The last one

 I finally got to be companions with Elder Ihrke! We got to spend the last week of our mission together and we have been having the best time of our lives... kinda lol. 

We are in a trio, and we are on a special assignment for our mission President to fix some issues in the mission. We are called the TT's or the Trunky Trinity hahah because we go home thursday and everyone thinks it's funny we all get to serve together. We got our own gang signs and everything. 

Anyways we will start back to our mission home experience, that was so much fun. So wednesday we finally got to go to the temple. It was the first time in 2 years that I have been to the temple and man i love it. One of the best experiences, especially after spending so much time trying to help those around me see how much of a blessing the temple can be, then getting to go and experience it for myself again. Man it was amazing. 

After that President Amos drove us to his house and the whole drive he was roasting me for all the trouble I had caused him while on my mission. Kidding but not really at the same time. But dont worry I was way more helpful than I was harmful hahah. But that was a good time reminiscing on the mission. 

Because there was 30 of us missionaries going home, and literally every Elder there played basketball, we decided to play some basketball at the Stake center by the temple which was so much fun. And we could play as hard as we wanted because if we broke our leg or rolled an ankle we didn't care because we were going home anyways lol. 

The sisters stayed at the mission home and made Jambalaya, so when we got home dinner was ready, we ate the grub then had a testimony meeting that night. Boy did I love that testimony meeting. So many elders that I just love so much and have spent the last 2 years of my life with, just sharing what we know and love about the Gospel that we had spent so much blood, sweat and tears trying to share. 

After that President and sister Amos got out the Blue Bell ice cream, then went to bed and let us plow the ice cream and we all decided that we were not going to sleep that night. So we stayed up, all.... night.... long. And that was the worst decision of my life. It was a blast though, we talked about our missions and the memories we had made and the fun times we all had together. We got to hear other elders stories who served in other countries, as well as shared some of our experiences before Covid in lousiana and Mississippi. Just one of the most wholesome nights of my life. 

But when other Elders started waking up because they were getting ready for the day we realized we were so dumb for staying up. I felt like trash all day that next day. 

So since then I've been in denham and it was so awesome to see all of the members one last time before I go! It has been awesome. 

Anyways this will be my last email. That wraps up my mission experience. I'm grateful for every minute of my mission. I've learned so much about who I am as I have served with all the energy of my heart, those around me. God allowed me to feel a portion of his love for random people here in the south. And I could not be more grateful for those experiences and those relationships. I am so grateful for my Savior. I love him. I'm grateful for the love God has for us in allowing us to experience life. Even sometimes just for a short time. I love you all and can't wait to see you soon! 

Pics:

1) My son & my grandson (Kephart & Groom)

2) Wes! 

3) Ruston boys back in January 

4) cute sign

5) final district

6) Final transfer rain bike ride

HURRICATION & DA TISM

 This week was one holy, good, fun week. I will have to fill yall in on a little that happened last week too. 

So it started off with us getting evacuated from the tropical storm last weekend, so our whole zone was sent up to the Hattiesburg Zone for the weekend, which was so fun. We drove up Friday afternoon, then saturday morning we balled up with basically half of the Hattiesburg Zone, half of our Gulfport zone and like all of the young adults of the hattiesburg stake too. So there was like 30 of us playing ball at that stake center it was a blast. Then all day that Saturday the Hattiesburg elders hooked us up with service opportunities all day long and it was so fun! But we got exhausted. Also HUGE DOWNSIDE: We had to cancel our friend Wes' baptism, but he understood and we let everyone know and it was moved back from june 19th to June 26th, so it still happened last Saturday but we were definitely sad to miss it. 

So yeah this weekend we had Wes' baptism, as well as we got assigned talks saturday.

Which meant on Sunday we ordained Wes a member, gave talks and blessed the sacrament as always. So all of the sacrament was just me and my companion doing everything which reminded me of the branch missionary life, even though we are in a ward here. Then Sunday after church my old buddy Jared Stacey, (who used to be a missionary with me, who went home about my 1 year mark then moved back to Alexandria while I was there, so he was with us nearly every day helping us teach and giving us rides and buying us food, best member missionary ever). But he drove down to biloxi and visited us and it was so good to see him. Like I look up to that guy so much. 

I also want to tell y'all about Hermano Gonzales. This guy is hands down one of the best humans I've ever met. Even though he knows almost no english, and I don't speak spanish, he is one of my best friends. He does a lot for me even though he doesn't have to and really can't afford to. He has taught me so much. I have a huge love for him. (Pic below)

My mission is honestly just the best. I'm so blessed and I thank God literally every day for it. I have learned so much and it amazes me every single day. Yesterday I was able to choose the topic of my talk. So I chose Priorities. On my mission I have learned the importance of goal setting. And how first you need to get your priorities straight, then once you prioritize something in your life, you'll have to set goals to work towards actually making it a priority. So what is your biggest priority? Is it a positive thing? Does it pull you closer or further from God? Our biggest priority should be Salvation. Not only for ourselves but also those around us. So what are you doing today to get yourself there, and your friends and family there? Check yourself. Before you wreck yourself. 

Alrighty i'm going to be honest, I enjoy doing stuff on pday that I like, and I hate typing on my phone. But I do enjoy teaching out to yall and sharing this stuff so it's kind of like a lose win situation.

I love yall. 

Love Elder Wilson!!!!

Pics:

1)We folded large stuff for service one of the sisters edited it

2)went to the best BBQ Buffet but forgot one of the sisters was a vegan lol she was mad

3)David's baptism

4)Elder Smith asked if I could fit all the frenchfrys in my mouth I bet I could

5) Hermano Gonzales

6) Wes' Baptism

 These past few weeks have been so sick!

First: last tuesday my brother Darrin and his wife (whom I have never met in real life) came and visited me on their way to florida! They are moving so I won't be able to see them when I got home, so my Mission President let them come stop by and say hi! That was awesome.

Second: we had stake Conference yesterday and my mission President came and spoke to the mission. He is SO AMAZING ITS NOT EVEN FUNNY. Like that was an awesome stake conference it went so well. And afterwards he talked to a few people Elder Pavone & I are teaching which was sweet! He told Wes that he would be praying for him as hes getting baptized this Saturday. President Amos Also told Wes his conversion story which was really good for Wes. 

Anyways I'm short on time life is so good. We are teaching so often I feel so blessed to spend my last transfer having so much fun and doing my favorite parts of missionary work. 

GOD IS TOO GOOD. HE LOVES ME. I KNOW IT. 

He also wants what's best for me so I understand why some parts were so hard. 

Anyways. Love yall!

LOVE ELDER WILSON

Gr8 week lol

 This week was full of fun stuff, so im going to share the Highlights of each day. 

Tuesday: Exchanges w/ Elder Back in Gulfport. Had tons of fun and we taught a bible study which was sick! 

Wednesday:

I got to go to another district in my zones district council. Which was so fun. It is the biggest "Relief Society" in the mission, meaning there are only sisters in the district except for the district leader and his companion. So spending even 1 district council there was a lot. Sisters are definitely extra. 

We also taught our friend Matt who is so cool, he's like 20 and in the air force, and has such a strong testimony after feeling a prompting from the Holy Ghost that our church is true! So we put him on date for June 5th. The kid is a STUD. 

Thursday:

So back in the beginning of my mission when i was serving in New Orleans, there was an elder in my district named Elder Bahen, he was my ZL. He moved into Biloxi 2 weeks ago and so we had dinner at his house last Thursday! It was so fun to talk about the good old days in NOLA and now he is married with a baby on the way! I can't believe it. 

Friday:

We helped our old bishop, Bishop Lyman move out of his home on base. His family is one of the most perfect families in the world. They are moving to Vegas and that was really sad especially for the Biloxi ward they are leaving behind. 

One of my old companions, Elder Niepraschk came and took me & my companion to dinner with a friend of ours who he baptized named Brooklyn who is now going go serve a mission at temple Square! That was awesome and we had a little testimony meeting afterwards that was SOOO powerful I loved it! 

Saturday:

We went to David's baptism! This guy is an absolute legend. Funniest craziest guy I've ever met. But he's really excited for where he is at now.

We also helped an inactive member we are really tight with. (and for privacy reasons I'll name him "Richard"). We helped Richard cut a massive clearing out of his property because he wants to build his mother in laws house there. That was so fun. We just went into the woods, picked a spot, then just started swinging our hatchets and axes until every tree in that vicinity was gone then we burnt it all and had a huge bonfire, and taught his son, Kaladin the missionary lessons around the fire! It was so fun. While we were going crazy and just cutting everything down, we hear this drunk guy asking us if he can come and talk to us, and we are soooo deep in the forest I didn't know anyone else was around, but the guy came and was holding a beer in one hand, had a gun in his pocket, and was drunk out of his mind. Turns out he was a jehovah's witness who was very active and he told us what he believed, we told him what we believed, and at first it was hostile, because the way I asked my question was kind of rude, but we quickly rerouted and got SPIRITUAL. It was sick. 

Anyways at the end of the service & lesson we asked richard to come to church (like we do every week) but he finally came this week! It was awesome. It was the first time he had come to church in YEARS! 

So we had a lot of our friends that we are teaching at church this week as well, but Low key, I was more stoked about Richard and his kids. Just because he has been a pain in the butt to get moving! And he wants to get back into activity so bad just has a lot of issues he needs to settle. 

Spiritual time:

Something that has come up a lot this week in lessons with a few people we are working with, is Faith in Jesus Christ, but more specifically, why is it so difficult to have faith in Him? 

And that was a tough nut to crack for me. I have pondered on it for a while. But as we were talking to Richard over the bonfire, he said something that kind of amazed me. Because it's something I know and say ALOT, he said, "Nothing worth doing, is easy" now that didn't completely make sense to me at the time, but I knew what he meant. 

I thought of how you appreciate things a lot more when you have to put a lot more work and time into it. Same thing with a testimony. this is a personal opinion of mine, to my knowledge it is not Doctorine, but if you were to gain a testimony easily, with no real effort put into it other than you read the book of mormon once and felt it was true. You're held accountable to that knowledge just as much as if you put 8 years of studying the book of mormon and praying earnestly and repenting, then you finally come to the knowledge. You are also held accountable to the knowledge you had gained. And for you to turn your back in either situation, the consequences are similar. "It would have been better for you that ye had not known me" -2N31:14

So for all those going through a faith crisis, or are lost and have the question as to why it is so difficult to gain a testimony. 

I want to ask why you think something of this great importance would be easy? 

Gaining a testimony of Christs redeeming power is more important than any degree you will ever get, it is more important than any achievement you will ever receive in this life. Yet we expect it to be one prayer and it's over just cruise the rest of the way. I hate to break it to you but a true testimony will be built off of blood, sweat, and tears... sometimes your own, but mostly His. 

I love being a Missionary. I love this Gospel. God is Good.

Love yall! 

Love Elder Wilson! 

Random pics throughout the week

Biloxi is still treating me nice!

 I love it here in Biloxi! 

I have been having so much fun. We are teaching all day everyday and our friends are coming to church and it's just been so good. GOD HAS JUST BEEN BLESSING ME LATELY. 

Also my boy Christian Dimond called me randomly on friday and gave me a referral which was sick. Apparently he found someone that lives over in my area! So that was so sick to talk to him haha.

Anyways wanted to let yall know life is good for me and im just having lots of fun!  Here are some pics!

Love Elder Wilson! 

Update

 Sup guys, just a little update on my life right now. Transfers were last week, I'm staying in Biloxi and I got a new companion named Elder Pavone from Southern California. Hes just like me so we get along so well. We love to put in the work and enjoy it while we doing it. We have had zero downtime since he got here it has been so fun though! 

We had a Family History Expo this weekend which was a lot of work to set up. We wanted to include our entire zone so we made a whole schedule and had to get our missionaries trained on family history and how to present themselves at the Expo, but it wasnt all for nothing because our missionaries were on the news! And we had so much success come from it. Thousands of people saw the booth and we helped tons of people start their family history on FamilySearch!!! It was so sick! Everyone was so grateful... and impressed that we knew so much at our age hahah.  We had tons of teaching opportunities come from it too so it was solid. 

Anyways I'm stoked about life in the mission right now. I love bein a missionary. 

Something I've been focusing on lately is goal setting... its caught my mind only because it's so heavily focused on in the Gospel. Christ's Atonement has given us the opportunity to progress. So if we aren't progressing in life, we are wasting life. Remember that. "THE LORD LOVES EFFORT" so put in some effort to be a little better today. You know what you should be doing so do it. 

Love yall!

LOVE, ELDER WILSON

But here are some pics. 

Also look at all those gators 

Mississippi Beach Baby

 Life update because I haven't sent an email in a while and I've got women in high authority over my life (mothers and grandmothers) who are threatening me. 

SO HERE SHE IS:

MARCH 17 I got transferred to Biloxi and this place is so sick! I love it, it's like a smaller Las Vegas, but on the beach. And the humans are so weird. I love it. I'm already pretty sunburnt because we bike everywhere. And to get from our apartment into Biloxi we have to bike over this massive highway bridge which is kinda spooki. But I'm wearing a helmet so im ok. 

I will send a lot of pictures as the main update. But as for General Conference yesterday... that was powerful. But it's going to do us NO GOOD. If we dont walk away from that conference without action items or to do lists. What are you going to do because of it. Review your notes, set goals and make plans to achieve those goals. I want yall to remember that. One of my favorite parts about this Gospel is the opportunity we have to CHANGE (Repent) but we get to be who we want to be, just put in the effort. It's amazing. I love the Lord and what He has done for me. I love each of you and I'm thankful for everything that each of you has taught me! 

Love Elder Wilson.

1) Elder Roderick & I as I was departing

2) We watched General Conference all together at a members home and it was so fun.

3) purty sunset 

4) We biked to Zone Conference, it was a good 3 hour bike ride along the whole Mississippi beach. We watched the sunrise too. Oof.

5) Us boys and the GREENS! 

6) Us and the Burches

Heading to the beach/hope

 T-news:

I'm getting transferred again... I have probably had some of the best times of my mission these past 6 weeks. I'm in a quad with 4 elders I love so much, and we have nearly perfected our missionary work it feels like. We were getting in with all the members who we struggled to get with in the beginning, we were teaching people again, we were having steady finding opportunities. It was amazing. My life was good. We all thought we would all stay 1 more. But transfers came and we all got split up and thrown around the mission. We are all pretty sad about it. 

But on a better note, I'm going over to Biloxi Mississippi which is an area I've ALWAYS wanted to serve. It's a beautiful beach town at the bottom if Mississippi, with people everywhere. I am so excited to serve there, the Ward there is known to be pretty good too. So I'm honestly super excited for it. My companion is actually a missionary I love so much, his name is Elder Jacobson and he is a country boy from a place called Buhl Idaho. We are going to have some fun. 

Highlights:

• I did exchanges in Opelousas and met some crazy people! We filled a trench where she had her sewer tank. It sucked. But she had us laughing the whole time! (Pic 3)

• We had another Crawfish boil which was sick! Brother Stock hooked us up! (Pic 4)

• Smoothie king (pic 2)

• Found a road called "A Wilson" so I started actin a fool (pic 2)

• Alexandria Ward Missionaries! (Pic 5)

Spirichul:

So I gave a talk on hope yesterday at church. And while preparing for the talk I realized how much Hope we have as latter day saints. We have a different perspective. We have a knowledge that can take us to heights unimaginable by those with simple atheistic views and even many theistic and christian cultures.

The knowledge we have, and the testimony we can gain of this knowledge is mind boggling. I'm so grateful for the Hope I have to be with my family forever! I'm grateful for the hope I also have in this life, to change and become the person God would like me to become, and really who I want to become. Some think that bad habits are part of their personality, and as Jeffrey R. Holland says in one of his talks, "I'm sick of people sinning and calling it psychology." 

The Hope we get from Jesus Christs Sacrifice is not only the resurrection, or life after death. But also the changing and "perfecting" while we are here. They say you can do anything with enough faith. And I could not agree more.

I love yall so much! 

Love, Elder Wilson 

New address for my wonderful grandparents who keep me hooked up!:

115 Arbor View Circle #115 Diberville MS 39540

Mommy wants an email so I'm sending an email.

 So mom, this is just a shout out to you because I love you so much it's not even funny. 

I always wait until the end of the day and so I never have time for these I'm sorry mom. But this week was so fun! We biked everywhere and it was so freakin fun. We almost died 18 times but still so fun. Also bad news, we found out someone we are teaching works in the night club industry, so that's going to be a hurdle and a half. 

We also taught our boy John who low key is trying to bash us but he buys us catfish poboys before our "discussion" and everytime he comes up with some false doctorine we are usually able to settle his concern if ya know what I mean. We love john though he is such a good guy. 

I'm loving my mission. I love Alexandria. I'm sorry I don't have a lot of time but that's my update!

Also real quick: I learned alot about faith the other day. So I learned that faith is something we apply in EVERYTHING WE DO. Everything you do requires faith. When you take a step you have faith your foot will catch you and continue your stride. When you open a door you have faith your hand will open that door. Faith is everywhere. Temporally and spiritually. So make sure you practice your spiritual faith. Rely on Him. That's how you strengthen your faith. Is to put your faith to the test. Read, study, pray. With meaning. 

I love yall. Love Elder Wilson. 

Ice Storm aftermath

 This week was the weirdest weather I've ever seen in my life. In the beginning of the week it just snowed/rained ice/sleet until we had like 6 inches of just straight ice over everything. Like it dented our cars hood & cars were sliding everywhere like the whole state was in "lockdown" or encouraged to stay home for 3 days. Unfortunately we had no grocerys because we were planning on buying some monday lol... but walmart was closed monday. So that sucked.

So ima play out what happened:

Sunday & Monday & Tuesday night: Straight ice layer laid down everywhere. Cars were sliding off roads sideways and just nobody could go anywhere. (See pic 2) Got down to like 10° and with the humidity like I've never felt colder in my life. It froze our pipes so we had no water for 2 days. 

Wednesday morning: it rained like crazy. Just dumped water. Our power kept going out. And because the ground was frozen the water wouldn't go anywhere so it flooded our whole city pretty bad. (See pic 4 for reference) ice was just in the water and the car in that picture got stuck in the water & ice and then the other 2 guys were shoveling them out. 

Thursday, Friday, & Saturday: ice was still on the road and people's pipes were still frozen. Our pipes weren't though so we got our water back. 

Sunday: the weather was high 60° so everything melted and it felt like Utah's summer not going to lie. It was so warm. 

Everything was closed all week except for "essential shopping" at walmart. It was the worst. 

Anyways here are some pictures of what we did! 

 

Pic 1: My companion and I put up an ad on facebook and we painted custom book of mormons & bibles. So people would just request what they wanted on them and we would paint it! We found quite a few people. One lady, Olivia, asked for superman on her bible, and my comp painted a really sick picture of superman on it. She loved it so much and we got to talking and we are like best friends now and she wants us to go to church with her and her boyfriend next sunday so we are going to go to our church then their church afterwards! And it's her boyfriend's birthday and they want to us to come for dinner with them which will be so sick! 

Pic 2: I have the funniest video of those guys in that green truck trying to get unstuck. We tried to help, but they were too ignorant and also would not listen to us Utah boys who know how to drive in the snow. So their truck is probably still there. 

Pic 3: Since my mission presidents wife is literally a rocket scientist and worked on the Mars rover that landed this week, they let us Zoom into the landing of the rover and it was so cool lol. 

Pic 4: Ice flood. It doesn't look that bad in this pic. But I was genuinely terrified. 

Pic 5: comp wanted a pic with our firehouse sub sandwich we had been wanting all week, but didnt get until saturday when it was finally open! 

Anyways that was my week! I love Louisiana this place is just insane and the people are 3x more insane. This place is home for sure. This whole storm situation had me realize how we are so not in control of ANYTHING. And in an instant life can be flipped upside down, that's why you just have to put your trust in God and his plan. Because we can only do so much. He is in control. When you're having a tuff time, u just need to have some faith that things will only go uphill from there. Because then you enjoy those tuff times a little more because you know it ain't gonna last. So take it all in. And serve those around you. Because you'll come out on the other side;)

Love yall, Love Elder Wilson 

Week 2 in alexandria!

 Life update real quick:

I love my comp, we are grinding! But its tough getting tight with all the members when there are 6 of us missionaries! The sisters take all the dinner appointments! Hahah but it's okay we are just doing our best out here. 

Also it snowed again? But it was striaght just clear ice falling from the sky. It was was, and right now the snow is just straight iced over. It's bad. Everybody was pretty scared down here for this upcoming week but I'm kinda excited! 

God is good. I Love yall be safe theres my quick weekly.

LOVE ELDA WILSON