June 26, 2017

Ladies, Gentlemen, My Ugly Older Brother, and House Cat

Wow what a quick week it has been! I swear the days only go faster and faster. Things here in Vinton Virginia are going pretty good! This past week we had a lot of meetings and little house keeping items that we had to take care of but other than that it was a pretty solid week! We were able to get out and get some work done and make some memories while doing it! 

SO this week we had our last Zone Conference with President and Sister Salisbury. Its hard to believe that they are now preparing to go home. When I first got in the mission they had just about 11 month until they were done and now they are preparing to see their families for the first time in 3 years. Cant believe that its already here. They gave a wonderful last meeting that I feel will not only bless the rest of my mission but the rest of my life as well. I'm so grateful for the time that I got to learn and spend with president Salisbury. He will truly be missed! In Zone Conference we talked about how we can continue to use preach my gospel through out the rest of our lives as we stay master planners and keep the habits that we have gained and learned on the mission. He also talked a lot about eternal marriage and dating which made me feel like a trunky little monkey. But its ok we don't talk about that part..... yet. 

haha But ya things out here are going great. This morning we got to go golfing with the other Vinton Elders and their investigator Jimbo!! It was a lot of fun and the weather was great which made it even better. Felt like I was golfing out west again with how low the humidity and heat was :) count your many blessings right? 

For my spiritual thought this week I want to share a quote with all y'all that comes from our beloved Prophet Thomas S. Monson.

 "There is absolutely nothing in this world that will provide more comfort and happiness than a testimony of the truth." ~ Thomas S. Monson

This past week I had the opportunity to teach a district meeting on the importance of bearing testimony to others. We all know how much happiness the gospel brings to our life's and we are blessed each and every day for the knowledge that we have of God's plan for his children. But there are many people out there who don't know of the plan of redemption or who don't even know about God our Heavenly Father. I want to invite you all to look for someone this week that you can share your testimony with. I know its a scary thought but If I can do it so can you!! I promise that Heavenly Father will bless you as you bear witness of him. I love you all and hope you have a great week! stay safe and stay cool (:

Elder Wilson

June 19, 2017

Days, Weeks, Months, Years

Hey Y'all!!

My oh my what a week it has been! Not gonna lie this past week was one of the slowest weeks that I have had in a long time.. I don't know what it was but man it was long. I sure did learn a lot though. I also came to realize that sometimes you just gotta learn to keep things to yourself and realize that the one person that you can always trust and look to is heavenly father. I'm grateful for his love and for the sacrifice of his son that has blessed my life so many different times and so many different ways. The Atonement truly is Gods greatest gift to his children!

Thought his past week was pretty long we had a lot of fun. Earlier this week we got to help one of the young men in the ward work on his eagle scout project which was a great time. I learned how to shingle cedar roofing so that should come in handy some day.. I'm not sure when but hey who knows right? A funny moment from this week was we were helping at the food pantry and Elder Basteen and Elder Crouch had the wonderful idea to eat Chile peppers and when we did Elder Basteen was legit crying and Elder Crouch threw up and I just sat there laughing because they were both being soft haha, I guess some people can handle their heat a little more than others can lol. 

So earlier this week I was feeling a little stuffy because my allergies were starting to kick up a little bit and I sounded a lot sicker than I really was, and we had a lesson with Brenda who is a new investigator that we picked up a couple weeks back and when we showed up I started talking to her and she freaked out and said "why in blue blazes are you sick?!" "and why didn't you tell me?!" hah so the rest of the week she has called me every night to make sure that I'm taking my vitamins and allergy pills so that I feel better haha. thought it was pretty cool. she truly has turned into my Grandma away from home! I sure have come to love her.

Today we got to go golfing with one of the Investigators in Vinton 2's area which was a lot of fun. Jim is a great guy and its only days until he finally decides to be baptized. He is a great guy and has a great heart. I love being able to get to know him and teaching him when I get the chance to on exchanges! 

Needless to say things here are going pretty good. I'm grateful for the opportunity that I have to continue to serve in Vinton. For my spiritual though this week I wanna share something that one of our members in the ward named Brother Hodge shared in his lesson during priesthood yesterday. He share a quote that really hit me and has actually made me step back and look at my self. He said "Hell is when the man you are, meets the man you could have become." The reason why I like this is because its so easy for us to cut corners or to take the easy way out. But the Gospel is meant to be followed by obedience and exactness. There are 3 points that if we follow we will full fill Gods will for us;

1.Be Obedient

2.Do what you are told to do

3.Ask what you can do to help.

as we do these things we will live happy and free lives. I promise you guys that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is here to free us from wordily sorrow. I have seen it time and time again. I want to invite you all to take a step back and look at ways that you can become a better person this week. God never said it'd be easy, he only said it'd be worth it!

I love you all and hope you guys have a great week!!!

Elder Wilson

Me and crouch gettin it done!

The final product :)

I made us all ties so we could me matchy matchy ;)


The Golf outting

June 14, 2017

Six More Weeks

Hey Y'all!

Well just as you read in the caption I will be staying in Vinton,Virginia another 6 weeks with Elder Basteen! Which means that I will be here for a total of 6 months by the time I leave. Hard to believe that I am starting my last transfer here, feels like I have been here for only a couple of months but when I look back at it, it has definitely been an area that I will never forget! 

Not much has happened this past week, because everyone thought that I was leaving I had a lot of the members wanting to feed us and take us places but they were all super stoked to hear that I am staying. So I have definitely felt the love of the Vinton area this past week. 

As for the missionary work here in Vinton it has been pretty slow but we are looking to pick up a couple new investigators this week which should be awesome! The new investigator that we picked up last week, Brenda, came to church this last Sunday and is on date to be baptized July 8th. So hopefully all works out there and we can help and prepare her to enter into the waters of baptism this transfer. I know that the Lord needs me here in Vinton for a reason and I hope that I can do my best to make him proud of me. I'm grateful for this opportunity that I have to serve the Lord full time and give all my devotion to Him. Though I'm almost half way done, I still have work to do and I look forward to the time that I have doing it!

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Wilson

The coal trains

Me and Elder Crouch had a ice cream eating contest... I ate three of these huge cones!

Finally found my Mountain!

My District

The Model A the we went for a ride in(got to drive too)

A picture from the drive

June 5, 2017

Work Hard and Play Harder

Hey Y'all!!

Wow this past week was definitely one of the best weeks of my mission!!! We saw so many miracles and just had an all around blast! I can definitely testify that if you work hard on your mission you will not only gain a lot of wonderful experiences but you will also gain such a great love and desire for the work! I don't even know where to start on this week haha.

So on Wednesday we had exchanges and I was able to go with Elder Crouch and boy was that a day haha! We had an appointment with Pope Francis (bible thumper guy) and boy oh boy was it something that I will remember haha. we brought Mark our ward mission leader with us to the lesson and short story short by the end of this so called "lesson" Mark was screaming at both of them saying that the Holy Trinity was False and It was a Heresy. haha they started screaming back and forth and even called Mark Satan at one point haha it was wild.. But me and Elder Crouch looked at each other and giggled a little bit and told them all to sit down and shut their mouths and we each bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and got the heck out of there. haha a lot more than just that happened but that was definitely some of the key parts for sure haha. But ya if its one thing I've learned about being in the Bible belt, Its you need to learn your bible before you start throwing out verses lol. 

Friday Saturday and Sunday were all wonderful days and we were even able to find two new investigators this past week which was a wonderful miracle. as a district we found 8 new investigators this past week which is awesome because we usually average out 3 or 4! Its incredible what the Lord can do for you if you just listen to him and follow what he says! 

That's all I can really think of for this week but I for my spiritual thought I want to invite you all to go to Mormonchannel.org and watch a video called the music of the gospel! its a wonderful video and will help you to understand the spirit on an amazing level! I love you all so much and hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Wilson