Monday. March 7. 2016-Week 82

RAIN!!!!

A picture of Elder Gandarillas and I that an Elder drew of us. ‏

Happy Birthday Alexis!!!! This family are members of the church but we are working on reactivating the son and baptizing the dad. ‏

Elder Gandarillas.

Mi Familia,

Sounds like another great week in the Wilson home. School and soccer and birthdays and barfing and all the other good stuff that go along with it. You guys never cease to surprise me and especially the story about that dog food dumper!! Crazy hahaha!! 

I'll for sure be keeping Papa Gary in my prayers here for the next while.

Aaron Harbaugh!!! Get that kid to email me!! I want to hear from him!! 

So about my sweet scooter. I'll let you guys warm it up for me while I'm here doing the Lord's work but when I get home that sucker is mine!! I am going to grow out the stache and rock that sucker like a champ!! Well just thought I'd let you know.......

Well I hope you guys enjoyed a nice, DRY Idaho this week because here in Peru we are getting destroyed!! It has rained so much this last week, like 5 of the 7 days. It's not normal rain either it's crazy Peruano rain!! For example, on Friday we were working on getting all of the transfers set up for the mission and out of no where it just started to rain like crazy!! It looked like someone had turned a huge shower on in the streets!! So we finished up our transfers thinking that the rain would stop but it just kept on falling and we had a lesson to go and teach to a family on the far side of our area and we weren't about to miss that so we pulled on the rain jackets and took off to the street. Well the streets were not streets any more but rivers!! The water went far above the curb and was flooding into the houses and creating huge lakes in the parks and other areas. We couldn't find a taxi to take us to our lesson so we went walking. After crossing rivers and walking through knee deep water and literally enduring to the end we made it to our lesson and it went great. The man had a ton of questions that we responded to with the Book of Mormon and the spirit was very strong. They were especially impressed that we had left our house in the rain to come and visit them haha. Well on the way home we had people stick their heads out the windows and yell at us that we are crazy but we just told them that the work of the Lord must press on. After hearing that they just started to cheer us on hahaha!! Finally when we were getting close to our house we got a phone call saying that we needed to be in our house because the streets were dangerous. While I was talking on the phone I couldn't see very well where I was walking and I fell straight into a huge hole in the road full of water!!! Like way above my knees!! Yep it was a serious adventure that night but not even a Peruvian rain storm can stop the work of the Lord!!

In these past few weeks we have been praying and fasting like crazy to find families. We have found a few good ones but this week we found an amazing one!! We were walking in the street the other day and a 2 ladies that were sitting in front of their house just started yelling "Elders" at us so we went over and talked to them. They told us that before they had talked to missionaries and that they wanted us to go by their house one day to talk with the whole family. So we did and it was a memorable experience. We got there and the whole family was waiting for us. Parents and kids and uncles and aunts and grandparents. They were all together because the mom of the family is super sick and she is going to die soon. They were looking for answers but didn't know where to turn. We decided to talk to them about the Plan of Salvation and how families can be eternal. It was awesome and very guided by the spirit. They all had many questions but we were able to respond to them with the Book of Mormon and they were very surprised. In the end of the lesson I shared my testimony about our family and how we are going to see Gaven again and one of the aunts of the family asked what do we have to do to become an eternal family. We explained it to them and every single one of them promised us that they would do whatever it takes to complete these steps to become an eternal family. It was a very powerful experience and I was just thankful to have the testimony that I do about our eternal family. Lives many end and difficult things might happen but through the gospel of Jesus Christ we can and will receive the blessings that the Lord wants us to have and many of the things that we wish to have. Please pray for the Familia Coello Alvan Ojeda Guzman!! I know its a long one haha. 

Juan is now ok with the loan shark thanks to all of your prayers on his part but he still wasn't able to get baptised this week. He is now in the hospital with serious kidney problems and he just isn't doing to good. He has acted sort of strange in these past few days and we have just felt that he isn't 100% prepared for his baptism. Not just because he is in the hospital but we have felt that he still has a lack of testimony. So we have planned to work with him sharing the stories of Christ from the Bible and helping him to do connections of these stories in his personal life. We are going to start with the story of Jesus and Peter walking on the water and then we are going to work with the story of the rich young man that couldn't give away his wealth to follow Christ. I want to ask you guys to keep praying for him because he needs it but I also want to ask you to help us in another way. Mom you are a convert. What was the thing that most impacted you or helped you to make the decision to be baptized. Did you have doubts? How did you overcome your doubts? I have helped many people with this in the past but Juan is just a little different and I thought your story could maybe help us a little bit. Thanks for your help!!

This week in sacrament meeting I was reading in the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi 25. In verse 13 a part says my soul delighteth to prophesy concerning him and it just made me think of everything that I am doing. My soul really does feel a great joy to testify of Christ. There is nothing more that I would rather do because it is perfect. I love being a missionary and I love testifying of Christ. 

So that's it for this week. We just keep moving along here in the mission and trying to do the work of the Lord but I just thank all of you for your prayers and fasts for us. They are felt. Keep on keepin on family. I love you guys a ton and hope you have an amazing week!!

Much Love 

Elder Wilson