Elder

Elder

Monday, March 31, 2014

March 31, 2014

Hello family!

This week was lots of hard work but lots of fun as well.  Had exchange with my new district leader.  He goes home at the end of this month and is from American Fork.  He is such a boss and you would never expect it from him! He is pretty small and looks shy but he just beast it up in every aspect of missionary work.  Very humble as well and I definitely  want to be like him as a missionary.  We had a lot of fun on exchange.  Had two dinner appointments both with Jess and Becky.  They were a lot of fun and good food! The rest of the week we spent knocking.  Wow was that rough.  There is a little town outside of where we live so we knocked the whole thing and got rejected the whole day! Never been rejected so much.  But still had a good attitude and was a lot of fun.  Jess is just doing amazing and progressing so well.  
  She receives answers to her prayers and now just needs to act on them.  Hopefully this week will be the week!  Really down part of our week.  Don't have much else happen this week.  Just been working hard and striving to be my best.  Hope Michael and Jess had a great wedding and that Makaylie kicked butt in her last competition! Love and miss ya'll so much!

Have a little story for ya this week.  There was prophet who went on a mission and had no success at least that he knew of.  He didn't know that his testimony had reactivated a less active.  This less active went on to convert a big portion of the city.  The people were righteous and loved the Lord.  His son went on to be a huge influence in the church as well.  Baptizing thousands along with is friends and kids.  Little did this prophet know that because of his testimony and his courage to stand alone for what was right he saved thousands of people.  Know who I am talking about yet? 

The prophets name is Abinadi.

We can all learn from him.  Don't be afraid to stand along and stand up for what is right.  Even when the world mocks you and says you are weak just know that your have the power of God on your side.  In a missionary perspective it means a lot to me.  I haven't had much success when it comes to baptisms but when Elder Hegerhorst shared this with me it really touched me.  I know that the best thing i can do is just be a light unto the world that God really does exist and that there is hope for everyone.  Bearing testimony is another powerful way to touch even the hardest of hearts. 

I know that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ on the earth again.  The peace and happiness I have found in it can not be replaced.  I love the Lord and rejoice in being able to serve him.  At times it is hard especially when a lot has gone on like this last week but I know this is where I need to be and am so grateful for the chance I get to serve.  I am even more grateful for the Atonement and the wonderful gift it is to all of us.  Let the power of the atonement work within you and change you and the lives of others! I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Have a great week and LOVE YA TO SHREDZZ!!

Forever Faithful,
Elder Wilson



Getting his colors done.  



Becky's Family

Monday, March 24, 2014

March 24, 2014 


Well this week has bee pretty great! Went to the temple with our investigator Jess and it was a blast! Sure my parents have already posted photos since they have been talking to her.  It was a lot of fun and seemed to really help her with what life in the Church has to offer.  She told us she really wants to be sealed in the temple.   I also got a new companion named Elder Fuller.  he is from Highland Utah and has been on his mission for 1 year.  He is about 6'3 so I no longer walk anymore only run, which is ok since I will getting skinny faster again.  He served with polish elder and is kinda like a mini version of him haha.  He knows a lot about the scriptures and has a lot of talks by great people.  Have already learned a lot.  Mom and Dad he reminds me of Daniel Buhler a lot.  Looks like him a little and loves his music and singing.  It is ok thought because he has a pretty good voice unlike me.  It is always a bit rough starting with a new companion but we have done pretty well.  Saturday all we did was knock and we just killed it! Had loads of lessons and handed out 5 book of Mormons.  And to end the day we had a good lesson with our other investigator Becky.  Who has finally had her question about judgement answered! Thanks to our great and inspired Bishop.  Talked with her for two hours in his office during church and now she wants to be baptized even more! Miracles are flying over all over the the place here in Hedge End! England isn't to bad... most the time:)  Don't have any really cool stories but am just having a good time being a missionary! Everybody probably heard about Gunnar's finger and how sweet he now looks with a short finger! I think it is pretty sweeet and an epic story! Maybe I'll cut my toe off;)

Spiritual thought of the week is the family history!

What is the spirit of Elijah?  It is turning the Hearts of the Children to the Fathers.  Why is this so important?  Many are always talking about the missionary work done in the world today but most people forget about the missionary work being done on the other side.  Great missionaries like Joseph Smith and Moses are converting thousands of people in the Spirit World but they can't escape the grasps of hell because there work can not be done unless they have a body or is done by proxy.  Millions are catching the Spirit of Elijah even non members.  Everybody seems to be doing there family history.  Bringing members and nonmembers to find out about there family history is so important.  If you are afraid to share the gospel with others do it by sharing about family history.  The passage of the Spirit of Elijah is first found in Malachi.  Did you now that it is mentioned in all the Standard works?

Bible: Malachi 4:5
Book of Mormon: 3 Nephi 25: 5-6
D&C: Sections 2; 27:9; 128:17
Pearl of Great Price: JS-History 1: 37-39

The importance of Malachi's message is seen in all four standard works.  There is missionary work being done on the other side.  Our families need us though to be doing their ordinances for them.  As we do temple work we link our generations all the way back to Adam.  Missionary work in this life is also important.  We need to bringing the living to the knowledge of God's plan so they can help the missionary work on the other side through temple work.  This is the Lord's work and it will role forth among all people, tongues, and nations.  Nothing will stop it.  Choose this day whom ye will serve. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Wilson



Elder Filler and Elder Wilson


Wednesday, March 19, 2014

March 19, 2014

These are pictures that one of Collin's investigator sent us from their trip to the London Temple with one of the members in their ward he is serving in.













Monday, March 17, 2014

March 17, 2014



Hello!!

Well thanks for the firm rebuke on not sending pictures! I need to take more first of all and second the computers are so slow here compared to slough that it just takes up to much time.  I will try and do better but no promises! This last week has been pretty crazy, rough, boring, hard, all the above?  It was my last week with Elder Green which is a bummer but hey that is just missionary life for ya! He has been my favorite companion so far that is for sure! Elder Stewart goes home in 6 weeks so that is just insane! Elder Green is going to be leaving and going to the Maidstone Zone so he will have Elder Smith as his Zone leader so that is sweet! My new companion is named Elder Fuller and guess where he is from.... UTAH!! That is just the biggest shock ever! I just cant get a companion off of that dang North American continent.  Nobody knows him so we will see how things go when Wednesday comes rolling around.  Well as for my actual week it has been alright.  Elder Green and I have been struggling with finding new investigators so that has been super rough.  We have some solid people we are teaching especially Jess.  She is so cool and so prepared.  The only problem is she has a problem and needs to decided whether or not to stay with him. She is leaning more to kicking him out, but hopefully going to the temple tomorrow will help with that! She also fed us this last week and WOW is she an amazing cook! Her roast was so American and so good it was amazing.  They also have things called roast potatoes but they are done like you have never seen or had before.  England at least does that right haha.  The weather has just been so amazing that we broke out the short sleeve shirts and no coats!! WAHOO!!! I don't have much more to say then that.  I will have pictures of the temple so don't worry about that MOM AND DAD!!:)

For a spiritual thought I thought I would talk little bit about grace.
A lot of people now days believe that all you have to do is just say that Jesus is the Christ and you are saved.  That is completely and utterly false and devilish.  Though Jesus Christ is the only way by which we can be saved and return to the presence of the Father we must still do the works of righteousness.  The best way I have had it explained to me is like this.

When your mom pays for your piano lessons what does she expect?  Does she expect for you to pay her back?  No all she demands or commands is that you practice.  So it is with Christ and the atonement that he wrought for us.  He has payed the price and we will never have to pay that price as along as we except his atonement.  Now because he has done this for us he has the power to command us to do certain things if we choose to.  People may say that well aren't you saved by grace?  My answer to that is YES!! AND HOW GRATEFUL I AM FOR ALL THAT CHRIST AND OUR LOVING HEAVENLY FATHER HAVE GIVEN ME AND MY FAMILY.  The question I would then ask them is have you been changed by grace?  Yes we know that know matter how righteous of works we do in this life we cannot resurrect ourselves or give ourselves salvation.  That only comes through Jesus Christ.  But what we do in this life will affect whether or not we will live Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ and our families for eternity.  Now why does Jesus tell us that if we will but believe in him we will have eternal life?  Because when we begin to have true faith in Jesus Christ we will truly follow him and keep all his commandments with a willing heart and mind.  What is true faith then?  We know that faith is believing in things that are not seen but are true (Alma 32:21).  We also know that Paul tells us that we are to walk by faith and not sight.  So what are we to have faith in?  Our faith must be founded upon Jesus Christ as the Only Begotten of the Father and the Saviour and Redeemer of the World.  WE must have faith that through him we can be forgiven of our sins and return to live with our Heavenly Father.  When we have this faith we will do everything and want to do everything the Saviour asks of us.  So what does he ask of us then.  He has command us that we must repent and be baptized in his name.  "Unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven." John 3:5.  When we have this true Faith in Jesus Christ we will want to be baptized and enter into a convent with our Heavenly Father to take upon Christ name.  The Bible and Book of Mormon are all great examples of this.  When Peter is talking to the three thousand they ask him what they must do next and he says be baptized and they do it right away.  Throughout the entire Book of Mormon we read that after a prophet has cried repentance the people desire to be baptized.  As Jesus Christ says himself, 

"If you love me keep my commandments."  

In today's world where God is on the back burner and people love the world more it is hard to not wonder why me.  Remember that Christ was hated so much they crucified him.  Do you think that if we truly follow Christ that the world will not hate us?  We must all face trials and tribulations and those that do it in for Christ sake will receive a hundred fold.  I promise you that as you choose to follow Christ and serve him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength that you will find peace in this life, and eternal life in the world to come.  Christ invites all to come unto him and find rest in him.  I do the same to all that have not yet accepted his gospel.  If you truly love Christ you will be willing to take his named upon you.  I have felt his love for me more then ever when I have gone through the hard times as well as in the easy of times.  I know that this is his Church on the earth again and that it will never be taken from the earth again.  I know that as we apply his Atonement in our lives we can become more like him and return to live with our Heavenly Father again.  In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Have a great week and love ya to shredzz!! 

Love,

Elder Wilson

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

March10, 2014

Hello Family,

Well another week has just flown by! Nothing to exciting really happened this week.  Just super busy and always seemed to be in places we didn't want to be.  Just one of those weeks as a missionary I guess.  Brady Heinger got called out to this mission and leaves in May so that is pretty sweet! He emailed me this week wanting to know all the details.  We were lifting buddies sophomore year and decent friends throughout high school.  He will be a way good missionary.  The weather has just been gorgeous the last two days and to day is the same.  Hasn't been a cloud in the sky and has been in the teens (Celsius).  Been a nice change to see such blue skies and feel the warmth of the sun.  All the flowers and trees are blooming and everything is so green! England is going to be gorgeous in the summer! I am so excited for summer and can't wait for it.  The weather has been making me super trunky though cause it just reminds me of the good baseball weather, but I still love this work.  Yesterday before a D.A. Elder Green and I were knocking and stopped a guy between doors and he said he was busy so we ask if there was a better time we could come buy he said no so we asked if we could leave a card with our website and he freaked out.  Started marching towards Elder Green and saying to get out of his face and that we are lucky his kids were with him.  Elder Green and I were trying not to laugh because this guy didn't look threatening at all. It was quite a shock of course we just said sir we didn't mean to offend you we just know how much this message can bless your life and the life of your family.  He of course just got madder so we started laughing and said have a GREAT DAY!! So sad to see people get offended over nothing.  Dad the reason why we don't fight back is because in our white bible it tells not to resist thieves and to just carry extra money with us to give it to them.  So thats why we don't fight.  Now obviously  we can defend ourselves but should try to avoid it all costs even though your blood is boiling after.  Elder Green and I also wanted to clean up our language and be more Christ like.  Now we don't say bad words but we say "flippin heck, flippin, piece of crap, waster, dang, and call each other man instead of Elder." So we made a swear jar and every time you swear you have to pay a pound.  Well the first day lets just say I dropped £40:)  And by the end of the week had £65 in there haha! Elder Green was pretty bad as well.  It is amazing though how when you do the small things how much more you feel the spirit.  The way we get our money back or what we call our repentance is we have to work out every morning and if we do it every day we get it all back on Sunday.  And if you don't do it every day depending how much you miss will decided how much you get back.  Needless to say I have learned a lot about repentance and how both God and Satan feel.  The first day was terrible for me and because I was so low I wanted Elder Green to be low and so I played Satan haha.  Pretty crazy how easy it is to want to bring others down.  But then the rest of the time when Elder Green swore you felt bad and new that if he would just stop he would have money.  Really crazy to see that perspective on things.  Of course we applied all of Gods rules to our repentance process.  We are still doing it and the good thing is we only swear maybe once or twice a day now!:) Our investigators are still going strong and if all goes well next month we will have a few baptisms but we will see what the Lord has in store for us! Transfers are next week so I will probably be getting a new companion.  Pretty sad about that cause Elder Green is my favorite companion but change is necessary.  Hopefully I get to train this time! 

Love you all to Shedzz

Elder Wilson

Monday, March 3, 2014

March 3rd, 2014

Hello Family!
Well I think all of you deserve a good email? I am such a slacker but I'm 5000 miles from ya'll so you can't do anyting about it!;) Life has been going pretty great. I will start with the pretty cool miracle that happened last week. We were knocking some doors before going in for the night and this lady opened and right away she wasn't very interested. But we started asking questions and getting her to think a little bit more and pretty soon she was opening up to us and telling us how she is looking for something and trying to find out if God is really there. Her husband tried shutting the door but she told him to shut up and that she was talking. That never happens so that was great! We gave her a Book of Mormon and tried getting her number but she said she would text us. That usually means no. WEll that night while we were just being lazy bums we get a text from her! She had started to read the Book of Mormon and was very excited to see us again. So we got a return appointment. Well the bad news is the day we were suppose to see her she text us saying that her husband didn't want us coming over because he wasn't comfortable with it. She was respecting him but has a friend thats a mormon in another ward she is talking with and she is so excited about this new door being opened for her. Sad we probably won't ever teach her but a good seed has been planted!
Our one investigator we have been working with for ages has just been going downhill so fast. She basically wants all the blessings but wants to live in the world. She likes loop holes and things she has found on and won't let go of it. It is really frustrating and sad to see her just give up so easily. We are going to try one more thing with her and if it doesn't work we have to drop her. She was suppose to go to the temple Saturday but canceled on us. It sucked since we had a member drive us to another flatt to sleep over so we could catch a bus going up there. So that was annoying but had a fun sleep over with 4 other elders haha. The great part is that God loves and has blessed us with another great investigator. She is basically just like Becky but a little bit smarter. She has a partner but isn't married so will probably be awhile till she is baptized but ya never know the Lord works miracles! She has a paryting problem as well so thats going to be another fun lesson as well haha. We started teaching her last Thursday and she came to church yesterday. Since it was fast sunday all the kids were bearing testimony and the adults as well. It was great because almost all the testimonies were about Joseph Smith and The Plan of Salavtion which was perfect for her. The greatest part though is that towards the end she leaned over to us and ask if she can go up. We said if she wants so she did! It was so flippin sweet to see it! She jsut said thanks and that she was excited to learn more and that she had all the members to lean on. Just so great! God just loves his missionaries haha. Well after a great time at church and being in primary.... AGAIN Elder Green and I faced the opposition. That morning had been really niced so we just wore are suits and no coat. Well when church was over it was freezign and raining. We had two hours of work before a D.A. so that was a blast! We got super wet and cold but got two new investigators so it was ok. When we got to the members home it was so funny. She was making fun of us as she was coming to the door and when she opened it she was still saying something funny and then realized we were soaked and went "OH NO LOOK AT YOU TWO!!" It was so funny and then she percided to mommy us and dry us off.  It was so great.  We had a nice dinner and then it was time to go back out.  We got a bus back to our flatt but still had a 15 minute walk back to the flatt.  It was raining harder then before and I was about to pee my pants.  So we got super soaked and Elder Green found a tiny umbrella which was hiliraious haha.  Good thing was we made it back to the flat safe and wet and I got to pee:)  Just one crazy week!

One more story.  We are teaching this family in our wards kids since one is 10 and not baptized and the dad is less active.  There are 6 kids between 10 and 18 months and one on the way.  There are also kittens haha.  Well this week we made plan of salavtion pizzas that went very well.  But while they were cooking the kids went bonkers.  They were jumping on us and kicking us.  NOw missionaries arent allowed to have kids on them or even tickle them.  But there were so many and everytime we sat down we got killed.  We would have to kids on us and one would come flying out of nowhere and just body slam us ahah.  It was a good ole WWE! We lost but once the pizza came everything sorta calmed down haha.  Life is just crazy as a missionary!!

I don't have time for a spirtual thought but know that I love you guys and that I know that this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ.  The inner peace we all are looking for can be found by livving the gospel.  Our loving Heavenly Father knows that we will fall down many times but because he loves us so much he gaves us his son.  Turn to him in every thought and doubt not, fear not.  I hope you all have a great week and LOVE YA TO SHREDZZ!!


Love,
Elder Wilson