Monday, December 30, 2013

Happy New Year!!

Well let's see.  It was sooooooo great to see you guys on Christmas!!!!!  Ahhhhh that was awesome.  I wish we could have talked longer.  But at least we got a while haha.  After I hung up with you guys we just went around and visited some members.  One of the family's we saw fed us dinner and then we went to another family's house for cheesecake.  It was delicious. 

Let's see, here's a little more about my companion.  He's a pretty great guy!! We get along really well.  And I don't really know what else you want me to tell about him haha. 
The rest of the week was kinda slow cause everyone was busy with the holidays.  We only taught like 8 lessons and they were all pretty much Active Members.  We did teach Robert last Monday and that was pretty sweet.  I think I told you about it when we skyped though.  We haven't seen him since though.  Hopefully soon!! 

The other exciting thing that happened this week actually happened earlier today.  It's been a long day.  Last Thursday we got a text from our zone leaders about a surprise mission conference.  So this morning we drove up to Redlands (about an hours drive) and listened to Elder Richards of the 2nd quorum of the seventy.  It was pretty great!!  He's awesome.  He looks a lot like Michael Caine though.  At least from where I was sitting.  So that's kinda thrown off the whole P-Day thing. We get a few hours tomorrow morning to finish all the things that we didn't get done today.  Which is pretty much everything.  We came straight to the library after the conference. 

Oh and there was one other cool thing that happened last week.  I went on exchanges with the zone leaders.  The reason this is exciting is that the ZLs are Spanish speaking!! So I spent the day doing pretty much nothing. Well, we did stuff obviously but I just followed him around and tried to understand what was going on.  He taught me quite a bit of Spanish though.  I was actually able to understand what the conversation was about.  It's cool though, cause even though I didn't really know what was being said, I could still feel the spirit.  For instance, I knew he was talking about the first vision at one point cause that was when the spirit felt the strongest.  It was pretty cool.  The gospel is true in Spanish and in English.  As I'm sure Keven would testify.  Haha

Well, Christmas sounded like a blast at home!!  I'm glad you all had a good time :)  Even though you were kinda sick haha.  And I loved the pics you sent!!!  Especially the letters in the snow haha that's awesome!!!  Thanks guys! 

Oh and I almost forgot.  Yeah I totally ran into Alex James on Sunday.  That was trippy.  I stood up and turned around and saw him and totally did a double take.  That was pretty sweet.  There were a whole bunch of PG guys.  It was awesome!!  I should've taken a pic with him though.  And had him send it to you.  That would have been cool.  But I didn't think of that till after he'd gone.  Darn it all. 

Love you guys!!!
-Elder Wise

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Merry Christmas!

I can't even wait to see you guys!! It's gonna be so exciting!!  There's been a development however.  It looks like we won't be skyping until later in the afternoon.  I'm not even really sure what time.  I'll probably be able to call you right before so you know to get on the computer.  Or something like that.  I don't know for sure.  And President has asked that we only take 45 min.  So have a list of questions to ask or something haha.  I can't wait!!

Let's see.  My new area is doing pretty well.  Last week consisted mostly of going around and meeting everyone in the ward.  Although we have found a new investigator!!  It was pretty cool.  We went on exchanges on Friday so I was with Elder Hevner, my district leader, and we were walking on our way to visit a less active and we walked past a guy raking some leaves in his front yard.  Well both Elder Hevner and I had this super strong feeling that we needed to talk to the guy.  But we both kind of ignored it cause we had to go see the LA.  Well, the LA ended up slamming his door in our face, so as we were walking back to the car we talked to the guy raking.  His name is Robert.  And he is sooooooo prepared for the gospel!!  He's 22 years old and in his past life he was quite the partier.  But he was reading a book and decided that he wanted to become a Christian and do all the things that Christ would do.  So he's been researching Christ and stuff and earlier in the day, before we talked to him, he'd been reading about Mormons.  And then we showed up.  So we set up an appointment with him for the next day and gave him a Restoration pamphlet.  Well, when Weaver and I showed up the next day, he'd read the whole pamphlet, and also ripped out some of the pictures and hung them on his wall because he "liked the way they made him feel".  Haha he's awesome!!  He's super in touch with the spirit.  Even when he's reading stuff online, he can tell when something is true doctrine and when it's kinda sketchy, so then he asks us and we clarify and he says "I had a feeling that wasn't really right".  He's unreal.  We are meeting with him again tonight and hopefully we will be able to get him on date for baptism for Jan 11!!! 

That's really the only exciting thing of the week.  Although, the week was made LOADS better by the fact that we had killer music to listen too!!!  We've been listening to those CD's all week long!!  They are so awesome!!!  Thanks so much!!  The candy is amazing too!!!  Mmmmmmmmmmmm good!

I can't believe you guys have all been sick!! That's no fun!  Santa going to Lucie's school sounds awesome though!!  That sound's so fun!! 

And the snow sounds awesome!! I miss snow.  I miss skiing.  Oh well.  It sounds like grandpa is getting it in for me haha!  That's so awesome!

I can't wait to hear about what everyone get's for Christmas too!  What did you get dad??

I totally fasted on Sunday for Sadie's blessing.  I'm glad it was good!!  It sounds awesome!

Well, Hopefully I will know more about skyping home in a few minutes.  Stay tuned for another email that contains the exact time and stuff.  Hopefully. 

Love you guys!!!  Can't wait to talk to you!!

Love, Elder Wise

Monday, December 16, 2013

The Desert

Hey guys! Man there is a lot to talk about.  Well let's see.  My new companion is Elder Weaver from Cedar City UT.  He's been out about 6 weeks longer than I have.  Last Wednesday all the missionaries getting transfered met at the mission office in highland, found their new companion, and then drove to their new areas.  There wasn't any meeting or anything.  We just kinda showed up, said hello, and drove off again. 

My new assignment is in the Park View Ward.  Cover all of Rancho Mirage, about half of Cathedral City, parts of Palm Dessert, and all of Thousand Palms.  It's a pretty big area and currently we live like 5 miles outside of it so we definitely get a car while we are out here.  It's kind of interesting. Both Weaver and myself were whitewashed in our previous areas, and now we've been whitewashed again!!  That means that we are opening up a new area.  I guess President figures we are just both pro at starting up new areas or something.  I personally feel like someone else should have the pleasure haha. 

As a result of being whitewashed, we have no investigators or anything at all really.  We've spent the last several days figuring out where we are, finding maps, getting ward lists, and all sorts of things.  And we aren't even finished mapping everything out yet.  It's a chore. 

To add to the frustration, we don't have our own place.  Like I said we are currently living outside our area in a tiny apartment with some other elders.  So we are on the floor.  Well, I'm actually on a hideaway bed, but It's probably worse then the floor.  There's  a spring that digs into my back all night long.  But oh well haha. 

One of the definite perks of the area though is the cars.  I thought the cars in Yucaipa were nice but they've got nothing on the stuff out here.  Let's see, I've seen a Ferrari 458, a McLaren MP4-12C, an Aston Martin, countless Porsche's, and several Maserati's.  It's kind of unreal.  The McLaren is probs my favorite though!  I want one. 

It sound's like everything is pretty fun at home!!  I haven't gotten the candy or music package yet but I'm sure it will get here pretty soon.  I can't wait!!  I finally got the Christmas countdown!! It's awesome!! Thanks so much!!  I love the little tree haha. 

Oh!! Big news!!  I think I'll still be able to go to Chris's wedding!!! I talked to President about it and he said I could! I just have to arrange a few things.  So hopefully that will work out!! 

Well, I can't really think of much else to say.  Sorry if I missed something haha.

Have a great week!!!  Love you guys!! 

-Elder Wise

P.S.  I'm super glad Jared is gonna go play chess!!!! ;)  Haha Francis will love it :)

Monday, December 9, 2013

NOOOOOOO!!

Darn it all.  I'm being transferred!  Palm Desert here I come.  It's kind of a bummer cause Julianne is really coming along.  She prayed about baptism and got her answer!  She wants to be baptized!!  I'm bummed I'll be missing out on that one.  I'll also be missing out on Chris's wedding!!  Ugh!!  Oh well, I know Palm Desert is where the Lord needs me.  And it's kind of nice getting the Desert out of the way.  This is definitely the best time of the year to be there.  It only get's up to like 90's this time of year!
Let's see.  What else happened this week?  We went and saw Roger on Wednesday.  He's doing really well also!  We followed up with him to see if he had prayed about baptism, and he said he has been praying.  He hasn't gotten his answer yet though, so he's going to keep praying. 
We also went and saw Francis again this week.  Played some good chess.  That's what I'm gonna miss.  Seright is gonna have to play with him now.  He will probably get whooped.  Francis is bomb at chess. 
One of the fun things of the week was that we went Christmas Caroling!!!  The ward missionaries and us full time missionaries went around to some of the Less Actives in the ward and sang to them and then invited them to the ward Christmas party this upcoming Saturday.  It went really well!! 
 The highlight of the week though was Saturday.  IT SNOWED!!!  Not nearly as much as it did in UT apparently but it did snow about an inch up in the mountains.  We had to go to the very edge of our area as high up as we could go into the mountains to see it.  This could possibly be the only time on my mission in which I see snow.  So that was really great!!

 

 It sounds like Utah is a great time!! I'm super jealous of all the snow!!  The Masseys keep getting issues of SKI magazine and it drives me crazy.  I miss skiing!!  The ward Christmas party sounded like a blast!!  I wish I coulda sat on Santa's lap!!
I can't even wait for the candy!! It sounds delicious!!  Sadly, I haven't gotten my package yet.  I have a suspicion that they withheld it at the mission office since transfers are this week.  If it doesn't come in the mail today I will be picking it up on wednesday for sure. 
Also, I definitly want a Christmas CD.  Our Zone Leaders gave us permission to listen to Christmas Music on the radio so that's what we've been doing lately.  Pretty much any christmas music is fine i think!! That Phineas and Ferb CD sounds awesome!! 
 Yeah we finally met with Joanie!! It was really great!! She's super nice!  I'm sad I only got to see her once though.  That's a bummer!  I think Seright will keep stopping by though.  I told him to. 
I'm still working on some secret buddy stuff.  Hopefully that will get done pretty soon.  I'll be pretty busy the next couple of days though cause I have to pack and all that awful stuff. 
Well, I love you guys!! I hope you all have a fantastic week!!  Build a snow man for me sometime!  :)
Love, Elder Wise



PS   And out here we kinda decorate our daily planners and I didn't have anything to decorate mine with really so I used a pic that Lucie drew.  I kinda had to cut it up.  I felt really bad.  But now I can carry it wherever I go!!

Monday, December 2, 2013

Hello Hello!

Hello Hello!
This week has been pretty interesting!   Let's see.  Well, this week we had exchanges with the zone leaders.  That was a good time.  It was nice cause I didn't have to move locations this time.  Elder Seright packed his stuff and went to the other area.  Elder Ulrich came with me and we rocked it.  We found two new investigators this week!!  Ulrich and I were able to teach both of them!!  One of them, Julianne, is pretty much golden!  Her only issue is that she doesn't think that Baptism is essential to getting to heaven.  But we explained how important it is and she said she would pray about it.  The other issue she has I guess is that her dad isn't supportive of her at all.  She's like 24 so he wouldn't be able to stop her from being baptized but it's still hard for her. 
And of course, this week was thanksgiving! So that was lots of fun!!!  We went over to a members house in the morning, and we deep fried 4 turkeys and some french fries!! It was soooooo good!!  And after that we went over to the Katompski's house.  I don't know if I've ever mentioned them before.  They are some of our investigators.  Except they told us the other day that they would probably never be converted.  Oh well.  We will keep trying!!
This is the first turkey that we fried.  It looks like it's totally burned and stuff but right under the surface it is perfectly cooked and super juicy!
The third and final exciting thing that happened this week is that we got to see Chris on sunday!!  The not so fun part of that is that she told us she's not really interested in learning more about the church anymore, but she is more than willing to listen to whatever it is we want to tell her about.  So that's a bummer.  We ended up teaching her about the plan of salvation yesterday.  The fun part though is that she really is going to get married!!  They are gonna get married up near a waterfall around here and they are going to ask our bishop to do it.  I told her if he wouldn't then I would.  I don't know if you guys know this or not, cause I didn't, but because I am a legal minister, I can marry people!!! Haha isn't that fun?!  Bishop will probably do it though.  Chris asked us to be the witnesses though!!  Haha it's a good time. 
 That's kind of all the exciting things of this week.  We weren't able to see Roger or anything cause he was busy for the holidays, but hopefully this week!  Thanks for praying for them!
 Thanksgiving in PG sounded like a great time!!!  And yeah, it is super weird that everyone was knitting instead of playing on their ipads and computers.  Strange. 
Everyone keeps telling us about how awesome Catching Fire is!!! I'm super jealous!!!  I've decided staying in a homeshare with members is rough.  They are always watching movies and stuff!!  I just go to bed listening to the sounds of awesome movies right outside our door.  The other night they were watching the Hobbit.  I love that movie.  And I saw a preview for #2 the other day while we were cooking up thanksgiving at the members house.  Darn it all.  Haha
 I'll watch for Sherri's relatives! That's cool that they are coming to Redlands!  And setting up Christmas sounds like a good time!!  The Masseys go all out.  I can't remember if I told you or not but they have 11 trees.  And they aren't all small either.  They put us missionaries in charge of the biggest one. It was a pain!!  I bet the tree's dad did look great though!! They always look super good when he does them!!  
And you mentioned something about making candy???  Send me some?? haha   And I would love to do Secret Buddy still! Sounds great.  And yeah, feel free to help me out. 
I am starting to get low on Calvin and Hobbes envelopes and colored ones too.  But I still have a bunch of stamps and stuff.  I have no idea what I want for Christmas.  I was thinking about maybe a new set of Scriptures?  Except then I would have to start all over marking stuff up.  But it turns out, the ones I'm using are kinda old.  Who knew?  If you guys want to write in some books of mormon, that'd be cool.  I don't really know who I would give them too but I could find someone!  As far as I know, all the missionaries are getting packages and stuff.  Thanks though!!  If I hear of any who aren't I'll let you know.  And I'm glad Sis. Jensen got my letter!!! She's the best!
Well, California is awesome!!  Thanks for all your support and love!!
Love you guys!!
-Elder Wise
This is the Dirty McCurdy hamburger that I ate today for lunch.  Two 1/3 pound patties and a bunch of tri-tip steak along with lettuce, tomatoes, and bacon!  The biggest hamburger I've ever eaten in my life!!  Not to mention the most expensive!  12 dollars!!!!  The owner of Angus McCurdy's is a member though and he gave us our meal free today!!! He's a great man. 
One of our members has cool guns and a manikin dressed up in Russian army gear!

Monday, November 25, 2013

Wait for iiiiiiiiiit...

Hey!!

This week has been pretty good!!  I got all the rest of the letters and stuff from everyone on wednesday so that was awesome!!!  Thank you guys so much!!! 
The rest of the week was interesting.  It was pretty rainy, which is weird, all last week so we didn't do a whole lot of tracting and stuff.  We still got quite a bit done though.  I can't remember, have I told you about our investigator Roger?  Well, he is a guy we've been teaching for a while and this week, we were finally able to extend the baptismal invitation!!  My first one haha!  He said he would pray about it and get back to us haha.  The only thing that would hold him back from getting baptised really though is his wife.  She isn't very supportive of the whole thing.  We aren't really sure why.  So please pray for him! Thanks :)
 One of the other cool things of last week was that we had a little visitor.  We didn't find out until thursday night, but apparently a ward out  in Palm Dessert worked with Pres. Van Cott and set it up so that a few of the young men of that ward could come out to Yucaipa and hang out with us for 24 hours.  So friday night, we picked up Brother Brown, and he spent the night and saturday with us.  He was cool.  He's half brazilian and apparently they are going down to brazil for the world cup and the olympics and stuff so I was SUPER jealous haha. 

Our 24 hour missionary...Brother Brown!

 The last crazy thing that happened this week is that Chris might be getting married!!!  I guess Toby, her boyfriend who moved out a while ago, has just missed her too much haha.  He wants to get married next week.  It was all kind of sudden so she hasn't said yes yet.  She is thinking about it still. It's exciting though haha. 
Well, that's really all the exciting things that happened this week.  Oh actually, there was one more thing.  I called up Joanie to see if we could meet with her, and she said yes.  But she is super busy this week cause of the holiday so we won't be able to see her till the 2 or 3 of December.  So I'll call her then and set something up.
Holy cow!  There are a lot of eagles getting cranked out!  That's pretty cool. 
I think I heard about lucie taking swim lessons.  I bet she is the best in her class!!  I've heard that HS meets are better than HAST meets but I'm still not sure I would enjoy them haha.  Sorry sade. 
That's exciting about the senior couple missionaries!! That's the first time i've ever heard of it.  That'll be sweet!!! I wonder how it will all work out. 
And congrats mom on the missionary experience!! Being a missionary is awesome haha :)  Hopefully that will go somewhere!
So I'm super bummed I will be mission (see what he did there?) out on the Wise Family mashed potatoes and turkey and homemade rolls and all that!  Thanksgiving is looking like it'll be pretty good up here though.  It looks like we will be having two dinners! I'm gonna be fat.  Pray for my stomach!
Christmas will hopefully be spent here in Yucaipa!!!  I really want to stay at least one more transfer.  Transfers are on dec 10.  We will find out if we are staying or going though on the 9.  So hopefully I'll be staying. I have no idea what I want/need though.  I'll start thinking. 
The man I'm playing chess with is named Francis and he lives in a convalescent home.  He's less active and doesn't have any family or friends either alive or in Cali so we go and visit him every week.  Last week we played chess haha.

Well, I love you all!!! Missionary work is the best!!

Love, Elder Wise

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Happy Birthday Elder Wise

Hey Hey!!!  Thanks for all the B-Day wishes!!!  I can't believe I actually turned 19 haha.  Let's see, today we did a bunch of stuff.  This morning, I opened the package you guys sent!! Thanks a ton!!! The hole punch and pencils are perfect!!! I don't think I got all the other letters you guys sent.  I got one from Lucie and that's about it.  I loved the leaf haha.  I also loved the sweaters and stuff.  Those will be great!!  And the twinkies were so great!!  I've already eaten some haha. 
We went to Kohls this morning and bought some new shoes.  They are great.  Thanks!!  After that we went out to lunch.  A place called Angus McCurdy's. It's pretty dang delicious!!  Possibly one of the best burgers I've ever had.  They also have Tri-Tip steak sandwiches, which are to DIE for!!!  Past that stuff, we haven't done much else today.  Tonight we are going to a member's for dinner and then hopefully we will go see some investigators. 
 The mission conference was super awesome!!  President Van Cott invited all the stake presidents in our mission to come speak, as well as a bunch of the bishops and stuff.  Elder Hyam of the fifth quorum of the 70 was also there.  It was totally awesome.  If I have some time I'll tell a cool story that they shared at the end. 
For Thanksgiving we are planning on going to a member's house.  I don't know if we will get more than one dinner or not.  Hopefully not cause I am getting fat.  Really I am.  I don't know how accurate the scale is that I'm using but according to the scale, I've gained almost 10 pounds.  AHHHHHHH!!!!  Not good.  I eat so well out here.  We need to start waking up a half hour earlier and going on runs or something.  It's not good.  Haha
 It sounds like it's been crazy at home what with all the people and stuff.  It's fun that Zach and Sara showed up!!  And super crazy that Gma and Gpa were in Yucaipa!!!  If I'd have seen them that would have been unreal. 
Congrats Sadie on the swim meet and stuff!!! That's great!!  And Duck Dynasty season 4 sounds like a blast.  I saw a toy today at walmart that was really awesome.  It was Si's head and it talked and said lots of funny quotes and stuff.  It was really great!!
I'm glad to hear that there were no more major catastrophes in the ward this week.  And I'm glad people are getting better for the most part.  I didn't get a chance to call Joanie last week but I will for sure do it this week.  I promise. 
Well, I will tell you that story now. So one of the bishops in our mission, Bishop Luna, got up and bore his testimony and stuff and he told us a sweet story.  Well first, a little about Luna.  He is the bishop of a spanish ward and they lead the mission and a ton of other missions in baptisms.  They baptized 68 people so far this year and they've had to split the ward twice.  Unreal.  Anyways here's the story.  Two missionaries were in Mexico and in their area there was a town out in the middle of nowhere and they could only get there by train.  The train went out to the town twice a day.  Once, sometime in the mid day and once around 11 at night.  So usually the Elders would take the 11 oclock train out, spend the night, then get to work early the next morning.  Well the people in the town hated the missionaries.  Really hated them.  So much so that they wanted to kill them.  So some men in the town found out when the missionaries were gonna be coming and made a plan to kill them.  They were gonna hide on the side of the road in the ditch or somthing and kill the Elders as they walked the mile or so from the train station to the town.  So the night came and the men hid themselves as the train pulled up, and they saw the 2 elders get off the train and start walking towards the town.  Well, the men lost sight of them for a bit around a curve in the road so they sent one of the men to scout it out and see how close they were.  He returned a few seconds later and brought some incredible news!! The Elders weren't alone.  They had brought an entire army with them mounted on horseback! Sure enough, a few seconds later the Elders rounded the curve and behind them marched thousands of soldiers on horseback.  The men didn't dare try and kill the Elders.  Well the procession marched past for several minutes.  As the last horses marched by the men hiding were shocked.  Well, they wanted to see where all these soldiers were going and stuff so they started on the walk home and as they came into sight of the town, they saw two missionaries, alone, walking through the streets of the town, looking for place to stay the night. 
Isn't that a sweet story!! The Lord protects his missionaries!!  I hope I was able to tell the story alright and that it made sense.  I know I'm a lousy storyteller. 
Well, I love you all!! I apologize cause I don't think I'll be able to reply to everyone who sent me emails.  But I appreciate them all and I did read them so thanks!!!!
Love you guys,
Elder Wise

Monday, November 11, 2013

Hey Hey!!

Last week was pretty good!  It didn't really feel like we did too much cause a lot of our appointments fell through.  We were able to see Leonard, and Guy, and Chris.  Leonard still isn't interested in really learning about the gospel so we just talk with him and share little scripture thought.  When we saw Guy he cooked us up his mom's famous tai recipe for Fried Rice.  It was amazing!!  And then we went out and played some B-Ball on the hoop that's finally done!!  I'll send some pics later.  
It was Chris's B-Day yesterday so we didn't teach her a lesson.  I had offered to make her a birthday cake for her birthday but she didn't want one.  She told us she wanted a white flower.  So we went and found some white roses and took them to her.  She loved them!  So that was fun!

But past that stuff, the week was pretty slow.  I wish I had more to report.  Maybe next week!!
That's so sad to hear about all the crazy stuff happening in the ward.  It's fun that you are getting a baptism though!! That's sweet!!  

I wasn't ever able to get a hold of Joanie.  I will try again this week and we will go and try to see her.  

Way to go Sadie on the swim meet!!  Cedar City was Keven's favorite swim meet ever.  I'm sure you'll love it!!  

I'm super jealous of the young men!!!! I wish I could go on a helicopter ride! That's the best thing ever!! 

Thanks Uncle Eric for the ideas!!  We have been trying to get with the bishop about people giving talks and stuff.  And I told my ZLs about talking with the Mayor.  So we will see what happens there :)  Thanks!

Love you guys!!! 

-Elder Wise 

PS  I think I will make a cake for my bday.  That's a great idea!!

Monday, November 4, 2013

Hello! Hello!

Hey guys!!  Last week was pretty fun!  Let's see, where to start?  Well last tuesday some members invited us over to dinner and afterward they pulled out some pumpkins and let us carve them.  It was a party! I was really glad we got to do it cause I was really bummed I wasn't going to get to.  They have a daughter who is 7 and she is super cute.  She reminds me alot of lucie!!  I carved a skull into my pumpkin.  I'll send a pic. 


On Halloween they told us we weren't really allowed to go out and about but we got permission to go and chill at an investigator's house for a while.  He lives up in the rich area.  Actually, it's the guy who owns the Ferrari.  I guess I shouldn't really call him an investigator.  He isn't really interested in learning about the church.  But he told us to go to his house on Halloween cause apparently it gets pretty crazy up there.  And he wasn't kidding!!  I have never seen so many trick or treaters in my whole life!!  There were thousands!!!!  I'm not even exaggerating.  They had multiple trucks pulling trailors with hay on them so they could transfer the masses to the top of the hill and stuff.  There was a house that had multiple cotton candy machines and popcorn machines going and the line for that house was crazy long.  People were waiting like 30+ minutes to get some.  It was out of control.  But pretty fun!! We just sat out in his front yard around a fire pit for a while.  It was a party!
Pretty much all of our appointments with investigators fell though last week.  We didn't really see any of them.  Of the ones we did see, we committed them to come to church with us yesterday, but none of them showed up.  So that's kinda disappointing. On the plus side though we finally saw Chris!!  Well kinda.  She wasn't feeling well so she didn't want us to come over but we asked her if she wanted a blessing.  She obviously didn't know what it was and first asked us if we could do it over the phone haha.  But we explained how it didn't really work like that and so we went to her house and gave her one.  So that was fun!
The other thing we did was do a lot of service for Guy, one of our other investigators.  Have I mentioned him before?  I can't remember.  He's a pretty cool guy.  He's been seeing missionaries for forever but up until now, it's been kinda impossible to get him baptised.  His wife teaches at a catholic school and wants nothing to do with the church.  But I think they are getting a divorce now.  I'm not really sure.  They are separated for sure.  Anyways, we helped him put a basketball hoop in his front yard.  It was quite the ordeal. Fun though.  The best part is that at one point, we had to heat up the bottom end of the pole to get some metal off, but he doesn't have a torch.  So my redneck mind thought up something wonderful.  Why not use the grill??  So that's what we did.  We propped the whole hoop up on some garbage cans and stuck the bottom in the grill.  Worked like a charm!!!  I'm brilliant.  haha just kidding.  I wish I coulda gotten some pics of it.  I was laughing so hard.  It was funny.  But I had left my camera at home :( 
This whole project took us about three days to complete.  Saturday Sunday and this morning.  Phew.  It's finally done!!
But really, last week was pretty dull.  Like I said we didn't see too many people.  A few less actives.  That was good.  Elder Seright and I are doing great. 
Halloween in Utah sounded fun!!!  I'm super jealous that I missed out on spudnuts.  Although I have good news.  I have redeemed myself.  We finally found some rhodes dough balls and I cooked up some butterscotch rolls this morning!! Super delicious!!!!  The Massey family loved them as well.  So that was good. 
It sounds like life in PG is just as crazy as always.  Way to swim hard at the meet sadie!  And way to go dad!!  Working hospitality!  Good times.  Not really.  That's the worst. 
Well I hope you all have a good week!!!  Love you all!!
-Elder Wise
PS  The gospel rocks!  California rocks!  I love it

Monday, October 28, 2013

Happy Happy Happy!

Hello hello!! This week has been pretty good.  It didn't really feel like we did a whole lot but when we added up our numbers it turns out that we taught nearly 20 lessons this week!! So that was cool!!  We were also able to gain a couple new investigators yesterday as well!!  So we are pretty excited about that!!
Let's see, what all happened this week?  On Tuesday we met with Elder Walker of the Seventy.  He's the guy in charge of all the temples and temple presidents of the world.  He's a really cool guy.  I asked him if he knew President Thorderson and he said he did!! So that was a fun time.  He taught us some cool stuff.  We dissected Alma chapter 8.  It's such a great chapter!! I was also able to see Elder Reber from PG, and Sister Young (Paige) so that was sweet!! They are both doing well!. 
After the meeting we went and saw one of our investigators and he showed us his lizard.  It's huge!! So that was really cool too.  I'll send some pics.  

 This week has been a really great car week!!!!  First off, on wednesday we were driving up around in the really rich part of town, and we stopped by a guys house just on a whim.  We had met him our first week in Yucaipa and hadn't ever been able to see him again cause he's usually gone.  But that day we just decided to stop by.  Well, it turns out he was there and so we were talking to him and we soon came to find out that one of his hobbies is buying and restoring and reselling super nice cars.  So guess what was in his garage?!  A 1989 Ferrari!!!!  It was unreal!!  He's taking it to auction pretty soon.  He's hoping to get about $100,000 for it.  It's such a beautiful car.  And sitting next to it in his garage was a super cool 2004 Viper.  So that was a really great day. 
Love the reflection of his tie in the window!
 Also, on Friday, there was a big carnival/car show/concert/pretty much everything in town and the people running it knew the missionaries and got all of us to volunteer and help out.  It was cool though cause Elder Seright and I were put on garbage duty so that involved walking up and down the street, picking up garbage, but also looking at all the sweeeeeeet classic cars!!! There were TONS of them!!!  I got loads of pics! One of the guys even let me climb in his 66 Chevelle and take a pic.  It was really sweet!!!
The other fun thing that happened this week was our wards Trunk-or-Treat.  That was Saturday night.  It was pretty fun!! It was probably the most elaborate ward party I've ever seen.  And there were tons and tons of people there!!  One of our investigators even came! So that was really fun. 
Sadly, we didn't get to see Chris again.  Gosh dang it.  I don't think she's purposely avoiding us though.  So that's probably a good sign.  Hopefully we will catch her sometime.  I don't even know anymore.  One of the fun things Seright and I have started doing is we made a calendar of all the birthdays in the ward and we call them on their birthday and sing to them.  Haha it's a fun time.  People seem to appreciate it!
Transfers are this week.  But we found out today whether or not we will be going anywhere.  Elder Seright and I are both staying in Yucaipa for another 6 weeks!!  I'm kinda glad I'm not leaving.  I'm just starting to get the hang of the place!! Haha
Anyways, Sounds like there's a lot of stuff going on at home and in the ward!!  That's crazy about Guy and Paula!  Fun stuff!!!
Birthday.  I'm pretty sure there's a place around here that sells shoes.  I'll double check though and tell you next week.  Also, there's not a whole lot of restaurants but there are a few.  I'll check on that as well :)  Thanks!!  I have no idea about the winter coats thing.  I also don't know about the suit coats and stuff.  I should probably find that out.  Seright has only been here 6 months so winter here is new to him too. 
That story about the missionaries in NYC is sweet!!!  We should try to find something like that to do here haha. 
Lucie's plans for her baptism sound awesome!! I'd love to write a talk for it haha!  Also, I will try my best to get a baptism on that day :) 
Well, I hope everyone is doing well!!  Missionary work rocks!  Love you!!
-Elder Wise
(Note from Mom)
Man I love this kid!

Monday, October 21, 2013

Oh Boy Oh Boy!!

Hello hello!
California is still pretty great.  Let's see, what happened last week?  We visited lots of less active members and members.  Since we don't have a whole lot of investigators we go around and just try to talk to people in the ward and visit the less actives.  It's pretty good.  Most people can only see us in the evening though so for the early afternoon and stuff, there's still just a lot of wandering around, knocking on doors and stuff.  It's a good time!! 
There were a couple cool things that happened this week.  
1:  We were visiting one of the less actives in the ward, who had told us not to come over.  We went anyway and she was actually super happy to see us.  We ended up talking for a long time and she kept telling us how glad she was that we came over even though she told us not to.  That's only half the story though.  The second half is that as we were starting to drive away, a man walked up to our car and wanted to talk to us.  We rolled down the window and he said "Hello, my name is Juan, and I am a Witness of Jehovah.  But I would like to read the Book of Mormon just to see what it is all about.  Do you have one that I could have?"  And we were like, Heck Yeah! So we gave him one and offered to give him our number so he could call us if he had questions but he said no and walked off.  It was cool though.  I hope he likes it. 
2:  There is a house about a quarter mile down the road from the Masseys.  It's a pretty nice house.  But the really nice bit is what's inside the garage.  A LAMBORGHINI!!!! Soooooooo sweet!!!  They were out cleaning it on Saturday and let us take some pictures.  I attached a couple :)  It's so sweet.  The guy also has a way sooped up Mustang and a super nice Mercedes. 

Past that, nothing much else happened this week.  Chris couldn't meet yesterday again so I can't report on that.  :(  Next week though hopefully!!!
The members of our ward are slowly starting to get used to the whole missionary work idea.  A lot more people are starting to get enthusiastic about it.  Especially the youth.  At church, there are always some youth that come up and tell us the missionary experiences they've had at school and stuff.  A lot of the kids are inviting people to church and activities and stuff.  I think the parents are seeing the kids doing it and are starting to realize that it's not that hard.  Haha.  It's sweet. 
Sounds like things are crazy at home!!! I'm thinking maybe you should send me some of that Cider???  Yeah that's a good idea.  And those crepes sounded amazing!!!! One of the members fed us crepes one night.  MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm.  Totally delicious.  Pretty much I'm just super jealous of missing out on all the festivities!! They sounded awesome!! I'm glad Sadie had a good time.  Oh and I'm glad you liked the Bear Sade :)

One of the cool things happening this week is Elder Walker of the Seventy is coming to talk to all the missionaries.  He's the guy in charge of all the temples pretty much.  He's been at every single dedication over the past couple years.  So we are super excited to hear from him.  It's pretty much an all day things.  We start at 9:30 and go until 4.  It's gonna be sweet!  Past that, I don't know what's in store for this next week.  Hopefully some sweet stuff. 
I hope everything is going well!!  I love you all.  Missionary work is the best!  California is awesome!!
Love, Elder Wise

Monday, October 14, 2013

Hey Jack!

Hello everyone!  I'm glad P-Day is finally here!!  Last week went pretty good.  Not a whole lot of stuff happened though.  Lets see.

On Saturday we had exchanges. It's a fun time I guess.  Mostly just annoying.  I had to pack up pretty much everything and take it to a different house where I stayed for a night and then I had to take it all back to the Massey's and unpack again.  It was fun though.  It's nice to get to see a different part of town for a change.  

Past that, nothing much else happened.  We didn't have too many appointments set up for last week so we decided to just go out and tract, even though we aren't really supposed to.  But it's better than just sitting around.  We don't get to do anything over social media either.  Not yet anyways.  Within the next year or so we might be able to start using facebook and other stuff like that.  So we just went out and walked around.  Which is good cause I'm starting to get fat since we just drive everywhere and eat a lot.  I've been working out in the mornings though so that's good.  

Chris is doing well, but we didn't get to see her yesterday.  She was with her mother and daughter and nieces doing some stuff.  But hopefully we will get to go see her next Sunday.  Thanks for praying for her and stuff!!! I know it will help a ton.  Prayer is amazing.  

On Saturday, we were in the area of Dave's sister so we called her up and tried to go see her.  She told us to just stop by whenever and that if she was gonna leave she would call us.  Well, as we were climbing out of our car in front of her house, she called and said she was going up the canyon for a bit.  So we just missed her.  I tried calling her again later that night but she didn't answer.  So I'll have to try and go back to see her sometime.  I was bummed that we didn't get to go talk to her.  

P-Days are usually pretty great.  We always get together with the whole zone and do something fun.  Today we played some volleyball and last week we went to a corn maze/petting zoo/pumpkin patch.  It was a good time!! I had left my camera at home though :( gosh dang it.  So no pics of that.  

It's crazy to think that pretty much all my friends are out of the MTC now and in the field.  It's so cool!! Missionary work is awesome.  

Well, I don't have much else to mention haha.  Hopefully next week there will be more cool stuff to talk about :)  If I forgot to mention something just let me know :)

I love you guys! Hope you are all doing well.  Keep being member missionaries!  They are the key to everything.  

Have a great week!! 

Love, Elder Wise

Monday, October 7, 2013

Hey!!



 Hello Hello!
This week has been pretty laid back.  Obviously, Conference was the big highlight!  I really enjoyed Uchtdorf's and Monson's and the black guy, and Nielson's, and pretty much all of them!  Haha did you know that the black guy was a slave in Zimbabwe and his owner was the one who gave him a BOM?  Fun fact.  Haha  Conference went by way too fast though.  I'm not used to that.  It was super awesome!  We had to go to the stake center to watch the sessions.  The butterscotch rolls were an epic fail.  Apparently, rhodes brand is like non-existent in California unless you go to like Walmart or something, which we don't have in our zone so we couldn't go, so we had to use a different brand that didn't work at all.  I was super dissappointed.

I haven't done as much cooking as I really thought I would.  We have dinner appointments pretty much every night so we don't have to cook for that.  We mostly just have to find food for lunch.  Which so far has mostly consisted of mac and cheese, frozen pizzas, eggs, and chips and stuff.  And we don't have much time so making stuff from scratch is a little impractical for lunch.  Which is a bummer.  It's good though.  I'm getting pretty good at shopping for myself now.  At first it was kinda rough.  haha

I'm glad to hear all the boys still went to the stake center for conference.  Pretty much everyone around here watched it at home.  Which, as you could imagine, means that pretty much everyone slept through it.  Haha.  Oh well, they missed out.  It was way good! 

I really hope I can get in contact with Dave's sister!  What is her name?  I'm really hoping she's in my area cause if she's not, I don't really think I'll be able to get to her house.  We really only go on exchanges with the zone leaders.  So if she's not in my area, hopefully she's in theirs.  I'll try my hardest though.
Sounds like Lucie is hilarious!! Miss you Luc!! Keep up the good work :)

I'm sure keven loved his packages!  Speaking of Keven.  I miss that kid.  We saw a small white VW Golf the other day and it even had blacked out rims, just like kevens car, and I totally thought it was him for a minute.  And then I remembered that he's all the way in Utah.  And then I thought maybe Kade and Elle had borrowed the car and driven out here to visit her family or something, and I got excited again, and then I saw the Cali license plates and dissappointment hit me all over again.  Haha can't wait to see him in a couple years.  And I'm glad his Visa came through!!  That's tight!

Sounds like it's been cray-cray at the house this past week!  Sounds like a party!  Too bad britta and james weren't really there.  Get after them for me will you? I haven't gotten a letter or email or anything from them.  Jerks.  haha jk

I was really missing the donuts the other day.  Pretty much all day I just thought about how I wouldn't be eating them.  I'm glad you all got to though. 

Chris is the name of our investigator that we are teaching.  We taught her again on sunday after conference.  She's been reading a TON of anti stuff and it's really hard to convince her that it's all a bunch of crap.  Of course, we didn't say it like that though haha.  She invited us back though so that's a start.  We are trying to come up with ideas on how to convince her to stop reading anti stuff.  It's wierd though cause she's read all the mormon stuff too.  She's pretty much read all of D&C and lots of the Book of Mormon, and she's gotten on mormon.org and lds.org and stuff.  So she's really knowledgable.  But she's really hooked on the Anti ideas.  Any suggestions??

Well I hope everything is going well!! I miss you guys! Hope you are having a great time!!


Love, Elder Wise

Monday, September 30, 2013

Holy Moly!

(little note from Mom--I've been having missionary mail anxiety.  Last week he emailed first thing in the morning.  We just barely got the email for today.  Sheesh!)

Hello Hello!!
This has been a crazy week!! I don't even know where to start! I guess I'll start with the bike situation.  It's so awesome.  WE GOT A CAR!! YAY!!!  My legs are very thankful haha.  We also got a phone! YAY!!! So things are really starting to pick up around here haha. Ready for the big news?? We have an investigator as well!!!! Haha it's a great time.  We have only met with her once so far though.  Hopefully she stays interested and wants to keep going.  We fasted for all day on Sunday and I've been praying for her.  I think she is going to be really receptive.  It's great!  We were also able to teach a few other lessons last week.  So things really are starting to happen.  It's great!!
Sounds like things are pretty crazy at home!! I can't believe I'm missing out on spudnuts and stuff this year.  It's pretty rough.  I think I'm gonna try and make some butterscotch rolls sunday morning though.  Gotta keep with tradition!  Haha
Thanks for sending my knife! I can't wait till it gets here :)  Zoe sent me a letter in the mail and it took about 5 days for it to finally get to my house.  I think there is kind of a long layover at the mission office.  It's annoying.  But I LOVE LOVE LOVE gettting letters so feel free to send one any time :)
I guess I'll tell a little story really fast.  We got a referral from the stake presidents son-in-law Rick, so we decided to go and check it out.  Rick went with us.  The man's name is Leonard.  He's fantastic.  Not really a potential investigator but really great nonetheless.  Anyways, we went over there and when he first saw us through the door we heard him say "Gotta get those *darn* preachers off the porch!" haha but he let us in and this is where the story gets kinda funny.  Leonard is an 89 year old mexican with a paralyzed left foot.  He fell off a horse in his driveway onetime and broke his back and ever since then he's been paralyzed.  Anyways, he wheeled his chair over to the door and let us in and as I walked in I realized something.  He was sitting there in just his underwear!! Some nice boxer-briefs.  Haha all that went through my head was lucie singing "I see london I see france, I can see your underpants!"  Haha it was great.  He is a hard-core cowboy.  He LOVES riding horses and stuff and did a ton of riding in Utah and New mexico and stuff.  Anyways, we had a nice chat.  We tried to bring up the Restoration and stuff but he kept getting distracted and he wasn't too interested.  Even though we told him the Book of Mormon was all about ancient indians and stuff.  He wasn't too enthused.  He said we could stop by sometime though.  We probably will.  It's pretty entertaining.
Elder Seright and I are doing great.  Here's a little more about him. I can't remember what I told you before but anyways.  He's from Coalville UT, he's the youngest of 7 kids, he played basketball, baseball, and football.  He was in the Band and the Orchestra.  He's a ginger.  He's a solid 190 lbs.  He loves to drive fast (but safe) haha. He's just really cool.
The sister missionaries who serve with us in the Yucaipa 4th ward are Sister McHood and Sister Kalke.  From south carolina and texas.  They are really nice.  Kalke is kinda crazy though.  McHood and Seright were in the MTC together.  Kalke has been out a transfer longer than me.  All in all, the Yucaipa 4th ward missionaries are pretty great.

The family we live with is sweet too.  The 17 year old drives a BMW Z4 to school everyday.  Lucky kid.  They also have this SWEEET restored GTO in the garage.  I think its a 67.  I'm super jealous.  One of their sons just got back from his mission in Argentina.  He's a real nice guy.  It's funny to talk to him cause he always starts speaking in spanish and then remembers he's supposed to speak english.  He's great.

Anyways, It's about time for me to go.  We are at the Library today for emails and I'm on a timer.  Most of the time I think we do emailing at the church and we have a little extra time.  Also, when we are at the church, it's easier to send pics.  I'll try to send some next week if we email at the church. 

Love you guys!!!!!
-Elder Wise

Monday, September 23, 2013

Hello from Yucaipa, California!

This week has been crazy!  California is a pretty cool place.  It reminds me a lot of Utah.  Except for all the Palm trees.  That's really the only different part.  My mission president is way cool.  He's a really nice guy.  Very spiritual.  He's always tearing up haha.  My companion is Elder Seright.  He's from Coalville UT.  We get along just great!
We have been assigned to work in the Yucaipa area just like that random lady said.  I have no idea who she is haha.  Is that where Ellle said she lived? I couldn't remember.  Maybe you should call K'Ann and ask her.  It's pretty interesting up here though. There is a no tracting rule.  All missionary contacts and referrals come from members.  Elder Seright and I, along with a couple of Sisters, are assigned to the Yucaipa 4th ward.  Yesterday in Ward Council the bishop told them all that missionary work takes priority over all callings, activities, youth-things, and anything else except for family commitments.  They were all given a list of names to go out and contact and try to set stuff up for us missionaries to do. 
It's been a pretty rough week for missionary work though.  Elder Seright and I are essentially opening up a new area and so we had no information at all. We didn't even have a ward list until the second day we were here.  To make matters worse, they haven't even given us a phone yet.  Supposedly, we are gonna get one today.  Apparently some order went wrong in Salt Lake and so none of the phones made it out here.  The next thing that's not so fun is the fact that Yucaipa is the hilliest place I've ever been.  Literally the whole place is one giant hill.  And we are on bikes.  It sucks cause we have to waste so much time riding places.  It takes us nearly an hour to get to some of the houses.  And since we don't have a phone to let them know we are coming, often times they aren't even home.  For the past few days, since we don't have any investigators yet, we've just been going around and dropping in on ward members and less actives and meeting them.  They are all really nice and they seem to like us haha. 
More about the bikes.  There is no way I should still be alive.  Haha every night when we get home my legs feel like they are gonna fall off, but when I wake up, I'm not even sore.  The lord is definitely helping me out.  haha. 

That's sad to hear about Montana's friend :(
One of the things that President Van Cott is really pushing is exact obedience.  Apparently in the past, this mission has had some really crazy elders and the area really suffered.  I've just been hearing horror stories of all these awful missionaries.  It's really turning around though.  Just not in our ward currently haha.  We will get some investigators soon though i'm sure. 
The only really cool thing that's really happened to me this week is that I saw a pomegranate tree.  That was cool.  Haha. 

Sounds like everything is pretty crazy at home! Sounds like a lot of fun though :)  I've been dying cause I just want to go waterskiing so bad.  The weather around here is pretty much perfect all the time for that.  Speaking of the weather, it's pretty hot during the day but it's been starting to cool down a lot.  Everyone keeps telling me how lucky I am to be here at this time.  Even like two weeks ago it was like 10 degrees hotter every day.  Glad I missed that!
Good luck with the swim stuff Sade!
Keven and Skyler, you are gonna love the field when you finally get there! ;)
Well it's about time for me to go, I'll talk to you next week! :)
Love you guys!!
-Elder Wise

An Email from a Stranger

This is Mom.  I opened my email today and found this note from a lady visiting a ward in California.  Missionary Moms Unite!!

Hi my name is Sandra. I was visiting family in Yucaipa Ca. As a missionary mom myself I know how very little pictures we can receive and the more the merrier. So I had your missionary pose for me hope you enjoy the pics.




And she even sent a video!


Thanks Sandra, whoever you are--you just made our day!

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

He Made It!

We just received this scanned letter in our email box.  Hurrah!  We've been wondering if he made it or not.  Chances were pretty good that he had.  But still.


Monday, September 16, 2013

Last email from the MTC

Holy Cow! I leave tomorrow! This is weird.  Anyways, yeah I got the Pizza rolls.  They were AWESOME!! Thanks so much! They were a huge hit.  The amish bread was amazing too! Also a big hit.  Haha.

Seeing grandma and grandpa was awesome!! *  Yeah they kinda caused a commotion haha.  When people saw me hugging grandma they were like "What the?..." but Jim and Diane didn't tell me not to hug her so whatever haha :).  And everybody loved grandpa, like always.  I took him around and he met everyone from my zone and he showed them all his painting and stuff and now he's famous around here.  And yeah they all loved the beard and stuff.  Jake walked by as we were talking so grandpa talked to him for a minute about Shannon and stuff so that was cool. Oh and I was thinking, you guys should send me some pictures of grandma and grandpa that I can put in my book.  That'd be awesome.  Oh and the other cool thing was that grandpa gave me his old tag.  It's pretty much the only one I use now. haha

That thing keven wrote is just about the funniest thing I've ever read hahahaha.  I wish I could see that kid more as well. 

YAY! I can't wait for more envelopes :) They are so fun to use!

That's sad about Lars.  I'm glad he's getting better though.

I am probably not ready for the big leagues. haha.  I'm a little nervous about California but I know God will help me out :)  For personal study I've been reading the Book of Mormon.  I just finished Helaman.  Nephi and Lehi are so cool in that book! I want to be like them.  They are pretty much the best missionaries. 
Sorry, I don't have a lot of time to email today.  I have a lot of stuff I have to do haha.
I will be sure and write a real good email next week and tell you all about California :)
Love you guys!

Elder Wise

_________________________________
(Notes from Mom)
Grandma and Grandpa just returned from their mission in Nauvoo, Illinois.  They got home after serving full-time for eighteen months on Friday and received permission to visit Elder Wise in the MTC yesterday.  Grandpa is Santa Claus.  So, he has already started growing out his beard in preparation for the holidays.  Can you believe that they let him in the MTC with a beard?  Scandalous!

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

First E-mail Sept 10th

Hey guys! It's finally P-Day! YAY!!! The last few days have been crazy. We literally just jumped right into everything.  Mom, in your first letter home you said you wanted the teaching to move along more quickly. * Well, it definitely moves along fast nowadays.  There is so much stuff that they are shoving into just 12 days of teaching.  It's nuts! I'll talk a little bit more about it in a minute.


I'm glad Lucie had a good birthday!! When everyone here heard about how it was her birthday on the day we came in they were sad for her haha.  So I mentioned a few things in the letter I wrote home the other day but you might not have gotten it yet so I'll just say it again.  The first day we were here all the new missionaries met with the MTC Presidency and Aunt Diane totally had me stand up in front of everyone and then she told stories about me as a baby and how cute I was.  It was pretty funny I have to admit though.  The first few days in the MTC were really nuts.  Non-stop classes and studying and everything.  The days just dragged on and on.  

We have had some really cool experiences though.  We just started something called TRC training yesterday.  They have people come in who pretend to be investigators and we go and teach them.  Although apparently, sometimes they aren't pretending.  A couple weeks ago some missionaries were teaching in TRC and the investigator wasn't a member but they got her converted and were able to baptize her while they were in the MTC.  That's crazy! Anyways, Elder Sharp and I are teaching a guy named Carlos.  He is from Peru.  In our first lesson we totally hit it off and he committed to reading the Book of Mormon and to pray.  He seemed really excited about it.  He told us he couldn't wait to start reading and that he was going to try to read at least 2 hours a day.  We didn't bother telling him that that's a ton! We would know cause we do that everyday as well haha.

On Sunday night the MTC has a devotional and it was awesome!! It was about prayer.  After that they show a bunch of films and we get to pick which one we want to go to.  We went to the Character of Christ video by Elder Bednar.  It's AMAZING!! If you can find it you should look it up and read/watch it.  It really is sooooooooo good.  There is another devotional tonight.  And guess what? yup you guessed it.  I'm saying the prayer.  I'm pretty sure Jim is behind this.**  I'm just hoping there won't be a general authority there tonight haha.  

That's fun about Nicole! Good for her.  I don't know if you heard about it Keven but Nicole got her call and is going to Vancouver.

There are 4 elders in my district and we are all going to Redlands.  We have only met two other sisters here on the main campus that are going to Redlands as well.  I don't know if there are any on the west campus.  

I mentioned in the letter I wrote too about how Elder Sharp and I are now Zone Leaders. It's a good time.  Last night while we were in our Residency Hall we were sitting there writing in our journals when all of a sudden a voice came over the loud speaker in our building asking for me and Elder Sharp to report to the front desk of the MTC pronto.  We hurried and threw on our clothes again and as we were getting ready they came on the speaker again and told us to use the emergency phone in the hall and call the front desk. At this point we were both kind of freaking out trying to remember if we had done anything wrong yesterday haha.  Well, we called the desk and they told us to hurry and to bring our consecrated oil cause one of the sisters in our district needed a blessing.  The sister, Sister Pickering, has been having an allergic reaction to something and it kept kind of going away but last night her whole body broke out in giant hives and she was in quite a lot of pain.  They are doing an allergy test today.  But anyways, we gave her a blessing and I think she's feeling better.  That was the second time we have given blessing to the sisters while we have been here.  Last Thursday we gave a bunch of blessings as well because they were all really home sick.  

This morning we were able to go to the Temple.  It was really cool.  That was the first time I had ever actually done any ordinances in the Provo Temple.  It's really neat!  I was kind of falling asleep the whole time though.  whoops.

Congrats on passing your Bio test Sadie! That's great.  I don't have your letter with me at the moment so I can't answer/comment on anything else.  I'll have to write you a letter later.  So be checking the mail.

How are things going Lucie? Are you liking school? Did you get to go to Jump-On-It with Kirsten?  

Duggie!! I hope you are liking work.  I hear it's been pretty busy.  I bet you are making bank.  Way to GO!

All in all, the MTC is pretty great.  I see a lot of people I know around here.  I see Skyler practically every day.  I've seen Jake a few times too.  There are a lot of others as well.  The people in my district/zone are all jealous of how many people I know here.  I think it actually makes my companion a little exasperated sometimes since I'm always stopping to talk to people and we are trying to get somewhere.***  Haha.  

Well this is a really long email.  My fingers are cramping up.  I haven't typed this much in ages.  I miss you all but this is a great time!!  I know the church is true!

Love, Elder Wise

P.S. Could you forward this to Zoe? I can't remember her email at the moment.  I forgot my address book.  

P.P.S. Hey Zoe!! :)
______________________________________
(Some explanatory notes from Mom)
* I am sending Elder Wise copies of my missionary letters home in the same chronological order that he is sending them.  ( I thought it might be fun for him to read them)  For example, I just sent him a copy of my first letter from the MTC.  Next week I will send him my second letter, etc.  Mind you, I was in the MTC twenty-four years ago!!!  My letter lamented that they weren't teaching me fast enough.  Apparently that is no longer the case :)
** Uncle Jim actually had nothing to do with selecting Elder Wise to say the prayer in this meeting.  It just happened to be his branch's turn to say the prayers.  And his Branch President just happened to choose him.  Funny.
***He gets this character trait from his Grandma.  She had the same problem when she was in the MTC.  Grandpa was always having to wait for her.  haha

Monday, September 9, 2013

Letter Home September 7th

Hello!  Hello!!!

Holy cow, this place is exhausting!  I've literally just crashed on my bed every night.  There is barely any time to breath!

Today Elder Sharp and I taught our first lesson.  It was pretty rough.  Our investigators name is Dave, and he's actually just our instructor acting.  He doesn't break character for anything!

One of our teachers today totally reminded me of Uncle Jedder.  Except he's brown.  He's really great!

Elder Sharp and I have been assigned to be Zone Leaders for the week we are here.  Elder Sharp is pretty stressed about it.  I have to keep reassuring him.  I've been able to see Elder McFarland and Elder Drage quite a bit.  Well, Skyler anyway.  I've only seen Jake once.  Everybody is doing great.  Keven is over in the west campus, so I don't see him at all.  Our branch president is a pretty nice guy.  I like him a lot.  His name is President Willes.

Did I tell you about Aunt Diane?  I can't remember.  In the first meeting with all the new missionaries on Wednesday, she called me out and I stood up in front of everyone and she told some stories of how cute a baby I was.  Haha  It was pretty funny!!  All the missionaries were laughing.  It was great.

There are two other elders in the room with Elder Sharp and I.  Elder Barker and Elder Griffin.  They are pretty cool guys.  We all gave the sisters in our district blessings yesterday.  The sisters were pretty homesick and stuff.  That was a really cool experience.  I've never felt the spirit so much in my life as here in the MTC.  It's an incredible place!  I'm told it gets better after the first Sunday.  Time moves faster after the first weekend apparently.  I'll believe it when I see it. haha  Just kidding.  I have faith.

We already have our travel plans.  We leave for California on the 17th at 3:00AM.  Ugh.  I don't know when I'll be able to call yet on that day.  I'll let you know.  I've been notified that I have 2 packages in the mailroom but I haven't been able to find time to pick them up yet.  I'm gonna get them first thing in the morning.  I'm assuming you sent at least one of them, so thanks!!  You guys are great!

LOVE,
Elder Wise

P.S.  The church is true!

Letter Home September 4th

Dear Mom,

Whoa, today has been crazy!  I met my companion, and his name is Elder Sharp.  He's a pretty interesting guy.  Kinda crazy though.  But he's really nice.  For the most part, I've got everything unpacked that I need.  My shirts are gonna need to be ironed.  Ugh.  How is everyon
e doing?  Did Lucie have a good birthday?  Did she ever cry?

We haven't really done a whole lot yet.  I'll have more to report on P-day probably.  I hope everybody is doing good!!

Send me some letters :)

Love,
Elder Wise

______________________________
 (notes and pictures from Mom)


The Drop Off

Aunt Diane was there to greet us!
"And, yes...yes she did."

Thursday, September 5, 2013

First Day as Elder

Elder Wise reported to the MTC (Missionary Training Center) yesterday and he is off and running.


He was fortunate enough to enter the MTC on the exact same day as his best friend.  So we made a day of it.  Both families met for lunch at Brick Oven.


It was also Elder Wise's little sister's birthday.  Hence the hats and noisemakers. So fun.

 
After lunch we headed to the temple for pictures and then we did the drop-off together.  It was so great to be with them.  They are a fantastic family!!
 


Elder Wise has a  great Aunt and Uncle that are serving in the MTC Presidency.  Aunt Diane met him at the curb as we pulled up to drop him off.  It was very emotional and very fast, but we were glad that she was there to help with the craziness of it all.  She texted later in the day and said that he was all smiles.  He was meeting his companion and the other missionaries in the district.  At 3:00 the MTC Presidency would be meeting with all of the missionaries that arrived that day to welcome them and orient them to the MTC.  At 4:30 they would all gather in the cafeteria for dinner.  She informed us that it is tradition to serve ice cream from the BYU Creamery for dessert.  And then they would start teaching.
 
It was a great day.  A hard day.  But a really great day!

This post was written by Mom.  As we receive letters and emails from Elder Wise we will post them here.  Thanks for visiting and for your love and support!