February 16, 2015

Yes! It would be so awesome if you guys came to Peru. It actually made me think a lot this week about how awesome it would be to revisit areas and the wards that I’ve served in. I would be honored if you came to pick me up. I was so excited when you asked! But, if it creates a problem to do it, then I would rather have my family good and secure at home. What the Lord wills.

My companion is great. I’m training him and at first I did a lot of correcting. There are a lot of changes to be made from a young man to a missionary. So, I got into an attitude of correcting for a while, and I was not happy with him. I felt this responsibility to always be right and have him do things the way he was supposed to. It got to me, and I finally realized that I needed to laugh and have more fun with him. It has changed our relationship and now we have more fun together, but, we still do things right!

Also, we had another baptism this week. It was so amazing! This is what I wrote to President, we’ll see if it applies well enough for you guys: We had our baptism of Alejandro. He is an amazing person and so converted to the Gospel. He had a really special experience this week. On Thursday morning his brother came over to his house. His brother is an Evangelico. He came over with the intentions to get him to deny the faith and turn away from making the decision to get baptized. The brother was reading him verses from the Bible, trying to convince him of the mistake that he would be making. But, Alejandro said to him, `Brother, when you read me things from that book (the Bible) I don’t feel anything. But, when I read from this book (The Book of Mormon) I feel so good. I have changed my life in these past couple weeks thanks to this book. Now this is MY decision.´ (close quote) Honestly, I was so stricken by what had happened. And as lucky as it was, we were doing service for his sister, who is a member, that very morning. We returned later to Alejandro and his brother was still there. When his brother had left, Alejandro told us what had happened. He got really emotional telling us about it and I felt the power of his testimony. He bore firm belief that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that it was the power of the Book of Mormon that converted this man. He was already prepared to receive the Gospel when we taught him the first lesson. He had already decided that he wanted to change his life. We were just there with the message, he accepted so willingly, and then converted himself with the resources that he had. This again strengthened my testimony of the power and the desire that Satan has to sift us as wheat, as he wanted to do with Peter. I know that Satan is aware of the power of the Restoration of the Gospel, and we literally are here battling against him, to keep the work of the Lord moving forward. With only 2 days left until his baptism, Alejandro was tempted by his own family. He withstood, thanks to his personal conversion and the Book of Mormon especially. He passed his interview just fine, and told us that he thought of the interview as a test that he had been studying for. It was funny. Then we had his baptism on Saturday. He had lots of support from the ward. He said that now he just wants to be received straight into heaven. But, he has the goal to go to the temple next month with his sister. He is so prepared and such an amazing man. Anyway, everything went really well with him, after the trial of his faith. Of course, we are going to be right there with him, teaching and reinforcing his testimony in every way that we can.

Also, there was a woman that we have been teaching this past week. We’ve taught her 3 times of the restoration, and she hasn’t remembered anything. She has some problems with her memory. So, after getting a little frustrated with that, I had an impression to draw examples to explain the lesson. She understood and remembered perfectly! It was amazing and we finally found out how to teach her! I was so happy and relieved. Now she can progress to her baptismal date of the 14 of March. Also, I gave a blessing of health to the bishop and the next day he was healed of all pain. Testimony of the priesthood power!

Much love here from Peru for all you guys!

Elder Wilson

 Baptism Feb. 14, 2015

(note from Samantha: some pictures these missionaries send me are weird, and won't rotate. They're rotated correctly on my computer, and even on blogger as I'm uploading the, but as soon as the picture gets posted, it turns back. It's weird.)

Plaza by Stake Center