January 28, 2015 --Bonus

Hey Mom!!!! We had to come and get an investigator in contact with China so I though I would let you know that I'm going to stay in Harborne!!! I'm getting a missionary named Elder Sorenson. He is an old missionary... so we are going to pull out the old missionary broad swords and kill it!! This is the best time of my life!!!! LETS GO!! haha

The rap :) The end was Elder Allred its Elder Palus follow up trainer.  Cool part is is that its not even close right now.. they still have to put the chorus in and an extra guitar line haha Dean is the sickest!!

But I gotta go :) having dinner with some friends before Elder Holt leaves.. he is going to Wales!! :) :)

Have a great week!! I'll email you next week :)

wou ie nee (haha i love you in chinese) :)

love you!

January 26, 2015 - Updated

Hey Mom!! I gotta say sorry as well.. I have used a lot of personal funds this week and last week... We had some unexpected stuff and we can't cycle back to the flat with out bikes so we had to eat in town a lot.. at least you can see my diet though right!! haha a lot of skittles and a lot of oranges.. but  I'll be one hundred percent better this week.. I'm going to start making meals and taking them with me instead of just getting it in town.. we live like a 45 ish min walk from where we work.. but I'm starting to cook a little bit more so i'll be alright for college.. I just dont like the dishes and I take too long so I can't clean them before study....

Oh good news!! Elder Peek picked me up a package in Newport.. where you sent that package the first time!! then you just wrapped it and put the new address on it right? I think its the one!!! So some good person sent it back :) I don't know for sure but i'll let you know.. (**Note from Laura - I sent Sterling a half-way package, in June 2014 to Newport England, with books, letters, pictures and two new boxes of contacts. He never received it and we were really sick about it because he was running out of contacts.  If you know Sterling very well you will know that he is super blind and his contacts a specially made and very expensive. Four months later the package showed up on my door step - the post office had returned it.  I was so grateful!!! I added some updated notes, re-wrapped it, re-addressed it and this time, sent it to the mission home.  He finally received it, while serving in merthyr, just before Christmas 2014, and was so excited he opened it in the bus stop, then he left it there......in the bus stop...and was just sick about it for weeks.  We prayed that he would somehow be able to get his contacts.  This little note above means that someone found the half-way package and found the original address and sent the package back to Newport where another Elder picked it up for Sterling and will hold it till he can get it to the mission home then back to Sterling who is now serving in Harborne!!  Miracles Miracles!!!)

As well we had a cool thing this week... Elder Andrus and I on exchange found an iPhone 6 and turned it in.. before we did we made some videos of us being dumb and photos and stuff and left our number to let us know if they got it... they did get it!! They just said thanks loads and a few days after the kids mom texted us and said that her son had lost a baby a few months earlier and that phone was the only one with pictures of his baby... and how greateful she was.. so we testified of families and invited her to listen to our message... I dont know whats happening yet but she said that it sounded good :) cool huh!! God does stuff for people to hear his message.

Mom I love you so much!! I have to go because we set some apts for today.. lunch and stuff :) I think it will be good to help me focous.. Mondays start of the whole week! We gotta hit it hard today and keep going :) Time is going so fast. 

Here is my spiritual thought in the form of a photo.. I have shared it before but I love it..

This is my gluten free breakfast this morning!

Im turning into a master chef ha

I love you so much mom!!!!

last district meeting before transfers!! this is the whole crew! look at how many missionarys are there! im pretty sure this is the biggest district in the mission. coventry might match it but i dont think there is anything bigger

playing ping pong today and some people yelled my name.... some friends from merthyr!!! haha so cool :) daniel and jen :)

January 19, 2015

Did a lady named Anita friend you on face book? she is a lady that we were really good friends with in Merthyr.. she fed us soooo much. ha! Just like we would be at the flat and she would text she was bringing up a meal.. such a cool lady :) she was trying really hard to convert us to be a Jehovas Witness just like we were with her - but it created a good friendship so thats cool :) she left her keys to her house with us one time so we could let her dog out and when we went to do it there was lunch on the table. How cool is that? so we just ate everything and did the dishes. shows a bit of trust huh? 

Teaching this week was pretty good :) we have just been resolving big concerns a lot it seems.. like addressing lots of anti questions and things about gay marriage and stuff.. more so than in my mission for sure.. but the truth is the truth :)

We have some amazing investogators named pearia and kimia :) they are persian and so so cool!! They are way humble and they are really good and recognizing sprirtual answers.. the plan of salvation was a way cool one.. they just were like ah man thats so cool I wish I knew that before!! Just with everything.. I love meeting with people who want to know what is right. There are some in the district that are just like that as well.. humble seekers of truth :) I love it!!

I found a cool scripture this morning in Alma 26 I think its verse 22. It talks about how if we are repentant and exercise faith and good works we will be an instrument in bringing thousands of souls to repentance!! so there is nothing stopping us from being like Dan Jones or Ammon or something. We just have to do our best to be humble and follow the spirit :)

I hear destry is coming home really soon... how is that going? Man everyone is coming home!! ha what the heck time is moving forward. who else is on the coming home list?

This guy is on the pass along card!! He is famous :)

dinner at ming moon! i love sushi :) asian food is really growing on me.

we made a ping pong table for after planning haha!! we are going to be pro!

This is the baptism of one of his investigators from merthyr
Elder Palu sent it

January 12, 2015

Hey mom!!! ahh man stant!! ha Richardson Memorial is a tough tough tournament.... I remember getting whooped by that Hardy boy.... haha man I'm so proud of him.. he is going to do so flippin good this year! this is his last year huh? man I feel so bad I'm missing it all, so include as much as you can in emails I love hearing about it.

Well I have a  bit of bad news.. district p-day today!! so I'm super pressed for time.. I'm going to try and email later as well but I have to leave in about five min.. i'll send some photos later tonight though. next week i'll be able to email to my hearts desire! time is a moving!!

If this is all I get to send I want to quote dad.. "live in the moment".. it goes along with what you said mom. if your in a lesson and your thinking about finding or something, how can you listen to the spirit if your not thinking about the moment... it works for everything.. like texting at dinner. face book at church... whatever it is there is something better to focus on. I have seen that lately.. and we have seen some miricles from it. some amazing people we have been able to meet. the spirit is there if the missionarys are ready to get it done... little scary scritpure D&C 136 33 I think... it talks about the role of the spirit.

I love you guys!!! have a great day :) i'll send photos later!..........................

moooooommmmm!! district p-day was great but my flippin bike got stolen again...... so did Elder Holts.... in broad daylight in front of the library... gosh I'm starting to get so annoyed at this country.. It was locked up too....its killing me! it was in the middle of Birmingham as well. so I hope the police can find it.. if I see a homeless dude riding it I'm going to make headlines with that tackle. haha! Na im just kidding, it's just a little frustrating.. sorry ma! I really try to keep my bikes.. things like this don't happen in the promised land..well, if I can't find something I can build, i'll find one for cheap. But if not i'm going to walk for the ending of my mission. it's late I know but I wanted to tell you guys!!!

But on a better note district p-day was great! We had a huge district breakfast :) and I made, from scratch, gluten free pancakes :) they weren't the best haha but there are two other gluten frees in the district so we get sacrament and everything! how cool is that? sister stone and elder kerr is trying it out to see if it makes him feel better. we just played loads of sports. I'm really really tired! haha dad was totally right.. mission tiredness... it gets ya ha

I love you guys!! tell Stant I bragged about him all day. the dude is a legend!! I cant wait to see the highlight :)

have a  good one!

January 5, 2015

Happy new Year!!!

Here is Sterling new address:

Elder Sterling Wiser

49 fountain road

B17 8NP

Birmingham England :)

Mom!!! hey :) Man what a good week you guys had! the pictures are great. its so weird how close I am!!! I couldnt sleep till last night 1230 just thinking about everything... I talked to Elder Mcfarland and Smart last night and they made me think about stuff ha I thought about msision prep and my homecoming.... man crazy huh? I got to email bishop already but I think a calling would be great right when I get home. like first sunday if he can.. so can you let him know my release date?

Also.... drummmmmmm rolllllllll!!!!!! I found someone in this ward that Jay Lighthall baptised!!!!!! how cool is that!! so I'm going to see if I have his email.. they have the most solid family.. its cool to see that two people doing the work of God can change so many lives.. so I have her email for him and everything she wants to talk to him..

2015 has been great!! we were a bit dodgy and stayed up for the fire works!  ha we just watched out the window but it was cool.. we were pretty tired the next day though... so that won't happen again. it was fun though.. memories memories.. its so weird how two years ago right now I was just getting in the roll with wrestling and I was still in high school... man its weird.

Iom i love you so much!! ill keep emailing you in the other ones :) I have a little spiritual thought and a miracle as well. love you!!

Remember lee? he got baptised!! two days ago!! I met with him the whole six months I was in Merthyr.. man I'm going to try and call him.. Palu probably wont remember but ill get a photo one way or another haha.

so the spiritual thought today is a bit sad.... but with good news :)

Shirley, the girl I emailed about last week.. she dropped us..... dang it!! we are guessing her preacher antied her... she was so dang cool!! but I'm sure we will see her around. there is always options.

But we found some of the coolest girls this week!!! they are like angels. we have taught them the resto and plan of salvation... it was the coolest plan lesson I have ever taught... they were just like ohhh man we have been wondering about that!! you can tell people who really are looking for the truth. its so cool. Elder Holt and I are really unified as well.. I love teaching with him! we are friends! its been so nice laughing all day and working at the same time. what a legend :)

my spiritual thought is this bad boy.

1. Understand that being happy is an emotional decision, just as anger, pride, and repentance are emotional decisions. Decide now that you will work at being happy more often. You are either the master of your destiny or a slave to your fate. Only you can choose how you’ll react to a situation. Choose well. 2. Always associate with people who will lift you up. There are people everywhere who will tell you how bad things are and how you’ll never amount to anything. These people are really talking about themselves. You should find better company.

3. Meet everybody on friendly terms. Each new person could be your next best friend, or the person who will pull you of a ditch in half an hour. Treat them as such. 4. You become what you think about and tell yourself all day. Safeguard your thoughts, and when you talk to yourself, say positive things. 5. Keep yourself too busy to mope around. Sitting around with I, Me, Mine and Miself (your four worst friends) and bemoaning your existence will get you nowhere. Keep your day full of people and projects and family and correspondence. Advance every day in the direction of your goals. 6. Be involved in big projects to help you organize yourself, and your time. I’m continually amazed at how much more I can get done (in my spare time) when I work 75 hours a week than when I work 20. 7. Cultivate humor always, but cynicism never. Laughing at yourself and chuckling at the humor in your situation keeps you from taking yourself too seriously and wanting to strangle somebody. Picking on other people doesn’t lift them up, and it doesn’t help you up either. 8. Read 15 minutes’ worth of inspirational material before noon every day. This not only lifts your spirit and marks the path before you, but also gives you something good to talk about. 9. Memorize words of upbeat songs and inspirational quotes. Keep these on hand when you have nothing else to think about. 10. Opinions change – facts remain the same. Learn to separate opinion from fact, and don’t get caught up in anybody’s opinion, even your own. Especially, don’t live your life based on what other people might think about you. 11. Don’t worry about things you have no control over. Learn to solve problems quickly. Learn to anticipate, work through, or avoid the things (problems) you can’t solve. Plan ahead, and don’t forget to make a “Plan B.” 12. Keep your faith in God and in the big picture. Even though you can’t see all the curves in the road ahead, be confident that things will straighten themselves out (with your help) eventually. If you are doing your part you can have every expectation that God will do his part. - R. Dale Jeffery i have been reading this every morning.. and its so true!! (i dont know why the font has changed) but we can choose our how we deal with things!! sad stuff still happens but there is always a positive side :) I take number three as best friend and someone who could get baptised.. devon childress always says ... if you treat a man as he is, he will stay the same. if you treat his as he can become... he will become that? ha i dont know the last part but its so true! everyone needs the gospel so dont be afraid to share it!! I love you guys! love elder wiser This is a thought that Shane sent to Sterling - he loved it and wanted to share it. An Autobiography in 5 Chapters  Chapter 1 I walk down a street. There’s a huge hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. It’s not my fault. It takes forever to get out.  Chapter 2 I walk down the same street. There is a huge hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don’t see it. I fall in, again. I cannot believe that I’m in this same hole! But it’s still not my fault. It takes a long time to get out.  Chapter 3 I walk down the same street. There is a huge hole in the sidewalk. I see it. I fall in – it’s a habit! – buy my eyes are open. I know where I am. I admit it’s my fault. I get out immediately.  Chapter 4 I walk down the same street. There’s a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk AROUND IT.  Chapter 5 I walk down a DIFFERENT STREET. i hope this one looks ok. ill have more photos next week :)  this week was great!! Air shot of middle of Merthyr Sterling area before he was transferred to harborne