transferred!

I got transfered! I´m in an area called Cuidadela. It was a super far transfer; Cuidadela borders my last ward. My new companion is from Uruguay and his name is Elder Franco. He was looking through my pictures and he saw one of Covey in a Peñarol jersey and he got very excited about that. He keeps a Uruguay flag in the house hanging there. He´s a super great missionary with a lot of experience. He only has like 3 transfers left counting this one. The cool thing about him is that his strengths are almost exactly my weaknesses. He´s super bold and really good at managing the time. I´m really excited to be able to learn from him in our time as companions. I took some pics but I´ll have to send them next week since te computer isn´t uploading them right.

The ward is great. They love the missionaries and have had a baptism almost every week. I hope to keep that going; it´s a good tradition. But right now we don´t have anyone progressing. I´m sad in a way about my last area. My companion and I both got transfered out. So I know that it doens´t matter how good the new missionaries are, some people will get lost. For example the other day we passed some lady in the street crying and we talked to her and we were going to come back but neither of us knew the address, so she´ll get lost for sure. There was supposed to be a baptism yesterday but it didn´t happen. I know it wasn´t for anything the new missionaries did wrong, I´m just sad I wasn´t there to try to help it.

Today I played soccer for the first time in my life against a bunch of latinos. I´m sure you can imagine how I did remembering my athletic past and my lack of experience. But it was super fun. I left covered in sweat because we´re on the coast of Colombia playing soccer. I almost scored this one goal that was going to be sweet but then I didn´t and that was the best part I think.I´m going to show everyone up next week.

I really have lost a lot of weight here. Unlike the last house this one has a mirror and when I saw it I was very surprised. I look uglier because when fat people loose weight fast it´s gross. But I´m also in perfect condition now to build muscle. I just don´t have any weights or bands or anything, Tips?

Well I don´t have a lot more to say. Just that I´ve walked 40 miles in my 5 days in this area. I´m still struggling to learn the names of the people here. And I haven´t been eating dinner since I´m fresh out of money. But don´t worry I know how bad that is and we already set up a dinner contract. We´re just waiting for the cash to arrive.

Love you all!

Elder Wilson

This week was very good. We've been finding a lot of new investigators, which for us is a slow but rewarding process. I use being a white guy to my advantage. The other day some child yelled to us from in a tree that we should go visit this house right there. I think it was a reference from God but we ignored it. But yesterday we went to the house and I yelled in (we don't knock doors much, you just yell because the windows and doors are always open) and the lady pulled chairs outside for us before we said anything. We asked why and she said it was because she likes the way gringos talk hahaha. But turns out she seemed to like the message too. People here really have a good time with gringos. For example we had stake conference with Elder Camargo of the 70. He likes to joke about gringos a lot, it was hilarious. He wanted me to read a scripture and he yelled at me "hey gringo! read!" and then he was like "oh I mean Elder. The mission president will kill me." It was hilarious. Plus he said even the gringos have hope of the resurrection. He was also messing with the gringos when he visited us in the CCM. He's a great guy, very spiritually powerful.

The downside of this week is that it was blazing hot. Even hotter than usual. The thing was that is was really sunny. I'd be okay but it really efects the missionary work. It's so hot that all the street vendors and such just sit there. I think the missionaries are the only ones that work in these times. But we walk slower I noticed, and when we get to a lesson it is soooo hard to stay awake for being so tired and so hot. But we're looking into a house that comes with AC so that will be a huge blessing if it works out.

We're having changes this week. Cambios. I don't know what they're called in English. But I think my companion goes and I stay. We'll see what happens. I'm excited and nervous. The problem is that your companion becomes your friend and then transfers and done. I think they're called transfers in English.

We've been thinking really hard about what we can do to get more investigators and use our brains to our advantage in the mission. We'd kind of fallen into the trap of always doing the same. But this week we're going to start English and Bible classes. It's going to be great. Or if we don't start this week it will be this month. We haven't been able to have ward council lately so we'll have to do that first. Elder Camargo told us that as missionaries we need to baptize every week. The standard here is very high. I just pray for God's help to meet it. Please pray for the same thing. That I can get a baptism every week to obey the council of the Lord's servants. I love you and hope you're all doing great.

Love,

Elder Wilson

susana's baptism

susana and part of her family and her neighbor and the guy from the ward that did the baptism

Well this week was really great. Obviously the best part was Susana and Victoria's baptism. It was so great to see them take that step. It was really hard for Susana because of her arm, but she did it anyways. I love her example of faith. I  think I'm always going to remember this experience because of the was it shows the power of the gospel in people's lives. In the first place she called us. That was a miracle. Then she got baptized even though she had a broken arm and it was very painful for her. But she never complained about it. It was actually cool to see a baptism where the person didn't get fully wet and there were 2 guys in the water to help her. Awesome first baptism.

Benedicta and Hernando didn't arrive at their baptism this week. They have 2 main doubts. One is that it's really fast, and their family has been saying stuff to them about how they should take their time. The other is that Benedicta thinks that Hernando might mess up again after his baptism with the Word of Wisdom. So we're really going to work hard with them to get baptized the 26th of this month. They keep saying they'll do it then. The good thing is that the ward members really want to help and so they all are going to do visits. That will be really great for them to feel that support.

Joyce and Derwin have been struggling with their commitments. We were going to stop teaching them again but they came to church this week. They read the Book of Mormon together every day, and Derwin told us that he's secretly saved up enough money to take out their papers for marriage. So they just need to actually do it, and also save up money for the actual marriage.

The watrd members have been making great progress. It's like a speeling giant that just woke up. They're moving really slowly, but at least they're thinking and talking about references now. And they're working on doing their home teaching, especially to the new members. It's really scary to turn new members over to the ward when they don't visit them at all.

I love you guys, and I pray for you. Let me know if you have a problem or a doubt that I can help you with.

Love,

Elder Wilson

weekly letter

First off, I got the package this week. Thanks! It was really cool to get. My favorite part is the photos of the family. I show them to the investigators and members all the time. Also the suckers are very good.

This week was great because of the conference. I loved all the talks about missionary work. They really helped me out with some questions I have. Sometimes I don't do a very good job with talking to everybody because I feel worried about getting to an appointment on time. so I really liked in President Eyring's talk in Priesthood when he talked about the Good Samiritan. I had never thought about it that way, so it was good to be able to learn from the Bible in new ways that directly answer questions. It looks like I should forego arriving on time to help more people.

Krysti - in terms of eating right, I eat the same thing every day so I can let you know. For breakfast I eat oats in milk and sometimes yogurt or a fruit. The oats I eat are like oatmeal but hard, so I eat with a spoon. I also mix in chocolate milk mix so it tastes delicious. For lunch, it's whatever the members give us, but really it's just always rice, beans, meat, and sometimes a delicious sancocho soup. For dinner, it's sandwiches or pasta. So I think I eat very well actually. no sweets because the sweets aren't very good.

I'm pretty sad because Joyce and Derwin haven't come to church a few weeks in a row, so this week we're going to stop teaching them. I hope they come next week so we can pick up where we leave off. They've been working so hard to make changes in their life, but they aren't obeying in certain things. That is easily the hardest part of being a missionary. When you love people but they don't choose the path that brings the most happiness because of some trials along the way. But really that's not just investigators. Think how many times each of you have chosen the easy path over the correct path. The good news is that everyone can repent and come back to Christ and receive happiness (Alma 36).

We have the goal of 4 baptisms this Saturday. Pray for Susana, victoria, Benedicta, y Hernando. Two of them already did their interview so we're just going to work to make sure that nothing too bad happens this week.

Love,

Elder Wilson

 these guys are everywhere down here. This one was trying to get sneaky on me during personal study.

me with hand sanitizer burning on my hand. Probably not the best companionship study, but pretty fun.

Dear family,

This week was great. I realized that I had subconsciously lowered my vision of what was really possible. What happened was we did an intercambio (I don't know what that means in English, we traded companions for a day) and Elder Henriquez and I taught 7 lessons in one day which is a world record I think. But the thing is it just felt normal that day, and it helped me realize that great things are possible.

This week was hotter than heck again, but it started raining again the other day. Last night I thought it was the end of the world it was raining so hard and it was super windy. It was really cool.

I'm super excited for conference this weekend. Seriously I can't wait. Being on the mission really helps a man get excited to listen to the prophet. We have plans to use conference to contact this week, we'll see how that goes.  I am so excited to hear what the living prophet has to say to us about God's will. I know Thomas S Monson is the prophet. I also really love the video about him On the Lord's Errand. It's the best.

I'm glad that you've been studying the Old Testament as a family. There are a lot of great insights that you can learn from it if you take your time and study prayerfully. I recommend also using the institute manuals to help you see the symbolism. I have been finding a lot of stories there that help with my investigators. I've also been studying a lot out of the New Testament to learn how the Master taught and how He loved people.

We have a goal of 9 baptisms for October 12th, and I believe we can reach that goal. We have some investigators ready for this weekend but since it's conference it doesn't happen. The investigators are really working hard in spite of all the opposition that they face. And it's been interesting to see how the Lord takes the little they offer and turns it into something great. I think that's the true meaning of the miracle of the fish and the loaves. We have nothing to offer, but he can take what we have and make it sufficient for His divine needs.

We talked to president, and it looks like Susana can be baptized with a bag on her arm. Joyce and Derwin still don't have money but are moving forward with faith.  Benedicta y Hernando are doing great with the Word of wisdom even thought tey both were coffee addicts. Benedicta stopped completely the day we taught it, and Hernando has gone like 6 days without drinking coffee. The Familia Nuñez are working on reading more often, but they have a desire to learn more. They come to church every week even when it's so blazing hot. WE've been finding new investigators but they haven't been progressing as much, so we're working on being more bold to find those that truly have a desire to learn.

Love,

Elder Wilson