve been told now that after this transfer, well be here for
one more, so we are shooting for going to Bolivia around kims b day. So
hopfully my Spanish will be good by then, cuz ill be ONE FOURTH done by
then. Funny story. theres another elder Wilson in this mission, and my zone
leader showed me apic of him, I totally know him, we were roommates at EFY
the summer b4 I was a senior. He was the guy that had the koala bear puppet.
Oh man he was a funny kid. Also we had zone conference with week. our zone
has the lowest baptisms in the mission. So we have some room to improve. But
last night we committed two guys to baptism for oct 25. I haven't really had
any baptisms yet, the first week I was in the mission elder dodds had 3, but
I didn't even know who they were then. We also commited 3 others right b4 I
left for here, so im not gonna count them either. Mom, b4 I forget, I cant
remember my pin number to my debit card, idk what you want to do about that,
I think you should just send it and ill delete the email after you send it,
just send it Sunday night so its not in my inbox forever. Myldsmail is
pretty secure but you can never be too careful.  That's cool you found those
elders moms. I know elder wilding and Allred(from Washington). I also met
one of the elders named cook, idk which one. But you need to find some of my
friends from the mtc (ccm). Morgan Jacobsen(or its son, not sure how it
ends). Aaron Puglisi, Tyler Meridith, Tyler Duncan, Garret Evans, Benjamin
Smith, and elder ward, im not sure what elder wards first name will be, its
either dallas or Andrew. Ok ill run through my list on my paper real quick,
its unorganized sorry, I haven't gotten any of my santa cruz mail yet, today
I got moms bday list, grandamas letter and all the cards from Hawaii. But I
really want more pics, also I never got the package with duct tape, but wait
one more week b4 you do anthing about it, I might show up next Monday. EE,
one of the guys in my ward found me on facebook, can you make sure you
accept him, his name is Eduardo. He just got his mission call to Uruguay so
I told him about dad a bit. Also that reminds me, dad and mason, can you
send me some of your cool mission experiences I love hearing those.
Conference was sooooo amazing, I got soo much out of it. I got kinda
homesick seeing Utah, and thinking about you all crashing in the family room
watching it. I know two the 70 now, Elder Gavarret, the one that talked
about all the peru stuff, I met him like a month ago. And then elder
nash(said the closing prayer), is the area authority for peru, he is so
amazing.  We had one room that was English so me , elder melander, elder
lopez, and elder hale all sat in there by ourselves. It was nice we grabed a
table to take notes and had snacks, haha it was really confortable. The
speakers spoke a lot about trials, so that's probably preparing us for
something. We were so bummed when it was over, it was just so awesome.
Also, in like 3 weeks Elder Christoferson is going to come down and talk
to us, that is going to be so awesome, Ive never been in the same room and
an apostle.

OK now to the questions
Valynn, Email is probably the safest way to write to me, but it feels really
good to get letters haha, so idk. A few letters now and then are nice, but
ya emails are fine. You liked my pics? Haha, ya that was where I slepped for
about a month, it was rough but I just passed out so it was ok. The less
disgusting looking bathroom is the one we used, but they were both in my old
apt. Now I have a bunk bed, but our bathroom is pretty disgusting haha. The
weather here is basically like seattle, just that wet cold, but its not bad.
But those pictures aren't of FOG, that's SMOG, lima is the dirtiest place
ive ever seen, everthing is covered in this weird polluted dirt, its really
bad.

Mom, I got your twix package last week, oh my goodness that tasted soo good.
I do get to eat American food in this area, we are going to mcdonals after I
write this. You have no idea how much I miss that shower, my bathroom
doesn't have hot water, when I get home ill act out my little shower ritual
to you, its pretty funny. Theres a lot of things out here you just have to
laugh at, so in the shower I just make a lot of noise to make myself laugh.
And as far as the google earth thing. im in this little valley right now,
and the mountains are like close to the size of  badger mountain.

Crystal-sounds like everything is going well, if you wanna send stuff use
the address mom used for my twix package, everything just goes to the
mission office and then I get it on Monday.
EE- sounds like the house is going well, we don't ride bikes here, which im
not upset about, and I wont in santa cruz.

Kim its good to hear your doing well. When you mentioned reunions I just
thought of how great its going to be after my mission to see all my mission
buds again, we are soo close. And now we are separated and I miss them so
much, we all helped each other through some really tough situations. Last
week I saw elder Jacobsen and elder evans. Weve only been separated for like
3 weeks, but I ran over and gave them such a huge hug. Im hopeing to see my
whole group when elder christoferson comes.

Ok fam I gotta go, love you all soo much.

9-29-2008 E-MAIL

2008-09-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

so I'd just written a big long email but when i sent it if freaked out and erased it. So dont have any more time to write what i wrote, but I'll write a HUGE email next week. I'm doing fine though, everythings good. Mom got your package today with the twix... sooooo good. haha sorry about this. YAI'll write a bunch next week.

Mike

9-22-2008 E-MAIL

2008-09-28T21:18:00.000-07:00

DATE: SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU

COMPANION: ELDER MELANDER

About 2 hours after I sent my letter my zone leaders figured out they hadn't read the spread sheet of the transfers right. All of the santa cruz elders got transferred. And all the santa cruz elders they pulled out got put into missions around lima. My new area is called Las Flores, it's the safest area in the zone they tell me. I'm with elder Melander. He is from......Michigan, but he doesn't like college football, so that was disappointing,we are pretty different but we get along fine. We also have 2 Santa Cruz elders with us, so it's 4 Americans in one apartment, which doesn't help my spanish but it's so fun. elder Delgado is from Vegas and Elder Lopez is from Boston, they've been telling me more about Santa Cruz. And the best thing is that they were told by the area presidency that they'd only be out for 2 changes which are 3 months. But ive gotten use to lima and i can live here till Bolivia opens up .

I have to tell you about this new convert in my ward. His name is Dylen, he looks like he's about tylers age but he's actually 11. His mother beats him so he lives with his Aunt now, who is not a member. But she recommended him to the elders cuz she wanted him in the church so he would stay out of gangs. He comes to church every day by himself, he's just so amazing. He's just this quiet little kid. But when we sit there with him i can just feel this power and this spirit he has. Ive never felt this from anybody, I justlove him so much, and I want to help him so much and im so worried about him now staying in the church. Ive only spent about and hour with Dylen, and i barely say anything cuz all i know how to say in spanish is gospel things.But tonight we are going back to have FHE with him. We told him we are goingto help him with his homework tonight too. When ever i see him I just picture how retarded i was at 11 years old, it just blows my mind how Dylen acts, and i just know Heavenly father has huge plans for him. So im glad im in Lima right now so i can watch out for him and try to show him what he needs to do to make his life better.

On a lighter note, I had a pretty funny experience last night with our neighbors. I knew they were from Santa Cruz and they started talking about an Elder MacLean. Idk if id said this in any other letters but one of the teachers in Provo went to Santa Cruz and me and elder mitchell talked to him like everyday about it. So i was like i might know him, so they showed me a picture of him, and it was him. But the best part was i looked on the back at his address... he's from Richland. Idk how but we never bothered to ask each other where we were from. He's at BYU right now but you guys should get a hold of his family for me. His name is Kyle MacLean and his fam lives on 1113 Foxtrot Lane is Richland. And the name of the people that know him are Micaela (like Mikayla) Cou´Mauya and Marcelo Villa Suerte (or it might beFuerte, i cant really read thier writing). Lets see what else is there... Oh i figured out how to sew. I didn't want to say anything till it got better but i cut my leg pretty deep on some glass in the street so i sewed my pants back together. But my leg is totally fine now.

Today i have to go to the office, and i think i might actually have some of my mail from Santa Cruz there. I hope some of my old district is there, those guys are soooo funny, we are all so close now, i love all those guys so much. Lima isn't really that humid actually, its just like Seattle pretty much, and Las Flores in even drier that my last area.

Tell Ashley and Dallin congrats for me that's so awesome .And since i moved areas i wont see Jenifer any more, but ya shell get baptized eventually. It was tough gettin her to church cuz it starts at 8, now we start at 10 so that'll be better. Well i gotta head out, but sounds like things are good at home, im doing fine here. Im basically an 8th done with my mission already, which isn't that much but its gone super fast. Spanish is getting a little better. I haven't been able to study a lot since ive been here (actually i haven't been able to study that much since ive been in the field) cuz our mission has to figure out what to do with all these santa cruz elders. But this week they are more settled in so it might be my first normal week here. OK Igotta go,

loves you guys a ton,Elder Wilson

Here are some pictures that we received from Mike. Sorry that I do not have any details on the pictures, but have fun looking!

Some of the Elders from the MTC

On their day trip out to see sites in Lima

Lima Peru Temple

I think this is his apartment....nice. :)

9-15-2008 E-MAIL

2008-09-15T15:44:00.000-07:00

Hi family and friends. As you will read in Mike's letter, he is in the Lima Peru, East Mission because of the unrest in Bolivia. Please make note that his address has changed. His new address is posted on the side of the blog.

Thanks, Wilson Family

AREA: SANTA ANITA, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER ALLEN

"YOU ARE OFFICIALLY....TEMPORARILY HERE."

hi everybody. so we met the prez of Lima Este, and as of this moment we are now missionaries in the Lima Este Mission. the first presidency is waiting for an answer on what to do with us, whether to just have us wait it out here, or get officially reassigned to another mission. so....i guess you should stop sending stuff to bolivia. they are trying to get all of our mail to us from santa cruz. mom, i got your dear elder letter today, you guys have no idea how it feels to get a letter after like a month in a half of not getting anything. but, hopefully here in a few weeks ill get like 20 from santa cruz. i sent a CD home with some pics, idk when it'll get there or in what shape the cd will be in, they don't really have good protection for fragile objects. Prez Leyva told us a few days ago we'd be getting new areas but we didn't get them in our email today, so im staying in Santa Anita it looks like, but thats cool cuz we haven't6 baptized Jennifer yet and we have three other people getting baptized next Sunday.
Mom i cant really think of much i need rigth now, everything here is really cheap and they have a ton the US products here, we had pap johns a few days ago and i think we are going to some place to eat after this. Actually one thing i can't find is the pills for my knee, i really need to start taking them cuz me knee is starting to hurt a little bit. One thing thats really awesome about not getting reassigned is that almost my whole district is in my zone. i love these guys sooo much, we are so much closer cuz we've been together for more than 2 months. and we have another 6 weeks together.
How is every9one liking school now? I heard about jamen being left a long time at school, that's too bad. We are building a three story chapel across the street from our apartment, and its open this Sunday so we should get a lot of new investigators from the open house. that should be exciting.
My Spanish is getting sooo much better. there's no training better than just talking with people, its scary and hard, but great. Sorry my ideas are so jumbled up, but im just writing what comes to me. Is Vince close the the hurricane? I don't really now w3hat part of Texas Houston is in.
Ahh i cant think of any good stories to tell...i have them in my journal though. Ohh, a few days ago me and elder allen (another santa cruzer) had to go out and teach by ourselves, hahahha that was just classic, we talked to this old guy about the church, and elder allen started arguing with him...but about a totally different thing than what the old man was talking about. The old man was talking about how he think its awesome that we come out for 2 years and elder allen is like "we are the only church that prophets and apostles like the church Christ established."
i started reading some of the conference talks and there was one called "Today", cant remember who gave it. but the message was that you have no idea what is going to happen to you today, or tomorrow, so you have to make everyday count, I know thats such a cliche but its so true. Lots of days we sit there and go, we still have 21 months this is nuts, but we need to start thinking, we ONLY have 21 months left. There's a scripture in Jacob that i read a few days ago and its quoted in "Today". but it says that our lives pass away like dreams. so b4 i know ti this mission will be over, so i better not waste any time cuz i'll regret it later.
well i dont have much more to say, looks like im staying here for a while, start sending stuff here. But sent it to the Peru Lima East Mission, it some how goes through pouch, so its just one US stamp to get here.
Well...I gotta get off soon, Love you guys. Keep me updated on Bolivia.

Elder Wilson

9-8-2008 E-MAIL

2008-09-08T12:22:00.000-07:00

AREA: LIMA, PERU

COMPANION: ELDER

Hi everybody, I cant remember what day i told you i email but it is for sure every monday, our schedule was really messed up last week. Im doing better this week. Pretty healthy, starting to lose some weight cuz all we eat is rice and chicken, but its all good. We sleep on matresses on the floor so i get kinda stuffy, but nothing too bad. P days are sooooo much fun, i get tos ee a lot of my district, i love these guys so much. Elder meridith was talking about it and said, "you know, this has been one of the toughest times of my life, but also i dont think ive laughed as hard as i have with you all". We are so excited to meet again that last day of our mission and talk about our experiences. Most of the time theres way less that 18 white elders that come in at one time, so we are gonna have a good time on at the end. IDK whats going on with Bolivia, Im not dieing here like i was last week, but i would still leave in half a second for santa Cruz. Can somebody get on the news and let me know whats going on with the government, i guess theres some type of uprising there.

But ya p day was really great, we went to this old catholic cathedral, and then went to the catacombs under it. it was really pretty and cool, but its funny, cuz you dont feel any type of spirit in there. Then we went to the Spanish Inquisition museum, that was pretty nuts, i got some pics ill send home eventually, im gonna try and burna cd and send it home, thats way safer than sending my card.

So one of our baptisms backed out, Monica. She was supposed to marry her boyfriend so she could get baptized, but his sister got really sick then ight b4 so we had to cancel the wedding, then when elder ruiz and allen went to talk to her she said she didnt want to anymore, we havent visited her anymore. Im getting along really well with my comp. But i can tell he is ready to go home, im not helping cuz im still talking a lot about home cuz i havent let go quite yet. And dont get me wrong we work hard, but its just when he teaches, his spanish is perfect, but i just... dont really feel anything, hes just kinda going through the motions. Idk i feel bad writing that but thats the impresion i keep getting. But Jeniffer is doing great we commited to baptism on the second visit,but we didnt catch her at the next apoitment on saturday and then she didnt get up for church on sunday. But i really think shes still wanting to do this.

Hows Martin and Jarred doing? Any news on either of them? Also mom can you make sure beau, austin, vince, shayne, brett and matt are getting my emails? and can you send me their ldsmail addresses? one more favor... I was thinking about music yesterday, and can youj ust make sure my I Pod is safe? haha sorry, but i just really dont want that thing to be broken when i get home, i dont care about any of my other things, but can you make sure my ipod is out of the reach of the little ones. Also I dont think you need to send my anything here, theres a ton of stuff here, and its sooooo cheap, really nice ties here are like 2 dollars, so im gonna end up coming home with like 40 haha. One thing i need is duct tape, i think i asked for it when i talked about my packages, but ya that works really well for warts, i started doing it but i kept borrowing duct tape from hermana Groberg so that was kinda a hassle so i didnt finish, but ya can make sure and send some to bolivia. Sooo ya i think thatsits,

IDK what my address is down here, sorry, but im betting ill be gone b4 anything you guys send get here. Elder Jacobson has a buddy in Santa Cruz, and he emailed him and said no one is doing transfers till we get there, so thats a good indicator we´ll be getting in soon. So ya just keep sending stuff to Santa Cruz. Itll be nice to have a lil party when i get there and find all these letters and goodies for me. Thanks everybody for your prayers and encouragment, they really worked. Im praying really hard for you all. I love you all so so much.Talk to you later...

Elder Michael David Wilson

9-2-2008 E-MAIL

2008-09-02T15:21:00.000-07:00

AREA: LIMA, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER ALLEN

Hey everybody, so they moved us out of the CCM and I've been pretty bummed
about that, but most of us are in the same zone so we are all together right
now and we get to have p day together as well, but elder puglisi is in
another zone by himself wich really sucks. I'm comps with elder allen, and
we are combined with two lima este elders, elder dodds from cedar city and
elder ruiz from.... Santa Cruz, so he's telling us all this amazing stuff
about bolivia. We are in Santa Anita... i really have no idea where that is
haha. This place is going to take some getting use to. It is a dirty dirty
place, and i keep getting over charged on the buses cuz im a gringo and
don't know any better. The busses are pretty hilarious though, they drive
them like they are mustangs. Also im having some problems with peruvian
food... i dont really think i should go into detail on that one.

we got some news about bolivia, its not looking like a conspiracy to keep
us out and the church has a bunch of people talking with the prez this week
in la paz, so they said we could move out any day, the max is probably 6
more weeks in lima. but please just keep sending everything to peru.(I think
he means Bolivia)

the really nice thing about lima is it has tons of US products... i
bought some new soap and mouthwash yesterday. and we went to Pizza Hut, wow
is all i have to say about that, im gonna lose a bunch of weight out here
but gain it right back cuz im gonna eat for like 4 straight weeks haha.

I've figured out that the only way not to get homesick is not to stop
working. just being here is really messing up the lima este mission and we
have a lot of dead time to just sit around. Yesterday i was feeling really
sick and laying on the couch thinking, how am i going to be able to do this
for 2 years. and i was going to write today that i am very close to coming
home. But then that night we started working, all of our contacts fell
through, but it's 100 times better to be out trying. But then Heavenly
Father always rewards us for trying... Elder dodds told me, he and i are
going to find a new ingestagator and baptize them b4 i leave. Well we found
her last night. Her name is Jenifer, her friend is a member and gave
referals (btw, EVERYDAY! be thinking of people for elders to teach, they
work so much better than when we make contacts in the streets.) But anyways
Jenifer is golden, we taught the first lesson and she was all over it. We go
back wednesday.

we went to church on sunday, church here is so loud, on men. but its awesome
to see all the little kids and have wards that are yours. The people here
are so great they help us out soo much, we ususally get about 10 referrals
per sacrament meeting (we have 3 wards).

Ok so thats all i really have to say... i dont really know when im leaving
they aren't really telling us much cept that they are trying hard to solve
it, but they said it doesn't look too bad. But please pray for it always. I
can last in lima for a while.... but this city is ridiculous, i gotta get
out where theres isn't smog everyday.

Crystal, congrats on the job and the beau... is he an RM? Kim... that is
so awesome! How far along are you? Valynn.. I cant believe the kids are
going back to school already. thats nuts.

ok well i have more time so ill just try to think of some stories till my
time is up. Yesterday me and elder dodds were walking around and i saw like
three kids running and laughing... then i see one kid behind them chasing
them with... a piece of broken glass the size of his head.. then he just
chucks it at the kids but it totally missed, i just had to start laughing
and say this place is so nuts. I had a crazy homeless guy on the bus one
day, he was rapping/singing/ beat boxing in the front of the bus. Normally
I'd feel bad, but he was also really mean and he spit on somebody b4 he got
off.
I've only been out in the field for like 6 full days but i already feel
like i understand spanish soooooo much more, i really like studying it on my
own out of the manuals.

So the best way to get pics home is just on a burnt cd, we can burn them
at any of the internet cafes for like one sol(33 cents). So I'll try and
send a cd home b4 i leave. Also im really glad you sent me those disposable cameras mom, cuz they
tell us not to bring out cameras everyday cuz they'll probably get stolen,
so i take the other one which has like 30 pics on it, so next time something
really ridiculous happens i can take a pic of it.

Oh and about that whole robbing thing, i haven't met any elders who've
been robbed, but everyone says u just have to keep a low profile, not have a
flashy watch stuff ,or pull out a bunch of money and run.But it also does
help that I'm waaaaay bigger than most people here,so that probably deters
some people too. The good thing is they don't know I'd just start crying..
drop all my stuff and run. Ha Ha

Oh crystal i forgot to ask... do you have a friend named Tyson Wall?
Elder ruiz was talking about him, he's from west Jordon..I looked at a
picture of him and he kinda looked familiar, and the name is familiar
too.idk,just let me know, cuz that would be really funny.

ok gotta go love you all, I'll email again next monday

8-26-2008 E-MAIL

2008-08-30T17:16:00.001-07:00

AREA: PERU MTC
COMPANION: ELDER PUGLISI


This was the day Mike was leaving for Bolivia. I thought I'd share what
happened. We could use your prayers to help him get there soon.
Love,
Claudia

BOLIVIA HERE I CO....oh wait.

yaaaa...... So its 7 pm on august 26th and im still sitting in the CCM.
Turns out while we were here theres been some problems with the our visas.
So there are 20 elders who will be waiting in peru. IDK what the problem is
but the church has a bunch of lawyers over in Bolivia trying to fix it. The
plan right now is for me to be in the Lima East mission for 6 weeks. But we
could leave in like 3 days, i just dont know. They told us that really if
wed just gotten on the plane tonight they would have let us in but it would
have made some customs officials angry and make this thing tougher for the
next set of elders. So right now im pretty bumbed to be perfectly honest.
Ive heard so many things from the Santa Cruz elders that are here... about
like building chapels out of palm trees and just going out into the deep
jungle. And everyone says Pres Maynes is AMAZING. But Matt had to wait and
he's still alive so i guess i can too. And pres Nash (Love that guy, he use
to be over the tri cities) says that are calls will NOT be changed cuz our
calls are from the Apostles. And if they are I would be SOOOOOOOOO upset.

There are some cool things about this. Since the CCM is in the East
mission i get to sleep here every night, since thats easier than finding me
another place to stay. And my whole district is here too, so we get to see
each other every night, and i love those guys. Me and Elder Puglisi are
rooming together when we get home, and probably Elder Smith too. And i get
showers that won't kill me if i touch the shower head.

  So yaa about mail.... I have no idea what to tell you. I havent had mail
in a long time cuz everyone is sending it to Santa Cruz, and i dont think
its a good idea to send things here cuz i have no clue when im leaving. But
its also pretty depressing not to get mail... HAHA this is so frustrating.
So ya im still in good old Lima. I do like the place more when im outside
working so thats a plus, and I'll be way better at spansih for Santa Cruz
cuz of this, but we were all SOOOO excited to go so its tearing all of us
up.
 Well now that i got that out of the way i can tell you about this Park
thing we did on saturday, i have a pretty awesome story about it I'll share
at the end. So we went to the park from 9 till 6, and my job with Elder
Garcia was to contact people and try to convince them to go in, and also get
their information for missionaries. I now know the basic excuses that most
people give, mostly "No Hay Tiempo", or "Vivo muy lejos de aqui". its funny.
But we found some amazing people. We got i think 1,000 refurals that day.
Ok now i can tell you my awesome story. I have absolutey no doubt in my
mind now that Heavenly Father prepares people for us. So we find this little
short man named Franco, and we start teaching him, and he's not really over
excited but he's accepting it and says he's open to all religions, and he
said he'd have the missionaries over to teach him more. And then as we are
shaking his hand and thanking him he goes, "oh ya i forgot to tell you two,
last night i had this dream that I was standing right here in front of
Kennedy Park, and there were two glowing white people talking to me...."
Wow... It was crazy.

Ok so I've been on for a while, i better get off, i think i got everything i
need to say. I guess you should probably just keep sending my stuff to
Bolivia and they'll just keep it in the Mission Office.

Love you guys, sounds like everything is going well there, I'll be fine here
dont worry.  and hey... Im already a 12th done... so thats crazy i think. OK... Bye

8-19-2008 E-MAIL

2008-08-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

AREA: PERU MTC
COMPANION: ELDER GARCIA

Subject: Give us freedom

Hey everybody, how's it going? Its almost noon right now, we got to go tothe temple today for that last time in 2 years. So me and Elder Puglisi stayed for about 3 hours. Things are going good here, I'm not fluent but I've come along way in 8 weeks. I'm just so ready to get out of here. This mtc is amazing for learning spanish. But I don't feel like I've learned much doctrine, and its very frustrating. Every day we have these fake situations, that either have to do with the word of wisdom, the sabbath day, or lesson 1. And now they are starting to repeat the same exact situations. We just keep saying that once we get out into the field it'll be different. So you know how we go proselyting every saturday? this saturday they are having a big mormon... convention I'd guess you'd call it, in this big park in downtown Lima. and there's supposed to be 2000 people there. So they're sending us down there for the day. Everyone we talk to says it's the biggest day for missionary work in Lima.

The elders in my district are soo funny. Elder Puglisi and Elder Meridith are awesome. I wish I could explain to you guys well how funny this place is. We just have to laugh at our situation sometimes, or else we'd go crazy. Ok, so I keep finding all these connections with people here. The area medical director is named Elder Terrance Drake, and he is amazing, he teaches priesthood for the gringos and he is the best teacher I've ever heard. And he's from Reno. So I asked him about Brian and LaRae. He knows them really well and called them as temple workers. He told me to say hi. And then President Nash of the 70 spoke to us last week. And he's from Seattle. Turns out he use to be AN area authority for Tri Cities and knows Pres. Montierth pretty well, he says hi too.

Ok sorry I don't have that much to say this week. I'm just ready to get out of here. I'll try and call when I'm heading to Santa Cruz. I'll probably spend the night in La Paz so I'll have lots of time. Ok I have something very VERY VERY important... the water here tastes like feet, so I'm gonna need lots of crystal light and gatorade mixes to put in my water. Ya that's about it... It sounds like I have a ton of mail in Santa Cruz so that'll be pretty nice. And ya, I just wanna get out of here. By this time next month there's a really good chance I'm gonna have some baptisms, so thats pretty crazy. Thats awesome Matt got one, I hope he gets to Mexico soon. Well I'll probably send another email on tuesday hopefully b4 I leave. AndI'll try and call too.

Love you guys.

Elder Michael D Wilson

8-12-08 E-MAIL

2008-08-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

AREA: PERU MTC

COMPANION: ELDER GARCIA

ok, just to warn you im just reading off of a pad of paper so this is really unorganized. first, idk if i said this in my last letter but i forgot to tell kim and mason that when i flew to peru, i met a man who lives in yakima and has family in lima, that was pretty funny.

My bed bugs are gone, but my bites arent. and b4 i forget, make sure to put more minutes on that long distance card cuz its basically all the way gone. If i have any time im gonna try and call again in lima and la pazs airport. my new comp is elder garcia, hes a good missionary, hes 25 so hes pretty mature.

This last saturday only the gringos went proselyting, it was so fun. I went with an elder from salt lake named elder johnson. He actually was in the same zone as shayne in provo so thats pretty funny. We went to a richer part of lima, it was a lot more modern and nice, but the people are definatly not as nice. We only talked to one of the 16 families we were assigned to. We ran into some jehovas witnesses, that was pretty funny, they offered one of their booklets and we were like sure well read it, but then they refused to read ours. we tried street contacting without a guide, its really funny to see peoples reactions to us on the street, they get pretty mad sometimes. But we met a lady named roxanna ( a lot of peruvians do not have spanish names). She was like ive been searching for a church for about 6 years and ive actually been to your church. so she was pretty ready to be taught so we gave her some pamphlets and hopefully the elders in that area will teach her. We also taught a catholic lady the first lesson, it was the first time ive taught a lesson to a real person where i did a lot of the talking. the first time i said about 2 sentences, the spirit was really strong and she said she could feel our spirit, it was awesome.

I have cabin fever so bad. I just want to leave peru, i have enough spansih to get my message across, and i just want to learn the rest while im out there. Theres a ton of bolivian elders here, they say santa cruz is soooooooooooo much prettier than here, we cant see the sky cuz of the all the smog, and all the plants are nasty and black from polution. Santa cruz is green, and fresh and clear and doesnt smell like exhaust. we had the day out with the pres and it was amazing, the arcatecture here is so pretty, ill send my memory card some time to show yall. the bolivians speak so much clearer than peruvians - i love it! they told us about all the bugs and stuff here, its not a big deal though.

the elders have funny names now. one is elder bueno, another is elderfieztas(yes his name is elder parties) and our teachers name is hermano aguilar, which really isnt a word, but aguila is an eagle, and when u put the R at the end it makes it the verb "to eagle"... i know elders are wierd im sorry. i have a cool quote but not enought time to write it... haha sorry. Crystal, im so glad you sent a package! hopefully you sent it to bolivia. Mom i didnt buy a belt that day, but i can wait till i get to santa cruz. Valynn that message is from jarred bates, hes one of my young mens leaders. thats funny bout the elephant. and i really want a moped when i get home. ok maybe i have enough time for this quote i think it was from elder ballard: "if you could only see the end from he begining, you would never even think about going home." thats not really all of it but it gets the point across. if i get reael homesick send that to me.

love you guys! g2g

8-5-2008 e-mail

2008-08-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

DATE: AUGUST 5, 2008
AREA: PERU MTC

Hi everybody, my companion just left like an hour ago. We werent the best of friends, but we got along ok by the end. Right now theres only about 30 elders in the mtc so tonight we get to go shopping and tour some places in lima. And we get pizza hut today for lunch(almurzo, theres one more word for jamen). tonight we are getting new districts, new leaders and new rooms. Im glad about the rooms part cuz i have bed bugs, which is sooooooo not cool. But ill talk more about that later. I got kk's package with the pics and mom i got the three packages from you. I got my cord and ive been trying to take some pics, ill take tons today on the tours. Two days ago i got dear elders from jamen, mom & kk. But they were from like July 22!, and yesterday i got grandmas package that she sent on the 29th. SO idk the deal there, dearelder is safer but slower. Valynn, i only have one dear elder from you, idk what happened to the others.

Ok so im starting to figure out what im going to need monthly in a package. SOAP, some type of bodywash\shampoo thing like i had, any brand but oldspice. I had to leave my mouth wash in utah, so please send me a few of those little travel sized ones every month too. I have some vitamins and ive been taking them, but the bottle says to take 4 a day, and down here i think im going to do that instead of one a day like usual. And ive come to a very sad realization... now that im here, and im use to Peruvian food.... American food gets me sick.... But it is SOOOOOOOOOOO good, so send me some in very small amounts. Im always craving junk food, twix, resses, skittles, startburst, oreos. But also i should probably have some granola, and jerkey, stuff that has some form of nutrition. Theres aslo some things i need send just once, i need a little calender that has peoples bdays and other holidays on it so i can keep up on that. Also can someone send me a little bouncy ball? only have 5 minutes left! ok, and dont send me any letters to peru, send them to the santa cruz mission home until i get a home address from bolivia. Tell kendra congrats. Sorry if i dont answer all your lettersa and stuff cuz i dont have time. Grandma, thanks for the letters. Jamen ask grandpa about my scout camp hell have stories, dont miss campouts, theyre great memoires. KK got your pics, thats crazy about josh thinking about baptism. Mom, got the cable, ill look fora belt today. EE tell mike betz thatnks for the letter, hes on my facebook. Kim thanks for letter. Kort send the movie to my house. I totally 4 got aobut reunion. Crazy about jeff and jason, gotta go!

love you all.

7-27-08 E-MAIL

2008-07-30T12:38:00.000-07:00

AREA: PERU MTC

COMPANION: ELDER CLAMENTE

Ok, so I didn't understand when I got here, but we go out like normal missionaries... every saturday we are here. We went to Valle Sangra, which is the second poorest neighborhood in Lima. It was mind blowing. We were there for about 10 hours, mostly visiting less active members. We had a guide from the ward come with us so we didn't get lost. I've never seen anything like this. Remember in my first email I talked about those shacks on the side of the mountain? That's where we started. Most shacks were about the size of dad's office, and most did not have roofs. The first house we came to we didn't get in. And it was only one of the two times we got rejected all day. These people are so amazing I can already tell, even when they aren't really interested in what you're saying you still get to come in as an honoured guest. And I think it helped that i'm a gringo. But anyways we knock on the first house, and this three year old runs out screaming with an old plastic oil can and smacks a chicken with it. It was so funny. A few houses later we visited a funny little man and his wife. After a few minutes of talking we went into his house. He had about 20 chickens and ducks...and 2 turkeys. it was so great. At the end of the lesson he took out his camera phone and took pictures of me, and said his fam would go to church that next day. After we were done, he wanted to kill one of the turkeys so we could eat it. it was great. Im not emphasizeding cuz i dont have time,but the poverty here is unbelievable, and yet everyone is really really happy.The kids I can tell will be my favorite part of this. They are so cute - unbelieveably. Later we did contacts and I got to teach the first lesson in spansih for the first time. And it was a real person, I was terrified and said three sentences. Thats actually what happened all day. But this guys name was Juan and he said he would pray about the restoration. I have 6 minso I gotta wrap this up. This place is awesome, im totally going to be able to do this for 2 years. ok, now to questions.

didnt play football, it was only americans and I had to do my laundry.

my comp... he bugs me a bit cuz he's pretty pushy and controlling and Idon't have enough spanish to say anything to him.

my shedule is pretty normal, just like utah basically.

I cant print emails so its a bit crazy, but keep sending them I'll figure out how to type faster. 25 gringos are going to santa cruz and all the latins that are going come in a week and a half .

valynn- I got your letter, I wish I could swim with the kids right now. no diareah yet, the yogurt is saving my life here, I eat it every day, thef oods pretty good actually...well most of the time. Thats crazy about the bomb, haha!

Tell vince its totally cool about not writing, I cant really write him whileIm here either. ok 3 min. Ummm idk. tell everybody hey, make sure you find out when martin gets his call and where, try and get beau and austins emails to me. idk about the voice recorder thing, ill figure it out later, tell me more about it, the computers here are really slow. I need a few more pairs of socks. like two pairs of whites and twoblacks.especially when Im in the field. Im getting close to halfway done here! love you guys!

bye, bye,

mike

ps wheres the cord. did it get sent? bye bye

7-23-2008 letter

2008-07-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

DATE: JULY 20, 2008
AREA: PERU MTC
COMPANION: ELDER CLAMENTE

We received a letter from Mike!

Dear family,

Ok, so this letter isn't going to get to you guys for about two weeks and I get to e-mail in two days, so I really don't know what to write. Elder Clamente and I are in the chapel because he want to play the piano. I think there is something wrong with my Spanish, because when I asked him how long he's been playing, he says, "dos anos, quince minutos cada dia." That means "everyday for two years he practices for 15 minutes." But that's gotta be wrong cuz he's amazing. Having a Latino comp. is really helping my Spanish already, but I need to work harder because we proselyte every Saturday all day. Yesterday we practice taught some Peruvian members and I had absolutely no idea what any of them were saying.

Tuesday morning is P-day and we get to go to Lima temple. Some of the native elders have not had the chance to be endowed yet and we had a class about temples. They are all so excited to go. During the closing song, Elder Chaca (sounds like "chalk" with an "a") started crying in front of us...broke my heart. Elder Chaca is my favorite, me always yells out "WILSON" like from Castaway. He's just a character!

Since my comp. is one of the elders that isn't endowed, I get to be his escort which should be neat, but I think our session will be in Spanish, which will be tough.

Peru is pretty cool. The food is getting better, we had fried chicken today. The bread here is just amazing. I don't know how to describe it, but it's like nothing I've had in the US. I really like the weather. It's a lot like the Oregon Coast except for the nasty dogs everywhere.

I gotta run.

Love, Mike