Abilene Letter #6

It has been a high and low week. I had two major crazy things to tell you guys, but not too too crazy. Haha! The work has been normal. We had about the same success as last week. It's kind of been "same old, same old" missionary work in Abilene. Now the first crazy thing is -  I got a flat tire!! On bike day! We had to walk 45 minutes back to our apartment. Luckily it was heading back, so we could head to a dinner appointment. We were only 10 minutes late. Guess what! It was my usual luck. I found the one big stud screw in the whole road and it just happened to have been hit by me.  My front tire flipped it up, so it was straight up and down and then it popped right through my back tire.  It was bad. No patch or anything would have helped, but it was fun. Here is the cool part - while walking back a guy stopped while driving and gave us his address and said he really wants to talk about the church! It was really cool. So I guess I was supposed to get a flat tire. Haha! The guy was English speaking so we gave him to the 1st Ward sisters.  I bought a tire at Target and it was an inch too small, so we might try it as a back up, but I thought it would be safer to get the right tube, so we went to a bike shop and I got a good one. That is so crazy about Grandpa!!! I am so thankful that it wasn't worse! Tell Grandpa I love him and I'm praying for him!!!!!!! That's crazy, but I'm glad the family is doing well! I'm praying for everyone! Missionary work here has been the usual.

Now for the second part. . .. . transfers. . . . . I am staying in Abilene! Haha! You were right mom. And, I'm staying with Elder Felts! Haha! It was exciting!  Elder Simou, he is in Third East. He lives in the apartment across from us and is getting transfered to Seminal, Texas. It's really sad, because they live close and we car pooled a lot with them. He is an amazing missionary and has a huge powerful spirit. He is from Tonga. I love him so much and he sets such a great example of serving the Lord. He will be missed.  The Ward is awesome here and doing well! Guess what! Here is some other amazing news! We have a family in our Branch, the Marquez family, who are going to get their investiduras (endownments) and are getting sealed!!!!!!  We as missionaries get to go!!! We will go to the Dallas Temple!!! I'll take lots of pictures, but that's supposed to happen next week. Exciting right?!  I love the temple!

So, I didn't really have a ponderize scripture this week, but I have like six Spanish scriptures I'm trying to memorize. Haha! One is in Hebrews. I thought it was cool. I'll try to translate it and maybe you guys can find it! There you go Tanner and Hunter, scripture hunt time! It says something like, "who ever the Lord loves he disciplines (or something like that maybe chastizes) and who does that he receives like a son". It's awesome to share with people facing hardships.

Hunter go kick butt at the tournament!!!!!!! Just remember to be humble and teachable! But, you are the best! I know you will rock it out there! Keep your knees bent in your warrior stances!  ;-) Haha, love ya buddy!

Tanner how was the temple? How was it taking Hunter with you? I know I loved it when you and I went to the temple. I will never forget how excited I was to have you feel the same joy I felt there and you got to have a special experience there as well. I loved thinking that someday we as a family and brothers will be in heaven together forever, a wonderful sacred place of peace and love just like the temple! How's swim? Is it over yet? Hopefully not. How's our favorite resident fire breathers? (Haha, the bearded dragons)

Hi Kailee!! How's dance? Sounds like you have tons of cousins to have fun with! keep being an awesome helper to mommy!!!!!!!!!!! Love ya k-bug!

Well, our investigators are doing good and so is everyone we are interacting with.  Our branch is really coming together. It's great. My Spanish is doing better, I bore my testimony and talked a lot in church yesterday.  All the members say I have really good grammar.  I just sound really funny with my accent.  I thought that was really funny, but I more of just speak it now and I'm becoming really comfortable with it. I'm not perfect and by no way did I get here on my own. The Lord really helped me. Everything is exciting here in Abilene, Oh yeah, I went on exchanges with the ZL's.  It was fun and not too eventful.  Wednesday we all headed out to Eastland as a zone and did a big blitz.  We each took a little area and visited LA's and former investigators. It was good. Hopefully we helped the Eastland sisters out. But, we used a lot of miles with that, so we have to be careful now. :-)  I miss you guys and I love you!!!!!!!!!!! I'm praying for you!!!! Stay smiling!!! Even when its tough!!!!! I have had the best Mexican food ever, but what I would kill for a plate of mom's pasta!!!!! Haha! That's me being funny! Haha!  I love you guys! Talk to you later!

--

Con amor,

Nos vemos,

Elder Wilson

Abilene Letter #5

Hi everyone!!!! It's so awesome to see all the great pictures of everyone!!! This week was pretty monotone. We visited alot of LAs (less actives) again. We didn't quite reach all of them, but we are still getting in houses!! It's a lot of fun! This last Tuesday I went on exchanges with the Sweetwater elders. Elder Starkey (he came out to the mission with me) went with Elder Felts and ran the Spanish area.   I had the awesome opportunity to go with Elder Heiner and run Sweetwater! Sweetwater is a town about 45 minutes outside of Abilene.  Because of some ticket problems, Elder Heiner doesn't have a tiwi card yet, so sadly, isn't able to drive a mission car. Guess what!  I got to drive! It was fun, but Texas highways are a lot faster than back home. The speed limit is like eighty. It was super fun! We stopped by and talked to members. I got to help teach a plan of salvation lesson. It was fun! The lesson was taught to an entire family! I guess that doesn't usually happen. (The only reason the rest of the family was outside with us was because they were all smoking, but hey I'll take what i can get :) ) Hahaha.   Sweetwater was saving miles for later so even though I could drive we were entirely on bikes. I had two bike days. They were fun. Sweetwater has a lot of hills. It was fun to see other Elders and their style of doing things. Wednesday at eleven we exchanged back, so don't worry, I'm still with Elder Felts! Saturday though, we will find out if we are being transferred! It's crazy how long I've been in Texas! It's already the beginning of week six! We keep working hard with our new investigators! They are slowly progressing, though we haven't seen our two older ones in a week because they haven't responded yet or answered the door. On our Spanish bike day we were riding along and this dog that wasn't too big but it wasn't tiny followed us. It turned out to be a stray, but it followed us a long time. We called it Poncho. It wouldn't leave us alone, but then we passed some other dogs and it left us.  That was fine becuase it would be tough with a stray dog following us. There are a ton of dogs here but they generally only bark and don't do much else to us. I'm good and I'm happy! I got a rain jacket today for proselyting. It rains here still. Always fun. I ran through some awesome puddles on bike day. One looked like a minor puddle, but it turned out to be a mini pond! haha! It was fun! I loved seeing all the pictures of you guys! Yeah, we try to do 10 hours of service a week. We help at the food bank, we helped an older lady work on her house and we do spontaneous service. That's always the funnest! I haven't gotten your letter yet dad but I'm watching for the mailman and I haven't gotten any packages other than the Halloween one.  Yes, I'm at the library. We go there every pday. Did you guys have a Stake Conference broadcast this last Sunday? We did! It was so cool they spoke specifically to the US South West area. It was really cool. I wish I could have understood more because it was all in Spanish for me :).  I still love Texas! I teach more in Spanish every day! I love you guys and hope you have an amazing blessed week!!!! Btw, my ponderize scripture was 2 nephi 25:26! This one I did in Spanish!! I have it memorized.  I worked hard this morning! "Y hablemos de cristo, nos regocijamos de cristo, predicamos de cristo, profetizamos de cristo y escribimos segun nuestras profencias para que nuestras hijos sepan a que fuenta han de acudir para la remision de sus pecados."

i love you all so much!!! Read your scriptures!! They are the key!!! I love you! Miss you!!

Mission Tour with Elder Foster

Here are a couple photos from the mission blog with Elder Wilson in them.  Elder Bradley Foster came and toured the Texas Lubbock Mission.

In the Mailbox!

We had a surprise waiting for us in the mailbox today!  A picture and letter from the mission office! We love this picture and feel so blessed that Elder Wilson loves President and Sister Heap!  It's so great to know that he is not only in the Lord's hands, but also has a wonderful mission president and mission mom looking out for him.

The Pumpkin

Halloween was our first big holiday without Elder Wilson here at home.  Kailee wanted to paint a pumpkin to put on the porch for big brother.  She was so excited to paint this missionary pumpkin!

First Zone Conference

I spy....  Elder Wilson!  We were so excited to find Elder Wilson in these pictures from the mission blog.  He loved attending his first zone conference!  Thank you Sis. Heap for posting pictures for us to enjoy!

Elder Wilson & Elder Felts

Here is a picture of Elder Wilson with his trainer, Elder Felts.  

He Made It!

After two different delays and one extra connecting flight, this cute group of missionaries finally made it to Lubbock! They arrived 24 hours after originally planned. What an adventure! So excited to receive this photo from the mission mom. Hooray! 

Today is the Day!

Elder Wilson left the MTC and is Texas bound!  He called us bright and early from the Salt Lake Airport and we were so excited!

During the phone call, we found out that their flight from Salt Lake City to Denver had been delayed.  There was concern that the group wouldn't make it to Denver in time to catch their connecting flight to Lubbock.  While Wes was on the phone with Jonathan, he all of the sudden says, "Dad, it's Kurt!"  Wes's cousin Kurt is a pilot for Sky West Airlines and just happened to be the pilot for the flight at a nearby gate.  Kurt did some checking for the missionaries and found out that their plane had hit a flock of seagulls on it's way into Salt Lake earlier that morning.  He took a picture of Jonathan and his traveling companion for us.   We were so excited to receive this picture via text.

After a few hours, the group finally headed off to Denver.  They missed their connecting flight from Denver to Lubbock, so the airlines ended up sending them to Houston where they spent the night in a hotel.  The next morning they were able to fly from Houston to Lubbock.  We felt a little spoiled, because we were able to talk to Jonathan longer than originally planned.  The group of missionaries also enjoyed talking to people in the airport and having their first opportunity to share the gospel in the mission field!

Pictures from the MTC

Here are the pictures we have received while Elder Wilson has been in the MTC.

 The District saying goodbye to their MTC teachers.

 The District at the temple.

 Elder Wilson with his companions - Elder Brockbank & Elder Gygi

Elder Wilson and Elder Gygi taking a walk around the temple grounds.  They ran into Pres.& Sis. Horner (Byron & Diana) on their walk.  We were excited to get this picture!

 The Zone

The District

Last MTC Package

Last MTC package was sent today!  We can't believe Elder Wilson leaves for Texas on Monday!

First Letter From the MTC!

I Made IT!!!  I'm loving the MTC! The first day went by so fast.  I think the excitement of being here got me through the first day! It was a little crazy. I have been in two companionships so far.  I got here and it was awesome.  My books are heavy but the Spanish is awesome.  I was the last one to get here in my classroom (district). I was first assigned to my current companionship which is the one I was originally supposed to be in. I am part of a trio. My first companion in the trio is Elder Gygi.  He is from Mesa, Arizona and has been called to serve in the Buenos Aires Argentina mission.   The second companion is Elder Brockbank.  He is from Elk Ridge, Utah and has also been called to serve in the Buenos Aires Argentina mission.  Most of my district has been called to serve in Argentina except for four out of the twelve. When I got here they reassigned me to be companions with Elder Nock, so he was my first actual companion here at the MTC. Elder Nock is from Arkansas and is a super awesome guy with an awesome powerful spirit.  He has been called to Ecuador. He was originally supposed to go to the Mexico MTC, but due to visa problems he is here now. He had a different companion assigned to him, but his companion was coming late. He was supposed to be with Elder Seims but he didn,t come until midnight on Wednesday so I was a temporary companion to Elder Nock. When Elder Seims got here I went back into the trio. Elder Seims is really cool. He is from Alaska and is going to California. He doesn't know any Spanish, but when he speaks it, he contains such humility and meekness. It has huge power.  It's so cool to hear. I have met three other Elders who are going to Lubbock too!! One is in my zone (branch). The other two are in another zone, but we all came in the same day. You were right, the first day I got a dork dot. Hahaha! My Spanish is coming along great. All of us in our district except Elder Seims have either taken at least two years of Spanish or like four years of another foreign language. Un poco y poco me espanol es emprovado. The Lord and spirit bless you so much! In forty five minutes I was able to memorize over 45 spanish vocab words.  Yesterday we started praying only in Spanish.   I taught my first investigator yesterday totally in Spanish.   It was fine.  We taught on the power of oracion (prayer).  Podemos fortelaza nuestro relacion con nuestro Padre Celestial a traves a oracion ( we are able to strengthen our relationship with heavenly father through prayer). It went well.  I was able to speak okay to her, but I was able to understand all that she said and I felt the spirit so strong as we taught.  It helped put words in our mouths. I love the MTC! I'm doing my laundry now.  I've ironed all my shirts and I even had to teach Elder Gygi how to iron a shirt.  I shined my shoes and our residence reeks of shoe wax now, but it's awesome. My teacher is Hermano Savio from Olympia, Washington, went to Panama on a mission, and is teaching Spanish at the MTC. Most the teachers are around 22 and are students at BYU.  We have a second teacher, an Hermana, but she is pretending to be the investigator we taught.  We are being  evaluated and we aren't supposed to know she is our teacher, but we asked Hermano Savio if she was and your not supposed to lie so he told us. Saturdays are my P-days so expect an email sometime around 9:30 am. We go to the temple as a zone at 1:50 pm, but it is against the rules to see family there and it's not good.  You get in trouble if you do, so sorry, but please don't come find me. Hahaha. I'm loving the MTC! Those shoes were an answer to prayers! I needed them for our first gym time today and I got the package yesterday evening because that's the first day to get our mail! I was praying they would get here before that so I wouldn't impede my companions.  Thank you so much for sending them!!! The food was amazing too! The food here isn't as good as mom's and there is lots of it.  It's rich, but I say it's just above Timberline food. I've been trying to do exercise at night but with all this food you feel very lethargic so I need my gym time. How's home doing? I miss you guys! It is so cool, missionaries as far as the eyes can see! As we sing Called to Serve the spirit is so strong and this is a choice group of people. Tanner and Hunter, I can't wait for you to get here. It is so fun and has an amazing spirit! I miss all of you so much! Hopefully you guys have been doing awesome! I keep you in my prayers! Yes even in Spanish! No matter what I always wake up at six. I don't know why but I get to go shower and get ready and skip all the lines. It's awesome getting that extra study time. You cant get extra name tags until your out in the field so that's sad. Miss you guys! Thanks again for the package and the wonderful letters!!! I love you!

Nos Vemos (we see each other again)

Elder Wilson

P.S. I guess I'm not Hermano Wilson. It's Elder Wilson.  It's a title like sir or teacher.

 Here we are in one of the other residences of our District!

Elder Gygi is on my left (facing the camera.  He has the lighter hair and the glasses.

Elder Brockbank is on my right with the black hair standing next to me.

The rest are some awesome guys in my district, but Elder Nock and Elder Seims aren't in there.

The other elders are great guys and I'm getting to know them. There is Elder Lee from left to right (facing the camera) with the LA shirt, then Elder Worth, then in the white shirt in the middle standing is Elder Lee (yes there are two) and sitting is Elder Pingree. They are sweet guys! Lovin, the MTC!!

Entering the MTC

Elder Wilson reported to the Provo MTC yesterday (8-26-2015).  He was excited and ready to go.  We are so excited for him!  It was a very bittersweet day for us. 

Only two days until Elder Wilson reports to the MTC.  Wow!  Time flies!

Opening the Mission Call

After receiving a 7:00 a.m. phone call from our friend and neighbor who works at the post office, we rushed over to pick up the long awaited white envelope! It then sat on the mantle for 34 hours waiting for little brothers to get home from scout camp before being opened (a true test of patience!). We are so excited for this amazing kid who will be serving as a missionary for the next two years in the Texas Lubbock Mission, Spanish speaking! We have exactly 57 days before he reports to the MTC (but who's counting?!?).