The Things We Find...

I copied this entire post from Sister Turk! 

We love her and we are glad she loves our missionary!!

The Things We Find...

The Laureles Zone was having their

 Tuesday morning meetings

 so I popped in and got a few keys

to go check out some of their rooms.

Surprise!

I just found out the story behind 

this funny little ceramic piece.

Elder Wilkinson recieved this from 

a family in Guadalupe.

He has babysat this for 7 months.

This is a tough item to haul 

from area to area.

It's holding a lint brush and 

some other sweet treasures.

These are not surprising... 

some Elders think that sunflower seeds

are one of the main food groups.

They are a staple around here.

But I am not sure what food group

 that long green thing belongs too.

I will have to do a little asking around.

The Elders that were with me 

were saying that 

it might be aloe vera... 

No, I know what that looks like.

I think this has big seeds

 inside that go in soup. 

I found out that it is a Peruvian

 fruit called Guayas.

Their pensionista gave it to

 them and they love it.

I found this picture below on the internet.

It shows what it looks like inside.

Interesting.... I need to try it.

Elder Facer had a flashback in this room.

These were his push up bars 

that he brought from home.

But after hauling them 

around for awhile,

the thrill was over so...

he gave them to Elder Edmunds

who has been home from 

the mission for a while.

We know that Elder Retamal

 has had them.

So has Elder Shaw. 

You know that they have been

 passed down through

several more Elders before ending

 up with Elder Wilkinson and Bulmini.

And now Elder Facer was cracking up 

as he saw them here in this room. 

Why they have a public telephone sign...

 I don't Know.

They gather some funky stuff.

But I do love seeing the quote 

that I gave them when we arrived.

"Do you want to be a bird that walks

 or a bird that flies?"

It is up to each one of 

us what we do with our lives 

and what we do with our mission.

His quote says that he wants to Fly...

100% Obedience!

Thank you Elder Wilkinson.

Now don't you feel like you know these

 Elders just a little better.

Elder Bulmini and Elder Wilkinson...

Thanks for letting us share

 your room with the world.

Elder Bulmini is from Uruguay and 

Elder Wilkinson is from Utah.

They are fantastic missionaries.

Hey everyone!!

Everything is going really well here in the Noria.  I'm still here with my hijo (son) Elder Bulmini, but I'm not really training him that much in this second change because he pretty much know everything now. Anyways, yes mom, we still have a lot of people at church.  Eleven went to church last week!!!!!! haha and this week we are going to have 2 or 3 more baptisms.  Their names are Cynthia, Melissa and Jorjo. Cynthia and Melissa are sisters and they are really great. They are progressing a lot and have testimonies of the gospel. Jorjo is progressing as well and we hope that he can be baptized as well but we will see. Anyways, so far everything is going normal as far as being a district leader, but this week President Turk or one of the assistants will be attending my district meeting so I'm going to have to have a pretty good one. I hope it turns out good so please pray for that!!!! haha

Anyways, we changed rooms last week and it was a pain to move but we now live on the second story of a house instead of a garage yayyyyy! The room is a little smaller but the bathroom is awesome.

Thanks mom for giving me that advice it will really help me. There is a part very similar to that in my patriarical blessing that you reminded me of, ha you know me better than anyone so I should listen to your advice.  

Well Grandma asked me if it is cold still, and no it's not too cold. Some nights we go proselyting with sweater vests on, but everyone here thinks that it is freezing so they are all pretty much like my mom. 

I hope all is going well in school and everyone is happy with their classes. 

I hope that everyone has good birthdays this week because there are a lot!!! Happy Birthday Grandma, Papa, Mom, Grandma Lecta and Tori Sorrentino. 

All is going well here. The church is growing. I know the church is true and contains the authority to administer to the children of God. I know that this is the only church that gives the gift of the Holy Ghost and that it contains the fullness of the gospel. I know that God lives and that he speaks to us. I know that families can be happy and live forever through the mercy and atonement of Christ and I hope you all know that.

Until next week,

Elder Wilkinson

Well I'm convinced this week that my mission president has gone crazy. haha I just found out last night that I'm going to be the new district leader in La Noria.!!!! There will be 6 missionaries in my district because they are changing the boundaries of all the missionaries and all the districts. Anyways there are 4 elders and 2 sisters in my district and one of the sisters is brand new to the mission. haha Please pray for a miracle so that I can be at least a little good at my responsibility. I don't know if you know mom, but I'm sure you will ask this so I'll just tell you now. The district leader has to teach all of the district meetings every Tuesday to his district for an hour and a half about the things that go on in the mission and about Preach My Gospel.  They also are in charge of the health of the missionaries and making sure they get the help they need.  They also resolve problems that happen in their areas and have to approve the rooms that the missionaries live in. Also they do work visits with the other missionaries to help them in their areas. They do all the baptismal interviews for their district and they are in charge of the activities that the district does as well as turning in all the numbers for the week into the zone leaders. haha Pretty much they are in charge of 

HAVING STRESS!!!!!!!! haha  

Something really great that happened this week was that Hermana Santos was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday!!!! She is so happy and I know that she will be a great member here. We have a lot of people that are close to baptism and I know that we are going to have a lot of success here this next change.

Anyways, I wanted to share a scripture with you today in Romans chapter 8:24-28. It talks a lot about hope.  A lot of times in the mission we lose our hope. We don't think the people will progress or that they will do something or that we won't be able to explain something, but here it says that hope is something that we don't see but we wait with patience for it.  Really I know that hope is important because we can know that the Savior will always help us and everything that happens is for our good.

Until next week,

E. Wilkinson

Hey everyone!! Thanks for your emails. I got one from mom, grandma and Nick!!!!!yayyyyyy!  Well everything went very well this week. We had 14 investigators in church on Sunday!!! The Lord is really blessing us now in our area. Anyways, one of our investigators is going to be interviewed this week and maybe be baptized this Saturday.  Her name is Santos and she is a very good lady.  She is from the mountains so she doesn't have very much education, but she can read so that is good. She really had a strong desire to be baptized and to dedicate herself to the Lord as she always tells me.  She is a really special lady to have so many children alone and still be willing to dedicate time to come to church.  She practically comes alone too which is amazing . Anyways there are 5 more people that have accepted to be baptized so now we're just waiting for all of them to be married!!!! The family Asto is doing really well and they all read the Book of Mormon and we have Family Home Evening with them every Tuesday night. It is great! They are already worried and keep saying they are going to miss me when I go to a different area. 

Well this week we had a meeting for all of the missionaries that are training and all of their new companions.  It was very special and President Turk always makes us feel like we are able to do anything we want to and that we are in the best mission in the entire world and that everyone wants to be baptized here. I sure hope that someday I can become like him because he is a very special person.

Anyways, I have decided to make a decision about something. I don't need any more packages until Christmas time. haha I'm getting way too many and I'm famous in the office for the most packages received from home I think. Thank you family for the love, but haha I want you to save your money. It hurts me more to see that you are spending 20 dollars for everyone and that you could be spending it on other things.  It would be great to just send me letters because I like that the most and also pictures.  If you want to send pictures you could do it through my email as well. Anyways, it's your decision. haha

I'm really interested to go back to our ward and see Bishop Smith and how hard he works because the bishopbric has been a lot different so far where I have served.  I'm glad for the bishop that we have back home and how willing he is to serve and sacrifice for the members. Tell bishop that I said hi and that I hope everything is going well.

Anyways, also this week we had interviews with President Turk and after we played all the crazy games that are on the blog.  I did get the cookie from my forehead to my mouth in about 20 seconds but the game where you pick up the beans with a straw was very hard. However, Hermana Turk gave us the weird nickname because we were the champions of foosball in our district. We both won a package of candy and we were both very happy.

Anyways, everything is going very well. However, when my district leader came out of his interview with President he told me that President Turk told him what was going to happen to me this next change so now I'm nervous about what is going to happen because I should have at least one more change with my companion.

Anyways, thanks and until next week

Multi-Zone Conference

August 18, 2011

Laureles Zone Conference

August 12, 2011

Trainer Conference

August 10th