No hurricane? Let's check the roof during a lightning storm and the street drain just to be sure.....

Hey Family!!! How are you all doing!!!
I am doing super well!! It was definently a different week!!! So we kept hearing that dk emily was coming and that the world was going to come to an end because it was going to be huge. Long story short nothing happened. Dk she was going to enter the country tuesday morning, then tuesday night, then wed for sure but never came. We couldnt go out on Weds because it was supposed to hit directly Santo Domingo. It was one of the longest days of my life!! So we might have ended up crawling into the road drain in the front of our house. I was lying down in bed and then Elder Groll and Elder Price called me and said to go outside. Then they were like I bet you wont crawl into the drain pipe. I was bored enough to prove them wrong. Long story short all four of us ended up going inside it.

So Thursday they did let us go but it rained ALL day LONG!!! I iwas soooooo soaking wet. It was kinda fun but it was kinda a cold rain so not so fun at the same time!! It was hard because we basically lost two days and we had some important citas and we lost contact with one of our investigators but I know that we will be able to find her again.

Things are going well with Yoana and Ana. They still havent gone to church yet but they will get there. They just have so many questions and its awesome because we can always answer them with the Book of Mormon and they always just say wway that makes so much sense!!! I love it!!

We finished up with the rich part of town and we are now it a poorer part of town. Its pretty crazy because there are just houses everywhere. On top of everything and its just a bunch of sidewalks that have a bunch of houses going up and down the hill. Its hard to explain but you will see when you come down here!!! After not putting citas for along time in the rich part, we put 13 citas in less than an hour in the poor part. When we left the area I said to Elder Price thats why I love these people soo much. Everyone is just so friendly and loving. I hope that those of us who are more fortunate dont blind ourselfs thinking that we dont need Heavenly Father and that we dont have "time" to do what He would want us to do.

It was really nice to hear about all your experiences this week sharing the Gospel. It made me more motivated to share. I really hope that Larry and Honey, the Webster's friends, keep progressing. The gospel is amazing and will bless them so much. I hope that we all continue to share. Even if its just a little and we can plant the seed in other peoples hearts. I love you all sooo much. I am so grateful for you all. Thanks for your amazing examples and love for me.

Like it says in 2 Nefi 29 God's work is not done and will not be done until the end of men. Work in the field!!! THanks for sharing the scripture from Mosiah 2:41. I actually read that this morning and loved it. I love chapters two and three. I love all of King Benjamin's address!!!

i almost forgot to tell about the baptism that Elder Groll and Elder Farra had it was a woman of like 50 years!!! It was sooo amazing and sooo spiritual and Yoana went and felt the Spirit it was sooo awesome!!! I played the piano for it and I played it well!!! The Spirit was def helping me!!! this work is aweseom!! love you all so much
hasta luego!!!

I love you all soo much!!

love

Elder Wilson

ps. Pops- use Preach My Gospel as much and you can with the young men. Help the to get to know the book. It is inspired and the guide manual.

love you all soo much
ps... add to the letter that I jsut got call from the kids papito from Sabana Yegua. He is getting set apart tonight to go on his mission. Hes leaving tomorrow to go to Guatemala!!!


Papito and Seth in Sabana Yegua Feb 2010

Risk and Reward

HEY FAMILIA HOW ARE YOU ALL DOING?!?!?
I am doing amazing!!!! It was a very hard but very amazing week!!!

Ok so first things first. I want everyone of you this week to invite atleast one person to listen to the missionaries and pray to know who it is and if they accept the invitation you need to go with the missionaries to teach them.

This week was amazing. As you know Weds and Fri we work in the institute. There is a senior couple named the Finlaysons and they are soo amazing. They are soo nice to us. We were talking to them about there marriage story and how they got to know each other. They love each other soo much and they are both so sweet. We asked him what the secret to their marriage was and she wasnt around and he whispered really quietly, "before you get married, you have to play the board game Risk with your girlfriend. Thats when the true her comes out" Apparently sister finlayson is like meagan when she plays games. I thought it was funny to talk to him about their love story and everything. THey are amazing people. I think they have facebook if you want to try and find them.

On Tuesday we had to do an intercambio to try and fix some companionship problems. It was fun I got to go with Elder Negron. It was fun to be with him aghain. The next day in comp study Elder Price and I were talking and were talking about how sad it is that people dont just get along. Selfishness and pride are the roots of all problems. We then got tlaking about life and how the mission helps one to be less selfish and less prideful. We started talking about our dreams and ambitions for our lives. It was a really great conversation and the Spirit was defininently there. We talked a lot about the beauty of Eter 12:27. How much of a blessing that is that God allows us to make our weaknesses become strengths. I really love and apreciate Elder Price. During our conversation he told me that he felt that I had taken the most advantage and gotten the most out of the mission than any other Elder he had ever met. I didnt really know how to respond to his comment but it made me feel really good to know that they person who I am with 24/7 feels that way. Made me feel like my efforts mean something. Dont get me wrong I have a long way to go still but hearing that from him made me feel really good inside. I sure apreciate that kid and his parents to for raising him well. They are lucky to have him home in a couple of weeks.

This week we taught Yoanna y Ana her mother and it was going well. We stil;l havent gotten them to church but we are working on it. They live on a third story and one day we had taught them an amazing lesson and I was totally stoked and so going down the stairs I decided that I would slide down the railing. IT went great until my foot got caught at the end of the rail. Lets just say that I ate it pretty hard. We were all laughing pretty hard. Big men dont fall gracefully.

This week was amazingly hard. I made more contacts than I had ever done before. Infact we did almost 50 more than I had ever done before. We are working it a rich area and it is just soooo hard to get into the houses. The very few lessons that we put, when we went back they were not there. We just knocked on doors all day everyday without teaching any lessons. From Sunday to Friday we had only taught 3 lessons when usually we would already be at or more than 20. I was very proud of us though because we were persistant and kept knocking and didnt get discourage. Saturday came around and wow we felt soo blessed for our work. We met 3 amazing people on saturday and we could really testify to them about the gospel. One was a 19 year old kid. You could tell that he was searching for the truth. We taught about the Book of Mormon and he, after we had finsihed our teachings, asked if the Book of Mormon had changed our lives. I just looked at Elder Price and he at me and we both smiled. We then both testified of the changes that have happened in our lives as we came to actually know the Book of Mormon. It was soo spiritual and although I already knew it, it was really nice to be reminded of the powerfulness of the Book of Mormon. Testifying to this kid that was searching for truth. I love the Book of Mormon and invite everyone to study it. It will fill what ever emptiness you have in your life. Give it a chance.

We also met a woman that has two kids that are 15 and 13. Lesson went really well. We had a return cita tonight with her but she just sent us a message saying she wont be there.

AFter a week of no success, just when we thought there wasnt much hope, Heavenly Father really blessed us. Just like it says in Alma 26:27 suffer with pacience and God will bless us. Ive studied a lot in this week about pacience. Pacience is always accompanied by success and being made instruments in God's hands.

I love this work. I love you all. Keep your heads up and remember that theres always someone in the DR that loves you. Take advantage of everyday. THis work is real. Allow Heavenly Father to do his part and happiness will come.

I love you all soo much

Elder Wilson

Ps there is another elder wilson that is new in the mission so if anyone sends letters make sure to put my first name

Letters and Motorboats

Hey Family how you all doing?!?!
I am doing amzing. I def cant believe that July is already coming to an end. Only one more month and the hot parts of summer are done here!!! I am looking forward to that but I cant complain too much because atleast in my house right now I live in one of the few houses that always has electricity!!!

I cant believe jake ran the jeep into the trailer and mess up the liscense plate. Can dk back up big old trucks but the jeep is too much to handle?? I never had any problems!!!

Other good news. Got some letters this week. One from dearie another one from brindy and one from Kasey. She sent a pic of the wildfires in AZ.... what ever happened with those??

So life is going well here. Yoanna is still progressing a lot and her mom is progressing too. They accepted fechas to be baptised but and planning on moving to San Cristobal. I love them because they actually read and undestand the message. ITs been a real testifier to me that the work is true. They read and ponder about what they read and by doing that have received testimonies that the Book of Mormon is true. ITs sooo simplle. We left them Ether 12 and they soaked it up!!!

I was reading the first presidency message in the Liahona about the family. I really liked it. I love my family and feel so blessed to have such a great family.

We had interviews with Presidente Rodriguez this week and they were good. I feel bad for him hes got so much to do. He really concentrated on our Spiritual well being and was a diffreent interview to what I am used to. I really enjoyed it. While everyone else was in interviews, the wife of Presidente was giving a health presentaion. At the end she was bearing her testimony and started to talk about her husband and how much she loved him and how much he shows her that he loves her. She started to get emocional and then said that she feels like her husband for her is an angel. I was thinking about that and was like wow I hope that when I have a wife she will be able to stand up infront of a large group and say that i treat her in such away that she considers me to be an angel. and that I can make her feel sooo special. I want to do that soooo bad. I want to be the best husband in the world and love my wife sooo much!!!

Yesterday, the last contact of the day was this crazy man that could dk had been given several gifts from God. One of them was that he could talk to crazy possessed animals in the jungle. As im sure you could all guess I asked him to talk a little. My favorite part was when it was the horse{s turn and he did a moterboat sound with his lips.

On Thursday we were walking to an appointment with the lopez family, the ones that are waiting for their visa so cant get marrried right now but as we were walking someone yelled Elderes so we looked back and they waved us over. IT was a lady that is a member and she invited us over for another day and we told her we would go by sat.... sat comes by and it was raining and we were soaking wet but we showed up to her house. She opens the door and just drops her jaw and said i didnt think you guys were going to make it because of the rain. And just kept saying oh my goodness oh my goodness. we sat down and started talking to her. This lady, although we had never met her before, took complete confidence in us and just started telling us her life story and all the struggles she has had. She completely opened her heart to us. She talked about how shes always been a slave to cigarettes and how shes always wanted to quit and how she sometimes quits but then falls again and how she knows that through Christ she can stop. This 60 old woman was just pouring out her heart to us. Bawling from years of pain and embarrassment. She says everytime she falls she just feels like shes failing God. I felt like I should share Alma 13;27_30 with her and then bore my testimony of the truth of this scripture. I told we all have struggles and all fair sometimes but that in this scripture God promises that if we inquire of the Lord and pray always that He will not allow us to be tempted more that what we are able to bare. I bore testimony of thetruth of it in my life and that I have been able to over come many of my shortcomings and difficulties by confieing in the promise. It was sooo awesome. When we left I told Elder PRice that thats why I love being missionaries. That lady doesnt even know us but could feel of our true love for her and felt comfortable enough to pour and her heart in desperation to find council. I love that part of the work. I love this work. I love my Savior and all He did for me. I am sooo grateful for the Atonement and this Gospel-

I love you all sooo much. Thanks for all you do and who you all. Keep on being so amazing.

Love you all

Elder Wilson

The Intercom

HEY FAMILIA!!!!
How you all doing??? I am doing very well. IT was a great week. Lots of contacting big building through intercoms but it was good over all. We had an amazing experience this week. We were contacting a building and this lady answered and said that we could come back and when we went back the next day we knocked on the door and a 25 yr old ish woman answers the door and says ¨hola¨and asks how she can help us. Being that we talked to her through the intercom we didnt know what she looked like and so we asked if she was Joanna and she was like yes, how do you know my name? and we said well we talked to you yesterday for the intercom and she was like no you didnt because i was not home yesterday. But she invited us to come in and we shared with her and wow it was a huge blessing in disguise.. We had contacted the whole week and hadnt had any success and then we taught her and she at the end said you know what? you two are answers to my prayers. I used to be close to God but Ive kinda stopped doing the right things but recently Ive been praying to God that He would help me to be able to put my life in order again and as I listened to you guys I really felt that you are an answer to my prayers. She just soaked in the whole lesson and loved it. Gave us all of her attention and could feel of the Spirit. It made me think wow its sooo easy.. If people will just listen to the message its impossible not to feel the Spirit. She was def an answer to my prayers too because we hadnt had much success. We have another cita with her tonight!! I am supèr excited to teach her. It felt so good to be able to help someone to realise what they need to do to come unto Christ.

LAst sunday elder price and I call Cristian and Francisca and talked to them. We committed them to go get an interview with the bishop to be able to enter in the temple.

So in one of the big apartment buildings we took advantage of that someoone was going inside so we snuck in the door and after we contacted everyone we went back down and the door was locked so we had to sit there for like 10 minutes until someone came and could let us out but dont worry I played it off pretty cool and told them we were just observing the scenery.

We are having a hard time getting hold of all of our old investigators- Evans and Aleini decided they would start plans to get married but after that havent gotten back into contact with them. I was really impressed with Evans because in one of the citas he said you know I really want to obey the commandments but I feel like I dont know them all so its impossible to keep them all. We took advantage and talked about the Law of Chasity and he ate it up and said that he really wants to get married because he doesnt want to live in sin. I was very impressed with that answer.

Well I am running out of time. Talking about plans to come back made me super excited!!! It will be lots of fun. I sure do miss you all lots and I hope you think of me Pops everytime you get a refill :) hahah

This Gospel is true. I invite everyone to let it form your life. SOmetimes we try to form our own lives with our little knowledge but by being obediente and worthy of God´s guidance o sea the Spirit, He will form our lives so that we can reach our full potencial. All we have to do is believe and have desires and turn our desires into ACCIONES!!!

I love you all soo much

Elder Wilson

PS. I didnt know the allstar game was in phoenix. Thats pretty cool. When I saw chase field I got a lil trunky!!!

PSS. Mom I want to play the violin when I get home do we still have it??

P(ee) Day news and information.... (TMI!)

Hey family how are you doing?!?!
I am doing great!!! REALLY WET and feel like a prisioner because we had to stay inside all day today for some riot they are doing to try and lower gas prices. But luckily where I live it is pretty chill and all.
So transfers were this week. There were basically no changes. Elder Negron got moved into my zone and is training. He is in Cristo Rey which is a very dangerous part of the capital so I dont know how he is going to survive there if he didnt like BANI! haha but we did an intercambio with them because its Elder Price´s last area so he showed them all around and stuff. It was fun seeing him again.
Sooooo on Weds we went to a members house so that I could use the bathroom. I had had to go for like 3 hours and I was dying! When i walked in there was someone already in the bathroom soooo I went for a little walk outside since it was already dark. First of all until then I dont think that I had ever seen a motion detector light in my whole time here!!!! Yah.... So they saw me as I was walking back in and asked what I was doing and they all knew exactly what had happened!!! But i played it off well but then one of the kids was like ok lets go shoot some hoops and I had to confess because I had taken my walk on the court. Luckily they are a cool family and just make fun of me for it. I dont tell them that mom used to always get mad at me for the same thing haha getting up and going outside when theres a perfectly good bathroom inside!!!
On Thursday we had a zone leader conference with presidente. He is sooo amazing and loves us sooo much. Its such a change but a change that is very appreciated. Everyone wants to work harder now knowing that he loves and trusts us. He gave a good presentation on faith and the importance of having a passion for what we did. It was an amazing message and the Spirit was very strong. Hes everything youd think off when youd think of a mission president. I really love that man.
I got a package from Vicki. Thanks a bunch aunt vicki :) I am def spoiled. I ate the skittles in one day..............
We are working hard and found a new investigator names miguelina she went to church and everything. I am sure she will get baptised. She is awesome.
I love you all so much. Sorry that theres not too much new this week!!! Even the Pday was uneventful. I love you all sooo much. Thanks for all you do and who you are. Remember that Heavenly Father loves us and knows who we are!!! Never give up hope nor faith. Faith can move mountains. Especially the everyday mountains we face everyday.
Love you all soo much
seth

The Purpose of Life

People who really understand the message know what are the things that need to change.

Hey Family how are you all doing!!!???
I am doing mighty fine!!! Really wet. Its been raining a ton. Right now its been pouring rain for the last 90 minutes of soo!! Our street will probably be flooded when we get home.
This week was amazing but pretty insane!!! It started off well. We are teaching a lady that is from Azua. Her name is Leonela and shes gone to church a couple of times but a week ago sunday she couldnt go because she was going back to Azua to celebrate a birthday party. I can't lie, I honestly thought that maybe she was going to drink and stuff there but when we went and visited her last monday she said that normally when she goes home she goes out and goes to parties and stuff but this time she had passed all the time with her family sharing stories and talking with her parrents. She said tht when people started drinking she had no desire to drink and people started pressuring her so she left and went to the park and sat at the park talking with a friend. She said that by sharing with us and learnign about Christ she has no desire to do stuff like that anymore. She says she wants to change her life. She wants to become someone. We hadnt even talk the Word of Wisdom yet but people who really understand the message know what are the things that need to change. It was a big blessing to hear her say that.
The other couple we are teaching names are Aleini and Evans. They are a haitain couple and are about 25 or 30. I sent pictures of them. They are soo amazing. We were teaching them about the Apostacia and they ask what will happen to all the people that lived in that time and didnt get to know the gospel. We then went in to the Plan of Salvacion and how God is perfect and so is his plan and that everyone will have the chance to get to know the gospel. That was the biggest blessing in my life this week. To be reminded that this Gospel is perfect and pure and that all we have to do is follow it and we will be happy.
I talked to Elder Price about Dad{s council last week from Alma 5 and to testify with power. We have been putting it in practice. This week has been harder because we have moved into a richer neighborhood and we are contacting a lot and not putting too many citas. But I know that Heavenly Father will provide us with peopel to teach!!!
On Thursday we have a conference with the new Presidente. Presidente Rodriguez. Wow he is soooo amazing and so inspired. He talks with love and one can feel that he really cares for them. I love the guy. He shared his love with us a lot and told us how much he trusted in us. We all left feeling really well knowing that the President loves us and trusts in us. I really admired the way he treated his wife and respected and loved her. His kids are amazing too. It was amazing. I am very grateful for him. I feel blessed to be able to finish with a president so amazing.
Other than that not too much new. We ate out today. It was a little expensive but worth it!! We all felt weird being in a real restuarant but it was way worth it. We will have to eat there when we come back.
I love you all soo much. Coinsedences dont exist. God.s hand does. Trust in him and do whats right and everything will come out right. I love you all sooo much thnaks for your love and support.
Elder Wilson

Pics to follow. Tim

Wilson and Price

Elder Price teaching piano

Elders Wilson and Price