Some More Photos

Alright so I attached a photo first to show how long my hair is and second to show where Hna Chavez and I live... enjoy!

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One more...

A birthday party with the Sanchez Family.... 

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Just Some Photos...

One of the many cakes I had for my birthday... this one was my favorite :)

The geckos that hang out on the cielings.. my goal is to catch one one of these days... 

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Just Name the Date

Hola Hola Hola!

Como le van! Espero que todo esta bien con ustedes!

This week was an interesting one full of weird days and even stranger teaching experiences... my birthday was so great.. I had four cakes in two days and I am pretty sure I gained all the weight that I have lost... anyway... on to what happened the other days of the week... 

Okay so one of the best things that happened this week was putting a baptisimal date with Hno Valentine... when we first started teaching him he was really really confused and had some weird perceptions about God and our purpose here on earth... teaching him was difficult because he never wanted to pray and didnt think that God lloved him or had much to offer him.. thankfully he started to read the Book of Mormon and came to Sacrament meeting one week.. so we went and visited on... Thursday I believe... and when we did we were not sure if we should go forward with the lesson we planned to teach.. I told Hna Chavez that if we were going to teach the planned lesson I wanted to sing the hymn Come Follow Me to start the lesson and if not then I really did not care.. the problem was.. we had planned ot commit him to baptism that day and structured a lesson around that... but there was so much noise and so many other things going on that we were not sure if the Spirit would be there in the way we needed it to be to accomplish the goal of putting a fecha with Hno Valentin... 

In that moment Hno Valentin told the kids that were running up and down the stairs of the apartment building ot be quiet... and they listened... so we went forward and taught him about faith and repentance... he answered all of our questions perfectly and when we invited him to baptized he said that we needed ot tell him when we were having a service so he could be ready.. so we commited him to be baptized 31st de August... more of a miracle was when we invited Hno. Valentin to prayer... we told him he only had to prayer for two things... to know if he wshould be baptized and some thing that he was grateful for... when he began to pray I was elated.. and he prayed for a good few minutes..i t was such an amazing experience to see te change in Hno. Valentin...

Later Hna Chavez and I were talking and she told me that when we were deciding to sing the hymn or not she had said a little prayer that somehow the kids that were running up and down the stairs would be quiet if we needed ot go forward with the planned lesson.. and Hno Valentin... in that moment... had told them to be quiet... 

So that was a big miracle for us... to see the Gospel bring so much light and clarity into someones life.. he did not come to Church yersterday but we are gong ot visit him tomorrow with a member so I am praying that he comes this week...

Now for the weekly update on Hno Jesus... it is a little complicated and I am relaly not at liberty to discuss a lot of it... we went with our District Leaders to visit him because we almost dropped the fecha with him and he has come to three three times out of five... so we went and finally taught him about the Restoration... I have never felt the Spirit so strong then I did as I recited the ffirst vision and testified of what Joseph Smith saw... I bore testimony that the Gospel would change his life because it had changed mine.. he told us that he wanted more time to prepare for his baptism and we asked him to pray and told him we would be visiting him a lot this week.. we are going to call him tonight to talk to him and see how he is.. he is in a sensitive place right now because he is struggling to quit smoking and his family is not happy that he wants to be baptized.. they are Catholic... I will keep you all posted on his progress... I am praying for my first baptism this week...

The other big miracle is the change in the father of the Walter boys... I have never seen someone change so quickly... he is passing through the process of repentance at this time and it is a difficult one.. he has done a lot of things that he needs to change but I have never seen someone with such a strong desire to do so.. the baptism of ahis boys is a big motivation... they came to Church yesterday and theBishop talked with both Carmen and Simon... we are making progress....

Another little miracle that we had was when we were contacting close to our house... I was talking with Hna Chavez.. not really paying attention when she suddenly asked me.. left or right... without thining I said left... andsuddenly Hna Chavez walks to right and says she wants to contact the house that we were standing in front of... so we yelled out a greeting and a woman came out... the first thing she tells is that shes Catholic and does not want any thing... I tell her that we are there to share a message about Jesus Christ that will strengthen the faith she already has... so she lets us in... and on the table we see the picture of the grandson of a member in our ward.. we ask her if she knows him and she says that it is her grandson... she is the mother of his dad.. we told her how we knew him and instantly she warmed up and we talked for a good ten minutes before starting the lesson... we are going to go back and teach her again this week... Hna Chavez and I took a moment to thank God for that little amusing experience... 

Anyway... I should end this.. know that I love you all.. my testimony is strengthened every day as I see the power of the Gospel to change lives and lift the hands that hang down... we now have a list of all the members in our ward.. 25 pages long... we are preparing an activity to look for the less actives.. wish us luck.. I have a feeling it is going to be a good week... I will let you know how it goes next week... the Church is true... be strong... God loves you all and so do I... 

All My Love, 

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Happy Birthday To Me..

Hola Todos!

First of all, gracias to everyone who wished me a happy birthday.. this time last year I never imagined I would be out on my mission for my 21st birthday... I expected to be getting my call but to actually have been out for some time is a wondeful blessing that I would not trade for the world...

There were problems with the computer this morning so I am going to make this relatively short and skip over the fact that we did not find anyone this week that was ready for the Gospel... it was a hard week with hours of effort and almost zero results... Hna Chavez is definitely the stronger of the two of us and said some things that I needed to hear when I was feeling discouraged...

Oh by the way.... we did not have cambios and are still together... God is good to us...

The biggest miracle of this week was with Familia Walter... when we started visiting them almost six weeks ago the husband... Simon... did not want any thing to do with us... when we would visit he would pretend to be asleep in the adjoining room and we would simpy share some thing with his wife and three boys... anyway... we have been seeing little changes in him for the past three weeks or so and we went by with members yesterday and we set a date for the baptism of his two older boys... a day far enough away in which he could prepare to baptize his sons... if I can be here to see them baptized I will feel like this was a sucessful cambio and that my time here in Colon has not just been about planting seeds..

It was a good week for lessons with members... we had a goal of 10 and ended up with 15... some members also introduced us to a huge family of 14 kids who are grown and have kids of their own and not all of them are members.. we are going to go back and visit a part of the family this week and I am hoping that one of these days we can havea  big get together wiht all of them and really understand why they are all inactive...

Sorry this is so short.. I have a lot of emails to read today and I have to write the mission president still so I will end this by sending that I have felt the love of the members a lot the past few days... almost every house I have gone to they have had a little party for me for my brithday... one of the members even called me at 7 this morning to wish me happy birthday... we are going to spend our Pday with her and her family and have cake and stuff so just know that I do not feel too far away from family because God has blessed with family here who love me and are making my day special...

Also if you could keep a member in your prayers... Carlos Ovalle... he is 24 years old and is going blind.. we went and visited him and he could not see us when we offered our hands for him to shake... the doctors are going to try and do another operation but the outlook is bleak for him in this moment... he has a strong faith and testimony and that is supporting him but please just remember him in your parayers if you can... also Hno. Jesus... he came to church yesterday which makes it three times... the hurdle is getting him to stop smoking and drinking coffee before his baptism... he is progressing slowly and I have faith that he will be ready by the 24th...

I love you all so much... know that you are in my prayers... thank you for all your prayers and support...

All My Love,

Hna Wilson

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And Bless That Hna Wilson Will Not Leave the Area..

Hola Todos!

Okay so the title is kind of an amusing story.. yesterday we had dinner with the members that we have dinner with every Sunday evening and we were talking about how we did not want to have cambios this week... we shared a brief message about having charity and the 11 year old daughter offered the closing prayer and in it she asked God that I stay in the area for six more weeks.. it was sweet.. anyway.. on to what happened this week..

If I had to describe this week in one word I would have to say sad.. there were a lot of hard things that happened this week but I know that the Lord was with us.. the two hardest things were first going to visit Hno. Dixon on Wednesday.. our fecha that we were more sure about... when we got there we could here him talking to his daughter inside and so we called out a greeting to him and the next thing we know all the lights are off and the doors are closed... we are not sure what happened to be honest... he had some hang ups about Church but he told us to come by that day to talk to him about them... we left a note and went by a second time later in the week but he either was not home or did not want to talk to us... we have also tried to call him and he has not answered our phone calls so we are slowly coming to terms with the fact that as of right now we will probably not continue to teach him.. 

The other difficult thing that happened this week was when we taught Hno. Tuñon... we went to the lesson already down because of what happened with Hno. Dixon earliar that day... we were both hoping for a good spiritual lesson and really we got the opposite... the biggest problem was that he didnt even want to look at me because he had some issue with gringos that we ddi not discover unti he refused to answer my questions in the lesson.. then later when Hna Chavez was sharing her testimony he told us that if we were goin gto testify about some thing we should not testify about lies... we really just wanted to take the Book of Mormon back and leave right then but we stayed and Hna Chavez talked with him more.. the contention was strong in the air as we ended the lesson... asking him if he wanted ot keep the Book of Mormon or give it back.. he told us that he wanted to keep it.. that he thought he might be able to learn some thing.. Hna Chavez let me offer the prayer and in it I expressed the testiomny that Hno. Tuñon had not allowed me to express in the lesson... I prayed that he would come to  know that the Book of Mormon was true... that God would open his heart... that he would realize that the message we had to share with him would bring him the peace and was the truth that he was looking for... we left... and have no intention of going back. 

Okay.. on to happier things... things are wonderful between Hna Chavez and I... we still do not know in this moment if we have cambios but we are thinking no... time will tell.. we decided this week that we were friends in the pre existance... if I had to descirbe our companionship in one word I would have to say love... this week Hna Chavez taught me how to briad my hair and I am very grateful for that... I have done it every day and it is a good way to keep me cool when we are out working... 

Okay heres an experience that will make you laugh... well not really.. it was the worst lesson we could have possibly had with a member.. fortunately the investigator we were teaching came ot church but still.. it was bad.. we tuaght about the Book of Mormon and we asked the member how the Book of Mormon had helped her in her life... she told us.. right ther ein front of the investigator.. that she had never read the Book of Mormon.. that she had only just started the day before... we asked her if she had felt a differnce in the 24 hours that she had decided ot read and she said yes... we asked her why she had decided to read The Book of Mormon and she said because he dad told her too... there were worse comments but you get the idea... the investigator was good humored.. thanked us for our visit and promised to come to Church this Sunday.. a commitment I am happy to report.. he kept... anyway that was an experience and Hna Chavez and I were in shock as we walked home after the lesson... 

I am runing out of time so I will just fill you in on two more things... we put a fecha with Hna Crisol.. she is the 19 year old girl with the 3 year old little boy.. I dont know why but she reminds me a lot of Megan personality wise... anyway... we put a fecha with her for the 24th of August and though she did not come to Church yesterday she is very interrested in what we are teaching her and we are determined ot have her in Church this week..

So neither of our fechas came to Church this week but there was someone who did... Familia Walter.. the MA we have been working with this entire cambio... the MA... the father of which didnt want any thing to do with us when we would go to visit.. they came to Church as a family and so we are goin gto try and to talk to them about a baptisimal date for their two boys... though it is not counted as a baptism if I can see them baptized I will feel like what I have done here in this area was all sucessful... I hope to see them on the road to an eternal family within the next weeks.. I wil lkeep you all posted but that was definitely the biggest miracle of th week....

So thats basically the week in a nutshell... I am still anxiously awaiting word on cambios and so you all will have to wait until next week to know.. know that I love you so much and I can feel the support and strength of your prayers.. I am so grateful for all of you.. I am learning more of what it means to be Christ like every day... this cambio I have truly learned what it means to love and to plant seeds... I hope to be around to see the fruits of those seeds but like I have said it is God will and I am only his humbe, inadequete servant. Until next week..

All My Love, 
Hna Wilson                          

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