Ñemby‏ (Sept. 14,2015)

I got transferred this week!

So right now I'm in an area called Ñemby 1.1 as a Zone Leader, and my companion is Elder Sander from Uruguay. Ñemby is impossible to pronounce.

A little about my new area, it's about 50% campo and 50% city, which is pretty nice. There are some spots that remind me immensly of Coronel Oviedo, and it shocks me to think that I was there over a year ago. People start to tell me in lessons that I'm like almost done with my mission and stuff and I'm just like "NO!! I'VE STILL GOT TONS OF TIME LEFT" it's pretty funny. I'm loving the work we're doing as well right now. Yesterday we confirmed 2 kids named Hugo and Samuel Vera, who are super great and I had the opportunity to participate in conferring the holy ghost on them.

The reason I'm late today is because we had a Zone Council meeting in Asunciòn today, and it took forever. It was a nice meeting, with a good spirit about it, with some minor and major changes to the way we do things in the mission. Overall really interesting, but definitely spiritually edifying. 

It's pretty great. Honestly I feel really awesome about everything that's going on right now. The spirit is so strong with us as we work and serve.

Elder Sander is pretty great. He's obedient, spiritual, and fun to be around. We get along great, and we work hard, and my shoes are getting absolutely decimated again. Finally. We're having an awesome time and I'm sure we'll have tons of success while we're helping out the other missionaries here. Also, Elder Sander is super tall! Hooray! Another huge companion. The kids here in Ñemby love my eyebrow movement thing, and now that I have the Thomas S. Monson-like  ability to wiggle my ears, I'm making a lot of friends, really really fast. 

The work is going super well. I'm happy to be here, as always. I also hear that Elder Garbett is doing good in Ka'aguy Rory with his new companion. As is Elder Jara.
Elder Arrington is home now and has a beard.

Love

Elder Wilson

SCRIPTURE POWER! (AUG.24,2015)

This week was really really good. Generally just a spiritual boost and well exciting for the work.

Being the week of ward conference, we had a lot of activities. I had the opportunity to bear testimony about etarnal families in the ward family night activity that we did early on in the week, which was a great time and had pretty good refreshments.

Another activity we did was going on splits with some of the ward members on saturday. Elder Garbett went with Bishop Torres, and I went with our ward mission leader Luis (who is prepping to return to his mission this january). It was a great experience, and really cool to be able to get a few lessons done with important investigators at the same time. I suggest that all the young men and young women go out with the missionaries as often as possible. I did it, and it was pretty cool to get to proselyte with Maren and the Sisters. I remember being kinda scared to knock doors in the states, but since I've been here I can't really remember being scared to talk to anyone. 

That all lead to a bunch of people coming to church for the ward conference, where I, along with the young men, young women, and other elders, performed a mix of "Love One Another" and "Donde hay amor" in front of the crowd. It was pretty great. Just kidding it was just pretty okay. Paraguayans are tone deaf. 

I also got more opportunities to use the priesthood this week in blessings, which is always a testimony builder. Seeing tears stream down the faces of people after you get done performing the blessing always warms my heart and reminds me of why I'm here. It was sort of a standard week other than that, with not tons going on. Lots of proselyting and spirit and fun. Currently I'm reading through the New Testament, and I'm absolutely in love with the Scriptures right now. Really it's just the greatest blessing to have such a huge resource of help, advice, instruction, and information at my disposal, and I can't go without reading the Book of Mormon every day. Read your dang scriptures, people! They're amazing. I also got a tiny pocket new testament in spanish, which is really useful. I signed the back where it asks you to sign if you accept Jesus as your personal savior, so I think that means I'm saved. 

Also this thursday we also have a meeting with Walter F. Gonzales from the Area Presidency. It's just for the missionaries, so I'll report back about what happens. 

Love,

Elder Wilson

Happy Labor Day! (Sept. 7,2015)

Baptism of Mario Arce

Elder Garbett and I had our first baptism this week! Elder Garbett performed the ordinance. Mario kept on not going in all the way, so poor Elder Garbett had to perform the baptism like 6 times. Well, the first one is always a little interesting. He did a great job, and Mario didn't really seem to care. 

Mario's conversion was a tender mercy of the Lord for Elder Garbett and I. Essentially what happened is that the first few times we visited him, he like screamed at us because so many missionaries had tried to convince him to get baptized. Then one day at sacrament meeting he came up and said "Elders... it's my time. I want to get baptized. You guys need to teach me everything again and I want to get baptized in like 2 weeks." So that's what we did. It was wonderful to see and experience and he seemed genuinely happy to be finally baptized. He's quite the character, but he's got a tender heart and his wife and grand kids will be there to support him. It was a miracle for Elder Garbett and I, and we've been working really hard for 3 months with seemingly no results, but we've been blessed by the spirit of the Lord with a lot of growth and experience during the few months we've been together. Having a baptism isn't really the important part, but it was a great time anyway and is sure to help Elder Garbett out in his mission. I'm glad I was here with him for his first Baptism.

Some other news from this week 

We're also now allowed to drink Coca-Cola as a mission, which was music to my ears. Literally every family just buys coke, and then they're forced to by an extra soda for the missionaries at every single lunch. Without fail. It at least makes the lunches easier. Very good news for me.

We also had splits with ZL Elder Lema from Ecuador, who I've been living with for the past 4 1/2 months. We had a good time, and I tried to help him out with his area a bit. They've been struggling for a while and it was nice to help him feel the spirit of the work in his area again.

other than that, transfers are this week, and I'll write about what happens next week.

Love 

Elder Wilson

Also Oscar Franco, my convert, got the Melchezidek Priesthood this week!

So proud!

                                                             

                                                                                    Baptism Day!

                      There's a super weird guy in our ward named Flabio and he makes me laugh.

                                                                        Chillin with Sabio Flabio

All the missionaries in the ward.

                                                    With Elder Lema and Elder Eloff (tall) and Flabio