July 14, 2014

Well I am moving to my new area this Wednesday! That will make for 4 areas and 7 companions in my first year.  That is a lot more then I expected haha:) The area I will be going to is called the Isle of Wight. Just of the coast of Portsmouth so I will be moving back to my old zone which pretty cool.  My new comps names is Elder Belnap and from what I hear he is a hilarious guy so the Lord has once again blessed me with another great companion! I sure will miss Crawley though.  Going to miss the Cragg family with who I stay with.  Their oldest son Ben is the greatest and will miss him a ton! This week was pretty fun.  We did some more service for a guy we met on the street six weeks ago. He had us clear this big area of vines with massive thorns and all I had was gloves with holes in them and a scythe haha. Then we hand to cut big ole branches off that had some massive thorns that were just solid wood. Elder Gunnell took a few and made a crown just like the one they put on the Saviours head.  Really put into perspective what must have felt like to have that pressed into your head.  I had a few fall on mine from them falling and it didn't feel all that good. That amazing part though is the guy we did service for only wanted us to help him six weeks ago but he came to church and new some members and said next time he will bring his whole family and won't have appointments so he can stay the whole time! So amazing! The Lord is definitely blessing the people here in Crawley.  It was funny cause when he came to church he recognized one of the members and the member recognized him and shouted his name and gave him a big ole hug! It was the greatest! I just love this gospel and all that it does for us.  Saturday we went to the temple with an investigator and it helped her so much.  She really felt the Spirit and made the comment I don't know how anyone could not accept this and know its true.  The temple is such a blessing and how grateful I am for it and all the blessings and love that pours from it.  How wonderful it is to have a Heavenly Father that loves us so much and pours out so many blessings!  THE CHURCH IS TRUE! Well that's it for most of my week.  Hope you all are doing well and LOVE YA TO SHREDZZ!! 

Love,
Elder Wilson

Arms after removing thorny bushes

The Thorny Bushes

This is one of the family members that Collin lives with

London Temple with an investigator

Dad's Note

Collin gave me a task to study D&C 8 and 9 which is about asking the Lord and receiving answers but it also talks about why we may fail and this is fear.  Here is a little something he wrote to me that I would like to share.  

Glad you studied D&C!  I love those chapters as well since it is always a nice rebuke:)  I love how you just lays out how to receive personal revelation.  It is amazing how much he loves us and truly wants to talk to us.  Fear is definitely a killer of faith.  The two scriptures I love that help me to remember that there no need to fear are D&C 6:36 and Timothy 1:7. The Lord gives us every opportunity to succeed we just have to be willing to put the effort in.  We must also remember that doubt and fear lead to despair and Moroni 10:22 lets us know that despair comes from inequity so if we want to rid or selves of fear and walk uprightly before God we need to always repent and let Virtue garnish our thoughts unceasingly! Thanks for sharing all that with me.  It was something I needed to hear. I think the greatest blessing of serving am mission are the ones that go to your family.  Elder Nielson gave a talk to the new mission presidents and told them "Why do missionaries serve missions?" It is to bless their great great grandchildren with blessing of being sealed in the temple for eternity. Everything we do in the church is to point to the temple." I thought that was pretty amazing that I am here not for myself but for my future family.  The Lord is so mindful of us and all our needs! My heart swells with so much gratitude as I remember and see all the blessings he gives me in my life! Thanks for all you do dad and I LOVE YA TO SHREDZZ!! 

Love,

Elder Wilson

Here is a little info as to where he is getting transferred to:

Collin said they have huge festivals i the summer and the population goes from 100,000 to 250,000 during the summer.

Climate

Being one of the most southerly parts of the UK, the Isle of Wight has a milder sub-climate than most other areas, which makes it a popular holiday destination, particularly the resorts in the south east of the island. It also has a longer growing season than most other areas in the UK. The mean temperature is 13 degrees Celsius averaged over the whole year, and is 18 degrees in July and August. The microclimate of places such as Lower Ventnor is influenced by their sheltered position under the cliffs. The Isle of Wight is also sunnier than most parts of the UK and Western Europe, with 1800–2100 hours of sunshine a year, more than areas of northern Spain.

Modern history

During the Second World War the island was frequently bombed. With its proximity to France the island also had a number of observation stations and transmitters, and was the starting-point for one of the earlier Operation Pluto pipelines to feed fuel to the Normandy landings.

The Needles battery was used as the site for testing and development of the Black Arrow and Black Knight space rockets, subsequently launched from Woomera, Australia.

The Isle of Wight Festival was a very large rock festival that took place near Afton Down, West Wight in 1970, following two smaller concerts in 1968 and 1969. The 1970 show was notable both for being one of the last public performances by Jimi Hendrix and for the number of attendees reaching, by many estimates, 600,000. The festival was revived in 2002 in a different format and is now an annual event.