House Hunting and Atonement

HEY- HEY- HEY- FAMILIA!

well I'm looking for the words because I'm honestly trying to figure out what i can write to you all. i'll do a fun thing of this week and then a spiritual. 

first fun thing. i was able to apply my house searching skills! the area president (Pres. Arnold) has his brother and sister in law coming in either this week or next week to help us organize a stake here in Coronel Oviedo and Ca´aguazu. so for the last little bit we were on a special assignment to find a house for them. Tuesday we got permission to borrow  bikes from members and roll around all of Coronel Oviedo looking for a house. It was a bit harder then it sounds. It was really fun to watch the people looking at us because they are used to us walking and then they saw us on the bikes and all that came to my head was that they were thinking "hey look the hermanos have bikes now. that's cheating they should walk" it was fun. 

transfers came and gone. nothing changed in our companionship. I'm here with Elder Lamb so we still got a lot of work to do and this transfer is going to be amazing!!!!! On Wednesday two of the missionaries from the office Elder Moffet and Elder Garcia came to do pension inspections and to look for a house with us. the entire zone was looking for a house and because i know the area best, me and elder moffet spent all of Friday rolling around looking for a house in all of oviedo and then took the 30 min drive to ca´aguazu to look for one there. they are both wonderful missionaries lots of fun. they have the vision and the discipline to become more and more molded in the Lords hands and just a great time to have them stay with us for 3 or 4 days. oh and last week a bird pooped on my head fun fun fun.

so while traveling home from ca´aguazu me and elder moffet were having a great chat. it all focused on the atonement and our purpose as missionaries. its so amazing that the atonement is the path and the way for us to live with our Father in heaven again. Christ through the atonement showed us the how to. the atonement is so much more profound then Christ suffering for our sins. that being the most important part because without a savior as the say in guarani "opa" done. The atonement is also having faith in Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. because of Christ eternal sacrifice we can have faith in him, through his suffering of our sins we can repent, baptism is that key to open up the door to receive the gift of the holy ghost and to open the long and narrow path to endure to the end. the atonement is something that we all must study and come to know. i had the opportunity to study the importance of baptism. i know and testify that all must be baptized in Christ's true church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. if not they cannot participate fully in the atoning sacrifice of the savior. 

For those who need to be baptized and don't know yet. Talk to the missionaries they can help you!! :) read the Book of Mormon and ask God with a sincere heart and real intent meaning that you are willing to follow the answer God gives you whatever the cost. the blessings of heaven and the mansions above are being prepared. The atonement is real. i know it is. I've experienced it and  i will give my all to fulfill my calling  so that all may have the opportunity to participate of the atoning sacrifice of the savior.  (mom, dad please do spell check)

thanks for all that you do LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!

Elder Wilson

Temp cooling Work not

HEY FAMILY

i hope all is going wonderful. things are cooling down here in paraguay its not as hot in the 90´s normally so when you get to the nightime it is really quite nice. this last week was a  great week. we are coming to find the small miracles, blessings, and answers to prayers that we are finding in our daily lives. i read the talk by Pres. Monson this morning that he gave during the morning session this last general conference which was fantastic! it talked about looking at all of the blessings large and small. taking that step back. or in the lesson given by dad the small point on the big piece of paper. we are so blessed to be members of the true church of Jesus Christ. what a joy it is to have that testimony burn within your soul and having the knowledge that it is our Father in Heaven who revealed the knowledge to us.

this last week i was doing an interesting activity in PMG. i was reading chapter 4 that talks about the Holy Ghost and His purpose, how we can come to be more worthy to receive and follow the impressions that He reveals to us. all of the great stuff. there is one part that talks about recognizing the impressions of the Holy Ghost and the fruits of it (Galatians 5:20-21) they have multiple scriptures from all of the standard works. as i read them i would look at the fruit of the spirit in that situation of the scriptures and then i would meditate and figure out where i have felt that same spirit in my own life. IT WAS AWESOME!!!! it really helped me come to find out how much the spirit has revealed to me and how much i have come to gain a testimony of through the spirit and how i can connect to individual moments in my life. I also asked to be receptive to the impressions of the spirit and we had a very interesting one. we asked for a reference from a women who directed us to a house. as we clapped it and they let us come it as we sat down and just did the little chat i felt this bad just kinda feeling sick feeling hit my stomach and i had the desire to fight. later on talking about it my companion had felt it too. we knew from the get go that the man we sat with only wanted to fight. we testified and then invited and then passed along. it was great how clear it was and it was super interesting to me how much of a difference there was in what i felt.

I am so glad to hear that so many people are going on missions. what a blessing it will be to have them out in the mission field sharing this everlasting gospel with everyone. it is the biggest and best thing that has happened to me in my life. i have become who God wants me to become and all because i chose to come and serve a mission. i now have a true testimony of the restoration of Christ true church on earth.i no longer depend on borrowed light. all those capable and that have the desire to serve, serve and the Lord will change your life.

thank you for all that you do

love you all

elder wilson

hey family!!!!

hope you all have just had an amazing week full of great things and miracles all about. we had a great week. work wise we were beat. we had to cover a lot of ground this last week which gave my companion some bad blisters but still he is a capo (champ) and worked it all through. we thought a lot about why we are here in Coronel Oviedo at this time. its a very crucial time here. next month two of the districts (c. oviedo and ca´aguazu) will be combined and 4 of the branches will then become two here in oviedo. 6 missionaries in every branch. so we are part of making it a smooth transition. we honestly really really want to baptize. have been working hard to help people take the steps so that they can be baptized into Christs true church. after working all week long we went out sunday still working. just another testimony about finishing. our last two lessons were great. one was with a guy and his girlfriend. he has gone to church 4 or 5 times and moved right before his baptism. we commited him and his future wife for the 26th. we are going to be working with them all week to help them prepare. one of the biggest miracles was our last visit sunday night. earlier on in the week we talked to some yard workers and one of them is a cuban who is married to a paraguayan and living here. we went over and had an incredible lesson with him. cubans are awesome!!!!! it was so incredible to watch the spirit work within him. we talked about baptism and one of his comments was incredible he said "so when we are born from our mothers we are born physically, and we are baptized that is when we can be cleaned and be born again spiritually." me and elder lamb just looked at one another and said "yep, thats pretty much it." in his prayer he asked God to help him prepare himself for his baptism on the 2 of feb. just a huge miracle and a tender mercy of the Lord.

i learned a ton this week about conversion and the need of not just reading the scriptures but actually studying the scriptures. the last two days i have focused on studying specific topics like faith and covenants and i have learned so much more about those two topics in the last couple of days than i have learned in the last couple of months. having faith in Christ is so incredible how it goes with action. if we truly have faith in Christ we will repent. it was really cool to see the connection of those two topics and also how when Christ came how the covenants were renewed and how we the new and higher law and covenant were established like how before the focus on the sabbath day was sanctifying that day and now it is more focused around the sacrament, and how before you would do sacrifices and how now you sacrifice your own will through repentance and giving yourself to him through repentance. all a new and higher law. soooooooo incredible but so little time to write.

i finished the Book of Mormon again this last week and i asked God if it was true. He DID answer me and i know and testify of its truthfulness. it was nothing wowzy or big just a still peaceful yet firm feeling. i know this is Christ true church and im so blessed to be apart of this work.

love you all and thank you for what you do.

Elder Wilson

Pictures:

1. Campo i´te!!! There was nothing

2. Me in the campo i´te

3. Elder Pastuls last consejo de lideres gona miss mi chiquitito a great missionary and a eternal friend

4. So guess what you may take the Wilson Lawn Care from the man, but you can NEVER take the man from Wilson Lawn Care

5. Big bug with Juan (recent convert) and Manuel

6. The family except Manu. Hector and Florentina. super active in the gospel just flying and waiting for their divorce in 5 months to be baptised

Some Work to be Done

Hey family hows it goin?

We had a great week this week. been receiving a lot of revelation and have been working a ton. We were able to go on multiple divisions this week which was great. we went on one with some wonderful missionaries Elder Gonzalez from Peru and Elder Rodeback from MN. We were all edified and learned what we need to work on. Elder Rodeback said something to us that really stuck well to me and my companion; "We are not here to give information, we are here to give salvation." It was a great comment on exactly what we need to work on to see more progress in our area. now when we talk to people it goes a bit like this: we say hello do the little small talk and then we say that "we are representatives from Christ´s only true church here on earth and we as His representatives have been called to help you come unto Him through repentance and baptism. would you like to follow Christ by repenting and being baptized in His only true Church." it is very interesting how it goes to be 100% honest we get rejected a good amount of times but then we find people who have been so prepared by our father in heaven to receive His gospel. we also started doing a 40 day fast to help us be more consecrated missionaries and completely separating ourselves from the world so that the spirit can be with us more powerfully, frequently, and that we may recognize it more. it is work but it is going great. I did it for the first time being really bold and i got a bit uncomfortable then i did it again and the spirit just filled me and i had a clean conscious it was incredible. oh the stories that can be told.

today we also had leadership council where we set the mission goals for this year and we talked about how we can obtain a better not only focus on the mission but a focus on helping our brothers and sisters come unto Christ through the waters of baptism. at the starting there was a part that was especially for me. We read in the book of Nehemiah  6 and how he built his wall to defend Jerusalem. in verse three he said that he couldn't attend to his enemies because he had a great and mighty work. i personally am apart of a great and mighty work right now. i only have 2 months left. i know that, but my calling is clear and my focus needs to be sure. i love you all, miss you all, and cant wait to see you in a couple of months but right now i have a great work that is being brought about. i need to be like the apostles of Christ in Mark 10 when He asked them to leave everything and that later on they would be rewarded 100 times more. if I'm to be ... i believe that God will prepare the way. He will take care of me those first few months. that is if i do what I'm supposed to do right now. may we all be focused in this great work and i know by you all helping me out i´ll be able to reach my up most potential and see so many miracles. I love my Father and His son and they have some work to be done and now is the time for the doing. This is my only chance so I'm gonna finish strong.

This is Christ true church on earth. The atonement is real. Missionary work is the true way to happiness. I have never been happier, healthier, or a better person as ever in my life before. I love you all. The Book of Mormon is true. Let us glorify and fulfill our part with God first and He will fulfill with us.

Love you all!

Elder Wilson

Holly Jolly Christmas and a Happy New Year

hey all!!!!

hope you guys had a wonderful Christmas full of amazing stuff!

we had a great Christmas here. got to go on divisions and work in our area where we saw so many miracles it was great. a wonderful christmas bringing everybody the best gift of all, the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. forgot to tell you guys a fun thing about two weeks ago. what happened was - we were on a bus going to switch back from divisions, it was about an 1hr bus ride and about 30 min in, all traffic stops. we end up sitting there for a while and then later on, go out of the bus to see whats up. what happened, was that all of the farmers got angry because the big companies were not buying their tomatoes but were buying the tomatoes from Brazila and Argentina. so in response they made a car and human blockade on the roadway for about 3 hours; stopping all thoroughfare traffic throughout the country. it was pretty interesting. we had the chance to talk to some people and decided to go study in the shade and sing christmas songs. later on the riot police came and pushed them out. we were about 1 mile away so we didn't see anything but it was very interesting.

this last week Juan was baptized!!!! he is the son of a family that we are teaching. you know that family that i was talking to you all about they were going to get married and baptized and they want to but she needs to get a divorce. thankfully for all of the different factors it will only take 6 months which is a miracle in itself. normally they take like 6-7 years and cost TONS of money. they will get it very cheaply and very quickly. it is so amazing the change that you see in the family. they are so much more united and happier. the brother (hector) told us that he wanted us to show him how to find book, chapter, and verse in the Book of Mormon so he can participate more in class. they are teaching the gospel to their kids. it is truly just incredible. the change that the gospel brings is amazing!

i'm doing really well. been focusing on my vision, goals, and plans for 2013. can't believe it is already here. wowza! really just wanting to be more christlike and applying the atonement more and more in my life. i also really want to KNOW my Father in Heaven and His Son Jesus Christ. so i've been studying a lot more about them lately. here in Paraguay everyone prays for good health and we have learned why. my companion has been a little bit sick ever since the divisions but he is a capo (beast) and keeps on pushing forward. i know that God put us together as a companionship for a reason. i'm learning so much and we are growing together.

thanks for all that you do and i love you all so much!!!!! glad that i was able to see you bright happy faces last week. keep em smiley and happy always!!!!!

the gospel is true. joseph smith was a prophet of God. Christ is the head of His church and works through His modern day prophet Thomas S. Monson. everyone needs to read the Book of Mormon because it is the only way one will know that this is the truth. they must pray and God being a God who is very personal and real will respond to us according to our desire and faith.

have a great week!!!!

love

elder wilson