22 February 2016 Letter

This week was super cool. I learned a lot about patience and hope. Knowing that through our obedience, good things will come is hope! We were both a bit frustrated last night at dinner because we had just had a stressful appointment with an investigator. His name is Oscar. He is married to his wife Tina, who is a recent convert along with their two children. He has never wanted anything to do with the missionaries, but he accepted a lesson with Elder Sanchez and I and read his Book of Mormon! That was cool.

Then last night we had our lesson with him and found that he was even more closed up than normal. He was almost contending with us, trying to deny the simple truths we taught. He refused to go to our church, not understanding why it is important to actually congregate. We did teach very well and the Spirit was there. That's why we were a bit confused to why he was acting that way. All his family was there with us and as we left we talked about the lesson, you know, the normal how things went and how we are gonna burn him the next lesson.

In the planning session after dinner we got a call and it was from Oscar. He talked with Elder Sanchez saying he was sorry and that we wasn't being fair and true to us. He told us some personal things that were happening and we saw his real necessity. He asked us to pass by his house this Sunday to pick him up and all of his family to go to church. He said it is finally time that he humbles himself and goes to a church! We were awestruck. God is a God of miracles and he always has been. He continues working miracles today because he loves us! He shows us every day.

We are also preparing another family - The Rojas family. Noe, the step-dad is around 40. His wife (same age) named Angela is super cool and has a testimony. She came to church once. Angi her 15 yr old daughter has been to church 4 times and is cool too. Her brother Alejandro doesn't listen to us. Edu, the 6 yr old is Angela and Noe's son together. He is a bounder. None of them have committed to baptism. They are on different paths of progress. The mom needs a bit more time to repent and the Dad still isn't "convinced" as he sometimes says but they are a great family.

Saturday night we finally asked her straight up - So when are you going to get baptized? She told us after we finish all the pamphlets she will get baptized. That made us laugh because it is a requirement anyway haha. She is awesome and has a testimony. She is already halfway through 2 Nephi and that is all Isaiah stuff. They have about 2 months of investigators time but they didn't visit them much before I got here. I know this family has a lot of potential. We found two new families this week as well and we still need to have a good lesson with them to better get to know them but I am excited.

The ward here is good. The bishop is a great guy who just overcame cancer in his throat or something like that. Now his throat has a hole in it and he talks a bit different. They call him a gringo because he can't pronounce very well his R's hehe. There is a decent amount of support but there are absolutely no home teaching nor visiting teaching reports. We are having an activity, like a training, this Thursday for all the Priesthood and Relief Society. Hopefully this will help. It will interfere with my English class so it better be good haha.

Time to get down to business here 'cause there is a ton of potential, and as you can probably all see, the Lord is on our side and working miracles according to our faith.

Elder Wilcox

#ElderWes

15 February 2016 Letter

New area, new comp, new opportunities! Here I am in Villa Hermosa en la Estaca Central. It is sweet. We are a lot closer to downtown Lima so it is hotter, more humid, and has wayyy worse air quality. It is way more alive here in the nighttime. I am in the chillest part of the stake. My area is the safest of all. That's always good news, because that really should not be an impediment to the work.

My new companion is Elder Sanchez! We were in the CCM together! We actually have a lot in common and we get along super well. This week we worked super hard, getting back to the room exhausted every night.

I got here and there was nothing. The last Elder here maybe wasn't trying his best and they couldn't get a lot of work done. Elder Sanchez was excited to finally get to work so I was too. We were able to get two people to come to church and they are going to get baptized now. It is crazy. Just a little bit of work here and the Lord does the rest, as long as the person is doing their part as well.

We are teaching a super cool family from Colombia right now that live in the giant apartment complex in my area. Hopefully we can work with them, because their 15 yr old daughter came to church yesterday and is showing progress. She and her mom actually read the Book of Mormon every day! How cool is that? We have a lot of people here who can progress. We need to work hard in this transfer of 7 weeks and I know we will see fruits! Blessings always come.

I will try to send some pics of my comp and me along with a pic of the activity we did on Saturday. It was a movie night and it was a success for us.

Elder Sanchez (22 yrs old, from Chimbote, Peru,

and loves Age of Empires!)

The Room

Our movie night! We watched Meet the Mormons

(in Spanish though, haha)

#ElderWes

Templo de Lima Perú - Celebrating 30 Years!

Found this online at a Spanish-speaking website MormonSUD.org.  The Lima Temple was dedicated 30 years ago January.  Beautiful.

8 February 2016 Letter

*Last week we received no letter from Wesley due to the technical difficulties at the Internet Cafe in their neighborhood

This week was so awesome. We contacted like crazy we talked with over 150 people, which is about 100 more than normal. Each one is about 2 -5 minutes, so you can imagine a lot of time knocking doors hahaha! It was super cool though because we were blessed to find a lot of new people to teach.

We found one 17 year old girl named Mayli and she is super cool. She was really receptive and willing to learn. She knows a Mormon family that lives down the street. She is progressing really well. We found her Thursday and then on Sunday she came to church all 3 hours. That afternoon we went to her house and taught her the Restoration and challenged her to baptism. She is getting baptized on the 6th of March.

Also, Juan Carlos Baldeón, Alisson's dad, has a baptismal date for the same day. He is super cool and said that he received his answer that he knows these things are true. On Sunday he only came the first two hours because his work called him in. He never works Sundays, but we haven't taught the Sabbath Day yet, so that is next on the list. We found a lot of others as well who have great potential. The Lord really blesses us with new people when we show we are dedicated to finding more.

The bad news is this. I have transfers. They are sending me to the Central Stake to the Villa Hermosa ward. My new comp will be Elder Sanchez from my group and Elder Gonzalez will hold down the fort here in Santa Clara 2. He goes home is 6 weeks!

Crazy how the time flew in this transfer. I learned a lot. So now they do the transfers differently and they tell us the transfers on Monday morning, so from now on I can let you know where I will be going. Elder Wilson and Elder Flores are staying together another transfer.

Lets see what the Lord has prepared for me.

Till next week,

Elder Wilcox

Elder Chris Tadje and Wes

(A big 'Thank You' to Trina Tadje for the photo!

We don't know anything about the photo but are

happy to see these young men serving side by side.)

(Also, it looks like we ought to suggest that Wesley

wear a jersey that does not advertise beer.)

#ElderWes