This blog is kept by Elder Asher Wilson's family. It will include his general emails and various pictures. It will be updated each week after each new email is received. We hope you enjoy it!

Monday, August 31, 2015

Monday. August 31. 2015-Week 56

All of the missionaries serving in the Piura Peru mission with President & Sister Rassmussen.


 
Mi Familia
 
Ok so it sounds like you guys had a good first week back to school and that everyone is happy and working hard. Just think, after this school year I will be home for the next one haha super weird to think about!! Super happy to hear that you guys are still going strong on your family scripture study and prayer. That was the first thing I had on my list to write to you guys about and now I don't even have to ask because I know you guys are doing it!! So keep that good stuff up!! 

Hey tell Matt Hansen good luck in his mission!!!!! It is the best decision that he has ever made and he is going to love it. Every moment isn't perfect but the work that we are doing is perfect and ordained of God!! Suerte Matt!! 

So this week all has gone great with our investigators. They are all progressing quickly and they all went to church except for the Familia Giron because Hermana Betty had to work:( I was super bummed out about that but keep praying for them!! They need you guys!! 

We came across a few new people this week that are awesome but one of them is called Orlando Zapata and he is one of the most prepared people I have ever met. In the mission someone who is a golden investigator is like a perfect investigator and he for sure is one of them!! He is a married, working man that lives with his family, doesn't drink and believes in Jesus but isn't part of any other church. We have visited him twice and he has just eaten up our message every time. He is reading the Book of Mormon and he is already receiving his answers to his prayers!!! Put his name in the temple and do whatever you can to help him because I really see this ending in a very good way!! 
 
So as you all know this week was Elder Bednar. It was in Piura so we only had to travel like 45 minutes so that was nice and it was in an air conditioned stake center!!!! I miss flipping air conditioning!!!!! But in this reunion 4 people talked. The first 2 were Elder Godoy (a member of the 70) and his wife and then Elder Bednar and his wife. Wow when they all came in and started the show the spirit seriously almost knocked me out of my chair!! Those are some very special people and they left us with some very special messages. 

So Elder Bednar didn't give a talk. Before he came he had sent us a few of his talks to read and study so what he did is that he just passed around a bunch of microphones and we helped him give the talk. He told us that he had prayed for revelation but that he didn't plan a talk. So he talked with us and asked us questions and then he talked about what we said. He said a ton of stuff so I am going to give you some points.

1. Write on small plates: He told us that our church has a stupid tradition. That is to write notes when someone is giving a talk. He asked us if when we take notes do we actually go back and read them and study them. Everyone said no. He told us that in a talk we should write down 1 or maybe 2 little notes and then let the spirit teach us the rest. We will treasure small plates but we will forget and lose large plates. 

2. He told us that everyone has a testimony but our job as missionaries is to help them to find that testimony. 

3. We need to have ears to hear and eyes to see. The spirit is constantly testifying to us of the truth but we must learn how to recognize it and how to help other people to recognize it. 

4. If we FEAST upon the Book of Mormon daily we will never fall away from the church and we will always have a strong testimony. He told us that it isn't enough to just read or listen but we must FEAST upon the words of the BOM and apply them to ourselves. The BOM is the key to our religion. 

5. Representing Him is more important than doing what I want to do. We may have our free agency but there are only 2 paths. In this part he also talked a ton about our personal obedience and how important every one of our decisions are. 

6. Sister Bednar said, "I hope that after your mission your mind can come back to your mission every single day to guide and direct you in your life. If you are here to serve you must serve with all of your heart, soul and energy or you will fail the Lord and you will never be proud of your mission." 

7. He said that if we are here in the mission seeking for power or recognition then we are only completing with one thing and the is PRIESTCRAFT. It doesn't matter if you are a leader or not it just matters if you do the Lords work and do it with all of your heart.

8. Our smile and eyes are the first thing that people will see so be weird and show the whole world how much you love the gospel by the way you smile and by the light in your eyes.

9. We must learn to get out of the way and let the spirit teach these people. Sometimes we are professionals at getting in the way of the spirit when we teach with our personal knowledge. We must learn to get out of the way so the spirit can flow into these people without problems.

10. The gospel is the good news. What more do we need?

So like I said I didn't take notes so those are some of the things that I remember. This was easily one of the greatest days of my entire life and one that I will never forget. Elder Bednar is an inspired man of God and he was sent there to Piura Peru at this time for a very special reason. He has big plans for us. All I can say is that now I am just super ready to act. I have the faith now I am just going to put in practice everything that we were taught to see miracles here in this area. All I can say is that I can't wait for conference to see him talk again!! 

Scripture of the week is John 14:15. It is just that simple. If we love Him we will keep His commandments. 

Well that's all for today. Thanks for the great letter and pictures!! I really do love hearing from you guys so much and am super happy to see that everything is going well at home. I am always praying for you and hope that you are always praying for me because I need your help. I love you all so much!! Talk soon!!

Much Love 

Elder Wilson 

Monday, August 24, 2015

Monday. August 24. 2015-Week 55


Mi Familia,

Hey guys!! Well I am super bummed to hear about poor Perry girl:( Hey don't worry when I get home I'm gonna find that worker and kick his dang butt!! I hope you feel better soon. 

So back to school huh? It feels like just a little bit ago Tate was starting up at Mt. View and now he is already a junior!! That's just too weird for me. And Perry already in fourth grade!! Well I wish yall luck and just remember to focus hard in school and on your grades. 

Hey that picture you sent me of Parker's wedding with the cardboard cut out of Chayse hahahahahahha!! One of the most awesome things that I have ever seen in my entire life!! I was laughing for like 10 minutes when I saw that bad boy haha. But congratulations to Parker on the big day!!

I bought my suit today. I bought it at a great place and they helped my to find the best one and to not spend too much and then they tailored it for me. I don't have it yet but when I do I'll be sending you a sweet picture of me rocking that sucker!! 

Hey I don't know if you are planning on sending me anything here in the near future but if you are I want some more long sleeve shirts haha they protect me a little better from the sun!! 

So this week was another crazy one here in Sullana!! This week we advanced a ton with a lot of people. The familia Giron now has a baptism date for the 26th of September!! We are so excited for them and that they now have the desire to be baptised and to take this big step in their lives!! We are just going to keep working with them like crazy and trying to help them learn more and more every day but don't stop praying for them because the dad of the family, Julio Cesar, still isn't super into what we are teaching but he does love the Book of Mormon. Also another kid who we are teaching has a baptism date for the 12th of September!! His name is Cesar Tavara. He is 16 years old and he is really starting to take to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is reading his book of Mormon and doing stuff at the church with us but he just has the hardest time getting to the church on Sunday!! So if you are going to pray for him please pray that he can make it to church with us ever Sunday.
 
So in our ward we have 4 missionaries. 2 for one half of the ward and 2 for the other half. So these other Elders had been teaching a family for like 3 months now and they finally decided to be baptised. I was super excited for them because they are some of my good friends here in this area and they are just super ready for it but last Sunday one of them asked me to baptise her. So I just sorta brushed it off thinking that the other Elders would do it because she is part of their area but Saturday came around and I got a phone call saying Elder Wilson you have to baptise Julieta today haha so I ran like a crazy man to get ready and sprint over to the baptism. We almost didn't make it on time but we got there and everything went great. A very special night.
 
So the last thing that happened this week is that we moved. Yep, so what happened is that we live on the third floor of a building and the roof was super crappy so the lady who owns the place decided that she was going to redo the roof. So she kicked us out and made us move all of our stuff to the second floor to live in a different room for the week while they fix the roof. Maybe it doesn't sound too bad but to get to this other room we had to go down to the first floor, walk outside and around the whole house and then walk up another flight of stairs haha it was a looooooong day!! 

This week we have been knocking on doors like crazy to meet some new people and we met someone amazing in the process. His name is Omar and he is 17. He listened so closely to our lesson and asked us a million questions and really felt the spirit. In his last prayer he asked God to help us to keep passing by his house to help him change his life. It was so amazing to be in that room at that moment because I know the spirit was touching the heart of that kid in that moment. When I was thinking about that I thought about a scripture. 3 Nephi 5:13. It says that I am a disciple of Christ and that I have been called of Him to help people obtain life eternal. When we were teaching Omar I felt that so strong. I am a disciple of Christ and I have been entrusted by Him to complete a great work here. I study, I work and I teach to help other people to return to the presence of our Father in Heaven. It will never be easy and most of the time it won't even be fun but when you watch the spirit of the Lord change someone's heart all of the sweat and work and being tired all of the time pays off. To say it again. I am a disciple of Christ and I will never let Him down. 

Ok that's all I got. I love you all and I miss you all a ton!! Glad to hear all is going well at home and that everyone is almost healthy. I am praying for you always and I hope that you can feel the blessings of the work that I am doing!! Love you all!! Talk soon!! 

Much Love 

Elder Wilson



Monday, August 17, 2015

Monday. August 17. 2015-Week 54

Baptism of Hermana Soledad and also Danitza!!

 
Mi Familia!!

Hey guys!! Well it sounds like you guys sorta had another hectic week in the Wilson house in Idaho and also in San Diego haha. You guys are always doing something haha I guess I had to learn to work hard from someone. Hey football is going to start up so that means I need updates on everything!! Don't let me down mother!!

Ok so about my suit. Basically every time I wear a suit I have a conference and because I am a leader that means that I am always carrying stuff and running around and setting stuff up and some where in that process my pants just sorta split open hahaha. Yes in my last conference I had a large hole in the crotch area of my pants but no one saw so we are all good haha. I was also thinking that it would be better to buy a new suit here in Sullana. There are a few places that I have checked out that would have good suits and I have my card and could take out the money to buy it. So I think that would be our best option. This next week I am going to buy a new suit. Everything else is holding up pretty good. These shoes are awesome and I don't think that they are every going to break haha shoes of war!! But hey I really like to give my ties away for some reason so if you want to send me anything it would be ties. 

So this week was nothing short of amazing. To start it all of yes we baptised Hermana Soledad and also Danitza!! We have been working so dang hard with them and now that we finally got it done it is just a huge relief. They were so prepared and ready for it and it was just such a spiritual experience and something that I will never forget. I remember people in our ward telling us that we could never baptise hermana Soledad because missionaries had been trying for years but we didn't listen to them. We went to the Lord for help and then put His plans in action and trust me when you do that it always turns out great. I baptised Danitza and Elder Garay baptised Hermana Soledad. So Hermana Soledad yes is married but she got divorced from here husband like 20 years ago and now just lives with her kids. She has 5 kids and all of her kids have like 2 or 3 kids and they all live in the same house hahaha it is really the definition of a mad house!! So now our next project is to baptise the rest of the family!! She was a reference of one of her daughters that is a young woman in our ward and finally she is 53. Miracles are happening!! 

So speaking of miracles I just wanted to share another experience with you guys about this week. So we were knocking on doors like crazy one night and we were also getting rejected pretty hard. Finally we knocked on the door and an old lady came out and started talking to us. She was really sweet but not super interested. When we were about to go one of her granddaughters (she was like 18) came out and asked us if we could pray for her grandpa. So we went into the house to see and old man sitting in a chair surrounded by his family. They told us that he was 98 years old and that he had fallen earlier in the day and now his face was all busted in and swollen. Without even thinking we started to explain the blessing of health. We told them that God acts through the priesthood and our faith to work miracles and they told us to give the old man a blessing so we did. Let me just say something. When we gave that blessing the spirit was so strong and I know for a fact that the Lord directed every one of our words. We finished the blessing and the family had also felt the power of the spirit. Shortly after they asked us if we could pass by their house this week to teach them more about our message. The Lord has people prepared for us. It doesn't matter if we are missionaries or just members all we have to do is have the faith to search for them.

Also we have an awesome family getting ready for baptism!! The familia Giron. Pray for them please!! 

Well that's all for this week. It was really such a spiritual week and we were incredibly blessed. We also got to play soccer in a huge stadium today and it was a field of grass!! First time I have seen a field of grass in over a year haha!! I am just loving the mission so dang much right now and just more and more every single day. Its going to be quite the fight to get me home after my 2 years because this work is completely perfect. I can never more in my life deny the power of the Lord because I literally see it every single day here in my mission. My scripture for the week is Mosiah 16:19 WE ARE THE LIGHT OF CHRIST!! I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!! Talk soon!! 

The church is true!! 

Elder Wilson

P.S Hey you guys should send me BYU lax workout program
 

 







Reunion of leaders.

The Peruano McDonalds.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Monday. August 10. 2015-Week 53

 

 
Me, Elder Garay, and Alejandro (one of my favorite kids in our ward).

 
Mi Familia

Hey guys!! Sounds like you guys had a great time in Nebraska and that everything went well. Man I miss that trip a ton and we will for sure be doing it next year!! And I will be driving because I haven't drove in forever hahaha I was thinking about that the other day!! I hope you told everyone hey for me!! 

Hey my suit is starting to get pretty crappy so I don't know what we want to do about that. Like it has holes in it hahaha!! 

This week was crazy and quite epic here in Sullana. Lets start off answering your questions about transfers. Here in the mission we have transfers every 6 weeks and yesterday was transfers. I am not leaving Sullana and Elder Garay is still my companion. We were pumped to get that news because we are working some serious miracles here in this area!! Elder Garay is great and we are really working hard together. He currently has 18 months in the mission.
 
So now for what happened this week. First off I forgot if I told you guys or not but in like 2 weeks Elder Bednar is coming here to Piura to talk to us so I have been getting super pumped for that and reading some of his talks. I have to recommend a talk called Ask in Faith by Elder Bednar because it is so awesome!! Also this week we have been working a ton with Hermana Soledad and her family. She is at the point where she knows with all her heart that what we are teaching is true so now she is just going crazy trying to share it with her family. We have been teaching them all for a while now and they are all progressing so fast!! Every single one of them has read more than the first 2 books of Nephi in just 2 weeks and we got the amazing news last week that one of her granddaughters wants to be baptised too!! So this Saturday we are going to baptising Hermana Soledad and also her granddaughter Danitza!! We have been working our butts off to get them to this point and we are now seeing the fruits of our labors. Also a crazy story about Hermana Soledad. This week we taught her about the fast. We told her that if we fast with faith and pay our fast offerings we can receive direct and specific blessings from God in our lives. She was super interested in what we said and also had a ton of questions. The next day we went to her house and found her reading the Book of Mormon (She is already in Mosiah!!). We started to talk to her and she told us that she was fasting. We were obviously super surprised because she isn't even a member and she hadn't told us anything about it but then she explained why she was fasting and the spirit just hit me so hard!! That woman has so many challenges and problems in her life and in the life of her family but it just doesn't matter to her because her faith is just so much stronger than anything else that tries to get her down. All I can say is that she received the blessings that she needed through this fast and is now even more prepared to be baptised. Changing lives one day at a time!! 

So now about the ward. We are so awesome here in my ward (Buenos Aires). My first week here we had 40 people going to church. The last week we had 90ish people go and this week...............we had almost 110 people in the church!!!!! Talk about a change!! We as missionaries are going to work and going to do all that is possible to help and strengthen our ward and we usually can do a pretty good job but when the members get involved that is when the miracles start!! We have been fighting to motivate our ward for so long and now they don't even need our help because they are just taking care of business by themselves. As we have worked together over these last few weeks we have seen miracles and now our ward is the strongest one here in Sullana!! And to answer your question I am teaching a class almost every week in church.

The rest of the week was fairly normal. We are starting to meet a ton of new people and they are all getting super interested in our message so more than anything if you guys could just pray for my area and my companionship that would be awesome!! We are just loving the life here in the mission teaching, walking and walking and walking some more, learning, still working out!!, playing soccer (they now call me the white messi haha) and more than anything just getting closer to our Heavenly Father. This is His work and I am more than honored to be a part of it. I read an awesome scripture in the Bible this week. Its in Romans 1:16 and is when Paul is preaching to the Romans. To keep it short he basically said that I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it is what brings salvation to the souls of all men. I have to agree with Paul on this one. I don't care who you are or what you say I am not and will never be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We know that in our journey to be disciples of our Savior the path will never be easy. We will all have hard times and we will all be tempted but what we all need to do is become more like Paul and wear our testimony on our chest for the whole world to see. It will never be easy but we will be incredibly blessed for doing it. I am not perfect and I know I will never be but I am not ashamed of the Gospel of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Well that's all for this week. I love you all so so much and I am always praying for you!! The church is true!!

Much love 

Elder Wilson
 

The district.

Our pensionista!!! Hermana Charito and Hermano Marco Felix.

 

Monday. August 3. 2015-Week 52



Getting ready to burn the one year of the Mission shirt.

 
MI Familia!!

Straight from the heart of America....NEBRASKA!!!! Man I wish that I could be there with you guys camping and being red neck and all of that good stuff......I really do miss the good old red neck days haha. Mom I'm proud of you for roughin it out a couple of days camping ya wimp haha. So it does sound like you guys really have had a great time in Nebraska so far and I hope you are telling everyone hi for me!! 
 
How's Tate doing? The fool stopped writing me a few weeks ago so I don't know what's going on in his life haha. That's right Tater a little call out to get your butt in gear and tell me what's up!! 

So this week was a great one here in Sullana. It's starting to get super hot again and I'm not loving that so much though haha. It had been pretty nice for like the last month but now the heat is really starting to crank back up again but hey I guess it is my last summer here in Peru haha. So I want to start off talking about my ward. When I showed up here in Sullana like 5 weeks ago our ward really was pretty weak. There were only like 40ish people who were going to church and the bishop wasn't working at all and sometimes there wasn't even any talks or classes but wow how we have changed!! We have been working with them soo much to get it back in gear and they responded great. It all started in ward council when we called them out and set a few goals for them to complete and they just took off from there. They are working and teaching and planning and just doing all they can to take care of the ward and because of that we have had a ton more time to work on teaching new people. This last week 90 people went to church!!!! It really was a miracle and a huge answer to my prayers. Our bishop is working, our ward mission leader is amazing and the Lord is really pushing this work along here in Sullana!! Loving my ward right now!! 

We are still teaching Hermana Soledad and she is amazing. Going to church, she has read like 200 pages of her BOM in these last 2 weeks and now she is inviting her family to listen to us!! She is going to be getting baptised the 16th of this month but we are also planning on baptising 4 or 5 more from her family and helping another family to get married so they can get baptised!! Working super hard right now but we always need your prayers!! Soledad, the family Alvarez, the family Giron, Victor Fiestas and Ceasar Tavara!! Thanks!! 

This week I had my interview with Presidente Rasmussen and with Hermana Rasmussen and they are seriously so awesome!! Super funny and also very inspired by the spirit. With Hermana Rasmussen we talked about the family and sports (they know someone who is playing lax for BYU) and the mission and even girls haha she is super funny and super sweet and really trying hard to learn spanish so I give her a big thumbs up. Then I got to talk to the man himself....Presidente Rasmussen. I have talked to him a lot in this last month but never one on one like this. He has some huge goals for this mission and is counting on me to help him to accomplish these goals. He definently inspired me even more to keep working hard and especially to keep helping other people to work hard. We can't work in every area but we sure can be examples to every area!! They really were super great. 

So yep I finished up one year of my mission this week so my district did some cool stuff for me. We ate pizza, they smashed eggs on my head and then we had the epic shirt burning ceremony haha I'll send pictures of it. But yes it is very bitter sweet to think that I'm half way done but just more of a reason to keep working my tail off to give to every person the amazing blessings of this gospel!! They need me and I will never let them down!! 

This week in my bible study I was reading a little bit in Luke 15 about the lost sheep and the lost money and the prodigals son. When I was reading that I thought of a talk that was given in this last conference about Luke 15 so I read that too and wow the spirit hit me so dang hard. No one is ever lost because the Lord is always searching for us but we as members have a huge responsibility to help the Lord in this process and a lot of the time we don't get it done. Also read this chapter as a family or for family home evening because it is awesome!! 

Today we played a game of soccer North Americans vs Latinos and we kicked their butts!! The white kids actually won in a game of soccer hahhaha it was like that hockey movie Miracle haha!! 

Well that's all for this week. Glad that all is well at home and in Nebraska. I love you guys so much and miss ya a ton. Never stop reading the BOM its perfect and the word of God to guide us through the darkness here in this life!! Hope you have an amazing week and that you start to send me freaking sports updates again!! hahah Love ya all!!

Much Love 
 
Elder Wilson

 


Let the burning begin.



Elder Garay breaking an egg on my head for my one year in the mission.


Our big Sunday dinner.

Getting ready to play soccer.