CANADA Week 44-May 29, 2018

Salut da fam et mes amis!

What a week haha. I hopped, skipped, and cruised right on out of Sherbrooke Thursday, and things have been crazy ever since haha. It was sad to say goodbye to all of the amazing people of Sherbrooke and my Tahitian brother Elder Tarati. A lot more sad than I would have thought. And after about 6 months there, my stuff was literally EVERYWHERE, so I probably left like half of it there, but I have had everything I need so far. 

Montréal is fun and different and wild. And I am back in a 4-man! I thought Gatineau was the last one of the mission, but Montréal Est is still holding on strong. We are with Elder Webb (an awesome Elder from Utah that will be finishing his mission in about 5 weeks) and Elder Amichia (a giant Frenchman from Lille). They are tons of fun, and they are both very experienced missionaries with a ton of knowledge. I have a lot to learn this transfer. 

Elder James is a very dedicated and diligent missionary, and it is fun to see how much he has changed since the MTC. He loves being a representative of Christ, and he fits the part. We have already seen and experienced some incredible things this transfer, and I am excited for the rest. 

Our area is the Northern part of the island of Montréal. It isn't really downtown, but it is a LOT bigger than Sherbrooke haha. It is fun to see and talk with so many different people here. Also, it is a real life "Little Haiti" here. Like 95% of my branch and the people in this area are Haitian, which means I need to start picking up some Créole as well haha. It is like a mumbled mix of French, English, and Spanish. 

And I am emailing from a LIBRARY RIGHT NOW! I have a library card, and I am ready to read haha. And the pic of Asher with The Way of Kings almost did me in. But keep reading Asher, Brandon Sanderson is a wizard!

One cool thing I learned this week . . . God wants us to accomplish His work. No matter the time restrictions or the amount of things that have to be done, if you walk in faith while doing good for others, He will guide your steps. I can second the witness of Nephi in saying, "The Lord gives no commandments without having provided a way for us to accomplish them." He WANTS us to succeed! So walk in His light and remember that He has already conquered the world. We just have to choose His team like Elder Holland said. 

Sorry I left my phone with my pics at home, so I'll send them next week! Love you all, and thanks for your prayers and love. And why are Perry and the Grams the same height haha. That blew my mind . . . Good job at your dance Perr! And send me a pic of the hairy sausage named Crash😉

Elder Wilson

CANADA Week 43-May 22, 2018

The sweetest family ever. And they have a fourth girl on the way . . . 

Hullo friends and fam!!

So I just got kicked out of Sherbrooke haha. It was actually a lot more sad than I ever thought it would be, but I guess it is time to roll on out of here. Elder Tarati will be taking over the work here in Sherbrooke with the help of the wonderful Elder Jimenez. Sherbrooke went down to one team of missionaries instead of 2 this transfer... But I hope I will be coming back in a couple of weeks for Wayne's baptism.

I will be heading back to the island of Montréal! I will be serving with Elder James (the one who was my District Leader in the MTC) and I am super excited. I am sure that he has a lot of things to teach me, and I am pumped to meet the new ward. And it is still French which makes life even better. Maybe after this transfer I'll actually be able to speak it haha. 

This week went by super quickly, but it was full of miracles. I don't have the time to explain all of them, but Elder Tarati and Elder Jimenez will definitely be busy this transfer. One awesome experience actually came from my American accent haha. We went to visit a friend whose name was Danny but we accidentally knocked on the wrong door . . .  So when I asked for Danny in my American accent the lady at the door heard "Dunny" and shes like, "Yeah Dunny is just in the back." So anyways we had never seen these people before but they invite us in because I "knew" his name, and we taught them about the plan that God has set in place for us. It ended up being a very powerful meeting where we explained some of the truths of eternity that Jesus himself taught. And I can testify that God works in mysterious ways haha.

While explaining the Plan of God to Dunny and his copaine, Elder Tarati and I realized how much knowing the Plan of God can change our perspectives. There is nothing more powerful than internalizing the fact that God is our Father and He loves us. And like Russel M Nelson said,"Something powerful happens when a child of God seeks to know more about Him and His Beloved Son." Take time to get to know them, and their love will become clear in every aspect of our lives.

Anyways I love you guys tons, and thanks for all of your support! You are all such great examples to me, and the things that you have taught me have been helping the people of Canada! Have an awesome week!

Elder Wilson

Wayne (who is a master baker) invited us over to make cookies for the ENTIRE ward. He's pretty much a stud.

The final Chocolat Favoris . . . Tears were spilled.

Elder Tarati in his natural habitat.

I found these bad boys a few days ago, and know they are clipped onto my glasses all the time.

Some cards that the littles at church made me.

CANADA Week 42-May 15, 2018

Little twins ready for a big day at church.

Salut a tous! And welcome to Idaho Les Grammies ;) It will be fun to have a full house with 2 Grams and Asher, so I can't give you a better Mother's Day gift than that Ma! And Happy Mother's Day to all of the great Mama's out there in the world. You guys are literally the greatest. But I hope you had an awesome day Mudda and it was sweet to be able to talk to you all. Asher when I first saw you I actually thought that your mustache was your eyebrows haha. That thing will always be nasty.

We saw a lot of cool things this week, and answers to prayers. Literally the Lord's timing has been pretty magic these last couple of days, and his promise to Nephi in the Book of Mormon, "Ye shall know it is by me that you are led" has been unfolding before our eyes. He wants us to see His miracles, just be ready for them!

I don't actually have any time today because we just found out that only one computer is working, and Elder Tarati needs to send something to his fam real quick as well... So I'll send you some pics and call it good ;)

Love you all, and keep finding miracles. Make this week awesome and smile a lot. And don't let Grammy jump any more rivers... 

Elder Wilson

We climbed a small boulder and it was awesome.

Les Boys.

Balcony meals with Soeur Lachance.

Mother's Day Cards we gave to the sisters in our ward.The Sherbrooke District Makes a solid heart right? 

CANADA Week 41-May 8, 2018

Sunny in Sherbrooke . . . We got to play some soccer​.

Hullo Friends and Fam! It was good to hear from you guys this week, and I am pumped to talk with da fam Sunday!! By the way what is the account that we will be calling? We will probably be calling from a members home and it will be around 3-4 Sherbrooke time that we will call . . . Maybe haha.

AND BONNE FETE DES MERES MUDDA!! It's the first one where I haven't been there to give ya a hug, so take care of her for me peeps. She's awesome!

Another sweet week in Sherbrooke. It's kinda weird to think that I have been in Sherbrooke for like 5 months now. But I am not quite ready to move out yet, so hopefully I'll stay another transfer. But we still have 2 weeks left in this one, so there's nothing to worry about yet. Church was pretty exciting this week, because we were translating for some of our friends and trying to explain what the church was for others, but it was a powerful experience like always. It's one of the only moments as a missionary that you have to think about yourself. What you have done and experienced, the good and the bad, and decide how we can become more like Christ.

Mon Frere mustasher (Asher) sent me an awesome talk a couple weeks ago, (Sweet stache by the way, it now has the Elder Wilson stamp of approval ;)), and it explains an aspect of our life here on the earth so simply that I wanted to share it with you. It says:

"There will be times when the path ahead seems dark, but keep following the Savior. He knows the way; in fact, He is the way. The more earnestly you come unto Christ, the more deeply you will desire to help others experience what you have experienced. Another word for this feeling is charity, "which [the Father] hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ." Then you will find that in the very act of following Christ, you are also leading others to Him, for in the words of President Thomas S. Monson, "As we follow that Man of Galilee—even the Lord Jesus Christ—our personal influence will be felt for good wherever we are, whatever our callings."

I think that it is important to know that as we come to Christ we will naturally start to help those around us follow the same path. It is easy to be scared of reaching out to others, but we just need to change our perspective. If you are already trying to follow Christ, NOTHING CHANGES. As Dieter F Uchtdorf said, "Regardez L`homme"  (I think it is like "Look to the Man" in English). It is so simple and it is so powerful. Let Christ be the center of who you are. 

I love you all, and thanks for all of your support and love and thoughts. You guys mean so much to me, and your influences have been felt here in Sherbrooke as well. Make this week awesome, and have fun!

Elder Wilson

Poutine and exchanges with Elder Roskelley. Yes he knows and is related to the Roskelleys in Idaho.

I brought a little bit of Idaho to Canada with my Mama's mashed potatoes.

Elder Tarati and I studying while waiting for Mami to finish talking with her fam.

He loves me I swear.

I don't know if you guys remember my friend Alfred from Gatineau, but this Saturday he followed through with his decision to be baptized! Elder Desvergez, who is STILL in Gatineau haha, let me know the awesome news. Now he just needs to see the incredible blessings of the temple.

Cookies and scriptures (she has to read a scripture before eating every cookie) that we gave to a sister here who had surgery on her hand.

Elder Tarati and Elder Sprague teaching my friend Pitou (the dog).

CANADA Week 40-May 1, 2018

Salut friends and fam! It's kinda crazy that I am already writing you guys again, so I guess that means that things are good here in Canada! At least we saw the sun this week and it only snowed once haha . . .

This week was full of random and miraculous things and people. Literally I found myself in the strangest of situations haha. For example:

1. Carrying massive boxes of chicken blobs (they were like 60 pounds) for this awesome Syrian guy.

2. Walking into a random apartment to a guy that was UNDER HIS BED that had dreamed about us the night before.

3. Doing our best to build like a 400 dollar telescope for some dude that didn't even have money to buy food.

4. Admiring the 25 yard long chalk pictures of Christ that this one guy does for his work. We just happened to knock on his door and they were super awesome.

Welcome to another week in Canada, I just wanted to let you guys know how funky it is haha... But I love it. We had a lot of fun this week as people started to come out of their winter hibernation and we weren't the only people outside. We played a lot of soccer with people in the street, and they would always ask why we were carrying the Book of Mormon in our hands, and we got to explain its miraculous history which was really a cool and comfortable way to talk to others. We just need to find a lot more Books of Mormon in Arabic.

We also made a short road trip down to Stanstead (we could see the states from there) and it was so weird because people were speaking English and I couldn't stop starting to talk in French. It was actually really funny, but it felt good to be able to understand language so easily again. And Stanstead was like a mix of Meridian and Minden, so I felt right at home.

One thing that Elder Tarati and I love to do here, is just take the time to talk with people. It is funny how big of a difference a 30 second conversation can make in someones day, and seeing them smile does us some good as well! As we strive to become better people, we can't forget that the best people worry less about themselves and more about others. There is a reason why you are going to see the people that you will see this week! So make some of them smile!

Oh and Caleb that video of your mission call made my life haha. Awesome decision, and I'll be cheering you on from here in Canada!

I love you all and am so grateful for your prayers and thought and time. Have an awesome week, and appreciate it!

Elder Wilson

I got attacked by the most dangerous thing here in Canada... Slamming doors.

Pizza and swings​.

Road to Stanstead.

Chocolat Favoris and a sweet lake.

Elder Tarati slackin while I do important missionary work in the back.