December 29, 2014

Hey mom :) wow what great messages. I really love those. It was so good talking with you guys :) I loved it!!! it was really cool seeing Shay as well. I hope everyone felt loved too. ill tell you. I love all of you guys so much. Christmas was the best!

Mission prep sounds like its going good. How long have you guys been teaching that now? its crazy how different people bring different things as a teacher. I have been studying that lately.. like what are my talents.. and how can I get more sorta thing.. Elder Holt is really confident so in his teaching he is really bold. its really inspired me to be more bold.. I have worked on it a lot but sometimes I think I focus on the wrong things. Christ wasn't really friendly when Peter asked him not to go Jerusalem. get thee behind me Satan!! woooo its awesome.

We had a cool story this week where we were completely guided to a girl who was ready for the gospel.. so we are on bikes in this mission which is cool but it rains a lot haha but one morning we went to leave and my lock broke.. so I have had a bunch of things stolen here and didn't want to make the list bigger but the walk is about 45 min to where we street contact. Our plans for the day were just street contacting.. we had a total of about six hours.. it turned out being a pretty rough day. We found five potentials and none of they were incredibly solid but we worked the whole time :) on the way back we had a prompting to stop this Chinese girl who's name is Shirley. she had a pretty depressing day and instead of going home just walked around listening to music. when we talked to her we had a really cool moment sharing how much the savior loves her and how she can come to know it through prayer scriptures and church. she was really excited!! we have already taught her one time and she is scheduled for baptism on the 24th of Jan. if our lock didn't break we wouldn't have ever met her and just cycled past.

The Lord leads us by the hand!!! instead of being sad about a flat tire or broken lock - look at who the Lord wants you to serve!! ha God is good :)

that is a cool one :)

i love you!!

P.S. so I have two months of contacts left.. which I can stretch.. but I'm going to sport glasses for a while.. I'm seeing if it makes street contacting easier or something ha

I have hammered the american candy!! its so dang good!!

love you mom :) have a great day!

snow in england!!! i have crashed two times because of ice there last few days!! i stayed on my feet luckly ha

and the district!! we are missing the zone leaders there but ill have a good one for next week :)

we had a little white elephant in district meeting!!

city center was empty!! so we messed around :)

it was  fun!

we censord the lady in the university photo hahaha ah man what a laugh..

this is who we skyped with! they are legends!

i love elder higham so much!!!!!!!we were so cold that day haha your gloves saved me mom!! i only had one pair of thurmals on so i have been wearing two lately... so much better.

look at this mom!!!! elder higham and i got to go on exchange again :) we had such a good time!! we found for about six hours and almost lost our toes but we got to go to five guys!! ha elder highams dad sent him a gift card for it since there is only like two or three in this country. we got a regular fry and two burgers and it cost 20 £...... how nuts is that!!! a double chees burger is 8 pound!! the place was packed to!!

December 22, 2014

Yooooooooo!! Are you up mom? we gotta sort out our skype!! haha holy cow its here - Christmas is this week!! I'm stoked!

I moved to the one of the biggest areas in the mission ha its called Harborne. in Birmingham its way cool. my comp is halarious haha we are like the same person. We are already unified and we just laugh and work our guts out :) i'll probably leave my mission from here.. that is so weird.. but things are going great and I love it!

Good to hear with stant. how is he at keeping his weight down? I spent all morning this morning throwing up... my body hates me!! I avoid wheat but I think my body is just gettign sick of me.. so I'm going to try even harder.. no gravy no this no that.. i'll sort it out.

good to hear dad is on the up and up :) going sledding with his lungs though... wouldn't that make it worse? we shall see!

I love you mom!! sorry this is so early but we have a packed day! love you love you :)

Christmas day we are going to be with an American couple from Oregon to skype.. we are planning on eating at six and skyping at seven.. so seven is that two o clock your time? so let me know if that will work... ill be a dodge master and get on tomorrow for ten to finalize everything.. or maybe later today.. we will see :)

so skype from seven to eight o clock on Christmas day!!! so thats 12:00 your time.. is that ok? we have a bunch of activites set up with chinese people all morning so its going to be sweet!!!

I love you so much! I cant wait to see you :)

here is my new comp elder holt from orem..

we get along so well!!! the same sense of humor hahahaha I love him :) I miss elder palu though.... flip! my mission has been too good... I'm going to work my guts out!!

so funny story.. I told you I was throwing up all this morning... well I just figured out I left the flat without a tie hahaha mom I didnt put a tie on!!!! so I gotta wear a skarf all day long.. first time for everything ha..

Elder Palu and i made a comp song.. so i rapped about mission life.. they didnt put a beat to it so i have no idea what they have done with it but ill send it to you guys.. 

i love you!!

this is alex and wei wen. both recent converts.. they made us dinner!! there is so many people here street contacting is like me being in a candy store haha - my chasing people around days are over! they come to me now :)

look at how busy that is!!

this is where we GQ every day!! haha Elder holt is so funny.. i laugh all day.

December Bonus

Hi Laura

This is a Julie here from Merthyr Tydfil. I wanted to thank you for the way you have brought you son up. What a fantastic way he carries your name around here in Wales. People come and go in our lives but his memory and the effects he has had on my children will stay forever. 
I have 5 children. When you son came to our ward our middle son Redd was going through a few challenges. But the Lord's timing was right and Elder Wiser came at the right time and has put him on the straight and narrow path. Redd has been such a good boy and has wanted to 'because Elder Wiser is like that'. Thank you, Thank you. I think it is hard for missionaries as they want baptisms. But mission life is about saving people and that is done in many ways!  Your son hasn't baptised Redd but he has sure saved him.
You son has arranged to stay here for a few days after his mission. Would you like to go for a run in the hillsides when u come?  
Have a great day
Love from Julie 



Julie Jones
The Church of Jesus Christ
Of Latter-Day Saints 
Public Affairs Wales

We had a early Christmas Day for your son in case he left. Here are some photos 

Hey mom!! yeah the ocarina was pretty fun ha we practiced a few times but didn't have loads of time. That's why I had to read the music and I messed up a few times. cool though huh? we have been singing to a bunch of investogators. Elder Palu sings the first in Tongan and then I sing the second in English. I have been trying to get out of my comfort zone in as many ways as possible and I think that's a good way. ha

Sacrament meeting was so cool!! everyone was crying and feeling the spirit :) I love a good meeting. Sounds like you have them too. It is so nice to have a good ward huh? the sacrament is really cool as well. I have just been taking normal stuff my whole mission. its going to be great to just be perfect when I get home.. ill feel so much better.

That's cool with Stant :0 was it Evenston? I remember the colors red and blue for the first one. Im glad he did good though. I miss sports so bad... I want to box when I get home I think but I don't know for sure.   Man coach Eure is a legend. a great coach. who is the new guy again?

I want to stay in mother so bad!!!!! DANG!!! I hope I get to. but I doubt it.. its just weird that the next area I go to could be my last one ha werid huh? but ya I want to stay haha the ward is all asking for presidents number so they can call haha how funny is that :)

With the package.. so gutted. I had a tough time sleeping a few nights because of that. but everything happens for a reason so no worries :) man I should have thought..... I feel bad thinking about it right now... some other stuff happened this week too. Elder Palu was using my flashdrive to listen to some gospel tunes and it fell off the bed and broke.. then yesterday we were messing around after planning and he hit my camera with a pillow... now that doesn't work... man it has really sucked.. but I'm going to see if a member has an old one they wont use anymore I can buy or something.. it still turns on but the lense dosent pick up light.. kills me. but its alright. no use crying over spilled milk ha ill sort it out.

Hey I did get your Christmas packages and they made it home!!!! yay :) so they are sitting under the Christmas tree right now ha! we have a little one in the house. I may have to have an early Christmas if I get trasfered though. so we will see

sorry about stuff breaking mom. I feel stupid about a lot of it. I have really rtried to keep stuff good on my mission and I feel like I have been doing pretty good but lately I'm being terrible. my bike still works and my testimony still works haha so I guess thats all that matters :)

Mom i love ya loads!!

have a great day

soooo I have a little thought for this week :)

Dad sent me a talk on investing in things and one of those was the spirit. so I got a nice little experience I learned from this week.

We had a really good week this week! we had had a flood of new investogators and loads of miracles happen :) one of the kids we coach in rugby is getting baptized on the 20th and we have a few other dates coming up :) its been so cool being able to watch the change the gospel brings into our lives :) I have felt that this week to.

so on Tuesday it was a normal old day and as you guys know misionarys have scheduals to keep :) well i slept threw the alarm and i must not have had a big drive to wake up because I didn't till about 8:30.. which is right in the middle of personal study.. which God put there so we can start our day off with the spirit.. so of course we were running around trying to get ready and stuff. we still left the flat at ten.. but we didn't study at all!! So I have heard that we have opportunities every single day to show whos side we are on.. to show if we want more light or less light so I started off the day pretty rough the day went on as normal but I totally felt the difference. all the finding we did felt sorta hollow.. we were out still and doing the Lords work and stuff but I felt a lack of desire and let people walk past.. so pretty soon one bad decision had led to more till I literally just wanted to sit on the bench in city centre...

anyway long story short it was a rough day.. and all pretty much from one choice...

sooo I compaired it to the next day where we both tried to do our best :)

it made a huge difference! completely different day. we met some really cool people and had some cool experiences :)

so what learned is that if we don't do what we are supposed to we cant grow or gain our testimony and at the same time we wont be as effective in helping other people in the world.

so we invest in our spiritual bank when we make choices that show we want the spirit in our lives.

it all starts with one choice!!! D&C 88:63.

if we do our best we will know it!

love you guys :)

love elder wiser 

December 1, 2014

Hi Mom, 

i get nervous when you guys are going all over the place being crazy haha how is dad doing? shay said he is having some lung trouble..

I do have some bad news.. so I got your package!! I was so excited!! I pulled everything out and looked at it but I didnt read anything cuz I had to go.. then I left it in swansea bus station..... I was so gutted that I couldnt eat that night... man I felt terrible.. so will you guys pray that I can find it or that someone can turn it in? I honestly felt like.. so bad I cant even describe it. sorry to tell you but yeah.. please pray that I can find it.

Love Elder Wiser

November 24, 2014

(**Side note from Laura - This is a compilation of several emails.  I sent him lots of questions and he answered them all in a separate email.  He is doing so good though - and It's so fun to see his personality show in his letters home. :)

Mama bear!!! hey :)

Im so excited to Skype  you guys on Christmas!!! its going really fast. I'll be
talking to you in no time! I hope I stay here for another one so you
guys can meet all my friends :) Sister Jones said she was going to
send you a good recipie for gluten free brownies. the secret is baby
food... the brownies are really moist :) 

Man with school.... it did freak me out a little.. I just pictured my
self being all alone with no companion putting all my life skills to
the test :) the best part is, is that Gram Wiser will be close. I want to spend
loads of time with her. thats the first thing that I thought of ha so
what is it like there? I heard really smart kids go there.. also, what
did you change on my letter that helped them accept me? haha!!! that
letter was absolute rubbish! Mom you got my eagle, my high school
graduation diploma, and into collage! haha your the best!!! I am
excited about going to school though, I just need to get to it when I
get back so I can get into a routine and start to learn how to play the game.
I wanna try sports!! my eyes are really bad so I'm not to good at a lot
of games but I want to train and do something sporty.

With Stant, haha what a legend :) I remember cutting weight for sure.  Ask Stant
if he remembers one day before hydration in my Jr. year we were with
Skyler and we were so sick of being hungry, we downed a
bunch of reeses bars. Then the guilt hit and we tried to throw
them back up. ah man wrestlers.. so who is in one thirty two? man I
hope Stant is home for a bit before he goes. I want to train with him a
little so I can get used to the air there and see if I still got it.
I'm sure he will smash me but if I can do anything its go for it.

A little funny news for this week. so we have been really trying to
get involved with sports and using them as finding tools. It's been
great! We have one little kid on the team who is on a baptismal date!! His mom
is a less active and we get to spend more time with them on the rugby
pitch. 

This week a member invited us to a boxing gym.. and Elder Palu used to box and so we thought we would go hit the bags for a bit and put our accents to work. ha! In the middle of it the guy in the ring calls me over and told me to come in the ring with him...... turns out the guy is the current welsh champion at 80 kg.. experiences experiences :) 

So right now I'm weighing like 76 kg.. I dont know how much that is in
pounds because none of the scales here do it.. I have been getting
pretty big though.. we wake up at six fifteen and work out for a few extra minutes
then we do a little after planning before we call the teams. its so
good for both of us. working out rocks.

(**Side note from Laura - I converted his weight into pounds and he weighs 167. :)


The shoes were my gym shoes. I sent a
photo already. My mission ones are going to last me till I get back I'm pretty sure :) I have been trying to take good care of them. I have learned so much about that.. I think I found another part of Dad in me when I came out. haha! be nice to your stuff and it lasts for ages. no point in being dumb and wasting stuff. go Dad :)

I am going through a little phase of stuff breaking.. my black watch broke, I had that for a year so that sucks. I took the face out and taped it in CH 8 of preach my gospel haha I love that watch. I switched off a lot between that one and the silver one and now I'm fully on the silver one :) such a good watch. I'm going to keep that for the rest of my life.

My cloths have been doing good. I have gained weight for sure but they
are still doing ok. The suits have little streachy things in them and
american shirts are huge so I'm all good. I want to buy some new ones
for when I come home but the ones I have are doing great :) I have
gotten handy with a sewing kit though. My favorite pair of tracting
trousers tore this week. Luckly right on the seam. but ya all good
there! and the Jones family gave me a brand new suit!! their son who
is my age didn't want it so they gave it to me!!! how cool is that? I'll
send you a picture of it :) they are such an amazing family. we spend
loads of time with them and investogators. they are like the "go to"
house for lessons. so cool.

Cacun sounds like its going to be cool!!! send me some pictures :)
its cool shay gets to enjoy all of this with ya. LSI is awesome!

Thanksgiving! ya we are celebrating it :) we are going to Aberdare and
doing some stuff over there on that day, and going to Sam's 
house!! he is a returned missionary who just got married.. man there
are so many good people over here!! and we are going to have a little
thanksgiving celebration on saturday with Lee and Sarah.. I heard
there is going to be pumpkin pie!! whoooo! 

Back to the topic of grace... it's still so much on my mind! I have really been trying
to wrap my head around it.. the born agains are right, but not in the
right way. 2 nephi tells us what we should do.. I have just been
trying to focous on it so I can improve.. its crazy knowing that we
can always repent no matter what but that it can change us as well...
so I want to learn more about it. I wanna tap into the changing
part. I have felt it for sure but I want to more. the repentace part I
have felt to.. man the church is true!! ha thats all I know :)

We have four people progressing to a baptismal date. Tyrone, Gerint, Rylie, and Lee. all of
them are great!! We have been teaching around nine lessons a week
pretty consistently. We have been working pretty hard and the Lord has
been blessing us so much..  I think what Elder Palu and I worked on
the most this week is getting people out to church.. doctrine and
covenants 59 verse 8-9, & verse 16.. most people think we
just go to church go, but we go for the sacrament and to feel the spirit and
to learn from each other :) its a commandment!! and with every
commandment there is a promised blessing.. thats verse 16. Heavely
Father loves us so much!!! and church is the best :)

Elder Palu is a champion! I love serving with him. we are really good
friends and we have seen how much we have changed. He is flippin training me. haha for real. I love my companion.

Well I really love you!!! in tongan its oku ofa atu. I have actually
learned quite a bit of tongan. ha the jokes in tongan are the best.
they call white people palangis ha and uli means black. so we joke a
bout that all the time. I have some good photos for you this week
though!!

love you!
elder wiser

But ya all is well on this end :) Mom I have been talking about you
loads lately. ha! Since all the working out stuff some members have been
running with us in the morning and your the running champ!! its so
cool how you always fit exercise into your life and being the best mom at
the same time! I'm really going to make you a medal someday. Sister
Jones is like you in the way she has loads of kids, they all need her
at the same time, and she has a big calling and dinner and stuff. I
think you guys would get along great. 

little welsh breakfast with some hot chocolate :)

elder palu tried singing in tongan in town with this guys guitar while he counted his money ahahah soso funny