April 23, 2018

My Words Are Your Nutrition

Hey Y'all!

Soooooooooo this past week was long, but short, but long at the same time... its great!

haha we did A LOT of walking this past week, Ive walked through the souls of my shoes that I just bought like a few weeks ago.. lol that's what happens when you get 20 dollar shoes right? haha it will be fun making this last till I go home. 

Nothing to crazy happened this past week, we had Zone Conference which was really fun! We taught about the importance of personal and companionship study. We had each of the missionaries study a certain topic of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for 15 minutes then had them split off into groups so they could learn from the other missionaries with their same topic. Before all this though we had them exercise, eat breakfast (a peanut butter ball), and begin with a prayer. It was cool to see how strong the spirit is and how much you can learn from the spirit when you TRULY decide that you want to learn. Desire will take you a long way in the gospel! 

After Zone Conf we had exchanges with the AP's which was a lot of fun, I went with Elder Lindford who was a ZL in BV a year ago so we went around saying hi to some of the members and investigators that he taught and then called it a day, nothing too crazy but it was fun to be with him, he's a great missionary and is really fun to talk to, we mostly talked about the mission and hunting, haha what more could you talk about? lol. 

After that exchange we had another one with Clifton Forge which was good, I went with Elder Sorensen and it was good! the kid is like half my size so I looked like I was walking around with a kid haha it was pretty funny, we were laughing about it.  We played a pretty funny prank on his comp though. We went to this less active family the Najarians, and they were supposed to prank Elder Sorensen but totally forgot so I told them that they HAVE to prank his companion. haha so when they showed up we went and hid in the side room and Avery answered the door and yelled at them that he told them to never come back and to get the F*&%^ off his porch!! haha it was hilarious and not at all what we had planned but it was super funny because the other missionary had no idea what to do.. when we walked out from the side room he looked so confused.. it was great! we all laughed pretty hard about it!

Anyway other than that we are now just preparing for our upcoming "Meet The Mormons" movie night at the SVU center sports arena that Elder Hadley and I are putting on, we have gotten the word out to the whole school staff and programming people so we are now just passing out fliers like crazy going door to door, so its been great! The work seems to be looking up here in BV, just pray it all runs smoothly!

SO yesterday I had to speak in church and the topic that I was given was how to obtain a testimony of Jesus Christ, so I just want to share a little scripture that I shared that is the beginning step for all of us in this sacred opportunity and responsibility that we have to do this.

Alma 32: 27

27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

Just as the scripture says, the beginning step of anything in the gospel is a righteous desire and faith. As we exercise faith and show Heavenly Father our righteous desires, he will grant us accordingly! I want to invite you all to think of ways that you can gain a desire to strengthen your testimony this week, and if you don't have one, then I want you to find ways that you can obtain one! I promise you that this will bless your life for all time and eternity, trust in the process and trust in His timing, He is at the head of this church! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Robbie Wilson

The Buena Vista and the Roanoke Zone

Cool looking cloud

Ran into Br. Moye from Vinton

The Buena Vista Boys

Hanging with the AP's

Southern Virginia University Baseball

April 16, 2018

Let It Rain Let it Pour!

Hey Y'all!

Well what a week its been! This past week was a good'n!! haha we did a lot of walking this week which has been nice, getting me in good shape that's for sure haha. We saw a lot of good things happen this week that we are excited about and a lot of funny things happen too! 

So to start off, we had MLC on Wednesday which was pretty fun! the night before we went up to Roanoke and stayed the night there with the Zone leaders there which was a blast but before we got there we had dinner with the one and only MACK AND ABBIE MOYE!! haha it was so good to see them and catch up on all that they were doing. I love those guys so much. MLC was pretty good too, It was good to hear from President Lindhardt again and receive some further insight on how we can be more effective leaders and missionaries in the WVCM. I love learning from him because he has so much insight on the principles of gospel that really provoke deeper thought and understanding, its awesome! 

after MLC we came back and had just a normal week, because our area is so small though we don't really do to much tracting so we have to get creative when it comes to finding so we have been trying to spend more time with them members so that we can earn their trust. Its been a lot of fun getting to know all the young college couples in the area haha, its so nice to be around people my age again! anyway one day this past week me and Elder Hadley were walking down the street to go see one of the members in the ward and she was outside and Elder Hadley said her name was Jenny so instantly the thought of Forest Gump and started yelling in my Forest Gump accent "JENNY!!!!"  and then Elder Hadley started doing it so we were just in the middle of the street sounding like a bunch of  Weirdos and we stop for a split second and as soon as we do we here these two girls start laughing so we look over and there was two college girls sitting on their porch just busting up laughing at us from doing our Forest Gump voice haha it was hilarious.. you had to be there ;) 

Later in the week we had another funny incident.. we were stopping at a gas station to snag a drink and these guys were outside so we asked them how they were doing and one guy said "BETTER THAN YOU!"  so we just laughed and kept walking inside, got our drinks and on our way out he asked us if we were Mormons so we said yes and he right away started to condemn us and told us all the original anti stuff that you hear so Elder Hadley just walked around the van and said "How about you come talk to us when you put the cancer stick down" (the guy was smoking) and I couldn't help but bust out in laughter and the guy just kind of stood there looking like a clown haha it was great.. then later that day we were walking to one of our appointments and we ran into the guy AGAIN and so he slowed down and started talking to us and started saying the same thing so finally I just "how about we agree to disagree and be friends" and he said "I just hate to see you go to hell" so I laughed and said "hey don't worry buddy me and you will be buddy buddy up there in heaven one day" and because he was on a bike he started to ride away so I yelled out "AND WE CAN RIDE BIKES AS LONG AS WE WANT TOGETHER, LOVE YOU!!" haha it was pretty funny, I guess the guy has been known to anti the missionaries before.. what a guy!

anyway our investigators are killing it! Larry wants to get married so he can be baptized and Brandon Garrett is really starting to open up to us which I guess he has never done before so that's exciting! pray that everything goes well there!!

anyway I hope you all have a killer week!! love you :)

Mack and Abbie

Virginia Tech Football Stadium

Buena Vista! (that's pretty much our whole area lol)

The wooden night by our place! (my pants were ripped in the making of this picture..)

April 9, 2018

Mini Provo

Hey Y'all!

Well a lot has changed since the last time we talked.. I have been transferred to Buena Vista Virginia, and will be serving as a Zone Leader here! This area has the SVU college in it as well so Its funny that I'm serving here because I remember the baseball coach at SVU asking me to come play for them and now he is the second counselor in my ward! haha so wild. This area is awesome though. Its called Mini Provo because it has the highest rate of Mormon's living here! our ward has like 250 some odd members which is crazy compared to my last ward which was 90 haha. It was a little over whelming but its nice to be in a ward that functions so well! our area is super small, like we walked 90% of it already in just the two days that I have been here. Its been fun though. My new Companion is Elder Hadley, he came out with me! so we both have been out the same amount of time. Hes a great guy and we have a lot in common so we never run out of things to talk about! Its really nice. This Zone Is HUGE though, I went from being in the smallest zone to the biggest haha. This zone covers all the way down to Lynchburg VA. its really big! But I'm doing really good, I'm loving it here!

Other than that, Leaving Clarksburg was really hard, I didn't realize how close I had grown to all of the people there! It honestly feels like I never served there now that I'm back in Virginia. But I look forward to the day that I get to go back and see all those wonderful people that I have grown so close to! Since I only have 4 months left this will probably be my last area which is both exciting and sad. I have loved my mission so much, and look forward to finishing strong here in Buena Vista! I hope that you all have a good week. Know that I am always here for you guys and love you all very much! thank you for all of your love and support, I feel the strength from your prayers daily. Keep laboring in the spirit and keep looking for ways to spread the good news! :) Have a good week!!

Elder Robbie Wilson

The Clarkburg Boys

Bro Morris and Elder Stoneberg!

Jacob

Mike

The Barnett's

Tonya

Hector and Maria

The Wimer's

JJ Riddle

Mama J and Matt

The Swiger's

April 2, 2018

T Minus 4 Months Fam...

Hey Y'all!!

AAAAAANNNNNNNNDDDDD Just like that I only have 4 months left till I'm home. Weird.

Other news I am being transferred to a new area. I'm super sad to be leaving Clarksburg. I feel like I have really turned into the man that God wanted me to become here. I am going to miss all the people that I have come to meet and work with. I have truly been changed by those that are in the Clarksburg area and Ward. I'm also going to miss my companion Elder Garrett. The kid is a stud and is going to do great things on his mission. I'm grateful that I was able to serve with him! That being said I look forward to my next adventure that I am about to embark on. Hard to believe this will most likely be my last area. 

Conference was absolutely amazing this weekend. I left feeling recommitted to the work and the will of the Lord. I look forward to seeing the progression of not only my self but in the whole church as we strive for unification as disciples of Jesus Christ. I love that the overall message of this conference was Pure Love and Humility for our savior and spirit brothers and sisters. I hope you all take all that you learned and see how you can personally apply it to your life. These men are true disciples of the Lord, They know him and have heard his voice. Look to there counsel and seek the help of your Savior. He is waiting for you to come to him!

A little funny moment that happened a while ago at Zone Conference that I just thought about sharing haha; After Zone Conference I was talking to President Lindhardt and he was talking to me about how he admired my enthusiasm and how much fun I have with the work and I told him that I was going to need to find me a good wife so that I can be kept under control and he looked at me and put his arm around me and said "Elder Wilson you can tell a lot about the man by the wife he marries and the knife he carries." I then proceeded to pull out a knife that dwarfed his and he started laughing and said "you have me beat on the first half" haha it was pretty funny.

Life is good! I love my mission, And I love the Lord. I hope you all have a good week and stay out of trouble!

Elder Robbie Wilson

#Freedom

We were tracting and ended up on this street...

district selfie

Conference selfie

We found these nose strips in the apartment and they were pretty ridiculous haha