Daylight Savings, part 2

This week has been super weird and pretty ineffective! We only had a small handful of hours in our area, so lessons didn't happen. We were able to go to the temple twice, and had some cool miracles. 

Tuesday we had an awesome ZDM all about the atonement and how we use it. That night, after having dinner with the Cannons, we went and visited Ximena, a less-active that we've been working with, and were able to have a super powerful lesson about the atonement with her. Being able to share personal stories about the atonement brings the spirit so quickly and so powerfully. It was awesome! 

Wednesday morning the sisters had our baptism trip to the temple. Sister Garrison brought family names, so we were able to pop up and do some initiatories for them after we finished baptisms! I LOVE the temple, and I'm beyond blessed to be serving so close to one and able to attend so frequently. Sister So and I were able to go to the temple again on Saturday morning for a recent-convert baptism trip! We took Carrie Lee Schults, a sweet Phillipino lady that got baptized in January that we're also working with. She's been wanting to go for so long, and it was so sweet being there with her! I love the temple! It truly is the Lord's house, and inside is where we can find the greatest peace in this world. Being able to serve at the Visitors Center and teach people about the blessings and peace inside is the greatest mission in the world! I'm so blessed, and I love my mission! 

So, a few weeks ago, Elder Fowler pulled Sister So and I and two other companionships aside, and told us that Salt Lake was coming out to film a video about the Visitors Center, and they had chosen us to be in it (We all have foreign companions, lol). They told us to be there early on Thursday and Friday for filming, and to "dress like the prophet is coming" (heh, it's funny cuz Prez Nelson is ACTUALLY COMING. more later.). So we get there early on Thursday morning, expecting a couple guys with a handheld camera. NUPE. We walk inside, and see that most of the furniture has been moved around to accommodate the cameras, lights, ladders, and who knows what else. Not to mention the giant film crew, make up/hair lady, and the actor that played Jesus. His name is John Foss, he's the coolest haha. A bit shocking! We spent the next 2 days at the VC "filming" (mostly sitting around waiting to do something). It was a bit of a pain, the whole VC basically shut down for 2 days, they actually locked the doors at one point lol. It's a big bummer when 2 awesome nonmembers come in, and as you're quietly teaching them about the Book of Mormon, a camera guy comes around and says, "Can you please be quiet, we're filming a movie!" Bummer. They got us really good catered lunch and snacks though, so it all worked out haha. 

Friday night after we finished filming, we went to our wards Halloween party. We combined with DC 3rd and the Spanish branch, and it was super fun. Chevy Chase definitely had the best costumes. #winning. On Saturday, we had shift right after we took Carrie to the temple. After shift, the senior couples got us Costco pizza and snowies and we had a little party! We had to be in by 5, so we headed home after ward correlation and made pumpkin bars with our roomies. Such a fun night! 

Yesterday, only Nimi came to church, but Ed came to a FHE at the mission home with us! It was so fun, there were tons of people there, they had a short lesson, we played a game, then had dessert. He loved it! This week we're actually going to meet with him and teach him so he can actually be baptized haha. He's so solid!! We're so excited for him! 

That's our mediocre week! It was pretty bad as far as actual proselyting goes, but this week will be so much better. I love this area, and I love Sister So! I can't believe that my 9 month mark is next week, and that I'll be halfway done. Time has gone SO quickly! I've had ups and lots of downs, but I absolutely love what I'm doing. I'm so grateful for the challenges that we go through, they bring us so much closer to the savior than we could ever get without them. The atonement really is powerful, and it has carried me through the most difficult times. God hears and answers prayers. Being a missionary is the most rewarding experience! I love God a whole lot, and I can't express how grateful I am to be doing what I'm doing! I love you all! 

衛愛兒

Carrie and I after baptisms on Saturday. SHES SO CUTE. 

#halloween2k15

Jeff Foss (fr those of you that don't believe he played Jesus in the Bible videos)

 

Us with the main crew. 

 

 

Lights, check. Camera, check.

 

 We're basically famous now, right? 

 My favs

 Coming to you live from the Kennedy Center! 

 SHAKE SHACK LIVE!

Sister Harper visited from AZ <3

 

Temple! 

 

 THE HOMELAND.

奇蹟！

你好! Hello! 

It's been an AWESOME week. I can't believe I just started my 6 transfer. My halfway mark is in less than 6 weeks. WHAT. That's absolutely NUTS. Time flies! This week has been great though, and our area is picking up! Also, you may be wondering why I'm so fluent in Mandarin all of a sudden. My new companion is Sister So! She's from Hong Kong, and she's the cutest, most wonderful person on this planet. She's been out for 5 months I think, but knows very little English, so President put her with me so I can teach her! It's awesome! And hard. English is hard to teach haha. But it's so awesome! And she's super diligent so it's great. She's the sweetest, most Christlike person ever, and she's super passionate about the gospel! I love her a ton!! She's been teaching me Mandarin which I LOVE. It's great. 

Ok, this week was full of miracles! The first one was on Wednesday at the VC. Every month, we set a goal for how many baptisms we want to get. Someday we want to be getting 30 a month (one a day), but for now our goal has been around 12. This month we prayed, set our goal for 15, and then started the month with a VC fast to reach our goal. On Wednesday (the last day of the month) we only had 10 baptisms. One of the VC sisters that has been full-pros came back in this transfer and found out Wednesday afternoon that one of the people she was working with before she left had gotten baptized. WOO up to 11! But still 4 short of our goal by the time we got there at 3:30. We were determined to reach our goal, especially since Sister So is Chinese and we have a huge stack of Chinese investigators that haven't been called in months because none of us speak Chinese. We had a ton of faith! We knew that we had set our goal of 15 baptisms prayerfully, and we had been working hard to reach that goal. At around 7:30 (an hour and a half before we close), we still only had 11 baptisms, so we decided to say a prayer. All of us sisters knelt in the calling room and said a prayer together, asking Heavenly Father to help us find those 4 that had been baptized, and that we would know who to call and (most importantly) that if they had been baptized, that they would answer their phones so we could know. It was an awesome prayer, we were all super pumped and determined to find our 4! We got back on the computers, and started calling people. I had the impression to call Eddie, a guy that I've been working with for some time now but hasn't answered the phone for a month or so. He was the first person I called. And he ANSWERED. We talked a little bit, he said things were going super great with the missionaries. I asked if they had talked to him about baptism yet, and he said "Um, yeah, mine was like 2 weeks ago..." "Im sorry YOUR WHAT WAS 2 WEEKS AGO?!" "My baptism..." This was not even 2 minutes after we said "amen" to our kneeling prayer. We were at 12 baptisms. #MIRACLES. Luckily there wasn't anybody at the VC so we all ran around screaming and crying. Miracles are so real. About 5 minutes after that we hear Sister Simpson freaking out. One of the people she has been trying to get ahold of answered, and he got baptized a few days earlier. 13. Sister Cain found another. 14. We're all crying. Literally freaking out. We needed ONE. MORE. BAPTISM. So many prayers at this point. I've never seen our calling room so busy or so loud. It. Was. Crazy. Then we hear Sister Amparo and Urbina freaking out. They had just found another. We. Met. Our. Goal. Tears and screams and hugs and jumping and running and SO much excitement. In the middle of our jubilation, Elder Oliver, one of the senior couple missionaries, suggested that we go say a prayer of gratitude. We all knelt in the call room again and offered another prayer of gratitude. So much Spirit is happening right now. It's 8:30 or so at this point. After a few minutes, we hear Amparo and Urbina freaking out again. They had just called a family that they had been working with, and found out that 3 OF THEM had been baptized. 15+3=? I'll let you do the math. Just kidding. We had 18 BAPTISMS. 1.8. That's the most our VC has ever had I think. It was incredible. For the entire year of 2014, the Washington DC Temple Visitors Center had reported 8 convert baptisms. This year we've reported 98. You guys prayers are so real. God is real. Prayers are answered. Prayerfully set goals WILL be reached if you prayerfully work for them. That night was probably one of the most powerful answers to prayers I've ever seen. It was a huge, huge miracle. I LOVE being a missionary! 

The miracles weren't just in the VC though, we had miracles in our area too! Sister So LOVES being in the English program, and she's super excited about our area, it's been awesome! Friday night we went to see Dottie. She found out just before we got there that her sister had passed away. We ate dinner with her, and while we ate we were able to teach her about the plan of salvation and eternal families. Her family situation in this life has been really bad, so she loves the idea of being able to improve those relationships in the next life! She kept talking about how much she wanted a change, a fresh start, new beliefs, etc (BAPTISMMMM). She loves the church and tells everyone she meets that 1. "These are some Mormon nuns! And 2. "I'm thinking about becoming a Mormon." It's awesome. She's so great! Just as we were about to invite her to be baptized, her friend came over and started talking to us. Her friend was from China and doesn't speak English. Good thing Sister So speaks Mandarin and Cantonese, right? WOAH IT WAS COOL. Dottie's friend was so excited to have another Chinese speaker that she sat down and they talked forever! Sister So taught her the restoration and plan of salvation apparently. While she was doing that, I was still teaching Dottie. Then, Dottie's other friend Bruce came over and started talking with us. I was able to teach him all about prophets and priesthood and church organization and a few controversial topics. It was so cool though!! We were there for like 2 hours teaching all these people different lessons all at the same time. It's not something that I want to do again (it was crazy), but it was so cool! Dottie is going to get baptized, just as soon as we are able to actually teach HER and invite her. WOOO. 

Saturday night we had dinner and a lesson with Nahida at the Lindsay's house. It was so good. Nahida made some yummy lentil middle eastern food something. She's awesome. Then we were able to teach her the restoration and some of the plan of salvation. She doesn't have any religious background/beliefs at all, so it was super cool! She was super open to everything that we taught, and she has a sincere desire to know if what we said is true. She's so cool!! And Sister Lindsay is such an awesome member missionary!! Member missionaries are the best humans on this planet. If you're not being a member missionary, repent! Haha. We taught 4 lessons this week. It was amazing!!! #MIRACLES.

It's been an awesome week. I love Sister So and I'm so grateful for this week! The past few transfers have been a huge struggle, but prayers are answered! All those prayers and fasts that we had for our area are being answered. Prayers ARE heard and answered. Even when it seems like you're talking to thin air and God doesn't talk back, I promise that He does. It may not be in the time of fashion that you want, but He does answer. He knows you, He loves you, and He wants you to come back and live with Him. Keep the faith, things will work out. 

Also, how good was Conference? Better than Christmas almost. Best weekend of the year. The Church is so true. 

I love you all! 

衛愛兒

OH MY GOSH I FORGOT ONE MORE THING. President called us on Saturday night to tell us that Senator Orin Hatch called him and gave him a referral that's in our area. This Saturday, we get to teach Orin Hatch's friend. With Senator Orin Hatch, President, and Sister Cooke as member presents. So. I mean no pressure, right? #onlyindc

 DC zone!
 

Rockville district! (Missing 2 people)

 Stripes on stripes on stripes

 Bye bye Willums *heartbreak*
 
Last selfie *heartbreakkk*

 18. BAPTISMS. #MIIIRACLES.

 Sister So!

 More So!

 She makes me Chinese food. This was some kind of GIANT Japanese noodle, hairy mushroom, and hot dog stir fry. Yum haha. 

 FALL. 

 Look who came over last night! OH how I miss her. My fav. <3

Moving

This week has been totally nuts. I'll start with the not so nuts part of it. Transfers are on Wednesday, I'm staying here in Chevy Chase and Willums is leaving! Sad, but I'm excited for a change. Also, we had an actual lesson this week! We went over to Dottie's place last night and taught her all about the Book of Mormon and church. She was super close to being baptized the last time missionaries taught her, but then she fell and ended up in the hospital and they lost contact. So we see lots of potential there! YAAAES. 

Ok, on to the crazies. Wednesday or Thursday night (all the days blend together) we got a call from the zone leaders telling us that we were being evicted. Sort of. Those apartments were super awful haha so they cut the lease and moved us out. In like 2 days. They told us that we were moving to Bethesda with Sister Wathen & Cain, and that we had to be out by Saturday. WHAT. So, we spent all day Friday packing and cleaning. Saturday morning a whole herd of elders came over (elders in the apartment is the weirdest thing EVER) to move our furniture out. Then they left to go move some other sisters or something. Our roommates were at the VC, so Willums and I spent ALL. DAY. cleaning and packing and cleaning and moving and AGH. It was nuts. Our new apartment is a hundred times better though. Worth it.

Another crazy: sisters aren't allowed to be out after 6:30pm anymore unless we have set appointments that we can drive to and go straight in. We have to be in the apartment by the time the sun goes down until November 1st, then we have to be in at 6:30. WHAT. So that's SUPER crazy. We'll either be doing studies or online proselyting during those hours now. So weird. 

Women's conference was great as always! I'm SOOOO beyond pumped for conference. 3 new apostles haven't been called for just over 100 years. NUTS. The Lord is hastening His work on both sides of the veil! 

Well, sorry this is pretty short and lame. It's been a crazy, long week! I love you all! 

Sister Wilson 

 Dinner with Emily at Cityburger -- SO GOOD

 Before

 After

 After

 The presidents - so cool!

 Harry Reid

 The lamest people in the whole world. Smart cars are the WORST.

Roach killer 💀

This week has been way better than others. First and foremost, we found someone to teach! Kind of. I'll get to that later. On Tuesday Williams and I gave a workshop for all the new missionaries and it was SO FUN. We played jeopardy. It was awesome. It was all about the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion. Super fun! We also had interviews that day which are always awesome. President Cooke is the best person I've met ever. I love that guy. Oh boy. That was great.

On Wednesday, the Latvian ambassador came to the VC. Sister Williams accompanied Sister Sundwall who sang "Glorious" and "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again". Sister Capson and I went on exchanges that night while they performed! She's brand new and hasn't been to the Mall yet, so we met up with the DC2 sisters and went contacting down there! It was super fun. We met a couple cool people, one of them was a Brazillian man that's been living in Minnesota. Turns out he plays soccer with a ton of LDS people every Saturday, and one of them served in Brazil and is fluent in Portuguese! He's been teaching him a lot about the church and everything. This guy was so solid! We taught him the first lesson and gave him a BOM. Then, an hour or so later when we were getting on the metro, this same guy found us again! He was getting on the same train as us. He was so cute, he was so excited about his Book of Mormon! "Sisters! I was just about to sit down and start reading this book, and then I saw you!" He was so cool! We taught him a lot more on the ride home. He's going to get baptized someday for sure. Driving back to the VC from the metro, some giant spider made its way INSIDE our car. After several "check your speed"s and an "aggressive driving" or two from Tiwi, we killed the thing and made it there safely. East coast bugs don't mess around. More on that later. 

 Thursday we went over to visit Bernice, an 86 year old Nigerian lady in our ward. The same one that we ate lunch with in the cafeteria of her retirement home. She's SO CUTE. We had lunch with her again and met her friend Dottie! Dottie is 75 or so and has met with quite a few missionaries in the past. We talked to her a lot about that and set up another appointment with her! She still has all the materials that the missionaries left and studies them a lot. She's super Catholic, but loves our church and almost got baptized before her family stepped in. She has a lot of potential so we're excited to work with her! We had another appointment with her Saturday night, and we helped her with some family history (I'm starting to like family history, yikes). 10 of her 12 siblings have passed away along with both of her parents, so family history is super exciting for her! Back to Bernice. Our mission is doing a big push on doing service right now, so we went over to put together a big bookshelf for Bernice. It started off really well! After we we were about 95% done, we were looking at it and something didn't look right. The bottom piece of the bookshelf was upside down. A total 180 of what it was supposed to be. Flipped the wrong way. No Bueno. We had to totally undo everything and start over. Which would've been pretty simple had the entire thing not been nailed together with nails. Little, tiny, 1" nails. Not screws. Nails. It was such a pain. What should have taken us an hour took us almost 3. It was nuts. We were an hour late to shift. Crazy. It was so stinking funny haha. 

Saturday we met with Dottie again. She's great. I have so much faith her! Sunday was nuts haha it was awesome! Ward council is always a riot, this ward is hilarious. It was just a solid Sunday. We left shift a few minutes early to get to the Ellis's house for dinner! Oh my gosh I love them. Favorite family ever. They're SO AWESOME. They also invited Cynthia, Berta, Robin, a family from Virginia, and one of the mid-singles too. It was so much fun! Then we all headed back to the VC for Why I Believe, which was also awesome. John and Hannah Smith spoke, he was the head lawyer for homelands security for Prez Bush or something. Super great. Willums and Sundwall performed again because they're amazing and so talented. It was just a good day. One of Willums friends from back home came in to the VC that afternoon, and her aunt and uncle that live in Virginia came for why I believe. Crazy! Seeing people from home is weird (not that I've seen anybody, I've seen like 2 people lol). It's a totally different world though! I've decided that I'm just going to go by Sister Wilson forever, i like that much better than Emily. Haha. So weird! Being a missionary is the best ever and I love it so, so much. It's the best thing ever. I love Jesus Christ and I love His work. Prayers are answered, and a lot of answers come through the Book of Mormon. The Church is super true. I love it! 

Love you all!

Sister Wilson 

OH so the roach story. So you know how our apartment is already infested with silverfish? Yeah, nasty. Well, we have roaches now too. This week I killed the first cockroach of my life. And I didn't cry or anything. DC is nasty. East coast bugs are nasty. Ew.

 East coast bugs are NO JOKE

 Ellis family! MY HEART AGH

 Bryce and Tyce!

 

We woke up early this morning to go take some pictures (Willums does photography but hasn't taken pics since she's been here so we went out this morning!) we got to the spot and realized the camera was dead lol  The one pic that turned out.

 The Gillespies went home this week (heartbreak UGHH).

  We all got a hug from Elder Gillespie and it was amazing. Everyone cried.

 Jeopardy!

 LOLLLL

 Exchanges with sister Capson!

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly... Literally.

It's been an eventful week over here in Washington DC. The Gillespies are going home in 2 days (ACK HEARTBREAK) so we had a little goodbye party for them at the VC on Monday. On Tuesday we had zone district meeting and then went to Simpson & Klaass's apartment for lunch. They. Are. So. Fancy. More about that later. 

Tuesday night I was on exchanges with Sister Amparo, it was super fun. An adventure for sure. We had dinner with the Cannon family, they're the best! Oh man I love them a lot haha. They're so cute. We street contacted for the rest of the night and it was awesome! We talked with SO MANY PEOPLE! Amparo is so stinking good at talking with people it's nuts. We taught a stinking ton of street lessons and got some peoples information! So cool! Our new investigator is a homeless man that told us all about how he's running from the law and has done some pretty shady stuff. So. WOOP. That'll be fun. We met quite a few personalities that night. One of those personalities decided to fly RIGHT into my esophagus in the middle of a lesson. We had just stopped this man and started talking with him. At the exact moment that I opened my mouth to say something, a small, flying creature flew into and lodged itself right behind my tonsil. I started gagging, and the only thing I could think to say was, "Holy crap, I just ate a bug." The man looked at me and just said "....that's really gross...". Luckily it wasn't gross enough to scare him away. Amparo kept talking to him while I silently freaked out that this bug was still alive, moving around behind my tonsil. He wasn't the typical bug that flies in your mouth and dies. Nope. This guy fought for his life, he wasn't going down without a fight. Within the course of this short conversation with this man, the bug crawled/flew behind both of my tonsils, up into my sinus, down my throat, and back up my throat. Eventually, after chugging my entire water bottle, he got washed down my throat and stayed there. Probably the nastiest thing of my life. Lolllll. 

On Thursday we had an awesome lesson in the VC with a couple ladies from Anacostia. They asked lots of deep doctrine questions so I looooved it. It was rad. Friday we weren't allowed to be in our area since we're in DC and it was 9/11. Also my 7 month mark, woah. We had training meeting in the morning (Gillespies had their departing testimonies), and then went over to Sister Amparo and Urbina's apartment (same ones Simpy and Klaass live in.) They're called the Safeway towers, and they're beyond fancy. Brand. new. And they live on the 17th floor. SO. FANCY. The guy that build them is the temple president so he gave the mission a good deal on them, so now there are like 15 companionships living in these beyond fancy apartments. It's ridiculous. We're over here putting sheets in our vents to keep the smoke out and battling silverfish daily. Oh well, there are missionaries in South America sleeping in grass huts on dirt floors. #gratitude.

Saturday morning, our zone went down to the Nats stadium to volunteer for a blind 5k. (no, not a run for the blind, these were blind people running). Getting there was quite the adventure! For those of you that haven't driven in Maryland/DC before, it's awful. If you make a wrong turn, you can't flip around and get back on track, the road will be a one-way freeway that will take you 8 miles before there's another exit that takes you even farther off track. It's crazy. So, we re on our way to the stadium and everything was going really well. And then all of a sudden we were crossing the Potomac (not our mission). And then we were passing the Pentagon (not our mission). We got all the way to Arlington cemetery before we found a place to pull over and figure out where in the heck we were haha. Simpy called the AP's. "So, we have a bit of a problem. We just passed the Pentagon." HAHA. Eventually we found our way back to the freeway and made our way back to our mission. We missed another exit and ended up in Anacostia. We got to the stadium eventually and it was rad. Stinkin DC. Hahahaa. 

It's been a great week! Being a missionary here is the best. It's hard, but so rewarding. I love this country, and I love the Lord! 

Love you all! 

Sister Wilson

 Zone activity today! Played beach volleyball, SO FUN. Potomac. Edge of the mish.

 ITS FALL

 NATS NATS NATS

 View from Amparo's apartment.

 View from our apartment.

 Harry Reid's secret service people. Rad.

 People here are weird.

 Street contacting and we found this GORGEOUS little woodsy area. Such a nice change from buildings