Merry Christmas from Hermana Latoja and I

Happy New Year!!

I hope you all had a great Christmas! My Christmas was great, but it didnt feel like Christmas at all, more like a nice party haha

Tuesday we had our Zone Christmas, we made Christmas cookies which was really funny since I am the only one in the zone that knows how to cook haha. The funny bit was when the elders would not have enough flour in the mix and be trying to cut cookies with a really sicky dough or the Peruen Elder who kneeded his like bread for like 30mins straight haha. 

President Thurgood and Hermana Thurgood and 3 of their children came and gave us chocolate and American candy that her kids had bought with them, they sung to us too, it was really lovely!

Christmas Eve I was able to skype with my family for a while and slept with the other Sisters in their apartment, it was really fun, we watched a few disney movies, my favourite that we saw was Big Hero 6, I cried, guess I am not used to seeing movies coz I got really emotional in all of them haha.

 I spent the whole night and early hours of the morning chatting with my daughter Hermana Rodriguez who was there as well, I also met my granddaughter which was cool, shes from Utah and is really lovely! Hermana Rodriguez´dad has just been called as the mission President for the Bolivia Santa Cruz mission which is super cool! For those who dont know a mission president is not something you apply to be, you are offered the oportunity by the Authorities of the church and it is 3 years being in charge of all the missionaries and missionary work in the assigned area. It´s a huge honor and blessing!

We were obedient missionaries and got up at 6:30am even though we didnt go to bed until 3am.... When I say get up I mean that we got up and then all fell back to sleep, until we recieved a phone call at 9am... and who was it you may ask? PRESIDENT THURGOOD! :"goodmorning Hermanas! I am going to be at your appartment in 30mins to collect the chairs that I lent to you." ..........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ive never seen 8 girls get ready so quickly! President knew I am pretty sure that we had all just gotten up haha

Christmas Day we had lunch with some members, it was really nice! 

I am looking forward to new year! A New Year is a great time to make goals to be a little better. A lot of the time we set goals like: Eat healthy, stop biting my nails, exersize, less computer time, new job, studies ect ect, but I think even better goals are things like, being more patient, less judgemental, helping others more,being more compationate, more forgiving.

In church sunday a women spoke about being more tollerant and I really loved the message that she shared. 

Something I have realised in my life my even more in the mission is the simple fact that people ARE going to let us down, they are going to fail us sometimes. We need to stop thinking that everyone SHOULD be perfect and show more compassion and be more forgiving. We all need to take a look in the mirror and ask if sometimes we have failed someone too, failed ourselves and I think that we would find ourselves being much more understanding to those around us. Im not saying that we should let others treat us badly, but we could all be less judgemental, more accepting and more forgiving. 

I think about Jesus Christ who even while being tortured to death on the cross prayed that The Father would "forgive them, for they know not what they do." Even if you arent religious or dont believe in Jesus Christ as the son of God, we would all be better people if we followed the example of that Jesus Christ of which the New Testament teaches.  

This year I am going to be working on being much more like Jesus Christ!

I love you all and I wish you all the very best for 2016, it is a year of changes and miracles, I can just feel it!

Hermana Wilson

Photos: 

Cookie making!

A family here named their dog after me, they know I dont like dogs, they thought it´d be halarious to call their dog Wilson haha Iv gotta admit he´s kinda cute!

Fwd: Merry Christmas!!!

This week went super fast because we have so much going on! Im just gonna talk about a few highlights..

We had our ward christmas party and they made Chicken Asado which is really typical Argentine, its was really nice! The kids did the nativity play and I almost died of the cuteness!

Sunday we had the Stake Christmas Choir event. There were three Choirs, one of the Choirs was a group of doctors and they obviously didnt get the memo about it being a christmas thing coz they sung some really strange songs, I ws dying of laughter! One of the went like this (in english) "Kitty in the belly that doesnt have a neck, meow meow meow!" Yeah it was the strangest experience ive had in the chapel haha. The other two choirs were beautiful, one was a Christian Choir from Buenos Aires and the other the Adrogue Stake choir, both were amazing!

This week we will be celebrating Christmas with all the other Sisters in the Zone and 4 from another zone, with a mega sleepover party! Were gonna have Christmas dinner together and watch disney movies all night haha.

Tomorrow we have Zone Christmas with president and Hermana Thurgood and 2 of their children who are over from the states, we are gonna watch Christmas movies, have lunch and make cookies! I am way excited! 

We have been having a lot of success talking with people about Christmas, yesterday we talked to 40 people in the street! 

I have asked myself this year about the Christmas Spirit, which really is the Spirit of Christ. How even the most hard hearted of nonbelievers feel something special in this time of year. Some would say it is the parties, time off work, decorations, food or gifts, but I dont think that most people are that shallow. I dont think that the special feelings most people feel come from such materialistic things, but perhaps they express their feelings with these things. I think it comes from the knowledge our very souls recognise that Jesus Christ was born bringing hope and salvation to us all. We meet with our friends and family and perhaps we can feel that holy truth that these relationships, because of Jesus Christ, do not have to end with this life. They can continue through all eternity. 

I hope that you all have a fantastic Christmas, that you enjoy this special time of year!!

Love to you all Hermana Wilson

Temple, Kiwis, Transfers and Melting to Death! OH and I am a Granny!

Hey!

The coolest thing about this week was meeting up with Michael and Darryl, some friends from New Zealand and taking a trip to the temple together! I realised that my NZ accet really doesnt exist anymore sadly! It was completely foreign to me to hear them talk! We had a great time and my awesome Mummy sent me Vegemite, Milo, Christmas decorations and a singing Rudolph! Oh and a really pretty top! 

We haf a great time catching up anf sharing a lovely time together in the gardens of the House of The Lord. 

I also bumped into Elder Jara who began the mission with me who is now in the BA East mission, he was at the temple with his ward!

This week its been about 35degrees and I am melting! Its not cool! Its also super humid so it feels much hotter! We have bikes which makes it cooler because theres a breeze but the helmets are horrible, my hair is all sweaty and messy and i´m all red faced and just like "Hi I am a representative of Jesus Christ........." haha But I am probably sweating off the mountains of Christmas food I am eating! #Bonus!

Hna Llanquinao and I really enjoyed our last week together, we were so hot yesterday while she was packing that we just ended up throwing buckets of water over each other and dancing around outside haha. Iam going to miss my little Chilean! Buuuut..... I have recieved another Chilean! Hermana Latoja (Said: La-To-ha), she is about as small as Hna Llanquinao and arrived with her to the mission, so basically nothing has changed haha. She is great! We have been together 4 hours and we get along great haha. Ive heard lots of lvoely things about her so hopefully we will have as much fun as me and my other companions and work EVEN HARDER! 

I AM A GRANNY!! My beautiful daughter Hermana Rodriguez is going to be training, she is really freaking out but she is going to be a great Mami! If i could train with 4.5 months in the mission then she can train with 6 months! Im proud of her!

Our whole zone is different now, we have had a lot of changes. Our new zone leader is Eldre Colman who was in the missionary training centre with me, so I am really pleased to have him around again, the zone leaders are in our area so we get to work a bit with them. And our new district leader is Elder Tobler who was with me in Banfield and is awesome so thats great! All the other newbies are cool too, which is good coz our zone is the best! 

Photos: 

Temple with Michael and Darryl

My teddies haha

All my agendas, each one except the first one represents 6 weeks in the mission

Hna Latoja and I

Sleep overs with my Hija! (Daughter)

This week began with a fantastic PDay! We watched Frozen in the mission offices and it was so funny because EVERYONE knows the words to all the songs, one of the newbie, Elder Nixon sang "Love is an open door" in duet with Hna Mitchell, President Thurgoods secretary and Hna Thurgoods sister! It was halarious! When Elder Nixon asked Hna Mitchell to marry him Elder Mitchell saids: "Well okay then!" it was really funny . We watched it in English and then in spanish haha.

Tuesday night Hna Rodriguez, my little daughter who know has 6 months in the mission, stayed over coz we live near the temple and her zone went to the temple, and she stayed again on thursday to go to immigrations! It was halariously awesome, we had a great time naturally. She is going to be in NZ for a while in 2017 so thats gonna be great!

Our awesome investigator Saucedio is doing great! He´s gona from 20 cigarettes a day to 5 a day in about 2 weeks. He went 5 days without smoking but haf a bit of a relapse, but he is doing so well!! He is inviting evreyone to his baptism on the 19th!

This week I met a sweet heavenly soul, a three month old called Lautaro who just spent the whole hour we were in his grandmas house staring at me and laughing, it was the cutest thing!

And well that is my week, pretty normal really! Tomorrow I am going to the temple to meet up with some friends who are over from NZ, I am rally excited! 

Love you all! Hope you are letting the Christmas spirit bring peace to youre lives and not getting toooooo caught up the the less important materialistic side of Christmas :)

Hermana Wilson

P.S No photos this week

Hna Mitchell and I selfie and my mug gift

Hna Mitchell and I in the temple, shes so funny, she said "Oh Hna Wilson, can you believe we have never even taken a selfie, lets take one now while we are pretty haha

It´s ALMOST Christmas!!

Hey all!!

This was a pretty good week!

Monday the Zone Activity was AWESOME! It began as Capture the flag with wet sponges being thrown to get people out and naturally ended in a huge water fight! We all got completely soaked, anyone who wasnt drenched was dragged out of the chapel onto the grass and we all just threw buckets of water over them and hosed them haha. It was really quite funny! We finished eating cookies and drying off in the sun. 

Tuesday we went to the temle as a zone. It was so lovely to be able to go in and do a session with the zone, President and Hna Thurgood and The Mitchells (Couple who work in the offices.) We then has lunch in the hostal and then a zone conference there. It was a great day! 

We headed home and went out to work quickly because some sisters were going to be arriving to stay over because they had to do visa stuff and the immigrations office is here in Burzaco. 

My companion didnt put on her bike helmet and as we were heading home she fell off and hit her head really bad. Thankfully we were close to our ward mission leaders house and he took us to the hospital. She had a hugely swollen head and I was in a right panic! Feeling really responsible since I hadnt made sure she was wearing her helmet. They did some tests and everything was fine so we went home. Hna Sprull who was on of the sisters who stayed over is Hna Llanquinaos trainer so it was nice she was there. Hna Batista and Hna Llanquinao went to bed pretty early and Hna Sprull and I got to talking and when we looked at the clock thinking it was about 12am it was 4:30am!! Ooops!

The rest of the week went pretty normal, we are on foot until the bike gets fixed. 

Yesterday was the Childrens Presentation at church and it was so cute!! 

A group of 3 year olds got up to talk about Christ and with their little baby voices no one could understand anything and this 5 year old stands up and yells "No one can even understand anything theyre saying!!" and the whole congregations just starts laughing. It was the cutest thing to see all these littlies singing and reading scriptures and talking about what they believe. This one little kid yells into the microphone "Jesus loves me! And I love my mum and Dad!" hahaaha

Tonight I am going to be reunited with my daughter Hna Rodriguez, she and her companion are coming to stay because theyre going to the temple with their zone tomorrow and her area is really far away. Then she is going to stay thursday too because she has to go to immigrations!! YAY! 

Hope you are all well, check out this christmas video we are sharing at the moment: https://www.mormon.org/christmas

Love,

Hermana Wilson

Rain and sun and rain and sun!

Argentina cannot decide what season it is! We have had some really hot days 38* and also a few days of really heavy rain! We worked in both conditions obviously and I think I prefer the rain, it was funny at least to have water up to our ancles arriving at an appointment with a member all soaking wet! It was our first lesson with Samanta and we looked like drowned rats! But she is a fantastic woman and the gospel is going to bless her family a lot! 

Tuesday our sewer was emptied which was not very pretty haha. The Elders had a great laugh about that haha. 

Yesterday was the elections here and so we werent allowed out after church. We took the time to write christmas cards and have a loooooong nap! We went to sleep at about 4pm and I woke up at 11pm and just went back to sleep until the morning haha. My companion woke up at 1am and put her pijamas on haha. 

Tomorrow we have a zone trip to the temple! We are going to be in the hostal there with President and Hna Thurgood and all do a session in the temple together! I am really looking forward to it! Hopefully we will be able to go to the MTC and visit our teachers :D

Saturday we had 3 baptisms! Pilar who is 8, David who is 13 and Paola who is 21. David was going to be baptised NEXT weekend but he came in and saw the font being filled for Paola and asked if he could be baptised that day too! So the district leader came and interviewed him and he was baptised that night! It was a great service! Elvira and Jonny two of our investigators came with us and Jonny came to church sunday too! Elvira was given a book of mormon as a 7 year old in Chile and when we met her she was so prepared to listen to our message! Good things are happening in Burzaco! 

Saucedio is progressing really well, he agreed to quit smoking and has lots of faith that he will be able to do it, we are hoping to teach his daughter and grandchildren this week!

Christmas is fast approaching and tomorrow in the temple hostel we will be trained for the christmas iniciative which will be exciting!

Hope you are all well!

Love Hermana Wilson

I went to Chile!

Hey all!!

Things are all uphill from here. This week the only problems we had was a blocked toilet and a broken door haha Could be worse!

This week I went to Chile! My companion had to go to the embasy in Buenos Airs Capital and so obviously I had to go with her! We were just 1 block from the Casa Rosada and 4 blocks from the Obelisco but we were obedient little missionaries and didnt go looking at the tourist stuff. Mostly coz the Elder in charge of this kinda of stuff made us pinky promise we wouldnt go glavanting around Buenos Aires, the temptation was great! 

Two of the elders in our zone, Elder Nixon and Elder Lowe were deep frying chocolate bars this week durring companionship exchanges and the lighter fell in the pot of boiling oil! They went running from their house just as the whole thing exploded and left their kitchen covered in oil they told us in district meeting haha, BOYS!

Ive had a lot of oportunities durring my mission to meet with the Area 70s. In my first area Elder Krasnoselsky came to our ward and then Elder Spitale was here a couple of weeks ago, then Elder Romeu came to talk to us about the self-efficiency program on thursday, and then on Sunday at Stake Conference Elder Urra from Chile was with us! 

They always have great advice for us, I absolutely loved stake conference. President Thurgood also spoke and shared an experience about his wife being sick when they were newly married with two little boys. He said something like  "All husbands know that there is nothing worse, no bigger disaster, than when your wife is sick. I had no idea what to do! I gave her a blessing and then a kiss, because all husbands should kiss their wives after a blessing, its a rule I think. And then she vomitted and began to get better. She thinks it was the blessing, I think it was the kiss!" haha President Thurgood is the best haha.

Elder Urra also talked about his wife, he said that blessings dont just have to be given when everything is going badly, that he likes to give his wife blessings of gratitude, it was nice. He also spoke about serving others. He said that one day they had a special dinner for bishops and stake presidents and in the middle of the devotional a homeless man walked in. Security kindly asscorted him out and then when they went into the hall for the dinner there was somehow a spare seat and spare plate. He said it was one of the most horrifying moments of his life to realise that he had not shown christlike kindness in that moment and then that there had been a place for that homeless man all along. He told the story much better that I, but it was really impactful! 

Im working my little mormon backside off here! Its fantastic! We´ve been talking with a lot of people and have a great pool of people to teach and serve, its the most incredible experience!!

Shout out to my cozie bro Emmajae, Rueben, Nicole, Elder Turner, My Mummy, Huia, Edison and anyone else who has had a birthday or is going to recently!! 

Love you all

Hermana Wilson

Nearly Christmas!

Awesome Week!

Awesome Week!

This week went great! Had some awesome lessons and found some new people to teach.

It is relaly HOT! And its not even summer! Its about 28c and 100% humity and I kinda wanna die! In one day I got a tan line on my feet, miracle right there! And my tan I mean a little less white than before haha.

Our bathroom broke... like the pipes were blocked or something which wasnt cool and the Elders made fun of us haha. But it is all fixed now! (It wasnt me...)

Elder Spitale of the area 70 came to speak to us which was areal honor. He gave us lots of advice on how we can hasten the work of salvation here in our little area of Buenos Aires. President spoke to us about being consecrated to the work and finished his speak saying "Please! Dont do anything DUMB! I ws you age once, I know what it going through your heads right now! Dont do it!" He also talked about being swag and said, "You cant be swag, you have to be mission president for that!" haha.

Elder Spitale said that in Gods time our mission is 2 minutes for the Sisters and 3 Minutes for the Elders, which really hit me, coz this week my first minute it over! GONE!  I only have 1 minute left! I understand why they ask us to leave everything to really just be dedicated and dligent and work hard, because really we are only working 2 minutes in the work of eternity. 2 minutes and then I have the rest of my life for everything else. 

I dont have much time today! But I will see you all in 1 minute! Agust 23rd 2016 :O Thats such a scary thought....  

We are off for ice cream today to celebrate my 9 months and Hna Llanquinaos 6 months. 

Love you all!

temple

Fwd: Buenos Aires Temple

Guess what disaster happened this week: NOTHING! Can you believe it?!

The most shocking thing happened this week, I had a normal week! No sickness, no natural disasters, nope, not even a papercut. Hermana Thurgood said that I hit the bottom with my last hospital trip so it´s all unhill from now on haha.

We are teaching a great couple who have been investigating for 3 years and they arent married and he didnt want to be married so that was problem. i met them about 2 weeks ago and felt very strongly that I just had to really bare testamony to Miguel, the man, about the love God has for him. My companion had told me that he was really hard hearted and jsut wasnt interested. And well I just poured my heart out to this guy and he just melted! He confided in us about his fears and the sadness he has felt losing his mum a few years ago. And well, it looks like we will have wedding and a baptism to attend! It was incredible!

The elders in our area this week have really shoed us that they need mothers haha. 

Firstly: I get a text at 10:20pm tuesday saying: "Hna Wilson, how long does banana bread take to cook?" and so i reply about 30mins and then I get a responce: "And if we put it in a pizza tray?" so I call because I am thinking: Is this a joke? Nope not a joke! They put the cake mix on a 1inch deep pizza tray and they didnt put baking powder because they didnt have any haha. the next day they brought us some and well it was about 1.5cm high and cut like a pizza hahaha. 

Then friday I call the elders durring weekly planning to organise some things and ask if there is anything that I can do for them and Elder Powlus says his companion is vomiting and what should he do. So here we are at 10:30am rushing over to the elders with Pepto-Bismol, anti-nausea tablets, apples, fever medicine and chicken soup hahaha, I guess it was my turn to look after someone else. 

That night we call to see how he is doing and he says, "I felt great about n hour after the medicine so we went to lunch with some members and I ate 12 empanadas and 4 waffles and didnt even feel sick! Miracle medicines hermana! You saved my life!" I couldnt believe it! Only an elder would do that after vomiting all night haha. 

Saturday we went to the temple and had a great time with our investigator! She is halarious! Sheis almost 70 but is so young at heart and so cheeky. She saw all the young elders in Missionary Training Centre and she said, "Oh yes I would like to be 19 and mormon for those lads" hahaha. Her hairdresser cut our hair and gave us a cream treatment for free this morning, it was great, she trimmed my hair really well thank goodness! 

Love you all! I hope youre all doing fantastic dang it! 

Hermana Wilson

photos temple

Nahuel´s Baptism

Miracles

So the rainbow always comes after the rain right? RIGHT!

This week was great after wednesday!

I was on some painkillers that made me loopy and that was halarious for everyone in the offices Tuesday, I turned up and everything was happening in slow motion and I was saying whatever came into my head and then fell asleep on the sofa in the offices and they called a car to take me home haha. I slept the rest of the day and decided not to take those pills anymore haha.

Wednesday I had a meeting with the President of the mission and well, theyre not sending me home so thats a bonus haha. He is fantastic! Actually everyone here is fantastic. I think that in some ways it was a blessing to have been so sick last weekend because I was really made to see how much everyone here really loves and cares for each other. 

From my companion who was there the whole time comforting me and translating and making phone calls to everyone. The Zone leaders who ran our baptism since we couldnt be there and the Assistants who were with us i the hospital until 3am, the other Elders who we sent to get my ID but also got my clothes, pijamas and even my teddy and some socks and a wollen hat haha, so that I would be comfotable in the hospital, and they call all the time to check on me. President and Hna Thurgood who went on our behalf to our baptism, kept in contact with my parents, picked us up from the hopital, call me all the time. The office staff who went and picked up the medicines and vitamins that I needed. Members of the church who have been brought us lunch to the house each day until I was back on my feet and called all the time to see how I was doing. All the other Hermanas that have been an amazing help and support.

This mission and this church really is a great big family who love and look out for each other and I am so greatful for all they have done.

We had another baptism in the ward this Saturday, Nahuel who is great boy the elders have been teaching but we have been visiting him too and so he asked us to speak at his baptism which was a real privelege! 

We found 6 new people to teach on thursday and friday! I was a true miracle, we were really pleased!

Its the last week of the month and we are super poor which is really halarious, I always entend to manage my allowance super well, but something always happens! Like I have an alergic reaction and have to buy medicine or we have to buy lunch for some reason haha. And my companion has a pastries addiciton which is breaking her bank haha. But we are blessed! Because every day this week we have lunch with members so we dont have to have any food, just breakfast and a snack for dinner haha. #RoughingIt

I dont have much more time to write today, but I hope youre all well and know I love you loads!

Here´s a photo of Nahuel´s baptism and of our fridge loaded with food! Check out how milk is here, it is sold in bags and then it goes in a little plastic thing to pour it. 

Hermana Wilson

Fun times....

Almost a great week!

Almost a great week!

Hey!

I had a fantastic week with a horrible ending, it was almost my favourtite week in the mission!

Monday after I wrote we played capture the flag at the chapel with the other missionaries and it was so much fun, my team won!

Then after our investigator had his baptismal interview and he passed as we new he would.

We also had exchanges this week so I went to stay with Hna Felderman for a night and we had a great time. Then when we met up with our companions we were talking about what we had learnt and Hna Llanquinao said, "Well Hna Small told me I need to be more attentive to the whereabouts of my companion, I would be walking and then relise she was a block away, or behind some people or something haha" So we decided to work on that. Then the train arrives and I get in the train and look around for my companion and she isnt there! I went into a panic! I felt like  child lost in the supermarket! I am hoping that she got on the train and I jsut cant see her and so when I arrived in Burzaco I jumped off and there she was haha. She apparently said to me. "lets get into the other carriage, that one is really full" and then ran off to get in the other one without checking I had followed her. JUST after we had been talking bout being more attentive haha.

Because we have a big appartment now we are going to have lots of sleepover parties, becuse our appartment is a few blocks from immigrations where each week missionaries go to do their visa stuff. This week Hna Flake and Hna Analoca came to stay the night and we ate pancakes and empanadas and had a great time. Hna Flake is good friends with the girl who is going to marry my buddy and ex-missionary Connor this coming weekend (Shout out to Connor and Shelly!) So we took some photos for them.

Saturday morning we cleaned and began to fill the baptism font for Giuliano´s baptism that evening and then we left it filling and went to visit some people. At about 4pm as we were walking I felt like someone had stabbed me in the chest, it lasted about 5 seconds and so I didnt worry too much about it. We arrived at an investigators house and in the middle of the lesson I began to have really bad chest pains, everyone began to panic and so they rang our mission doctor and he said to go right to the hospital, so we called a taxi and headed there. We arrived and I was screaming and crying by this point so they gave me an adrenaline shot in case it was an elergic reaction and 2 other injections in the bottom of my spine and then had me wait for half an hour in observation to see if it worked. It didnt work so they sedated me and decided to give me medicine through a drip IV. We had been there about 4 hours by the time they had the drip in. I was sweating a lot and crying so I was really dehydrated and they couldnt find a vien. The assistants to the president arrived and Elder Andrew stayed with me for a while so my companion could take a break and the poor guy is really not cool with people in pain or with needles so as they were putting in the IV he got all faint and sat down on the floor haha. He gave me a blessing and then sent Hna Llanquinoa back in. It took a while for the medicine to kick in and the "House Elders" AKA Pensioneros came and got our house keys and went and got me some pijamas and my ID. At about 2am they officially admitted me to the hospital and gave me an x-ray and some other tests. President Thurgood arrived at about 3am, he and his wife had been in Uraguay for the week for a meeting and so he was pretty tired, he picked up the elders and took them home. Its  privet hospital and so my room was really nice, I had my own room and it was really big. They kept me sedated and with fluids and a morphine/anti-inglamatory mix all night and at about 8am the next day I had an ultra-sound and heart ECG. And I watched some of the rugby world cup on TV... REBEL

We were really sad that we missed Giulianos Baptism but President and Hna Thurgood went on our behalf and some of the office staff. President spoke and played the piano and the elders in our area made sure everything went well.

Sunday the elders came to bring us the sacrement and that evening they released me with pain killers and president thurgood took us home.

They still dont know what happened, i am still having the occational sharp pain but its no where near as bad as saturday-sunday morning. This week they are going to do more tests if the pain doesnt go away in a few days. But all the results came back fine.

So Im happy, just really tired and bruised from so many needles. I wsa looked after really well by the 4 elders there and my companion and president and all the doctors.

Poor Hna Llanquinao is more broken than I am, I slept because I was sedated but she was there in a chair all night. When we got home she went to bed at about 6pm until 9am the next day!! 

Thanks for your prayers,

Love you all!

Hna Wilson

Bikes!

Ice Cream! yum!

Fwd: Sapita! Baptisms! And cakes for all!

Hola everyone!

I have finally accepted that I am just not going to have a normal week here in the beautiful Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission! haha

This week my hay fever really went crazy and I woke up with  frog face, my eyes were so swollen, it was not cool. Im on a new medicine now that stops me from suffering too much but doesnt completely get rid of the symptoms.My new nickname is Sapita which means little frog haha. Ill attach a photo of my eyes just before all the syptoms were gone, the other photo is too traumatic haha.

This week I made a delish birthday cake for my awesome companion Hermana Llanquinao who turned 20! We had balloons, cake and visited a few members, it was a nice day for her although it was also a normal working day. I am glad my birthday was on PDay!

Hna Lanquinao recieved some bad news last monday from her family. Her sister burnt her leg and was in the hospital, he sister is alergic to a type of medicine and the doctors knew that but gave her that medicine by accident and her organs began to swell up and she went into cardian arest. Thankfully they were able to revive her and she is now well and back at home. 

My old zone leader Elder Palacios has been having problems with his knee for a while now and monday he was sent home. He only had 4 months left of his mission and is from here in Argentina so he was Released With Honor durring the zone activity on Monday, so half way through the activity he was no longer Elder Palacios, but Pablo Palacios. Was a weird change so we called him Pablito Palacios haha. 

One ofthe funny moments this week was when the elders in our area asked us if we could visit some of their investigators who are women and they cant teach them without a male present and theres never a male. So GPS Elder Polus sent us all over Burzaco with his campion directions.... Yeah we spent 2 hours searching for a house and eventually found one that had, as he said: "A green fence, 2 old cars outsite and is on the corner" we knocked and an old lady cae out who tried to convince usto buy a washing line... yeah it wasnt her. We were dying of thirst and saw a man gardening and looked at each other and Hna Llanquinao says "Theres shame in robbing not in asking Hermana Wilson!" So we went and asked for water and met him and his wife and had a juice and lesson with them haha.

2 days later we gotlsot again visiting one of the elders investigators, hanks to GPS Powlus, he owes us big time! 

Saturday our ward had 3 baptisms! Alexis who is 10, Toby who is 8 and Miriam who is an adult. The elders were goofing around before and put on baptism dressed haha.
It was such a special experience! Elder Polus baptised all three and it really felt like we were at the waters of Mormon haha. We have another baptism this coming saturday, 13 year old Guiliano! He is awesome, his dad died when he was young and lives with his mum, we met him because his uncle is a member and he came to play soccer at the church. He´s had the lessons for a while now but we invited him to baptism 3 weeks ago. I asked him on Saturday why he wants to be baptised and he said without even thinking about it: "Because I want to recieve the girft of the Holy Ghost to guide me." It was so incredible to hear him say that with such conviction! His uncle is going to baptise him on Saturday, today he has his interview.

Thats all for this week! Hope you are all doing well, I loveto hear from you all, even when I dont reply!

Love,

Hermana Wilson

P.S A quote I heard this week which I liked very much: "Our youth need less critics and more examples to follow." 

Re: Photos

Heres me in my apron when I first bought it. 

On Mon, Oct 5, 2015 at 1:00 PM, Micaella Wilson <micaella.wilson@myldsmail.net> wrote:

A couple of cute cleaning photos haha

The house was super gross! I cleaned and then baked a cake wearing my new apron haha, some things dont change right? haha #LoveAprons

New Apartment! General Conference! and Inspiring Investigators!

Well on tuesday we moved into our new apartment!! Yay, but when I say move in I mean we took our clothes and our mattresses and that´s it haha.

Camping in our little house! It is so nice, it is a little house! I would be happy to have it as my first house haha. We were joking that it is nicer than our houses are gonna be when we are first married haha.

Wednesday we got a microwave and we got to go shopping for all the new stuff, but we didnt get beds or desks or afridge until thursday haha. We were eating out every day so now we are super poor haha. 

The most beautiful part of getting a new house was when the Elders dropped us off there and we all kneeled down and Elder Bavelas blessed the house. I was feeling a little scared to sleep in an empty house but it was such a beautiful blessing given with so much love for us and the missionaries that would live there in the future that after I felt completely safe. The spirit is strong in our house:)

Plus there are 5 keys needed to get in haha, 3 doors down a passageway and then the one into our patio and the one into the hosue. We are litterally very safe there haha. 

I loved General Conference this weekend! It was great to listen to the inspiring words of our dear prophet and apostles. I got to watch it in English this time, in the mission offices with all the Americans and we had a great time. I love hearing the voices of the apostles rather than the translater so I was happy to see it in english. Ive attached a few of my favourite quotes :)

I had the honor and priviledge this week to have lunch with an inspiring woman called Vanessa. She is an investigator that the Elders in our ward are teaching and she invited us to lunch. I have never met anyone with such a pure desire to be baptised to follow Christ and to share her joy with all around her. She has had a few problems which mean she cant be baptised for about 2 more months and has been faithfully waiting for about 4 months now. She shared with us her story and told us how she used to mock her family for their devotion to God and this gospel, she didnt understand why they were always at church and always talking about the things they were learning, she would get frustrated at how their answer to EVERY problem had a spiritual tone and she had no desire to listen to the missionaries. But one day she saw the missionaries walking past in the rain and decided that she should let them in to keep out of the rain. They taught her and she began to see and feel the truth of their message. She said she is like her family now, always at the church activities and wanting to share this truth with her children and so unbelievable joyful and at peace with the world with this new understanding that she has. I felt the truth of what she was saying and was reminded of how I felt when I was taught this life changing truth by faithful friends and missionaries. Vanessa reminded me why I am here in Argentina! To share the joy that I have, a joy I found when I didnt even know I was looking for it. And reminded me that even those who really think they are not interested, who really think they have all they need in their lives can find the completness every soul searches for, when they imbrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

I hope that you are all well, I love you all dearly and truly appreciate your love and support! 

Hay Fever and Camping with the Capacitadoras!

Hey all! 

This weeks disaster is that we are homeless... There is black mould on the walls in our appartment and the new one isnt ready yet, so we are living with our sister Training Leaders. Their apartment is really nice, but for 2 people. We are sleeping on the floor and taking up all their apartment with all our things haha. 

But this week we will have ournew apartment... hopefully! 

My companion and I get along great! Which is a blessing!

I havent taken any photos this week... My things are everywhere, but here is a photo of Maru Senlle and I my last day in Lanus!

Thats all for now! No time!

Lvoe youall!! xx

Craziest Week of the mission! And Transfers :(

Hola queridos amigos y familiares!

Well this week we moved back into our appartment finally, it was super disrupting going back and forth from Banfield all the time! We barely taught any lessons at all.

My beautiful Senlle family took us out for dinner in a restaurant on Saturday night, I lvoe them so much. Theyre the ones who surprised us with food sometimes and washed our clothes and just looked after us so well. Im gonna miss them!

Last night we made cookies with our super cute neighbour Noelia, shes 25 and we did exercise with her in the mornings sometimes, so i´m gonna miss her. 

I got to go in the car this week, we dont travel much in cars, mostly walking or on train or bus and never for more than 15 minutes so I am not used to it and got really carsick the first day... NOT COOL.

Today was transfers, I absolutely DEPISE transfers, 1. because I have been split up from my baby Hermana Rodriguez, which was really sad! She is my best friend and we have been together 3 months which is the longest I have had with a companion. 2. because I loved my area! The members there are like my family and I have 2 converts there and a family to be baptised. and 3.  I HATE packing! Nothing fits in my suitcases anymore... Like seriously.. I had to use one fo Hna Rodriguez´ and the elders are going to take her suitcse back to her durring the week. When I got home it wont be such a problem because i´ll leave all the bedding and towels and shoes and boots and the majority of my clothes, but I have so much sutff and I need it all. Plus loads of books. Packing was really stressful!

However its not all bad! My area is called Burzaco, its only 30 mins of so from Lanus and it is really nice, we have BIKES!! YAY! I seriously love bikes, my legs are gonna be super strong in a couple of weeks haha and now that it is going into summer bikes are the best because we have a little bit of breeze. My new companion is great! She has 5 months in the mission and is from Chile, her name is Hermana Llaquinao (said: yanki now) and she was in my zone a tranfer ago so I know her well, shes halarious! 

My zone is Zona Adrogue which is the area of the mission offices, every Tuesday I will be in the offices so I will get to see President and Hermana Thurgood quite a bit and the couple there Hermana and Elder Mitchell who are just the cutest! 

My Zone leader is Elder Powlus who was my district leader in my first transfer in the mission back in La Plata Sur Olmos. So its cool to be working with him again too, we share our area with them. Soon we are going to be their neighbours coz we are moving in a few weeks or so. 

I am pleased to be in a new area, I know I am going to grow to love it here and hopefully we will have great success spreading the gospel and helping the people here. 

My time in Lanus was really unsettled and I am hoping that i´ll just be able to launch in and work hard here. But i´m not hoping too much because this is Argentina and we are missionaries, something ALWAYS goes wrong haha.

I havent unpacked yet and my camera is in my suitcase, so next week I will send photos.

I am really happy, just so you all know! It hit me this week, that even with all the stress and crazyness and worries of the mission I am always jsut so crazily happy ALL THE TIME! I want to shout it from the rooftops, this work, this Gospel and all the many blessings I have -friends, family, health ect- just make me so happy. I couldnt ask for anything more. 

The mission not to be jsut survived, it is to be lived, to be enjoyed and to be loved. It frustrates me when missionaries take thing waaay too seriously and forget to have fun! It is possible to work hard and enjoy yourself too, that is something I really learnt in my first few months in the mission.

 I have no regrets, I am enjoying almost every moment (Except when I am sick, then I generally have a cry for my mummy haha)

I love you all! I hope you are well! I hope you are happy! If youre not- talk to the missionaries!  haha

Love,

Hermana Wilson

Re: Juventud de Israel!

In the parlement building with Hermana Hoy, teaching about FamilySearch

On Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 2:40 PM, Micaella Wilson <micaella.wilson@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Hey all!!

Highlight of the week was crashing seminary and sharing a message and chocolate with the youth. We compared the gospel to chocolate and convinced them to share it with their friends. I love working with the youth. 

We did it on the 9th or September to celebrate my 3 year aniversary with the Holy Ghost haha (we are getting closer every day haha) I showed them my first ever Book of Mormon and shared my conversion story to motivate them to share the gospel with their friends. We had a lot of fun, good thing the seminary teacher is our friend, coz we robbed a bit of her time haha. 

This week I finshed the book Jesus The Christ and I feel like i have learnt so much and grown much closer to Him. I have 11 pages left in the New Testament of the bible, and its blowing my mind all the things i am learning. I love to read!

We are back in Banfield again... coz we have no electricity AGAIN! It is kind of annoying... We lost all the food in the fridge again and forgot about it for 3 days and my companion had to clean it today because it was testing my gag reflex haha. 

Saturday we had a cool activity teaching the Municipalidad de Lomas de Zamora how to use the familiy history program FamilySearch.org. It was loads of fun, we spent a lot of time in the plaza directing the people inside and when it was a slow moment we played invisible catch with the elders about 100m or so away haha. President Thurgood arrived in the middle of the match with his wife and I am sure they almost joined in, but thought better of it. 

I was a smart white girl and wore sunscreen and didnt get burnt!! We had a few tomato faces at the end of the day. 

I took a slip down the stairs in the parlement building to everyones amusement. The stairs are made of some kind of stone and theyre slippery! I fell and slid all the way to the bottom haha. I have a nasty bruise, but at the time we were laughing so much it didnt hurt. 

One of the members had a baby thsis week, little Jared Cardenas and he is so cute! His big sister was baptised on Sunday!

Quote of the week: "When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you dont throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer!" 

God is the engineer people!!

Love you all, have a good week,

Hermana Wilson

Photos: Cutest little bear called Fereira that the Fereira´s gave me haha

Fire near the chapel!

Cake with the Perez Family

A great birthday and then brochitis

Hey all!!

I thanks for all the emails for my birthday, I am still trying to respond to them haha

This week started off great we had 2 new peole to teach and I had a fantastic day at Parque De Lomas with our zone playing sport (Well, I watched) eating loads of cake ad goofying around as usual haha

I was given so many cakes, seriously, like 5 cakes. I had to freeze 2 of them haha. I guess this is my blessings for always making cakes for the missionaries back home on their birthdays haha. I also got caked in the face as is tradition here haha

I even had a song written for me! It was a great birthday!

We have spent 4 days in the flat this week, was rediculously boring! My companion had a bit of the flu last week but not bad enough that we couldnt work and then wednesday I went and got some immunisations and I guess it lowered my defenses because I woke up broken on thursday, my lungs were on fire and all my muscles hurt and I have a lovely cough and it turns out I got a nasty case of bronchitis, but today I am feeling much better, we are going to go and watch a disney movie and eat hamburgers and left over cake with the district. Henze why we are emailing so early again. 

It was our mission presidents birthday this week and we had it all planned to go and heart attack his house and leave baloons tied to the fence and then we chickened out haha. We figured that President Thurgood would probably prefer that we do our morning studies thanleave our area to celebrate his birthday haha. We rang him instead haha.

The cutest thing that I saw this week was a 4 year old and a 6 year old having the biggest agrument I have ever seen here, over who would say the prayer to bless the food haha. I hope that my children are that anxious to pray!

 In the end the 4 year old Luciano won and his prayer went something like this, "God, big father, bless my mummy, daddy, my brother and bless those really pretty girls who are sisters (Hna Rodri and I obviously). Bless angry birds because I like to play it. Bless me, little Lucianito Cardenas. Bless everything, even the dogs in the streets that bark. In the name of Jesus, Amen" 

hahahahhaha He didnt even bless the food in the end, but I think that God understands haha

I hope that you all have a fantastic week,

I love you, yes you!

Hermana Wilson

Fwd: One more... Sorry :)

Here`s a little story that my old comp sent me this week :) Yay for Shrek!

Enjoy!!

Fwd: Happy 21st birthday to me

My parents threw me a 21st!