Hey Y'all!!!
So let me tell you I have learned a lot this week!! The other day I could tell something was just eating at my companion and she was not being herself. I told her to tell me what was bugging her. She was real hesitant and I told her- SISTER TELL ME!! I don't get offended easily and if there is something I can do better, than just let me know! So finally she told me that I had been being pretty negative lately and it was having an effect on me and the work and other missionaries. So we talked about it and realized that I had unconsciously gotten pretty negative over the past 2 weeks or so. It had been hard to have no success and just feel like we were getting no where and I let that bring me down. I was still working and everything but I had kind of lost hope I guess you could say. SO once my comp mentioned that to me I got right to changing that frown upside down!! It has been amazing ever since! I can't say that we have had more success or that our numbers are better- they are actually even worse than last week, ha ha- but when I take it all with a positive attitude and with hope and Faith it is amazing what a difference it makes!! SO ya I learned that lesson this week with the help of the Lord. I tell ya the mission is where you really figure out yourself. I have grown and changed so much since last March when this all began!! I am so grateful to the Lord that he has given me this incredible opportunity!!!
So some things that happened this week. We got a car- yay!! We don't have to share with the Elders anymore! Which is so awesome, it also means we only have to ride our bikes when we want to. This way we can put our bikes on the bike rack, drive our car across the scary freeway that we should NOT be riding our bikes on, and park then get on our bikes in the neighborhoods. Makes much more sense! so YAY for our little 2007 Silver Toyota Corolla, we love it! Ok so also I had my first ever investigator at church!! Woot woot! It was Minerva- she is the one that has backed out of two baptismal dates and we dropped her about 2 weeks ago because she hasn't been progressing and she hasn't even been coming to our ward- she would go to a ward up in Austin that is all Spanish Speaking. SO ya she turns up at church yesterday- sweet sauce! SO we go talk to her and she is all- so when are you going to come teach me again(she loves having us teach her) so I answered her (In Spanish mind you) Well when are you going to be baptized? (How is that fro being bold- ha ha) So she was like well, why don't you come over this week and we will plan it! Hna Moran was like we already planned it 2 times, it's all planned! Ha ha but ya we will see her this week and see where it goes. I am not sure if anything has changed yet and if she is going to be baptized- but I will have hope!! :) So other cool things from this week- we made cookies!! My comp and I made a TON of sugar cookies and decorated them and everything and we have been taking them to less actives and stuff! It has been a lot of fun to bring holiday cheer to people!!
Things are going well here in San Marcos and I am learning all about how to have FAITH and HOPE!! Seriously along with the toughness I have to have hope! Ha ha funny concept- well I am glad I at least got it figured out!
Until next week- much love!!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
Monday, December 15, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Some more pictures from Hermana Kleisler!
Two Amazing Hermanas!
Getting ready for Christmas!
She was so excited to see a real-live armadillo!
Hermana Kleisler!
Hermana Kleisler and her trainer, Hermana Moran
Getting ready for Christmas!
She was so excited to see a real-live armadillo!
Hermana Kleisler!
Hermana Kleisler and her trainer, Hermana Moran
Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming
Hey Y'all!!!
I'd love to tell ya that this past week has been amazing and things have totally turned around, but truth is they haven't. I still haven't got my 2nd lesson yet. We had 5 total lessons taught for the entire week! That is some kind of bad! BUT on the up side we are still going! Man it seems that nothing can bring us down and I am realizing that I am tougher than I thought I was!!! So this week we had interviews with President Cutler. My first real interview with President- it was AWESOME!! That man is amazing! I was able to just talk to him- tell him everything that was on my mind and he listened and poured out great advice and constantly told me of his love for me. President Cutler is on the top of my list of some of the most awesomest (not a word I know) people in the world. So anyway during our interview we talked about the work here, he knows how bad our numbers are and everything and then also I told him about how we got pulled over by the cops the other night! Yup that's right, we got pulled over while riding our bikes!! I told President about how it really isn't safe for us to be riding our bikes all the time because we have to cross some major highways and to get to parts of our area we have to ride on the access roads and stuff. So ya he wasn't really aware of that situation. Sister Moran also told him of her concerns about the bikes. So then later this week I found out that this coming transfer President has to close a sister area and because we just told him how dangerous our area is for us, because we aren't having any success and also because a lot of the times they like to transfer greenies if they don't have a baptism in their first transfer. So ya Sister Moran and I have been worrying that we are going to be doubled out (both be transferred) and President will put Elders in our area. But then we had an ET (Emergency Transfer) go down here this week so we lost poor Elder Sloan and got an Elder who had to leave his area for some reason or another. SO anyway our new Elder had an interview with Pres yesterday and told him how we were worried that we were going to be doubled out and President told him that he was thinking that our area is kinda dangerous the way it is so they are prolly going to give us our own car and we will both stay here. SO ya that's what's going on here in San Marcos! lol So I don't really know what is going to happen cause everything I hear is just that- hear say! lol We will find out for sure in two weeks.
SO other things going on here. We had exchanges this week- my very first exchanges!!! SO cool! It was a lot of fun- Sister Cuenallo came down from Canyon Lake and spent the day with me riding bikes around San Marcos. She hated the bikes lol, which cracks me up cause I love them!!! We also coached the YW in b-ball this week, it was our first practice and it was A LOT of fun!!! The girls are awesome and the whole thing is just a really neat experience for us and them! So ya also we had enrichment night this week and that was cool, it has been neat getting to know the ward better.
So ya yesterday was Fast Sunday and I fasted for help in knowing how we could best go about the work here in San Marcos. Well we have an answer, we are really going to focus on the members. Knocking and talking to everyone just isn't working right now, so we are goign to turn our focus to the members. We are going to spend most of our days visiting members and Less Actives and encouraging all to do missionary work. I have faith that this will produce results. If we do end up staying here next transfer and getting a car that will greatly help this effort because a lot of our members live in the elders area and are too far to bike to. So ya, I have hope for San Marcos and I think with this new way we can get some work done here!!! :) I am excited for the up coming week as we dig into our new strategy!!
This truly is the Lord's work and we can't do anything without him. I hope y'all have a fabulous week!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE,
Hermana Kleisler
PS- Thanks Aunt Elaine for the package- I LOVED IT oh and also for the record, the junk food ban has totally been lifted! lol I have been eating junk left and right!!! :) Gotta have my comfort food!
I'd love to tell ya that this past week has been amazing and things have totally turned around, but truth is they haven't. I still haven't got my 2nd lesson yet. We had 5 total lessons taught for the entire week! That is some kind of bad! BUT on the up side we are still going! Man it seems that nothing can bring us down and I am realizing that I am tougher than I thought I was!!! So this week we had interviews with President Cutler. My first real interview with President- it was AWESOME!! That man is amazing! I was able to just talk to him- tell him everything that was on my mind and he listened and poured out great advice and constantly told me of his love for me. President Cutler is on the top of my list of some of the most awesomest (not a word I know) people in the world. So anyway during our interview we talked about the work here, he knows how bad our numbers are and everything and then also I told him about how we got pulled over by the cops the other night! Yup that's right, we got pulled over while riding our bikes!! I told President about how it really isn't safe for us to be riding our bikes all the time because we have to cross some major highways and to get to parts of our area we have to ride on the access roads and stuff. So ya he wasn't really aware of that situation. Sister Moran also told him of her concerns about the bikes. So then later this week I found out that this coming transfer President has to close a sister area and because we just told him how dangerous our area is for us, because we aren't having any success and also because a lot of the times they like to transfer greenies if they don't have a baptism in their first transfer. So ya Sister Moran and I have been worrying that we are going to be doubled out (both be transferred) and President will put Elders in our area. But then we had an ET (Emergency Transfer) go down here this week so we lost poor Elder Sloan and got an Elder who had to leave his area for some reason or another. SO anyway our new Elder had an interview with Pres yesterday and told him how we were worried that we were going to be doubled out and President told him that he was thinking that our area is kinda dangerous the way it is so they are prolly going to give us our own car and we will both stay here. SO ya that's what's going on here in San Marcos! lol So I don't really know what is going to happen cause everything I hear is just that- hear say! lol We will find out for sure in two weeks.
SO other things going on here. We had exchanges this week- my very first exchanges!!! SO cool! It was a lot of fun- Sister Cuenallo came down from Canyon Lake and spent the day with me riding bikes around San Marcos. She hated the bikes lol, which cracks me up cause I love them!!! We also coached the YW in b-ball this week, it was our first practice and it was A LOT of fun!!! The girls are awesome and the whole thing is just a really neat experience for us and them! So ya also we had enrichment night this week and that was cool, it has been neat getting to know the ward better.
So ya yesterday was Fast Sunday and I fasted for help in knowing how we could best go about the work here in San Marcos. Well we have an answer, we are really going to focus on the members. Knocking and talking to everyone just isn't working right now, so we are goign to turn our focus to the members. We are going to spend most of our days visiting members and Less Actives and encouraging all to do missionary work. I have faith that this will produce results. If we do end up staying here next transfer and getting a car that will greatly help this effort because a lot of our members live in the elders area and are too far to bike to. So ya, I have hope for San Marcos and I think with this new way we can get some work done here!!! :) I am excited for the up coming week as we dig into our new strategy!!
This truly is the Lord's work and we can't do anything without him. I hope y'all have a fabulous week!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE,
Hermana Kleisler
PS- Thanks Aunt Elaine for the package- I LOVED IT oh and also for the record, the junk food ban has totally been lifted! lol I have been eating junk left and right!!! :) Gotta have my comfort food!
Monday, December 1, 2008
The Hunt for The Elusive Second Lesson
Hey Y'all!
I am so glad to hear all is well with everyone and y'all had good Thanksgivings! Things are well in San Marcos- it sure is a good thing I have that "Smiling All The While" Motto cause things continue to be rough! No one will let us back for second lessons! Or if they do it is cause they could really care less and they are not keeping commitments and are not progressing. We keep dropping investigators because no one is progressing. I'll tell ya the day we have an investigator show up to church I will prolly jump out of my seat and jump for joy! Ha ha seriously though! My trainer and I were talking the other day and I was like, is it just me or does it really stink right now? She said not to worry it's not just me- she said this is the hardest she has ever had it on her mission. Yup my first three weeks in the field are the hardest that my comp has had in her 16 months! ha ha Hopefully there is no correlation lol! But hey no negative stuff- I am always honest with y'all, you know me I say it like it is, so this is what it is. We currently don't have any progressing investigators. But we are working and staying positive!!! We found some people this past week that have potential, there is Jobita- we found her while we were riding our bikes to an appointment. She speaks Spanish and so we get to teach her in Spanish (always fun for me ha ha, every time we walk out of a Spanish appointment I am like- man I need to work on my Spanish!!!) lol so anyway we taught her the first lesson, but she has not come to church yet- we have another appointment this week with her. We also taught Fransisco, another Spanish lesson, he was a media referral, ordered Joy to The World- he's Catholic. They always like to say ya, but I am catholic so I'm good to go. Then I am all like, well my dad was catholic! ha ha but now he's a Mormon! You can be like him! lol okay so I didn't really say that, but I thought it! Ok so we are gonna see him again next week but I don't think he is really all that interested. We are also teaching George. We ran into him while we were riding our bikes (This is one of the reasons I love bikes- I think I will be sad when I am out of the bike area) and we taught him in his front yard, then went back and taught him with a member present. Then last night taught him again with a member present, but his kids were really being obnoxious so he didn't get too much out of it so we just reviewed the restoration again. Tomorrow we are going back while the kids are in school and we will hopefully teach him the SECOND LESSON!! Ha ha ya I have never taught a second lesson yet- lol funny!! People either just don't show up for their appointments or decide they aren't interested. SO anyway we have some prospects and we are working hard and I KNOW the Lord will make something happen, if anything else we are out planting a lot of seeds right now. I am thinking that I am getting a lot of work as a farmer right now- with a little bit more hope and Faith hopefully soon I will be a harvester!! :) Until then I will keep on Keeping on and putting all of my faith in my Heavenly Father.
Ok so my Thanksgiving was awesome! Of course I missed the family- I missed my mommy most of all- I always do. But we had a great time with the Wildes. They are this great young married couple, he is a tv news reporter and she is a ballet teacher and she is studying for the LSAT so she can apply to law school. They are both return missionaries, he served in Houston Texas and she served in Honalulu Hawaii. They had us over around noon and we were there all day! I kinda wanted to go out and work- I knew no one would listen to us if we went knocking but I figured we could ride our bikes around our neighborhood and talk to people who were outside. But that is just my greenie spirit- I always want to work, I would prolly run my trainer into the ground if she would let me! lol OK so anyway we had a great turkey dinner and then watched legacy and played phase ten and helped them set up their Christmas tree and looked at sis Wilde's mission scrapbook. It was a lot of fun. They are having us over for Christmas and New Year's Eve as well. Oh ya and I forgot in the morning we went over to Texas State and played in a little Turkey Bowl with the Student Branch. Fun fun, flag football- but once again I didn't want to go- it was during our study time so I wanted to study! Ha ha look at me, the work-aholic, study bug, obedient kid- the mission really has CHANGED me! lol :)
Ok so now I will tell you about my favorite part of this past week! We got to do service!! No one ever lets us do service!! They always have the Elders help them but never want the sisters to do anything. SO anyway we came up with our own service! Of course I was so excited to concoct a secret service project!!!! We went and bought rakes at Wal-mart (we would have borrowed them from ward members but all the members who live near us are in apartments) and we went out hunting for members and less actives yards to clean! It was so much fun! We went to this old lady in our ward's house and her yard needed to be mowed and we knew she was out of town- so we went into her shed and got out her lawn mower and I mowed her lawn and then we raked leaves and everything! We left her a little note and she called us last night when she got into town and she was so HAPPY!! She was so grateful for our service! Man I loved that!!!! So ya if you are every feeling down go out and serve somebody!!! It is the best feeling ever!! I love service!! :)
Ok well I had better wrap this up! I want y'all to know that I LOVE Texas!! I am coming home a full blood Texan for sure!! This place is awesome! I know that I have been sent here for a reason and that even though right now times are REALLY tough, the Lord has a plan for me. I am so grateful for this trial that I am currently going through. It has helped me to become a stronger person and to take rejections and also to stay positive no matter what. Most of all I am learning to rely on my Savior!!! Oh man am I ever! It is amazing what a blessing it is to have trials in your life. I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to learn and grow. :)
Love ya,
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
I am so glad to hear all is well with everyone and y'all had good Thanksgivings! Things are well in San Marcos- it sure is a good thing I have that "Smiling All The While" Motto cause things continue to be rough! No one will let us back for second lessons! Or if they do it is cause they could really care less and they are not keeping commitments and are not progressing. We keep dropping investigators because no one is progressing. I'll tell ya the day we have an investigator show up to church I will prolly jump out of my seat and jump for joy! Ha ha seriously though! My trainer and I were talking the other day and I was like, is it just me or does it really stink right now? She said not to worry it's not just me- she said this is the hardest she has ever had it on her mission. Yup my first three weeks in the field are the hardest that my comp has had in her 16 months! ha ha Hopefully there is no correlation lol! But hey no negative stuff- I am always honest with y'all, you know me I say it like it is, so this is what it is. We currently don't have any progressing investigators. But we are working and staying positive!!! We found some people this past week that have potential, there is Jobita- we found her while we were riding our bikes to an appointment. She speaks Spanish and so we get to teach her in Spanish (always fun for me ha ha, every time we walk out of a Spanish appointment I am like- man I need to work on my Spanish!!!) lol so anyway we taught her the first lesson, but she has not come to church yet- we have another appointment this week with her. We also taught Fransisco, another Spanish lesson, he was a media referral, ordered Joy to The World- he's Catholic. They always like to say ya, but I am catholic so I'm good to go. Then I am all like, well my dad was catholic! ha ha but now he's a Mormon! You can be like him! lol okay so I didn't really say that, but I thought it! Ok so we are gonna see him again next week but I don't think he is really all that interested. We are also teaching George. We ran into him while we were riding our bikes (This is one of the reasons I love bikes- I think I will be sad when I am out of the bike area) and we taught him in his front yard, then went back and taught him with a member present. Then last night taught him again with a member present, but his kids were really being obnoxious so he didn't get too much out of it so we just reviewed the restoration again. Tomorrow we are going back while the kids are in school and we will hopefully teach him the SECOND LESSON!! Ha ha ya I have never taught a second lesson yet- lol funny!! People either just don't show up for their appointments or decide they aren't interested. SO anyway we have some prospects and we are working hard and I KNOW the Lord will make something happen, if anything else we are out planting a lot of seeds right now. I am thinking that I am getting a lot of work as a farmer right now- with a little bit more hope and Faith hopefully soon I will be a harvester!! :) Until then I will keep on Keeping on and putting all of my faith in my Heavenly Father.
Ok so my Thanksgiving was awesome! Of course I missed the family- I missed my mommy most of all- I always do. But we had a great time with the Wildes. They are this great young married couple, he is a tv news reporter and she is a ballet teacher and she is studying for the LSAT so she can apply to law school. They are both return missionaries, he served in Houston Texas and she served in Honalulu Hawaii. They had us over around noon and we were there all day! I kinda wanted to go out and work- I knew no one would listen to us if we went knocking but I figured we could ride our bikes around our neighborhood and talk to people who were outside. But that is just my greenie spirit- I always want to work, I would prolly run my trainer into the ground if she would let me! lol OK so anyway we had a great turkey dinner and then watched legacy and played phase ten and helped them set up their Christmas tree and looked at sis Wilde's mission scrapbook. It was a lot of fun. They are having us over for Christmas and New Year's Eve as well. Oh ya and I forgot in the morning we went over to Texas State and played in a little Turkey Bowl with the Student Branch. Fun fun, flag football- but once again I didn't want to go- it was during our study time so I wanted to study! Ha ha look at me, the work-aholic, study bug, obedient kid- the mission really has CHANGED me! lol :)
Ok so now I will tell you about my favorite part of this past week! We got to do service!! No one ever lets us do service!! They always have the Elders help them but never want the sisters to do anything. SO anyway we came up with our own service! Of course I was so excited to concoct a secret service project!!!! We went and bought rakes at Wal-mart (we would have borrowed them from ward members but all the members who live near us are in apartments) and we went out hunting for members and less actives yards to clean! It was so much fun! We went to this old lady in our ward's house and her yard needed to be mowed and we knew she was out of town- so we went into her shed and got out her lawn mower and I mowed her lawn and then we raked leaves and everything! We left her a little note and she called us last night when she got into town and she was so HAPPY!! She was so grateful for our service! Man I loved that!!!! So ya if you are every feeling down go out and serve somebody!!! It is the best feeling ever!! I love service!! :)
Ok well I had better wrap this up! I want y'all to know that I LOVE Texas!! I am coming home a full blood Texan for sure!! This place is awesome! I know that I have been sent here for a reason and that even though right now times are REALLY tough, the Lord has a plan for me. I am so grateful for this trial that I am currently going through. It has helped me to become a stronger person and to take rejections and also to stay positive no matter what. Most of all I am learning to rely on my Savior!!! Oh man am I ever! It is amazing what a blessing it is to have trials in your life. I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to learn and grow. :)
Love ya,
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler
Hermana Kleisler Pics
Here are some of the pictures that Hermana Kleisler sent me from Texas.
Hermana Kleisler with Elder Leonard, who was in her first group at the MTC
Hermana Kleisler, her companion Hermana Moran, and their District Leader Elder Squire on p-day
Still a Suns fan!!
Hermana Kleisler on a bike!!! Hee Hee! Just had to post this one!!
Hermana Kleisler with Elder Leonard, who was in her first group at the MTC
Hermana Kleisler, her companion Hermana Moran, and their District Leader Elder Squire on p-day
Still a Suns fan!!
Hermana Kleisler on a bike!!! Hee Hee! Just had to post this one!!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Green Things Grow
Hey Y'all!
A "super" friend of mine used to always tell me "Green things grow" and what do you know, he was for sure right!!! I have been doing a lot of growing this past week!! I don't even know where to start with everything. First I will start off with our numbers from this week- I won't give you the actual numbers, most of you prolly won't even know what they mean. lol But I will tell you that they were LOW, really low, lots of zeros and stuff. So basically that means we haven;t baptized anyone or even got baptismal dates or actually investigators for that matter. Our missionary "work" is a slow go right now. We actually got a little lecture from our district leader who got chewed out from our zone leader about the numbers. Our whole district had bad numbers. The fact of the matter is, we are working HARD, but people just don't want to listen. That's ok though because we will just have to work harder and then we will really get San Marcos booming!!
Throughout this really rough week I have grown a lot! The Lord has taken this opportunity to teach me so much and to really rely on him. We currently have 0 investigators. We had Minerva, but she just wasn't progressing and wouldn't commit to a baptismal date, so she is dropped. We do have a guy named Brian who ordered a bible from one of the church's commercials and he is going through a lot of tough stuff in his life right now and he is really looking for answers. We went over and taught him last night, we brought a member couple with us- the Whitesides, they are AWESOME!!!! They help us out so much, feeding us, giving us ride, coming to teaching appointments and many more things. So anyway the four of us went over and taught Brian yesterday and it went really well. We are teaching him tomorrow and he tells us he is really looking forward to church on Sunday, he is going to sit with the Whitesides, he likes Brother Whitesides because they both have their birthdays on Halloween. Ha ha ya but anyway Brian is our one glimmer of hope right now. We have a few more potentials, but no one golden. I am not worried though, we will just have to dig in and push harder. I am getting my comp going for sure, ha ha all of my greenie spirit doesn't let us sit in one place for too long- I like to get out there and work!!!
So the ward here in San Marcos is pretty much awesome! We have a wide variety of people that is for sure!! I already have a few "favorites" I guess you could say. People that I go to when we need something, there are several members who are really there for us missionaries, which is awesome!! So yesterday in our ward council meeting (missionaries sit in on all of those ward welfare and PEC and the like every Sunday before church) the YW President said that their YW were going to start up a basketball team for the stake YW B-Ball tournament in February. They want to start practicing right away, but they need a coach. Right away I was like...light bulb... I could be their coach. So I suggested it and they thought that was a great idea. We got the idea approved through the zone leaders and everything. So now for a half hour every Wednesday night my comp and I are going to go down to the church and coach the YW. I am so excited!! It is a great way for us to do service. We are always looking for service opportunities but no one ever has anything for us to do- they always ask the Elders instead. SO anyway this can be a service project for us and also a great way for us to develop relationships with the young women and build relationships of trust with the ward. Also we will encourage the girls to bring non-member friends and hopefully that can lead somewhere. So ya that is the fun and exciting things happening in the San Marcos ward. Oh and also Bishop had some fun with me on Sunday. Let me explain. Our ward has English and Spanish, but mostly English, so they have someone translate during sacrament meeting and the Spanish speakers wear the headphones and listen. Well every 2nd and 4th Sunday they have a seperate Spanish Sacrament meeting. They hold it at the same time as the English one, it's in the relief society room and there are usual about 20 people who attend. So yesterday was a Spanish Sacrament meeting and my comp and I went to it and the Elders went to the English one. They never come to the Spanish one- I guess cause mostly only are half of the ward are the Spanish speakers. SO anyway after the two speakers spoke the Bishop got up (he speaks Spanish but he is a total Gringo) and he said (in Spanish) "We have a new sister missionary in the ward and I would like to have her come up and bear her testimony to you and tell you some of her thoughts and feelings on Missionary Work." Luckily I understood him- that would have been really embarrassing if I had just sat there staring of into space. Ya so I walked up there and bore my testimony and talked a little about missionary work- all in Spanish and then sat down. Ha ha well I guess I have been broken into the ward now. lol
SO who wants to hear about the funny things that have happened this week? I am sure y'all do!! Ha ha ok so here is my very first big "Greenie Mistake"- Thursday night I was tired and we were getting ready for bed. Sister Moran was in the shower and I was in charge of taking District Call (the DL calls every night to see how our day went, see if we are ok and all that jazz) well we have been switching off taking DL call every night and I was used to it, but since we had just seen the Elders not even two hours before bed I was not surprised when Elder Squire did not call. I figured it was no big deal and I went ahead and turned off the cell phone, put it on the charger and went to bed. Well in the middle of the night sister Moran and I were jerked awake by the sound of pounding on our apartment door. We woke up and sister Moran said "I am going to answer it" I said "are you crazy?!?" we had no clue how late it was, we were in a deep sleep before we were rudely awakened and both thought it was like 3am. Well we sat there on our beds, not knowing what to do, and then heard pounding on our window! We were both a little freaked out. Then I heard the Elders voices, so I went and opened the door and there stood the Elders and Brother and Sister Whitesides. My comp and I grumpily looked at them and were like "what the heck do you want? We were SLEEPING!!!" Then Elder Squire says he got so worried when he tried to call us for District Call and it went to voice mail. They tried calling several times, then they called the Zone Leaders and then they called the Assistants to the President. The ap's told the Elders to find a member to give them a ride and come check on us, make sure we were home and safe. So at 11:30 at night the Whitesides went and picked up the Elders and came to check on us. Ya my bad- lol. So the next day was zone conference. We drove up to Austin and met with all the other missionaries in the Austin area (about 60 of us in total) and with President Cutler, his wife and the AP's. As the meeting started President got up to the pulpit and was giving announcments and then randomly out of nowhere stared straight at me and with a big smile on his face said and we all nkow that we never turn off our cell phones right? I smiled and sheepishly said "Yes President". I learned my lesson for sure- ha ha and Sister Moran says that she tole me that we never turn our phones off, but I honestly don't remember hearing that! lol maybe it was my selective hearing kicking in. Ha ha
Well I will leave you with one of the cool things I have learned as a greenie. We had a tough week, a really tough one and as I was thinking about it I was able to not get discouraged and know that the Lord would help me (the old Kristi would not have been able to do that- I would have broken down on the third day out here prolly) I am constantly amazed at how strong the Lord has helped me to be and how positive I can be- I know that I am only doing so well because the Lord is right there by my side. So this week as we were striking out constantly the Lord found little ways to throw me a bone and give me the little boost I needed. One of those ways was y'all's mail- that helped me so much!!! Thanks to Jennie, Max, Allison, Lindsey Frost, KT, Uncle Jeff and Cristina for your mail!!!!!!! I loved it so much!! Another bone that was thrown to me came while we were having dinner with a member family. We were teaching them about the Book of Mormon and I was bearing my testimony of it, and the neatest thing happened to me, I can't really even put it into words, but as I was teaching and bearing my testimony I had this overwhelmingly powerful feeling that made me almost want to cry. I was testify of these things and the spirit was so strongly reassuring me that they were true. I was blown away by the amazing feeling that I felt that I really do know these things to be true. Like I said, it's hard to explain, but it was so totally the Lord reaching out to me saying I love ya kid, keep working hard, you know what you stand for and you know why you are here.
Well I truly have learned so much this week and I am so grateful for the amazing opportunity to be a missionary. I also am grateful for the fact that my very first week was so hard. Now when I have success and things go really well I won't take it for granted and I will know that it came from God.
I love y'all so much and am truly grateful for your support!!!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE-
Hermana Kleisler
A "super" friend of mine used to always tell me "Green things grow" and what do you know, he was for sure right!!! I have been doing a lot of growing this past week!! I don't even know where to start with everything. First I will start off with our numbers from this week- I won't give you the actual numbers, most of you prolly won't even know what they mean. lol But I will tell you that they were LOW, really low, lots of zeros and stuff. So basically that means we haven;t baptized anyone or even got baptismal dates or actually investigators for that matter. Our missionary "work" is a slow go right now. We actually got a little lecture from our district leader who got chewed out from our zone leader about the numbers. Our whole district had bad numbers. The fact of the matter is, we are working HARD, but people just don't want to listen. That's ok though because we will just have to work harder and then we will really get San Marcos booming!!
Throughout this really rough week I have grown a lot! The Lord has taken this opportunity to teach me so much and to really rely on him. We currently have 0 investigators. We had Minerva, but she just wasn't progressing and wouldn't commit to a baptismal date, so she is dropped. We do have a guy named Brian who ordered a bible from one of the church's commercials and he is going through a lot of tough stuff in his life right now and he is really looking for answers. We went over and taught him last night, we brought a member couple with us- the Whitesides, they are AWESOME!!!! They help us out so much, feeding us, giving us ride, coming to teaching appointments and many more things. So anyway the four of us went over and taught Brian yesterday and it went really well. We are teaching him tomorrow and he tells us he is really looking forward to church on Sunday, he is going to sit with the Whitesides, he likes Brother Whitesides because they both have their birthdays on Halloween. Ha ha ya but anyway Brian is our one glimmer of hope right now. We have a few more potentials, but no one golden. I am not worried though, we will just have to dig in and push harder. I am getting my comp going for sure, ha ha all of my greenie spirit doesn't let us sit in one place for too long- I like to get out there and work!!!
So the ward here in San Marcos is pretty much awesome! We have a wide variety of people that is for sure!! I already have a few "favorites" I guess you could say. People that I go to when we need something, there are several members who are really there for us missionaries, which is awesome!! So yesterday in our ward council meeting (missionaries sit in on all of those ward welfare and PEC and the like every Sunday before church) the YW President said that their YW were going to start up a basketball team for the stake YW B-Ball tournament in February. They want to start practicing right away, but they need a coach. Right away I was like...light bulb... I could be their coach. So I suggested it and they thought that was a great idea. We got the idea approved through the zone leaders and everything. So now for a half hour every Wednesday night my comp and I are going to go down to the church and coach the YW. I am so excited!! It is a great way for us to do service. We are always looking for service opportunities but no one ever has anything for us to do- they always ask the Elders instead. SO anyway this can be a service project for us and also a great way for us to develop relationships with the young women and build relationships of trust with the ward. Also we will encourage the girls to bring non-member friends and hopefully that can lead somewhere. So ya that is the fun and exciting things happening in the San Marcos ward. Oh and also Bishop had some fun with me on Sunday. Let me explain. Our ward has English and Spanish, but mostly English, so they have someone translate during sacrament meeting and the Spanish speakers wear the headphones and listen. Well every 2nd and 4th Sunday they have a seperate Spanish Sacrament meeting. They hold it at the same time as the English one, it's in the relief society room and there are usual about 20 people who attend. So yesterday was a Spanish Sacrament meeting and my comp and I went to it and the Elders went to the English one. They never come to the Spanish one- I guess cause mostly only are half of the ward are the Spanish speakers. SO anyway after the two speakers spoke the Bishop got up (he speaks Spanish but he is a total Gringo) and he said (in Spanish) "We have a new sister missionary in the ward and I would like to have her come up and bear her testimony to you and tell you some of her thoughts and feelings on Missionary Work." Luckily I understood him- that would have been really embarrassing if I had just sat there staring of into space. Ya so I walked up there and bore my testimony and talked a little about missionary work- all in Spanish and then sat down. Ha ha well I guess I have been broken into the ward now. lol
SO who wants to hear about the funny things that have happened this week? I am sure y'all do!! Ha ha ok so here is my very first big "Greenie Mistake"- Thursday night I was tired and we were getting ready for bed. Sister Moran was in the shower and I was in charge of taking District Call (the DL calls every night to see how our day went, see if we are ok and all that jazz) well we have been switching off taking DL call every night and I was used to it, but since we had just seen the Elders not even two hours before bed I was not surprised when Elder Squire did not call. I figured it was no big deal and I went ahead and turned off the cell phone, put it on the charger and went to bed. Well in the middle of the night sister Moran and I were jerked awake by the sound of pounding on our apartment door. We woke up and sister Moran said "I am going to answer it" I said "are you crazy?!?" we had no clue how late it was, we were in a deep sleep before we were rudely awakened and both thought it was like 3am. Well we sat there on our beds, not knowing what to do, and then heard pounding on our window! We were both a little freaked out. Then I heard the Elders voices, so I went and opened the door and there stood the Elders and Brother and Sister Whitesides. My comp and I grumpily looked at them and were like "what the heck do you want? We were SLEEPING!!!" Then Elder Squire says he got so worried when he tried to call us for District Call and it went to voice mail. They tried calling several times, then they called the Zone Leaders and then they called the Assistants to the President. The ap's told the Elders to find a member to give them a ride and come check on us, make sure we were home and safe. So at 11:30 at night the Whitesides went and picked up the Elders and came to check on us. Ya my bad- lol. So the next day was zone conference. We drove up to Austin and met with all the other missionaries in the Austin area (about 60 of us in total) and with President Cutler, his wife and the AP's. As the meeting started President got up to the pulpit and was giving announcments and then randomly out of nowhere stared straight at me and with a big smile on his face said and we all nkow that we never turn off our cell phones right? I smiled and sheepishly said "Yes President". I learned my lesson for sure- ha ha and Sister Moran says that she tole me that we never turn our phones off, but I honestly don't remember hearing that! lol maybe it was my selective hearing kicking in. Ha ha
Well I will leave you with one of the cool things I have learned as a greenie. We had a tough week, a really tough one and as I was thinking about it I was able to not get discouraged and know that the Lord would help me (the old Kristi would not have been able to do that- I would have broken down on the third day out here prolly) I am constantly amazed at how strong the Lord has helped me to be and how positive I can be- I know that I am only doing so well because the Lord is right there by my side. So this week as we were striking out constantly the Lord found little ways to throw me a bone and give me the little boost I needed. One of those ways was y'all's mail- that helped me so much!!! Thanks to Jennie, Max, Allison, Lindsey Frost, KT, Uncle Jeff and Cristina for your mail!!!!!!! I loved it so much!! Another bone that was thrown to me came while we were having dinner with a member family. We were teaching them about the Book of Mormon and I was bearing my testimony of it, and the neatest thing happened to me, I can't really even put it into words, but as I was teaching and bearing my testimony I had this overwhelmingly powerful feeling that made me almost want to cry. I was testify of these things and the spirit was so strongly reassuring me that they were true. I was blown away by the amazing feeling that I felt that I really do know these things to be true. Like I said, it's hard to explain, but it was so totally the Lord reaching out to me saying I love ya kid, keep working hard, you know what you stand for and you know why you are here.
Well I truly have learned so much this week and I am so grateful for the amazing opportunity to be a missionary. I also am grateful for the fact that my very first week was so hard. Now when I have success and things go really well I won't take it for granted and I will know that it came from God.
I love y'all so much and am truly grateful for your support!!!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE-
Hermana Kleisler
Monday, November 17, 2008
Hermana Kleisler's MTC Pics!
Hermana Kleisler and her roommates. 3 of them went to San Antonio with her and 1 went to New Mexico.
Some of the missionaries in Hermana Kleisler's zone at the Provo Temple.
Hermana Kleisler's district on Halloween. All the hermanas dressed up with the elders' ties.
The same old Kristi!!
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