Hello Family!!!:) MERRY CHRISTMAS!!:) Hope you all had a great Christmas!!!! Thank you soo much for all your letters and packages!!! I LOVE it so much and soo appreciated it!! Thank you!!:) I have the best family and friends EVER!!! Well this week we saw a LOT of Christmas miracles;) on Christmas Eve we were able to go to a members home and spend it with them. They invited some nonmember friends over and so of course....we became friends with them:) SO cool.....causally we all just started talkin and then this lady starts tellin us all this tragic stuff about her 2 siblings dying and how hard it has been on her. So naturally we brought up the plan of salvation and started talkin to her about our beliefs and she LOVED it. We were able to get their number and another appointment to go back and teach them more:) Then on Christmas we had these 2 potential investigators that we play soccer with every week, invite us over to their home that night to have tamales:) They are from Guatemala and ONLY speak Spanish. They seriously don't know ANY English.. Haha so my comp and I went over there worried that we weren't gonna be able to have any communication with them at all. It ended up bein AMAZING. One of my favorite experiences on my mission! I somehow was able to hold a conversation with them the whole night. of course it wasn't grammically correct...BUT we were able to communicate and understand one another!! The spirit seriously helped soooo much!! I felt him giving me words more than I ever have before! After dinner we watched a video in Spanish for them and then we gave them Spanish BOMS and I bore my testimony...EN ESPANOL!!! It was definitely rough....but HEY!! IT worked!! The spirit testified and they took the BOMS and said they would read it.:) At the end we figured out that Diegos phone had a translator app we could use....we tried to use that but...it backfired. darn satan. haha I was tellin them about joseph smith and the phone said, "You are very very gay." hahahah well all laughed...and I told them that definitely WASNT what I was tryin to say. It also swore at them a couple of times and said other not so good things......dang satan!! so we ditched the phone and went back to tryin to rely on the spirit:) Cool experience!:)

Well Sorry I don't have much time but I just wanted to leave you guys with a thought that I learned while reading the general conference talks. So it was in President Eyrings talk about continuing revelation. In it he talked about how Nephi said "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded." This has always been one of my favorite verses in the scriptures. Here Nephi shows such faith and courage. Well, President Eyring points out that after Nephi says that, that Lehi "was exceedingly glad" and it was because Lehi recognized that Nephi understood it was the Lord that wanted Nephi to do these things, not Lehi. He didn't say, "I will go and do what my father told me to do." Rather he said, "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded." That shows that Nephi was converted to the Lord. Lehi was the one that told Nephi these things, but Nephi realized it was coming from the Lord, Lehi was just his messenger. That made me think about families. How sometimes our parents "command us" or "tell us" things that we should do. And sometimes us, as kids, do them just because our mom and dad told us too. But then when the real world comes and mom and dad aren't there to "command us" anymore, then we don't do it. But as kids, if we learn that our parents "commands" are actually from the Lord, then obeying will be so much easier. We need to understand that God uses our parents, our leaders, as messengers for him. So when my dad used to tell me that I needed to come home at a certain time.....it was because he felt that was the right thing to do. It was because God told him that was the best thing for me. I just wish I would've listened more to what my Dad said. Because what He said was actually from God....and God knew what was best for me. Sorry this is kinda confusing....and I am hope I am makin some sort of sense....haha and I am definitely not sayin that everything parents say is from God;) like when my Dad told me that Mountain Dew is "good for you" and "Golf is like heaven";) hahah but I just do know that leaders God puts in our lives are inspired. He put them there to help guide us back to Him. He speaks through our leaders to us. We just need to have the faith and humility to listen then act. If you feel like something a leader says isn't true or is "ridiculous" then pray and ask God yourself. He will answer you and make sure you stay on the right path. I am grateful for righteous leaders in my life, who have been inspired from God to help me stay on the path that I need to stay on. I am so grateful for my parents and their willingness to always rely on the spirit when they raised me. I know that one day when I have kids, that I will be prayin my guts out everyday to have The Lord give me the words to say. That my words to my children will come across as Gods words, not mine. I love you guys so much and are so grateful for your examples and influence in my life!!! have a great week and know I am prayin for each of you!!:) Love, Sister Wilson:)

Hello Family!!:) This week is Christmas!:) WOOOO HOOOOO! Merry Christmas!!!:) I hope you all have a wonderful week :) Wow well this past week has been amazing. I seriously cant even tell you how grateful and happy I am. I absolutely love my companion with all that I am!!!:) She is my best friend. We have become such great friends...we get eachother and understand eachother so perfectly. I know that we were supposed to have been companions. I have learned so so much from her. She is soo special!! Haha we have soo much fun together and work so hard together!!!Its so cool cuz we are so unified......so when we teach...its so cool!!! I love teaching with her!!!:) I love love love serving in the YSA branch!!!! Its sooo fun to be able to work with people our age and teach them the gospel!!! :) E is gettin baptized on Jan 3rd!!!!!!!!!!!:) Ahhhh we are sooooo excited!!!! She is the sweetest girl in the world and sooo prepared and ready to make this covenant. Everytime we go over there to share a lesson the spirit is so strong. She just gets it!:) We know it is gonna bless her life soo much. She really cant wait to be baptized!!!!:) She had her mother pass away a couple years ago and she says she feels her mom close and just knows she is doin the right thing every time she meets with us:) SHES AMAZING. Oh so in the Family ward we have 2 baptisms comin up!!!!!!:) A and P:) They are SOOO special!!:) A is 20 and has 3 kids!!!! haha my age!!!! crazy!!! But they are so amazing. They just get the gospel. They are sooo solid. But then last week some stuff went down in gospel principles class and me and Sister L weren't there cuz we were in the YSA branch talkin so we missed it and apparently some false doctrine was taught by opinions and they didn't agree with it. So after church they texted us sayin they didn't agree and it really bothered them. We were sooooo worried.:( We been prayin like crazy and stoppin by to try and help overcome the concern and clarify but we couldn't get ahold of them!! Finally a couple nights ago we were able to go and teach them the whole plan of salvation lesson over and the spirit was there testifying to them the whollllle time! They completely agreed with it when we were done and said that they felt that was the truth and that all of their questions had been answered!:) SOOO they are still on for baptism!!!:)We are soooo happy for them!!!:) haha wow heavenly father REALLY helped us out there!! we could NOT have done that by ourselves!!! A lot was weighin on the lesson!!! So every saturday we play soccer with the ysa branch and fam ward together. We also invite a ton of investigators!!:) Our ward mission leader is Mexican and invites a TON of his Mexican friends who don't speak any English. we have made REALLY good friends with this couple named S and D. They don't speak ANY English.....haha but we communicate the best we can. They invited us to dinner on Christmas!!! They told our ward misson leader that they love us and want to hear the message we share that is so important that we would leave our families for Christmas:) So they are makin us tamales and we are gonna watch a movie in Spanish for them to learn more about our church and then we wrote our testimonies out and our ward mission leader is gonna translate it out for us and teach us how to say it in Spanish so that we can say it to them on Christmas:) Its gonna be soooo fun!:) Another cool thing that happened this week was we got asked to sing "Angels among us" in relief society for the Christmas program. :) That song has always made me think of Jared like crazy everytime I hear it....and I really feel the spirit.I Felt like it was a huge tender mercy for her to ask us to sing that song:) I felt Jared really close...He definitely was there that day:) (cuz we all know I cant sing....so mustve been the angels helpin out right?;)) Well soooo many amazing things are happening! I really feel like this is definetley where the Lord knows I need to be:) I have really been able to feel Him so much closer lately. I feel like Im really starting to get to know Him on a level that I never knew before. I feel like I am learning so much more how to strengthen my faith. I have really learned that having a positive attitude and obeying with exactness is an evidence of your faith. I have learned that doubt, fear, bein all sad and grumpy and feelin sorry for yourself is what destroys your faith. If we want to build our faith then we need to let go of all the negative things. Taking the negativity completely out builds your faith:) Another cool thing I have learned a lot about this week is how to act and not be acted upon. I love how if we are choosing to act then we are choosing to be a peacable follower of Christ. How do we strengthen our faith?? by acting! Somethin that I have been askin myself is if I am allowing myself to be acted upon and letting my circumstances affect me or am I acting and affecting my circumstances? Life throws trials at us all the time. Hard trials that seem overwhelming and extrememly difficult to tackle. But its up to us if we are going to let these circumstances act on us and pull us down...therefor we are being acted upon. Or if we are going to choose to act and be happy and positive. If we choose to act....choose to be happy....that in turn strengthens our faith, and when we have faith....miralces happen. Faith conquers anything and everything because Faith entails the savior to work miralces in us.:) Anyways sorry that was all over the place but moral of the story.....be HAPPY!:) lifes great! Continue to strengthen your faith and I promise happiness is the result of that! I have learned that to be completely true!:) I love you all sooo much! have a MERRY Christmas!!:) LOVE YOU! Love, Sister Wilson:)

Hey family!!!:) Soo crazy week!!! I got transferred!!! ha crazy...I was only in York for 1 transfer:( But since soo many sisters are goin home...they had to close York as a sister training leader area and so I got moved to Kearney Nebraska to be a sister training leader there! I LOVE IT HERE! We have 2 areas. We are over the Kearney YSA branch and the Kearney Family ward. Its soo interesting havin 2 areas. We go to church all day and we go to tons of meetings. Ha we are literally at the church from 7 to 8 every sunday.....crazy!! But I LOVE serving in the YSA branch! Oh it is soo much fun!:) It is so different from all I been used too but I love it!:) We have a baptism in the YSA comin up on Jan 3rd.:) We are really excited for her!! I love bein able to teach people our age. It makes for such a different dynamic. But its cool....I feel like this really is gonna strengthen my testimony so much more. Ha but also everybody is gettin married. We are gonna get to see a proposal in the comin weeks and help out with it!:) haha anyways this should be a really great experience!

Well I do have to say I am really really nervous. This new area reguires a lot of responsiblitity and I feel very inadequate. I don't really know how I am gonna be able to handle all that we have too....Im a little sressed out! haha but that's good cuz then I know I will have to rely on the Lord a whole lot to be able to do this:) I just have really been able to see a lot of my shortcomings and limitations lately. I really hate training and givin talks and teachin...and I am really really bad at it.( I know then why am I missionary right?;) haha) but we have to train and give talks and teach ALL THE TIME. It really makes me so scared!! I don't like to have to see my weaknesses right in front of me all the time. Its super uncomfortable! but I know that if I avoid looking deeply into myself and avoid confronting my weaknesses then I will never make them strengths. Or I will never allow the Lord to help make it a strength. I know that the Lord is allowin me the opportunity to have my weaknesses all up in my face so that I turn to Him and allow Him to change it into a strength. I have been avoiding this weakness for quite some time because its soooo soo uncomfortable...but God just wants me to finally overcome it now. Theres a quote I heard the other day..."Theres no comfort in your growth zone and no growth in your comfort zone." President Uchtdorf said in conference, "If our weaknesses and shortcomings remain obscured in the shadows, then the redeeming power of the Savior cannot heal them and make them strengths. Ironically, our blindness toward our human weaknesses will also make us blind to the divine potential that our Father yearns to nurture within each of us." I really loved that quote because I have always thought of myself as a really bad teacher. Its always been a super big insecurity I have had especially on my mission. I have made myself believe that the only reason I am a sister training leader is because I love these sisters so much, and they just need love. I can do that part. I can love. But I CANT TEACH! haha sooo now Heavenly Father is gonna help me be able to do that....He is gonna help me see my divine potential. :)

Anyways now that you all know my struggles....;) ha I just know that if I turn to the Lord during this time and have Him help me..that I can overcome this. I know this to be true in everything. If there is any struggle any of you may be havin right now...whether big or small...just turn to the Lord. its hard to have that kind of faith to just trust and rely that God will help you. Its hard to give Him every part of you. Its hard cuz you seriously have to take it all on faith. But I know if we take that leap of faith....that He will catch us in the end. He is perfect. He will never let us down. He is the one person who we can always rely on. Its like that scripture in Ether 12:6. how we will receive no witness until after the trial of our faith. We wont receive a strength until after the trial of our weakness. I love you all so much and cant thank you enough for all the love and support from each of you! have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Wilson:)

Hey Family!!!:) Hope you had a great week!!! I cant wait to hear about it....haha sounds like dare bear did;) Gosh ew stop gettin so old!!! Well we had an amazing week!!! We had tons of appointments every day this week!! The work has really picked up here!!! I LOVE IT! we are super super busy! So many people are progressing soo much in the gospel!! We had 6 investigators at church on sunday!!!:) And they are ALL comin to the Christmas party this week and want to come back to church next sunday!!!:) Ah we cant wait! We also had one of our investigators, J, come to a baptism with us on Saturday!! It was his first time goin to one....and he really really loved it. He said he felt the spirit so strong and knows there is something special with this church:) It was a huge step forward with him!!!!:) So we have been tracting and handing out "He is the Gift" cards the church is pushing forward. We have seen lots of success with it! A lot of people are open to Christ:) Its a great way to show we are Christians and start off on a good foot:) So the work here in York, is AMAZING!!!!!! We are really seein so many miralces and success every day!!!

Haha this week also has been fun over at our house!!! We are havin tons of mice in our home!!! haha its so funny....we have set up traps everywhere and the mice will get caught by them in the middle of the night and then run around the whole house makin this huge noise cuz hes caught in the trap!! So that's been real fun chasin mice around tryin to finish em off!:) I will send a sawwweet picture of some of the mice we killed. we got 5 in one hour!!! Another thing is our home flooded last night:( We were goin to sleep over in grand island to help a couple of our sisters pack up to get ready to move and then we felt like we needed to stay here in York. A bunch of things just fell into place....this lady who we have been tryin to teach for awhile called and said she wanted to meet with us that night...anyways long story short we decided to stay at our place. We got home and it was flooded everywhere!!!! if we would've slept in grand island we would've lost our home!!!!:( Tender mercy from Heavenly Father!

Well one thing I really would like to share with you is from the talk by Elder Neil L. Andersen from this general conference. He talked a lot about how important it is that we each gain our own personal testimony of Joseph Smith. I strongly recommend reading over it again if you can!!!! It is sooo powerful. I love the commitments he asks us to do to help us gain that testimony that we so desperately need. I am going to be doin this along with our investigators this week and would love it if you all did it with us!!!:) So this week, can you each find to a scripture in the Book of Mormon that you feel and know are absolutely true. Then will you please share them with eachother, but also I would LOOOVE if you would share them with me and tell me how you know they are true! Then I want to share them with some of our investigators that we are workin with here!!! It would be an amazing way to start to remember and to be able to gain a personal testimony for yourself that the book of Mormon s true and joseph smith was a prophet, and also be a great way to share your testimony with people who are searching for the truth!!! I would soo appreciate it if you would do so! Thank you so much! I love you so much!!! I know that this church is true. I know that the world can disagree and throw all these things at us to have us believe that it isn't true. But I know it is true because of the feelings I feel when I live what this church asks me to do. I know it is true because of the feelings I feel when I read the book of Mormon. and I know this church is true because I have asked my Heavenly Father and He has answered me. This church is true. But don't believe me.....you can find out and be just as sure as I am...all you have to do is ask!! Start with the stuff you know to be true....then work up from there!!! I love you all soo much and cant wait to hear your scriptures!!! Have a great week!!!!:) Love, Sister Wilson:)

Hello Family!!!:) I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving and is 10 times fatter!!!:) I sure am!!!! Woo hoo!!!! :) Im pretty happy about it. :) haha but We had a really good week!!! The General Authority that came to our mission changed things up for exchanges for the leaders! Now, instead of us going on exchanges into our sisters areas....they come on exchanges to our area!!! Which means we have an extra set of sisters in our area every week!!! its AWESOME!!! :) They changed it cuz they want our areas to be model areas for the missionaires and we are supposed to be the best example of carrying out the work. Yea. Pressure. Stress. But hey...miracles happened!!:) So on exchanges we went and did service at this place called "Adopt a pet" and you literally go and play with animals. Thats it. Best service ever!!:) We ended up givin out 2 Boms and findin 2 new investigators and teachin a lesson to one of our investigators that showed up there!!!!:) Haha it was soo cool!!:) Another miracle we had this week was on exchanges we went and taught a powerful lesson about gettin baptized to this investigator who has been investigating FOREVER and a day. We seriously gave it all we got. We invited her to really pray sincerely before she reads the book of mormon if this is the true church and if she should get baptized. On sunday...there was the primary program (of about 5 kids cuz we are in the BEST branch ever) and a lot of it was about baptism. I looked over at Debbie and she was crying. Afterwards, we went and asked her how she liked church....then I asked her how her praying and reading was going.....she looked at us and said, "I need to start mannin up and get some courage and do what I am supposed to do. I need to make some changes in my life...its just really hard cuz Im scared." We told her we would help her all along the way and just bore testimony to her that even though its soo hard...its gonna be so worth it!!!:) AHHH!! Sooo her baptism should be comin up here soon!!!:) We just have been seein so many miralces!! I am so blessed to be able to be apart of the Lords work and just have my testimony be strengthened so much. I know without a single doubt in my mind that this church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is the true church. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, and I know that all that really matters in life is becoming who we need to be so we can make it back to our loving Heavenly Father. I really thought I had gained a testimony before I came on my mission. But I now have come to realized that I, or any of us really, have ever really "gained our testimony". I really have come to know that it truly is a process. It isn't a task of a minute, an hour, or a day, or an experience. It isn't once and then done." A process of gathering spiritual light is a quest of a lifetime" (President Uchtdorf) It takes a lifetime....cuz we need it. Our testimony will continue to grow until the day we die. Its up to us to see how strong and how powerful we can make our testimonies. Its frustrating sometimes because it doesn't always come as quickly as we want it too, but It DOES and WILL come. How does it come? By doing the simple basics of prayer and scripture and church. But....we dont just do those things...we live those things. We ask questions and really ponder and figure things out. "Spiritual questions deserve spiritual answers from God" (Elder Niel L. Andersen) The more we seek and ask God and have Him be the One guiding our every day choices...the more answers and guidance we will get from Him:) I just want all of you to know how much I love this gospel. How much I truly have come to know that this is the only way to be happy. Every single one of us looks for ways to be happier. If you look towards our Savior Jesus Christ, I promise you that you will find happiness beyond what you thought possible. It really does solve everything. That I know to be true. I love you all so much and am So grateful for each of you and the part you have played in strengthening my testimony!! I hope you have a wonderful week!! I love youuu! Love, Sister Wilson:)

Hey Family!:) How was your week? I hope soooo good! Our week was awesome! We were able to find 4 new investigators by tracting and 3 of them are SUPER solid. We are really excited to see where they go! We've had a couple of lessons with them with members and they are just SO prepared!:) Its amazing how God just puts people in your path to teach! Ha its amazing how He leads us to those who truly want and need this gospel in their lives. We weren't in our area very much at all this week and yet Heavenly Father blesses us with soo much success when we are!! Well this week was zone training week. Which I really used to look forward too...cept not so much now. Haha We had to train in 2 of them! The lincoln zone and our zone. I was REALLLL nervous....we had noo time at all to prepare cuz of all this other stuff goin on and they told us 2 days in advance. Soo we walked into the training (after just plannin it on the drive down) andddd theres President. Yea. I almost cried. As if i wasn't nervous enough already!!!! but it went alright! Everyone was makin fun of me that he showed up to my very first one. But wait. It gets even....worse. The next day we went to go and train in Lincoln..(a completely different training so we also planned that one on the car ride over there) andddd we walk in and theres lovely President AGAIN. He laughed and laughed when He saw my face. He came up to me and just said he was followin me around:) haha so out of all the zones he picked the 2 we were training at to come too! Just my luck!:) but I survived. Its over and all is well again:) On saturday all the leaders in the mission last minute got called to come into Omaha because a General Authority, Elder Martino, wanted to speak with us! So we got to go and learn SOO much from him about leadership. It was AMAZING. He really laid the law down how we were future leaders of the church and needed to be the absolute most obedient, relying on the Lord 100%, and the greatest examples. It was a p.o.w.e.r.f.u.l meeting. I am sooo grateful I was able to go!! Well before I go I wanted to share a couple quotes I really loved from my studies this week:) I really have learned how Christ was such an amazing leader and example to all He came in contact with. I truly want to be able to live my life the way He did. He loved soo selflessly and gave His whole heart to the people around Him. In this way, He was the best example and leader to all who knew Him. There was a quote from President Uchtdorf I wanted to share. He says, "In the end...the number of prayers we say may contribute to our happiness, but the number of prayers we answer may be of even greater importance. Let us open our eyes and see the heavy hearts, notice the loneliness and despair, let us feel the silent prayers of other around us, and let us be an instrument in the hands of the Lord to answer those prayers." I truly want to be able to open my eyes and heart and be so quick to observe the needs of every single person around me, whether it be my companion, the members, the sisters, or our investigators. I want to be so close to the spirit that I will be able to recognize a cry for help before they even know its coming. I just want to give my all to everyone around me and have every person who knows me walk away a happier, uplifted, person because they knew me. The only way I can accomplish this is through Christs enabling power and me striving every day to be just like Him. Another quote I loved was from a leadership quote thing I saw. Not sure who it was by but here it is. "Jesus saw sin as wrong but also was able to see sin as springing from deep and unmet needs on the part of the sinner. This permitted him to condemn the sin without condemning the individual. We need to be able to look deeply enough into the lives of others to see the basic causes for their failures and shortcomings." I LOVED this. Sooo many times we associate people with their sins. But if we truly loved and saw these people as Christ did....we wouldnt look down on them...but our heart would break to see the reasons behind why they do the things they do. If we truly loved people enough to get to know them deep enough....we wouldnt condemn them at all. We would love them soo much more, and then be able to help them because we understand where they are coming from. Anyways sorry that was real confusing...hope it made sense! but I gotta go! I love you SOO much and thanks for all you do!!! Have a wonderful thanksgiving!!!:) I miss you guys soo much! Love ya with all my heart, Sister Wilson:)

Hey family!!! How was your week??:) I hope real good! We had a very good but very busy and crazy week!! We were only in our area for 2 days! The rest we were in Omaha or Lincoln! We started the week off with exchanges in Lincoln with some of our sisters. One of the sisters I went on exchanges with is brand new and had never handed out a BOM and really wanted too. We worked realllll hard all day....just tracted and knocked doors in the snow so people felt bad for us and had to let us in;) haha and were able to hand out 5!!!! It was awesome!! She was soo happy!:) Shes been real homesick and strugglin and after that day she finally felt like she was seein success! it was so great:) We also got to go and do a yoga class:) Weird story of how it all happened but long story short we taught a lesson and everyone in the class took mormon.org cards and boms!! haha super sweet! they want us to come back and teach their class the lessons! (cept this wasnt our area...its in lincoln so the other sisters get to go back and do that!!! dangit!;) haha Some miralces that happened in our area this week was we got a new investigator named J who is our age and is SUPER solid! The missionaires from colorado referred him to us cuz he moved from there to come to college here! He has almost been taught all the lessons and wants to be baptized but the only thing holdin him back is his parents...darn parents;) So we will see how it all works out:) Another miralce was we have a new investigator named T and she seems super interested...but her husband is methodist and wants no part of it. We came over the other night and he was there. We were nervous about it cuz he serioulsy HATES us....but hes never met us!!! He was really rude at first....ha but somehow at the end things totally changed and he ended up takin a BOM and sayin he would read it and wanted us to come back and teach both of us!!! His whole countenance changed!!:) It was soo cool to see what the Spirit can do:) We saw a whole lot of other miralces this week but I am runnin out of time!! OHHH hello....most important highlight of the week was the mission tour we had with Brent H Neilson! ohhh it was awesome!!! We got to have a zone conference with him, then the zone leaders and us got the priveldge of having 2 seperate meetings with him and President! It was soo cool! I learned sooo much its crazy!!! He left a really cool blessing on all us missionaires out here in Nebraksa. It was crazy. But I am runnin out of time so before I go I wanted to share a little bit about what I learned this week. President Neilson talked a lot about Christ and his enabling and redeeming powers of the Atonement. I know I talked a little about that last week but we talked about how the redeeming power of the Atonement changes bad men to good men. The enabling power changes Good men to better men....to saints. I loved that concept. We need both of these aspects of the Atonement sooo much. We need to constantly be using the enabling power of the Atonement so we can gradually change and become perfected through Christ. A great way to access this enabling power is through being obedient. When were exactly obedient to all of Gods commandments, we learn discipline. (Which is super important that we learn how to discipline and control our natural man.) But, when we learn the principles behind exact obedience...we learn discipleship. Which is what we are all striving to be. True disciples of our Lord, and Savior. I think its sad that we as humans can be so hard on ourselves and on eachother. We think that just cuz we messed up once...means we are gonna continue to do so. But if thats what we think....then we dont beleive in the enabling power of the Atonement. We dont believe that Christ can give us the strength beyond our natural abilities and give us the strength to change. The world teaches that you can predict people based on their intelligence, self discipline, habits, and past decisions that they have made. We think, "Well they have ALWAYS made these dumb choices....they arent gonna change. Thats just the way they are." But that mode of thinking gives no place for the Atonement, Were not objects, were agents to act. The enabling power of the Atonement must be considered. It changes everything. With the Atonement we can defy the odds of men. Anothing thing I was thinkin about is that we are bein refined through the testing we receive in this life. If we arent bein tested...then Heavenly Fathers plan isnt workin in our lives. The whole purpose of His plan was to test us and try us till we learn and change and become perfected. He knew that we couldnt do this on our own so He sent us His Son, Jesus Christ to help us. It is only through His Grace, after all we can do, that we are saved. Another way to describe the word "grace" is the strengthening and enabling power. Im sorry this is all over the place and confusing!! But hopefully you can peice it together and make sense of it all. I just have such a strong testimony of this enabling power of the Atonement, and am so grateful for the effect it has had on my life. I know that I can do and change and become anything I want too if I just rely on this power. I love you all soo much and hope that you all have a great week!!!! Love, Sister Wilson:)

November 11, 2014

Hey Family!!!:) How are you?? Well things have been GREAT here!!!:) I honestly feel so blessed. I love love love the sisters I am able to work with. We had an interesting week. We were down in Omaha for lots of meetings with President and the assistants and went on exchanges with the Spanish Sisters in Grand Island. It was sooo fun to go and teach the gospel in spanish!!! cept one thing....i dont speak spanish. haha sooo that was fun! I was able to talk to them in the TINY spanish I do know and thats about all I was good for:) haha it was soo fun though!!! They fed us AMAZING food!!!:) Then in York we have an investigator who only speak spanish but no spanish missionaires...sooo we been tryin to teach him the lessons in the little spanish we know and the little english he knows anddddd he said yes to baptism!!!!! haha even though he doesnt know the lessons AT ALL! He cried and said "yes please baptize me."soo now the spanish elders are comin up to teach him the lessons then he will be baptized!! soo cool that even though there is a huge language barrier...the language of the spirit is universal for us all. Just like how I couldnt do much in the lessons with the spanish sisters.....but I could feel how strongly the spirit was there. That language, every one of us can feel and understand:) Well sorry this email is gonna be short again!! But this week we are havin a mission tour! Brent H. Neilson from the seventy is comin to our mission on thursday and then on friday he is meeting with the STLS and zone leaders and the president on a leadership training!!! how cool is that??? I am SOO excited!!! I love how much we get to work with such amazing leaders and get to learn sooo much!!:) anyways...in preparing for him to come our President wants us to be readin 2 talks by Elder Bednar on the Atonement. (Read them!!! They are "Bear up our Burdens with Ease" in 2013 and "The strengthening and enabling power of the Atonement in 2012" ) Holy cow I have learned soooo much its crazy!!! They are all about how the Atonement and how it is an enabling power. I been thinkin a lot about that and studyin a whole lot more in depth about what the Atonement truly does for us. We all know that Christ came to die for us so we could be forgiven of our sins, but He also came to enliven us, not only guide us but strengthen and heal us. He can strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do relying only upon our own power. The Atonement enables us to do good and become better in ways that stretch far beyond our mortal capacities. I have truly been able to see this in my life this week. I was really stressed out at the beginning of this week because of all the stuff goin on in the mission and how we are in charge of coordinating and makin it work to get all our sisters to Omaha for the mission tour and also having to fit exchanges in with it all. Plus we have to be preparing trainings and all this other stuff on top and be in our area workin. I honestly felt so overwhelmed and that physically there was NO way I was gonna be able to get all the things done that I needed too. and honestly...there was not enough time to get it all done. And so I had been praying that somehow the situation would change, and we wouldnt have to give a training or we wouldnt have to do something. I prayed He would take something off my plate!!! But then as I was studying in the scriptures I learned that the real problem was I was prayin for the wrong thing. I shouldve been prayin for the strength to deal with it all. I shouldve been praying for the strength to change my situation, not prayin for the situation to change. I was denying myself of the growth, and stuff I couldve learned when I just asked God to take away my burden. In asking Him to give me the strength, He will give me the persistent and personal strength beyond my own natural capacity which will enable me to change my circumstance, while learning and growing in the process:) man....God really is a smart guy isnt He? So this increased capcity or strength that God gave me..... made my burden lighter. Its just like in Mosiah 24 :) All of a sudden I had the strength and the ablitity to accomplish all the things required of me....and holy cow did I learn a whole lot in the process:) His ways are soo much better than our ways. I just pray that we all begin to understand the enabling power of the Atonement in our personal lives, and that we will pray and seek for strength to change our circumstances rather than praying for our circumstances to be changed. I say all this in the name of Jesus Christ Amen,....ha sorry I went missionary on ya,,,,Im done now i promise:) I just love and miss you guys sooo much and cant thank you enough for your love and support! I definetely feel them and it helps sooo much!! If there is anything i can do for you let me know!!I loveyou and will talk to ya next week! Love, Sister Wilson:)

Hey Family!!!!:) How are ya all doin?? I hope real good!! Sooo a lot of changes happened this week! I stayed in Grand Island for a week in a trio with 2 of my favorite sisters! It was soo fun! We saw a lot of miracles and we were able to commit their investigator to baptism and he said yes!!!:) It was so fun workin with them! Then on Thursday I got a call from President Weston to serve as a Sister Training Leader in York Nebraska! Crazy! I really hope ill be ok at it. But already I have seen why God has called me to be one. I've had 2 sisters call cryin sayin they were strugglin/ wanted to go home and i was able to talk to them!!! God gave me the words to say! I truly didnt know what to say and he just filled my mouth!!! its soooo cool bein able to serve and love missionaires and investigators!!! ahhh i love it and cant wait to see all the growing this calling will do for me!!:) But my new comp was in my old district and she is SOOO christlike and sweet!!! shes an angel. truly. I am gonna learn SOO much from her!!:)

ohhhh my goodness I just LOVE York! so me and my companion, Sister B, live in a members home in Mccool, Nebraska. Yea....MC COOL. The name speaks for it self. The members we live with live on a farm. Yes. A straight up farm. With goats, and horses, and chickens. We get eggs every morning from the chicken coop. I LOVE my life. So we live in a little barn/house thing apart from their house! it is SOOO nice!!!! We basically live in our own home! Ah I just love living there soooo so much!! The spirit is soo so strong there! Its away from everything! Mc Cool is so small that it isnt even a town....its a village!!:) The members we live with are the Byers and they are SOO sweet. I love them so much already!:)

Soooo here it is only a branch!! I am so excited to be able to serve in a branch!! We meet in this little building in a strip mall in Aurora. its sooo small!!! I love it!! anddd the Sister training leader part....gosh that part kinda stresses me out. So we are over 5 sets of sisters and we are able to just love and serve them and go on exchanges with them. I LOVE that part of it! buuuut...theres a lot of meetings and trainings involved as well....and meetings with Stake Presidents, and our mission president a LOT. ha Its gonna be kinda stressful sooo pray for me!!:) Well thats my life right now in a nut shell!! I wanna hear whats goin on at home!!:)

Sorry this email isnt too long...but before I go I wanted to share this quote I heard this week from President Hinckley. He said, "The best antidote I know for worry is work. The best medicine for despair is service. The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired." I love that so much! Cuz to be honest....Imma little worried and weary....I just dont know if I am a good enough missionary to train other missionaires. I just feel really inadequete and know that my own ablilties truly cannot be enough to accomplish all that is required with this calling. How am I supposed to help and love and train other missionaires when I struggle enough myself? How am I supposed to handle goin to all these crazy meetings and work with SUCH amazing strong leaders when I'm just little ole me? Ha all these questions overwhelm me....but I do know that God called me for a reason. He knew that I needed this experience to help me learn and grow...and most importantly learn who I need to CONSTANLTY rely on to make my efforts enough. I know that as I truly make myself as close to God as I can be, by being exaclty obedient and workin my hardest and prayin my guts out...that God will qualify me. I cannot wait to see God take over my life. I know He will make so much more out of me than I ever could. I hope to be a tool in His hands in bringing others closer to Him, and strenghtening and helping fellow missionairies. I love you alll soooo much and if there is anything I can do to help any of you please let me know! You are all in my prayers daily! I love you guys! Have a great week!:) Love, Sister Wilson:) Oh PS... We also drive a jeep. The only jeep in the mission. Life is great!!:) We are sooo lucky and blessed!!!:)

Hey Family!!!! How are ya all doin??? I hope real good!!! Ok so WOW. This was a crazy week. Such a good week but exhausting!! So there is a family in our ward named the Burmoods who are AMAZING. I love them! Brother Burmood has a best friend named Travis that we have been teachin the lessons too. (They are the ones who have taught me all I know about butcherin deer and turkeys:)) haha sooo we went over this week and butchered a turkey and cut it and washed it up then ate it for dinner then afterwards had our lesson with Travis. The lesson went AMAZING!!!!! I was soo nervous to ask him to be baptized because the Burmoods have been workin with him forever and he has never wanted to be baptized....but I did it. anddddd HE SAID YES!!!! He teared up and said he knew this was true and wanted to be apart of it. :):):):)After he left the Burmoods FREAKED out and came and hugged me and cried they were sooo happy!! It was awesome!!!:) They said that no missionary has ever connected with Travis so much and taught him in the way he needed!! They prayed and thanked God for sending me here:) It was the sweetest thing. Afterwards we were all talkin. The ward knew they were takin us sister missionaries out of Hastings so Brother B said that T said me and Sis F HAD to be at his baptism....sooo the B are gonna come get me wherever I am at so I can give a talk at T's baptism:) It was SUCH a good way to leave this area.

So.....I guess I better explain whats happenin now. So the Mission called us on Saturday to tell us that Hastings Sisters area is bein closed. :( So we cleaned and cleaned that apartment all day then Sunday went around and said goodbye to everyone and did handoff lessons with the Elders. I feel so bad for Elder G. So me Sis F and Elder C are all leavin Hastings this transfer and Elder G is takin over the whole area and he has only been here for 1 transfer!! haha But Sunday was sooooo sad.....:( The ward was all really upset we were leavin:( Everyone was cryin and wantin us to come over.....it was such a rough day. When we had to say goodbye to our investigator Trina...ahhh it was horrible!!!! she was sobbing uncontrollably. We just cried and cried. Ha I was sooo exhasuted by the end of the day that we fell asleep on the floor packin! Then today we woke up and the mission and a bunch of elders were here to pack up our apartment. Soooo now everything I own is in our car and me and sis F are just wanderin around all day today cuz we dont have a phone either....haha then at 2 today Sis F is goin to Omaha and I am stayin in Grand Island with some other sisters until Friday when I find out where I am gettin transferred too:) Soo yea:)

Well sorry this email is rushed and all over the place! I have like no time and no brain power right now! but I just wanna share a little about what I been studyin and thinkin about lately! So in the scriptures it says over and over that we need to have Faith, Hope and Charity. I really been thinkin about that and broke it down a little. So we have Faith in Jesus Christ. The more we strengthen our relationship with Him, and the more we get to know Him, the more we strive to become like Him .the more Faith we have.Then Hope. We have hope that Christ can save us. If we strengthen that Hope in Christ's Atonement and learn more about the depth of what the Atonement covers then our Hope grows. Then Charity. The scriptures say that without Charity we are nothing. We can possess all good attributes but if we dont have Charity it profits us nothing. Charity is hope that Christ can help and save others. Thats what it comes down too. If others are makin dumb choices and you think they wont ever change...they will continue to make those dumb choices, then you are denying them the Atonement. If you truly have charity for someone then you beleive that Christs Atonement will change them and you allow them to change. I just know that I am human and have made many mistakes and I am just grateful for people who do have charity towards me and dont hold my mistakes in their head, but allow me to reach my full potential by beleiving in me and that I can change. We are all gonna make mistakes, and are probably makin mistakes right now, but as long as we are repenting and allowing ourselves and others to use the Atonement, we can all reach our full potential. I think we dont just need to repent but we need to be repentant. That makes all the difference. Not just what we do...but who we are. If we all just help eachother Endure to the End then life would be so much easier. Enduring to the end is just internalizing progression....and even if that progression is soo small...hey at least its progress in the right direction. Well I love you all sooo much and pray for you everyday! Thanks again for all the birthday cards and packages!!! GOSH i have the best family and friends ever!!!! Talk to ya soon! Love, Sister Wilson:)

Hey Family!!!!!:) Ok sooo I love all of you SO SO SO much!!!! I cant even begin to thank ya all enough for the brithday letters ya all wrote to me!!!!! Gosh serioulsy THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I have the best parents, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, friends EVER!!!!! I seriously cant even begin to tell you how much that meant to me!!! I have had the best birthday ever and it is only 10 in the morning!!!!!:) Thanks for all you do!!!!! I love ya all more than you could ever know and all of you are in my prayers!!!:)

Sorry this email is gonna be kinda short.....kinda a crazy day today!!! But sooo many things are happenin!!! I dont even know where to start! Sooo the wicken lady has come to church 4 sundays in a row and yesterday at church asked to be baptized!!!! :) She is learnin soo much and completely changin her life! it is soo cool to see where she started to just 4 weeks of participating in the gospel and seein what it has done in her life! We had sooo many less actives come to church yesterday as well!!! Ahh its soo cool!!! :) The progress here is happenin!!! We have a lot of progressing investigators who really are starting to gain powerful testimonies!! I just love love love bein apart of seein lives change!! This gospel is AMAZING. We also were able to do TONS of service this week!!! We got to tear down walls. (i really think this is my new hobbie....that and butcherin deer;) haha) I got to have this huge crow bar and just go ham in our investigators basement!!! i tore down the whole basement by the end!!!! by myself!!! haha everyone was laughin at me and just let me do it cuz I was havin too much fun!:) We also deep cleaned another of our investigators house ALL day one day! Their house was so bad that child protective services was comin to take her 2 kids away if it wasnt cleaned up in 3 days. how sad is that???/ ahh it broke our hearts.... Soooooo we went crazy there! Ahh there was mold EVERYWHERE. butttttt it looks so dang good now:) andddddd.........She got to keep her kids!!!!!:) We prayed like crazy thanking Heavenly father for allowing that to happen!!!:) She cried and cried and thanked us and said she knew we were sent from God and she wanted to learn everything we had to say!! haha service really brings miracles:) Welllll........moving update:) We are movin out next monday cuz my comp is goin home and I am goin to grand island next week and stayin there for a week till I get my new companion!!:) and mayeb new area? haha we have no idea what is goin on! But its fun:) missions are sure an adventure!:)

Well sorry this email is kinda all over the place and short but to end I just wanted to share this quote I heard the other day:) "People everywhere seek to invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history -money, poverty, ambition, war, prosititution, classes, empires, slavery- the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy. The reason why it can never succeed is this. God made us; invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on gasoline, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why is is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing." C.S. Lewis

I absolutely loved this quote. I have seen countless times throughout my life where people try to find happiness without God. It just isnt possible. We can try and try to be happy without allowing God in our life and ignoring that He is there...We can try to not follow Him and not care about Him....but the results are the same EVERYTIME. You wont, and cant find happiness. The only way to truly be happy is to allow God in your life. The closer you are to Him, the happier you are. I know this to be true with all my heart. The times in my life where I have prayed my hardest, served my hardest, and tried to give my whole heart to Him, are the times where I felt the happiest I ever have. Those are the times where I feel whole. Where I feel peace. Where I feel so completely happy. I promise that if you are struggling now, or are unhappy, that if you just do little things to start out with to come closer to God, you will be happier. The closer you are, the happier youlll be. I know this to be true! I lvoe you guys SOOO SOOO much and hope you have a fantastic week!!!!! I LOVE YOU! Love, Sister Wilson:)

Hey Family!!! How was all ya's week this week? I hope super good! I heard about the whole "ebola" world wide epidemic deal.....scary!!! Well...this week was a really good week!! Lots happened:) Soooo first off we went on exchanges so i went down to Kearney and we saw TONS of miralces. Handed out 2 BOMs and they were both SOO prepared and solid! It was awesome!! Then we had the AP's come and give an awesome training on handing out BOMS. so our mission is havin a huge focus on handin out more BOMS and man have we seen miracles bcause of that! Ill tell ya 2 quick stories about it! So one night it was 8:40 at night and we still hadnt handed one out...so we were stoppin and askin anyone we saw...no one would take one! Everyone was rejectin us! it was cold and dark and late and we were in a sketchy part of town so we decided we should leave...we were gettin in the car and I saw this guy comin out from under the bridge smokin and lookin all gangsta like. haha me and my comp looked at eachother got outta the car and went up and talked to him. He ended up takin the BOM and thankin God for sendin angels to him tonight. He was super low and losin all hope and this proved to him that God heard and answered his prayers. It was soo cool:) another one was well...embarassing. but hey whatever works right??? so it was 8:50 saturday night and we were real low on gas so we went to the gas station to get some. it was real cold so i was dancin around tryin to keep warm.....then well naturally it turned into a dance off between me and my comp. We thought we were the only ones at the gas station!!! its a small town...NO ONE WAS THERE. buttttttt this family had apparently drivin up and were stoppin and watchin us...laughin their heads off. soo we ended up talkin to em and after we all laughed we were able to share a message with them and they took a BOM and gave us their number!!!! It was awesome:) haha ummmm some other great things that have happened was we got to go to one of our peoples weddings! it was sooo cute:) we talked to a ton of people there:) ummmm oh we got to butcher another deer! this time practically all by ourselves!!!!:) but...we got deer ticks again!:( Then....oh heres another embarasing thing that happened....so i lost my ring at one of our Less Actives house and was on the ground lookin for it, so I lifted up this cute lil blanket to check under there and the blanket hit the fan, flew across the room, landed in the candle and sparked up. haha luckily they are super chill and we all laughed about it forever....but the little girl was sad so Im buyin her a new blanket today....haha. OH Good news though.....i found the ring. So no worries there folks.

Ok sorry enough about all that!!!...haha sooooooooooooo this week we been seein a lot of people who are just strugglin. Trials and hard things are goin on everyones lives. Every person has some sort of struggle their dealin with right? Its cool cuz they have us over and talk with us and love learning because they feel peace and hope while we are there. It made me think that everyone really is just lookin for one thing in life....peace. peace and happiness. They go hand in hand really. They just wanna be ok, even when life is throwin all sorts of curve balls their way. Richard G Scott in conference talked a lot about how to get this peace. He said that we all have to experience turmoil to feel peace, sadness and pain to feel happiness and comfort. Our whole purpose of life is to be tried and tested, pulled and stretched. During all this we MUST take time to exercise our Faith. Thats the only way we can get through it. Heavenly Father has given us tools to help us. If these 4 tools become habits...then that is where we will find what we ultimately want and need through our trials and struggles...peace. The first is prayer. We just need to tell him everything!!! Every little detail, lay it all down on Him. I promise you that you will feel peace. Peace that will help you manage challenges you are given. Because through prayer you will gain an eternal perspective. Prayer literally gives you power. Strength to overcome. 2. Study scriptures. peace will prevail if you just take the time to study them. 3. Family home evening. Never let anything become more important than time with your family. These tools take away stresss and add proection. 4. Go to the temple! Dont let anything prevent you from bein there. All these tools help us better understand the Atonement. The Atonement is where peace comes from. I really beleive that if we use these 4 tools that Richard G scott told us about that it showes we are actively respondeing to Christ's invitation to "come unto Him". Satan will try harder to prevent you from doin these things...but as you do these tools...Satans ability will weaken and you will overcome anything placed in front of you:) I really believe we just needa go out there. Work our hardest. Never give up. God is working for you and with you and everything is working together for your good:) that i promise...in the name of Jesus Christ amen:) I love you guys! have a great week!!!!!! Love, Sister Wilson

Hey Family!!!! Hope ya had a good week!! Well....I have a quick sad story for you...sooo one day 2 sister missionaries come home and see a sign "for rent" on their front lawn. They get all sad and think to themselves.."oh no....im gonna miss my neighbor...I really liked her." Then they continue on their days without really carin too much....then many days later,their blinds broke so the landlord comes over to fix it and then says, "man were really gonna miss you guys around here...we really liked havin ya!".....the confused missionaries said "What? where we goin?" to which the landlord responded, "Oh...how the heck do you not know? I got a notice awhile ago you guys are movin out before Halloween." TWIST. the girls are us and we STILL haven't heard a single thing from the mission that we are movin or whats goin on...but we have had people come through and look at the apartment sooo we know were movin out for sure....but why when and where we don't know. My comp is goin home this transfer....and we think that they are shuttin down our area? who knows! sooo moral AND point of the story....don't send letters here! Send them to the mission office cuz I have no idea whats goin on or where I'll be:) Anyways.....we had some cool stuff happen! So ya know how our car got wrecked? well we had to go in the back to sign a check for it to get fixed and was talkin to this real nice lady who reminds me exactly of grandma Wilson:) We got talkin and she asked us a bunch of questions....I ended up askin her if we could come by and share our message with her.....and she said.........YES she actually said YES!!! she would love that!!!:) haha so later this week we did and it went awesome!!! we are very excited about her! OH and she used to live in Le Mars!!! How cool is that??? another cool thing was...remember the wicken lady? wellll she came to church and watched general conference again this week!! awesome!!! and yesterday for the final session of general conference we watched it at our investigators house with them! it was awesome! Elder Bednar's talk was AMAZING for them.

Wellllllll we are seein a long of miracles and people progressin but we are really worried they are closin our area down this transfer:( There isn't as many missionaries as before so they are havin to shut down areas:( Wanna know somethin sad? That most likely means Le Mars and Hastings are gettin shut down....so both the areas ive served in! and after this transfer none of my companions will still be here in the mission! Sis Kent and Frisina both go home and Sis Bertrand is in Brazil! Sooo Imma lonerrrr.....haha well ANYWAYS sorry enough about me! I wanna hear all that's been goin on in your lives! I hope ya all had a chance to watch conference! Man that was awesome! I really learned a lot about how God will not make us into something we don't choose to become. That's comforting and scary at the same time. ITs nice to know Im in control of my life. My decisions determine my destiny...but oh how little I know!!! I don't wanna be in control! I don't know squat about life! but the cool things is....I have to be in control...I just have to choose God, then allow Him the control in my life! Thank heavens!!....but how do we allow God the control though? That's kinda real hard sometimes...but I loved how President Monson's talk said, "We don't need to walk where Jesus walked...we need to walk AS Jesus walked." As we emulate Christ's actions and words then we can walk the path He walked. His spirit filling our hearts and His teachings filling our lives. President Monson went on to say that Christ walked the path of disappointment, deep sorrow, anguish, mockery, temptation, so we will all walk these paths as well but we, with Jesus's help can walk the path of obedience. It wont be easy...in fact it will be super hard....but man oh man is it worth it! when we obey God so completely like Christ did., and make God, our Father's, will our will like Christ did, then we give Him the control in our lives. I don't know about you...but I don't want to be in control of how my life turns out! I make a lotta mistakes, and I don't know too much...but with God in control...He is perfect! He don't make mistakes and He knows everything! yea... Imma let him figure my life out...not me,. Haha so I just gotta choose to obey:) Easy enough right?;) Ha not.....obeyin is hard!!! Even with that we need Gods help. Obedience is hard...but with Gods help we can and WILL be able to do it. No matter how hard:) All we gotta do is have the desire to obey and ask God for help and I know he will help us obey:) ANYWAYS wow...sorry I preach a lot....I must be a missionary....imma leave now but I love you allllll soo much and pray for you always!!! Have a great week!!!:) Love, Sista Wilson:)

September 22, 2014

Heyyyy Family!!!:) Hope ya all are doin good!!:) Hope ya had a good week! We had a really good week! So I would like all of you to know that I now have a hunting guide pocket book...so I now know how to gut and butcher any animal and cook it all up real good and yummy:) Yea...Brother B bought me one and is gonna have me practice after everytime they go huntin so when I get home ill be pro and make the meanest deer steak anyones ever had!:) (Mom and Dad....you should be proud parents.) umm hmm what else can I tell ya about this week....OH soo we have a less active we been workin with...shes 16 and me and her have become like sisters! I LOVE her. She has been strugglin really bad....major family issues....anyways this past week she ended up overdosing REAL bad on drugs and about died....luckily she survived but shes doin good since then!! She has had us come over and be with her ever since it happened. Hopefully this wakes her up to everything that's been goin on in her life...and she will begin to accept the gospel back into her life:) We have seen slight changes already!! She came to church on sunday and sat next to me and wouldn't talk to anybody else cuz she feels so judged there...its so sad...but hey progress! She came to church!:)

Ohhh so we are meetin with this couple who are TOTAL rednecks. ah I love them!!! They are my kinda people!! haha but anyways...I asked C to pray for us and he threw a huge fit sayin he couldn't and wouldn't and makin up all these lame excuses....anyways I tricked him into signing a contract he would pray...sooo I showed him the contract and said he better not back out on his word...haha he was moanin and groanin and said he refused to do it so me and my comp and his wife all folded our arms and closed our eyes and waitied 10 mins in total silence till finally he prayed:) haha he said, "Dear Lord...I don't know what your gonna do with these girls....but you sure as heck (he didn't actually say that word!) better do somethin! 3 against 1 just aint fair! Yer a man...why cant you be on my side??" haha then he went on to say the most amazing prayer. It was soo sweet and so sincere and humble. Honestly....it was one of the coolest prayers I have ever heard. The spirit was so strong and it touched every single one of us in that room. Afterwards....he had tears in his eyes and said, "Thanks for pesterin me so bad to do that. I haven't prayed in years....now I can again." :) SEEE mom and Dad....its ok that Im annoying :) Sometimes it actually pays off:) haha Well that's all I got time to tell ya about today, but real fast before I go I been studyin a lot on faith this week and how we go about obtaining more faith to see more miracles. It says in the scriputres that Faith is a gift from God. But I really do believe that He doesn't just give it to us cuz we ask....He gives it to us depending on our efforts to do His will. Depending on how willing we are to do all He asks. If we ask for faith, then that's acting. But the more and more effort we put into strengthening our faith...the stronger and stronger our faith will become. Faith is an action word right? So if we want more faith....we gotta do our Heavenly Fathers will:) Strong faith is developed by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ; in other words, faith comes by righteousness. that simple. :) If ya think about it...all the principles and ordinances of the gospel are in a sense invitations to learning the gospel by the practice of its teachings. No person can know the principle of fasting until he fasts. No person can know the principle of tithing until he pays his tithing. and no person can know the principle of faith until he tests his faith. We learn the gospel by living it:) (part of that quote is from President Harold B Lee:))

and this last quote I really loved from President Spencer W Kimball:) he says "Faith must be tested. If all the sick were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled...and the basic principle of free agency would be ended...if joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there could be no evil...there would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, free agency...there would also be an absence of joy, success, resurrection, eternal life, and god hood." Anyways I loved that:) The reason our faith is tested is so that we can truly become what our Heavenly Father needs us to become:) Heavenly Father loves us sooo much ....more than He loves our temporal happiness at times. He sees the eternal perspective. When our faith is tested...we usually aren't pretty happy about that....but don't get mad or upset with God about that....He is just refining you into the person you need to become:) He is just busy at work makin you the happiest in the long run:) and just know that after every trial of faith...theres always a miracle up ahead!!:) I love you guys sooo much!! Hope you have a wonderful week!!!:) Love, Sister Wilson:)

September 29, 2014

Hey Family!!! Hope ya all had a wonderful week!:) This week was good! So at the beginning our car was in the shop for a couple days so we got to ride bikes!:) haha ILOVED IT! It was soo fun!!:) My companion though....absolutely hated it. She had never riden a bike before! she learned when she was a kid then that was the end of it. Soooo it was a rough couple days....she fell a lot and just hated life. Haha so I felt real bad and asked members if we could borrow some pegs and we attached those on and i pegged her around the rest of the time! Haha man we were a sight to behold:) ohhhh and not to mention...we had to wear these super saaaweeeet flower power helmets! heck YEA! we were rockin it. Lemme tell ya. ;) haha ohh so another fun thing me and my comp did this week was...ok so i have pepperspray in my bag and my comp wanted to spray it and see what it looked like...soo she sprayed it outside away from us but the wind caught hold of it and it came right back in our face.... HOLY CRAP IT HURT LIKE HECK. hahah once again...we were quite a sight to behold:) haha man....ohhh and ps. apparently there is a vampire apocolypse goin on in case ya didnt know. Our friend L who weve met like 2 times is a "vampire hunter" and he told us all about it. Apparenlty their all on their way to Hastings this week....so lets hope I make it. Oh but dont worry, L said he would protect us from the vampires forever if I would just marry him....so now the question is should I marry him and live through this week or take my chances?.....We dropped him. haha:)

Oh so one last crazy thing I'll tell ya about! Soo ya know that wicken/witch lady I've told you about? Well she called us the other day freakin out. So apparently she was gettin married this weekend to her boyfriend. Well they went to the bar and apparently someone "slipped something into their drink" and they went crazy. He abused her and did all sorts of other stuff so badly that he's in jail for maybe up to 2 years. Then she beat up 2 cops and 2 other bystanders and also got raped and is potentially pregnant because of it. Gosh.....soooo awful and sad! Anyways she calls us and says, "The reason I'm tellin all yall this is cuz well...I've had a bad week....I need God. Can i come to church with you?" ha so she did yesterday. She listened sooo intently. The talks were on the first vision and then covenants. PERFECT for her! When they talked about the covenant of baptism she leaned over to me and said, "I feel somethin really really strong...what is that?" i explained to her that the Holy Ghost makes you feel that way and that He testifies of truth..she says.. "I know I need to be baptized and start my life over." ha whatttt?? Then they talked about the covenant of marriage...and eternal family relationships and she started cryin sayin she wanted to marry for eternity and be with her daughter forever. She asked, "Can i have that?? How do i get that??" I told her that we could teach her how and one day she can have that! She cried and hugged and thanked me...and wow i just thought about how just 2 days earlier all those horrible worldy things were in her life...and because she came to church for 1 hour..you could just see her change. You could see hope in her eyes. you could see joy. It was soo cool to see that! This gospel literally has the power to change the worst of worst situations to something amazing.

I really just didn't understand how blessed i am to have this gospel, and all the principles it teaches me to not only avoid some of the horrible consequences that come in worldly things, but to find joy in the very worst of times and always have hope even when everythings wrong. I know without a doubt this is Christs true church with the fullness of the gospel in it. You can find peace and comfort in any church...cuz church in general brings you closer to God. But this church...not only brings you closer to God...but it helps you learn to become like God. This church brings you a feeling that you cant find anywhere else. Its an overwhelming peace and comfort, that for one second you see the eternal perspective...and everything is ok. Everything will be ok because we have the gospel! What more do we need? We have the map to go home to our Loving Father In heaven right in front of us everyday...we need to make sure we are always lookin and studyin that map so we don't lose our way. We met with another investigator yesterday and she was tellin us that she went to the baptist church cuz shes just tryin to find the true church. We asked her how she felt when she was there...she said, "I felt nothing...was I supposed too?" ha...we then ended up teachin her the Restoration again...after we recited the first vision the spirit was Sooo strongly there so i asked, "Do you feel anything now?" she was all teary eyed and said, "yea...i have goosebumps." Then we asked, "Do you like this feeling?" she said, "yea..i dont ever want it to go away! I feel total peace and comfort and just soo happy" We then said...."Thats what christ would want you to feel...dont ya think His true church would give you such a feeling?" The lightbulb went off in her head and she said, "This is a feeling only God could give me...so it must be God and this must be his true chruch then cuz when you were talkin about that joseph smith guy i felt it was true." Ahhh the spirit was soo stongly there again! It was something none of us could deny! you cant deny the feeling that is felt in this church. That is how you KNOW it His true church...you cant make a feeling up like that:) Anyways...I gotta go now but I love you all sooo much and am so grateful for all of your examples to me!!! I pray for you all every day!!! i love you!! Have a great week!!!:) And watch out for them vampires!! Love, Sister Wilson :)

Hey Family! How was your week? I hope really good! I can't wait to hear about it! Well this week was good for us! A lot of miralces everday! new invesitgators, people really progressing in the gospel, and Im changin and learnin so much! Its amazing what God can make of us if we just allow Him too. For so long Ive been fighting it because Im scared to lose controll..its so much more safe and comfortable when you feel in charge of your own life...but if you really want to make your life meaningful and make the most out of it...then we gotta lose control, we gotta give it all to God, but its so much eaiser said then done! Haha im workin on it every day.... One thing Ive really come to understand more is just how much the Atonement truly covers. As a mission goal we are all reading the BOM from now until Christmas and marking everything that the Atonement can do for us. Its truly amazing to see how much is marked! How broad the Atonement is and what a truly remarkable gift it is! We also are circling the word "heart" because the Atonement truly begins in our heart. The Atonement purifies our heart. it purifies our intentions, our character, who we really are. The heart is the core of us and if we are chaged there...we are changed. Our heart is what the Lord uses to measure us as an individual. He measures the heart as "an indicatior of the persons capacity and potential to serve others." The measure of our hearts is the measure of our total performance. Where our heart is in the end,....is all thats really gonna matter! It just really m ade me see how desperately i need the Atonement to change my heart. I dont always do things with the right intentions, heck a lot of times i do good things for selfish reasons! but i dont wanna be like that anymore. I want to have pure christlike intentions, i want to have a pure heart. IN order to have that...I need christs help himself. HE can turn Pride to Humility, selfishness to charity, despair to hope, fear to faith, a heart full of worldy cares to a broken heart, yet a complete "full" pure heart. A heart like Christ's. Christ has the power to do this to our own hearts. We just have to allow it to happen, We have to let control and put compolete faith in Christ, and He will fill our hearts with His Atonement. He will bless us with His own love, His own appreciation, His own companionship, His own strength to endure. We recieve His happiness, His healing, and His peace. And if we have these...then what more are we lacking? There was a quote I found by a guy named James L Farrell. It says, "Those deprived of love can recieve His love. The companionless can find a companion in HIm. Those with a cross to bear can find another who carries and makes it light." When we lose control and let the Atonemtn work in our hearts, thats where we will find strenghtn beyond our own. Thts where we will find true peace, true comfort, and true happiness. The atonment was a miralce...it changed everything and made everything possilble. I want to let it do that in my life. Well theres so much i could say about christs atonement..ha it covers so so much! but its also soo individual. SO i dont wanna talk and talk about how its affceted me, i want ya all to see how it affects you, not me! haha so i was hopin yall would do this challenge with me and start readin the BOM right now and mark EVERYHTING that the atonemtn does for YOU.:) ITs individual so different things will stick out to different people, but also circle the word "heart" cuz everytime they use that word, either someone is choosing to use the Atonement in their lives or "hardening their hearts" and choosing to reject the Atonement in their lives. (which is what we all do from time to time). I dont think any one of us actually fully takes advantage of the Atonemtn like we should. But anyways I know that as you do this challenge, your life will be immensely blessed. I know you will come to know your Savior and Redeemer so much more. He will become so much more real to you and I know you will start to have the faiht necessary to allow Him to change your heart. I know with all my heart that this is HIs true church, that He loves us more than we could ever comprehend and is right there waitin gwith open arms for us to just let HIm in so He can make miralces in our hearts...and then in our lives. I say that in our Savior's name, Jesus Christ, Amen. Ohhh and Dare bear....homecoming....DANG!!!! You looked GOOOD! Yer growin up so fast!!! haha gosh im not gonna even recongnize anyone when I get home!!!! weirddd!!!!! Well I love ya alll SOOOO much!!! And pray for you everyday!!! And thanks so much for all the lettesrs! They mean more than you could know!!! Have a wonderful week!!:) Ohh and P.S.. What do you call a line of rabbits hopping backwards?? ...a recedding hair line...... (Dad...this wasnt aimed at you;) haha jkkkkkk) LUV YA! LOve, Sista Wilson!!!:)

Hey Family!!! Hope your all doin well! This week was really good! A lot of different stuff happened...on Tuesday night me and Sister F went over to the B and butchered a deer! They had just gotten the deer yesterday huntin so he taught us how to do EVERYTHING. It was soo much fun! Later this week we ate the deer steaks wrapped in bacon we made! It was soo good! but that night we got home and I had deer ticks all over me! Haha Brother B did too! It was probably cuz we were all up in the deer and covered in blood. But seriously so much fun.

We also had a bunch of miracles this week! We went on exchanges to C and S's house and taught them a really powerful lesson on the Restoration. We were all cryin. The spirit was there soo strong. But...one downfall, this lesson was outside on the front porch for an hour and a half at 8 at night. We got eaten alive by bugs!!! My legs are COVERED but hey, the lesson was AMAZING so it was worth it! :) It was just Satan in bug form tryin to ruin the lesson...but hey they even came to church on sunday!!!!:) Anyways lots of other crazy things happened but that's all I got time for this week! Well this week Ive really been studyin and thinkin about true conversion and what it will do to the rest of our lives if we really are truly converted. We live in a crazy world, and the decisions which we are to make on a daily, or even hourly basis, have eternal consequences. The decisions we make in our lives will determine what happens to us later. It really made me think how deeply converted am I? Do I know of a surety that this is all true? That this is the true church? I have really thought about it everytime I teach and it is AMAZING. I truly can say with all my heart that I do know this is Christs true and only church on the earth today. If any of you do not yet have a firmly rooted testimony that the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the kingdom of God on the earth, now is the time to do what it takes to gain that testimony! Ive seen so many missonaires and investigators just start NOW to gain that testimony and have seen how much it truly has changed and affected their lives already! True conversion is more than just havin a knowledge of the gospel. It is possible to have a testimony of the gospel without living it. But being truly converted means we are acting upon what we believe and allowing it to create a mighty change in us, or in our hearts. Conversion is a process, not an event. You become converted as a result of righteous efforts to follow the Savior. It takes time, effort, and work. To become converted you have to LIVE it even if you dont have a strong testimony of it yet. You have to sacrifice (this all takes a lot of faith) Then "ye will receive a witness after the trial of your faith." You will become converted and KNOW with all your heart.

Conversion takes places as we are diligent about sayin our prayers, studyin scriptures, attending church, bein worthy to participate in temple ordinances. Conversion comes as we live pure lives and always strive to be worthy to have the holy ghost with us. Conversion comes as we come to understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ, acknowledge Him as our Savior and Redeemer and allow the atonement to take effect in our lives. Theres a scripture in 3 Nephi 9:13 where it says if we become converted then He can heal us. I really do believe that. The more and more I come to know of a surety and gain a stronger testimony everyday....the more whole I feel. The more peace and happiness I feel. Becoming converted truly does heal you....even when you think you didn't need to be healed in the first place. I want all of you to know that I KNOW the Lord is mindful of me and what I stand in need of. These needs include everything. My physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. In every situation we have a choice to make as to how we handle it. We can feel sorry for ourselves or we can turn to the Lord for comfort and understanding and become converted and healed. One last quote I loved is by Elder Jefferey R. Holland. "In the gospel of Jesus Christ you have help from both sides of the veil and you must never forget that. When disappointment and discouragement strike...you remember and never forget that if our eyes could be opened we would see horses and chariots of fire as far as the eye can see riding at reckless speed to come to our protection." I love that. Please never forget that the Lord is mindful of you individually. He will HELP you become truly converted. He will help you gain that peace. If you are struggling to maintain your testimony and you just don't quite KNOW for sure this is all true....please just hold on a little longer. Please just put more effort into it and I PROMISE God will help you feel for yourself and know for yourself it is all true. And remember there are legions of angels surrounding you to help you gain that as well. I love you all more than I could ever explain!!! Have a wonderful week and know you are in my prayers!!! I love you!! Love, Sister Wilson:)