Week 18 Ecuador

Imagining Ecuador before the mission captured very little of what I`ve come to find. Dreams of hacking down a jungle in rubber boots and a machete are now only a representation of the unseen cluster of trials in the lives of my investigators, district, and myself as I try to make clear the path of those I`ve been called to lead. It`s great. My district is improving with numbers rising along-side desire for the work. I am also proud to report I finally found my sense of humor in Spanish! It took a while but I`ve made a good deal of people laugh this week, and accordingly brought a few more smiles to my own face!

It truly has been an enjoyable week. My companion even likes running! This guys awesome, and I`ve enjoyed an exercise partner - running is great - other than the dogs that chase you and the people that watch you break-down into Kung-Fu ready position expecting the worst. No stitches though, yet.

Saturday brought baptisms - in Milagro. 9 new members were added to the church; 2 of which were converts of Elder Rivas for whom we got permission to attend. And guess who forgot their camera? :( Dummy.. Milagro is cool though, bigger than Quevedo, and the baptisms were a great experience. It was big, and the President even came.

Motivational quote of the week for which I cannot cite: ¨He who says he can and he who says he can`t are both usually right.¨

Other good news: the Valero family (4) accepted the invitation to be baptized the 14th of February! It`s about to be the best Valentine`s Day of my life as I am able to begin a family`s journey in this wonderful gospel! ..we just have to get their wedding figured out first. Super stoked though for my first real family; lots of hope & prayers!

Keeping in mind that, with the fading awareness of details, prayers on behalf of those back at home have become all the more centered on the hope I have that you`re all Happy!! It`s such a huge key to find joy in that which our lives are enveloped. Too often we focus on the trials, so easily we become descouraged. Answer? Here`s one: (Romans 8:18; 28; 31-32) ..I`ll give you an excuse to open up those scriptures. With that, I had a little reminder Sunday in sacrament meeting I`ll share. With far less investigators and less actives in attendance (including the woman we`re supposed to baptize Saturday) and lacking sleep from the early 5 hour bus ride to make it back to church, I put my head down and clocked out from all happening around me. Time passed and thoughts suddenly stopped at the thought, lift up your head. My response was delayed and a hand touched my shoulder - Marionela :) our investigator, and her family, along with another family investigating the church who had all been caught up in a traffic accident. Wooh! Excitement and relief was later followed by the thought ...listen to the spirit. Have a little more faith, trust, hope; Look up :) 

Elder Wilson

I felt a little bad I didn't have any pictures for you this week, so here's my emergency photo (run to the house, pee because my bladder was going to explode, change, and we're back in 15 minutes ha). This is my favorite milk: Cinnamon milk-the rest is gross.

These are my P-day pants I didn't want to change. Rocking the casual tonight;) Cut my hair today because we have interviews with the President Friday. Bummer. Never regret cutting it though.

Week 17 Ecuador

Buenas Dias amigos y familia!

I believe this has been the best week of my mission. We were able to baptize a woman and bring her one step closer to the Temple and her goal of an eternal family; doesn`t get better than that. I also got to see a man who I have previously mentioned, a man who has lost all hope and didn`t believe he still had a shot, step into that bishops office this past sunday after weeks of teaching. This past week has brought a lot of new opportunities for me as well. As old missionaries have gone I received my new companion Elder Rivas from Guatemala; he`s going to complete his mission this march and we`re looking to finish it out great - he`s a cool guy. Due to a dip in numbers, waiting for the arrival of new missionaries, I get to work in the full ward area (about the size of Ogden Valley) talk about people to meet and work to be done!

Mission life brought a few events I suppose i`ll share and see if I can`t bring a smile out of someone. The first came the other night when our slowly-draining sink finally got plugged and I got to play plumber. It is true when they say latinos are ¨tougher¨ than us gringos - I had to call E´ Rivas to dig out whatever that drain-monster was. Bleck! Anyone have an air-freshener? PS- It still doesn`t drain very good  :(

The other night a lady in the ward who I don`t really know that well invited E´Rivas and I over to teach her and have dinner. Lesson went good, we even got a reference for her younger daughter (long time less active). The food however was some recipe she must have pulled off a Texas BBQ website or ancient voodoo tribal stuff - that chicken was sooo hot my mouth is still sore. Luckily the part that splattered down the front of my white shirt came out with a little work and a lot of Clorox! (whew) As far as the chicken: I went and washed off all of the sauce and ate it, our sweet lady thinking the tears running down my cheeks were still from the lesson!  Anyways...

All this good stuff has been viewed from a new stand-point. I`ve been called as a District Leader and get to be an example for a lot of great missionaries. This has been the opportunity I needed to focus myself completely in the work as my responsibilities just got a lot bigger. The thing i`ve enjoyed most so far is that I`m able to check in with these guys all the time and truly as a leader search for ways to motivate and help them. As a result i`ve come across new ideas for my own area as well as a new desire. What a blessing it is to serve others. With the success of this week I have to give thanks to all of you who continue to love and support me; more specifically I owe a thanks to Cameron Munford, an excellent example i`m privileged to call my friend. Through what I believe was a spiritual prompting he wrote me a letter, reflecting on many of his own similar mission experiences. What he had to say was comforting, enlightening, and encouraging. Some things that have helped me this week:
¨I couldn`t tell you why... besides that I trusted in the Lord.¨

¨Love the People, care about them, and become engulfed in bettering people and yourself through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.¨

¨Cherish every moment; have no regrets. When times get tough, work harder. Focus on what you`re going to accomplish today, what difference you`re going to make. Don`t allow yourself to look too far ahead to the end of your mission, because it will come.¨

I`ll close with a thought I had, and one that refers back to Cameron once again. We are all entitled to personal revelation. We are invited to ask our Heavenly Father; the tricky part is receiving the answer. The answer which is so often found in the words of our Prophets both ancient and those whom speak today or through other people in our lives. If you want to find something whether it be a more effective way to work, a personal question, or whatever, do your part in searching and be open to how the answer may come. Be receptive to that subtle voice. I hope that makes sense  ;)  ..for someone.

Elder Wilson

E' Rivas...first night out together.

Rivas trying on a security vest of our Stake President:)

We were able to baptize a woman and bring her one step closer to the temple and her goal of an eternal family; doesn't get any better than that.

Center of Quevedo.

Showing Rivas around.

Center Park

Catholic church

I never thought I'd buy crocks, but hey...they were $5, and they're durable! Good shower shoes to replace the ones that didn't quite make it.

Week 16 Ecuador

Forgive me, I`m not writing a general email today. Juanes (and a lot of the zone) have changes today, and I`m waiting my new companion with the zone leader... 

  ...I am with my new companion, Elder Rivas. He is from Guatemala. He has 22 months in the mission, and I will likely be his last companion. We are determined to make the best of it! The president gave me a call. I am the new District Leader for Quevedo Norte 1. This is what I wanted...so here we go! We also got a new zone leader, Elder Shephard, he is from St. George, UT. It should be good working with him...we have a lot of work to do.

Still going hard on the mangos...

Searching for Saints

Gigantic bugs! This one is dead. I haven't gotten a picture of a live one yet, but I've seen a lot bigger. When they're alive they're more red than black...Gross! I do a goofy freak-out dance when they land on me. The kids were playing with this one.

We rescued this lady. She hasn't missed a week of church since! Even came in with muddy feet, soaked from the rain one week. Awesome! She has terrible vision. So, I bought her new reading glasses for $3, and brought her that huge triplet. She can now read the scriptures! Yeah!!!

Week 15 Ecuador

2015!!

I hope everyone`s celebrations were a blast and you`re all ready to end that vacation! It may not be good news for you necessarily, but i can say i`m ready for everyone to return home so I have someone to teach! ..Nah the work has picked up again the past few days and church attendance was up - happy parker :) we had a good ward meeting with almost all of the leaders there promising references for us missionaries; awesome! we`ll see..

New Years was cool here. Lots of burning? I got to burn up a big paper-tree, a life-sized manican (culture here), and a few big fireworks! (which I lit with a piece of toilet paper I started with our electric stove-top) sweet right? The remainder of my evening consisted of dinner, music I don`t understand, talking, and a little bit of the Grammy`s on TV - that I do understand!

The following day turned out to be the most boring day of my mission - possibly life. Little did I know that all of South America as I understand it shuts down on the 1st of January. Cyber, shopping, stores, buses... Everyone is sleeping, drunk, or both. Good to know.

Quick S/O to the conference talks: They`re awesome! Don`t forget to read :)

Other random stuff.. One night the other Elders in our house came home late. I shut out all of the lights and hid - long story short (in my rambo outfit) I snuck up on one of the Elders in the house and wrestled him to the floor yelling in english. It scared the daylights out of him. I was laughing super hard and he`s been tip-toeing around corners since. hah (funny mission humor stuff you had to be there to enjoy right?)

As to prevent getting fat like all of the other Elders and people in this country from the excessive bread, rice, and fried foods I`ve been faithful to my workouts. With the new year I opened up my P90X workout guide I brought and started planning some workouts and making goals. I don`t know how many are familiar with the P90X program (simply put- a 90 day workout program with all of their special workouts, supplements, advice, etc) Good stuff. Anyways, reading in the back of this guide is a letter from the CEO I guess you could say congratulating all successful finishers on their 90 days of extreme training and consequent results. A comment was made on Fitness- defined as being physically fit and healthy (fitness is a style of living). Thus, being a missionary and all, I applied this spiritually.

I believe there are events in our lives (like a 90 day fitness program) that we complete feeling very well-off spiritually; Maybe it is a process of conversion and baptism, graduating seminary, completing a mission, whatever. We are at our best at these times; motivated, diligent, faithful, with a clear image of where we`re at and goals that lie ahead. What hits me are the words of fitness trainer Tony.. `Don`t stop here..`

Just as our bodies will soon return to their less than perfect state if we don`t make a constant effort to improve them - our spirits (testimonies) will soon fade, weaken, or be forgotten as we fail to exercise them. Like fitness, the Gospel is a style of living in which we must include in our daily lives things that will strengthen us and help us grow; studying the words of the prophets both old and modern, praying, attending church..

Will we always feel super awesome in the act? will it be hard? maybe difficult to see the purpose? 

Days of service in the mission don`t always leave me on a spiritual high or a huge smile on my face. I dont believe bishops or stake presidents always return home late on Sundays or week-nights after putting in a long days work away from their family and home over-flowing with gratitude they had the opportunity to magnify their calling and participate in the Lord`s work. We don`t always feel great in the act of running, lifting, or when the 3rd round comes. BUT, we`ve all experienced that runners-high, a good pump, a Spiritual moment in which we are rewarded for our efforts. PayDay.

With that, and with the boost of motivation we all have with the new year to go conquer the world, I would invite everyone to start with some goals. Elder Russel M Ballard said, `I am so thoroughly conviced that if we don`t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principle of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in his life.` 

I`ll close in echoing the words of our Prophet President Monson as I say, I have a testimony of this work in which I`m engaged. I don`t know when I first obtained it; I think it came step by step through my experiences, none being greater than my mission. (D&C121:45) I am grateful for the family I was born into and for the example of my mother, especially, who has been a steadfast light in my life. I am constantly prompted by the spirit as I go about my daily work and have a goal to focus - and act upon - those promptings. For in this work I am but a servant - `It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.` (Matthew 10:20) I am filled with joy, and responsibility, knowing that God trusts me with His work. I know that a dedication in improving myself will result in great blessings on behalf of those I am able to come in contact with this year.           
Love,

Elder Wilson

It's been raining a lot lately. I am enjoying the climate change. Only 3ish degrees cooler, but the lack of sun and addition of moist air makes an enjoyable difference!

Service for old ladies is nuts. Cutting weeds with a machete? Seriously? Welcome to Ecuador. I had to describe a lawnmower to her as a four wheeler with 4 machete's beneath that are motorized and cut everything. Wow-

Taken especially for Darby, because I know she loves Minnie. There are hundreds of these things here...they all burn when he clock strikes 12:00

Drunk dude on New Years Day. He was laying in the street, and the police pulled him to the side (pic taken from my house window).

Big fireworks like they shoot off at Weber...not illegal here!

Manikin we burned (a missionary who's going home in 8 days).

New Year Celebrations

Rambo outfit in which I scared an elder to death;)