Mission Map

Monday, August 25, 2014

Transfers, New City, New Responsibilities

August 25, 2014
Goodbye to the Turku Elders!
Hello!! OK so I had an insane week. So, Tuesday morning I got a call from president Watson and he said elder Wilson do you have a second? And I said yeah of course president what's up? And he said "you will be leaving tomorrow to come down to Espoo to serve as a zone leader" So I literally had to go home and pack and I left the next morning at 9 AM and moved to Espoo. I have no idea why haha it was super super random. Everyone gets their normal change calls this friday, but I just moved a week earlier for some reason so it was super weird and I was way sad to leave. I just called all my friends from the ward there in Turku right after her called and saw a few of them on Tuesday and then I left the next morning. But, Tuesday night since I was leaving the other Turku elders came over and slept at our place and they brought a bunch of food with them. We knew they were going to make us dinner, but when they came they brought an enormous pot of crawfish and muscles and stuff haha it was hilarious. So we had a crawfish feast and at a TON of food it was awesome! I was SUPER sad to leave Turku like that. I loved the members there so much so I wanted to be able to say goodbye to them all but sometimes that's just how it works out I guess. So, I'm in Espoo now which is a city right next to Helsinki, it's pretty much just the Helsinki suburbs but there are two wards here in Espoo and it's a really nice place. We live in a part of town called Kauniainen and it's all really nice big houses and cool cars, haha it's pretty sweet. My companion is elder Bascom who is from Atlanta Georgia and he's a way cool guy. He's been out only 2 months longer than me. We're having a good time here though. So, I'll be serving as zone leader of the Helsinki zone and then also president told me that I'm going to be trained as the next mission language coordinator. So pretty much the current language coordinator who serves in Helsinki will come up here to Espoo or I'll go down to Helsinki pretty often next change and he will train me on all the stuff I have to do for that calling. It's basically just like a language teacher for missionaries that need extra help and then he also gives the missionaries their language tests and grades them and that kind of stuff. So, that should be pretty cool I'm excited for that. Next change is Elder Down's last change (the current language coordinator) so after he leaves I'll just take his place. So anyway, lot's of new responsibility and work, but it's ok I'm excited to chill with elder Downs a lot he's way cool. So I got down to Espoo Wednesday, we had a district meeting that day and my district is way fun because Elder Wood (my former companion) is in it so that's fun that I get to see him. Then on Friday we had a meeting called Mission leadership council which is where all the zone leaders and sister training leaders and the APs get together here in Espoo and we all go to the temple and then go to the mission home afterwards and have a big meeting about what kind of stuff we want to focus on as a mission for the next month. So I got to go to the temple again! My second week in a row! Then chill at President Watson's house all day Friday. I didn't really know what to do or say since I've never served in the Helsinki zone before, but it was a cool meeting. Then yesterday we had church and we had an especially awesome sacrament meeting. My new ward here is great and we had one sister missionary who serves here as well who is going home tomorrow so she gave a talk, and then a native finnish girl here from this ward gave her farewell talk because she leaves on a mission this week! IT was an awesome Sacrament meeting. We also have some really cool investigators here! We have two investigators with baptismal dates that are progressing well and they were both at church yesterday! ONe of the investigators is this 18 year old kid who's step mom is a member and his dad just got baptized a couple of weeks ago! So there is really exciting stuff happening here in Espoo and I'm lucky that I get to be here right now! Well I think that is it from the week, this week we get to do splits and stuff like that so it should be a ton of fun. Well I love you all so much! Have an awesome week! 
Crawfish and Mussels Goodbye Feast

ONE YEAR MARK

August 18, 2014
Elder Wilson - 1 Year Finished
Hey! So yes it's true, I hit my one year mark this week! Pretty crazy. I don't really know how to feel about it. I feel like the mission is all kind of a time capsule. Sometimes I feel like it's gone by insanely fast and I haven't even been gone long at all but it also feels, at other times, like that was a whole different life so it's way weird. 2 Years is a pretty long time, but it's all on the downhill slope now haha. We had a great week last week with elder Stephenson's interim training and all that good stuff. We went down to Espoo on Sunday night and met up with some elders that gave us some transportation cards so that we could use the buses and stuff and we went over to the elders apartment that we would be staying with and it was way fun! I was surprised when I got there, my former companion elder Wood was there at the apartment and he spent the night there on Sunday night as well because they had some district activity the next day so it was way fun. I got to talk to him for a while and we all hung out and played some beach volley ball in the morning so it was sweet! I hadn't seen him since I left Seinäjoki like six months ago so that's always fun to see old buddies around the mission. So anyway we had interim training on Monday and Tuesday and that was all at the mission home with president and sister Watson. It was way good, they talked about a lot of the doctrine behind different parts of missionary work such as finding or teaching skills or whatever and we did role plays and stuff like that. So it was pretty fun to get to know President Watson a little better and be with a bunch of other missionaries. Then Wednesday the new missionaries had a language shool thing and all the trainers had a language school as well but it was more like, how to teach the new guys better and how much to correct them and stuff like that, so it was good. So after language school we all got to go to the Temple!! It was super sweet! It was my second time going through the Finland temple, but man it was so cool. It is an awesome temple and insanely beautiful on the inside especially. It was way nice to just be able to relax and enjoy the temple for a day. After the temple we just headed back to Turku. The rest of the week we were busy with just normal stuff, we had some planning and district meeting and all sorts of stuff. On Saturday we did some service for the family that we helped move a couple weeks ago. They are doing a full refurbishing of the new house so we were tearing out floor boards and helping them mix concrete and fix a bunch of stuff so that was way good. They are a super cool family, they have six kids and this super adorable little baby who is fearless and breaks free from his mom and runs and jumps into piles of installation in the floors without floor boards and does crazy stuff like that all the time so we had to watch him closely hahaha Then yesterday we had a great day at church. We had a ward conference actually, so the stake presidency was there and there were some way good talks and everyone enjoyed it. I translated in Priesthood for a couple members that don't speak finnish and the stake preasident did the whole lesson and it was super cool, all about how dads can be better dads and how to strengthen families and stuff like that. After church we went over to a members house for dinner and it was way fun. They have a son that is like 23 and is super cool, we hang with him a lot and he goes to lessons and stuff with us and he's actually getting married to some girl from Utah next spring, she's coming to Finland in like a month to visit and stuff and then they will move back to America when they get married. They're a way cool family though, I was talking to the dad for awhile about my sweet 2010 Ford GT Mustang and all that good stuff. He's pretty in to cars and motorcycles so I was telling him about dad's Jaguar and he was like, he sounds like a good person to meet sometime haha so I think we have a place to eat dinner when we all come visit Finland together. Well that's about it for last week. This week we just have all the normal stuff going on and then on Thusday (my one year mark) I'm doing splits with elder Ahlquist (who is from my mtc group) and we're going to celebrate our one year day together! Well I love you all! Have a great week!




AUGUST 10, 2014

Hey everyone! Well this week went by super fast! It is a little weird to be emailing a day early, next time we have a normal p day, like one week from tomorrow I will just be back on the normal time and schedule for emailing. Well this week was way good! On Monday we just did the normal P day stuff and the other Turku elders got a mini missionary, just this 17 year old kid from a nearby city who was with them for the week so they brought him to basketball on monday and that was way fun! We had a good day on Tuesday of normal missionary work. We had a lesson with our new investigator on his friend that is a member and that went really well. Unfortunately he will be out of town till next week though, but it was a good lesson and he said he would read the book of mormon! Wednesday we had a zone meeting up in Tampere so we had to wake up early to go to that but it was really good! I got to eat lunch with some buddies afterwards and we all had a good time. It's way weird all of my former companions are going to be leaving soon or are already gone. I got a phone call from my trainer last wednesday night, Elder Christiansen, because he was flying home the next day. It was super weird. I remember sitting ont the train with him to Seinäjoki my first night in Finland and him saying that he had 10 months left and that it was still a really long time. But now ten months later he's gone. Super weird how the time just flew by. Then elder wood only has one more change after this one and then elder anderson leaves the following change. So they're all dropping like flies, it's way sad. Well Thursday we had a good day, we got together with the other elders and their mini missionary at this way cool member's house and I made a giant batch of pancakes! It was awesome! Everyone thought they were delicious. Also, a way cool thing happened while we were at this guys house. This guy that I met at fest di nord who is from England called me. This guy is way cool, he's like 22 and got baptized like 8 months ago and he is already his ward's ward mission leader and is planning on going on a  mission himself. So anyway this guy called me and gave me some information on a referral he had for us! Apparently whil he was here during fest di nord he was at a restaurant with his other british friend and this older lady came up and asked them what they were doing in finland and stuff and then all of a sudden she just said "Are you guys mormons?" And they said ya how did you know that? And she said that when she was a really little girl she remembers two guys that came over to her house a few times and talked to her parents and stuff and that the two british guys just reminded her of the mormon missionaries. So they started talking about the church a little bit and they started telling this Lady that God is our Heavenly Father and that he loves us and this lady just started crying. She was feeling the spirit super strong and so they talked a little while with her and then the British guys explained that they were leaving finland soon, but that they had friends in Turku that could talk to her about this stuff. So now we have this ladies info and are trying to set up an appointment with her! It was an awesome story. So I really hope we can get in touch with her. So then the rest of the week was just normal missionary work! We leave in a couple hours to head down to Espoo where we'll be stayiing this week. We're going to have the training stuff at the mission home which is in Espoo which is right next to Heslinki so I'll be there all week and then get to go to the temple on Wednesday and then come home that night! I'm not really sure what we'll do there mom since it's a new mission president but the trainers just sit in the meetings with the new companions the whole time so I'll find out. Well that's all the exciting stuff from the week! I love you guys so much! Have a good week!

FEST di NORD

August 4, 2014

FEST di NORD GAMES
Hello! We had a super fun week here this week! Fest di nord was awesome and was super successful, but it was crazy haha they needed all the help they could get there. Pretty much we were at the school where the whole thing was hosted for 3 days this week all day long doing random stuff. On Tuesday we helped all the people coming to fest di nord get to their rooms and check in, then that whole day we did one station of this big Amazing Race activity they did so we just chilled up on a cliff on the ocean all day while groups would come up and do a little game we had for them and then head off. So, it was tons of fun! I got to see a couple swedish guys that served here in Finland that recently went home so it was super fun to see them again! There were over 600 participants at this fest di nord it was huge! Everyone had a great time I think so it was a really good thing. So, then Wednesday The APs and the zone leaders were here in Turku staying with us and they did the mini mtc at fest di nord while all of us other missionaries washed dishes and did random stuff and then that night even all of us Turku missinoaries set up lessons with people that speak english and we took a couple of the guys that were at the mini mtc to lessons! So, elder Stephenson and I took out two guys, one Finnish kid who is like 18 and blind and is actually from Vaasa and I was at his house on Christmas so that was way cool to see him again! And then this guy names Lewis who is from England and who got baptized like 8 months ago! He was so cool! He is a rock solid convert and is like 22 and was just called as his ward's mission leader, and wants to serve a mission of his own in a few months. A way awesome guy! So, we took those two out to two lessons with one member and one recent convert member that both speak english and then went back to fest di nord. Then Friday we just did normal washing dishes and making food (which included making 600 sandwiches which I have pictures of) and then serving food at the fancy dinner they had that night.

So it was a ton of fun! Mainly we were just doing random tasks and running around all day and then translating for the older Fnnish ladies that were running the whole thing that didn't really speak english so it was an adventure haha I gained a much bigger appreciation for people who organize youth conferences and stuff like that now because it was a ton of work! Everyone was stressed out of their minds and everytime something went wrong or something needed to be done they were like "MISSIONARIES GO DO THIS GO GO GO"  It was way intense haha but in the end all the Finnish ladies were super grateful for us and calling us angels and stuff so it was pretty cool. On Thursday we weren't needed at fest di nord so we just did normal missionary work and we did splits with the zone leaders since they were here and it was a great day! We found a new investigator which was sweet! Pretty much for the last several months one of our less active members has been talking about this friend who gives him all sorts of anti mormon information and stuff like that so I was like you know what why don’t we just meet this guy and talk things out. So, we finally set up a lesson with this guy and the less active and at first the guy was just trying to bash but then I just said, hey usually when we talk to people we start with a prayer so is it ok if I pray? And he agreed. Then after the prayer it was completely different. He just let us start talking and teaching and he opened up to us about a lot of stuff and was super receptive and listened. It was amazing. Like a complete 180 degree turn around. So, we set up another lesson with him for Tuesday and he agreed to read from the book of Mormon so that was awesome! We're way pumped about that. Then on Saturday we just helped this family in our ward move in to a new house then Sunday had church and ate dinner with some members and stuff so it was all an awesome week! We had a great time! I'll send pictures and stuff of fest di nord. Well I can't believe that little sammy is 16 now! sounds like you guys all had an awesome week! I love you all so much! happy birthday again Sammy! bye!