Monday, May 25, 2015

And It Came to Pass...

1. And it came to pass in the third month since the commencement of his mission, Elder Wilson's second transfer came to an end.

2. On Sunday eve, Elder Wilson and his companion who were dwelling in their flat, received the call of moves from the land of Edinburgh. 

3. Much to Elder Wilson's dismay, Elder Blaylock had been called to pack up all his belongings and move to the island off the coast of Scotland, also known as Ireland. 

4. Thus we see that Elder Wilson will be getting a new companion, whose name shall be Elder Ensign, and they shall lead out the Motherwell area to the best of their ability.

There you have it folks, Elder Wilson has finished his 3 months of training, and has been set free to lead out the Motherwell area without his trainer! Feeling a mixture of nervousness and excitement. I am excited to see what Elder Ensign is like and see what we can accomplish together in Motherwell. I am nervous to see just how well I know the area I  have spent the last 3 months in. Do I wish that Elder Blaylock was staying. YES!!! We got on really well, and I know I could learn a lot more from him. But, the Lord has need for him elsewhere, so elsewhere he will go. 

In other news, not much happened last week. But, we do have a meeting tonight with some potential investigators. Their names are Shannon and May. May has met with missionaries before, but it must have been a while ago because we do not have records of her in our area book. But, she seems really promising, and she took a Book of Mormon when we knocked her door. If you get to read this email before 6 PM tonight (Scotland time), please pray for her and for us as well, that all will go well!

Other than that, we are just getting ready to move now and getting ready for this next transfer! This will be President Brown's last one before President Donaldson takes over in July so that is pretty exciting as well!

Hope you all have a great week! Love and miss you all!
Stay awesome! Keep moving forward!

--Elder Wilson
 
 
Karl and a pizza cookie!


 I found a Disney Store!!


Glasgow
 

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Agency Sucks!

                                                                                                                                       May 18, 2015
Well, where do I even begin. This was probably the most disappointing week yet.

First off, we had a total of 4 appointments fall through. It can be really hard when you talk to someone, they seem genuinely interested, and then they change their mind. 

We had two referrals from mormon.org this week!!! We got really excited about one of them because we set up an appointment with him, and he even texted us the day of the appointment to confirm!! We thought he was going to be super solid. Turns out, both of them were just a prank. Not interested at all. Thanks for wasting 2 hours of our time sir!

Sometimes, people having the ability to choose sucks! I really wish that people would just make the right decision all time. But, that is not the Plan that was set forth so it looks like we are just going to have to work with it and roll with the punches. 

On the bright side, we finally got back in touch with Isabella (a less active we are working with). We hadn't seen her for a couple weeks and we thought she was avoiding us. But, we got to go and teach her and we got her to say the closing prayer for the lesson!!! Probably a small thing to get excited about, but it's progress. Next step, get her back to church!

We also had Zone Interview Training (ZIT) this week. It's basically like Zone Conference, but we get to have one-on-one interviews with President Brown. It was great getting to just talk about concerns that I have, and having him give me some suggestions to work through them. President Brown is a great man!

Scottish vocab of the week:
Eejit: basically translates to English as idiot! I love this word!

Hope you are all doing well! I love hearing from you and am so grateful for all the prayers! Love and miss you all!
 
--Elder Wilson
Sister Fran is a less active we are working with. She feeds the missionaries every other week! Great lady!!!

                                              Selfie in Strathclyde in a Roman bath house

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Trunky

Hola!!

Hope you are all doing well! 

This week has been a mixture of disappointment and hope! So, last week we had three appointments set up with potential investigators. When we talked to them the first time, they seemed genuinely interested and open to learning about the Gospel. Well, needless to say, all three appointments fell through. Two just didn't answer the door, and one got sick. But, we are not giving up on them! We are trying by them again this week, and prayers would be greatly appreciated! Their names are Carmen, John, and Emma. 
 
The hopeful part of this week came near the end. As we going to do some try by's in North Motherwell, this random guy recognized us as missionaries and started talking to us about the Book of Mormon. At first, I thought he was just drunk and crazy, as most Scots are on Friday nights. However, he ended up giving us a fairly accurate synopsis of 1 Nephi, and we found out that he was actually a less active member who had been baptised about 2 years ago. He has a very sincere desire to come back to church, so we are meeting with him this week to hopefully help him get reactivated! Another great thing that came from this meeting was that Ian (that's his name) had given one of his friends a Book of Mormon about 2 weeks ago! He is going to get us his address and we are going to try by him this week as well! Looks like things might be on the up and up here in Motherwell!

Kind of scary/sad thing that is happening right now is that areas are starting to get shut down. In the next few transfers, the number of missionaries leaving is much greater than the number that are arriving. This means that there won't be as many missionaries to fill up all the areas that we currently have. They are starting with wards that have more than one team serving in them. This means that Motherwell could be on the chopping block since our ward has two teams. It would actually be really sad to have to leave for that reason. This transfer alone, they are shutting down 2 sister areas and 5 elder areas. A team in our district just got a call this morning saying that they are one of the 5 elder areas. Hopefully we can hang in there!

As many of you know, yesterday was Mother's Day!! This is one of the best days for a missionary because it is one of the 2 times a year that they can Skype home!! It was so great actually getting to talk with my parents! So much fun! But, this brings me to my Scottish vocab of the week. This isn't actually a Scottish word, but it's a common word used by S.I.M missionaries. Maybe it's used by all missionaries, but I'm not really sure. The word is....

Trunky: basically another word for homesick. It references a trunk (or piece of luggage). I hear this word from Elder Blaylock a lot, since he only has 3 months left. 

Skyping home made me a little bit trunky. Not as much as I thought it would, which is good, but just a little bit!

Before I leave, just a bit of advice. Do all you can to help the missionaries in your ward. This work is impossible without the help of the members, a lesson I am learning the hard way. Help them any way you can. Feed them, go on joint teaches with them, give them referrals! 

Hope you all have a fabulous week! Love and miss you all!!
Stay awesome! Keep moving forward!
--Elder Wilson
 Elder Blaylock and I at our stake's Helping Hands service project! Picking up rubbish!!! 
 
Here's our crazy district! From the back to front, left to right. Sister Jackson, Sister Stewart, Elder Burch, Elder Blaylock, Sister Prescott, Sister Stein, Elder Benton, ME!!!
 

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