Half Way

Man, this transfer is already half way over!  Time just flies by too quickly.  Well this week was pretty good.  A little bit on the slow side, but we did get a lot of good work done.  We had Zone Conference this week.  President Van Cott trained us on extending commitments and promising blessings.  It was really good!  There were a lot of good things that he talked about.  One of the things I liked the most was that as we teach, we should really focus on the blessings of the commandment we are teaching.  Teach the doctrine simply and clearly, then state your authority and promise blessings.  People are a lot more willing to do things, if they realize the blessings that will come from it.  It kind of blows my mind to think about the fact that if I promise someone specific blessings, as a representative of Jesus Christ, then God will make it happen! That's a lot of responsibility on our part.   And it's not me telling God what to do, it's the Spirit directing me to promise someone the blessings that God already want's to give them.  Pretty cool!

But yeah, that about covers it.  All our investigators are doing pretty well.  We are still working on finding new people to teach, but we have some good potentials lined up to try to contact this week.  So it's going to be good.  

I'm glad to hear everything is going well back home!  Haha yeah the U is definitely full of hippies.  I'm glad the film festival was fun though!  And Radical Reels will be awesome! I'm jealous.  

Yes there is a 7-11 in Yucaipa!  a couple of them actually haha.  I will have the ZLs pick it up from the office.  No problem!  Thanks so much!  

Well, I hope you all have a fantastic week!  Love you all!

Love, Elder Wise

Didn't think I'd find one of these anywhere.  I found it on exchanges is Banning.

Great Week!!

Well, this last week was pretty awesome!  We got a lot of stuff done, but the highlight of the week was my trip back to Colton!!  Lazarus and Gloria got baptized on saturday!  It was so awesome!  And it was a very spiritual service.  I'll send some pics.

Yucaipa is still pretty slow on the investigator side of things, but we are working on finding some more.  We have a pretty good potential that we are meeting with this week.  A lady in the ward who has been less active, but has been coming back in the last year or so, has a daughter who has been coming to church for the last few months, and we decided to ask her if she wanted to hear the lessons and stuff, and she said yes!  She seems really solid.  Her name is Kimberly.  So we will see how that goes this week.  

One of the things we do as missionaries is we visit with the members, and help them make lists of all the people they know who are non-members.  Once the member has a list of people, then we help them come up with things to do to help each person progress. The list really just helps them remember who it is they are working with.  And it works really well!  We went over to the Ward Mission Leaders house the other day and went through his list, and he saw a name on there and it reminded him that he had been prompted to give the guy a book of mormon like 6 months ago, but he had never done it.  Well, since the list reminded him, he gave him the book of mormon the next day!  And it went super well!  There has been a whole bunch of experiences like that.  The members want to do missionary work, but they forget.  So the list really helps them remember, and then we help them come up with simple, non-pushy things they can do to share the gospel with their friends!  It's great!  So I'm hoping it will pay off pretty soon, and we will end up getting a referral from someone.  It's only a matter of time.  

So yeah, that's about it for my week.  Sounds like you all had a good week back home though!  Chinese New Year is always a good time!   And I love Lucie's Ferb box for valentines haha!  That's awesome! 

Well, I hope you all have a really great week!!  

Love, Elder Wise

Baby Natalia

Carlos and Grace made it to the baptism!

The Sardar Family

Mi compadre Elder Chavez

Yucaipa Take 2

Man, Yucaipa is a great place.  It's kind of strange to walk around and not see homeless people everywhere.  And I've only smelled marijuana once! It's crazy.  I do miss the chaos of Colton though.  And the amount of work out there.  Yucaipa is a little slow.  We are working hard on trying to find more people to teach.  The problem is there are no public places in our ward boundaries.  There is only one gas station.  So the only way you can find people to talk to is by knocking on their door.  Which just isn't effective. So we are really working with the members to find people to teach.  In the last 14 months since I've been gone, the ward has really progressed though.  The members are really starting to get out and talk with people.  It's a slow process.  A lot of people remember me though! I had quite a warm welcome back at church yesterday haha.  It's been pretty fun.

Sadly, David's baptism last week had to be postponed a bit longer.  There were some complications.  Hopefully some day in the future!  The Sardar's baptism is still good to go for this week though!  So I will get to go back to Colton on Saturday.  I can't even wait!!  And Grace and Carlos had their baby!  Natalia Toral officially entered the world last Thursday night around 11 ish.  I missed it by just 2 days!  Hopefully they will be at the baptism on Saturday though and I will get to meet the baby.  That would be awesome.  

My new companion is Elder Chavez.  He's 18, and from Plano Texas, which is by Dallas.  He loves to play soccer.  We get along really well.  It's a great time! He's been out for 6 months.  

Well, that's about all I have to report!  I'm glad that everything is going well back home!  I can't believe it's been so warm haha!  That's crazy!  

And Happy Anniversary!  22 years is a long time haha.  Congrats!  

Also, I did get the package.  The cinnamon rolls were amazing!!  They are already gone.  I ate them all.  They didn't even taste over cooked or anything! 

You are going to Montana?  I am so jealous.  Not of your leg surgery though haha.  I miss Montana.  

Well, I hope you all have a great week!!  I love you all!

Love, Elder Wise

You Won't Believe This

Wait for iiiiiiiiiiiiit....I'm getting transferred!!  That's the believable part haha.  The unbelievable part is this:  My new area is the Yucaipa 4th ward!!  Haha I'm going back to where I started!! It's going to be awesome!  It's great too because my new companion, Elder Chavez, and I will be the only missionaries in the ward, and we have a car, and we are white-washing in!  It's going to be great!  Sadly, we won't be in the same homeshare I was in before though.  We will be living at a different members house.  It's going to be so bomb though.  I'm stoked.  It's kind of strange being transferred back to an area where you already know everyone and where everything is!  It's great.  I won't be a zone leader any more though.  They are switching me to district leader.  So I won't be at the leadership meeting on Thursday.  I could probably have my zone leaders pick it up though and bring it straight to me.  They will have to drive through my area on their way home to their area.

The other big news is that the baptism went great!!  I'll be sending some pics.  Everything went smooth as butter.  I baptized, and Elder Cook confirmed the next day.  He did really well for his first time!  

And we have everything just about set up for David's baptism this coming Saturday.  I've got to start working out how I'm going to come back though.  David asked me to baptize him as well!  So that will be super fun.  And the week after that, Gloria and Lazarus and Kimberly Galvez will be baptized.  Gloria and Lazarus had their interviews yesterday and passed!  So as long as they can go without tea, they are good to go for the 14!  It's so awesome! 

Mainly, the whole week was just spent getting everything ready for the baptism. Nothing really super exciting happened.  I'm glad to hear everything is going well back home!  I'll definitely keep praying for grandma and grandpa.  Way to go on your swim meet Sadie!  That's awesome!  And Happy Birthday mom!!  Sorry I forgot to put that in my letter last week.  I remembered in the middle of the week.  I'm glad you had a great party haha :)

Well, today is pretty crazy. I've got a lot of packing to do, and lot's of people to call and say goodbye too.  I sent a big package home full of stuff I don't need.  It should get there on Thursday.  Thanks for everything!!! Have a great week!!

Love, Elder Wise

P.S.  Missionary work is great :)