There was NO subject line! What's happening!

Hello everybody! It's been a great week out here in the desert. Things are starting to heat up already. Mid to high 80's all week long. That might sound like good news to you, but honestly, it's kind of foreboding when you're wearing a shirt and tie all week long.

Frank and Grace were baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. The baptism was great and we had a lot of support from the ward. Brother Meek (A convert from a couple of months ago) gave a talk at the baptism. He was a little nervous, I think, but he did a GREAT job. It's so fun to see him get up there, he was a baptist for a looong time and was very active, so his talk was kind of like a good 'ol Baptist sermon (I think, I've never really seen one) but with Mormon doctrine. He and his wife have been really active in fellowshipping and helping Frank and Grace.

By the way, I'm getting a little bigger. I lost my baptism pants a while back, so I asked an elder in our zone if I could try using his. They were 32s, which I knew would be a little snug for me but I thought I'd still be able to fit... wrong. I had to end up using a pair of pants that were miraculously just sitting there in the changing room and pretty much fitted me perfectly (seriously!)

We have two baptisms this coming Saturday. Two young men from a part-member family that we've been reactivating.

I got Chris and Kate's package today. Thank you so much! Those ties are AWESOME!
Thanks to Dad for keeping me updated on MV Basketball and being the most faithful writer on the planet.
And thanks to anyone and everyone else who wrote me. Brig, Mary, it was good to get emails from both of you. Grammie and Poppa, thanks for taking the time to think of me. Ryan Curtis... good to hear from you.

The work is amazing out here! Thanks for all the support!

Till next week,

Elder Ben Wilson

Your beard is so...twisted

Hello everybody! It's hard to believe that it's been another week out here in sunny El Paso. Things are going well over here and we're excited for the things that are happening.

We have found A LOT of really good investigators. With one investigator, we left 3 Nephi 11 to read and when we got back, she asked "What do I need to do in order to be ready to get baptized?" We have another appointment with her tonight. We actually had that happen with another investigator as well. Very, very prepared people.

We have two baptisms scheduled for this Saturday. We were supposed to have two more but they went on Spring Break to San Antonio and we have to wait a couple of weeks (kind of a bummer).

We have another investigator named Carol, her Dad kicked us out of her house but says that we can still teach her as long as it isn't in his home. So we try to teach her as much as possible at tables at fast food restaurants and Starbucks' and the likes.

Besides that, not too much is happening. I wish I had more stories to tell but I'm drawing a blank right now. To answer some questions:

I'm not taking as many pictures as I should, so I'll change my ways and transfer day is on April 1st. (wait, President, is this a joke?)

I love you all very much. Congrats to the MV BBall team for getting to Norcal finals.

Much love,

Elder Wilson

Fool of Took

I'm sorry to say that this is going to be one of those disappointing, short emails. I've only got 10 minutes so I didn't read all of the emails that you sent me (sorry!) so sorry if I don't answer all of your questions.

It's been raining yesterday and today. The weather is very VERY nice right now.

Some of the English elders in our zone found a golden investigator from the young ambassadors performance. Some friends invited her and she loved it and she's currently progressing quite well, so way to go YAs!

We have five investigators progressing right now. Enrique is going to get a baptismal interview some time this week which is a complete MIRACLE! He's come a Looooong way.

My companion beat me in a heart breaker this morning:
6-3, 4-6, 7-5
Ouch.

Last week's quote comes from Galaxy Quest.

Our Zone Leader Council Meetings are held in Lordsburg, New Mexico. It's the half-way point of the mission.

For my birthday I wouldn't mind a couple of CDs. That three hour ride to Lordsburg is a great opportunity to listen to some talks. I love talks. And also that new Motab cd "Praise to the man" Looks pretty awesome so you could include that. And socks.

In priesthood, Bishop asked if anyone had any announcements and one of our investigators, Frank, stood up and said "My Baptism is on March 21st and you're all invited." So that was pretty AWESOME!

Well it's about that time. We're having a little zone get together to play some ball in two minutes so I'm gotta leave right now. Much love!

Love,

Elder Tree Wilson

PS from Elder Ben's Mom: His birthday is March 28th. He will be 21!

By Grapthar's hammer, by the sons of Warband, you shall be avenged!

Hello everybody! It's been quite a week here in El Paso. The work continues to roll forward in this little part of the vineyard.

This week was stake conference and we had a video broadcast from Salt Lake. Is the church starting to do that for all stake conferences? It's been that way for the last two that I've attended. Anyways, President Uchtdorf spoke as well as Elder Cook, Brother Oswald from the Sunday school presidency, and Bishop Edgley from the Presiding Bishopric. It was very cool and spiritually uplifting although a few of our investigators thought it was weird to watch church on TV.

Other big news, the BYU young ambassadors came through town this past week. We were allowed to attend their performance on the condition of having some investigators present (Which we did), and it was INCREDIBLE! I'm still rather baffled at how someone can sing so perfectly while running around and dancing. Our investigators loved it, too.

Tuesday night, we got a call from the institute director here in El Paso telling us that they were going to have a luncheon at the institute for all of the young ambassadors and that we were invited as well. Well we had a district meeting that was going to end at that exact same time so we just moved the district meeting up to the institute building and stayed for a little lunch.

Well when the young ambassadors showed up they started introducing themselves and getting to know us a little and I was talking to one of them who asked where I was from. "San Francisco" I responded, he said "Oh that's cool, we got a guy here who's from a little town called Danville." I look over and it was none other than Josh Bromley! The Auman girls were there too and I think Jordan Bromley might have been there, (He was on the program) but I didn't see him. It was nice to see a familiar face and catch up a little bit on what's going on back home. Josh is a really good guy and I felt guilt pangs while talking to him for having made fun of Show Biz growing up. (But those bright shirts with the star are just so easy!)

Anyways, afterwards they sang to us and a few other people who happened to be at the institute and it was INCREDIBLE! There's no way I can describe the feelings that were invoked by those heavenly voices. They sang some well known semi-hymns (Such as "Come Thou Fount") and then finished off with I am a Child of God.

I had an experience this week where my sports knowledge payed off. We taught a 15 year old young man named Bryan a week ago and when we went to the return appointment we got yelled at by his Dad for knocking on the door too hard. So we were on less than perfect terms with the father when we went back to try to teach Bryan again. The father answered the door and looked like he was about to unload on us but before he could get anything out I commented about his Notre Dame hat. We talked about the Fighting Irish and Charlie Weisz and their current woes for about ten minutes and he really opened up and when we left we were on good terms and he wanted us to come back to teach his son more (About the gospel, that is). What can I say? You knew watching an hour of sportscenter a day had to pay off at some point down the road.

One more experience and then I'm done. Elder Bennion and I were asked to give a training at ZLCM (Zone Leader Council Meeting), which was kinda scary. We give a lot of trainings but it's a little different when you're in front of 16 of the mission's best missionaries, along with the assistants and Mission presidency. We were asked to train on "Getting back to the basics". Well we studied and studied for hours in preparation but nothing really seemed to work out quite right. Finally, the day before I felt inspired to look through my binder of old letters. I found a handout that Dad had sent me a while ago called "Essential Principles for Missionary Work" (or something like that) by Elder M. Russell Ballard. Well it was perfect. It was EXACTLY what we needed and were looking for. My companion presented it "We received this handout from Larry Y. Wilson of the 70" which was pretty funny. (Although technically incorrect) Anyways, the handout is sweeping the mission and the training was met by rave reviews and has become the focus of the mission for this transfer cycle. It just goes to show that seemingly small acts (Like including a handout in a letter to your missionary son) can make rather large differences in the world.

Well anyways, I've written quite a lot and that's about all I have to say for this week. The gospel is true and this is the greatest work to be a part of. Keep writing, I appreciate the letters.

Sincerely,
Elder Ben Wilson