Can you say HOT?!

Man, this week was HOT.  111 degrees Fahrenheit with over 50% humidity.  And we ride around on our bikes in that!  It's a good time though!  We have a pretty good excuse for just knocking on someone's door and asking for water.  Which then we can talk to them while we drink! So it works out. 

This last week was really good though!  My new bike came in so that's good.  It is a bit cheaper version of my last one.  Cheaper shifting mechanisms and handles and stuff.  But a bike is a bike!  So I'm glad to have that back. 

Let's see, what else?  Umm we had quite a few lessons this week! So that was good!  Had several people come to church and found some new investigators.  We are pretty stoked about that.  And this last week I also got to go on exchanges with Elder Seright!  That was a great time!  It was fun being his companion again for a day.  Even though it is kinda weird, cause now I'm my trainers ZL which means I'm supposed to train him now on stuff.  That was kinda weird.  Fun though!  We had a really good day!  Plus, In'n'Out is in his area so we got to go eat out!

This morning for a P-Day activity we went and played soccer at the park again!  That was lots of fun!  I think I got a little sun-burned though.  Haha

This week should be pretty fun!  We have a mini Zone Conference on Thursday, and we just have a lot of work lined up for this week so it should be awesome!

Here's a little update on some of our investigators.

Carlos: Still waiting for approval

Angel: 12 yrs old, getting baptized sep 20  doing really well!

This is Angel.

This is his sister Angela.

Tony: Still trying to quit smoking.  Getting baptized Sep 2

Mike: Still trying to quit smoking, Getting baptized Sep 6.  Doing really well.  He's so awesome!

Hopefully this upcoming week we will be able to get some more of our investigators on date for baptism.  We have quite a lot of people we are teaching, just most of them don't want to progress.  It's kind of annoying.  I love them all though. 

Well, I hope you all have a great week!!  Missionary work is super awesome! Love you all!

-Elder Wise

Loooong week

Well this week was pretty good.  I didn't get my new bike in the mail yet.  I've been using Elder Haydens bike for the last couple weeks since he doesn't need it out in the desert.  The bike guy told me he was sending me the same bike I had before, so if he sends me a cheaper crappier one I'm gonna be mad.  Although it'll be nice to have a bike of my own again haha.  Elder Hayden's bike is pretty beat up.

Let's see, what else happened this week?  Umm, not really anything super exciting I don't think.  We went on exchanges this week.  I went with Elder Woolf.  We had a really great time! On Thursday Elder Urry's eye swelled up really huge and was super red so we just hung out at the apartment for a couple hours until the swelling went back down.  

Our investigators are all doing really well!  Mike, Carlos, Angel, Tony, and Alma are doing great.  They are just so awesome!  Mike, and Tony and Carlos all came to church.  We are working on getting Angel and Alma there.   This week for sure!! 

I wish I had some cool stories from this week, but it was a pretty laid back week.  Which is probably why it felt so long.  Not very many exciting things went down.  Just lots of work.  Everything is going great! 

Sounds like a crazy week in PG!!  Sounds like a lot of fun though!!!  

Man this email is short.  Sorry!!  Hopefully next week will have a lot more things to report on.  Hope you all have a fantastic week!  I love you all!  Cali is a great, hot, sweltering, skin burning, place! 

Love, Elder Wise

ARE YOU FOR REALS????

People here have problems.  The main one being thievery.  Let me explain.  Last tuesday started out like any other day.  We had Zone meeting in the morning though which Elder Hayden and I have the opportunity to teach.  So no worries.  Well, we get to the church, put our bikes in the back room, set up the chairs, prop open the front door so other missionaries could come in, and then waited for everyone to show up.  Well, they showed up and the other elders put their bikes in the same back room, and zone meeting started. 2 hours later zone meeting ended and we cleaned up and went to go get on our bikes and head to lunch.  Well, my bike wasn't there.  What??  How could it be gone?  Yup, someone walked in through the front door, sneaked past the room we were in, grabbed my bike, and walked back out with it.  How rude.  It is still missing to this day.  Although we have many people on the look out for it. Did we buy the warranty/insurance thing when we bought the bike?  Might want to look that up.

The rest of the week went really well!  I got a new companion.  Elder Urry.  He's from Ogden Utah and he's super cool. We get along great!  He is almost done with his mission actually.  He only has like 3 months left.  Cray-cray! 

Well, other than my bike getting stolen, this week wasn't super exciting.  Although we did teach quite a few lessons which was awesome!  27 total for the week I think.  We currently have 6 investigators on date to be baptized, and hopefully we will get a couple more this next week. 

Sounds like we will be having another mission conference coming up!  In august, Elder Evans of the First Quorum of the Seventy will be coming!  He is the Seventy who is in charge of everything missionary related.  Like everything.  He speaks at every mission presidents seminar, and is in contact with the 12 all the time.  So that'll be super cool!  

Well, I hope you all have a super fantastic and fun week!!!  I love you all!!!  Missionary work is the BOMB!

Love, Elder Wise

Transfers!!

What a week!!  It's been pretty unreal.  Let's see...Well, the good news is that I won't be getting transferred!!! I'll be staying here in Colton for another 6 weeks.  Elder Hayden is leaving though!  My new companion will be Elder Urry.  He's a pretty cool guy.  And I'll still be ZL.  So that's exciting!  We had a really great week too!  We now have 6 investigators on date to be baptized!!  Their names are as follows: Alma, Anthony, Mike, Tony, Shery, and Carlos.  Woohoo!!  That's exciting!  Plus, Tony is going to be baptized on September 2, and Mike on September 6.  And we still don't know about Carlos but it's looking like it'll probably be September and we are hoping for the 6.  So we might be having 2 baptisms that day!!!  So that's totally awesome!  We had 4 investigators at church yesterday too which was awesome!  Tony, Mike, and Mike's two grandsons.  So that was just awesome.

Also, some exciting news, I experienced my first earthquake!!!  It was CRAY-CRAY!!  It was a 4.6.  The whole apartment shook for a good like 5 seconds, even though it felt like a lot longer haha.  So that was super exciting.  

We found 3 new investigators this week which was totally awesome.  One of them, William, is pretty cool. He is mikes neighbor and he just walked up to us during a lesson with mike and joined in with us and we asked him if we could start teaching him too, and he said yes.  So that was cool!  And he was going to come to church with us, but he ended up not being able too.  So hopefully next week! 

4th of July was a good time.  Super duper hot though.  It was over 100 degrees by 11 in the morning. It was supposed to hit like 112 but I don't know if it made it all the way up there.  All I know is that I was dying.  We had to go back to the apartment at 6 pm to avoid danger.  So we just weekly planned and watched fireworks until 10:30 from our balcony.  So it was fun.  Not nearly as fun as montana or anything, but it was still alright.  We also had MLC this last week which was a fun time!  I learned A LOT!  President Van Cott knows more about the scriptures and doctrine than anyone I've ever met haha.  He blows my mind.  

But yeah, it was a pretty good week! I am looking forward to another transfer here in the ghetto of colton haha! 

I'm soooooo jealous that you are all in Montana!  Those pictures are fantastic!! Keep having a blast! 

I love you all!! Missionary work is a BLAST! 

Love, Elder Wise

Last Week of the Transfer!

Man this transfer went fast.  A week from today i will know if I'll be staying in Colton or shipping off to somewhere else.  This last week was pretty good though.  Really hot!!  A new slurpee card would be awesome!! Haha .  This week was kind of slow though.  Not a whole lot of exciting things happened.  We went on some exchanges though.  Which was kinda fun. Not because of the exchange itself, but because while we were on the exchange, we ran into a bunch of huge, tattooed, pierced guys filming a music video.  They were making it for a rapper named Lil Shawn.  Anyways, while we rode past all these huge dudes waved us over and they wanted to take pictures with us so we did.  They also filmed us for a bit.  So that was cool! Mormon missionaries in the rapper music video!  So that was exciting.

Carlos is still doing really well.  We are still waiting for approval to baptize him though.  And Mike is doing well also!  We are going to set a baptism date with him this week hopefully!  So that's awesome!

I don't know if I told this to you guys already, but every week we have a scripture study class at the church on Wednesdays.  It's a fun time.  Elder Hayden and I are the main teachers.  We just switch off every week.  I taught it this week.  It went pretty well!  We discussed the topic "How can I avoid sin?"  So that was a fun time.  Actually, I taught that lesson right after we took all the pics with the rappers.  

The other cool thing that happened this week is that a new initiative has come out for members and missionaries.  It's called JustServe.org.  It's pretty cool!  As missionaries we will now be required to do about 10 hours of service every week. So that will be fun! Zone leaders play a pretty cool role in JustServe.org too which is kinda cool.  I enjoy seeing the "behind the scenes" of the church.  I get to see how the church rolls out new programs/initiatives.  I don't know.  It's just cool.  

Sounds like a good time this week back in Utah!! I'm so jealous about all the parties and stuff that went on haha.  I'm glad to hear that GG is still going strong!!  And the Thunderbirds are always awesome! 

Way to go Sadie!  A 26 is a great score! 

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

Love, Elder Wise

P.S. Oh I'm glad the letter for the priests went well!!  Thanks!