I'm here!!!

YAY! I MADE IT TO SACRAMENTO!!!! Or rather...a city near sacramento named Carmichael. Its so wonderful. I'm serving in the very LARGE Deaf branch here (that was a lie. its tiny.)

 I came to my TWO trainers mid-transfer so Ive literally been thrown into the work for 2 weeks before I have my "in field training!" Yay for ASL! So, next week, I when all the NEW elders get here (the group I was supposed to arrive with) I will have a big welcome and training and meet my trainers. We get a big banquet dinner and it should be great. But for now, I'm tracting in the rain. Love it. Really, I do. That wasnt sarcastic. :)

 As mentioned before I have two trainers! Sister Larson and Sister Williams! I knew Sister Williams from UVU because she's from Spanish Fork and studied at UVU with me! Shes sooo amazing! and wonderful! And Sister Larson is a far distant cousin of mine! Both of them are so patient with me and my learning (and boy, is there a lot to learn!) and I love them both sooo much! The three of us go out and do half hearing work and half Deaf work.

The hearing ward is so wonderful and very involved in our investigators progress! Members come to lessons and support our efforts! The Deaf branch is...itty bitty. In Relief Society yesterday we had a grand total of 6 sisters and my companionship. Its crazy small, but we will soon reactivate so many that more women will be coming! YES!

 We met a man named James this week. He doesnt know it, but he is so desperately searching for the gospel! He's about 6'1", maybe about 350 pounds. He talked about his life and cried. I am so excited for him to continue to meet with us. We are gonna change his life!! We added FOUR new investigators this week!! James is one of many to come!

Sacramento is really diverse. I was told that Sacramento is probably one of the most diverse missions in the world. We have people from ALL OVER here. We have missionaries serving in Russian, Spanish, ASL, English, Hmong, Cambodian, Tongan, Marshaleese, and Laotian. I had my first baptism last Saturday! okay...so it wasnt technically mine because it was already set up when I got here, but I still went! And my companions taught her!

 I'm learning pretty quickly how to be bold and...well...that wasnt ever really something I lacked at home so its been pretty easy for me! Calling people to repentance. Telling them that through the atonement they can change their lives! So amazing!!! The first night I got here, President Lewis looked at me and said "sister Wilson, this is a baptizing mission." Okay President!! We invite at least 3 people per missionary each day to be baptized. :)

The other day during personal study, I had eaten a bananna and the peel was sitting on my desk as I read the good word of the Lord. Then this little cockroach came along (oh yeah. our apartment is infested with medium-sized cockroaches. but we are getting sprayed tomorrow.) so anyway. This cockroach was crawling on my desk and he went inside the bananna peel and started eating it. I didnt really care because it was garbage to me and I figured I'd let him enjoy his life before I crunched him. I watched him go around and around. He ate some bananna, then he ran around like a maniac and down the side of the desk. Onto the floor. Back up the desk, inside the desk. It was like he had forgotten where the bananna was! I looked at this poor little guy and thought that maybe he was like a lot of the investigators that I have. Searching for the feast. Searching for happiness and fulfillment and they just cant see it even though its staring at them in the face. But one day they will. One day all my investigators will be bananna-eating, gospel-reading, baptized latter-day saints!!!! I just got to lead them! yes.

 Yesterday during the Deaf branch, they announced the speaker and she just signed back that she had forgotten to prepare a talk. So they then announced that they would pleased to hear from Sister Wilson. uhhh....okay. So I stood up and signed a little bit about myself and why I came on a mission. then I shared my testimony and sat down. haha. The Deaf branch's Sacrament meeting is more like Sunday School. People ask questions and answer back in the middle of their talks. Its kind of funny, but its such a small, intimate group that formal speaking just doesnt really match. The Deaf branch is after the hearing ward. 6 hours of straight church. except its funny because we go to Sacrament, Sunday school, RS, RS again, Sunday school, then Sacrament. Like a palendrome! Someone's cell phone went off during the meeting, but only 4 of us noticed because the rest were Deaf. How convenient.

 I love all of you. SEND MORE LETTERS TO ME!!!!!

I think my brain is finally out of junk to say. :)

Love, Sister Wilson
*wink*