These are a Few of My Favorite Things

Hola familia!

I can't lie this week has been rough.  With the boundary change in our area we are dying here in SE.  Despite working our tails off all week long we don't have a single investigator... Not one.  We had to drop L because he just doesn't want to progress.... So that is rough.  But, it is all okay because I know the Lord will provide we just have to keep slugging along. 

Anyway.  Enough of that. 

Let me explain the title of this email:  This week Hermana S and I have had a few interesting and comical experiences here in SE. 

The other night we were making our way through the streets of SE when we were suddenly approached by a group of drunk, possibly drug-induced men.  Now before you all panic, this is pretty normal here in Guatemala.  At this point I am basically a professional at dodging drunks.  So, without missing a beat I simply walked around them and continued on my way. 

Hermana S, however, wasn't so lucky.  Panic stricken she just stood there without knowing what to do.  As the bolo approached her she began to scream out for help.  The man had his arms outstretched like he was going to grab her.

Honestly? I didn't have any idea what to do either.  But, before I knew it I held my Book of Mormon (hardcover) high in the air and shouted:

"HEY!!! DONT TOUCH MY COMPANION BECAUSE IF YOU TOUCH HER I WILL HIT YOU WITH THIS BOOK!!!"

I know... Real Christ like of me. 

But the man just looked confused for a minute and then took off running in the opposite direction.

Power of the Book of Mormon right there, folks. 

The other experience was that this week we had the chance to play boliche  (bowling) as a district for P Day yesterday.  It was super, super fun.  And, not to be prideful or anything, I totally won. 

So yeah, the work is kinda dead but at least we have things to laugh about.

Other crazy news:  This week I officially completed 16 months in the mission.... WHAT? I honestly do not understand what happened.  But here is my list of 16 things that I love about the mission.

1.  I love giant wet YOU JUST GOT BAPTIZED hugs

2.  I love awkward wet YOU JUST GOT BAPTIZED handshakes (because we don't hug boys)

3.  I love crazy Guatemalan rainstorms

4.  I love contacting in the streets

5.  I love preaching in the buses

6.  I love when random people in the street attempt to speak to me in English but just scream at me "VERY THANK YOU!"

7.  I love seeing the light of Christ in the eyes of my investigators

8.  I love seeing others accept the Gospel

9.  I love being rejected and realizing that the biggest miracle in the mission is my own conversion

10.  I love eating tortillas every day

11.  I love speaking Spanish

12.  I love when my Latin district leader has to correct my English.... It's getting bad, folks

13.  I love P day naps

14.  I love waking up early to read the scriptures

15.  I love knowing that this is the work of the Lord

16.  I love being a missionary. 

Well there you have it.  My favorite things. 

Love you guys!

Have a great week!

Hna Wise

June 30th letter

Hey Family!

This week has been absolutely incredible.  Can't lie, I was in pretty rough shape with how this area divide is going to happen.  But, even though this week started out rough it ended up with a miracle baptism!!!

Our miracle is named E.  She came to church a few weeks ago with her friend who just finished his mission.  When we started teaching her she was more or less positive.  But as we continued teaching her we saw more and more of a change in her as she accepted more and more the light of Christ in her life.  We were able to teach her to the Book of Mormon but then she disappeared.  We lost contact with her and when we passed by looking for her we were unable to find her. 

So confused about whether or not she actually wanted to listen, we more or less had to leave her. 

But that is when the miracle came in,  last Sunday she showed up at church again with her friend and told us that she had been sick and left town but now that she returned she had been reading the Book of Mormon and wanted to be baptized!!!!

WHOOHOO!!!!

Honestly, God is so merciful to us here as we serve Him.  E got baptized Sunday (on her 15th birthday).  Who needs a quince-anos when you can make a sacred covenant with God?

But, we always have to do weird stuff to make baptisms happen.... President Markham always teaches us that everything we do is PARA BAUTIZAR.  Or everything we do needs to help us fulfill our purpose in inviting others to come unto Christ through baptism.  So here is my list of the week of things that we did PARA BAUTIZAR...

1. Piled into a taxi with 11 other people.... PARA BAUTIZAR

2.  Washed baptismal clothes with rain water.... PARA BAUTIZAR

3.  Walked 12 kilometers in 1 hour and 11 minutes... PARA BAUTIZAR

4.  Worked in a scary Guatemalan hailstorm.... PARA BAUTIZAR

5.  Spoke in sacrament meeting with 5 minutes notice.... PARA BAUTIZAR

6.  Spent an entire day searching for someone to sell us water with the elders in order to actually be able to baptize E.... PARA BAUTIZAR

7.  Survived more parasites.... PARA BAUTIZAR

So yeah! This week was nuts! But really good.  Hermana S is doing incredibly well.  She is training me.... But really.  Love this girl.  I really love this district.  I will send you all some crazy district photos. 

Keep making good choices!  Love you all!

Hermana Wise

June 24th Letter.

Hey Family!

Wow.  This week has been absolutely nuts.

First off... So sorry that I didn't write yesterday.  My district leader, Elder P was emergency hospitalized for an intestinal infection.  Poor kid is suffering hard.  He is back in the district working again but looks absolutely green and hasn't eaten since Saturday.  Pray for him.  Actually, better yet put him on the prayer roll. 

Well.  We have a few slight changes.  Due to the baptisms and future baptisms which we have been able to work here in our area is being broken in two.  We will be left with SE, but all of the aldeas below (where all of our progressing investigators live) will now be another area.  In fact, it will now be another branch.  We had two families progressing toward baptism down there.... But they will likely now be baptisms for the elders.  It's rough.  We literally will have to start over.  The part of our area that we are being left is super Catholic and we only have one investigator here...

Which brings me to my next point, we saw a huge miracle this week.  Our one investigator here in SE is named Luis.  We found L when we changed houses.  He is our landlord and as we were talking to him he mentioned that he listened to missionaries 15 years ago and almost got baptized... Including that elders helped build the house we currently live in.  Well we invited him to church and without any coaxing he actually showed up.  He has been coming for almost a month but is completely against the idea of baptism.  We were completely lost for how we could help him.

Well, last week while we were pondering it over we came to the conclusion that we needed to show forth more effort.  We decided to street contact a thousand people in one week.  We prayed and explained to God that we really needed help so that L would be able to get an answer.  We explained that this week we were going to contact a thousand people, and hoped that in return he would receive an answer. 

Sunday night we finished our thousandth contact as we rushed back into the house.  Monday after finishing P day, we ran to the house of L to challenge him to be baptized.  We tried in the morning planning a lesson, but just couldn't feel any revelation.  We prayed before knocking the door, and L responded.  At first he didn't want to listen to us, but eventually let us share with him. 

We just started off with a hymn and a prayer and began verifying like we always do... "how was church? What did you learn from the Book of Mormon since the last time we saw you?  What do you feel when you ask God if you need to be baptized?"

When we brought up the B word, he just sat there looking at us.  After about a minute he told us:

"Hermanas, last night I fell asleep reading the Book of Mormon.... I had a dream that Jesus Christ came to me.  He didn't tell me anything but I knew for some reason that He wanted me to follow Him.  But I don't know how.... I feel the answer is somewhere in the Book of Mormon."

 

We opened up to 2 Nefi 31 and read:

"y dijo a los hijos de los hombres:  Seguidme.  Por tanto mis amados hermanos, podemos seguir a Jesus, a menos que estemos dispuestos a seguir a los mandamientos del padre?  Y el pade dijo: Arrepentios arrepentios y sed bautizados en el nombre de mi amado hijo."

We then asked... "L how can you follow Jesus?"

"I need to repent and be baptized."

"Will you follow the example to Jesus Christ and be baptized this 5th of July?"

(long pause)

"Well hermanas, you are going to have to help me... But if Jesus wants me to follow him I need to do it."

WOW! God is so merciful.

So, I feel like Job when he said "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away... Blessed be the name of the Lord."

The Lord may be taking away the majority of our area, but he is giving us L.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Please pray that all will go well and he will be baptized on the 5th.

Please pray that we will find investigators in our newly divided area.

In other news, we had a conference today with Elder Alonzo. The conference was a tri zone conference and it really was incredible.  He taught us so much about how to study and liken the scriptures.

The most terrifying part of the conference? When I had to sing "I know that my Redeemer Lives" in front of a general authority.... All by myself.  But I didn't even throw up.... So I would call that a success.

Funny part of the conference was that the zone leaders sent us a message last night explaining the importance of taking a proper shower and wearing nice clothes and using makeup for the conference.... What are you trying to say, zone leaders?! I have been personally victimized by Elder T.  (You're awesome if you understand that reference.)

Well, hope this letter is better than last week.

Love you all!

Hermana Wise

A Short One

Hey family!

Okay first thing first.  My hija is awesome.  Her name is Hermana S, she is a cancer surviving chef from Honduras who dyed her hair purple before the mission.  Yeah, she is pretty cool.  We have just been loving it here in Guatemala trying to find more people to baptize here in SE.  I am the only sister in the whole mission who is training right now, which is a huge honor.  I am just grateful that I got to stay here in SE!

Really, I don't have much to say this week.  We have been stuck in  a ton of meetings and haven't been able to work... This makes me crazy.  But this week should be better! I am super excited to hit the ground running and teach some people the gospel. 

My district leader is Elder P again, which is cool.  He is a homie. He got bitten by a street dog this week which means 40 rabies shots in the stomach... poor kid.

I'm sorry this letter is lame... I am really hungry and I have a hard time focusing when I am hungry.

This week I got punched, called a witch, and robbed all in the same moment.... But the guy who attacked me was only 4 years old so, I will probably get over it.

Okay obviously I am just not feeling it this week.  I will repent and do better next week.  Just know that I love you all and I am praying for you every night.

LOVE YOU GUYS!

Hna Wise

OH!!!!

I almost forgot my good news! My very first convert, Jose is preparing to serve a mission!!! What a miracle. 

LOVE YOU!

Voy a dar luz...Otra Vez

Hola Familia!

So.... Changes.....

I AM GOING TO TRAIN AGAIN!!! Whoohoo! Best part is that I get to train here in SE.  Hermana P told me she was almost positive I was going to train and open again, but thank goodness she was wrong and I get to stay here.  That means that Hna S is off to another area, and I will likely finish my mission here.  I couldn't be happier.  Really, I love SE. 

This week was a good one.  The chicken pox cleared up.  Really, it was a pretty light case.  I probably only got 15 pox in total... and only 2 on my face so that is pretty good.   I definitely will have some scars.  But hey! They will just blend in with the scars that I already have from flea bites, so whatever. 

I cannot believe that we are already in June... Really, time absolutely FLIES on the mission.  This time last year I was eating bugs with Hermana Haymond now I am here in SE, same zone. Pretty crazy. 

This week was filled with tender mercies.  Being on the mission has really helped me draw nearer to God and help me understand better His love for His children.  I am going to explain 3 tender mercies that God showed us this week:

1.  This Sunday was fast and testimony meeting.  We ran around like crazy trying to get investigators to church but all of our investigators either disappeared, told us this Sunday no but next Sunday yes, or had dengue.  We went to church with NO ONE.  But by a miracle we had 4 new investigators show up at church.  The members brought friends.  It was a huge miracle.

So we started the meeting feeling content for the miracle of having investigators in church.  Our branch is really small so typically the same people share almost every testimony meeting.  However, as the meeting was closing, the second counselor stood up and asked if anyone else would like to share.  O, our 15 year old convert who changed his studies to go to church, launched out of his chair and walked to the front.  His testimony was powerful.  He said:

"I want to share my testimony and tell everyone that I really do know that the church is true.  The missionaries visited my family before, but I never had real intent.  I just prayed because the missionaries told me to... But I never got an answer because I didn't care.  When the sisters came it was different.  I felt the Spirit.  When they told us about how Joseph Smith saw God I really wanted to know if it was true.  I knelt down and really prayed The Spirit washed over me just like how it was when the sisters visited... I know the church is true.  I got baptized two weeks ago and I know that we are going to stay here forever.  I am excited to be an eternal family in a year and I invite all of you who have not been baptized to pray and ask God like I did, because I know that you can get an answer too."

It was incredible.  He just blew me away.  We as missionaries really don't do anything.  We can't change anyone.  The Spirit makes the difference.

2.  Yesterday for Pday we all went into the capital to eat TGI Fridays as a district (with permission... we aren't chambones).  Well, the rain picked up and all the buses stopped running, leaving us stranded outside our area without a phone and with no way to return to SE.  We didn't know what we were going to do so we hurried and prayed.  Within 5 minutes of ending the prayer, a family of members who is visiting Guatemala drove by, stopped and asked us for if we needed help, and then returned us to our area. 

They told us:

"We just felt like we should pull over."

Huge tender mercy.

3.  Hermana C called me.  She is doing great.  She received the notice that she and Hermana W are staying together, but they will be opening area out there in S.  Giant miracle.  Poor kid was struggling getting any traction in her area out there.  Pray that she will find success!

Well, that is all for this week folks!  I am going to include a picture that we took in Antigua outside of (one of) the giant Catholic churches out there....

I LOVE THE MISSION!  Wow, just can't say it enough.  

Yo les amo! Tengan una feliz semana y lean El Libro de Mormon!!!!

Con amor

Hna Wise

Let's play.... GUESS THAT ENFERMEDAD!!!!

Hey Family,

Currently I am sitting in a sketchy internet cafe in Guatemala listening to very inappropriate American music.... Sigh.... These people can't even understand it.  I am just sitting here humming hymns softly to myself as I try to write my family.

Anyways.  This past week was absolutely nuts.  President Markham decided to have a mission wide competition to try and find "the perfect district."  It was super fun and every day we had a different "challenge" for example, to look for new investigators, to have lessons with members present, lessons taught in the house of a member, etc.  Well our district is only us and the elders of J.  But.... We are all pathologically competitive.  We slayed the whole mission.  Did we wake up at 3 AM to start working? Maybe.  Did we literally sprint to every appointment? Yes.  Did we interrupt soccer games to teach youth the gospel to find 15 new investigators all at once? Shamelessly.  Did Elder L lie to us all week saying we were losing by 60 points so we would work harder? Yes he did.... And we may never forgive him. 

But we won! So tomorrow we get to eat lunch with President and Hermana Markham.  We are pretty excited. 

Well the day after we won, I woke up with a horrible fever.  Let's play everyone's favorite game.... WHAT ILLNESS DID HERMANA WISE PICK UP IN GUATEMALA?!

This week, for 50 points we have three options:

1. Dengue

2. Bird Flu

3. Chicken Pox

Place your guesses people!

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Ready?

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If you guessed C, Chicken Pox, YOU WIN!!!! That is right people.  I HAVE CHICKEN POX!!!! Like, what the heck?! Isn't that an illness for children?! Didn't I get a vaccine for that?! Didn't I sleep in the same bed as my sister when she had it and I never got sick?! Didn't I get a booster vaccine for that before coming on the mission?

But none of that matters apparently, when you are in Guatemala.  I have Chicken Pox.... It is kinda the worst.  But whatever.  We are teaching a family and after being in the house for 20 minutes the Mom announced to us that all the kids have it.... Sure enough 2 days later I woke up with Chicken Pox.  Kinda peeved. 

But it does make for an interesting door approach:

"Hi, we are representatives of Jesus Christ.  We are here to share a message that will change your life.  But before we start, has everyone in your household already had chicken pox?"

"no"

(takes three giant steps backward)

"What day next week can we visit you?"

The funniest part was that after getting completely destroyed by Chicken Pox, Elder L (the district leader) also woke up with a crazy fever... But he doesn't have Chicken Pox just an intense intestinal infection (been there done that).  We quickly went from the perfect district to the district most likely to get hospitalized. ;)

But aside from being sick, this week has been great.  The S family all got confirmed on Sunday (even though they are all sick too... With Dengue).  It was such a special moment to see them all together join the church.  Now if you ask them what their goals are, they all say THE TEMPLE!!!  I better start saving up... Because I promised that I would be there with them. 

Well, that is about it for this week. 

Love you guys! Make good choices and read the Book of Mormon!!!

I am itchy!!!

Hna Wise

The Ups and Downs

 

Hola Familia,

Thank you all for your love and support of my hija, Hermana C.  As you now know, her mother passed away last night.  I spoke to Hermana C on the phone at about ten.  She had been talking to her family and was feeling pretty shaken up.  Her sister begged her to come home, but if she returns it will end her mission.  She had to tell her family that she wouldn't be coming home and they all took it pretty hard.  I guess her mother's final days on earth were tough for everyone involved.  Two hours after our phone conversation, she called me again to tell me that her mom had passed away.  She told me:

"I just felt tortured like Alma when he remembered all his sins... But then right at midnight I just felt overwhelming peace and happiness like all at once someone just took it all away.  A few minutes later President Markham called me to tell me that my mom died.  But it's okay.  I know she is here with me."

She also told me that she felt "healed," which I thought was interesting.  It is amazing to be able to see the strengthening power of the atonement working in my little hijita.  I am grateful she is with Hermana Wong, she is a great strength to her. 

Thank you all for your prayers and your concern for my hija.  Please keep praying for her and her family.  Unfortunately, her family does not have the same strength and faith Hermana C has. 

On a brighter note, the S family got married on Saturday and baptized on Sunday... Just how we planned.  It was a HUGE miracle.

 The wedding on Saturday was absolutely insane.  We had to rent a bus to try to get our investigators, their family AND the family that the Elders were marrying to the church in time.  But, even with a bus we didn't all fit.  All missionaries were kicked off the bus and abandoned in the elders area.... An hour and a half away from the church.  We ended up taking two buses, and a taxi in the pouring rain to try to get to the wedding.  After getting lost in the adjacent mission, being crammed in a taxi with 8 other people, and sprinting like crazy people through the streets of Guatemala we made it just in time to the church.  We came, ate tamales, and witnessed two families be married.  Doesn't get any better. 

After the wedding, we had the interviews for the baptisms.  Elder L explained that the interview with M (the little one) was pretty much the funniest experience of his life. 

"M, what is tithing?"

(while holding up ten fingers)  "We have to give ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of everything to the church so they can buy chairs."

"M, what is repentance?"

"You look strong, like maybe you could kill me.... Will you flex your muscles so I can see?"

"M, what is the Law of Chastity?"

"It means we don't look at bad pictures and I don't let anyone touch me like I am a prostitute.  My brother has bad pictures on his computer."

"Uhhh...what kind of bad pictures?"

"He has pictures of Jesus casting out a bad spirit.... That bad spirit is really scary."

Man, I love that little guy.  The baptism was just amazing.  It was incredible to see an entire family one after another enter the waters of baptism...  I would try to explain it, but I will just send pictures instead.

I LOVE YOU GUYS! THANKS FOR EVERYTHING:

Hna Wise