Sister Shayna Wiser: Culebra = Caught ;)

Buenas Tardes Familia!!

SOOOO Much has happened this week! And there are great things going on in the mission field! First peice of news- I am getting transfered! Tomorrow! I am going up to North Padre Island. I leave tomorrow morning at 9:30. I am leaving behind my almost mexico city. But I am super excited. I am not even sure who my companion is yet, but i am sure i will just love her. There will be more news next week. ;) as of right now i really don't know anything about my new area. =D we will find out tomorrow!! I am sad to leave my 'momma' of the mission-Sister Sanders. here in el campo they call your trainers 'mom'. and my twin-Sister Larrabee- But I know that they are going to do a great job! They are wonderful missionaries and I have learned SOOOO much from them both. it was great! I love them both so much. Also- if you write me letters- send them to the mission home- I will not know my new address for a while. =D

Second piece of news- As of this week- The missionaries of the Texas Mcallen Mission are no longer allowed to knock random doors or schedule part of the day for random door knocking!! Crazy huh? I guess they have been doing that in mexico and it has been working. We are to soley work through Members referrals and the Area Book. Missionary work really is impossible without the help of the members. I remeber dad saying that new baptized members are like babies- they need A LOT of help their first year being a member of the church. it is soooo true. These people are making huge life changes they need all the support they can get. I think it will be awesome- We all know that referrals are WAAAAYYYY better than knocking cold. (thank you summer sales for that knowledge) So familia- if you have referrals- help out the missionaries to build the kingdom of God. One thing that has been really effective here is having members present at lessons- or doing family home evenings with the investigators. it helps show them an example of how happy they can be with their famalies. :) It is great!

STERLING!!!!!! YOU ARE GOING TO ENGLAND!!!! AHHHHHHH!!! Man, I am soooo excited for you! be excited- you have a week and a half until you start the craziest/best/most rewarding adventure of your life. Seriously- being a missionary is the best feeling- you get to help bring other children of our Heavenly Father into the fold. it is such a blessing and SOOO rewarding. I have absolutely loved being out here. Its crazy- how you will love people that you don't even really know. This is the best advice I have for future missionaries: Be OBEDIENT and WORK. When you are obedient to ALL the mission rules- even the little ones like not chewing gum- you are seriously blessed with miracles. This work is God's work- and if we want to succeed at it, and have the success of helping Gods Children enter the waters of Baptism- we need to do it HIS way. The best thing you can do when you get to the MTC- is to be stricly obedient- so you can have the spirit with you always. If you are obedient- then you will be unstoppable. And missionary work is.. well.. WORK. When you do all you can- God WILL give you miracles in finding prepared people. This week here in Mcallen- before they changed the knocking cold doors rule- We found two young men that are 19/20 ish that are SOOOO prepared! They both accepted baptismal dates for June 30. -on the FIRST contact we had with them! :) it was SOOOO cool asking "brian, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone that holds the proper authority of God?" Then after testifying of the blessings that come from making that first promise. WOOT. Man. It is so cool. And when you are obedient- and Listen to the impressions of the spirit- you are truly given the words to say exactly when you need them. Be excited to invite ALL people to be baptized. Sterling- You are going to be an awesome missionary! Give it all you got. and you will succeed in touching the Hearts of SOOO many. Obedience and work- You got it!

SOOOOOOOOOO- the CULEBRA. Tuesday- we caught the snake!!! we caught it! So here is the story. We were coming home to grab a quick bite to eat before we hits the streets of almost mexico- and the snake was curled up on the kitchen tile. Sister Sanders was the first one to see it. and immediately started screaming. immediately. haha. So naturally I started screaming. =D so we start running around- trying to find something to capture it with- it was crazy. So we finally found a box and tried to put it ontop of the snake- but it was really really really fast- and Slithered under the entertainment center. So we made a hook with a hanger and a stick that Sister Larrabee found. and taped it all up. The plan was to try to grab it with a hook and put it into our trash can- so we could transport it FAR away from our house. So we have our flash lights and we are all freaking out- looking under the entertainment center- trying to grab the stupid thing with a hook- and suddenly it disappeared. We could not find it ANYWHERE. So we started moving the furniture in the living room. After looking for about 7 minutes I moved this little cabinet thing and it was hiding under there. and crawled over my foot! Bah-(gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it) So i dropped the cabinet thing as it went under the couch. This happened for about 20 minutes- we would move a peice of furniture and it would hide under the next closest one. Haha you can picture us just chasing it around the room with a dinky hook and a trash can. It was SOOO irritating. So our pet snake finally ended up under a HUGE book shelf, That was piled high with books. So naturally we took all the books off. Then we made a barricade. =D The ENTIRE living room was a mess- so we lined up all the furniture and blocked off the holes so that it couldn't get through. Then Sister Larrabee moved the book shelf and we almost had it- but then it got through our barricade and started going through the kitchen AGAIN. We were chasing it (screaming the entire time) around the kitchen. Haha it was like sister missionaries transformed into the 3 Stooges. I am sure we looked ridiculous. anyways- We finally caught it- after repeating the above process 3 more times. it was a quick little thing! We were sooo relieved to get it out of the house! We let it loose outside the elders apartment. Hahaha =D I think we scared it so bad that it will never want to have an encounter with another human ever. Hopefully it learned its lesson and will stay out of houses! So- That was interesting. The Sister Snake HUNTERS. Wassup.

So another time when we were randomly street contacting- on Ruby Street- before the change- we found this old hispanic lady. She had encountered the missionaries before and wanted us to pray for her. So we did. SHE WAS CRAZY. We started praying with the usual 'dear heavenly father'- and continued on- and after every sentance she would CHANT things. It was all in spanish- but it was the equivelent(man i can't spell! Sorry) OH HALLELIA!! BLESSED LORD- and SO on. I had no idea what to think. But it was definatly an interesting prayer. The people were nice- a little crazy- but nice. I am glad that we are more reverant. =D

So in our ward there are 14 missionaries! Cool huh? Everywhere you turn there are missionaries. But sunday we all sang a rendition of 'I need thee every hour'- for a member that is leaving on his mission this week. It went really cool. And you could feel the spirit come it. It was awesome singing with 14 other missionaries. I really liked it.

I also shared my testimony in spanish yesterday! I don't think i have been so nervous for something in my entire life. I was literally shaking. My new area doesn't use spanish as much- So I decided that I could use the spanish practice. It was scary. But a good experience. The ward mission leader told me that i sound like a mexicana! Which is great. Soy mexicana en mi corazon! That made me feel pretty good.

I took my picture book Mom made for me to church yesterday. The people LOVED it. La Hermana Deanda- a sister in the spanish ward- was looking at it and kept saying -OH que linda! OOOOHHHH GUAPA!! OOOHHHHH BONITO!!! =D In spanish everything is bigger too. So it was really loud. Stanton- She told me that you look like Justin Beiber. Hahaha i just laughed and agreed with her. Even the Mexicanos think you look like the Beib. Good work ;) They loved the book- So thanks Mom. ;)

Well- Thats all the time that i have! i will send some pictures! I love you All. Thanks for the support and the prayers.

Always remember that God has a plan for every one of us. When we do the little things (C-church P-pray R-read) We are truly blessed beyone measure. God is aware of what where we are in our lives. One thing that I really learned this week is that 'Specific prayers bring about Specific Answers'. It truly works. LOVE YOU ALL! Que tengan un buena semana!

Until next time- Onward and Upwards

-La Hermana Wiser

(in spanish they pronounce it WEEEEZEER) haha its funny.

Bye!

Here is our pet snake! Creepy little guy verdad?

The first picture is our GOLDEN investigator- Ana Ramos- The one that is marrying a RM. last week in a lesson she asked "why do people doubt that the book of mormon is true? It is obviously from God!' She is about as golden as they come. I am super excited for her future familia!