Just thought I would through a little note in.  Collin has gained 15 lbs so far on his mission.  This coming from a kid who couldn't gain weight by eating all day and lifting.   I guess the food in England is pretty good.  He said his favorite dish is Eat-in-Mess.  It is basically fruit and sugar and he says it is amazing!

September 23rd, 2013

Hey family!

Well this week wasn't really filled with anything to exciting or really worth sharing.  Last Tuesday we went and did service for one of the members in the ward whose name is Robin and he is always feeding us and helping us with teaches and basically awesome.  He is fixing up his home and he gave us the job of cleaning his radiators and then hooking them back up and putting in new piping.  Let me tell you those radiators were disgusting and were so heavy especially with water in them.  It took us two hours to clean two of them and it rained on us the whole time so that was fun.  Putting in the new piping was fun though and I learned a few plumbing trades which was awesome.

Wednesday I had my first zone training and had to give a presentation with Elder Anderson!  It kind of sucked, but was good for us as well.

It went great and the zone leaders were happy with they two new missionaries talked about being bold and extending commitments!

Interesting topic for us huh.  Saturday Elder Anderson and I had the privilege of going on splits with the zone leaders since we struggling with our finding efforts a little bit.  I went with Elder Aragones who has been out just over a year and is from Barcelona, Spain.  He was converted only two years ago and has the coolest conversion story!

Well anyway we went and did finding for three or so hours and it was the fastest three hours of my mission!  He is incredible at talking to people and getting them to talk as well.  He is a little bold and does some weird things for example showing people a picture of Christ and asking them if he knows his friend Jesus.  It works well and he does some many other crazy things.  We had good success and got 4 new investigators!  One even said she got the chills when we were talking to her about the first vision.  Pretty cool if you ask me.

I realized throughout the week that I haven't really said much about my area besides that it is full of Muslims haha.  Slough itself is a dirty small city, but amazing anyway, but once you get out of slough and get on the back roads it is all country.  And the roads are super tiny with huge trees and bushes on both sides that make the roads feel smaller and people just fly around like its nothing.  It is so beautiful in country and reminds me of Oregon especially where Pacific University is located.  I live by a park which is really nice so its quiet and peaceful.  The park is also very beautiful.  The people are great and if you give them the chance are quite nice and friendly even though they look like they want to kill you.

My spiritual thought is short this week, but it was really powerful to me.  Its from President Snow and you can find it in Chapter 18 out of the book President Snows teachings. Anyway there is a quote in there by him that says, "Don't be to great till grown."  How simple and yet powerful that was to me.  In the mission field you are surrounded by Elders who have been out for over a year and are just amazing and even some younger missionaries that are amazing.  You want to so bad to be like that but you haven't even been out a two months.  I basically summed it up as trying to be a 15 month missionary in 1 month.  In life we do the same, we start at a new job, sport, and in church and see someone who has been there longer and want to be like that.

Something the Elder Quorum president pointed out to me is that if you were a 15 month missionary in one month think of all the blessing and experiences you missed out on to grow to become a 15 month missionary.

 So in life Heavenly Father prepares us to be the missionaries, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, grandparents, employees, and church leaders we need to be at the time he wants us to be it and how to be it.  Everyone wants to be great right now, but don't want to put the effort in to be great they just want it.  Remember Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us and knows what we can become.  When times become hard or easy never lose focus on Christ and always turn to him as much as possible.  We see ourselves as in the past and now, Heavenly Father sees us in an eternal perspective.

I love you all and am always praying for you!  Continue to endure to the end and stay on the straight and narrow path!

Love,

Elder Wilson

September 16, 2013

Howdy,

This week has been one of the better weeks for me and was so awesome!

I had my first exchange today which for those of you who don't know what this is.  Its when to companionship switch companions for a day.

 I went with Elder Clark who has been out for almost three months.

His companion is our District Leader Elder Smith.  I was in Maidenhead staying at their flatt for the night.  Exchanges are basically the best since its like a sleep over.  Its hard to believe Elder Clark is still considered a greenie when he acts like he has been out for over a year.  He has so much joy for the work and sharing the message.  He can make someone on the street who he has never met feel like the only person that matters in the world at that moment.  I learned so much from our exchange and have already started applying it to my companionship.

Last Wednesday the Young Men inivted the missionaries to come to mutual and share some games from america and basically get to know the missionaries in the ward better.  England basically has all he sports America does so there wasn't really new.  We played some wall ball and spoons along with a little baseball.  The kids went up against me and told me to throw my hardest why they used a cricket bat to try and hit me.  After the first pitch they told me to slow it down haha:)  Then the kids threw to me and tried to strike me out, but they couldn't:) This week we are meeting with them again and are going to tell them how to prepare for a mission and I cannot wait for that.  Have loads of good ideas.

As far as investigators go we didn't have a whole lot of success and the work has been very slow.  Everybody that is a great potential keeps dropping us at the last second or not showing up for appointments.  We got hold of our golden guy and schedule him for this last weekend, but things came up again and he had to miss it.  Satan is making it very hard for us, but I know through prayer and faith that we will be able to touch the hearts of those we teach.  A funny fact all of our investigators are from Ghana.  Looks like I got my wish of serving in Africa:)

Spiritual thought of the day is going to be from President David O.

Mckay.  "Every member... a missionary!"  When I was home I never really thought members were suppose to be that involved in missionary work besides feeding them.  Boy was I wrong!  If every member acted as a missionary the work would be progressing so much further.  I know that we can't be full time missionaries for our whole lives since we do have things to do such as work, raise kids, and take care of ourselves.  But we do have duty to serve those around us and share the gospel whenever an we can.  " Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." ( 3 Nephi 13:33)  In other words if you choose to align your will with Gods will and further his work then all the extra stuff need for us to live he will provide.  In today's world everything is fast pace and nonstop with things being thrown at you to try and make you fall down or distract you.  Take the time to stop and think about why we are really here and what we should be the most important to us.  If every member of the church shared the gospel with one person a day that would be over 14 million people who would hear something about the gospel a day.  Now not every one will get baptized cause you shared, but the seed would be planted and some future missionaries or other friends could be the ones to cause it to grow because you decided to share your testimony.  On the other hand though out of 14 million people someone is bound to want to know more and eventually be baptized.  I know with out a doubt that without members missionary work would not progress like it is.  I challenge all of you who read this to take time to share a message about the gospel with someone who may need uplifting or feel the love of our Heavenly Father.  You don't need to share a 45 minutes lesson, but to take 5 minutes out of your day to let someone know that God loves them and wants to hear from them can be just as powerful if not more effective.  To end I will share what the Savior said.  "Hold up your light that it may shine unto the world.  Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up."  I know this to be true and I hope we can all become better missionaries through our Savior and Redeemer.  I love you all and look forward to sharing something new next week!

Love,

Elder Wilson

September 9, 2013

Hello Family!

Well this last week just flew by and was a very long one as well.

Most of the week was spent knocking and street contacting and there wasn't much success, but we did gain a few new investigators that look hopeful.  The highlight of my week was this Saturday since we got to have a first lesson and it was good one.  The lesson was with a Muslim, but he is African and from our discussion either looking for something new or just comparing his religions to Christianity. Elder Anderson and I are still not sure where he this will go.  We had a great discussion on about the restoration and the happiness it can bring to us and our family.  He seemed to believe everything we said especially when we bore our testimonies or showed scripture in both the Bible and Book of Mormon.  He said that he will start reading the Book of Mormon and pray about it to know if it is true and the things we have told him our true.  We will meet with him again on Saturday and are very excited to see what he has to say.  The only problem with him though is that he is very caught up in minor errors in the Kings James version of the bible and if its the word of god how come there are mistakes.  He wants us to have an answer for him next time even though we know the answer we are going to go about it carefully and make sure we don't offend him and scare him off.

After our meeting we were on the bus going back to slough when a crazy drunk guy got on the bus.  We were sitting in the back and he sat in a seat in front of us that was facing us.  After he got comfortable he looked up and saw us and started saying things under his breath.  He then would get louder and start swearing and saying things about how he was catholic and that religion causes wars and things like that the whole way home.  When we got off the bus he got off as well and stopped us on the side walk.  He started saying the same things he did on the bus so I bore my testimony about Christ which didn't really affect him beside the fact that he realized I was a "Yankee".  He then thought we were so cool and shook our hands and tried giving us an awkward hug.  He still told us we were dumb for leaving our homes to preach and then walked away.  It was rather interesting and kinda funny.  Other then that nothing else worth mentioning really happened during the week.

I'm going to start ending my emails with a spiritual thought so we can all be uplifted and feel better:)

In Moroni 7:20 the question is asked "How can we receive all good things?"  I won't talk about he stuff in between but if you go to verse 25 it tells how we can receive all good things.  "Men began to excercise faith in Christ... they did lay hold upon every good thing."

 What a great promise that is to us and reminder of how important it is that we have Christ be the focus in our lives.  I want to challenge you to have everything you do in your home and through out your day to be centered around Christ.  Some things you could do our to pray daily and ask for the atonement to help you through out your days and decisions.  You can put a picture of Christ in every room where you can see it at all times.  You can have a a picture of Christ in your wallet or as your screen saver.  I know and testify that as you build your home and life around the Savior that he will draw closer to you and you will draw closer to him.  In just my month of being a missionary I have learned so much about the Christ love for me and each one of his children.  Everyday I study a Christ like attribute from preach my gospel and try to apply more in my life.  What a difference it makes me you see people and life the way Christ does.

As it says in Helamen 5:12  "Remember, remember that is upon the rock of our Redeemer... that we must build our foundation."  I hope all of us can try to become closer to Christ and build our faith in him more fully so that the winds and waves won't destroy us.  Keep your focus on Christ and building Gods kingdom and I promise you feel the love they have for you.  In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Love,

Elder Wilson

Collin was able to send some pictures this week!

9/7/13

Riding the double decker bus

Church by his Flatt

Not sure but I don't think this is a good place to get leads

This is the cemetary he walks by everyday

The street he lives on

This is the Flatt he lives in.  The window by the door is his bedroom window

London Olympic Characters

Windsor Castle

9/2/13

Hello Family!

I decide that I would write a letter to you guys that had everything that went on this last week that way no personel stuff is in it and you can send it to family and put it on the blog easier. I will then write personally to you guys after.

Well this week was much better and I'm adjusting a lot better.  I had my first really tough day in the field this last Wednesday and it just flat out sucked.  All our appointments fell through at the last minute so we basically street contacted all day and knocked doors.  Not one person wanted to hear from us the whole day until the last guy we talked to right before we got back to our flat. He was muslim, but didn't argue and thought it was cool we wanted to talk to him and share our message with him.  He didn't want us to come over but said he admired us and when we walked away said "Hope you find the truth"

haha:)  I had never been so happy to seen my bed that night and just poured out my heart to Heavenly Father asking that the next day would be better since we didn't have any appointments again so we would be contacting most of the day.  After our morning study we headed out to start talking people. Nobody would listen to us and it was a rough afternoon.  So after lunch we decided to go over to Windsor which is about 3 miles from Slough and knock a street we hadn't finished yet.

The first door we knocked the lady was busy but wanted to hear more later so we have an appointment with her tomorrow:)  The next half hour we didnt have any luck, but we did get some quick lessons in with prayer or as they call it "Street Teaches" so that was uplifting since we hadn't any for awhile.  We were knocking on our last door before leaving to go visit a less active in the area.  It was my turn to start the conversation and when the door open a black guy was there and I said that we are christion missionaries here to share a message about Christ and how we can build our faith in him.  He immediatly invited us in so we could talk to him and his brother.  They are both muslims, but want to learn about the christian faith. So we shard a message with them about Christ and Joseph Smith.  They want us to come back this Saturday so they could have time to read the Book of Mormon and have more questions for us.  Even though they are muslim I was told in the MTC that if someone invites you into their home God has prepared them and they are ready to accept the gospel whether we baptize them or other missionaries down the rode do it they will be batized soon.  Elder Anderson and I were so happy our prayers had been answer and we were getting some new investigators.  We then went to the less actives home who other elders in our district had tried to contact but couldn't.  She was in when we knocked though!  We asked if we could come by next Friday since its her only day off from work and she said yes and then asked us to come in a share a message right there.  We shared a message on faith and how we can strengthen it.

She was batized three years ago and still studies the scriptures and prays all the time.  She just has hard time going to church because of work and low confidence.  She loves the gospel and shares it with her two girls who say the sweetest prayers about for their mom.  She then asked us about the temple and how she wants to do family history but doesn't know how to get started.  So we are preparing our lesson for her this Friday about temple and family history.  The next three days were great and we got a couple more new investigators and lots of street teaches.

Its amazing how when you put your faith and trust in the Lord he will preform miracles.  I know that he was testing Mine and Elder Andersons faith the day we had no success.  And because we showed we had faith in him that he would help us he blessed us the rest of the week.  I know that that won't happen everytime, but it really strengthened me.

I have been reading two books and they are Our Search for Happinness and Our Heritage.  They are both great books about the restoration and history of our church.  They are simple yet powerful.  I encourage everyone who is a member or nonmember to read them.  To end on a spiritual note remember that it is upon the "Rock of Our Redeemer"

that we can be saved.  I know without a doubt that if you build your foundation upon Christ that you will be strong and steadfast in what trials and temptations satan throws at us.

I hope all is well at home and everyone is striving everyday to be better in someway.

Love,

Elder Wilson

Forgot to add this to my email for the family.  I was talking to our zone leader and he compared the mission field to a rocket taking off.

He said that when a rocket takes off it has to use 90% of its fuel to get out of the earths atmosphere, but then for the rest of its journey and back home it uses the rest of the 10%. He said in the mission field you are going to be putting out a ton of effort in the first few months and its going to be hard.  But once you clear those months the rest is easier and you sail right on home before you know.  It really lifted my spirits to hear this and know everything will be better in a few months:)  Also Dad can you give me updates on football games for high school, college and pro please:) Love ya guys!

Collin and his MTC companion at the Preston Temple