The Baptism of Jewel and Christopher Barbier
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
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