Kazan Week 6 - "Investigators!"

September 21, 2015

All is well :) 

Well first I'll answer the question, how is my health? Sooo a miracle happened. I am completely healed. Zero trace of ulcer. Monday night I was feeling like a champion and asked if we could go out and work. We got the go :) And I've had no pain since Monday. Normally is takes about 2 weeks for the pain to go away, and about 4-6 weeks for it to heal completely. I feel like I never even had an ulcer now. It's gone :) So hallelujah and thanks for all your prayers! 

However... it was super hard getting back into the work this week. It's like running a marathon and then stopping for a while and then starting again. But Heavenly Father helped cheer me on and I'm running at full speed again :) 

About a month ago my companion and I were going through the area book and making some calls. Poor Sister Neilsen is terrified of using the phone (her mean trainer has her on the phone a lot) but she called a girl named S and thanks to Sister Neilsen's courageous phone call we got a lesson with her! She is 27 and is the neice of a new convert (who is now less active sadly) but her teaching record said that she's not really too interested in talking about God. On the lesson we focused on the gospel blesses families, she seemed a little stiff during the lesson, but she felt the spirit and promised to come to church. Ever since that lesson S has been coming to church every Sunday for 3 weeks! 

This week we had a meeting set up at 2:00 to take a walk with her around the Kremlin. Sister Neilsen and I prayed and did role plays to know how to bring up religion with her more naturally during this walk. Well... as we were walking amongst many churches I non-chalantly asked her, "did you go to church when you were little?" And the rest is history. The Spirit took over and she opened right up to us. She told us how her father is an alcoholic and how she can't stand him when he's drunk and that although she didn't grow up in a believing family, she wants her future family to be religious. She said that she knows that religion makes families happy because it teaches us how to properly love one another. She doesn't drink coffee or smoke or even drink tea. She is already living the word of wisdom because she has a testimony of it! Also she mentioned how amazing her life has been since she's been coming to church. She's making more money, and her clients are much nicer. While she was talking I was just in shock. I was totally not expecting this. Then she told us that she needs our help, because she wants to be baptized, but she needs to know the doctrine of our church better, and asked if she could meet with us twice a week (haaaaallelujah by my guest!) She said that previously she hasn't been interested to meet with the missionaries, but she feels ready now. I was sooo ecstatic. Probably way more than she was. Because she's young and beautiful and so normal and cool! And God loves her :) 

 After our walk she offered to drive us home. She also thinks that she got a good parking spot thanks to us ;) She has such a nice car.... and I was in paradise driving home. She may or may not have put in a John Mayer CD while we drove. The weather was beautiful and so we rolled down the windows and I almost cried it felt so good. I miss taking drives so badly. But man, what a good day, we love her so much! S is awesome :)

That night was a member's birthday/talent show and soooo many of his friends came and so many member's friends came. We were just rolling in potential investigators. It was so fun getting to know all these people and helping them to see that we are completely normal :) It's really nice leaving good impressions with people.

For the talent show I played a piano piece and it was just a nightmare hahahahaha AHHH. I was so nervous and I was sooo not expecting that many people?! I've played it before at baptisms and it wasn't a problem, but this time was awful. Also I forgot to pray before I played.... so I think that's why it went so bad. Everyone was really nice though and thanked me for the attempt :) There was soooo much food there.... awful. Pretty sure I gained 20 pounds in one night. But heeey there'll be more of me to love when I'm home :):):) I promised myself that I would be one of those sisters that wouldn't gain weight on their missions... ha.. ha.. haaaa... yeah right. It's all good. I've got a few months to trim down. 

We have other investigators that we've continued to meet with, Li, Z, and a Russian grandmother named R. The members in our branch are amazing. I love them so much. There's an elderly woman named G who is always willing to help on lessons and is so motherly. There are Y and Lo, who are my FAVORITE, man I wish I could just hang out with them sometimes. Y is always willing to help us on lessons and L has this completely dry sense of humor and a deep voice that makes everything she says so much funnier. 

All is well in Kazan :) Heavenly Father was really generous to us this week. Today at 3:00 we are heading down to Toliatti for a zone training! Yaaaay! We get to stay with Sister Twede and her companion. We are literally out of money because we've been spending it all on medicine and transportation... we have 10,000 rubles worth of refunds to send up to the office, yikes. 

This week in my letter to president I expressed a lack of hope that I've been having. I feel like I have a lot of doubt and fear for the future. This is what he wrote me in reply, "Thank you Sister Wilson. You said something really important. You said : "I feel that I have hope for the future, but not much faith." Things like the future (what will happen) are what we should have hope for. What we should have faith in is NOT the future, but in Jesus Christ. In other words, have hope that everything will work out well in the future, and have faith in Christ that HE will make it so. Leave the logistics and the specifics and the "hows" in His hands. Trust me that all will work out well! The Lord takes care of His returned missionaries, and He will take care of you! just worry about the work for now, and look forward to Him helping you down the road!" It's really what I needed to hear. My faith needs to be in Christ that he is making a beautiful future for Sister Wilson and that I need not be afraid :) He's in control. 

Sorry this was eons long. Loooove,

сестра вилсон. 

Saratov - Week 16 - "Obedience brings Blessings"

May 4 2015

All is well :) 

This week O was baptized and it was such a special baptism. I have never seen a baptism that was so perfect! I also played "I Know that my Redeemer Lives" by Paul Cardall on the piano. Regardless of the fact that I haven't played piano basically since I left the MTC I was still able to play as if I had practiced all week :) Heavenly Father really helped me, of that I am absolutely certain. 

One of our investigators that we found this cycle has had an ENORMOUS ammount of progress. It was shocking to me on our last lesson. She is understanding the doctrine SO well, compared to our first lesson when I felt like we were getting no where. She love love loves meeting with us and having lessons and understands so well our role here and everytime we ask her, "are you coming to church this week?" she says, "absolutely!" Oh how I love that answer. To me, coming to church is the most important commitment that we give to investigators, and for some reason it is the one that they have the hardest time following through with, so when they do follow through with it it just makes me sooo happy and relieved. It's always a mystery on Sunday of who or who will not come to church.

Once again it was a really great week. We had a lot of lessons and were running from place to place. I honestly feel like there are plenty of missionaries who deserve to be in my shoes and enjoying this part of the vineyard. I know for a fact that there are missionaries who are more obedient and hard working than I am. So why are we experiencing such great success? Every act of obedience brings blessings. To whom that blessing will go or where it will go we have no idea, but we can be certain that the blessings are there. This week while I was praying and pondering and asking questions I had a strong impression come to me that this part of the vineyard is blossoming not only thanks to the prayers and the obedience of ourselves, but of other people's prayers and other people's acts of obedience. 

I really am striving to push out doubts and just act on faith. Something my companion said this morning really hit me. She said that Satan tries to get us to do missionary work the easiest and most comfortable way possible. But the truth is that missionary work is always uncomfortable and will always be hard if we are not exercising faith in Christ. Lately I have really just be pushing to remember all that God has done for us, all the AMAZING blessings that are in this area and I am trying to not let my day to day mood drag me down. 

I realized today that our desires change depending on our mood, so... let's not depend on our moods, let's depend on faith in Christ :) which is constant and unwavering. 

I am doing well as a missionary. I have recently realized that I have actually developed a lot of spiritual progress on my mission, and I am so grateful. Thanks to my mission I have developed a love for reading the scriptures, I have learned HOW to exercise faith in Christ, I now feel a deep need to pray, and at the end of every day I can get on my knees and use the great gift of repentance :) Such small things that have such a big impact on our lives. 

I love my mission. I thank Heavenly Father for the experiences I have gained here every single night. 

Love, Sister Wilson 

LAST Week from Brooklyn - at the Provo MTC - July 20, 2014

All is well,

First off something that happened yesterday.... during the devotional Sister Marquis and I were sitting next to each other in the choir. Anyway my pen wasn't working so Sister Marquis told me if I suck on it then ink should start flowing again. I didn't really think it would work, so I sucked, and then sucked again... and surprising got a really interesting taste in my mouth. I made a sour face at sister Marquis and she just cupped her hand to her mouth and started laughing. Apparently I sucked too hard, because I had black ink ALL OVER in my mouth. I had her take a pic so I could see and my tongue was completely black. I looked like a pirate or an old woman with disgusting rotting teeth. It wasn't super easy to get out either, I didn't end up getting it all out til I brushed my teeth that night. I would turn around during the opening hymn and just smile at people super big with the most disgusting black teeth and would get some pretty concerned and sorry looking smiles back at me. We joked about how embarrassing it would be if the cameras zoomed in on me and showed on the jumbotron while we were singing in the choir. Just some poor sister with gingivitis. Sister Marquis is going to Rostov, and is super fun to talk to because she went to high school with me and we hung out with a similar group of friends, but were never friends ourselves. Too bad! Because she is a champion. I love her to death. 

Anyyyyway! This week we have planned for a week of miracles. Sister Palmer and I have come up with sacrifices that we are going to make every day until we leave that will help us to be better missionaries. I saw my first miracle on Sunday!

In case you didn't know, I am absolutely terrified of playing piano in front of people... like if I am practicing and somebody walks into the room I start messing up because I get so nervous. Well, Elder Young asked me at the beginning of last week if I could maybe play a solo musical number on Sunday. I told him I'd practice a song, see if it was good enough, and then get back to him. Well... I never found time to practice cause we've just been so busy, and so two days before Sunday he says to me,"you're still playing on Sunday, right?" .....right??? I never said I was going to! But I took courage, put a dumb smile on my face, and said, "yeah I can do it!" 

So Sunday rolls around I am just praying so fervently to my Heavenly Father. I told him that I am definitely NOT playing this song for my own glory, I am playing to help others feel the spirit, and I can't do that if I'm messing up the song the whole time. I KNOW you can help me with this and make it perfect. I kept getting reassurances like, sharing talents will increase them, and have faith have faith have faith! I walked up to the piano, hands shaking, and silently praying I'd somehow manage to play despite my nervous state. As I sat down the music flowed through my fingers so naturally, and I took courage! I concentrated everything I had into that song. And the parts where my mind went black? Heavenly Father filled it with other notes that made it nearly impossible to recognize the mistakes. I asked for perfection, and what does he do? Because of course I am not perfect, he makes up for my imperfections, he provided another way to accomplish the task in an even more beautiful way than my way... his way.

That's how I want to do my missionary work ALL the time. I want to concentrate all of my efforts into this, I want to rely on Him fully. Because like I witnessed while playing the piano... I didn't fail, because not once did I doubt him while I was playing, otherwise I would have failed. His abilities are far greater than mine. God is the master piano teacher, he is the master Russian teacher, He is our Heavenly Father and the greatest teacher of all. 

I can't believe that I can count on one hand how many days I have left in America. I am so in love with the MTC, I feel like this place is my home. I loooove my district, they all have such character and the most different personalities which always keeps things interesting. But I also can't stay here another week or I am probably going to lose my mind :) Samara needs me, for some reason or another... so Russia, here I come!

Love, 

Sister Wilson