wow thats pretty ironic since I saw Cody on New Years Eve as well. It was pretty crazy seeing someone from what seems like my other life out here in the mission field. And as far as my interview...the funny part about that was that President pretty much answered my question during our meeting. We have a part where we all do the 'Return & Report' from each of our Zones, and we were dubbed again as the highest Baptizing Zone, and every now and then President will throw in a little two cents on the missionaries that are standing or the ones he's talking to. So then he just stopped everything and asked me how long I'd been in Gilmer for, to meet my response of "an eternity." Everyone knows me well enough to get my sarcasm and that I love the place, but I'd told President in my e-mail that I wanted to meet with him and talk about going to a 100% Spanish area, and along with that everyone was expecting something to happen with me, and they were all sure I was going to move back to the city. But President talked about the success that we've had since I've been out in Gilmer and the results he's seen since I've been there and all that feel good stuff, which made me sure of what he was going to say next. Then he said that he was planning on leaving me there for my last transfer and talked about how excited he is for the momentum we've built up out here and the effect that you can have on an area when you're there for a while and the success that Elder Rodriguez had when he left him in an area for 7 transfers to finish his mission there
(the one that finished about two months ago, came back two weeks later for a job and now he's engaged to a chick that was in the ward he finished in)...but as this was going on everyone just looked straight at me and from what they said, you could tell I was pretty surprised, and so were they. Besides, President normally gives leeway on what you want to do with your last 6 weeks and everyone knew that I wanted to go back to Oak Cliff and they were sure it was going to happen...but with the veto...I can't help but say that I was pretty bummed. After that we had a quick break from our 6 hour meeting and I decided that I was going to just make up some romance story between me and a laurel and tell that to President and I'd get Emergency Transferred out of there faster than my head could spin. (Which Reminds me of when Elder Browning wanted to make it home sooner for school and the Missionary department wouldn't let him leave a week early...so we just told him to say that he broke the Law Of Chastity and he'd be home in a heartbeat haha.) But then I saw the bright side of all this and President was still planning on having me meet with him. So in my interview we started talking about this next transfer, and I again expressed my desire to live the Hispanic culture again and how I was called as a Spanish missionary and how I don't want to use Spanish as just a fraction of the work. But we reflected again on the whole golfing story and how the Lord must have had something special planned to keep me the 6 weeks that he did, so he explained to me why he really felt impressed to leave me in Gilmer. It was really comforting when he said to me, "Elder Wilson, you have beautiful Spanish and it truly impresses me that you've been able to retain your Spanish the whole time you've been in East Texas," but then (as we all know that President is going to be a General Authority) he got into prophetic mode where you can just tell he's not buttering things up and said "and you're going to use that gift you've been given to speak Spanish like you do after your mission, but the way things are going in Gilmer I see no reason to move you." I know it was a really simple statement, but in that moment I felt more from it than just the normal, well duh I'm gonna use it because I learned it, but a little more than that, and whatever It may mean I don't know but it felt real neat. And after talking about all the reasons why I should stay we came to the conclusion that, yeah, leaving Gilmer would be for the experience and not the work of the Lord. Then I remembered all the improvements we've made since I've got there, and especially for all the things coming up. There have been people that we've been wanting to teach since I got to the area in June that we just started teaching this last week and that are ready to go. All the leaders out here can see these people having a great role in the church and its growth out here, and I'm just explaining this very broadly. And President Austin pulled out his Stake President card again and wants me to speak in Stake Conference which is the week after transfers so it hasn't really hit home yet, but I'm in my last area...and have been forever now. But since we've been back, I've been super grateful that I'll get to stay and see so many more miracles happen. I could go on forever about how some of this stuff is just starting now, and I woulda missed it if I was coming home on January 25, but it reminds me of that story where President Eyring was praying about whether or not he should leave Ricks College for another job offer, and when he prayed about it, he felt his answer saying “I’ll let you stay at Ricks College a little longer.” And with all the relationships that I've established out here, its been a relief for me to tell them that I'll get to stay. So with that we have lots to do and just what feels like not enough time to do it! And Mom, since you wanted to know the names of the people we are teaching (since that's kind of an old list...)
Mason Hutton, Jimmy Aguillon, Rod Henderson, Crys Henderson, Kaiden Henderson, Lynette Harrow, Samantha Harrow, Bill Sheuler , Tammy Sheuler, Grace Sheuler, Brett Howl, Brittany Howl, Jakobe Walker , Jacob Walker, Jaron Walker, Emilie Lewis, Tyson Lewis, Connor Myers, Jose Nunez, Maria Nunez, Veto Lopez, Araceli Lopez, Pedro Baraillos, Jamilton Baraillos
"Take your pick, we've got more" haha gotta love Emperors New Groove.
Elder Wilson
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