Last but definitely not least

Hola mis muy queridos. Los amo tanto!

[Hello my dears. I love you so much!]

It is so strange. This is my last email home...

Ok, we'll start with what happened this week. 

It was a good week. Working a ful. :) We went to visit the family Luna Andrade (they are former investigators that I contacted with the Sister Training Leaders) but only the mom, Rita, was there. We had a really good lesson with her. We were able to ask some questions about why she hasn't gotten baptized yet (she's been an investigator for years). She said that she doesn't feel ready because she knows that she's going to mess up afterward and she doesn't want that weight on her shoulders. Also, she felt like she hadn't really gotten an answer yet. We explained that one of the requirements of baptism isn't that we are perfect. God knows that we aren't going to be perfect. That's why He gave us the Sacrament. So that, in spite of our imperfections, we can start over every week. Then we started talking about real intent and how important that is to receiving an answer. We shared our personal experiences of how we obtained an answer and she said that she hasn't ever really prayed with real intent. We invited her to do so and she said she would. But, we couldn't visit her during the week, because she went on vacation (it was winter vacation here the past two weeks). We hope she keeps progressing, though!

Carlos, Carlos, Carlos. We tried visiting him every day this week, but we didn't see him until Saturday. We had talked with his uncle and cousin about what was going on (because he told us one thing and his uncle another) and so on Saturday we were able to clear things up. He wants to be baptized. He doesn’t have any doubts or questions. The thing that is holding him up is that he feels that he hasn't prayed to know. Again, with real intent. He promised us that he would do it, but on Sunday, he told us that there wasn't time. So, again he promised to pray. We sure hope that he has. He's a great kid!

Silvia (the woman who went to church last Sunday). We had a great lesson with her on Thursday. We taught the Restoration and she loved it. Really she is searching for the truth. It's really confusing when everyone says something different. She loved the fact that she can pray and find out for herself. What a wonderful blessing that God has given us!

The week was really good. I love my companion. She's a sweetheart. I'll be really sad to leave her.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about last words. How important they are. How meaningful. As I have pondered about my time in the mission, it has been the most miraculous, wondrous, extraordinary thing in my life. What a blessing. It's true that it was hard. There were times when I wasn't sure if I could keep going. But to see it all now, at the end, what a beautiful masterpiece it has become. Being a missionary, a representative of Christ has been amazing. It was my only chance, as a woman, to be His special representative. What a gift. Que dichoso. [That happy.] When I left, I left with the goal to "bring them heaven." So that's what I did. I didn't realize that in the process, I would be refining myself, bettering myself. That I would receive the greatest of the blessings. An undeniable understanding and knowledge of my Savior, Jesus Christ and of His atoning sacrifice. A relationship with my Redeemer and Lord. I left home to be able to bless lives, and in the process, He blessed mine. 

I love you all so much. I hope that you can feel of God's love every day in your lives. He is there. He loves you. He knows you. Go to Him and He will hear you. Of this I promise and testify in His holy name, even Jesus Christ, amen.

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

Sad. Exciting. Wonderful. Painful.

Council of Leaders--May 2016

Saudades a todos! (Portuguese)

[Greetings to all]

Wow. I wish I could make time go by more slowly. :) I only have two more weeks here in Argentina. It´s so sad. I don´t want to have to say goodbye.

This week was good. Little crazy, but good. :)

God is great! Saben? So, there is a member´s nephew who has gone to church the past few weeks, but we couldn´t meet with him until this week. His name is Carlos. I´ll be talking about him throughout the letter. :)

We had a splash on Wednesday. I went with a member from another ward and my companion with another and the elders went with us to find more investigators. It went really well. We went to visit Carlos at the end and we applied the Doctrine. At the end, he said he would like to be baptized on Saturday. We were all like, great!!!

Thursday we had interviews with Presidente Correa (new mission president). It was good. It was strange not seeing Presidente Alliaud, but our new Presidente is really good too. I´m sad that I won´t be able to get to know him better. We taught Carlos the Restoration that night and he seemed to understand. He is a really good kid! He´s 20 years old and from Bolivia. He´s here to work with his uncle who is a member. 

On Friday we had exchanges with the hermana líderes. I went with Hermana Fuentealba. I love her so much! We had a good talk the whole day. It´s amazing because we´ve known each other since the beginning of our missions (she has three months less than I). It´s been amazing to see how we´ve changed and grown. Bueno, how we´re changing and growing. Because it´s a never-ending process. :)

We couldn´t meet with Carlos on Friday, but on Saturday, the elders went with us to give Carlos his interview. He passed! But he said that he wanted to go a few more times before being baptized. 

On Sunday, he went and said he felt good. He even went to the elders’ baptism that evening and said that he felt the Spirit and that he wants to do it. But he wants his uncle to do it. It was the only thing holding him back from doing it in that moment. So, he´s going to be baptized on Saturday!!!! Miracles!!!!!!

Also, after looking for all of our investigators that had accepted a baptismal date (11 this week), none of them went. But, we got to church only to find a woman who had gone of her own free will. ;) Miracle! So, we have an appointment with her on Thursday. 

This week has been good. Sad. Exciting. Wonderful. Painful. Ok, I just don´t know what to feel anymore. There are so many things that I just don´t know which to feel. When the hermana líderes left, I just started crying. Ok, I´d cried a lot during the day, but I was so sad to see them leave. I knew it was the last time I am going to see them. Maybe in forever. They are both from Chile. That´s the hardest part. 

Anyway, we keep on keepin’ on. 

I hope you have a great week!!!! Keep on in the faith! Don´t give up. Don´t fear. Remember whose you are! I love you!!!

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

Easter 2016 trio

Trial of Faith

Micaela and companion with a member

Hola a todos!!!!

This week was really hard. Last week we saw lots of miracles. This week we had a "trial of our faith."

Bueno, so Orlando. All week we couldn´t get a hold of him. He didn´t answer his phone and he was never home when we went to his house. Finally on Friday morning, we found him! We asked him about what he thought about church and he told us that he liked everything except the whole prophet thing. He doesn`t believe in prophets because in the Bible it talks a lot about false prophets. We explained about personal revelation and he said that that doesn`t exist. That God doesn`t answer us right now. That made me a bit upset. I know that He answers us. He didn`t have a lot of time so we settled on going back on Saturday. Saturday he sent us a text saying that he doesn`t want us to go by and that he isn`t interested. It was heartbreaking!!!

We couldn`t find Juan either. The whole week! Sunday we went to get him to go to church and he told us that he´ll call us when he wants us to go by again. He´s not sure about everything yet. Again, heartbreaking. 

We only saw Marcelo on Monday and we talked about receiving answers to our prayers. We shared the First Vision and we settled on an appointment today. He didn`t go to church on Sunday, though. 

So yeah. And everyone we found didn`t make it to a second lesson. 

But, that happens sometimes. And it`s ok. It`s not falling down that counts. It´s getting back up and trying again. So that´s what we´re going to do. We´re gonna get up and try again this week. But better. :)

Anyway, I hope you all are doing well and that you had a great week!!! I love you all so much!!

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

Splash!

"How we communicate. Sometimes she doesn´t know a word in Spanish so she looks it up in her dictionary. But then I don´t know what that word means, so I have to look it up in my dictionary. Or vice versa. It´s rather funny. So grateful for Spanish so that I can understand this loca!!!"

Hola hola hola!!!

Time keeps flying by. It´s ridiculous! I can´t believe it!

This week was good. :) Bueno, as far as investigators go... well, let´s see. The thing about La Rioja is that the people are really receptive. Which is good. It´s just still hard sometimes to keep commitments and progress. It´s the normal thing. 

Cristina. We went to our lesson and she was sick. She told us that she had thought a lot about baptism, though, and she had spoken with her sister. Her sister told her that it was fine to listen to us and all and go to church, but getting baptized was a no. So she told God that she wouldn´t get baptized. We were really sad. We invite people to ask God, not other people. Because God is the only one who knows everything and is the only being that won´t, can´t lie to her. She was really set on it, though. 

Last week, the elders from another area sent us a reference. They told us that they started talking and that they invited the man to be baptized. He accepted! We were really excited! So we went. :) His name is Juan. He´s older and got divorced about two years ago. He is still in a lot of pain. He lives with his mom and is searching for the truth. The first time we went, I wanted to teach the Restoration. But, we didn´t have a single pamphlet or picture of the first vision. He stopped in the middle of a sentence and told me to read from the Book of Mormon on my lap. I opened it and started searching a scripture related to the Restoration and he told me no. He told me to just open it anywhere. Inside I was thinking, No! This isn´t going to work! But, I opened it. Right to Alma 32. It was perfect. I read the first two pages and when I finished I looked up to see tears rolling down Juan´s cheeks. It was a beautiful lesson. I learned a beautiful lesson as well. He didn´t go to church this Sunday, but he´s gonna go next Sunday. I just know it!

On Thursday, we had a splash with the elders. They did lots of contacts. They invited seven people to be baptized in 10 minutes and they all accepted! We were there watching with open mouths. It was amazing! At the end, we went to visit Marcelo. He was just about to go, but I asked him if he was able to do the prayer we had asked him to do. He said he had and that he felt a peace that he couldn´t describe. It was beautiful! We all started testifying that this is what he needs to do. He didn´t want to accept a baptismal date yet, but he said he´d go to church. And he did! He got there late, but he got there! He was there for Sacrament Meeting. He said that the testimonies really touched him. It was great!

One of the seven people the elders found is named Orlando. Bueno, really Orlando contacted us. He asked if we sell the magazine of the Jehovah´s Witnesses. We said no, we have something even better. We started talking and he is really looking for the church that it describes in the Bible. Which is ours. ;) So, on Sunday morning, I called him to see if he was still going to go to church. He said that he had just gotten home from studying all night and was about to sleep. I somehow convinced him to go though, so we took him to church. Even though he was tired, he stayed the three hours! Also, it was his birthday! In Gospel Principles, he started asking lots of questions, so the other members started answering him. It was great! He is getting baptized next Sunday!!! What a miracle!!!

Anyway, it´s been a great week! I just can´t believe that the time goes by so quickly! 

I hope you are all doing well. I love you all so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cuidense mucho!!! [Take care.]

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

 

5-Minute Brownies

Leila got baptized!

Hola a todos!!! 

This week was good. I don´t understand why time has to fly by so fast though... Está bien. 

We had to go to Córdoba on Wednesday. My poor companion. She got here Monday morning and Tuesday night we had to travel. We had to go to do some paperwork for my ID. Literally I just had to sign three papers. Then we came back. But the mission paid for lunch! We had McDonald´s! When we were walking down the stairs though, I totally tripped (as usual). We were in a mall so there were lots of people. I pulled it off pretty well though. :) jaja

Anyway. Good news! Leila got baptized yesterday!!!!! It was crazy! Saturday and Sunday it was raining so we were really worried about people going to church. Leila didn´t go. But we received permission and we went and got her and took her to the church so she could be baptized. I never met a person that wanted to get baptized so badly. We were worried she wouldn´t want to after what happened the last time, but she did. So this time, the elders were baptizing too. We thought it would be good for her to see other baptisms because of her fear. She was fine until she got in the water. Then her fear got a hold of her again. The elder said the prayer and she didn´t want to cover her nose. He could tell she was about to freak out again so he basically dunked her. Her arms were flailing a bit so he had to go under the water a bit too. It looked really...OK, I´m not sure how to describe it. If someone didn´t know that she really did want to get baptized would have questioned our motives. But afterward, Leila asked me ¨Am I baptized now?¨ Sweet thing. 

We tried time and again to find Maria, Adrian and Marcelo. They were never home. But we´re going to keep trying!!!!! We know that they can progress more!

We met with Cristina (the woman we contacted that thanked us for the peace she felt with us). We taught the Plan of Salvation. She really liked it. She really wants to be with her daughter again. We invited her to be baptized so that she can get there, but she said she needed time to think and pray. Which is fine! But the Spirit was so strong!!! I really believe that her daughter has already received the Gospel on the other side and now wants her mom to receive it too. It was beautiful!

  

It was a good week! My companion is teaching me Portuguese as well so we´re mixing the three languages. It´s rather fun! 

Anyway, I hope you have a great week!!! I love you!!!!

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson 

"We found a miracle!"

Micaela with Presidente y Hermana Alliaud

Hola todos! Espero que hayan tenido una buena semana!!

 [Hello everyone! I hope you had a good week !!]

This week was good. Sad. But good. 

Ok. A ver. [Let's see.]

Bueno, we found a miracle!!!!! So, about a month ago, we were on our way to lunch when a man in a truck stopped us and asked for the direction of the church and he left. Bueno, this week we were contacting former investigators when a man came outside. It was him! We didn´t even know that he lived there! We started talking and he said that he wants to find the church that is closest to Christ. He wants to be there, and he wants his family to be there. He has lots of questions. He told us that he was going to go last Sunday, but he slept in by accident. He said that he was going to go yesterday, but he didn´t make it. He said that he wanted to be able to go for the whole time, and because it was Father´s Day, he wasn´t sure if he´d be able to. But, we invited him to be baptized and he accepted!!! We´re hoping that he can progress!!!

Micaela and Leila

Leila. Leila. Leila. 

Bueno, Leila was going to be baptized yesterday. She didn´t get baptized. It was a mess. Ok, so they went to church, everything´s good. We had to have the baptism in a different church because we didn´t have gas to heat the water. We asked the elders if they could fill the font and they said they couldn´t. So we got to the church after lunch at about 4. It takes about 4 hours to fill the font with hot water and the baptism was at 5. I was really stressed. Then we had to wait another 30 minutes for the elders to get the keys to us. When we got in there, the font was filled! I had misunderstood the elders and they had filled it. Bueno, the members were there and Leila got there. She changed and everything was ready. The service was really beautiful. But, when it came time to be baptized, she didn´t want to go in all the way. She´s afraid of the water and we didn´t know that. We tried everything to convince her, but she wouldn´t. She is also extremely shy. So yeah. That was sad. 

I know she´ll get baptized afterward. When we were in the car going home, she looked at me with these huge eyes. We couldn´t say anything, but I know that she wants to do it. She´s just scared. It was so sad. She was afraid of going all the way under, but she also didn´t want to leave the font. She wanted to get baptized. When she left, she was asking her mom if she got baptized or not. It was heartbreaking. 

the old district

Anyway, we also had transfers! Hermana Larsen went to San Francisco in Córdoba and Hermana Barbosa from Brazil is here with me now! She was in my district in Bell Ville. I saw her when she started the mission and now she´s gonna kill me. :)

the majority of the hermanas in the mission

Y bueno. It was an emotional roller coaster yesterday. I also got sick last night, so my new companion came and I was a mess. I´m feeling better now, but this morning was rough. :)

I hope you all know how much I love you!!! Have a great week!!!

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

Micaela and Teresita

Reflections

Romina's family at her daughter's baptism

Hola hola hola!!!!! Cómo están todos? 

This week was really good!!!!

Bueno, we went to visit María y Adrian. Adrian wasn´t there so we talked for a little bit with their kids and Maria. They are soooo busy. It's ridiculous. Their son leaves at 7 in the morning and doesn't get home till 10 and stays up till 1 or 2 in the morning doing homework. The parents both work and are hardly ever home. But Maria told us that they're both reading the Book of Mormon. They really like it! They want to meet with us, but they don't know how to find the time. Also, they keep getting sick, so every time there's time, they're sick. Ugh. They're awesome and we just want to be able to help them!

We also had a Family Home Evening with a recent convert, Ramiro, and his family. His dad is less-active and the dad participated the whole time. He even made us pizza. Amazing pizza, I might add. :) It was a little miracle for us!!

On Friday, the hermana lideres came for our intercambio. It's funny because I was their hermana lider for both of them. And now they're mine. :) I went with Hermana Linares. It was a really good day! It was good to work with her again. She helped me remember a lot of things and she also cleared up some doubts I'd had. It was great!!

Bueno, next Sunday, WE HAVE A BAPTISM!!!! Her name is Leila Nasrallah and is 8 years old. Her grandma and brother are members (less-actives) and the first time we went, they said that we needed to baptize Leila. We were like, Ok, perfect! They went to church this Sunday and Leila is really excited for her baptism! 

Also, on Saturday, the stake had asked us to have a meeting with the leaders of the ward and that we would be teaching. Yeah, that was a big load. But it ended well. We talked about what the ward needed and we're going to have another meeting about what we can do to help. We also had to teach on Sunday during Sunday School. It was really good, though. We just hope it helps!

Anyway, the best thing was yesterday. We got together as a whole mission to say goodbye to Presidente y Hermana Alliaud. It was really sad, actually. I was sitting on the stand (because I was part of the musical numbers), and was looking out at the faces of the missionaries thinking about every one of them. I knew the majority of them. It's amazing to think back and reflect on what has happened. I've talked a lot with my companion, too, about how things have changed. In me. How I've grown. What I've learned. It was really hard to say goodbye to Presidente y Hermana Alliaud. Really, they're like our parents here. I love them SO much! I was really worried that I would come here to La Rioja and never see some people again (because it's 6 hours away from Cordoba). It was my chance to say goodbye to everyone, too. I remember sitting down and wanting to just bawl. I love this life. I love the mission. It has been the best thing I have ever done. I don't want it to end. Everything that has happened. It's been amazing. Extremely hard, and extraordinarily amazing! I know it can't go on forever. But I don't want this dream to end. What an amazing privilege to be here. 

I hope you know how much I love you all. Take advantage of every day. Because you'll never get it back. Aprovechen cada momento. Amen cada día. No dejen algo por mañana que podrían hacer hoy. Hoy es el día. Ahora es el tiempo. Keep on keepin on!

[Seize every moment. Amen every day. Do not leave anything for tomorrow they could do today. Today is the day. Now is the time.]

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

From Micaela's letter to her mom:

Bueno, I don't think I've ever told you about the people in my old areas who have gotten baptized. On Sunday, Jennifer and Milagros (from Carlos Paz) got baptized!!!! I am so happy!!!!! We knew they were going to get baptized!!!!! Also from my other areas, in Bell Ville, Guadalupe, Ludmila and Juan got baptized! From Jesus Maria, Miguel Gil got baptized! It's been amazing to be able to hear about all of them! Also, Romina (from Bell Ville, my convert) called me to tell me that her youngest daughter got baptized a couple weeks ago. Her husband, Alejandro, baptized her. It's amazing to hear about these things. Even though I wasn't there, it's amazing to see the impact.