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

February 21,2016

Hello Everyone! 

So I know that I say this everytime but its so true! This week was amazing! It went by way to fast, but here are some of the things that happened!

     So update on Ernie, he sorta dissapeared this week! He wouldn't answer the door or his phone and he didnt show up to church, so we will try and figure out what happened this week. On Sunday we were at church an hour early and we decieded that the only way to get Ernie to church was to drive the half hour up and half hour back to pick him up! So we grabbed our ward mission leader Jordan Balmes and asked him to follow us up so that Ernie could ride in his car back. So we started this drive up and for some reason Jordan kept falling behind! So I started to slow down and wait and slow down some more and I realized that he stayed consistantly 20 kilometers under the speed limit! There were like fifty cars lined up behind us on these winding skinny roads and they were honking and flashing their lights but he just stuck to what he felt confortable with! All I could do was laugh the whole way hahah. But when we got there Ernie didn't answer the door or his phone and so we just had to drive back down to church . . . going 20 kilometers under the speedlimit the whole way;) 

        We had zone conferences this week and that is where two zones and President Maxwell and his wife and the assistants to the president all gather together and have alot of trainings! and I was asked to give a training . . . . great! so I used some information that Shayna sent down to me about preach my gospel and the missionary purpose and mixed it with one of my favorite hobbies, fly fishing! It turned out alright, I had a hard time explaining how to fly fish but it was all fun!

      This week we got a referal to a man named Jonah he is from Sudan, he was in the hospital room number 36 west wing! So we went to the hospital and walked to the west wing and asked for room number 36 and when we pushed back the curtain we instantly knew it was the wrong room! Inside of this room was a greiving family whose father had just passed away from a strange virus. We had no idea what to do, so we just stood there! After a minute one of the sons took us out into the hall and we were able to talk to him, we told him that we had been sent to the room number 36 wich is true but for some reason was the wrong room! and that we were sorry for the loss and asked if we could help but he declined. So we went on the search for the actual room and it was on the other side but we finally found Jonah and talked to him about his life and talked alittle bit about the restoration and we will hopefully be meeting with him this week if he gets out of hospital! 

        But this week I have really had the strong impression about the sabboth day! Sunday is such a blessing, it is a day that we can relax from the world and focus fully on our relationship with our heavenly father! It is a day of spiritual revelation, if we take a quesiton to church every sunday and are prepared to recieve the answer then we will recieve spiritual promptings! I know that the heavens are not closed, we live in a time of miracles! Heavenly Father is reaching out to us!

I love you all have an amazing week

Love Elder Wiser

February 14, 2016

Hello everyone!

It has been another wonderful week down under! It's still really really hot down here! 

I want to start this weeks email out with a miracle. I don't know if you remember one of our former investigators named Ernie! He was the17 year old 6 ft 7 one that is going to play American football (grid iron). We were devastated because we could not get contact with him. He seemed so sincere but then all of a sudden he stopped answering our calls and texts and wouldn't answer the door! So it has been about a month since we made contact with him.Eelder Garcia-kempf and I were doing some tracting, and the phone starts to go off, when I saw that it was Ernie I was super confused. But when I answered he was super happy and all he said was! "I have been really busy, sorry that we haven't got in contact, but when can I meet you next?" He lives really far away and so I told him that we would be in his area tomorrow, and that we were excited to talk to him then. but then he said. . . . "can you come over right now?" So after our dinner appointment we drove the half hour to get to his home! We had no idea what he was going to tell us but he started to talk about how he was invited to go play grid iron (football) in a Utah high school! There were a few thoughts that went through my head first of all "darnit! we wont be able to teach him because he is moving" and then second "oh . . . .that's why other schools have such good sports teams, they recruit from all around the world!!!!!" But the second thought wasn't very important. He went on to explain that he will be flying to Provo Utah on March 15th to play football for Timpview high school (I don't know how to spell that school) and the last week all he could think about was the missionaries, and so he prayed and received an answer to his prayers that he needs to be baptized as soon as possible!!! you should have seen my face when he turned and said "Elders I need to be baptized, when is the next baptisimal date?" so we told him that he needs to go through all of the lessons and he needs to come to church twice. and he agreed! That was an amazing miracle! We had stake conference this week and he said he was coming but we didn't see him there, but maybe he just came through a different door!  

      So dumb story for the week! We were asked to do service for this amazing 89 year old lady in the ward! She needed to have some concrete layed and tons of weeds pulled and some clothes lines built and some trees cut down etc. So we got some other elders to come with us and we spent four hours working super hard out in the sun! but it payed off because the cement turned out really nicely! We were kinda joking about how every artist signs his work and how we should sign it, and a shed would be covering the cement so it wouldn't matter if we wrote our names in it. So right before we left I just reached down and scratched a large WISER in the corner. . . . . .sadly I soon found out that the shed would cover all of the cement. . .exept the six inch front edge where I had managed to write my name! So that poor woman will have to see my name scratched into her cement every time she goes to the shed! haha. I felt so dumb! But she wasn't mad at all she kept saying that now she will remember me hahaha! I will sent some pictures! I got sunburned pretty bad! This is a public apology to my wonderful father! I am sorry Dad for falling asleep in the car every time we drove, because on our way back from the service project we got stuck in traffic for 40 minutes and everyone in the car took a nap hahah except me because that's dangerous.

      We have been giving this spiritual thought to a lot of the ward members! It is a well known story out of the bible it is found in mark 5:25-35 It is about the woman with an issue of blood! This woman had so many challenges, because of her sickness she was considered an unclean person and anybody that touched her or that she touched was also considered an unclean person by law. she had sold every thing that she had to pay the doctors but they could not heal her. I can't even imagine how alone she must have felt! But she heard about Jesus Christ and had faith enough to fight through a crowd and touch the edge of his clothing! What amazes me from her experience is how much faith she had! There were people all around Christ, bumping into him and touching him with out even noticing what they were doing, just happy to be close to Him. But this woman, with only one touch was healed instantly of all of her afflictions! This question came to mind. Do we relate more to the crowd or the woman with the issue of blood? Do we have faith that we can be cleansed when ever we come in contact with Christ, whether it be through our personal nightly prayers, or at the sacrament table on Sunday? This had a profound effect on me! I know that our Savior can heal us, and that he is always right there wating for us! All we have to do is have the faith that we can be healed! I know that Christ lives and that through Him we can have eternal life! I'm so glad that I am able to have the knowledge that there is more beyond this life, and I feel so blessed that I am able to have two years to focus on sharing it! If you have any friends that are struggling share the peace that comes from the message of Christ!!! It will bless you and them!  I love you all so much.

Have a great week

Love Elder Wiser

February 7, 2016

Wow another week!

Hello family! so this has been another crazy week! My new companion Elder Garcia-Kempf is so kind! He is a very sincere missionary! He is from spain and he has been out for 22 months! He likes to talk and so we get along really well! So his native language is Spanish and we knocked on this door and a Spanish lady answered and so they start speaking to each other in Spanish and they are going rapid fire! I was trying to figure out what they were saying to each other and trying to remember back to that Spanish class that I went to in high school! and then all of a sudden she turns so me, still speaking rapid fire Spanish, and ask me a question. . . . . . and so I just said "quatro" which means four in Spanish. And then she just smiled and nodded and when back to speaking to my companion. It turns out that she had asked me how many kids were in my family and I answered correctly in her language! It was actually really cool. I don't know exactly how it happened but I just kinda knew what she was trying to say! but I was also fasting at the time so that could have easily been a spiritual blessing! 

       And I learned a really cool lesson this week! In Elders Quorum we were discussing the first presidency message from Elder Uchtdorf and he was talking about the planes coming into land during a wind storm. and how the pilots have to stay calm and not fight the controls and just focus on the center of the run way! and it took me back to a lesson that my dear mother had taught me when we were camping. I was reminded of a time that momma Laura and I were motorcycling. I remember that I was having problems avoiding the deep grooves in the ground. I would look at them and say "I don't want to get stuck in that" but then sure enough I would get stuck in it. It seemed like my back tire was a magnet to these ruts and if my back tire got stuck in them it completely changed to direction I wanted to go and it took some serious work to get out of them and back onto the flat ground. I had expressed this to my mom and she told me that the best way to avoid the ruts was to not look at them, to just focus on the path that I wanted to travel and "give it the gas and go." 

       

       I was pondering how the trials and problems that we have in life are a lot like these deep nasty ruts. We don't want to get stuck in them but they seem to be everywhere. We look at them and we are like wow, that is a really big problem that I have and I would really like to avoid it. But the more and more we focus on all of the bad we are going through the more and more problems seem to pop up and it might feel like we get stuck. Uchtdorf explained that the way to find strength and happiness is by focusing on Jesus Christ and not focusing on all of the bad that is going on around us. Heavenly Father wants us to be happy and he sent his son to be a perfect example for us and if we focus on him then we will make it to our destination! It wont be perfect there will still be some bumps and sometimes we might fall over and get scratched but if we keep getting up and trying again then we will make it to our final destination, to live with our Heavenly Father again! and I know that by focusing on Christ that we will make it! I love you all and I hope that you have an amazing week! Thank you so much for all the support!

Love Elder Wiser

January 31, 2016

I'm pretty sure that January didnt exist because it went by so fast! I feel like yesterday I was on skype calling home and now its February! It has been a really good week! There was some definite miracles in Churchill Park ward! The ward has been making missionary orientated goals and so everyone is getting really excited about missionary work and they have been asking for materials to hand out to their friends and neighbors! It makes me so happy to have the support of the ward! and there are a few part-member families that have been coming to church! There are three Philipeno families and all of the husbands are non-members and they are all related! So they throw these big BBQ's Philipeno style and invite us to come and then we get to share spiritual thoughts at the end to this huge group of people! Its really amazing! and there was a 20 year old girl that moved in with a family in the ward! her name is Bridget! she likes to sit in on the messages that we share with the family and we are going to invite her to start taking the lessons really soon!

      This week we were able to have interviews with President Maxwell! its always so amazing to talk to that man, the spirit shows in his countinence. so after a long wait it was finally my turn to be interviewed and it was a really short one! basically he asked me if I was good? I said yes. He asked me if Elder Morones is an obedient missionary? I said yes? He asked how the family was? I said good. and then we had a prayer. haha it was not long at all but it honestly inspired me so much! I know that President Maxwell is called of God to be the mission president. In the white hand book it says that, a leaders influence is best felt when the missionary feels the leaders love and sincerety, and I know that President Maxwell really cares about me and wants me to succeed! I feel like the same applies to all leaders in the church! They really do care about us and they want us to succeed!  and they are willing to do all that they can to help us accomplish that.

        Big news again! last night the phone starts ringing really late and I though who would be calling this late! I have nobody that I need to talk to tonight! I pick up the phone and there is a big "PRESIDENT MAXWELL" on the screen  . .. . .I answered again and basically we had a simular conversation that we had in December! Elder Morones is getting emergency transfered to a place called Rose Bud. He leaves tomorrow! and I will be getting an Elder that has only one month left on his mission! his name is Elder Garcia-Kempf! but dont worry Elder Morones and I are not the cause. I feel bad for Elder Morones, he has already been emergency transfered twice from his trainers and he has only been out for two months. He is an amazing missionary though! and he will do great! I will update you more if I find anymore information about the sudden transfer. So the next day will be us packing up and preparing Elder Morones to leave his first area!

      But I am loving the mission! it is honestly the best thing that I could be doing! Its definately a growing experience but I have really realized how much Gods hand is in the work! He strengthens me every single day and gives me the energy that I need! I know this because me, Elder Wiser, could not accomplish the things that have been happening by myself! I can feel the extra strength and peace fill my heart every single day. and just as I know that my leaders love me I know that Christ loves me and he wants me to succeed even more! He knows how to best help me and he is doing it! I really pondered this scripture this week prov 3:5-6 the lord will direct us!

I love you all have a great week