Week 28

This week was super boring. Sorry family. Just happens sometimes. We had some really good lessons with our new investigator Jose though. He is so ready for baptism and already accepted the invitation to be baptized and was such a sad lonely guy when we first found him. This week we asked him to pray for the strength to share the gospel with his kids and grand kids. He said he really wants to, but he doesnt think they would accept it. But either way he is reading the book of mormon and absolutely loves it. He was telling me about nephi and laman and lemuel and how Lamana and lemuel keep screwing up but nephi is just so good and strong all the time. He really was getting so much from that book. 

The book of mormon is such a powerful book. I can see the way it is changing Joses life every time we see him he is happier and smiling more. I know that book is from God. 

This week I wrote out a list of all the things I was working on. As a missionary you have investigators and a whole bunch of personal side projects. For example my list included the following- finish the book of mormon in spanish, also the new testament in spanish, try to write in my  journal every night without fail, try to study the atonement everyday, etc. Little goals and stuff to help me be a better missionary. I wrote all my little side projects down and the list was huge. I decided to label why I was doing all of them, for what purpose. Almost every single one was to have the spirit more, and teach more with Him. I have always thought that is something I sometimes lack in lessons. So... help little brother out. 

How can I have the spirit more in my lessons, and thus become a more pursuasive and more powerful teacher and missionary? 

I hope you all enjoy conference this weekend as much as I am going to. To celebrate this wonderful season of conference, I cut my hair, bought a whole lot of tacos, candy and soda and now I am writing the best family in the world. 

What are you guys´ plans for conference? 

Hope you all have a great week. 

Love Elder Jacob Wilson

Week 27

FAMILY!!!

this week has been a good one. We had an investigator in church ( the mason ) and he loved it. and is coming back next week. Also we found some great new investigators and made a lot of good progress with the ones we have. Elder Read and I are having a blast and everything in Puebla is fantastic. Today it was pretty hot, I am scared for the summer. It is going to be a looooong hot summer and I do not like being hot but I guess that is just going to be the way it is. Our apartment has 3 fans in it and one is usually on all night long. Also, today it felt really humid, also not something I am going to like. 

I have been reading lately in our heritage and about Joseph Smith. That man was somthing incredible. He really did give everything to the church, to the Lord and to building the Kingdom of God. I love reading about him. I am really excited for the upcoming conference. We are going all out, treats, food, soda, It is going to be a missionary christmas, and I cant wait to hear from the servants of the Lord. I hope you all remember that when we bring questions to conference, the lord brings answers. I tried that in the last conference, and it was answered by the second speaker. So bring questions and doubts and concerns and really have an open heart and listen. 

Right now our two favorite investigators are Alejandras mom, Raul the shoe salesman with nine fingers, and Jesus the Free mason. It is so much fun to see them progress and have experiences and to be actively taking a part in their path to salvation. I feel like these people are so close to the truth and I want so badly for them to just realize how important all this is. but the lord has taught me to be patient and I have seen how he slowly brings people to the gospel. In the war of souls, the Lord is definitely bringing people in, but he does it in a very personal way, one lost sheep at a time. I love that about the gospel, that we all come to the truth at our own time and at our own pace and it is a very personal journey. And he sends us missionaries to help speed things along. I have met people here that I have really connected with and will be a part of my life forever, and I am thankful to the Lord for giving me the opportunity. 

Best experience of the week, twice we had our investigators comment on how we bring this spirit and presence into their house. The spirit is what is converting these people. So I challenge you all to try to bring the spirit into the home of someone you know, or better, invite them into your own home so they can feel the spirit in yours. I know the spirit is real, he testifies of the truth and helps us all to understand. 

Have a wonderful week and show everyone how much you love them,

Elder Jacob Wilson

Week 26

Hey everybody. 

This week has been super long and not a ton of news. We have been struggling to find our investigators but we got to confirm Alejandra in church on sunday which was really cool. Mostly its my turn to ask questions. haha

What is going on back home lately? anything cool or new?

Why have I not heard much about the two new babies we are going to have in our family this summer?

Can someone please send me some more music, remember anything with motab or a hymn instrumental. I would greatly appreciate that. 

Today, I went and bought a Sams club membership, it only cost me about 100 pesos because I opened it with my companion. So now the options for food are endless. We bought a huge bag of pancakes, 12 big muffins, bread and nutella. It is going to be a good week. 

And also we went and ate carne asada with the bishopric for our pday. It has been a pretty awesome day. I hope you all liked the picture in the rain. The rain here is beautiful and I love when it rains at night. The house is so much cooler now because the its starting to heat up here in puebla. So the rainy days are a nice break from the sun.

My companion and I have been doing really good, no news on any investigators just yet, but everyone is progressing slowly to the waters of baptism. I hope you all can feel my love all the way from Puebla Mexico. Keep sharing the góspel.

My favorite thing I learned this week, is that I am not trying to convert myself into a missionary so I can serve for two years more and retire. There is a much higher calling than Elder, and that is something we can all attain. I am working towards becoming a disciple of Christ. A missionary is a short term  calling. But Disciple of Christ is for the eternities. Remember who you promised to represent when you were baptized. Mosiah 18 8-9

Witnesses at all times

in all things and in all places. That means always!!

Love you all, have a great week.

Elder Jacob Wilson

Week 25

We finally got our first Baptism! She is one of the most prepared investigators I have ever met. She was reading and praying before we even met her. Her father is a great example for her and teaches her well, he is less active and working on getting married so his wife can get baptized too. Then next year they hope to get sealed in the temple. So this is only one of the family and others should be getting baptized soon. 

This week went by really really fast. We had three days in a row where we taught Alejandra so she would be ready for her baptismal Interview. The interview was saturday and the baptism was on sunday. It was an awesome little service. 

I have been healthy happy and doing great. 

We bought a kilo of tacos al pastor a Puebla specialty to celebrate the baptism (we bought it on saturday) and I got a package this week too! I don't know which though, I haven't gone to pick it up from the zone leaders yet. 

We have been having a blast. This week has been the week of the masons. The free masons. If you dont know what that is, go watch national treasure.

We have two in our ward, one is the ward mission leader and the other is a good friend of ours. The ward mission leader here grew up in Texas and speaks english his name is sergio church. His dad was from Philadelphia and his mom is poblana. He is a mason and loves dropping secrets to us about masonry. The crazy thing is he was recently rebaptized after being away from the church for a long time. So he has never been inside an LDS temple (yet) but he always talks about all the symbols in masonry and they are so similar. He says the only difference between masons and mormons is the priesthood, which is why he is a member of the church. He understands the masons are lacking in that area. 

Also there is this former missionary named Zeus that is a mason. He took us to meet one of his friends who is now one of our investigators named Jesus and also a mason. There are a lot of masons here

The ward mission leader came with us to the lesson with Jesus and as you can imagine it was a match made in heaven (or inside a mason temple) they got along like best friends. 

He asked us to give him five days to read the book of mormon, pray about it and write down his questions. He said he reads fast and will have the whole book done by next monday. So I am Super Excited to go back and teach him again. He was such a sincere old man, just looking from some further knowledge to help him get closer to God. One thing that really caught his attention was that our church leaders are married. He doesn't like that the fact that catholic priests, the pope etc. all spend there lives alone. He thinks it would be much better to be married and they should be equals. He honestly is such a perfect fit for the church. I cant wait to teach him again. 

Week 24

Well, we had an incredible baptismal service this week. It was 12 people commiting to follow christ and be clean from the sins of the world all in one night. The Sister missionaries in our ward are absolutely killing it right now. they had a family of six all baptized and confirmed the following sunday (yesterday) I was terrified to do the confirmation in church, but my companion did one too, and his spanish is way worse than mine so that helped me calm down. But the best experience was this old man we baptized from another ward, deaf, hobbles around with a cane and could not by any means get baptized the normal way. soo we got creative. 

we walked him into the font with his cane and with a chair. He sat down in the chair for the prayer and then it was the fun part. He was so old he couldn't really do anything but sit there and hold his breath. We took the chair out from under him, dunked him, he threw his hand in the air... didn't count. Then we changed positions. We had four elders in the font with this old guy, I got leg duty, push his legs down under the water, easy enough. My companion was holding him under his shoulders and on his knee. Anyways the other three are holding him in their arms, hes just laying back like he is in a lazy boy recliner. Then they count down from 3, 2, 1, and I look in this old mans face and he was so peaceful I gave him a thumbs up and asked him, Everything Ok? he just smiled and laughed a little and closed his eyes. Soooo peaceful and calm. and the four of us all pushed him under the water at the same time and baptized him. The bishop gave us the thumbs up, BAPTIZED  as He came out of the water still peaceful and happy he thanked us all and we helped him to his feet and gave him his cane and he hobbled out of the baptismal font. It was the coolest baptism I have ever seen in my life. 

The rest of this week was pretty boring. We are worried about our investigator that is supposed to be baptized this saturday, her mom is still not married, so she probably wont get baptized with her. But her dad ( a member) still wants to baptize her, and she is ready. The only problem is that we don't know if mom is going to join her daughter in the font on saturday. 

I have been really doing awesome lately, my comp is my best friend, again, and the lord is blessing me a ton. 

I know this is the work of the Lord. It is so good to be here and just give Him all I got. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone that wants to have an incredible spiritual experience and forget the world for a couple years. it is a blast. 

Week 23

Well everybody, I had a great week, and I got really sick yesterday, so it was good and bad. But mostly good.

The best part was a great lesson we had with our golden investigators family, and our new family of almost golden investigators. These two lessons we brought with us the angel Hermana Ernastina, she was so perfect for these families. She testified with so much power and showed so much love for these strangers who she had never met. She taught flawlessly, on a whim, just as an answer to a question of our investigator, she then proceeded to back up what she was saying scripturally, with her own testimony and with so much spiritual power. She has a daughter on the mission right now in honduras, and she was telling this investigator that she has never been happier, her daughter is serving the lord and she knows it is the truth, then she asked me for my family picture that I always have in my bible. She showed the picture of me and my family to this investigator and asked them. Do you think this young man could ever leave such a beautiful family for two years, not seeing them or calling them if he didnt know that this was the true church of Jesus Christ?

 It was so powerful and convincing. The truth is, I did leave a lot, you guys are incredible. The best family anyone could ask for Not to mention the comforts of home, my friends, music, movies and all the other things missoinaries give up., but that is the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We never give up more than we recieve, so I knew if I left the best family in the world, somehow the Lord would match that blessing and give me more than I had before.

Also this week, it has started to get hot. I am sweating in this little internet cafe and I dont know how I will survive the summer. Nobody here has air conditioning. It is going to be rough.

Other good things from this week, I had interviews this week with President Stellmon and Sister Stellmon

I love president stellmon so much, he told me, well, you have had it good your whole life,

yes president thats right

so I want you to be like the rich man and go the savior and ask him, what do I still lack

and when he tells you give something up, it is going to be something hard, something you really love, something you would never think he would want you to give up, but if you do it, you will be a better person.

So heres to giving up what the lord asks you to and never looking back. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven everybody. 

I love you all

Until next week

Elder WIlson

 ( i think Matthew 19 is the story of the young rich man if not, go find it and read it)

pics

digging a giant hole for a member

and just for fun

sorry this computer sucks so the pics wont upload, just picture me in a giant hole I dug with my hands, and a bunch of rabbits. thats all until next week love you all