Hola!

Hola familia,

This week has been pretty normal.  Hard, but normal.  The mission just doesn't get easy.  Opening an area is rough, but I am learning a lot here.  The elders who left this area left us very little to work with and the branch has been taking this change from elders to sisters as a serious downgrade. The branch here is tiny.  They only have about 40 members who consistently come.

So yeah, it has definitely been a trial of our faith.  But we are promised in the book of Ether that after the trail of our faith, we see miracles. 

So we keep working and waiting for the Lord to show us His miracles. 

I agree, it is completely weird that I am still with Hermana C________.  Three changes with the same comp is basically unheard of.  We have now been together almost 13 weeks.... 24 hours a day.... 7 days a week... Within sight and sound of each other unless someone is using the bathroom.... It's weird.  But mission life is a weird concept in and of itself. 

I honestly feel like I have started a brand new mission.  Santa L_______ is completely different from life in the city.  But I like it! People on the coast are hilarious. Here is a list of new, completely bizarre things I am experiencing:

1.  When someone dies here on the coast, there is a truck that drives all around the city with a loudspeaker on the top that blares the life story of whoever died at deafening volume. 

2.  EVERYONE here works with the Safra. It is the sugarcane harvest and EVERY ABLE BODIED MAN WORKS IN IT.  Even weirder is that they burn the stocks when they finish so black ash falls from the sky constantly like snow during this season.

3.  People here genuinely believe that by turning the lights off, it will be cooler inside your house. That is science.

4.  We don't have running water in the house.

5.  There was a volcanic eruption yesterday (not a dangerous one)

6.  I saw a family of 6 crammed on the same motorcycle (new record)

Because we are opening here, Hermana C_______ and I have been knocking more doors in these past two weeks than I have knocked in all my mission up to this point.  But, Friday we were out knocking when we knocked the door of a very, very Evangelico woman.... This is what she told us:

¨Thank you, but I already have my church.  I have already found God and I have Jesus in my heart.  I am EVANELICA.  So, yeah I am already saved because I know God.  What you guys need to do is visit the people who don't know God...You should visit the Catholics! There is a Catholic who lives over there, and another over there, and one in that blue house over there!"

 We were dying we were laughing so hard. 

That is about it for this week.  Working hard with the faith that our hard work will pay off.  We have the goal as a mission this month to baptize 400 people.  That means that every companionship needs to baptize at least 4.  We need some serious miracles to make it happen here in Las D________.  Pray for us!

Respuestas: 

Dad:  the jars made it ok! Don't worry.  I loved my package, thank you so much. Yes, I have my card.  But, there is nothing to buy here on the coast so no money has been pulled from it. 

That's it folks!  I love you all a lot! Praying for you people. 

Hermana Wise

Sacked!

Hola Familia,

Funny you should ask when we have cambios..... Change meeting is tomorrow and......

.....They are closing our area and putting Elders in.

In mission terms, we are getting sacked. 

President Markham let us know on Thursday when we had interviews.  He let us know that there have been some safety issues going down in the elders area which have been escalating (last change both Elders had emergency changes they sacked the gringos and put in Latinos).  He has become increasingly concerned that the sisters would be affected so he decided to pull us out and put Elders in.  He explained to us that it is all the will of the Lord and that he knows that this is what needs to happen but it was still devastating.  I really don't want to leave this place. 

But, we have done what we needed to do.  We came.  We worked.  We saw miracles and now we are both leaving.

Last night we had to tell C__________ family as well as the family of the bishop (we called the bishop to give him a heads up on Friday, but his family didn't know).  We had a family home evening with all of them in the bishops house, gave a lesson about the importance of enduring to the end, and then dropped the bomb. 

Surprisingly, they took the news well.... At first.  It was after the lesson when they fell apart.  Every last one of them was bawling, plus the bishops family, plus the bishop, and we were both a mess too.

This is the worst part of the mission, having to leave your converts behind.

But, I know that the Lord has great things in store for my little corner of the vineyard here.  I wish I could stay.  I love V____________.  But, I know that I will love wherever I go next.

.... Como asi es la mision.

 But as a result I have NO EARTHLY IDEA where I will be next week.  Maybe I will go back to P_______? Jaja.  Who knows?

Anyway, I would definitely appreciate some prayers this week.  Pray for my little converts in V__________ that they will be able to keep working hard and stay strong in the church.

Other news of the week:

1.  Yes, I got my package.  Thank you SO MUCH! The Mp3 player is awesome.  It is great to be able to listen to some church songs after a long day of working.

2.  I am currently being made fun of by the elders in the district.  Why? Because my ankle is sprained.  How did I sprain my ankle? I fell into a hole....

.... again.

3.  We went to la Zona uno for P Day yesterday.  It was awesome.  Bought myself a sweet corte skirt made by Lamanites.

That is about it for the week.  I love you people.  Keep on moving forward.  Don't be stoops.  Say your prayers.  Eat lots of Dairy Queen.  DON'T have scoliosis.  Try not to accidentally make giant purchases on Ebay....

 Love you guys

Until next time!

Hermanita We-SAY!

Baptisms, Righteous Indignation, and Walmart

Hola Familia!

This week has definitely been interesting.  We have seen some crazy miracles and had some flipping weird experiences as well. 

Mom, remind me to tell you about our experience with S______  this week.  I will tell you in about 10 months when I am home, not really a "through email" type of thing to share.  But it was crazy.... Super crazy.  Let's just say I am super grateful for priesthood holders worthy to cast out demons when necessary.  You will appreciate it later.

In other news:  Our five baptisms from last week all got confirmed this week.  It was AWESOME! C_______, one of the jovensitos, received one of the coolest blessings I have ever heard.  In it, the bishop promised him that he would be the clave (is that a word in English?) to carry his family to the Celestial Kingdom.  It also promised him that he would serve a full time mission.  GO C________! I can't wait for him to confess to his future companions that he asked the sister missionary, Hermana Wise, who taught him the lessons if she would baptize him. 

Que chistoso

It was nuts to get them there to be confirmed, NUTS!  Sunday morning we made divisions to get all of our investigators to church on time. As a result, I was with A_______, the daughter of our bishop, and Hermana C_________ was rounding up other investigators to take to church.  When A______ and I passed by, we discovered that NO ONE in the familia C_______ de la Parra had set an alarm.... Which means that we woke all of them up at 9:40 (church starts at 10).  Remarkably, we were able to herd all of them  through the process of getting ready for church (A_______ and I ran all through that house looking for shoes), we left the home at 9:57 with everyone and literally SPRINTED ten blocks to church. 

But we made it at 10:03.  It was a miracle.

Other interesting thing that happened this week:

Thursday morning all of our plans were falling through leaving Hermana C________ and I with nothing to do but knock doors (knocking doors in Guatemala before lunch is impossible because EVERYONE is eating.  Guatemalans refuse to listen to you if they are eating.  It's weird, but that is what happens).  Anyway, I felt really strongly that we needed to go visit two of our area converts, K________ and M________.

Here's the thing:  K_________ and M_________ have been listening to the Jehovah Witnesses who have been giving them anti-Mormon literature and teaching them all types of crazy things (the testigos here believe things completely different than the testigos in the states).  The last time we went to visit them only M_________ was home and she screamed at us until we left her house. 

So you can imagine how happy we were that The Lord wanted us to visit them again.  But, away we went.

When we got there, they were both there reading their New World Bible from the testigos.  They agreed to listen to us so we started with a prayer.  Our plan was to re-teach lesson 1 with them to help them regain their testimony however, when we started pull out our BOM, they started yelling horrible, blasphemous things at us about how Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon and how we don't believe in the Bible and how they were fooled into being baptized.

It was intense. 

I kept trying to bear my testimony but every time that I tried they just started screaming at us louder and louder.  They then started quoting the anti-Mormon literature to us. I didn't know what to do so I hurried and said a quick prayer that Heavenly Father would show me what to do.

In this moment, I stood up.  My soul felt like it was on fire and in a voice that I have never heard come out of my mouth, I told them:

"STOP! In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who I represent I command you to stop and to listen to me!" 

I then began sharing the strongest testimony I have ever shared.  I testified that Jesus Christ lived and that we were His representatives.  I explained that they had hardened their hearts against their Lord and called them to repentance explaining that one day, if they did not repent, they would have to stand at the judgment bar of Christ with a perfect remembrance of their guilt.  But I promised them that they could change if they relied on their Savior.

You could have heard a pin drop. 

I wasn't angry, I was just following the Spirit.

I think a lot of times, I doubt my authority as a sister missionary.  But we have just the same amount of authority as the elders.  We are set apart by the priesthood to represent Christ.  Sometimes that means calling people to repentance.

It was a really crazy, but spiritual experience.  Hermana C________ told me I looked like I was literally on fire.

Crazy, eh?

Also, C_______ got baptized! YAY! little by little this whole family is accepting the Gospel. She is adorable.  Insisted on sharing her testimony after her baptism and did a great job.  She is excited to receive the Holy Ghost.

Craziest part of this whole week?  Walmart just opened in my area.... WHAT?

That's about it folks!

Until next week!

Hna Wise

Clowns at a wedding?

Hola familia!

 First off, sorry that I am suddenly writing you guys on a Monday. I know that we almost always write Tuesdays, but this week they switched P Day because tomorrow they are installing smoke detectors in our apartments (what are we, stateside missionaries?). Anyway, so that is why I am writing today. Should be back to normal schedule next week.

S__________ this week has been nuts! Crazy in the very best way... We had FIVE baptisms and a DOUBLE WEDDING this week. I can't even begin to explain the levels of stress. But, by some miracle it all pulled through. Everyone is happy and we got to help five people come unto Christ through baptism and we have (at least) one more who will be getting baptized before the end of the month.

The wedding:

First off, the back story: there are 18 people that live in the house that the twins live in. Remarkably, almost all of them are incredibly positive and want to hear about the Gospel. R_______ and C______ are two of the twins aunts who also live in this house with their "husbands" (everyone says that the people that they live with are their husbands in Guatemala but no one is actually married). Both R______ and C_____ have been coming to church and want to get baptized, but in order to do so they needed to get married.

So what do you do? Call the missionaries! They can plan a wedding, right?

It was a MIRACLE that the husbands wanted to marry their wives. Sadly, it usually doesn't work out like that in this country. But, this time it did! We managed to throw together a double wedding in five days.... And when I say throw together I really mean it. It was crazy, but it worked out alright in the end. Best part was, R________ got baptized yesterday and her husband is now starting to take the discussions as well! He came to church yesterday to see the baptism and we are hoping that he gets baptized this month too!

C_______ is adorable. Her husband is really positive too but unfortunately, works on Sunday. We are hoping and praying that we can we a miracle and he will be able to find a new job. C_____ is all set up to be baptized this Sunday, she couldn't be happier.

Here was the interesting part about the wedding... Friday night we called the elders to verify that their ward didn't have an activity in the church Saturday because we were going to have the wedding. Our district leader PROMISED ME that there was nothing going on so we moved forward with our plans to marry our investigators at 5 the following day.

At 4:30 we showed up at the church ready to go and....

CLOWNS. The church was crawling with CLOWNS!

Gee, thanks Elder A______ for letting us know that your ward had some kind of twisted clown activity going on!

So there we were, with our wedding party waiting for the lawyer while meanwhile the other ward is throwing some kind of sick clown party.

It was awesome.

But, in the end the clowns (and other ward) finally left and at 7:30 (right on time by Guatemalan standards) the lawyer showed up and the wedding happened.

Thank goodness.

Sunday was awesome! We had five baptisms!

Ca_______: family friend of the twins

Rod_____: Brother of the twins

C______: Cousin of the twins who wanted me to baptize him (and son of Rosanna)

R_______: Aunt of the twins

L_______: Grandma of the twins

Honestly, it was such a miracle. These people have been so prepared to hear the Gospel. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I am blessed. The church is true.

I am more tired than I have ever been in my life. But, I am also the happiest.

Funny story of the week:

My first name is super weird here. SUPER WEIRD. It means "the mountain range" and all the Latinos think it is a hideously strange name. Well, my district leader gave me a blessing back when all the head surgery drama went down. As a result, he knows my name.

Last Tuesday, we all happened to be eating lunch in the same members house.

One of the Elders here is from Peru, Elder R_________, and he was explaining to us his least favorite type of Peruvians.... This is how it went down:

(remember that la sierra means mountain range and Elder R_________ has NO IDEA what my first name is)

Elder R________: "Aw man, I just HATE sierra people."

Elder A________ (while staring me down): "Really, how are people from the sierra?"

Elder R_________: "Ugly. Just ugly. They are a bunch of fat, grumpy white people."

Elder A_________ (still staring me down, and busting up laughing): "Are all the people from the sierra like that?"

Elder R__________ (has no idea what is going on) "Yup. Every last one."

It was pretty funny.

Keep reading your scriptures and making good choices!

Love you all!

Until next week!

Hermana Wise

 

B is for Baptism!!!! Take that, Satan!

 

Hola Familia,

Wow, I don’t even know where to begin.  This week has been incredible and so much has happened.

First off, yes! I saw dad singing in the choir this weekend.  They got some great shots of you dad! No, "close up zoom right up your nose shots" but there is always April! ;) The elders (well, the English speaking elders) of my zone were all looking for you.

Conference was AWESOME! Conference is like Christmas, the super bowl, your birthday, thanksgiving, and world peace all rolled into one.  Except better, because you get to sit in a crowded room of North American missionaries and listen to the prophet (look, I spelled it right this time). 

The cherry on top of a fantastic weekend? THE TWINS GOT BAPTIZED ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!

It was such a miracle.  Unfortunately, L_____, their grandma, couldn’t get baptized because she drank coffee on Wednesday... Darn you, Satan.  But she will be getting baptized this Sunday. 

I cannot even begin to explain all of the miracles which lead up to this baptism.  M_______ (the mom) has been inactive for years because her (now ex) husband didn’t allow her to go to church.  She has just been waiting all this time for someone to invite her back, and we were able to find her. 

S_______ and Ma_______ are incredible.  They have been through a lot in their short 11 years of life, but it has all lead up to this point. The twins used to be triplets, but one of the sisters passed away.  Ma________ has always packed around guilt that her sisters passing was her fault because, of the three, Ma_______ was the biggest and her sister died because she was so small.  Ma_______ told me that she had been seeking peace all her life to know that her sister was okay, and that it wasn’t her fault.  She said that the moment she got baptized she could feel her sister there telling her "I am proud of you."

S_____ fought a hard fight with Satan this week.  I have never seen a little 11 year old girl be attacked harder than she was by the adversary.  She just felt afraid and worried about getting baptized.  She was scared without even knowing why she was scared.  Satan was just attacking her hard.  I saw a lot of myself in her with my pre-mission anxiety.  I told her that when we are about to do the right thing Satan attacks us.  I explained that I was scared before I went on my mission, just like how she was scared before getting baptized.

However, Sunday morning S_____ was having a complete meltdown.  She told her mom that she didn’t want to get baptized anymore because she was afraid.  Her mom was devastated and went into the other room, knelt and prayed that Heavenly Father would help her.

About this same time, Ma______ went to "give S______ a scolding for not wanting to get baptized" However, when she walked into the room, she felt like she needed to do something different...she started bearing her testimony.  After testifying to her sister about the truthfulness of the Gospel, she sat on the bed with her and they started looking up scriptures together about baptism.

They found, and read together Moroni 8.  Then prayed and asked God if S______ should get baptized that day.  The Spirit reaffirmed to her that she should be baptized, and they started walking to church hand in hand singing "the Spirit of God" so "they couldn’t feel Satan temping them anymore."

Wow.  The wisdom and love of these young girls astounds me.  They have been prepared by the Lord to find the truthfulness of the Gospel.  They are a miracle.

The baptism was amazing.  (At the request of the twins) I sang "Asombro me da" at their baptism... For the life of me I cannot remember what that hymn is in English [Editor’s note…looked it up.  It is “I Stand All Amazed”.]  But it was a really great experience.  The Markhams even came to their baptism. 

We are definitely seeing miracles here in V________.  We had 2 baptisms this weekend and have 5 lined up for next Sunday.

Pray for: L______, R_______, C_______, Cr_______, and R______ that they will be able to get baptized on Sunday.  Also pray that Co____, J________, and Ne_____ and N_______ will get baptized the following Sunday.

I am so blessed to be a part of this.

Funny story of the week:

One of the people who we are preparing to get baptized this next Sunday is a joven named Cr_______ who is 13 years old.  Yesterday, we asked Cr________ who he wants to baptize him.  Without missing a beat, he called out:

"HERMANA WISE!"

Well... That’s awkward.  The bishop will be baptizing him, and we will be explaining the priesthood again. 

That’s all for this week folks! I love you people.  Keep making good choices.  I am sorry that you broke your phone this week, Lincoln. 

Con amor!

Hermana Wise

PUMPED OUT OF MY FACE!!

Hey family!

GOOD NEWS WE DONT HAVE CHANGES!!!!

We were SO STRESSED that we would end up leaving this area.  But, Hermana C______ and I don’t have changes (thank GOODNESS).  We have eight investigators progressing toward baptism and neither of us wanted to miss it. 

We are definitely seeing a ton of miracles here in V________.  This area is notorious for being really hard to work in, but The Lord has definitely blessed us.  This Sunday we had ELEVEN investigators in church.  That is just unheard of.  The twins came! That means that they can get baptized next Sunday after General Conference with their grandma.  We also have another little girl who is ten, was baptized at eight but never got confirmed.... And this was just barely discovered.  So, she is now our responsibility and President Markham decided that, since it has been so long, she needs to be baptized again.

That means that next Sunday we will:

1.  Listen to the prophet of God

2.  Baptize 4 people!

We are STOKED!  The twins couldn’t be more excited for their baptism and their grandma is just plugging right along as well.  Their grandma actually accepted a baptismal date before we had even taught her anything.  She just came to church with the twins and after told us:

"All my life, I have been searching for the word of God, and FINALLY! I received it today in church.  I received the word of God and I want to be baptized.  Can you guys help me with that?"

OF COURSE!

I have no idea what on earth she means by "received the word of God" but hey! I am not complaining.  She is ready to be baptized.

Funny story of the week:

This week we were out knocking doors before lunch when we came across a bright pink house blasting Evangelico music.  So, of course, we decided to knock it. 

Turns out, this old guy named Fredi lives there.  Fredi used to live in, of all places, Logan Utah.  But now lives in V____________, Guatemala and makes a living growing weed which he sells on the street "for medical purposes."

Anyway, undeterred we started teaching him the first lesson.  I guess he took the lessons like 15 years ago when he lived in Utah so to get a feel for what he already knew I asked him what he remembered about Joseph Smith.  This was his reply:

"Oh yeah, I know everything about Joseph Smith! He was the guy who asked Queen Victoria for some money to go discover an easier way to get to India to trade, but he ended up discovering America! But then once he got there, he married Pocahontas and they had the first thanksgiving.  Then a few years later he saw God and Jesus Christ and they told him that none of the churches were true! So he fought with the Indians and started his own church but all the people hated them so they had to go west and establish Utah and that is why we have BYU."

..... Yeah..... We just started from ground zero with him. But we are going back today and we will see what happens!

I love it here.  I love my mission.  I love these people.

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the same church that Jesus Christ organized during his earthly ministry.  I know that this gospel was restored through Joseph Smith.  As a representative of Jesus Christ I testify that He lives.  I know that He loves us. 

I love you people! Make good choices!

Hna Wise

A Week of Miracles

Hola familia!

Wow, where do I even start? This week has been incredible. Stressful? yes.  Difficult? yes.  But incredible.  I am so blessed for the opportunity I have to serve here as a missionary. 

To begin, these things growing on my head? Just an infection.  Nothing serious.  I am SO GLAD THAT I AM NOT GETTING SENT HOME/ STATESIDE. 

This week I was SUPER stressed out about what the possible results could be of what these lumps on my head were.  Wednesday night I finally broke down and asked for a blessing from the Elders in my district.  Elder H____ gave me a blessing wherein he:

1.  Straight up QUOTED MY PATRIACAL BLESSING WORD FOR WORD

2.  Promised that "the Lord would answer the prayers of the righteous, and I would be blessed to finish my full time missionary service if I prayed with faith."

I felt a lot better after that.  Hermana and President Markham were praying for me all week.  Thursday, they took me in to get my stitches out and receive the diagnosis.  We offered a kneeling prayer before going in.  I just felt an overwhelming peace.  I knew, without doubt, that it was just going to be okay. 

The moment we walked in, the doctor told me:

 "GOOD NEWS, YOU CAN KEEP WORKING! YOU ONLY HAVE AN INFECTION!" Hermana and President Markham broke down and cried.  It was at this point that President Markham looked at me and said,

"We didn’t tell you before, but the whole mission has been praying for you specifically that you would be able to stay."

Wow.  I am so humbled that every single missionary in the Guatemala City Central mission was praying for me this week.  I just feel so loved.  I know that when we pray to God, we aren’t changing His will.  Instead, we are securing for ourselves blessings that He is already willing to give us, we just have to ask Him first.  I am so grateful that 240 other missionaries were also asking for the blessing that I needed.  I truly know that God hears and answers our prayers when we ask Him with faith.  I am pumped that I get to stay here for a year.  My mission is just getting started. 

Other great news this week:

I SAW HERMANA H________[her trainer]!!!! I love that woman with all my heart.  Poor thing was worried sick about me.  But, it was just so fun to get to talk to her for a bit. 

THE TWINS CAME TO CHURCH AND THEY LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!  Best part?  At the end of sacrament meeting we sang "the Spirit of God."  Halfway through the song, S______ looked up at me with tears in her eyes and said

"I think I can feel this fire that they are talking about in my heart right now, am I feeling the Holy Ghost?"

I got all choked up but responded "si"

She then told me:

"Yo se que esta es la iglesia verdadera.  Es verdadera, yo se!"

You are right kid.  The church is true. 

Moments like that make it all worth it. 

Love you guys! Thanks for the prayers!!!

Hermana Wise

I also have pictures this week!

 

The Guatemala sun is slowly turning my hair red (in this light it looks REALLY red...but it isn't quite that pronounced). But definitely red highlights!

 

This is why I won't be wearing my hair in a ponytail anytime soon.

 

Here's the beastie they removed from my head!  Cool, huh?