MISTER MAN

remember him???

 well he's still alive and he looks like this ................................................................

lover boy has lost A LOT of weight. to put this weight loss into perspective for you, he left for the mtc wearing a size extra large in garment top || tee shirt || dress shirt, he is now two days away from his year mark wearing a small garment top || tee shirt || dress shirt.

let me paint you a little picture about his area, living conditions, weather, and the food he eats.

THE AREA: it's little place called EB Magalona. Enrique B. Magalona, Negros Occidental. it is a second class municipality in the province of Negros Occidental, Philippines. according to count in 2010 it has a population of 59, 434 people. it is fourteen hours ahead of U.S. time making is saturday 10:43 AM.

LIVING CONDITIONS: little house (i haven't seen the outside), awesome aqua blue walls, outside shower, a toaster oven, a camping two-burner stove, no microwave, a fridge with a freezer box in it, and he washes all he clothes by hand (at least he can wash our clothes when the washer and dryer breaks). he lives with rats. yes, you are reading correctly. RATS. in one of his emails he told us that one morning///middle of the night he woke up to one cuddling up under his armpit. I JUST ABOUT DIED!!!! so now there is an ongoing rat killing saga in every weekly email. 

THE WEATHER: HOT. BLAZING. WET. with ONE HUNDRED PERCENT HUMIDITY... there are "brown outs" all the time. well at least that's what it feels like to me. all power, gone! it usually takes about a week to get up and going again. poor kid sweats enough just the saint george heat. he tells us that there is rarely a day that him and his companion come home dry. they are usually dripping from head to toe, clothes soaked. 

and THE FOOD: rice and a little something called "uga" fish, he hated fish when he left.

mr. man has been through a lot. anywhere from heat rash, to multiple stomach flus and bugs, to not sleeping much, so you can see why he's lost so much weight. he's also been working out too ssshhhh!!! BUT! he is healthy, strong, determined, faithful, and dedicated to the Lords work more than ever! elder wilstead LOVES his mission, the philippines, and every single person there! i'm so proud of him and all that he has accomplished in the past year!

so something cool happened to elder wilstead! he is now training one of his best friends from saint george. how awesome is that?! elder devin stagg and elder wilstead have been friends for who knows how long! colton feels so honored to spend some of the most amazing experiences with his close friend and i can honestly say i have seen him grow one hundred fold since he's been training that missionary! best part is... i had the greatest blessing to see elder stagg before he left. it was short and sweet, but he was SO excited to get out in the field. all i could think at the time was "what an incredible missionary and he's not even out there yet". i felt such a... spirit about him that was so unreal. right before we said goodbye devin told me how excited he was to see colton, and that he really hoped he would actually get to see rather then just saying he would. as we went our separate ways i told him "take care of my boy", and he sweetly smiled and said "i promise". little did i know that he actually would. elder stagg and elder wilstead are a force to be met out there and i think everyone knows it. 

I LOVE SUNDAY NIGHTS!!!

  

sadly, within this email we were told elder wilstead and elder stagg's training period was cut in half. normally a training transfer is twelve weeks, two transfers. they had been together as companions for six weeks when they got word that colton was being transferred to a new area so all zone leaders would be companions (cole is a zone leader). as sad as mister man was he's now looking up, ready to start in a new place, and is determined to get it moving and organized like they were able to do in the last area.

i sure do miss this goofball, and i think about him every day! but i wouldn't want him anywhere else. the church is true. that's for sure!

hugs and kisses to you 

and to the philippines

xoxoxoxo