Banished to the Boonies!

Hey Y’all!

I hope all is well with everyone back home! So I guess you are all wondering where the heck I am? Well the answer is- THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE! Ha ha President banished me to the boonies!! I am serving in Pleasanton Texas- which prides it self on being the birthplace of the cowboy. It is the boondocks!!!!! I am in the country for sure, and our area is huge!! We are south of San Antonio, our area covers the very bottom of South San Antonio as well as like 7 other little cities below San Antonio. The church is in Pleasanton, which is where we live. We cover an area that is bigger than the entire city of San Antonio (that’s big!) We have a bunch of cities, I don’t know all of them, but some of them are: Floresville, Elmendorf, Poteet, Charlotte, Lytle, Jourdanton, Pleasanton, a small piece of San Antonio and a few other little cities. This area is the furthest south that our mission goes. But ya, it is huge and we are the only missionaries down here. In fact we are the only missionaries for MILES! The closest missionaries to us is our DL and he is 30 minutes away. When I said we were serving in the boonies- I meant it!! So ya it is a pretty big change to go from serving in the city to here!! Our ward here is pretty small, about 80 active I would guess. It is hard to get to know the ward members here cause they don’t feed the missionaries hardly ever! They have a legitimate excuse I guess, but still. Everyone lives so far away so they don’t sign up to feed us cause we would have to drive 30 miles one way just to get to their house for dinner! Then we would have to drive back too, so ya it’s crazy. But we are working on getting members to sign up to feed us and then we will go to whichever city they are in and work there all day-that way it is not a complete waste of miles. We for sure don’t have enough miles for how huge our area is!! We have 1,500 miles but we need so much more. I get to drive now, which I am VERY happy about!!! I drive a 2009 Chevy Colorado! We have to have a truck out here because well, this is the country and some of the roads are pretty bumpy! Ha ha Man I never pictured myself living in a place like this, but it’s funny what you will do when the Lord tells you to!
So ya that is my area- Pleasanton. Now about my companion- she is AWESOME!!!! Her name is Hermana Larrosa and she is from Paraguay. She has lived in Uruguay part of her life and Paraguay the rest. She has only been out two transfers and is fresh off her trainer so I am her second comp also known as her “step-mom”. She is learning English, she grew up speaking Spanish and they would teach her English grammar in school, but she never would have to speak it or anything. Kinda like how we learn a language in college but never use it! Lol So ya she speaks fluent Spanish which has been so fun for me!! I am going to really improve my Spanish now, serving with a native and all. Her English is really good for only having been in the United States for 3 months!!! She speaks very well, ha ha but sometimes has a hard time understanding me. But that is cause I speak SO fast and also I speak in Slang English! Lol I have been teaching her lots of words, he hee. :) But anyway Hermana Larrosa is a very hard worker but also like to have fun so we are getting along GREAT!! She loves it here in Pleasanton, but this is her first area so she really doesn’t know any better! Lol I do like it here, it’s just gonna take some getting used to. The hardest thing for me will be to live so far away from all the other missionaries and also most of the members. We aren’t around anyone that actually likes us and that can be kinda hard. So that just means I am gonna need extra love and support from all of you! SO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE WRITE ME SOME LETTERS AND SEND YOUR LOVE, I am going to need it now more than ever so please help me out and write me! I promise you will get a letter back! Ha ha I have nothing else to do here on P-day, we can’t go to zone activities cause it is too far and there is nothing to do in this po-dunk town. SO on P-day we email, do laundry, shop, write letters and sleep. That’s it! Lol So ya, write me and I will for sure write y’all back!! Also I should be able to get those packages off sometime this transfer to all those people I owe packages to! I have some time now. :)
Alright well I guess I will tell ya about our investigators here- um none. Ha ha Ok so ya this area was on fire- but they just baptized all their investigators! Lol They had 3 baptisms last month and now are teaching pool is empty. So yay back to finding again. I always seem to be in an area where I have to do all the nitty gritty work, the finding and the weeding out the elect from the non-elect. So we have a lot of work to do here and we will do it! It will be fun too!!! Here in Pleasanton it is so different from other areas I have served in. People here aren’t in a hurry so they will stop and listen to you. I have gotten 9 lessons just in the 4 days I have been here! That is cause people will let us teach them, but the problem is they are not willing to act on it. So ya lots of dropping people. My first full day here we dropped 3 of their investigators ha ha fun stuff. Sister Larrosa had never done a “drop talk” before, but man I am a pro at it I have done it so many times! Lol So I taught her all about that. SO ya there is only one way to go from here- UP!
I am excited to be serving here and I know that the Lord called me to the middle of nowhere for a reason. Sister Larrosa says that President sent me down here because he can really trust me and knows I will work hard. He only sends the kind of sisters he feels he can trust all the way down here where no one can check up on them. Lol I said njavascript:void(0)o President just sent me here so that he doesn’t have to worry about me! Lol Out of sight out of mind! Ha ha but no really Pleasanton is a great area to serve and it is going to be a fun experience for sure! I can now say I have truly been to Texas. This is the place people think of when you think of Texas. Cowboys, dirt roads, small towns. Fun fun!!! Yee-Haw!
Alright well next week I will have more to report cause we are gonna work our butts of this week and get us a ton of new investigators!! Yay! Well here is my address so y’all can write me!!!
Sister Kleisler
701 Oakhaven #402
Pleasanton, TX 78064

So please write soon- I can’t wait to hear from y’all!!!!!
MUCH LOVE COMING ALL THE WAY FROM THE COUNTRY-
Hermana Kleisler