November 24, 2014
I have never cried after leaving an area before because I am
always so excited to go to my next area, but for the first time on my mission I
cried because I was leaving an area. It was honestly worse then leaving
home since I had no idea if I would ever see those people again. I still just
want to go back to the Isle of Wight, but I know that the Lord wants me here
and there are people here for me to find and bring into the light of the gospel.
As for Plymouth it is a pretty massive place and is pretty cool! It has only
rained once since I've been here and it wasn't it hard. But holy cow compared
to the Island this place is so big and life is so fast in it. Everyone on
the island is either old or just sorta young and way chill. Everyone in
Plymouth goes to one of the two universities or just works so everyone is just
going everywhere so fast. There are also so many flippin people! And they
aren't all English or white haha. Like a kid on Christmas;) Such a
different life style here its crazy. Are flat is in the middle of the
city and is basically 5 minutes away from all the cool stuff there is to
see. We have 6 Elders in our ward but they live in a four man flat a
little north of us. One day I will be in a four man flat! We are right by the
ocean as well and its beautiful. I really love contacting by it and it's really
nice. As for the ward they are pretty cool as well. Our ward
mission leader is a boss. We play basketball every Thursday, Friday we
have a seminar, and Saturday morning we play football (Soccer). It's a lot
of fun and a good way to get people out. Unfortunately the two sports I just
flat out suck at are the two we play. Well time to get good I guess! The sad
thing about this ward or should stake is that a lot of people are falling
away from the church. One of the Elders that served here a year ago told
me that since he has left 35 people have gone less active. We also have 600 less
actives in our ward alone. Got our work cut out for us!
My companion is a crazy big ginger Scottish man. He is
pretty funny as well which makes it easy to get along with him. He is
pretty blunt to which makes it easy to change. He has a great love for
the gospel and such a strong testimony and Spirit around him. He told me the
other day that since I have come in, that instead of feeling the Spirit like
once or twice a day he feels it like every hour. He also told me that the way I
can captivate people when I speak and bring the Spirit is amazing as
well. I was just sitting there with my mouth wide opened and thinking is
he talking about me? That was such a tender mercy from the Lord! I honestly
feel like the biggest waster who can never feel the Spirit or be guided by it.
So that was very touching to me. It will be a good companionship. An
interesting one but a good one.
This last Saturday when we played football we played outside
and it had just rained really hard the night before. So the field was
just a muddy mess. All the English had cleats, but us missionaries were
just running around on shoes actually more like slipping around haha. So
basically all we did was just sit back and defend by coming up really hard and
just either kicking the ball away, knocking people on their butts or what
mostly happened falling on our own butts. We were so muddy! Elder Gull
and I kept just trying to take each other out haha. The area basically has no
investigators so we are starting from scratch. Always seems to be my
luck:) We have a few less actives that we are working with so that helps with
things. We got a few solid return appointments for this week so pray that
we get some solid new investigators out of it!
So last night we stopped a guy right before going in. Elder
Mackay had already talked to him about a week ago, but we spoke to him again
anyway. He acted the same, but then I just out of nowhere started talking
about the after life and then all of sudden he went from I'll call you to when
can we meet up tomorrow and talk more. It was amazing! Especially since
we had been finding for the last 3 hours in the freezing cold and having no
success and then the last guy we talk to we get a return appointment for today!
The Lord is so amazing! Can't wait to speak to him tomorrow!
Just before I finish this letter I would like to leave you with two quotes
that I have been pondering about for awhile. First one comes from 17 miracles.
"We can't control their actions, but we can control
ours."
The second one is from Ephraim's Rescue
"I am ready now, Brother Brigham." (In
response to Brigham Young sending people to save the handcart companion)
I think what it really comes down to is, we all have
our agency and can make life good or bad for ourselves and for others no matter
what circumstances we are in, and whether or not we will have the faith to just
do what the Prophet asks and live our lives in such a way that we can respond
with "I am ready now."
I love this work and I love My God. I have so many
faults and do so many dumb things, but knowing that God's love is always there
for me is what gets me to get down on my knees everyday and then to get
up and go to work. I'm nowhere near the best missionary and really have
no idea what I'm doing most the time, but I do know that Jesus is the Christ
and that he lives so that we can too. Look unto him in every thought,
word, deed, and action and he will lift you and give you more power then you
can ever imagine.
I LOVE YOU ALL TO SHREDZZ!!!
Love,
Elder Wilson
The picture of this church has a cool story.
When Brigham Young was serving his mission here this church rejected him and
before he left he dusted his feet off and said that this church would burn and
never be rebuilt again. Well it burned and every time they would rebuild it, it
would just keep falling apart. And now it is just in its skeleton form and in
the middle of round-a-bout. Its just a two minute walk from our flat. So
Cool!
I Just wanted to add a section from Collin from my letter he sent me about prayer. I wrote to him about how we talked about it in Priesthood meeting yesterday.
"Glad you were able to talk about Prayer. So true how
we can get distracted and have the same ole same ole with our prayers.
Sorta of a funny story. We talked about Prayer in Priesthood yesterday to
and some false doctrine was said on how sometimes because of certain situations
prayer doesn't work. Are ward mission leader said that is false and then
every one started arguing about it. So after listening to everyone I
raise my hand and just simply say, "Pray is meant for us to conform are
will to God's, not us put are will on God and force him to change. It
doesn't matter how lowly or down you are because no one has ever been lower
then the Savior and still in his worse hour he lifted his voice to God and said
'Not my will, but thine be done.' If prayer isn't working for you then
you need to take a step back and see if you are doing God's will or forcing
your own." It was really funny cause no one said a thing and they
just continued on with the rest of the lesson. Nothing like rebuking on your
first Sunday."
Since this will be my last Thanksgiving till I'm home I just
wanted to tell you what I'm thankful for. I am so thankful for my family!
Even though we all have are differences you are what keep me going on my
mission to share this wonderful message about families and making the happier!
You all mean so much to me and I love you so much! I hope you have a wonderful
Thanksgiving! Get fat both in Spirit and Physically.
Love ya!
Elder Wilson
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