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!!!:)