Feeling grateful

Hey everyone,
  We had a super busy week this past week.  We made our round trip around Uganda to all the villages where the church is.  President did his interviews with the missionaries and we gave training on We invite, they commit, we follow up for the zones.  Really great stuff.  Just been doing that all week.  I'm truly grateful for all of the opportunities that the Lord has given me.  And I'm grateful for the Atonement, more than anything.  In most of the remarks that President Chatfield, he asked me to bear my testimony to the zone, and I always think about how much change and time has gone ever since I sat in those same spots as those younger missionaries.  The letter this week won't be too long, but I just want you all to know that I know the church is true and the gospel is truly restored.  Have a great week and look for the tender mercies of the Lord in your life. 

Elder Wilson

Halfway through the last transfer.

I apologize for not sending out a weekly email the last 2 weeks.  All is well in the Uganda Kampala Mission.  The transfer is halfway done, and it seemed like the transfer started yesterday, Oh boy.  But right now, we are enjoying the work that is getting done.  We started interviews with some of the zones already, and the Assistants are providing training for the missionaries.  Our focus is we invite, they commit, we follow up.  So in other words, we are doing our best to boost our committing skills.  We are having a really hard time getting people to come to church so we prepared some really great insights that will help them.  We even included an old 70’s BYU short film called the phone call, and we made the missionaries apply it to commitments.  We’ve been doing our interviews at the mission home for most of the zones.  When we have time to kill, we would practice our roping on a dummy steer that he has in his yard.  President Chatfield is a huge cowboy kind of guy and he’s been in the rodeo for ages.  So he teaches us how to rope, and it’s a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, the mission home got closed down for refurbishing, because the new mission president is coming in a month.  So we’ve been kicked out of our mission office and now the mission home.  But it’s all good.

This past week, we had our Mission Leaders Council, and it was my last one.  I’ve learned a ton from all of those meetings that I’ve gone to.  I’m just grateful for my leaders and the way they inspire me to work harder and become better.  OH!  And we had a baptism this past Sunday.  His name is Floyd and his parents are both members.  He’s probably the smartest kid I’ve ever met.  Even smarter than me.  But we’ve been teaching him and he’s just a powerful kid.  And his parents have been doing a great job of teaching him at home about the gospel.  So it’s kind of just one of those things where we happened to be there.  Nonetheless, we are grateful that we took part in the teaching process.

On Tuesday, we travel to the north.  We hit Gulu first, then Lira, Mbale, and lastly Iganga.  So we’ll be having our road trip week for interviews this week.  Pretty excited and it will be my last time traveling around Uganda.  I’m so grateful for the mercy and love that the Lord has blessed me with.  Many a times, I just think to myself that you should be the most perfect missionary considering where I’m at right now.  But I still make a ton of mistakes and fall short.  The fact of the matter is that grace is not something that we need when we start our journey towards salvation, but it’s a continuous energy source that keeps us strengthened when adversity comes.  Yesterday we did some tracting and we ran into a drunkard.  Hilarious guy, bless his soul.  And he was dazedly lecturing us on why we didn’t talk to him before.  He said he saw us but we didn’t go over and talk to him.  I knew exactly why we didn’t go and talk to him…… because he was drunk, and you could tell from a mile away.  But it got me thinking about how some people must feel when we don’t talk to them about that gospel.  There are some that long for something greater than themselves, and we sometimes in our everyday lives look past the fact that we have the most important message in the world.  I’ve taken for granted the power of the message and the blessings of the spirit that the message brings.  No matter what circumstances we may be in in our lives, we must always reach out to others and invite them to come unto Christ.  I love the restored gospel, and even if I fall short, the Atonement can lift us up, that we may take the Spirit as our guide.  Never take for granted the blessings that you have in your life.  Have a great week!


Elder Wilson

Last transfer

Not really much to talk about this week.  We just finished a transfer and now we are going into my last transfer.  Yikes.  Well, time sure flies.  This past week, we've been preparing ourselves with transfer planning and we have been traveling around to zone meetings in Kampala.  This morning, we just gave out the transfer news.  And for my last transfer I will still be in the office.  Tomorrow, we pick up the new missionaries from the airport.  We pick up 3 tomorrow and then 2 come in the morning on Wednesday, then transfers happen, which is just super stressful.  Plus starting at the end of the week, the office is getting renovated with new tiles and new paint, which means we have to move everything up 4 floors, so that's going to be fun.  Other than that, nothing is really going on, but I want to make a shout out to all those mother's out there.  Happy Mother's day, you're all doing a great job, especially the mom that sends these emails to you all.  She's actually the best.  Have a great week y'all!

Elder Wilson

Last Zone Conference of my Mission.

Hey Family and Friends,

The last week of the transfer is now upon us, and all we will be doing is planning for transfers which will be next week (I can’t believe transfers are happening already).  We will also be going to Zone Development Meetings all around Kampala.  So we’ll be pretty busy this week.  This past week has been very busy as well.  On Wednesday, we had our Mission Leaders Council.  We changed it up a bit, we usually have it from 2 PM to 7 PM, but we changed it to 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM, so that the missionaries can get to their areas and not spend too much time doin nothin.  It was a great meeting, a lot of ideas brought forth.  Then on Thursday and Friday, we had zone conferences for Kololo, Nsambya, and Kabowa Zones.  They were our last zone conferences for the transfer, and even for me, it was my last zone conference of my mission.  I’m just truly grateful for every single zone conference I’ve been a part of, and of everything I’ve learned to be the person I am today.  There’s nothing more joyful on mission, than to look back and see where I started and look at what I’ve become.  That’s not just something that happens, but it is because of the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ and using it on mission.  The Atonement doesn’t just cleanse us from sin, but it refines us.  It takes our good qualities and makes us better.  There’s no greater knowledge in the world, than a knowledge of the truth.  There’s no possible way that anyone in this life can understand fully the Atonement, but we will know at the last day when all is revealed unto us, and then we will weep with joy and gratitude for the Master.  The work is real and true.  Never forget how much Father in Heaven watches over you, yearns for your return, and lovingly forgives when we come to Him.

 I love you all, have a wonderful week.

Elder Wilson

A visit to Rwanda / Zone Conference

Week 4 of the transfer done, and the time is going by way too fast.  Faster than I'd like.  But we had a good busy week.  On Tuesday, we had a zone conference for my old zone in Mukono.  We had a powerful meeting, talking about the importance of grasping how much time we really have on mission.  President Chatfield would stress the importance of obedience and the blessings it can bring.  It was held at the mission home, so we basically had a home cooked meal right after.  Then on Wednesday, we flew out to the beautiful country of Rwanda.  Just a super great trip.  I've missed my old area and I was able to meet with some of the people that I taught.  There's just a lot of happiness, when you find those that you teach live the principles of the gospel that you have taught them.  Thursday, we had our zone conference, and the meeting was filled with really great insights about the work.  One thing that the church is struggling with in Rwanda is finding people that speak English, but we were able to talk over how we are overcoming this challenge.  Afterwards, we had a nice lunch break at this Mexican restaurant called Mezze fresh, it's like the equivalent of chipotle or cafe rio.  So you could imagine that lunch was the highlight of the conference.  But we had a great time and now we are back.  This week will be busy again.  We have a mission leaders council on Wednesday, then Thursday zone conference with Kololo and Nsambya zones, then on Friday, Kabowa zone, then we crack down on transfers.  Loving the work, and the Lord is blessing us.  We went tracting yesterday in our area, and at the very last door of the day, there was a family all together, and let us in and teach them.  We are super excited to go and visit them again.  not much else to talk about, except missionary work is the most powerful and important work in the world.  And there's no way we can fail.  Have a great week!

Elder Wilson

Ethiopia

So, I'm not dead yet.... jokes.  But Sorry I didn't email last week, we were doing a zone conference road trip around Uganda.  Super fun and spiritual time.  We get to work with missionaries from all around the mission, and help them with the concerns they have in their areas.  Plus, President Chatfield is truly an inspired man, his words are always valued by the missionaries.  We got through Lira, Gulu, Mbale, Iganga, and Jinja.  So we've been a bit busy.  The great thing about going to all these zone conferences is that we always learn something new that can help the mission become better.  We have faith that the missionaries will continue to progress throughout their mission, because mission is the university of life. 
     Even this past week we traveled to Ethiopia to have a zone conference there.  Getting there was a little stressful, because we were already late for the flight, plus my companion forgot his yellow fever card, so we had to get him another one at the airport clinic, and then getting in he forgot his passport at the airport clinic, so just stressful trying to make our flight.  But we made it, and upon arriving in Ethiopia, I was pretty amazed at how different the culture is there compared to the culture in Uganda.  I actually didn't feel like I was in Africa, but I felt like I was in the middle east.  The people look different, their language is super different and difficult to learn.  Just a super foreign environment for me.  But it was a great experience.  The missionaries there are super hard working and they are truly there for a reason.  Even Elder Kapatamoyo, my greenie that I trained a year ago is a zone leader there.  Just a powerful guy if I do say so myself.  But the missionaries were eager to learn in the zone conference and have a strong desire to improve.  I love working with these missionaries, because I can always learn from them.  And they show a lot of great faith in the Lord, to go forth and do the work.  All in all, zone conferences are great and we are not even half way done.  Tomorrow we go to Mukono, and on Wednesday we fly out to Rwanda, which I'm really excited for. 
     The work is doing really well, and I'm trying to live up the time that I have.  I always make sure that I don't go a day without learning something new that can help me on my mission and in life.  I truly love this work and I truly love the Lord.  My testimony continues to grow each and every day, and there's no other place that I'd rather be.  take care of yourselves this week, and always count your many blessings. 

Love
Elder Wilson

New temple in Zimbabwe!

What a week!  From Monday up to Sunday we’ve been going through transfer week over here in the UKM, so I apologize for not being able to write last Monday.  So that you are all up to date on what’s going on over here; Tuesday we got 5 new missionaries that flew in.  It was actually a little hectic because two of them came from the Ghana MTC and their flight was changed at the last minute, they reached us on Wednesday and that disorganized our orientation and transfers a little bit.  But there were no huge concerns.  Having this responsibility can get pretty stressful, but it’s the least that I can do for my Father in Heaven.  We even received another companion, so we are in a three sum!  Elder Afrifa joined us assistants and he is just a super powerful guy.  I’ve already learned so much from him.  Wednesday and Thursday were busy days as we were moving missionaries around to get to their areas.  And we had a ton of missionaries having to stay in our apartment.  And what added more to the craziness, the power was out the whole night.  Typical, but just going through the daily.  On Saturday, we went to do another Jiggers project over in Jinja.  We went to the same village and finished the rest of the kids that we didn’t get around to last time.  It was super great, and we always have fun doing it.  There was a man, who has the same problem of jiggers, but on a more extreme scale.  I would send you the pictures, but I think I’ll just save you the trouble.  Not gonna lie, it’s pretty gross.  But we helped him out as well. 

                Sometimes on the mission, we go through some disappointments that we can’t really avoid.  I had the opportunity to visit one of my past areas yesterday for church.  The branch had been split while I was there serving, and we decided to visit the branch that is having the most trouble in strength.  Hoping to see some people that I’ve taught before, I have found that a man and his children that I taught and who chose to be baptized, was not there.  I was told by the members that he hasn’t come to church for a long time, and he doesn’t want to be visited by anyone from the church.  That pretty much hit me like a rock.  It’s amazing how someone so prepared to receive the gospel and who welcomes the church so quickly, can turn away from it just like that.  I always think about the day where the saints will enter into the rest of the Lord.  Those who receive eternal life will dwell with God in a state of never ending happiness, but the only sadness they will have is for those that they cared about on earth, that chose different paths apart from the strait and narrow.  It’s something that we won’t be able to avoid.  This past week, I’ve been ponderizing a scripture in Mosiah 2 v41, which explains how blessed people are that keep the commandments.  And if they are faithful to the end they return to the presence of God.  Such great blessings for such simple directions.  Keep the commandments and receive eternal life.  That’s why I love this gospel so much, it’s simple but powerful.  I can’t wait to watch General Conference, because over here, we have to wait for copies to come.

                I hope everyone is having a great week.  For those of you that are having a difficult week, remember who you are.  You are a son or daughter of God.  You are of divine heritage.  You may think that you can’t live up to the challenges that life throws at you, but remember who your Father is.  Find those divine qualities every opportunity you get.  Heavenly Father loves you and I love you.  And if I don’t know you……. Well I better get to know you soon, cuz I already love ya.  God speed.


Elder Wilson

Also:  WOOT WOOT for Zimbabwe, they are getting a temple FINALLY!