GENERAL CONFERENCE WEEK - Tuesday, September 26th, 2011

Dear Family,

This week has been a good week but also boring! Just because I sat around and did nothing but clean for a couple days because Elder Dyerly got sick :P haha! (did Levi say he CLEANED??? YES! :) 

Could you also send ties in that package?? :) I love ties :) Could I also get another journal? The same red one I got except I want to get the blue one? for studying?? :) THANKS

Well, transfer information! So, I am staying in Palatka, and my companion is staying and he got released from being District Leader so now we are just a normal companionship! And I live in an apartment. Most everyone in our mission is in an apartment! I live with 3 other missionaries! There is Elder Dyerly (my companion), Elder Wheeler (The New District Leader and he is really funny and has been out 17 months and he is pretty much one of the best missionaries I have seen) and Elder Riggs (he has been out a transfer longer).

We have a cockroach problem right now, so we actually just bombed our place and are hoping to not have that problem anymore :) haha! Oh and the bike has been really good by the way! I love it! And, Elder Dyerly and Elder Wheeler both think I would be a really good trainer :/ I dont know about that! (I'm sure he would too!!) But, they said they recommended me as a trainer! MEH! (I think he loves that...and playing it off! What a great opportunity!) So, apparently they think I will be training next transfer because Elder Dyerly has been in this area for 6 months at the end of this next transfer! So any advice on how I can prepare to train someone? Because I don't think I know enough yet to do that!

ANYWAYS,

GATOR UPDATE :) :

Monroe: He is starting to understand authority a little bit! He has been coming to church every Sunday which is really good! If we can get him to stop smoking he could get baptized this weekend and he wants to be baptized. He just needs to stop smoking! SO PLEASE PRAY HE WILL HAVE THE DESIRE TO NOT SMOKE :) I really want him to get baptized soon :)

Matt: Matt seems like he wants to know if its true and he is reading the Book of Mormon but he isn't coming to church! I hope he will come this weekend for General Conference :) I am soooo excited for that :)

Tamara: Tamara is the less-active. She came to church this sunday which I was really excited for! It was so amazing! They had this Young Women special this sunday and they did an amazing job!

We are struggling with the amount of gators right now. But we will find a lot this week :) So we had another less active besides Tamara come and his name is Wayne and he brought his wife who is not a member and she started crying like crazy during sacrement so I really hope we can make something come out of that!

And a Members grandson has been coming for a couple months and we are trying to set up an appointment with him too! We already know he wants to be baptized it is just basically finding time to sit down and go throught the lessons!

This area is going in such a good direction! I am so excited for it. We are getting a lot of less-actives to come back and will hopefully have some baptisms coming up :) It is really good! General Conference is this weekend and we get an extended curfew Saturday night because priesthood session goes till 10 for us :) Oh ya, haha! I can't wait though, I have so many questions I am hoping to have answered :)

We are also having a priesthood cookout from 6:30 to 8:00 which will be incredible because we are having a less active we have been working with for FOREVER and they are going to another church because they don't feel worthy to come to ours and they know the church is true. But they said they would come to the dinner and stay for priesthood session :) So that will be amazing! I am expecting big miracles this week with General Conference :) OH YA!

And wow, I have been studying charity and love, and listening all week this week and it has made everything so amazing! I feel so much more love and listening really will help a lot with following the spirit! It is incredible! I would say love and listening are the two most important characteristics in missionary work!  

I am having a great time and I am doing really really well :) I love you all so much! Only 21 months left ;) haha! I am glad I got a lot of time left :) Elder Wheeler gets really upset sometimes because he is realizing he only has 3 transfers left :( I have a lot more :) hehe!

I love you all! Keep being amazing! STOCKTON AND MICAH, EMAIL ME :) STOCKTON, tell me how you are dominating :) Micah, tell me how everyone stares at your amazingness as you march around that track leading that massive Camas High School Band!

Love you very much!

Elder Wise

JESUS PEOPLE - Monday, September 19th, 2011

Dear Family,

This week has been a great week! This transfer is flying by though :( We are getting transfer calls this saturday and transfers happen September 28th! 

I have no business for you this week other than I can't wait to get your package :)

This week we also had a lot of trade offs so it has been really crazy! President Barry is really making a big push to have everyone be exactly obedient so we can be worthy to have the spirit with us when we teach and when we do that we will find more people! I can't tell you how amazing President Barry is! I am so glad he will be my Mission President until the last 2 weeks of my mission :P That  is strange but I will have a new president for 2 weeks! haha!

Anyways,

GATOR UPDATE:

Monroe: Monroe is still coming to church and he is doing really well! He is also reading the Book of Mormon! The only the he doesn't understand is that we are the only church who has the authority to baptize and everything! He thinks that a really good preacher who is really close to God is probably authorized by God to do baptism's! But we are working with him on that!

Matt: We gave Monroe a church tour this week and he randomly brought his friend Matt and we gave them a church tour and taught him the Restoration and invited him to be baptized and he accepted! He didn't come to church yesterday though so we will have to figure that out!

Lee: Elder Dyerly and I tracted into her but I was on a trade off for the lesson they taught her! So I dont know much but I know that she really liked what we taught and she fed them Crab! DANG!! Oh well, I missed out but someone took us out to Chilli's so it was okay :) haha

Chantra: We are still trying to work with her! She is a little difficult because she is hard to catch! But hopefully we can catch her soon!

Tamyra: Tamyra is a less active so she isn't really a gator! But she is amazing and a great woman! And she is reading the Book of Mormon and she is saying she will come to church but she doesn't come!

Mom, sometimes I wish you were here because I feel like you could knock a lot of sense into a lot of our gators and less actives we are working with like Tamyra! haha! (sometimes I wish I could be there too! I LOVE sharing the gospel and how it has changed my life and the happiness it has brought - when I was searching for it in all the wrong places!) 

I think it is really funny how in the South! Everyone is Baptist! Some catholics but not much! And there are three types of baptists! One is the ones that will be really nice to you and thank you for doing such great work and for going around talking about Jesus! (They call us Jesus People sometimes btw) Then there are the ones who just shut the doors in our face! Then there are the ones who tell us we are going to hell and that we are terrible people and they call themselves Bible Thumping Baptists! And they put out a bunch of non-sense to the public! There is so much more "anti" stuff about Jesus Christ's church than I thought there was! It is absolutely ridiculous and it just makes me sad : ( And we will talk to people and ask them if they have read the Book of Mormon and they will say, "Yes"! And we say, "Really? How did you like it?"  Then they would say it talks too much about Joseph Smith, you worship Joseph Smith! And I just think to myself 1. It  doesn't  talk about Joseph Smith at all except in the introduction! 2. I feel sad because they are so close minded! :(

And then you find someone who is willing to read and it makes it all worth it and I love this work! It is incredible!

Anyways, I love you all a bunch! I miss you! Thank you for supporting me! LOVE YOU! 

Elder Wise

SMILES - Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Dear Family,

Sorry I forgot to tell you in the last email that we were having Elder Per G. Malm speak to us Monday (yesterday) so our P-Shift (Elder Dyerly and I call it that because it is only 8 hours... not a full day :) ) was switched to today :)!

Well, this week has been absolutely incredible and painful and LOONG!!! I will start off with the Gator Update'

GATOR UPDATE:

Monroe: Monroe came to steak conference where Elder Per G. Malm also talked and he really really liked it! We are tryng to get him motivated to quit smoking! He wants to get baptized but he just doesn't have that drive to quit smoking! So we are working on that!

Dwayne: Dwayne is a referral from a member in Jacksonville! He is a really nice guy! He says he hopes the Book of Mormon is true but he hasn't done much reading! And reading the Book of Mormon is HUGE!! It is key to conversion!

Chantre: Chantre is hard to get a hold of! High School children are RIDICULOUS :P haha But she is way awesome and really sincere! We shoud be setting a baptismal date with her this week!

Cathy: She moved :( But we are sending missionaries to her! :)

We have a lot of referrals right now :) It is really good! And we should have an amazing week this week :) We have a lot of SOLID referrals to contact!

We had a lot of trade-offs this week because Elder Dyerly has to evaluate every missionary in our district! So I have not been in my area very much this week which made it interesting! And I went to a spanish area on a trade off! That was a long day! I basically just followed a Spanish missionary around and did nothing because I couldn't understand anything :P NOT FUN! haha!

Let me tell you, Elder Malm speaking to us yesterday is exactly what I needed! I have been so down this transfer and not as spiritual as I would have liked to have been but I am on the upend now :) I think I finally understand how to teach by the spirit now :) It is amazing! Elder Malm said, "When you are proselyting do not outrun the spirit! The spirit is in no rush! You shouldn't be either! When we take the lesson slow it allows the spirit to dwell in the lesson which is the most powerful thing you can do as a missionary!" He went on to talk about how our jobs as a missionary in a lesson is to create an envirement where the Holy Ghost can work his magic! And also something I learned through revelation that Elder Malm did not say was that as we have Charity and are pure in our thoughts and completely consencrate ourselves we will have the spirit to be with us and that is what makes an AMAZING missionary! He also said "A missionary who does not follow the spirit but relies on his own power is performing priestcraft" BAM!! That was a throw down statement! 

I learned so much at that Zone Conference yesterday I can't even tell you all of it! I have never felt the spirit so strong! And I have felt the spirit ever since I left that conference! Something I have been working on a lot lately is having charity and love and being able to have the spirit to be with me! And to smile because I have been smiling a lot less lately because this work is discouraging if we don't have the right mindset! And I haven't had the right mindset lately! But the last couple days I have been Mr. Smiles :) I'm myself again :) And I like it!!haha! One thing he spoke about that also stood out to me, he drew a circle on the Chalk Board and a little circle in the center so it was sort of like a target! Then he said a lot of times we try to look and see what can we do? We look to see how far we can go and still be okay! We look for the grey area! But what is our purpose while we are here on earth?? There are a couple reasons:

1. To gain a physicaly body

2. To grow and to become like our Heavenly Father!

I guess they are all in one actually because in order to become like our Heavenly Father we need to gain a physical body! So our main purpose of being here is to become like Heavenly Father!

WHY DO WE LOOK FOR THE GREY AREA?????? We should be striving to do our best and become like Heavenly Father!  WE SHOULD NOT be trying to go as far as we can away from the gospel without breaking the commandments! We should be trying to go to the center of the circle and not looking outside of the circle! So our focus should be on What can I do to become more like Heavenly father? and not Am I aloud to workout just a little bit on sunday? Would Jesus Christ do that? NO! So don't do it!

Elder Malm is absolutely amazing and he will be an apostle someday! Man, I have realized this last week that I don't want to ever go home because that makes it a lot harder to be closer to the spirit because there are so many other things you can focus on! I am only aloud to focus on getting close to the spirit WHICH IS AMAZING!! I LOVE being out here so much!

Mom and Dad, I love you so much! Thank you for doing everything you do! You have no idea how grateful I am for you! You are incredible people!!!! And AMAZING examples! I am so glad you are my parents! You are absolutetly INCREDIBLE!! I am so blessed and like I said before! I don't know why a punk like me should be as blessed as I am? (or why parents like us would be blessed with such amazing young men as children! :) 

I love you all and my p-shift will be on monday next week!

Only 3 months untill I get to talk to you!! :) BOO YA!! haha!

Love, Elder Wise

SOGGY SCRIPTURES - Monday, September 5th, 2011

Dear Family,

Unfortunate! I was biking with my scriptures in my backpack and it poured on us and got my scrips wet :P and they are still usable. I don't want to ask you to buy new ones! But I also don't like how I marked them! So I am saving up money to buy new ones! I want to get the blue ones!

The bike is great! It took awhile to get it but it works wonderful!

Ya, I was sort of scared about Hurricane Irene! Glad it missed me! I also heard about the storms that are supposed to turn into a hurricane?? I don't really know any details about it yet? I did hear there are probably going to be at least 2 or 3 more hurricane threats :P GREAT!!

Anyways, GO BYU!! That is awesome! Their defense STUNK last year! Im glad to hear they are doing good! And I heard we had a good running back! I did not know his last name was Alisa though! haha! That is really funny!

I hear all about the Gators here! OH BOY!!! BIG GATOR FANS DOWN HERE!! or Seminole fans or Georgia fans!! But mainly Gator fans! They don't like BYU very much here! haha!! It is tough because I love to talk smack as you all know!! (big surprise! LOL) But I can't do that as a missionary! haha! It has been hard not to and it requires a lot of patience to withhold my opinion so I don't offend anyone!! BUT GO BYU!! I hope they beat Texas :)

We have been working a lot with this lady named Tamyra! She is less active but a super awesome lady! We read the book of Mormon with her a couple days ago and she started crying and she said I am definitely coming to church this week! IT WAS GREAT! BUT she didn't come to church :( We don't know why yet! But we are working with her!

Gator Update:

Monroe: Monroe had something come up sunday and couldn't make it to church! But he is a super solid and nice guy!! His baptismal date is on the 17th :)

Antawn: We still are just trying to work out kinks with him! We just are keep meeting him and answering his questions! He will take more time!

Chantra: We tracted into her last week! She is 15! And she is super open and we sat down with her the first time this week and shared the restoration and she committed to reading the book of mormon and to pray about it and to pray about whether joseph smith! When we were teaching the lesson she was listening super intensly so we have high hopes for her! And we are hoping to get her family involved in the lesson!

Dwayne: We haven't sat down and talked with him yet! But we got a referral from a member who lives up in Jacksonville to go visit one of his friends named Dwayne! So we did yesterday and he is really open! And he said it made sense that Jesus Christ would come to the Americas so we gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would read and we are meeting with him tomorrow! We also have high hopes for him!!!

Casie: She has taken lessons before! She is Tamyra's daughter and she had a big problem with the missionaries who taught her before but she is open to it again and so we are going back to visit her tomorrow! Hopefully we can resolve those concerns!

Yesterday was a great day! We had a lot of success!! This week was just a really good week! We had a lot of success! We have had a couple miracle gators lately! Like Dwayne and Monroe! It has been AMAZING!!

Dad, you are very right about the Preach My Gospel - Chapter 8 - Finding People! It is so important to find by the spirit! In every single one of my personal prayers and our companionship prayers we pray to have the spirit with us in lessons and when we are trying to find people! We try to follow every random thought we have! And we try to look for the random thoughts! Like just a random thought! "We should go knock that house!" Just randomly! DONT LET THAT PASS!! DO IT!! That is a prompting from the Spirit! Following the spirit when Finding is HUGE!! It truly is! Working with members is a hard thing! It is just different with every ward I guess! It is a wierd thing!

Anyways, I have to go! I love you all very much! The work is progressing really where here and I am excited for what is coming up :) I love you all!!!

Love

Elder Wise

P.S. HAPPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MICAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!! :) LOVE YOU MICAH HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY!!!

P.S.S. Micah and Stockton!! You better both email me next week :) LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Elder Wise :)