Last Week...!

I can't believe there's only one week left! That's so insane! It's really shaping up to be a fantastic week though. We are going to be busy busy busy everyday.  Last week was pretty awesome too.  First off, the baptism that was scheduled for this Saturday is still on! And in fact, it's actually going to be a double baptism! Lisa (the mom) is going to be baptized, as well as her daughter Lakota! We have to work fast for Lakota though. Originally she wasn't really on board to be baptized with her mom, but she decided she really wants to be. She's 8 yrs old.  So we are meeting with them every day this week, and her interview is tomorrow.  There shouldn't be any problems though. So we are really excited about that!

Also, one of the people we are teaching made some great progress this week. A few weeks ago she started looking on the internet and found a lot of anti stuff.  But despite that she has continued to let us come by. It's been really cool to see the change in her though. She used to be very argumentative about everything and would always reject invitations, but now we have helped her get past most of that and in the last week she read all the way from 1 Nephi 1, to 2 Nephi 6!  And her heart has softened soooo much!  It's so cool to see the Spirit working on her heart.  She's still not quite willing to come to church with us, but we are almost there! Hopefully next Sunday! 

That's most of the awesome spiritual stuff. One of the cool things that happened though was on Saturday night.  We went to contact an investigator that lives pretty close to our house, and as we got out of the car I heard a U2 song playing really loudly.  And I was like "heck yeah!". At first I thought it was the neighbors just blasting some music, but I soon found out that at the park just down the road, there was a U2 Tribute band playing.  2 hours of straight U2 classics haha.  They were actually pretty good! I'm definitely going to have to listen to the real U2 Concert when I get home haha. Oh and don't worry, we didn't stay for the whole 2 hours. We only listened for a minute or two haha. 

And yeah, I think that's about it.  Glad to hear everything is going well!! The camp out sounds pretty fun! That's too bad that Lucie wasn't feeling too good though.  

Well, I can't wait to see you guys!! Just one more week! :)

Love, Elder Wise

Ahhh!

Holy moly.  Ok this last week was pretty good!  We had quite a bit of success! Let's see, well this week we had a senior couple move into the area. Elder and Sister Schroeder. They are super awesome!!  They are from Idaho and they are just super excited to be here. They are such a blessing to the ward. They actually cover both wards here in Yucca Valley.  So we took them to several lessons with us and it has been amazing.  Miracles are occurring. They are able to work with a lot of single sisters we can't meet with, and connect with some of the older people we have been trying to help.  For instance, there is a super nice old lady that we have been teaching (she was in the other elders area), but not too long ago she found some crazy anti stuff on the internet, so we have been trying to help her get through all that, but it's been a little bit difficult. But we took the Schroeders over with us and Sister Schroeder connected with her so well!!  And we were able to clear up several of her concerns I think.  They were also able to meet with a couple that have been having some marital problems, which Houskeeper and I clearly don't have experience in, and were able to help a lot. So it is just super great to have them here!!

The baptism that we have set up for the 15 of August is still on track too!!  Her name is Lisa and she is super awesome. She had her interview this week and passed with flying colors.  And then she came to church as well which was really the only thing holding her back. So everything is good to go for the 15th!  And Sister Huffer is doing great as well, her baptism date is set for August 22. So I won't be here, but she is super duper excited for it.  For some reason Frankie and Levi (the kids we were teaching) vanished off the face of the earth for the whole week, but we were finally able to catch them last night and have another appointment for tonight. So that was really good.  Lot's of great things happened this week. Sadly I don't have time to go through them all.  But it was a great week. Suffice to say.  

Glad to hear everything is going well at home! No I haven't gotten lucie's letter yet, but I bet I get it today or tomorrow. Can't wait!! Sounds like everyone is having a pretty fun summer!! 

Love you all!! Stay tuned for my last letter next week!  so crazy!!

Love, Elder Wise :)

Holy Moly...

Time just flies by so fast! This week was pretty super good! It was a fun transition taking over the rest of the ward.  With the addition of the other area, we now have quite a large teaching pool! So that is pretty fun!  Right now we have 8 people who are on date.  So that's pretty awesome.  We have one baptism set for August 8, and a couple others for August 15 (but those will probably be pushed back to the 22) and a couple for the 29.  So the work is going well!  Thanks for all your prayers! They really do help.  We had a few miracles this week which were pretty cool. I'll just share a small one.  We drove way out into the desert to try and contact one of our investigators who we haven't been able to get a hold of in a long time.  We had tried before and the gate was always locked and no-one was ever outside.  So we said a prayer that we could actually find someone outside this time.  When we got there, no one was around, but right as we were about to leave, someone came out and we were able to get her attention.  So we finally were able to talk to them!  It seems kind of small and insignificant, but God definitely heard our prayers.  So that was super cool.

Let's see, what else?  Well church yesterday was pretty good.  We were counting on having 10 investigators at sacrament meeting, but only 2 showed up.  So that was a little disappointing.  Waiting for investigators to show up to sacrament meeting is easily the most stressful and agonizing thing about missionary work haha.  Not something I'll miss when I'm home haha. The affect it has on a persons spiritual progression is just huge!  There's such a big difference in their progression during the week when they come to church.  This week will be better though! 

Umm, oh I don't know if you guys know this or not.  But there is a cool tradition here in the Redlands CA mission for when a missionary goes home.  Each transfer there is a Departing Devotional for all the missionaries who are going home.  So the missionary get's to send out invitations to all the people he wants to come to the mission office for this devotional.  Each missionary is given like 5 minutes to bear their testimony and share an experience where they've felt the Lords hand in the work.  So it's pretty cool. You get to see all your favorite people one more time before you go home.  Well, today in the mail I got the "Trunky Papers" as they are referred to.  Basically just a bunch of invites to send out, and a preliminary itinerary for the trip home. Crazy stuff! But kind of exciting haha.  

Glad to hear everything is going well at home! Yeah I sent that package with Elder Darro a long time ago haha.  He tried to deliver it once a few weeks ago while you were all in Mississippi, but obviously, no one was home.  Glad you got it though!  The guy who gave it to you was Caleb Reber I would imagine.  He is a great guy. I knew him pretty well at school before the mission too.  There were actually quite a few people from PG that I went to school with out here.  It's pretty cool! 

Jim and Diane's new calling sounds awesome! 35 missions huh? That's pretty crazy. What day do they leave?  

And that's fun that all my friends were at the house haha. Can't wait to see them again! Glad they are doing well! And I'm glad to hear Grandpa T is doing lot's better!  

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

Love, Elder Wise

4 more...

I'm not counting down.  But there's only 4 weeks left?! That's crazy.  This last week was super good though!  As you know, we were in a trio for most of the week.  It turned out to be super helpful because we found out that there isn't going to be a replacement.  Elder Houskeeper and I are going to be taking over the entire ward now.  So it was good to have Elder Thornton show us around his area a little bit before he leaves.  He's getting shipped off to Redlands.  So now it's just me and Houskeeper running the place.  It's cool though because now a Senior couple is going to be covering both wards here in Yucca Valley.  So the other wards elders are moving in with us, and the senior couple is taking their apartment.  Fun stuff!

We had a pretty good day at church yesterday.  Sister Huffer came as well as a part member family we have been working with.  So that was pretty awesome.  We did have a couple baptisms scheduled for the 25, but they weren't able to happen.  Hopefully within the next few weeks though.  Frankie and Levi are doing well also.  They have some real intent which is pretty cool. And since the two areas are combining, this week we will start working with several more people.  It's pretty fun! We are always super busy.  This area has really grown a lot the last few weeks. 

Yesterday was kind of exciting too because we had a ton of rain!  It was really pouring hard.  There are lot's of roads that are pretty washed out now.  Dirt everywhere.  There were lot's of flash-flood warnings and stuff. It was super fun! I really love the desert haha. 

Glad to hear everything is going well back home! Sounds like you all have a fun week planned! Holy cow! I can't believe so many people are getting home haha.  So fun! Yeah Paxton got home a few weeks ago. Megan get's home on the 22. So in a couple days haha. And Skyler is close behind I think. If not already home. Idk. Fun stuff though! There's going to be a big old reunion haha. 

Well, I hope you all have a fantastic week!! Love you all! Missionary work is awesome :)

Love, Elder Wise

Crazy!

Well this week was pretty insane.  We were pretty busy.  Let's see, where to start?  The first couple days were a little bit rough, because all of our appointments were falling through.  But by the end of the week we were busy all the time.  We were able to pick up some new investigators!!  Dana, Frankie, Levi, and Nick.  Dana is the mom, Frankie and Levi are her sons, and Nick is a friend of the kids.  We met with them 3 times this week! At the end of the lesson they always say "Can you come back tomorrow?" haha.  They love learning about the gospel.  They don't have much religious background at all, and are really only familiar with Christ's name. So whenever we teach we have to really go back to the basics and teach them who Christ was, what he did, etc.  It's a good opportunity for Elder Houskeeper though since he's learning to.  So they are awesome.

Our other investigators are doing well too. We had a good lesson with Sister Huffer.  We are going to push her baptismal date back to August 8 though, cause there were a couple complications.  But everything should be alright.  We also found several pretty solid potentials this last week that hopefully we will be able to teach this week.  

I also got to go on a couple of exchanges this last week. One with Elder Webb, which was a great time, and one with an Elder Frost. He's a good guy. He came out at the same time as me.  So that was exciting.  

This next week should be pretty crazy too. One of my roommates, Elder Siddoway, is going home on Wednesday, so his companion is going to be with Elder Houskeeper and I for a week or so, until we find out transfers next week. So that'll be fun! I've never been in a trio before.  

Glad to hear that you all had a great time in Montana!! It sounds like so much fun!!  I can't wait to go back there sometime haha. Yeah I hope the boat is fixed by the end of summer!!!  That would be so bad if it wasn't, and I didn't have a way to go skiing.  I think that's priority 1 to make sure it's ready haha. 

Well, I hope you are all doing well!! Have a great week! The church is true :)

Love, Elder Wise

Crazy Week!

Well, a pretty large chunk of time this week was spent inputting information into the iPads.  It was fun I guess haha. We still aren't done though! It takes a long time.  I imagine we will probably be doing this for another week or so.  It's nice to have all the info we could ever need, on hand all the time haha. It makes it really easy.  Not to mention that the ipad practically just tells us everything we need to do. It's pretty chill!

Let's see, this week we had some good lessons with Matthew and Sister Huffer.  We have hit a couple of set backs but I think everything should turn out alright.  This week we should be picking up a few new investigators which will be nice! We really need some more people to teach.  Our area is a little tough because no-one ever walks around outside, so we can't exactly walk around and try to talk to people. So we have to find people in different ways.  It's a good time. 

4th of July was fun! My last holiday in the mission field haha.  We had a few different dinners.  We also could see the fireworks really well from our front porch. So we watched for a second. From what I could tell, there were a lot less gunshots mixed in with the fireworks this year, compared to last year in Colton haha. So that was good. 

We are looking forward to this week! We already have a whole bunch of appointments set up over the next few days.  Hopefully there will be a lot to talk about next week! 

Glad to hear everything is going good! I'm so jealous that you are all in Montana.  Thank goodness the cousins took over and we are having another family reunion up there next year!  Can't wait! USA won the FIFA final!? Right on! That's so legit!  Funny that USA and Japan played again haha.  Glad USA won again!   And I'm glad Lucie enjoys it haha! We will definitely have to watch some time haha. 

And I'm glad to hear that the weather was horrible on the lake on Sunday haha. That doesn't happen too often! You are right, I would have been freezing at 70 degrees haha. It's kind of ridiculous. I'm going to freeze to death this winter. 

Well, I hope you all have a great week!! Have fun on the lake!! 

Love, Elder Wise

Happy Lucie Day!

Well hello!  This week was pretty great! The iPads are pretty awesome. We had a really long zone conference on Thursday.  It went from like 8 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon.  It was a while.  The funny thing is that we didn't even get our ipads until 4 haha.  Most of the conference was reviewing the principles of planning and companion study and a bunch of other things.  It was really good!  And then we have spent the last couple days getting used to the ipads.  This next week will be spent inputting all the information from our area book into our ipads.  It's going to take hours. It's a pretty neat app the church made though! I like it!

And the temple trip a couple of weeks ago was super awesome!  I love the redlands temple haha.  It's been pretty hot here the last few days. Except some storm clouds have rolled in the last couple days.  They haven't done much to cool it off though cause now it's just 100 degrees and super humid.  I'll take dry 110 over humid 100 any day.  

The other good news is that the fire is pretty much out I think.  There are no longer giant billowing plumes of smoke filling the sky.  I can't even see the mountain smoking any more.  So that's nice.  Although last Thursday , they did evacuate one of the cities in our area.  I think they moved back though.  All is safe and sound. 

 

 

This week we had some good lessons with investigators as well!  We met with Sister Huffer a couple of times, as well as DeShawn a couple of times, and also a kid named Matthew.  And then Sister Huffer and Matthew were able to come to church.  That was pretty awesome!  Another thing that happened this Sunday was that I had to speak in sacrament meeting.  I was so close!!  I have never once spoken on my mission up until yesterday.  It was my best kept secret.  I knew the second I told someone that I had never spoken, they'd probably tell the bishop haha.  That didn't happen this time though. I think God knew I hadn't spoken and wanted to make sure I had the opportunity, so he sent my to Yucca Valley where he knew I'd get called on haha.  It turned out really well though.  Even though the AC in the chapel was broken and it was pretty hot haha.  

Sounds like everyone was having a good time in Utah this week! I'm glad Sadie liked EFY and Lucie liked Soccer camp! That's awesome!  It's always fun when people come to visit too.  And the Lucie day celebrations sound awesome!  That's a great holiday.  :)

And thanks for taking care of all my school stuff.  Glad to hear it's still on track haha.  

Well, I hope you all have a great week!! Stay out of the heat! :)

Love you all,

Elder Wise