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