E-mailllling.....

Well, sorry to disappoint y'all but I'm staying out here in Gilmer for another transfer. I've definitely got mixed feelings about the deal and hope y'all aren't disappointed with the East Texas stories because y'all have been sending me transfer messages for the past 3 weeks. I feel good about another transfer out here and sorry Dad but the baptisms ended up falling through for this past Saturday, so we've still got lots to do out here and lots of baptismal dates hanging over November. We also found lots of new hispanics that haven't been worked with before and actually live in Upshur county so that's exciting.

As far as transfers go, Elder Nuckols is leaving and I'm getting a new companion whose name is Elder Trias and I'm stoked to see what he's like because the past two areas he's had have been Oak Cliff and Casa Linda...so he's just been following me for the while that he's been out haha. I'm gonna miss Elder Nuckols and everyone at church was just talking about what a great team we made so I'll miss that. One of the deacons that had tailed us just about every second at the Yamboree -watching us contact and getting us to include him (the kids about 4 feet tall haha but he's a boss), well he came up to us after sacrament and just started bawling.

Everyone in Gilmer is convinced that I'm staying here till the end of my mission. But when I said I'm feeling one more transfer, I for real am just feeling one and then I want to go back to the city. As beautiful as everything is out here, I can't give up the fact that I'm just used to city life having been so close to millions of people for 19 years. The smallest town I lived in was Provo until now so it's definitely a hard adjustment to make.

It's so crazy to think that I only have 3 transfers left in the mission and one more area, and President gives us some freedom with our last few months so I've thought about where I'd want to go. Our mission is super super young and it feels weird having only 5 Spanish missionaries older than me given all the ones that are leaving after this transfer. So I've been thinking that unless President really wants me to stay in leadership, I'd like to go back to the Cliff.

I'm not going to lie when I say that I never thought I'd make it this far. I was just somehow convinced that the world would end or I would die before I even made it to the year 2013, but the fact that we're just wrapping this year up isn't even real to me. I still remember in the MTC when I had the Laker calendar set up for March of 2012....the first week was full of X's as I finished the first week in the MTC. I remember just un-pinning the calendar and flipping through it, finding the pictures for October, November, and December...and then just staring at those months thinking that they'd never come. You'll hear it all the time Rachel, but the time you have to serve with ALL your heart might mind strength and soul is extremely short, so make the best of every minute.

This past week was full of some awesome stuff that I'll go into detail on some other time, but we've seen miracles for sure as we gave what I thought was the best presentation of the first lesson (one I've taught about 8000+ times) to Raigan's anti-mormon Baptist family. Lots of preparation+lots of prayer+lots of help from the Lord=Miracles. And that lesson was nothing short of a miracle. We also had another lesson with a lady's son who is completely inactive. Her feeling the spirit and inviting us over+us teaching with the spirit (power and authority Alma 17:3)= a real testimony for Dylan, but in a way that I've never seen before and has never come so quickly.

And I also wanted to give y'all a Congrats on the invites to all the Church activities! You're doing me proud haha, but Rachel....I've spent way too much time out here on my mission with people complaining about how they don't have any friends or any friends outside the church they could invite. Time and time again we've had to make them look at their phone's contacts or facebook and see all the people they do know. So don't make me chew you out haha. You don't even have to invite them....all you have to do is ask if they'd be willing to hear a little bit about your beliefs and then just give their info to the missionaries and they'll take care of the rest. Besides, you have tons of different contacts at your new job, so you better not send me another E-mail that says ".....Mom had everybody invite someone to all the random church stuff going on this week but since I don't have any friends, I couldn't really jump on that train...."

We actually have a baptism coming up on the 9th of November because there's a girl in our ward that's leaving on a mission in a couple weeks, so we told her she needs some practice before she goes, and now since she's invited just one of her friends to listen, that one is getting baptized. What a magnificent note to leave off on! Wouldn't that be awesome?! So you've got this one Rachie! But enough of the chewing out haha I'm way stoked to hear about the interview and when you get your call! Since you're already 19, when's your release date? President Durrant's son just got his mission call and he's leaving on the 18 of February...so if you leave on that date I'll be super disappointed that I've missed you by just a couple weeks or something like that. Well I miss y'all lots, but I'm not ready to head back or hear how many days I have left. It's depressing. Love yall!

Elder Wilson

p.s. Thanks for all the weekly updates! Sounds like y'all are keeping yourselves busy and I'm stoked to hear that BYU finally crushed Boisie. By the way...did y'all see a number 44 playing linebacker for Boise??? I heard that Elder Lee is red-shirting for this year.

"The Best Morning's Spent In Your Rocking Chair, Watching The Sun Rise In Your Underwear" - YAMBOREE!!!!

WELCOME TO THE 76 ANNUAL EAST TEXAS YAMBOREE!!!!

Oh yeah y’all, this past week just got real as the largest carnival in all of East Texas came to town.

Question: So what do you do when a town of 5,000 turns into a town of 150,000 confined into a couple hundred square yards????

Tourist's Answer: Take Pictures, Get To Know Where Everyone Is From, Enjoy Everyone's Accent, Eat Crazy Food

Teenager's Answer: Go Pick Up On Some Chicks, Play Games, Ride The Rides, Stay Hundreds of Miles Away From My Parents

Local's Answer: Eat Turkey Legs, Funnel Cakes, Burgers, Fries (Curly/Normal/Grilled/Sauteed), Talk With All The New People In Town, Show Some Southern Hospitality, Square Dance

Missionary Answer:....ALL OF THE ABOVE!!!! I mean honestly, why would you only do a few of them if you can do ALL of them!!!

So that's what we did as we quite literally grabbed the Bull by the Horns and lived a straight Dream Week in Gilmer Texas!!! 

Before I really dive into the details on what happened in the Yamboree, I'll just let y'all know that this is the most "talked up" event that I've ever been to in my life. As y'all saw, this is the 76th time that Upshur County has put on this event and it just brings people in by the masses! It celebrates the Harvest of Sweet Potatoes which is apparently a pretty big deal around here (yeah Idaho...yall got you taters...we've got sweet taters...shows how much sweeter Texas is than Idaho). But moving on, this event is kind of a kickoff into Fall and they pull out all the stops by putting on these huge parades and bringing in all sorts of rides and food and shows and artists and they also have this huge competition for becoming the Yam Queen. All I know about that is that everyone hates the Yam Queen and Princesses because all you have to do to become one of them is sell tickets; the girl who sells the most tickets becomes Queen, the runner up is the first princess, the one follow her is second princess and so on. So whoever's Dad writes the biggest check gets a float, crown, and four days of glory to wear it. It apparently started off as a glorified Farmer's Market and then became a huge Fair/Carnival after so many years.

So with all of that info in mind, let me share with y’all some of the highlights of what's gotta be one of the greatest weeks of my mission...just full of failures and successes of every type!

I don't know if y’all remember me talking about how I picked up on the "Talk To Everyone!!!" principle back in the good old days when I was in Plano, but it's a principle that's been my favorite way to find since then, and something I've continued working on polishing and perfecting. I thought I was pretty good at it, until Elder Beck and I talked about how we seem to be avoiding women, especially the cute ones. We had plenty of confidence in the message and the "open your mouth" principle was no problem for us, but we would always somehow manage to find someone else to talk to when a beautiful daughter of God would present herself. Don't judge, but when you become a missionary and are taught to treat single women like the plague, they become scarier and scarier haha. It's a crazy phenomenon, but you'll get it once you experience it. Upon reflection, we realized that the Daughters of God need the Gospel too, so we came to the conclusion that it was time to contact over 100 of those single ladies haha....

Goal....Completed!!!

Again it was full of some successes and some failures, but in the words of ZZ Top, "A girl's crazy bout a sharp dressed man!" And we'll probably start teaching some of their families too so that's an extra bonus!

After losing count of how many people we contacted somewhere after about 300, or 400, (I still have no idea), we decided to check out the real heritage of the Yamboree and left the Town Square and headed on over to the Yamboree grounds. It was there that I received confirmation about all them crazy country stereotypes. As we cruised on in, we saw the "Livestock Auction". And the Auctioneer.....was....un....believeable....I seriously don't even know how to explain him. I guess y’all will have to wait until I can show you the video we took, but he talked at about 8,000 miles an hour with the sounds of "bing", "bang", and "boing" while throwing in a "500!!!" and "CANIGETA6" (you have to put it all together because he did not use that question in a complete formal sentence) and then "600!!!!" The guy was like a talking banjo...it was like a dream come true just hearing him just roll it all off like it wasn't nuthin haha. Elder Nuckols had to drag me outta there since watching it was somehow intriguing as they sold off your typical but pampered farm animals for such ridiculous prices. It's the only time I'll ever see a chicken sell for 800 dollars. I was tempted to buy a pig just so people could acknowledge our presence but stopped raising my hand once we got into the thousands.

We held the First Place Yams....I felt so honored.

We cruised around the booths by the Yamboree grounds seeing vendors selling all this junk...so I think I finally know how Dad feels whenever we go to some function and just feel that we need to buy SOMETHING. We would bring the stupidest merchandise to him...like binoculars from the zoo...and he would just say, "You really want THAT???? If you'll go for that why don't I just go buy you a bowling ball as a keepsake."

The missionaries here normally have had a booth, but this year they didn't get one for us because they were too late to get us a spot...which is awesome because I didn't want to join the rest of the crew selling all sorts of ridiculous stuff, and I think I would have tazed myself to death with one of the dude's "tazer stand" articles if I had to stay there and couldn't contact people all day. Besides, the only people that had visited with the missionaries at their booth were members...so the freedom was a definite win.

Free Fooooooddddd!!!!! During the Yamboree we gained tons of member trust there because we were contacting machines!!! Contacting all day everyday, and the place was loaded with members from all over the country. Once we ran into one of them, they would ask us if we've eaten and either take us somewhere or just give us some dinero for when we got thirsty out in the blazing 75 degrees (haha I'm tellin y’all...straight living the dream!!!) The Gilmer 2nd ward also ran one of the food stands...so our trips around the square always involved a start at the Gilmer 2nd Stand by eating a Burger or a Turkey Leg or just getting some fries or a water/soda. We would make a round...get a million contacts, and then make a pitstop at the stand for another Burger/Water/Turkey Leg/Soda/Fries...etc. Wednesday to Saturday baybay...all day erryday. I seriously ate like a king and was never forced to eat too much, but I could eat anytime I was hungry! Be it 9:30 in the morning or 8 at night, I'd be able to chow down and then get back to our contacting and finding! One of my favorite contacts was when we, for once, didn't go up to the Church's food stand and went to one of the Carnie one's for a funnel cake. I decided we would contact the lady up there. Even though we were fully prepared and willing to pay....she enjoyed the contact along with our smooth talk and jokes, so she gave us the cake for free and said, "Alright now just walk away real fast!" Life is just too good to the Lord's missionaries at times.

The Carnies were pretty much my favorite people to contact and talk to. They've all got crazy life stories, and they're all from some out of the world country and once we got on their good side and talked to them enough, they’d ask us why we don't play their games and we'd just tell em we don't have tokens. Since they haven't really played by the rules their whole lives, they'd let us play their games/shoot their hoops and it led to great opportunities to let some contacts try some games for free. Sometimes the blessings of knowing how to speak Spanish pay off!!!

Big Sandy will most likely burn in Hell. We've tracted some of that city and all of the contacts from there went terrible. If y’all know how to bless me with the charity that I need for these people please tell me how.

Square Dancing.....I'm not going to go into detail...but I mean honestly....if you're in Texas surrounded by people in Cowboy hats with wannabe artists on the stage singing nothing but Country Hits....what are you gonna do???

As for Staying Hundreds of Miles Away from my Parents....It wasn't my favorite part of the Yamboree, and I was thinking I'm going to need to bring y’all sometime, but when you're from Southern California, the home of who knows how many theme parks and tons of people, it's not that big a deal, but when you're stranded in a town of 5,000 for four months, it's pretty much the greatest thing since the invention of the wheel. But if I ever bring anyone over here, I'll let them know that I'll buy them just as many things as I bought myself haha. 

Love y’all and miss ya tons!!!! By the way...I finally got my Texas Driver's License!!!!             

Much love from the pastures of East Texas

Elder Wilson

  

The Chastity Heroes!!!

"Pit"..."Pat"....."PIT!"....."PAT!"...As the rain started to fall harder and harder, we looked out the window and into the dark sky seeing the clouds gathering for what looked like another stormy night. We were cruising down the 154 and had just gotten a call from our previously set appointment, letting us know that they're going to have to reschedule. Well there goes the possibility of a new investigator...again.

So, as we were driving and trying to decide where we were going to knock and find our new investigators, we passed by the 'Wash-A-Minit' Lavanderia. It's a spot that we always pass by and a very popular location for all of our Spanish speaking homies which provides a lot of potential. But this time the conditions were a little different than expected. Instead of the normal group of hispanics we find there, we saw foggy windows and a couple that was getting...friendly. At first we decided we'll just let them be and avoid our idea to contact, but then we remembered our role as representatives of Jesus Christ. We remembered that not only do we teach the Lord's commandments, but that we can use a little bit of authority in enforcing them. So we had the bright idea to flip a U on the 154 and we headed straight back as I whipped a 'Law Of Chastity' Pamphlet. We cruised right on in there, as professional as possible, and introduced ourselves as Representatives of Jesus Christ's Church. It was super awesome as we began to chat with them and the girl was super nice...but the look on the dude's face was absolutely priceless. He was so disappointed. Yup. Sorry pal. We're keeping Gilmer righteous! After talking with them briefly, we just told them that we wanted to share a little bit about what the Lord expects of them and handed over the Law Of Chastity pamphlet, said goodbye and peaced on outta there! As we drove off we saw them reading through it...and now our message to Upshur County...."The Bar Has Been Raised, The Commandments Have Been Set, and If Y’all Try To Break Em, We'll Be There To Stop You!"

If you're still not satisfied with the help and counsel we provide couples, let me inform y’all of another story....

Instead of cruising the 154, this last week we spent some time on the FM 1795, and after a long day of hard work, we started to head back on home. As we were cruising through the backwoods...the real back backwoods, we flew by a wedding reception in the middle of nowhere. If you haven’t noticed, we always seem to get bright ideas that bring us back to some unexpected places where we may be needed. But we figured it might look a little odd if we just drove up and said hi to everyone...so we parked a ways away from them, and then after a little bit of walking, came out of the dark trees with scriptures in our hands and started to contact everyone there. It was another classic "look on their faces" moment. They would start out looking confused, and then look at their drinks, as if to consider all the Beer they had drunk, and finally decide they were done for the night.

It was as we had suspected, a wedding reception, by the world's standards...just a tad late. They had lived together for like 3 years now, were married about 3 months ago, and decided that now was a good time for the reception. Now all they need to do is have a kid in 3 weeks and they can follow the world's 3-3-3 plan (yup Herman Cain wasn't the only one crunching lifestyle numbers.) The groom was by far the coolest guy there, dressed in his best jeans and Wrangler shirt with his beard newly trimmed and what looked like the first time he'd used hair gel in about 10 years. It was fun talking to everyone and randomly becoming members of the party. They loved the idea that we share messages about the importance of the family and we're looking forward to getting this couple baptized!!! For now though, muchos congrats to Brent and Heather, happily married for 3 months already!

Along with our Couple Counseling efforts, we've also become Honorary Members of the FFA this past week as we were able to help Raigan's Family by "Hay Bailing". By now you could say I've lived the country life...I've been Brush Hoggin, Trail-Blazin, Tractor Drivin, Tree Choppin, Brisket BBQin, and Hay Bailin...all I've got left now is shootin and fishin...and I'm still waiting for the mission to approve these activities haha.

So, this past week Raigan gave us a call and told us that her family needed some help with Hay Bailing the square bails because they needed it done ASAP and couldn't find anyone else to help them out. Naturally, we jumped on the project thinking it was going to be the greatest thing in the world, just living the country life! We showed up, just as stoked as could be rockin our cowboy hats and ready to get to work. Raigan's grandpa saw us pass through the gate in our Toyota Corolla. I'm sure he was just thinkin "...Just a couple city slickers..." After we cruised on up he greeted us with his overalls and weathered old farmer hands and explained to us the art of hay bailing. Each bail is about 80 pounds, so you have to flip it over to the side where the twine will hold, grab it by the twine, lifting with your legs, then haul it on into the trailer by forcing it up with your knee...making sure it lands in the trailer in an organized manner...and then repeat the process for all 200 bails of hay.

It was definitely hard work but I'm not gonna lie, for a couple of people from the city and this time being our first, we dominated and got it done way fast. It was fun...until we found out the real reason they needed it done so fast. Apparently, if you leave the square bails out in the field too long, fire ants start to make them their home and begin to breed inside them, which pretty much destroys the possibility of you selling Hay. By about the 20'th bail of Hay, we started to notice that our arms were really itching, and as we looked at them, we saw that we were COVERED with fire ants! We did our best to get them all off, but we'd always feel one bite somewhere and see that we missed a spot and kill that one, followed by another one, and it felt like that during our entire bailing experience. We would flip the hay over and the ones with the most ants were the ones that got loaded the quickest (probably the reason why it got done so fast.) As we got home we got to examine all the bites covering our arms and try to apply something that would work, but we woke up the next day to find that all of them were loaded with puss. It was pretty nasty but easily worth it...because Raigan's super Anti-Mormon family has finally consented to listen to us. In Raigan's own words, her mother is Satan reincarnated...and I'm no genius, but I'm guessing that she'll bring her preacher with her. We're still not sure if she truly does want to meet with us, or is just trying to be nice since we declined the pay for the work we did on their farm, but we're pretty anxious to see how this is going down and we'll have to bring our 'A' game.

Well it's time to wrap up, but I want y’all to know that we're seeing miracles out here along with enjoying all these crazy experiences! Be it chasing off the Jehovah's Witnesses from our members (Sister Miller had us come over for one of their appointments...it was quite the experience) or looking forward to four baptisms on October 26, we are, por su puesto, living the dream!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Wilson

The 183 Semi-Annual General Conference...My Last

Dang, it's been a pretty busy, but emotional week at the same time. General Conference has always been about 10 times cooler on the mission, and I speak the truth when I say I've seen the best ones as a missionary. I mean, not many other people can say that at the beginning of their mission they saw President Monson give the historic announcement of the age change for missionary service, and by the next one, I got the opportunity to serve and train those that had responded to the call as the Lord continues to hasten his work.

Elder Wilson "training and serving";)

It's been quite the experience to see the missions around the world grow by over 27,000 missionaries since I've started my mission and is such a thrill to be at the very heart of the service while the church pushes missionary work like it never has before. But, I've got to admit, I was disappointed that Elder Nelson didn't have a catch phrase this time haha. Even though his talk was my favorite for this last Conference, he didn't add onto the "Thanks Be To God", "Ask The Missionaries", and "Catch The Wave."

Another one of my favorite parts about conference was that between last Conference and this one, I've gotten to meet Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Elder Neil L. Anderson, Elder Randy D. Funk, and Elder Terence M. Vinson, all of whom were able to speak. And as always, the best part is Priesthood session! I can always feel way close to Dad during that session since I have such vivid memories of being ordained a Deacon and going to my first Priesthood session! It was so awesome to see the chapel just full of Priesthood holders as we would anxiously search for a spot to sit, surrounded by men with the same calling and commission. It seems like no matter where I see it, I also feel especially close to Grandpa and Papa, the family patriarchs! Well, the Priesthood is eternal, so why wouldn't they want to watch it haha!   

As we spent all our efforts this past week inviting people to conference, we asked one of our new investigators what it would mean to them to know that there is a living prophet on the Earth today. She responded, "Well excuse my French, but that would be pretty Bad A__!!!" Yup...not quite the everyday response to the message of Restored truths, but she gets the picture.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHIE!!!! 19 YEARS OLD SAY WHAT!?!? I had my mission call back when I turned 19...and it still feels like I haven't even been out that long.

Even though time is flying, not only do memories from back home feel like a dream, but now memories from past areas! Dang, it doesn't even feel real how old I am.

This past week we were also able to hold a Baptism for one of our investigators,  Alyia Johnson, right in-between the Afternoon and Priesthood Session. It's an awesome story of how the opportunity to teach her miraculously fell into our hands, and there's nothing better than watching the Lord's hand in your life every day. But along with a baptism and conference, it's time to recuperate after being spiritually overpowered.

In closing, I want to share my testimony of a special experience I had in watching the last session. One of the most powerful feelings I've had in watching Conference on my mission didn't come from a lengthy talk, one with the most scriptures or the best way to work in the "come take my yoke upon you" line (I've heard this probably over 200,000 times on my mission in conference and out here in the overall Christian savvy Texas). I actually didn't get this feeling from hearing anything at all, but from looking into the eyes of President Monson. During his last remarks on how we should study the talks that were given. He began to give his testimony, and as I looked into his eyes, I couldn't stop a certain thought running through my mind that came so gently saying..."he knows." It was like everything had stopped, and the only thing I could hear was the phrase repeated again and again, "he knows." As I've reflected on this powerful experience that came from such a short testimony and from looking into the eyes of a man I've watched hundreds of times, the scripture Ether 12:6 came into my mind, and then the message came to me....Believe not because ye see not...but once ye believe, ye shall see. After bearing my testimony countless times on the truths of a living Prophet with only a small knowledge about him and his divinely appointed calling, the Lord saw He had tried my Faith...I have placed it on the line many times, and because of that, he saw fit to reward me by opening my understanding and giving me the explanation.

I know President Monson is a Prophet of God. If he is a Prophet then everything he professes of himself and that which he represents is true. If he truly is a prophet, then Joseph Smith was a prophet as well, called to Restore the Gospel and Church that Christ himself is the head of. I cannot wait to look you all in the eyes and tell you that we do have a living Prophet. This is the Church of Christ and his work will move forward until he says that we have done enough. I love y’all and share this testimony with you in the name of Him whom we serve.

Elder Wilson