Baptism was AMAZING! - March 26th, 2012

Dear Family,

I got my suit and it fits good. It is great. One problem!!! It is a 3 button suit :( haha.. its all good.

Well, the Baptism was amazing! I had the opportunity to perform the Baptism for Alexis and it was AMAZING!! It is such a great blessing to be able to do that. Vivian and Alexis got up and bore their testimony in Sacrament meeting and I started crying. It is such an incredible thing to be able to watch someones conversion step by step. (what a testimony of sharing what you have! When you know what you have changes lives, then you see it change the lives of others...there is really no greater feeling!) I was reading in Doctrine and Covenants 100 during the passing of the Sacrament where it talks about God calling Sidney I think to serve a mission. It is a powerful section for me. And when she bore her testimony it confirmed to me that I am doing what I am supposed to and that I am fulfilling my calling :) And after the baptism I was talking to Vivian's son who is 6 and his name is Marcus. He turns 7 July 18th and he is excited to get baptized next year. I told him I would try to come back for his baptism. I love this family so much. Can we wait to go back for his baptism? Please? I really want to be there for it :) But anyways, It was incredible! Our mission President showed up to the baptism :) (That would be such a great experience for our entire family - to travel back and witness the baptism of a family member of a family that Elder Wise was a tool in bringing the gospel into their lives!) 

Kingsley is really really hard to meet with. His baptism won't be happening this weekend but we are still trying to work with him.

Vivian has a friend named Melissa who we had a lesson with Friday night and she came to the baptism Saturday and to Church Sunday. She is amazingly solid and has a baptismal date for April 8th or 9th. I can't remember. It is that Sunday.

Steven is also doing great. His baptism is set for April 15th. And we also have 2 people who have great potential of being baptized on April 22nd. So this next month should be full of miracles and really really busy. The work has been going great!

It sounds like the track team is doing great! How is Micah doing?

Teagen is 190??? He is lighter than me.. I think, from the last time I weighed myself. :( I have been trying to run everyday but it has been hard.

Well, I love you all. Hope you will have a great week! Are you excited for General Conference? Know that I am watching it right along with you :)

Love,
Elder Wise

TELL BRENT I WISH I COULD BE THERE! - March 19th, 2012

Dear Family,

Transfers is not until April 25th. We just had one. I told you that right? Elder Riggs and I are staying. The suit hasn't come yet, but hopefully today. And Mom, don't worry, I know you're busy :)

Well, this weekend was absolutely insane. A ton happened. Do you remember Vivian? Well, her and her fiance split up. It has been really rough, but everything is starting to work itself out. Vivian is wanting to get baptized as soon as possible. And so now, she is getting baptized this Saturday!!! :) And her 9 year old daughter as well. I love that family so much and I am so excited to see this. They have such strong testimonies and will be great members of the church. :) Unfortunately they had to split up. The ex-fiance's name is Steven.

He is still solid as well and we are still working with him and he is supposed to be baptized not this Saturday, but the following Saturday. :) So through this roughness, some blessings come. So we are having a ton of miracles here. The members in this ward are amazing. They are fellowshipping them like CRAZY!!! It's amazing. We are going to the park with Vivian, her kids, and 4 other families, for a FHE barbeque.. It will be a ton of fun.(I think this is a GREAT idea and something we should do more often here!....oh wait, you have to have sunshine to do that! :) LOL 

We also got to meet with Kingsley again. He was our very first investigator here in this ward. He is a 6' 7" 260lb. black guy. He is huge...and he is awesome. He loves photography. We set a baptismal date with him for March 31st. So obviously, we are seeing a TON of miracles!! I am loving it.

 And it sounds like the track team is doing pretty good. That freshman girl runs a 5:10? HOLY COW!!! Did she do cross country? That is crazy!

What is Micah's 100 time right now? I know it's going to be a 10.9 by the end of the year :) DO IT.. WORK HARD and the time will come. And Micah, I saw your picture on facebook.... hahahahahahahaha,. You had a pretty good beard! That's awesome. I think you should go with the bald man with a beard look from now on :) EXCEPT when your a missionary :) dont do that.. haah

Stock is playing 2 sports at the same time? That is studly! I don't know if I could do that. haha. That just shows how much stronger he is than me.

Well, that is about all this week! I love you all a ton! I miss ya! Share the gospel :) And keep being amazing!

Love,

Elder Wise

p.s. Tell Brent I wish I could be there :)

AMAZING STORY! - March 12th, 2012

Hello :)

Well, Yes you did tell me you cried when you read it :) (Levi sent home a letter sharing a personal and spiritual experience he had with his companion and an investigator. He shared "my story" with her that helped her. His companion also shared a story that was similar. It was incredible and very humbling and powerful for me to know that my "hell" and experiences are helping people across the nation and also helping my son to teach. He said they spirit was so strong that day!) It is an incredible story! And this story just keeps getting better! I love that family so much! They all have such a strong testimony of the gospel. Vivian bore her testimony in Relief Society yesterday and I heard it was incredible. They were able to come up with 400 dollars to make everything happen that needs to happen. And neither of them have smoked in a week and a half! Steven got work off so he can at least come to Sacrament. So basically, miracles are just flying all over the place with them!! It is GREAT! :)

Our investigator that is a boyfriend of the member, his name is Dylan. We found out that he doesn't live in our area. We wanted to see if we could get an exception because of fellowship, but our Bishop said no : ( We are also getting a new Bishop this week so I have no clue what is going on.

We also got a new investigator. Well 2 new investigators. They are an older couple. When we first walked in they said " So are you recruiting? Because if you are we don't want to leave our church." We just kept going. At the end of the lesson we invited them to be baptized. They really understood the Restoration well. They responded to the invitation saying, "I can't answer that right now, but we will see." We had to run out so we couldn't work with him because we had an appointment. But that just shows the huge progression in that one lesson :)

So everything is going wonderful right now. 

Sunshine? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? (I was complaining about all the record breaking rain here!) It's only in the 70's and 80's? It is freezing :) haha.. I am not kidding though when I say I get cold very easy now :/ What happened? haha

I love you all a ton :)

Elder Wise

The IMPORTANCE of my MISSION! - March 5, 2012

Dear FAMILY :)

 

This week was not quite as great but still a wonderful week! Sounds like you all had an exciting week.

 

Well, thank you very much for getting that suit for me :) THANK YOU THANK YOU :)!!!! (We got him a new suit at Remington's and had it shipped to Florida) It will be shipped thursday right? So it should be good! It isn't likely at all! But transfers are next wednesday! I HIGHLY doubt either Elder Riggs or I will go but either way it should be good and if its not, Elder Riggs will forward it to my address. But ya, so transfers are next week! We will get calls this next saturday but I dont really care for the calls because I am certain both of us will be staying, but wierd things have happened.

 

Anyway, this week, a lot of our investigators were just not keeping commitments. We still have 4 people, 3 of them are one family, that are going to get baptized. One has a date for March 18th and I HOPE that happens. We just have to teach him everything by then and he is hard to meet with. But he is really solid and has great fellowship.

 

The family is doing really really well. They had a crazy week but a good week. The mother quit smoking and hasn't smoked in over 3 days! The father now has a strong desire to quit and so they are doing really well and we are excited :) So there are still great things happening here :)

 

So basically what I have learned this week is that it is really hard being a missionary. The emotional ups and downs are OVERWHELMING and cause a lot of fatigue. One moment you are on a spiritual high and 30 minutes later you might be super depressed because someone who you just want to understand because if it just clicked their lives would completely change. But it just doesn't click, and it hurts. So it is just overwhelming to describe it best haha. But I have also learned that I could have only learned the skills I have learned on my mission on a mission.

 

I don't know where I would be if I hadn't have come on my mission. It has had such a dramatic change in my life. I have truly been converted to the gospel. I don't only have a testimony but I have had a conversion. I know why it's such a big deal now. I know why it's important to keep God in our #1 priority because if he isn't our highest priority everything seems to go down. (I'm so proud of Levi. he understands that love of the children of God! He is understanding free agency - that most important gift. The dream of Lehi and how what he tasted was so sweet, yet he couldn't get even some of his own family to come and taste the fruit). 

 

We had 2 lessons this week that really took a toll on me. It was just sad. The first was an investigator who got anti from their pastor. (I often wonder why there exists anti-Mormon literature. What are they so afraid of? Are we not good people? Do we not follow Christ? Actually...I do know why...but I digress) He was so excited about the Book of Mormon before. He just couldn't understand. I felt so sad. We tried to explain some anti, but in the end he just didn't get it. I hate anti. It ruins so many peoples salvation. For about 30 minutes after that lesson, I just couldn't stop thinking to myself, I can't do this. I just felt like I don't have the skills to be a missionary. There is so much to do and it is so stressful and I can't do it all. But I prayed and asked for help because I know that God will help me do it and he has :) Without God in this work, every missionary would go  home because of the amount of stress and the inability to do it by themselves. That is a testimony builder in itself. The other lesson was with a part-member family. The husband is a non-member. And he had searched the church on the internet but won't read the Book of Mormon, again, you see anti destroy someone. Having split family on religous beleives definitely tears them apart. I saw it just within 1 hour of how they just couldn't make it work. And because of the anti it just made it hard on them.

 

But enough of the negative, I only share that to show how this work is true. There is no way I could go through everything I have gone through if it wasn't true. It is such a great work and the joy and love you have for everyone but especially for the people who are keeping commitments and recieve a witness for themselves. It is incredible to see that in someone elses life. I love it. I love thiis work and I know it's true. I love bearing my testimony to people saying that Jesus Christ IS the head of this church. And that he leads it through a Prophet just like in old times. I know it's true. The power that comes from the Holy Ghost and the Priesthood is incredible. There is no possible way this work could push forward like it has unless it were true.(I love Elder Wise's testimony right here! It fills my heart with joy reading this! I could read this over and over and over! :) 

 

I love you all, Keep being amazing! (I love the quote, "when I am sad...I stop being sad...and start being AMAZING! :) Stockton, way to dominate the court :) I love ya very much. Hope you have a great week.

 

Love

Elder Wise