Hot, Hot Day in December

Hello one and all!!!!!

The saying with the missionaries during this time is ¨oh its gettin hot. christmas must be around the corner.¨ yes it is gettin a tad bit hot in Paraguay even though I'm a bit more used to the heat it still kinda kills, but its all good. Most days are in the high 90´s or the low 100´s. we chug down water and now since me and elder mcgee are on diets and getting better at exercises we are chuggin down that ¨y¨ (guarani for water) it is pronounced as if someone just punched you in the stomach while you are saying ew. i hope that makes sense. 

despite the heat this week has been a  good week we have been workin a ton. this saturday we are gonna have 2 baptisms!!!!!! they are for Sabastian Martinez and Elias C. Sabastian is the husband of Marta who her and her kids were baptized in march. He is ready and he is excited its so awesome!!!!! Elias is the son of a member who was living with his mom before but now moved in with his dad and loves the church and is also super excited to be baptized!!!!! YAY!!!! 

We also had a great experience this week with finding new people to teach. As we were walking down this street i was praying that we could find some new people who are ready to receive the gospel. As we reach a top of the street we see this man and his wife sitting outside of their house. He flags us down and we start talking. he tells us ¨i am in a low part of my life right now and only God can help  out. Can you guys help me?¨ ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh being a missionary is soooo awesome!!!! those experiences are just ones that make you say wow this is awesome!!!! His name is Fabio and his wife is Analia. as we started teaching them - out of no where started popping out all of these other people. soon many of their cousins, brothers, and sisters came on over to talk with us!!!! 

So Christmas in Paraguay. Y'all knowing me know that I'm gonna look hard for the traditional xmas food or snack here. Here their gingerbread cookies are Pan Dulce. Pan dulce is a raisin bread that has other fruit put into it and they put a frosting thing on top. its pretty good. In my area there are a decent amount of lights as you walk down the street but the most popular thing is nativities. Almost everyone has one. They all look the same but that is the traditional nativity of Paraguay. There are some trees but they are all fake which is a bummer but oh well. The biggest celebration is done Christmas at 12:00 AM when everyone goes outside and blow up fireworks. Ever since november fireworks have been for sale. the most common is a firecracker. kids run around with these, light them up and throw them in the street; after a month or so you get used to it.

We gave talks this last week and mine was on how during the Christmas season we need to remember the main reason why we celebrate christmas which is to remember our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ birth. I am personally so grateful for the Savior. I am so grateful to be apart of his work and to share his gospel with his people here in Paraguay. The gospel is true. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. Families have the opportunity to be able to be together forever. I am going to do everything to be able to be with my family forever. I love this church it is the only true church on the earth.

I love you all and pray for you everyday. 

Love

Elder Wilson


Pictures:
1. The traditional nativity of Paraguay
2. The fun youth of our ward
3. Fam Martinez
4. Traditional birthday set up

fam martinez

traditional birthday set up

Quedando en 3 Bocas!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY EDEN!!!

Hey everyone!!!!!

 

Well transfers came and went and still in good ol 3 bocas with elder mcgee!!!!

This last week we went on splits with the priests in our branch and it was awesome!!! I had the great opportunity and blessing with going with Javier Martinez. He is 17, a recent convert of 8 months, and just wonderful. We split the area up in two; and me and Javier hit the empedrado running. What was a bit of a bummer was that all of our visits fell, but that didnt put us down at all we kept on trucking ahead and just went around to find people to teach. We ended up teaching around 4 lessons and talking to a bunch of people. If we saw them outside or walking we would chat with them for a little bit and invite them to church or put an appointment for the next time we could pass by. It was great!!!! 

Later on in the week, we had a wonderful experience with the Martinez family (Javiers fam). Marta Martinez, a few years ago, got the same thing that grandma utah had which paralyzed all of her left side. When we were there we were teaching  a lesson on having faith in our prayers and putting in our part. She had lost all confidence in walking again and has been too scared to try it again. We sat down with her and her family to set a goal to have her start practicing walking so that she can walk around church all by herself without needing the help of her husband or children. Now she is all pumped and excited to be putting in the effort to walk again!!!! She has the faith and now she has the drive. Through faith truly anything is possible.

 

Can you believe that this last sunday was the last testimony meeting of 2011??????? I know that is kinda crazy stuff huh? It was a great meeting. Sadly there wasnt a ton of people but there was a great spirit. During the testimony meeting a few members mentioned the missionaries and the effect they had on their lives. Many times it would be us just passing by and saying hi or them seeing us on the street working. Like the advice Blair gave me before i came: our people are really watching us at all times and everywhere we go; which makes it even more important for us to be examples of Jesus Christ in all that we do and say.

 

Truly i am so grateful for all of those around me. they teach me so much and show me so many different things. nothing is big or small. I love this gospel and this church so much. I know that we all have a loving Heavenly Father who watches over us and cares for us all. He sent his only son to come to this earth to suffer for us that we may repent and come more unto him and be able to return to live with our Father in Heaven once again. Missionary work is one of the best experiences and blessings that i have in my life. I have learned so much and i have come so far and even though iv'e got a good while to go i know what i gotta do to get there. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you and i hope all of the best.

 

Love,

 

Elder Wilson

 

 

thanksgiving day and transfers again

Hey family!!!!

hope all is going well back home. Its getting a bit hotter here in beautiful paraguay. hittin up into the high 90´s and low 100s which is pretty nice. i'm getting really used to it so its all good!!!!

This last week was thanksgiving week which down here isn't much at all. In another area there are a ton of Americans living there so the elders there had a thanksgiving dinner but i very much enjoyed my traditional paraguayan food. Down here they don't celebrate thanksgiving but its still really nice to ponder on it. Dad invited me to continue on the tradition of writing down 10 things that i'm grateful for each night and not repeating any of them. It was very fun to do and its a great family tradition. There are truly so many things that we can be grateful for. Mine ranged from fam, mission pres, Sopa Paraguaya, happiness, the gospel of Jesus Christ, Jesus the Christ, and many other great and wonderful things. When we look all around us we can find so many things that we can be grateful for; its a wonderful experience. 

We had stake conference yesterday here. It was for Fernando de la Mora Sur. or in missionary terms Zona 4. wait have you guys seen Zona 4 before? i believe yes you have. if you go back around 7 months ago you will see that i was in this zone before! it is actually where i started my mission!!!! so i got to see all the people from my first ward which was awesome. they are all doing great and all very big. the topic was missionary work which i loved. there are a nice handful of missionaries heading out from here. from what i can remember one to argentina, chile, peru and dominican republic. and a bunch are putting their papers in which is a great thing. missionary work truly is awesome!!!! i love it so much! it pushes your boundaries which is pretty fun. since yall know that im a talker (thank you mom) i have gotten more comfortable with just talking with random people on the street. another big blessing that i have learned of on the mission is the importance of knowledge. it is so important to know things. it may be from gardening, world affairs, fish, soccer, to so many other things. you dont have to be an expert but you do know a bit of multiple things then you are able to connect with so many people which is just tons of fun.

as the title indicates the end of transfers is in two days which is insane!!!! the new year is coming and everything is happening so fast!!!! a sad thing is that my  trainer is going home and that one of my biggest examples on the mission is going home too. its sad but you are happy for them because i know that they are both wonderful elders and great examples plus it means that there are NEW MISSIONARIES COMING I- YAY!!!!!! 

i have also gained a personal testimony that God knows what he is doing. personally at times i feel like i have no idea what he is doing but i do know that he knows what he is doing. we get put into so many different situatios but you gotta do what you gotta do and push forward with faith.

love you all so very much and am super grateful for you all!!!! my prayers and best wishes go out to every single one of you. i know this church is the only true church on the earth. that the gospel with all of its wonders has been restored to the earth through a modern day prophet Joseph Smith and that today we have a living prophet Thomas S. Monson who guides us. Prayer is amazing. Pray. Faith works wonders. Keep the commandments and do what God asks you to do and he will trust you and give you blessings.

love you all

Elder Wilson

Holidays

Quick message from elder Parker Wilson's dad.
We appreciate your interest, thoughts and prayers for Parker. If you are thinking of sending him a package or letter before the holidays you may want to send it shortly to assure a timely arrival. Addresses in the right hand columns

Thanks
making it more convenient here it is

Elder Parker Wilson
2881 Del Maestro c/ Caballero
Barrio Herrera
Asunción, Paraguay

Learning and Growing

Mba´tekopio che familia kuera!!!!

 

Things are goin well here in tres bocas. We had an awesome zone conference this last week. It was all about focusing on the attributes of Christ in ourselves and changing ourselves to help out others. We also focused on teaching the people and not lessons. The gospel touches different people in different ways and it is our calling to be able to listen to the spirit and adjust to what God wants this person to hear in that moment. So you know how on your mission some times you have to do something a bit different to invite or have someone talk to you so we were teaching a friend of ours who is Ricardo; he was outside of his friends house who we also know, who also is named Ricardo. The ricardo inside would pop out his head and make fun of the ricardo with us for talking to us and just being distracting. so having seen them playing pool in the room outside i said to the one inside ¨hey if i beat you in pool you gotta listen to us for 20min¨ he agreed. The best and fastest pool game i have every played and it was an amazing lesson and opened them all up to listen to us more and take our message more seriously.

 

This week has also been full of bdays (dario), service, moving rocks painting roofs, cutting trees all of the great ol stuff. Being able to serve a mission is truely the biggest blessing that i have ever received, i have grown so much and am able to grow just a ton. I am a completely different and better person because i am here in che retá pora (missing a squiggle line on the r) i love paraguay i love my mission i love this gospel even more. I met an RM who was an amazing missionary he told us of what he has learned and everything else you can just tell. the sad thing is that he has been inactive for the last year. this gospel will always be apart of my life and nothing can take me away from the gospel of Jesus Christ because that is the source of our true happiness. Whatever we are doing if we focus more on Christ it will get better. Put what we want to the side and do what God wants the we will learn so much.

 

I gotta go. the storm put out all of the lights so we are doing internet late today and gotta get off by 6 to go and work. i love you all and pray for you daily

 

love

 

Elder Wilson

 

Pictures:

1. Darios Bday great kid gonna be a great missionary

2. Me and Elder McGee

3. Road River (video next week) this is what happens when it rains.

service service service

Hey one and all!!!

So this week was a wonderful week of service. We did service thurs, fri, and sat. The first project was going over to a house to clean up all of the old branches and leaves that were stacked up in the back so that we could have a FHE at the house. To get rid of leaves and branches and such in Paraguay the most common way is burning. So with a bit of medical alcohol and flames in a barrel we cleaned up a good amount. During that time  we captured a black scorpion; that was really cool because they are supposed to be really rare here and could hurt very very badly. (don't worry no one was harmed) The second one we started doing one of my personal favorites. Taking a machete and climbing a tree to cut off branches. If you don't want it to look super pretty and just want to cut it off i would personally use a machete. if sharp enough it can cut a big branch really quick. Plus doing that service project is really fun for me cuz i get to remember the good ol days when me and the guys would go climb trees at the church. Then Sat we cleaned out  grass that was growing out onto the street which was fun and then of course trimmed more trees. Oh and i learned a new vocab word ¨Podar¨ which means trimming. oh ya learn something new everyday.

oh and just a random fun fact this week we started running in the morning. my gosh.... running for 30 min and walking for 9 hours are completely different. 

So the picture that i sent was of the Paraguay Tortilla. It is actually really good. It is what i think is the closest that you can get to a scone. you mix up everything the flour, eggs, water, and salt and then you fry it. normally my favorite is when they put in queso paraguayo and some green onions ohhh yum yum. another fun food that they eat here that before i wasn't a huge fan of but now that i am, is called Sopa Paraguaya which is Paraguayan Soup. guess what????? ITS A SOLID!!!! its made out of corn flour and you put cheese and hard boiled eggs inside of it and then you bake it. It is really good. Then another traditional Paraguay food that we ate this last week was a thing that i forgot what it is called but you take a hard boiled egg (Paraguay loves hard boiled eggs) and you wrap cheese and ground beef around it and then ya cook it and make a rice dish next to it. very yummy.

as a missionary you find yourself pondering alot. and recently I've been pondering a good amount. the first main thing that i have been pondering is the importance of following the council of the prophets. the prophets many times give us council to help us evade temptations in this life that can lead us down a wrong path. i have been fortunate enough to have wonderful parents who strongly follow and support the prophets and teach us to follow them as well. the world is completely different today than it was during the time of Christ or even during the time of WW2, and it continues changing. Sometimes we may see something as harmless and in reality isnt something that is going to put us into horrible situations but the prophets have warned us against is because it can make it  easier to get into temptation such as, good media (music, movies, tv, internet), modesty, dating when you turn 16, getting an education, ect. yes many of these things may not be horrible but they do make you more susceptible to temptation. as i have personally followed more and more to prophetic council i find myself being more susceptible to the spirit and just happier and safer. Follow the prophet he knows the way. 

Currently i am reading 3 different books at the moment. (i know strange) the Book of Mormon, the New Testament, and Jesus the Christ. They are all wonderful and just help me grow in so many ways. personally i am loving ready Jesus the Christ by Talmage it is just wow. i thought i would never say this but i am grateful that i took AP Lit my senior year. Talmage at times reads a bit differently with tough english but thanks to AP Lit i understand it!!!! Jesus the Christ though has helped me just get such a better insight into the life our the Savior and really who he was and what he has done. It is helping me grow my faith and my love for my Savior and Redeemer. Right now I'm just 1/6 in around pg 125 and i have love every part of it and i can't wait to read more.

This church is so true i dont know who or where i would be without it. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY AND I LOVE PARAGUAY!!!!! these have been the best 8 months of my life and i cant wait to keep on living the next 16!!!!!! I love you all very much and pray for you daily. Stay true to the faith, love life, and follow the gospel, the blessing and joy from following everything to the dot is amazing!!!!

love

Elder Wilson

ps got the bday package thank you for the socks wearing a pair right now and the tie is saaaweeet!!! and question was the bag of mints just taken out of the armrest in the Saab cuz i know that is where mom puts them and there were 4 or 5 wrapers that were in there. oh i know my family so well. 

Photos:

1. This is why mom and dad say ¨dont lean back on your chair¨ 
2. Tortilla (Paraguay Version) Salt, Flour, Eggs, Water, add cheese onions and other stuff to taste
3. It was really hot

Badabing Badaboom

Hey All!!!!!

Well another week has just flown by here in Paraguay (rhymes). Things are going splendid here in 3 bocas which is a bunch of fun. we are teaching  people and finding  new people to teach. we are going to an area that elders haven't really focused on in a long time. there we found a bunch of new great people who are just amazing and ready to receive the gospel. We have a good hand full of people who are getting ready for baptism.  The biggest change is Sabastian i think i may have talked about him last week, but if not here he is. He is a father of a family of recent converts. They got baptized around 7 months ago the familia martinez. he has been very unsure and not wanting to rush into things but we went there with the elders quorum president and he now has a baptismal date for december (going on a work trip) he is wonderful and the family is wonderful full of love and joy. the sister has the same thing that gma utah has so she can only use one half of her body but she goes to church every sunday it is awesome!!!!!!!

fast and testimony meeting was just awesome. we had a bunch of recent converts who have become a bit less active back at church and they brought their friends which is awesome. the best part though is that we had very little to do with it. IT WAS ALL MEMBERS!!!!!!!! YAAAAAAAA!!!!! members are so uber caduber important. with out them missionary work would be 90% less effective. i have also come to love and really appreciate fast and testimony sundays. i get to focus on a thing that's going on -  and pray and fast about it and also have the great blessing to share my testimony with others. when we came home the landlady, who we call mama, and her sister tia were talking about fasting and we had the grand opportunity to talk about the importance of fasting and how its us putting in that little extra effort of faith for a specific thing. i have come to just love the power of fasting and be super grateful for it. many times we fast as a companionship for special situations: investigators, members, relationships, and a whole bunch of wonderful things. a thing that i remember from a district meeting a while back was when our DL talked to us about sacrifice on our mission. for a fast (24hrs) we give up food and drink, for our missions (24 months) we give up ourselves and the world. we put every back behind us. it doesn't matter if it is music, videos, habits, speech, time, and many other things we are giving it up for the best reason known to man; to dedicate ourselves and our all to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to put him first in front of everything. WHAT A BLESSING!!!!! my gosh i love the mission it is SSOOOOOO AMAZING!!!!!! full of growth and experiences!!!!

love you all and hope and pray for the best

Elder Wilson

Pictures:
1. So Darky (landladies dog) was playing and ripped a hole in my shirt i decided to sow it and did a really bad job. dont worry i sowed my pants really well when i fixed a hole.
2. View on our roof on a stormy day really pretty
3. Let me introduce you to Elder Austin McGee
4. Now behold DARKY!!!!!!!
5. Isnt he just a cutie (big dogs make people feel safe and happy we should get one in naperville!!!!)