Pics Of the Week!

Here are some pics from last p-day!

North zone and East zone got together for a bbq and some sports and it was so fun- we took some pics as a big group, this was one where we were having a big dance party waiting for the self timers to go off on all the cameras- I think it turned out great! ha ha

Next is me learning how to make tortillas! It was so fun, one of the Hispanic sisters in the ward had us over and taught us, I was flipping mine over and Elder Hauter pretended to hit me with the rolling pin! LOL We had a blast!

Some members we visited loaded us with tons of food before we left! look at all those groceries- we are so spoiled!!!

Next- We were parking in the right spot right? Ha ha a warm hot bike day for sure! lol Look at my flat hair. :)

Choo-Choo the Transfer Train is coming!

Hey Y'all!!!

Yup the transfer train has come around again and I have a ticket to ride. Ha ha yes siree I am being transferred AGAIN. After 6 weeks in Windcrest I am off to my next area but I don't know where that is yet. I have a few pretty good hunches but we will just have to wait until Thursday to know for sure, which means y'all will have to wait until Monday. All I know is what one of the AP's told me- I am being transferred to an area that is really on fire and I am going to be Senior Comp to a young missionary. So ya I am excited, you know me I love change!!!

So this was my last full week in Windcrest and it was super sweet- why is it that right before I leave an area I really get it going? Ha ha it's all good though it was such a sweet week! We set 3 people for baptism with a date! There will be 3 people getting baptized on May 17th! Woot Woot!!!!! I am so excited about that- I am the one who set them each with the commit- I guess I am just really bold cause with all 3 of those Sis. Dodge was like oh man I never would of done that! Ha ha the Lord has blessed me with boldness and it is sick! So whose getting baptized you ask? Well Rose Marie, the mother of a Less Active in the ward who we went to visit last week and Rose Marie was there and listened to our lesson and then after I got through bearing my testimony she asked me if she could have a copy of the Book Of Mormon. I was like oh snaps yes! Ha ha so we taught her a bit about it and she said that she had been to our church before but she went to a Spanish ward and she didn't quite understand it all but she said she felt so good there. So we left her with a commit to read in the BoM and then a few days later we went back she had read she said she knew it was true and this was the right church. So I was like sweet, will you prepare to be baptized on May 17th and she was like YES! Woo hoo! So that was cool, then also her grandson was just a little guy when her daughter and the rest of her grandkids were baptized, but he's 9 now and so we are teaching him also and set him with a baptismal date of the 17th. Then our other date is with Melinda. We met her last week on the street, we EBP'd her as she was getting out of her car and she set up a time for us to come back a few days later. So yesterday we went back and man we had a sweet lesson with her!! She felt the spirit strong and she said she felt like the Lord's hand was on her shoulder and she needed to know more about all of
this. She said she has always been searching and she thinks she's found it. Well I felt impressed to give her a baptismal commit. So I asked her if she would be baptized on the 17th and she said yes. She is so excited about the gospel and it is AMAZING! Man I still can't believe I set 3 people with a date this week and one of them was on a first lesson- so sick!! So ya we also have a few other people who don't have dates yet but will soon. This guy Antony was a media referral, he had called in for a video, he saw the commercial on TV and wrote down the number to call but lost the paper so like what 6 months later or so he found it and he called and we came. We taught him a first lesson and instead of giving him the video he ordered we left him with a copy of the Restoration to borrow and watch and then we would come back and talk more about it. So last night we went back and he had watched it 3 times and also rewound and fast forwarded watching certain parts over and over. He then read the dvd case a couple times and checked out the website on it- Mormon.org and so when we came he had some questions and was just so curious. We had an amazing lesson with him and I shared my conversion story as well as my dad's and he really identified with dad's and said that he felt like something never quite fit there was something missing and he thinks he might have found it. Ha ha so SWEET! So we left him with a copy of the Testaments to borrow and also a few verses in 3 Nephi to read in the BoM and then we have another appointment with him in a few days! Also Stephanie and Marianna are progressing quite nicely so all told this area could have 6 baptisms next month!! Geez that is sweet- they always say to leave our area better than we found it and I sure think I helped do that this transfer so yay for that!!! :)

So other then investigators just being super sweet and amazing this week has been pretty interesting as far as the weather goes! At the beginning of the week it got super hot and humid- yuck!! We were on bikes and I about died. After a few days of that Sister Dodge called the Elders and persuaded them to give us the car early cause I was just not doing too well on the bikes. So we got the car for the last half of the week- which ended up being a blessing cause it has rained the last few days! The weather here in Texas is so crazy!!!!!!! Ha ha

Alright well that's all I have to report for now. Please continue to write me, I got several awesome letters this week thanks to all those who wrote- C, Jennie, Moran, Hailey, Allison, Laura and Chris. Y'all rock! The rest of you I need to hear from!! So keep on writing and go ahead and send stuff to my Vandiver address this week cause sister Dodge can just forward it to me no big deal and then I will still get mail this week! Yay! Then on Monday I'll give y'all my new address! Ok well hope y'all have an awesome week- I love ya much!

SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler

Alamo and the TSAM (Texas San Antonio Mission)

First is me with a cool Mexican guy! Ha ha this was outside of the Mercado where we went for P-day last week!

Next, me in front of the Alamo! P-day sight seeing is so fun!

Here is my blinging ring! There is a guy at the Mercado that custom makes them for us, he does it right there while we wait it is so cool! So yay now I have my TSAM ring and I LOVE it!!

Me showing off my ring! I am married to the TSAM! LOL!! I love my mission!

Viva Fiesta!

Hey Y'all!

Alright well this past week President lit a fire under me to get to work and work HARD and then the ZL's fueled it by talking about how we always use the scripture Faith without works is dead, but lately in our whole mission we have been missing that by working hard but not having the faith that anything would happen. So this past week I put in to practice faith and hard work and do you know what the result was... A full week of getting EBP (first time I've ever done that!!!!) 11 other lessons taught, 8 new Investigators and 8 soft baptismal commits. Ya those are the numbers that basically support the theory that if you work hard put your faith in the Lord and pray for miracles you will see success!! So right now I am just so grateful to the Lord for granting us so many blessings this past week and helping us to see the miracles happening right before our eyes!

So as of now our most progressing investigators are Stephanie and Marianna- they are the 14 and 12 year old girls who are daughters of a recent convert, Cody. So there are two big obstacles with teaching them, we can only teach them every other weekend (parents are divorced and they live with their mom, we can only teach when Cody has them) and then also their mom is VERY against them getting baptized. So ya, those are some big obstacles but with a lot of prayer they can be overcome. As far as the girls themselves they are doing pretty well. Our biggest thing with them is having them have the desire to be baptized, we don't want them to just be forced into it and not really have a testimony. So right now we are working on getting them to understand why the gospel is so important, how it can help us and also getting them some good YW fellowship. So Saturday evening we had a lesson with them at the church, we taught about the plan of salvation and we have to be pretty creative with them to keep their attention (they are HYPER kids!!!) so we sang a song used pictures and asked them ALOT of questions. It went well and then right afterwards we went into the gym to watch the stake roadshow performances. That was so great for them!! They got to watch their friends have fun in the gospel and doing cool things that are related to the church! Then on Sunday Marianna came to church with us. Stephanie met a friend art school who is in the Randolph ward and she wanted to go to church with him we were like- YES!! Whatever will get her to go to church and like it, we are good with!!!! So Marianna wanted us to go to her classes with her so we went to Sunday School and YW and I was threw the roof excited to see two girls fellowship Marianna like no other!!! She felt so loved and welcomed! Then after church I asked her, so was it that bad? She said no, I liked it! Ahh yay, such an improvement, she used to whine about church being so boring. So they are a work in progress!!

Also we have several new investigators we are working with which has been keeping us busy. This week in San Antonio is a super crazy one because it is FIESTA! Now I am sure NONE of you have any idea what that means! ha ha I didn't either! lol Basically it is ten days of parties here in San Antonio, they have parades and parties and beads and pinatas and basically PARTY UP big time!! lol So we get to hear a lot about that. Also Spurs fever is starting up, apparently they got into the play offs and everyone is spurs crazy, more so then usual! There are "Go Spurs Go" signs everywhere and people are so nuts over those guys! lol So that has been pretty funny to observe.

So before I close I wanted to say that if y'all ever have the missionaries over for dinner, ask them this question, "What is the best part about teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ?" That was the question asked to us the other night at dinner with some members and basically they got to sit there as we bore our testimonies to them. Pretty sneaky I'd say! Ha ha But I thought I'd share my answer with all of you. -The best part about teaching the Gospel Of Jesus Christ to people is seeing how the gospel changes their lives! I have seen people who had no values and standards change their lives around to live the gospel and it has blessed them so much. I love when I get to see miracles happen!!! I love to see recent converts so strong in the church with a testimony that is still growing but it is rock solid. I love to see the youth of the church have the opportunity to grow up in homes full of love and wholesome activity. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ with my entire heart, all that I am is because of this true church and I owe myself to the Lord and I am dedicated to his service these next 9 1/2 months! Yay for that!! :)

I love y'all and miss ya much! Thanks for all the letters and love! There are some people I haven't heard from in forever that I NEED a letter from: Adam, Skousens, Ness and many more! Write me guys!

SMILING ALL THE WHILE,
Hermana Kleisler

This week's pics from San Antonio!

If you weren't sure how much your letters and pictures mean to Sister Kleisler, just look at the wall behind her in the Easter pics!

"First is my comp, me and the Windcrest Elders all in front of the beautiful San Antonio Temple!!!"

"Next is me with my easter eggs!We dyed Easter eggs on Friday night after planning and it was so fun! I made all my eggs into baptism eggs!LOL The symbol on all of the ones in the carton means 'Baptism' so cool! Then the eggs in my hand say TSAM. Best Easter egg dying ever- so fun, plus they turned out so bright, loved it!"

"Third- a good pic of me just chilling on temple grounds."

"Last- me with my easter Goodies!! Sister Dodge's mom sent me stuff too and I bought some candy with that money from grandma! Fun!

April Awkwardness

Hey Y’all!!

Well another week has passed and this one was a busy one. So much to talk about. First off, still not any progressing investigators. Vonya is no longer in the equation, we are still teaching Cody’s duaghters but that is going to be a long process- no progression quite yet. Other than that we found two new investigators but neither of them are really all that promising- just people who like learning about God and hearing about different religions, but I will tell you more about them later. So ya that is it as far as investigators go. But in other news- I GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE THIS WEEK!! Oh man, you have no idea how much I have been longing to go to the temple! I had not been for 6 months! Well I am finally serving in a San Antonio zone which means I get to go once a transfer to the temple- so last week we went. Now let me explain, for the entire 6 months I have been in Texas members and even non-members have told me how beautiful the San Antonio Temple is. “You have to go see it”, “oh man the celestial room is amazing” “the stained glass is magnificent!” over and over I kept hearing things like this and I was like, that’s nice and all but I am NOT allowed to go! Blah!!! So stop telling me how gorgeous it is! Ha ha ok so I went this week and now I am the one saying “oh man it is spectacular- very possibly my favorite temple!!!” It was so funny because we just did not want to leave once we were there we wanted to stay for hours, but we couldn’t we had to get back to work. We did a session and I loved it! I have to say that I never thought I would come to love the temple as much as everyone told me I should, but actually I have now grown to love the temple so much that it has a very special place in my heart. I will be going once a week when I get home for sure! How lucky are we to have a temple 10 minutes away- soon to be two temples! So spoiled- yay! :)

So other things that went on this week, well lessons of course, we taught lessons but man this was the week of WEIRD lessons! Thought y’all might get a kick out of these so here ya go. First was the shadow man who I talked about last week. We went back to teach him and I was determined to find out if he was “all there”. I was either going to get a baptisimal committ out of him, or drop him. Sister Dodge is a whole lot softer than me and so she was just gonna let him slide for awhile. Well we go over there and he had not read in the BOM so we read 3 Nephi 11 with him, stoping after each verse to exlpain in very simple terms what happened. Then I asked him if he could give me a summary of the chapter or tell me a little bit about what we had read to him. He just stared at me and said “I dunno”, so I was like ok well, “If you came to know that this Book was true and that this is Jesus Christ’s church will you be baptized into it?” He said well, um I have already been baptized, so um maybe, well actually no. So that was all I needed. We had a closing prayer we gave him the address to the church told him he was welceom any time and gave him our phone number he can call us if he wants us to come back, then said goodbye to him and his shadow and got out of there! Investigator dropped. Lol so ya that was a weird lesson. Next was a guy we EBP’d he was sitting in a plumbing van out side our apartment complex with his window rolled down so we went up to his window and started talking to him. We asked him if we could share more and he said yes. And so we were like, right now? He said sure, he had a few minutes. So we prayed with him as he sat in his van and we stood huddled by the window. Then I started in on the restoration, I asked him if we familiar with prophets like Moses or Noah or Abraham. He siad no, he didn’t believe in them. I asked if he believed in the Bible. Nope. God. Nope. Jesus Christ. Nope. Well what do you believe I asked? I guess I believe that we all came to this earth to die and that’s it. Ok then, so I jump quick into a plan of salvation lesson instead and then his plumbing partner gets into the other side of the van and I can tell they are needing to go. So we wrap up, say a closing prayer, and then find out if he is interested in learning more. He says he is, we get his address, he is in the Elders area- we gave them the refferal, investigator given away. So ya good times there, but if you want to talk about akward prayer situations, here is my last weird lesson story. So we met this guy Clay about 3 weeks ago. We were knockign doors and he was walking his dog down the next street, we seem him and start walking after him to EBP him. Well he is walking too fast so then we have to start to run and shout “hello sir?” Ha ha so he stops and we introduce ourselves and he is interested in talking some more but wants us to walk with him cause his dog needs to walk. Well we walked with him for like 20 minutes and talked and set up a return appointment. Well this week we were finally able to catch him for a return a ppoinment. So we were thinking this guy was pretty legit from the conversation we had when we EBP’d him so we made sure we got a member to come with us for this lesson. We get there with the member and he was like, let’s go for a walk. I was like um, ok. We of course would have rather gone in sat down had a nice formal lesson in his living room, but he wasn’t having it, so a walking lesson it was. So in order for it to count as a lesson we must pray to open and close it. SO as we are walking I am like, well can we hava a prayer with you? He says yes, so as we are walking I fold my arms and pray, I realized right off that I can not walk with my eyes closed, I was walking all crooked and bumping into the member and then my comp, so I pryaed walking with my eyes open. Ha ha I bet we were a funny sight to see!! So we ended up walking for about an hour all the while he is asking questions and we are answering, our member did aweosme and pretty much took the conversation away which we were totally cool with! Well then towards the end of this conversation I am getting the feelign he is not as legit as we thought so I ask him. What are your thoughts asnd feelings on all of this and the Mormon religion in general? He says “I am really indifferent.” Ha ha so ya he doesn’t really care yet we spent an hour walking the neighborhood with him and having akward prayers- sweet! Well both Sister Dodge and I shot eachother the, drop him look, but then our member (who just got back from his mission 5 months ago) says, well these sisters would love to come back and teach you again, when could they do that? So our memebr set up a return appointmenet for us! Ha ha Ya so he is a new investigator by defintion but we are too sure about him. Lol SO ya that is my crazy lessons stories for this week. There were more, but those are the highlights.

Well another thing that happened this week was Easter. We were kind of worried that it would be a rough day for the work, but with a lot of Faith and a bit of good planning it turned out pretty well. We went out knocking in the morning before church. Most people had just come home from church and were not interested in hearing anymore about Jesus, they ahd already had their religion for the day. Ha ha So ya there was that but then we found people who didn’t like us there at all- one guy screamed at us “Get the F@#* off my property and go to HE(double hockey sticks)” so ya that was fun. But there were two people we were able to have lessons with. One a 92 year old woman who was hard of hearing and another a guy who likes hearing about different religions and is going to start up his own church some day. But still those two lessons were tender mercies cause they gave us the strength to keep going with smiles on our faces. Then after church we had dinner with a member family (weirdest Easter Dinner food ever) and then went out knocking some more. We then went to visit some less actives and that was very succesful! So all in all it was a good day!! I was able to think of my Savior throughout the day and really enjoyed our sacramnet program- this ward has an amazing choir!!!

Today we are going to have an awesome p-day! I am excited! We are going down to the Alamo and then to the Mercado. The Mercado is the place where TSAMers buy the infamous “TSAM” ring! I will send pics once I get mine. So ya should be fun!! We are so lucky to get to go down there because it is in downtown San Antonio and we only get to go down there if that area is in our zone- which because a new zone was created last transfer and what not- that is now part of east zone so we get to go! Yay!! :)

Well y’all have an awesome week and if you could pray for us to find some new investigators who are truly legit I’d appreciate it!!

SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler

Windcrest Pics

So first off we've got me and Sister Dodge in front of Canyon Lake! So gorgeous, we went there for P-day last week and it was so fun!!!

Next also while at P-day at Canyon lake, one of the elders brought stuff to set up a slack line and we tried our hands at tightrope walking, in the pic you can see I was actually doing it for a second, but the elders (my shoulders to lean on) were close by for when I fell! Fun stuff!! :)

So I tried to perfect my expert tree climbing skills while at canyon lake, ha ha I guess they needed more work cause a few minutes after this pic was taken I fell out of the tree! Ha ha my bad- it hurt too! I landed right on my butt in front of the elders! lol :)

Next is a shot of some of the missionaries and our recent convert, Cody (who drove us there) walking around the island that is attached to Canyon Lake. Look, Texas is Beautiful!!!! :)

Windcrest Whimsy

Hey Y'all!!

So first off- this was a spiritually jam packed week for me! Woah!!! We had zone conference on Tuesday which was AMAZING and then General Conference this weekend which was SPECTACULAR!! So ya it has been a good week in that respect.  As far as my investigators and the work well, it hasn't been the best week in that respect.  We got burned on some appointments, Vonya couldn't come to conference cause she was car shopping, we only found one new investigator and he is a crazy guy, and ya so we will just have to keep on trying.  But this week really for me was all about the conferences!!

First off zone conference was all about the atonement.  Since Easter is coming up and what not President wanted us to really focus on the infinite atonement.  And geez we sure did- it was so powerful!! Then general conference, well we had planned to watch it at a member's home but it wasn't on the cable channel it said it was and so sister Dodge and I quickly persuaded the member to put a skirt on and take us to the church to watch it- we didn't want to miss a second of it!! We missed the very first talk on Saturday morning but that's it- the rest we got! I loved it SO much!  I was praying all week to be able to receive some answers to some things I have been struggling with, mostly my lack of desire and motivation. I have been in this roller coaster of up and down moments out here on the mish and lately I have just lost the desire to get out there and get it done, I guess to put it in one word I have gotten -Lazy.  So I prayed for some help on how to get over that, well I got it and not in the way I was expecting.  The very last session- Elder Oaks talk on service, man that hit me hard.  He talked about stop being selfish and lose yourself and get to work.  It was like a smack upside the head from a prophet saying, come on Sister Kleisler you can do better! And so it hit me hard and I am so grateful for it.  I am so stubborn that it took an apostle of the Lord to snap me out of it, no counsel from my companion, or District Leader or even President Cutler could have hit me with so much force! So I am eternally grateful for the blessing that I have received to be able to hear the voice of a living apostle and not only receive my answer but recognize it! Ya so conference equals amazing end of story!

So other than conference not much else went on this week except for learning more about the area and what not.  We have discovered that our area has um. some interesting characteristics.  Lol Like well for those of you who know the TV show Veronica Mars, we have an '09er part and then the ghetto part.  It really is an '09er thing- their zip is 78209 and they pay for it, to live in that area it is Super Expensive, well except for the not quite as swanky part in which we live. Lol But ya the people who live in Terrell Hills and Especially Alamo Heights are the "elitists" of San Antonio, or so they think! Well ya I am not a huge fan of knocking in the rich areas so I suggested we find the ghetto of our area.  Ha ha ya that was not a good idea! We found a bunch of crazy people!! We taught a lesson to a guy who became a new investigator but as we were setting up a next appointment he was like, oh come back anytime, me and shadow are always here! And sister Dodge was like, oh is that your dog and he was like, no my shadow and then pointed to the ground at his shadow- yup crazy guy!! Then we ended up teaching a lesson to these to girls we ebp'd and we went to teach them in their house only to find out that it was a homeless shelter! Ha ha our bad! So ya the ghetto- no good! So then we decided to try our hands at knocking doors in Terrell Hills. Ha ha yup we got the cops called on us!! Some snooty rich lady saw us going door to door in 09er territory and called the cops.  They came out and found us knocking doors up and down the street.  I could tell he was there for us so I walked up to him and all sweet like said, hi how ya doing?" He was like, good, what are ya up to? I was like oh, we are talking about Jesus! And then produced a small spiel- we are missionaries from the church... blah blah.  He was like oh ok I got a call that someone was going door to door and this whole city is a no soliciting city.  I was like oh but we are just talking about Jesus, can we stay? He was like, yup your not selling anything.  So he took down our names and stuff (apparently procedure) and then sent us on our merry way to keep knocking! Ha ha :) So ya fun stuff going on in our area!

So all is well in San Antonio! I hope all is well with everyone, please write me, some of you I have not heard from in forever!!

SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler