To Bolivia & Beyond! : SOY UNA ALVOCADA AHORA (I'm An Alvocada Now!)

i have officially reached the alvocado level of the CCM! only dos semanas mas!! so crazy!! time is going by so fast! (advanced in español sounds like alvocado to all you english speakers hjaja) and not JUST an alvocado.... im going to be...

AN AUNT!!!!! :)
now that the secret is out i can tell the rest of you! sydnee & david are having a baby!!! i have their ultrasound on my desk and i blow it a beso (kiss) every day! all the hnas think its super cute haha. and i finally am able to explain in spanish it isnt my ultra sound so in two weeks when i have a latina companion it will be ALL GOOD in the neighborhood!! hjaja :)

questions for the public:
anyone have knee strengthening exercises?
ways to heal shin splints?
and the back tendon (if thats the term) on a han? i tweaked it doing cartwheels, tee, ive never been so good at those. :)

not so important things:
people have been asking what lima is like, heres some small things for yall:
-during stop-rush hour traffic a guy walks between cars like you would at a baseball game selling snacks, its brilliant, someone start that business back home just dont get hit por favor!
-no idea if theres drivers ed here or not. drviers are crazy but i havent seena crash yet so thats good!
-their 5 lane freeway is the size of a 2, maybe 3 lane road. theres literally only inches between cars
-its a goal for me to understand what the graffiti means
-tons of landscaping. ex: they made a snake, out of grass and whatnot. its awesome.
-i remember getting a letter from elder davis that he wrote on a bus.. no way would that be possible here, youre smashed against everybody and its constantly stop go stop go side to side motion
-they build the houses straight into the side of the mountain-boulders
-the windows on the buisness bldgs open out for air, so brilliant. kind of scary though.
-the houses are small cement squares all stacked on top of each other, its beautiful, some are painted colors. so humbling.
-they hang laundry on top of them.. so good thing it never rains in lima!
-trees! everywhere! i saw a pine tree the other day, but the leaves were palm style. so cool.
-i saw a hard rock cafe. made em think of you mom.
-every so often there is a very very very strong fish smell that fills the air
notspecifictolimaothernotimportantthings:
-i straightened my hair the other day and i have never been touched by so many people in a single day. i went from being a lión to a tigré.
-never too old for stickers! the notebooks here come with a sheet of stickers. so fun.
-i kept my Delta blanket from the airplane and use it in calss when the elders crank the AC .

bendiciones:
-learned a Perú football chant from hna luna. GO PERU!! (we get updates on whos winning haha. they lost to their rivals chile apparently, hna cesar was NOT happy.)
-my mission blanket! so many of you signed it i didnt even realize! i dont want to read them all bc its a nice little surprise just picking a few random ones and reading them! i love you all!
-"we didnt die today." -hna burnham
-COOKIES!!! the new hnas said they had extra cookies if anyone wanted them. OBVIOUSLY i want them. so i went upstairs one night to their room and they gave me like 4 packs of 4, bless their souls! :)
-i woke up on saturday with complete peace in mi corazón. such a blessing. the day before i had been pretty stressed and was deciding if i was going to ask for a blessing or not but i just prayed and woke up with such peace and felt the support of my Father. such a blessing.
-hna luna and hno cesar BOTH came to wish us luck on saturday! it made me choke up a little bit, just realizing how much they really do love us! i have the best maestros EVER.
-my district sang the prelude music in church on sunday! and we sounded good!! haha in class thats not always the case but it was awesome. we ended singing ocupela himno 14 (the jose smith vision one) to the tune of come thou font of every blessing, it was awesome. (en español of course)
-hna gonzales didnt make me pay for the wart medicine. im super low on money bc of my nice little bank card experience so that was definitely a tender mercy. and the fact that ill be in the ccm for two more weeks before i have to walk on these bad boys all day long! another blessing!
-i feel confident in the preterit (one of the past tense) forms!!! it was more of a miracle than that but i dont have time to explain!
-hna cicotte got me juice at dinner. bless her heart. i limp everywhere bc of these plantar warts and so she did a littl act of service for me, thank you compañera! amor!!
-i can hold a handstand for almost 5 seconds! its not a lot but its a solid hold so im happy! little successes make the world go round.
-i found hidden exercise playfround area, but theres no weights jaja .maybe ill use the stone bricks i found. cameron? any workouts? i cant run anymore bc of my foot but i can do abs for days!!
-I FOUND ANOTHER HERMANA GOING TO COCHABAMBA! (in the new group that came in). i think i completely scared her jajaj. i found out she was going there and i screamed and kind of hug-attacked her. but its okay! :) amor y mas amor!

highlights:
1) while fasting for proselyting, i prayed for help in preparing myself for the experience. i figured i would be able to get help w espñol. nope. heavenly father always knows best. i was blessed with a stronger love for the people of peru (and bolivia). never shall i EVER complain again about being hungry. such a tender experience but such a strong experience, and a stronger testimony that we are ALL gods children and He loves us ALL, VERY much.
2) saturday (im sure youre wondering what was so special about that day by now) we went PROSELYTING!!!! in other words, we left the world of the CCM and were unleashed to lima south for a day and it was wonderful, so wonderful!! the gift of tongues is REAL! we got kindly rejected all day long, but we set up apts for later. the last place we went, was a miracle! a lady let us into the locked allyway and we were able to get to the door we needed. angelica & her 11 year old daughter, lisa. they let us in and we had a lesson! my first real, real one! :) the spirit was so strong. we sang a hymn at first. apparenty angelica used to be a member, she got baptised and everything, but the missionaries didnt really teach her they just wanted a statistic. sad. BUT. we gave her and her daughter a libro de mormón and taught them about the book & families and it was great!!! i gave my LDM to lisa. she was adorable! the spirit was so strong! and when i went to speak, the words just came! i didnt question myself at all i just taught and testified and it was all by the spirit and just wonderful!!! :)
3) TODAY! oh, today!!! (im smiling just writing thise, in case you couldnt tell!) I PLACED MY FIRST REAL LIBRO DE MORMÓN! mi y hna cicotte were walking with the other missionaries from the temple to the market store. but im a little slower bc of my foot. anyways. a man named eric crossed the street and started talking to us, wondering why were there, etc. he guessed correctly we werent from lima :p he brought up españa. i brought up that mi hermana served a mission there. we talked a little about that. then i said that thats what im doing, serving a mission. such a golden oppportunity! :) and that was just the first opportunity today!! we handed out 4 folletos total, taught the restauration (first vision), got a commitment to go to chruch on sunday, and wrote the names&numbers for 7 people! there was a lady we talked to , my favorite, her name was angelia and she was "looking into all the churches trying to find out for herself which one was true." ah, so golden. OURS. :) we helped her out, dont worry. ah! it was so fun and so amazing and literally all this happened within about half an hour, we were FLYING! i felt like i really could fly, i was so happy and i knew that i had the power of the spirit with me! i had the words! i spoke from my heart! i can see in investigators eyes that moment when the spirit is testifying to their hearts that what im saying is true! i can see a start of a change! its amazing! :)
sidenote.. a lady helped us when we came to peru, her name was angelina. the lady i taught proselyting was angelica. and the man i gave to LDM to today was Angel. angelia in the metro today. what a fun little coincidence, but not so coincidence, (sorry i really canot spell anymore in english its super hard) eh? all sound like angel! :) theres no coincidences in the hand of God! i know that this work is not my work, but His! im so blessed to be able to be a part of bringing souls unto him! to be able to bring pure joy and the love of christ into the hearts of all these people who so dearly need it! its incredible the stories that people have, yet they all have such tender and loving hearts! so wonderful!! :)

i love being a missionary! its hard work but its also the most rewarding! im exhausted at the end of each day, but its the best feeling of exhaustion ever! i have two more weeks to learn all i can and then its go time! :) im so beyond excited to go find the people and families waiting for me in bolivia!! :) my goals are high, my spirits are high, my smile is huge, my heart is full! :)

i love you all! thank you for your support!
amor y paz y mas amor!
hermana wilson
(the original. apparently theres another hna wilson now. hm.)
ps, please send emails to wilson.natalie@myldsmail.net and NOT natalie.wilson bc theres a hna in tokyo who has natalie.wilson and she is gettingall my emails! i want them, and she doesnt! :)

scriptures:
DyC 58:2-4
DyC 84:83&88 (from hna luna before proselyting, they were perfect!)
Jacob 3:1-2
Alma 13:27 (perfect to send to missionaries! fyii)
--

Hermana Wilson

The ping pong tables (tourney going on today! winner takes all cookies!), the houses we practice teach in (theyre so nice! built in january!), y the grass volleyball court. theres a beach one by the futbol field