10/19/15 voice recording
Good morning family! :) Well, I’m not totally awake yet, but I just want to throw out to start off, happy 14 months in the mission to Elder Albrecht and I. whoo! Also, I will be celebrating with Elder Albrecht his 20th birthday on Wednesday the 21st. whoo! Sunday I will be celebrating again in my heart, with all of you for Garrett’s birthday on the 25th. whoo! Lots of reasons to celebrate this week. ha
Dad and Garrett, I hope you guys had a excellent time pheasant hunting in Montana. I saw a few ducks last week, but I’m hoping to see the trophies all lined up today.
I passed my happy 14 months with the zone leaders in Guayaquil at President Riggins house. A lot of great things went down there. We lunched on some sweet pork sandwiches. I know BBQ beef sandwiches weren’t always my favorite, but wow. When we ate them here, they were just delicious.
Going to a more spiritual point, we all feel that the mission has great potential. Not disregarding our current success, but as President Riggins said “We’re building the foundation of things to shortly come.” We keep raising the goals, and me and Albrecht are trying to reach them. We’ve rebuilt the mission from what it was, really with a lot of love and trust. Almost everyone’s obedient, although sadly amidst all of that has risen mental barriers that secure complacency. Complacency is the enemy of excellence. We want to break them. We want to break those mental barriers in the minds of the missionaries. Me and Elder Albrecht did it. With the normal 4 or 5 investigators that we take to church, with a lot of help from the ward members we got 12 at church yesterday. We want to show how the other missionaries can do that as well. That is what a good leader does.
Quick side note, I did get 10 temple names done that morning thanks to some brothers on the team that helped me out. Leaving me with only 1 original name to go from the first search. I’ll be doing that next month probably. Another side note…Oh wait mom, those names that you mentioned, I can’t remember the two last names, but I don’t have anyone here from the 1600s. I don’t have their names, and so if you wanted to print out their names and send them in the next package, or letter, or whatever I’ll be happy to do them. If not, we can let them expire and I’ll go back to it when I get home. Either way, I just wanted to let you know that I don’t have them.
Hey Rachel, another quick side note. I did get your letter that you sent. Well, I can’t say I got it. It made it to Ecuador, but it actually got sent out to another missionary who opened it. ha Their zone leader took it from him, “Hey, this is Elder Wilsons!” so one of my buddies is gonna be getting that to me shortly. I thank you for sending it. I can’t wait to read it.
I am staying faithful to the pondering scripture challenge. This week Elder Albrecht and I invited the zone to do one, which was Mosiah 18:21. It’s about unity. So, that was really good.
I also feel that I am understanding the social and spiritual relationship in the mission work, that aspect frustrated me for a long time. I’m pondering more my personal experiences, and it’s adding significance to my testimony for sure. You can really see when you look back how the Lord has been there, and preparing you a little bit. Here and there, and moments along your life. With that I am left with an anxious knot in my heart, because the Ponce’ family finally got married! We’ve been working with them for a while. It’s time to get them baptized, but luck of the draw, I was in another sector so I didn’t get to see that. That’s alright though.
I tell you what though, something crazy happened on an intercombio. We were in one of those wooden houses that were built up on stilts. This family was kind of weird, they are less actives and everything. This girl comes in that was bathing, I was like yeah whatever. She shook my hand, went in the kitchen, and then her boyfriend came in. He was tatted up, I guess he’s a less active member. Then I heard yelling in the kitchen, and he comes running around the corner laughing, and then just after…Boom…this knife goes into the wall, and he’s like hahaha. He looks around the corner…Boom…another cup comes flying. Then he picks them up, goes in the kitchen laughing, and she was laughing. Some freaky, weird messed up game…I left.
Alright, to bring it back to the spiritual knot in my heart though. We have Hugo Cherez, as well as the Familia Ponce’ who have goals to be baptized this Saturday. They’re struggling a little bit. Receiving their answers, they’re uncertain. There’s fears of failing after their baptism, and lots of stuff. We had really powerful lessons last night with them, lots of tears were shed. Not on my part though. Anyways, we made the goal that we’re going to fast for them tomorrow, and this week. Do a lot of prayer, and honestly I just have to say I am So excited to see the Lord answer their prayers. I truly have come to trust in the Lord’s promises, and I know that if they do this with sincerity, then their going to receive the comfort, strength, knowledge, whatever it is they truly need. So, I can’t invite you all to fast with us here in the mission, it’s not appropriate, but go ahead and keep a prayer in your hearts for them, so we can keep these baptisms rolling. Keep saving the souls of Ecuador down here;) These three baptisms this month for us, adding to the ones we’ve had would actually reach the goal of excellence that President Riggins had set for us. Nobody’s reached it yet, so I would really like to set that example for the zone.
Anyways, going back to the intercombio, a member made a comment that I had heard before. We’re inviting people always to do stuff, and they said, “Elder Wilson that’s easy for you, that comes natural for you.” I reflect on things, and it’s true. A lot of things in my life have come very naturally, and so I thought, I pondered. I wanted to do something difficult, and I’ve concluded music has always been difficult for me. We all know that I do not have rhythm, I cannot play the piano. Honestly, I want to struggle. I want to see myself achieve something, a difficult task that these people are always facing, it’s just different. I don’t know, I don’t have many chances to practice, but I’ll take advantages of what’s given me, and I have made the goal to play Hark the Harold Angels Sing on the piano before Christmas. Luckily, Elder Albrecht is a fine teacher. He has taken 9 years of piano, although he hated it.
Alright, I’ll share one last story. It is that, I saw the blessings of family history work again, when I offered to reactivate we can say. We visited an otherwise inactive family in the church, even though they pay their tithing. For a time, the family Onate has felt some of their ancestors are waiting for them. They being sealed already, this is the purpose his family will need to return to church. I can’t blame the guy, I don’t enjoy church here either. I really don’t. I don’t know how I would stand for a life of going to church here. It’s unorganized, it’s stressful for me, it’s I don’t know; but they will need to take action to go to church, to take the sacrament, to prepare themselves to enter into the temple and do the work for those family members that they do find. So, this week we’re teaching them family history. We’re going to use the family search accounts. I’m glad I learned all that. I’m glad I have my testimony of it. I know that God invited me to learn all that for a reason before I came out here on the mission.
Alright, if this gets much longer, I’m not going to be able to send it to you guys. So, I’m going to drop it here, with a big I LOVE YOU from Ecuador. Take care
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