Hey Family!! How are all ya doin? Well this week was crazy! So on Monday....Tifertoes (haha 3rd shoutout to you girl....you must be special;)) came to see me!!!! She took me and my companion to dinner!!! Ahhh sooo badly I wanted to get in her car and go home to Le Mars with her....but no worries....I didn't:( Also this week we had zone conference! ha sooo our ward here in Hastings was in charge of the food for all the missionaires...the next day EVERY missionary in our entire zone was sick!! haha soo funny!! Actually it wasn't that funny cuz I got sick...but other than that...pretty funny. Ummm another interesting thing that happened was me and Sister F had this Mexican dude pretend he couldn't speak English to us...so we were tryin to communicate with him in the little Spanish we did know the whole time...then he asked for our number, then afterwards started hitting on us ALL in English. Ha idiot. We left....he got weird real fast. haha my companion was sooo scared and didn't know what to do! It was funny...I just nicely told him off:) Oh another thing that happened was we were over at our investigators house teachin her then her 25 year old son comes runnin in freakin out...this HUGE dog had literally bit his butt and a chunk was missing haha! The cops showed up and everything cuz apparently this dog has got issues....ha I would go as far to say this dog is a pain in the butt...ha ha ha....hahah good joke. everybody laugh. ANYWAYS.... oh another interesting thing is we met this girl who, when we came over, opened the door cryin. We asked her if she was ok and if we could do anything for her...she said she was about to commit suicide. We had NO idea what to do. So we just started talkin to her and let her vent....hugged her and cried with her. She ended up tellin us she was a wicken (kinda like a witch...theres a lot of em here) so she didn't really believe in God. But we asked if we could pray with her...she actually agreed. It was cool! When I was prayin it was like Heavenly Father was givin me the words to say to her. I told her how much He loved her and all this cool stuff. afterwards she was sobbing and just hugged and thanked us. Her friend came over and we were able to tell her friend to keep an eye on her and everything,. but it was cool to be able to be there for this girl when she needed it most. Oh and another awesome thing...we met this couple C and S....they are amazing! They eat up every word we say. They been through sooo much in their lives and they know God has a plan for them and they say everytime they are with us they feel like God is tellin them this is part of their plan. I cant tell you how strong and cool they are. We are gonna try and set them for baptism on September 20th:) We will see what happens...:)

Well Im runnin out of time so Ill leave it at that today but I just wanted to share with you guys what I been learnin lately. Soo to be honest...this has been the hardest transfer Ive had so far. Ha its kickin my butt...but also its makin me into the person I needa be. Real growth is a change of heart, change of countenance, change of desires, change of action. I honestly feel like I am changing. Im still the same ol blonde but...Im also so much more able to do Gods will now. Ive been able to lose myself more...and let God take control...THAT is the only reason I am even able to still be here. Cuz to be honest....if it was just me out here on my mission with just my own strength...ha I wouldn't....couldn't be here. But with God....he Makes my strength enough, and not only does He make it enough..He makes miracles out of it.:) I heard this quote the other day and I think its so true...it says, "The purpose of the gospel is to make bad men good, and good men better, and better men great." I have seen how true this is over and over on my mission, Ive seen how the gospel has changed and made people better. But what I wasn't expecting was how much its still changin me. Ive had the gospel all my life...and honestly I used to think once you had it...you just had it. Lucky for you...lifes all good. But No....you never just have it. You gotta work for it everyday. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it. The more you allow it to come into your life, the more miralces it will bring into your life. The more it will change you. Anyways...so ya know how I was sayin this is a rough transfer for me? Well I was really strugglin the other day...and so I was readin the BOM and came across 1 Nephi 7:17-18. This is where Laman and Lemuel tied up nephi and are wantin to kill him. obviously this is a huge trial in Nephis life. So he prays to God. But what really stood out to me was that he didn't pray for the situation to be taken away...no he prayed for the strength to overcome the situation. I loved that. I really have learned that faith is not askin the Lord to change our circumstances, but askin the Lord to change us. Theres a quote I heard this week that goes right with all this..."Don't pray for the situation to change, pray for the strength to change your situation." I had been prayin for the wrong thing all along...I realized what I needed to be prayin for....and that was strength. God allows and even gives us trials in out lives but they all are for the benefit of us in the long run. We just need to give them to Him. He can relieve you. He WANTS to relieve you. You just gotta let Him. Don't deal with your trials alone. You wont be able too..and why would you even want too? He can make even the worst of things, for your good, but ONLY if you allow Him too. Otherwise it will just be a horrible trial you had to deal with for no beneficial reason at all. I really have learned that devoted followers of Christ...persevere. That sacrifice is necessary for success. That when we sacrifice and do hard things we learn to love more fully and deeply. That when we read the BOM it will help us desire to actually WANT to sacrifice and do hard things. That you have to experience the bad in order to grow and change. We have to be tempted to overcome.

Anyways sorry I went on and on there....but hopefully some of that makes some sort of sense. I really believe that this is what mortal life is all about - overcoming our weaknesses- and Jesus is the one to help us IF and WHEN we fail on our own. I also believe that one of the grea test in life is to see whether we will listen and follow Gods direction while we are in the storms and temptations of life. Its also not only to endure the storms, but to continually choose the right while they rage. I love you guys soo much....and cant thank you enough for your love and support! You are always in my prayers! I love you! have a great week! Love, Sister Wilson:)