Zone Conference April 2016

Pictures from the mission blog...







The Zone with Pres. & Sis. Heap (Amarillo/Panhandle)


"Hurrah for Israel!"

The song - I'm A Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas

Here is the song Elder Wilson mentioned in his letter.  It was written by Phil Baxter and recorded by various artists.  We couldn't help but smile and giggle a little as we listened to it! :-)

"I'm a Ding-Dong Daddy from Dumas!"

Hello family! 

This week in Dumas was awesome!!! I love it here in Dumas!! This area has so much potential! I have used my Spanish here more than I did in Abilene! Since the zone is so big they don't have a straight panhandle Spanish companionship. All the companionships have someone who speaks Spanish. Dumas is small, but it is awesome. Everything is close and we don't use a lot of miles which is nice. Sorry I didn't email sooner. It was Presidents Day and then yesterday we had district meeting and then exchanges, so I went to Perryton  (our DL area). So, yeah I just got back from Perryton. Those elders are sweet. 

Man, I love my new companion Elder Hawes so much!!! He is from Idaho and he has been out about two transfers longer than I have. He is an English Elder. He is funny, patient (important especially to have a crazy guy like me with him) and definitely a huge spiritual giant. The branch here is small, but really awesome Saints. They are definitely members of Zion! We go to Seminary a ton. We meet at the Rodriguez's house and help Sister Rodriguez so that is fun. A lot of the youth think I'm funny which is good. We got to visit a lot of people this last week. It was fun. I don't know everyone yet, so this week's goal is to meet and know everyone! We taught a sweet FHE lesson this last week for the branch. We took ten Scripture mastery scriptures from the Book of Mormon and we had a game were you had to guess it off of memory.  Then, after a certain amount of time you could look for it, then after we had a little basket ball and you shot it and earned points based on the distance you were away (which we had that set up before). We played something like this in Seminary.  It was tons of fun. The members got really into it and they learned a lot of scriptures! Haha! It was cool. So, if you every need a fun lesson in a small town in the panhandle of Texa,s there you go!!!

It's awesome to hear everyone is doing well! 

The reading for this week is 2 Nephi 11-25. They are shorter ones so hopefully its easier! Yeah, I've been following the schedule in that book with those study help guides.

So the "Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas" is a song that a guy wrote after living here and i guess it was really popular so that,s like the town,s theme song. The high school mascot is the Demons. So, yes, I am among the Demons!  Hahaha just kidding! They are awesome people here. Well, I won't take up too much time because we have some work to do! God be with you til we meet again!!!

--

Con amor,

Nos vemos,

Elder Wilson

First Transfer!

Elder Wilson is being transferred to Dumas, Texas tomorrow!  We will post his new address in the sidebar as soon as he sends it to us.

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.