That Was Unexpected!

August 17, 2015

This week has been full of unexpected occurrences!! I shall only name a few because there were quite a bit! Don't worry, most of them are good!

First, we had another lesson with Nate! She is so flipping golden!!! Towards the beginning of our lesson with her, she mentioned that if she were to join any church, it would probably be ours, just because it all makes sense. She loves the principles and just the atmosphere of it all. At the end of the lesson, we asked her if she would like to be baptized. She said yes, but that she wanted to learn a little bit more and receive a witness of the Book of Mormon!! I knew that Nate was solid, but never could I have imagined that she would be this solid! I am so excited to see what happens as we continue to work with her!!!

Second, the Petries! We had another great lesson with them on Thursday where we taught them about tithing. It's always fun telling kids that part of being a member is giving some money to the church, but they were really accepting of it! The downside was they weren't at church yesterday. At this point, it is very important that they make it to church every week so that they can keep progressing towards their date and so that we can make sure that their less active parents are fully committed to helping them make and keep these covenants! We talked with them after church, and they said that they had let the  Bishop know why they weren't able to make it. For now, they are still on track to make their September 6th baptismal date!!

Third, and most crazy of them all!!! Transfers! Not what I was expecting at all! I have only been in Dundee for one transfer and I am......leaving!! Elder Olsen is going to be a district trainer, which means for the second time in a row, I get booted out to make room for a greenie. I will be moving to Falkirk where my new companion will be Elder Scharman. But that's not all! We will be whitewashing Falkirk. Definition of whitewashing: two missionaries are brand new to the area and have to basically start from scratch. Needless to say, I am a little terrified! I thought leading out an area was bad, but now I have to go to a brand new area with a companion who hasn't even been there before! No pressure! But, I know that with the Lord's help, I will be able to do this! It won't be easy, but it can be done! Plus, I got my wish of serving in a branch! Yay!!

That pretty much sums up the week in 3 convenient points! Next time I email will be from a brand new area with some brand new adventures! Thank you all for being awesome!

Stay awesome! Keep moving forward!

Elder Wilson

Ain't it pretty!

Finally found a deep fried Mars bar!

I can taste the diabetes!

Sister's Mission

August 10, 2015

Hola!! Como estas? Wait, sorry, wrong mission language! Hello! How are you!

This week has been pretty good! I'll start with the best part....WE GOT ANOTHER NEW INVESTIGATOR!!!!!!

If you remember me telling you about Nate from last week's email, we got to meet with her this week! She is so solid! She follows some Mormon blog (thank you Pinterest), and is really accepting and willing to learn! She was going to come to church yesterday, but ended going to go visit some family instead. We have another appointment set up with her for this week! Please keep praying for her!!

One thing that wasn't so happy, was that Alex (the other potential I talked about last week) dropped his appointment. It was pretty sad, but we are going to try by later in the week and try and set up another appointment.

We got to see the Petries again this week! They are totally going to be ready to be baptized on their scheduled date! This week we taught them about the Word of Wisdom. That's always fun to teach a group of kids, right? We only have 3 more lessons to teach them, and they are beginning to come to church regularly. What's also great about this, is that their parents (who are less active) are almost reactivated. They both just need to come to church one more time! It is so amazing to see people rediscover the gospel and the Spirit and see just how much it can change their lives!!


This week we have a couple big events coming up! First, it's the end of the transfer!!! We will be getting the call on Sunday to see if we move or not. Elder Olsen and I have been trying to predict what will happen, but it is honestly impossible. It's going to be a weird night! Second,: as of Saturday, I will only have 18 months (or a sister's mission, as I've been calling it) left!!! It is so crazy how fast time goes on a mission. It feels like just yesterday I was saying a quick curbside goodbye to my family and getting on a plane! It has been an amazing 6 months so far, and I cannot wait to see what the next 18 have in store. Of course, I must follow the "foolish traditions" of our fathers and burn a tie on Saturday. I will make sure to  take pictures and send them to you.

Thank you all for your wonderful emails and support! Love you all and look forward to hearing from you next week! Stay awesome and keep moving forward!!!

Elder Wilson

Elder Olsen and I make some weird Danish food

Ice Cream break during finding.

Scottish Sunset

The view we had during our morning run!

On Track!

August 3, 2015

 

Happy August everyone!!!! It's crazy how fast this year is going! Didn't I just graduate high school?

This week has been one of the best for Elder Olsen and I!

First off, we had another lesson with the Petries. Taught them about the 10 commandments and showed them hand signs to remember them .That was a fun lesson. At the end, we talked a little bit more about what their baptism will be like, and Gemma (one of the kids preparing to be baptized) said, "I want to get baptized now!" Why can't everyone be as excited as her? That comment made me so happy! To make this week even better, the Petries came to Church!! There car was broken down for about two weeks, so they had no means of transportation, but they finally got it back this week. The kids are right where they should be to be baptized on September 6th!

Had another super great lesson this week with Chris and Finley Thomson. Chris' wife, Amy, was baptized about a week before I got in the area, and their son Finley (age 9) really wants to be baptized, but he wants to take the discussions with his dad. Chris struggles with building his faith in God, as he was raised in an atheist family. There entire family (they have two more kids age 7 and 4) comes to church every Sunday, and have family scripture study and prayer every night! Chris and Finley are basically just dry Mormons! Really excited to see them progress!

We also went on exchanges with the zone leaders again this week, with me leading out the Lochee area again. I finally feel like I know what I am doing here, which is good since it is very likely that Elder Olsen will be leaving in about 2 weeks.

We also got a new investigator named Vincent. Vincent has been meeting with missionaries for about 10 years and he knows the Book of Mormon is true and wants to be baptized!! He has some legal issues from his past that we need to clear before that can happen though, but he is super solid!

Of course, we did do a lot of finding this week because we are missionaries and that's what we do! We did find 2 super solid potentials who we are meeting with this week! First is Alex. We chapped his door and he let us in so that was already a great start! He believes in God, but is looking for a faith/church he can join. His mom has taken missionary lessons before, so he knows a little bit about what we are about. Second is Nate. We stopped her (yeah it's a girl) on the street, and she knew a ton about Mormon missionaries (ie how long we serve, how are call is assigned, etc.) and a little bit about the church. We told her a little bit about the Book of Mormon, and she was super accepting and willing to learn! Please keep these two in your prayers!!

That's really all the major events of this week! Thank you all for your love and support! Love and miss you all! Stay awesome and keep moving forward!

 

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--Elder Wilson

1) Dundee! 2) Scottish dogs are very well trained :)