Day 261

Familia y Amigos Mios,
im sorry i wont be writing much but i just want to thank everybody for helping me get to this point in my life.  i really have been touched by all of your examples and testimonies.  i dont have time to write a specific letter to each one of you but i know that i learned something from each and every one of you and i feel the need to thank you because without those things i have learned im not sure if i would be where i am now.  thank you for being my friends and i feel lucky to have the family that i do.
Elder Wilkinson

Day 254

Day 254

Family,
Well i am pretty pumped we just had 2 more baptisms and wow what an experience it was! we were planning on having the baptism at 1 in the afternoon and when we went to the islands to pick him them up the husband wasnt there and we got worried.  but his wife told he went fishing and would be coming back at 12-1 pm so we were kinda relieved but not completely so one o´clock came around and he still hadnt arrived.  then we started getting worried and tried calling the whole world to ask when he would be coming back but we couldnt get ahold of anybody.  so we decided we would go to the church and wait for members to come and tell them what happened and we would call them when he got there.  we ended up waiting till 5 and an other member that was with him fishing said he would arrive like 30 min later with the other group.  he said they had problems and they coulnt return until late.  so we started calling members and telling them we would have the baptism at like 6.  in the end we didnt have until 6:30 but we did have it and boy satan was not wanting us to have this baptism because also the water heater broke and we only had freezing cold water for the baptism and it was nighttime when we did the baptisms.  those other pictures are from a really cool old iron boat that we went to check out and found a guy that had listened to the missionaries in the past but is always working and when they go to his house he wasnt there very much.  we gave him a BoM and i think we will go see the boat with the zone today and we can check up on him and see if he is reading.  well its good to hear all the good news about kylee, tylan, trenton and tom send them my support and my hapiness for there good decisions!
Elder Wilkinson

Day 247

Family,
Hey everyone! i have a some cool things to say this week that happened!  the first is that we had a barbaque with the family we live with!  there is a store called plaza vea that is awesome and sells everything so we bought barbaque sauce from the states and ketchup, chicken, hamburgers, teryaki sauce and other stuff and we ate really good food i sent some pictures so you can all see how it was!  alright next we had a activity this last fri for holy week (as they call it here) in the uros and we watched the testaments with investigaters and members and we had refreshments and it was really cool but i feel bad because i didnt take any pictures :(  i dont remember if i told you guys but i also talked with another elder that came to puno from izcuchaca my last sector and he told that 3 or 4 of the investigaters that i found while i was there were all baptized! i cant wait for the next time i am in cusco so i can go visit them!. the last thing that happened was yesterday. i got a call in the night from my zone leaders and they told me that there was 2 white people from acorage alaska that wanted to go to church in the uros and that they would wait for me at the island so we could pick them up.  so we got there and they were waiting and we all went to sacrament together  and i learned really fast that they didnt speak any spanish so i was their translator the whole day!  and the branch president asked if they would bear there testimonies during sacrament and so they did and i translated for them..  it was a really cool experience and i will never forget it. i also am sending pictures from when the whole zone went to the uros because all tha baptisms we had!  next week i will be sending pictures of the baptism that we will be having this sat!
Elder Wilkinson

Day 240

Family,
Hola a todos!  im pretty excited to write today about the bellavista zone here in puno.  we just barely completed the month with 17 baptisms!  the record for this zone has been 12 baptism in one month and we killed it! and because we are doing so well president gave permission to go to the uros which my sector with the whole zone.  he has been really strict with letting people go to the uros but because he has seen how well we are doing he wants to reward us.  which for me it is normal to go to the uros haha but i feel good that the zone is doing so well and that we have changed the history of the zone and we were almost zone of excelence.  alright next i hope you all loved the conference because i really did!  we had the opportunity to listen to it in english through internet in the clerks office (photo included) but the internet was to slow to watch it :( i really learned alot of how i can be a better missionary and companion.  i hope you enjoyed the msgs and will try to apply the lessons learned in your lives because that is what counts in the end.  our works.  if we have desires to right but we never actually do it then it has no worth to us or god.  i didnt have time to read the letters but i will print them off and read them this week and answer questions next week.  in 2 days i have 8 months in the mission and doesnt seem like i have been out this long.  i feel alrady that peru is my home and that everything from home is like dream.  i have adapted to the culture the language and the mission rules and everything feels totally normal i dont know why im telling you this but i do want to tell you all that i am doing wonderful and i hopr the lord is pleased with all of my work.  well i gota go and i love you all!!

Day 234

Family,
Well i got the new comp! Elder Cevallos from ecuador!  he is 20 yrs old and has 13 months in the mission.  he was in the mission officwe before he came to the floating uros.  he was the elder that was in charge of baptismal records and references from church headquarters.  he is very dark skinned and looks almost black haha i am sending a picture so you can see what i mean haha  i am glad hear about all the people getting their mission calls and where they are going.  i know that these two years will be awesome and i will love to be able to share experiences with them after the mission.  and i am also looking forward to going to all their homecomings because i was the first to leave.  sorry i dont have much time to write becaus ei was struggling to put up these fotos for you all to see.  also i wanted to share how awesome our zone is.  when i got here the zone only had 4 baptisms, ya the whole zone.  everybody started saying that it was the zone of punishment because it is so hard to get baptisms.  but the month after changes we had 8 and this month we have 14 right now and our goal just this week as a zone is 9 more.  the mission president in very pleased in all of our hard work and will give the whole zone permission to go to the uros if they fullfill our goal 18 this month.  and i am sure we can do it and with the lords help everything is possible.  me and my comp have a possible baptism this week but if not for sure the next week and another for april  so we are working hard and having fun in the work.  mom thanks for the update on tanners birthday dad told me as well about the trip to vegas and sounds like everythin went well.  well we have to get going and find more peaople to bless and thank you all for yor suport chao!

Day 227

Family,
alright well its that time agian for tranfers.  my comp elder tturco is heading to cuzco tonigh and i should be with my district leader until my new comp gets here from cuzco.  i also remembered that tanner had his birthday yesterday and i hope that he had good one and still preparing to serve a mission.  i know its sometimes difficult to think about leaving for two years but you can come to know a lot of things in such a short time and grow up as well.  i believe one of our modern day prophets said that the mission is a shorcut to manlihood and i know that to be true. i am excited to keep working in the islands and help strengthen the uros branch so that in the near future they can have their own chapel on the lake.  i also heard that president is coming to puno to do interviews and i am excited to talk to him.  the last two interviews i had with him were really short because my spanish wasnt to good.  it sounds like everything is going pretty smoothly back home.  thanks for the package i got today with the postcards and tell bro. burrows thanks for his little note.  ron also for his letter last week and im grateful to have so many active family members.  i just want to give you guys a little boost on your temple attendance.  i was reading an article in the ensign by richard g scott (find it if you can) from a recent issue and i really liked 2 questions that said we should ask ourselves when we are planning to make time for the temple.  first "what can be more important than going to the temple?" and second "what activity can bring more peace and hapiness in the short time we are there?"  i have seen the sacrifice the members make just to go to the temple here in peru and because they know how important it is and how it makes them feel.  sometimes when we have a temple so close we feel like well when i have a little extra time ill run over.  but we all know that time sometimes doesnt come becaus ewe are always planning other things in our free time that we have.  if you have goals to go to the temple but are struggling to fulfill them read the article by richard g scott and make plans that will help you fulfilll these goals.  that is what we do as missionaries,  we make goals and plan our days and weeks so that we can fulfill those goals.  if our plan doesnt allow us to fullfill our goals then our plan isnt planned right.  alright well i hope you like the fotos and im outta time but i love you all and i am alway praying for your wellbeing and that you are staying true to the faith