June 13, 2016

Well, this week was good with the visit from Elder Rasband. It’s made me do some thinking about my mission. I feel happy with the mission that I’ve had. I’m happy also with the thoughts that Elder Rasband gave about the efforts that we are putting into the work of the Lord. I love the idea that every effort that we make as missionaries, the results will not be seen until much later. I’m excited to be able to see the progress of my converts many years down the road. I love that I have the opportunity to bless generations. I want to be able to bless these people for generations, or in other words, I want my efforts to be able to contribute to the blessings that they will receive from God as they continue faithfully. Those have been my thoughts and desires lately. 

We were able to see lots of progress from an investigator that we have, Diego. He’s 15, and he really wants to feel loved in his life. He’s looking to feel the love of God. He asks a ton of questions, but he’s really willing to learn and find the answers. It’s been great teaching him this past week. We had the bishop accompany us to the lesson. The bishop helped him a lot, and brought him to seminary on Monday. The bishop also told us that Diego is one of his goals with the new Area Plan. He is gonna help Diego a lot as he learns about the gospel. 

It’s been a great week of learning, and I’m excited to continue to apply what I have learned from the meetings this week. Also, on Saturday in our Zone Council, Elder Peña and I gave a “taller” on asking questions. It was awesome! I felt the Spirit strongly during it, and I love that we could be guided during the “taller”. It was great.

This week was great and I felt the spirit so strongly listening to the words of Elder Rasband. We all shook his hand. It was sweet! I’m doing all that I can to continue to work hard. I’m not trunky. I’m concentrated, and in fact I believe that I’m working harder this transfer than the last one! Love you so much. I wanna thank you for your words of encouragement that you always give me. I feel your love and excitement…just the right amount. Don’t worry about that. I love my family. Let them know that! How’s dad doing btw? What’s the update on that? 

Loves!!

Pics: We did service in a member’s house who is in a wheelchair. The rooves of the people’s houses here aren’t EVER shingled. It’s just like metal or plastic sheets that they constantly have to shift, rearrange, or replace. Due to the fact that he’s in a wheelchair and doesn’t have much money either, we helped him out. We fixed the roof just moving the sheets and covering small holes in the plastic with cardboard pieces. There was a cool light effect that we had found. We started taking some awesome pics. It was sweet! The Bart Simpson was in a moto-taxi that we took that my comp thought was just the bees knees that day. The last pic of me and 3 missionaries is the only pic that I have of me and my 3 kids! I was so darn happy to get that pic. It was the ABSOLUTE ONLY chance that I ever would have had to get a pic like that. We had a meeting with Elder Rasband in Lima on Thursday, and the whole mission got together. Giving me the only opportunity in my whole mission to get that pic, and I got it. It made me so happy, and so proud of my children!

Cordialmente,

Elder Wilson

Misión Perú Lima Sur

June 6, 2016

I’m giving it my all this last transfer and I’m gonna finish strong. Yesterday I finally opened the last letter that I had from those specialized letters I got in my Christmas package. It was the last one that said “open when you’re getting ready to come home”. It was from Samantha and it was a great letter! I really liked it a lot. It spoke how important it is to not leave with regrets, but to serve as hard as possible. I’m so grateful for this learning experience that the Lord has given me. It’s pretty much been my crash course of the gospel and life with all the things that I have learned and the skills that I have developed. I’m eternally grateful for this wonderful time that I have been serving the Lord and his children here in Peru.

I am working as hard as I can in my area and not leave with regrets. I want to leave my area in a better condition than the way we found it. I feel like the Lord has blessed us a lot lately in our area because we are working with about 5 families that are really interested in the message of the Gospel. It’s been amazing to see how the Lord has been preparing them with the desire to learn more. A small experience that I had this week was in a baptismal interview that I did this last Saturday. I interviewed a young 18 year old man named Carlos. He has been so prepared for the gospel, and his process of getting to know the Gospel was great too. The most impactful for me was the Spirit that I felt at the end of the interview, it was so strong. I just felt so grateful to be able to know him and evaluate his readiness to be baptized. It was a very spiritual experience that almost brought me to tears. It was a tender mercy from the Lord that I desired to have, and I’m grateful that the Lord did answer my prayer that day. Carlos is now going to get baptized this weekend, which makes me so excited.

As far as our area goes, we are working hard with the families that we have. We have many people that are very likely to accept baptismal dates this week, if all works out.

I will continue to work hard and give it my all this last transfer. To show to the Lord that I can be trusted with any task He sees fit to give me. I love this work, and I love the Lord enough to dedicate this remaining time to Him.

This week we have a visit from Elder Rasband on Thursday in Lima. I’m really excited for that. It’s good to hear that Dad is recovering. I hope that all continues to go well with him. Give him all my love in the world!

I’m so grateful for all the attention that you have given me. I’m so far away. We haven’t seen each other in so long, but I feel your love every time that I read one of your letters. Thanks so much for all your efforts in keeping me updated on the family and all that’s going on. THANK YOU!!!

Cordialmente,

Elder Wilson

They’ve been installing water meters in the area where we are living. Up until now, we only have running water from 6am until about 8am. The rest of the day if we want to, we have to use a huge bucket of water to shower or to wash. They’ve been breaking up the sidewalks and putting installations for water so that it can come all day. We made the best of the wet cement and engraved ourselves there so that we will never be forgotten! Also, chicken hearts! Delicious! I got the last pic just barely walking by a store that has my name! Enjoy!

May 23, 2016

I keep praying that Dad can recover and that all can be well with him. Please let him feel my love and know that I am always hoping and praying that he can be doing better. 

This week was a really good week. We’ve been using lists of members that aren’t signed up in seminary and institute, young men that haven’t advanced in the priesthood yet, and many other lists that we asked for from our ward secretary. With those lists, we have found many people that didn’t want to know anything about the church, many people had moved, and other houses that just never answered the door. After going for the fifth time to a house that hadn’t answered before, a little boy answered and told us that the kid we were looking for lived around the corner. We then found the 18 year old we were looking for, Jorge. Turns out that he got baptized 2 years ago and now has a child with his partner, Gabriela. We started teaching them and they told us how they are recently getting back together after a fight they had. The terms of getting back together is that they devote themselves to God more and that they start attending a church. Jorge is a member, but Gabriela isn’t…yet. We taught them later with the Bishop, who is a good friend and neighbor of Jorge. They went to church on Sunday. They are excited to get married and baptized. They’re a really young family. They both are 18 years old. It was amazing to hear how just 2 weeks earlier they had decided to get closer to God as a family. We taught them the Family Proclamation yesterday, and they loved it. Well, I’m excited to work with them more and to help them on this road to get closer to the Savior and use His Atonement. We also found a less active woman and her partner this week, Catalina and Cesar. She went to church on Sunday, and she will be receiving lots of support from her parents too. We found a sealed family yesterday with the Bishop. It turns out that they just needed a small push so that they could get active again. They committed to going back to church and starting over again. It was a really spiritual appointment, and they felt the need to do the right things in their lives. It was awesome. They took it as a sign from God that the Bishop and us had gone to visit them right when they needed it.

Lots of good things are starting to happen here in our area. We saw great miracles thanks to the new initiative of visiting 50% less actives and 50% Investigators. We are still trying to find more investigators, but thanks to visiting less actives, we were able to find 3 families this week and 4 new investigators. All of those families were miracles. I know it.

Well, I know that your birthday is this coming Sunday. Please know that I hope you have a great birthday. Know that even though I can’t be there to celebrate it with you yet, I wish you the best day and I hope that the family can treat you well and that you can feel everyone’s great love that we have for you. From thousands of miles away, know that I am sending you lots of hugs and lots of love! This Sunday will be our fast Sunday, cuz the coming week, June 5th, is election day here in Peru. Just like they did about 2 months ago, they’re going to have their presidential elections again. To be elected president here you not only need the majority vote, you need to gain 50% or more of the national vote. So, every time one of them doesn’t make it to 50%, they have to vote again. We’re gonna have the second round of elections in 2 Sundays. The elections are always on Sundays. Lame. It’s a law that NOBODY can have meetings or reunions, like churches or businesses, and it’s illegal to sell alcohol as well for like 48 hours. Most people don’t care about that stuff, and they’ll either still sell and buy it anyways, or they will stock up a day or two beforehand. It’s crazy here! Well, that’s the reason that our fast Sunday is getting moved forward.

Mom, I love you so much. I’m so grateful for all your love, your loving words of kindness, and all your help throughout my mission. I now have 7 weeks left and I’m really excited for the end, not gonna lie. I’m excited, but also really desirous to finish strong and not lose focus. I thank you a lot for the letter you sent me a couple weeks ago about sprinting to the end. Thanks for all your wonderful thoughts. They inspire me to keep going. I’m gonna do it! This weekend is transfers. I’ll see if president is gonna transfer me or my companion. It makes me nervous and excited, but I’ll accept whatever happens.

I know that this gospel is true and I’m so grateful for these past (almost) 2 years. They have served me more than any other experience. More than seminary, more than institute, more than the 18 years I had of going to church every Sunday. These past 2 years have been and will be (I hope) the foundation for the rest of my life. I know that it is only upon the rock of my Redeemer that I must build my foundation. I’m so grateful for this chance that I have had to do so. I rise and fall every day, but I also grow closer to my Savior thanks to every experience. The spirit has been my constant companion these past 2 years, and I thank my Lord for that tremendous blessing.

This isn’t my last email, just wanted to share with you my thoughts this morning. Love you mom, know that now and always. Give dad all my love, please, and let him know that care that the Lord is providing him every day. Please help him to see it and especially feel it!

Chaou!

Cordialmente,

Elder Wilson

Misión Perú Lima Sur

May 16, 2016

Don’t even stress about the call. It wasn’t a big deal for me because I was just thinking the whole time that I’ll be seeing you all soon. Whatever it was that we would talk about would just be something more. I loved being able to see you all too, and just talking with you and dad was all I wanted. It was great…all I could have asked for. I love the greatness and the size of my family! It’s not something that I would be upset about seeing in a call home. Thanks for your comforting words!

This week was awesome. We went to an oasis called La Huacachina last P-Day.

I had an awesome interchange with an Elder from St George, Elder Rowley. He’s really humble and desirous to change and improve always. I felt the spirit strongly with him. Our lessons were really guided and I feel like it was the best day I’ve had so far in Ica. It was a great day that really excited me for the rest of the week. We also had a training meeting with President last Friday. That was awesome. We did practices on how to start conversations with others to share the gospel with EVERYONE! It helped me to open my eyes to how rewarding it can be to just talk with someone and be friendly with them even if there’s not much time to "teach" them in the street. It’s awkward doing that anyway, but talking with someone is easy and fun!

My comp, Elder Peña told me last Thursday that this transfer he’s felt the spirit a lot more frequently and more strongly than his first transfer. I know that he didn’t say it to tell me that I’m the best and that no one’s cooler than me. I’m just telling you it cuz I really liked that he is able to recognize the spirit with me. It helps me to know that even if I can’t always rate or measure the success that I have as a trainer, at least my comp is feeling the spirit and feeling the presence and love of god in his life as we go about His work. He doesn’t share many personal things with me about the gospel and his feelings. When he told me that it made me feel good about the work and the efforts that we are making together.

I’m so glad to hear that dad is doing well after his surgery. He sent me an email, which helps me relax a bit. I know that the Lord has been protecting you guys these past 2 years, and I know that He will continue to do so. I love you mom. I love this gospel and I love the answers that the Lord gives me to my questions. I love the comfort that he gives me in my times of most need. I love my family and I love that I will be with you for all eternity! Have a great week. Know that I’m doing well and loving my mission so much!

Cordialmente,

Elder Wilson

Misión Perú Lima Sur

Here’s pics we got when we went to a major tourist destination called La Huacachina. It’s a huge sand dune with an oasis in the middle of nowhere. It’s got its fair share of legends. Some say that years ago you could drink and play in the water, but shortly after more and more people started finding out about this awesome oasis in the middle of nowhere. People started going out on the water and then disappearing, they never came out. It’s believed that there are mermaids that live in the water. Haha. Walking up the dune to get to the top was so sketchy. The ridge was so narrow that I got spooked and was left perfectly frozen. I couldn’t move for about 10 minutes because I had looked over both sides and thought I was gonna fall. It was a scary moment, but I got over it shortly. The view was awesome. There was so much sand that we covered our heads like Arabic people. Sweet. I got a video of me jumping down the dune, but the video is too big to send. Lame.... It was an awesome day! On top of the dune we met some German people that took pics for us. They were nice. They are here for vacations and we shared with them a little bit of what we do and offered them any help we could while they are here in Peru. They mentioned to us that they don’t speak any Spanish. We offered to help them with anything they might need. They were really nice!

Pic of me with the Book of Mormon open…look at the name of the restaurant in the sign. Moroni! Hence, the picture!

May 9, 2016

Well, I’m glad you loved hearing my voice. I’m just sorry that the voice didn’t have much to say. I was really looking forward to the call but I got a little discouraged that I couldn’t really see anyone very good, the quality was really bad. There was so much going on over there that I feel like I couldn’t concentrate, nor did those on the other end have much to say either. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ll be home soon, or cuz we’ve already spoken 3 times before, but it wasn’t my favorite call home.

Despite all that, I loved being able to speak with you guys. I loved that we could just sit and talk for a minute. Mom, I just want and need you to know that I love and appreciate you so much. It doesn’t have to be Mother’s Day for me to express all the love that I feel for you, but, let it be Mother’s Day! I hope you had an amazing day and that you could feel love for you from thousands of miles away. I’m so excited to see you soon and be able to hug you! I remember last year when I did the skype call home. I was in the bishop’s house in my area in San Gabriel, in Lima. I remember that our old mission president, Pres. Douglas, had told us to take a few minutes and just thank our mothers for all they do for us. I regretted not doing that last year better than I could have, but please know that you deserve and currently have, as you ALWAYS will have, all the love that I possess for you!

Don’t worry. I’m still focused here and I’m gonna live every day the best that I can remembering that I’m a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. I just want to leave my area and my comp better than how I found them. Scouts honor! That’s what my goal is.

I feel like I already told you the cool stuff that’s happened to me lately. In Felipe’s baptism on Saturday, as is the Peruvian custom, he showed up an hour late to his own baptism. While we waited I conducted a baptismal interview. That was another great experience. I like doing interviews and being able to talk openly and help other people with past problems and questions that they have. Fun! Well, Felipe is super spiritual and when we asked him who he wanted to baptize him on Saturday he said he would have liked more time to think about it and ask the Lord who HE wants to baptize him. So, for about 25 minutes we were explaining to him that the Lord has already chosen all the men of the church to have the priesthood and now he (Felipe) just needs to pick one of those chosen men. At the end he just said that I could choose for him. So, I chose a man, Felix, who had accompanied us in a lesson with Felipe a couple of days ago. Felix said that it was fine. It was all good from there. After the baptism, Felix was asked to share his feelings and testimony with everyone. In his testimony he said that just the day before his dad had passed away. He and his family were planning for his burial, and that’s when I had called him to ask if he could perform the baptism. Felix, being the amazing man that he is, said yes to the offer. He testified to everyone that he was very happy to have to opportunity to baptize Felipe that day and that it helped him a lot to thank the Lord for the life that he had been given. For me, it was just a great testimony that God knows all of his children. I had no idea about Felix’s dad, but I felt inspired to ask Felix to baptize Felipe. His name just kept coming back to my head, so I called him and he said yes. I know that the Lord is aware of all of us, knows all our dealings, all that happens with us, and that through others he can answer our prayers and grant us our desires. It’s happened to me many times and it happened to brother Felix that day! I love this gospel and I love being part of this marvelous work of the Lord.

That was something cool that happened this week. I love you so much, as I previously stated. Tell dad I love him and tell him that I am praying for him every day that his surgery can go well. I trust in the Lord and I’m confident that all will be well. I know that the Lord has been taking care of my wonderful family while I’ve been here. He won’t stop taking care of us just yet. Loves, hugs and kisses to all…especially those 9 little kids that wouldn’t sit still yesterday!! Hahaha.

Pictures: Baptism of Felipe with Felix. We did a service activity fillings cracks in our pensionists roof with cement that we made. It was super sunny and that was the fnished results when we got done. Also, we ate a typical sweet food, like sugary sweet, called masa morra. It was especially espesa (thick)! It reminded me of slime from Ghostbusters. There’s a Disney channel movie called Million Dollar Cook off (I think) and it also really looked like what that kid made. That’s the reason for the pic.

May 2, 2016

Mother’s Day is almost here. I’m really excited for it. My last skype call from Peru. I don’t plan on turning on the water works or anything. I know that it’ll be great to see everyone. Sam told me that she wasn’t sure if they would make it down to the house for the skype call. Please try and convince them to come down. I know that it’s possible to do some sort of three way skype call, but it’s not the same. Just please try and convince them to not be bums and come down, for you and for ME! Our church ends at 1:30 pm here. I could call you at like 3:30 pm Peru time. I will have 40 minutes for skype and this Friday I will make the pre-phone call to set up everything exactly. Be waiting for that call on Friday too.

We have a man that is going to get baptized this weekend, Felipe Gonzales. Last Monday when we were teaching him about temple work and baptisms for the dead and the vicarious work, he was having a hard time understanding it and believing it more than anything. So when we were going to finish the lesson, because of his doubts he wasn’t sharing with us, he just said “yes” on the outside. When we were kneeling down to finish with a prayer and as he started to kneel down, he got a bad leg cramp. He is a really spiritual person who is really close to God. He understands that whenever he gets a cramp like that he takes it as a sign from God that he’s not ok with something. So, he explained that to us and he said that he was going to pray and find out what the problem was. Later in the week when we got together again, he told us that he had received a revelation from God saying that he wasn’t worthy to kneel down and pray with us. He said the Lord had told him that because of his doubt and unbelief in what we had told him about baptisms for the dead. God gave him that cramp to tell him that he was wrong on that. When he explained that to us, it let me know that God is aware of all of us, of all our questions and problems. I know that the Lord is preparing this man, Felipe, so that he can be fully ready for baptism. I know that the Lord was with us that day, and that he answers all our prayers. That was a miracle that I wanted to share that happened this week. Interesting but really cool!

This week was lots of getting to know the area still. Every day we meet new people and find new things here. Thanks so much for the letter that you sent me. I love the words of encouragement. I’ll be honest, it’s been on my mind way too much. I realize it and I don’t want to be thinking every other minute of how much time I have left in the mission. It bugs me. To be able to focus and give it my all, that’s my plan. Thanks so much for the nice words of advice.

I love you so much. I’m excited to talk to you this Mother’s Day. I hope you have a great day too, enjoy your week and keep allowing the light of Christ to be seen through you and the natural of glow of the light in your eyes!

Con mucho cariño,

Elder Wilson

Pic: This is a speaker that a member had in her backyard that she didn’t use. She gave it to us. It’s so awesome. I’ve never had a speaker before in my room to listen to music. Just imagine, an awesome speaker to listen to hymns and music from EFY. So sweet! Our house just got fun! Haha. The headphones that I have on, are special ones from Pepsi that you can only get by doing a promotion of gathering 5 bottle tops and sending them in with some money. A member gave me them too. Don’t worry. I know the rules. I don’t use them. Tranquilo.

April 19, 2016

I got my package last week on Wednesday. It was so awesome. Thanks so much for all the goodies, and for the hymn book. I decided to keep the hymnbook a surprise from my comp because this last weekend was transfers. (That’s why I’m writing right now instead of yesterday.) I wanted to see if one of us was leaving, and I left. As I was leaving, I hurried and wrote him a dedication in the front and hid it under some of his things so that he can find it later. I will be waiting for an email from him to see if he finds it soon. haha, It’s just under some things on his desk. Thanks again for that!

Last week was a roller coaster. Monday I was so distracted that I wasn’t able to focus very much in the letters. There was a huge miscommunication between me, the elders in the other area in our ward, and the zone leaders. One of the elders had thought that I was being a hypocrite for correcting him for something that I also do wrong. He completely exploded on me over the phone. It made me feel terrible and I didn’t know what to do. I was just feeling so emotionally bad after him ranting on me for about 5 minutes and it was just a misunderstanding. He got so mad at me but it wasn’t true what he was thinking. Anyway, after lots of help and advice from Elder Morales on what to do, and praying, I called back and straightened it out with the elder’s companion. Then we decided to get together on Monday afternoon to sort it all out. The elder, who is so dang prideful, did not want to accept his mistakes and my comp put him in his place for it. I treated the whole situation with the most humility and calmness that I could. I didn’t raise my voice or demand an apology. I didn’t say anything bad about him. We talked it out, and straightened out the differences. My many prayers were answered, and I know that the Lord and the Spirit were with me to be able to do that. It was a really difficult situation. I didn’t know what to do or how to correct these elders in the best and nicest way possible, but I had to do it as their district leader. I was completely helped and guided, and it all worked out. I felt so much better afterwards. That was something that I learned a lot from, like how to deal with difficult people and difficult situations. I left learning, and that’s what I like about it.

Things are great here. I just got transferred to the south of the mission, a province called Ica. I haven’t been outside of Lima for about a year. I’m excited to get to know the south a little more this transfer. My new comp is from Peru, a part called Piura, Elder Peña. He’s in his second transfer in the mission. I will be finishing his training here and we are opening up an area as well. I have also been assigned to be a district leader. President does not want me to relax these last couple months. That is evident :) I’m excited to be here and excited to work. The area that I left, I’m just so happy that I was able to leave it with lots more than what I found. We had 3 people getting ready for baptism in the next 2 weeks, and I’m so excited to hear how it goes with them. I’m excited for these last 2 transfers. I wanna give it my all, and not regret anything.

Some scriptures that I found this last week I want to share with you. I’ve read the dreaded "war chapters" of the BoM a few times already, but this time that I’m reading them, the spirit is helping me to find many awesome lessons that I had never seen before. Alma 44:5 - the last part, where Captain Moroni is testifying to his people that the only true happiness comes from the word of God. I love his short testimony about reading the scriptures to find happiness. Alma 46:39,41 - about being able to die happy in Christ, the only good way to be able to pass from this life with a smile on your face and peace of conscience. Alma 47:18 -  this one I find very interesting. The way that Satan works on us, little by little. Think about it for a minute. How is it possible to administer poison to someone "little by little" until they die. For me, you would have to give the tiniest bit first, so that the person can get used to the odd taste of the poison. Slowly give a little more, day after day. If he gave it all at once, then the person would most likely spit it out, knowing that it was harmful. But, little by little the king got used to the harmful poison and didn’t even realize that it was killing him, until finally, he died from it. It’s so interesting and so true. Just like in 1 Nephi 17:45 (I believe...) Where it says that Laman and Lemuel were past feeling. They didn’t even feel sadness or feel bad anymore because they were so used to their wickedness by that point.

Well, those are my interesting thoughts this week. I know that the Lord loves me and that the BoM is true. I’m so grateful for what I learn from that marvelous book every day. I love this gospel, and I know that the atonement of Christ can heal any wounded soul on this earth. If he will just give up his rebellious will and give it unto Christ as a sacrifice on the altar.

Love you mom. Talk to you soon!

Elder Wilson