12/17/12

Hola mi Querida familia!!!!! Well we decided that we would write earlier today because its going to be crazy all day. Well we had changes and my companion will be going to Baños. haha cool huh? She is going to my very first area of my mission. I am going to miss hermana bajaña because we have become great friends in these last two changes.

I will be staying here and my companions name is hna Guevara. She will be ending her mission in January. But really it has been a eye opener for me this change because I have realized that I really don't have much time left. Only a couple more days really. Yesterday when we got the changes my companion was all excited, nervous, and sad at the same time. It makes me remember all of my past changes and those same feelings. You leave an area feeling sad because you've got people there that you love and in you new area you don't know anyone so its like a fresh start. Lets just say it kinda shook my potty chair last night hahaha.  I have lots of mixed feelings. But you know I am happy. I love the mission and I am so happy that I have had this time to be able to serve in this way. I feel like more than anything our dear Heaavenly  Father has blessed my life in many ways. 

Tonight I am going to have dinner with president and sister Ghent  in the mission home with all of those that will be going home in this change. They call it the ultima cena or the last supper. Last week on Friday we had our Christmas dinner with them in their house and a couple other zones. President and his wife are so awesome. We went Christmas caroling again this year.  It is neat to see the reaction of the people here because this isn't a common occurance. Well sorry that I have to go now. I love you all so much! 

Love hermana wilhelm

12/10/12

hello my wonderful family, 

Thank you for all of your letters and support. Spencer, I feel your pain:) haha I am pretty sure every missionary that has served outside of the states as had a close call once or twice in your mission. 

Well this week we have been searching searching searching people. I feel like I have walked like 1000 miles this week. My  shoes are developing holes on the bottoms. I keep praying and saying that they only need to last a couple more weeks. We walked a ton this week to find and contact people but the holidays here started. They had fiestas de quito here and so everyone claims to be in family or they are busy. Even  the members weren't in their houses. But all is well. We are going to have a better week this week. 

On Saturday we had been contacting all day because all of our appointments and plans fell through. By saturday we were like walking dead because we did this everyday  in the week. It was about 8pm at night and we were tempted to go home or go eat but we decided that we needed to be diligent. We found a spot in the street where no one could see us and we said a little prayer to ask for guaidence and help and that someone would except us in their home. After we started walking down a street and contacted a couple of homes but the same thing happend they didn't want to hear anything. It was about 8:30 when we contacted a home and a lady came out. We started talking about her family and getting to know her. She started off with, "how is it that your guys are here in this hour.  I have never seen you or heard of your church." She said, "I have been looking for a church that would suit me but I haven't found one yet." She said, "I want to find a place that sings and prays as they should and that all of my family can go and learn to become closer." Needless to say we felt like this contact was an answer to our prayers. We have an appoitment with her tonight at 6:00. We will see what happenes but we are praying that she will except our message. Well I love you all so much. I hope that you all are enjoying this wonderful time of year. See you all very soon. Love hermana Wilhelm

12/3/12

Hellooooo! Thank you so much for all of your letters they always a great joy for me to read:) I love that everyone is living in sj. Its like heaven:) Well it has been a good week here on the mission. We have been searching searching searching for new investigators but havent found many but its ok we will find some soon... we got to see nancy and her daughters jump in the water. It was such a neat experience because we went through the bathroom and watched it from the back and when Evenlyn came out of the water she said mom that was so cool you are going to love it. Then afterwards she told us that she felt clean and so happy. I love love love to see this change in people and see them feel the love of God. I know that baptism really is a covent that we make with our dear heavenly father. As for us old timers in the church i know that we can renew these convents every week in church by participating in the sacrement. There really is power in the atonement and i am so grateful for that.

Today we had a zone activity in the chapel. Well lets just say the elders had fun playing volleyball while we cook hamburgers. Dont get me wrong it was every bit as fun make food. We didnt have a grill so we cooked them in the oven under broil. It didnt turn out quite the same as it does at home but hey we are in ecaudor:) Speaking of food me and my companion were talking the other day about foods that we dont like. You know after being out for so long i dont remember the foods that i didnt like at home haha as far as i remember i liked all kinds of food. I have gotten use to eating what ever they put in front of me. Its crazy and kind of gross to say but yesterday Nancy made some pig feet soup that rocked:)

Sorry i really dont have much to report but just know that i love life and the mission. I also love each and everyone of you guys!:) Have a wonderful week! Love Hna WilhelmXXXOOxOxOOxOxoxoOXo

11/26/12

Hello!! It looks like thanksgiving was tasty and that you guys lived it up. I love you all so much:) I love my wonderful family. Well It has been a pretty good week here. I had been sick the last couple weeks before with a cold then with strep but this last week i felt a lot better and pumped to find and teach people. It was great this week because me and my companion have made it a goal to listen to the council we have gotten in the trainings and invite everyone we meet to baptism in our first lesson. We have seen some results also. I feel like we are being blessed immensely just being obedient in the little goals and things they ask us to complete.
We had a neat experience with Nancy this week. We were able to give her a tour of the church and explain a couple of things. Afterwards we were waiting with her for her daughter that was in a YM activity. We were able to learn couple of things about Nancy. She told us that her parents abandon her when she was only 3 years old and that she was raised by nuns from the catholic church. She has had a pretty rough life. But you know she is one of the most pleasant nicest ladies that you will ever meet. She told us that she has investigated many churches but has never found what she was looking for. About a year ago she investigated our church and was progressing for a baptism but then didn't get baptised because she was working on Sundays. Then we got her reference from the church offices and this time around she has been able to progress and now is very excited to become a member. I love seeing how our heavenly father changes our lives if we just have faith in him and Jesus Christ.
Also in this week my companion and i found an in prompt to service project. We found a family outside of their house moving a big pile of sand a and a pile of rocks to the back of their house before it was night time so that it wouldn't get robbed. It was a hard task for them because they were filling up big rice sacks and carrying each load on their backs. So me and my companion were able to take a shovel and help them out. It was funny because we were in our Sunday clothes and nice shoes and everyone that passed by on the street made a comment about the big gringa and her friend who knows how to work. It was more of a joke when they said it but it was fun working like that. We also have an appointment with this family in this week.

Well my dear wonderful famliy i love you all so much. Have a great week. Chao!!

Hna wilhelm XXOOOoxOOxxoOXOXXOxooxO

11/19/12

Querida familia!!
I am so happy to hear that you all are doing so well. You know it has been something super specia for me to see spencer in the mission too. Its great because the mission experience is so wonderful. It is crazy how time is just flying... i cnat believe that my time is coming to a close sooner than later. I love my mission. it is something very tender to think about for me. I feel the love of God so much. I know that the power fo the atonement is real. I know that families can be forever. It is true, all of it. God calls prophets. The church of Jesus Christ is restored and flurishing because it really is his church. I also know that the book of mormon is true. It has brought me and many others so much peace. It is a happy sad feeling to see my mission end because my two lives are just so awesome,) ONe it is happy because i can see all of your wonderful faces and move on with the purpose of life. Two, it is sad because the mision is like a once in a life time oportunity and there are so many awesome people here. Although i have come to the conclusion that we can serve anywhere at anytime.

This week we had a cool experience with nancy and her daughters. We taught about the gospel of jesus christ but we focused a lot in the faith. We watched the video about the widow of zeraphath. It is so cool to see people grow in there faith because if they have faith first they are willing to do about anything to progress. In our conference that we had with Elder Wardell last week he taught us that we as missionaries need to help the investigators grow in faith before they change there lives and truly repent. He expained that they can grow as the read the book of mormon, pray and go to church. So it is neat to see nancy grow because she is even willing let go of her work on sundays now to go to church.

Well i love you all so much. Thank you so much for your support. Love Hna Wilhelm

11/13/12

Hey Yall! Hows it going? Well i am here writing you guys in the middle of an electrical storm. I feel very adventuress doing so also:) I love you all so much. I just want to thank you all so much for your support and your letters. I always feel so up lifted to get them. Well As i said earlier today we had a conference with Elder Wardell. It rocked. I felt so good and spiritual re powered as i walked out of there. We learned a ton of things. Something that i have noticed when the general authorities come is that they speak purely by the spirit. You can just see there confidence in the spirit it is amazing. Elder Wardell didn't even use a note book. He just spoke from the heart and used his scriptures. It is truly a gift. We learned about using the book of Mormon in our lessons and he talked a lot about obedience.

Well in this week we were able to find a single mother and her two daughters as new investigators. They are awesome and wonderful. The daughter has a very interesting story. A couple years back she was hit by a car and was unconscious in the hospital for many days. The doctors said that she was going to die becasue only 2 % of her brain was working. Miraculously after 15 days she woke up from her coma and with intense therapy she now is live, talking and working. She is such a sweet spirit and is always so happy. Now years later she is super willing to learn and except. She is very intellegent and understands everything. Its just that she has a hard time with her short term memory so we repeat and teach in different ways lots of times so that she can capture. I love the mission because i get to see the power of our heavelny father at work with the lives of people. I feel like i have learned a ton to be here and have had many humbling experiences here. I am so grateful for these experiences.

I love you all so much. Thank you for everything! Love Hna wilhelm XXOOxoXOOXxxox

11/5/12

Dear Family,

Well i am happy to sway we didnt get changed:) It looks like hermana bajaña will be killing me off. You know i am so excited for this change. i fell so pumped for this change and excited to find people.

This last week was a holiday weekend called "dia de difuntos" or day of the dead. No one works on friday and everyone does their own thing all weekened. The truth is that the mision work really slows down a ton in holidays here because no one wants to recieve us. So we spend most of our day knocking doors if we dont have appointments or we visit members. A tradition that they do every year during these days is that they make something called colada morada. Man i think i drank like 2 gallons of that. Its a hot fruit drink that they do with a purple colored flour. Its thick and they eat it with bread called guagua de pan. I think i have gained like 10 pounds i am no even kidding. Its alright its just that everyone and their dog was making it and so everyone offered some. I could probably describe the taste like a fruit syrup that you would put on ice cream.

We also have been getting a ton of rain here. In the last cople afternoons we have had some pretty nasty lighting storms. We were contacting when a storm came over us. We were far from any members houses so we contacted until a little old lady invited us in with open arms. She was so nice but when we started talking about the gospel she shut us up and said i am catholic but when i saw you two out there i had to let you in. Needless to say we were happy to be away from the lighting. After awhile we left because it looked like the storm was calming down but when we went outside a huge ray struck so close to us. We just ran to the bus stop. It was kinda like we were in war. Then today we were eating lunch with a member family when a big lighting ray stripped through the street. It was crazy we could see it because the door was open. Oh and today we found a baby scourpian in our bathroom. Needless to say it has been an adventure this week haha.

Hermana leonela was able to get married finally and was baptised. This lady is so sweet and humble.

Well my dear wonderful family. I love you all so much. I am so happy to hear that our family is growing and that your guys are enjoying life. Have a great week. Chao!!!

Love,

Hna Wilhelm

10/29/12

Hello my dear wonderful family,
It looks like you guys hooped it up at davis´ bday party. I love hearing from you guys and thank you for being so wonderful:)Well it has been kind of a ordinary week here on the mish. Sorry that i dont really have much to report. Only one thing. This week we had a training and interviews with president ghent and it was awesome. Its cool to see how revelation works through the leaders here on the mission. We only had a short training on how we should invite people to be baptised. Our mission has a goal to invite the people always in the first lesson. So he taught how we can do that specifically. We are going to start teaching the doctrine of christ in the end of every lesson. There are many chapters in the book of mormon that talks about it but for example in 3 nephi 27 it talks about faith, repentense, baptism, gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. So we have been applying what we learned from this training this week and you know it has been working out a lot and we have been having a lot more spiritual experiences. I think it is because we are follow the voice of our leader who recieves revelation for the mission. It was exactly what we needed. So Leonela if finally getting married tomorrow;) we are super excited for her considering she has been waiting for like 4 months now to do this so that she can get baptised. I am so happy for her;)
This next week that is coming up is changes so we will see what happenes. If me and my companion stay together. Or who goes or stays. Its crazy how fast this last five weeks have just flown by. I cant help but wonder that the next last ones will just go by before we know it. I love the mission and for this chance to meet so many wonderful poeple here. Lets just say i feel like i have a better perspective on life and i am pumped to see what is instore for the future. My dear family i just want you to know that i know this church is true. I dont know how many times i have told you that but it is true. I know that families are fooooooreeeevvvver hahaha and this is just amazing to me. I feel so blessed to be part of this family and i simpy just love you guys! Well Ive got to go.
LOVE Hna Wilhelm XXOOxxooxOXXOOxoxO

10/22/12

Hollllllaa! Como le va mi querida familia!!! I love you all so much it makes me so happy to hear from you all and about your lives. Well it has been another week in the mission like usual we have been searching new people and found 1 this week. We found a brother named Jovani Abril through contacting. He seems very prepared to hear the gospel and wants to change his life. In our lesson with him he told us about an experience that he had that makes him want to change his life. About three months ago Jovani went drinking with some friends and became very intoxicated when he was walking home he was going up some stairs someone stabbed him in the arm and took all of his money. He had barely made it home before he fainted from lose of blood. He said that he thought that his life was good and that he had good friends but he said that he didnt have friends when he really needed them. So now he is super willing to listen and learn because he wants to change his life. It is always neat to find someone that is actually look for a way to change there lives. Well i told you guys about roberto last week he is doing good. He is progressing little by little but surely. I love this gospel and the message of the atonement of Jesus Christ. I know that there is power behind this message because it is absolutely true. Christ and our dear heavenly father lives. I know that they love us too:) Well sorry that this will be kind of short this week. Just know that i love you all so very much and that i am so excited to see you in a couple of months:) Love hna wilhelm

10/15/12

Hellllooo!! Hows it going? Well it was a great treat to hear from you all this week. I love my family! I am so happy to hear that mom and dad are all moved and in their new house. That is so wonderful....also that i dont have to help witht hte food storage:) Well it has been a pretty good week here on the mission. We have been searching more people and you know we have seen miracles.

We found a hermano named Roberto who is absalutely awesome. The story about how we found him is kind of funny. Me and my companion had contacted an older man a couple weeks ago as we were walking to one of our appointments. We asked him if we could go teach him and his wife in his house but he wouldnt have none of that so we just invited him to general conference thinking that we would never see him again. Well the weekend of general conference went by and we didnt see him. But on wedsnday we were walking in the same neighborhood and this old man came runining after us and calling us. We stopped and he said can you guys come teach me in my house today. We were like of course. He seem super excited to hear us. So we went to his house later that day. His wife wasnt there so we could go inside without another adult women present. He was like ok than ran to three or four neighbors homes and found an older lady to be in the lesson with us. We get in his house then he said ok i would like to do two things. There were like four nonmembers there him, his two sons, and his neighbor. He said First i want the gringa to read an english book out lound and we will record it. (He is an english teacher for kids) Then second i would like you hna wilhelm to teach your message in english then you companion can translate it into spanish. We were like haha wait wait wait i can do this small service and read this book but we are hear to teach a very important message not only so that you can hear a gringa speak english. I read the book. Then me and my companion started a lesson of like normal like wiht a hymn and pray. The only person that was really listening and seemed interested was roberto the son of this hermano that we found in the street. The other son seemed very stand offish and wouldnt even touch our bible...he would only read from the catholic bible which is basically the same thing. And the neighbor lady was just nice to be there so that we could teach a lesson. In the end we were happy to have the lesson because roberto wanted to keep learning and the next day in a lesson he excepted a baptismal date. He also went to church. I am just happy that we followed the spirit and we found a new investigator.

It is crazy how fast the time is flying i cant believe that in december i will be home. It will be wonderful to see all of your beautiful faces again. I love you. Love herman wilhelm

10/8/12

Hi dear family,

Ok so i will write just a little because i dont know if i will have time to write later. Me and my zone are in Otavalo whoop whoop haha it has been a pretty crazy day with lots of traveling. I got to buy some clothes for those cute lil nieces and nephews that i have. I bought them all otavolian indian stuff haha it was so fun picking it out. i hope i got all the right sizes. I also saw some mow mows put they were like 16 bucks for each one. I think i will see if i can find some more cheaper. But they are just how you like it mom, kirsty, lara, and maria haha. It was so funny because i started picking out stuff and tried barging. But my companino was like no that is expensive and she called over the elders. (10 elders) They all started talking down the price for the baby clothes. It was so funny. They even helped me pick out a few things too. It was a littlle stressful having so many opinions and making a decision myself. Well it has been a miracle week here in vargas. We started out with just one investigator last week. Well we found a couple more. We found a brother and a sister who are just so sweet and nice. I know we have felt the hand of the lord in this work this week. I love missionary work. I lvoe meeting new poeple too. I know this church is true with all of my heart:) I am so grateful for my wonderful family and am so excited to see you all! I love you hna Wilhelm

10/1/12

Dear querida familia!!!!! Hello hows yall doin haha i need to practice my hick english before i get home. Well I love hearing from you all as always. Thank you for your support and your love. It is just so tender to think about my wonderful family:) The Santa Ana Zone is a blast i love my new sector and my new companion. My compies name is hna bajana she is from ecuador from the coast and she is awesome. She has like 2 months in the mission so i am finishing up training with her. But serious she is like training me haha shes pretty awesome. We have only one investigator right now but i know we will find some more if we are diligent. Her name is Hna Leonela and she has been listening to the missionaries for like four months now. She cant get baptised yet because she needs to get married. But they have made a goal to get married in this week. Other than Leonela we are searching searching searching. Its a little bit hard to contact here because it is a city. But we have faith that we will find those that are waiting.

Today for pday we had a zone actividy and played volleyball and ate lasana. It was delisous not quite as delisous as moms lasana but hey i will give it a break im in ecuador. Well i really dont have much to report I feel like this letter is so short in comparison to spencers letters haha well jsut know that i love you all so much! Love Hna Wilhelm

9/24/12

Hello!! Ok so i made it here to santa ana my first impressions are that the hills are going to be sweet;) We also got to meet some of the members already and they seem really nice. Well alot of things have happened in this week. Remember Fabiola and Vicente. Well fabiola has always progressed like she has come to church, prayes, and reads. Vicente on the other hand has been hard for him to progress. One because he had a kindey transplant like 7 months ago and couldnt leave the house. Two he was a hardcore catholic. He always would doubt the doctrine and always wanted to contened with us. We even let them go because he wasnt progressing and he wouldnt let fabiola get baptised. A miracle accured this week with him. Me, my compie, and hna fabiola were sitting in the sacrement meeting when we saw vicente walk by the chapel door and started talking with a brother member. Fabiola was like what is he doing here. After the meeting we got caught up talking with people and couldnt make it to vicent. So we heard that he was in talking wiht the bishop in his office. We were like what is going on? haha After the second hour vicente and the bishop finally came out. Bishop said did you hear the good news. Vicente and Fabiola are getting baptised this saturday at 3 pm. We were so excited it was such a huge suprise haha. I think we were almost close to tears we were so happy to hear that;) The cool part is that it was a surprise for hna fabiola also. Vicente asked WHY HAVENT YOU GUYS VISITED ME ITS BEEN LIKE 15 DAYS? haha Vicente finally got his answer and felt the need to get bapstised. He had been praying and reading the book of mormon. I am so happy for them and especail for fabiola because it has been a long road for her. Me and hna cox from like 4 months back started teaching them. I love this family and it makes me so happy to see the gospel change peoples lives.

Something funny about church this week. We walked into gospel principles class this sunday and there was a little old lady that is a convert from about 6 months back waiting for the class to start. She waved me over and pointed at my shirt and said ¨Que le pasa? Algien mudio¨ ( what happened did someone die) I looked at my shirt and realized that me and my compie were wearing black. This sister is so cute. I told her no its just that we decided to match today, even though we didnt even notice. I told my companion afterwards and we laughed. We got a few other comments. Then my comp put on a cardie.

Well I love you all so very much. I love hearing from each one of you. It sounds like home is crazy but wonderful right now. I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that this church is true and that our family can be together forever.

Love,

Hna wilhelm

9/17/12

Hello dear family!!!! Well it sounds like everything is heating up at home. Kirsty had her baby, mom and dad are moving, what more! haha i love you guys so stinkin much. Well it has been a good week here on the mish. We have been working to find more people to teach. I feel like we have had a couple of spiritually experiences. One was when we were knocking on doors. We came a cross a member that has been asking us to come visit him and his family for a long time. The only thing is that they are a very busy family and are hard to get ahold of. But for quincidence we knocked on the door of this members house. He was on his way out the door but said its ok come in here is my in laws and 2 other poeple. His in laws are less active members and the 2 other people were named veronica and evelyn. We had an awesome visit with them and it ended with veronica and evelyn super excited to learn more. They said they want all of there family to listen and go to church. It was awesome to hear that because not many people are so willing to learn. So this week we will be visiting with them.

We are starting our last week in this change. This last 6 weeks has seriously gone by so fast. I love the mission and am so happy to be here. It will be interesting to see if we have changes. Who knows i might just end my mission here in Sangolqui. Well I am running out of time so I will send some photos of our pday. We made hamburgers as a zone. It was super fun and it tasted like home and afterwards we played uno:) Well love you all! Talk to ya later! Hna Wilhelm

9/10/12 - Pictures

Zone 1 celebrating my compies bday:)



The happy couple signing their marrage papers.

Day in the country

Daniels baptism

Lauda Bonillas baptism

9/10/12

Heeeellllloooo! I am so excited for Kirsty and Josh. Sophie is sooo stinkin cute with tons of blond hair or no hair. I cant tell the difference from this photo but i imagine that she has a lot of hair like her older brother did when he was born. I hope that all is well with you two:) and i cant wait to see her when i get home.

Well it has been a pretty good week here in the mish. The pingergote family got married and daniel was able to get baptised. He had a pretty good week because of his marriage, his birthday, and his baptism. I dont think he will ever forget this week. All i have to say is that i love the mission. It has its ups and downs but more ups then downs:) I feel like i am learning so much here and am sad that it is coming to a close so fast. I have made a goal to read the book of mormon in spanish before i get home. It is amazing how much i am able to understand now. I know that it is the spirit helping me. I can total tell the difference when im not very focus in learning something and when i am praying for help and trying to understand stuff that i read. Its like night and day.

This last saturday we as a zone got to do a service project. We got to build up cement wall, cut down trees, move rocks around, and dig up mounts of dirt. It was the best. I love that kind of work but my body isnt use to it haha yesterday and today i can hardly move with out hurting haha it is way fun trying to get up on the busses and hold on tight. Today it was especially fun washing my clothes because my arms just felt so good haha

I know that this church is true and that we are loved by a wonderful heavenly father. I am so grateful for the love of Jesus Christ and his atonement. I love you all so very much! Hna Wilhelm

9/3/12

Hello!!! Hows it going? Well This week has been a pretty normal week that passed by like a blink of an eye. I really dont have much to report but i am happy to be here in the mission. Today we celebrated hna Alvarados, my companion, Bday with a sister member who provided the cake and those elders. This week we have been working a lot in finding new people. I feel like we have found a few that are really awesome and i am excited to see what happenes. We are also working with the pinergote family which will be getting married this friday!-) and hopefully on sunday we will be seeing a baptism. Hna Fabiola didnt get baptised this week because her husband says it is too fast. But i can see that her husband is progressing too. He went to church on sunday. Well i love hearing from you guys you all are just so wonderful. Oh and if mom and dad havent told you guys i will be landing in pheonix on the 28th of december. NOT TO FAR AWAY! Crazy;) I am so excited to finally meet those new grand babies. I cant believe that kirsty is about to have her lil sophie. I am so excited. Babies are too cute! I think and pray for all of you every day. I am so grateful to be in this family and that we are sealled together. I love you all so much! Chao! Hna Wilhelm

8/27/12 Pictures

Here is a picture with some of the missionaries in my zone. We went to a mall to eat then after we went to the churh to play games as a zone. It was pretty sweet day!

8/27/12

Hooolllaa!!! Hows it going? It sounds like everything is going good at home and in mexico:) It has been a wonderful week here in the mission. As you all know we had a missionary conferene with elder holland, elder maynes, and elder useda. It was excellent! I loved it. It was one of the most powerful meetings that i have ever been in. We all got to shake their hands. When i got up to elder holland in the line of course we didnt have much time to talk but he asked How are you doing sister? I said good and then i chuckled a little bit. Then he said youve got a good laugh. Then i chuckled some more. And moved on in the line.....I dont know what to say to an apostle in like 5 seconds. Needless to say I feel spiritually recharged after this weekend. Also in my zone we got to hear elder useda and elder holland on sunday because we had a stake conferene. It was poderoso! At the end of elder hollands talk he gave a blessing to everyone that was present and to all of our loved ones. It was very interensting because he started it off like a real blessing. He said that we should think of this blessing as if he were putting his hands on each and everyones head. In the blessing he blessed us with strength for each and everyday and if we have faith in christ he will lift our burdens. On saturday Elder holland talked how the mission work is the life blood of this churh. He said that the missionary work is not over until christ comes again. He talked with a very pure and direct perspective about how everyone in this world is our brother and sister. Each and everyone of us need this gospel and the power of the atonement. Then on sunday he talked a lot about families and temples. He said that if we need to remember what heaven is like or if we are having a hard time GO TO THE TEMPLE. He said that the temple is the first sacred place here on earth were we can find divine peace. Than he said the second most sacred plae here on earth is the home. These are just some of my notes from the meetings we had. I hope i didnt bore your but i feel so happy and blessed to be apart of the true church of Jesus Christ. I know that this churh is true. I know that our leaders are men called by our loving heavnely father. I felt like the lord was talkiing right through these wonderful men right too us.



Well i love you all so much. I pray for you each and everyday. choa! Hna wilhelm

8/20/12

Hello! Hows it going? I love hearing from you guys. It sounds like everyone is doing great. I love the good ole sj life:) well this week has been kinda crazy for us. Hna Laura decided to get baptised it was so wonderful to see her do this. This little old lady is so cute. In the bathroom after her baptism she was just crying and praying giving thanks to our heavenly father. It was sweet. I love seeing the happiness that we can get if we live the gospel. We are searching for more people to teach now. We are kind of short on investigators. But remember fabiola? Well we talked with her yesterday and she excepted a date for the 1st. I really hope that she can make it to this date. She is so wonderful but she has a lot of oposition from her family.

Today will kind of be a different pday. A week ago the mission got news from the church head quarters that only the misionaries in the quito area or within two hours would be able to attend the conference because the didnt want us to loss a lot of time travelling. Pts Ghent was super worrried and sad about his because he wanted all of the missionaries to have the same chance. So he prayed and fasted and came up with a solution and the church headquarters approved. Today all of mission Quito will be start wokring like normal at 1 pm today. So that we dont loss hours of prosilitying. I thought that was a great idea because it will be awesome to see all 205 of us missionaries together at once. I am getting super excited for the conference on satruday then on sunday elder holland will be coming to our stake. SWEET! haha well i will let you know how it goes. I LOVE YOU ALL! Hna Wilhelm

8/13/12

Here are some pictures that we took from last night. A member made dinner for our zone.

8/6/12

Hoooola mi queridisima Familia,

Thank you so much for all of your letters. it sounds like home is just bombing with excitement. I love you all so much. I am so happy that everyone will be living in sj. I cant help but think in the future now i really want to live in the promise land of sj with my own family. Man kirsty you are about ready to have this baby. Its going to be awesome and wierd to meet two new babies when i get home. Sophie and bridges:) Grampa Wilhelm truely is the sweetest man. it is too bad that he has to deal with this ballon thingy. it was just this last week that i was reading our4 family history stories at night before i would go to bed. And i read some of Gpas stories. he is a wonderful person.

Well we recieved some pretty exciting news here in mission Quito. It has been quite some time now that we have been hearing that there will be a mission conference in august. They have been teasing us kind of through out the weeks giving little bits of information. First we heard that there would bge 3 70s coming. Then they tould us it would be 3 70s and an apostle. Finally this week they anounced who will be coming.......Elder Jeffrey R Holland will be coming to visit us and 3 70s:) We all are getting so excited. Thats not all of it. We will be having the mission conference on a saturday. Then on sunday elder holland will be coming to los chillos for our stake conference. I hope i will be around for that because we are ending another change. So i will hear if i have changes or no this next sunday on the 13th.

We are wokring hard her in sangolqui. its seems like there has been a lot of opostion working against us but we have seen alot of progress also. We were visiting wht hna laura this week. We were explaing a little bit more about the doctrine of baptism. We were super into it using scriptures and bearing our testimonies then hna laura stopped us all of a sudden. and said When i get baptised my baptism dress cant only come donw to my knee. That will not work. i need you two to find one that will go down to my ankles. If not i will have to make one. hahah this lady is so cute. She has one of the strongest testimonies about jesus christ that i have every seen. It is so wonderful to see her desires and excitement for baptism.
I just want you guys to know that i love you so much. i am so grateful for the gospel of jesus christ. i know that he lives.

Love,
Hna Wilhelm

7/30/12

Hello dear family,
Well todya for pday has been a pretty boring day haha We seriously left the house only to print and then write. We have just cleaned and washed clothes all day. So it will be nice to get out and do some visits night. This week we had hna laura go to church for the first time. This sister is so cute and funny. She has a dancing, clapping and singing back ground when it comes to going to church. Me and my companion were kinda scared that she would let out a AMEN! or a SI SENOR! in the middle of the sacrement meeting. But luckly she didnt:) We were also praying that she would like it and that she would feel the spirit. And guess what she LOVED the meetings. She said that it was completely different from other experiences that she has had in the past but she said i just feel good here it is nice to be some where that has the truth. She is super excited to learn everything. I love working with older people because they are just so real and open. Its kind of funny when we first met her i gave the opening pray in this lesson and at this time i didnt know about her hallelujah amen background so when i was praying she would answer everything with either one of these responses. She has toned it down alot especial after going to church.. Sorry i have ran out of time. I love you all so much have a great week! hna wilhelm

7/23/12

Hello family! Ok so this week has been pretty good week. Even thoguh the work whas been a little hard the last couple changes we can always see the tender mercies. This week we have had a couple spiritual experiences with finding ne wpeople to teach.

Last monday we had a few appts set up but they all fell through last minute. So we scrambled to set up some more appts. and we even went to a few invest. homes but no one was home or answering. Finally we got ahold of a member family that is preparing to go to the temple and we made an appt with them at 7:30. But in the meaning time we had to do some contacting. Whcih contacting here on a monday night isnt very effective. Me an my companion were walking fastly to mak it to the area where the member family lived. And we where going to contact over there for a little bit. When we walked by a lady that was standing out side her family carpentry business we were in such a hurry but we both felt impressed to go back and talk with her. It was so funny because hna alvarado suddenly stopped and did like a 90 degree jump turn and walked durrectly up and started contacting. I think we scared this sister a little bit but she let us in and now we are teaching a new family.

Yesterday we had just gotten don eating and we were leaving our mamitas house. Same thing happened and we had a couple appts. fall through. So we prayed to know what we should do we were going to go do one thing but then we felt impressed to see if a less activew member was home that lived near by. So we turned around and went to this members house but it turns out that they werent home. So we were leaving and came across an older lady named laura. She taked first and asked what are you two doing here in ecuador. We introduced ourselves. THen she asked when will you come by to visit with me. We were like righin now of you can. In our lesson she said that earlier that day she had been praying for friends that could help her learn more about God. She said that she usually walked down a different path to get to her house but change it for this on time.

I know that these two experiences didnt happen casually. I have come to learn that God will guide us and those who are prepared to listen if we are willing to listen to those promptings of the holy guhst.

Sorry well I have ran out of time. I love you all. I hope you had an awsesome 24th. Chao! hna WIlhelm

7/16/12

Hola mi querida familia!:) Once again having a latina companion has made me start thininkng more in spanish. Everytime that happens its hard to write you all an unscrambled letter in Eglish. But its ok. Well this week in Sangulqui has kind of had its highs and lows. We were super excited and preparing for Fabiolas baptism for Friday but it didnt happen. The morning of her baptism she had some opposition hit her and her husband and she called it off. We talked with them and they siad they wanted to become members but not right now. We taked wht them for about 2 hours but they just didnt want to practice faith. I know that they will come around. They just need to build up their faith a little and believe in those promise from our heavenly father. I also know that as long as we keep working we will find those people that are prepared to listen.

President Ghen tcame up with the idea of having all of the missionaries wire an experience that we have had with the misssion work. They are going to make a little book and send it to presdient monson for his birthday. I have been thinking and thinkning about who and what i should write about. you konow its hard writing a prophet. I dont want my story to be boring or wierd. But I decide to write about an experience that i had in Ibarra. Oh we got news also that in August one of the 12 will be coming to visit. We are all super excited.

Thank you everyone for your suport. I love you! Hna wilhelm

7/9/12

Hola mi querida familia! OK it has been a pretty great week. Its kind of weird though because it feels like time just sloooooweed down all of a sudden in this change. I dont know why because we are working so hard. It is kind of nice to find this extra time because we can get some more stuff done. Well I am loving this change already. My companion is pretty awesome too. I dont think i have told you guys about the suquillo family. Well we have been working with them for about 3-4 weeks now. I love this family and it is wonderful to see what the gospel can do to someones life. This family was a reference from an active memver. Vicente the brother just had a kidney transplant like 3 months ago. So he is recooperating. The first time that we visited with them we had to wear masks the whole lesson. Man i didnt think that i was castrophobic but its true. We had to sing and teach a lesson with a mask. I thought i was going to sufficate during part of the lesson. Afterward they said we could take off the mask because we werent sick. What a realief to take off that mask. Well anyways we have been visiting with this family for about three weeks now. Hna fabiola is ready and excited for baptism. She is a great example for vicente. He hasnt excepted yet but is ptrogressing. He still has his doubts but little by little he has openned up. We have invited him to pray to know if it is true. I think these two things really helped fabiola except becaus she read and prayed. I know that the power of pray is real and we can strength our testimonies. Sorry this will be short i have ran out of time. I LOVE YOU! Hna wilhelm

7/2/12

Well we just ended another change...its crazy how time just flies here on the mission. We got changed. Hna Cox went to a part in Quito named Caldaron and I am staying here in Sangolqui. I will miss my hija she was so wonderful and i feel like i learned a lot from the time we had together. Now i am with a sister that is from coastarica and her name is hna alvarado. She is super cute and nice. I am excited to see how this change will turn out. She has been out from like 13 months so we have almost been out for the same time. I will be coming up on my year mark on the 13th of july. When we were in the offices today i say some missionaries preparing to go home. Its crazy because I remember that they only had 6 months when i started. It feels like December is just around the corner. I feel like i better enjoy every moment that i have left here on the mission. I love this gospel and am so grateful to be able to do this work. It is hard work but it is so worth it. I feel gods love everyday and feel many blessings. LOVE YOU! Hna wilhelm

6/25/12

Hey family! so i wont have that much time to write today but know that we are doing good over here. Today we got to make pizza with our neighbor who is a member. She is pretty awesome. This week has been kind of crazy. I feel like we have been running from place to place. (dont worry we dont run down alleys or scary places) haha We got to have a training meeting this friday and it ended up taking up all our day. After we were all on the bus when the zone leaders called the elders and asked if we could go to their bautism because they needed more people to come. So we ended up going and helping them organize the whole thing. It turned out pretty nice ane president ghent and his wife came. There was five people that got baptised and they got baptised in FREEZING water. It amazes me how willing people can be. There can be a lot of oposition in this work but it just makes it so much more fufulling when we reach a goal. I love my time here on the mission and feel like it is just flying by. Next sunday I will be ending another change here on the mission. Well I love you all so much! Chao!!! hna wilhelm

6/18/12

HOOOOLAA! Hi my dear family. Thanks for your emails. It sounds like a crazy week at home and it will be nice to start a nice to start over with a new week.I am so grateful that I have all of you guys in my life and that you all are ok:) This week has been kind of a random week on the mission. On Tuesday we started of a normal day when a member called us to see if we could go help them out. We were like sure not know excately what to expect. Well the member and his wife came by to pick us up and we went to a house. We walked in and there was a movie set. It was crazy. I guess the stake was make a video to motivate the members to read the book of mormon, the bible and the liahona more. So they had us teach a couple about the book of mormon. They only filmed us for our movements and didnt take audio...thank goodness haha Well this week we had a couple come to church named the diez family. We have been working with them for a while and finally they are showing some real progress. They excepted a date for the 30th. When they came to church they loved it and found that they had many friends there. This was truely a miracle because the hno was a little hard about going to church but now he cant wait for next week. Well I have to go. I love you all! Hna wilhelm

6/11/12

Hi family,
It was so wonderful hearing from you guys. I am so glade that spencer is doing good and that nothing happened. It is true that the spirit will guide us and protect us here on the missions. We are absalutely nothing with out this guide. This week hna Chancay, my latina companion, got her visa and went to mexico. We were only together for three weeks but it was enough to see what an awesome person she is. We had lots of really funny moments with her. It was just this week when hna cox and I were in the room having a deep discusion about the three nephites and we were actually reading about them in 3 nephi 28. When all of the sudden hna cox felt a little movement under her bed. She was like i didnt move so something is down there haha so we both went up to the foot of her bed to see what it was and hna chancay pops her head out and scared us to death. The funny part was that I planned this scare attack with hna chancay but i totally forgot that she went down there so she scared me too. We laught so hard afterwards. We still dont know how hna chancay fit under the bed and got under there without us knowing haha Now it is just me and hna cox. Hna cox is wonderful but i will have to say it will be weird not having a latina companion around. It has kind of been a scramble getting to know my new sector. Ive got the basic places down and i am sure i will be learning alot more places in the future. Our sector is huge. All i know is that I was called to this sector by revelacion. I know that I will get the help that I need to help these people here. Well I love you guys so much. I feel my saviors love everyday and feel blessed to be here and have a family like you!
Love hna wilhelm

6/4/12

Hello my dear family,
I was so happy to hear from all of you. I love this time of year in SJ. Its just the best. Well today we had kind of a fun pday. Yesterday we called the Elders and they said that we were going to have a zone activity. All they said was we all were going to meet at some bus stop and that we could wear regular clothes. We ended up going to a theme park. It was a blast. The rides were kind of getto but we had fun anyways. There is another companionship of sisters in my zone so we go to be with them all day too. I loved it:) It reminded my of the movie sandlot when they all went to the carnival. We were like a bunch of kids on a play ground. It was nice to do something different on pday. I loved it.
Well this week has been kind of crazy on the mission. We went to the offices three times this week because the hna chancay had meetings about getting her visa. They say that next monday she will be hopping on a plane to mexico. That will be a sad day to say bye to her she is awesome. We also had a trainnig meeting on friday with president ghent. It was a great meeting. I felt like i learned a ton. Presidnet Ghent and his wife are good people. We really are in good hands here. Training also had been good. Like I said it has kind of been a crazy week here. We really have been trying to find time to study. So that I can actually train and explain stuff. I really have some awesome companions.
I am really liking this new sector. The people are so nice. Its nice working with a ward and not a branch. We have been getting a lot of references from the members. I just love the mission. I know that this is the Lords work. I am so grateful to be here. I am also so grateful for the family and friends in my life. I love you all. Hna Wilhelm

ps. That was an amazing story about trek. Its just another testimony that Heavenly father is real:)

2 Nephi 27:23

23 For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith.

5/28/12

Hi my dear family! I loved everyone of your letters. Thank you so much. It sounds like things are going good at home. I hope every thing goes good with lara. I am so happy that everyone is now living in SJ. That is so stinknin awesome. Well this week in the mission it has been kind of crazy haha. We have been so busy it seems like the time just goes by like a blink. It has been awesome being in a trio. Oh yeah ok so you guys know that I am with a sister named hna chancay. She is pretty awesome. She is waiting for a visa to go to her mission in Mexico. Our new companion the one that I get to train is name Hna Cox. She is from Texas and she is totally from a podunk town too. haha She is awesome too. She reminds me of me when i started the mission. It is crazy how time just flies here. I am so happy to have this experience and this time to serve. I love this gospel and I know it is true. Thank you so much for all of your support. I love you aaaaallllll so much!!!! Bueno! CHao!!!!! Hna wilhelm

5/21/12

Hi family i am in my new sector in Quito. It is pretty here. I was always scared that i would have to serve in quito because it is just a big ol city. BUt i think i am changing my opinion. It is beautivul. I have only been in my sector like five minutes but i am sure that i will love it. I am with my new companion named hna chancay from guayaquil ecuador. She is super sweet and kind. I am excited for this change:) So wendsday it looks like i will be meeting my new hija or child haha I am excited to train but also a little scared haha it will be a great experience. Well i love you all so stinkin much. You all are just so wonderful. hna wilhelm

5/14/2012

Hi I am not going to be able to write to much. So I will attach some pictures. Well I just wanted to say how happy I was to see all of you and talk with you. I am so grateful to have the family that I have. You all are just so special haha Well I attached a picture of our baptism from this saturday with Sandra. Also some pictures from my birthday. I was a pretty good day:) I love you all so much!!!!!! Hna Wilhelm

May 7, 2012

Hi my dear family! Thank you everyone for writing me. I love my family;) You guys are just so stinkin awesome. Well it has been another wonderful week in the mish. We did get to see Oscar get baptized. He was super happy. Because it was fast Sunday he even got up and gave his testimony. He has a very loud booming voice and this was the first time that he ever talked with a microphone haha but his testimony was sweet. We are working with a few others who have baptisme dates. We are prepareparing a girl for this Saturday. Her name is Sandra. I will let you guys know how it goes.

Also there was a member with her birthday on Sunday but she heard that it was my birthday on Tuesday so they invited us over. We celebrated together. It was super nice of them. We had fried fish rice and beans. Then they pushed my face into the cake haha it was fun. The members here are really nice and have become kind of like family. I miss you guys and think about you oftenJ I love you all so stinkin much! Have a great week and talk to you guys on SUNDAYJ

Love,

Hna Wilhelm

This Sunday I think that I can skype around 2 or 3 oclock my time. I don’t remember the time difference. I always for get haha but I am so excited to talk with all of you.

April 30, 2012

Hi everyone! it has been anther wonderful rainy week in ibarra. It is beautiful here with lots of mosquitos it has been so fun hearing about all of you back home. i am so happy that ria and jake made it up to sj also that lara and todd will be up there before we now it. Also about kirsty and josh yo guys are going to have a beautiful girl.
Well lets see what has happened this eek. it has been pretty normal but i had another karen moment haha first off mom i love love love those skirts that you sent me they are so cute. i feel like a new women ha you are probably wondering what thsoe skirts have to do wiht my story. Well one rainy day we were riding in a bus. The buses here are kind of crazy. They really dont have a litmit to how many people can be on board. When you need to get off its like jumping over hurdles and juggling basketballs at the same time. You yell out GRACIAS. THe driver comes to a fast halt and you jump off. When you jump off you have two options. you can jump on to the road or to the side walk ledge. Usually i jump to the side walk because it is much easier. Well i was wearing one of those cute new skirts and i jumpped to the side walk like i always do but for some reason this time my legs didnt have the leaping span like before with my skirts hahah so i fell very dramatically but dont worry I didn't hurt anything. I have just learned to laugh at these moments because we have so mnay of them here on the mission.
Anyway the mission work is amazing and hard but i love it. We have found some new people that are pretty awesome. this saturday we have a baptism planned for our investigator named Oscar.
sorry i have ran out of time to write. I lvoe you all so much! hna WIlhelm

April 23, 2012

Hi everyone! Sorry this is going to be short. I am short on time. I am so grateful for all of your letters. ThANK YOU!!! haha I feel so blessed to be a part of this family. Also I am so excited that lara and ria are moving up to sj. There now we will have more real red neck red skins. Its simply just the best. I am so happy to hear that spencer is in south africa. He is going to love it. Well ibarra is beautiful. We have been getting a ton of rain. There was like a river flowing by our house the other day haha the work is going. We have a couple investigators that looking to be very pleasing. Well i have got to go. I LOVE YOU All!!! hna wilhelm

April 16, 2012

Dear Family,
The weather here is like it is in St. Johns around the 24th of July. Just simple beautiful. We get some sun and a nice cool breeze and a little rain everyday. This week I hit my 9th month mark now. I guess it is all down hill from now. This week we got to see our investigator, George, get baptized. It was pretty awesome. This boy is 18 years old and already wants to go on the mish. This week we have worked pretty hard trying to find people. Its my favorite when we come home from working all day and just sleep like a rock. Mission sleep is wonderful. Some time the mission can be hard, but I feel divine help every day.

I am so happy to hear that all of the family is trying to move up to St. Johns or close to it. That is like my dream when I grow up. haha

Well sorry this is going to be super short. I love you all so much! Chao!

Hna wilhelm

 

 

4/9/12

Hi my dear family!

Man has it been a pretty crazy pday. I went to Quito with hna Gonzalez yesterday she ended her mission today. I got to go with her because we had investigator who needed an interview with president. So Yes we did have changes. I am super sad to see hna Gonzalez go but also am happy for her. She was an awesome missionary and I learned so many things from her. I have turned into kind of a cry baby when it comes to companions ending their missions. I always have to see my best friends go. Well anyways I got a new companion named hna Cubilla from Paraguay. She is pretty awesome. She has been out in the field for two months now. I think we will get along pretty well:)

Oh, last Saturday we got to see the Guevara Family get baptised. They are so awesome. I love this family. Maybe if I have time I will send some photos. Well I love you all so much. I know this church is true.

Hna Wilhelm

4/2/12

Hola Mi Querida Familia!
It was so wonderful to hear from so many of you. We had a great week here on the mission. Conference is always so inspiting. I found something that could apply to my life in almost every talk. I had read a whole bunch of articals about preparing for conference and found much counsil about praying and mediating for answers before we listen. I found that this really helped and I feel like I received alot of counsil and light in my life. I know that we are spoken to through the leaders of the church to help us along in this life. One thing that I saw and felt was the love that our leaders and the prophet have for each and everyone of us. Their love just makes me want to become a better person. I just want to make chocolate chip cookies and write thank you notes for everyone in my life:)

I feel so blessed to be in this life and this situation. The gospel brings me so much confort. We see so much evil and sadness in the world today. I think gosh if that homeless man selling brooms on the side of the road knew and excepted the gospel, he would find so much happiness. I know our Savior and Redeemer lives. That he created the way for us to follow. I know that if we are active in the church and we live the gospel we will come to know happiness. I know that as we come to know Christ our savior and the atonement we will live happy forever. We will develop this Christ like love for others and desire their eternal happiness too.

On another note. I saw Spencer in GC. It was so cool. We made an english room in the church for all of us gringos.oak all of the elders got to see Spencer too. Hna Gonzalez said she saw him too. I dont know how because I wasn't there with her to show her. haha. She said the spirit just testified that it was him. She even explained where he was and what he looked like. Her descripsion sounded right. haha. It is funny after awhile i think companions can start to read each others minds. We are coming to the end of another change and hna Gonzalez is ending her mission. She is such a wonderful person and missionary. I am happy for her accomplishment but it will be sad to see her go. When i go home i want to have an Ecuador party and have all of my latina companions come visit:)Well any ways the Guevara family are all pretty dang excited for their baptism. This week the they came to 2 sessions. I guess I will tell you guys how it goes. Well Ive got to go.

Love you all!
Hna Wilhelm

3/25/12

Hello my dear family!!
It has been a wonderful week here on the mish. We have seen many blessings. We found the Guevara Family just on Tuesday. They are so awesome they have already attended a FHE, Baptism service, AND church. They even excepted a baptismal date for the 7th of April. I am so excited for them. Seriously this is a huge blessing for us because when we first started here in Ibarra no one listened to us. The Guevara family consists of the mom-Rosa, Dad-Carlos, and their kids. Jeferson (15), German (13), Michelle (10), Kevin (8), and Henrey (5). They are just so wonderful and funny too. We were at the elders baptism service and Henry, their little boy was so funny. We were singing the first hymn and at the end of the song he just kept on holding the note and everyone heard him. His mom almost had a heart attack trying to get him to stop. Haha. Then at the end of the baptism Henry was walking out the door and he yelled HOLA VECINA (Hello Neighbor) haha. He is kind of crazy but is awesome. Rosa and Carlos are just so kind. They work together everyday for their income by washing cars. We were in a lesson wiht all of them and we found Jeferson and German practicing the baptism. They are pretty excited. I know that is one family prepared and is ready to hear the gospel. Well sorry I am out of time. I love you all! Hna Wilhelm

3/19/2012

Hola my dear family! It has been another great week in Ibarra Ecuador. Sorry this will be kind of short and maybe you won't understand it hah. President Ghent made a new rule for all of the mission. Now we only have 30 minutes to write on the computer. It's ok. This isnt an excuse for you guys not to write haha. I can still print 5 minutes in the morning. Well as I was saying, it has been a pretty good week here. We got to see our investigator, Segundo Montalvo, get baptised. It turned out to be a really nice service. The baptism font in our church building is still broken so we jound the elders in their baptism. There ended up being 5 people getting baptised. We also had zone conferences in Otavalo with President Ghent. It was a nice meeting with lots of spirit. Then on Sunday, we had branch conference. President Ghent was there so he got to participate in Segundos confirmation. I am loving the mission still. It is so beautiful. I dont think i would trade this time for anything. I know that the church is true! Well love you all.

 

3/12/12

Hi family! It has been a good week and pday for me. Today we cleaned the house. The other week we made friends with our neighbor who has a washing machine. Today she offered to let us use it. So we washed our clothes faster than usual. Then she suprized us with lunch. Lets just say we have an awesome neighbor. We are working on getting her baptised:) Also today we were going to see what the zoo is like in ibarra but it was closed. We had to take a bit of a hike to get there then we found  it closed. Oh well it was a beautiful hike. The mission work this week has been pretty good too. We have seen many tender mercies of the lord also some miracles. yesterday we had a FHE with lolita and her sons. We brought members with us the perez family. They are super cool. They moved to ibarra when I got here. I guess they have a lot of experience with going out with missionaries. But they are so awesome. They made lolita feel a little bit more stronger about the church in a good way. Help from the members are everything. Sorry this will be a little short. I love you all! Hna Wilhelm

3/5/2012 Service

Hello! It has been another great week on the mission. We got to see Tania be baptised. It was a really nice service. All of the Young women from the ward came and supported her. There ended up being a lot of people there. Then this sunday Tania got confirmed a member of the church and recieved the gift of the holy ghost. This girl is so sweet and I am so happy for her.
This week we have also found a lot of service projects. On Wed. we helped tanias grahama move a mountian of rocks out of the road. We found her shoveling away like it was nothing. So we decided to help her out while we waited for Tania to get home. It didnt take long with the three of us working. We joked afterwards saying things like 'We moved mountains today'. Its crazy what a little faith and works can do. We also had the opportunity to visit a hermana in the Branch. We went with hna Avaige( she is so funny she kind of reminds me of betty white) to visit hna Mora. Hna Mora is having problems with her kidneys. We ended up helping out around the house then we had a little lesson. I am so happy to be part of a church that does this kind of service.
I was reading in Enos this week about when Enos humbly prayed to God for forgiviness of his sins and then he was forgiven. This is so true in our lives. I know that when we use the gospel and the atonement in our lives we can feel whole. We can be healed and have the influence of the spirit in our lives more abundently. Then after he said something interesting in verse 9 saying that he wanted to share with others. I am so grateful to be here on the mission because I have learned so much about the atonement and how it can help people become happy. When we come to know the atonement and use it in our lives we come to have the desire to share it with others. I just love the Scriptures. I know that this church is true and I am so grateful to have it in my life. Well got to go. I love you all and you all are just so wonderful!

Hna Wilhelm

Ps here are the verses from Enos 1.

4 And my soul ^ahungered; and I ^bkneeled down before my Maker, and I ^ccried unto him in mighty^dprayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.

5 And there came a ^avoice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are ^bforgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.

6 And I, Enos, knew that God ^acould not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away.

7 And I said: Lord, how is it done?

8 And he said unto me: ^aBecause of thy ^bfaith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee ^cwhole.

9 Now, it came to pass that when I had heard these words I began to feel a ^adesire for the^bwelfare of my brethren, the Nephites; wherefore, I did ^cpour out my whole soul unto God for them.