"I know that He lives and that He loves us!"

Hola hola hola!!!

How are you all doing? I hope you all had a great Easter!!!!

 

This week was good. :) 

Diego and William are coming along. We had a lesson with them and we took Angel (a member). Angel testifies really well and he related well with Diego and William. We watched the 20-minute version of the First Vision. They liked it. But they still don't want to accept a baptismal date. Diego feels like he has to change before he can be baptized. We tried to explain that it is baptism that starts the changing process. It's not the finishing touch. We'll get there. They didn't go to church on Sunday, but they did go to the choir concert! They took a member too! They said that they really liked it!!!

Jennifer and Milagros. It's been hard to find them lately. Finally we went one day without telling them and Jennifer was there alone. We talked about the importance of our visits and what is it that they really want. She said that they really want to be baptized and do everything right. They are really great people! I love them so much! But, they still didn't go to church on Sunday. We also organized everything so that they could see the choir and they didn't go to that either. Nothing. I hope it changes soon!

On Friday, we were able to go to the temple with Angie Vazquez from Jesús María. She was a mini missionary and her companion was Hermana Medina. I also knew her from my time in Jesús María. She is going on a mission to Manaus Brazil! It was really special to go and be with her in the temple!!!

The Easter choir concert was great! We were practicing really hard and we weren't sure how it was going to play out, but it ended up great! I messed up on my duet, but I don't think anyone noticed...I hope... ;) The Spirit was really strong and it was beautiful!

We had transfers on Monday. I'm staying in Carlos Paz with Hermana Medina!!!!! I'll have 6 months here by the end of this transfer. I am really happy! I love Carlos Paz and I love Hermana Medina!  It's gonna be great!!!!

Anyway, I hope you are all doing well and that you have a great week!!!! I hope you have been able to meditate in this Easter season and think a little bit about what our Savior has done for each of you personally. I am so grateful for my Savior and for His sacrifice! I know that He lives and that He loves us! Gracias a que Él vive, nosotros viviremos!!! I love this gospel and I am eternally grateful for the Atonement of Christ. What a gift it is to know of these truths and to be able to more fully understand and use the greatest gift of all. God's love. I love you all and I wish the best for you! Have a great week!!! 

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

"I love being a sister training leader!!!"

Hola hola hola! Qué tal todos?

This week was good. Long. Okay, it was hard.

Because of the zone conference last week, we had to postpone a trip and we traveled twice this week. On Tuesday we went to Merlo, San Luis (4 hours away) and to Saldán (2 hours away). Let´s just say that we were pretty tired afterwards.

On Tuesday in Merlo, we had a great exchange! I went with Hermana Duran (the only other Colombian in the mission besides my companion). We visited some Jehovah´s Witnesses. Literally, we had an appointment with them. It was amazing. We were able to have a cordial chat about beliefs. I learned a lot about what they believe and I hope that we were able to communicate our beliefs as well. It was amazing, though. At the end, we bore our testimonies. After bearing mine, I felt such a strong confirmation from the Spirit that it was true. We left there and gave each other a hug. I am so grateful for this church!

On Wednesday, we were beat. We got back at 6:30 a.m. and slept an hour. Then we were up and went to our district meeting. That evening, we had a lesson with Diego and William. It was really good!! We talked about the Restoration and they had lots of good questions. But, they accepted it!!!!

On Thursday we went to Saldán and helped the hermanas there. They´d had a hard week last week and we were able to help them. It was really good! It was also a great opportunity to help the hermanas themselves. They were kind of down. I love being a Sister Training Leader!!!

Friday we were looking for people all day. Nothing.

Saturday we did the same. No one wanted to listen. Finally we clapped in front of a house and we talked to a woman there. She was interested and we´ll be going back next week!!! Right when we were the most discouraged! It was a miracle!!! We visited Jennifer and Milagros that night too. But Jennifer wasn´t there. Milagros also told us that she had to go visit her sister in Jesús María (go figure) on Sunday before her sister went to Salta. So she wasn´t going to be able to go to church. But she said that Jennifer was still going to go.

Sunday, Jennifer and Milagros didn´t go. They won´t be able to be baptized on the 27th now. We were pretty heartbroken. But, Diego went!!!!! He said he liked it too!!! So, that was pretty great!!!!

Anyway, we´re doing okay. It´s just been a hard transfer. I feel like we´ve been working harder than ever, but we don´t see any success. But, we´ll keep on keepin’ on. You never know what´s around the corner.

I hope you all have a great week!!! I love you all so much!!!!

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

Celebrating Eternal Families

Hola todos!!!!

Wow, que rápido que va el tiempo. Es impresionante. :) Siento que escribí ayer...

[Hello everyone!!!! Wow, how fast time goes by. It's awesome. :) I feel like I wrote yesterday.]

Okay, this week was pretty good. 

Diego and his brother William are doing well. They have tons of really good questions. They are really searching for the true church. It´s right here!!! On Saturday they were going to go to a baptism that the elders had (a family!) but they didn´t get there. They also didn´t go to church on Sunday. But they had told us that they are going to go to church when they feel it. Which is good. We don´t want them to go for us. We want them to go because they want to go and they feel it. 

Jennifer and Milagros are progressing a ful!!! (that means a ton) We taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we invited them to be baptized. They accepted!!!!!!!!! They also went to the baptism on Saturday. They really liked it and are excited for their baptism. But, on Sunday they couldn´t go to church. They sell empanadas and they have to get a lot of money before Friday so they had to make empanadas. We were really sad. We had even gone before church and I made them pancakes for breakfast. But, they said that they were still going to do anything it takes to get baptized. They really want to do it!!!!!

We visited Antonella this week with the Young Women´s president. Antonella doesn´t want anything to do with the church. Even while we were talking to her, she wasn´t looking at us. It broke my heart. I know that when we were teaching her, she felt the Spirit. I know that she knows this church is true. I know that she knows that what she is doing isn´t okay. It breaks my heart that in spite of all that she does know, she abandons the part that she doesn´t. She has completely gone off the deep end. I cried. 

We also had a zone conference this week! It was great!!!! I love zone conferences! The whole theme lately has been faith and I´ve absolutely loved it! 

Also, on Wednesday, my companion´s mom got married and sealed in the temple with a man that is really spectacular! We were so excited and happy! We celebrated with ice cream! My companion is finally going to be able to have the eternal family that she has dreamed of for years. It was a very special day.

Anyway, I hope you are all doing well! I love you all so much!!!! Have a fantastic week!!!!!!!

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

Jennifer opening the brownies Micaela made for her.

Follow Me and I Will Make You Fishers of Men

Hola a todos! Espero que estén bien y que hayan tenido una buena semana!

This week was good. A bit crazy, but good. :)

This week we were able to visit a young girl named Sofia. She´s 16 and went to church last Sunday with her grandma. We started talking to her, taking it slow, when she told us about her ex-boyfriend who had been physically abusive. It was so sad to see that in people so young. We testified to her that there is someone that can heal her pain and help her. We gave her a Book of Mormon, too. She's a sweet girl. We just have to take it slow because her step-mother is a little anti-Mormon right now. It was beautiful to be able to help her, though.

We also found a young mother, Jennifer, and her mother, Milagros. (Her name means miracles. I love that name!) We contacted Jennifer and when we went back for our appointment, her mom was there. We talked and they have great questions. We were able to just testify of what we know to be true, that God loves them. That Christ knows how they feel and can help them. It was beautiful. They said that they would go to church on Sunday, but when we went to meet up with them, they didn't show. It was really sad. It was like finding a miracle only to find it slipping through your fingers. 

Also, we contacted a Colombian man and his brother (thanks to my Colombian companion). :) They also went to the church on Thursday to play soccer. But they also didn't show on Sunday. They're good guys, though. 

We visited Macarena as well. She's gotten back together with her ex-boyfriend and is struggling with smoking. We talked a lot in qualities that she should look for in an eternal companion and she seemed to understand. I sure hope so. She's great, but this kid isn't the best influence for her. She told us that night that her mom, Rosa, wasn't doing so well. So we went the next day in the morning to find her. We were talking with her and she told us that she is most likely going to split up with her husband. They've been struggling for years and she can't take anymore what he says to her. She just doesn't want anyone to get hurt, and in the mean time, she is being destroyed little by little. It was so sad to see her like that. It's a hard decision. We just told her to ask God and then follow the impression in her heart. 

Ambrosio and Carmen don't want anything more with us. Honestly, it's been a little hard. I feel like the fishermen that cast out their nets and didn't find much. But I know that if we put our nets in again, we will find many. It just takes a bit more time. And patience. Ether 12:6

Anyway, I hope you all are doing well and that you have a fantastic week this week!!! I love you all!!!!!!

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

Photos from last week.

Faith Without Works Is Dead

Hola familia y amigos! Espero que hayan tenido una buena semana!

This week was really good. We had another conference broadcast that was just for the area South America South. It was amazing! Elder Bednar went to Buenos Aires and they broadcasted it from there. He had us read three talks beforehand and we spent three hours just talking about the talks. It was amazing! It was a conversation. The Spirit was so strong! All of the talks talked about faith. Faith, as we know, is a principle of action. O sea, we need to act. If we pray saying, ¨Father, bless the people that didn´t come to church today so that they can come next week¨ and then we don´t do anything to help that prayer come to pass, we aren´t showing our faith, we are showing a belief. We are praying without faith. Faith without works is dead. There was a whole lot more, but it was amazing!

On Tuesday, we went on exchanges in La Falda. I got to go with my daughter, Hermana Jaramillo. It was fun to work with her again. We´ve both grown a lot!

Then, in our area, we´re doing well. Ok, at the beginning of the week it was a bit hard. 

On Thursday, we had a service project. We helped a mom paint parts of a school for her daughter that has Down´s Syndrome. Her daughter can barely see. Her vision is very blurry and the only color she sees is yellow. So we painted the edges of stairs and ledges yellow so that she wouldn´t hurt herself. It was a fun service! I like painting!

During the service, we received a call from Eliana. She told us that five minutes after our last visit with Damian, he started drinking. She told us that maybe it wasn´t worthwile to keep going because he´s just going to keep do the same thing. It was a really sad phone call. She was right. He´s been doing the same thing for a month. He knows what he has to do. He knows everything. He just has to do it. We´re giving them a break for a bit. Maybe in our absence, he´ll understand.

Then, after lunch that same day, we got on the bus to go to our pension, and Yesica got on too. She saw us and sat down in the front without saying hi (that is very, very weird here. You always say hi, with a kiss, to the people you know, even on the bus). That was weird. During the bus ride, she kept glancing back and when she made eye contact with my companion she quickly looked away. Then she got of on the front of the bus. We went to her house the next day to see her. She wasn´t there but we talked to Lautaro. He said that they didn´t go to church because he can´t go alone and Yesica has other commitments. We could see, and feel that for right now, they´re not ready. One day they will be. But it isn´t right now. That was hard for us. 

We have other people though. We went to visit a contact that we´d made with Angel (a member). We taught about the Plan of Salvation because her daughter died recently and she´s been feeling pretty bad. It was a beautiful lesson and the Spirit was strong. She almost went to church, but had to babysit her granddaughter and didn´t have permission to take her to the church. 

Also, we visited the man who´s ex-wife is a member and who started crying when we told him that Christ could help him. His name is Ambrosio. He really wants to stop smoking and drinking. He is very receptive. We invited him to church and he said he´d go. On Sunday, we met up with him two blocks from the church. When he got there, he told us that he couldn´t go to church. His brother was at his house from out of town and couldn´t leave him alone, but that he would for sure go the next week. And he left. We were pretty sad, but it was amazing that he made all that effort just to tell us why he couldn´t go. 

Yesterday we had Consejo de Líderes. I love Consejo! We get to talk with Presidente y Hermana Alliaud and it´s a conversation. We, as leaders, talk about what we can do to help the missionaries. It´s amazing! Afterwards, we play soccer. I´m not very good, but I enjoy it. :)

Anyway, it was a good week all in all. 

I hope you all have a fantastic week!!! I love you!!!!!!!!!

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

P.S. Sorry, my computer today won´t let me send pictures. Next week, I promise!