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!!!:)