Day 523

Dear Family,

Hey yalls!  This has been one of the craziest weeks for me here in the office.  we just had transfers yesterday and today will be the zone leader conference which means i will be here in the office till night time reviewing all the zone funds for the mission.  I also got a new companion yesterday Elder Dominguez from Argentina!! He is awesome! he is super possitive and always looks for the good in everything.  he also is pretty funny and im sure we will be joking around with each other often :)

 

last night we didnt get finished taking missionaries to bus terminal till like 9:30 and so president told us we go eat pizza!! i havent eaten pizza in soooo long it was delicious :P this transfer is one of the first that all the missionaries that are finishing are pretty good friends of mine

 

this last week i also talked to president and he said that i will probably stay here in the office until March!  i can believe how the time has flown in the mission but at the same time i look back to when i started the mission and it seems so far away.  if by chance i came across a time machine and i went back and ran into myself before the mission i would recogize who i am now.  two years is not that long but the things that can be learned in two years are incredible. 

 

P.S. this is a super random letter sorry 

 

Love,

     Elder Wilkinson

Day 514

Dear Family,

Well everybody another year has come and gone.  i hope we all can look back and say that it was a good year and that we were able to accomplish our goals that we had set when we began this year.  As i have reviewed my year here in the mission i feel that i have learned a lot.  i have had many experiences that i will never be able to forget.  

As i was able to talk with the family this Christmas i felt different then i had other times.  I felt a love for my savior that was different than i had felt before.  i tried expressing how i felt but it was hard to explain.  i hope you understood what i was trying to help you understand.  Christ is the savior of the world and he loves us so much.  even when we aren't perfect and we make mistakes, like in the story of the prodigal son, he is waiting with his arms open and we just have run to him. i know i have made many mistakes in my life and he has forgiven me.  i have felt that burden relieved from my back.  and with my burden being lightened it is a lot easier to be happy as i walk around and i can have a smile on my face.  you can all do it too!! you just have to want to change and decide to leave it behind and then ask for forgiveness.  and if you do it with real intent having faith in christ he will give it unto you.

With this new year we have that will start tomorrow, i invite you all to set goals.  i know not to long ago i wrote a letter about setting goals so i wont say a lot about how but just invite everybody set not only temporal goals but also spiritual goals.  after you have set those goals type them up on a sheet of paper and put them up everywhere you will see them.  for example: (the office, your room, bathroom mirror, your iphone to do list haha, etc.) 

To finish i would like to share a cool experience from this week.  we were walking an alleyway looking for people to teach and we came out of the alleyway on a little street and right when we came out we saw 3 guys trying to push a car up a hill.  im not sure why but right away i dropped the backpack and said can we help and started pushing.  i had no idea what they were trying to do until a little bit later when we started pushing it back down the hill and he started trying to put it in gear.  i realized that probably the battery had died and the were trying to push start it.  after asking a few questions the told me that it was a diesel motor not a gas motor.  i knew they were never going to start it  like this so i starting thinking who do we know that has a car with cables to help us jump-start it.  the first name that came to mind...President Calderón...haha i called him up and asked hesitantly "hey president, just a quick question...what are you doing right now" he said "nothing really just leaving the office to the house" i then asked "would mind stopping by our area to help us jump-start our friends car?" "Elder where are you at? im on my way"  so as you can all imagine president showed up, we helped them out, then asked if we could visit him sometime, and of course after such a big help he said we were more than welcome to stop by and visit.  i know that in the future he will be able to accept the gospel and be baptized.

P.S. Today my companion is starting to train his replacement (Elder Dominguez from Argentina) as the new records secretary which will be my new companion.  He is a really good soccer player and i know we will get along well :) i will send pictures next week.

Love,

     Elder Wilkinson

Day 493

Dear Family,

Rainy Season!!!  This week rainy season finally hit!  it has rained almost everyday this week.  and it should be raining everyday for the next few months.  the weather is always kinda random, during the day i will have to carry my big jacket sweating but when night time comes around it starts raining and gets really cold!! im sending a couple of pictures of what it looks like when its all wet! i mean everything is wet.  

yesterday we had the opportunity to have a meeting with all the future Elders of our ward and it turned out awesome.  the elders quorum president asked us to share our stories about how we decided to go on the mission.  the spirit was felt really strong and i am sure we were able to help some of them understand how important the mission is.   in the few minutes i had to talk to them i really focused on the Book of Mormon how it had influenced my testimony.  im not sure if you remember but when i was in the MTC i read the whole Book of Mormon in 2 weeks right before i left to the mission field.  those two weeks made the difference in the type missionary that i am today.  i read and read not just because it was study time or because somebody was telling me to but because i wanted to strengthen the testimony that i already had and get rid of even the smallest doubt that could enter into my mind.  i challenged all of them to read and ask god if they should go on a mission.  nobody else can tell you to go on a mission.  well they can but it doesnt mean a lot, but that is what they want but what is really important is what does god want for us.  when god tells you to do something it takes a whole different meaning.  i also shared how the story of Enos affected me when i was reading.  overall it was a cool experience

theres also a couple more pix of the office with president and when we when to rumi wasi (pronounced Roomy Wassy which means in Quechua "House of Stone/Rock") 

Love,

     Elder Wilkinson

Dear Family,

Rainy Season!!!  This week rainy season finally hit!  it has rained almost everyday this week.  and it should be raining everyday for the next few months.  the weather is always kinda random, during the day i will have to carry my big jacket sweating but when night time comes around it starts raining and gets really cold!! im sending a couple of pictures of what it looks like when its all wet! i mean everything is wet.  

yesterday we had the opportunity to have a meeting with all the future Elders of our ward and it turned out awesome.  the elders quorum president asked us to share our stories about how we decided to go on the mission.  the spirit was felt really strong and i am sure we were able to help some of them understand how important the mission is.   in the few minutes i had to talk to them i really focused on the Book of Mormon how it had influenced my testimony.  im not sure if you remember but when i was in the MTC i read the whole Book of Mormon in 2 weeks right before i left to the mission field.  those two weeks made the difference in the type missionary that i am today.  i read and read not just because it was study time or because somebody was telling me to but because i wanted to strengthen the testimony that i already had and get rid of even the smallest doubt that could enter into my mind.  i challenged all of them to read and ask god if they should go on a mission.  nobody else can tell you to go on a mission.  well they can but it doesnt mean a lot, but that is what they want but what is really important is what does god want for us.  when god tells you to do something it takes a whole different meaning.  i also shared how the story of Enos affected me when i was reading.  overall it was a cool experience

theres also a couple more pix of the office with president and when we when to rumi wasi (pronounced Roomy Wassy which means in Quechua "House of Stone/Rock") 

Love,

     Elder Wilkinson

Day 486

Dear Family,

 

 I am crazy busy today with all the transfers. there are 18 missionaries going home this transfer and its one of the bigger groups.  plus this next week is zone leader conference on tues then district leader and trainer conference on wed.  also i am getting ready to do auditing for the end of the year and i am super slammed with with work.  But...I LOVE IT!! i love staying busy!  it gets kinda boring when there is not a lot to do.  from what ive heard from everybody it sounds like everybody is doing great!  so yesterday we were privilidged to hear from our first presidency in the christmas devotional.  i cant lie but i dont remembered ever being christmas devotional every year when i was back home.  i am sure that from now on i will always go.  if any of you werent able to go or listen to it, i invite you all to go on the churches site lds.org to watch it.  it was a wonderfully short fullfilling hour of my sunday.  we were able to bring quite a few investigators to see it as well.  we have a family that we are teaching that were all able to come to sacrament meeting and the devotional and we are super excited for their progress they are making towards baptism.  we are hoping they can all be ready for the 15th of this month.  i will keep you updated on how they are doing.  well i got to get going to finish up some stuff for all the conferneces that are coming so until next week!

 

Love,

     Elder Wilkinson

Day 470

Dear Family,

 

 How is everybody doing? i bet everybody is already for thanksgiving this thurs (i think) sometimes i forget when holidays are because they dont change much for us.  this week was a pretty good week for us.  we were able to set a couple baptismal dates with some of our investigators.  we have two that have a date for the 24th and two more for 1 of december.  WE need to work really hard with them so that they can fulfill their goal.  when we have goals and we dont reach them the first time its easy to say well thats what happened the last time and this time wont be any different and we stop setting goals.  It is very important that we can set goals but work as hard as we can to acheive them.  I really liked how Dixie High Football Team was able to accomplish the goal that they have had for so long.  I Believe that Dixie High hasnt been a state champion in footbal since 1998 (correct me if im wrong).  Just like there goal has been the same since 1998 they never were able to accomplish their until now.  Im sure that every year they tried as hard as they could to accomplish their goal but one way or another they couldnt. But they kept working at it, day after day.  Until the time finally came and they were able to feel the joy that comes when we accomplish a goal. Goals are vital in our lives.  I really love this quote by Elder Ballard

“I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life.”

Elder M. Russell Ballard (PMG p. 146)

We need goals in our lives.  Without goals we can never reach our full potencial.  They need to be ingrained in our minds and those that surround us need to know what our goals are so that they dont interfer with what is most importnant to us, but so they can help achieve it.  this next part from PMG says it all

"Goals reflect the desires of our hearts and our vision of what we can accomplish. Through goals and plans, our hopes are transformed into action."

Preach My Gospel Page 146

our hopes are transfromed into action...i love that phrase.  i am pretty sure that we would all love to have all our hopes turned into action.  the only thing stopping us from it are our goals. 

To accomplish a goal it takes a lot of effort and focus.  but when we set goals we need to remember that we should hold ourselves accountable for the goals that we set.  If we set goals without them being meaningful it will be hard to be bummed when we dont achieve them.  just like we should hold ourselves accountable god will hold accountable in judgment i love how clear and direct Alma is in the book of mormon.

 

15 Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?

 16 I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?

 17 Or do ye imagine to yourselves that ye can lie unto the Lord in that day, and say—Lord, our works have been righteous works upon the face of the earth—and that he will save you?

 18 Or otherwise, can ye imagine yourselves brought before the tribunal of God with your souls filled with guilt and remorse, having a remembrance of all your guilt, yea, a perfect remembrance of all your wickedness, yea, a remembrance that ye have set at defiance the commandments of God?

19 I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?

Alma 5:15-19

We should give it all we have to accomplish our goals so that when we are put on the spot we can "look up to god at that day with a pure heart and clean hands" and tell him that we tried our best and that we gave it all that we had.

All these things i testify knowing that they are true and i am trying to apply all of it in my life.  i know im not perfect but i can always improve.  I hope you all can start setting goals and using them so that you can progress more and more

side note about PMG (Preach My Gospel)

I used preach my gospel for all the information i put up above.  I believe that Preach my gospel in not only a missionary manual but we can use it as a guide for life.  I remember President telling us one time about a friend he had that started a buisness and hired two returned missionaries to help him run it.  In their interviews he gave them a copy of Preach My Gospel and told them to create a Perfect buisness using it as their manual,  and they did it.  they applied many principles like setting and achieving goals.  

Tons of Love,

     Elder Wilkinson

Day 458

Dear Family,

Hey Everybody!!  How is everyone doing?!  I hope you all had a pretty good week and had some fun celebrating Halloween.  Here they dont really celebrate Halloween like they do in the states.  I did see a handful of kids with pillow cases on their heads trying to be ghosts but the costumes didnt really get past that haha Another thing that is wierd is everybody is already talking about christmas!  I was like what? we havent got to thanksgiving yet...and then one of the other north american missionaries was like hey dont you know that thanksgiving is an american holiday that when the indians helped the pilgrams plant all their crops...then i just looked at him and said...oh ya...i kinda forgot...ha I was kinda looking forward to that day when we could eat turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and roast beef.  But im sure we will find a way to have our own little thanksgiving dinner.  

This week was a little different because President had a mission president conference in Quitos, Ecuador with all the other mission presidents from our Area.  but it was also a pretty good week for my companion and I.  We were able to a lot of things done that we wanted to do and we were able to visit a lot of the people we wanted to visit.  We have had a few bumps in the road during our time together but we are getting through it.  living with a person that is so different from me has helped me to learn that i need to have one eye open to see all the good traits in person but the other eye closed so i dont see the things that bug me.  We are working really well together and i know that things can only get better.  I really love trying to develop christlike attributes i like looking at it as a challenge.  Saying well i dont have patience for example so the next time comes around to test my patience i like to see if i can handle the situation better and then the next time better.  Everytime we can get better at something we improve.  But we only can improve if we set goals, we can see them, remember them, meet them and then set new ones.  Everyday we should try and find a mistake that we can leave behind.  Leaving behind something is promising that we wont do it again.  that is one of the steps to true repentance.

Today i am pumped to go play some soccer with president and all the other missionaries in the zone.  I love getting to play soccer on p-days it really is a blessing have so many people that love soccer here in the mission!  We really do have a lot of fun.  Ill try and get some pictures to send for next week.  

P.S. Dont forget to send Family Christmas cards to me

Love,

     Elder Wilkinson

Day 451

Dear Family,

Hey Everybody!!  so I think the cool story for the week is when i was sitting here in the office just doing the usual work and then president calls me from Puno like 6 hours away.  He asked me "how is the office work?" i responded "Everything is going good President."  Then he asked me "Elder, have you driven my car before?" He asked me to drop something off in his car just a few weeks ago and so i said "Yes president i have" and then comes the awesome special assignment "Elder, i need you to go to the mission home and get the car.  and go to the airport and pick up Brother and Sister Shellingberg and take them to Urubamba, is that ok?"  "President...I would be happy to do it haha" so thats how it began our road trip this last week.  I have attached a few photos that we took at some of the over looks into the sacred valley of the incas where the small city of Urubamba sits.  It was quite the experience to head out and hit the road for a couple hours and see the countryside.  the drive reminded me alot of heading to zion national park with all the switchbacks going up and down haha just that the scenery wasnt red like utah but green haha 

Also yesterday we had a pretty cool activity with our ward and the members and we taught them the importance of members in missionary work and then we did practices to help learn how they can share the gospel with their friends.  It worked out really good and we are hoping to be able to do it again but just with more members.  I hope you all know that you are very important in the lives of those around you.  A lot of people think they have to bring up the subject of religion and they feel awkward so they dont like doing it.  but the truth is if you have faith that god will put somebody in your path you will know when the time is right and im sure that they will be the ones to ask you something about your faith.  If you dont feel like you have very many opportunities to share gospel with others pray for more! they will come im sure of it.  looking back on my life i passed up a lot of opportunities to share the gospel with others but it was because i didnt recognize it in the moment.  the spirit is what helps us to find those people and helps us to know when the opportunity is there you just have to listen to the still small voice.

Love,

     Elder Wilkinson

Day 444

Hey Everybody!  Another transfer has gone by and now i can relax a little bit haha It was a good transfer and kinda interesting.  We got a new assistant here in the office Elder Fuller from Idaho.  It was kind of a surprise to a lot of the missionaries but you never know what could happen when the lord is in charge.  we just know that he knows everything that is best for us.  Every companion i have had or every area where i have been has taught me something different and i know the Lord is preparing me for the Future.  This last week i had the opportunity to do splits with Elder Martinez that just got to the mission field this last Tues from the MTC.  We were looking for new people almost all day and then when got to a fork in the road we decided to head down one street instead of the other, I'm not sure why we just felt like going down that street.  well while we were on that street none of the house opened their doors to us until we got to the last one.  there we found a family of members but are inactive.  they weren't even on our list of members! i know that wasnt just some rare chance that happened to fall our way.  Just like our Prophet said this last conference that when the technicians found the problem in the jumbo tron they accredited luck for having found the problem.  and then said but we know better then to say it is luck.  God is always helping us in our lives i know it i have experienced it.

 

Experience of the week

 

This week we were visiting a Teenager named Joel.  He Live all the way up on this huge hill, I'm pretty much used to the altitude here in Cuzco but i always am sweating by the time we get up there ha ha Anyways we were talking about the sabbath day and reading 3 Nephi 18 which talks about the Sacrament and at the end we invited him to pray to receive an answer from to verify the things that we are teaching him he accepted and then we asked if he believed god could answer his prayers and how would he answer.  He then started telling us about an experience that he had which was something like this. 

 

(sorry ahead of time its kind of a rough story but its true)

 

He said that one night he was sitting in his room.  and was really stressed out from studying to get into the university and he was having family problems and also with his girlfriend.  He felt a lot of pressure by everybody to get into the university and was really worried what would happen if he didn't because his parents had put a lot of money into private schooling to prepare him.  that night he felt all of that pressure on his back, and was wondering what he could do to "solve the problem" (I'm sure some of you will figure out what that means) he had two ideas one was kind of a "get out quick plan" which we all know isn't the best idea, and the other was to pray to ask for gods help.  Luckily we know which decision he took.  He offered up a prayer to god and asked what he should do and that needed guidance in his life.  As he finished his prayer he put his trust in god and went to sleep.  The next day was pretty much a normal day he went to school went to Internet to play games for bit after school and then headed home in the afternoon like 4-5 o'clock.  he was just working on his homework and then somebody knocked on his door...We all know who it was....It was us...he told us that he looked out the window to see two guys in white shirts and ties and thought to himself who are they Jehovah's witnesses? Evangelists? some other religion? Normally he would just stick his head out the window and say hes catholic and thank you for the visit and close the window.  But after having prayed the day before asking god for help and then these guys show up?! He was a little surprised but he knew he had to go downstairs and talk to them.  he opened the door let them us in and we were kind of surprised that this young kid was happy to talk to us and just at the door but let us into his house.  Until now i always had a little of that confusion about why he let us in that day.  But now i know the truth that the Holy ghost led us to find him that day.  I know that us young kids are only able to do the lords work with his help.  and his helper is the holy ghost.  We are very lucky to have the Gift of the holy ghost with us always, if we are worthy and we repent of our sins every week when we partake of the Sacrament we can be clean and pure so that the Holy Ghost can dwell in us.

 

 

Photos

 

We went to Saqsaywaman again but this time i took my camera and got some pretty cool pix

 

-Incan Throne

-Llamas/Alpacas

-Incan Profile (look carefully)

-Huge Rocks (i have no idea how they moved them)

-Starbucks Strawberries and Cream Milkshake (don't worry it doesn't have Caffeine)

-And a couple of Groups shots with the office Elders

Day 435

Dear Family,

Well Family...another general conference has come and gone.  It was my third general conference in the mission.  I think it was the best one yet.  We listened to so many wonderful and inspiring talks.  if you didn't learn something that you can try and do better in your life then you for sure need to read or watch the talks over again.  I'm not sure why but to me it seems like they always talk about Peru in conference haha with the announcement of a new temple here in Arequipa, Peru everybody is super excited.  Arequipa is only a few hours bus ride from Cuzco and it will make things a lot easier for the members to be able to visit more often.  The sacrifice that they have to make to go to the temple is a great one.  It takes a lot of planning, time and money.  But that sacrifice has been greatly reduced by having a temple in Arequipa.  I believe that is a blessing that followed the sacrifice that they were making before to go to the temple.  The announcement for missionary ages was a big deal back home i'm sure.  Here in Peru it wasn't because,  they have already been one of those 48 countries that had permission to send 18 yr old missionaries.  But i am sure that will help a lot for the future missionaries.   I believe they did it because when the youth are sitting around waiting for a year after high school to leave on the mission they can lose a lot of the desires to go.  I think these have big changes but they will keep the work going strong.  below i would like to tell a little experience we had with this last conference.

Yesterday we had a couple of appointments that fell through.  So we decided to check the ward list and find less actives.  We walked all over the place, up the hills down the hills back up again it got pretty tiring and almost nobody was home.  on one of the last ones we decided to look for we got kinda lost and kept looking at the map and the houses that have numbers (which are very few) and young girl that probably was 17 or 18 saw us lost and asked if we were looking for somebody.  we were very quik to accept here help knowing she probably lived close by.  she helped us find the house which still was empty.  and then asked us if we were missionaries.  we said covering our name tags "what gave us away haha"  we then asked her how she knew the missionaries and she told us that she went a conference last weekend something like 182th conference she told us.  she also said she really liked it and one of her friends from school invited her to attend.  then she told us she would like to know more about how she could be a part of the stake and participate in the activities for youth.  we got her information and her phone number to a hold of her.

well that is what happened but know i would like to explain what i learned from it.

First of all after walking all day up and down hills like foremaster in St. George (i think thats what its called, the one by the hospital haha) we were pretty tired and didnt have much luck looking for people.  and then this angel, im serious comes from nowhere to help us.  you probably dont understand what its like but for peru it is kinda wierd to have somebody out of nowhere say "hey you need a hand".  and so we were pretty surprised at that lovely gesture.  and then when the question leaves her mouth asking if we were missionaries was even a bigger miracle and i knew right after she said it that we didnt come to this street lost looking for a less active family that probably moved like 10 years ago but we came to find her.  and it all started with her friend inviting her to conference.  i am not sure how many of you guys have thought about inviting somebody to conference but maybe you should try it out.  But i also dont want to limit it to just conference it could be any meeting of the church or activity as well.  I probably will never have the opportunity to meet the friend that invited her but boy am i grateful for just that little invitation that he extended.  And because she went to conference she got to know the missionaries and maybe that is the only reason why she said anything to US.  Maybe she thought we were looking for her house!

I KNOW that the gospel is true.  I KNOW that everything happens for a reason.  I KNOW that there IS a plan for us here in this World.  I KNOW that Thomas S Monson that just spoke to us recently is an inspired man of god.  I KNOW that God Loves us.  I KNOW that I am doing his work.  I KNOW that nothing is more important than to pass the test in this life to able to live with god once again, and not alone, but with our families.  I LOVE Jesus Christ, the son of the LIVING God.  I KNOW he listens to our prayers and answers them.  

LOVE,

Elder Wilkinson

Day 423

Hey Everyone!!  Sorry i didn't write yesterday :( got pretty busy getting ready for zone leader conference today.  This Zone Leader Conference i had the opportunity to give a training to the zone leaders about how they run their zone funds.  As i was thinking about what to share with them i turned to the scriptures and found a scripture that went perfect with what i wanted to share.  Here it is

2 Nephi 9:51 - "Wherefore do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy.  Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which i have spoken;...."

I just love how everything is in the scriptures.  You probably never thought you would find financial advice in the scriptures but there is your proof that there is :) I talked with them about the importance of keeping good records of all our finances especially with the lords money.  And me being the financial secretary, feel that responsibility to make sure that everything is done in order (D&C 88:119).  

The other thing i would share is about a visit that we had to a part member family that has an autistic son (Jefferson) that is 6 yrs old but still can't speak.  Emma (mother) was born into the church,  Reyner (Father) is a non-member that works as a mechanic.  I would say they both are in their early thirties.  Last night we passed by their house to visit them and invite them to come watch conference this weekend.  I started by introducing my companion that is somewhat new to the area and the asked a couple of questions like where he is from and all that good stuff when their wonderful little autistic son sits in his little chair and folds his arms and says something along the lines of "aahh" meaning hey guys when are we gonna start with a prayer haha i love how  little children being normal or a little special are always so close to god.  So we of course started with a prayer and then shared a little message.  After we asked if there was and questions or comments and the wife Emma said she had a comment.  She then shared a wonderful experience which was something along the lines of this.

     "you know when my child was born and i knew he was going to be different i thought that God was punishing me.  I thought that for all my past mistakes he was making me pay the price.  but through time i have realized that it has been a 

      blessing, a huge blessing.  He (Jefferson) has taught me so much, like patience, humility, love, and charity.  When he was born i also realized how much my husband really loved me because even knowing that his first son wasn't going to be

      normal he didn't leave me.  He has always been there to take care of us both and to pay for Jefferson's therapy sessions."

That family is huge example for me.  they taught me a lot about faithfulness, charity, enduring to the end, and trusting in God. i hope you all can learn something from their example.  I challenge you to follow their Christlike example.  And if you do you will receive the blessings just like the Figueroa Family have received the blessings.

Well Family that's all for this week and i cant wait to hear from ALL of you next week!!!