Change 10 Week 4

Hey everyone, happy Easter first of all. I totally forgot that last week was Easter, here in Ecuador they don't celebrate anything like what we are used to in the United States. Here they celebrate what's called "Holy Week" and it's pretty much an excuse to drink and not work, and all the Catholic's are in church on Sunday. They also all cook the same food on Sunday and they have restrictions or things that they don't eat, like on Friday no one eats meat and on Sunday everyone makes fish soup. It's interesting and it made me remember the last time that I was eating the soup a year ago, I was in Loja and now I'm in Guayaquil. This Sunday I had to give a talk in church, which I was used to just getting picked out of the blue to give a talk because there's no one else. I have been studying my whole mission and have noted down tons of things that I learn and it always pays off when I have to talk in church because I have everything I need in my study journal. It took me about 10 minutes to prepare a decent talk on Sunday morning. I talked about the atonement and how we can apply it in our lives. Through the general conference I was able to realize that everything that we do and teach and study is all centered in Jesus Christ and so it was easy because that's why I'm here, to bring souls unto him. I enjoyed the experience. I just realized that in my mission I have had to talk in church on Christmas, new years, and now Easter. What's next? LOL! I hope that everyone has had a good break and that everyone is doing good. Training and opening this sector is still hard and I am still a little worried all the time, but I am making the best of this situation because it may never come again. I love you all very much and I hope that everything has gone well! Love and miss you tons ELDER WILSON

Change 10 Week 3 & New Pictures!

Hey! This week was alright, we are certainly progressing here in the sector as far as people, what we really need to do now is pick out the ones that are going to progress and leave some of the people behind for future missionaries. I got here and had no idea how to go about opening a sector, usually when we get changes we get to a ward and there's already people in the program but here I didn't have hardly anything. What we decided to do is look for some of the old investigators and start there, and from the old people we were able to locate some new people and from there we're still going. We found out that some of the old investigators are going to progress and even get baptized this month. I cant believe that it's already April but I know that I've got a lot of work to do this month and hopefully we can meet our goals so my comp(son) can get some baptisms under his belt. This week I had an interchange with the zone leader and it was way awesome to get to work with an experienced missionary and no have to be teaching something or counseling my comp about something that he's doing wrong. I really enjoyed having help in the lessons and hope that in the future I can become a zone leader and have better companions that are there to help with anything and everything. Just being senior companion is hard because I have to lead the sector and make sure that we have good results while trying to teach and help my companion as much as I can. It's been a little rough because my companion is new and doesn't really wanna adapt to my ways of working or the rules in general but were working on it. I love and miss you all. I hope that you all have a good spring break and are looking forward to summer as much as I am looking forward to winter here in Ecuador!! 

ELDER WILSON

Change 10 Week 2

Well I cant believe that I'm where I am right now, and who I am with. Last week I was really rushed getting everything written and taken care of when I was still in the terminal waiting to go home. On Monday I was in a trio because my companion wasn't going to be here until Tuesday so that kinda was lame. Anyway I was told that I had to go pick up my companion in the temple and that I was going to be there all day. We went there before lunch and waited for them to arrive and that was cool when they all arrived and got off of the bus, we helped them get there things off and then we all went to eat. In the temple cafeteria, we were introduced to our companions and mine is from Paraguay, he is the only one from Paraguay here in the mission and he's alright. We got a few pics at the temple and that day we had a training and that was cool just talking about our purpose and the basic rules and stuff. We went through the temple and then it was so late we all just ended up staying in the temple hotel. We got up Wednesday morning and went to the house and got to work. This first week was really hard because I don't know anything about the investigators or the members or anything. Luckily we have a member who is 18 and preparing for the mission that goes out with us everyday to show us the members and helps us knock doors and it's a huge help to us and me. I have a lot of things that I have to make sure happens because I'm responsible for how well my companion gets trained and works and also I'm responsible for the results that our sector produces. So I have really had to step it up a lot, it's been rough this first week but I have been letting my companion kinda learn and grow on his own while I've been working on getting the sector up and going. This week I really need to start teaching my companion the basics of the mission so that he isn't completely lost when we go to trainings and have to recite things. Anyway, it's been a little interesting because I've never opened a sector or trained so this is kinda like a double whammy. I'm doing good, a little stressed out because president wants us to have baptisms and it's not looking that good for now. Anyway I hope that everything is going well at home in the states, I'm doing good working and working here in Ecuador. I love and miss you tons!! ELDER WILSON

Change 10 Week 1

Hey fam! S this week with Elder Hafer was legit, I couldn't believe how well we did this week me and Elder Hafer in Machala and then came changes. We really had a great week with all the references that we had gotten, we ended up finding 17 new investigators and had people looking forward to baptism. I got a call last night and I got sent here to Guayaquil, I came back and now I'm going to be working here with a missionary that's not here yet. He's coming from the MTC and I'm going to be training him, I'm really excited and nervous at the same time because I don't have any idea what my sector is like. I'm opening a sector and so that's going to be a challenge, not knowing my sector and being with a new missionary but I'm soo excited. Tomorrow I am going to be heading to the temple to pick him up and probably a training, it should be long day, but I'm excited to get things rolling in my new sector with my first kid. that's what it's called when you get a newbie, he's now my son. Anyway I don't have a lot of time and am going to be in a trio for a while so I will be rushed writing and everything. Hopefully it all works out and I will have more time to write next week. I see that I have a lot of letters and I don't know if I will have time to write everyone back, but I will do my best with what time I have seeing as I am with my leaders waiting for my companion to arrive. I love and miss you all tons!! ELDER WILSON

Change 9 Week 6 + New Pics!

 

Hey! So this week was really kinda hard for us here in Machala, me and Elder Hafer and not because of baptisms or anything like that. We had a baptism and I will send an email to everyone when I am ready to get off with all the pics lately, but it was just hard for us. We had a long week looking for new people to teach because after the Gomez family got baptized (all the photos that I sent 2 weeks ago or last week I don't remember) we were left with little in our program. We pretty much had to leave behind a bunch of people that were going to be getting baptized because they weren't fulfilling there commitments. Although we did have the baptism of INGRID PAMELA and it was a super challenge for us. I pretty much had to talk her into accepting baptism and the date but she knew she wanted it she just didn't feel ready. With a little help from the Lord she was able to come to know that the church is really true and that she should get baptized. She was excited and the service went really well, now there family is complete and in 1 year they are looking forward to going to be sealed as a family in Temple. I unfortunately won't be able to see because I will be home and in college but before I go I will be sure to let them know to call me or email me photos. My companion is progressing well with the language, his accent isn't the best but today we sat down and read out loud for an hour so I could help correct him. I was with Latin companions for almost 10 months and that really helped me have good grammar and a kick butt accent and that's something that I'm just realizing now. Anyway I don't have tons of time but I promise that I will get to all your emails even if it's a couple little sentences. I love and miss you very much!! ELDER WILSON

NatalieWilson1's photostream

NatalieWilson1's photostream on Flickr.

Change 9 Week 5

Hey! This week was a good week, we are pretty much recovering from the huge blow that our sector took when we baptized the family of 3. It's been a little bit of a low week for us because now we don't have anyone getting ready for baptism, although we did manage to find 9 new people and get 28 lessons taught. That's the most I've ever taught as senior companion and I am happy I just know that I need to get some more people looking forward to a baptism date and getting prepared. I was happy to do what I got done and I know that we will for sure start to get some people progressing. Our leaders for this month put the goal to have 6 baptisms every sector and that is going to be hard when we just lost a huge part of our sector. I know that everything is possible and all I have to do it work hard and do everything that I can to get people ready and if in the end it's not my fault then I won't feel bad. I know that I am here to give everything that I have in my work and I know that for the last 9 months that I've got here that's exactly what I'm going to do. I hope that you all had a good week and got my last weeks pictures. I have a lot of emails to get to today so I'm going to keep my letter short. I love and miss you all very much!! ELDER WILSON