Merry Christmas to You All!

Hello friends of Ben. This is Ben's mom, the webmaster. Ben didn't write a regular letter this week. He wrote us a handwritten letter. He is now back near El Paso where he has frequent opportunities to revisit Chapparal, New Mexico, the trailer park city where he spent many months early in his mission. This is what he wrote:

"This year, I am asking all of my friends for a very special Christmas present.

As you may know, I am a missionary for the LDS church serving in El Paso, Texas. About a year ago I had the opportunity to teach a family and help them come unto Christ.  Just recently I went back and visited this single mother and her daughter and found them in despair and distanced from the teachings of Jesus Christ.  The daughter had even recently attempted to commit suicide.

I noted that they had no friends to help them stay firm in the church or give them comfort.

Upon returning home from seeing this I wrote this poem.

What I want for Christmas is for you to read this poem and reflect upon how you might better help the down-trodden and those in despair and then put that into action. Then write me a letter and let me know how it went. Thank you so much and may God bless you in your efforts to serve others in this Christmas season. Sincerely, Elder Ben Wilson."
He included this address: 1840 East River Road, Suite 102, Tucson, Arizona 85718

Here's his poem, and I think it's pretty darn good!

Beyond the Gate:
A Poem for Those in Zion
by Elder Ben Wilson

The air is brisk, the stars are out
And lights are glowing dim.
I watch atop the city walls
And see the peace within.
The town is safe from fear and harm
And all can act as though
There was no raging war without,
Inside—no fear of foe.

I feel content, my heart at peace,
To think what I have done.
For I’ve brought some within the walls
Before the setting sun.
I've saved them from the enemy
Who in the darkness hides.
He seeks to hurt, to kill and break---
The father of all lies.

But as I watch, I hear approach
The sound of hurried feet,
And see a single, lonely lamp
Below me in the street.
I call out “The woods are dark,
The hour is growing late.
Tell me now what brings you here
Before the city gate?

“I beg you not to leave behind
The safety of the light,
For the enemy is on the move
And watches in the night.
He seeks for souls who dare to leave
The protection of this place.
Do not go out—do not go out!
Don’t make this choice in haste.”

The footsteps cease, the lantern’s raised
And through the night I see
A young girl’s tear-stained, shadowed face,
A face well known to me.
It’s the orphan girl who weeks ago
I’d brought into the light,
Now standing there with lamp in hand.
My heart stops at the sight.

Her face is set, her eyes on guard;
I see there fear and doubt.
Her fists clench hard,
I hear her say,
“What enemy without?
It’s not so bad, the place I was
Before you brought me here.
I had my friends to comfort me,
To bring me needed cheer.
Your walled-off city is too cold,
I have no friends in there.
So thank you for the pleasant stay.
Don’t worry, have no fear;
I know you tried to help me…but
I must be on my way.”

I try to speak, to yell, to plead,
But fear my throat has bound.
So through the gates into the night
She slips without a sound.
For days I pray and watch and wait
For a miracle from above,
Until I finally realize
The miracle is love.

And then my prayer becomes a plea
For strength in present need
And with some fear, but ever hope,
I mount upon my steed.
I charge into that bitter realm
And tear on through the night--
Keep riding, riding without heed,
Till I see morning’s light.
Then through those dim and fragile beams
I see upon the ground
A lonely, sorry, broken child;
My orphan girl is found.

Her face is lined, her cloak is torn,
Her arms show battle scars.
Her hope and light and laugh and love
Gone out like dampened fires.
Upon the ground, I bend my knee
And give the girl my arm.
“It’s over now, the night is passed;
Come where you’re safe from harm.
The world is cruel outside the gates
And though now all looks black,
You have a place within the walls.
Oh, orphan girl, come back.”

Merry Christmas to All Friends of Ben!! Here are a few recent pics!

See you around kid....No you won't

Hello one and all! It's hard to believe it's been another week. This past week I had the opportunity to go on exchanges to El Centro and to Chaparral, two areas which I've served in previously. It was fun to go back and see some of the people I had taught and baptized before, but also sobering, in some cases, to see what's come of it in the past year. I won't mention to much here in this email but there's a hand-written letter forthcoming. It's already written and everything I just need to get some pictures together and send it off.

By the way that granola is AMAZING. Thank you so much Mom. The assistants are on exchanges with us today and they had some of it for breakfast and are fully converted to Wilson family home-made granola.

We have a baptism coming up this saturday for a woman named Olga. She's AMAZING! One day she just decided that there was something missing in her life, she describes it as "Being alive, but not living". Well the next day the missionaries knocked her door and she's been AWESOME ever since. Every single lesson with her is a spiritual brouhaha. I'm reminded every day that there really are people out there who "are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it".

One thing I've developed in this area is a lot more respect for English elders. We do quite a bit of English work here... And it's hard! We've got a tiny tiny area in Spanish and a HUGE English area and we have the same amount of work in both.

Q&A time:
Yes we live in an apartment complex.
Yes I'm going to send you a ton of pictures today.
I do have my camera and I'm about to fill it up so I'll let you upload all the pictures from the media disk and then send it back.
As for Christmas... I want one really big present, but I'll be sending that in the snail mail letter.
If people want to send me presents, I want:
Ties
Socks
Uh... some cool Christmas cds? Especially talks. I love talks. Especially Neal A Maxwell, Jeffrey Holland, and James E. Faust. But feel free to send anything that would be good.
Oh yeah and I want some SIGNED "The Inkeeper's Wife"s to give to some investigators, converts, and such. Around 20-30 would be appreciated. (If at all possible, I don't know if you still have left overs.) People went crazy over the signed copies last year.

Well anyways that's about it for this weeks edition. I'm excited to talk to you all on Christmas. Parents, expect a hand-written letter soon.

Love,

Elder Ben Wilson

We're Detecting an Alarming Level of Methane in Your Oxygen Supply!

Hello everybody! I can barely remember what I wrote last week so I'll probably repeat some stuff starting with: I'm here in El Paso! We're in charge of two wards. One is English and the other is Spanish. We had two food appointments with English families and one appointment with a Spanish family. The food was delicious in all three homes and I was SUPER stuffed by the end of the day. Speaking of which I'm in full car and I can already feel myself getting fatter.

This morning we played a little bit of tennis and a little bit of basketball as well. There aren't any real tennis players in the zone so I took the crown and then of course basketball was basketball.

By the way Matute is not a Polynesian name although it does kind of sound like that. Elder Matute, my companion, was born in Honduras and grew up in Florida and he says that the name is eventually from Spain. He speaks perfect Spanish and English and is an all-around stud. He's widely known as one of the best teachers in the mission and one of the easiest people to get along with.

El Paso is way different than Tucson. I forgot how NICE the people are around here. Even the white people! I think the Mexicans rub off on them and they're just nicer.

Oh by the way, my address is:

1215 Country Club rd. #7
Santa Teresa, NM, 88008

Oh yeah, you'll notice that we live in New Mexico. About 50 yards from the border between the two states and our area is half-Texas, half-New Mexico.

Tonight I get to go on exchanges to Chaparral! I miss that area so much and it's going to be cool to be able to see my converts again! And to see the golf course that I built in the yard! One of the greatest things I learned in that area is how to enjoy anything. To turn lemons into lemonade as they say. At one point I decided "I can't stop the dust storms from coming, so I'm going to love them." And I found a way to do it! You go knock doors during the dust storms and when people answer you say "It's crazy out here could you let us in for a minute?!?" and then teach an awesome lesson in their house. I can't explain how but a part of me really misses rabid dogs running everywhere and dust storms and not having anything nearby and being able to name every piece of vegetation in the town. So needless to say, I'm excited to go back.

But sorry, you probably want to hear more about where I am now. Well you've got two extremes. There's west side El Paso and Santa Teresa which are quite wealthy and, not surprisingly, don't have much work in them, and then there's Sunland park which is dirt poor and dirty and is full of investigators and lots of work.

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting in the Spanish ward. It went well. I shamelessly recycled all of the good jokes I have ever told in any talk. The ward especially liked the story of when Mom forgot to tell me that I was going to give a talk and ran a piece of paper to me at the last minute that said "Ben, you're giving a talk today, here it is."

I focused my remarks on the miracle of The Restoration and how it's spreading throughout the world. I don't quite know why but when people hear "There were 250,000 convert baptisms in the world last year!" They tend to get really excited about missionary work. I guess it feels good to feel like you're winning. (And we ARE winning!)

Well folks I was going to share one more experience but as soon as I started typing it down it felt too sacred to share. But when I get back from my mission ask me about Hermana Acosta and her sister.

Thank you all so much for the pictures and emails, I really appreciate it. It really is hard when you don't feel like you're getting any support from home (Something I've never gone through but have seen a lot with other missioanries) and so I truly am grateful for the time and effort that all of you put into writing me.

The work is going well here. It's good to be back in El Paso. Take care all!

Love,

Elder Ben Wilson

The Force is Strong With This One

November 17, 2008

Hello everyone! Things are going great here in Tucson. Just as a reminder: Transfers are going to be a week from Tuesday. No one knows what's going to happen and that's just the point but as things get down to the wire, if you want to send a letter, it might be best to do so through the mission office. (I don't know the address off hand but I think my parents do).

We just got back from the driving range. Elder Espericueta, one of the Elders in our branch, is going home next Tuesday so we decided to show him a good time on his last P-Day. He had never been golfing before but I think he enjoyed it. My swing was a little rusty (Not that I was ever any good) but it felt good to hit around a little.

Well it's been quite a week here in Tucson. The work is picking up. Slowly but surely. When I am tempted to get discouraged I think of my good brethren in Europe who are working their butts of for a fraction of the success that we see.

We have four progressing investigators right now, with a few waiting in the wings. We had a really awesome experience with a family, the Aguirre family the other night.

We met the Aguirres a few weeks ago when we were looking through the branch list and realized that they live in our area and we have no idea who they are. It turns out that the father and two of the daughters had been baptized a few years ago, but the father has since left the family (for reasons unknown to us). Anyways that left three children and the (extremely bitter) wife unbaptized. We've been working with the girls (Two of them baptized, one of them not) for a few weeks now and we were on the very verge of dropping them. Then enter Jesus.

Ok that sounds weird in English but Jesus is their 24 year old brother. Basically, Jesus has been living in Florida for the past year and a half but just came home because he couldn't really make it on his own. So one day he shows up and we think, hey, what's the worse that could happen? So not withstanding the fact that he's pretty gangster and wearing a giant Virgin Maria jacket (Not as rare a combo as you'd think) we decide to teach him.

Well for a couple of lessons we can tell that he's really interested but of course he's got to keep up the Machismo image so he pretends like he's not interested. Then he walks to church but of course "Only because I wanted to make sure my sisters made it safe and sound."

That was a week ago. Yesterday they were going to come and 10 minutes before church starts Jesus calls us and says he's not going to be able to. Why? He hurt his leg.

Well we went over and the "hurt leg" turns out to be a torn knee with a brace on it that looks like it was taken out of Star Wars. So that was the first bit of good news, and then the family, who never invites us inside (We always teach the girls out on the door step), invited us inside and before we know it, the Mom brings us a couple of plates with carne asada, rice, and beans. (it was really really good). Then Jesus gets this kinda uncomfortable look on his face and finally manages "I'm not gonna lie guys, we all met together, and we're on a quest to become Mormons now." I wanted to laugh, cry, jump up and down, and yell all at the same time. (All I really ended up doing was smiling and saying "That's awesome").

Well anyways, that's the Aguirre family.

By the way, something I think I've just never talked about: Hermano Noriega. Hermano Noriega is our branch mission leader and he's AWESOME! He's blind, and luckily he doesn't mind joking around about it (Three days ago I asked him in a lesson if he would share his testimony about how READING the scriptures has blessed his life.) He's also a spiritual giant and has a REALLY REALLY powerful testimony. Sorry, just one of those random things that I think I haven't mentioned before, that I think the parents like hearing about.

Well boys and girls that's about it for this week. I'm loving it hear in the desert and I hope that everything is going well back home. Write letters, I like that. Thank you for all of the love and support. The gospel is TRUE! It's THE ANSWER.

Love,

Elder Ben Wilson

Sorry Mr. President, I Don't Dance

November 3, 2008

Hello one and all! It was as pretty good week last week.

I just wanted to start off by thanking the family for that wonderful packag=
e. THAT CHOCOLATE WAS DELICIOUS! And it's always good to get hand writt=
en letters from the two of you (No matter how angry they might be) So th=
ank you very very much, it sure makes things a lot easier when you know y=
ou have some of the most wonderful people in the world standing behind an=
d supporting you.

We had Stake conference on Sunday which was actually a regional conferenc=
e broadcast from Salt Lake City. President Packer spoke, as well as Elde=
r Jay E. Jensen and a couple of other people who's names I have, sadly, f=
orgotten. One of them told a funny story about some early pioneer settle=
rs who came to Arizona under direction from Brigham Young. Upon settling=
down here they wrote back "If you touch it, it stings you. If you pet i=
t, it bites you. And if you eat it, it kills you."

Also general Sherman of Civil war fame once wrote "We went to war with Mexi=
co once in order to take Arizona, and I think we ought to go to war with =
them again to compel them to take it back."=20

Of course it was all in good fun and the conference was awesome. We receiv=
ed some amazing advice. I particularly liked one thing that President Pa=
cker pointed out. Every prophet has their specialty. Missionary work, c=
olonization, temple building, etc... Well clearly, President Monson's sp=
ecialty is welfare. He has always been concerned about taking care of th=
e physical needs of those around him and making sure that they are cared =
for.

Well isn't it interesting that he should become prophet JUST before a major=
economic crisis hits the world and those sorts of needs are about to sta=
rt popping up everywhere. Especially when considering how long President=
Hinckley's life was preserved. President Monson truly is the man to lea=
d and guide the church in these days!

Speaking of Stake conference... a week ago, the zone leaders had a meeting =
with the stake president and they told me that he had some interest in me=
eting me. Well I went up and said hi to him at Stake Conference and it t=
urns out that he went to Business school with Dad! He said "I just want =
you to know that I think the world of your father and mother". I didn't =
realize that my parents had close friends in Tucson!

Oh and speaking of the economic crisis, people are starting to feel it arou=
nd here. We have(had) a few investigators who can't find jobs anymore so=
they're packing up and heading back to Mexico. Nothing too drastic but =
we're starting to see a few effects from it, which is why I ask about it =
from time to time.

So I did another baptismal interview this last week... and I'd just like to=
say something about the difficulties of filling out a Mexican baptism an=
d confirmation record. But isn't it just like filling out a baptism and =
confirmation record for anyone else, you ask? Oh no. Writing "Johnson, =
Mark David" Isn't that hard. But when you start getting involved with "=
Juan Carlos Ramon Pedro Medina Arroyo Sanchez de la Rosa"... things get a=
little trickier. I swear I spend half an hour just trying to figure out=
which names go where.

Oh yeah, a quick little heads up for everybody: Craig C. Christensen of th=
e 70 is going to be coming into town and we're going to be having a zone =
conference on Monday so don't wait up for an email; it won't come until T=
uesday.

On Friday my companion got in a fist fight with the pavement (fell off his =
bike). His arm and finger got chewed up pretty good but he's recovering =
really fast. He was trying to take a corner without using any hands. It=
was really hard not to laugh.

We had to come in early on Halloween. I carved a pumpkin after the fashion=
of my pirate face (picture to come by mail within the next week). It wa=
s of exceedingly fine workmanship, if I don't say so myself.

This week I have been reflecting somewhat on criticism, humility, the gospe=
l, and our ability to change. The natural man hates criticism, because h=
e has a stronger desire to appear good than to be good, and criticism is =
a reflection of his looking bad. The saint loves criticism, because he h=
as a stronger desire to do and be good than to appear good, and criticism=
helps him to see where he can appear.

So if you're wondering why this email is breaking my recent streak of writi=
ng shorter and shorter emails, the answer is because my Mother wrote me a=
letter addressing the length of my emails, and took about the same tone =
that Joseph Smith took near the end of his life when writing to or about =
William Law and his associates. Thankfully I was able to use that critic=
ism in a constructive way, rather than getting angry (Which is a great b=
lessing from God since my initial reaction was to do quite the opposite.)

Well we've found a few more investigators since last week. The work isn't =
exactly going at a neckbreak pace but it's starting to pick up again. Ev=
ery investigator is a blessing and I'm certainly greatful for the opportu=
nity that i have to serve here and meet the people of South Tucson.

Well everybody that's about it for this weeks edition. I love you all so v=
ery much. Thank you for your continued support. I do have the best frie=
nds and family in the world.

Love,

Elder Ben Wilson

My Name is Diego Montoya, Prepare to Die!

October 20, 2008

Hello everybody! Life goes on here in Tucson. Honestly, not much has happened between Thursday and today but I'll try to make up something so that you have something to read today.

Saturday I got sick again. Really sick. (Thanks for the Emergen-C!) I'm good now, but my companion just came down with the same thing today... So that kind of put a damper on the end of the week.

Mom's Question: Yes I think I could find some pictures to take if you sent me that camera. I plan on sending you some pictures today... apparently cameras go out of date fast. All these new missionaries coming in have cameras with ten times more megapixels or something like that!

Thanks for all the pictures! Although just a warning: I don't have very much space in my mailbox and I got sent that 2mb picture of Mom & Dad with the Highams FOUR TIMES by four different people. So we might need to get some cross-family coordination going on or something like that.

Thanks for the pictures from home. The house looks good... different... it was weird to see my room look different but that's cool.

Well ladies and gents... I would write more but I'm not sure what else to say! I'm alive and well and spreading the restored gospel!

Love,

Elder Wilson

What are the odds that that trap door led me out here?

October 15, 2008

Hello everybody! They didn't quite manage to kick me out of Los Reales yet, I'm still here with Elder Thomas. We'll be spending another transfer together which oficially makes him the companion who I've spent the most amount of time with.

Questions regarding the medical bill: The cause was that I got a big 'ol splinter shoved under my fingernail. Haven't been hit by a car on my bike, but my companion has!

I've been feeling sick lately. Things went from HOT to decent to pretty cold really fast. It still gets hot during the day but right now it's starting to get really really cold at night. So basically the first night that that happened I was caught unawares and got chilled and caught a pretty bad cold.

Which brings me to a pretty cool story. My companion and I got sick. I was feeling pretty miserable. So I was really REALLY lookoing forward to my sleep that night. Well around 1:00 AM I wake up and my companion is snoring louder than a death medal band + a jet engine on my head. I wait ten minutes to see if he'll stop, he doesn't, and so I pack up my blanket and pillow and head to the other side of the house. The thing that makes this particularly unpleasant is that we don't have any carpet in the entire house, just linolium. Well five minutes into tossing and turning on a rock hard floor I realize that this isn't going to work. So I got up and said a prayer and asked God to help me sleep through the night. I laid back down and immediately the thought entereed into my head "Elder Thomas stopped snoring". OKAY! I head back into the room and Elder Thomas is sleeping like a baby and didn't snore for the whole rest of the night. It was a testimony builder for me that God is concerned about the little things in our lives.

I got the packages that you sent me. THANK YOU! It was nice to get some food from back home. Big morale booster.

Oh and my camera and my charger and everything is present and in working order. The only problem is that I often forget to bring it with me when photo opportunities pop-up but I'll try to send you a few pictures in the future.

Well that's about it for this week's eidition. The work of God continues progressing. I love you all and am so greatful for such wonderful parents, siblings, friends and associates. I'm so greatful to be a missionary! This is an amazing work! THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!

Love,

Elder Wilson

You Rush a Miracle Man, You Get Rotten Miracles

October 6, 2008

Hello everybody! Tucson is... NOT SO HOT ANYMORE! Hopefully it's not just a temporary thing but things actually cooled off yesterday. WOAH! I can't believe it! I was ready to do backflips when I walked out of conference on Saturday around 11:30 and it was mildly warm with a slight breeze. Yes, there was much high-fiving, hugging, celebrating, and screaming for joy from the only full-bike companionship in Tucson.

Yes indeed, conference was amazing. I actually liked the earlier sessions better, confirming Mom's theory that when there are less people at a meeting (especially because of some sort of physical difficulty or inconvencience), it is correspondingly more spiritually powerful. You all pretty much guessed the ones I liked: Sis. Allred, Elder Oaks, Pres. Uchtdorf, Pres. Eyring, Elder Daikutaikus (or whatever his name was), ELDER WIRTHLIN, Elder Christofferson, ok actually I'm going to stop because I could just pretty much go through everyone who spoke. WOW! What an amazing and spiritually uplifting conference! I was literally almost shaking with excitement when President Monson went through and announced all of the new temples.

And who saw the special on President Monson? Holy smokes! What a guy! He also happens to have the most photographic memory I've ever even heard of. "When I first saw my wife I was on the corner of 22nd east and 3rd south, it was 3:22 PM, I was wearing black shoes that I had bought on sale a week earlier and there was a slight breeze blowing to the west."

Unfortunately the investigators didn't quite make their way over (I would have loved for some of them to have heard that talk about the BOM by Elder Daikakutaituakaitus). But there's always conference talks on DVD, right?

Hmmm... it seems like conference has wiped my memory clean of anything and everything else that's going on. Oh yeah, transfers are a week from Wednesday (and there's a pretty decent chance I'll get shipped out) so get cautious with letter writing once we get close to that date. I'm excited for these transfers because I'm getting along really well with my companion, so I'll be really happy if I stay, and I'm sick and tired of being on bikes, so I'll be really happy if I get transfered. Kind of a win-win situation.

Oh yeah, this morning I bought some pants for the suit that has been out of comission for a few months because the pants wore through completely. It was actually kind of a miracle but I found pants that were almost EXACTLY the same color. So this is kind of a round-about way of saying: you'll see my paw-marks on the next credit card bill.

Well that's it for this week's edition boys and girls. The gospel is true and I'm so greatful to be a missionary here in Tucson!

Love,

Elder Wilson

Are There Rocks Ahead? If There Are, We'll All Be Dead

September 29, 2008

Hello everybody! It's been another awesome week here in Tucson. We had another baptism this last Saturday and it was spiritually powerful. We've been seeing a lot of success working with part-member families, and we found another one just yesterday with two un-baptized teenagers. So the work is going well.

Next week is General conference and that's exciting for a couple of reasons:
1) Hear the words of the prophets and apostles
2) I can take a break from correcting apostasy during church (Last week the Young Womens teacher let everyone know that it's okay to drink coffee as long as it's decaf)

Thanks for all the pictures from the Hales and Hare fams. Those pictures at Disneyland were crazy awesome... and baby Eva looks so cute. And I can't believe how big the Hales boys are getting. Tell them to stop growing until I get home!

Someone asked me if I'm more organized. Answer: Yes. But my memory is still somewhere around the level of a goldfish. And I still misplace things all the time. Some things even a mission can't fix.

By the way I never did receive a copy of Mom's first D&C Scripture Study. I just got an old one that I already had from Mosiah. That would be really really nice to get.

In case anyone was wondering, the weather continues about normal. 100 degrees almost every day. It's significantly better than a month or two ago, though.

Here's something that has really helped me in my teaching. I think it's good advice for anyone who teaches the gospel. Teaching Mosiah 3:19 leads to Mosiah 4:1-3. So many missionaries avoid teaching the fall because it can be somewhat tricky but it's so worth it when you do it right. It helps people to realize that their works aren't going to save them.

Which brings me to another point. Before the mission I always that Paul was kind of crazy. Why does he spend so much time on "saved by grace" doctrine? It always kind of bugged me because it leads to all of these "confess with the mouth and ye shall be saved" nuts. But after a year in the mission field I realize that 90% of people out there believe that their works are going to save them and don't really rely on the merits of him who is mighty to save.

Well anyways, I feel that I've rambled enough. (Inevitably I'll get a few emails telling me I didn't, anyways) Thank you for all the love and support. I have such amazing family and friends. Viva Tucson!

Love,

Elder Wilson

We Have No Sense Of Humor That WeAre Aware Of

September 22, 2008

Hello everyone! Unfortunately I don't have much time to write. We're here on the U of A campus and it took us almost half an hour just to find computers.

Anyways everything is going well here in Los Reales. We had a baptism on Saturday. A young man named Daniel Virgen.

I also did my first four baptismal interviews in the last week and those were very humbling, revelatory experiences.

Elder Smith is headed off to Peru on Wednesday morning, so I'll be back to a two-some. Lately we've been working out the three-some thing a lot better but I'm not going to lie: It will be really really nice to be back to training only one person.

The branch had a huge Mexican party on Saturday. It had waaaaay better attendance than any sacrament meeting has ever had. I'm not going to lie, it's a little frustrating when you've been breaking your back to get an investigator to church for a week and half to no avail but when you simply extend an invitation for a party they're there no problem. Mexicans love their parties...

I'm doing really really well. Happy and working hard. Sorry I can't write more but I'm out of time. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Wilson

Baxter, You Know I Don"t Speak Spanish

September 15, 2008

Hello everybody!

Well it's been a good week. I've found out a solution for the 3-some problem: Get a member to go with you and then visit appointments while your companions go out tracting! Instead of a third wheel you get a 2-for-1 deal!

We had a dissapointing Sunday despite an otherwise excellent week. One experience from Saturday that was really awesome. We went to an appointment on Saturday evening but they said they didn't have time so it fell through. Then, as we were leaving, we saw a middle-aged-woman walking down the sidewalk with her two children. I ran up and contacted her and we started talking and started teaching her the first lesson. In the middle of the lesson she started crying and told us that that morning she had been at her father's house and had been looking through some old stuff and found a Bible. She picked it up and started reading it and felt that now was the time for her and her family to get closer to God, but that she didn't know what to do or where to go next. "And now that I met you I know God is trying to send me a sign and that he has a plan for me." Woah, cool. The Lord really does have his hand in this work.

Tucson has been its usual wonderful self. Things cooled off a little for a couple of days but unfortunately that didn't last.

Mom asked me what I love about Tucson. Well Tucson as a whole is actually a beautiful charming city. The University is really cool, and it's really green and has some cool plant-life, what with all the different types of cactus and such. There really is a lot to like about the city. Even the weather is good once you get out of the summer. South Tucson (where I serve), on the other hand, is the armpit of the universe. I love the people here despite where they live. But Tucson as a whole is cool.

Well the Zone Leaders keep telling me that President Walker has an awesome new scheme to double baptisms in the mission, and then put smug looks on their faces and won't tell me what it is. So apparently we should be expecting great things from the ATM!

Well that's about it for this week's edition. I LOVE THIS WORK! We had an assistant who went home finished his mission a few months ago and now two of his friends have baptismal dates. Member-missionary efforts WORK! Please please please don't neglect your responsibilities as member-missionaries. Someone doesn't have to be your best friend in the world in order to invite them to learn more about the restored gospel.

I love you all! Thank you so much for your continuing support, especially those of you who wrote me (Mom, Dad, Chris, Harrison, Emily, Nena)!

Love,

Elder Wilson

Are You Sure this Water is Sanitary? It Looks Questionable..

Sep 8, 2008

Hello everyone! I'm going to go ahead and start off by answering Mom's questions.

1) No I don't always use sunscreen.

2) I take heliocare pills often

3) I got and am thoroughly enjoying the granola. (It's disappearing at an alarmingly fast rate... Elder Smith midnight raids are suspected)

4) I don't need any more pills.

5) There aren't many bugs here, just a few cocroaches. (Thank goodness)

So working in a threesome is a little bit of a challenge. Not as many people open doors, I think it's kind of intimidating to have three people in shirts and ties on your doorstep. Elder Smith, who is waiting for his Visa, is an interesting character. He's a good missionary and he's got some great skills but he's got some quirks that took a while to get used to. Oh and we had to teach him to ride a bike and he bailed HARD five times since last Wednesday! But he's a trooper and gets back on every time.

We had Miguel's baptism this week... it was pretty awesome. Almost nobody was there, but the spirit was and that's what counts. Elder Thomas baptized him, his first baptism and he said the prayer in Spanish perfectly, yay! Very dissimilar from the baptism a week ago that took six attempts. Miguel has changed SO MUCH. It's unreal. The gospel is true, and it truly WORKS!

We played basketball this morning, and I dunked ALL OVER some elder. Warn Brig that I haven't lost it all (yet). Actually I'm becoming semi-famous in the mission for having good morning workouts. I've started stretching for the first time in my life... I can touch my toes now!

Well that's about all I have for this week. I have a goal of making next week my best email ever! I love Tucson! I never thought I'd say that but I do! And I love missionary work and the gospel! And I love you all! Send more letters!

Love,

Elder Wilson

Hey try checking the bag...SAMSONITE, I was way off!

Hello everybody! It's been a good week here in Tucson. Still hot, but getting better, slowly but surely! It's transfer week and I am... staying in Los Reales. But Elder Thomas and I are receiving a new companion named Elder Smith. So we'll be a threesome. Elder Smith is waiting for a visa so that he can head out to Peru. Oh, and he doesn't know how to ride a bike yet... so we'll see how that works out.

We had a baptism this last Saturday, it was pretty awesome. Veronica Toledo is her name. She had her brother baptize her and it took him SIX times but it got done in the end.

We have another baptism this Saturday for Miguel, he's one of my favorite investigators ever. He started out as a loser alcoholic who did nothing all day but drink and live at his Mom's house. Well he's kicked the alcohol, has a job, payed off his tickets, and is getting baptized this Saturday! I love seeing the gospel bring purpose into the lives of others!

Yes, yes I know, I AM a political genius and I DID call that Sarah Palin was a legit VP candidate more than a year ago. It's a little sad to hear that my man Mitt is out of it. I wonder what he's going to do for the next four years.

Every now and then and here and there I catch glimpses and soundbites about the gay marriage issue that's going on. Half of me is really glad that I'm not home to witness it, and the other half of me wishes I was there to fight the fight. I guess there's always the next go-around when it becomes and issue again in another two years.

So I don't know how much of this I've shared with you but things are really taking off in our branch. We keep setting the record for attendance each week (Even on labor day weekend), this month we're going to pass the record for baptisms in the branch in a year, we've actually finally got most of the leadership positions filled, and the members are excited for the work!

Well that's it for this week. Hope this email was long enough for you. If you'd like to know more... send me some questions! I love you all! Thanks for your love and support.

Love,

Elder Ben "Tree" Wilson

Not Bitter about the Weather

Hello family and friends and anyone else who might be weirdly reading my emails! I'm still alive here in Tucson (Haven't melted yet), and the working is moving forward.

I don't know if I've told you all yet but my companion has different colored eyes, and this last week he has been asked at least five times if one of his contacts fell out. He's starting to get tired of it. (Whereas I tend to laugh harder and harder each time... funny how that works)

Thank you Kate for sending those pictures of Eva. She looks way cute. Make sure that she sees plenty of pictures of her uncle Ben.

I'm glad everyone is having a good time. It's an amazing blessing of the mission that I can read about all of the perfect weather that all of you are experiencing and be happy instead of bitter. It's still nice and sunny here in the desert.

So we've been working with a part-member / less-active family called the Zuniga/Virgen family (Every family here has more than one last name). They wanted to come to church but there was a problem: Ten people and zero cars. We made the appropriate calls and found a wonderful brother who assured us that he would figure it all out for us. Ten minutes before church he shows up, but not our family, but assures us that he found a way for the family to get to church. Five minutes later, we had what could only be called "The Most Mexican Arrival Ever". A caravan of three beat-up cars, the third being an old junky pickup with four people sitting in the bed. I think seeing those cars was one of the best moments of my life. Pure Christ-like joy mixed with hysterical laughter.

Last Tuesday we did zoo-service. We raked and cleaned and painted and such and then at 9 when the park opened they let us in. It was awesome. I felt just like a little kid again. We got to see giraffes and hippos and rhinos and baboons and elephants and monkeys and lions and bears and panthers and anteaters and everything! It was really really cool! (And afterwards we got In-n-out which was pretty cool too!)

Well thank you to everyone who wrote me this week. I appreciate the encouragement and support. I'm headed out, but I love you all! I'm healthy and happy and everything is good here in Tucson!

Love,

Elder Tree Wilson

August 18, 2008 - You ate the whole wheel of cheese? I'm not even mad, I'm just impressed!

Hello family!

Everything is going well here in Tucson. No real sign of the heat letting up. This morning we went to a park with one of our members to do a workout with him. He has some new program called P90X or something like that. It's a crazy yoga/kick boxing/weight lifting combo thing. Anyways it was fun.

It's been a week. We're starting to see some success here. We have three baptismal dates right now and we're planning on setting at least seven more this week. The other companionship in the branch had two baptisms on Saturday, and we had two investigators there! Investigators at baptisms is the BEST! They feel the spirit there and before you know it they're begging to be baptized! So that was awesome (We celebrated with some post-baptism in-n-out... and that was pretty awesome too)

I love baptisms. I LOVE BAPTISMS. It's kind of like Christmas, The Olympics, General conference, and summer break all combined into one and then compacted into a 40 minute ball of spiritual goodness.

We're starting to fill up our little meetinghouse and so it looks like we might start having two sacrament meetings in the coming months or something like that. Google map our meetinghouse, by the way. You'll see that it's the most random little church in the world, squeezed between an Eegee's (A fast food joint) and a Brake Masters. I love the place.

My companion had his first "worst day of his mission". We ate some pretty sketchy Chimi chongas (spelling?) in the morning and his body isn't quite used to that sort of stuff yet. He couldn't be away from the bathroom for more than 30 minutes. Poor guy.

Which brings me to Mexican Food. You people always want me to talk more about normal missionary life so here it goes. I think Mexican Food is the most hit-or-miss kind of food there is. If you get some really delicious tacos or posole or mole (Not an actual mole, it has an accent over the e and it's chicken with a chile/chocolate/gravy sauce on it) there's nothing better in the world. On the other hand you can get some REALLY sketchy stuff as well. There really isn't much of a gray area.

Well that's about it for this week boys and girls. My mission theme right now is Alma 26:22 I guess I'll elaborate more on that some other time. As for right now, I'd rather finish emailing so I can finish my Pday earlier and start preaching earlier!

I love you all! Thanks for the love and support!

Love,

Elder Ben Wilson

August 11, 2008 - What are the chances of a girl like you and a guy like me ending up together? One in a million.

...So you're sayin' there's a chance!

Hello everybody! I'm still alive and doing OK. It's been quite a week here in Tucson.

A couple of days ago my companion got nailed by a car. T-boned by a big 'ol truck when were crossing a crosswalk on our bikes. Miraculously, he walked away with a bruised ankle and nothing else. WOW! Complete miracle, I was 99% sure he had a broken leg when I saw him get hit. But we're always very safe on our bikes so don't worry about us!

Monsoon season has been going late and we got hit HARD a couple of times last week. One time we got hit while we were on our bikes and we weren't able to get around for a while because so many roads were flooded.

We had a cool experience with another downpour. I think this happened last Tuesday, anyways, we had a really powerful night planned out. We had good appointments at 6, 7, and 8, and we had a member going out with us, Hermano Arias. Well the appointment fell at 6 and so did our backups, our appointment at 7 turned out to kind of stink (Our investigator pretty much dropped us), and our appointment fell through at 8. Around 8 the rain started to come down... HARD!!! Like I said we went to go visit an investigator for an appointment but they weren't there. The rain started falling so hard that Hno. Arias deemed it unsafe to drive on the road (I mean it was really really coming down). So we pulled off into the parking lot of Whataburger and offered to buy us a burger. Well I wasn't that hungry, but, seeing that there wasn't really anything else we could do, accepted.

At this point, I started to get a little discouraged. I started thinking "Man, we did everything right. We planned out the night, set good backups, prayed for inspiration, got a member with us, but the night was super unsuccessful, what happened?" I walked into Whataburger with this kind of poopy attitude and depressed feeling, and walked up to the counter.

Before I could order anything, the girl at the register says "What's that book you have?" pointing at the Book of Mormon in my hand.
"It's the Book of Mormon."
"...could you tell me what it's about?"
"YEAH! Of course!"

We got to spend five to ten minutes teaching her right there at the counter of Whataburger and she was really interested! Turns out she lives outside of our area, so we had to pass on the referral, but it was still an awesome experience! It was a testimony builder for me in enduring to the end. And also in that, when we put forth all of our effort, the Lord will always make up the rest.

The work progresses. We have some amazing investigators right now. One just showed up at church one day and said "I've been going to church in Phoenix for two weeks, some of my family has already been baptized, let's work towards baptism." ... Sounds good to me!

We're also teaching a family that we found because a few returned missionaries contacted and taught the father of the family at work. Hooray for member-missionaries! This family of six is going to enter the waters of baptism and have their sins remitted because a few 22 year olds opened their mouths at work!

Well I hope that this email has been sufficiently long. I hope that everyone is doing well. It's always good to hear from all of you. Thank you everyone who wrote this last week (Mom, Dad, Grammy, Poppa, Mary, Brig)! Your letters are always so full of inspiration. How lucky I am to have grown up surrounded by spiritual giants!

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Ben

August 4, 2008 - Here's lookin' at you kid

Hello everybody. It's been another warm week here in Tucson. I count it a blessing from the Lord every day that I don't just melt.

The work goes forward in our little branch of the vineyard. It's been pretty tough to get people to keep comittments but we've got a few amazing investigators who are going forward and progressing.

We had ten people who comitted to come to church. Who we called Saturday night and said they were ready, who we called Sunday morning and said they were going to come... and then didn't show up Sunday morning. Ouch.

On Saturday one of the oddest things I've experienced in my entire mission happened. We were riding our bikes from one appointment to another, and we happened to pass by a house with about ten dogs that were all barking at us from behind the fence. The owner of the house, a middle-aged lady, was standing right in the middle of the walkway by the fence. My companion, Elder Thomas, is really really quiet. But on this particular occasion, he felt like barking back at the dogs. Well he growled and barked for a few seconds as we rode by and the owner of thet house laughs and says "What kind of breed are you?" I looked at Elder Thomas and he was as red as a cherry and muttered "Oh, I didn't see her there."

On a side note, Tucson has lots of monsoons. They come out of nowhere and rain really hard for an hour and then leave. This presents a problem when you're on a bike all day. One of the problems is that your bike throws the dirty water on the streets all over your back. The point of this little side note is to tell you that I have a few shirts that have been ruined by this phenomenon and am going to need to buy a couple new ones. Oh, and I've tried every method known to man to get the stains out and it doesn't work, but you're free to send other suggestions if you'd like.

I love you all, thank you so much for the love and support (and letters).

Love,

Elder Wilson

PS
Dad- Thank you so much for that Elder Maxwell talk it was awesome, and I love that quote!

PPS
Mom- I HAVE seen Casa Blanca

July 28, 2008 - That's it! I draw the line at the monkeys.

What's up everyone. Things are still going well here in the toasty town of Tucson. The new companion is doing well. He's already made some big strides with his Spanish although it's still pretty rough.

One cool experience for you really quick:

Some Elders love to Bible Bash. I used to be one of them. It was a fad and I got over it after a month or two. It's mostly self-engrandizing, spirit-quenching, love-destroying, head games. Even still, it can be pretty tough to kick the habit of bustin' out the Bible and flippin' to your tried and true battle scriptures every time someone brings up a doubt.

Well anyways we were teaching a random woman that we contacted on the street and all was going well until we reached the first vision. I told the story of the virst vision and she matter of factly told us that that story could not be true because God the Father and Jesus are the same person. Out came the old Bible and I was just flipping to the martyrdom of Stephen when a REALLY loud military plane flew over head. For 30 seconds we couldn't hear anything except for that plane. So I had 30 second to stand there and ponder on what Jesus Christ would do if he were in this situation.

I closed the Bible and, when I could be heard again, bore my testimony of the Godhead and first vision in clear and simple terms and told her that she could reach the same knowledge through study and prayer. After I did that her countenance changed. She relaxed and opened up. She said that she like what and how we were teaching and invited us to come back and share more another day.

I have a testimony that that plane was sent from God to stop me from contending. The spirit of God doesn't stick around long when there's contention, and if that plane wouldn't have come, the spirit would have been lost, and she never would have investigated the church.

Switching gears: It's good to hear that Elliott and Spencer are home. Say hello to them from me! Tell them to write me. I miss 'em both.

By the way, we can't go to Juarez on temple trips anymore because they're averaging 8 murders a day from what our Mission President tells us. Bad luck. If i had stayed in Chaparral another transfer I would have had the opportunity to go but, alas, twas not to be.

Well I better get going, we've got a busy preparation day in front of us. I love you all! Keep up the letters!

Love,

Elder Ben "Tree" Wilson

July 23, 2008

Fam,

I didn't feel it appropriate to say anything about Brig and Caitlin in a semi-public email. But I will be writing a letter today and geting it sent off as soon as possible. I love you all so much.

Ben

July 23, 2008 - esCAPE, funny that's spelled just like escape.

Hello one and all!

Well transfers are today and I am... staying here in Tucson! And training! My new companion is named Elder Thomas and he's from the Seattle area. I'm really really happy and excited to have a new companion and one who's pumped up for the work here. Although the prospect of having a companion who speaks very little to no Spanish is a little bit scary. But all in all I'm pumped!

The last week has been hard work. hot. So sooooo hot. I can't even explain how hot it is here. Just use your imagination.

By the way transfers are always going to be on Wednesdays now. I don't know if I've already told you all but that's one of the changes that President Walker has instituted.

Something we have started doing is going around and sharing the plan of salvation with all of the members here. In Spanish branches, it's about 90% converts and I'm amazed at how many of them were really converted when they heard the plan of salvation. Tons of em. Probably at least half. I love being able to teach that lesson so much. For me it's such an amazing way to put things in perspective: Both the importance and the brevity of this life have really stood out to me lately.

We knocked on the door of one woman, Maria (If you ever meet a Mexican woman you can probably just call her Maria. You've got about a 50/50 chance of being right.) and she started crying as soon as she opened the door. She's been going through some tough stuff with her children and had been praying to God for help when we came. She said that, because we were there, she knew God has a plan for her. Really really cool lady.

Well I don't really have much else to share, I love you all. The more I see of the world the more I realize what amazing friends and family I have. Thank you for your love and support!

Love,

Ben

July 14, 2008 - The Chickens are revolting! Finally, something we agree on...

Hello everyone! It's been a succesful week over here in Tucson. We finally got a few people at church and progressing! Yay!

Right now I'm feeling pretty tired. I'll try to muster up an email of reasonable length anyways.

This week we've been focusing on working with part-member / less-active families (When did the church make this PC change to "less-active" by the way?) with some degree of success. It's much easier to rekindle a fire than it is to start one that's never been there before.

So the work progresses here in our little rama of the church of Jesus Christ. Sometimes it's pretty tough to bring people into the branch. Many of them speak English and Spanish perfectly. I know that they'll have their needs better met and receive more support in an English Ward, yet at the same time our branch needs all the help it can get. It's a little tough for me to balance those two factors. Anyone have any thoughts on that? Thanks!

The monsoon season is oficially here which is fun. The rain cools things off A LOT! I love the rain. Never loved rain so much in my life. The worst is when you can see it raining in one part of Tucson but the sun is still shining (burning?) where you are. Torturous.

What else? What else?

Got bit by a dog. I've been putting Elder Lopez through boot camp and he's lost quite a bit of weight. I had my first letterless week of the mission (Excluding Aunt Jannet who writes about as faithfully and consistently as the sun rises)

Well on that note I'm off! People to find, lessons to teach! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Ben

July 9, 2008 - Check it out guys... ALL REDS

Hey family!

I don't have much time to write today. For one reason or another we couldn't make it to a place to do email on Monday but here I am!

It's been a really good week so far; Yesterday we found two GOLDEN investigators that we're really excited for.

Last Saturday I managed to get a quarter inch long splinter stuck underneath my fingernail and spent about 6 hours waiting in a hospital to get it removed (We tried getting it out by ourselves with tweezer but no could do.)

And President Walker is absoultely amazing and has some awesome ideas that are really going to take this mission to the next level! I love you all! Thank you for all of your love and support!

Love,

Elder Tree

PS - Parents, sending a care package just to my companion might make him feel a little weird unless it was included with a package to me or just one package split half and half or something.

June 30, 2008 - Hey Dad

Hey Dad, apparently you're at the computer getting these emails as I send them. Are you there? How're you feeling?

Love,

Ben

June 30, 2008 - Gather the infantry, man the posts and...what's that music?

Hello everyone!

Well it's been a short week (I wrote my last email last Wednesday), so this will be a short email. SORRY!

Last Thursday was Zone Conference and President Higham's final goodbye. I can barely believe he's gone. Crazy. He is a very very powerful leader and did an incredible job of leading this mission. He will be dearly missed. On the upside, I had the chance to meet President and Sister Walker a little bit this morning and it's all thumbs up so far. Since I only spent two minutes with them, all I can give you is details and impressions but here they go:

President Walker is medium/tall and in good shape. He strikes me as a very kind man, and somewhat soft spoken. He seems very down-to-earth and genuine.

Sister Walker is tall! And she seems pretty cool. Very genuine and very personaeble. eThe first thing she esaid teo us was "Hey guys! Oh wait, I can't call you guys, can I? Hey Elders!" Also, rumor has it that she accidentally called President Walker "Babe" in front of the Assistants.

This last week was a lot of clearing out the pipeline. Lots of lessons that ended with "So when you're ready to keep comittments, give us a call." (Said in a much more eloquent and gentler way)

THANK YOU! for the package. That was an amazingly tasty batch of granola (Unfortunately the Zone Leaders think so too and have been trying to swipe a bag) Just a heads up: My companion is a convert and doesn't have much/any support from home. So, please, next time you send a package, send a couple of things for him as well.

Quote of the week (Taken from an exchange between Elder Wilson and random man that I met while knocking doors.):

"Hi we're---"
"I'm Catholic"
"I know, I saw the giant Virgin Mary shrine in your front yard. I'm Elder Wilson and this is Elder Lopez, we're in the neighborhood sharing a message ---"
"No you didn't hear me, I'm CATHOLIC."
"Actually I did hear you. Brother, I know the message we're sharing is true. If God told you that the message that we are sharing is true, would you follow that answer?"
"No, I'm Catholic."
"... No but I mean if God himself personally came and told you that the Mormon church is the one he wants you to join, would you do it?"
"No, I was born Catholic and I'll die Catholic."
*Akward stunned silence*
Then my companion asked for a referal and we left. WOAH! At least they're firm in what they believe in! I think I need to start trying to think more like a Mexican-Catholic in order to try and convert them. So if anyone could find me a Joseph Smith prayer candle, that would be awesome.

Well that's about it for this week friends and family. I love you all and am so greatful for your love and support (letters and care-packages). I'm going to try to send off some hand written letters today so look out for those! Especially if you're a neglectful sibling who hasn't written me for a while! (I won't use names *cough* Mary and Kate *cough*)

Love you all!

Elder Ben Wilson

June 26, 2008 - Harry, your hands are freezing!

Hello one and all! It's been another great week here in the oven, er... Tucson that is. Yes, it has been hot, very very hot. And they say that July is hotter than June. I happened to be scanning a New Era and found a trivia question "Which Mission has the hottest average July temperature at 102 degrees?" The Answer: The Great Arizona Tucson Mission.

I'm writing you today because on Monday (our normal preperation day) we were at the Marriott in Tucson helping at the Spina Bifita conference. We missionaries were assigned to help out with the 13-19 age group and it was a truly amazing experience. It's amazing to see how happy these kids are despite their difficulties and causes one to reflect upon what is truly important in his life. We basically spent the day sitting with them and socializing and helping them with various activities.

The work is amazing here. We set a couple of baptismal dates with Maria and Daisy Garcia. Daisy is the daugher and Maria is the Mom. Maria's brother got baptized a couple of years ago and for the past few weeks he's been reading the Book of Mormon to them over the phone. So when we came over for the first time they were around 1 Nephi 8 or something like that. They're awesome and super prepared.

So many of my baptisms have been just like the Garcia family. The Lord does all the real work and then he drops them in our lap. We just have to go out and find them. At the beginning this worried me. Am I doing everything right? Am I not a very good teacher? How come the only baptisms I have are ones where the Lord has done all the real work?

But then the word from D&C 4 really start to sink in "The field is white already to harvest". And then you really start to realize your own inadequacies and that the Lord is in charge of His own work and he's just letting you along for the ride because He loves you.

I began as as "convincer" (which is miserable work because you fail 99% of the time) but have been changed to a "harvester" (which is beautiful work because you realize that the Lord is really in charge of it).

Last week we had a baptism of a 9 year old boy named Christian. This last Sunday he got confirmed. He was really really excited to recieve "my Holy Ghost" (As he always calls it). It was an amazing experience to see him confirmed but there was a slight problem. He was a little confused and thought that everyone had their own "Holy Ghost" that went around with them and protected them after they recieved it (kind of like a guardian angel). Well we went over to his house and tried to explain how there is only one Holy Ghost but many people can feel his influence. He has a slight learning impairment and was really not understanding at all.

I tried working through it with him for a good twenty minutes and ended up trying to relate it to the sun (Only in one place but we can all feel it's influence all over the world). Finally I thought I had got the point across and he truly understood! "So is that all very clear, Christian?"
"I think so, so you're saying that we can't feel the Holy Ghost at night?"
I guess I wasn't born to be a teacher.

Parents, if you ever feel like sending a package, some appreciated items might be:

Granola
Any sort of organic food-bar (Preferably one low in soy content).
Pictures (especially ones showing the changes you've done to the house.)
Cait and Brig's talks.
Panda licorice

And whatever else you might find appropriate. Well I hope this email was sufficiently long (I'm tired of getting bombarded with emails telling me that my emails are too short).

I love you all! Thank you for your love and support and letters!

Love,

Elder Ben Wilson

June 16, 2008 - It's a good thing you're not a big fat guy or this would be reeeaaallly difficult.

+5 points if you know what that one is from.


+5 points if you know what that one is from.

So apparently the desert can be beautiful. This morning, I had the opportunity to go mountain biking with President Higham, my companion, and one of the zone leaders. We went through a really really beautiful desert trail. The only not beautiful thing about it was that I had to be REALLY REALLY careful not to crash because there are homicidal psycho angry plants with needles the size of number 2 pencils on every side waiting to catch you when you fall. But it was very beautiful and very fun.

All in all, Tucson is a much prettier place than El Paso. Let's not beat around the bush, El Paso might be the ugliest place on earth. It's by far the ugliest place I've ever seen. I have a DEEP love for it and the people that live there but it's just ugly.

Tucson, on the other hand is a quite beautiful type of desert. So I guess it's a trade off: Here, it's a lot easier to love the place, but I'm still working on the love of the people (The Sonoran Mexicans are pretty rude as opposed to the Chihuahans who are really really kind and loving). Also, there's a lot less Spanish here. They tell me that I'm in the most Spanish speaking area in Tucson but it's way less than I ever spoke in any of my El Paso areas. Oh, and it's an oven out here. HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT DRY DRY DRY DRY. That's the only way I can explain the weather.

My companion is Elder Lopez, he's from Fresno, California. He's going to celebrate four years in the church next month. He was introduced through a friend. (Hooray for good member-missionaries!) His family is all Mexican so he speaks Spanish very well. He's kind of a goof (Likes to joke around alot) but all in all a good missionary who works hard.

To answer one of Dad's questions: We never did any community service in El Paso and here we work at the zoo once a month. The second Tuesday of every month is when we go over there to do service, and we happen to pass by In-n-out every time! But unfortunately In-n-out is way out of our zone so we don't get to go there except for once a month (when we do service).

Our branch is pretty small. On Sunday, there were about 14 people in church when it started at 10:00 AM. However, 75% of the branch arrives between 10:30 and 10:45 so it's not that small.

We do not have a car. Full Bike. I don't know if you've ever tried biking in an oven with a white shirt and tie, but I highly recommend it.

My camera is in one piece. Unfortunately, it's in one piece in Horizon, Texas. I'm making some arrangements and it should make it's way across the mission in a couple of weeks. Whoops! Look on the bright side, considering how much stuff I usually forget, this has been a remarkably successful transfer for me. I only forgot one shirt, my baptism pants, and my camera.

One of my investigators in Horizon, Isella, cooked us some "comida bien Mejicana" (Really Mexican food) when I left. I was about three bites in before I was crying, my mouth numb, and my nose running uncontrallably. That was the spiciest food I have ever eaten in my entire life.

Oh yeah, and there's crime down here. Yesterday I saw someone pull out a gun, and another guy bust out a knife (two different incidents, and both viewed from a distance so don't worry too much). I thought about not including this (for the sake of the health of my dear mother), but that's the reality of how my area is.

Well that's about it from Tucson. I'm really really excited about working here. I feel like it's going to be a challenge for sure but I've never felt so close to the Lord and full of the spirit as I do now. Family, friends, I love you all! You're all amazing! Thanks for the letters and support.

Love,

Elder Wilson

June 12, 2008 - Greetings from Tucson!

...this one's the same except missing a little paragraph at the end.

Well yes it's true ladies and gents. The one transfer where I was SURE I wasn't going to get transfered, they ship me across the mission to Tucson. Right now I'm emailing from the UofA campus. Makes me wonder about some of the friends and associates I had that I think are going here (Arjun, Steph, Mike Cavalli, etc.)
My companion here is Elder Lopez, he's from Fresno. He comes from a Hispanic family and while technically he's learning Spanish out here, he pretty much already speaks it fluently. He's been out for about a year and a half and he's my fifth short companion in a row (Ok Elder Adams wasn't really that short at 5'11" but all the rest have been 5'9" and below)
I'm pretty much serving in the middle of the ghetto in downtown Tucson. I haven't even been to my area yet (I've been driving across the mission all day), but at least that's what I hear about it.

Our address is:
5001 S Cherry
Tucson, AZ 85706

Tucson is very, very different from El Paso from what I've seen. Just more... normal. I can't really put my finger on how exactly Tucson is different. I think it has something to do with materialism. In El Paso, there aren't very many people with money and those that do usually lived pretty far away from where I was serving. People just lived without a lot of stuff that we in California call "Necessary". As a result I saw very few clothing stores and such. Here it's more of what I'm used to, a mall here, a Target there, etc. etc.

But the best part of Tucson is definitely.... IN N OUT! I haven't had the chance to go yet but I saw it today and I hear that we have the chance to go there every now and then, so I'm pumped for that.

In Horizon I left behind a couple of baptismal dates and a few very good friends. Leaving an area is never easy. There was one woman, Isela, who is investigating and will probably be baptised in a couple of weeks, who was particularly hard to leave behind. She had felt a need to find the truth and come closer to God about a year ago and stumbled into the Jehova's Witness. They taught her for nearly a year but she says that she didn't feel the spirit when they taught and that when she read the Book of Mormon and spoke with us she felt the spirit strongly and it felt right. It's been amazing to see her progress and the way her life has changed. There's a light in her eyes now that wasn't there before.

Love you all,

Elder Wilson

June 3, 2008 - Just ask Wally, he's a real straight arrow, never told a lie in his life.

Hello one and all! It's been a good week here in dusty Horizon. Transfers are next Thursday, just so you know.

I got both of the packages. Thank you very very much. The Mephisto socks actually aren't a problem during the summer, they breath really well. And even though Mom's granola is always good... this batch was unusually tasty! Thank you so much!

Well it's been another week. We've been focusing on finding new people and trying to filter out early those people who aren't going to progress.

We have an awesome family, Isela and her three children, that we were really hoping would come to church this week, because they're GOLDEN! We were waiting for them in the main foyer and were dissapointed when the meeting started and they weren't there. Minute after minute ticked by and finally around 9:15 we decided that they weren't going to come and started to complain and get discouraged. Then we get a text message "Donde estan?" (where are you?) This kind of confused us... we were at church of course! Where we're supposed to be! then a minute later we get a text "aqui estoy adentro" (I'm here, inside). We look in, and she was already there! She had come through the back door and seated herself and was enjoying sacrament meeting thoroughly! It was awesome!

Well family, I'm sorry that I don't have more to add but it has been a pretty average week! I love you all and am greatful for your love and support!

Love,

Elder Wilson

May 28, 2008 - Now drop and give me 20! Ok... one, we're going for one.

Hello everyone!

Things are going well out here in dusty Horizon. Last night we started a basketball game and invited five investigators and 4 members... and they all came! It's amazing the way you can beat your head against a wall for months on end doing everything possible, pouring your heart and soul out, to try to get your investigators to church and end up with 2-3 on any given Sunday, but you start one basketball game and invite five people once... and they all show up! Unbelievable! We're going to start trying to make activities at the church a larger part of our work here.

We had a little bit of an adventure on Saturday. We went over to an investigator's house at 8:30 at night to invite her to church, but instead of investigators we found smoke! There was a pretty good amount of smoke coming out the front door. By looking through the windows we surmised that it wasn't a HUGE deal, probably just something left in the oven for a few hours too long. We saw their neighbors sitting outside and decided to go ask them if they had a key or something so that we could go inside and try to check it out. Well her neighbor freaked out when she saw the smoke and called 911 and said "My neighbor's house is on fire! please send someone, hurry!" Well the firemen came in a big truck, popped off the door and found... a roast that had been cooking for about 3 hours too long. We were right. The firemen weren't TOO happy to be called out for a burned roast. But anyways we took some pictures next to the fire engines and stuff. All in all it was pretty exciting.

Also, on Tuesday we had a zone meeting up in the mountains! We went to a little church retreat area in a town called Cloudcroft (or something like that). It was BEAUTIFUL! There were TREES! Seriously! This is President Higham's last round of zone meetings so he went out with a bang. We had an opportunity to go off by ourselves and pray in the woods and during that time I recieved enough spiritual energy to last me a year! It was AWESOME! I wish I could put into words the wonderful spirit that was at that meeting.

Besides that, we comitted 14 people to come to church this Sunday and had...1 Things are definitely looking up, though. We currently have six baptismal dates. The work is progressing but man is it hard to help people keep their comittments down here.

It's good to hear that Dad is doing so well! You're the man! Thanks for the email. That picture of the hardware is pretty cool... I had no idea it was so big! Could you get through metal detectors with that? I'm praying for you, and hope that you keep improving.

Bishop Jackson: Thanks for satisfying that particular curiosity. I figured you must have grown up on the West Side. I don't know if it was the same way back then, but it's VERY different from the rest of El Paso, and is more like Las Cruces than El Paso.

Well that's about all I have to say! I love you all and am so greatful to have such wonderful and spiritual friends and family. Thank you for your examples and your support.

Love,

Elder Ben

May 19, 2008

Hello one and all! We had a successful week out here in Horizon and we're even more excited for this week!

First off, a couple of questions:
1) What part of El Paso did Dwight Jackson grow up in?
2) (for Brig) What ward does Dave Hyer live in?

We found a lot of new, awesome investigators this week. The next step is just trying to get the members involved in the work and I think as soon as we do that, things are really going to blow up around here.

One of our investigators got snatched by the migra in the middle of the night. So there goes one baptismal date. I guess it comes with the territory.

I also had the wonderful opportunity of eating some Menudo a couple of nights ago. It's a soup made with cow stomach and I had one HUGE, NASTY piece of stomach that had a piece of cow hair sticking out of it. ....everyone talks about "cultural experiences" as being a benefit of the mission so I guess I should treasure moments like that.

On Saturday we went to the one grocery store in Horizon and got permission to set up a Book of Mormon stand outside of the store. We're probably going to do it this Saturday. I'm pumped! Pray for us!

Happy Birthday to Poppa! 91 and still going strong! I find it difficult to express the emotions that I feel when I remember those special Saturday mornings of recieving his wise and common-sense counsel in one of a few Danville coffee shops. I have always looked up to Poppa as an incredibly decent sort of man. Someone who respects and commands respect. Someone who loves and is in turn loved by his family and associates. A man of a happy and even disposition, and someone holding an uncommon amount of common sense. Happy Birthday Poppa!

Good luck Dad! That's great that your surgery got moved up... I'll be praying for you! I love you, you're the greatest Dad ever! Your faith and strength has and always will be an inspiration to me.

I'm healthy and happy, and loving Horizon. Stay in touch!

Love,

Elder Wilson

May 12, 2008

Hello everyone!

Well I'm not sure that I have anything to add to what I said last night... except that it's looking very likely that I might have a chance to go to the temple in Juarez at some point in the next couple of weeks!

As I already told you all, yesterday was a little bit of a let down. We were expecting 12 in church and we ended up with 2. Everyone was with their moms in Juarez. The church was almost empty in both the branch and the ward (There were so few people in the English branch that they didn't even hold priesthood.)
But this next week is going to be great! We're teaching some amazing people!

If anyone wants to send me some more information on the archangel Raphael, that would be cool.

Say happy birthday to Nikolai from Uncle Ben. 3 years old, WOW! It seems like it was just yesterday that he was a little loaf of balogna coming home from the hospital.

Well... that's about all I have to say. It was awesome to talk to you all yesterday! I love you all and am so greatful for your love and support!

Love,

Elder Wilson

May 6, 2008 - You see it's funny. . but it also makes you think.

HELLO! It's been a fun first few days here in Horizon! But first to answer some questions:

1) Yes we had a white truck in Chaparral and we have a white truck here in Horizon as well (Completely necessary in both towns because there are tons of dirt roads)
2) Our trailer did have bars on the windows but my current appartment does not.
3) There are actually a few nice neighborhoods in Horizon and it turns out we live next to a golf course so yes, there is some grass. (But don't be fooled, it's still DEFINITELY the desert)
4) Whereas the end of the world was visible from Chaparral, I wouldn't quite say the same thing about Horizon.
5) Yes, I got Chris's call-in number. We should be calling in shortly after 4(probably 4:15-4:25) and I do believe that we're on Mountain Standard Time. I'll let you all work out the time difference equations.

Oh yeah, by the way, I'm writing you all today because all libraries and college campuses were closed yesterday for cinco de Mayo (Although surprisingly it really isn't a very big Holiday down here.)

It seems that I always get asked about some of the details of missionary work so I'll try to offer some of those regarding Horizon:

We live in a two story appartment that is really pretty nice.
We cover a Spanish ward and an English branch. We have a washer and dryer in our appartment but they don't work so we do laundry at a member's home. My companion is from Eagle, Idaho and he's awesome. A really hard worker and spiritually powerful as well. He also has an ipod full of talks and in the past few days I've discovered Neal A. Maxwell. His talks are AMAZING. I'm convinced that he is one of the wisest men ever to live on this earth.

The Horizon area is very very large and contains lots of little communities all over far eastern El Paso. Yes all Mexican food is really spicy, and yes, it often results in digestive problems.

Oh, by the way, my address is: 13665 Horizon Blvd. #65 Horizon city, TX 79928

Well on my first night here we found an AMAZING family of 5 that came to the english branch (although they're completely fluent in both). And since then we've found a few more awesome families. I think that the work slowed down a little bit here last transfer but this is a BAPTIZING area so I'm really excited to be here and I'm already seeing quite a bit more success than I saw in my first two areas. Right now we're really focusing on doing some work in the struggling english branch and using the members to help us with finding and fellowshipping.

Well I know my thoughts have been a little bit scrambled and disorganized but the work is going very well here in Horizon and, as always, I'm excited to be serving in the great Arizona Tucson Mission! I love you all and I appreciate your loving support.

Love,

Elder Tree

May 1, 2008 - Greetings from Horizon

Hello one and all! As you probably noticed from the Subject line, I've been transfered to the beautiful community of Horizon. I haven't even been there yet so I can't tell you what it's like but from what I hear it's a small, dusty, community outside of El Paso (Kind of like Chaparral).

It's a little bit sad to be leaving Chaparral and some of the amazing people that I met there. Yesterday I went and visited all of the recent converts and many of the investigators that I had met while there. It's hard to explain the emotions that are going through me right now. I'm really excited to be going to Horizon, it's supposed to be a great area and my new companion, Elder Vanderhorst, is supposed to be a stud. But it also hurts to be leaving some of those amazing people that I met in Chaparral. It's funny how a mission changes a person; I didn't think I'd ever be able to miss a place like Chaparral. Also, Elder Adams was a great companion so I'll definitely be missing him.
But I won't miss the rabid dogs, the dust storms, doing parking lot contacts in the one supermarket in town, or the great abundance of trailers.

I don't have our address yet so I'll have to send that on Monday.

Well this last week we found an AMAZING new investigator named Sandra. We found her because we were over at a part-member's house and their friend, Sandra dropped in for a short visit. I was playing with my ring that my trainer gave to me that has the Navuoo sunstone on it and she, Sandra, asked me what it all meant. Well then we started talking about the plan of salvation with her and she had a lot of quesions, apparently she's been searching for some time and right there during that first lesson she said that she could feel the spirit testifying that what we were sharing was true. It was AWESOME.

Well anyways besides that I'm healthy, happy, and excited to be here in the Great Arizona Tucson Mission!!!! I love you all and I'm greatful for all of the support that you give me!

Love,

Elder Ben Wilson

April 21, 2008 - Isaiah 55:12

"For ye shall go out with joy... and all the trees shall clap their hands."

Hello everyone! It has been a great week out here in dusty Chaparral. Just so you all know, this is superweek. We don't have a preparation day this next Monday because transfers are a week from Thursday. (So don't panic when you don't get an email this Monday).

Well Chaparral is about the same as it usually is. The weather has improved a bunch. It's as little bit warmer now but the dust storms have passed.

One of the parents asked what my experience has been with president Higham.... I'm convinced he's the best mission president in the world. He's an amazing teacher, counselor, and leader. I look forward to every chance I have to be with him because I always come away feeling like I've become a little bit better for being with him and hearing his counsel. I have so many important lessons to learn from him, I just hope I can cram it all in before he leaves and someone else comes in!

Also to answer another question: Our focus recently has been calling people unto repentance. It's a great theme although one that's a little bit difficult to wrap your arms around since it encompasses all of missionary work. Any inspired thoughts in that area would be greatly appreciated.

Well I don't know what else to say about this week... I got bit by two dogs. They're crazy around here! Both of them were angry little Chihuahuas that got me on the ankle. I suppose I'm starting to get bit more because I've been in a place where crazy mangy dogs run wild for four months and I've started to lose that healthy fear of wild dogs that people are supposed to have.

Well anyways I'm healthy and happy! The gospel is true! I'm so greatful for the opportunity that I have to serve the Lord with all of my heart might mind and strength for two years! I love you all! Thank you so much for your continued love and support!

Love,

Elder Wilson

April 14, 2008 - Dan 4:10

"Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed; and behold a TREE in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great.

Hello one and all!

It's been an another eventful week here in Chaparral. Just so you know, yes, my charger is working but I don't have a USB cord to hook up my camera to the computer so it looks like I'll be sending regular photos printed out from WalMart.

Well this last week we had a dust storm that lasted a couple of days(Wednesday and Thursday). I think I just finished cleaning out the last of the dirt from my ears and eyes. Chaparral is really windy and really dusty and so every now and then those two elements combine to make it really miserable. A few times it got really bad where visibility was only about 10 feet but most of the time it was annoying but endurable.

Well this last week was Annette Thompson's baptism and I baptized her. We found her (knocking doors), taught her the first three lessons and brought her to church but eventually we had to hand her off to the English Elders because she doesn't speak all that much Spanish. Anyways, her baptism was really powerful. Elder Espericueta, an awesome elder from Mexico, shared the story of his (apostate) baptism.

The first time he met with missionaries it was in the church next to a baptismal font. They taught him about baptism and tried to comitt him and he said no. Then another companionship came in and did the same thing with the same result. Eventually one of the Elders talked about remission of sins and he decided that sounded awesome. To him, he thought that only Saints and priests went to heaven so the idea of recieving a remission of sins was awesome. So he accepted and was baptized, without any idea that he was being baptized as a memeber of the church! It was pretty funny/inspirational.

By the way, it's good to hear that Dad's health is slowly but steadily improving! And I don't know how I feel about Mom taking the sailboat wallpaper down from my room... that was CLASSIC! Oh well....

and Aunt Diana, I appreciate the email and the response on the cf. question.

By the way, how's the missionary work going in the Alamo wards? And family, what are you doing to help? There are no excuses for not being good member-missionaries. Like Elder Bednar said: You all are the full-time finders.

Well that's your weekly report from Chaptown. I'm healthy and happy and really appreciate all of your love and support!

Viva Chapparral!

Love,

Elder Ben

April 7, 2008 -You know einstein's theory that space is curved?

WEll these are smart weapons.

Hello everyone! I had an amazingly uplifting conference weekend, topped off with a baptism Sunday evening! Generally a week of pure awesomeness.

First off with conference. There were some major struggles. The Anthony branch is a little separated from the rest of the world and so it's a little difficult to get technical help. So we went to our little chapel for Saturday morning session but it didn't work and we had to head over to the stake center half way through. When we got there we discovered, much to our dismay, that it was only in English! (Last conference it was in both at the stake center) and so our investigators couldn't understand! They won't home after the morning session and missed the afternoon session.
So saturday kind of turned into a disaster. But Sunday started out even worse.

We went over early to the Anthony chapel to make sure that everything was working and it was perfect so we called up our investigators and told them that it was okay to come. But then, just as conference was about to start, the satelite started cutting out for about two seconds, once every ten seconds, making it impossible to concentrate or understand. My companion and I did everything possible, called everyone we could think of, but no one could understand why the system was working that way. Finally, with five minutes left in the session, everything started working again (just in time to hear nothing).
We were pretty crushed. We had been praying our hearts out and couldn't understand why things worked out that way. As our investigators left they told us thatt they'd see us later and probably wouldn't be coming back for the afternoon session. At this point I started pleading with them. I told them that I really wanted them to be at a session that they could understand and I really wanted them to come back for the afternoon.
Well they did come back for the afternoon session. And the system finally started working out fine. I think that the reason that the Lord caused all the chaose to happen is so that they would come for that last session.
When I've been saying "Our investigators", I'm refering to the Varela family. They've all been an encountering quite a bit of opposition from family and friends. Elder Zwick's talk reduced them all tears and was a huge conversion experience for them. It really boosted them up and they said after that talk like they had the strength to go on and do what was right.
It was awesome.
Also we had the baptism in the evening of a young woman, Damara. She's only 12 years old and she's the first one in her family to be getting baptized! She's so mature and awesome. Her Mom is following in her footsteps and getting baptized in two weeks so we're excited for that.
By the way, I had no idea that Mariah Wilson was in the BYU choir. I'm 99% sure I saw her there right? I may or may not have shouted in a very loud whisper "THAT'S MY COUSIN!" in the middle of conference.
Well anyways that's about all of the time I have for this week, but I love you all so very much and i'm so greatful to have such a wonderful family and friends. Keep it real, everyone. And keep writing!

Love,

Elder Ben

PS
Mom- what does cf mean in the topical guide and bible dictionary. I see it next to a few references in there. (For example see Bible dictionary entry: Sabbath day) THANKS!

April 1, 2008 - Greetings from dusty Chaparral

HEELLOO everyone! I am indeed alive and kicking here in Chaparral. I've had some tough luck getting to the internet for the past week or so but now I'm back. First off to answer some questions:

1) Yes the bike seat is fixed.
2) We eat with members about 4-5 times a week and the food really varies. Somtimes we get awesome Mexican enchiladas, sometimes we get expired Hot Dogs.
3) On preperation days we have to drive half an hour into NorthEast El Paso in order to do email and go shopping for the week. When we have extra time we usually just clean although this past week we built a 1-hole mini golf course in our dirt driveway. (and made a makeshift club out of PVC pipe, a Nestle quick mix container, and duct tape.
4) We cover one Spanish Branch. It's reasonably sized, (working towards the goal of becoming a ward) and we meet 20 minutes away from Chaparral in a town called Anthony. It is a spanish speaking branch and only about 1/4-1/3 of them come from Chaparral.

Also, I got two packages from the parents and one from the Hares on my birthday. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Hares, the ties are awesome! I'm actually wearing one of them right now. and Mom, that really is an unusually tasty batch of Granola that you cooked up. Thank you thank you thank you all so much. I had an awesome birthday.

Some of my investigators, the Varela family, threw me a birthday party on the big day and that was pretty awesome. We had enchiladas and then a chocolate cake for desert. Damara Varela, the daughter of the family, is getting baptized this Sunday after conference and her Mom, Sofia, is getting baptized a couple of weeks after that.

Sofia's sister, Veronica, is AMAZING! She's the first one of the family that we originally contacted and she has a really really strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. A lot of time she rushes us whenever we're trying to make friendly small talk and says "You need to go visit everyone! Time is precious, let's get to the lesson!" Veronica is awesome! She would be baptized already but she and the man she's been living with for the past 15 years aren't married. She's asked him and she's working on it but for whatever reason he doesn't want to get married. bum. But she's already paying tithing etc. etc. she's awesome.

Today we had a half-mission conference with an area authority 70, Elder Olsen. He was pretty awesome and he talked about the atonement and his wife gave a very nice talk on kindness.

Well it looks like I'm about of time but I love you all very very much and I'm doing well here in Chaparral. Thank you to everyone who wrote me, I really appreciate it.

Viva Chaparral!

Love,

Elder Wilson

March 20, 2008

Hello everyone! Things are (of course) going great out here in ......... CHAPARRAL still! Elder Adams and I are still together out here in the middle of nowhere. Still working hard to bring people to the gospel. And things just keep getting better! We've found some more great families and set a few more baptismal dates!

Oh yeah and by the way, I did get the charger... but it comes without a cord to plug it in!!! So I have the charger but it isn't functional at all... I'll head down to a RadioShack on Monday to see if I can find one. Oh, and yes, I got the Easter package... thank you! It was amazing! As for what I want for my birthday... Granola sounds amazing!

First I'll mention just a little bit of a downer (Just to get it out of the way). The Juarez family (a younger couple we've been teaching) got anti-d and they'll still let us in but they don't really listen to anything we have to say. Yikes!

Elder Adams' birthday was this past week and we got an awesome surprise. A few of our investigators threw him a surprise party! It was amazing! Alma Morales, Veronica Esquivel, and Sofia Varela along with their families got together and threw him a little party with dinner (Mole', a Mexican dish of chicken with a chocolate/chile sauce...hard to describe) and a chocolate cake afterwards. It was really unexpected and really awesome!

Besides that, there's not much new is going on. I'm sure some new things have happened but you tend to forget as the week goes on. Anyways I'm doing well and I love you all! Keep in contact!

Love,

Elder Wilson