Birthday Lunch

I am well aware of the fact that Sean's birthday was 2 months ago and that I am very late in posting these pictures.  My apologies.

These are pictures from when Sean went to Red Robin with his district to celebrate turning 20!

Letter from 9-13-11

 Dear Mom,

  Last week was pretty good.  We've just been doing a lot of walking lately, trying to find people.  On a good note though, Lami, the boy I was talking about, has a Baptismal date for next Sunday!  So, we're really excited that we'll have a baptism before the end of the transfer.  Oh, by the way, tell dad that the program they're "piloting" in Santa Clara was piloted in our mission last year and that's what we've been doing since I've got here, so I've got a little idea of what they're doing.  Hahaha.

  It's good to hear that Jon and Cristina are taking a break.  It would be better if they took a break on the west side of the continental United States...but oh well, I guess Hawaii is a good second.  I miss the little ones.  I'm surrounded by a lot of little kids in the ward, so it's tough obeying the white handbook and not holding them or anything.  I miss them sooooooooo much, and tell them that too would you?

  Well, I've got to get going.  Lots of things to do today.  I thought I had explained MTE my first or second transfer?  It stands for Missionary Training Exchanges, we go for half a day on Monday for training, then we go with a "coach" which is a missionary in a leadership position, for the rest of the day and he helps us become better missionaries.  Then we exchange back on Tuesday, have another half day of training then go back to missionary work.

  I love each of you, and continue to pray for you everyday.  Have a great day and give everyone kisses for me!!!

 

Love,

 

Elder Wise

Letter from 9-6-11

Dear Mother,

  I'll make sure to keep y'all in my prayers when y'all attend the temple.  I'll also try and reserve my last attendance of the year for a Tuesday in December.  It would be nice to attend the Temple "with" y'all at the same time.  I just wish you could come here and go through the Temple here.  It's SO beautiful!  I'm having thoughts about just telling my future wife that we're going to be married here, no exceptions, but I guess that's not how it works huh?

  Well, things are going well here again.  We had MTE again these past few days, so P-day is tomorrow, I just get to e-mail today.  The mission has been focusing a lot on Obedience and how it affects everything, and I still remember Dad telling me before I came out that only through being obedient do I see success, and let me tell you it shows.  It's hard, but the sacrifice is worth it a lot of the time.  We're teaching an 11 yr-old right now that is the nephew of the Marshallese family in the ward and he's so ready for Baptism.  The first time we taught him one of the first things out of his mouth was, "when can I be Baptized?", tell me that isn't a missionaries favorite thing to hear?  We've been so excited to teach him!

  Other than that things have been good.  We finally got some rain today and it's been making things a bit more humid, which I have to admit I miss actually.  Elder Kanuch though wouldn't be able to take the heat.  It's kinda funny, for being Tongan he hates the sun and he can't stand anything over 70 degrees.  It makes me laugh to hear him talk about it.  Well, I've got some pictures to send so I'll get on to that, hope ya'll got my letter!!!

 

Love,

 

Elder Wise

Letter from 8-30-11

 Dear Mom and Dad,

  WHAT?! THE PAHFREYMAN'S WERE HERE AND THEY DIDN'T SAY HI?!?!?!?!?!  The Mo-Bat is just on the edge of my area, it would've been amazing to see them! Oh well, a lot of things in this life we miss out on for better things.

  Well this last week has been a good one.  Elder Kanuch and I have been very active with contacting people, but unfortunately that's not been going so hot.  Dad asked though one thing that was going well with missionary work here and I'd have to say it's working with Ward Leaders/members.  We don't do any tracting in our mission, so most of the "contacting" if you want to call it that is done through referrals we've received from the Ward Council or ward members, or directly from Church HQ itself.  Missionary work is no more about how many doors we "knock", no offense to our good friends the JW's though.  They have a good purpose, even if their doctrine might be a bit...misguided.  Hahaha, a little inter-faith rivalry sorry, comes with the territory.

  OH, before I forget, I've got two questions.  One is, if ya'll find it could I get my Red Cross first aid book sent to me please? I was helping a member the other day that had passed out in church and I realized that I've forgotten a lot of stuff, and I don't like that.  Especially if I want to get into the Medical field, that doesn't bode well for me.  The second question is...how do you cook a turkey???  The Marshallese family in our ward asked me if I could cook one for a party they want to throw and I realized that I hadn't watched mom do the whole process...sorry the Turkey Bowl always took prescedence over cooking!  So, if you could give me the details of the process so I can cook it, that would be amazing.

  Well, the mission is being a mission.  There's ups and downs, highs and lows, but we continue to push on.  If there's one thing to tell people for mission prep dad, it's that missionary work is WORK.  It's just like a job sometimes, we wake up, get ready, then go through the same routine looking for different results.  You know, now that I think about it, that's the definition of Insanity.  I guess that means we as missionaries are insane, which makes sense.  Why else would we leave the "comforts" of home to sometimes foreign countries to talk to people about God and Jesus Christ?  Best advice? read Preach My Gospel, it's revealed truth for Missionary work in our day.  Also if you can get it look for the MTC devotional that Elder Holland gave while I was in the MTC.  ONE OF THE BEST EVER!!!

  Well, gotta go, things to do for p-day.  Give everyone Hugs and Kisses from me!!!!

 

 

 

Love,

 

Elder Wise

Letter from 8-23-11

Dear Mom and Dad,

 

  I'm so sorry for not sending an e-mail or that letter last week.  As you guessed things have been a bit crazy here in SD, and there's so much for me to tell you, but some of it's probably going to have to wait.  But let me just say I've never been so stressed in my life, so to speak.

  Elder Kanuch and I have been way busy in our area, I've actually received about 10 times the amount of referalls here than I have my entire mission, mostly because we have the Mormon Battlion visitor's site (which by the way if you ever come here before I'm home you MUST go through, it's better than Sea World and it's FREE!!!!  If not we're going when we come back.) and because our Ward Council is FINALLY getting rolling.  When we're not contacting nonmembers we'll text members of the Ward Council and they ALWAYS have names for us to go visit.  It makes it easier on us, especially since we don't tract at all.  Good thing I never have to go through that little experience.

  Dad asked a bit about Elder Kanuch so to sum him up I'll say this.  He's Tongan, 320 lbs., going to play for BYU and he has one of the humblest testimonies I've ever heard. Anything else?  He truly cares about the people and you know he loves the Lord everytime he speaks.  On top of that he's one of the most selfless people I've ever met.  Already have an idea of what I can learn from him.  We get along pretty good, still have our ups and downs, but we're working at it.  Oh and he says "What's up?"

  Last Sunday we had an opportunity to teach an investigator, named Veronica, in the home of the 2nd councilor in the Bishopric and she is awesome!  She found the church through the yellow pages and the Church unemployment, but after meeting with our Bishop once she's been attending Sacrament meeting on her own for the past 3 weeks!  When we were talking with her on Sunday we invited her to read the Book of Mormon and she said yes right away.  We just talked about reading to know the truth for herself and not because we were telling her and she completely aggreed.  So, we're excited to see where she goes in the near future. 

  There's soooooo much more that I want to tell you, but I've got to wait a bit.  My knee has been acting up and that's been slowing me down a bit, but I love this work and there's nothing else I'd rather be doing at this point in my life.  You know, it's wierd sometimes admitting that parents are right, but ya'll are.  I love ya'll very much and miss ya'll dearly.  In just a few months I'll have been out a year and it doesn't even feel like it.  Still feels like I'm going to wake up tomorrow morning and fly to Salt Lake to go to the MTC.  I can't wait to show ya'll how much I've grown.  I wish you could see.  Give EVERYONE hugs and kisses from me, and I PROMISE I will send a letter this next week.  I know I've been bad, but that's something I'll still need to work on.  I didn't say I was perfect right?

 

Love,

 

Elder Sean Wise

Letter from 8-2-11

Dear Mom,

  My week has been pretty good, but it's been slow at the same time.  We've really just been focusing of contacting people, and unfortunaly not very many people have been home.  I've mostly just got pictures to send this week.  I did have an opportunity to really see how Priesthood keys were exercised within the church when we got to hear from Elder Ballard.  Oh and did I mention I got to shake his hand as well?  I don't think I'll ever wash it again unless I'm going to shake another Apostles hand.

  Give people my love.

 

Love,

 

Elder Wise

Letter from 7-26-11

 Dear Family,

  How has everyone been?  Things have been going great for the two of us here in the San Diego 1st Ward.  We've been spending a lot of our time contacting refferals we've received from Church HQ, The Mormon Battalion, etc.  But sadly not very many people are opening their doors or their hearts, so we've been pressing on.  I don't think I mentioned this last time by my new companion Elder Kanuch is Tongan!  He's from West Valley, Utah, but his mom is Tongan and he lived there for a bit.  So it's nice to have someone who stands 5 inchs taller than you and outweighs you by your entire weight, expecially in this part of town.  Things can get a little bit crazy...But in answer to a question Mom posed both of us are "senior-companions".  It's kind of nice to make decisions together instead of just having to follow the lead of someone. 

  But the ward is totally AWESOME!  I'll send some pics of one of the families in the ward, the Maun family.  They're from the Marshall Islands and they're our "missionary Family" A unique calling I've never heard anywhere else, but basically it means they make sure that the missionaries have a family to look to when they enter the ward and when we need some people to teach.  Their oldest son Wallace is meeting with the Bishop tomorrow to start his mission papers, but overall his family is amazing!  And the rest of the families in the ward are sweet as well.  We've got an interesting ward, one that I can learn a lot from.  There's a range of ages in the ward, and we get A TON of visitors every sunday.  It makes it a little hard to learn and remember who actually lives in the ward, but I'm trying hard.

  Well, my days in San Diego are going by fast.  Even with 70-80 degree weather, which is spoiling me by the way, we get out and about and meet lots of people.  We don't tract in the mission though.  Most of our finding is done through members or street contacting, I think since there's another religion that does tract, people are starting to get annoyed...hence my companion had someone pull a gun on them at the door before he found out they were missionaries before I got here, so like I said, an interesting people, but I love them. 

  I guess to wrap up I'm inviting everyone to write down a list of non-members they know then go out this week and serve them or share your testimony with them.  What we do here as missionaries isn't inviting people to a club, or just to some other church, we're inviting people to partake of the Atonement of Jesus Christ by proper Authority and in the only way that can be on the face of the planet.  Members are the true missionaries and you have no idea the impact that you have everyday on friends and neighbors.  Pray for oppotunities to share the Gospel, pray to recognize those opportunities, and pray for the courage and faith to act upon those opportunities.  Help bring our Brothers and Sisters back home.  I love each and everyone of you and I pray for ya'll everyday.  I know that the Lord answers prayers, and that he knows us personally.  With the Lord on our side, ANYTHING is possible.

 

LLL

 

I love you,

 

Elder Wise the IV