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:)

Hey Family!! Sorry I didn't get to email ya all yesterday! Hope ya all had a good labor day! Well this week was FULL of miracles. I really don't even know how to begin to tell ya! So I don't know if I mentioned last week that we met this lady who was a wicken (witch) and about to commit suicide? Well we "accidently" ran into her again this week...she saw us and invited us inside her friends house and begun to tell us how much our visit last week meant to her. She said she has been prayin to find us again all week. She said we literally saved her life and were angels God sent to her! It was amazing! She asked us to share our message with her! She took a BOM and asked if if she could come to church with us! haha crazy cool! Another cool experience was we were walkin out from seein a less active family and this lady walked out of a different apartment room and so we all walked down the apartment hall together. So naturally I just started talkin to her, getting to know her and before ya know it she starts askin us all sorts of questions about our missions. She was amazed teenagers would go on a mission haha she got real serious and asked, "Well what are you doin right now? where you gonna go?" I said, "Well we will go and find someone who wants to hear our message...unless YOU wanna hear our message?" She goes, "Yes please! Come in please!" Ha so we went inside and she ends up tellin us she has been lookin for "somethin" all this time...she didn't know what she was lookin for but this just feels right! It feels soo good she said! We gave her a BOM. She wanted to come to church. She asked TONS of questions. It was really cool! She also told us that she knew without a doubt that she didn't meet us by coincidence. Shed been prayin for somethin...and here we came along. Ha so cool...and another cool thing is a member family told us they had been prayin for some investigator their age we could find that they could fellowship, they said they KNEW we would find her before this week was up. We found her Saturday night at 8! haha perfect timing! Crazy cool miracle! a lot of other really cool stuff happened but I got no time!:( Some day ill tell ya all everything!)

Well before I go....lately I really been thinkin a lot about becoming more like our Savior. I really really want to be that kind of person. I want to be the kind of person where His purposes are my purposes. They should be that way. His interests should be our interests. His work should be our work. His way should be our ways. And His Will increasingly should become our will. But how do we become like that? How do we make his purposes our purposes? We all know we need to become more like our Savior, we know we need to submit our will to Him, we know we need to do as he would do...but what we don't really know and are all tryin to figure out is HOW? How do we become like Christ? I think the first step is to have the desire to become like Him. I would go as far as to say that desire could be the same as faith. If you desire to be like Christ then you start havin faith that you could become like Him. Even if that faith is small...its definitely somethin to work with. In order to become like Christ we need to strengthen our faith so we can accomplish this. So how do we strengthen our faith? In PMG theres this paragraph that I love, it says, "Your faith will increase through diligent study, prayer, dedicated service, and obedience to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and the commandments. Your faith in Jesus Christ grows as you become better acquainted with Him and His teachings. As you explore the scriptures and search them, you learn of His ways, His love for all people, and His commandments." I love what it promises, that as we strengthen our faith you become better acquainted with Him and you learn His ways, which is what we ultimately want. It said multiple times in that quote that in order to strengthen our faith we need to read and study the scriptures. We need to treasure up the words of Christ. right? So then I was thinkin....what does it mean if you truly treasure somethin? Lets say I really treasure chocolate chip cookies....cuz I do...we all know this. But since I treasure these...am I just gonna walk right past them everytime I see them? HECK NO. Im gonna go straight to them cookies ANYtime I can!! Anytime Im sad....those cookies are what I turn too. They are the first thing on my mind when I walk in the door! That's how we should feel about the words of Christ. We should want to go straight to them anytime we can. We turn to them when we are strugglin. That we desire to have as much knowledge from them as we can. Ok sorry that was a dumb analogy but I been thinkin a lot about chocolate chip cookies lately..haha so it came to me. In Matt 6:21-24 it talks about where our treasure is there will our hearts be also. If our treasure is in treasuring up the words of Christ then that's where our heart will be, or where our focus will be. and like in the end of that scripture that our heart and focus can only be to one master at a time. Either our heart and focus is on God and becoming more like Him or our focus is on man and becoming more like the natural man. Treasuring up the words of Christ is more than just studying or memorizing, just as "feasting upon the words of Christ" is more than just simply snacking or sampling. I think when you really treasure something that it becomes a part of who you are. (just like when you eat a cookie it literally becomes a part of who you are:)) No but Elder Bednar said this about treasuring up, "Treasuring up suggest to me focusing and working, exploring and absorbing, pondering and praying, applying and learning, valuing and appreciating, and enjoying and relishing." I think the more we understand Christ, the more we learn of Him, and about Him, the more our faith will increase and the more will be able to be like Him, our perfect example. Anyways, sorry I just went off there but I just love that. We can't become like the Savior, without the Savior. We need to utilize the Atonement every day if we want to become like Him. I really am gonna try harder this week to become closer and closer to my savior, closer to becoming LIKE my savior. I love you all soo much and am so grateful for all you do for me! You are in my prayers daily!!! Have a wonderful week and be safe!!:) I love you!!! Love, Sista Wilson:)