Same Place Different Faces

Hey family hows it all goin????

Things are going awesome here in beautiful Paraguay. We had changes this last week. I have a new companion his name is Elder Horton. yes. Elder Horton i changed from an \ to an -. i hope that makes some sense it is mainly the change from a N to an H. he is from Idaho and things are going swonderful. We are working hard and seeing miracles. Another change that happened is that an elder who i used to live with is now in my district,  Elder Rios from Argentina. Crazy craziness! Elder Horton came here from Ciudad del Este and in the campo; now  the main city. He is a great and awesome elder we get along really well and we are working hard. March is going to be an amazing month!!!!! for multiple reasons.

I loved the time i had with my fellow mid-west elder, Elder Norton. i truly learned so much from him and its been amazing.  One thing i have been learning throughout my mission has been the importance of being focused. As many of you know sometimes, me focusing, can be a bit tough. While out here on the mission you gotta be focused on the Lord's work. I do admit it is a process that does take time, but if you are obedient and put your heart into it you will be able to learn and grow and become more and more focused. 

The huge miracles that happened this week have been all in the district. Obrero 1.1 and 1.2 are getting a load of them. 1.1 had a baptism this last week and his name is Cesar. He is truly prepared and incredible. I had the great opportunity to interview him for his baptism and wow has the man changed and has gained an amazing testimony. I had visited with him 2 times before on divisions and such. from what i heard the baptism was incredible and he gave his testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel. At that baptism 3 other investigators came  2 of whom are going to be baptized this Saturday. WHAT A MIRACLE THE LORD IS BLESSING US SO MUCH!!! Here Toribio is our huge miracle. He goes to church every sunday all by himself and is getting ready for his baptism on the 10th. your prayers please. Maria we are working with her a ton. Honestly, I've been praying so much to know what we can do to help her. she is just looking for that desire to be baptized. she is gonna get it though, si o si.

So this week something is coming that is only going to come once. On March 2nd i will complete one year being a servant of the Lord. My goodness, has the time flown by. The changes though and the experience i will always remember. I am so grateful for this last year that has passed. It truly has been the most productive year and growing year of my life. I have learned so much. The most important has been coming to know truly who is Jesus Christ. This morning i was reading a talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks on coming to know Christ and how it is the most important thing that we can come to know. I have come to learn so much and i have so much more to learn and I'm so excited to learn! The scriptures are so amazing. I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON. When i read it, it is literally for us and our time. I'm about to get into my favorite part which is 3 Nefi 11-26 the personal preaching of Jesus Christ here in the Americas, his own words!!! i'm gonna be there most likely weds or thus i can't wait!!! 

I love this work. I love it. Wow. I honestly don t know what else to say. I love my Father in Heaven and his only begotten son Jesus Christ. I am just learning so much its so hard to describe. I can see how God is molding me. Its so weird but that amazing awesome weird in how he molds you in ways that you can't even understand.

I'm so grateful for you all and pray for you daily.

love you uber caduber much!!!

Elder Wilson

Photos:

1. A very pretty classic street in my area
2. My new companion  ELDER HORTON

3. Me and Elder Padilla
4. The district

can you believe it?

elder chatterly

elder meadows

clouds - lovely

Hey fam

hope all is wonderful and amazing with you guys back in the U.S. of A. things are going splendid here in che retá porâ!!! This last week we had a bunch of miracles. On tuesday i was able to go on divisions with one of the Zone Leaders. Elder Chatterly from CA/Reno. We did work it was amazing. Learned  how to improve our area when it comes to finding more new people to teach, how to teach, working with members, and just loving the mission more and more. So a funny thing is that the world is crazy small. Along with that the world is even smaller when you are a LDS. Me and Elder Chatterly have multiple friend connections at BYU. We figured out that we played volleyball together once when he was working there over the summer, but other than that from my roommate Marshall Oelkers to a bunch of other random friends. It is so crazy. I personally love doing divisions though; you get to learn so much and the Lord lets you see where you are doing well and where you can improve and when you have amazing leaders who are able to help you and inspire you, you are able to just find more and more blessings every day.

There is a man that we are teaching right now who is Toribio. He is 67 lives by himself and has a ton of faith. He has had a tough past especially in his family life and he is looking for something to bring peace to his life. Right now he has gone to church twice, is planning for his baptism on the 10th or march. He is incredible. This last sunday we had 4 investigators come to church and the best part is that every single one came by him or herself it was amazing!!!!! what a huge blessing. You gotta just work hard, pray, and have faith and so many miracles are going to happen.

ANNOUNCEMENT!!!! We now know who the future President of the Paraguay Asunción Mission will be in July. It will be Pres. Pedro Agazanni from Cordoba, Argentina. He is 43 has 5 kids and from the info we got is super excited to come to Paraguay. We are going to have a Latin president, awesome!!! 

Can you believe it? Changes are this week! I know! it seems like it was yesterday. Time just flies by when you're on the mission; it is honestly insane!!! Then another thing is coming up to right after Mackey's BDay but that is for a different email. My goodness time flies. 


A thing that i just love more and more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ is how it is for everyone but its so personal at the same time. When we are teaching we are teaching individual people to their individual needs. That is one of the main purposes of Preach My Gospel is so that we learn how to teach people by using the lessons. It is so amazing!!! Everything that you read in the scriptures you can apply it to the situation you are having right now. The Book of Mormon was written for us. Prayer allows us as individuals to talk directly to our Father in Heaven. With his amount of children that are more than the sands of the earth, He wants to listen and communicate with us individually. HOW COOL! It just brings you back to primary power and the great song "I am a child of God". We are all children of a loving Heavenly Father who has sent His only begotten  to come to the earth and suffer for us individually so that we can be clean and come closer to know Him and our Father even more. We have modern day Prophets who talk face to face with God who receive modern revelation and share it with the world. When we listen to conference there is always a talk, a paragraph, a sentence, a phrase, that is just for us. It truly shows the love that our Father in Heaven has for us.

Well fam hope that you all know how much a love you and care for you. How grateful i am for every single one of you and the examples that you are for me. I wouldn't be here if it went for your help. Mom and Dad thank you for sharing with me this gospel as I've grown up it is the biggest blessing that i have in my life. I love you all so much and pray for you daily.

Love

Elder Wilson

Pics
1. Clouds they`re pretty
2. Me and Elder Meadows (UT)
3. Me and Elder Chatterley (CA/Reno) got caught in middle of talkin

miracles are happening the district is going up, the area is going up. we have a handful of baptisms in our area planned for march. crazy how a year is coming up. ill prob just write it in my journal. its really weird when 90 to 100 degrees is normal temperature for you but i guess you get used to it hahaha.

The Peak of Summer

Hey everyone hows it goin?

things are going well here in beautiful paraguay. the weather is calming down a bit. here february is the hottest part of the year. it normally gets in-between 100 and 115 or 120 everyday which is nice and refreshing hahaha. its actually something that you do get a bit used to. a thing as missionaries that we learn during the summer is shade walking. what we do is we look ahead on the streets and find where there is the most shade because really the heat is just the sun. so you get under the shade and it cools down a lot. we walk throughout the day looking for the people to talk to and shade. its really nice when the sun goes down because it literally drops in temperature so much and its amazing. a very nice thing though is that even if people don t want to hear your message they are willing to give you something to drink. you could clap(that is what they do to knock on a door - they clap tw) a house and the guy comes out saying "no I'm ok come another day" you start testifying to him and its the same response, but then you say "ok, but do you have some cold water?" they always say yes. so that helps us out a little bit with chatting for a bit more. 

This week was awesome!!!! we had zone conference which was great. they take around 8 or so hours and its all just awesome. learned a whole bunch on how to become a better teacher. from the time of the lesson, body language, to how to better use the spirit -  all wonderful things that help a lot. got to see some of the elders from my old zone and saw an old companion which was nice. everything back in 3 bocas i hear is going well. the son is getting ready for the mission and the family is getting ready to be sealed in the temple as a family!!!!!!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!! Here we a bunch of miracles. 6 of our investigators came to church. 3 of them for the first time and it was awesome. they felt the spirit and loved church. 

this week also i was especially able to augment my testimony that our Father in Heaven truly does prepare his children to receive the gospel. while i was on divisions(their word for splits tw) with Elder Meadows (UT) we were looking for a reference and clapped an apt and a woman came out. we asked if this man lived there she said no and asked us who we are. we told her we were missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and we were called by a living prophet of God to bring this message to the people here in Paraguay. She then asked 3 questions: 1. What is the difference between your church and other churches? 2. While are so many churches who all say they are right? 3. How can I know which one is the true church? It was music to our ears!!!!! Sadly we couldn't pass because there was no man at home(propriety of numbers/ratio tw)  but we set a cita for sunday. We got there on sunday all hyped all ready to go, and her boyfriend didn't want us to pass and teach. We tried so hard to get in to teach them. You could see that she wanted us to come and teach. The boyfriend though didn't budge. It threw us off for a bit, but a thing that i have learned is that you cant let those moments get ya down. Now she knows where to find her answer. Her time will come. We are gonna keep on looking.

So dad asked me a day run down a day in our mission here. so here it goes. 630 till 8 prep exercise, eat, shower, and such. 8 till 1030 personal, comp, and lang study. 1030 till 12 go out and teach or find new people. in every area there are "morning people" who are always there in the mornings. then we come back and either eat at a members, grab something real quick or make some food. then from 1 till 9 we are talking to everyone that we can. we normally get in 4 to 7 lessons a day. try to find at least 2 or 3 new people to teach every day. then come back at night plan for a half hour. get ready for bed, write in my journal, call and talk to members of my district see how they are going, or work on the little study projects that i have. 1030 in our 17 Celsius room for sleep time.

how crazy it is that a year is just around the corner i still feel like its been 2 months. wow time flies. but i am so grateful to be where i am doing what i am doing becoming who i am becoming. the mission just makes you so much better i cant really explain it. its like the time me, mack, mom and dad went to pick up evan from his mission and mom said "he looks like a missionary" thats how i feel. i love this work with all of my heart. the book of mormon is true! through studying it we will receive personal revelation it was written for us and is the most correct book on the face of the earth. it is Another Testament of Jesus Christ. I love you all so much and am so grateful for all that you do.

love

Elder Wilson

Happy February!!!!!!

the two name tags Elder Parker uses

current district

clouds before 5 hours of rain

the homemade dinner

the kitchen chef

Hey one hey all!!!! 

hello my wonderful family!!!! i hope everything is going super great with all of you guys! Well this week we had SOOOOOOOOOO many miracles. It was incredible. Tuesday it rained for a solid 5 hours and like always we were out on the streets talking. Since everyone is at their house at that time we decided to go clap a block (go door to door). We talked to every single house and all of them said no or another day. When we got to the very last house we found this awesome huge family!!!! We taught them about eternal families and the love that our father in heaven has for us. the spirit there was incredible. We were also able to find a bunch of other new people who were prepared to receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and it was incredible to see the spirit of this message touch them. 

An investigator that we have been teaching for the last month or so who is amazing and progressing a ton is Gabriel. Gabriel is 19 and doesn't have much faith in God. putting it plainly he doesn't believe He exists. It is so incredible how this message changes people because now Gabi is reading the Book of Mormon and praying and he went to church for a bit this last week!!!! He still is trying to work out if there is a God or not but he is in the process. We have shared with him the story of Aaron, Alma 30, all of those wonderful things. 

We also had the wonderful opportunity to have interview with the Pres. this last week. I had a wonderful interview. I know that Pres. Callan is a man called of God to guide the Paraguay, Asuncion mission. He is helping me so much to grow. We talked about the 40 day fast and how the atonement helps us clean out and shine up every little scratch or mark that we have on our soul. How through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can become like Him. Yep, its a process, and it takes work. The changes though are incredible and the effect that the atonement has on one's life is insurmountable (sc). I have been studying the Book of Mormon a ton in the last few months. THE BOOK IS TRUE. It is amazing how perfect it is for us. How literally so many things apply to today's society, and events. It truly was written for our day.

We have Zone Conference this week which is going to be incredible and we here in Sajonia 1.2 are progressing a ton along with the rest of our district. This is a wonderful and marvelous work. I love it so much and I'm so grateful to be apart of it. To be where i am doing what i am doing become who i am becoming. If we are obedient and follow the council that our Father in Heaven has for us we will always be in the right place, at the right time, with the right people, doing the right thing. This gospel is true i know it with all of my heart. Jesus is the Christ. The begotten son of the living God. He suffered for me that i may repent and become more like Him. I cannot express the love that i have for my Father and Heaven and Jesus Christ. Because of them and their love for us I can be with my family forever. That is my plan. I will be with my family and my future family forever. I love you all and I'm so grateful for all that you do. Always in my thoughts and prayers.

Love

Elder Wilson

P.S. so for all of us who get teased and made fun of because we have the wonderful gift or losing hair. I encourage you all to see what can happen to people when they become jealous and criticize our amazingness. please read 2 Kings 2: 23-24. (trust me its amazing an Elder who is also becoming more wise showed it to me)

Pictures: (includes ones from 2 weeks ago)
1. My name Tag in Guarani!!!!!
2. The District 4 weeks ago 
3. A weird rainy day but awsome clouds
4. Who made that good lookin noodles? 
5. Oh........ that guy!

p.s.
pdays. 
well in our mission we can't leave our area. we do have an activity once during the change. we are going to play soccer today. other than that i normally write a letter, clean, prep a district meeting lesson, and study. really we just relax there in our appartment. wish we could go out at explore but its ok. 
ya eating is fine. we cook 2 or so times a week we made fetuchini (sc) Alfredo this last week. it was good and the normal guiso. other than that we get fed. the same base but nice food that is heathy and yummy. i eat much better now. glad things are wonderful at home. my love goes to you all!

love

elder wilson


if you've read this far - remember to send Elder Parker a valentine (Tim)