Baradin Mubarak!

So, we've been taking Urdu lessons from the Sardars, and Baradin Mubarak means Merry Christmas!! Well, when directly translated it means happy big day, but that's what they say! It's crazy that Christmas is next week!  I'm pretty stoked.

Alright.  The big news.  We found out about transfers today.  Elder Webb is outta here!  I'm staying in Colton for another Transfer!! It's crazy! I have been here so long.  Elder Webb is being transferred to Redlands, and his new companion is Elder Raff!!  I'm so jealous!!  I miss that guy.  You are probably wondering who my new companion is.  Well I don't know.  I'm going to be training a new missionary!  So I won't find out who he is until Wednesday.  And to make it more exciting I'm the only zone leader now.  So this next transfer is going to be very exciting! 

As far as the zone goes, there were quite a few changes.  One of the sisters serving in the Colton ward with me, Sister Jones, is going out to the desert, and a few of the other missionaries are leaving as well.  It's kinda crazy, because now, all the missionaries who came to this zone two transfers after I did, have now left.  Jones was the last one.  I'm just out-lasting everyone haha.  

This week was pretty good.  We went on exchanges with some elders.  Elder Hunter and Elder Andrew.  I like them a lot.  I got to go on bike with Elder Andrew and we had a real good time.  We also weekly planned with some of the other elders which went really well. 

All of our investigators are doing pretty good as well.  Although we are struggling to put them all on date.  It's coming along though.  Lazarus is the only on on date currently.  He is so awesome!  

Well, sounds like everything is going well at home.  That's crazy that Nick is leaving already!  I can't believe he couldn't tie a tie haha.  

I'm glad Sadie had fun at the Dance!  That's awesome! 

Kelsey is getting home?!  That's crazy too haha!  Time flies haha 

GG has a time share at Snow Bird??  How is it that I am just finding out about this!?!?  That's awesome! 

I haven't gotten some of the stuff you've sent.  I did get both of the big packages.  They are withholding mail because of transfers.  But I'll be able to pick it all up on Wednesday.  

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

Love, Elder Wise

P.S.  Jahwil Mazidar hah ------> This rice is delicious!!

Miracles Do Happen!

Well, this week was pretty darn good.  I have to say.  There's lot's of good news, but also some bad news.  Bad news first?  Yes.  Brother Angel crashed again.  Not sure how soon it'll be until we see him again.  He kinda told us not to come by unless he calls us first.  Sad day.

On to the good news!  Well, let's start with the miracle.  So, we are sitting there in church, waiting for sacrament meeting to start, when we notice a guy sitting on the back row.  Never seen him before, and he didn't look like a member.  So,, obviously, we went and talked to him.  His name is Jeremy.  And his girlfriends name is Candace.  Haha jk #PhineasandFerb.  Anyways,  Jeremy ended up staying all three hours and we found out some interesting things.  1)  He used to be Christian, until about 3 or so years ago when he decided God didn't exist, so he's been Atheist the last couple years.  But recently he's had some experiences in his life that have changed his mind.  2) He knows quite a bit about Mormons already, because he was learned it all so as to be better able to bash with missionaries.  and 3) He's awesome!  He seems really solid.  You could say he has "Real Intent".  So awesome!

The other miracle of the week happened yesterday as well.  We went to go see Jesus (I think I mentioned him a couple weeks ago) and we were able to pick up his wife and sister-in-law as new investigators!  So that was awesome.  

This week we had MLC too!  It was awesome.  We learned a lot.  The main focus was planning, and using How To Begin Teaching from PMG.  That was on tuesday, and then we had Zone Meeting on Thursday.  Which went really well.  Sister Van Cott came to the ZM too.  It seems as though every single zone meeting we have is attended by someone of higher authority haha.  Either President shows up, his wife, or the APs.  They must be worried about what I will teach the other missionaries haha.  

We also had exchanges this week with the AP's.  It was so fun!  I got to go with Elder Darro again and it was awesome.  He's a great guy.  

Well, it sounds like things are going well back home!  I can't wait to get some of that homemade candy haha!  So good! Glad everything is going well.  Hope you all have a fantastic week!  

Love, Elder Wise 

P.S.  The big box came today.  It's at the office.  We are probably going over there to pick it up.  It's going to be so hard not to open it! I'll do my best.  Thanks so much for everything!  Love you!

Woohoo!

Well this last week was pretty fantastic!!  So many fun things happened!  Let's see, well Thanksgiving was pretty fun!  We made a ton of hand turkeys that we gave to members in the ward, and made some other things for the members of the ward council.  They all loved it!  That was pretty much all we did all day was make and deliver cards to people.  And then we ate dinner.  It wasn't your traditional style thanksgiving dinner.  Which was kinda sad.  I missed my mashed potatoes and gravy.  But it was still really delicious!  We ate dinner at a mexican families house so we ate a mexican style dinner.  It was a sandwich with turkey, lettuce, some spicy mexican stuff, cucumbers, mayo, and I can't even remember it all.  It was a huge sandwich though.  I was stuffed!  And then a bunch of members gave us pies so that was awesome! It was a really good day.

These are the cuties we delivered to the ward council.

We also went on exchanges with some Elders in our zone so that was a good time!  It's fun to get out of the area sometimes and see some new faces. 

The biggest miracle of the week happened on Sunday.  We were just there, minding our own business, when all of a sudden, he appears.  We hadn't seen him in over a month and it was making us so sad.  It was Brother Angel!!!!!!! He was looking good too!  White shirt and tie with dress pants!  It was so awesome!  He told us that he's spent the last few weeks just shut up in his house reading anti-mormon material on the internet.  But he finally just decided that he didn't agree with it and that if he really wanted to learn what the mormons believed, he should just go to church.  So he woke up Sunday morning and went to both Bloomington and Colton ward sacrament meetings!  He is so awesome!!  It was so great to see how the Lord softened his heart and helped him to see through all the Anti stuff.  It was awesome.  We almost cried.  

The next biggest adventure happened this morning!  We got a call last night from Elder Bird and his comp Elder Nock and they had some spare seats in their member's car, and they invited us to take a trip to Palm Springs to ride on the Tram!!  President gave us permission to go!  It was so legit!  We left around 8 this morning, and got back about 45 minutes ago.  It was so fun!!  Fun fact:  The Palm Springs tram is the Tram that Mike Rowe worked on in an episode of Dirty Jobs.  Heck yeah!  Oh and another awesome thing that happened was this.  Do you remember my investigator Sherry that we were teaching when I was in the Park View Ward?  Well, she works at a restaurant at the top of the tram, and I totally saw her there!  It was so cool!  I guess she's moving to Utah in a couple weeks.  So we just barely caught her before she left!  That was super cool.  I took a ton of pics.  Close to a hundred I think.  Then on the way home from PS we stopped in Cabazon and walked around in this hugely massive outlet mall.  It was unreal.  We walked into a few stores, and then walked right back out after we saw the price tags haha.  They were some nice stores.  

The Tram

Elder Bird and I atop the mountain.

Palm Springs

So yeah, that's really all the super exciting things that have been going on.  It was a great time!  All our investigators are doing really well.  Missionary work is great!  

Well, as a result from our trip this morning, we are pretty rushed for time.  Sounds like you all had a great week!!  Hope this one is just as good!!  Love you all!

Love, Elder Wise

Thanksgiving!!

Woohoo!  Thanksgiving is coming up!  That's going to be bomb.  I'm excited.

This last week was pretty good!  Let's start with the B-Day.  Somehow everyone found out that it was my birthday and everyone wanted to feed me.  So we ended up eating like 5 or 6 meals that day.  I was so full.  It started in the morning.  I was craving some butterscotch rolls so I made those for breakfast, and then the Sisters brought a bunch of peanut butter bars to District Meeting to celebrate.  Then after that we went to lunch at P&G's which was delicious.  And then we had dinner with the Jones family, who made Burgers and Cake.  Delicious!  And then we went over to the Sardars that night, and they made us an entire dinner as well.  So I was super stuffed that day haha.  It was awesome though!  And I got the packages and letters!!  I love the new hoodie!  It's super comfy!  And I loved all the letters!  I got Lucie's haha.  Good ol Whoopy cushions!! I love it! 

This week we were finally able to volunteer for a service project off of JustServe.org.  There hasn't been a project in our area up to this point so we weren't able to do it, but now we have a few different ones!! On Thursday we volunteered at a Food Pantry and helped prep a bunch of food bags to be handed out to people in the community. It was pretty fun!  We are probably going to go back and help out again this Friday.  

Friday night was our ward's Thanksgiving party.  They had a big dinner and stuff.  The Sardars and the Shad's and Sister Armstrong all were able to make it and they had a great time!  It was really fun! 

The sad part of the week was that pretty much every set appointment we had fell through.  It was kind of a bummer.  We weren't able to do a whole lot of teaching this week.  But that's ok!  This week is looking like it's going to be awesome!  We are going to put the Sardars on date for January hopefully.  We kept trying to do it this week, but like I said, nothing was working out.  Sadly there aren't any baptisms set for Christmas time or anything.  But there should be quite a few in January!  And we have really been focusing on finding new investigators lately.  Which is turning out to be quite the challenge. But, we'll just keep trying I guess. 

Well, it sounds like things are going well back home!  I can't believe it's snowing and stuff haha!  That's so fun! Yeah it's been pretty chilly around here.  Around 70-75.  Brrrr.  haha 

Well, I hope you all have a fantastic week!! Happy Thanksgiving!!

Love, Elder Wise 

P.S.  The church is true

My new jacket!

And last night for dinner we had a frying party!  We just fried up everything and everything.  This is a plate of all the things we tried!  My new favorite thing to fry is Twinkies.  Hands down.  Soooo good!  The Poptarts were pretty bomb too.  haha

Colton:Take 7

And there goes week one of my 7th transfer in Colton.  It wasn't too bad!  Plus, it even cooled down which was really nice.  I think I even wore a jacket one day.  Which is sad.  I'm now one of those wimpy Californians who are freezing when it's like 70.  Utah is gonna be tough next year haha.

Let's see, well on Monday we picked up a new investigator.  Her name is Michelle Cash.  She lives in the same apartment complex as Carlos and Grace. That's pretty much just where all of our investigators come from.  Which works out cause then they have like half a dozen perfect fellowshippers.  It's great! She's really cool.  

We did have some baptisms scheduled for this last Saturday but they didn't quite happen.  In fact, Brother Angel (who was so golden it was ridiculous)  has pretty much vanished from off the face of the earth.  We don't know what happened really but he ignores us and won't answer the door even though we know he's in there.  It's really sad.  

Sister Armstrong is still doing well.  Although she's been kinda sick lately.  And she keeps going out of town for random reasons so that's no good.  She's been thinking and praying about a baptism date though.  So hopefully she will be baptized here in the next month or two.  

We had a zone conference this last week as well which was super awesome!!  We talked about two main things.  Conversion, and the Book of Mormon.  It was really really good.  I learned lots about the process of conversion, and how to ask inspired questions and answer them with the Book of Mormon.  Since it's the book of Mormon that really does all the conversion.  They tied together quite nicely.  

Church yesterday was pretty good.  Lazarus and Gloria were able to make it again, along with a couple other investigators.  My favorite part though was that my favorite little kid, Angel Pasillas (the one who was going to be baptized, but moved away right before), came back and went to church with us!! It was great to see him.  Plus, it's really cool cause it turns out that one of his best friends is Raul Santiago, who we baptized last month.  So they were hanging out and having a good time.  And Raul's big brother Angel was able to get the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday as well!  So next week he'll be passing the sacrament!  It's just so awesome! 

I did get the package you sent!  Don't worry, I haven't opened it yet.  Although I've been tempted.  I'm sure I'll love it! Thanks so much! 

Glad to hear everything is going well at home!  Sound freezing!  I'm kinda jealous and kinda not haha.  I do miss snow though.  

congrats on getting your drivers license Sadie!  That's sweet!  Just don't crash my car :)

Well, thanks for everything!!  Hope you have a fantastic week!! Love you all! 

Love, Elder Wise

Where Am I Going?

Well, here's the question...Am I getting transferred??  The answer is............No!!  I'm staying here in Colton for at least 5 more weeks!!  (This transfer is a week shorter, due to Christmas.  Next transfer will be a week longer.)  So yay!!  That's pretty exciting.  At this point I am hoping I'll stay for another transfer after this one, the reason being that if I do I'll have been here almost a whole year, and also, I'll get to see Carlos' and Grace's baby be born!!  That would be pretty cool.  Grace says the baby already recognizes my  voice haha. Every time we go over the baby starts kicking.  Fun stuff.

Well, this week has been pretty crazy!!  Some really cool things went down.  First off, the Galvez Family got baptized!!  It went really well.  Their confirmations yesterday went smoothly as well.  I'll send some pics.

Elder Wise, Elder Webb, Fabian, Silvia, Ashley, Richard, Elder Woolf

 

The other really fun part of the week was that I went on exchanges with Elder Seright again!  It was really fun.  But you won't believe this.  We went to the Asian Buffet for dinner, and I ate octopus.  Yup.  Aren't you proud of me?  It kinda reminded me of chicken heart.  But more rubbery.  It had no taste.  I'll send some pics of that too.  

We got a lot of investigators at church yesterday too!  Well, 5.  I've told you about the family from Kuwait we are teaching right?  Well a few of them were able to make it to church yesterday. It was total chaos though, for a number of reasons.  But, suffice to say, it all worked out.  So that was great! 

Oh, we got a new truck too!  The old one we were driving was getting old so they replaced it with a brand new 2015 Nissan Frontier!  It's soooooo nice!  I really enjoy it.  We switched them out at MLC on Thursday.  Which went really well!  Almost the entire meeting was focused on Finding new investigators.  It was really great! 

I got the package of goodness!!  Thanks so much!!  Everything arrived in great condition.  So yummy! Thanks! 

That's so fun that the Sisters were able to make it over!  Sounded like a great time!!  

Well, I'm about outta time today.  The library is crowded!  Have a great week!! 

Love, Elder Wise

What A Week

Well, this week turned out a lot differently than expected.  We had a lot of lessons planned and they pretty much all fell through haha.  On the bright side, we had quite a few people at church!  7 actually.  And 3 of them came for the first time!  Lazarus and his wife Gloria (the ones from Pakistan) were able to make it and I think they enjoyed it!  It's always kind of nerve wracking on Fast Sundays.  Their kids weren't able to come though cause they were working.  We will have to work on that one.

Good news!  The Galvez family passed their baptismal interviews yesterday! So we are getting everything ready for their baptism this Saturday!  It's going to be awesome.  It's crazy though, cause they are moving this week as well, luckily within our ward boundaries still, so we are getting everything worked out for that as well.  It's going to be a great week!  

Lazarus and his wife fed us dinner this week.  It was authentic Kuwaitian food.  It was pretty good!  Their daughter Choosy (that's her nickname.  Her real name is Paluasha which is too hard to say) made it and accidentally put waaaay to much chile's in it and it was pretty spicy.  It was still good though.  They are so nice! 

Halloween wasn't too exciting.  We just planned all evening.  No one even knocked on the door or anything.  So that was cool.  

Sad news.  Our neighbor Fadi moved.  Stay tuned for some pics though!  I'm gonna miss that guy.

I feel so small next to him.

His biceps are as big as my head.

Well, sounds like you all had a great week at home!  Haha I'm glad you all had a great halloween!  It sounded super fun! I love all the pics too!  Those pumpkins look awesome!! 

I can't wait for those pizza rolls!  Thanks so much mom! That'll be the highlight of the week for sure!

Well, I hope you all have a fantastic week!!  I love you all! Missionary work is the best :)

Love, Elder Wise

Julian and Perseus.  It was a long day!

Elder Hayden goes home next week.  He's the AP, so he was able to meet us for lunch.

Crazy!

This week has been soooo crazy! I don't even know where to begin.  Monday I guess.  After emailing last week, we went to the apartment and started to relax.  Well that lasted like 5 minutes before we got a call that some elders had broken their phone, and needed us to drive to the mission office to get a new one for them.  So we did that.  Which worked out because then I was able to pick up the package and stuff!  After that we went to contact a referral that turned out to be super awesome!  We got 5 new investigators from that one!  They are super cool.  The Serrano Family. I'll come back to them in a min.   So Monday was good.  Tuesday was good but nothing really huge to report.  Wednesday. Wednesday went crazy.  It started off great, we did some service, went to lunch with the AP's, and then we contacted another referral and found 2 more investigator families!  They are from Pakistan.  The Shad Family, and the Sardar Family.  They are soooo cool! After that we went saw the Serrano family again.  This time they had a friend with them.  He's a born-again christian.  And he loves to Bible-bash.  It was bad.  I feel like we did a pretty good job of standing our ground, but it was a huge waste of time and just plain stupid.  So that put a downer on the day.  The rest of the week was pretty legit though.  Brother Marmolejo (he goes by brother Angel now) is on fire.  We met with him 3 times this week, he helps clean the church every Saturday, and he attended two sacrament meetings on Sunday, just because he likes it so much.  And he helped set up and do stuff for the ward party that we had on Saturday. It was a trunk-or-treat and it was held at this super nice venue that a member owns.  It was pretty sweet!

And that's pretty much all the really exciting things that happened this week.  We did a lot of street contacting and found quite a few potential investigators that seem pretty solid. So hopefully this next week we will pick up a bunch of new investigators as well! 

Well, I hope all is going well back home.  Looks like the party was pretty awesome!  Congrats on being 16 Sadie.  Don't crash the car :)

Also, I did get those ties a while back.  The kids loved them! Thanks so much! And that pic of Lexy is so awesome!  Haha I love it.  

Our plans for Halloween include working all day, and then going in at 6 to weekly plan.  woohoo!  It's a party for sure.  I'll definitely be missing those spudnuts haha.  Eat some for me! 

Well, have a great week!!  The church is true :)

Love, Elder Wise

Hello Hello!

Well, this week was pretty bomb, but also kinda lame.  It was lame cause we had like 3 days where every single appointment fell through.  So that was no fun.  It was bomb though for the following reasons:

1. Elder Evans came and spoke to us!!  He is so cool!  I learned a LOT! He talked to one half of the mission on Thursday, and he talked to my half of the mission of Friday and I guess he talked about completely different things in each one.  I guess on Thursday he talked a lot about how to use Family History in our proselyting efforts, as well as preparing ourselves spiritually for when we finally get iPads which will probably be in January.  And then on Friday he talked to us a lot about marriage, and kind of just a bunch of random stuff haha.  He just got up and started talking and just went wherever he really wanted to.  It was awesome!  He told us how he got married 3 months after his mission, and one of the twelve ( I think it was Elder Scott but I'm not for sure) asked him why it took him so long!  Haha cause Elder Scott got married two weeks after I guess.  No worries, I won't be getting married that fast. One of the things that Elder Evans spoke about in both however, was asking everyone for referrals.  In every single teaching opportunity.  So we did a thing where after the conference, we asked everyone and then texted the Mission President the results.  In the first night of asking everyone, the mission as a whole received over 100 referrals.  It's crazy!  So that's what we have been really working on.  Asking for referrals.  

2.  We took brother Marmolejo with us to a baptism at the church on Saturday.  Up until this point, he has refused to set a baptismal date with us.  Well, right before the baptism started, he leaned over and said "What do I have to do to be baptized?"  We were only too happy to tell him.  So now he is on date for November 15!!  He is super stoked.  He was telling everyone about it at church yesterday haha.  So that was pretty bomb.  

3.  All of our other investigators are doing really well too!  Sister Armstrong wasn't able to come to church yesterday cause she was out of town, but she is doing really well.  The Galvez family was able to make it to church yesterday and they are all really excited to be baptized on nov 8.  We also got some referrals last week for some pretty solid people!  So hopefully we will be picking up some more investigators this week.  That would be good.  

So yeah, that was mainly what went on this week.  It was pretty great! Sounds like everything is going pretty well in good ol PG.  Happy Birthday Sadie! Your party sounds like it's going to be crazy! Fun stuff!    Sun Valley sounds super fun too!  I wasn't able to get any of those pictures that you sent though.  They never arrived.  :(

Well, I hope you all have a great week!!  The Church is True :)

Love, Elder Wise

Spread!

Hello!  This week was pretty good!  Nothing really super exciting happened though.  Everyone is doing really well.  The Armstrong's are doing really great, although Rayaa is progressing a lot more than her mom because her mom can't get to church very easily.  So we are focusing more on Rayaa right now.  She is still on date for November 8.  The other people we have on date for the 8 is the Galvez family!  They are super awesome!  We had a good lesson with them last night.  They are just super awesome.  Brother Marmolejo is doing really well also!  Although he's kinda sick right now which is a bummer.

So, we were at Carlos and Grace's house last night and we got there as they were just finishing up dinner.  And guess what they were having?  It's called Spread.  Basically, it's prison food.  Haha inmates just throw everything they have into a paper or plastic bag and mix it all together and it's called Spread.  And Carlos makes some crazy spread.  Well, he didn't tell me what was in it until I had tried it, which is a good thing cause if I'd known what was in it I would never have tried it.  It had ramen, beans, tuna, mayo, mustard, bread, jalepinos, and a bunch of other stuff that he just had laying around haha.  It looked really nasty but it really didn't taste too bad.  I wouldn't ever eat it again but hey, I tried it.  You should be proud of me haha. 

But yeah, that's really about all the exciting things that happened last week! 

Sounds like a lot of fun back home though! The ward party sounded super fun!  

Hahaha Lucie you are so funny.  Isn't Ammon cool! And you really need to not do handstands in the tub hahaha.  That's dangerous! And way to win your soccer game again! 

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

Love, Elder Wise

(from left to right) Jayro, Raul, Angel, Elder Urry and Elder Wise

Tony!

GC Weekend!

Man, General Conference is so bomb.  It goes by so fast!!  I remember when It used to just drag on forever and ever.  But now it goes by just way too fast!  There were so many good talks! I can't even pick my favorite. Plus, I accidentally left my notebook, so I can't even peruse my notes haha.  We watched it at the stake center.  And sadly, I wasn't able to make butterscotch rolls.  sad day.

Oh and I got my new companion this week. Elder Webb is a pretty sweet guy!! We get along really well.  He is from Eagle Mtn. Utah.  So pretty close!  I just keep getting companions that live near by haha! He's really cool.  He's been out for about a year total, but he just came back to the mission a couple transfers ago.  He had to go home for 9 months for some back problems.  So good news is, as long as he is my comp, I will definitely be having a car! Haha.  We are co-ZLs.  Yes, it was kinda weird to send a missionary home.  He tried his hardest not to be trunky but he was.  Haha #struggle

Our investigators are doing really well though!  We put Sister Armstrong and Sister Armstrong on date to be baptized.  We are shooting for Nov 8.  So if it all works out, we would have about 6 baptisms that day!  That would be so bomb haha. :)

Sorry I haven't sent pics yet.  I will definitely send some next week.  Cause I forgot my camera today :(  Sorry!! 

I'm glad to hear everything is going well in Utah!!  It sounds like a blast!!  That Tail-gate party sounds super fun! 

That temple was awesome!! Way to go Lucie!!  It looks super good! 

Well, I'm just about outta time.  Hope you all have a wonderful week!!  Love you all!!

Love, Elder Wise

P.S.  Haha yeah she's home! Crazy!  She emailed me actually haha.  She's cool

P.P.S  I'm glad you got the letter! Let me know how it goes!