CANADA Week 14-October 31, 2017

The "Last Supper" with Elder Roundy. It was his last night in Gatineau, so we all made a big dinner and ate together. He had been in Gatineau for 9 months!

Bonjour ma famille! I can't believe it is already Halloween! Happy Birthday Perr!  You being 12 kinda blows my mind, and when I see your pictures you look so grown up! The time is already flying so I'll see ya soon. I hope you got the letter I sent, and I love ya tons... I still need to find a sweet costume that I can wear to support Miss P on her BDay, and I am thinking that one of those banana suits Asher had is a good choice... The funny thing is I think more people would listen to us if we wore those here than our missionary tags haha. People really don't like churches here. 

This week was SUPER gratifying. We found some really great families to teach and to help, and one of them has 10 kids! It would be so much fun to bring them all into the church building and see the kids go wild. We also have a friend of the church who wants to be baptized Dec 2nd! We met him Monday, and we had 3 lessons with him this week. After we taught him a lesson about the example of Christ and how He wants all of us to follow him, he asked if he could be baptized. I am super excited for him to have the experience of baptism! It is such a great choice we can make and blessing we have been given. We also have been a lot more involved with the other missionary teams here in Gatineau now that Elder D is the District Leader, and it has been great to hear about their successes, and failures, and miracles. We really are blessed here.  

This squirrel was going beast mode on the spider webs haha. He wasn't having any of that on his tree and it was hilarious to watch. I have seen more squirrels here than I ever have before in my entire life. 

The weather has been awesome! It has been raining for such a long time I don't even remember when it started, and I love it! We have had like literal floods here, and I guess it must be normal because nobody here even blinks... Crazy Canadians haha. I have had to bust out the hat and scarf here though, because the wind here is intense, and I never knew how magical scarves were until this week.

It was a little different contacting people this week, because once it gets cold here people lock themselves indoors and hibernate until the sun is back haha. I am excited for the snow though, because we will have a lot of service opportunities if we can find ourselves some snow shovels. 

This is food from Palais Libanis. We can only go there like twice a transfer cause it is really expensive, but it is SO good! They have like 4 foot tall skewers of meat in the back that they chop pieces off of. 

Also, Elder Lundetta is the new zone leader in our apartment and he is great! He is from Ecuador so I have been practicing my Spanish with him (which is nonexistent). He is pretty close to the end of his mission and has a lot of experience, so he has been able to give us a lot of good advice. 

There was a baptism this week! A 9 year old boy in our ward named Loic decided he wanted to be baptized, and so Elder D and I were asked to be his witnesses. He was so excited, and as soon as he was pulled up out of the water he was so bright. He knew that something was different and he didn't even know how to express it, but it was pretty great. The sisters in our ward are working with their family, because his Dad is inactive but he is starting to open his mind and heart a little because of the example his son set for him. 

We met some really incredible people this week, and I would describe them all to you if I could, but I'll settle for just this one story. Wednesday we decided to pass by some potential friends of the church that we found all the way down in downtown Ottawa (it's like 40ish minutes from us). We set out and passed by a few people we already knew there, but when it got to the time to visit the potentials we realized we forgot our area book. Which means we didn't have the addresses... But right before we left I thought to open my personal agenda and in the middle of the page for that day was all of the addresses we needed. I know that in the mornings we are pretty tired so maybe I did, but I really couldn't remember writing those down. But anyways with those addresses we were able to talk to the people who needed the light of Christ in their lives, and who needed it that very day. It was cool to be a part of. We even had to bust into an old person`s home to talk to one guy haha.

Elder D and I living the luxurious missionary life. We had to take the car into the shop to fix a tire and transmission problem today, and they had hot chocolate and a massage chair haha. 

Thank you so much peeps for all of your support! I pray for you every morning and every night and most of the time you guys are what make me get up and decide to do just a little bit more. Remember to try and see things as God does... Sometimes the little things really just don't matter. Love ya all and have a killer week

Elder Wilson

P.S. Crash- is that old man still alive? Sometimes I wake up in the morning delirious because it is so early and totally think he is in my bed like the good ol days haha. 

You guys are in my thoughts always, and help me more than I thought was possible. It is so good to hear that life at home is peaceful, and remember to enjoy every moment of it. You are where you are for a reason and you have a purpose. Love ya and Happy Halloween!

Canada Week 13-October 23, 2017

Da river. There are rivers and lakes all over the place around here, and with the leaves all changing color right now everything looks so good! This pic doesn't do it any justice, but things are so peaceful here. Until I have to go into hibernation for the winter haha. 

Hullo my family! Another sweet week, and this one really was faster than normal because P-Day is a day early. Oh and I think from now on it should always be Tuesdays again. And Truman emailed me!!!!!!  It is good to hear that life is rolling in the Wilson home. I think you guys are changing more from my mission than I am haha. 

This week we were seriously blessed. We were busy with a lot of things that didn't allow us to do as much finding and teaching, but it seemed like every time we went out to help some people the people that needed us found us instead. We met some really great people this week, and we were able to help everyone who was looking for it. Also we were able to do some actual service this week. Pretty much everyone here in Canada lives in apartments or rents houses, so they are moving literally all the time. We helped a family of 5 (3 little boys) who haven't been coming to church very much to move to a new house with the help of Frere Wheable and Frere Allard. They had a lot of stuff to move and we didn't have a lot of time (We never have time haha) so we worked hard and fast and the family really appreciated it. And Frere Allard is going to start visiting them every couple weeks to share some spiritual thoughts. Super exciting, and an awesome family. 

We were blessed with a lot of families this week. And they are all so different. We teach one family in French and English that speaks a mix of Chinese and French and English. We teach another family that speaks some English some French and mostly Spanish. All of Asher's Spanish lessons are starting to come in handy haha. And another family that speaks some French and mostly Spanish. It is so much fun! And the kids always know French the best because they learn it in school, so they do a lot of translating for us. I hope they translate it somewhat correctly haha. 

This one is so that I can remember a story... We had stake conference this week, and when we parked in the parking lot I stepped out of the car and saw this empty bottle chilling on the curb. I thought we should probably throw it out, so I picked it up and started walking over to the dumpster. Well it turns out the dumb bottle wasn't totally empty until after I picked it up. Because when I picked it up it dumped out onto my shoes and socks haha. So then we walked into stake conference and I smelled so strongly of alcohol haha. Good  times. 

Transfers are tomorrow. Elder D and I will be chilling here for at least another transfer, but now he is the new District leader. It will be fun to be more involved with the other missionaries, because now we will be doing exchanges with all of the Elders in our district. Even more people I can learn with and serve with! 

Life is good here in Gatineau, and I know it is everywhere else too because we can always choose to have fun. We can always choose to accept Christ. And we can always choose to look forward. I love you all tons, and have a great week!

Elder Wilson

CANADA Week 12-October 17, 2017

Elder Desvergez and I chillin in the metro. It was pretty awesome, and we became masters at balancing without the rails haha. Actually Elder D rode the metro every day in Paris for school, so he was already decent haha.

Bonjour tout le monde! This week was so awesome! We didn't get to do quite as much normal missionary work this week, but the Lord made up for it in His way which was awesome to be a part of. This week we had a new trainer's meeting which means that Elder Desvergez and I took a quick (4 hourish) trip to Montreal haha. We took the bus and the metro which was actually really fun and there were a ton of people to talk to. On the bus everyone was asleep though haha. Probably because we had to wake up at like 5 to make it on time. Then we had our meeting, which was great especially because I saw almost everyone (not soeur Boyle) from my MTC district. They all had so many incredible stories and miracles from their mission areas. 

I seriously hope we transfer before I have to walk the streets of Canada with matching jackets haha. Just kidding I love this guy. These were the last 2 in our size at Costco.

We also had exchanges this week, so I went with Elder Vanderwaard and Elder Desvergez went with Elder Roundy. Which was so incredible, and a great confidence booster for me, because Elder Vanderwaard came to my area. Which means that I had to plan the whole day and also lead all of the lessons in French because he didn't know the people or what we have been teaching. It was actually a really great day. We had one moment where we were trying to find our way back to the car (we are both terrible with directions haha) and I decided to turn right down a street that I thought would lead us back. Immediately I felt the impression that turning right was a dumb idea, so I grabbed Elder V`s arm and we kept walking straight. Like 2 seconds later we saw this crazy lady reading in a lawn chair on her front porch. She is crazy because it was in the morning and like 3 degrees Celsius haha. Literally Canadians are insane. But as soon as we started talking to her she became excited and said that she had been waiting for someone to bring her a Bible. So we taught her about the Book of Mormon. She told us to come back soon, and I wish I could have kept teaching her but she speaks English, and Elder Desvergez and I only teach the French speakers which was pretty sad. But the work is rolling! Every single day is full of miracles like this, and it is so incredible! Oh and don't worry we eventually found the car.

Life on splits with Elder Van. He is a goof, but really was able to help me a lot!

This week it has been raining in like miniature flash floods, and sometimes the streets will become small rivers and the rain almost busts our umbrella. But I love the rain, especially since sometimes it makes people take pity on you and let you in haha. The snow is about to come in hard and fast I can feel it. I hope Elder Desvergez knows how to drive in the snow haha. 

I gotta roll out, but I love you all, and thanks for all the support! I seriously learn from you guys all the time! The field is so great and so different and so incredible! There are some super incredible moments and there are really difficult moments, but that is literally the purpose of life, so we gotta love those too.

Elder Wilson

CANADA Week 11-October 10, 2017

Hola mi famille! This week was awesome and crazy and a ton of stuff happened so don't be too surprised if a lot of it doesn't make sense haha. This week it got warmer which was strange, but it really started to rain a lot, and now I can see why the winters here are so intense... but it will be tons of fun! I need to find a sled or something haha.

It rained the whole week, which was awesome, and we were stuck in some traffic.

We also had the AP`s in our apartment for a while this week while they were on exchanges with the zone leaders, which was wild because we barely have enough room for 2 missionary companionships as it is haha. Especially when we have one bathroom and 6 people who have very little time. It was actually really fun! And lets just say that the bathroom got enough use that the hinges broke off of the door... But the AP`s were great, and I was able to learn a lot from them.

Home sweet home. We are on the 3rd floor.

We were able to teach quite a few lessons this week, and we got Lise to church! Total score, and the members were great with her. She is easy to like, because she cracks jokes all the time and she is 79 years old. Also, we found some new people today, and it is just incredible to hear all of their stories, and how every single time they are looking for (sometimes not openly) something that the Church of Jesus Christ can give them. And there is nothing better than being able to give them that knowledge, and invite them to learn and know for themselves. It is truly the work and desire of the Lord.

This week I really felt like we were being guided by the Lord, but sometimes I guess He just really wants us to do something like in this situation haha . . . We were walking down the street towards a lesson that we had with Miché, and we saw a guy walking down the street (you could see him from like a mile away) with a gigantic, fuzzy, red, cowboy hat with the Canada leaf on the front of it, shorts that were pretty much underwear, and Nike sandals. He was singing and strolling down the road. We didn't have time for it, but we looked at each other and were like hmm.... Maybe we should talk to him haha. So we did, and he was so excited! He really needed to hear about something like the church of Christ at this point in his life, and we were able to share a Book of Mormon with him and set a date for when we could talk with him again. So awesome! And our lesson fell through anyways haha. 

Tunnel under a school in Ottawa. We had dinner with a member there. He cruises down these huge ramps in his wheelchair. It is so funny.

It is still crazy to hear about everything going on at home, but the world keeps turning
I guess. Just remember all of our blessings we have here, and also remember to look at the world how it really is. What really matters to you and what you want to accomplish. And then look around at the world and see how you can help others be happy and focused as well. Remember that like Elder Rasband said, There is no such thing as coincidence, only divine design. You are where you are for a reason, and I know that God trusts you! I love you all, and thanks for everything!

Elder Wilson

Oh and funny story of the week, we saw a old lady sitting up on her porch one day, and Elder Desvergez said, Bonjour Madame! and she said, What? in the deepest voice I have ever heard. Which was a blessing. This was a blessing because she was a he and he was an old Indian man that doesn't speak French haha. I was trying so hard not to laugh and we talked to him in English instead which was super nice. 

My dog Pitou that an investigator gave me.

CANADA Week 10-October 2, 2017

Lise! She bought us some pizza for one of our lessons. I seriously can barely understand her haha, but she is the coolest!

Hello my peeps! This week was crazy and I feel like I can't even remember half of it haha. Things are really starting to settle down here and we are getting used to the schedule which is awesome. Now we can use our time more wisely, and we don't get stuck in traffic anymore!!! It does mean I can't study French in the car as much though... But the French keeps getting better, and that is all that matters. My goal is to be able to have a solid conversation with Elder Desvergez haha. But at least I can understand some of the members now! It`s a pretty awesome feeling. I also am starting to learn how to talk to everyone in a better way, and I really learned this week how important the Book of Mormon is. It really is the word of God, so when people hear some of It's teachings they can't help but feel the spirit a little. Don't forget to read and ponder it! The Book of Mormon and the Spirit and our smiles are pretty much the only tools we have, so I might as well learn to use them better.  

A little bit of downtown Ottawa. Sometimes we have to pick up the elders there because they don't have a car, but the traffic is terrible. 

It was so strange this week! I went from sweating all the time to needing a long sleeve shirt and jacket all the time over one night haha. Literally went to sleep sweating and woke up shivering haha. But I guess that is just how it works here. I am going to need to get my heavy coat soon... but it was actually really nice, because all these crazy Canadian people are out in shorts and short-sleeve shirts walking their dogs! Totally great because now we can find people all the time. One guy was riding his bike and I waved at him, so he slammed on his brakes and came over to us. He basically just said "Come to my house"and we try to be obedient as missionaries so of course we followed haha. But we ended up having a great lesson with him in this concrete basement type place, and he wants to come to church! 

I was talking to one of the Zone Leaders (Elder Roundy) about soccer and he got pumped and kicked a fake soccer ball (it was a great shot) a little to hard and he slipped, flew into the air, and crashed pretty hard. He took it well, and we were laughing like the entire night. I took a picture to remember forever haha. 

General Conference was so awesome! I needed some answers and I got some for sure, and it really reminded me that all of the Apostles have been set apart and sustained as prophets, seers, and revelators. How lucky are we! I was looking for you all in the crowd to be holding those big signs of my head or something but I must have missed them haha.

Elder Desvergez was tired after a long day, and didn't quite make it to bed.

We took Lise (a sweet 79 year old lady) to conference at the chapel, and she can't understand English, so yes we did watch the first part in French. It almost broke my brain but I understood some of it! I hope you all had great experiences with conference as well. The apostles, as we could see with Elder Hales, serve until it is time for them to leave this world, and they just want the best for us. Being the recipients of their love and prayers is a powerful thing! It is so weird to hear about life back home just cruising forward, but I love hearing from you, and I love all of you so much! You motivate me to keep going all the time when I feel a little down or need to laugh. Life is so good here, and I will keep doing my best!

Elder Wilson

In a second email: Mudda! thanks for all of the awesome emails and pics! Oh and I forgot to tell you that my P-Day is changing to Tuesday from now on.  It is pretty weird that today already marks 2 months for me. It is super slow when I really think about it, but then all of the sudden I realize the week is already over! It made my entire week to see Kash at conference with my fam!!!  And I see that Perry is still crazy and you guys are the same too. I love you all! 

Oh and I know that it is Gaven`s BDay this week, and I just wanted to say that I have never been closer to him than I am now. Sometimes in the MTC and here I can literally feel him by my side bearing me up. He loves all of us, and he is even cooler than I thought he was. I can't wait to really meet him and hear all of his stories about life in Heaven, and I know that he wants us with him so badly. We just need to get there. Love ya ma!

CANADA Week 9-September 25, 2017

Hello my family! You gave me a ton of questions, so i will do my best to answer a few.

My area is about 2 hours 30 mins away from the mission home, and it covers quite a bit of Ottawa, just not the main city.

My comp (Elder Desvergez) said like Day-ver-jay, is 22 and from France. He has only been about for about 6 months, and he is awesome. He works hard and is very smart which is perfect for me. We have been doing all kinds of work this week. 

The food is awesome now don't worry haha. You guys are the best.

Our area is pretty massive, so we have all types of living situations. There is actually a huge amount of immigrants here, especially from Africa, so we speak with them all the time. 

Since we are opening a new area we do a lot of door to door work, and then pass-by references and our investigators if we can. 

Everything is in French here, so I can understand about 1/4 of sacrament meeting haha. But it is better than the first time! 

We cook all of our own stuff here, and I end up doing a lot of it actually. Cooking is pretty fun, and we make up random meals all the time haha. Asher, I am starting to see why you love peanut butter so much!!!!!

That's so good to hear that you are good and seem so busy with good stuff. Dad the shed looks bomb, and it looks like your shoulder is doing good! And Perry you're crazy! I love ya tons, and keep doing good stuff. I wish I was as talented as you are!

It is so hot here right now. We have been sweating buckets! Asher would probably just think it's a cool spring day haha. But we will just enjoy it until the freeze comes... I still need to buy my coat and boots, but we haven't had a chance yet. My comp needs one too, so we will probably go within the next couple weeks.

This week we had a really good mix of meeting new people, and teaching those we had already found. All these people are so good, and have some incredible stories. Many have a lot of difficulties in their lives, but they are working to overcome them, and they were comforted by the promised blessings of the Gospel we could show them. We are so excited for them! We haven't been able to meet very much with less actives yet, because the Bishop has been on a trip, but we will work with him more on that soon. We did have a dinner with a partially active family, and reminded them of conference this weekend. We invited them to watch it, and they agreed to come to the church with us.(I think that is where it is haha). We are also going to have at least one of our investigators watch with us at this point. She is a sweet old Grammy who lives in a Mobile Home. She lives by herself, and isn't very religious. We have taught her a few times now, and she truly is embracing it. She has been a testament to me that people here have been prepared for the goodness of this Gospel before we came. Which is great, because religion is not warmly welcomed here. Canada has had some problems with religion in it's past which made people untrusting of religion, and they really don't want to hear from us. Which makes it that much better when they feel the Spirit, and start to desire to hear more. The majority of people here are all incredibly kind though. 

We also got to know the ward much better this week, and they are impressive. Almost every single one is a convert to the church, and they are strongly rooted in it's teachings. They love having missionaries, and they are willing to do a lot for us. We are going to start setting up more lessons with investigators and members who can add to our message. 

I have been so tired after each day, that the second I lay down I hear my alarm in the morning haha. I guess last night I was still in missionary mode, because Elder Desvergez told me I was saying, ``Je suis Elder Wilson`` while I was sleeping haha. Missionary work never stops! 

I haven't been here long, but after speaking with many of the people here I realized that one of the greatest truths we can share with them is the fact that we have a living prophet today that guides and directs the church. How lucky are we to have him and his apostles. And we get to hear from them this weekend! I am pumped! I invite everyone to go into this conference with a purpose. Have a question in mind (and your prayers), and be ready to ACT on it and I promise that you will receive your answer! That's just what God does! I love you all, and am so grateful for you! 

Elder Wilson

Oh and sorry there aren't pictures this time, but I forgot my camera and we don't have time to go pick it up...

CANADA Week 8-September 19, 2017

Montreal!

Hello my family! This past 10ish days have been insane, and I am glad that I can finally tell you what has been going on haha. The last couple days at the MTC seemed to last forever, but I am finally in Canada and that is all that matters. The plane flight here was pretty great, especially since we were able to do a bunch of missionary work on the flight because the person sitting next to you is trapped haha. But then we got into Montreal, and literally everyone was speaking French, which was cool, but it was so fast! I couldn't even get a single word from anybody haha. The AP`s and President and Sister Phillip`s were waiting for us, and they are so good! We spent the night with them and then got ready to go in the morning. It was super sad to say goodbye to all of my MTC district though.

The Phillip's home.

Me with President & Sister Phillips and with my new companion, Elder Desvergez.

I was assigned to...(drum roll)... The Gatineau East French Speaking Mission! It`s super cool because it is like 95% French, and I am reopening an area that has been without missionaries for about half a year. My companion is Elder Desvergez, a crazy Frenchman that speaks English decently well haha. He has been pounding me with French and it is great. We also have a car, but when we got to Gatineau there wasn't even an area book, so we have been doing a ton of contacting. We have found 5 new investigators (which for Canada is really good) and a ton of potentials, and I know it is because the Lord has prepared these people to learn about His gospel. We have had a ton of miracles, and I know that they are going to continue as my mission progresses.

We are living in the same apartment as the Zone Leaders(their area is Ottowa English speaking) and they are pretty great examples, and it helps to have them to answer some of my questions. We did have to eat some very interesting meals this week, because the zone leaders didn't have enough money to prepare for 2 more people, so I can't even describe some of the meals we made haha. We once used honey and cheese to flavor spaghetti. But TODAY IS PDAY so we got FOOD!!!!! Life is super good here.

My apartment.

Also, the members have been great, and we have dinner with a member every single night this month. One of the miracles this week is that I was blessed with no taste buds. I have eaten some very different foods with the members, but I have been able to eat all of it every time, and it hasn't even been that bad! The ward here is kinda strange because the ward directory has about 350 people on it, and there were about 45 at church... We are going to have to do quite a bit of work with less active members here, but Elder Desvergez and I are ready to go. I have been able to learn quite a lot from him this week. I need to learn a lot more French tho haha, but at least I can get a few words from when someone is talking to me haha. 

I need to go, but if I've learned anything this week it is that God is still a God of miracles (Mormon 9). Don`t be afraid to ask for them! Just do your best to align your will with his, and incredible things will happen! I love you all and will continue to pray for you!

Elder Wilson