Elder Wilson

Elder Wilson

Monday, March 9, 2015

Week 24 Ecuador

Querido family and friends,
Busy days are adding up to what I look forward to being a successful week! Wednesday I will get to celebrate 19 years (sounds pretty good to me, 20.. little more scary), then Friday is 7 months in the 2nd best country in the world doing the work of the Lord, and Saturday I hope to bring to reality dreams and efforts of a family of 3 as well as a single mother as we fill up the Baptismal font once again! I have a huge respect for converts in the church; It is not an easy thing changing your life (habits, friends, thoughts, goals, etc) in order to align yourself with God`s plan. They are so awesome though and I`m blessed to learn from them!
I said goodbye to Elder Gallardo today who will be on the first flight back to Mexico in the morning. Talking with him I really gained a greater understanding (respect) of how awesome it is to complete a full time mission. With that, I welcomed my new companion to Apolo where we will be working miracles with our Gringo power! What, what? Yep, two Americans! I`ve already noticed an increase in racial tourist profiling from taxi drivers and such, but they drop it quickly when we start talkin in spanish. Elder Mezler is a stud though strait out of Arizona and I`m stoked to work with him.
Time is running short (as I already wrote this letter once and accidently deleted it.. Idiot. So I`ll close here with my favorite scripture of the week).
2 Corinthians 13:5
¨Examine yoruselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you..?¨
Elder Wilson


Me playing with a helicopter balloon thing? Pretty sweet. 

Very, very impressed with the twinkie "minionaries". They were enjoyed by everyone:)

Thanks for the love family:)

Brush em, brush em, brush em. Sometimes lunch isn't so great. Getting that out out of my mouth asap! Plus...I have a fear of cavities here.

Goodbye Gallardo...

Apparently we have really big mouths...so here we are showing them off for all of you! With Elder Parkinson (my zone leader) from Blackfoot Idaho (18 months in the mission). 


Family Castillo...these studs, our investigators, drove us out to Guayaquil in his taxi to drop off Elder Gallardo. Awesome!


Goodbye to former companion Elder Rivas as well! Also found my other brother, Elder Wilson who stepped in for a photo...good guys.

It's not easy sending a missionary home. Sheesh I'm all emotiony...I need to go back to work.

Elder Mezler...this stud is from Arizona, has 4 months in the mission, and is my new companion! Who would have guessed a Gringo!? First transfer for him...he spent the first part of his mission in Quevedo as well.


3/9/15 voice recording
Hey family, it’s Friday and I’ve been runnin’ around a lot with Elder Gallardo doing his final interview with the president, and getting things ready for him to go. We got cut short a little bit on our lessons today, but I guess all this running around with him brought the weekly thoughts of home a little quicker. I’m sitting here thinking about you guys, an gosh I miss ya a lot. 
I got your package. Thank you very much, and you already know I didn’t wait to open it. I got home and opened it that night as soon as everything was taken care of. Mom, thank you a lot for your very thoughtful card. I liked it, and it’s sitting on my desk, at least for now. I called my district over the other night. They’ve never been very close; they’re kind of distant. They’re not working to great, so I called them over and we had a little pizza. We played Uno, and I taught them how to play golf too. It was good. We were all laughing and having a good time. I really feel like it helped a lot with our relationship, so thank you for the cards, much appreciated. I still need to play Dominoes with Gallardo or something, but I can’t let it interfere with the bigger responsibilities that I have. As far as the minions, that was super funny, because me and Elder Gallardo were talking about that movie and I couldn’t remember the name of it for so long...Despicable Me. Everything’s mixed up in Spanish, the translation in Spanish is The Good Villain or something like that, but mom did you make those? That’s super creative for you. I’m impressed. Me and Gallardo each enjoyed a twinkie. He had actually never had one. I was kind of surprised, but I’m going to have to save a couple for my birthday, with the new companion that I’ll be bringing back here to Milagro. Sunday night we’re going to go to the mission office, an hour from here or so and spend the night. He’ll go off to meetings all day and fly out Tuesday in the morning, and I’m going to come back Monday afternoon with a new companion. Cross our fingers, see how it goes, but at least I know I’m not training. I feel pretty good about that. I have enough going on with my new sector right now, and being a district leader. The baseball, I like that too. It actually took over my morning workout the other day. I was not feeling motivated to get up and workout, and so I got up, grabbed my baseball, went back and laid on my bed, tossed it in the air, and just thought about things for a half hour. Kind of not very good, but you know...once in a while thing. The rocket balloons, sweet idea, but I have no idea what to do with that. Gallardo thinks he wants them, but what is he going to do, take them to his house? There’s a guy that works as a clown in the ward, I might give them to him. He’s a really cool guy. 
Anyways, I have a church talk this Sunday. I’m thinking on what I want to talk about, and I think I’m going to talk on temptation. Kind of weird right? The topic, but I was thinking what really interferes with us returning and living with God. Our disobedience, and our disobedience is a caused by temptation. So, I think I’m going to run with that one and see how it turns out. 
One of our investigators, a single mother was living with a friend, and they fought. She got kicked out, and her friend wouldn’t tell us where she’s living now, so we have to go find her. She’s getting baptized next Saturday, so hopefully this isn’t a problem. Her names Diana. Another family Mercy Familia Combosa, her and her two children are going to get baptized the same day, the 14th. Those will be the first baptisms, if we can pull them through, in over three months here in Apolo, but I’m really excited about that. Oh, the Combosa family, she’s married, but her husband works a ton. We taught him once, but we’re still trying to get a hold of him. He travels to Guayaquil and works 9 days straight and comes back for 4. We gave him a bunch of stuff, and he promised he’d study, so that’s good. His daughter we taught last night and gave her a Book of Mormon, but she goes off to college, so you know, share the gospel, and hopefully it’s something that they will pursue. Mercy and her younger kids can be an example for the family. There are also a lot of less active members here in Apolo. The problem is Elder Gallardo nor I really know them, so we’re really trying to motivate the members to help us out; go show us their houses and visit with us, that we can help them out. I’ve contacted two of them on my own. The members tell us the less actives are all “hard”; that they don’t want anything. I’ve found they are at first, but you talk to them for 10-15 minutes and they warm right up to ya. One even asked me to come back. That’s how people are here, but you just gotta help them out a little bit. 
Shoot, all I talk about is the work here huh? I hope it doesn’t bore you. That’s really all I do. I love hearing about you guys though. If there’s ever a question you have I hope I can answer it. I hope my communication is alright. I’m going to try to write a main letter this week. Hopefully these voice messages are helping out a little bit. Dad your awesome. Keep working on the bed and all of that. Mom be diligent with your schooling. I’m still so, so excited for Garrett playing baseball at Weber. I’ve told all the missionaries. Some care, some don’t, but that’s family stuff I guess. Love you all. Hope your all happy and healthy and successful. Take care. Talk to you soon. 


3/9/15 voice recording 
Hi everybody, it’s Sunday afternoon. It’s been a really great day. We just got back from church. We’re getting ready to travel to Guayaquil to dump Elder Gallardo off, so he can fly out to Mexico. I’ll be returning back here to Milagro with my new companion. That’s good news, we don’t know who my companion is, but we know that I won’t be training. That’s ok for right now. Gallardo’s been a little uptight today. He’s been full of emotions as I’m sure we can understand. He’s a little sad, super happy, a little nervous, a little tired, and a lot anxious. Anyways, we came home from church, and I decided there was only one thing I could do to help him out. So…I got out the one thing that I could think of that nobody can not laugh at. [Fart sound] hahaha…yep the whoopee cushion! Mom there was a reason why you sent it, because it’s been put to good use. He can’t even keep a straight face. We’ve done it like three times now, and he’s trying to be as serious as he can. He has to laugh…you have to laugh:) I hope you’re all laughing right now. So there you have it. Don’t overlook the classic things that have made people laugh for generations. Keep smiling. Chow



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