April 27

This week has been really great, My new companion, Elder Selman, is awesome. He's from Tremonton, Utah, and has only been in the mission for about 8 months. But he has a ton of energy to work and loves to learn more about the zone and being a missionary, and I know he'll help me keep working hard until the end. The only bad part is that he likes to ask me questions about my home and my plans for after the mission and trunky stuff like that. But we already get along great. It's weird for any gringo to have another North American companion, but he's my 3rd.

This week was really spiritual. We were working in a remote area called Villa Sol, if you want to look it up it's carrera 3 with calle 6 in Soledad, more or less, but I doubt you'll find that address on a map. Anyways we were walking and we saw a family sitting outside their house and we stopped to talk to them. Turns out they're super interested in the message. I guess they have some problems in their house and they have a lot of faith that the message can help. So much faith that the mom walked all the way from her house to the church, which is ridiculously far away, carrying her baby the first sunday after we taught her. I really want to prepare a family to get baptized before I go and I really hope that this is the one. It's just so very hard to get the families here to progress but I know that God will help. Something I've seen here is that it's really common for the mom of a family to get baptized first, then her husband years later according to the Lord's time.

Another cool experience is with Beatriz and Raul. We decided to invite them to fast this week so that their papers could all be ready for them to get married. They did a fast for the first time ever and on Sunday Raul went to church even though he had work that day. They were calling him to go in but he just didn't go. The best blessing of fasting is the spiritual strength we aquire when we realize that our spirit is stronger than our flesh. We also fasted with Alex, a member who is becoming active again but they offered him a job in another town where the church hasn't quite got there yet and he has to work Sundays. It was really great.

Well love you all, have a great week!

Elder Wilson

April 20

Well transfers just got here and I guess that I'll be finishing my mission here in Soledad 2000, but with a new companion. I get to train a new zone leader again right before I go, which should help me stay strong until the end.

As far as my area goes, there's really not much to say. We've had a lot of success with less-active members, and a lot of them are attending church regularly now, even sometimes when we can't visit them.

We still don't have a ward mission leader, but the stake is really starting to get involved with this ward to help them get one, so that should really help them get a little more active in their work. 

We have a couple with plans to get married on May 15th, but here it is a nightmare to get people married. They need certain records that they can only get in the city where they were born, and both live far away from their birthplace. They each found some records that a family member sent them but I saw them and I realized that they were the wrong records, and they'll have to try to get them again. We really need your prayers so that they can get all their papers that they'll need.

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Wilson

April 13

A convert took a picture of us teaching him a lesson. Here it is.

 Last leadership council with the assistants and zone leaders of the mission

April 6

I absolutely loved general conference this week. I felt very strongly the Spirit and I confirmed my testimony that this church is true, that Thomas S Monson is a prophet, and that each of the 12 apostles has keys to receive revelation for the church.

We had a less active member assist the saturday morning session, where they talked a ton about marriage and family. He has been living with a woman for a long time and doesn't want to get married yet. We are sure that the Spirit of the session will have touched his heart.

There is also an investigator who has attended church for forever and has never wanted to get baptized. He listened to 2 sessions of conference and told us when we met with him after that he decided that now was the time for him to get baptized.

I had been praying and looking for the answer to know how to leave this area stronger than I foud it, because it has been really hard to get investigators to go to church. We have had a ton of progress with less actives since I got here, but few results with investigators. I felt an answer to my prayers as the apostles and seventy talked about the importance of family, the power of testimony, and the sweet music of the Spirit. I know that as I put their council in practice I'll be able to baptize in this ward before I have to head back.

I was able to watch all sessions of conference live in a small room in the stake center in English, in a small screen. Whenever they started to speak in Spanish, we'd run over to the chapel to see it in Spanish, and then we'd run back over to the English room to keep listening in English. I was sad to not be able to hear Elder Scott speak, do any of you know if he's sick or something?

Well I love you and hope you have a great week!

Elder Wilson