Week 8 Already?!?

This week went by so quickly! I totally understand what Charity meant when she said missions are a time warp. This Wednesday is my 8 week mark. WHAT. This is nuts. AH. I'm finally getting to know the area and the ward! It's awesome! Haha so the first day of  spring was last Friday, and it snowed. Hahaha. We had one night this week and it got up to like 73?? It was AMAZING. Except for the mosquitoes, I've already gotten but twice... It's not even summer yet. OH NO. The humidity is awesome though haha i love it (for now anyways, probably won't love it as much in the middle of summer lol). But the green is starting to come out, and the blossoms are starting to happen! WOOP WOOP! The cherry blossoms are supposed to come out next week! I think Sister Cooke is taking us all out for another sisters day to see them! WOOOOP WOOP. I love DC. Seriously Maryland is the prettiest place on the planet. 

Tuesday morning I got my cast on, and I absolutely hate it. I can't even stand wearing shoes for long periods of time. It's clunky and I can't move half my fingers and it smells and UGHGHGAHAGHAGAHA. I'm going CRAZY. I'll probably cut it off myself in a couple weeks... Haha we had a little scare at the doctor place, I handed them my copy of my insurance card, and they were like "ummm, sorry, we can't take this... We have to have the actual card..." Here I am over here, never having done all this insurance stuff before in my life (mom I miss you lol), trying to tell this lady that I don't have anything else and trying to explain that I have literally no way to get the real one because I'm not from here. Then I had to fill out a crazy amount of forms that i didn't understand and I'm pretty sure I signed away my first-born son. So that was stressful. Hahaha.  The lady that put my cast on was actually a member! Her daughter served a mission! Haha she's the only member in the whole hospital so that was awesome!!

Wednesday we had our first member meal!! Sister Hinds mom is here from Jamaica for her wedding, so she made us the BEST Jamaican food. Oh. my. Word. She made beans and rice, with the most AMAZING chicken, then made fried plantains. SO. GOOD. She gave us banana chips and sweet tea cookies (like a mix between animal and graham crackers), which were super yummy. Jamaican food is the BEST. AH. If for some crazy reason i don't live in Maryland, I'm moving to Jamaica so Grandma Hinds can cook for me. MMM. 

Thursday we had zone conference, which was pretty good haha. All us new people had to go up and introduce ourselves, and say what Disney character we were and why. AND I PANICKED. AND SAID BELLE. BECAUSE "WE BOTH LIKE BOOKS" OR SOMETHING. WHAT. NO. NOBODY IS EVEN GOING TO KNOW THAT I LIVE AND BREATHE EVERYTHING DISNEY. I was going to say Minnie, because she encompasses everything Disney, but I panicked. REGRET. SHAME. AHHHH. That night, we went to check on Betty but she wasn't home, but her neighbors were out! So we went and talked to them (Dawn and George), and they were awesome! They used to meet with elders, and they want us to come by more! We shared "Because He Lives" with them (if any of you haven't seen that yet, go watch it right now! Then share it with your friends! :)), and Dawn was like "O.M.G." Hahahaha. We also taught Miss Gene, and she loved it! She's getting baptized, but needs to think about a date. Haha but she was like "you're going to be here when I get saved, right??" LOVE HER SO MUCH.They were supposed to come to church yesterday, but her daughter is way pregnant and really sick, so they had to cancel... Next week though! 

Friday we gave our first scheduled tour at the VC! Finally! It was awesome! Saturday we were on shift, and we got to usher for Savior of the World (Easter play the VC hosts every year), so we saw about a third of it. Then we got to stay out late so all us sisters at the VC could watch the General Women's Broadcast, which was amazing! Family is such a huge blessing, and I love you all so dearly. :) Yesterday we had another member meal with the Barkers! They are the COOLEST family ever. She served her mission in Connecticut, and their house is adorable and I love their kids. They're amazing! They made us beef stew and croissants, which was super yummy. Haha it was fast Sunday, and we broke our fast at like 4:30, and made pancakes and bacon, then had dinner with the Barkers later, and we visited somebody in between and she made us eat cake. I just about threw up hahahaha. 

SOOO pumped for conference this week! We're on shift for the Saturday night session, but we get to watch the rest at the VC in the big theater! We're bringing investigators too, hooray! I LOOOVE CONFERENCE. SO PUMPED.

It's been such a good week. Seriously, those of you that haven't seen Because He Lives, watch it! I love playing it at the VC for people, and seeing how much it impacts them. Jesus Christ is central to everything. I can't tell you how much my love for Him has grown in the past 8 weeks. He didn't have to suffer and die for us-He still had his agency, which I think a lot of the times we forget. He didn't HAVE to do it. In fact, He didn't even WANT to do it. At any point during His atonement, He could've gotten up, walked away, and said "I'm done.". But He didn't. Because He thought of each and every one of us, and He thought of His dad. And He did it. Because He loves us SO much. At zone conference we did a visual, where we all had to close our eyes and listen. "Remember that time you made that huge mistake. Remember the guilt you felt. That will never go away. Remember that time you felt worthless. You are. Remember that time you lost that person you loved. You'll never see them again." And so on.. We talked about how, without Christ, that's exactly how it would be. We would have no hope, no purpose, no peace. But BECAUSE HE LIVES, we have hope, our purpose is clear, we can find peace through our trials, we can see our loved ones again. He makes ALL things possible. Everything is central to Christ and His atonement. I love my Savior, I am so humbled to represent Him, and I wish you all the happiest of Easters. :)

Emily

PS- DAD I LOVE YOU SO MUCH HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY YOU HANDSOME MAN. When i was giving them my insurance stuff I had to tell them your birthday and age, and they all wished you a happy birthday toooooo. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.

PSS- HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY NOAH. YOU ROCK. ENJOY COSBY. DONT CRASH. LOL. MISS YOUUUU.

PSS- AMY- Your package was AMAZING, seriously, you're the cutest!! My comp and I are SO grateful, and we can't wait for conference!!! LOVE YOU GUYS.

  

signing away my soul and first born son

 One last pic before they casted it *sob*

 

PINK

passed out in the VC sisters lounge

  

Passed out in the car. Missionary work is exhausting. Lol

Our view everyday #praises

HAHAHA Idaho & Arizona (Sis K & Sis W)

 

JAMACIAN FOOD YUM #hailgrandmahinds

I spy with my little eye...

The roads here are bombbb. Hahaha.

So You Break Your Wrist On Your Mission...

Hey everybody!

Wow, this week has gone by so quickly! So much to tell! First of all, I  GOT MY IPAD ON SATURDAY! We got them early! So yay!! Today we're having a super mellow pday so we can get everything done!  (I've been washing my laundry in the bathtub because I haven't had time or money to actually wash anything lol)  So I'll be here all day! I'm also going to make cinnamon rolls, mom can you send a pic of the recipe when you get this? Along with the recipe for chicken and rice/biscuits, any easy soups or casseroles? most importantly cinnamon rolls though! Thanks! :)

This week!! Where to start?! Tuesday we had so many miracles! None of our appointments were working out. We had district meeting that morning and one of the elders gave a workshop on following spiritual promptings while finding. This was great for us since we're whitewashing the area! Anyways, one of the things we talked about was when you get a strong prompting to knock on somebody's door or something, and it doesn't work out-they don't answer or they're super not interested. Was that not a prompting? Was that just your thoughts? Because that can be really discouraging sometimes! We talked about how sometimes the spirit gives us promptings to stall us, so that later we're exactly where we need to be. And that is SO TRUE. That has happened to us countless times this week! And we've picked up 5 new investigators because of it!! So Tuesday afternoon before shift nobody was answering, and we kept getting promptings to go talk to people and everything, but nothing.

BUT THEN JUSU.  BLESS HIS HEART. He is beyond golden! He moved from Sierra Lyon (speaking of, pray for everybody from there or that's there now, they need lots of support right now #prayforsierralyon) about a year ago, and met with elders there! They lost contact because Jusu was traveling for school, but he's read some of the Book of Mormon and everything! We just ran into him on the street! If we had done anything differently earlier, we would have completely missed him. We met with him again on Friday night I think? The lesson went SO well! And I invited him to be baptized (first time with a real investigator AH) and he said YESSSSS. AHHHH I LOVE MISSIONARY WORKKKKKK. We also picked up another investigator that day!

So Wednesday. Lol. Basically:  I was backing sis Kohler out on our way to VC shift. There was a big black truck parked behind us a ways back that isn't normally there. She was going pretty fast and wasn't looking, and I ended up pinned between the two cars. Haha this is hard to explain through words, but my elbow was against the truck, and my hand was flexed pushing against the back of the car. She was going 15mph or so. Crunch. Haha. Ouch. So we spent the rest of the morning in the ER! The doctors were saying they were amazed it didn't snap at least the one bone, but I know Heavenly Father was watching out for me! :) When I first got back into the little room thing, the nurse did some tests and stuff and then was like "umm... Be right back..." Then comes back with another doctor. Both of them leave and come back with a THIRD doctor, when they tell me "We need to relieve some of the pressure before you lose your fingers honey". THEN THEY LEAVE. EXCUSE ME WHAT. COME BACK PLEASE. So then I shed a couple tears, and we said a quick prayer. They came back, and the specialist doctor guy looked at my hand some more and then decided that I wouldn't lose my fingers, but they'd keep a close eye on it. So yay, I still have 10 fingers! Long story short, I have a fracture in my left distal radius, it cracked about half the bone. I've got some bad nerve damage (can't feel my thumb at all or the side of my pointer finger), and killer bruises, but I'm so blessed, it should've been a lot worse! It also wasn't displaced at all, so they didn't have to set it! #BLESSED. They splinted it and prescribed me codeine and big ibuprofen, so hooray! I'm getting it casted tomorrow morning at 9:50. Prolly a pink one haha, and I'll have that on for 4 weeks. I'm so blessed to have awesome senior couples and sister Cooke and everybody! I'm well taken care of haha. I'm on codeine and ibuprofen so I'm buenooo. So there's that! 

Friday morning we had sisters day, so all us sisters in the mission went to the temple and did sealings! That's the third time I've gone to the temple in the 3 weeks I've been here! Ah! It was so amazing. Haha sealings are my favorite, but they make me super trunky. Lolol. I promise I'm focused everybody hahaha.

We made hobo kits and put BOM's in them since there are so many homeless people here, but they've just turned into emergency snacks for us when we forget a meal for VC, or an emergency BOM for people we contact. Lol woop, all good things though, right? Hahaha.

Next week we're starting half day schedule at the VC, so we're there for 6 hours instead of 4. Which is kinda scary since it takes us an hour and half to get home because we're far and traffic. But the VC is like tithing! Heavenly Father knows we don't have much time in our area, so he blesses us with miracles (5 golden investigators, 3 of them in walking distance of our apartment!). I'm super pumped, I love the VC! I've already met Sister Smoot (the old general relief society president), and Ezra Taft Bensons daughter. I've also met a bunch of sisters from Lexi's mission (the Baltimore mission comes to the temple a lot, they all say hi and they love her a ton!). I also met a family that used to be in David and Rachel's ward, they were Spencer or Ryan's scout leaders or something? So cool! 

I love you all! Have a great week! 

Emily

**Warning** Graphic pictures---not for the faint of heart...

At the ER

A few days later

Favorite beenie

Sister Kolher feels SO bad

My meals... LOLLLL #nomoney

This morning. YUMMY.

Fractured wrist

 

Emily had a little mishap today while guiding her companion out of a parking spot.  She has a fractured radius and will be in a cast for 3-4 weeks.  She was VERY well taken care of!  Thank you to the Elders who came and gave her a priesthood blessing and Elder and Sister Kearl who looked after her and filled us in on what happened.  Last, but certainly not least, thank you to Sister Cooke for being her surrogate mom and taking good care of my baby!

 Elder Kearl (mission Dr) and the Elders who gave her a blessing

Week 2

Hey everybody! 

First, I can't believe we're finally redoing the floors! It looks so different! So excited to see it all done! 

So this week was bomb. Today we went to the mall again with sis Edwards and sis liou! Haha we were leaving the apartment and I realized I forgot my jacket, but everybody kept reassuring me that the sun would come out and it would be nice and warm and sunny. HA. HAHA. So we got to the city around 8:30. About 35 degrees. Super, super cloudy. No sun. Crazy wind. Walking around i was almost in tears I was so miserably cold. I ended up buying another hoodie cuz I was actually dying lol. Eventually the sun came out around 11:30, so hooray! Anyways, we saw the Washington, Lincoln, Korean War, FDR, Martin Luther and Jefferson! Super packed but it was way fun! I LOVE the city. The architecture here is incredible! You're all coming to get me so I can show you cuz pictures do SQUAT. OH, so this transfer they opened the city to sisters! There are 4 sisters serving there now I think! Praying I get to go there sometime in the next 17 months haha. I guess they don't sleep because there are sirens going all night lol. WOOP WOOP. 

So this week! We've had so many meetings and stuff, agh! But we've decided to start fresh in the area. The sister here before was in the area for 8 months and got stuck in a rut, so we don't have anybody progressing. So we're starting from scratch and I'm super pumped! We have one investigator (Shelley) that we're keeping. He agreed to be baptized last week, but doesn't want to set a date until after he comes to church. He was supposed to come yesterday but never showed up... *heartbreak*. Working on him! 

Last night we had "Why I Believe", which was amazing! Basically, all the missionaries bring their investigators and recent converts, and the recent converts bear their testimonies! We also have a main speaker, which was Senator Orin Hatch (senator pro temp), SO GOOD! It was such an incredible night. Everything is done by the recent converts so it's super powerful. We brought Miss Gene, who we ran into the other day checking on people! She loved it! We gave her a BoM and she's really excited to read it! She's such a sweet little lady! Excited for her!

Oh, and I got the best surprise of my life when ANNIE LAMBERT SHOWED UP AT THE VC. I just about cried I was so excited! ANNIE I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. AHHH. 

And Charity sent me the cutest card! I loved it so much! I love you charity! We got to go do baptisms and initiatory with all the sisters on Tuesday, and it was so cool. I did work for 2 sisters and UGH I MISS YOU. So pumped to go through with you when we get back! 

I love you all so much! I guess my funny captions and text on my pics last week for deleted when it sent, but my address is 

Sister Emily R Wilson

9759 Good Luck Rd #7

Lanham, MD (not sure the zip code but y'all have google lol)

Love you guys! Write me! :)

Emily

A few more pictures

Daylight Savings

Hey! 

Ok, there's SO much to say, and absolutely no time to say all of it! Basically, I'm in love with this place. My trainer is Sister Kolher (we were actually facebook friends before I came out! AH!) She's so cute! I love her so much! She reminds me a lot of Charity actually, haha she's so sweet and funny! We're allowed to listen to pretty much anything (minus radio lol), but we listen to movie soundtracks (jammed out to the Hobbit and Pirates the other day), Disney, Christian rock, everything! It's great! We jam to disney super hard in the car haha. Love her! We're serving in the Carrollton area right now, we live in Lanham. SO. PRETTY. I'm never leaving this place (not kidding though). I want to live on this coast so badly. I'm in love. AH. This is the best mission in the history of life!

So, I got here Tuesday and slept at the mission home (SO SO SO nice btw), ate breakfast with the Cookes on Wednesday, then we had transfer meeting yada yada, ANYWAYS. Thursday was a blizzard! We got snowed in for 2 days! It was nuts! We weren't allowed to drive our cars, so we had to stay inside. We room with 3 of the French sisters, so we spent the day doing puzzles and playing games. Super fun! Friday was mostly ice, so we couldn't drive, but we were able to go walk around and tract a bit! Taught a lesson to a family, it was fun! Saturday we got out! We had VC shift from 9-3:30, which I LOVED. Oh my gosh everybody. THE DC TEMPLE. It is the most beautiful, breathtaking building I've seen in my life. Tears. It's incredible!!! I love it! And I love being in the VC! I gave out a BoM to a girl, and it's just way fun there. Lol we met some Morrocan people and they tried to get us to date their son. It was super funny hahaha. 

Sunday was weird! By the time sacrament meeting started, there were 15 people in the chapel. And 9 of them were missionaries (yeah, we have 9 missionaries in the ward lol). It filled up a bit during the meeting, but man! It was such a shock! So different than at home! The ward needs some help haha, there are 400+ less actives! Nuts! It's exciting though! I'm ready to work!

Being a minority is SO weird.  The only white people I've seen have been missionaries and the bishopric. We went to ihop for dinner on Saturday night and everybody just stared cuz we were the only white people there. And somebody asked if we were nuns-I guess those are the only white people that usually come in hahaha. It's so different! I really love it though! We stand out for sure :) And I'm so grateful I'm speaking English, I can't even understand what people are saying now! It's plenty foreign enough for me! Hahaha!

Today we went to the national mall! IT WAS AMAZING. Seriously the coolest thing in the whole world. Tears. We rode the metro in, then went and saw the Washington Monument (tears), then walked to the Lincoln memorial (lots of tears)! You think you'd be used to everything after seeing it on TV so many times, but NUPE. It's AMAZING. The huge reflection pool was drained for the winter, so that was a bummer, but oh well. They're filling it back up soon I hope! :) We took all the pictures on the ipad, so I'll send those in a bit! :) Walking back to the metro we were feeling especially patriotic, so we bought a hotdog from a stand and bought a bunch of souvenirs. 'MERICA.

Ok, I love this place. There's way too much to say, but I know this is where I'm supposed to be! There's so much to do, I love all the different cultures, I love the weather, I love the city, I love everything! It's the perfect place for me. I'm so blessed to be here! :)

We're inviting on of our investigators to be baptized tonight, so say a prayer for us? :)

I get my ipad April 2nd, so pumped!

I'll send pictures after we go get some groceries and stuff! I love you all so much! Have the best week! 

Emily 

She's in DC

Here are some pictures from Emily's arrival to DC

(courtesy of the mission blog)

Fresh off the plane at Reagan National Airport

 

 

President Cooke telling our plans for the evening,
including how to talk to people on the DC Metro

 On the Metro!

 

LOOK AT US… crammed into the Metro elevator at the Forest Glen station at the end of their first mass transit experience in the great Washington DC area!
 

Emerging from the underground metro

 Arrival at the Temple Visitors' Center

 

Next morning's breakfast at the Mission Home