Oct. 22, 2018

Hey guys!

So I was gonna send home a music video I had saved since before my mission for when I arrived in Missouri but I realized it might not be best to have in the email so I'll just tell you the song and ya can look it up on your own. It is called "I am in Missouri" by Maroon 5. Ya will know it when ya see Adam in a black outfit. It really doesn't have any correlation to my mission other than it talking about a guy who is in Missouri.

Anywho, you might be wondering what happened my first week here. Well, Elder Anderson of the Quorem of the Twelve Apostles came to visit and I got to shake his hand. So yeah, quite a way to start off a mission, meeting an apostle the second day out in the field. I'm special, haha. Just kidding but ya know. He gave us some counsel on how to be better missionaries, which included memorizing 20 scriptures that have special meaning for us, 10 from the New Testament, 10 from the Book of Mormon. Also, he wants us to start learning Spanish. No joke. Before all of this happened, I had my mom send me a Spanish Book of Mormon because I wanted to learn Spanish. Looks like the Lord is confirming that, and through an apostle no less, haha.

My new companion is Elder Boyd from Colorado Springs. He has only been out three months but was already assigned to train me. He's a pretty great guy, super mellow which is nice for me, we get along superbulously! He has been good at teaching me and helping ease me into the mission.

My first area, which I'll be in for about 18 weeks, is Downtown St. Louis. So I got thrown right into the middle of things, haha. We are in a hundred year old apartment building (don't worry, it's been modernized) and missionaries have been using this apartment for about 15 years now. So yeah, lots of relics have been left hanging around, including a Mormon.org advertisement poster and a sword. Our area is a walking/busing area so I'm getting some good exercise. In fact, I've started doing an exercise program every night and every morning so by the time I get back, I'm gonna be super buff, haha. We'll see.

St. Louis is such an interesting town. It is super green and moist, which feels amazing right now during the fall. It also has the coolest architecture, with most buildings made out of beautiful brick. There is also a TON of churches, made out of stone. St. Louis is actually a very religious city with most people believing in Christ. A little bit of background for St. Louis, it started off as a French settlement and so has French roots. However, there has since been lots of Italians and African Americans that have moved in so they have large influences here. The most prominent religions are Catholic and Baptist but we're hoping to change that, haha.

The people here are great. Most people are actually nice to us missionaries because they know we're devoted to the Lord, which is important to them. The members have super strong testimonies. The first night of proselyting, we went and visited a member and her friend was their and he bore such a strong testimony that it made me tear up a little bit. The Lord is strong here and we hope to bring many to Him.

However, we can't reach everybody on our own. We need all the help we can get. So all ya peeps still at home, please reach out to everybody and anybody who is willing to listen. They need this Gospel in their lives, they need the blessings in their lives. Please help them to attain it. The blessings are innumerable. Please help the good work move along.

Sincerely, Elder Wilson