Jan 20

Well this week I had to say goodbye to Elder Franco and now I´m with elder Villarreal from Panama. He´s a great missionary who already has 18 months of experience. I was a little disappointed because I wanted to train but oh well, I know that with Elder Villarreal we will have a lot of sucess here. It will be a little interesting becuase he already told me that since he has more experience we are always just going to do what he says but I decided I´m just going to let him do his thing and try to learn from all the strengths he has. 

Brooke and Sam, that was great to hear that your child will be a girl, that is awesome! Also I hope that all the rest of you had a good time celebrating all the birthdays. I´m super happy to hear that you bought an elliptical machine. I lost 60 pounds on one of those before the mission.

Im super happy that I´m still here in Ciudadela. The ward is awesome and the members love us as missionaries so much. We have really been improving on the way that we work with members and have been having good results. The members all know who the investigators are and they go out of their way to say hi in church and sometimes even to visit their houses. There is a rule from the first presidency that the missionaries stay in an area more or less for 6-8 months. I would love to stay for that long here. But I´m also upset that I got sent here so early in the mission, since now every other ward I have will be a little more challenging.

Well not a lot happened this week what with my last companion going home and my new companion getting to know the area, but we have a lot of people progressing and I think we will be having a lot of baptisms in the near future. I love you all and I hope you are all doing great!

Elder Wilson

Jan 13

 Eva at her baptism

A lunch some members gave us to say goodbye to my companion. Also right now we are headed over to Evas pizza store for one last pizza she wanted to give him. With the holidays and my companion leaving, I think Ive gained some of the weight I lost.

This week was really great. There were a lot of really small moments in which I was able to feel a lot of The Lords love and my own, for the people and for this work. One of them was of course Eva Ruiz at her baptism. After the service she shared her testimony and it was awesome. She talked about how much she loved us and was grateful that we had helped her to find the answers she was looking for in her life. It was a great experience and helped me feel even more grateful for the trust that the Lord gave me when he called me to this work.

Something funny happened which was that I accidentally said in a letter to the mission president that my mom died a few weeks ago. I was talking about Maria and that I understand her situation because I lived the same a few YEARS ago. So I got surprised when I got a phone call from the mission president asking me about my moms death a few weeks ago. But in the end we just laughed about it. I really love President Searle. Hes been great for the mission. He shows missionaries how to trust in each other and how to love. Also he raised the monthly typical number of baptisms from about 80 to over 100. Its awesome. Plus as an area the instruction we are living in the mission is to spend more time with the members, but we are still baptising more.

Elder Franco goes tomorrow. Transfers are on Wednesday. Im excited to  see what happens but Im sure I stay here in Ciudadela. I hope so. I love this ward a lot. The members love the missionaries and we are making a lot of progress.

We have been teaching an investigator named Perdo this week. His story is awesome, like it belongs in the Liahona or something. He works in a prison and was praying one night to receive guidance. A while before that his girlfriend, now wife, talked to him about the Book of Mormon, and he was praying to know if he should read it or not. So he was praying and walking in the deserted part of the prison when he saw the book on the ground covered in poop. He picked it up and cleaned it off, and now hes going to be baptized the 16th of February.

Love you all,

Elder Wilson

Jan 6

This week was awesome. First off, we had 9 investigators come to church which for me is unheard of and a huge miracle. I felt so glad to be able to see all those people right where they needed to be. Equally awesome was that we saw 4 less active members that we´ve been working with come to church. I love seeing them come becuase I know some of the challenges that they are going through and I love being able to see them turn to the gospel for help. We are teaching an investigator named Maria that I just realized I wrote about last week. She´s the one where her husband died super recently. It has been great to see her feel some of the peace that comes from the gospel. She still hasn´t accepted a baptismal date but she has come a few times to church and I´m sure that the Spirit will keep working with her until she does.

Eva Ruiz is all set for her baptism this Sunday. She is the owner of a pizza store and sometimes when we visit her we have to go to the business and she gives us a free pizza. She told us once that she feels horrible because of the Sabbath Day. She makes the most money on that day and she can come to church each week but she can´t close her store Sundays. We talked to the mission president and he said it was all okay. But it was cool to see that she herself wanted to find out how she can best keep that commandment. The relief society president said that she participates well in the ward classes and that she is rock solid. But still please pray for her.

I was able to see a lot of hte tender mercies of the Lord thjis week. First off, one night we were visiting a member in their house to share a message. The area presidency tells us that we naad to visit the members very often to share a message and leave come commitment. Well anyways after the lesson the member just mentioned that everyone hopes that the missionaries will pass by their house and share a quick message. Just that simple phrase made me feel so happy and blessed to be able to participate in this work.

Second, we had the best turn out ever I think as a ward this week. Usually there are like 140 people, but this week there were 197. I think it might be because of the new year but either way 197 people were able to take the sacrament and renew their covenants with the Lord. I´m praying that all those people will keep coming to church and keep feeling the Spirit´s joy. It was so full in the chapel that we ran out of chairs.

My companion only has one week left but he keeps on being very diligent and hard working. I´ve been able to learn a lot from him and I´m super glad for his example. I love you all and I hope you have a great new year!

Dec 16

Sorry I´ve taken so long to get the Skype plans. I had to call the mission president this morning to ask him about it. He authorized me to use a computer from a member´s house. So I´m going to try for Christmas day in the morning. We have the whole week but I think that Christmas day would be the best. I´ll confirm the details next week. Also my companion was wondering if he can use your account too to call his family? I also don´t know the time difference between here and there.

This week was really great. We´ve been really concentrating on the less active members, and it has really been a joyful experience to see some of them return to the church and to see the difference in them and in their family. I love teaching the less active members because they´re always great people tht just need some help coming back. I loved president Monson´s message in the Liahona recently called to the rescue. It´s all true. Work with less actives there too.

We are teaching a lady named Karen. She is the daughter of a member couple, and her brother is also member. He got bak from his mission a year ago or so. She is progressing really well with the help of her family. She´s going to get baptized on the 28th of this month and has really shown the desire to do so. But she has her interview this Thursday and we still have a lot of eaching to do. She gets back from work every day at 8:30 at night, so teaching her has been a real challenge with the rule to be home at 9. But She can be ready. We assigned her brother to do some of the teaching.

I´m going to send photos of another investigator named Yandry. she´s only an 13 year old. She also is great but has some problem keeping the commitments to read the Book of Mormon and attend church becuase she´s out of school and getting a little lazy. but we have some great youth from the ward working with her and talking to her every day. This ward does a great job with helping the investigators.

I´m doing great down here. It feels weird that it´s Christmas time, I think because it´s hotter than ever and we work hard just like always. I´m going to have to send my shirts to a lady to sew them smaller pretty soon. Also the tread of the Rockport shoes is really soft and is wearing out really fast, but there are people here who can put on a new sole for cheap. You get what you pay for there, but I think it will work for a while.

My companion and I get along well. He works hard even though he´s got less than a month left. When Elder Uceda was here his wife talked about things that a mom hopes for her missionary son. She said that they don´t ask that their son has a good companion but that he is a good companion. So I try to do service a lot and really just get along really well.

I love you and hope you have a good week.

Elder Wilson

Dec 9

Soccer today. Note the horrible tanlines on my neck. I guess that´s a missionary classic

Daniel and his family. I don´t know why it looks like I got photoshopped in there. It was an awesome baptism

____________________________

This week was great. I´m sending a lot of pics

Daniel´s baptism was awesome. A lot of members came which is always the goal. Plus a lot of little kids came which I loved because the kids here are the best. We get along really well.

Elder Uceda was also really great. He chewed us out like they always do. I did well on the piano. Something I realized is that the church is really revolutionizing the mission system. Learn more on the church website about pressuring the work. They call it now the work of salvation and it´s all about working with members and teaching a lot of less active members. Yesterday not a single investigator came for the first time in months, but a less active member came and it was incredible to see him there. It really does bring a lot of joy.

In transfers I stayed with Elder Franco. It´s his last transfer of the mission so we´re determined to stay strong until the last minute. This week  I also heard about Susana, who got baptized in Los Robles, from the missionaries there. She´s still super strong, and now her son and 3 daughters got baptized. I love this work. 

Children I hear from Krysti that you´re having problems with eating oatmeal. Every morning I eat raw oatmeal in milk. With a lot of chocolate milk mix. So really I can´t blame you if you don´t like it. Haha sorry Krysti I can´t help you.

I love you all and hope you have a great week. Also I hope you watched the Christmas devotional. It was great as usual. How are you doing with the nonmember family that you invited to church? Do you still talk to them?

Love,

Elder Wilson

Dec 2

Christmas here is a huge deal. Everyone repaints their house a new color, decorates the streets super nice, and works like a maniac to have extra cash for the parties and whatnot. it makes it hard to find people. The put me as the snowman for my size

Hello family!

Sorry but I dont have the Skype plans yet. I guess in this mission they give us a week to do it because the internet cafes fill up so much. I asked president today in my weekly letter what the schedule is exactly and if he would let me do it in a members house.

This week Elder Uceda, the Area President, is coming to our mission. We are all super excited. Except they assigned me to play the piano so now I have to pick out some hymns and practice. I had to play for the fireside with Pte Searle the other week and I realized that so long without playing has really taken a toll on my skills. I hope I can play well, pray for me!

We have transfers again this week. I really cant predict what will happen. Its 50 50 that my companion goes, so I really cant say. This tranfer has been way tough. We have worked and worked and worked without seeing hardly any results. By the way we walked about 50 miles this last week. But Im not sure how accurate the pacemarker is, I think we walked more. But the point is that at last the Lord seems to be blessing us with results. We got a reference from a member this week who asked us about baptism before we could ask her, and she seems way excited about it. Daniel is getting baptized this Saturday. We were able to find a lot of new investigators this week, and a lot are progressing. So its really great to see that the Lord was trying our faith and pacience, but now is blessing us with some results. Actually I think that my whole mission has been a huge trial of faith because my companion told me it was the hardest transfer of his mission but I thought it was normal based on my past.

I bet its super snowy there by now, and Im jealous. Its hotter than ever here.

Im going to have to cut this letter a little bit short this week because I want to send pics and sometimes it takes a while to upload them. But I love you, and hope you all had the greatest Thanksgiving ever. I forgot it was thanksgiving until I was lying in bed Thursdaynight. But I still fell asleep right away. I dont think that in the entire mission its taken me more than 3 minutes to sleep any given night.

Love,

Elder Wilson

Nov 25

 Here we are after the game. I get a little sweaty running in Barranquilla. Actually I get sweaty sleeping here. By chance the young man in front on the right in black is Emanuel, the guy I did divisions with.

Daniel is a kid 10 years old that we are teaching to baptize. Hes great and has always come to church. Hes the kid right behind my companion

Well this week was very difficult because of various things that happened each day that robbed us of proselyting time. Sorry I don't know how to spell that. But the good thing that happened was the fireside with president. Not a single investigator came, but I was able to feel and see your prayers when around 15 nonmembers came with their member friends. I have never seen that level of effort from the members to invite and bring friends, so it was great and inspiring to see it this time. The bad thing that happened was that my companion has had a lot of back pain, and the doctor gave him 3 days of staying in the house. And that same day I got another fever. Thats 2 fevers in about 1 month. But Im better now.

A great experience I had this week was being able to do divisions with a ward missionary for a day. He is 18 years old and is waiting for his mission call. He's only been in the church for about a year. So it was cool to watch him teach and testify about the plan of salvation and the atonement. It was also really cool to see how God helped me to make up for not working with a really experienced missionary and working with a basically recent convert. I felt a difference in my ability to teach and contact, because I really wanted to make him contact, that came from the Lord.

Sorry but I really don't have a lot of time today. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!!