September 16, 2013

Well the week was very long considering the details I will share later. First, soccer, haha funny story with the soccer.. we played some futbol with some guys on friday at friday night activites and I guess cuz I'm white they thought I couldnt play.. so at the beginning this kid says.. k white boy you are goin to pass the ball me. I was like alright black boy.. haha then we schooled them! They were extremely astonished that white boy could play ball! Ha, so we will play every friday now :) We did have a great week though for the work! Helping people increase their faith on every corner!! Thankful for the things I learned from Elder Elliott! Really love to sing at appointments now, but I got my new comp on Thursday night, was in a tri-panionship til that night so not much time to reflect on the situation which is a good thing... but I'm thankful for Elder Elliott and his great example on the atonement and how very important it is! He will be so much more prepared when he comes back out!! Elder Pear is great though!! He hasn't gone to the MTC yet so I'm Double Training him! He actually is going to the Dominicain republic next transfer speaking Spanish so hopefully this is a good kick start to his mission!! Got 3 weeks to get him a baptism! Haha, I think we can definantly do it! Conducted an interview for the other Sav Elders this Friday and have another one this week and hopefully we will have one the following week! So the district is starting to get with the program and is doing great!! We found some solid investigators this week as we have a goal to see one member everyday in the week to build trust and get referrals or just to try to help them in their missionary efforts!! We had 3 at church and a few progressing! The baptism went well, the water ran out so we went down the ocean! It was sweet, poured rain right after!! Definantly cool, hope the water runs out on ours as well, but either way is great! This week was very long, but got many wonderful things happening! Hope all are doing well and enjoying the wonderful rain that I experience every day! Love all much! Have a fantastic week! 

Elder Wilkerson

Smile :)

September 9, 2013

GOOOOD MORNING! What a week it has been!  family is of number one importance that is why its in the restoration and its one of the easier things in the gospel to talk to people about!! take it all back to the restoration and the rest flows from there once they understand that!!  we are on day 3 with no rain! first time in Sav that i have not seen puddles on the road! yes, its hott and humid especially at night. but the plus side is no puddles, easy to see the pot holes, and not as many mosquitoes!! plus all the beautiful nutrients of vitamin D!!  yes, im not so shore what the big deal is with the bike problems and car problems but something i have learned as we are walking instead of biking with great speed people can talk to us more and easier for the lord to put people in our paths to talk to!! on bikes we dont really take those oppurtunitys so it is not needful that mine elders move swiftly from appointment to appointment saith the lord. haha but we can talk bout bike problems later!! haha cant even imagine what it will be like getting back home in the snow! yes the companion is doing Great! learning soooo much from him as we learn together, and i try to teach him the few things i know!!

 

Now for the uttermost spiritual side of our week, it was slow in lessons but every single one of them I would say was worth our time or efforts to prepare for! Elder Elliott looooves to sing soo something we have started doing this week is before every lesson is sing a hymn! It sets the tone for the lesson and is super spiritual!! Loved it! Starting to love singing, we sing everywhere we bike and you could say it is helping bring down my pride cuz I always before thought, no we aint singing in public, people will think we are weird. thats something I am trying to get over. If I'm being good doing the things I know I should who cares whos watching, what they are thinking, and how they react! We are disciples of Jesus Christ!!

 

STEVE, we have seen twice this week; he has told us he knows the Book of Mormon and Joe Smith was a prophet, now just trying to find time to teach him all the doctrine! But he is also leaving to Canada for a month so we might have to hold off on him for a minute. Dang it!

ADRAIN, found him when we got into a hard core bible bash, that's when I realized I really have learned a lot, but that's not the point, bible bashing is terrible. Tried to have the spirit there, just didn't work. The kid we were doing it with wanted us to bring something to the table to dicuss and he would talk bout something. He was soo convinced and into it til his friend came and he started the bashing. Later found out he is 7th day... kinda the problem there. But some people were listening in and one was Adrain and had an awesome desire to want to know more. We met him next day at the church, gave him a church tour and had a powerful first lesson. He said "give me sometime to read but I want to learn more"! He worked this Sunday, but hopefully next week we can get him out to church! A prepared person indeed!!

ANNYA, started to review with her, found out she really doesnt have a real testimony of the B.O.M. so recommitted her to read and pray bout that and then we just got to talk to her mom once she has a testimony there!

ONEIL, found him on the road. Has a B.O.M already and just really wants to learn more. Has studied with a lot of faiths and has a great desire to learn! Man he loves to talk but he is smart. Just another sign that the lord is hastening his work in Jamaica, no doubt bout it.

KAREEN, just need to see her more. Called her every night to read but she just works a TON! Going to see her Tuesday, she has to commit to church or probably drop her!! Despite how amazing her cooking is and how much we love her!

ALSO saw many less actives this week. I have strong hope for them. We both felt sincere love and desire for them, the singing and wonderful lessons.. I do believe they will come back and many said they have friends they want to bring with them.. GREAT!!

One of the less actives in perticular is Sis Walker.. reminds me of back home with Sister Erickson. She is old, sweet, can't walk so that's why less active, but we take her the sacrament and she has a powerful testimony and gives amazing prayers! We love her! Yesterday while singing hymn 86 we were crying, so powerful......

 But to finish my email,  now for the Temporal for the Week!! We had an appointment that we were bound to get to! It had been raining for like 5 hours- I shouldn't say just raining, it was like a blizzard, but RAIN!!!! Anywho, it flooded the canal and drainage ways so one of the main roadways was flooded, houses near by that weren't on blocks were flooded!! Like 30 inches of standing water on the road!! So school was just getting out, taxis couldn't get through so they had flat bed semis with 50 or so kids on each load and other people moving through this little river that was bout quarter mile long! We decided to ride through it cuz we were already wet! It was tough to pedal but when the semis came smashing through it made like tidal waves that we had to fight as well!!! It was a lot of fun, wish we could have got some photos! But didn't bring the cameras!! Some other fun things of the week is painting with Steve, painted his room purple and ate lunch together just talking bout things. Working out every morning at 4:30! Somehow still able to manage throughout the day!! It gets easier as you Go!!! haha OH and cant forget about the weekly bike problems!!! This week no tire problems, but my handle bars snapped of at the neck! So I had to grip the neck going all western on it! and had my handle for brakes in the right hand. That's how I rode from the far part of our other long stretch area! But it was great attention grabber and we talked to lots of people!!! Ha, many people are learning nothing stops us! We go out rain or shine, bike or broken bike, all day everyday!! It was a long eventful week, but much needed with fun stuff or the spiritually draining days would have killed us! One thing I have really been learning on my mission is patience. My bike breaks and I don't even get mad, you just get it fixed and keep going! No Problem Man!! So that's kinda my week in a wrap! Love you all! Work Hard, Play Hard!

Elder Wilkerson

99 aint Good Enough!

 

Sept. 2, 2013

Hello!! Well,  typing is taking a long time today. School is back in down here  instead of 5 people in the lab there is bout 40! Well this week has been an eventful one indeed. Picked up on Tuesday with Elder Groesbeck, we stayed in junction again with the Elders there! Since it was our 6 month mark we bought a liter of kerosene and Sister Newcomer came over and the 3 of us burned ties, drank bag juice, did the cinnamon challenge( which Elder Groesbeck I think is the first man in history to complete it!!!), and a challenge to see who could last longer eating javenaro peppers -  super hot!! Super dumb idea!! Wednesday was transfers, went out to eat. Elder Groesbeck bought this cake and thought  it tasted funny so I took a bite.. goodness it was slaughtered in rum! Not our fault!!! But transfers was great, I got Elder Elliott! He is awesome, we clicked well right at the first!! He's 20, from Cedar and was in the army before coming out. Knows his stuff -  a lot more prepared than I was!!! Excited to see the work we will get done together!! The day we left transfers didn't get to teach cuz the truck bearing went out on the left front tire so we had to wait for a tow truck on top of our 5 hour drive so didn't get home til 10:45!  The next day was rough too, we went to leave and his back tire wasn't even straight so we straighten the rim. We get out and are having a great day, then the rain caught us like mid day, appointments fell through so we went out and exercised our faith!! soaking wet! We biked up this hill til prompted to stop at this shop, bought some bag juice... nothing really happened until we're about to leave and this lady(Sophia) walks in and we start talking to her! We eventually get the shop owner involved and talked about the plan of salvation and got some return appointments! Faith booster!! We will lead us to them or them to us! Sunday we went to see Otis and got caught in the rain again, he ended up not answering after we confirmed it. (by the way its bout a 50 min bike ride out there!) So we are headed back, puddles all over the road, can't see the deep pot holes.. I blew my tire out up in Petersfield....took about 2 hours to get back to the house.... bummer day, but you know that's just satan working on us cuz he knows once we get going we are going to tear Sav up!! Excited for this transfer and this up coming week, gonna work hard physically and spiritually! Much love to all! The gospel of Jesus Christ is true! Have a wonderful week!!!

Elder Wilkerson

99 aint Good enough!

New companion - Elder Elliot

August 26, 2013

HI! This week has been.. well eventful, needless to say! Transfer calls were this week. Elder Groesbeck's going to the other side of the island to Yallahs, my companion Elder Wignal and Elder Hayes (Groesbecks Comp) serving together still in Sav and I will be training this next 3 months! Most of my group from MTC are training like Sister Woolfe, Sister Newcomer, Elder Newcomb, Elder Bateman, Elder Harris zone leader in Cayman islands, Sis Christansen training in Bahamas, just super awesome things going on! Transfer calls are always exciting!! .. probably a lack of work done after as well..  but going strong! Lots of things will be changing in the mission soon! The one I am most excited for that I have been trying to work on is consecration. It is everyones goal now and something we will definantly need if we are going to achieve the new standards of excellence!! The will and want to be Exactly Obedient instead of feeling forced to.. what a blessing!! We also have 12 youth working on their papers and one gets his call soon!! Went out teaching with Randi this week, he is the guy getting his call. Solid. We had aBbook of Mormon stand where we prayerfully decided to go down a certain road and talk to people 'bout the church and try to clear up myths and things!! That was a great success and learned a lot from the members that came out to that, and also helps them get over their fear of talking to people and we get referrals! Great!! Also been studying a lot more than ever, an hour just doesn't cut it anymore! Idk what's gotten into me, just a HUGE desire to learn all I can! I borrowed a movie from Pres Blake, its called Journey Of Faith. I would tell everyone to look it up! It helps you understand the history and background more Nephi's journey and was awesome and very enlightening to see! So we picked up a few more investigators this week, hopefully Steve and Annyia will pull through for a baptism soon! We got some solid working going on and its great to hear of your experiences back at home! The only real down fall this week.. Tuesday my star on my rim broke. Went home after Elder Wignal pushed me home.. changed the rim and axle and sunday night we got ran off the road by a dump truck. It was either into the truck or a huge pothole and really messed up my new rim!! So hopefully we get money on our cards soon cuz we are just all messed up!! But kinda figuring out how to budget.. probably need to take away my personal management merit badge!! But yah, great week other than that!! I'm excited to train, but also nervous! We will see how it goes! Much Love,

Elder Wilkerson

99 Aint Good Enough

August 19, 2013

YO! Good morning! Well, it turns out all of my pics were wiped other than like the first 100 so like MTC pics! Super lame, but it's happened to like every missionary I have talked to, guess that's what you get when your in Jamaica! Ha, no prob though, I mean sent most of them in to you guys! The meeting was good with elder Cornish!  I didn't drive. Elder Odendails license expired so his companion was learning to drive. He had been driving the manual for just a few days and since we were squeezed 7 people in a little L200, I drove clutch for him for the 4 hour drive cuz he was just struggling a ton! So he just had to drive and we never killed it!! Companionship unity!! Wow, I can't believe school is back in either! It starts Wednesday here as well. Before we know it though, it will be summer again!! But speaking of school, I am thinking 'bout it as well. Studying and learning isn't all that bad. I will PROBABLY go back to school when I get home.. MAYBE!! haha ! Well this week has been another slow one concerning the work due to all the meetings and such, but still finished solid!! I made waffles for breakfast every morning this week, trying to eat more healthy and workout! Went to look to buy weights this week, yah right!!! They want $9600 for ONE 25 lbs dumbbell! That's so horse!! But still doing the basics and this week I have already lost an inch on my gut!! I almost made it 6 months without chopping yard, but did on Tuesday!! It is the dumbest thing I have ever done! Took like 2 hours with 3 guys to chop a yard that would take like 5 minutes to mow! HUGE blisters on my hands right now! So dumb! Same day poured rain again, not to miss the fact that it has been raining for 20 days straight now!! It's on and off, but can't go a day with out some!! Wednesday we went and taught Mr. Duejon at his bar. He is an atheist that hates Christians and his daughter and wife are our investigators that we can't see again til we get things straightened out with him! The lesson we had with him was good and he at least trusts us now and bought us some cran-wata cuz we turned down his rum, ha. Interesting, but went well! Thursday we left to the Junction Elder's house where we stayed the night, didn't sleep too well on the floor and it was super cold!!! Got into the high 70's!! But got up early, left at 7 to drive another 2.5 hrs. to Spanish town for the meeting! Had the training meeting first which was good just talking bout some little things and how things are going and the difficulties of the ones training currently and after that meeting we had a district leader meeting with elder Cornish and president brown! They just slammed down on us! Our expectations are terrible and got to step up the work. The goal is 300 baptisms annually and we only have 130!! The statistics were terrible, Jamaica Kingston is like you have to get 39 new investigators just to get one baptism!! Terrible! But they are upping the EXPECTATIONS! But someone has to do it first! Like the 4 minute mile, no one thought you could break it, but when someone did, Everyone Did!! So we will do the same thing in this mission. Our goal is 6-10 baptisms per month per companionship!! Got to step up the work!! Also got rebuked for not wearing tops and bottoms and just lounging around in our Jesus jammys, So Hutt! Then had a 5 hour drive back from the meeting!! Saturday was great, saw lots of less actives and just making up for lost time!! I'm excited for next week, this one was kind of a drag.. still have 3 progressing though. Steve, Kareen and Annyia. Annyia should have been baptized this week, but we are having problems with her mom. Got to get her  permission, hopefully her heart will soften!! Much Love!

 

Probably favorite scripture of the week: D&C 127:4

Favorite quote: So What?! - Boyd K. Packer.

 

Elder Wilkerson

99 Aint Good Enough

August 12, 2013

Hello Everyone!  My waterfall experience was terrible... because we are white they think they can scam us!! We ain’t dumb, they only got 450 but it shoulda been free. We were biking up and this guy started following us on his motor bike and was giving us directions we said we were fine, but in the end he got the money!  Something wrong in this pic! plus they had nothing posted for fees and no uniforms but I did get some cool pics. We didn’t get to go in the caves or anything too awesome, they wanted 1500 each! That’s enough money for a week of food! No Sir!

Tuesday was awesome!  We really only had two lessons due to a crazy amount of rain! Steve! He came to church and said I want to learn more. We had a two hour discussion on the restoration. It was so outta order, but following the spirit it was so what he wanted and needed to hear! He learned tons and was shocked we had other scripture! He is just a boss! We learned a bit too! He said something profound I wanna share with you! We are HUMAN BEANS! We have to grow are bean (spirit) to overcome our natural man!! Oh sick! That’s the coolest! Wednesday had district meeting talking about obedience and teaching and finding by the spirit!! Went out and applied it with Elder Groesbeck as we did a trade off!  The worst part is it was still pouring rain, we walked down to get a taxi and they wouldn’t let us in because we were TOO WET! Lame sauce, we had to wait for a hatchback and sit in the trunk for a 45 min taxi ride to white house. Sis. Drummond picked us up there and off we go to her huge house with a Michael Jackson portrait in side! She’s loaded, from England and her grandson from England wants to be baptized so we were teaching him the plan of salvation! Just a solid kid, 2 weeks and 150 pages in Book of Mormon! Came back and taught Marcia. She works in the market. It was so loud, but the spirit was so strong cuz we just all focused up and read Mosiah 5! They got a couple baptisms coming on as do we!!  Thurday we had a great talk with Camille bout p.o.s and she gave like the most sincere like 5 min prayer which is great for an investigator! Wow! Solid family, hope to see them at church this week! Friday Still RAINING! All week! I wanted to say all freaking week right there.. but trying to get that out of my vocabulary cuz no one thought to tell us white people in Jamaica that’s the same as saying another f word! Just great! I don’t know how many times I said that in lessons, no wonder they listened so well. I was so serious, haha! Saturday we took a taxi to Grange Hill to see some less actives! Bro. Williams is one  that sticks out the most. Gotta figure out how to help the guy. He works 12 acres of cane that he owns.. what a tuff job, only get paid annually! I should learn how to budget from him!! But speaking of finance, on top of getting scammed on Monday, Elder Groesbeck got his money stolen bout 10,000 on Monday as well so my spendings might be a little wack this month, gotta help my MTC brotha out!! Sunday went well. The topic was temple work and temple marriage and stuff! Ashlee the atheist has everyone convinced that I speak like Kronk from Emperor’s New Groove! So that is weird, haha, I don’t see it but whatever!! But Sunday we started teaching some Jehovah Witnesses and they are hard to convince with their other bible and stuff, but we found the formula to get them. Haha, picked up 3 new investigators, here it is.. start with a bible bash+ plan of salvation+ temples+ bible and Book Of mormon+ 1 hour worth of time= Bingo!! 3 new investigators that are convinced what we teach is true! They have been studying with JW for 3 years and when questions arose they always told them don’t worry ‘bout it, but we say pray ‘bout it and taught them some answers they were looking for!! Wow, love this gospel. The work is going slow but steady!! Tuesday I’m doing a trade off to Negril, hopefully I’ll get some cool beach pics?! And Thursday I get to go see Elder Cornish again for a training meeting, hmm wonder what that means. Oh, and I might have to drive the truck to Kingston cuz no one else can drive stick and the one driving got in a wreck and got driving privileges taken away! So, uhh, a little scared, but he will make it happen!! Looking forward to this week and hopefully no rain! Took some videos trying to capture the thunder, it is unbelievably loud! Something you just gotta experience! Have a great week yall!!

Love you much

Elder WIlkerson

Nun Tryd Nun Dun! 

P.S.  You can’t trust the computers down here. I think it just threw a virus on my memory stick ,so I’ll try again next week, but it just deleted some of my pics! It’s been happening to everyone. At least I didn’t lose them all :)! Sorry for that, pics are always fun!! Maybe next time. That’s all for now folks!

August 5, 2013

The week has been an eventful one indeed. Wednesday we had zone conference and it was sooo great!! I took tons of notes.  Forgot to bring my highlights of things said, but a lot of them made it to my quote wall! Talked lots about how we gotta be more obedient, Pres. Brown said we don’t have  time for disobedience! And Elder Holland said obedience is the first law of anything! So true! We talked about faith to find, and with that D&C 58: 9-12 talking ‘bout building up a stake first we need the noble, leaders, and the rich! It’s true even though sometimes it’s hard to say! We need the rich first! People bringing into the church and not always taking out, even though those people are the ones that are most receptive to the message. Going to have to put an extra effort on finding the leaders. People who have jobs and can start to build up the kingdom.! But we also talked a lot ‘bout Stakes. Sounds like in the next 6 months Spanish Town will be making the first stake on the island followed by Mandeville district and either Hopeton or Sav! With that we can get us a temple in the next 3 years!! It is obtainable!  A scripture that really stuck out was 3 Nephi 22:1-2.  We are barren in Jamaica, but lengthen the cords, give more, be better, we got stake(s) to build!!! We did role plays for the last hour... I hate roleplays.. BUT after that and President Brown was in our little 4 man group .. I think roleplays are growing on me. It’s not about the acting it’s all about doing it right, getting the bad out!!! Afterwards, we went to KFC!  Favorite time! Not because of the food, but because every other chair you have a missionary and people want to know who we are and what’s going on. We walk out of there with everyone with something to read or study and 30 referrals!! Soo cool!

Thursday we met with branch president Blake and his family for dinner- curry goat and rice! Really good. I realized this week that he doesn’t trust missionaries. He had a terrible experience with them as we found out on Tuesday as we visited a less active that was a reason an elder went home. He was so disobedient, and I realized how wack this mission use to be, but we gained his trust back starting with less actives and talking ‘bout how to help him and what he wants done with the branch and at the end he was like.. “you know, I got some people I want you to see”.. referrals! His brother! A couple doctors and a lawyer! Whaaat!?! Finding the rich, haha, super awesome. 

Still was struggling with the companionship. Friday we had a great sit down and found out he isn’t enjoying his mission and kinda wants to go home.  He doesn’t see the point. Guess I gotta be more sensitive there and see what we can do! Elder Cornish, when he came out, said if you aren’t enjoying your mission you are doing something wrong! But we will see what we can do!! One of the guys we saw at KFC we went to see on Saturday. Jeez, it was a 50 minute hard core bike ride! Glad the Lord blessed us with fully functioning bikes both ways! Seems way solid. We are headed up that way today cuz there is like a cool river waterfall area I guess. We are all gonna check it out! Sunday was great, 5 people showed up without invite and just really shows that He is pushing His work forward!! Excited for another great week in the vineyard! Love you all. Have a Fantastic Week!

Elder Wilkerson

Nun Tryd Nun Dun!