Monday, August 29th, 2011 - "IRENE just missed us!"

Dear Family,

 

I have a funny story! There is a brother here named Josh Jensen! He served in the Florida Jacksonville Mission, met a girl his last transfer, and he came back and married her! I asked him when he served and he said 06-08! And that was about when Zach Childers served here! (and Teagen, but he was somewhere else)! So I asked him if he knew Zach Childers! They came out togethor! They were in the MTC togethor and everything! So I thought that was pretty cool! Tell Seth about that :)

 

Mom, I am so impressed with you helping that man! (I ran Hood to Coast and a man collapsed in front of me and I had the opportunity to stop and help and use my first aid skills. It's amazing how good it can make you feel when you are able to help someone!) I don't know what I would do in that situation!! And I LOVE how you were thinking about me while you ran :) I appreciate it! My companion is a facebook missionary! Btw his name is Elder Dyerly, not Dylerly :) I am aloud to look at that blogspot you make for me now, I just can't post anything, only look! :) Anyways, while he is on facebook! I typically get on mormon.org and when I miss you, which is all the time, I look up your profile and it always makes me feel better :) haha!

 

This week was interesting with Hurricane Irene heading towards us! At first, the eye of Irene was predicted to go right through Palatka!! That would have been bad! I was excited to get hit at first because it was only a 2! Then it grew like crazy and they had us preparing emergency kits and everything! Then I started getting scared! I only want to go through a small one! Then we found out we weren't going to get hit! It was a relief! On the day it passed by us though there was a lot of rain and really intense winds!! I don't want to know what it is like to go through the actual hurricane!

 

Well, I have a miracle I want to share with ya'll! I can't remember if I shared this one yet or not! We decided to go tract in this place that was way out there and hadn't been knocked in awhile! So we did, and we found two new gators and we got 6 or so return appointments! It was amazing!

 

The other miracle is that a member of our ward came up to us and her son has been coming to church but is not a member! We thought he was a member because he has been coming for so long?? But he isn't! Anyways, he is interested in being baptized!! So we have an appointment with him this week! :)

 

Gator Update:

Antawn: He is a former-gator and we visited him and he has been reading the Book of Mormon and he has a lot of really good questions! He seems really sincere in his search for truth and I think that if he continues on the path he is going he will be baptized next month :)

Mary: We haven't had a chance to see Mary this week because we are out of miles! :( But we will see her when we have miles again because she lives out in Hastings! Mary really wants to come to church though! And we are trying to find someone who can give her a ride!

 

Cathy: We are trying to catch up with her and give her a restoration dvd but we are having a hard time catching her!

 

We are trying to work with members a lot right now! So a lot of our time is spent with members trying to uplift them to do missionary work! And we spend a lot of time trying to reactivate less active members! Our mission is going in an AMAZING DIRECTION!! Our mission had 54 baptisms this month! That is one off of the record for our mission all-time! We are having HUGE success! I can't wait to see where we go next :)

 

I cannot tell you how much I have already grown in 2 1/2 months! It is incredible! And I think the biggest way I have grown is realizing how blessed i have been in life! It has been AMAZING! I miss home a lot! Every missionary does! Any missionary who says they don't miss home is lying! I miss all of you and all of my friends A LOT! But the happiness I have doing the work I am doing is making all of that pain of missing everyone okay! I can deal with it because of all the miracles! And it makes it so I even want to be here!

 

I love my family and friends so much! I appreciate everything you all do for me! I am so excited to be in thhis work! I wouldn't want to be anywhere else! I miss all of you!

 

I love you very very much! I hope you all have a wonderful week!!!!

 

EVERY MEMBER A MISSIONARY

 

p.s. I will definatly keep Tommy in my prayers!!!

p.s.s. Keep me updated on the BYU football team :) I have to know how they are doing :) And the Jazz! Let me know what is going on with them :)

Love,

Elder Wise

Update - and From the Editor

Readers - esp Elder Wise's friends and family - please feel free to leave comments by clicking on "comments" below any post. You can leave them for Levi or his family on this blog! I will be printing this blog to a book after the completion of his mission, so it will be fun to have some of your comments!

Also, hurricane IRENE has changed course and is no longer a major threat to Florida, but has moved Northward and is threatening S. Carolina and N. Carolina. Please keep the people in those areas in your prayers.

Thank you for all your love and support for Elder Wise and his companions and missionaries around the world! Please pray for him, his companions and those he is teaching!

Thank you!

August 22nd, 2011- "There's a HURRICANE COMING!!!!"

Dear family,

CRAZY NEWS: There is a hurricane headed towards the city I am in! Which is Palatka by the way! I will give you my address in a second! It is Hurricane Irene and is supposed to be a 3! The church will take care of us though! If it is dangerous at all they will pull us out immediatly!! They have been sending us texts constantly updating us about the Hurricane! I am so excited!! I really want to be in a hurricane :)

Anyways, Business:

Address:

Elder Levi Wise

412 Mission Road Unit #2

Palatka, FL 32177

The bike I got is new! Just because I tried to get a bike from a missionary going home! But they were all 5' 6" NO JOKE!! And so I couldn't get one from them! And I tried to get a used bike at the Shop I went to but they said they didn't have any that had a big enough frame for me :P And that is the only one in the area! so I had to get a new bike! It is a hybrid bike like the one back home that is meant for road and trail! Because there are a lot of sand roads in our mission! I had to buy a helmet and reflectors and lights and a bike lock which costed me the rest! And also shipping cost! But the guy tried to get me to buy the same bike but one shocks and I said no because I personally don't think that is worth it! I thought you would be proud of me for that one dad :)

Anyways, my area is basically a hick town! It is awesome though! I like the area and my companion is Elder Dyerly and he is from Michigan! He is a good missionary and he is a genius! He is really smart and just basically knows a lot! haha! He is cool! And we have a car share so every other day I have a car and then the other days I am biking!

Advice for Mom (for Hood to Coast): On leg 6 it is really easy (especially for a stupid high school distance runner) to go out really hard on the second run because it is flat and not to long! And to take it pretty easy on the first run because it is longer than it seems! And the last run shows that it isnt too hilly and not to hard! But I am here to tell you that it is brutal and if you have burnt yourself out you will get passed by a girl with a pink tutu :P haha! GOOD LUCK :)

GATOR UPDATE:

Moses: Moses is an old guy who really wants to get baptized! He has been getting taught for awhile and hopefully we can get him baptized soon!

Willy: Willy is also an old guy who will take awhile but we are working with him and he is a super nice guy!

Cathy: She is an older lady who is on oxygen! She is interested religously! And we havent had the chance to really sit down with her! So we are hoping to be able to sit down with her soon!

Willy: This willy is an old blind man! We taught him the Restoration this week! And he accepted the invitation to be baptized but we dont have a specific date yet!

Mary: She is another old lady on oxygen and we met her this last week! We taught her the Restoration and she knows she needs to get back to church so our main focus is to get her to church and to be fellowshipped!

This area is a really old person area! And Elder Dyerly teaches different than I prefer to! But its okay! He teaches more socially. I think this area needs work though! It just needs to be more organized is the best way I can put it!

He is a great missionary though and I love him! We just have different styles of missionary work I would say! Anyways, I have a good story! We decided to go tracting in this area that is way out there and missionaries haven't been there in awhile! So we went and tracted this apartment! Throughout the apartment we got 2 new investigators and 6 return appointments!!! IT WAS SO AWESOME HAHA!!!

The area just hasn't been hit in a long time! So that was cool! And my companion is a facebook missionary so while he is on facebook! I get on Family History stuff and I have been working on some family history and trying to find people I can have you all take to the temple because we have no temple to go to here! So hopefully I cant get you some names :)

It is so depressing that we can't go to the temple! I really want to go to the temple and sit in the celestial room and just pray about where we should go and what we should do!! I feel like if I could do that we could get 100 NEW GATORS :O But we cant! :(

BIG NEWS: I called President Barry the other day and I asked him if my non member relative - Patrick, could come over and take me out to lunch! And I have got permisson from my mission president to do so! So if you could facebook Patrick and tell him that he can! And give him my number! MOM, do not call me! Just give it to patrick OKAY ;) I LOVE YOU THOUGH!! I wish you could call me!! (I wish I could too...but I won't! It would be too hard on BOTH of us!) 

And just tell him to ask for Elder Wise and we can arrange something up for him to take us out to lunch or dinner or something!!

I hope you are all doing well and I love you very much!! Micah, go dominate that band :) And stockton! In the words of the Mexican Soccer Channel " GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! :) haha

I love you all very much! Thank you so much for supporting me! I LOVE YOU!!!!

Elder Wise

August 15th, 2011- "Getting Transferred"

Dear Family,

It sounds like it has been a crazy week!

Business:

We got transfer calls Saturday and I know I am going to be transfered! Transfers happen on wednesday! So I need money by Wednesday please! And I need a bike, helmet, bike lock, and flashing reflectors, and a light that i can turn on in the front! Those are all requirements! So you all decide how much that would cost! I really have no clue how I can get a used bike though! I will try as hard as I can! Or I will get as cheap as i can at a bike shop! But I need it by Wednesday! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! My guess, is the bike will be about 300 hopefully.. I don't know about the other stuff!

The 80 bucks dad owes me can definatly go towards the bike! Basically at this moment I dont think ya'll owe me anything! I probably owe you a million dollars! :) Thats how much you love me! And how greatful I am to be brought up in the church and to have a wonderful family!

Since I have been on my mission! I have realized how lucky I really have been in life! (emphasis added :) We have a nice house! Cars! A strong family! We know the truth of the Gospel! Great Friends! And here I see people who have messed up lives and live in super nasty trailers! And just struggle and struggle and struggle! It really makes me question why Heavenly Father has given me so many AMAZING blessings! And I need to share those blessings of knowing the truth! And really coming to know the truth of the gospel will lead you to all of the other blessings!

Well, I forgot to tell you but a couple of weeks ago we saw one of our gators get arrested! That was crazy!

Anyways, Elder Holland also never ended up happening! That was sad! But something came up I guess! Oh and Mom, if you want to send me a couple more ties with the Restoration church and the Plan of Salvation thing that would be awesome!

GATOR UPDATE:

Stephon: Stephon is a member referral from a kid who is about to go on his mission named Dustin! He just put in his papers! We shared the restoration with him and he said its like he already knew about it but didnt at the same time! haha! The spirit was so strong! He is going to start coming to church next sunday! I will probably be able to come back to this area for the baptism!

Bridget: We can't get ahold of her! Please pray that we will get in contact with her!

We found Melissa by the way! She is now taking lessons with other missionaries!

Verndale: He is WAY awesome! We found him tracting! He came to church this last sunday and he has way good desires! But he has some Chastity problems so he wont be baptized for awhile!

We dont have many gators right now :( We are working our tails off tracting though!

Well, I got attacked by a pit bull this week! Sort of! We knocked on this trailor door! And this Pit Bull was jumping up against the door! and no one answered so we started to walk away and the Pit Bull broke open the door and came straight for me! But I learned that when a dog comes after you, you just stand there, dont run! So I just stood there and it came up to me and just started sniffing me! I was so scared though haha!! But im okay!

I am so excited to be in a normal companionship because it will just be easier to speak up and I think I will learn a lot more! But transfers are wednesday and I dont know where but I know I am being transfered! So they might email you my address but if they dont! I will email you the address next week and tell you where I am at! I love you all very much! And mom and dad dont forget about the bike thing because that is pretty important haha! I love you all very much! And that truck story was funny :) It made me laugh ahaha!

I love ya'll and I hope you have a great week! Everyone here is getting ready to go to school already! How is that going for ya'll? I feel like I am getting a lot more confident and I am able to teach by the spirit a lot better! I love you all and I am praying for you :) GET THAT BOOK DONE ;)

Love,

Elder Wise

August 8, 2011

Dear Family,

 

This week was a little hard!!!! We dropped a lot of gators! If you look at the list from last week to the one i will give you! There are very few similarities!

(Insert: Here is where he usually includes business part of email that he needs to let us know about. Money stuff. He is going to need to purchase a bike next transfer. Also, for some reason, some of his pants fit great, some not so much - which is strange b/c we bought them at the same place, same size, etc...so, he is asking for 3-4 more slacks. He also wants us to make him that "Restoration block set" where Christ is the foundation, Pillars are the Apostles, etc...if any of you know how to make that, please let us know! I'd love to make him one and send it to him)

 

Well this week was a very crazy week!!

 

GATOR UPDATE:

 

Bridgett: She was supposed to get baptized this upcoming weekend but her dad started passing a kidney stone so she couldnt make it this sunday! It was sad!! So we just have to postpone the baptism a week! She is super solid though!

 

Melissa: SAD STORY!!! She disappeared! WE CANT FIND HER! She never answers her phone and we dont know exactly where she moved :( She just fell of the planet! That was super upsetting!!

 

Alysha: We met her this week tracting! ( we did a lot of tracting this week) She said she was filled with jjoy when we shared the restoration!! I did the first vision ;) and she said her heart was full! Her baptism should be on the 28th!

 

Andrea: Elder Failner and Snow tracted into her a long time ago but we couldnt get a hold of her since! Thursday night! We had a 10 to 9 miracle! Which is basically having a last minute lesson at 8:50!! We were driving home and passed her house and i just felt prompted to go try her! I said Elders lets go try Andrea! So we did and she let us in and we taught her the restoration and got a return apointment and she is really sincere so hopefully that goes well :) THAT MADE ME FEEL REALLY GOOD :)

 

And thats it!! Shawn was baptized my second week! remember him? We are having trouble gettting him to church so pray for him!!!

 

And we got in a car wreck this week! It was a minor accident and we are fine! But, ya! That sucked!! Wrecking a mission vehicle is a pain!! Elder Failner was driving and we were turning left and this lady ran the red light and hit us! No FUN :P (Insert...boy, that could have been bad. I'm SOOO happy they were okay. Just this WEEK, I learned of missionaries in Tennessee that were severely injured in a car accident. I have been praying for Levi's safety ever since. I really do feel they are watched over and protected.)

 

But that is pretty much how the week went! Im glad to hear you all are having fun back home boating and everything!! I miss that part!! haha! Stockton!! I didnt get an email from you?? :( Micah, YOU ARE GOING TO BE A ROCKIN DRUM MAJOR!! I CAN JUST SEE YOU NOW MARCHING WITH THAT LITTLE STICK THING AND WHISTLEING!! YOU LOOK GOOD ;)

 

ANYWAYS LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Elder Wise

July 31, 2011 GREAT REPORT!

Dear Family,

 

It sounds like you had fun on your vacation :) GLAD to hear it :) Transfers aren't for two weeks! It happens on August 16th! And I will get transferred! Because I am with zone leaders! If you have a trainer who is a DL or just senior your typically stay 2 transfers! But I have ZLs so they don't keep you with them!

 

This week was AMAZING!! My trainers had to go to maclenny and then to Jacksonville on tuesday and wednesday and they left me in the area with a young man in our ward who is preparing to put his papers in! It gave me a huge confidence boost because it made me step up to the plate and plan everything and really take control of lessons! It was really good! And we had this amazing lesson on the Word of Wisdom with Melissa and she cried twice! Once when we talked about how big the step of Baptism is! And then we gave her a blessing of comfort that she would be able to quit smoking! And she cried during that too!

 

Then my companions came back! And then we all went to Jacksonville for a talk by Elder Giddins of the 70 on saturday! It was amazing! Nothing else has motivated me so much! Ever since that talk I have been a different missionary! He really made me realize that Heavenly Father has assignments for me here! And I need to complete them! And everywhere I go there is something significant I need to do! It was AMAZING!

 

Then late night Saturday we were out tracting and we contacted someone on there porch! We talked to him for a little bit and then he invited us in! His name is Anthony! We started our lesson and this was the most powerful and most uplifting lesson I have been in! For the first time I really spoke up and really contributed! Once the lesson got going I was actually the one talking the most! But all three of us had a really good balance and we were SUPER unified!! We ended up committing him to be baptized! It was amazing!

 

I really could care less if I am junior companion my entire mission or if I end up being Assistant because I know that where I am is where I need to be! And I will help someone there with the postition I am in! And as long as I work as hard as I can I know I will have success!

 

Then Sunday came around and us companions gave a talk togethor sharing the restoration! We had a missionary work sacrement meeting! It was so POWERFUL! We actually had a former gator show up out of no where! And she cried! And we are having FHE with her at a members house tonight! BASICALLY, this week has been amazing! Although we dropped a lot of gators because they werent progressing we also just had a bunch of AMAZING spiritual experiences!

 

GATOR UPDATE:

 

Rodney: He has been out of town! We shared the Plan of Salvation with him this week and he seemed very not-careish! So we will see how he ends up going!

 

Mark: Also hard to get a hold of! But he is really SINCERE! The most sincere gator we have! And if we can get him to church and to sit down and have lessons, he will be great. 

 

Melissa: We had that amazing lesson with her! But she didn't go to church and she hasn't been answering her phone! So we are trying to figure out what is going on! She is also moving to another ward this week so hopefully we can make that a good transition! Please pray for that especially!

 

Bridget: That is the former gator that showed up to church! She is going through a tough time and we are trying to tell her that this can bring her peace and happiness! So she is finally starting to realize that!

 

Anthony: the person we contacted saturday! We are seeing him tonight and hopefully we can resolve a lot of his confusion about churches!

 

THIS WEEK HAS BEEN AMAZING! Hopefully I can have another wonderful week!

 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

 

HAVE AN AMAZING WEEK!

GIVE THE MISSIONARIES REFERALLS!!!!

Elder Wise