AUGUST 4TH Hey everyone! So there's lots to update on! First of all, Des is doing great! She has been coming to church and is really loving it. Also, we've had some pretty sweet lessons this week. We met with Victor, an older man that lives with some members in the Spanish group, and taught him the Plan of Salvation. He paid very special attention. His son passed away some time ago, and he really questions God and what's happened to his son since he left this earth. I could tell our message brought him hope. He asked some questions that we weren't 100% positive on, so we told him we'd study it and get back to him. He pleaded with us to do so because he really wants to know. It broke my heart. I can tell he has turned away from God since this all happened. I explained to him that it's times like these when we need God the most and he should pray and just let it all out and tell Heavenly Father everything. He agreed. It was pretty emotional. But he was very genuine and we could tell that this lesson means a lot to him. We also met with our investigators, Karime & Arnulfo. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ (lesson 3) and talked about our purpose for life. They loved it and we asked them if they would want to be baptized. They said they know this is a huge commitment and want to be sure that this is what they want. We agreed that it is important to be sure, and praying about it would help. They agreed! It was awesome. Then, after the lesson, they walked us to our car and we ended up just talking for like half an hour. (I have 20 mosquito bites on my legs to prove that.) And got to know them on a different level. It was great! They're so fun. They invited us to a barbeque at their house on Saturday, and we went and had the most amazing carne asada I've ever had. SO GOOD! ------ I can't believe we are already in August, y'all. It feels like it was just March! Or something. Time is getting closer and I am truly trying my hardest to be a great missionary! And to be more consecrated. This week, I've been studying the Doctrine of Christ. The 5 steps in lesson 3 in Preach My Gospel! To have faith, repent, be baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. And the more I study the more I realize that EVERYTHING in the gospel, no matter what it is, relates back to that. And that if we don't do one of those things, our whole foundation can fall. Like if we do everything except repent daily...it's not going to work! Or do everything except living in a way that the Holy Ghost can be with us, that won't work either! It's all together like that for a reason, and for our salvation. I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to be the Lord's servant. I plan on serving lonnnggg after this part of my life. :) Anyway, I hope you all have a great week! :) Keep it up! And if you have time, drop me a letter or something! Hermana Wilson
AUGUST 11TH
Hey everyone! We've been meeting with a family as of recent, the Zapatas! They are very sweet and are a less active family in another ward. We went and saw them a couple weeks ago and had a great talk with them about why they need to come to church. Not yesterday, but the Sunday before, Hermana Zapata and their two kids came to church! It was awesome. And all of them were there yesterday. They are really struggling right now with trying to find a job for Hermano and paying rent. Hermana Zapata's mom lives in Mexico and has cancer, so they send most of the money they make to her. Anyway, a little miracle happened today with that. The members we live with own a contracting/construction business. Apparently one of Brother Gabler's employees quit this morning (he showed up at the house and was not quiet about it). It was kinda weird. But anyway, a little bit later I was getting some food and saw him and he told me what happened. (And then a light bulb went off in my mind) I asked him if he would be hiring anyone new. He said he'd have to and he'll need to find someone. I mentioned that I knew of a member that needed a job. And Brother Gabler is going to call him! I'm so excited. I really hope it works out! That would be such a blessing for their family. Last night, we had an amazing lesson with Victor! We read in the folleto del Plan de Salvacion (...is it weird that I didn't even think about saying/typing that?). Anyway! It went well. I could tell something was changing in him as we were talking. There were a couple members with us, too. He kept asking for things in the Bible that back up what we were teaching him. We finally just flat out told him that he can know of the truth if he reads in the Book of Mormon too. That the clarity of it is better and that if he reads the Bible AND the Book of Mormon, he will get the answers he needs. Maybe not necessarily from what he's reading, but what he feels while he's reading. I testified to him that I know it's true and that everything he needs and wants to know is in that book and it's another testament of Christ. The members that were with us each testified as well. Finally, he sighed and said, "Ok...voy a leer. Donde?" in a very genuine tone. And we were like...WHOA. So we assigned him to read a chapter and he said he'd do it right when we left and pray about it all. Big changes are coming for that man, I can just feel it! :) Also, on Monday night, we had dinner with a family that was hosting some Sister Cities chaperones. It was way fun, one of them was from Mexico and the other was from Japan. The Japanese man (I can't remember his name for the life of me) spoke VERY little English, but it was really cool to talk with him and ask him about life in Japan. It was fun to talk to them both. Anyway, the member that was hosting them heard he was amazing at origami, so she brought out some origami paper and asked him to show us how to make something. So all of us had our own piece and he was showing us how to make a crane. I'm happy to say my crane looks pretty legit. It was way fun and I could tell he enjoyed showing us some of his culture. The Mexican man was super into it too. Haha it was so fun! :) Anyway, that's really all I have for this week! I miss you and love you all SO much. I hope you have a great week! Hermana Wilson
AUGUST 18TH
Hi everyone! So this week was pretty good! We went on exchanges on Wednesday. I got to go to Boulder with my love, Hermana Cropper! (My companion from Wheatland!) It was so fun to be with her again. We always have so much fun together. We did service at a food share place and visited people. We were walking around a trailer park and talking to people in the afternoon, and as we came up to one of the trailers, there was a guy with a little kitten in his hands and his wife and child in the street watching him. I saw the kitten and said, "Oh! Que lindo!" and he told us that he rescued it from the pit bull behind the fence by the trailer. We were like AH! And I took the kitty from him and held it (it seriously only looked like 6 weeks old) and his little heart was racing. Poor thing. It had saliva on it too. Bless. Anyway, we turned it into a missionary contact. I asked them if they'd be interested in learning about our church and they said yes! So the sisters down there had a return appointment. I wonder how it went...haha. We also visited with some newlyweds in Hermana Cropper's ward and talked about tithing. The spirit was so strong! It was a great lesson.
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We had a dinner with Valeria and her family this past week. Her kids are so cute, I'll attach a picture of us playing in the grass. Her Dad made some super good tacos for us. I love Mexican food so much. :) Her youngest, Josiah, was in the hospital a couple times last week. He's 15 or 16 months I think? Anyway, the poor little man was super dehydrated. Val shared a story and her testimony of how much Heavenly Father knows everything and loves us. Josiah was so sick that the doctors were talking about putting him on dialysis and were really scared he wouldn't make it. Before that, they did a blood test. Val told us that her and Eddy (her husband) immediately fell to their knees when the doctor took the blood sample out of the room and prayed. She told us they were pleading and pleading with the Lord to help Josiah. Just then, the doctor ran in and said, "Everything is fine! He's going to be just fine!" What an answered prayer!
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We are still trying to work really hard! We have very little to work with right now, because we've had to drop a lot of people lately. They're just not ready or as interested anymore. It's sad because these are people who had such a fire about the gospel before and somehow it's gone now. We found a few new places to do some tracting, so that'll be good for this week! I can't believe this transfer is almost over. We have like 2 weeks left, and then the next transfer! I think I might be leaving Longmont. Which is kinda weird, but I am excited to see where I go next. I actually want to finish my mission in Fort Collins. :) I hope I go there again! Anyway, that's really all I have for this week. I miss you and love you all! :) Hermana Wilson
AUGUST 25TH
Hi everyone! So this week was good. Hermana Ferrell and I have been working really hard! On Monday, we had a really good lesson with Karime and Arnulfo about the Word of Wisdom. We weren't sure how they'd take it because almost every time we come, there are opened beers on the table haha. But as we were talking, they both listened very carefully and by the end of it, they totally agreed with why we need it. We committed them to keep the Word of Wisdom for this week and we're going to follow up with them this week. It was really cool to see them be enlightened like that as we were talking. ----- On Wednesday, we had a pretty awesome district meeting! That may be because I gave the training. Haha, but I only had like a few hours to prepare for it. Some people's children... Anyway! I gave the training on how we are supposed to teach people and not lessons. It went pretty well! While I was preparing, I came across this quote in a talk I have: "The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of the people, and they take themselves out of the slums. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature." -Ezra Taft Benson And how true is that? If we are fulfilling our purpose as missionaries and teaching by the spirit in a way that caters to the needs of our investigators, Christ will change them. And how true is that for all of us. Even as members! We can do so much, we don't know half of our potential. I'm finding how true that is. If we really understood our divine potential and nature, nothing would get in our way. As long as we have the Lord on our side, nothing is impossible. Like that Christ Tomlin song, "If our God is for us, then who could ever stop us? And if our God is with us, what could stand against?" ----- On Friday! We had so many crazy awesome miracles. We contacted some old investigators and they're new investigators again. :) I am excited to see what happens with them! Also, we found a less active. Hermana Ferrell and I have been spending a lot of this transfer cleaning up the messes missionaries before us have left. For instance, there were some missionaries that literally would do a door approach lesson and count them as new investigators (you just DON'T do that). So we had like 60 "investigators". I swear I wanted to rip my hair out. And kill something. Or someone. You know. So we've been contacting all of them, and about 95% of them aren't even interested. So irritating. But, we also had like 600 contacts in our phone and we only knew like 100 of them. So we went through it for a couple hours (we're down to like 350 now) and called as many people as we could to figure out who they were and why they're in the phone. But in this process, a woman named Lina asked for us to come by. So we did and we found out that she is a less active! And she's been living in Longmont for like 6 years and has requested missionaries on Mormon.org but no one ever came, and she didn't know where to look for the church to figure out where she belonged. And she said she's seen missionaries on the street but was afraid to stop and talk to them. She was confused because she hasn't met with missionaries here before and doesn't know how we got her number. Miracle? I think so. We're so excited to start working with her! She has 5 kids that haven't been baptized, but she said she's going to start bringing them and hopefully they'll be baptized soon. SWEET. On Saturday, we had a stake carnival! It was so fun. :) I'll attach a picture of our district. Everyone was there! Soooooo many people. ----- Have a great week, y'all! I love you all and hope you're doing well! Hermana Wilson
SEPT 1ST
Hi everyone! So I'm getting transferred?! Weird. To a little town called Fort Morgan. It's in CO. I've been there once for a P-Day when I was in Greeley and it smells pretty much worse than Greeley. So...yay? The good news is that Elder McConeghey (from the MTC), Hermana England (MTC comp) and Hermana Vargha (also from the MTC) will be in my zone! MTC reunion much? AND, Hermana Luke, my daughter (trainee), is there too! SERIOUSLY. It'll be so great to see them. The only thing is I'll be an hour away from them all. What is it with me and being banished? And my new companion, Sister Loux, is dying this transfer (I'm killing her--means I'm her last companion on her mission), so that pretty much means I'm going to be dying in Ft. Morgan, too. I wonder who will kill me? Oh, mission lingo. Anyway, so I've had to say a lot of goodbyes so far since Saturday. It's a little emotional, but I've gotten so used to changing so much that it doesn't really affect me all that much anymore. 2 transfers to go! 12 weeks, to be exact. What the what?! Good think I'm a picture fanatic. It drives my companion insane. :) But I don't care, I'll be glad I did it later. I've filled up a 32GB flash drive so far. And I'm about 1/2 way through an 8GB now. Should be plenty for the rest of my mish. ----- However, we did have some cool experiences when I was able to go out again. So that was nice. We went and saw Pamela and her family. I love them so much. We were talking to her about the importance of reading our scriptures every day, and she just stopped us and said, "Can I tell you guys something?" and we were like "Uh...sure?" and she basically said, "I want to thank you both for not giving up on me. I have really been struggling because when my mother was deported, I really questioned God. I asked Him why this happened to us. Because I'm so close with my mom and brother. It was devastating and I really was just to the point where I didn't want to believe anymore. But then you came and kept inviting me even though I wasn't coming to church, and now that I'm going...I don't want to stop. I don't want to do that to me, my kids, or even my husband even though he doesn't believe in God." And she just went on about how much she loves the church and she knows God exists and kept thanking us for loving her and her family. It was seriously the SWEETEST thing. I was tearing up. ---- Also, in Sacrament meeting yesterday, Hermana Ferrell and I sang. Yes, Dad, you read that right. I sang, IN FRONT OF PEOPLE. I was terrified. It was a FULL house because there were 2 missionary homecoming talks. Haha. We sang, "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul". Beautiful arrangement. The one from 17 Miracles! Everyone came up to us afterwards and told us it was amazing. So maybe I didn't sound *that *bad? Or they were just being nice. Probably the latter. That's only the 2nd time I've sang in front of people like that. Haha, scary! Hermana Ferrell has been trained and sings in front of people all the time, so it didn't really affect her that much. Haha, bless. Anyway, that's really all I have right now. 12 weeks to go, and I'm going out with a bang. Who knows? Maybe Ft. Morgan isn't that bad....hahahahahaha. I'm going to make it awesome and baptize the whole town. And maybe a few cows too. ;) Love you all! Hermana Wilson
SEPT 8TH
Hi Everyone! Oh my goodness I have so much to update on! I hope I have enough time. I'm just going to put random points that I can think of, because there is so much! Okay, to start off, FORT MORGAN IS LEGIT. It smells, but all in all it's so fun here. Sister Loux and I are pretty exiled from other missionaries, but we get along so well it doesn't matter. The people here are farmers/ranchers and are very hardworking! I love this kind of lifestyle. It's so cool! We do service at a place called Cargill Meat Solutions. You can only imagine what fun ensues there. Apparently they take a lot of pride and and are a big deal because a cow goes from moo-ing to packaged in 45 minutes. Which I guess is a very fast process compared to other beef plants. I dunno, I got nothin'. Anyway, we help teach the employees English there and help prepare them to take the GED. There are a lot of people from many different countries. Somalia, Mexico, Sudan, just to name a few. Its really fun! We also teach English on our own time as well. There are two recent converts from Guatemala and we're teaching. It was so weird my first time because no one else spoke Spanish but me. (My language study is going to be VITAL here!) so I had to interpret a little bit, and man is that hard! Spanish to English is hard to explain. My brain hurts when I do it. And I don't even get everything I'm supposed to haha. Its really hard. But I'm going to keep doing it and hope I get better. We have a few investigators and less actives we are working with. Mostly less actives, though. The ward directory is 31 pages long, and only a fourth of it is active. We cover a lot of little towns so far as even an hour or so away so we are driving a ton! There are great families here though so the drive isn't that bad. ----- Anyway, that's really all I have to talk about for today! I know, it's a lot. Haha! But I miss you all and love you tons! :) Hermana Wilson
SEPT 15TH
Hey everyone! So this week we don't have too much to update on. But I will say that miracles are everywhere if we look for them! :) Anyway, a few miracles that have happened are we found like 2 people that were baptized and haven't been at church for years so that was a cool experience. They're just popping up like crazy around here. We also found an investigator that went MIA after she was evicted from her apartment. That was awesome! And! Roxie received a blessing last week, and her smoking has gone down incredibly! We're hoping for her to be re-baptized by the end of this transfer. That would be so legit! And one more, we went to visit a lady that hasn't been visited in a while and she is from Mexico! It was such a tender mercy because when we go visit Melvin and Robin (from Guatemala), it is kind of hard for me to understand their Spanish, and I started to feel like I was losing my ability. But when we saw Maria, I had a whole conversation with her and understood everything she said! Whew! It was seriously a tender mercy for me. I really do love this area so much. There are some members here I've really connected with and love to visit! There's a woman named Patty that we visit every week (sometimes more) and she is just so loving and personable. We can talk to her about anything and she is so willing to help us as much as she can. I wasn't feeling good the other day, and we went by her house and she just took care of me haha. She's the sweetest. Also, another family we love to visit is the Dory's! Holy cow their family is hysterical. I love it. Their kids are extremely talented, and their son can quote all of Jeff Dunham, so, naturally, I enjoy myself. Our Ward Mission Leader is probably the best I've seen on my entire mission and he is so great! We love talking to him, and he picks on us a lot. The service we do here at Cargill is a lot of fun. I got to help a woman from Somalia, Sofia, learn how to use the word "not". It was really cool! Kinda random, but she was so eager to learn it. She and the other Somali's call us "teacher". Their English is extremely limited, but it's so cute when they call us that. It's really humbling to be able to help them learn this language. The ward is getting very missionary minded, we just have to help them act on it! We had a meeting with the Bishop yesterday to talk about it. He's only been the Bishop for 2 weeks, bless his heart. He is very service-minded and ready to get going, so I'm really excited to see what blossoms from him serving at this time. I am really excited because as we find more investigators, I know the ward will help us teach them and take care of them, so that is definitely comforting. But yeah, that's really all I have as of right now. 10 weeks to go and I'm sprinting to the tape with all I've got! Love you all, Hermana Wilson
SEPT 22ND
Hi everyone! Wow, this week has been so good! I feel like there is so much to update on, so I'll just choose a few things to talk about. First of all, on Tuesday, we had Zone Conference! It was so good. We focused on Joseph Smith and the Restoration. Sister Brown gave a great discussion about it. We talked about the reality of his calling as a prophet of God, and the fore-ordination of his calling. It was really cool! And something new I learned, the translation of the Book of Mormon took from April 7, 1829 to June 30, 1829. When ancient records are usually translated, it takes YEARS for researchers to translate it even close to being correct. But with the power of God, it only took like 84 days to translate the entire ancient record of the Book of Mormon. How cool is that? Anyway, I love Joseph Smith. I love his testimony of the Savior and all he did to help the Savior restore the very church he started in New Testament times. THE CHURCH IS TRUE. ----- Anyway, the whole zone conference was so good! I'll attach a picture of some fun people I got to see. I also got to see some Relief Society members from the Terry Lake ward (greenie area!) too! It was really cool to be back in Fort Collins. I miss it there so much. But anyway, we also had departing testimonies. Which basically means all those in attendance who will not have another zone conference bears their last testimonies on the mission. And I just happened to be one of the missionaries who that applied to. It. Was. SO. Weird. I cried like a baby up there. Haha! I couldn't believe it. I remembered my first zone conference A YEAR AGO when all the missionaries who are home now went up there and I was thinking, "Man, I have such a long way to go." Guess what? Hahaha, that went by fast. ----- We had another amazing experience on Friday. I'll try to sum it all up because it was a LOT. But basically Sister Loux and I decided to do weekly planning at the church (which we never do, we just felt like we wanted to/should). While we were planning, we all the sudden craved ice cream! We've only eaten out once since we've been companions. And that was for a dinner appointment that fell through, so we never eat out. Anyway, we decided we were going to go get a Blizzard and bring it back and finish planning. Well, we were walking through the chapel, and there was a man there! Weird. So we were kinda thrown off and like, "Oh...hi...?" and we were talking to him a little bit, anyway, turns out he works on the satellite systems in the church buildings, and just finished working on one in Sterling, and just stopped by our building? No idea. It was weird. Anyway, we asked him if we could do anything for him and he just said, "I have a question. What do you do when something has happened that has shaken your faith?" And we were like, super thrown off. But, I will say that the Spirit was so strong, and we ended up talking to him for 3 hours in the chapel. His countenance was so depressed and down trodden, but we listened to him as he told us his story and how unfair his life has been. (Bless his heart, he's been through hell and back). We really put ourselves in the Saviors shoes and did everything we could to give him hope. By the time we were done talking, his countenance was so different. Maybe he just needed someone to listen, maybe we said what he needed to hear, I dunno. But I will say that the Spirit was SO powerful while we were talking. When we left, we were just in awe. Had we not gone to the church building to do planning, and had we not gotten that random craving for ice cream, we would have never met him, or helped him. It's amazing how the Lord works, even if just a craving for some DQ. And no, we never got our ice cream. Haha! Miracles are everywhere y'all. You just gotta look for them. Some are HUGE, and some very small. But the hand of the Lord is in every aspect of our lives. We just need to pay attention and *give thanks. *Especially when we don't feel like He's there. I've found that when things are going wrong, and I give a prayer of thanks, I feel so much better about my circumstances. I hope you are all preparing for General Conference, too! I'm so excited to hear from the prophet and apostles. :) :) :) Anyway, I love you all and hope you're doing well!! Hermana Wilson
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