Evil Corner! - September 24, 2012

Hello :)

Well, I am dissapointed in BYU! : ( But it's okay, I will forgive them.. haha. Anyways, sounds like TnTnT are doing great! :)

Chris is still doing incredible! He is all smiles and all about serving others all the sudden. It is really neat to see that Atonement change people. And in the process of seeing it happen to others, it is changing me. It is absolutely incredible. He should be getting the priesthood soon :) It was truly a difficult thing to perform the baptism in that low water. I had to put my elbow across his stomach and shove him down. I felt cruel, but it had to be done haha.

Elder Weaver is doing great. He is progressing along really well.

My bike is fixed! It is running smoothly. The day after I got the bike fixed I was riding to the church. Elder Weaver was biking in front of me. I saw Elder Weaver wreck in the exact spot that I wrecked. As I started to chuckle in my mind I found my tire sliding out from under me and soon I was on the ground. We both got up and we were fine. Our bikes weren't broken. My chain did get jammed between gears, but I was able to pull it out after a lot of frustration. But my bike is doing well. Both times I wrecked there it was right after it rained. I am pretty sure there is something really slick in that one spot. We were walking by it later and I almost slipped. So it is just a evil spot. Elder Weaver and I now call it "Satan's Corner".

Well, everything is going really well. All the investigators we have are really progressing. This week we met a man named Robin. When we first talked to him the first thing he said was "I have a question for you, why are you an elder? What did you do that was so great that your an elder? I'm a lot older than you, shouldn't I be an Elder?" We explained it to him. I told him I am going to be released in 9 months, and when that happens I will no longer be referred to as an Elder. Then he started asking questions about our missions. He thought what we are doing is really neat. Well, now he believes that what we share is true and he was at church this last sunday :) It was great! God really does lead us (members of the church) to the elect, and he leads them to us.

Everything is really just going fantastic. We have a lot of people we are teaching and they are all feeling the spirit and making the changes they need to. Since Elder Cardon last week I have been studying a lot about revelation and the spirit. WOW! I have learned a lot! Even on Sunday, Elders Quorom talked about revelation. It was really incredible. I have actually noticed a lot more promptings and revelations lately. In Elders Quorom we talked about the difference between promptings and revelation. Promptings was described as small thoughts we have that lead us to do good and to serve others. Revelation is powerful spiritual experiences where we learn something, and it has a profound impact on our lives and it is essential. I thought that was really neat. Then the Elders Quorom president challenged everyone to write down the revelation they recieve. So today, I went and bought a nice leather book. Really small so I can fit it in my suit coat pocket, and I am going to record the revelation I recieve on it.

So Stockton, how are you enjoying high school?

Micah, what are your plans for school? Are you going on your mission right when you turn 19 or are you going to school for a year? What's your plans?

I love you all! I am so excited for general conference! How about you? I love it!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Love

Elder Wise

AN AMAZING LETTER - WELCOME BABY TRYSEN! - Sept 17, 2012

WOW!!! The Wise family had an incredible week this week! Trysen is with us :) Congrats TnT :) Micah and Stock had a blast in Seattle!  BYU SHOULD HAVE WON!! And Elder Wise was blessed to take part in a baptism!! Sounds like it was amazing! Oh, and Elder Cardon of the first quorom of the Seventy came to our Zone Conference this last week! WOW!

 

Well, first off. Mom, an anesthesiologist (spelling?) does make a lot of money... but they also work a lot of hours. I want a monday through friday nine to five type things so I can be with my family. So that is why I am thinking maybe sports medicine or Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. I dont know about sports medicine. I know that PM&R is 9-5 m-f! And they make 300,000 a year. But I dont know for sure yet what I am going to do.

 

Anyways, that was scary hearing about everything that happened with the birth of Trysen. Thank goodness for medicine. Tish! You are a CHAMP!! Sister Barry (Mission President's wife) read to us a scripture in Moses 6:59-60. She started to give the symbolism of the birth into the world through the mother and being born again at baptism and the Atonement. When a mother gives birth she loses an immense amount of blood so that this baby might live. Sound familiar? Christ also lost an incredible amount of blood! I think that is very symbolic! Sister Barry quoted something her Doctor said. " If women knew how close they came to death when giving birth, they would never do it. I have seen so many women on the threshold of death, and then they come back. It is truly a miracle." WOW! Thank you so much Mom :) You are amazing! You too Tish!

 

Chris's baptism Saturday was amazing! You could really feel the spirit! I was blessed with the oppurtunity to perform the ordinance for Chris! It was an incredible experience. The font is broken. The water doesn't come out fast enough. So by the time of the baptism the water was only just above my knees. So you can imagine it was quite a task to get Chris fully immersed in the water. In fact, I couldn't quite get him all the way down the 1st time. But we got it the second time :) It was so great to see the change he has made.

 

I have definitely recieved a testimony lately that God is truly preparing people. Everything just seems to be coming togethor right now in this area. God is really blessing us. We found a really elect individual last Saturday. She wasn't able to come to church but she is really interested. We are meeting with her tomorrow. And we also have quite a few of other investigators who are really progressing along. There is a lady named Susan who is doing great! She has come to church 3 times in a row and is gaining a testimony. And then we are working with a family who has 2 unbaptized children who are preparing for baptism. And Colleen is still doing great! She is going to be going up to North Carolina in the ward her boyfriend lives in to be baptized over thanksgiving! So everything is going really well! We are excited for this area.

 

We had Zone Conference this week with Elder Cardon! Wow, he was really powerful. He talked about the Holy Ghost and following the promptings he gives us. He talked about the question we all have with spiritual promptings. "Is it from God or myself?" He told us to act on everything we think may be a prompting and he promised us that we would eventually come to recognize what is really from the Holy Ghost and whats not. But he just said ACT on it. What wrong could come? It reminded me of something President Monson said. "I want the Lord to know that if he has an errand to run, Tom Monson will run that errand." I love that! I want to get to the point where I can say that I follow all the promptings of the Holy Ghost that I recieve. It was really powerful!

 

Thank you so much for your love and for being diligent in raising me right. Teagen, Micah, and Stockton, thank you so much for the example you set. Especially you Teagen, if you wouldn't have gone on a mission, I probably wouldn't have either. In complete honesty, I dont think I would have. And I am so grateful for that because of how much I have learned on my mission. On my mission, I have found out what the Gospel of Christ actually is. I have found out that the Atonement is real! When I first came into my mission I always looked at the third lesson "the gospel of christ" as something that just needed to be taught before baptism. But it was nothing that big. I was WRONG! Everything revolves around the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Atonement. It is the principles and steps to access the enabling and forgiving power of the Atonement. And everything we do revolves around that. I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was restored in it's fulness through Joseph Smith! I know that Jesus Christ bled from every pore so that we might live! Just like Tish just suffered so Trysen could come to the earth to gain a body and learn and grow! I know that God created all of us and that he loves us very much! He is guiding our paths. I know he will take care of us as we keep his commandments.

 

I love you all! I hope you have an amazing week!

 

Elder Wise

Happy Birthday MICAH! - September 10, 2012

Hey :)

It sounds like Micah had a crazy week this week! :O But WOW!!! WAY TO GO! 1 WEEK to do ALL of that? I am very very impressed. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICAH!!!!!! I can't believe you are 18. One year and you will be on a mission! I am so excited for you!! :) Keep dominating in everything!! :)

Well, everything in Ocala is still doing great. Things are really going well. Chris is getting baptized this weekend. He is the one that got married. So I am really excited for him. Chris and I are pretty good friends I would say haha! He is just simply awesome!

Elder Weaver is doing great and we are getting along incredibly well! I forgot how stressful it was to train though. I got pretty stressed over this last week. Today we spent the entire pday shopping and cleaning and I just got sort of irritated because I basically don't get a pday. Basically, all the stress just built up but I am doing good now. Just did lots of praying :) Prayer is amazing! Like it says in 2 Nephi 32 that we must pray always. And the the evil spirit teacheth a man not to pray. I know that everytime I feel down, I don't feel like praying at all. But that is the time when I really need to pray. And it has really helped out today.

We have been getting a lot of referrals lately! We are going over to a members house tonight to teach a friend of his. And today we got a call from President Barry giving us a referral. Apparently a ward mission leader outside of our mission has been talking to his Dad about the gospel who lives in our area. And he wants us over :) So we have a lot of good things happening.

This Wednesday we have Zone Conference in Jacksonville. Elder Cardon from the first quorom of the seventy is coming to speak to us! I am really excited for it and IT WILL BE GREAT!

I am sorry! I don't have much else to write this week and we don't have too much time. :( But I love you all and I can't wait to hear from you next week!

Love

Elder Wise

GOOOOOOOO COUGARS! - Sept 3, 2012

Dear Family,

I got very excited when I heard about BYU. It is going to be fun watching them next year :)

Well, my new companion is Elder Weaver. Teagen, that reminds me of Kyle Weaver.. some guy in the NBA. Anyways, he went to the University of Utah before he came out.. I keep getting these Utes as companions haha. He is a music major at the U. He is great and we are getting along amazing! Dad, I have no pranks lined up for him. In the missionary handbook it tells us not to dot that. I sort of want to though. But I got to be obedient haha. He is from Kearns Utah which is just east of Salt Lake City.

For the package Mom, if you could send me a wallet that would be great! I am sick of not having something to carry my cards in. I just carry them in my pocket. haha. But other than that I am doing great :) And I am still working on those pictures but I will get them to you soon.

Hurricane Isaac wasn't that great for us :( We just got a little bit of rain but that is about it. 

TnT!!!! Trysen is coming on September 8th! It's going to happen. It is so weird to think that Mom and Dad are going to be grandparents. They don't seem old enough to have grandchildren haha.

But anyways, I am doing great! Just loving being a missionary. We have a lot going on here in Ocala right now. We have quite a few of investigators. So we are teaching quite a bit. Chris was supposed to get baptized this last week but some road bumps came up. But he is still going strong and preparing himself for baptism. He is such a great guy! 

We are also teaching a sister that is from Jamaica. And she is progressing really well. She is planning on getting baptized in December because her boyfriend will be down here. And her boyfriend lives in North Carolina and she wants him to be here for it. Her boyfriend is a member :)

And there are others we are teaching.

But, this week was fun. On thursday and friday we were walking all day because we were out of miles in our car and Elder Weaver didn't have a bike so we walked everywhere. the blessing of that was the fact that we got to talk to a ton of people on the street and we had a lot of success. It was a lot of fun.

We also realized that our tires on the car was wobbling. So we called the mission office to get permission to take it in. We got permission and we took it in to have it looked at and it turns out that all four wheels are bent. Missionaries before had been driving a little too fast over the pot holes right outside our house. Anyways, we got that fixed. And then on Friday I got a really sore throat. And on Saturday night I got really sick. At about 6pm I started to get a massive headache. And then at 8pm we went into a Sisters home where there is a lot of smoke. And I guess that might have trigured it. But I got really sick and I could hardly focus. I made it through the lesson. Our Bishop was out with us and he said "Elder Wise, are you feeling ok?" And of course I said no. We get home and I just sit next to the toilet for about an hour. And by that point I was just praying that I would throw up. And then I threw up and I felt a ton better. Then I got a blessing from the Elders in my apartment. I went to bed and woke up the next morning pretty sick. I have never missed a Sunday on my mission. So it was a little wierd thinking that I might miss a sunday. But at 10am I started feeling better. I went to church and I am soooooo glad I did.

Satan was really trying to keep me from church because every single lesson and talk had something I really learned from. Mainly all about charity, sacrifice and humility. And I felt the spirit powerfully. It is just miraculous to see God take care of me so I could make it to church and learn all of the things that I learned.

Anyways, I am feeling better and doing good.

Stockton, you are getting HUGE!!! I saw those pictures of you standing next to Mom... what is happening to you?

Micah, what are you doing for your eagle project?

I would love to go hiking up Mt St Helans by the way. That would be a ton of fun!

Love you, 

Elder Wise