Hey Family!!! How are ya all doin? I hope real good!! Soooo much happened this week!! It was crazy! So first off we have been in a ton of tornado warnings! It was soo much fun!! We got stuck in the E's basement and just chilled down there till the tornado passed. It didn't hit directly Sioux city so we were fine! Although there was golf ball size hail!!! Sooo sweet! But a DOUBLE tornado hit Pilger Nebraska. (which is about 45 mins away from us.) oh awkward...you all have the news so you probably already heard about this..anyways...so the whole town of pilger was completely destroyed. It was soo sad. We were able to go with a bunch of missionaires and serve for 2 whole days cleanin up the tornado damage. It was so sad....these peoples houses were literally picked up and completely ripped down to shreds all over their fields. We walked fields for 6 hours on Saturday and I found dolls and wedding pictures and clothes and roof ALL over their corn fields. It was seriously one of the saddest things I have ever seen....the people were completely devasted. They had the national guard there and red cross and TONS and TONS of volunteers from all over the U.S. comin to help. It was soo cool to be apart of it.

On Friday a bunch of us missionaires drove out to Wakefield to clean up the damage they had from their tornado. We drove out to this farm which was completely demolished. It was an older couple who were high school sweethearts and lived in this house all their life. When we got there the lady was just sobbin on the front porch. I went up and put my arm around her and told her we were all here to help. She cried and cried and hugged me and said we were all angels and told us her story. Then we walked their fields pickin up stuff that might be of meaning to them. It was sooo sad.....

So a lot of this week has been down in Pilger and Wakefield cleanin up tornado damage but we were also able to teach some awesome lessons!! We taught Gary and Laura (The ones who asked us' "So you could tell me what happened to my son? Where he is now?" He had died of cancer... Leukemia and they didn't know there was a heaven. It was an AWESOME lesson!! Laura cried the whole time we talked to her. The prayer was soooo powerful. She showed us all her sons stuff and just talked with us. They are amazing people. I am so excited to see what happens with them:) We had a ton of people at church on sunday! Ah it was awesome!! The work in Le Mars is INSANE! haha we are hopin this transfer President sends another set of missionaires up here! We have soo many investigators and not enough time in the day to teach them all!! Baptisms are FOR SURE gonna be happenin here soo!!! T's and J is in 2 weeks!!! butttt.....the sad thing is....Transfers are this week. and I have been here for 7 and a half months...I think I might be leavin:( Which makes me so sad cuz I love these people with all my heart and more. I never EVER wanna leave....but I know that God will send me where I need to go and I just gotta be willing. I probably wont be able to see any of these people be baptized....but at least I was able to share the gospel with them and get them on that path....which makes me more than happy to be able to be apart of that:) Well so many other things happened but it would take an eternity to tell all so Ill just wait for another day:) I just wanted to share with ya all some things that I have been thinkin about! (besides bein killed by a tornado). I been really thinkin about the Atonement. I think that once we have a real understanding of the Atonement then how can you NOT act? The more and more I learn of the Atonement and the depth it reaches into each of our lives...the more I want to love and help every person around me. Its soo cool. I think that if you understand Christ, then you'll understand the need to be like Christ. Does that makes sense? Sorry my thoughts are all over the place. But if we really realize our potential then we will so much more easily see others potential. It makes it that much more easier to love and help them. Every person has the same need in life. Everyone just wants to be loved. And because of the Atonement.....through the Atonement everyone CAN not only love, but everyone can be loved. The Atonement really fills every need we have. Its such a deep, powerful thing and I know the more we understand it, the closer to heaven we will be. Not only that, but we will become closer to reaching our full potential.

With all these tornados and floods and deaths, and these horrible trials people are goin through, a lot question why me? Why would God allow this to happen to me? But We just need to keep in mind that God will not inflict upon us anything that is not ultimately for our good. He will make us into what we cannot make of ourselves. We just need to trust in Him. We may not be able to control all the circumstances and situations that happen in our lives, but we do have control of our happiness. That happiness is found in the gospel. Its found in making Christ your best friend, your first priority. If we just do that....then our challenges will truly become our blessings. Christ has the power to make somethin completely horrible, into something completely beautiful. There is a reason for everythin....just rely on Christ and you can find that reason. Well I love ya all SOOO much and hope all is goin well at home!! You are in my prayers every day and I am so grateful for the letters checkin if Im ok! I love you guys!!! Love, Sister Wilson:)

Hey Family!! I hope ya all had a wonderful Fathers Day!!! :) Things are goin great over here!! I have never been happier! I love Le Mars sooo much!! Its the cutest town EVER. I have made such amazing friends here and am gonna have the hardest time in the world to leave. These people have become family to me! We have continued to see SO many miracles this week! The Lord is blessing us sooo much! I am so grateful! One really cool experience we had this week was we were walkin home at 9 and were about to walk inside and I saw this couple out of the corner of my eye walkin by. I waved to them and asked them how they were doin, and they walked over to talk to us. We ended up talkin and introducin ourselves and then the lady said, "Oh .......hey so would you be able to tell us what happened to our son? He died 4 years ago from Leukemia and it terrifies me... wheres he at?" She started cryin...I was shocked. Ha Heavenly Father had completely prepared these 2 for the gospel. They basically just asked us to teach them. We ended up basically teachin the plan of salvation and told them that we know he is free from pain and safely resting in heaven. We told them that he is all around you every day, bein your guardian angel, you just can't see him. She started bawling and hugged me sayin, "You really honestly believe that? How can you be sure?" I then bore as strong of testimony as I could..tellin her I know without a doubt that this is all true. I told her about Jared and how I feel him every day and know he isn't far away at all...that I would see him again one day, and so will she see her son. We just need to live our lives in a way so we will be worthy. She grabbed me and said, "Please teach me how to do that. Teach me what you know. You guys can come over whenever you want! " We were completely shocked. Ha we said, "Oh my gosh of course!! We will teach you everything we know!!" It was sooo cool. We are goin back over this week:) I am sooo excited to see where they go!!! They are truly special.

So this week was also the funeral for K. It was soo hard and sad. S found a poem that K had written at the bottom...."Please read at my funeral". I absolutely LOVED it. It says, " Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free, I'm following the path God laid for me. I took his hand when I heard his call, I turned my back and left it all. I could not stay another day, To laugh, to love, to work, to play. Tasks left undone must stay that way, I've found that peace at the close of the day. If my parting has left a void, Then fill it with remembered joy. A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss, Ah yes, these things I too will miss. Be not burdened with times of sorrow, I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow. My Life's been full, I savoured much, Good friends, good times, a loved one's touch, Perhaps my time seemed all too brief, Don't lengthen it now with undue grief. Lift up your heart and share with me, God wanted me now, He set me free.

That really is such a sweet poem. I really feel the spirit when I hear it. I think it shows a more eternal perspective of death. Death seems (and is) such a hard thing...but when you really think of it, its amazing. That person gets to return home to God, free from all pain and sickness and hard things that are in the world. We should be happy for them. Its what we ultimately all want in the end. Its just real hard to see it that way. One quote that I found the other day is by Spencer W. Kimball, it says, "No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our character, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God...It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education we came here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven." I absolutely loved that. It is so true. Life can be real hard and challenging at times and we just need to remember that it is all for a reason. Instead of asking, "Why is this happening to me?" Ask, "What am I to do? What am I to learn from this experience? What do I need to change? Who can I help?". Its super hard to think that way.....but if we do, it will be soo much easier to deal with the trial. Well sorry I went off on that!! haha we had tons of other miralces! J came to church and is gettin baptized in July!!!:) T and J are gettin baptized July 5th!!! They have come to church too!! Many others are progressin like crazy!! We have 11 progressing investigators!! That's HUGE for Le mars!!! haha its sooo cool!!:) I am SO grateful to be able to see this happenin in Le Mars!!! I hope I never leave!!! Thanks so much for all your prayers for me!! My throat will get better eventually, but looks like I haven't learned what I am supposed too yet. Haha so Im gonna take what I learned and apply it to my life:) One of my favorite scriptures this week is D&C:50:40-42! Read it, its awesome! I love ya all SOO much and you are all in my prayers!!! Love, Sister Wilson!:)

Hey Family!!! This week was awesome! We got 6 new investigators!!:) Le Mars is gettin somewhere!! Ah its awesome to see the difference since when I first got here 7 months ago till now!!!!:) But one of the investigators names is J. He is this older guy who owns his farm out in the middle of nowhere. His wife died of a stroke and he needs a lot of help around his farm. So we went up there and helped around the farm. It was so cool. We were able to teach him the Restoration and give him a BOM and he says he will most definetely come to church next week!!! He was real interested in it!!:) We are so excited!! Another new investigator was a referral given to us from one of our potential investigators. They lived over in the trailer park. She just had back surgery so we helped clean everything and then were able to share a message. She has a 10 year old boy named B. His Dad is a NFL player on the NY giants team! But He never sees his Dad....he just sends him money every year. Its sad. B didn't know anything about Jesus so we were able to teach him about Jesus and God. It was really cool. He really wants to come to church with us. His mom said he could and she wanted to come when her back heals! 2 other new investigators are named N and L. We went over to the lock up and were seein T and A when they both asked if they could come in and listen. We told them of course and ended up teachin them the plan of salvation with this visual aid that Ali Peterson gave me!!! (Tell Ali thank you SOO much!!) They both started cryin!!! and sayin that that feels so right. It was SUCH a powerful lesson. But then we always have powerful lessons at the lock up. Heavenly Father really loves them and wants them taken care of. We gave them BOM's and they gave us their numbers so we can go back and teach them more. They wont ever be able to get baptized cuz they can't leave the lock up.....but it is bringing them so much peace in that horrible horrible place they are in. The feeling in the lock up is so scary and awful......but I know that we are supposed to be there bringin them peace and comfort and love from their Heavenly Father.

Some other cool things that happened this week was we were able to go to a bonfire with the G! A really really less active/part member family. They live out in the middle of nowhere and invited a BUNCH of people. Haha D is Pagan....and in a motorcycle gang so all his buddies came. We were kinda a little bit scared to go. It was a BUNCH of hard core rednecks. Haha they all brought beer and I don't think any of em believed in clothes or shoes. Haha. But it ended up bein AWESOME! First off they made a bet jokingly that if I roped this fake cow then they would wait to drink the beer till after we left. I ROPED IT! hahaha it was so funny! They were all laughin and didn't drink beer till after we left!:) They all were super nice to us and asked us a bunch of questions! It was cool! Then we were able to teach M (Their 16 year old daughter). She has been struggling with suicide because her father committed suicide. We were able to have a good message with her about Gods love....and left her a commitment to paint a picture about God's love. (She LOVES art and paints horrific drawings of suicide and death....its so sad) She was SO excited to do that!! and wants to come to church!:) Another cool thing was C!! She came to church last week and then this week we were able to meet with her. It was Such a good lesson where she asked sooo many questions. She believes all of it....then every night after we teach her she calls us and thanks us so much and says that we are angels and knows that what we say is true. It is the cutest thing in the world!!! We are really hopin this keeps goin so good and before you know it she is gonna get baptized!!!! PRAY FOR HER!!!! One other thing is M...She is the aneorix girl who has major health problems....she had to go to Arizona for health treatment and so we had to say goodbye to her this week. It was super sad. She was terrifed to go and didnt' want to go.....didn't know if she would ever see us again cuz she thinks shes gonna die. I gave her a BOM and bore my testimony so strong of the peace and comfort that book will bring into her life. She told me she would read it and thanked us soo much. I know that book will comfort and bless her life if she just reads it. Well then just some fun stuff that happened was yesterday a HUGE flash flood came and the whole 1st floor of Floyd Valley Apartments got flooded. So me and Sister Bertrand and S were there all day suckin up water with buckets and mops and vacuums. haha it was so fun!!:) Welll so many other things happened this week as well but I am runnin out of time! So I better get goin but I love ya all sooooo much and pray for you every day!!! Thanks for all you do!!!