Hey Y’all!
So this is my last email to y’all! Wow, how time has flown! It is such a strange experience to be leaving my mission, my home for the past 18 months! It has been so hard to say good byes, I still have not quite come to grips with the fact that I am leaving. It is such a hard thing to do. But alas, there are new things ahead of me and many great opportunities to be had. Seeing as this is my last official email as a full time missionary I thought I would keep it short and sweet by telling you- first how much my mission means to me and second share with you my testimony.
I want y’all to know that with out a shadow of a doubt that my mission is the BEST thing that has ever happened to me. My mission means EVERYTHING to me! Through the rough times and the great times I will be forever grateful to my Heavenly Father for calling me to His work. I have seen people brought closer to the savior then ever thought possible. I have seen miracles, I have seen countless tender mercies being dished out by our loving Heavenly Father in behalf of his children. I have seen baptisms, I have seen people walk away from the truth, I have felt rejection, I have felt utter joy. I have been through my share of trials in my life but my mission was the biggest. It seemed at times that I was being handed more than I could deal with. That is where the real lesson learning begins- just when you think you can’t take it anymore, you turn to Him and he gives you strength that you didn’t even know you had in you! I have learned lessons on my mission that will bless me and my future family not only in this life, but in the eternities. My mission changed me for the better. My Father in Heaven needed to mold me. A good friend of mine once used this analogy and so I will share it with you today. For me my mission was my refiner’s fire. I had to be shaped, smoothed out. Sometimes we think that this is done by Heavenly Father just throwing us in the fire and saying, whelp I guess I’ll take them out when they’re done. But no what really happens is, we are all these precious stones but there is a lot of rock covering up the gem and so in order to help us shine more brightly he is going to melt away some of the rough stone spots. So he carefully puts the precious gem on a stick and holds it in the fire ever so carefully. Constantly keeping an eye on the stone. Now when the stone gets to hot, he pulls it out, cools it off and gives it a break. Then when he feels the time is right and the stone is ready he puts the stone back in again. This process continues until a precious gem is formed. I have thought about this little analogy a lot on my mission and feel that it adequately describes the mission field. My mission has been hard, but when it gets to the point where I think I can’t handle it anymore, Heavenly Father puts me in his loving hands and cools me off. Whenever I was struggling on the mission my President would say to me, “it’s ok Sister Kleisler, you’re in His hands” I have grown so much being in His hands and I have grown so much on my mission. Once again I want y’all to know that my mission means EVERYTHING to me!
Now the last thing I want to leave with you is my testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ. I want y’all to know that I know that he lives. That he is there for ALL of us and that he wants to help us in our trials but we must turn to Him. His atonement is for us- it is an AMAZING gift but we must access it. I am forever grateful for my Savior, for the pains he suffered for me and for the way in which he has made it so I don’t ever have to feel alone. The closer we get to him the more peace and happiness we can have in our lives- that I know for A FACT!
I love y’all very much and will see you on Wednesday!!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Sister Kleisler
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
It's Starting to look a lot like Christmas!
Hey Y’all!!
It sure is getting pretty Christmasy around here!!! We even got a Christmas tree for our bedroom. Mama Smith asked us a few weeks ago if we wanted a tree and we said yes. So this week she came home and yelled up the stairs “Sisters come down here quick!” We were like, uh what’s going on? We run down the stairs and there is our Christmas tree- a real live one!! I have never had a real tree before, it smells so good! Ours is more of a Chrsitmas bush- she is short and stocky. I named our tree Shaniqua! Ha ha she is so cute! Other Christmasy happeneings include, the ward Christmas party with non members present- score! Sister Johnson and I made sugar cookies this week and took them to all of our investigators and less actives that we are working with. With the Christmas season you’d think there would be a heightened sense of the desire to hear about Christ, but most people don’t seem to have time for it. We did meet a few people this week that we set up return appointments with so we will see how all of that pans out.
Well this is my last full week as a missionary and it is full of lots of emotion and LOTS of things to do!!! Sorry this has to be so short today but I just have such a jammed packed day that I have no time. But I can justify it all in saying that I will see y’all soon enough!!! :)
Have an awesome week and enjoy what Christmas is truly about!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Sister Kleisler
It sure is getting pretty Christmasy around here!!! We even got a Christmas tree for our bedroom. Mama Smith asked us a few weeks ago if we wanted a tree and we said yes. So this week she came home and yelled up the stairs “Sisters come down here quick!” We were like, uh what’s going on? We run down the stairs and there is our Christmas tree- a real live one!! I have never had a real tree before, it smells so good! Ours is more of a Chrsitmas bush- she is short and stocky. I named our tree Shaniqua! Ha ha she is so cute! Other Christmasy happeneings include, the ward Christmas party with non members present- score! Sister Johnson and I made sugar cookies this week and took them to all of our investigators and less actives that we are working with. With the Christmas season you’d think there would be a heightened sense of the desire to hear about Christ, but most people don’t seem to have time for it. We did meet a few people this week that we set up return appointments with so we will see how all of that pans out.
Well this is my last full week as a missionary and it is full of lots of emotion and LOTS of things to do!!! Sorry this has to be so short today but I just have such a jammed packed day that I have no time. But I can justify it all in saying that I will see y’all soon enough!!! :)
Have an awesome week and enjoy what Christmas is truly about!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Sister Kleisler
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
MARK THE DATE!!!
Hermana Kristi Kleisler's "Homecoming" Talk
Sunday, December 27th, 2009
9:00 a.m.
Woodglen Park Ward
Extension Building
Mesa, AZ
BE THERE!!!
I'll Be Home For Christmas!
Hey Y’all!!!
So the first thing I have to tell you today is……I’ll be home for Christmas!! There is a group of Missionaries going home on December 23 and I am now part of that group! So sweet! My mommy said it is the best Christmas present ever! :)
The next thing I have for you is a story- a story of answered prayers.
So the other day I was feeling sick and so we were at the house just sitting in the family room talking. Sister Johnson had been praying all day that Heavenly Father would throw us a bone. She pleaded with him saying that we might not be able to get out of the house that day but we were doing the best we could and we needed his help to be able to teach some people. Well as we were sitting in the family room there was a plumber upstairs working in our bathroom. He turned on the faucet to our bathtub and then walked off to call a coworker. Well he forgot about the tub and as we sat down stairs talking we were all the sudden interrupted by a waterfall!! The plumber overflowed our tub and water leaked down the vent! Crazy!!! So then the plumbing company had to call in another company that dries up water. So then this “Dry Force” guy comes to the house. He went up stairs to check the damage and saw my Book of Mormon that I keep on the bathroom counter. Then he came down stairs to talk with mama smith and he saw me and my name tag and then told mama smith that he had a Book Of Mormon in his car. She then asked him if he was a member. He said no. I speedy quick found my way over to the table and jumped into that conversation. Turns out his name is Tim Scott and he was taught by missionaries years ago when he was 17 but his mom would not give permission for him to be baptized. He loved the church and still does. Two weeks ago he was at another house drying up water and he started talking to the lady and asked if she knew of a good church he could go to. She said she did and then gave him a Book Of Mormon. He went to church 2 weeks ago at her ward and enjoyed it. So I am sitting there hearing all of this thinking NO WAY! So then I ask well, have you seen missionaries again after that first time? He said actually, I was up in Austin not too long ago and he saw some guys in white shirts and ties and talked to them and gave him his number and they never called. So I said well, I can make sure that some missionaries get to you, what’s your address? He told me and then I said, well I can PERSONALY make sure some missionaries see ya, cause that’s OUR area! So Tim continued to talk with us some more, and he’s been back to the house a few times since to check on the equipment. He is super excited about the church and wants to get baptized, he told us that he wants us to teach him the first lesson today when he comes over to check out the water damage. Man so crazy, I just want y’all to know that Heavenly Father answers prayers! I wasn’t able to go out and work, so Heavenly Father sent the investigator to us, into our house!!!
Well I love y’all and hope you are having a fabulous Holiday season!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Sister Kleisler
So the first thing I have to tell you today is……I’ll be home for Christmas!! There is a group of Missionaries going home on December 23 and I am now part of that group! So sweet! My mommy said it is the best Christmas present ever! :)
The next thing I have for you is a story- a story of answered prayers.
So the other day I was feeling sick and so we were at the house just sitting in the family room talking. Sister Johnson had been praying all day that Heavenly Father would throw us a bone. She pleaded with him saying that we might not be able to get out of the house that day but we were doing the best we could and we needed his help to be able to teach some people. Well as we were sitting in the family room there was a plumber upstairs working in our bathroom. He turned on the faucet to our bathtub and then walked off to call a coworker. Well he forgot about the tub and as we sat down stairs talking we were all the sudden interrupted by a waterfall!! The plumber overflowed our tub and water leaked down the vent! Crazy!!! So then the plumbing company had to call in another company that dries up water. So then this “Dry Force” guy comes to the house. He went up stairs to check the damage and saw my Book of Mormon that I keep on the bathroom counter. Then he came down stairs to talk with mama smith and he saw me and my name tag and then told mama smith that he had a Book Of Mormon in his car. She then asked him if he was a member. He said no. I speedy quick found my way over to the table and jumped into that conversation. Turns out his name is Tim Scott and he was taught by missionaries years ago when he was 17 but his mom would not give permission for him to be baptized. He loved the church and still does. Two weeks ago he was at another house drying up water and he started talking to the lady and asked if she knew of a good church he could go to. She said she did and then gave him a Book Of Mormon. He went to church 2 weeks ago at her ward and enjoyed it. So I am sitting there hearing all of this thinking NO WAY! So then I ask well, have you seen missionaries again after that first time? He said actually, I was up in Austin not too long ago and he saw some guys in white shirts and ties and talked to them and gave him his number and they never called. So I said well, I can make sure that some missionaries get to you, what’s your address? He told me and then I said, well I can PERSONALY make sure some missionaries see ya, cause that’s OUR area! So Tim continued to talk with us some more, and he’s been back to the house a few times since to check on the equipment. He is super excited about the church and wants to get baptized, he told us that he wants us to teach him the first lesson today when he comes over to check out the water damage. Man so crazy, I just want y’all to know that Heavenly Father answers prayers! I wasn’t able to go out and work, so Heavenly Father sent the investigator to us, into our house!!!
Well I love y’all and hope you are having a fabulous Holiday season!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Sister Kleisler
Monday, November 30, 2009
11/30/09
Hello to all of Sister Kleisler’s family and friends.
This is Sister Johnson, her companion. I’ve decided to write her group email today. It was a surprise for me that we were going to be comps again. Sister Kleisler does this thing on transfer night where she calls up all the sisters and finds out if they are getting transferred or not. She creates a transfer tree and then by logical deduction she calculates where everyone is getting transferred to and who their companions will be and so forth. She’s usually pretty accurate. So she calls me and Sister Dodge down in Pleasanton and I tell her I’m getting transferred and then I asked her if she knew who my new companion was going to be. She totally knew we were going to be companions again, but of course she wasn’t going to ruin the surprise, “Oh…I think you’re going with Sister Byrne. Yep, she needs a companion so I’m pretty sure that who you’re going with.” So then for the rest of the time before transfers I thought that I was going to be sister Byrne’s companion and I told everyone that because rarely is Sister Kleisler wrong…So the day of transfers comes…AND…Sister Dodge is super sick—I mean super sick. So we ended up missing the transfer meeting because there was no way we were going to get up to transfer meeting which is an hour away by 8am in the morning. Nope, not going to happen. So we sat at home and waited to go up for the 2nd transfer meeting when Sister Dodge’s companion would be coming down from Austin. So there Sister Kleisler is at transfer meeting and she knows she’s getting me, but I’m no where to be found. The AP’s do the call outs, “And in the Encino Park area we have Sister Kleisler AND……………” AP’s always have to add in this dramatic pause so Sister Kleisler broke the suspense and said, “She’s not here.” I can just see Elder Delio’s jaw drop, “How do you know who your companion is? You always know!” “Yep.”
So Sister Kleisler had to wait for me until 3pm when the next transfer meeting would be. The only problem being that all the Sisters left so she was stuck without a companion. So she went to the office and helped the senior couples with stuff and then when the time came she got a ride back over to the church. During this time I couldn’t handle the suspense so I called the AP’s and asked them who my new companion would be. I guess it was their turn to spoil the surprise. “Who do you think your new companion is?” “I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking you.” “Guess.” Ugh. Elder Hunt always make you guess. “No, just tell me.” “Okay, okay. I’ll give you a hint: it will be a reunion.” “Uhhhhhh…..Sister Kleisler?” “Yep” “No way…whoa” I could go more into my verbal response but it would have just a babbled mess of the words “awesome” and “cool.” My vocabulary has decreased substantially since I’ve been out here.
Anyways, on with this very exciting story…So sister Dodge and I pull into the Church parking lot and Sister jumps out of the car filled with Elders and does her strut over to me and yells, “Are you ready for this?!” I smile, “Yep” Sister Kleisler clarified,“Dude, We’re companions!!!” “I know.” “How do you know? Who told you? Someone’s going down!” So thus it was—united once again. The AP’s came up and shook our hands, “The Dynamic Duo reunited at last.”
For the next few days we were like giggling school girls: We had so much to get caught up on and we stayed up each night talking and talking. It was so cool to teach together again. We taught Elsa who is not a member and who is living with her less active boyfriend. We tried to commit her to baptism in December but there are obviously some lifestyle changes she’ll have to make. She wasn’t against the idea, but it’s a pretty big decision so we’ll see what happens. But the lesson itself was really neat. The spirit was there and Sister Kleisler and I went back and forth pretty seamlessly. Its was cool. We also taught the Oakley family this week. They were sick for two weeks apparently and it has really dampened their flame. We will still work with them, but we’re going to have to do something to rekindle the fire that I guess they used to have. I finally met Emylie which was cool. One of the neatest things about coming here is to see how much the members and the investigators love Sister Kleisler. They just love her. She’s got a real talent of making people feel special and successful and people are attracted to that. A huge chunk of the ward is giving out Book of Mormons because Sister Kleisler and Sister Davenport told them to…getting members to hand out Book of Mormons is not an easy task unless you have mad people skills. It’s neat.
The other night we ran into a guy out in a parking lot. He chatted with him for a bit. I told him a little bit about the history of the church and our basic beliefs. He was kinda if-y and it didn’t really like seem like he was going to be super interested. But then Sister Kleisler jumped in and bore a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon. She taught a little about where it came from and then told him her own personal feelings about it. That was the turning point in the conversation. Suddenly he let us set an appointment with him. We brought Papa Smith to the appointment and it went really well. John, the investigator, told us that he wasn’t really interested in what we were talking about the night before, “But I was intrigued with what you said about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.” As he said that he pointed to Sister Kleisler because he was obviously referring to her testimony the night before. It was cool. Who knows what will happen, but it’s just one more instance where testimony penetrates and touches a soul more than bare facts ever will.
So guess what happened to Sister Davenport? Well according to Sister Kleisler, Sister Davenport was going to be transferred up to Austin to serve in a Spanish area in South Austin. Well, she was right about the Austin part, but instead of getting sent to the Spanish area, she was sent back to her very first area on the mission. She was in that area for 6 months before and that’s actually the same area that her and I served in when she trained me almost a year ago. So by the end of her mission she will have served in the Anderson Mill area for 9 MONTHS! Crazy.
Anyways, there’s not much else to report on. Life is beautiful, not always easy, but beautiful. I love serving with Sister Kleisler because she has touched and strengthened so many people out here with her love, her endurance, her child-like wonder, and her ever-increasing faith. Nothing gets in the way of her love for the Savior—even if it means plowing through heck and back.
She loves you all...a lot,
Sister Johnson
This is Sister Johnson, her companion. I’ve decided to write her group email today. It was a surprise for me that we were going to be comps again. Sister Kleisler does this thing on transfer night where she calls up all the sisters and finds out if they are getting transferred or not. She creates a transfer tree and then by logical deduction she calculates where everyone is getting transferred to and who their companions will be and so forth. She’s usually pretty accurate. So she calls me and Sister Dodge down in Pleasanton and I tell her I’m getting transferred and then I asked her if she knew who my new companion was going to be. She totally knew we were going to be companions again, but of course she wasn’t going to ruin the surprise, “Oh…I think you’re going with Sister Byrne. Yep, she needs a companion so I’m pretty sure that who you’re going with.” So then for the rest of the time before transfers I thought that I was going to be sister Byrne’s companion and I told everyone that because rarely is Sister Kleisler wrong…So the day of transfers comes…AND…Sister Dodge is super sick—I mean super sick. So we ended up missing the transfer meeting because there was no way we were going to get up to transfer meeting which is an hour away by 8am in the morning. Nope, not going to happen. So we sat at home and waited to go up for the 2nd transfer meeting when Sister Dodge’s companion would be coming down from Austin. So there Sister Kleisler is at transfer meeting and she knows she’s getting me, but I’m no where to be found. The AP’s do the call outs, “And in the Encino Park area we have Sister Kleisler AND……………” AP’s always have to add in this dramatic pause so Sister Kleisler broke the suspense and said, “She’s not here.” I can just see Elder Delio’s jaw drop, “How do you know who your companion is? You always know!” “Yep.”
So Sister Kleisler had to wait for me until 3pm when the next transfer meeting would be. The only problem being that all the Sisters left so she was stuck without a companion. So she went to the office and helped the senior couples with stuff and then when the time came she got a ride back over to the church. During this time I couldn’t handle the suspense so I called the AP’s and asked them who my new companion would be. I guess it was their turn to spoil the surprise. “Who do you think your new companion is?” “I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking you.” “Guess.” Ugh. Elder Hunt always make you guess. “No, just tell me.” “Okay, okay. I’ll give you a hint: it will be a reunion.” “Uhhhhhh…..Sister Kleisler?” “Yep” “No way…whoa” I could go more into my verbal response but it would have just a babbled mess of the words “awesome” and “cool.” My vocabulary has decreased substantially since I’ve been out here.
Anyways, on with this very exciting story…So sister Dodge and I pull into the Church parking lot and Sister jumps out of the car filled with Elders and does her strut over to me and yells, “Are you ready for this?!” I smile, “Yep” Sister Kleisler clarified,“Dude, We’re companions!!!” “I know.” “How do you know? Who told you? Someone’s going down!” So thus it was—united once again. The AP’s came up and shook our hands, “The Dynamic Duo reunited at last.”
For the next few days we were like giggling school girls: We had so much to get caught up on and we stayed up each night talking and talking. It was so cool to teach together again. We taught Elsa who is not a member and who is living with her less active boyfriend. We tried to commit her to baptism in December but there are obviously some lifestyle changes she’ll have to make. She wasn’t against the idea, but it’s a pretty big decision so we’ll see what happens. But the lesson itself was really neat. The spirit was there and Sister Kleisler and I went back and forth pretty seamlessly. Its was cool. We also taught the Oakley family this week. They were sick for two weeks apparently and it has really dampened their flame. We will still work with them, but we’re going to have to do something to rekindle the fire that I guess they used to have. I finally met Emylie which was cool. One of the neatest things about coming here is to see how much the members and the investigators love Sister Kleisler. They just love her. She’s got a real talent of making people feel special and successful and people are attracted to that. A huge chunk of the ward is giving out Book of Mormons because Sister Kleisler and Sister Davenport told them to…getting members to hand out Book of Mormons is not an easy task unless you have mad people skills. It’s neat.
The other night we ran into a guy out in a parking lot. He chatted with him for a bit. I told him a little bit about the history of the church and our basic beliefs. He was kinda if-y and it didn’t really like seem like he was going to be super interested. But then Sister Kleisler jumped in and bore a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon. She taught a little about where it came from and then told him her own personal feelings about it. That was the turning point in the conversation. Suddenly he let us set an appointment with him. We brought Papa Smith to the appointment and it went really well. John, the investigator, told us that he wasn’t really interested in what we were talking about the night before, “But I was intrigued with what you said about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.” As he said that he pointed to Sister Kleisler because he was obviously referring to her testimony the night before. It was cool. Who knows what will happen, but it’s just one more instance where testimony penetrates and touches a soul more than bare facts ever will.
So guess what happened to Sister Davenport? Well according to Sister Kleisler, Sister Davenport was going to be transferred up to Austin to serve in a Spanish area in South Austin. Well, she was right about the Austin part, but instead of getting sent to the Spanish area, she was sent back to her very first area on the mission. She was in that area for 6 months before and that’s actually the same area that her and I served in when she trained me almost a year ago. So by the end of her mission she will have served in the Anderson Mill area for 9 MONTHS! Crazy.
Anyways, there’s not much else to report on. Life is beautiful, not always easy, but beautiful. I love serving with Sister Kleisler because she has touched and strengthened so many people out here with her love, her endurance, her child-like wonder, and her ever-increasing faith. Nothing gets in the way of her love for the Savior—even if it means plowing through heck and back.
She loves you all...a lot,
Sister Johnson
Sunday, November 29, 2009
The Return of Sister Johnson
11/23/09
Hey Y’all!
Well this has to be a quick one because this has been such a busy day and I have had no time for anything! I have a bunch of news to share, the first is in the subject line. I am getting a new companion and her name is Sister Johnson- no not a new Sister Johnson, I get MY Sister Johnson back and I am so excited!! Transfers are tomorrow morning and we will be together until I die, on the mish that is. Sister Johnson is killing me- that’s the other news. I am coming home in January!!! This is my last transfer! Crazy!!! My feelings are mixed, I am so sad to be leaving the mish but I am also so glad to be able to be with my family and friends again. It will be bitter sweet for sure. But I don’t have to think about that for now, right now I am just concentrating on having the best 6 weeks of my mission!!!! It is going to ROCK!
The work here continues on steady and sure. Elsa and Marty came to church on Sunday and that was great! The Oakley’s were still sick, so they didn’t come, but they all promised to come next week. We went over there tonight so Sister Davenport could say goodbye and we talked about their Thanksgiving plans. They have a bunch of Potatoes to peel and so Sis. Johnson and I are gonna go over and help with that the day before Thanksgiving. That will be fun! I have always been a good potato peeler- right mom? Ha ha Our Thanksgiving is going to be a ton of fun this year, it might even top my San Marcos Thanksgiving!! Our ward does a Turkey Trot up “temple hill” and it’s a 4 mile run- Sis. Johnson and I are totally doing it! She doesn’t know that yet, ha ha but she is gonna do it! Then we are bouncing around from house to house and STUFFING ourselves with food!!! I am so excited! I think I am gonna fast the day before! Lol :)
Well Today has been crazy busy, Sister Davenport has been packing, then we had some other sisters come over and they were emailing while I was attempting to clean up our room and make it presentable for Sister Johnson. Then we went and played some dodgeball with our zone, then off to do some errands, and then back to work! We saw a TON of people tonight, like all of our investigators and stuff so Sister Davenport could take pictures and say goodbye. Now tomorrow comes the final goodbye. I will really miss Porter (Sister Davenport) and it will be hard to see her go. Especially cause I think she is going up to Austin. :( But it will be alright, I will have my Jo Jo back!!!!! Well y’all sorry this was so short but honestly it is like time for bed! I love y’all and appreciate your support!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Sister Kleisler
Hey Y’all!
Well this has to be a quick one because this has been such a busy day and I have had no time for anything! I have a bunch of news to share, the first is in the subject line. I am getting a new companion and her name is Sister Johnson- no not a new Sister Johnson, I get MY Sister Johnson back and I am so excited!! Transfers are tomorrow morning and we will be together until I die, on the mish that is. Sister Johnson is killing me- that’s the other news. I am coming home in January!!! This is my last transfer! Crazy!!! My feelings are mixed, I am so sad to be leaving the mish but I am also so glad to be able to be with my family and friends again. It will be bitter sweet for sure. But I don’t have to think about that for now, right now I am just concentrating on having the best 6 weeks of my mission!!!! It is going to ROCK!
The work here continues on steady and sure. Elsa and Marty came to church on Sunday and that was great! The Oakley’s were still sick, so they didn’t come, but they all promised to come next week. We went over there tonight so Sister Davenport could say goodbye and we talked about their Thanksgiving plans. They have a bunch of Potatoes to peel and so Sis. Johnson and I are gonna go over and help with that the day before Thanksgiving. That will be fun! I have always been a good potato peeler- right mom? Ha ha Our Thanksgiving is going to be a ton of fun this year, it might even top my San Marcos Thanksgiving!! Our ward does a Turkey Trot up “temple hill” and it’s a 4 mile run- Sis. Johnson and I are totally doing it! She doesn’t know that yet, ha ha but she is gonna do it! Then we are bouncing around from house to house and STUFFING ourselves with food!!! I am so excited! I think I am gonna fast the day before! Lol :)
Well Today has been crazy busy, Sister Davenport has been packing, then we had some other sisters come over and they were emailing while I was attempting to clean up our room and make it presentable for Sister Johnson. Then we went and played some dodgeball with our zone, then off to do some errands, and then back to work! We saw a TON of people tonight, like all of our investigators and stuff so Sister Davenport could take pictures and say goodbye. Now tomorrow comes the final goodbye. I will really miss Porter (Sister Davenport) and it will be hard to see her go. Especially cause I think she is going up to Austin. :( But it will be alright, I will have my Jo Jo back!!!!! Well y’all sorry this was so short but honestly it is like time for bed! I love y’all and appreciate your support!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Sister Kleisler
Jaw Dropper!
11/16/09
Hey Y'all!!!
So guess what?!? On Sunday as we were walking around the chapel waiting for sacrament meeting to start, praying silently our investigators would show up and making small talk with the members, all the sudden I see this white haired guy in a pink polo shirt, black jeans and nikes walk into the chapel. My jaw dropped!!!!!! It was Bruce Oakley!!! Brucecame to church!!! Dun dun nuh nuh....VICTORY!! We were so darn excited to see him there, and he loved the fact that he surprised us, I thinkthat was his plan all along, ha ha what a stinker! But anyway he came,the rest of his family is all sick with the flu so he came by himselfand only stayed for sacrament meeting so he could go home and check on them, but still it was so cool that he came! He seemed to enjoy it and we're pretty sure he'll be back next week with the whole fam! Alright well now there isn't anything stopping them all from being baptized! We will hopefully set a date with them this week but we gotta get them all healthy again cause right now their house is quarantined. We are hoping that we can baptize them on the 29th. They are ready- they just don't realize it yet. So as for other investigator news, bad news with Emylie. I really should be careful what I wish for cause it looks like now we will be teaching her as an investigator all the way till January! Her uncle that was going to baptize her got the swine flu and had to miss a week of work and now he can't take any more days off to go to Utah to baptize Emylie, so now the Scarisbricks are staying here for Thanksgiving and then sometime in January will to Utah for the baptism. Sister Davenport and I are pretty frustrated by the whole thing because yes it is important to have the family there and what not for the baptism, but to keep putting it off is putting off blessings! Baptism is a saving ordinance and shouldn't be preformed only when it's convenient!!! Ok my rant is over. Ha ha so anyway that's what's going onwith our investigators. Elsa is also doing really well, we will be teaching her Law of Chastity tonight so we will see how that goes. Kipper and Sandra have both fallen off the face of the earth so they are no longer progressing, sad day. But we have Faith in the Lord and know he will lead us to more people who are prepared.
So this week I had a neat experience with consistency and the power of it. Let me explain, a week ago President challenged me to read my scriptures EVERY day without fail and have morning and nightly prayers. I had been slacking a bit and so this was a promise that I made to President. Well I started doing it and it had an amazing effect on me. I realized that once I made it a goal to do it and told myself that I couldn't miss even one day, I was starting to become consistent and it rocked! The real cool part though is how the spirit whispered to me to enlist some help in my challenge. We were at the Oakleys about two weeks ago and they weren't really progressing, they liked us coming over but they weren't taking steps to act. So as I was sharing my testimony with them I was prompted by the spirit to extend to them the same challeneg that I was working on. I told them I needed their help ind oing it, if they were doing it at the same time as me it would encourage me to keep going. So all three of them (Max was at school)excepted the challenge. The best part is, it's been 2 weeks and they are still doing it!!! They are loving the Book of Mormon and have really in depth questions and they are progressing now! So anyway it was just areally neat experience to me and such a testimony builder of just how important the Book of Mormon really is!
Have a great week and keep the letters coming!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Sister Kleisler
Hey Y'all!!!
So guess what?!? On Sunday as we were walking around the chapel waiting for sacrament meeting to start, praying silently our investigators would show up and making small talk with the members, all the sudden I see this white haired guy in a pink polo shirt, black jeans and nikes walk into the chapel. My jaw dropped!!!!!! It was Bruce Oakley!!! Brucecame to church!!! Dun dun nuh nuh....VICTORY!! We were so darn excited to see him there, and he loved the fact that he surprised us, I thinkthat was his plan all along, ha ha what a stinker! But anyway he came,the rest of his family is all sick with the flu so he came by himselfand only stayed for sacrament meeting so he could go home and check on them, but still it was so cool that he came! He seemed to enjoy it and we're pretty sure he'll be back next week with the whole fam! Alright well now there isn't anything stopping them all from being baptized! We will hopefully set a date with them this week but we gotta get them all healthy again cause right now their house is quarantined. We are hoping that we can baptize them on the 29th. They are ready- they just don't realize it yet. So as for other investigator news, bad news with Emylie. I really should be careful what I wish for cause it looks like now we will be teaching her as an investigator all the way till January! Her uncle that was going to baptize her got the swine flu and had to miss a week of work and now he can't take any more days off to go to Utah to baptize Emylie, so now the Scarisbricks are staying here for Thanksgiving and then sometime in January will to Utah for the baptism. Sister Davenport and I are pretty frustrated by the whole thing because yes it is important to have the family there and what not for the baptism, but to keep putting it off is putting off blessings! Baptism is a saving ordinance and shouldn't be preformed only when it's convenient!!! Ok my rant is over. Ha ha so anyway that's what's going onwith our investigators. Elsa is also doing really well, we will be teaching her Law of Chastity tonight so we will see how that goes. Kipper and Sandra have both fallen off the face of the earth so they are no longer progressing, sad day. But we have Faith in the Lord and know he will lead us to more people who are prepared.
So this week I had a neat experience with consistency and the power of it. Let me explain, a week ago President challenged me to read my scriptures EVERY day without fail and have morning and nightly prayers. I had been slacking a bit and so this was a promise that I made to President. Well I started doing it and it had an amazing effect on me. I realized that once I made it a goal to do it and told myself that I couldn't miss even one day, I was starting to become consistent and it rocked! The real cool part though is how the spirit whispered to me to enlist some help in my challenge. We were at the Oakleys about two weeks ago and they weren't really progressing, they liked us coming over but they weren't taking steps to act. So as I was sharing my testimony with them I was prompted by the spirit to extend to them the same challeneg that I was working on. I told them I needed their help ind oing it, if they were doing it at the same time as me it would encourage me to keep going. So all three of them (Max was at school)excepted the challenge. The best part is, it's been 2 weeks and they are still doing it!!! They are loving the Book of Mormon and have really in depth questions and they are progressing now! So anyway it was just areally neat experience to me and such a testimony builder of just how important the Book of Mormon really is!
Have a great week and keep the letters coming!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Sister Kleisler
Monday, November 9, 2009
Cliff Notes
Hey Y’all!
This has been a pretty crazy week and I can barely remember what happened so I am gonna look at my planner and break it down day by day. Well first off Monday we had a way fun football game with our zone. We played our district verses everybody else, which was funny cause that made half of our team sisters, cause there are 2 sets of sisters in our district. The best part was when we were lining up for first down and one of the elders on the other team told his team to each pick a man then another elder on their team said, “ no problem, I’ll get the relief society!” Ha ha well guess what, we ended up creaming their team! It was so fun! Then after P-day was over we had a way sweet lesson with Marty and Elsa. We got a new young married couple, the Johansons to come with us to the lesson and they did such a great job fellowshipping Marty and Elsa. We taught the first part of the Plan of Salvation and gave Elsa a soft commit for baptism and she accepted. So we don’t have a date yet (we got to commit them to live Law of Chastity first) but we are on the right track! On Tuesday we had President Interviews and then after that we went and did service for one of the ladies in the ward. Her mom has just been diagnosed with breast cancer and she needed some help cleaning her house and stuff because her life has pretty much fallen apart as of late. So we were able to help her out which felt so great. We taught the Oakleys as well on Tuesday and they needed a little push in the right direction- we committed them to read in the BoM EVERY DAY and pray morning and night. That night we had dinner with a super sweet member family and we followed up with them on the commitment we left them to give out a Book of Mormon. Well turns out that the Husband not only gave out 1 copy of the Book of Mormon, but he gave out 6! So sweet!!!! We got burned that night by Sandra Villanueva, her son said she was sick, but man usually she will at least call us and cancel! On Wednesday we had Zone Meeting and then we went over to the Oakley’s to do service and teach them a little bit. They are doing GREAT with their commitment and had some great questions about their reading in the BoM. Even Bruce is doing his reading and LIKES it! So awesome! Then that night we taught Emylie Scarisbrick- man it’s gonna be a bummer when she gets baptized- ha ha jk. But it will be sad to not be able to go over there as often- I LOVE that family! Thursday we did our weekly planning and figured out what we were gonna teach all of our investigators for the upcoming week and what we are gonna commit them to do. Then we had a dinner that night with a really fun family that is working on sharing the gospel by having gospel centered conversations with people they work with. Friday was full of appointments and good times. We saw Isabel, a very less active member who is working on coming back, she is so sweet and needs a lot of support. Then we had another lesson with the Oakleys and brought some sweet member fellowshippers. We taught the Word of Wisdom and committed them to live it. That went really well and they are gonna work on that. So sweet! Then Elsa and Marty had us over for dinner along with the Johansons. We taught the rest of the Plan of Salvation and Elsa had a ton of great questions!! She also did her reading and is loving the Book of Mormon! So sweet! Saturday we did some service for the Smith’s- making a compost bin lid. Then we had an appointment with Jewel and Christopher- she is doing SO GOOD! They went to the temple twice this week to do baptisms and she was able to baptize like 40 of her relatives, she LOVED it! It is so neat to see my converts go to the temple! Then we had another appointment with little miss Emylie, so fun! So ya a pretty busy week and that was just the cliff note version! Lol Then came Sunday- so the big question is, who came to church? Did Kipper- nope, haven’t been able to get a hold of him, total bummer. Did Sandra, nope we haven’t heard from her in over a week! Lame. Did Elsa? She tried to get off work, she really wanted to come, but she couldn’t get anyone to take her shift, next week she’ll be there for sure! Did Emylie? Yah, dude she is solid! She even had a part in the primary program and did great! Did the Oakleys? Yup, but not Bruce. Church was great too, it was the Primary Program and they did a fantastic job! It is the only time I have ever seen a Primary Program where the kids actually sing and you can understand all the words to the songs! So cute! So ya life is good here in Encino Park, and it is starting to look like the end of November will be full of baptisms! :)
Well Y’all that’s it for today! I appreciate your letters and ask that you keep ‘em coming!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
This has been a pretty crazy week and I can barely remember what happened so I am gonna look at my planner and break it down day by day. Well first off Monday we had a way fun football game with our zone. We played our district verses everybody else, which was funny cause that made half of our team sisters, cause there are 2 sets of sisters in our district. The best part was when we were lining up for first down and one of the elders on the other team told his team to each pick a man then another elder on their team said, “ no problem, I’ll get the relief society!” Ha ha well guess what, we ended up creaming their team! It was so fun! Then after P-day was over we had a way sweet lesson with Marty and Elsa. We got a new young married couple, the Johansons to come with us to the lesson and they did such a great job fellowshipping Marty and Elsa. We taught the first part of the Plan of Salvation and gave Elsa a soft commit for baptism and she accepted. So we don’t have a date yet (we got to commit them to live Law of Chastity first) but we are on the right track! On Tuesday we had President Interviews and then after that we went and did service for one of the ladies in the ward. Her mom has just been diagnosed with breast cancer and she needed some help cleaning her house and stuff because her life has pretty much fallen apart as of late. So we were able to help her out which felt so great. We taught the Oakleys as well on Tuesday and they needed a little push in the right direction- we committed them to read in the BoM EVERY DAY and pray morning and night. That night we had dinner with a super sweet member family and we followed up with them on the commitment we left them to give out a Book of Mormon. Well turns out that the Husband not only gave out 1 copy of the Book of Mormon, but he gave out 6! So sweet!!!! We got burned that night by Sandra Villanueva, her son said she was sick, but man usually she will at least call us and cancel! On Wednesday we had Zone Meeting and then we went over to the Oakley’s to do service and teach them a little bit. They are doing GREAT with their commitment and had some great questions about their reading in the BoM. Even Bruce is doing his reading and LIKES it! So awesome! Then that night we taught Emylie Scarisbrick- man it’s gonna be a bummer when she gets baptized- ha ha jk. But it will be sad to not be able to go over there as often- I LOVE that family! Thursday we did our weekly planning and figured out what we were gonna teach all of our investigators for the upcoming week and what we are gonna commit them to do. Then we had a dinner that night with a really fun family that is working on sharing the gospel by having gospel centered conversations with people they work with. Friday was full of appointments and good times. We saw Isabel, a very less active member who is working on coming back, she is so sweet and needs a lot of support. Then we had another lesson with the Oakleys and brought some sweet member fellowshippers. We taught the Word of Wisdom and committed them to live it. That went really well and they are gonna work on that. So sweet! Then Elsa and Marty had us over for dinner along with the Johansons. We taught the rest of the Plan of Salvation and Elsa had a ton of great questions!! She also did her reading and is loving the Book of Mormon! So sweet! Saturday we did some service for the Smith’s- making a compost bin lid. Then we had an appointment with Jewel and Christopher- she is doing SO GOOD! They went to the temple twice this week to do baptisms and she was able to baptize like 40 of her relatives, she LOVED it! It is so neat to see my converts go to the temple! Then we had another appointment with little miss Emylie, so fun! So ya a pretty busy week and that was just the cliff note version! Lol Then came Sunday- so the big question is, who came to church? Did Kipper- nope, haven’t been able to get a hold of him, total bummer. Did Sandra, nope we haven’t heard from her in over a week! Lame. Did Elsa? She tried to get off work, she really wanted to come, but she couldn’t get anyone to take her shift, next week she’ll be there for sure! Did Emylie? Yah, dude she is solid! She even had a part in the primary program and did great! Did the Oakleys? Yup, but not Bruce. Church was great too, it was the Primary Program and they did a fantastic job! It is the only time I have ever seen a Primary Program where the kids actually sing and you can understand all the words to the songs! So cute! So ya life is good here in Encino Park, and it is starting to look like the end of November will be full of baptisms! :)
Well Y’all that’s it for today! I appreciate your letters and ask that you keep ‘em coming!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
Friday, November 6, 2009
Halloween Pictures!
I attached some pictures b/c it seems like as of late the pictures I have emailed home just haven't seemed to make it on the blog. Ha ha
So Here are some Halloween pics for ya- First some super sweet pumpkins with their awesomely creative carvers!
Lol Second- some cool sister missionaries handing out candy in their trunk!
So Here are some Halloween pics for ya- First some super sweet pumpkins with their awesomely creative carvers!
Lol Second- some cool sister missionaries handing out candy in their trunk!
October is Over!
November 2nd, 2009
Hey Y'all!!!
Halloween has come and gone and so has October!!! This is just crazy! One of the Elders that is going home in the same group as me informed me the other day that we only had 3 months left- I promptly told him to shut his mouth! Ha ha Talk of going home is strictly forbidden around these here parts! But anyway, Halloween was great. We went and did a temple session in the morning and then in the evening sister Cutler had a party for our whole zone at the mission home. So ya that was fun! Our ward had a trunk or treat earlier in the week and it was a lot of fun too. Sister Davenport and I just couldn't help but dress up and so we were Super Sisters! A member in the ward helped us sew superman capes and t-shirts, they said sSk and sSd for super sister kleisler and super sister davenport! The members LOVED our costumes and thought we were pretty cool. We also had some investigators come to the trunk or treat so that was way sweet.
This week has been busy as always, we have lots of investigators who are doing way good. We had 5 people at church yesterday which was way sweet. The Oakley's came, except for Bruce. He is being stubborn, his pride is keeping him from the truth, but we aren't too worried about it, we will break him down. Ha ha also Elsa came to church, she went to their old ward for the last time. And then Emylie came, good ol Emylie. So ya it was a busy Sunday, I will have to say that I will look forward to Sundays AFTER the mission, oh man they will be so much less stressful!! And a lot less meetings too!
Life is good here in Texas- so much fun! We had a great P-day last week, the elders came over and carved pumpkins at our house and then we went and played soccer in the rain. It was so muddy and we had a BLAST! Today we are going to play football with our zone, but it's not raining today. We have had some way nice weather as of late which is awesome!!
Well I don't have much else to say except, thanks to my family for the emails- I always appreciate a full inbox on Monday mornings! Also thanks to y'all for your letters this week, I enjoyed all of the Halloween cards. Thanks C for the super cool Candy Corn Halloween package!
I hope y'all have a fantastic first week in November!!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
Hey Y'all!!!
Halloween has come and gone and so has October!!! This is just crazy! One of the Elders that is going home in the same group as me informed me the other day that we only had 3 months left- I promptly told him to shut his mouth! Ha ha Talk of going home is strictly forbidden around these here parts! But anyway, Halloween was great. We went and did a temple session in the morning and then in the evening sister Cutler had a party for our whole zone at the mission home. So ya that was fun! Our ward had a trunk or treat earlier in the week and it was a lot of fun too. Sister Davenport and I just couldn't help but dress up and so we were Super Sisters! A member in the ward helped us sew superman capes and t-shirts, they said sSk and sSd for super sister kleisler and super sister davenport! The members LOVED our costumes and thought we were pretty cool. We also had some investigators come to the trunk or treat so that was way sweet.
This week has been busy as always, we have lots of investigators who are doing way good. We had 5 people at church yesterday which was way sweet. The Oakley's came, except for Bruce. He is being stubborn, his pride is keeping him from the truth, but we aren't too worried about it, we will break him down. Ha ha also Elsa came to church, she went to their old ward for the last time. And then Emylie came, good ol Emylie. So ya it was a busy Sunday, I will have to say that I will look forward to Sundays AFTER the mission, oh man they will be so much less stressful!! And a lot less meetings too!
Life is good here in Texas- so much fun! We had a great P-day last week, the elders came over and carved pumpkins at our house and then we went and played soccer in the rain. It was so muddy and we had a BLAST! Today we are going to play football with our zone, but it's not raining today. We have had some way nice weather as of late which is awesome!!
Well I don't have much else to say except, thanks to my family for the emails- I always appreciate a full inbox on Monday mornings! Also thanks to y'all for your letters this week, I enjoyed all of the Halloween cards. Thanks C for the super cool Candy Corn Halloween package!
I hope y'all have a fantastic first week in November!!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
Super Busy!!
October 26th, 2009
Hey Y'all!
Well since I have been in Encino Park I think every email I have written
includes the words "I am VERY BUSY" and guess what, this week is NO
exception!!! I am super busy and don't have time for a long email, more of a quick shout out. Thanks to y'all who have written me lately. I have been pretty badabout writing back these past few weeks, I am telling ya we are BUSY! Haha but I will try to do better.
Thanks mom and Aunt Elaine for the Halloween packages. Thanks Allison, Aunt Elaine, Moran, C, Chris, Adam and Elder Yarrington for the letters these past couple weeks. I love the mail!!
Well the work here is catching on like wildfire!! We got more new investigators this week and they are totally legit. One of them is a guy named Kipper who the Elders found about a year and a half ago. The sisters taught him a few months ago but could never get a hold of him again. We found him at home one day last week and set up an appointment, it went really well! He told us he wished he had had the Book Of Mormon in his life years ago. He is doing well and is gonna come to the Ward Trunk or Treat this week. He is 21 and so we talked to him about going to the singles ward, but he doesn't want to. We were ok with that cause that means we get to keep teaching him. Cool with me! Our other new investigator this week is Elsa. She is super cool- her boyfriend is a less active member who just started coming back to church. Last week he brought Elsa to chruch with him and the Elders pounced, lol. They are moving into our area this week, so the Elders had us go with them to a lesson last week so as to pass them off to us. We are exctied cause Elsa is awesome and totally elect, we just have todeal with a little law of chastity issue seeing as they are living together. But they are both 25 and have been together for like almost 4 years, so it shouldn't be too hard marrying them. So ya lots of good stuff going on in Encino!
Our "Progressing" Investigators are kinda at a stand still right now, well except Emylie, she is doing awesome! But everyone else, the Oakleys and Villanuevas- we can't get them to church! It is the most frustrating thing to have people who are doing so well and even have baptismal dates for goodness sake, but won't come to church! They always have some lame excuse, but man we will get them!!! If it's the last thing we do! Ha ha But ya, we had a great lesson with the Oakley's at their next door neighbor's house (the Gomm's- super sweet member family)the Gomm's invited them over for a BBQ and to watch the movie the Testaments. It went super well and they were very touched by the movie. By the end they were all crying! Yee haw! Ha ha They know it's true we just have to get them to act on what they know! We also had a good lesson with Sandra this week but she is just so busy it's hard to gether to keep all of her appointments!
Well, that's the news in Encino Park, lots of great stuff going down here! I appreciate all of y'alls prayers and letters and support. It sure does help!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
Hey Y'all!
Well since I have been in Encino Park I think every email I have written
includes the words "I am VERY BUSY" and guess what, this week is NO
exception!!! I am super busy and don't have time for a long email, more of a quick shout out. Thanks to y'all who have written me lately. I have been pretty badabout writing back these past few weeks, I am telling ya we are BUSY! Haha but I will try to do better.
Thanks mom and Aunt Elaine for the Halloween packages. Thanks Allison, Aunt Elaine, Moran, C, Chris, Adam and Elder Yarrington for the letters these past couple weeks. I love the mail!!
Well the work here is catching on like wildfire!! We got more new investigators this week and they are totally legit. One of them is a guy named Kipper who the Elders found about a year and a half ago. The sisters taught him a few months ago but could never get a hold of him again. We found him at home one day last week and set up an appointment, it went really well! He told us he wished he had had the Book Of Mormon in his life years ago. He is doing well and is gonna come to the Ward Trunk or Treat this week. He is 21 and so we talked to him about going to the singles ward, but he doesn't want to. We were ok with that cause that means we get to keep teaching him. Cool with me! Our other new investigator this week is Elsa. She is super cool- her boyfriend is a less active member who just started coming back to church. Last week he brought Elsa to chruch with him and the Elders pounced, lol. They are moving into our area this week, so the Elders had us go with them to a lesson last week so as to pass them off to us. We are exctied cause Elsa is awesome and totally elect, we just have todeal with a little law of chastity issue seeing as they are living together. But they are both 25 and have been together for like almost 4 years, so it shouldn't be too hard marrying them. So ya lots of good stuff going on in Encino!
Our "Progressing" Investigators are kinda at a stand still right now, well except Emylie, she is doing awesome! But everyone else, the Oakleys and Villanuevas- we can't get them to church! It is the most frustrating thing to have people who are doing so well and even have baptismal dates for goodness sake, but won't come to church! They always have some lame excuse, but man we will get them!!! If it's the last thing we do! Ha ha But ya, we had a great lesson with the Oakley's at their next door neighbor's house (the Gomm's- super sweet member family)the Gomm's invited them over for a BBQ and to watch the movie the Testaments. It went super well and they were very touched by the movie. By the end they were all crying! Yee haw! Ha ha They know it's true we just have to get them to act on what they know! We also had a good lesson with Sandra this week but she is just so busy it's hard to gether to keep all of her appointments!
Well, that's the news in Encino Park, lots of great stuff going down here! I appreciate all of y'alls prayers and letters and support. It sure does help!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
Captain Crunch
October 19th, 2009
Hey Y’all!
Wow, has another week gone by already? Geez, they are just flying past. Does anyone know how to make time stand still? If you do please let me know, because I would just LOVE to slow time down a bit. I got a real reality check this week of just how close my mission is to coming to an end. Even though Sister Davenport and I were not being transferred we were right in the thick of all of the transfer madness. Why you might ask? Well Encino Park is the closest Sister area to the mission home, we are only 4 miles away from President’s house. So that means when we have new sisters coming in or sisters departing a lot of the time we, Encino Park sisters, play chauffeur. So on Wednesday night we went to President’s house to pick up Sister Boyd the newest Sister in the TSAM. She was the only sister to come this transfer, so we picked her up and took her back to our house to spend the night. It was a lot of being with her and it was like a crazy flash back as Sister Davenport and I thought back on our first night in the mission field. We spent quite a bit of time talking that night with Sister Boyd as she picked our brains about the mission and asked us for our best mission advice. She was so just so excited to start her mission and she was just so full of that greenie spirit- it was awesome! It was a lot of fun to have Sister Boyd for the night and then we got to take her to transfer meeting in the morning which means we had an excuse to be there for the meeting- always so fun to go to transfer meetings!! We then parted with Sister Boyd as she went off with her trainer and Sister Davenport and I went back to work as usual. Then Thursday night we got another sleep over buddy, my sister! Sister Maroquin, who was also trained by my trainer Sister Moran, was going home. So she spent her last night in the mission with us and then we took her to the airport in the morning. This is where the reality check came in, having Sister Maroquin with us and taking her to the airport- man it was weird! Sister Davenport and I just felt like sooner than we want, that will be us getting on the plane. It is truly a very scary and sad thought to think about. I DO NOT want to leave my mission. Not that I don’t miss my friends and family, because believe me I do, I miss y’all a lot, but man my mission means everything to me!! I want to be a missionary forever!!!! I guess I will have to come to grips with the fact that I cannot be a full time missionary forever, but I do have four months left- so I am gonna make them count!! Then when I go home I will be a stink’n awesome member missionary!
Well the work has continued and we have been richly blessed. This week we had some sweet lessons with our super awesome progressing investigators. Emylie is doing great and we had a lesson with her at our Ward Mission Leader’s house this week. He has a way cool set up where they’ve got this projector in their loft and so we watched the movie Legacy and it was way fun. Emylie really liked it and totally felt the spirit as well as her mother. I was hit really hard as we were watching the movie, I kept thinking about all the trials those early saints went through and how their trials seem way more difficult than the ones that I deal with today. It made me realize that sometimes I am such a wuss and complain about my meager trials when really I’ve got it easy. We also had some great lessons with the Oakley Family this week and they are praying about being baptized on November 7th. (It’ll be my Birthday present to you Kev, I will bring some souls unto Christ to celebrate your 21st birthday!) lol :) We also invited the Oakley’s to come to this play that the North Stake was putting on last weekend, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was really well done, the stake did a REALLY good job! The best part was that the spirit was there and the Oakley’s loved it! We had a lot of fun and when we left Sister Davenport was like, um wow I feel apostate! I just laughed at her, I was like dude, that was totally G rated and um, we are allowed to have fun every once and awhile! Lol I thought it was a great play and a really good experience for our investigators! So we also had a lesson with Sandra Villanueva this week and she is praying about being baptized on November 29th. We helped her to see the urgency in progressing in the gospel. This is important- we are talking about Christ’s true church here, there is nothing casual about this! She is doing really well and we have some appointments set up with her for next week- should be good. So ya we have got quite a lot going on and we should have a lot of baptisms next month!!!
We found some new people this week as well which is always cool. We were knocking doors in an apartment complex and we knocked into this middle aged divorced guy named Nathanial. He let us in and then talked our ears off for about an hour. We got a quick lesson of the Restoration in, but the rest of the time he proceeded to tell us all about his problems and all of the sins he has committed. It was pretty awkward, Sister Davenport and I kept exchanging uncomfortable glances but we both knew that it was no accident we found this guy, he was lost and he needs the gospel. But we did decide that when we go back for our return appointment next week we will be bringing some members with us for sure! We also did a bunch more service this week. It feels so good to help people out and also it is a great way to do missionary work!! We helped a new sister move into the ward and unpack, we helped the Oakley’s with more yard work and we helped plant the winter flowers at the San Antonio Temple. They had a big flower planting day at the Temple on Saturday and had a ton of volunteers from different wards helping out with the project. What a blessing it is to be on the temple grounds and be able to help beautify the Lord’s house! It was also extra cool cause two of the other volunteers happened to be some of my favorite people from P-town! The Partridges! They came up to help with the project and so they were in my group and we planted together- so fun! Also while we were planting on the street corner I saw a car waiting at the stoplight that looked really familiar- it was the Wildes from San Marcos! They were just leaving the temple from doing a session- so I ran over and gave Sis. Wilde a hug through the car window and we got to talk for a sec before the light changed. It was so fun to see them!
So today I will end with a little bit of an inside scoop on living with members! Ha ha. Ok so the family we live with, The Smiths, are totally awesome! They are so sweet and take such good care of us, we are totally spoiled! Mama Smith always helps us with whatever we need and she buys everything for us. They buy all our groceries, whatever we want. We just write it on the list and she picks it up when she’s at the store. Well, Papa Smith loves this because whenever there are new missionaries he gets different food. Lol Well I wrote on the list that I wanted some Captain Crunch cereal and so Mama Smith got it. One morning I went down to eat a bowl of cereal and found to my surprise that the box was almost empty- turns out Papa Smith likes Captain Crunch too! Ha ha he had eaten like the whole box!! So now Mama Smith buys a couple of boxes when she goes to the store, that way I at least get some before Papa Smith devours it! Ha ha Well then the other day I came down stairs and Sister Davenport said, Papa Smith ate all your Fritos this morning. I was like, wait what! Mama Smith had bought me a big ‘ol bag of fritos chips just like 2 days before and I thought there was no way Papa Smith could have eaten them already. Well Papa Smith heard what Sister Davenport said to me and he just shook his head and said, nope it was Mama. Then mama Smith confessed, ha ha but she didn’t eat them, she spilled them!!! As she was getting something down from the shelf that morning she spilled the bag of Fritos and all but like 10 chips fell out onto the floor. As they were falling Papa Smith was laughing and said “Uh oh Mama those sound like sister Fritos!” Ha ha. Yup so living with members is really quite entertaining!! We love the Smiths!!!! We have so much fun with them, they have been out of town this week and we hate it! It is so weird not having them here, luckily they come back today! We are happy!
Well y’all got a pretty long email today, I am trying to keep y’all updated but man we are just so busy, it’s hard to find the time. This should keep you covered for a few weeks right? Lol :)
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
Hey Y’all!
Wow, has another week gone by already? Geez, they are just flying past. Does anyone know how to make time stand still? If you do please let me know, because I would just LOVE to slow time down a bit. I got a real reality check this week of just how close my mission is to coming to an end. Even though Sister Davenport and I were not being transferred we were right in the thick of all of the transfer madness. Why you might ask? Well Encino Park is the closest Sister area to the mission home, we are only 4 miles away from President’s house. So that means when we have new sisters coming in or sisters departing a lot of the time we, Encino Park sisters, play chauffeur. So on Wednesday night we went to President’s house to pick up Sister Boyd the newest Sister in the TSAM. She was the only sister to come this transfer, so we picked her up and took her back to our house to spend the night. It was a lot of being with her and it was like a crazy flash back as Sister Davenport and I thought back on our first night in the mission field. We spent quite a bit of time talking that night with Sister Boyd as she picked our brains about the mission and asked us for our best mission advice. She was so just so excited to start her mission and she was just so full of that greenie spirit- it was awesome! It was a lot of fun to have Sister Boyd for the night and then we got to take her to transfer meeting in the morning which means we had an excuse to be there for the meeting- always so fun to go to transfer meetings!! We then parted with Sister Boyd as she went off with her trainer and Sister Davenport and I went back to work as usual. Then Thursday night we got another sleep over buddy, my sister! Sister Maroquin, who was also trained by my trainer Sister Moran, was going home. So she spent her last night in the mission with us and then we took her to the airport in the morning. This is where the reality check came in, having Sister Maroquin with us and taking her to the airport- man it was weird! Sister Davenport and I just felt like sooner than we want, that will be us getting on the plane. It is truly a very scary and sad thought to think about. I DO NOT want to leave my mission. Not that I don’t miss my friends and family, because believe me I do, I miss y’all a lot, but man my mission means everything to me!! I want to be a missionary forever!!!! I guess I will have to come to grips with the fact that I cannot be a full time missionary forever, but I do have four months left- so I am gonna make them count!! Then when I go home I will be a stink’n awesome member missionary!
Well the work has continued and we have been richly blessed. This week we had some sweet lessons with our super awesome progressing investigators. Emylie is doing great and we had a lesson with her at our Ward Mission Leader’s house this week. He has a way cool set up where they’ve got this projector in their loft and so we watched the movie Legacy and it was way fun. Emylie really liked it and totally felt the spirit as well as her mother. I was hit really hard as we were watching the movie, I kept thinking about all the trials those early saints went through and how their trials seem way more difficult than the ones that I deal with today. It made me realize that sometimes I am such a wuss and complain about my meager trials when really I’ve got it easy. We also had some great lessons with the Oakley Family this week and they are praying about being baptized on November 7th. (It’ll be my Birthday present to you Kev, I will bring some souls unto Christ to celebrate your 21st birthday!) lol :) We also invited the Oakley’s to come to this play that the North Stake was putting on last weekend, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was really well done, the stake did a REALLY good job! The best part was that the spirit was there and the Oakley’s loved it! We had a lot of fun and when we left Sister Davenport was like, um wow I feel apostate! I just laughed at her, I was like dude, that was totally G rated and um, we are allowed to have fun every once and awhile! Lol I thought it was a great play and a really good experience for our investigators! So we also had a lesson with Sandra Villanueva this week and she is praying about being baptized on November 29th. We helped her to see the urgency in progressing in the gospel. This is important- we are talking about Christ’s true church here, there is nothing casual about this! She is doing really well and we have some appointments set up with her for next week- should be good. So ya we have got quite a lot going on and we should have a lot of baptisms next month!!!
We found some new people this week as well which is always cool. We were knocking doors in an apartment complex and we knocked into this middle aged divorced guy named Nathanial. He let us in and then talked our ears off for about an hour. We got a quick lesson of the Restoration in, but the rest of the time he proceeded to tell us all about his problems and all of the sins he has committed. It was pretty awkward, Sister Davenport and I kept exchanging uncomfortable glances but we both knew that it was no accident we found this guy, he was lost and he needs the gospel. But we did decide that when we go back for our return appointment next week we will be bringing some members with us for sure! We also did a bunch more service this week. It feels so good to help people out and also it is a great way to do missionary work!! We helped a new sister move into the ward and unpack, we helped the Oakley’s with more yard work and we helped plant the winter flowers at the San Antonio Temple. They had a big flower planting day at the Temple on Saturday and had a ton of volunteers from different wards helping out with the project. What a blessing it is to be on the temple grounds and be able to help beautify the Lord’s house! It was also extra cool cause two of the other volunteers happened to be some of my favorite people from P-town! The Partridges! They came up to help with the project and so they were in my group and we planted together- so fun! Also while we were planting on the street corner I saw a car waiting at the stoplight that looked really familiar- it was the Wildes from San Marcos! They were just leaving the temple from doing a session- so I ran over and gave Sis. Wilde a hug through the car window and we got to talk for a sec before the light changed. It was so fun to see them!
So today I will end with a little bit of an inside scoop on living with members! Ha ha. Ok so the family we live with, The Smiths, are totally awesome! They are so sweet and take such good care of us, we are totally spoiled! Mama Smith always helps us with whatever we need and she buys everything for us. They buy all our groceries, whatever we want. We just write it on the list and she picks it up when she’s at the store. Well, Papa Smith loves this because whenever there are new missionaries he gets different food. Lol Well I wrote on the list that I wanted some Captain Crunch cereal and so Mama Smith got it. One morning I went down to eat a bowl of cereal and found to my surprise that the box was almost empty- turns out Papa Smith likes Captain Crunch too! Ha ha he had eaten like the whole box!! So now Mama Smith buys a couple of boxes when she goes to the store, that way I at least get some before Papa Smith devours it! Ha ha Well then the other day I came down stairs and Sister Davenport said, Papa Smith ate all your Fritos this morning. I was like, wait what! Mama Smith had bought me a big ‘ol bag of fritos chips just like 2 days before and I thought there was no way Papa Smith could have eaten them already. Well Papa Smith heard what Sister Davenport said to me and he just shook his head and said, nope it was Mama. Then mama Smith confessed, ha ha but she didn’t eat them, she spilled them!!! As she was getting something down from the shelf that morning she spilled the bag of Fritos and all but like 10 chips fell out onto the floor. As they were falling Papa Smith was laughing and said “Uh oh Mama those sound like sister Fritos!” Ha ha. Yup so living with members is really quite entertaining!! We love the Smiths!!!! We have so much fun with them, they have been out of town this week and we hate it! It is so weird not having them here, luckily they come back today! We are happy!
Well y’all got a pretty long email today, I am trying to keep y’all updated but man we are just so busy, it’s hard to find the time. This should keep you covered for a few weeks right? Lol :)
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
Pouring Down!
October 13th, 2009
Hey Y'all!!
Wow y'all if it is possible I am even more busy this week than last! Woah!!! Ha ha ya seriously though Encino Park is on a roll and we arejust cruzin'! Things are going flipp'n sweet here. The weather has been crazy- cold and rainy, yee haw! Me likey! The investigators are pouringdown as hard as the rain. The Lord has richly blessed us and we have been teaching A LOT! We have also done a ton of service this week! Wehave been washing windows, organizing bedrooms, using pick axes ingardens, washing dogs, using way cool tools like augers and packing up lots and lots of boxes! So ya between teaching, performing service for the ward, the community and our investigators, and finding people out in the pouring rain- man I'd say it's been quite a busy week!!
I have a tiny bit more time today, but not much, so I will quickly tell y'all a little bit more about who we are teaching. We have Emylie an 11 year old girl whose mom went very less active and just barley started coming back to church a few months ago, they are awesome and Emylie has a baptismal date for November 27th. It has been a lot of fun teaching her and also strengthening her mother, they are becoming real solid church goers with testimonies of their own. We are also teaching theOakley Family. We found them through some members. We have some amazingly sweet members here in the Encino Park ward! One of them, the Gomm family had a neighborhood ice cream social a few weeks ago and invited a bunch of their neighbors and us. We got to know some of their neighbors and played "nice nice" and found a few of their neighbors to have some serious potential. Well last week we were in their neighborhood and decided to go see the Gomms next door neighbors- the Oakley Family. We had some serious good vibes from them at the ice cream social so we "just happened to pop by their house". They have only lived in the neighborhood for a month or two and they are super cool. Joyce and Bruce are in their sixties and their daughter Kara lives with them and she is in her late 30's is my guess and she has an11 year old son, Max. We went over and played "nice nice" with the Oakley's and told them we would love to do some service if there was anything we could do to help. Well it turns out they are in need of alot of service but would never ask for it- SCORE! That is what we are there for! So we ended going back and doing service for them and then teaching them many times. They watched the morning session of General Conference last Sunday and they loved it. They are reading in the Book of Mormon and we are going to be setting them with a baptismal date this week. They are awesome! We also have one more family we are teaching-the Villanueva family. We found them in our area book, Sister Davenport was looking through really old records from 3 years ago and found this family that came to church 2 times. So we went a looking for 'em! Turns out they moved, but they used to live next door to the Gomms so we talked to them and they gave us their new address and gave us the lowdown on the family. Turns out that they were very close to getting baptized 3 years ago but the missionaries pushed her too hard and she got offended. Well we went over to see her and the family and we were very casual trying so hard not to be "pushy" and so we visited with herfor about 30 minutes and started to bring up the gospel. She then began to cry, we were like, um what's wrong. The spirit filled the room so strong and she said that we were the answer to her prayer. She told us that 20 minutes before we knocked on her door she had been "crying out to the Lord" for help, asking for guidance and direction and then we came and she just knows it's not by accident. We were pretty excited about that and felt the spirit so strong, we helped her to recognize the spirit. We are teaching that family and are hoping to set them with a baptismal date for next month. In the family there is Sandra and her husband Richard prolly like in their 40's and then their son Anthony whose 16 and then Ashleigh who is 11. Way sweet fam!
So ya we have 9 super sweet investigators and we are finding new ones all the while! Great stuff going on here in Encino Park! Sister Davenport and I will be staying together another transfer and are ready to keep this place lit up!
On a side note, I was informed that I was accepted into ASU this week so that is exciting, so now I must apply for the College of Education- so wish me luck! Hopefully I will be starting towards my bachelors degree in Early Childhood Education this Fall at ASU Polytechnic! Yay! Well I love y'all mucho and will be seeing y'all sooner than you know- I only have 2 more transfers left after this- SCARY! I am so not ready to come home! Lol :)
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
Hey Y'all!!
Wow y'all if it is possible I am even more busy this week than last! Woah!!! Ha ha ya seriously though Encino Park is on a roll and we arejust cruzin'! Things are going flipp'n sweet here. The weather has been crazy- cold and rainy, yee haw! Me likey! The investigators are pouringdown as hard as the rain. The Lord has richly blessed us and we have been teaching A LOT! We have also done a ton of service this week! Wehave been washing windows, organizing bedrooms, using pick axes ingardens, washing dogs, using way cool tools like augers and packing up lots and lots of boxes! So ya between teaching, performing service for the ward, the community and our investigators, and finding people out in the pouring rain- man I'd say it's been quite a busy week!!
I have a tiny bit more time today, but not much, so I will quickly tell y'all a little bit more about who we are teaching. We have Emylie an 11 year old girl whose mom went very less active and just barley started coming back to church a few months ago, they are awesome and Emylie has a baptismal date for November 27th. It has been a lot of fun teaching her and also strengthening her mother, they are becoming real solid church goers with testimonies of their own. We are also teaching theOakley Family. We found them through some members. We have some amazingly sweet members here in the Encino Park ward! One of them, the Gomm family had a neighborhood ice cream social a few weeks ago and invited a bunch of their neighbors and us. We got to know some of their neighbors and played "nice nice" and found a few of their neighbors to have some serious potential. Well last week we were in their neighborhood and decided to go see the Gomms next door neighbors- the Oakley Family. We had some serious good vibes from them at the ice cream social so we "just happened to pop by their house". They have only lived in the neighborhood for a month or two and they are super cool. Joyce and Bruce are in their sixties and their daughter Kara lives with them and she is in her late 30's is my guess and she has an11 year old son, Max. We went over and played "nice nice" with the Oakley's and told them we would love to do some service if there was anything we could do to help. Well it turns out they are in need of alot of service but would never ask for it- SCORE! That is what we are there for! So we ended going back and doing service for them and then teaching them many times. They watched the morning session of General Conference last Sunday and they loved it. They are reading in the Book of Mormon and we are going to be setting them with a baptismal date this week. They are awesome! We also have one more family we are teaching-the Villanueva family. We found them in our area book, Sister Davenport was looking through really old records from 3 years ago and found this family that came to church 2 times. So we went a looking for 'em! Turns out they moved, but they used to live next door to the Gomms so we talked to them and they gave us their new address and gave us the lowdown on the family. Turns out that they were very close to getting baptized 3 years ago but the missionaries pushed her too hard and she got offended. Well we went over to see her and the family and we were very casual trying so hard not to be "pushy" and so we visited with herfor about 30 minutes and started to bring up the gospel. She then began to cry, we were like, um what's wrong. The spirit filled the room so strong and she said that we were the answer to her prayer. She told us that 20 minutes before we knocked on her door she had been "crying out to the Lord" for help, asking for guidance and direction and then we came and she just knows it's not by accident. We were pretty excited about that and felt the spirit so strong, we helped her to recognize the spirit. We are teaching that family and are hoping to set them with a baptismal date for next month. In the family there is Sandra and her husband Richard prolly like in their 40's and then their son Anthony whose 16 and then Ashleigh who is 11. Way sweet fam!
So ya we have 9 super sweet investigators and we are finding new ones all the while! Great stuff going on here in Encino Park! Sister Davenport and I will be staying together another transfer and are ready to keep this place lit up!
On a side note, I was informed that I was accepted into ASU this week so that is exciting, so now I must apply for the College of Education- so wish me luck! Hopefully I will be starting towards my bachelors degree in Early Childhood Education this Fall at ASU Polytechnic! Yay! Well I love y'all mucho and will be seeing y'all sooner than you know- I only have 2 more transfers left after this- SCARY! I am so not ready to come home! Lol :)
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
Rain, Conference, and Finding!
October 5th, 2009
Hey Y'all!
So it's been another busy busy busy week!! Lots going on for sure! Firstoff, the weather. It had been cooling down nicely, about mid 80's allweek but hten this weekend... THUNDERSTORMS!!! Sunday Morning at about5:30 Sister Davenport and I were rudely awaken by the sound of caralarms, the sight of brilliantly white light flashing into our windowsand the feeling of our house shaking! It was the craziest thunderstorm Ihave ever witnessed. Sister Davenport came and jumped on my bed and wecurled up in our blankets and watched the storm (my bed is the one nextto the window) it was pretty cool and a tiny bit scary. When we leftlater that day we saw the damage the storm had done, flooding! Not toobad but our garage flooded a bit and some people's landscaping got a bitmessed up. But ya it was funny cause that storm woke up everybody allover Encino Park area and so we were talking to people about it but thefunniest was our Bishop. He was laughing and me and Sister Davneport,he said "You mean they don't have storms like that in Idaho andArizona?" We were like NO way! He laughed, he is from Kansas so this wasnothing to him. So ya the weather has been pretty cool lately.
Next of course, General Conference. It was an amazing recharge for us-man all us missionaries felt like it was Christmas! We LOVE conference!My favorite session for sure was Saturday Morning, but my favorite talkby far was Elder Hollands! Woah was that amazing!!! The best part is wehad investigators watching that session so man what a testimony builderfor them! Confrence went by too quick, I can't believe it's alreadyover. Crazy!!!! Lastly, the work!! Well we baptized our teaching pool so we have beenfinding all week and we have had some amazing miracles come about!Sister Davenport and I keep asking ourselves why is the Lord blessing usso much? This is insane! Ha ha ya some cool stuff has happened. We havesome SWEET new investigators!! The work is progressing amazingly here inEncino Park and we are loving it! Next week is transfers so it will be a Tuesday P-day.
So until then,keep safe and rock on!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
Hey Y'all!
So it's been another busy busy busy week!! Lots going on for sure! Firstoff, the weather. It had been cooling down nicely, about mid 80's allweek but hten this weekend... THUNDERSTORMS!!! Sunday Morning at about5:30 Sister Davenport and I were rudely awaken by the sound of caralarms, the sight of brilliantly white light flashing into our windowsand the feeling of our house shaking! It was the craziest thunderstorm Ihave ever witnessed. Sister Davenport came and jumped on my bed and wecurled up in our blankets and watched the storm (my bed is the one nextto the window) it was pretty cool and a tiny bit scary. When we leftlater that day we saw the damage the storm had done, flooding! Not toobad but our garage flooded a bit and some people's landscaping got a bitmessed up. But ya it was funny cause that storm woke up everybody allover Encino Park area and so we were talking to people about it but thefunniest was our Bishop. He was laughing and me and Sister Davneport,he said "You mean they don't have storms like that in Idaho andArizona?" We were like NO way! He laughed, he is from Kansas so this wasnothing to him. So ya the weather has been pretty cool lately.
Next of course, General Conference. It was an amazing recharge for us-man all us missionaries felt like it was Christmas! We LOVE conference!My favorite session for sure was Saturday Morning, but my favorite talkby far was Elder Hollands! Woah was that amazing!!! The best part is wehad investigators watching that session so man what a testimony builderfor them! Confrence went by too quick, I can't believe it's alreadyover. Crazy!!!! Lastly, the work!! Well we baptized our teaching pool so we have beenfinding all week and we have had some amazing miracles come about!Sister Davenport and I keep asking ourselves why is the Lord blessing usso much? This is insane! Ha ha ya some cool stuff has happened. We havesome SWEET new investigators!! The work is progressing amazingly here inEncino Park and we are loving it! Next week is transfers so it will be a Tuesday P-day.
So until then,keep safe and rock on!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
Monday, September 28, 2009
Baptism Central!
Hey Y’all!
So once again I am super busy and I have like no time to write but I will do my best to give y’all a quick update on what’s going on here. First off- Jewel and Christopher were baptized!!! It was a beautiful baptism and everything went well. After Christopher came out of the water he exclaimed “that felt good!” ha ha it was cute! Then after the Holy Ghost talk Jewel bore her testimony, it was amazing! She had the room in tears, she is so solid! On Sunday they were confirmed and after sacrament meeting I went up to give Jewel a hug and she was in tears and was like, “how can I ever repay y’all?” I said the only way we will ever let you repay us is by your activity in the church- I said all you gotta do is stay strong in the church the rest of your life and we’ve been repaid! :) So ya that was great!
I love y’all and won’t have time to write letters this week but know that I am thinking of you and hope y’all are doing well!
Smiling All The While
Sister Kleisler
So once again I am super busy and I have like no time to write but I will do my best to give y’all a quick update on what’s going on here. First off- Jewel and Christopher were baptized!!! It was a beautiful baptism and everything went well. After Christopher came out of the water he exclaimed “that felt good!” ha ha it was cute! Then after the Holy Ghost talk Jewel bore her testimony, it was amazing! She had the room in tears, she is so solid! On Sunday they were confirmed and after sacrament meeting I went up to give Jewel a hug and she was in tears and was like, “how can I ever repay y’all?” I said the only way we will ever let you repay us is by your activity in the church- I said all you gotta do is stay strong in the church the rest of your life and we’ve been repaid! :) So ya that was great!
I love y’all and won’t have time to write letters this week but know that I am thinking of you and hope y’all are doing well!
Smiling All The While
Sister Kleisler
Monday, September 21, 2009
The Sights of Encino Park
I only have two pics for you this week:
-The super sweet sisters that the Encino Park area gets to see Daily!
-The super sweetest building that we get to see weekly as we drive around!
-The super sweet sisters that the Encino Park area gets to see Daily!
-The super sweetest building that we get to see weekly as we drive around!
Busy, Busy, Busy!!!!
Hey Y’all!
It has been a busy week, actually scratch that, it’s been a busy transfer! Things are going well in Encino Park. First off Jewel and Christopher are on track to be baptized this Saturday! Yay!!! They are both very excited and so are we! We taught them every day last week and it was great. One of the days we had prepared a lesson on the priesthood and we got there and Christopher opened the door and said that his mom did not feel well and maybe we could come back later. So we were like uh, ok. We had a member with us so we were like well I guess we could take you to teach someone else. We hadn’t made a back up plan because Jewel’s lessons never fall through. So we sat in the members car trying to figure out who we could go visit and then the phone rang. It was Jewel. Sister Davenport answered it and Jewel told her how sick she was, Sister Davenport then explained about Priesthood blessings and asked Jewel if she would like one. Jewel said yes, so then we had to get to work trying to find a priesthood holder who was home at 1 o clock in the afternoon on a weekday! Luckily the member helped us out and within 30 minutes we had two worthy priesthood holders at Jewel’s door. They gave her a beautiful blessing and then we all left. That night we got a phone call from Jewel. She wanted us to thank the men for coming, she said that she felt so much better and she knew that it was because of the power that they hold and that it is from God. She started crying on the phone to me and telling me that she knew this church was true and that it really was God’s church on the earth today. Sweet!!! I got off the phone with her and then told Sister Davenport what Jewel had said. I then told Sister Davenport that Jewel got the best lesson on the priesthood that day! We didn’t even need to teach it! ha ha So ya they are doing great and will be in the water this weekend!
We taught a lot of other lessons this week as well and have just been busy beavers all week long!! I wish I had more time but once again, I am so busy that I just don’t have much time to tell y’all about much of anything!
I do want to thank you however for your support! I appreciate the letters and the love, keep it coming!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE,
Sister Kleisler
It has been a busy week, actually scratch that, it’s been a busy transfer! Things are going well in Encino Park. First off Jewel and Christopher are on track to be baptized this Saturday! Yay!!! They are both very excited and so are we! We taught them every day last week and it was great. One of the days we had prepared a lesson on the priesthood and we got there and Christopher opened the door and said that his mom did not feel well and maybe we could come back later. So we were like uh, ok. We had a member with us so we were like well I guess we could take you to teach someone else. We hadn’t made a back up plan because Jewel’s lessons never fall through. So we sat in the members car trying to figure out who we could go visit and then the phone rang. It was Jewel. Sister Davenport answered it and Jewel told her how sick she was, Sister Davenport then explained about Priesthood blessings and asked Jewel if she would like one. Jewel said yes, so then we had to get to work trying to find a priesthood holder who was home at 1 o clock in the afternoon on a weekday! Luckily the member helped us out and within 30 minutes we had two worthy priesthood holders at Jewel’s door. They gave her a beautiful blessing and then we all left. That night we got a phone call from Jewel. She wanted us to thank the men for coming, she said that she felt so much better and she knew that it was because of the power that they hold and that it is from God. She started crying on the phone to me and telling me that she knew this church was true and that it really was God’s church on the earth today. Sweet!!! I got off the phone with her and then told Sister Davenport what Jewel had said. I then told Sister Davenport that Jewel got the best lesson on the priesthood that day! We didn’t even need to teach it! ha ha So ya they are doing great and will be in the water this weekend!
We taught a lot of other lessons this week as well and have just been busy beavers all week long!! I wish I had more time but once again, I am so busy that I just don’t have much time to tell y’all about much of anything!
I do want to thank you however for your support! I appreciate the letters and the love, keep it coming!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE,
Sister Kleisler
Monday, September 14, 2009
Pics from Encino Park
So the first is me and Sister Davenport on bikes. We have a car, a very nice one in fact, but we also have bikes and we can use them if we want. So this week the weather was great so we took the bikes out and contacted a lot of people out in the neighborhood. Good times!
The next is me on weekly planning day. I erased the old board and we created a new one! Look at all those names- so many people to teach! yay!!!
Alright so we took these pictures right after a lesson with Jewel and Christopher. Can you guess what the lesson was on? That’s right, Word Of Wisdom!!!! We taught them about the Word of Wisdom and then committed them to live it. They said they were both big coffee and tea drinkers but that they would give it up. So I asked Jewel to get a garbage bag and put all of the coffee and tea that they had in their house in the bag. Without hesitation she did it and brought me the bag. We asked Chris if he would be ok with out his coffee, he siad he loves his coffee every morning but if God says it isn’t good for him, then he’ll stop. So we took the bag home with us, took some pics of course and then dumped it in the trash! Yay! Jewel told us that after we left they went and bought some herbal tea. So sweet!!! They now drink raspberry herbal tea in the mornings. I love seeing people change their lives because they know the gospel is true! Such a treat! Ha ha and as a side note, the Smith’s garage (that’s where they keep their trash can) smelled like coffee for days! Ha ha
The next is me on weekly planning day. I erased the old board and we created a new one! Look at all those names- so many people to teach! yay!!!
Alright so we took these pictures right after a lesson with Jewel and Christopher. Can you guess what the lesson was on? That’s right, Word Of Wisdom!!!! We taught them about the Word of Wisdom and then committed them to live it. They said they were both big coffee and tea drinkers but that they would give it up. So I asked Jewel to get a garbage bag and put all of the coffee and tea that they had in their house in the bag. Without hesitation she did it and brought me the bag. We asked Chris if he would be ok with out his coffee, he siad he loves his coffee every morning but if God says it isn’t good for him, then he’ll stop. So we took the bag home with us, took some pics of course and then dumped it in the trash! Yay! Jewel told us that after we left they went and bought some herbal tea. So sweet!!! They now drink raspberry herbal tea in the mornings. I love seeing people change their lives because they know the gospel is true! Such a treat! Ha ha and as a side note, the Smith’s garage (that’s where they keep their trash can) smelled like coffee for days! Ha ha
It's Raining, It's Pouring!
Hey Y’all!!!
Goll-eeeee, it has been quiet a week!!! First, I will start with the weather…RAIN!!! It has poured here the last several days and the people are so grateful! We have been in a bad drought for awhile and the Lord has answered our prayers and sent us a TON of rain!!! Yay! It has been lots of fun for Sister Davenport and I because we are both not super used to rain so if it started raining while we were out knocking doors we were like “Hooray!” and then kept on going knocking. We had a lot of fun in the rain. But it was kinda scary cause Sister Davenport drives like a maniac in the rain! Ha ha At one point this week I was laughing hysterically as we were driving down the road to get to an appointment and Sister D had to swerve around all of these big blue recycle bins in the middle of the road! Ha ha Encino Park area is very hilly and so the rain created a heavy stream on the roads that pulled all of the garbage cans from the side of the curbs into the middle of the street! Ha ha Sister D was swerving around them all like we were on a test track practice course! Good times! When we got out of our appointment we were going to do some service and take the cans back to their rightful place on the curb, but someone had either already done it or all the cans floated away, ha ha I am not sure which! Lol
So yes the rain has been fun but also there has been something else that has kept a giant smile on my face all week… GOLDEN INVESTIGATORS! I up to this point in my mission have never come in contact with “golden” investigators, but well now I have. And it ROCKS! Their names are Jewel and Christopher and we have set them with a baptismal date for September 26th. Jewel is 59 and her son Christopher is 35 and is special needs, but he operates like on a 12-year-old level and is 100% accountable. Jewel has been trying different churches for years now. She went to the Episcopal Church for awhile and then joined a Baptist church and she just never has felt “at home” in a church. She was on facebook a few weeks a go and ran across an old friend she grew up with in the Episcopal Church and she started talking to him about religion. Well he told her that he converted to Mormonism years ago and then he bore his testimony to her and told her to check out mormon.org So she did, she went online and requested like every video and booklet offered on the website and we got a zillion texts from church headquarters, the last of which was my favorite. She had written in the comments section- “I want to learn more about your church and possibly join it” So you can imagine how stoked we were to receive those texts!! So we have been teaching her everyday this week and we have had members come to all of the lessons and things are going so well! They came to mutual on Wednesday to check out the building and meet some people, they loved it! Then yesterday they came to church and Jewel felt so welcomed and Christopher as well. We have taught them almost all the lessons, Jewel has read starting at the beginning of the Book of Mormon like on Tuesday and is already on Jacob. One of the ward members bought Christopher a copy of the Book of Mormon reader, as Christopher likes to call it “my comic book version” ha ha it’s cute. The neatest part of all of this was something Jewel said in our lesson last night. I was asking her how she felt about all of this and she said, “I have always been searching for the right church, now I’ve found it and it just feels so good. I get goosebumps all the time when I read my Book of Mormon at night and I always feel so good inside when y’all come over. It is hard to describe but it feels like I am changing, there is something happening inside of me, it’s like I am being changed by all of this. It feels so good, like I have been needing this change for a long time and it has finally come.” So ya when she said that I got the hugest smile on my face and said- Jewel that is why I am out here, to watch people’s lives be touched and changed by the gospel!! Ya man, being a missionary rocks!! Oh and Jewel is from New Orleans so she has a super cool accent! :) She is an awesome lady!
Well it has been a busy week, a part from having a lesson with Jewel everyday this week we have a few other investigators and a lot of work going on, we have been so busy!!! Sister Davenport and I are totally ok with that though, we say that being too busy as a missionary is the BEST problem to have!! Ha ha so ya things are going very well here. The Encino Park ward is awesome! They are so stoked for this baptism, they haven’t had a baptism in this ward in over a year and we are ending the drought!!! So two different types of droughts are coming to an end here in Encino Park, the rain drought and the Baptism drought!!!! Yee-haw!!
Well I hope Y’all have a fantastic week and I hope some of this rain heads your way!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE,
Sister Kleisler
Goll-eeeee, it has been quiet a week!!! First, I will start with the weather…RAIN!!! It has poured here the last several days and the people are so grateful! We have been in a bad drought for awhile and the Lord has answered our prayers and sent us a TON of rain!!! Yay! It has been lots of fun for Sister Davenport and I because we are both not super used to rain so if it started raining while we were out knocking doors we were like “Hooray!” and then kept on going knocking. We had a lot of fun in the rain. But it was kinda scary cause Sister Davenport drives like a maniac in the rain! Ha ha At one point this week I was laughing hysterically as we were driving down the road to get to an appointment and Sister D had to swerve around all of these big blue recycle bins in the middle of the road! Ha ha Encino Park area is very hilly and so the rain created a heavy stream on the roads that pulled all of the garbage cans from the side of the curbs into the middle of the street! Ha ha Sister D was swerving around them all like we were on a test track practice course! Good times! When we got out of our appointment we were going to do some service and take the cans back to their rightful place on the curb, but someone had either already done it or all the cans floated away, ha ha I am not sure which! Lol
So yes the rain has been fun but also there has been something else that has kept a giant smile on my face all week… GOLDEN INVESTIGATORS! I up to this point in my mission have never come in contact with “golden” investigators, but well now I have. And it ROCKS! Their names are Jewel and Christopher and we have set them with a baptismal date for September 26th. Jewel is 59 and her son Christopher is 35 and is special needs, but he operates like on a 12-year-old level and is 100% accountable. Jewel has been trying different churches for years now. She went to the Episcopal Church for awhile and then joined a Baptist church and she just never has felt “at home” in a church. She was on facebook a few weeks a go and ran across an old friend she grew up with in the Episcopal Church and she started talking to him about religion. Well he told her that he converted to Mormonism years ago and then he bore his testimony to her and told her to check out mormon.org So she did, she went online and requested like every video and booklet offered on the website and we got a zillion texts from church headquarters, the last of which was my favorite. She had written in the comments section- “I want to learn more about your church and possibly join it” So you can imagine how stoked we were to receive those texts!! So we have been teaching her everyday this week and we have had members come to all of the lessons and things are going so well! They came to mutual on Wednesday to check out the building and meet some people, they loved it! Then yesterday they came to church and Jewel felt so welcomed and Christopher as well. We have taught them almost all the lessons, Jewel has read starting at the beginning of the Book of Mormon like on Tuesday and is already on Jacob. One of the ward members bought Christopher a copy of the Book of Mormon reader, as Christopher likes to call it “my comic book version” ha ha it’s cute. The neatest part of all of this was something Jewel said in our lesson last night. I was asking her how she felt about all of this and she said, “I have always been searching for the right church, now I’ve found it and it just feels so good. I get goosebumps all the time when I read my Book of Mormon at night and I always feel so good inside when y’all come over. It is hard to describe but it feels like I am changing, there is something happening inside of me, it’s like I am being changed by all of this. It feels so good, like I have been needing this change for a long time and it has finally come.” So ya when she said that I got the hugest smile on my face and said- Jewel that is why I am out here, to watch people’s lives be touched and changed by the gospel!! Ya man, being a missionary rocks!! Oh and Jewel is from New Orleans so she has a super cool accent! :) She is an awesome lady!
Well it has been a busy week, a part from having a lesson with Jewel everyday this week we have a few other investigators and a lot of work going on, we have been so busy!!! Sister Davenport and I are totally ok with that though, we say that being too busy as a missionary is the BEST problem to have!! Ha ha so ya things are going very well here. The Encino Park ward is awesome! They are so stoked for this baptism, they haven’t had a baptism in this ward in over a year and we are ending the drought!!! So two different types of droughts are coming to an end here in Encino Park, the rain drought and the Baptism drought!!!! Yee-haw!!
Well I hope Y’all have a fantastic week and I hope some of this rain heads your way!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE,
Sister Kleisler
Monday, September 7, 2009
Encino Park
Hey Y’all!
Well I wont keep you waiting, I will tell you where I am at… I am in an area called Encino Park. It is in Northern San Antonio like 10 minutes away from the temple. It is kinda a rich area so that is not so fun, but it’s all good. The ward here is amazing. My new companion is Sister Davenport, she trained my last companion, sister Johnson. So ya that’s cool. She is from Idaho and is from a big family- 10 kids. She is awesome and we are gonna do so great together. We live with members here in Encino Park, it is very different, but they are awesome and just let us do our own thing. All of the missionaries in the mission know them pretty much and everyone loves them, we are to call them. Mama and Papa Smith. So ya that’s pretty much the news on my end.
It was hard to leave Pleasanton, I missed Sister Johnson a lot the first few days, but I am all good. It was hard leaving my favorite families in P-town, but I will see them again.
I don’t have much to say this week, but I want y’all to know that I know that the Lord has a hand in our lives, no matter what we are going through he is there for us and he has a plan. We just have to follow with Faith.
SMILING ALL THE WHILE,
Hermana Kleisler
Here is my new address here in Encino Park- WRITE ME!
2210 Encino Cliff
San Antonio, TX 78259
Well I wont keep you waiting, I will tell you where I am at… I am in an area called Encino Park. It is in Northern San Antonio like 10 minutes away from the temple. It is kinda a rich area so that is not so fun, but it’s all good. The ward here is amazing. My new companion is Sister Davenport, she trained my last companion, sister Johnson. So ya that’s cool. She is from Idaho and is from a big family- 10 kids. She is awesome and we are gonna do so great together. We live with members here in Encino Park, it is very different, but they are awesome and just let us do our own thing. All of the missionaries in the mission know them pretty much and everyone loves them, we are to call them. Mama and Papa Smith. So ya that’s pretty much the news on my end.
It was hard to leave Pleasanton, I missed Sister Johnson a lot the first few days, but I am all good. It was hard leaving my favorite families in P-town, but I will see them again.
I don’t have much to say this week, but I want y’all to know that I know that the Lord has a hand in our lives, no matter what we are going through he is there for us and he has a plan. We just have to follow with Faith.
SMILING ALL THE WHILE,
Hermana Kleisler
Here is my new address here in Encino Park- WRITE ME!
2210 Encino Cliff
San Antonio, TX 78259
Friday, September 4, 2009
108 Baptized in the TSAM
Hey Y’all!!!!
So many cool things happened this week- but by far the most amazing is………. The Texas San Antonio Mission baptized 108 souls in the month of August!!!!! That’s huge! President has been pushing for the past two years for us to hit 100 baptisms in one month and we finally did it!!! It has been at least 4 years since our mission has hit one hundred and this month we did it! We are so excited!!! The Lord has truly poured out his blessings upon our mission and we are LOVIN’ IT!! So ya that is the coolest thing that happened this week, but other neat things happened too.
We went to the temple this week, that was way sweet and we also had stake conference and that was AWESOME!!! We did a lot of tracting and a lot of teaching -had some sweet experiences. I will share two stories with you.
The other day we were out knocking doors and as we knocked there was one house that had a chain on the fence and there was no way to get in, but that never stops me muwahaha, so anyway I went around to the side yard to see if we could get in that way, but no dice. All locked up, but as we were on the side of this house I heard some noise further down the street, sounded like really bad rock music. I decided to pursue it. With Sister Johnson hot on my heels we went in search of the screechy guitar. We found it, wasn’t too hard. Lol There was this guy and two of his friends who were sitting out on the driveway of a house and they had some meat smoking in the bbq pit and the guy was playing electric guitar. I went up to them and started asking him about his guitar. He just got it and he was learning how to play (that was obvious by the sound it was producing) so anyway I asked if we could sit down in the empty chairs next to him. He said yes and we started talking about the gospel. We asked what he had heard about our church and he actually knew a decent amount. Sister Johnson brought up the Book of Mormon and he was like, wait I don’t accept that book. We were like uh ok, so we kept teaching and Sister Johnson explained all about where the BoM came from and bore powerful testimony of it. The whole time that she was teaching I kept getting this impression, “sister Johnson needs to play guitar” it kept coming to my mind over and over again!!!! So when Sister Johnson passed the lesson over to me I also bore testimony about the Book Of Mormon, tied a nice little bow on the lesson and wrapped it up. Then I asked him if I could use his guitar. Ha ha random. He said yes, I handed it to Sister Johnson and said “play the cowboy song” she was like um, ok. So Sister Johnson played the electric guitar during a lesson and we both sang this Tim McGraw song that sister J changed some of the words to. It sounded so goo (don’t worry I sang very softly so as to not destroy the spirit, lol) and after we finished he and his friends looked at us and he was like, woah…. That was good! He was like, I feel enlightened, I feel the spirit. I just grinned REALLY big. Then I asked him if I could give him a copy of the Book of Mormon and if he would read it. He said YES! It was just so cool cause at first he wanted nothing to do with the BoM but then by the end of the lesson he accepted it and promised to read it. Cool!!! That’s what happens when you follow the spirit- you companion plays electric guitar and people accept Book of Mormons! Lol It was a way cool experience. :)
So the other story is also a pretty cool one. The other night we were at the Swaim’s house and Papa Swaim said, oh I sure wish we had someone for y’all to teach. I was like, ya we do too!! Then all the sudden he got all excited…. He was like “wait I do have someone for you”!!!! He then explained that his old colleague Margarita and her parents were coming over for dinner Sunday night and they would be perfect. He said the only problem is, Margarita’s parents don’t speak a lick of English. I was like, no problem, I speak Spanish! Papa Swaim, was like no way, you don’t speak Spanish. I told him that I did and I would prove it to him on Sunday! So on Sunday we went over to the Swaims and we met Maragarita and her parents. I sat and spoke with her parents in Spanish for like 20 minutes before dinner started, I was pretty surprised with myself that my Spanish skills were ok enough to carry on a conversation!! Then after dinner was when the really cool experience happened. I asked if we could share a thought with them all, they said yes. So we sat down to teach and I was planning on just sharing a little thought from the Book Of Mormon, but I got this impression- “teach a first lesson”. I was like no way, I can’t do that, these are the Swaim’s friends I can’t just whip out the restoration on them. You have to be REALLY careful with member referrals, they are like gold. So anyway I brushed that prompting away but then it came again, stronger this time. So I was like ok, whatever you want heavenly father, but please please just help me with my Spanish. So I told them that I would teach in Spanish and then Sister Johnson would teach in English but we’d translate it. So I began the Restoration and then when I passed it over to Sister Johnson to teach the next principle something happened that has never happened before with us. Sister Johnson could not speak. She tried but she could only say like one word and she was stuck completely lost. At that moment the spirit told me I was to teach this lesson on my own. So I did. I taught the entire lesson in Spanish by myself and the entire time I was locked on Margarita’s parents. I taught them, not Margarita, not the Swaims. The spirit was strong and when I got to the part about the Book Of Mormon I asked if they would like a copy. I was devastated when they said no. But I continued to Bear my Testimony and gave them pass a long cards. At the end of the lesson we had a prayer and then we left. It was such a cool experience for a couple reasons, even though they didn’t except a Book Of Mormon then, they are more open to it and I just know that a seed was planted. I was supposed to teach them that, otherwise there is NO WAY I would have been able to teach a whole lesson in Spanish by myself, that’s the other cool thing. That Sister Johnson was told by the Spirit not to teach, we just know that the Lord was in that lesson. Later that night we talked to the Swaims to make sure all was well with me throwing out such a hard core lesson on their friends. They thought it was great, brother Swaim concluded that I could indeed speak Spanish and they said that their friends told them after we left that we were very nice girls and that they were impressed with my Spanish. All in all it was a neat experience.
So ya we have had many cool things happen this week, I have many more stories but never enough time. Ha ha! So anyway this week is Transfers. I found out that I am in fact leaving Pleasanton. I don’t know where I am going yet. I have a pretty good idea but don’t know for sure, so y’all will have to wait till next week to find out “Where in the Mission is Sister Kleisler?”
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
So many cool things happened this week- but by far the most amazing is………. The Texas San Antonio Mission baptized 108 souls in the month of August!!!!! That’s huge! President has been pushing for the past two years for us to hit 100 baptisms in one month and we finally did it!!! It has been at least 4 years since our mission has hit one hundred and this month we did it! We are so excited!!! The Lord has truly poured out his blessings upon our mission and we are LOVIN’ IT!! So ya that is the coolest thing that happened this week, but other neat things happened too.
We went to the temple this week, that was way sweet and we also had stake conference and that was AWESOME!!! We did a lot of tracting and a lot of teaching -had some sweet experiences. I will share two stories with you.
The other day we were out knocking doors and as we knocked there was one house that had a chain on the fence and there was no way to get in, but that never stops me muwahaha, so anyway I went around to the side yard to see if we could get in that way, but no dice. All locked up, but as we were on the side of this house I heard some noise further down the street, sounded like really bad rock music. I decided to pursue it. With Sister Johnson hot on my heels we went in search of the screechy guitar. We found it, wasn’t too hard. Lol There was this guy and two of his friends who were sitting out on the driveway of a house and they had some meat smoking in the bbq pit and the guy was playing electric guitar. I went up to them and started asking him about his guitar. He just got it and he was learning how to play (that was obvious by the sound it was producing) so anyway I asked if we could sit down in the empty chairs next to him. He said yes and we started talking about the gospel. We asked what he had heard about our church and he actually knew a decent amount. Sister Johnson brought up the Book of Mormon and he was like, wait I don’t accept that book. We were like uh ok, so we kept teaching and Sister Johnson explained all about where the BoM came from and bore powerful testimony of it. The whole time that she was teaching I kept getting this impression, “sister Johnson needs to play guitar” it kept coming to my mind over and over again!!!! So when Sister Johnson passed the lesson over to me I also bore testimony about the Book Of Mormon, tied a nice little bow on the lesson and wrapped it up. Then I asked him if I could use his guitar. Ha ha random. He said yes, I handed it to Sister Johnson and said “play the cowboy song” she was like um, ok. So Sister Johnson played the electric guitar during a lesson and we both sang this Tim McGraw song that sister J changed some of the words to. It sounded so goo (don’t worry I sang very softly so as to not destroy the spirit, lol) and after we finished he and his friends looked at us and he was like, woah…. That was good! He was like, I feel enlightened, I feel the spirit. I just grinned REALLY big. Then I asked him if I could give him a copy of the Book of Mormon and if he would read it. He said YES! It was just so cool cause at first he wanted nothing to do with the BoM but then by the end of the lesson he accepted it and promised to read it. Cool!!! That’s what happens when you follow the spirit- you companion plays electric guitar and people accept Book of Mormons! Lol It was a way cool experience. :)
So the other story is also a pretty cool one. The other night we were at the Swaim’s house and Papa Swaim said, oh I sure wish we had someone for y’all to teach. I was like, ya we do too!! Then all the sudden he got all excited…. He was like “wait I do have someone for you”!!!! He then explained that his old colleague Margarita and her parents were coming over for dinner Sunday night and they would be perfect. He said the only problem is, Margarita’s parents don’t speak a lick of English. I was like, no problem, I speak Spanish! Papa Swaim, was like no way, you don’t speak Spanish. I told him that I did and I would prove it to him on Sunday! So on Sunday we went over to the Swaims and we met Maragarita and her parents. I sat and spoke with her parents in Spanish for like 20 minutes before dinner started, I was pretty surprised with myself that my Spanish skills were ok enough to carry on a conversation!! Then after dinner was when the really cool experience happened. I asked if we could share a thought with them all, they said yes. So we sat down to teach and I was planning on just sharing a little thought from the Book Of Mormon, but I got this impression- “teach a first lesson”. I was like no way, I can’t do that, these are the Swaim’s friends I can’t just whip out the restoration on them. You have to be REALLY careful with member referrals, they are like gold. So anyway I brushed that prompting away but then it came again, stronger this time. So I was like ok, whatever you want heavenly father, but please please just help me with my Spanish. So I told them that I would teach in Spanish and then Sister Johnson would teach in English but we’d translate it. So I began the Restoration and then when I passed it over to Sister Johnson to teach the next principle something happened that has never happened before with us. Sister Johnson could not speak. She tried but she could only say like one word and she was stuck completely lost. At that moment the spirit told me I was to teach this lesson on my own. So I did. I taught the entire lesson in Spanish by myself and the entire time I was locked on Margarita’s parents. I taught them, not Margarita, not the Swaims. The spirit was strong and when I got to the part about the Book Of Mormon I asked if they would like a copy. I was devastated when they said no. But I continued to Bear my Testimony and gave them pass a long cards. At the end of the lesson we had a prayer and then we left. It was such a cool experience for a couple reasons, even though they didn’t except a Book Of Mormon then, they are more open to it and I just know that a seed was planted. I was supposed to teach them that, otherwise there is NO WAY I would have been able to teach a whole lesson in Spanish by myself, that’s the other cool thing. That Sister Johnson was told by the Spirit not to teach, we just know that the Lord was in that lesson. Later that night we talked to the Swaims to make sure all was well with me throwing out such a hard core lesson on their friends. They thought it was great, brother Swaim concluded that I could indeed speak Spanish and they said that their friends told them after we left that we were very nice girls and that they were impressed with my Spanish. All in all it was a neat experience.
So ya we have had many cool things happen this week, I have many more stories but never enough time. Ha ha! So anyway this week is Transfers. I found out that I am in fact leaving Pleasanton. I don’t know where I am going yet. I have a pretty good idea but don’t know for sure, so y’all will have to wait till next week to find out “Where in the Mission is Sister Kleisler?”
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
Monday, August 24, 2009
Pictures of the Week!
The first three pictures are from This past Monday. It was my recent convert Clarissa's baby Emerick's first Birthday. She just started a new job and is kind of having a rough time right now finacially and she was not going to be able to do anything for her son's bday. Well when I heard about that I decided that we were gonna do something! So Sister Johnson and I with the help of Mama Swaim, made a cake for him and Clarissa loved it! She was so happy. Eemerick wasn't so sure about the cake. He like the frosting at first but then just drooled orange and green all down his shirt! lol!
The last pic is from this past Tuesday. We went on exchanges, SIster Johnson went up to Windcrest to spend a day with SIster Dodge and Sister Christensen (SIster Dodge's Greenie) came down to experience a day of P-town with me! Fun Fun. This pic was taken as we were about to exchange back- we all look awful, that's what happens at the end of a summer day in San Antonio! Lol
Here is me and Sister Johnson with our cute cake for Emerick
Then this week Sister Johnson and I did some service for the Partridges and helped them clean out the garage, it was hot and sweaty and we were getting attacked by giant dead animals! Ha ha but ya if you notice the waves in my hair- it's not a new hair style, it's the HUMIDITY! ha ha
The last pic is from this past Tuesday. We went on exchanges, SIster Johnson went up to Windcrest to spend a day with SIster Dodge and Sister Christensen (SIster Dodge's Greenie) came down to experience a day of P-town with me! Fun Fun. This pic was taken as we were about to exchange back- we all look awful, that's what happens at the end of a summer day in San Antonio! Lol
Here is me and Sister Johnson with our cute cake for Emerick
Then this week Sister Johnson and I did some service for the Partridges and helped them clean out the garage, it was hot and sweaty and we were getting attacked by giant dead animals! Ha ha but ya if you notice the waves in my hair- it's not a new hair style, it's the HUMIDITY! ha ha
Preparing for Departure
Hey Y’all!
So this is prolly my last week in P-Town. I am pretty sad about it actually. Believe it or not I truly have come to love this crazy country town!!! I am gonna miss Sister Johnson big time as well as some of the members here who I have developed close friendships with! But onward and upward as President always says. I have no idea where I will be transferred to, I guess technically I am not even sure I am leaving, but ya I am pretty positive. I have some hopes of places I really want to go and I have been BEGGING president for months now to send me to a Spanish area, so we will see what happens. It all depends on what the Lord needs of me. I’ll go where you want me to go- right? :)
Well there isn’t much in the way of news for this week- this will be a short but sweet email. This past week has been SLOW. We ran out of people to teach and are now 100 percent in finding stage. Every day all day- knocking doors! Ugh. Can’t say it’s my favorite thing, especially in the super hot humid weather, but I am for sure “building character” as President would say! I should be oozing with character by the time I get home! Sister Johnson says we will be Disney Characters by the time we finish our mission!!! Ha ha Yesterday as Sister Johnson and I were knocking doors at about 4 o clock in the afternoon we were discussing the possibility of actually melting right there on the spot. We then were coming up with all these great conversion stories of what would happen if we melted, for example, we would melt right there on the sidewalk into pasty white puddles and then someone would find our backpacks and take them. They would read the Book Of Mormon that they found inside and then search for the church that the Book belonged to. Then they and their entire families would be baptized! Ha ha all while we were melted puddles. Ya that’s what goes through our minds when we are knocking doors in the blazing heat! Lol SO we have another week of knocking ahead of us and luckily I have learned my lesson about the attitude thing- so positivity is the key and we will get through this week of finding leaving Sister Johnson with a huge teaching pool! Yay!!!
All right well there isn’t much else to tell. We have been sweating and working and smiling all the while! Ha ha
Love Y’all Mucho!!
This is y’alls last week to write me at my Pleasanton address- so send some letters!!!!!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
So this is prolly my last week in P-Town. I am pretty sad about it actually. Believe it or not I truly have come to love this crazy country town!!! I am gonna miss Sister Johnson big time as well as some of the members here who I have developed close friendships with! But onward and upward as President always says. I have no idea where I will be transferred to, I guess technically I am not even sure I am leaving, but ya I am pretty positive. I have some hopes of places I really want to go and I have been BEGGING president for months now to send me to a Spanish area, so we will see what happens. It all depends on what the Lord needs of me. I’ll go where you want me to go- right? :)
Well there isn’t much in the way of news for this week- this will be a short but sweet email. This past week has been SLOW. We ran out of people to teach and are now 100 percent in finding stage. Every day all day- knocking doors! Ugh. Can’t say it’s my favorite thing, especially in the super hot humid weather, but I am for sure “building character” as President would say! I should be oozing with character by the time I get home! Sister Johnson says we will be Disney Characters by the time we finish our mission!!! Ha ha Yesterday as Sister Johnson and I were knocking doors at about 4 o clock in the afternoon we were discussing the possibility of actually melting right there on the spot. We then were coming up with all these great conversion stories of what would happen if we melted, for example, we would melt right there on the sidewalk into pasty white puddles and then someone would find our backpacks and take them. They would read the Book Of Mormon that they found inside and then search for the church that the Book belonged to. Then they and their entire families would be baptized! Ha ha all while we were melted puddles. Ya that’s what goes through our minds when we are knocking doors in the blazing heat! Lol SO we have another week of knocking ahead of us and luckily I have learned my lesson about the attitude thing- so positivity is the key and we will get through this week of finding leaving Sister Johnson with a huge teaching pool! Yay!!!
All right well there isn’t much else to tell. We have been sweating and working and smiling all the while! Ha ha
Love Y’all Mucho!!
This is y’alls last week to write me at my Pleasanton address- so send some letters!!!!!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Pics from Pleasanton!
I have always wanted a classic missionary picture with two missionaries walking down the road to knock doors- now I have it! But it's not just any set of missionaries. it's me and Sister Johnson!
We found a sacred grove in Floresville!!! Ha ha it was gorgeous so we had to stop and take some pics!
On Wednesday after new member lessons we were saying goodbye to people before heading out to go knock doors before it got too dark, then I saw it, Papa Swaim's cowboy hat! He wears that thing everywhere- he wears it to church but then takes it off inside the building. That hat along with his boots and his spurs is like an appendage of his. Ha ha So anyway I saw it sitting on a chair with his briefcase outside the bishop's office. So I swiped it! I put it on and some of the members thought it was pretty funny, then I left and took it with me!! I was gonna pull a prank on 'ol Papa Swaim. Ha ha we went and parked the truck to knock some doors and I had Sister Johnson take some pics of me wearing the hat real quick before we knocked. Well as she was taking the pics a lady came outside of her house and started talking to us. She was not interested in teh gospel but real friendly. She told us to hang on a second and then she came back out with a sombrerro cowboy hat!! She told Sister Johnson to put it on and then take a pic with me! Ha ha so we did!!!! Then after knocking doors I took Papa Swaim's hat to his house, he wasn't home yet but I gave it to mama swaim, she couldn't believe I took it! She laughed!!!! Then later I got a phone call from Papa Swaim, he said I was the only one that could have gotten away with that prank, anybody else would have been in big trouble! Ha ha Always got keep thing interesting in P-Town, that's my job! lol
Me with a giant strawberry
Last Pic is another one in the sacred grove!
We found a sacred grove in Floresville!!! Ha ha it was gorgeous so we had to stop and take some pics!
On Wednesday after new member lessons we were saying goodbye to people before heading out to go knock doors before it got too dark, then I saw it, Papa Swaim's cowboy hat! He wears that thing everywhere- he wears it to church but then takes it off inside the building. That hat along with his boots and his spurs is like an appendage of his. Ha ha So anyway I saw it sitting on a chair with his briefcase outside the bishop's office. So I swiped it! I put it on and some of the members thought it was pretty funny, then I left and took it with me!! I was gonna pull a prank on 'ol Papa Swaim. Ha ha we went and parked the truck to knock some doors and I had Sister Johnson take some pics of me wearing the hat real quick before we knocked. Well as she was taking the pics a lady came outside of her house and started talking to us. She was not interested in teh gospel but real friendly. She told us to hang on a second and then she came back out with a sombrerro cowboy hat!! She told Sister Johnson to put it on and then take a pic with me! Ha ha so we did!!!! Then after knocking doors I took Papa Swaim's hat to his house, he wasn't home yet but I gave it to mama swaim, she couldn't believe I took it! She laughed!!!! Then later I got a phone call from Papa Swaim, he said I was the only one that could have gotten away with that prank, anybody else would have been in big trouble! Ha ha Always got keep thing interesting in P-Town, that's my job! lol
Me with a giant strawberry
Last Pic is another one in the sacred grove!
Monday, August 17, 2009
Story Time!
Hey Y'all!!!
This week has been really great thanks to two things: MAIL and ATTITUDE.Ha ha let me explain! So this week I have gotten some more mail- YAY!!!!But the best piece of mail I got this week was a BOX FROM DENMARK!!!!!!!I was so excited! Kevin sent me a cool Danish shirt with writing that noone here can understand- so sweet! And also some yummy Danish waffley thingys and a rock from the Danish land and the best part was... a cassette tape! Oh man it was SUCH A TREAT to hear my baby brother's voice!!! I haven't heard that in over a year! So ya that was the coolest thing from this week! All of that mail and the love and support really helped to keep me going this week, so thanks y'all!!!! I think I can remember all who wrote me so I will give ya a shout out- C, Jennie, Aunt Elaine, Moran, Elder Kleisler and Jessica Robins. Thanks Y'all!! (Sorry if I missed anyone)
Ok so the other thing that made this such an awesome week was- my attitude. Mama Swaim told me the other day that she saw a sign when she was out shopping that said "attitude is everything!" she said she had the hardest time resisting to buy it for me! Lol That punk!! But it made me think and she was right, I have been pretty negative lately. So these last couple days I have been trying to just look at the good stuff and forget the bad stuff. It has been a VERY good thing!!! If you focus on all the cruddy things that happen of course you are gonna feel cruddy, but if you choose to look on the bright side then you are a much happier person, and so is your companion for that matter! Ha ha So ya Love and Support from Home and having agood attitude can make a lot of difference for a missionary!! So this week was better than the others, not because we found lots of new investigators or had anyone come to church, but because I had a good attitude and saw the little miracles and tender mercies that occurredthroughout our week.
I have lots of little stories to share with y'all so here it goes- Story Time!!!
The first are Dog Stories!!!! So I always remembered even as a little kid that missionaries would always have jokes about the dogs and stuff.I never thought much of it, and mostly thought it was an exaggeration until I got to Texas!! It is true- Dogs HATE missionaries, it's like they can sense the spirit and they want to destroy it! Sister Johnson thinks that the dogs are all on a contract to work for Satan. Ha ha so anyway, this week we had a few close calls with dogs. The first was on Thursday night, we were knocking in a bit more "ghetto" area and not having any success, we were getting pretty tired and a bit discouraged. We were towards the end of the street and I approached a house that had a fenced in front yard. Lots of yards are like that here, so I thought nothing of it. I opened the fence and Sister Johnson proceeded to walk in. Before I could follow her this big scary dog came dashing out from behind the house and chased after Sister Johnson she SCREAMED and ran back out towards the gate. I closed it real quick and we walked away. Sister Johnson had to get a hold of herself for a second after that, she said her life flashed before her eyes! Ha ha I just thought it was hilarious! I guess that's cause I knew I was safe. But don't worry I got my own run in with a dog later on in the week.
Yesterday we were up in the very southern most tip of San Antonio (which is part of our area)and once again were in the "ghetto" (you'd think we would have learned our lesson by now! Lol) and we were knocking doors. We once again were having no success, no one was answering the doors and we were tired and it was like 4 o clock so it was HOT!!!!! We were getting further down the street and were about to walk up a driveway to the next house when all the sudden I jumped about 5 feet in the air!! There was a dog underneath the truck I was walking past and it growled at me. I began to back away slowly and then It started walking towards me bearing its teeth. Then two more big dogs came out next to it and so there were three dogs backing sister Johnson and I into a corner. I about freaked out, I had only one thought in my head- RUN! But I then countered that thought with another one, If I run they will prolly follow and attack. So Sister Johnson and I were about ready to pee our pants and cry cause we knew we were done for, but we just decided to slowly side step and walk very slowly down the street away from the house. We walked super slow and the dogs didn't follow. As soon as we got far enough away we took off running back to the truck. So ya, I will be honest- Dogs are NOT a missionary's best friend!!!!!
We had a pretty cool little miracle that we got to see the other day. It was just one of those things where you KNOW the Lord had a hand in it. So we got a headquarters' referral the other day- it's a text message from Salt Lake with the name and address of someone who ordered a DVD or something off of the TV or a pass along card or the internet. We get a couple of those every transfer and a lot of the time they don't turn out to be people who are too interested but we still get excited about them anyway. So this week we got one and we called him and set upan appointment. We went over to his house and sat down to teach him, but first I asked him how he found out about the DVD he ordered. He said that just last week he had a friend talk to him about God and how George (the referral) needed to find Jesus and get that help in his life. Well this all hit George pretty powerfully and he felt like he had a "spiritual awakening", as he called it. So then just two days after this he was at the park and he found a card sitting on one of the picnic tables and it talked about Jesus so he called in for the free DVD. Then along came us! Well we know exactly how that mysterious card got there- it was a pass along card that we had handed out to one of the numerous people we EBP at the park. So when we gave it somebody they decided they didn't want it so they left it there and then bam George found it! Cool Stuff. It taught me a really good lesson- we don't always know what happens with all the work that we do, we don't always get to see the end result, but no effort is wasted in the eyes of the Lord. SO ya pretty cool!!
Another one of those head quarters referrals that we got a few weeks ago lives up in a town called Von Ormy which is further north of Pleasanton close to San Antonio. We went and saw him a few weeks ago and he really didn't seem that promising. We taught him a lesson but he wasn't all that interested, so we gave him the DVD he ordered and went on our way. We didn't plan on going back to see him, especially because he lives so many miles away and our miles are precious!!! But this week we were coming back from District Meeting in San Antonio and we were driving past the place where this guy lived and felt impressed to stop. He wasn't there, but his family lives on the same property. We talked to them and asked if we could teach them. They said yes. They gathered the whole family around. Two moms (sisters in law) and a bunch of kids. 3 of the Kids were baptismal age. So anyway they said we could teach them, BUT one of the moms only understands Spanish and everyone else speaks Spanish and English. So Sister Johnson and I tag teamed it. I had to whip out my rusty Spanish that I hardly EVER use!!! Sister Johnson would teach one principle in English and I would teach the next one in Spanish and also reteach parts of the one she taught. It was a crazy and tiring experience but it was so neat because I got to speak Spanish!!!! They are actually a pretty cool family that seem pretty interested, but they didn't come to church this week. We are gonna gosee them tomorrow though. More Spanish practice for me! Yay!!!! Well I have more stories but this is long enough as is.
I love y'all mucho and appreciate your letters- PLEASE keep them coming!!!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
This week has been really great thanks to two things: MAIL and ATTITUDE.Ha ha let me explain! So this week I have gotten some more mail- YAY!!!!But the best piece of mail I got this week was a BOX FROM DENMARK!!!!!!!I was so excited! Kevin sent me a cool Danish shirt with writing that noone here can understand- so sweet! And also some yummy Danish waffley thingys and a rock from the Danish land and the best part was... a cassette tape! Oh man it was SUCH A TREAT to hear my baby brother's voice!!! I haven't heard that in over a year! So ya that was the coolest thing from this week! All of that mail and the love and support really helped to keep me going this week, so thanks y'all!!!! I think I can remember all who wrote me so I will give ya a shout out- C, Jennie, Aunt Elaine, Moran, Elder Kleisler and Jessica Robins. Thanks Y'all!! (Sorry if I missed anyone)
Ok so the other thing that made this such an awesome week was- my attitude. Mama Swaim told me the other day that she saw a sign when she was out shopping that said "attitude is everything!" she said she had the hardest time resisting to buy it for me! Lol That punk!! But it made me think and she was right, I have been pretty negative lately. So these last couple days I have been trying to just look at the good stuff and forget the bad stuff. It has been a VERY good thing!!! If you focus on all the cruddy things that happen of course you are gonna feel cruddy, but if you choose to look on the bright side then you are a much happier person, and so is your companion for that matter! Ha ha So ya Love and Support from Home and having agood attitude can make a lot of difference for a missionary!! So this week was better than the others, not because we found lots of new investigators or had anyone come to church, but because I had a good attitude and saw the little miracles and tender mercies that occurredthroughout our week.
I have lots of little stories to share with y'all so here it goes- Story Time!!!
The first are Dog Stories!!!! So I always remembered even as a little kid that missionaries would always have jokes about the dogs and stuff.I never thought much of it, and mostly thought it was an exaggeration until I got to Texas!! It is true- Dogs HATE missionaries, it's like they can sense the spirit and they want to destroy it! Sister Johnson thinks that the dogs are all on a contract to work for Satan. Ha ha so anyway, this week we had a few close calls with dogs. The first was on Thursday night, we were knocking in a bit more "ghetto" area and not having any success, we were getting pretty tired and a bit discouraged. We were towards the end of the street and I approached a house that had a fenced in front yard. Lots of yards are like that here, so I thought nothing of it. I opened the fence and Sister Johnson proceeded to walk in. Before I could follow her this big scary dog came dashing out from behind the house and chased after Sister Johnson she SCREAMED and ran back out towards the gate. I closed it real quick and we walked away. Sister Johnson had to get a hold of herself for a second after that, she said her life flashed before her eyes! Ha ha I just thought it was hilarious! I guess that's cause I knew I was safe. But don't worry I got my own run in with a dog later on in the week.
Yesterday we were up in the very southern most tip of San Antonio (which is part of our area)and once again were in the "ghetto" (you'd think we would have learned our lesson by now! Lol) and we were knocking doors. We once again were having no success, no one was answering the doors and we were tired and it was like 4 o clock so it was HOT!!!!! We were getting further down the street and were about to walk up a driveway to the next house when all the sudden I jumped about 5 feet in the air!! There was a dog underneath the truck I was walking past and it growled at me. I began to back away slowly and then It started walking towards me bearing its teeth. Then two more big dogs came out next to it and so there were three dogs backing sister Johnson and I into a corner. I about freaked out, I had only one thought in my head- RUN! But I then countered that thought with another one, If I run they will prolly follow and attack. So Sister Johnson and I were about ready to pee our pants and cry cause we knew we were done for, but we just decided to slowly side step and walk very slowly down the street away from the house. We walked super slow and the dogs didn't follow. As soon as we got far enough away we took off running back to the truck. So ya, I will be honest- Dogs are NOT a missionary's best friend!!!!!
We had a pretty cool little miracle that we got to see the other day. It was just one of those things where you KNOW the Lord had a hand in it. So we got a headquarters' referral the other day- it's a text message from Salt Lake with the name and address of someone who ordered a DVD or something off of the TV or a pass along card or the internet. We get a couple of those every transfer and a lot of the time they don't turn out to be people who are too interested but we still get excited about them anyway. So this week we got one and we called him and set upan appointment. We went over to his house and sat down to teach him, but first I asked him how he found out about the DVD he ordered. He said that just last week he had a friend talk to him about God and how George (the referral) needed to find Jesus and get that help in his life. Well this all hit George pretty powerfully and he felt like he had a "spiritual awakening", as he called it. So then just two days after this he was at the park and he found a card sitting on one of the picnic tables and it talked about Jesus so he called in for the free DVD. Then along came us! Well we know exactly how that mysterious card got there- it was a pass along card that we had handed out to one of the numerous people we EBP at the park. So when we gave it somebody they decided they didn't want it so they left it there and then bam George found it! Cool Stuff. It taught me a really good lesson- we don't always know what happens with all the work that we do, we don't always get to see the end result, but no effort is wasted in the eyes of the Lord. SO ya pretty cool!!
Another one of those head quarters referrals that we got a few weeks ago lives up in a town called Von Ormy which is further north of Pleasanton close to San Antonio. We went and saw him a few weeks ago and he really didn't seem that promising. We taught him a lesson but he wasn't all that interested, so we gave him the DVD he ordered and went on our way. We didn't plan on going back to see him, especially because he lives so many miles away and our miles are precious!!! But this week we were coming back from District Meeting in San Antonio and we were driving past the place where this guy lived and felt impressed to stop. He wasn't there, but his family lives on the same property. We talked to them and asked if we could teach them. They said yes. They gathered the whole family around. Two moms (sisters in law) and a bunch of kids. 3 of the Kids were baptismal age. So anyway they said we could teach them, BUT one of the moms only understands Spanish and everyone else speaks Spanish and English. So Sister Johnson and I tag teamed it. I had to whip out my rusty Spanish that I hardly EVER use!!! Sister Johnson would teach one principle in English and I would teach the next one in Spanish and also reteach parts of the one she taught. It was a crazy and tiring experience but it was so neat because I got to speak Spanish!!!! They are actually a pretty cool family that seem pretty interested, but they didn't come to church this week. We are gonna gosee them tomorrow though. More Spanish practice for me! Yay!!!! Well I have more stories but this is long enough as is.
I love y'all mucho and appreciate your letters- PLEASE keep them coming!!!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
Monday, August 10, 2009
Best Thing for My Life!
Hey Y’all!!!
Well this week has been another crazy ones with ups and downs and everything in between but lots of lessons were learned and lots of cool experiences happened along the way! So the first thing I want to tell you about was one of the highlights of my mission. Yesterday in sacramnet meeting my recent convert Clarissa gave a talk!!!! She has been a member for only one month and she was asked to give a 5 minute talk in sacramnet meeting. It was AMAZING!!!!! I saw Papa Swaim looking down at us on the stand (he’s in the bishopric) and smiling big as he saw our eyes full of tears and the giant grins on our faces! I can’t even describe what it feels like to have someone you baptized, someone you watched change their lives to be a member of the church, to see them taking hold of the gospel and becoming so strong, well…. It’s the best part of being a missionary!!! Her talk was great and her attitude and sprirt are contageous! I love that girl!!! So ya that was an awesome experience, I AM SO PROUD OF HER! So other things that happened this week, we had zone confrence- it was fantastic!!! We were trained on lots of awesome things. President and Sister Cutler taught us more about answering people concerns using the Book Of Mormon, the assistants taught us about improving our door approaches when knocking. Then they split us up into three groups. One group went with one of the assistants, another with the other assistant and the last with President. Guess which group Sister Johnson and I were in… President’s. So ya, we had to do role plays with President- so terrifying!!!!!! We had to “knock” on his door and get in. It was scary, ha ha cause man he’s PRESIDENT! But it was cool. He taught us all a lot and the main thinig was to focus on getting in the door! He said we teach too much at the doorstep, we need to focus on getting inside and then teaching. SO he taught us to say things like “Hi we are missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints and we have a very important message to share about Jesus Christ. Will you allow us to come into your home and share this with you and your family?” So anyway we learned all of this really cool stuff and then throughout the week we have been applying it, and guess what, WE HAVE GOTTEN IN THE DOOR!!! Ha ha it was so sweet the day after zone confrence we went knocking and only had 5 people answer the door and we got into 2 of those doors and taught lessons! SO sweet!!! So ya that was cool!!! I have been learning a lot out here!!!!!
So I also learned a very important lesson from President this week. We had our interviews after zone confrence and I told president that I was having a really hard time not falling into depression every time one of our awesome investigators burned us. He then taught me a very good lesson. He asked me what doctrine that I teach to my investigators could help me out with this problem. I thought about it for awhile and he gave me a hint. Think about the second lesson. I was like, oh AGENCY!! He then went on to tell me how we can not force anyone to do anything. They get to choose. So I can teach these investogators and love them so much, but ultimatly they get to choose. And if they choose not to follow the path that will bring them happiness, well then, there is nothing I can do about it. This lesson hit me very hard and came in handy yesterday! We were supposed to have 4 investigators at church, all of which we had talked to on Saturday and confirmed and everything and then Sunday came and NONE of them came to church. That was a devistating blow, but then I thought about it, and you know what they made their choice. And I can make mine. I can choose to be depressed about it, or I can choose to move on and conitnue to cheerfully go about doing good. I learned that the second option is always a better choice! So anyway I am learning a lot out here and loving it!!!
I have said it before and I will say it again. My mission is the BEST thing for my life!!!!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
Well this week has been another crazy ones with ups and downs and everything in between but lots of lessons were learned and lots of cool experiences happened along the way! So the first thing I want to tell you about was one of the highlights of my mission. Yesterday in sacramnet meeting my recent convert Clarissa gave a talk!!!! She has been a member for only one month and she was asked to give a 5 minute talk in sacramnet meeting. It was AMAZING!!!!! I saw Papa Swaim looking down at us on the stand (he’s in the bishopric) and smiling big as he saw our eyes full of tears and the giant grins on our faces! I can’t even describe what it feels like to have someone you baptized, someone you watched change their lives to be a member of the church, to see them taking hold of the gospel and becoming so strong, well…. It’s the best part of being a missionary!!! Her talk was great and her attitude and sprirt are contageous! I love that girl!!! So ya that was an awesome experience, I AM SO PROUD OF HER! So other things that happened this week, we had zone confrence- it was fantastic!!! We were trained on lots of awesome things. President and Sister Cutler taught us more about answering people concerns using the Book Of Mormon, the assistants taught us about improving our door approaches when knocking. Then they split us up into three groups. One group went with one of the assistants, another with the other assistant and the last with President. Guess which group Sister Johnson and I were in… President’s. So ya, we had to do role plays with President- so terrifying!!!!!! We had to “knock” on his door and get in. It was scary, ha ha cause man he’s PRESIDENT! But it was cool. He taught us all a lot and the main thinig was to focus on getting in the door! He said we teach too much at the doorstep, we need to focus on getting inside and then teaching. SO he taught us to say things like “Hi we are missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints and we have a very important message to share about Jesus Christ. Will you allow us to come into your home and share this with you and your family?” So anyway we learned all of this really cool stuff and then throughout the week we have been applying it, and guess what, WE HAVE GOTTEN IN THE DOOR!!! Ha ha it was so sweet the day after zone confrence we went knocking and only had 5 people answer the door and we got into 2 of those doors and taught lessons! SO sweet!!! So ya that was cool!!! I have been learning a lot out here!!!!!
So I also learned a very important lesson from President this week. We had our interviews after zone confrence and I told president that I was having a really hard time not falling into depression every time one of our awesome investigators burned us. He then taught me a very good lesson. He asked me what doctrine that I teach to my investigators could help me out with this problem. I thought about it for awhile and he gave me a hint. Think about the second lesson. I was like, oh AGENCY!! He then went on to tell me how we can not force anyone to do anything. They get to choose. So I can teach these investogators and love them so much, but ultimatly they get to choose. And if they choose not to follow the path that will bring them happiness, well then, there is nothing I can do about it. This lesson hit me very hard and came in handy yesterday! We were supposed to have 4 investigators at church, all of which we had talked to on Saturday and confirmed and everything and then Sunday came and NONE of them came to church. That was a devistating blow, but then I thought about it, and you know what they made their choice. And I can make mine. I can choose to be depressed about it, or I can choose to move on and conitnue to cheerfully go about doing good. I learned that the second option is always a better choice! So anyway I am learning a lot out here and loving it!!!
I have said it before and I will say it again. My mission is the BEST thing for my life!!!!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)