What the.. its MAY 20!!

HOLA!!

 

How is everyone this week??  Let me just say that I have had a crazy amazing week her in the great DONNA Texas =D  We had a baptism yesterday!! YAYAYAYAY!!!!  AH man fam, it was seriously amazing.  Ruby Villalobos Guerra was baptized yesterday.  She is truly a wonderful girl.  She is 9 years old and just as bright as they come.  Her dad is a return missionary and her mom is a convert of 2 years.  They have been less active- but Ruby has helped them get all back to church.  It really is amazing.  Her dad was able to baptize her and the spirit was really there.   It was exactly what the family needed.  I feel so blessed to be able to be a part of it.  Ruby asked me to say the closing prayer and to play the piano for all the songs.  Haha -yup- I am the favorite missionary ;) hah chiste(joke). But it was really neat.  I am going to miss teaching her! but i am sure we will keep meeting every once in a while to do family nights with the Guerra family!.

OH MY GOODNESS!! SOOOOOOO many miracles happened this week.  We found a GOLDEN investigator.  Her fiance is a return missionary and they met on a LDS dating site.  Her name is Ana Ramos. i might have mentioned her last week... i don't remember.  But She is amazing.  She was telling us how she did charity work and they needed school supplies for some of the schools down here. so she went to one of our chapels and found a bishop and he got an activity set up in the relief society and made up the kits and gave them to her for free.  And she was just in awe.  This made her look into the church a little more. Then she met Josh. and Josh called us and referred her to us last week.  We met with her on saturday and did a church tour with her.  We ended in the chapel and taught the importanc  of the sacrament.  We talked about the atonment and how it is only through Jesus Christ that we are saved- both from sin and from death.  We had the idea to use music.  So i made up a little song rendition of 'As now we take the Sacrament' while she read the words.  It was AWESOME.  The spirit just flooded the chapel.  It was so cool. Then we all had the chance to testify and share our testimonies of the savior.  Josh- her fiance was there too and really added a lot.  They are going to be a great ETERNAL family!! AHHHHH!! i am so excited.  She is getting baptized on June 16. Married on august 16. THEN sealed in the temple september of next year on the 16!  She came to church yesterday and just loved it. here is an exact quote from her 'I am so excited to raise my children in the gospel!"  Haha can you believe that??  Heavenly Father really does prepare people.  Ana and Josh will be a huge strength down here in the weslaco ward! I love being a missionary! its awesome!

 

Here is a funny for the week.- Spanish. haha enough said.  i say the most ridiculous things. hahaha. =D awe man.  I wish i would remember half of them.  I usually have one or two good ones a day. So we met this family of Jehovah's Witnesses- sanchez family.  Hah they speak only spanish.  and we were talking with them.  It was cool because it wasn't tense at all.  The spirit was there and it was really friendly.  But anyways.  I was talking to them and bearing my testimony in spanish and at the very end i said an english word- in a spanish accent. here was my sentence.(i know that God is our heavenly father, and if we keep the commandments here we can live with god again.)  "yo se que Dios es nuestro Padre celestial y si guardamos los mandamientos aqui podemos vivir con Dios...AGAIN."  I literally said the word "again" haha at the end of my sentence- in a MEXICAN accent.  My companions started laughing at me! man.  The spanish word for again is otra vez-by the way.  Haha but it was just funny.  AND i have done that like three or four times in real life while talking to real people.  Haha the joys of learning a language.  I love it. =D

OH MAN. So this week the air conditioning broke!!! lemme say HOT. CALOR. HOT.  I don't think i have ever been so hot for 3 days strait before. in the humidity as well.  This week has been super warm.  95-99 degrees.  With no air. in humidity. It is usually about 87 at night.  but there is no sun at night. so that is nice. I bought a fan last week. Best 18 dollars i have ever spent on a fan. =D  Anyways.  Sister Chamberlin is also in Utah this weekend. So we have had to figure everything out.  Luckily there is a member of the church down here who just happens to fix air conditioning and all that jazz. =D I love the Church.  It's the best.  Haha the funny thing is that he speaks only spanish.  And out of my companionship- none of us have ever talked about air conditioning maitinence... or anything.  Haha so that was interesting.  Luckily he was patient and he fixed it for us. So we have AIR again!. yay =D I don't know how people live in this heat with no air.  But most people down here don't have air conditioning or fans either. But they usually like the heat.  So i guess that is why they are living here.

 

Oh man- this week has just been great! and this up coming week we have a bunch of solid appointments, Ruby is getting confirmed next sunday, we have a dinner appointment every night this week.  Oh- we also have our 'first comp training' on wednesday back in Mcallen.  I get to see my MTC district and my SISTER GARRY!!!  I am super excited to see her and hear how she is doing.  I miss her! man.  We are definatly going to be friends for life.  I am super glad that we got to be companions in the good old CCM. So this next week is looking good as well. 

I found an awesome scripture chain this week. I don't know if anyone is looking for somthing cool to study- but  this week we have been focusing a lot on how important it is to use the Book of mormon and the Bible in teaching.  The two complete eachother.  The book of mormon clarifies the bible and BOTH are testaments of Jesus Christ.  I love it.  SO on preach my gospel page 105- there is a box at the bottom that says 'scriptrue study' and it has a billion (haha just kidding like18) scripture references on why the Book of Mormon Prophets kept the record.  It is really awesome. I have an awesome chain- and some of the scriptures have come in handy for teaching as well.  The Lord definately had the BOM prophets write and keep the record for our time. The Book of Mormon is the Word of God and is another testament of Jesus Christ.  Joseph Said 'the book of mormon is the keystone of our religon. take away the book of Mormon and the revelations, and where is our religon?  we have none.' on another occasion he said that the best way for man to get closer to God is by reading the Book of Mormon. I know that the Book of Mormon is true!  I love reading, pondering, studying it.  I get so excited as i read it! God really did write it for our day.  It can answer 'questions of the soul', lead and guide us, answer other questions that we have, and teach us EXACTLY what we need to do in order to return and live with our heavely father.. otra vez...again. =D  I love it! Read the book of mormon EVERY day, and the lord will pour out numberless blessings upon you.

 

I love you all SOOOO much! have a wonderful week! y que tenga un buen dia! les quiero muchismo!

 

-Hermana Wiser-

and ruby with my companions and i. =D

This is Ruby!! on her baptism day! May 19!

The next picture with the horse- haha oh man.  So people here just tie their horses up to posts! and leave them there!  and so we thought we would go take a picture with it... ya i don't know why.  But as we were walking up to it this little old mexican man walked up. and he started talking with us. and took our picture for us and told us we could come back and spend time with it any time.  We also taught a brief lesson on the plan of salvation and gave him a pamphlet.  We will probably go back this week and visit him again.  The Lord works in mysterious ways!

hahah this is after contacting a referral that we got his name is Jesus. =D my companion -sister larrabee was being a dork. haha love my companions. =D we have soooo much fun!

Hi from Donna!

Hello hello hello!!

 

Happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a wonderful mothers day yesterday! Shout out to all the amazing mothers out there! Thank you for all you do! Feliz Dia de Las Madres!!! It was darling!  in the spainsh ward the program was a bunch of the primary kids and youth that gave talks about mothers and why mothers are important.  It was really cute.  My favorite part was the primary kids singing though!  The spanish ward down here is SOOOOO strong! It is cram packed every sunday.  It is awesome.  And everyone is just so loving and accepting.  The kids got up and sang and the spirit just came in.  It made me tear up.  If only we could all have the faith of little children. Imagine where we would be!  I loved talking to you too family!  I kinda realized that i talked a lot.  Haha let me know how things are going for you. Dad- sales school, work, the missionary challenge and the NFL thing. Mom-School, your calling, all the crazy things you do all the time- you know.  Sterling-the mission prep/ and questions that you might have/ your last month of high school!! how is it going??  Stanton- how the play try out's went. what you are doing next year/ the selling job/ are you doing lifeguarding?  Shelby- the officer stuff! your last month in as an 8th grader.  Just tell me ALL the things. =D  It was so good to talk to everyone. Love youall SOOOOO much!!

Oh man oh man!! This week was CRAZY. Totes loco. On tuesday- thursday- our trainer was at a training for all the trainers/leaders.  SO sister Larrabee and I were all alone! haha it was nuts.  We were definatly blessed with miracles.  we found some peole that were really prepared and we have return appointments with them.  The first one's name was Blanca- we started the door contact in compelely spanish.  ha usually at this point we both would turn to Sister Sanders and smile at her while she talked to and understood the human that was speaking spanish.  But this time there was no sister sanders!! So we started speaking spanish to her and introducing ourselves and going through the innitial door approach, and sister larrabee- bless her heart, she took french in highschool and is figuring out the sentence structure and stuff- started to talk to her. and the lady just starts speaking to us in perfect english "uh... i speak english too." haha and we both just smiled and continued in english.  It was a blessing.  And now we have a return appointment with her.  She is pregnant with her first baby and has no real knowldege of God or of Jesus Christ.  She was terrified about being  a mother and really wanted to know her purpose.  I know that we were led to her apartment.  i will let you know more after our appointment this week.  Little miracles like this really just show how much God leads his work. He is our Loving Heavenly father! and he really does know us personally and individually.  I know this to be true, because i have felt it in my life. Also- He does every ordinance -like baptism, recieving the holy ghost, endowments, blessings- every ordinance is individual to the person.  i just love this! It really shows that God's plan is individual and made for each one of us personally. The gospel is great!

The next person me met/found is names Myra.  She is a latina fire ball. =D She is really fun, opnionated and has a strong personality.  She has had background on the church and met with the missionaries before.  Her Grandma and aunt are members of the church.  So It will be fun to teach her and talk with her more.  she keeps us on our toes. =D  I gave my first official baptismal invitaion. It was awesome.  she accepted and is preparing to be baptized on june the 2.  it is just great being a missionary!   we have a lesson with her tonight about the restoration and joseph smith.  it is going to be good. =D

We also had an AMAZING LESSON with Alma.  She is the one that got hit by a truck and has all the herniated disks in her back.  last saturday we had a lesson with her and you could tell she was in pain.  So we told her about preisthood blessing and blessings of healing.  She wanted one. So she asked us to come over on wednesday.  So we took two of the elders that are working in the Southern part of Donna- Elder Merrill and Elder Sanchez- and we went over. Picture this- My companionship of three sisters, the 2 elders, we had a member come (sister Lopez) and she brought her daughter.  Ha the MORMONS ARE COMING THE MORMONS ARE COMING!!!  It was awesome to have 7 of us there.  I don't think we freaked her out. ;)  We started with a song( I am a child of God) and a pray (of course) then had the elders explain the priesthood.  Elder merrill gave her a beautiful blessing. The spirit was there SOOO strong.  After the blessing Alma was smiling.  She said "What is this happy thing i feel?" haha you should have seen us. all seven of us just started smiling from ear to ear!  Then we helped her identify that 'happy thing' as the Holy Ghost.  It is so awesome when you know that your investigator is feeling the spirit. Alma was just beaming.  We talked about action, and that when we act on our faith the lord blesses us with the things we need.  In one of the pamphlets we use it describes faith perfectly- 'faith is not meerly a belief, its a STRONG belief that leads to action."  I love this! it takes me to 1 Nephi 3:7 when nephi says 'i will go and DO the things the lord commands' and later on when he is going back for the third time to get the plates from laban when he says i went into the city 'not knowing before hand the things that i should do.'  Nephi didn't know the things that he was going to encounter that night, he didn't know what god had in store for him, he only knew that the lord would provide.  But he did know that the lord does not ask us to do anything that we cannot do- He KNEW the lord would provide a way for him to accomplish the task that he had. Nephi didn't just sit around waiting for the answer.  he didn't know before hand that he would find laban passed out on the side of the street.  But because he ACTED on that faith, he was able to get the records of his fathers.  he was able to complete the task that the lord asked him to do.  I love Nephi's example.  When we act on faith, and get up and move- That is when the Lord can help us and answer our questions.  Anyways- we talked with alma about action. and that if she wanted to be healed of the pain that she needed to activly read, pray and go to church. It was really cool.  She then committed to go to church.   

It is really amazing being a missionary- i know i say this same phrase every single time i email home.. but it is true!! I have made SOOO many connections and SO many things really make sense now.  Really. The great thing is that God wants us to to figure them out for ourselves.  And when we really ask questions and study them out- ponder them in our minds and read the scriptures- looking for the answers - they come.  The Lord answers our prayers.  Prayer is SOOOOO important! man. If we want to know anything just ask in Prayer.  Heavenly father is only a prayer away.  I have especially learned her that when it is too hard to stand- KNEEL. and ask for the help needed to press forward.  Heavenly Fathers plan just makes so much sense :)

Since i am thinking about it i wanted to share a cool scripture chain that i have created since i have been here.  When we teach people about prayer i usually use this series of scriptures to teach about pray- what we need to do and how we need to do it- THEN- how the lord answers.  the order usually varies depending on the person.  usually first Moroni 10:3-5, D&C 8:2-3, galations 5:22, 3 nephi 11:3.  Its great.  I am going to invite you to look them up =D study them.  try out what it says.  then get back to me =D and if you have any more scriptures about it that i can add to my chain i would love to hear from you! =D  One thing that i really love about this gospel is how everyone is invited to try everything themselves- pray for yourself, go to church so YOU can learn the truth.  By acting - that is when we gain  a testimony and are truly converted to Christ.  it is great. =D  here are a few more scriptures on prayer/receiving answers- D&C 9:8-9, mosiah 5:2, alma 37:37, 2 nephi 32:5, romans 15:13.

 

Well! i have to run! but i LOVE you alllllllll soo much! i hope that you have a wonderful week.  onward and upward!!

 

-Sister Wiser

 

PS- i was looking at my wrist today and i just wanted to tell Brad and Angie thanks for the Positivity bracelet. I wear it every day. =D Thanks for all the support from home! and especially for the letters.  Honestly- it is SO great to have such supportive family and friends that have my back.  Thanks all!! have a wonderful week! you are in my prayers. =D

So this picture is taking with a family that we had dinner with. The mom is a memeber but the Dad isn't.  The kids are so cute.  The little girl wearing my name tag - her name is Mishka- wanted to wear my tag because she wants to be a missionary! Oraliz is the older daugher, and the son is names Javier. They are a beautiful family from the Mercedes, spanish ward. =D

The second picture is of the Guerra family!  The little Girl closest to me is names McKayla.  The Girl in the back is Ruby- the little girl that is getting baptized next week!!! yaya!  We love this family. they are amazing.  They have two other kids too. names malaki and desaree.

This picture is on Kalena's baptism!! It was a wonderful day!!!

here is a picture of me and my companions! Sister Larrabee is in the middle and sister sanders in on the other side.  There is cactus and palm trees everywhere!!

here is me and my bike!! haha you are welcome =D the house is also the house we are living at with Sister Chamberlin!

 

Hope you enjoyed the Photos! love you all!!!

May 6th

Hello wonderful family!!!

 

Ahhhh!! I am still just learning so much here!  It is crazy! I can't believe a week has already passed.  Time flies here. and i sleep like a huge dead rock every single night.  It is a blessing.  Haha Mom- last night i actually had a dream and i was talking to you and telling you about all my stories, and i woke up a few times and saw the clock like at 5:00 and 5:30 and 6:00. then i would fall back asleep and finish my conversation with you (in my dream...) and tell you- "oh its okay mom, i have until six thirty to talk to you).  It was really weird. But I guess it shows that i am excited to email home. =D and tell my stories. =D

 

First things first! WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!  AHHH. it was SO great.  I can't remember how much i told you about Kalena, but she was baptized yesterday.  It was such a beautiful experience.  The moment we started singing the first song the spirit just rushed in.  I played the piano (i play all the time here).  But it was really neat.  Kalena has been attenting church for about a year now.  And she didn't get baptized because her parents wouldn't let her.  But this year she turned 18! and decided that she wanted to get baptized.  it was wonderful.  Her boyfriend, Edward(the bishops son) baptized her.  It was just really great. And she was GLOWING. You can just see the light of Christ in her eyes.  It was all around beautiful.  Haha something crazy happened though-  The young women president welcomed her and stood to say a few nice things about her and how kalena was an example. And all of a sudden she just paused.. and looked at the ground... then she looked up at Kalena and Edward (who was sitting right next to her) and said "I just feel like saying that you two will go to the temple together someday" .. And there was literally an audible gasp in the room. and i was sitting at the piano- so i could see ALL the faces around the room. and everyone just looked suprised. really really suprised.  ESPECIALLY the Bishop.  Ha it was nuts. and i was just praying that the investigators that were there and Kalena's parents forgot about that really quickly. Crazy things happen here in texas.  Oh man. The people here are crazy awesome. Anyways so that happened.  But the baptism was really wonderful.  Baptism is SOOOOOOOOO important.  It really is the first step we need to take in this life so that we can fully be cleansed of our sins and live with our father in heaven again.  I read a cool scripture this week in Alma. I can't remember the exact reference right now... But it said something about how when we repent and are baptized, have the gift of the holy ghost and endure to the end we can stand SPOTLESS before God at the last day.  That is a huge promise.  I just loved it.  Read the book of mormon folks!! EVERYTHING you need to know is in there. seriously anything.  If you have a question pray- if you want an answer to that question read the book of mormon. IT works. i promise!

 

So remember Ruby?  She is the nine year old we are teaching. And she is GOLDEN. Seriously. she is stronger than her parents who have been members all their lives.  She is such a great example and has such great faith. Someday she will be a killer sister missionary.  She is a joy to teach.  her baptism is scheduled for the 19th of may.  And it is great because she encourages her entire family to go to church.  It is wonderful.  her Dad is a return missionary- but has been less active.  But him and his wife want to get sealed in the temple so they have been working really hard.  it has been great to be involved with helping their families.

We were teaching a family one night, and we had made this puzzle of the restoration to help the kids stay focuses and  we were sitting on the floor on this carpet and we realized that it was crawling with ticks. AHHHH i freaked out a little inside. but held it in until the lesson was over.  You can BET that we all showered and checked for ticks after.  Luckily they were only dog ticks. so i don't thing they bite humans.  but still.  I am getting used to all sorts of crazy Critters here. like cocharoach (however you spell it). YIKES.  We found one in our bathroom.  hahahaha you should have seen hermana sanders and me. It was like world war three in the bathroom. Stuff was flying everywhere as were were trying to assassinate the stupid thing.  IT WOULD NOT DIE. we seriously wappppped it like 20 times.  We finally killed it with a glass jar. Guess it needed more than the sole of a shoe.  Dear utah- thanks for not having cocharoaches- love sister wiser.

Friday we did an exchange with the sister training leaders in mcallen.  SO i went to mcallen and one of the othere sisters went with my hermanas.  It was cool. I learned a lot.  The lord definatley plans where is missionaries need to be! they needed a pianist for their baptism on saturday- and guess who plays the piano! me. haha =D so that was really neat.  ANNNNDD i didn't have any food. and they had a very Wheaty apartment- so we ran to the store and they had a HUGE GF section.  So i was blessed and stocked up =D (haha yes, that is what i used my card for).  It was really a blessing.  So if i ever go to Mcallen i can get gluten free stuff. It was great.

Hahah... so i was chased by a dog this week too.  It was just a little one. But it had Latina sass.  Man i was freaking out.  I felt like such an idoit.  just picture me running away from a little devil dog with teeth. shreiking and skirts flying and ya.  It didn't bite me. but i was freaked out.  A bunch of Mexicans were laughing at me though.  I am going to go back and they WILL be converted. ;) haha.  I just thought that was a funny image. anyways feel free to imagine that and enjoy.

So i think i told you about Victor.  The is a man that we contacted last week and he has a zillion HUGE pitbulls.  So we literally stand outside the fence and don't say a thing, and he comes out when he hears his dogs bark.  Anyways we went back and talked to him and he actually read the Book of Mormom that we gave him! and he said "ya, i was reading...and i was in awe." wassup! that's what we like to hear.  So we had a lesson with him and it was pretty good.  We have another appointment with him on tuesday. Pray that it goes well!

We were also contacting around another part of our area and we found a woman and she accepted a baptismal invitation right there.  She has 11 children! its crazy actually. we have another appointment with her this week as well.

So- i had a wonderful miracle happen! Yesterday was fast sunday- yes fasting works- and i just prayed that i would be able to understand the fast spanish speakers.  So yesterday in church in the spanish ward we were sitting there and all these people were talking to me and i was actaully having conversations with them! Granted- i can't understand perfectly. and sometimes they had to explain what they were saying in a different way. but it was really cool, because i knew what was going on.  It was honestly a HUGE blessing. The gift of tongues is real! and faith and fasting work.  They work SOOOOO well. =D I just LOVE the people here. They are wonderful.  And the spanish ward here is sooooo strong.  So many of the members are willing to come out and work with us.  It is beautiful.  Members help out so much.  Without members- missionaries would not be effective.  Go out with the missionaries if you can- testify with them, share your testimonies with the investigator! be bold and help bring them unto Christ.  The gospel of Jesus Chirst is THE most important thing for us to follow in our lives.  Our SAVATION depends upon it.  =D I love being a missionary.

I just remembered a quote that i will share with you.

" Do you want to be happy? Forget yourself and get lost in this great cause. lend your efforts to helping people.... Stand higher, lift those with feeble knees, hold up the arms of those that hang down.  Live the Gospel of Jesus Christ." -President Hinkley.

I just love this quote.  and everytime i read it i picture president hinkley's voice. its great. =D  ahh.  Living what we believe is SO important.  We have the truth. We know what our heavenly father expects of us and what can bring us the most happiness. By living the precepts of the Gospel we are not only kept safe from the adversary- but we are blessed immensly.  God takes care of those who keep the commandments. --It says it over and over in the Book of mormon- those who keep my commandments shall prosper in the Land-.  It is true and works. =D It is so great. I feel so blessed to be apart of this work. And to be able to testify to people every day of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the Christ!! He LIVES!! He loves us and is waiting to help us! It is SO wonderful. =D

I love you all So much! and I pray for you every day =D

PS- next time is mothers day! so i have 40 minutes to talk on either saturday or sunday.  I will be calling for 2-3 mintues on Friday to set up a time with you.  I will probably call dad first- since i don't know when mom is in school.... So i will call one of you. if you see a 956 number answer it. because it is your almost latina daughter in texas. =D okay?  Sweet. =D

I love you all!

 

KEEP THE FAITH

 

-Sister Wiser

 

=D

WASSSUPPP FROM TEXAS!!!!!!

Hola familia!!

 

How is everyone???  AHHHH!! Guess what! I am in texas!!  haha have been for a week now actually. it is great!  SO i am in the little town of Donna and Weslaco. haha five miles from the border.  I am in MEXICO folks. haha i am in mexico. seriously.  It is the best thing ever!  We are living with a member.  Her name is Hermana Chamberlin.  She is a big blond crazy woman! ahh i love her so much.  She is a teacher at the little college down here.  She has three dogs. yes three. ;) their names are tamryn, luck and sonreisa(which is smile in spanish)  and they are crazy! but it is fun.  we always know when someone is coming to the door. =D So i am in a sister TRIO!! there are three of us.  Hermana Larrabee( one of the sisters in my district from the MTC) and my new trainer! her name is Hermama Sanders.  She is from california and she is a work horse.  It is great.  we are constantly going going going.  She has been our for 7 months and is fluent in spanish. so there is hope for me. hha... ya... the spanish i learned in the MTC is not the same as the spanish here. haha people talk to me and i just smile and nod my head and turn to my companion. haha. It is okay.  I have been learning SOOOO much.  I can understand WAY more today than i could last week.  Man i have so much to type! sorry if this email is totes cray cray.  I have a million thoughts in my brain.

So- after i call you all we got  on a plane and flew to dallas- where i talked to mom and dad again.  then we got on another plane to head to the HUGE... haha just kidding- its really small- airport in MCallen.  I sat next to another sister that was flying out with us.  I don't remember her name. but we had a nice chat and ended up reading our scriptures together.  There was an older lady sitting next to her, but she was asleep when we got on the plane.  Later she woke up and asked us "oh! what scriptures are you reading?" haha you can imagine our reaction i am sure. "AHH! let me just tell you about this book we have here!!" hahaha It was cool.  We ended up talking about the book of mormon. and she said that she had one from a long time ago. so we started talking to her about it a little.  then we talked about the bible and her family and why we were 20 years old, and heading to a little southern texas town to serve the Lord.  She was very nice and we both got to share our testimonies with her.  We left her with a pass along card and i put a scripture from the book of mormon for her to look up in her book of mormon.  It was a neat experience.  She told us she would say hello if she saw the missionaries in MCallen. 

Sooo- after that we jumped off the plane and  got our luggage and met our amazing mission president and his wife. we stepped outside and were swimming! Folks- the humidity here is CRAZY.  I don't even need lotion really. it is great. It feels like i am breathing in water.  And it was hot that first day! man it was hot. We went to the mission office- which is in the stake center in MCallen. and guess what i saw first!! my bike!! and guess what i did?- I started Crying.  I don't know if it is because i have to ride it.. or if i was so happy to know it came from home.. haha or what- but i definatley cried. haha it was embarrassing. all these people didn't know what to do with me.  It was the good kind of tears though- ha don't worry. I am sure i looked completey crazy. the bike is really great Daddy- you did a wonderful job. Thank you SOOOOOO much for having them put it together for me! man that was the best idea you have every had about bikes.  All the other sisters were trying to put together their bikes.. and it was bad.  Hermana Larrabee's bike got put together all backwards and it was a mess.  I am glad i didn't have to worry about that. so thank you ;)  haha i will tell you about our first biking experience soon..

So we met our trainers the next morning (i stayed the night in the mission home with a few other sisters) and we drove to our areas! and dropped our stuff off and started working.  We are white washing our area.  it is a new area. AND Hermana Sanders is training BOTH of us.  SO it has definatley been an experience. oh man. our first contact in spanish was crazy.  This lady names FELA, opened her door and started going off in spanish (crazy fast crazy fast) and i probably had the deer in the headlights look. haha it was super nuts.  Thank goodness our trainer speaks spanish! that is definatley a blessing. But we talked to her for a while and placed a pamphlet and we are going back tonight to follow up with her.  It is crazy how prepared people are! really- the feild is white and ready to harvest. we as missionaries you just have to be obedient, work and work your guts out.  The lord does lead us to where we need to go.

So- we have a baptism this sunday!!! it is with a 18 year old girl named Kalena.  AHHHH she is so wonderful.  She has been coming to church with her Boyfriend, Edward(the bishops son) for the past year. and has her yw award and she is just so strong.  She went up to sister Sanders on the sunday before we got there and asked for the lessons.  So we met with her on thrusday and committed her for baptism! It is great.  You can see the light of Christ in her eyes.  I am so excited for the baptism.  It is going to be great. And it is going to bless her family so much as well.  Since she is 18 now she doesn't have to have her parents permission to get baptized.  So she will have a huge influence on her family. It is wonderful.  Edward is baptizing her too- so that is really cool. 

We have a few other baptism dates as well- but i will tell you more about those next week when they are a little closer.

TEXAS MCALLEN MISSION IS A BAPTIZING MISSION!! We invite everyone to be baptized the first lesson.  Ha it is kinda crazy- but people accept. =D

We were on a street to visit another Lady that had a baptismal date from the elders- but she wasn't home- so we decided to knock the doors around her house.  We found this woman named Ludivina.  She has NINE children. Yes NINE.  She is amazing though- you can see the love that she has for her children.  Her husband is not with her here in the states anymore... he got had to go back to mexico. So she is raising all her kids and trying to provide for them by herself.  We talked about the plan with her and set another appointment to come back.  So we went back on saturday and talked with her and her oldest son.  Things got a little crazy with all the children running around- so ludivina was super distracted. But her son Amando accepted a baptismal date for the 19th of may! so we are working with him.  I pray that they can feel the importance of the gospel in their lives. I know if would help them all SOOOO much.

SO- there are a million wild dogs here.  and it is kinda crazy! because they chase the missionaries. and stuff. usually they are behind fences and tied up. but every once in a while we see a scary one that is out and about. don't worry- they haven't chased me yet. haha i just pray that they wont.  haha i carry my scripture case out so i can smack them with the Good Word if they get to close. haha seriously. i am close to mexico as white sisters can get. it is awesome.

SO- the thrusday night one of our new neighbors died.  The son of this lady named monica overdosed on drugs and passed on.  It was really really sad.  But she called and asked Jenny Chamberlin(the lady we live with) to come over and pray with her.  So we went over with her and prayed with her and talked just a tiny tiny bit about the plan of salvation.  It was really humbling.  I am so glad that i know the plan, and that i have that hope when people here pass away.  Later that night we had some plans fall through, so we ended up back in our neighborhood a little bit earlier than we planned. We saw the sister of the boy who died and some of her friends out front waiting for a ride to a little candle ceremony thing.  So we went over and talked to them.  We talked about the ressurection and how we can see those that we love again after this life.  We prayed with them and gave them a picture of jesus when he was resurrected.  They just hugged us and thanked us for coming over to talk to them.  It is amazing how the lord leads and guides us to the places that we need to go.  We also went to the viewing yesterday.  Sister Chamberlin drove us there. When we got there they were playing this crazy music with a picture video playing in the back.  The spirit was NOT there.  We told Monica that we had prepared a song to sing for them if they wanted to hear one. and she said yes.  So we sang abide with me. and said a few words of comfort.  It was amazing because you could feel the diferent spirit that came into the room.  the boy who died (andrew) had a bunch of friends that were there and they pretty much stopped sobbing. and just listened.  It was really humbling.  I am glad that i am able to be here, sharing the gospel and helping others.  I don't know if we will end up teaching any one else from the viewing- but it was cool to have 3 sister missionaries with our name badges there supporting the family and offering words of comfort.

anyways-AHHH!! I love you alll SOOOOOO much! =D and i am learning so much here!  The gospel is what life is all about.  Without faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end we cannot make it back to live with our father in heaven again.  It is so important that we follow God's plan and apply the atonement in our lives, read the scriptures everyday, pray always, and go to church to take the sacrament each week. I know that by doing those things that we can be closer to our Heavenly father and become more like our savior. I know that all things are possible through the atonement of Jesus Christ.  The atonement is what helps us make it through.  whether we are dealing with past mistakes or sins, sorrows, illness, trials- whatever it is- if we have faith in Jesus Christ and apply the atonement in our lives we can make it through anything.  We can be made clean from our sins. We can find comfort in our trials.  And we can do more and go farther than we ever thought we could.  It is through our Savior and Redeemer that we overcome the hard things in this world.  He has already atoned for everything in our lives. All we need to do is reach out and take his hand.

I love this Gospel! I love my savior! and I love being a missionary!

Have a wonderful week!

 

Love your favorite Sister Missionary ;)

-Sister Wiser

 

ps- keep sending everything to the mission home- they have problems with theft around here.

 LOVE YOU all!!

 

PS- you can email me too! i can print off emails and reply to them later!

 

And feel free to write!! i love getting letters!!