Transfer 5

It's been a LONG week! Last week feels like months ago. WHEW.

SO. I guess the big news is that I've started my 5th transfer! Which is absolutely insane, I just got here. Time FLIES. It's scary. Also it's almost September, and June just barely started. ACK. For those of you that don't know, fall is a real thing. Trees really do turn colors, and leaves really do fall down. It's not just a painting. It's the real deal. And it's BEAUTIFUL. I'm already in love, and apparently it hasn't even started yet. Get pumped.

So, this past week has been a long one. I was sick again, which is always stinky. We had something to do though, even though we don't have anybody to teach. Since the temple is closed, all the temple missionaries get sent into various wards around here to serve until it reopens. We got 2 of those couples, the Lewis's and the Hallinghause's. They're so cute! Bishop put together a big list of people that we don't know that we need to find. We got together with the senior couples and the elders and divvied that up, and we've been checking on all of them! We've only gotten ahold of one lady (who wasn't very happy that the church was calling, OOPS), but it's really nice to have something to do. We've been street contacting around those places as we're checking on people, it's nice!

Last Tuesday we went and ate with a member of the bishopric and his family (they're wonderful), and they insisted on giving the closing prayer and blessing us that we would be able to find somebody to teach. It was great. So we walk out of their house and start our street contacting for the night, and GUESS WHAT HAPPENED. We said hi to a guy, and HE STOPPED. We started talking to him (Jorge), he's from Peru, but went to UVU and has a ton of Mormon friends. He went to Temple Square all the time, and went to church with his friends there. So we invited him to learn more, and HE SAID YES. AND GAVE US HIS INFORMATION. We smiled bigger than we've ever smiled before for the rest of the night and just about cried. It was a huge miracle. Except that he hasn't returned any of our calls/texts in the last week, so... It was a huge miracle at the time, haha. Other than that we haven't had any more success finding people to teach. We met with a couple less-actives this week, and everybody has the CUTEST dogs. I love it.

One thing I've been hearing a lot in conference talks and from Elder Perkins yesterday is that it really is the members responsibility to find people for the missionaries to teach. "If the missionaries don't have anyone to teach, it is the fault of the members." Missionaries are called to teach, members are called to find. So, if the missionaries in the ward you're in don't have anybody to teach, PRAY HARDER! Missionaries can't be missionaries if members don't give them referrals. EVERY MEMBER A MISSIONARY. Pray harder about people that you know that are prepared. They're out there, I promise. But we all have to do our part to find them. That's my little rant about member missionaries. They're the most wonderful people on the planet (right next to moms).

Yesterday was zone conference, and we had Elder Perkins from the Seventy come. It was SO COOL. So much wisdom crammed into my brain. He started the meeting by talked about how we make every meeting a "revelatory experience", and how we receive revelation. He had each of us write down 2 questions, a proselyting-related question and a personal question. When we go into a meeting without "asking, seeking, and knocking", we are being objects, subject to being acted upon. We were created to ACT, and if we want answers, we need to ACT. So here's my challenge for all of you! This coming Sunday, write down one question that you have. Then seek out an answer to that question as church goes on. It's amazing to see it work!  

Been a long week, but a good one. It's always a good week when you talk with a Seventy. He was AMAZING. I love the Lord, and I love his church. More peace and joy come from living the commandments and serving God than anywhere else! I love what I'm doing, even though it's hard. I love Jesus Christ with all my heart, and I love the Book of Mormon. I've received more strength and revelation through that Book than anywhere else since being here. It's TRUE! Read it, pray about it, and get to church. Answers and blessings are waiting for you there.

I love you all!!

Sister Wilson 

Also I think today was the first day of school or something and all
the moms were walking their kids to school and I was just like "MAN
MOMS ARE THE BEST." You're the best and I love you a lot. ❤️

 FIRST BAJA BLAST FREEZE IN 6 MONTHS. GLORY GLORY HALLELUUJAH.

 #DCVC

 Goodbye to Greer <\3

 So many people live in DC they have to use 1/2's to make enough living space. Living in an anthill.

 Our roomies are super messy and we always clean so we hid all the dishes. Stinkers. They still don't know...

 One time we were checking on a referral and walked a few miles to get there and it was a stinking church facility. So. DC

 Found a Pegasus

 Super bad quality but Roosevelt building

 Checking on a former by the White House. Rad.

Bogus and Boogers

So this week has been totally bogus. It started out on a good note when we had dinner with the Cannon's, one of our favorite families in the ward. They're SO funny and their daughter is adorable. We love going over to their place! Brother Cannon served in Russia so we got to hear lots of good stories. Hahaha. After that, we went out street contacting for the next 2 hours. While we were walking, we had the impression to go into this little park place, and after a little hesitation, we went in. And guess who we ran into? BOYE! The Ethiopian man we contacted over a month ago! We passed him to the Amharic elders a couple weeks ago, but it was so cool running into him again. He ended up talking at us for the next hour, telling us his ENTIRE life story. He's great haha. He invited us to the Ethiopian embassy, which we were super bummed to have missed. Brings me to my next point... Being sick as a missionary is the WORST. Being comps with a sick companion is even worse. It started with me on Tuesday when I got this killer earache and headache. I felt like total garbage so I went down to the lounge during shift and tried sleeping it off after taking copious amounts of Tylenol pm. 

The next day I was feeling a bit better, but Sister Williams was starting to feel bad. We had dinner with the Ellis family (LOOOOOOOOOVE THEM, they're the best), and it was so fun! We played a card game with them after and cracked jokes all night, it was a riot. I love them so much!! That night we met with Kimberly again, the Cooke's came again which was great! I love them a ton. It was a great lesson until we found out that she is moving back to Colorado next Wednesday. Our one investigator that we have is moving across the country. So that's stinky. But she's happy and it's right for her, and she already looked up the address for her new Ward there. We're going to contact the missionaries there and let them know she's coming, so she'll be ok. Just a huge bummer that we won't be able to continue teaching her and see her progress. Prayers for her! She came to church yesterday and then to Why I Believe and loved all of it. She's so great, argh!! Love her. 

By Thursday Sister Williams was feeling really sick. Friday was even worse, and it's just gone downhill from there. We're both really sick right now, so we haven't been able to do much at all, which is awful. Being sick stinks. Long story short it hasn't been the best of weeks. People in DC are rude and prideful and nobody will listen to us. Our one investigator is leaving. The temple is closed so the VC is beyond dead. My online teaching pool is dead too. #missionlife. 

On a happier note, sister Willums and I are staying together in Chevy Chase next transfer! WOOOOOOOOOO. SO PUMPED. I LOVE this area, I could stay here forever. Love love loooveeee. Why I Believe was last night and it was great. I made yummy beef stew and banana bread one of the nights we were in sick. First time cooking in how many months now..? WOOP. 

Better weeks are coming! I love you all so much! 

Sister Wilson 

 

 five guys because it's been a hard week

 "Look at my bun." -Willums

 Sometimes I'm tempted to SC (street contact) the spiders because I feel like they're more likely to listen to us than the people.

 More SC (DC is actually beautiful and I love it here a whole lot)

#DCVCPRIDE

6 MONTHS

Ok, my 6 month mark is tomorrow and I'm freaking out because I just barely got here. There's no way I'm already 1/3 done, that's a bunch of bogus. I'm staying here forever, sorry.

Fun little fact before I get started-for those of you out there in Phoenix, you know Bishop Allen of the new Desert Ridge Ward? Yeah, his brother is in the bishopric of the Ward I'm serving in right now! We had dinner with him and his family this week (he's hilarious) and we figured it all out! Small world, right? Haha.

Also, remember the pictures I sent home a couple weeks ago of the silverfish poking out from behind the paper towel dispensers of the church? I'll send pictures again this week. Anyways, our apartment was infested with them. We started finding them all over the place, crawling over the ceilings, hiding behind cracks, everywhere. So we spent a good 2+ hours deep cleaning the apartment and vacuuming up as many as we could find. Then some guy came and sprayed the place down and we haven't seen any since! I'm kind of bummed that they didn't just close the whole place down, oh well. So that was the grossest thing that's ever happened before.

Anyways, this week has had some ups and a lot of downs. Been one of those weeks! We had 1 lesson this week with Cynthia, and finally started the actual new member lessons. The rest of the week was spent street contacting and calling formers. Lots and lots of walking. Talked to almost 200 people on the streets and got 0 information or return appointments. Gotta love DC. Friday morning we had a youth tour, but they were turds and it was really bad. Didn't go well at all. Note to youth: LISTEN WHEN SOMEBODY IS TALKING TO YOU. PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN FOR 2 SECONDS AND STOP TALKING. It was really frustrating. Then, the trainers disappeared and there was this huge tour that hasn't been assigned, so one of the senior couples assigned it to us. Right after we had finished this really bad youth tour. I had a pretty bad attitude about it while we hurried and planned for it, but once it started it was great. Definitely a tender mercy that we got that tour haha it's just what we needed to brighten our day. After shift we went and got dr pepper because life. We didn't have any appointments this week so we were going street contacting, which we weren't excited about either. So we decided to go contact on the Mall! And it was so fun. That was the first time I've been there at night and it was GORGEOUS. I love DC. Everybody there was a tourist, so we invited lots of people to the VC haha. It was fun.

We street contacted all day Saturday too (not at the Mall), and called a ton of formers. LONG WEEK. BUT THEN GUESS WHERE WE WENT. GUESS. WE WENT TO THE NATS GAME. OH MY GOOOSSSHHHHH IT WAS SO STINKING FUN. Sister Williams and I both lost our voices, worth it. They played the Rockies and won 7-1 I think. So rad. Bought a hat and a hot dog and a pretzel and a souvenir cup. Because 'Murica. I'll just send you all a bunch of pictures because that sums it all up pretty well.

Been a rad week, lots of contacting. Nats game was a win. Love you all a lot.

Much love, Sister Wilson

OH haha one more little story. While contacting this week, I went to talk to some lady at a bus stop. I walked up to her, and just as I started to say hi, she SCREAMS and yells "GET AWAY FROM ME".... "YOU LOOK RIDICULOUS"... And other profanities. It was a riot. Persecution is real. Hahaha. DC.

 Geeking out over these algae blooms #botanisttobe

 Good morning friend

 More contacting #chevychase

 Contacting

 More contacting

NATS NATS NATS

 Most of our district (minus 2 companionships)

 GEORGE

 SORRY SO MANY PICS- BEAR WITH ME

 NATS

 NATS

 Wathen, Willums, Wilson, Wilson NATS

 ROCKVILLE DISTRICT FOR THE WIN

 I wish this pic actually worked so you could see the skyline but oh well

 

Temple rad as always

Curry, waffles, chicken nuggets, omelet, ramen

So now that you know what I've eaten this week. 3 of the 5 of those were member meals. Can you guess which ones? Haha.

This week started on a good note when we WENT TO NIMI'S HOUSE. For those of you that don't know who Nimi is, let me tell you a little bit about him. Born in Thailand, but he's been here since he was 2-3. He's been meeting with missionaries since last October/November. He's had about 100 bdates.  ANYWAYS. So the missionaries have always met him at the church, nobody has ever been to his house before. He didn't even know that we knew his address (threw a little fit when he found out we've had it for months, lol). On Monday, he had his wisdom teeth out. And he was drugged up. And he called us. And INVITED US OVER. TO HIS HOUSE. So off we ran over there as fast as we could before he changed his mind. Just kidding we drove. And we couldn't speed because Tiwi. But anyways, we got there and brought him Popsicles and yogurt. Yum. He lives with his dad and brother (neither are very fond of Mormons so we were scared to death), so we couldn't go inside, but we went out back and talked with him there. We met his dogs, Connie and Elvis. Way cute. Then his brother Saquan came out. He's HUGE. Complete 180 of Nimi. I was dying. We've gone over there twice this week. Making history over here, folks.

We met with Kimberly again this week, and she's SO COOL. She went to Eddie Murphy's wedding. SO COOL. Haha I love her so much. She's so sweet and so sincere. We taught her the plan of salvation and invited her to pray about baptism on August 22nd. She's the best example of following Gods will for her over her own, and has done some really incredible things to show her dedication to Him. Praying for her a lot! Such an amazing lady. Love her.

On Saturday, the mission had our recent convert temple trip, and we brought Cynthia! It was so amazing being in the temple with so many new converts. They all got to do baptisms, which was great. I love the temple!!

Also, this week was harry potter's birthday. We wrote him a song, it was so rad. He's like 46 now or something.  

We had a super awesome youth tour this week too! I think they were from Pennsylvania? Maybe? Anyways, they were awesome. My favorite thing in the world is the Because He Lives exhibit. I'm not sure if I ever actually told any of you what that exhibit is, so I guess that would be good. The whole room is about Jesus Christ. You walk in, and there are panels hung on the walls, with pictures taken from the Bible videos. Each one is accompanied with a scripture from the bible that talks about what's happening. The panels start at the birth of Christ and go all through his life, death, resurrection, and appearance to the nephites (the last panel is him appearing to them, the only scripture from the BOM!). After the panel about the atonement, we play the because he lives video. ITS SO COOL. That description was pretty lame but I'm really praying that they make this a permanent exhibit in the VC so I can take you all through it so you can see how cool it is. It's the best. As soon as you close the doors behind you the spirit is just buzzing. We walk around the room with whoever is with us, and teach as we go. Then we sit down and talk about the atonement. Then we play the video. After the video, we testify and sister Wilson cries all over the place. Then we talk and teach some more. BOOM. It's my favorite place ever. I love it. It's powerful enough as is, but when we're with a youth group it's INCREDIBLE. The Lord loves his youth a whole lot. Shoot, he loves all of you a whole lot. Don't ever forget that. And if you think you're starting to forget, talk to me and I'll remind you. GOD LOVES YOU.

One thing I've been learning over the past 6 months is the change that comes through the atonement.  Before the mission, I knew what the atonement was at a very basic level, and I thought I had a testimony of it. HA. Then, when Charity left on her mission, she would always talk about the "power" that the atonement has, and how when we "rely on the atonement", everything works out. I didn't get it, and it really bothered me for a long time. How do you rely on the "power" of the atonement? What does that even mean? I had no idea, and still don't claim to understand it fully. But it's been so amazing to see the change that has happened as I've humbled myself and brought my weaknesses to the Lord. Ether 12:27- "...if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I GIVE unto men weakness that they may be humble... If they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." That's been the theme of my mission thus far haha. Although I didn't understand the atonement, and still don't understand it fully, I knew that somehow it was supposed to change me. So I did what Ether directed and came to the Lord about it. And he has definitely been showing me my weaknesses, haha. As I've humbled myself (an eternal struggle for me I think) and come to Him, He has shown me the things that have been holding me back. As I continue to humble myself, repent, and pray for divine help, the atonement somehow comes in. I don't know how it's been working, but it has. It has somehow softened my hard heart and changed the desires of it. A few months ago I had an experience that was as close to a "mighty change of heart" as I could get, and it's been a crazy adventure since then. I'll let you know when I figure out how this is all working, haha. For now, I just want you all to know how much I LOVE Jesus Christ. He is REAL. He loves you PERFECTLY. The atonement is real and powerful. Change happens, and it's a good thing. Be humble. God is always right, and His plans are always better. Be happy. God loves you. 

I absolutely love being a missionary!! Life is good. 

Love you all,

Sister Wilson

 

 Temple with Cynthia! What a cutie.

 Temple looking rad as always

 Happy bitdae Harry.

 I LOVE DC

 Nimi came and surprised us at the VC then fell asleep in the BOM kiosk. What a nut.

 BBQ with Kimberly last week!

Embassies on embassies on embassies. #dc