September 11, 2016

Hello amazing people. this last week we had a moment of silence for September 11th . . . which is today for you but yesterday for me. It was a very scary time, I was too young to remember but people in Australia remember watching it on the news fearing that the world was going to end soon. and there are a lot of things to fear today as well. But I have found peace in the fact that the truth is on the earth. That there is a life beyond this one and that all of the trials and struggles we go through are for a reason. Even if we feel like there is no point and completely alone, then we can rely on Christ who has felt everything that we have ever felt, and rely on him to strenghten us! the Gospel (good news) is such a peaceful message and I feel very blessed to share it with others. I have been recieving some missionary experiences that people from home have had lately. and i love it, if you have any more missionary experiences I would love to hear about them.

     This week was pretty busy, we had quite a lot of meetings and a lot of traveling but there has been many mighty miracles. We found a new lady to teach her name is Nicole. We found her by trying to find an unknown member, but the member had moved and she lived in the house. She didn't seem very interested at first but was very kind and kept inviting us back. and this week we took a member of the ward (Bro Va'a) to teach with us. and he invited her to come to a family home evening with him. So tonight we will be having a family home evening with Bro Va'a and his young family, Nicole and her young family (she is 22) and also bishop and his young family! We are so excited. Nicole and her husband seem so prepared to accept the gospel, she hasn't had any concerns yet, she just says "ya we would love to" whenever we invite them to anything. so humble! 

Also Elder Halsey had a spiritual prompting to visit a in-active man. Usually they are not home but this time he opened the garage right as we were walking away and invited us to talk to him. He expressed that he had just been thinking about the church and how he really needs to go back after 35 years of inactivity. Gods timing is perfect. His ways are higher than our ways and so sometimes his timing doesn't make sense to us, but when we follow him we will always be strengthened! I love love the gospel so much, Christ is truly the prince of peace. The spirit will always prompt us to do the right thing, and when we have the faith to follow miracles will present themselves! This church is true. I love you all 

have an amazing week

love Elder Wiser

this is the fluffiest felion that i have ever seen. so we took pictures haha.

this is the teremates, who teach temple prep and two of the youth that are preparing to go to the temple, they took us to a place called the lynbrook hotel, and its an all you can eat buffett! i was stoked, lots of gluten free options.

and this is a shirt that bro Fesolai gave to us, he is the man that elder halsey was prompted to see! 

September 4, 2016

Hello everyone! It was another great week in the great Cranbourne ward of zion! This last sunday was fathers day in Austalia, so happy Australian fathers day to everyone! We got fed right after church by a Samoan family, and they cooked a mui. . .which is like a full pig that they cook on a bunch of rocks on the ground. It was pretty good. They had like raw fish salads and this thing called luao . . I dont know how to say it but it is taro (which is a vegatable) chopped up and mixed with coconut cream and wrapped in coconut leaves and then baked for a very long time. It comes out like this dark brown mush but it tastes very good. Then we got fed again at a cook islanders home! I thought I was going to explode. But needless to say we get taken care of down here!

      This last week was really great we were able to go on exhanges with the assistants to the president, they have been doing short training exhanges with as many people as they can, so it wasnt because I am disobedient hahaah ;) but I was able to go with the newly called AP and his name is Elder Jeremia, it was only a short exchange but it really strenghtened my testimony of leaders. They are called of god to help us! He said that he didn't know what he was doing, but his example made a world of difference in our area, he gave some advice which he thought was random but it was exactly what I needed to hear. I thought that that experience was so cool because sometimes we (like this new assistant) don't feel like we are helping people but in reality we are helping people more than we can ever imagine. Just like Abinidi, as long as we are following the spirit we will be instruments in gods hands. It reminded me also of Samuel Smith, Joseph Smiths younger brother! He was the first missionary to be called on a full time mission. His first mission was for three years and nobody joined the church because of him, he felt like a failure. during that time they sold book of Mormons and nobody wanted to buy any so he ended up giving one away to a reverend for another church his name was reverend green, at the time he wasn't interested but later Reverend Green's wife read the Book of Mormon and felt the spirit and they both were converted. That same Book of Mormon fell into the hands of Brigham Young, who became the second prophet of the church. So even though Samuel felt like a failure, he was the first contact that Brigham Young had with the church. by small things are great things brought to pass! I love you all 

have a great week

love Elder Wiser

we found this sign in a retirement village and so we took a bunch of photos next to him. . he turned out to be a great missionary;)

August 28, 2016

I have had a really great week this week! We have seen quite a few little miracles that are helping the ward to progress! The ward has started to give us a lot of really solid refferals that we will be teaching next week. Last week we were able to go and teach a man named Navi, he was a refferal from a ward member! he is from India and is very active in the seek religion but he was open to listing and learning, it might take a while but the spirit was present in the lesson and he felt it. My companion and I are getting along great! The ward we are in takes such good care of us! I know that this is where I am supposed to be! The Lord has placed people in my path that help me progress and he uses us to help others progress! I had a very amazing study of 2 ne 9. I would like to invite you all to read that! It talks about the need for a Savior! We would be helpless if it wasn't for Jesus Christ! I'm so thankfull for his atonement! I love you all

have a great week
love Elder Wiser

We traveled to a baptism and it took us through the city! Way too crowded

but this is the house of one of the wards recent convert and he collects all of the transformers! and i am pretty facinated by them haha some of them are like two feet tall! thats crazy!

August 21, 2016

Hello everyone! It has been an amazing week in the great Australia Melourne Mission! AMM. We got transfer news this week. and . . . . . . . . Elder Halsey and I get to stay another transfer! We are excited ! It's going to be amazing.

So last week we were able to go to Philips Island at the bottom of Australia! it was great. We got to see koalas, they don't really do much, but it was really cool to see them. and we went to the beautiful look out on the other side of the island! It feels like it was fake because it was so beautiful! I hope you like the pictures.

     So we are still working with that woman named Barbara, she is so kind, she had a good meeting with bishop and enjoys being taught, her baptism is planned for this weekend, we will let you know hoe it goes. and we recieved some tender mercies. We had a weekly planning session and talked about a lot of things we could do to find more poeple to teach and so we took those ideas to the Lord in prayer. Right after we walked out to get in the car, our neigbor accross the street waved to me and said "what do you do?" GOLDEN QUESTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so I walked over and we started to chat! It turns out that he has a wife and three teenage kids and his wife and him split up after 20 years just the day previous. He was struggling! He said when he saw us he felt like we could help for some reason and so he called us over. He laughed because he was asking advice from a 19 year old when he has a 20 year old son hahaha but he still listened. He had to go so we set up a return appointment. Such a miracle. We prayed sincerely and then Heavenly Father answered us, I know that it was not a coincidence. And then two amazing families in the ward gave us some solid referals that we will be teaching! Heavenly Father really does love each of us and he wants to answer our prayers, all we have to do is try our best! I love being on the mission because we get to see miracles like this all the time. But these miracles can be seen anywhere they are sought after!

have a great week

 love Elder Wiser

we went to philip island in the mission van elder jeremiah elder jensen and elder fiaui and elder jensen and elder halsey and myself!

koalas

the look out on philips island

and us by our broken shed

 random pictures an eclips with the moon

this is the teremate family, all the missionaries just call them Mum and Dad. they take such good care of us!

August 14, 2016

This week went by so fast, we had a lot of meetings and traveled around a lot. We had zone conference, and that is where we get to meet with our zone and President and sister Vidmar, and the assistants to the president. Its an all day meeting and its always so amazing. Its always good to spend time with President and Sister Vidmar. They are such an amazing couple. After the meeting President Vidmar and I had our handstand contest. There were like 50 missionaries watching and so we did it in the middle of the gym, neither of us moved for about 60 seconds but then I started to loose my balance and walking around on my hands. But I kept staying up and we both started to wobble around 1 min and 45 seconds and then he fell first. haha the video is so funny because everyone goes crazy. For some reason there had been a lot of pre-handstand hype and people were looking forward to it. Now the whole mission is practicing handstands and they always ask me what the technique is! but I think that he let me win this round and so we will schedule another one!

My companion and I are doing really well, Elder Halsey and I are always laughing and we get along really well, the ward that we are in has so many kind people and so we have been trying to meet them all. I had a really good experience this week because we had a stake conference on Saturday and Sunday! and they talked about family history and temples! Temples are the greatest thing, we can be sealed together with our families. . forever. It just made me realize even more how perfect Gods plan is for us. During one of the talks, they were talking about temples but I started to get answers to different unrealated questions that I had asked earlier in the week. Revelation is truth given from God to us! and when we are sitting in the right place with the right attitude then we are elligable for revelation. all we have to do is come with questions and look for answers. When we fast without a purpose then we are just starving, and when we attend meetings without a purpose then we are starving ourselves of revelation. I love this church because everything we do is to strengthen our faith and relationship with Jesus Christ. The closer we draw to him the more joy we can have, but sometimes we find ourselves farther away than we want to be, and that is when his grace, love, and Atonement kick in. 

when we make mistakes that seperate us from him, then He can forgive us and let is love heal the pain, and then we can feel joy again! I know that the trials we go through strenghten us and help us to draw closer to him (ether 12:27) 

I love you all

have a great week

Love Elder Wiser

August 7, 2016

Stanton didn't have time to write a letter today - but he just sent these pictures. He is loving Australia and every part of his mission.

this is part of my mission intake at the mission home.

and these are three of the weber worriors elder wheeler, howell and myself. and the guy on the left likes weber but he went somewhere else. haha

July 31, 2016

This week was really good. Time has been flying so fast. We have seen a lot of good things going on. We have been finding some new people to teach, and there are some people that really want to be baptised in August. Which is exactly what we help people with. but we had a couple of "build ups" and that means people that build up our hopes and then don't pull through. We had one investigator that called us out of nowhere and said he wanted to be baptised he had been taught all the lessons but just needed a refresher and so we met with him and taught him but then he went home and blocked our phone number haha so that was odd, but maybe now is not his time. and one of the other ones named Joel has been working a lot and hasn't responded back to us. But The Lords time is perfect. absolutly perfect. and so I know that he will take care of those two souls and they will have their time. 

        Elder Halsey and I are getting along great! He is so funny, and he is a good teacher as well. We have this new competition going on. and its bowling. We have a good bowling alley in our area and we got permission to go on Mondays and so we bowled this week with the whole zone. I didn't realize how competitive missionaries were but I won one game and lost really really bad the next two. They were all laughing at me and saying that it was the pride cycle in action. Sometimes we feel like we are doing really good and we get cut down haha. But we all have weeknesses that we may be humble (Ether 12:27) and when we are humble our weeknesses become strengths. I know that God wants us to succeed. He will give us the opportuninties that will shape us into the best person. Sometimes they aren't the ones we want but Gods timing is perfect.

I love you all! have a fantastic week

has anyone had any missionary stories?

love elder wiser

this is a very nice salad from the Mcdonalds down here taking the healthy alternatives.

this is our shed in the back yard. . . . .kinda got destroyed in the wind storms haha

and this is our ward mission leader. . . he is honestly the funniest guy haha 

this is a picture of about half the zone after zone P-day