March 27, 2016

Hello every one, this week has been great! so I keep learning more about my companion! He is good at everything he does! He was a skater and surfer before he came on the mission. and I found out this week that he can also do the "Melbourne shuffle" the dance style that we used to do back at home! This morning for workouts we just Melbourne shuffled around the kitchen to no music haha it was great! but this last p-day he had the crazy idea to build nun-chucks out of rolled up magazines and shoe laces, so thats what we are holding in the picture! We honestly wrestle every single day haha he is so much bigger than me but we have a great time! We both started to get some big bruises from messing around with the nun-chucks so we decided to destroy them hahaha we burried our weapons of war ;)

     Our area is going fantastic, we have had alot of organizing and cleaning to do though. We had a flat inspection on Thursday and there was no way we were going to pass, so we completely gutted the whole flat and got everything organized, and its true that the spirit cannot dwell in unclean places! so I would like to leave the invitation that parents always leave, to clean your room! it doesn't just make you and your parents happy but it really invites the spirit! and also while cleaning out this forbidden closet we found hundreds of old teaching records that we are now sorting through, we have already found one new investigator named Glen from the pile!  cleaning is awesome!

     So we are working with a few families and they are so close to baptism! James Latu is a 19 year old and he loves the gospel and he comes to church every sunday, but he has no where to live so he lives under the same roof of his girlfriend and her family. . . . and so he cant be baptized until he moves out, but we will be meeting with him tomorrow! and another family, the Lomu family, they are part Samoan and the four kids have just recently been baptized but the mom and dad are not married yet and so they are trying to get married soon! When we went to visit them last week they had been reading their scriptures and having a wonderful family home evening! It was great! and we found some new investigators last week! We are going to be so busy this next week. I love it. 

      We had an amazing experience on Easter sunday, we decided to go visit a man in the ward named bro Poole, he is in a terminal care unit with a progressing desease, it started in his feet where he lost the ablilty to move his toes and progressed up his body until now he can only move his head and talk! He can't live with his family or do any of the things he used to do. So we decided to go visit to see if their was anything we could do to help, when we walked in their were all of the gospel pictures covering the walls and he was listning to the Book of Mormon audio tape and just smiling away! All of the trials that he has gone through recently have only strenghtened his testimony, later in our conversation we got talking about missionary work, bro Poole is amazing! every person that comes into the room he bears testimony to them of the divinity of Christ and how it has blessed his life. This man is confined to a wheelchair and is unable to do anything for himself was inviting everyone within the sound of his voice to learn more about Christ! I am so thankful that we have this gospel in our lives! It means everything to me, all of the happiness that I have felt relates back to the gospel and blessings! I know that Christ lives and that because of him we are able to change! I'm thankful for the gift of the Holy Ghost that comforts and guides me through life, and I know that if I follow the promptings I will make it back to live with my loving Heavenly Father! happy Easter everyone, I hope you felt the spirit of the lord! I love Him and He loves us! He is with us always

have an amazing week 

love Elder Wiser!

the Australian sunset

This is our district leader council! In the front is my companion Elder Ferris and behind him Sister Tupu and Almond are the sister training leaders and then Elder Scott on the back left is in my old ward in Churchill Park and Elder Kini Kini is a district leader in the zone! love them all

We had to go to the city for a fire side! the city is huge! 

these are the elders that I came to Australia with! love them

so this is my companion! Elder Ferris

March 20, 2016

Hello everyone! It has been a very crazy two weeks with lots of changes, I don't know if you know or not but last Tuesday I got another call from president (scary every time) and he asked me if I would move to another area mid transfer. So I packed my stuff and moved to a new area called Dandenong! its so amazing here, it has some big markets that make it feel like the city but its mostly suburb, our area is not very big but there are three sets of missionaries in the Dandenong ward. We have the assistants to the president and the sister training leaders and then us! but when I came into the area it didn't have an area book and some of the organization had been lost during some recent changes but last week we got every thing back in order! and so this week we are really excited to get in and get to work! 

       My companions name is Elder Ferris! I don't even know where to start, he is fantastic! He is from Perth, but he was born in new Zealand! He is the youngest of sixteen children! He slightly resembles "the rock" and he has the best "Arnold Swartzenager" (pardon spelling) impersonation! He weighs 120 kgs and that is about 265 pounds so when we wrestled this week he totally destroyed me! He is an amazing teacher, and He is very talented at finding! Im excited to be able to learn from him and serve with him! I wish I could tell you more about the investigators in the area but I don't know very many yet. We are working with a nine year old named Nathan. his family is less active but they are wanting to make some changes. we think he will be baptized in April. and we set up some appointments for this week that look really promising. There are a lot of humble people in this area. 

       So the missionaries in this area are notorious for . . . . . you guessed it Basketball! like the one sport that I never practiced haha, so a couple of time a week the AP's come pick us up at 5:30 and they all play a basketball game while I am alone on the other hoop practicing my shots! one day I will be good!

       This area is going to be so good! Im really excited for  this next week. expecially easter! We are hoping that peoples hearts will be softened and more open to learn about Jesus Christ and his Gospel! this morning I read an amazing chapter of the Book of Mormon! its 3 Nephi 27  it talks about Jesus Christ being the perfect sacrifice for mankind and what role he plays in our life! but one thing really stood out to me, this is after Jesus had left the deciples and it says that they went around teaching and baptizing in his name, but then they all had the question of "what should we name this church" and so they spent time fasting and praying and it says that Christ came down in the midst of them and gave them and asked have you read the scriptures they say to do everything in my name, so name the church after me. and it just made me think that all my questions can be answered through fasting and pray, He might not come stand next to me and tell me personally, but he has already answered them through the scriptures and through modern prophets and through leaders friends and family! Christ loves us and he wants us to be able to find answers, all we have to do is ask and we will receive and knock and it will be opened unto us! I know that Christ lives and that he paid the price for us! I love him, and Im so grateful that I have the blessing of the gospel in my life! have an amazing easter weekend! and if you have the chance to read 3 Nephi 27 with a question in mind then do it, because its amazing, and you will get an answer! I love you all have a great week

 

Love Elder Wiser

March 15, 2016

Sorry I didn't email yesterday, there was a public holiday and I had to pack and move yesterday! So Elder Long my last zone leader went home. It was his time! He lives in North Ogden, his name is Elder Richard long he was on the golf team at Weber and his home coming talk is on Easter Sunday at the chapel by Cole Kendall's house at 11 I think! He was awesome!

My new companion is fantastic! Elder William ferris! He has been a zone leader for the last 6 months and he is showing me the ropes! He is from Perth Australia and he is about 6 ft and 265 pounds and straight muscle! We did heaps of pull ups today at a construction site for work outs! He can still do a standing backflip! But he is also so spiritual! I'm so excited to serve with him!

Dandenong (dandy-nong) is how you say it and I don't know the address to our apartment but the mission has been putting a big push on sending all mail through the mission office at 76 cathies lane. :)

My allergies are not bad! My new area is very very fruitful! My companion is a gun! and I'm really really happy! I honestly pray everyday that you can feel of my love but also how happy I am! My mission is going great! I know I'm bad at emailing, but everything is good! My new ward is all Samoan or Chinese! I'm pretty sure I'm the only white person. They are so humble! I won't be able to send a weekly letter this week but I will next week! It's so good to hear from you!

March 6, 2016

So this Tuesday we had an amazing experience, we were asked to teach the Faith in God (which is primary) ages 8-12 year olds, for two hours. We were assigned to teach the articles of faith 4 and 5. These kids were amazing most of them already knew them by heart! But I didnt realize how hard it is to teach 8 year olds haha they have an attention span of maybe 30 seconds! They were like rolling on the floor and jumping of the tables. But Jordan balmes our ward mission leader pulled out some lollies and the kids all sat down and folded their arms. i thought it was so funny! but we only tought for 10 minutes and they we just played soccer for the next hour. hopefully they learned something! 

     So this week elder o vincent hallock of the area 70 came and toured our mission! It was so fantastic. on tuesday we had a meeting with half of the mission and President Maxwell and his wife and Elder Hallock and his wife. And before we started he wanted to shake all of our hands so we got in a huge line and it was finaly my turn and right before I shake his hand, President Maxwell says "Elder Wiser is it alright if we go in the hall for a second, I need to talk to you" . . .. . and again my heart just dropped. He let my shake Elder Hallocks hand first but then we walked out into the hall and I'm sure he could see how nervous I was. I started to think if there was anything that I had done wrong or hopefully something I had done good. Then he just asked me if I would give a talk on repentance in the middle of the conference. . . . . .in front of him and his wife, the area 70, some stake presidents and their families, and over 100 missionaries. So I just casually said "I would love to" but really I was pretty nervous. We recieved so much good advice from Elder Hallock as he trained about planning and how it is always needed and how to use family history as a missionary tool! it was amazing. But then it was my turn to speak and I felt like he would have chosen a couple of people but nope it was just me and then two sisters bore their testimonies. I'm not going to lie, I think it was probably the worst talk I have ever given but everyone was still so nice and Elder Hallock said that it was an amazing talk. I can't even remember what I talked about haha. 

       I sent some pictures with the birds on my shoulder. Those are wild birds cockatoos and they are huge! They have been feed by tourists and so they are really confortable around humans and so all i had to do is put out a piece of bread ( gluten free garlic bread) and they climbed all over me! It was so crazy, I kinda laughed when I thought about the birds in Pleasant View Utah. . . I don't think their are any left;) but they left all of these crazy scratch marks all over my arms and shoulders!

      We got a new bishop this week and his name is Bishop Bonafacio he is amazing! He talked to us already about how he is really excited about missionary work and the plans that he has to use us! blessings. 

      So this week was my birthday. and I didn't really want to tell anyone, but Elder Liu and Morones remebered and got me a birthday gift and then I went to a DLC meeting which is the zone leaders and the district leaders and the sister training leaders and they found out some how and after the meeting they had bought a cake for one of the sisters who's birthday was in two days and then they got me gluten free rice cakes because they couldnt find any gluten free cake haha it was so kind of them to think about me! and then we had another meeting at Jordan Balmes house. and Mom you sent him all of those videos! That was the most amazing surprise! It was so good to see your faces! I was honestly so happy! I was so awkward in the video that I sent back but it really caught me off guard haha! it was the greatest birthday ever! thank you so so so so so so much! 

      This week was amazing! I have been loving studying the end of the new testiment and it talkes alot about how saints should act and love everyone! I think its in 2 Peter it is talking about if we claim to follow Christ we need to love everyone as Christ loves them, that really stood out to me! We are all loved the same by our Heavenly Father. If we pay close attention then we will be used as instruments to answer others prayers! I know that Heavenly Father hears and will answer our prayers and I'm so grateful that I can have the gospel in my life, I grow everysingle day because of it! 

I love you all have a great week!

so this is my follow up trainer elder liu ( mission dad) and elder morones (mission son) and they are serving together now haha what a coincidence! and they got me a birthday present! if you cant tell its a guitar, it was so kind but were not aloud to have them so i have to give it to the office haha

these are wild cacatoos (pardon spelling) they have gotten fed by tourists and so i held out a piece of bread and they coverd me  haha it was great!

my zone got me rice cakes becuase they couldnt find a gluten free cake hahha

 jordan balmes got me an australian flag to hang up by my american flag! and some really nice ties and a notepad that has australian money printed on it so i could remember what it looked like! he is the man! he is so excited to see you 

February 28, 2016

Last monday we had a miracle, we went over to a families house for dinner. They are active members but for some reason we could not find out what lesson we should share with them, everything we suggested didnt feel right. So we both finally decided on teaching the restoration to them, and when we showed up for dinner we figured out why. They had a distant relative who needed a place to stay, his name is Jay, he is 20 years old and he is traveling the world, he is from Canada. 

We had an amazing dinner and when it came time for the lesson we had already planned for the restoration so we asked if we could share it with the family! The spirit was very strong and the lesson went really well! He committed to praying and asking for truth! We will follow up with him on Tuesday! but I thought it was really cool that the Holy Ghost warned us ahead of time what we would be teaching even though we had no idea that an investigator would be there! 

       Update on Ernie, he is still having commitment problems, he can't decide if he wants to be baptized and then we are having a hard time getting ahold of him because of his training. so we are pretty gutted about that.

      This week I got the privalege to conduct another baptisimal interview, they are so amazing. We just get to ask these questions and listen to people bear their testimony, and listen to the spirit to see if they are prepared to be baptized. We showed up to the appt. and I figured out that the family doesn't speak English. so I would ask the question in English, and the translator would change it to Samoan, and I would listen to the answer in Samoan and English, but the spirit is not bound by different languages, the spirit was there when she was testifying in Samoan! and she was really excited about getting baptized!

     Last story for the week, we went on exchanges with the pre-missionaries in the ward and this pre-missionary (Andre) and I had a great experience! We decided to visit this less active/recent convert who got offended and has struggled to get back to church. Her name is Julie and she has a wonderful 4 year old daughter named Olivia! She is so hyper active she was drawing on everything, and pulling out all of her toys to show us, and she ended up spilling koolaid all over my pants haha. but she was so cute. We shared a little message about prayer and told some experiences of our prayers getting answered and then out of no where Olivia said "I want to pray, can I pray?" and Julie said yes and asked if I would teach her how to pray. Teaching a four year old how to pray is challenging but we finally got it down and she was ready to try. This was her prayer "Dear Heavenly Father, please bless . . . . cake. . . in the name of Jesus Christ amen." haha it was so cute but we told her to pray for things she is thankful for and things she needs and she tried again. " Dear Heavenly Father, please bless . . . . cake  and chocolate. . . in the name of Jesus Christ amen." It was a really funny experience but then I had the realization, how often do I pray exactly like that? Heavenly Father probably smiles down on us and gives a little chuckle when we pray for things that in the long run don't make a difference. Sure chocolate and cake would be really nice to have, but they don't help us draw closer to Jesus Christ. and so I was taught a lesson by a cute four year old girl and the spirit this week! Heavenly Father hears our prayers but he also knows EXACTLY what we need, and EXACTLY what will help us the most. and those are the things that he gives to us! so I commited myself to pray more sincerely, and I would like to extend that invitation for you to do the same!  I love you all have an amazing week.

love Elder Wiser