I Don't Love Technology

I'm parked outside the church leeching WiFi from them because when I tried sending my email earlier son the other WiFi, IT DIDN'T WORK.

So I'm trying again.

This week we pulled weeds in a lavender field (best day of my life, most relaxing weeding I'll ever do) and got to hang out with tons of chickens! Love the country life for sure!

On Sunday we saw a less active family come back to church. We visited them a few days ago and I guess they decided to come! It was awesome!

Kita, a cute gal we're teaching, is reading the Book of Mormon like crazy and seeing the similarities in her own life of some of the people in the stories. Like Nephi. It's so cool to see her progressing as she is, she's amazing!

We just went out tracting because our p-day is flipped all around due to new years eve. We met this lady named Pam who let us in outta the rain and found out she met missionaries before, but they never went back to see her! She may not have been home when they tried by, but how cool that we met her today. And even while I was grumbling along because of some slight inconveniences today, we still got to meet her. The Lord is so good to me.

Well, I hope y'all have a wonderful New Years! Like you!!!!

With love,
Sister Wilcox 😙

Christmas in Soupville

Hey y'all!

The sun is blaring down right now and it's the end of December! Where's the snow??

Campbellsville is wonderful! It's so huge that some of the towns we go to are in different time zones! It's crazy! We have so many miles, and there's lots of scary country roads with deer. The surrounding missionary areas are even more boonies though. Our neighbors, the Sulpher Well elders, are 40 minutes or so away and in another time zone. Their area is entirely boonies. They live inside an old church! It's super cool.

There's plenty of members here who own chickens too, this is my kind of town I tell you.

The members are wonderful! It's a little branch, but man they are so giving. They gave the sisters before me (which was a trio) a ton of food and then this last Sunday they did it again! What am I going to do?? One sister makes this bread called angel bread that is so light and fluffy, I didn't know that was possible!

This apartment is huge. I  know I just came from living in a house, but this place is big. And fancy. We have a garage. I feel like the apartments keep getting nicer as I go further along the mission? It's funny to remember my first one, the little getto one in Hurstbourne. Miss that place.

I've been baking since I got here. The best way to get in doors is if you have a plate full of sugar! We've met a lot of less active members that way and it's been so much fun getting to know them. They are so sweet! And hilarious, all of them have such an interesting personality and I just love it! Hopefully we can build up good relations with everyone and help them come back to church!

Sister Young has only been here for 5 weeks, so we're both trying to learn everybody's names! 😂

I had to give a little talk on Sunday, again. It was okay though, I hope. It was weird only going to church for an hour.

This ward is real musical too. There's a member named brother Kelly who ropes everyone into singing or doing some kind of musical thing, and it's really fun! On Wednesday we went to the church to help with family history and he pulled us outta there to go practice some songs for an 8 year old baptism coming up. He then taught us a gospel "rap" song, it was interesting. But I loved it!

There's also a senior couple in our ward, the Karrens, who just got out of the MTC. They are super cute and we found out they're going to be moving in right next door to us! I'm scared, this means the apartment could be inspected at any moment! I have to keep things tidy! No it'll be fine, and really nice to have them so close. Elder Karren worked construction for a long time and so whenever something starts acting up in our apartment we just ask him to fix it😊

We're going to a few different places for Christmas! We're going to the Rodenburg home tonight, and then the Caldwells and the Jensens tomorrow! I'm excited! Things are going to be busy!

I hope y'all are enjoying Christmas and the spirit that is felt all around us this time of year. People all over are remembering Christ, giving as he gave, telling his story, gathering as families and friends, and serving selflessly for those in need. It's beautiful. It's so unifying. I feel like it gives me a tiny glimpse of what it will be like when the gospel is shared and accepted in every nation, kindred and tongue. What a miraculous time that will be to live in, and one that I know is coming soon.

I love you all and I wish you a very Merry Christmas!!!! Can't wait to talk to my family tomorrow!!!

Remember, He is the Gift.

With love,
Sister Wilcox🎄🎁🎉

Stuff has Hit the Fan

Hey y'all,

I know I just did this on Wednesday, but it feels like it's been a whole week since I've emailed. Crazy.

So I got the most bizarro news on Saturday, I'm being transferred! I've been totally jipped. I haven't even been here in Jasper for a real transfer! This one is only 5 weeks cuz of Christmas! It's fine though, I'm just sad I didn't really get to know people yet. And I have to leave Hermana Hall, and that just is the worst! I have absolutely loved being her companion! She's a riot! I guess thats why they had to split us up 😂

No, the reason is my MTC companion, Sister Ashmead, is going home early. She has been having a lot of health issues and decided it's time to go. She'll be home for Christmas! So I'm taking her place in Campbellsville, Kentucky. This transfer is awesome for people going home, but not for everyone else.... getting moved right before Christmas is so not bueno, but it's all good. Esta bien!

Not much happened since Wednesday. We had exchanges on Thursday and while waiting in the car for the other sisters we saw WHITE SQUIRRELS! We spent half an hour watching them, I got a few videos. It was so random!

Our ward Christmas party was on Saturday and I spent the morning baking for it. There were a ton of food there, and we had three of our investigators come! Woohoo!

Sunday I gave a talk, I think bishop secretly knew I was going to be transferred... but it went ok. I though I wouldn't take long enough but I ended up taking exactly 15 minutes! Perfection! I had been asked to speak on a topic in between "the worth of souls" and "the rescue." I decided to talk on charity, because we have to have that pure love for others in order to "rescue" and "see the worth of souls." I just hope I made sense. Oh and Norma came to church with her son Noah again!

I have my luggage and clothes all over the floor, I'm really bugging out seeing this again. I just packed y'all! We're going to French Lick again today to celebrate Sister Lloyd's birthday, she's one of the sisters in Paoli. It'll be fun!

I love y'all! I hope you enjoy the Christmas break that's coming!

With love,
Sister Wilcox ❤❤❤

I have a TON of pictures

I'm Just A Gringa

Hey y'all,

First off, transfer calls are this upcoming Saturday, so that's scary. I don't want anybody to leave me!

So, I've been in French-Lick all day long, a fancy little town 45 minutes from Jasper. We toured a restored hotel and walked through this other fancy hotel with a giant dome. It looked very very expensive and I was afraid to touch anything. Oh, I forgot to mention that today is district p-day and that's why it's taken me so long to write an email today, sorry!

We were also going to go do lazer tag, but instead we talked to a guy driving a carriage and talked to him about horses and church, which honestly I liked doing that better than the thought of lazer tag. His horse, Sadie, was an American Belgian and I think he said she was 18 hands? She was beautiful! He wasn't really interested, but he invited us to come back and see the stables next p-day! The sisters and I are totally coming back!

This last week and this week was a blur. We mostly prepped for the Mission Tour that happened on Monday. We had to coordinate rides and all that jazz. Hermana Hall and I stayed the night with the Paoli sisters, which was awesome! Slumber party!!!! Then we drove at the crack of dawn to get to Crestwood and we were still late!😅 Elder and Sister Costa were amazing, I felt like they taught us so personally and I really needed a pick me up. I feel like I've been lacking drive lately, so this was great!

On Sunday we had Jo at church and Norma from our English class with her two kids! They all stayed for all three hours!

Yesterday was cool because we planned on being in Huntingburg for awhile, but then we thought we needed to go to Holland instead, so we did! We went to the same neighborhood we had been in last time and felt we needed to go to the very end of the road and see the house we didn't get to last time. There was a lady outside and we just barely caught her as she was about to go inside. We talked to her for an hour! She was so cool and everything she believed in was what we believe in, she totally agreed to have us back over! Also, she had a German shepherd mix and I played with him that entire time. So cute!

I can't remember what else happened. I love you all!

With love,
Sister Wilcox

Its December!

Hey y'all,

Can you believe it's like the 3rd day of December? Isn't that crazy?! I think it's crazy.

I'll get right cracking at it. So our lovely older roommates went to Michigan for Thanksgiving 2 weeks ago I think? Well they were supposed to come back last week but had an accident trying to get back last Monday. They were alright, but the car wasn't. They had an extended vacation until they could get transportation back home which by the way, some members down here drove up there to get them. That's like an 18 hour roundtrip! People are amazing! We have our ladies back now so yay! The house was really starting to freak me out without them!

On Tuesday we went way down to this tiny town called Holland. Now, tiny town folks get real weird about people they don't know. Since everyone knows everyone, when they meet someone they don't know they get so suspicious! I don't know I just always feel like I'm being watched when I go to these tiny towns... anyways, we were in this one little neighborhood and we weren't having much luck. It was cold, people were either not home or not interested (or weirded out that we were on their doorstep), and we were ready to jump into the warm car and get outta there. But I kept feeling like we should stay. So we did. We met Melanie at the last house we stopped by. She immediately had a bunch of questions, and I started telling her about the first vision. For some reason I felt like my lungs were going to burst, like I couldn't breathe? I was fighting through it the whole time and once I got out the first vision the feeling went away. I felt like something was trying to suffocate me! Melanie ended up accepting a Book of Mormon and I feel like she really wants to know what we believe in. I know we needed to meet her that day 😊

Also we had 12 people come to English class. 12! That's unheard of. Like, none of the other Spanish missionaries believe us😂😂😂

Wednesday we raked mountains of leaves! Boy am I glad that I like pine trees because what a chore! However, leaves like that make a lot of compost... so maybe I'll want a few leafy trees in the future. We practiced for the darn Christmas Zone Conference a lot because it was the next day!

Thursday we got up at 5am so we could look halfway decent, and left at 6 to drive to Paoli. From there we carpooled with the Paoli sisters to Crestwood (which is past Louisville) and nearly died a few times because Kentuckians are terribly rude drivers. But we made it and I got to see all 3 of my MTC elders who I came out with. They're doing so good! Singing was terrifying. I knew my voice would break at some point and it did, but I just laughed my way through it so at least it was amusing. The trainings were great, they really wanted us to focus on helping people come to church. I liked that change. They talk baptism baptism baptism, but people can't be baptized if they don't come to church y'all! There were a bunch of new faces and I realized I've gotten to the point where most of my friends have gone home and now I don't know anyone again😅😅😢

English class was huge, again! What a fiesta!

We had an awesome lesson with a guy named Jo on Friday, and he said he would come to church! Also, he had the cutest little pitbull/terrier mix! I loved that little guy! I had to run intervention with him a lot cuz he was a busy little pup, so I let him chew on my thumb for a bit. Good thing he was cute😣

On Saturday we ran around with Hannah again and contacted a whole bunch of people. We had a lesson with Aleida, this Cuban lady, and she was playing some muy muy bien Latino music when we got there👌 across the street from Aleida we contacted this guy who was not super thrilled that we were talking to him. We offered him a Book of Mormon , which he accepted, but said, "I'll take it, even though I believe nothing in it" so that was interesting. Then we ran around the area, came back to our car, and the same guy called out to us again. This time he was a little more gentle mannered and asked what made our church different from others. We explained how we have modern day prophets, a quorum of the 12 apostles, we have the book of Mormon as another testament of Jesus Christ, and we just talked with him and answered his questions. I missed the rest of the conversation cuz Aleidas pitbull "Leo" got out and was running around so I ran him back across the street to her 😂 But the guy apologized for how "rude" he was to us earlier (which honestly wasn't as bad as what we're used to) and it ended up being kinda cool that we met him. Maybe one day he will be interested in meeting with missionaries?

We took cookies out to some people we're teaching, and that was fun! We have 2 Julie's. Julie #1 has a big, beautiful Rottweiler. Julie is so sweet and we got to visit with her for a bit (and pet her gorgeous dog) and Julie #2 was the one we went to a craft fair with 2 weeks ago, which I may or may not have remembered to mention... oops. She is amazing. She works full time, has a bunch of kids, still manages to make time for other people, and she just never loses her patience or kindness. I love her! She also owns a ferret, so of course I had to hold the ferret. I had no idea I could like ferrets, it was kinda cute.

Ohhh also, on Tuesday or Wednesday we had to Skype in our missionary apartment inspectors, elder and sister Mortenson. That was scary. They told us they would call in a bit, so we rushed home and blitz cleaned everything. I attacked the bathroom until it was all shiny and then they called us and it was like, a 4 minute long tour. I freaked out for nothing! But at zone conference we won Clorox wipes for how clean we were. I feel kinda bad cuz we cheated by cleaning just before the call, but also we got clorox wipes- those are gold. So it was worth it.😁

Things are good, life is great in Jasper! I feel like I'm in a never ending slumber party with Hermana Hall, we just have way too much fun! If they split us up I might start a riot. Just kidding, it's all according to the Spirit and I can't beat that.

I'm so grateful I get to spend each day sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others and that I have this opportunity to meet and serve so many people. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints IS the restored church that Jesus Christ himself established in his day. It blesses the lives of all those who know it, and the lives of people who are learning of it, and it will continue to bless and change the lives of all those who come unto Christ and wish to be a part of his church.

I love you all! Have a fabulous week!

With love,
Sister Wilcox❤

Christmas Jams🎄

Dear everyone,

Can I just say how much I LOVE Christmas? I love it. I want some more of it. Sister Hall and I have been rocking out to Christmas music since I got here basically and it's been the best thing ever! Don't be hating on the Christmas music y'all!

This week felt sooooo long! It took forever to be over! I can't even really remember what we did, but man this whole Thanksgiving thing threw a monkey wrench at us. The holiday never seems to end! People were still doing thanksgivagain or actual thanksgiving on Friday, Saturday and Sunday it seemed😒 but you know what, good for them! I'm glad they're with their families! It's okay if they don't want to talk to me...

Okay so on Tuesday we went down to a little town called Huntingburg in our area and stayed there all day. We met a lot of Catholics (the whole town is devoutly catholic). We went up to this one house that was huge and had these ginormous pink French doors and a lady came out who then proceeded to tell us how she takes care of her feral cat colony, which consists of 19 cats. The craziest part was she had them all fixed... who does that? Apparently she really likes the colony and wants to keep them around but doesn't want to get overrun. We met some cool people though. I love hearing people's stories. I love hearing how God changed their life, or seeing God's hand in their life when they tell me about their experiences. He's working in all of us, guiding us, whether we know it or not, and I just love that and I love getting to tell people that every day.

That night for Clase de Ingles we had 5 new people come, and 4 of them knew no English at all, so that was fun! They were super sweet and boy it's so interesting when you have all these people together on different levels of understanding and how everyone helps each other, its just really cool. There's a woman in there from Mexico, Norma, who never lets me get away with anything! If the class has to say things in English, I have to say stuff in Spanish. It's real good for me, she is hilarious! And there's this abuella named Maria, who says the nicest things to us like she'll call us "angelitas" or "princesas" and she is just the cutest and I love her!

On Wednesday we went over to see the Lemond family and helped them make cookies and brownies! More like we helped to eat them😂 This family is so darn cute! They are inactive I guess, I don't understand why though. They still believe, and they're willing to have us come over for lessons, so I'm just excited to get to know them more. They loved the elders, so we'll just have to show them how fun sisters can be!😜

We met a lady named Shakira! And no, she was not from Colombia, or any Latin country, still cool though! We have a lesson with her later this week! Later that night we helped a family we're teaching paint their porch, I still have paint in my hair! Right after we went to dinner at the Leclere's. They live out by Huntingburg in the boonies and right when I stepped out of the car I smelled horses. Horses! I haven't been anywhere near horses until now! It made me so happy, I told Sister Leclere I would be down to help out around the barn if they needed us. I immediately loved this family and then guess what? Someone showed up a little later and I went to see who and it was the Hills from back in Woodhaven! They saw more and were like "hey we know you!" That just made my whole week! And tge best part is that sister Hill is pregnant!!!! Ahhhhhh I'm so excited! She found out right after I left,  I'm just glad I got to see them again and hear the news!😊

Thanksgiving was a very chill day. We studied, made cookies, had dinner with the Ahner family and attempted to put together a 1000 piece puzzle, it was great! I'm thankful that thanksgiving was calm!

Friday it took up half the day to go to district council, but at least we have our Christmas music so out wasn't so bad. The rest of the day we dropped off cookies and did weekly planning. I dont like planning😑

Saturday was a party cuz we went out to Huntingburg again, but this time we brought Hannah. Hannah is a gal from our ward who does everything and helps us so much it's ridiculous! She's 15, but she's approved to come to lessons cuz there's no one else who is available ever. I wouldn't want anyone but Hannah honestly! So it was fun, we had a lesson with a woman named Juana, and this time I understood like, 25% of the conversation in Spanish. Then we had a new member lesson with Felipe who is just the sweetest man you will ever meet, and so faithful! I felt like he should be teaching us!

Yesterday was good. There was a return missionary visiting the ward who all the older members kept trying to set us up with, so that was awkward. Later while we were out we had planned on visiting Blanca, but as we pulled up she was pulling out. So we thought, "on well." She texted us and told us she thought she saw us and that she had just run out to do some laundry at the laundromat. We started driving away, but I kept getting this thought to turn around and go back. I DIDN'T LISTEN! After trying by like, 2 other people, Hermana Hall was like, "what should we do?" And I told her we needed to go back cuz I had been ignoring a prompting and she said "oh my gosh same!" So we flipped that car around and that's when we got another text from Blanca telling us she wanted us to come to the laundromat. It just so happened to be the next right on the road??

The visit with Blanca was so good! We taught her the Restoration in the laundromat and she stayed engaged and had comments the entire time! She has a lot of potential, she already knows so much! It was just incredible how all these things worked out, and also that we were able to make it to dinner not super late😅 I'll never know what we missed or who we missed by not turning around immediately, but it was incredible to me that the Lord still allowed us to see Blanca even though we totally didn't deserve that second chance. He knows us so we'll though, and I can't help but think that everything worked out the way it was meant to. I just want to be more obedient about those promptings!

It was a good day, oh, and I volunteered myself to sing at our Christmas Zone Conference that's happening in 3 days... some zone leaders called and were like "we need more musical numbers" and I just blurted out that I could do something and now I'm doing a solo. Great.

Anyways, I hope Thanksgiving was wonderful for all y'all! I know there are little miracles and tender mercies we've seen in all our lives, and I know the source of all miracles is an almighty, loving being in whom we have every reason to be grateful for. This is a beautiful time of year to celebrate the birth of our Savior. It's a time where we can so easily share his light and love with others. Light the world has just come out and this year they're doing things a little differently. There's a theme for each week. Week 1 is light the World. Week 2 is light the community. Week 3 is light your family. Week 4 is light your faith. It's an exciting time for missionaries and I hope y'all get into the excitement as well!

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! You are the greatest human beings and you are my life!

With love,
Sister Wilcox😘😘😘

 

Spanglishing My Way Through Life

Hola!

That's as good as my Spanish has been 😂

My new address is 2250 St. Charles St Jasper, Indiana 47546

This week has been so much fun! I'm finally in a small town and there are cows!! It makes me so happy! There are back roads and small towns everywhere, it's so darn cute!

Okay so I live in a members house. Hermana Hall and I have the upstairs and we get to park the car in the garage! Fancy fancy! And the sweet older gal who let's us stay here, Sister Staley, is so cute and her best friend from England, Joan, is here as well! Love her accent so much!👌 We baked a cake for sister Staleys birthday, she turned 80! We celebrated by playing Rubicube (not sure if thats how its spelled) with her and Joan and it was a blast cuz I won! Hahaha

So we teach a lot of Latinos here! Yay! Some people were trying to tell me that I probably wouldn't be doing much Spanish work here, but that's just not the case. One half of the people we are teaching are white, the other half is Latino, and it's AWESOME. How am I doing on my spanish?? Not so hot. I understand like, 20% of the conversations. It will come though! Hermana Hall tells everyone we meet that I like Raggaeton, and all the Latinos think it's hilarious! She says it's my "in" with them. I'll take it! I can bond over music! We also have a Clase De Ingles and we meet some real cool people through that. It's also another way to help me learn some Espanol!😄

We do lots of tracting here, lots of lessons that may or may not happen, and lots of less active work. The ward is puny! I don't know why it's not a branch! The families I've met so far are way fun though, and maybe now I'll learn every members name!🤣

It snowed on Thursday, so that was cool. It was very pretty against the orange and gold trees, and there was ice hanging from the branches, just beautiful! We have to drive about an hour to get to district meetings, so I'm just grateful the drive is pretty. Speaking of driving, we're totally jipped on miles and we're probably going to bike a lot this month! We biked the other day to dinner and it was so good to be on the bike again! Memories of good old Hurstbourne last winter!

I got to pet a ginormous Rottweiler this week and I'm sorry but that was up there on my happy list. She was huge! And so friendly! Oh how I love big dogs!

I got some sad news on Saturday. A very dear missionary friend of ours died the day after transfers. He knows all the missionaries, helps all the missionaries, he's just an angel. His name was Leonard Cannon, and his wife Sarah needs all the prayers. Leonard saved us so many times. He drove sister Pankey all the way from Radcliff Kentucky to Evansville so she could attend Carly's baptism. I saw him at transfers, and I just think it's so crazy how quickly death can take someone from our lives. But Leonard was such an angel that he must be needed to rescue souls on the other side of the veil as well. I will miss him though! We all will! I'm so grateful that I get to see all my loved ones when I die! The relationships we have with those we love and care about are so deep, it would be just plain cruel if we never saw them again! God's plan is perfect, and I want to live as best I can so I see those I've lost again someday.

Well, I think that is all. Can't really remember what else, so have a happy Thanksgiving y'all! I love you!!!!😘

With love,
Sister Wilcox❤❤❤

 

Y'all I'm Leaving

Hi everybody!

So, first things first, I'm being transferred!😨

I apparently forgot to mention last week that we were getting transfer calls, but I also wasn't expecting it to be a big deal so that's probably why I forgot. But they are a big deal because they're moving me to Jasper Indiana AND they're putting me in a tiger team meaning that I'll be with an Hermana and I get to teach Latinos! I get to learn spanish!!!!!!!!!!!! 😆😆😆🎉🎊🎊🎉 Totally not what I was expecting and now I have to pack so I'll likely not email much, again... lo siento!

So things are crazy here because they're taking the spanish elders out of this ward and Sister Calhoun is in a tiger team too! Plus they're moving apartments and they have to share the car with some elders in Newburg... I'm feeling a little stressed for my girl here! I mean, everything is going the way in needs to, but boy this is going to be interesting!

I don't like saying goodbye to everyone! I hates it! I love my ward and my people, and I felt like I was going to be here longer but no I'm leaving! Ahhhhh! This transfer was a short one, I think it's because it was way too much fun!😣 I really cannot think right now, sorry people.

Tomorrow I'll be leaving Evansville at 6:30 in the morning to drive the 2 hours to Louisville and guys I just realized I get to see Sister Wilcox before she goes home!!!😀😀😀 I am so EXCITED! Transfers are so messed up because you never know when you have to say goodbye to everyone you love and move your life to another place, but at the same time it's an adventure and you make new friends and you get to see old ones again. It's a roller coaster!

Jasper is apparently more boonie than any plavce I've been to, and can I just say how thrilled I am for that? I've been wanting so long to be sent to the middle of no where and now it's happening! Wow!

This week was just all stress leading up to now in anticipation for transfers so I really can't remember what happened this week... Oh well!

I love y'all! Enjoy your week! Soak in the holiday excitement and thank God for all the many blessings in your lives! You're a blessing in my life, that's for sure!😉

With love,
Sister Wilcox ❤❤❤