Hello!

Well this last week has been kind of boring.  Transfers always screw everything up.  Last Tuesday was spent just saying goodbye to everyone for Elder Weaver, and Wednesday was taken up with getting a new comp, doing some shopping since Elder Stafford didn't have any food or anything, and taking him around to introduce him to all the important peeps.  That was pretty much all we did the rest of the week too.  We couldn't get a hold of either of our investigators so we didn't get to see them.  We were able to contact some other people though.  We've had a hard time getting a hold of them so that was really good.  This next week should be loads better! 

So a little about my new comp.  His name is Elder Stafford.  He's from St. Louis Missouri.   He likes to play the guitar and sing.  He likes longboarding.  He's 19 years old.  He's been out for about 3 months.  So he just finished getting trained.  Which means I'm his follow up trainer.  Which is no big deal haha.  We get along really well.  He's really funny!  We have a good time working hard. 

Well that's my week.  Happy Birthday Mom!!!!! Man you are old.  Haha JUST KIDDING!  You aren't really.  Lunch with Sandy sounds fun!!  Good luck finding somewhere to go.  Although right now it's 3 oclock your time so you've probably already eaten.  Hope it was good! 

I haven't received your package yet.  I can't wait!!  I love Chinese new year!  Sounds like last week was pretty crazy!!  Lot's of stuff going on!  Glad it all went well though! That's awesome. 

Lucie is so funny!!!  Haha I miss her.  And I think it's a great idea to be Perry every Halloween.  Haha

Here's some crazy stuff.  Jessika Lloyd's cousin is in my Zone.  Hermana Bates.  Totally hung out with her back in the day when we were little kids haha.  So that was cool. 

Well, hope you all have a great week!!! Love you all!! Missionary work is fan-tast-ic!

Love, Elder Wise

Some random pics

*Elder Wise sent us one of his memory cards from his camera.  Here are a few of the pictures.  I don't know the stories behind the photos...but it's fun to see his face!

Transfers!!!!

Alright so sorry about yesterday.  Because of the holiday the library was closed and we didn't have anywhere else we could go to email.  But luckily we get to today!!  Not nearly as much time though :(

Let's see.  Last week was pretty good.  We went on exchanges with the district leader and stuff.  I went with Elder Webster who is pretty much my favorite missionary haha.  He's so funny.  We got some good videos haha!  So that was a great day. 

The sad part of the week though was when we went to see Robert Perez.  Our pretty much golden investigator.  We got to his house and he was higher than a kite.  He then informed us that he didn't want to keep learning and he didn't want us to come by anymore.  We bore our testimonies and convinced him to let us come by when he wasn't so high so we could answer some of the questions he had and stuff, but the next day he ignored all our phone calls and stuff.  So we haven't seen him in a while.  It's really sad.  :(

The weekend got better though.  This last weekend was stake conference.  For the Saturday night session, (everyone 12 and up), the topic was missionary work.  All 36ish missionaries in the Palm Desert Stake sat up on the stand and sang Called to Serve and the stake president pretty much guilt tripped the whole stake haha.  The spirit was really strong though and I think the wards are gonna pick it up.  And then the sunday session was really good too.  It was a broadcast from SLC and President Eyring spoke, along with Elder Anderson, Sister Barton, and a member of the Seventy.  It was really cool!!

The week concluded really well.  We got to go see the Carlsons!!!  It was awesome!! We went and visited with them for a while and then they took us out to dinner.  It was delicious!  They are wonderful people haha.  It was great to get caught up on all the happenings in the Carlson clan haha.  They are so great!  Plus, Grandma and Grandpa Carlson do more missionary work than most of the members in our ward.  They gave a referral the other day to some missionaries in a different ward, and they kept trying to think of neighbors around here who we could go talk to haha.  It was awesome.  We shared a little lesson with them about the Holy Ghost. 

Now, the big news.  Transfers are tomorrow!!! Elder Weaver is outta here!!  It's pretty strange actually. We didn't think it was going to happen since we've only been together 6 weeks.  But whatever.  All of my other favorite missionaries are leaving too.  Elder Hevner and Elder Webster (our old roomies), and Sister Akagi.  My only remaining friend is Sister Busenbark.  Oh well.  It'll be a good time.  I will miss those guys though.  My new companion is going to be Elder Stafford.  He sounds like a cool guy so I'm stoked.

Elder Weaver

Well, sorry I don't have time to say much else.  We are on a time crunch today.  I saw all the pics and stuff though!!  It was awesome!  Thanks so much for the emails!!!  Sorry I didn't really respond to everything. Love you guys!! Missionary work rocks!!

Love, Elder Wise :)

Oh boy oh boy!

Well all sorts of stuff happened last week.  Holy moly.  Where to start.  Alright, well we will start with the beginning of last week.  I called up Grandma and Grandpa Carlson and got a hold of those guys.  They are awesome!  Grandma was feeling sick last week though and Grandpa has a golf tournament this week so we are gonna meet with them I think at the beginning of next week.  But it was great to talk to them.  I guess Kade and Elle had their baby!!!!  Congrats Carlsons!  That's way sweet!

Here's part 1 of the big news.  We have our own apartment!!!!!  It's super nice.  Except it doesn't have a washer and dryer yet.  They can't decide if they are going to get us some or not.  So now we have to go do laundry at the Laundromat which is no fun at all.  But besides that it's pretty nice.  My back loves the new bed.  The apartment is really big too.  Two bedrooms and two bathrooms with a big main room with like 15 foot ceilings.  It's sweet.  Really kinda boring though.  We need some roomies haha.

Ready for big news part 2.  It's pretty flippin awesome. I got my first baptism!!!  Haha kinda.  The sisters who share the ward with us had a baptism that kinda just happened.  The back story behind it all is super complicated and I don't even know it all.  But all of a sudden, she was ready to be baptized and they asked me to do it so I was like "Heck Yeah!"  It was Sister Akagi's first baptism too so that was cool.  And it was the first time Weaver had ever confirmed anybody and given them the Holy Ghost so this baptism was full of firsts haha.  It was way sweet!  That was on Saturday.

The sister missionaries, me and Sister Couch.

That's all the big news of the week though.  Well hold up, we finally got a hold of Robert again.  Hopefully we are gonna go see him tonight.  But we also got a new investigator last week.  His name is also Robert!  So now we have two Roberts and both are pretty legit.  It's great.  We also taught our other investigator Brian last week which was super cool.  The spirit was super strong!

But past all that, nothing else happened.  All the other days last week were pretty boring.  Mostly filled with us walking around trying to see less actives and then getting the door slammed in our face.  It's a great time. 

Sounds like it's been crazy back home! It's sad to hear about Mel.  It sounds like his funeral was pretty nice though. Kind of reminds me of Patriarch Fugals.  Except without the airplane and stuff. 

Tupelo sounds great too!!  And Jims Christmas present looks awesome!  That's a great painting.  Too bad Dagny is sick though.  That's no fun.  I guess H1N1 has been going around up here too.  No good. 

The hospital trip sounds fun!!  I'm glad your leg is getting better mom.  We had to go to the hospital a couple times last week cause some people in there needed blessings.  I was just reminded how cool working in a hospital would be.  Although I wasn't impressed by the nurse who was helping one of the women we went to see.  She was a piece of work. 

Anyways, It's cool you saw Elder Savage!! Yeah he's a cool guy.  If you see him again tell him I said hi back haha. 

Well, I hope you all have a good week,  Love you guys!!!

Love, Elder Wise

Hey!!!

Well this last week was pretty slow.  I don't really know why.  Cause of the new year probably haha.  It was still good though.  New Years was fun!  President said we had to be in by 7 that night so we went home and played BANG!  One of the Elders we are rooming with has it.  The newer versions have changed a lot of stuff in them!  That was fun though!

Last Monday night was fun too!  Did I mention it in last weeks letter?  We went to this thing called The Living Desert.  Which is pretty much just a zoo with a bunch of desert animals.  Except all the animals were asleep.  So that was a bummer.  They even have camel rides at this thing!!  Which we also didn't get to do cause they weren't doing them that night.  They have a ginormous toy train setup thing though.  It's pretty sweet.  The other cool thing they had was a carousel.  Which we did.  That was a party too!  We went with the Sister Missionaries and a Part Member Family from our ward.  Actually, the same family who let us use their computer to Skype.  They are great! 

Past that though, not much happened last week.  Sadly.  We spent a lot of time making a huge map of our area though.  It's massive.  Like, it takes up our whole wall.  And it has a all our members plotted on it.  And we are working on going through and labeling all the Actives and Less Actives.  It's a pain. 

We haven't been able to meet with Robert again either.  He's been super busy with work and stuff.  We try and see him pretty much every day.  We will get him one of these days. 

Anyways, that's what happened last week.  We still don't have our own apartment yet.  Probably not until the 18.  Like 3 days before transfers.  So we will have spent an entire 6 weeks on a pullout bed!  Yay! 

It sounds like you all had a fun week last week though!!  I'm totally jealous of Norms!! Uncle Kurt did send me a pic.  Man that place is delicious!  And Sadie and Lucie are totally spoiled. 

A lot of members have been telling us about Frozen.  It sounds great!  Can't wait to see it!!  

I can't believe Adam is in the bishopric!!!  That's awesome!!!  I'm totally gonna email him now haha.  He'll be fantastic!! 

And I'm so excited for Lucie!!  I've got to find someone to baptize on the 6.  Haha it'll be awesome! 

And K'Ann sent me an email.  I can't wait to go over and see them!!  I'll call them this week and set something up.  It'll be sweet!

Well, I love you guys!!  I don't have much else to write about.  Hopefully next week will be better.  Love you!!

-Elder Wise