Hey Guys!

Hey Guys!

It has been a minute! Hope you are doing well! Here is what has been going on lately!

Transfers came! After an amazing two transfers with Elder Boden #legend, I was transferred out of St. Pölten. It was an amazing time there. My new area is..... Graz! I was super excited to come here, this is the town where my mom grew up. It has been way cool to see everything and work here. I have been here for two weeks now. My new companion is Elder Ballard and he is also fire! We are going to have a great time together.

Another amazing thing happened last week. My friend Laura who we met a few transfers ago was baptized. It was a blessing to be able to know her and be a part of her journey to come closer to Christ.

Okay since General Conference was a couple weeks ago and it was awesome, I thought I would share a part of that this week.
     "I invite you to trust that Heavenly Father knows how to exalt you; seek His daily, sustaining help; and press forward with faith in Christ even when you cannot feel God’s love...
     I testify that your Heavenly Father loves you and wants you to live with Him again. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." - The Father by Brain K. Ashton

As we seek God's help and press forward, we will find His love and His mercy, even if it is not so clear or easily recognizable at first. And that has the power to change lives for the better.

Love you all!
Elder Wiser

Rollercoaster weeks!🎢

Hey there Fam!

Hope this all finds you well, sorry it has been so long since I wrote last, it has been a crazy couple weeks in paradise!

Well, just a small filler in, I've been with Elder Boden for four weeks now! He is only a month in the field and already killer from day one! He is born in Texas, and lived his life all over in America, England, and Germany (sadly he never learned German... till now!)

We have been having a lot of amazing experiences here in St. Pölten. It has truly been a blessing to see the Lord's hand in his work. Our branch is absolutely amazing as well. We have had member come tracting with us on the street at least twice a week the last month. What an amazing opportunity. Their faith has strengthened my own. Last week we had a friend of the church come to church! We also have been blessed to meet a few new people to teach.

Sadly, it hasn't all been sunny and shinny the last while (though it has been in the 30`sC!) We had a really cool family we had started teaching from Iran. They were so prepared for the first lesson and the spirit was so strong. They were ready. But this last week, upon meeting, we learned that they had decided to stay in their own faith and to stop looking into the Church. It was very sad news, but we left on good terms. I'm so grateful for the gospel and what it has brought in my life and that I can share it with others, even if not everyone sees the light it will bring them. I know that we meet people for a reason and we can always learn from others.

Spiritual thought of the week : 2 Nephi 26 : 23-28 & 33

I just wanted to share these scriptures that have come to have great meaning and bring great comfort to me. I found them shortly after discussing with a man about our teachings on Homosexuality. The simple fact of the matter is that God is no respected of Persons. Be we "black and white, bond and free, male and female," we are partakers of the love of God and Christ. They invite us all to come unto them and to feel of the infinate peace of the atonement. Every one of us.

   23 For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness.
   24 He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.
   25 Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price.
   26 Behold, hath he commanded any that they should depart out of the synagogues, or out of the houses of worship? Behold, I say unto you, Nay.
   27 Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath given it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentance.
   28 Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden.
   33 For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.

Just remember to love people and help others this week and the world will be a better place then it was before!😊 I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Wiser

And a dinosaur!

The district! 

The squad with a members son!

A call with all of the new missionaries!

Elder Boden and I!

So..... We stole some bikes. Kind of?

Hey everyone! Hope you are all doing well out there in the world!

It has been a great two weeks for us, and we have been working like crazy! Highlight of last week was an awesome service project. Us and two Elders from Wien put on our farming pants and headed into the country side of Austria. A few minutes later, we discover that three of the four of us have hay fever. Oops. Ah well. We rolled giant barrels of hay in a farmer's barn for a few hours and after they gave us home made pizza and baked goods. It was delicious. Sadly afterwards, we could barely stand, but it was still awesome!

Other exciting things going on, we have a two new investigators! It is amazing to see the hand of the Lord in this work. We even found Christian through knocking on doors, which I'm really excited about. Most of our time is spent talking to people in the street or on trains and busses, so finding someone in an apartment was a really cool experience! 

As for the subject, we may or may not have accidentally stolen some bikes. Oops again. But good news is we gave them back. We are supposed to have bikes in this area, but did not know where they are (they had a car last transfer but we gave it to a senior couple). So we were searching for our bikes and found two that looked like missionary bikes. It had two locks on it and our key worked for one, but not the other. Assuming missionaries had lost the other key we cut the other lock. Then a very upset old lady and a man saw us and came out yelling. Sadly the bikes were there's. Good news is we were able to talk our way out of it and our branch President was able to round up two temporary bikes to use while we wait for new ones. Lol. 

Anyways, that's what's been going on around here lately! Just working hard and giving our absolute best😊 Hope your all having a good week and a good 4th of July!

Scripture of the Week:

Moroni 9:6

"And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God."

The moment my mission became meaningful was when I decided to do everything I possibly could.  100% And when we give all we can, and we do our best with the Lord on our side, mountains will be moved and seas will part. 

Love you all! Elder Wiser 

Pics: Rolling hay and playing with the farm dog. 

Elder with the dog, Elder Hawes #Comp.

In gray Elder Tunicliff 

In red Elder Weisler

Crazy Week!!

Hey everyone! Hope you are doing well!

This has been a crazy week, but a lot of good has come as well. Last Saturday we got transfer calls, and me and my comp both got transfered out of the area! Elder Coloma packed his bag and was off to Ulm, Germany. Meanwhile I was sent back over to Austria in St. Pölten.

On transfer day, we had the oppurtunity as a mission to get interviewed by either Elder DeFeuo or Elder Sabin. Elder DeFeuo was in Zürich and Elder Sabin in Munich! It was crazy getting everyone there and back for sure.

Then my new companion is Elder Hawes. He is a transfer older then me on the mission. It should be a great transfer! He was in Munich till Thursday so me and a couple other Elders ended up sleeping over in other missionaries apartments. But eventually I made it to St. Pölten.

So it's been a good week but busy. We have a bike street display which we have been putting to good use! We're glad to be hear and talking to people!

Scripture of the week :  2 Nephi 7 : 8-9

       8 And the Lord is near, and he justifieth me. Who will contend with me? Let us stand together. Who is mine adversary? Let him come near me, and I will smite him with the strength of my mouth.
       9 For the Lord God will help me. And all they who shall condemn me, behold, all they shall wax old as a garment, and the moth shall eat them up.

I found this scripture the other day and just really like it. It's true, the Lord is on our side, we need not fear. With Him, we can not fail!

I love you all! Have a good week!
Elder Wiser

Book of Mormon Miricales

Hey guys!

This week was pretty good! We had Interviews with President on Wednesday and Zone Conference on Thursday. It was pretty great! During Zone Conference, we discussed finding with the Book of Mormon. It's a Book that literally changes lives! We made a goal as a zone to make every Friday our Book of Mormon finding day!

So the next day, we hit the streets with the Book of Mormon! We were taking to people on the street for about an hour and decided to sit on a bench for 5 minutes and catch our breath. We sat down and one or two minutes later a guy came up and said hello to us. A little taken aback we said Hi back and we asked if he knew us. He said no and just started talking to us. It was totally random. But we ended up talking about the Book of Mormon and we have him a copy in English! The cool thing is normally we only have German but had decided to take an English today for our finding day. We exchanged numbers and then walked off to continue our day. A few minutes later we got a text with a picture of us on the bench from a member. She and her friends had been behind us getting a drink together after school. Her friends noticed us and said hey aren't they from your Church. Then this member was able to have a really cool conversation about the gospel with her friends!

"All this because of a Book of Mormon?" - Elder Colloma

I know the Lord will help us when we need it! He is always there, it's just out job to give our best and try!

Love you all!

Elder Wiser

Temple trip with Elder Colloma 

Service, Service, Service!

Hey guys! Hope you all had a fantastic Mothers day! I got a chance to Skype home and see the family and it was great! I have the best Mom in the World! Love you Mama!

The past little while been great! We've been able to do a lot of Service! In the winter, there aren't as many opportunities to get our hands dirty, but lately we've been really busy with it, and miricales have come from that! However, the service we do as missionaries is not all just about digging in the dirt, it's also about loving the people and sometimes just giving our time, and lending a voice or an ear. I was recently on an exchange with Elder Smith in Wettingen and we had the oppurtunity to visit an old persons home. We went to a members room to a lady who couldn't speak, except for yes and no. We read the scriptures with her and it was an amazing experience. We could tell she was really thankful, especially for Elder Smith and his kindness, even though she could say it with words.

Of course we've also had some really cool experiences with getting our hands dirty. Last transfer we did a service project helping a member to clean her deck. Me and Elder Keir were in charge of de-potting and dumping plants in a compost container. One of the lady's neighbors came up pretty upset and told us that this container was just for the people living their and we couldn't just use it. We explained we were doing a service project for her neighbor and she was okay after that. This week we were back helping to finish off the deck and the Me her told us that her neighbor had talked to her after that day. She is interested in also having the missionaries help her with some service. She said it would be fine when the missionaries also shared a spiritual thought. The cool part is, this member had been looking for years to find a way to introduce the Gospel to this neighbor, and now through Service she had one!

Matthew 22 : 37-40
    "37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

    38 This is the first and great commandment.

    39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

    40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

I love you all! Take some time this week to show someone you love them! It could well be that you will answer someone's prayers. Or maybe your own prayers will be answered in the act of service! Hope you have a great week!

Elder Wiser

1. Me and Elder Coloma
2. Dying in the heat! Elder Coloma, Elder Fewou, and Elder Smith

Photos from the Week!

Cousins in the same zone again!

Hoizäme!

How are you all?? I'm doing pretty good over here in Switzerland! The sun's finally peaked his head out of the clouds a little and summer is sending us rays of hope and warmth.

Things have been pretty good lately. We've been doing a bunch of finding, but it's going well. The first bit was real hard for me because the people here all speak Swiss German. I couldn't understand anything on the street my first week, but it's gotten better. Somewhat lol. But it's been a good learning experience for sure

We've also had some killer P days as well. Last week we were on a mountain called Rigi. Way good, we ended up seeing the Luzern sisters there as well. It was so pretty. Sadly I made the mistake of putting a box of Apple juice in my backpack for the trip. I ended up falling in the snow at some point and it ended up going everywhere. Good news is, I survived, and we found out the Apple juice snow actually tastes pretty good!

Today I also had the opportunity to go to the temple! It was so nice to go back! I haven't had the opportunity to go since I was in the MTC so it was so good. I didn't expect everyone one to speak French though ha ha. There is a French part of Switerland and the languages kind of get all mixed up there and the temple is where a lot of French speakers live. It made for a good time. If you haven't been to the temple lately, take some time to go, the feeling there is amazing.

Scrip of the week : 2 Nephi 32 : 9
  But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.

Week before last, our DL Elder Keir (legend) asked us to be prayerful in everything we do as missionaries. I've thought about that a lot since and I've really focused on being a prayerful missionary. Then yesterday we came across this scripture in Gospel Principles class. I have noticed in my missionary work and my person performance, the more I let the Savior in, the better it goes. That's how it is in everything in life. If we put it in the Lord's hands, there's no way it can go wrong!

I love you all! Hope you have a good week and are enjoying the sun like I am!

Elder Wiser


Elder Allison on a Unicycle.
Die Bürri Familie
Me and Elder Keir and Sister Fischer! #MTClife
Mountain bikes
A local bridge burning
Me and Elder Parker at zone conference!

No Letter for the Group :(

Sorry,

No Letter for the Group but a couple of Photos of fun P-Day activities.

Switzerland!

Grüetzi Miteinand!

 Hey everyone! I hope your all doing well! Thanks so much for all your love and support!

Today I am writing from Aarau, Switzerland. It is way awesome here! It's so pretty. If you have never seen Switzerland, you should consider looking up some photos, it's so nice.

I had a great week this week. We ended things awesome in Linz by meeting with a potential. She was way cool and actually seemed to have a lot of interest. She was down to meet again in the future!

We also had church one last time in Haag am Hausruck. After we had lunch at the family Till. They were really great and made some killer food! This was the last time Elders will be in Haag for a while as the Wels Sisters are taking it over now. They have good things ahead!

On Sense at I took a train from Linz to Salzburg for and hour and then from there to Zürich. That second one took about 6 or so hours. It was good though. Then I took a train to Aarau, pretty short, just about 30 minutes. Aarau is a real cool area. I've gotten quite a healthy dose of Swiss German the past few days. It actually completely different then the Austrian German I've been used to. They also use a few French words here as well which is fun.

Yesterday we had district meeting and it was great. Afterward we did district finding in Aarau which was well good! Sister Fischer and Elder Keir from the MTV are in my district and they are lots of fun!

Scripture of the week! John 10:37-38

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Wiser

1 Elder Keir and Elder Smith
2 Elder Allison
3 die Kuh
4 Preach`n

 

Transferred!!

Servus!!!

Hey guys, I don't have too much time so Ill keep it short! I got transferred to Aarau, Switzerland! I leave tomorrow, I'm super excited!! But I'm sad to leave my areas! Haag am Hausruck and Linz are both amazing!!!

Had a cool experience this week on the street. We were finding on Landstraße and a guy came up to us talking about Jesus and the earth and bodies. Usually when people come up like that they are upset with us or the church or just not all there. So we stopped to talk with the guy to see what he wanted to say. Turns out he was actually genuinely interested in what we had to say. We had a great conversion with the guy and we are meeting with him again next week. It was a really interesting experience, but cool as well. It is amazing to see how the Lord works in ways that you would never expect! I love to be able to see so many miracles on my mission!

I love you all and I hope you are well!

Elder Wiser   

Mach es einfach!

Hey everyone!

Hope all is well and going good! It's good to be here in Austria, the sun is shining and warm and winter is almost a distant memory. Crazy thinking that last week we though we would die of frostbite. Now everything is nice and cool, the perfect temperature in my opinion.

Had a good time at Stake Conference this last Saturday and Sunday! It isn't easy for all the members here to get there, but it is well worth the effort. The spirit there is always amazing.

New developments going down in the areas. I have been spending the last 4 or so months in charge of two wards and two areas, but now I am going to be just staying in one, Linz. The Wels Sisters who are right next to us will be taking over the Haag area instead. It will be sad to say goodbye to the Haag branch, but I think the sisters will work well with them. They are a great branch with a lot of awesome Members and friends of the church as well!

Spiritual thought of the week:
     “Please do not take the Book of Mormon for granted. Pray for a vision of how the Book of Mormon can be used more effectively in your mission. I promise that as you do so, your mind will be enlightened with the direction that you should take.” - Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin PMG

I have learned a lot from the Book of Mormon while I have been on my mission. It is an amazing thing to see the changes that occur within ourselves when we really take the time to allow that process to happen. When we sit down and study it and apply it to our lives. It was written for our time and for our days. Although I have read it multiple times, I don't think I could ever stop learning from it. It is our most powerful tool in missionary work, along side the ever helping hand of the Holy Ghost! I challenge you all to take another look insides its pages this week and to date to learn something new, that could change you for the better!

I love you all! Have an amazing week! You are amazing!

Elder Wiser

Photos - The district, a memorial site trip, and my friend, the next door neighbor's cat.

Welcome to Siberia

Hey Everyone!!!

How are y'all?? Were doing good up here in Austria! Its been a hard week, but a good one!

Some awesome things happened this week! I had the opportunity to go on exchange with the zone leaders and spent a day with Elder England.... from England. lol. Awesome guy, and a great missionary, I learned a lot from him. He is really cool. We had a really awesome experience at institute together. We were asked by our ward mission leader to make sure that we are at institute and at a youth activity every week. While me and Elder England were at institute, we met a guy who is not a member of the church. He had just come with a friend and was really cool. He had a lot of questions about different things, but he stayed for the whole lesson and for dinner after! We hope to be able to meet him again sometime!!

Street contacting this week was not quite as fun though. We had a cold front from Siberia blow in, or that's what I was told, and it was really cold. I am not jealous of those people that actually live in Siberia because the wind was not fun at all haha. But yesterday and today it has started to warm up again which is great!

Spiritual thought of the week:
Joseph Smith History 1:11 - 13

11 While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

12 Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.

13 At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,” concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture
 
These scriptures are read a lot in our church and in our lessons and this week the power of what he says really came across to me. His actions and the consequences that come from that are a powerful testimony of prayer. When we have a question and we really ponder and pray, with the intent to act on the answer we receive, Heavenly Father will help us. It may not be the answer we expect or the way, but He will not abandon us. Joseph Smith learned that for himself and I have learned it for myself. And you can experience it too.

I love you all! Thank you for your support! Have a great week!

Elder Wiser

Once there was a snow man.....

Hey guys!

Sorry I don't have a lot of time this week so I'll keep it real short!

Great new of the week, we had a church tour and it went awesome! She is going to come to church soon!

Lot as great, the temperature this week dropped. It is freezing out there. Wear a hat boys and girls!

Spiritual Though: 3 Nephi 11 : 39
 39 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and whoso buildeth upon this buildeth upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them.

Whoso buildeth  upon the rock of Christ shall not fail though the gates of Hell bare down on them. I really love this scripture. In so glad for what the Savior has done for me and that I can rely on Him in my life. He give me straight and support in all that happens. And He can do the same for you when you let him in! I love you all!

Elder Wiser

Lol😛

Servus family!

Hey guys! Another great week here in Linz! Gonna be honest, there's not much new to report on but let's break it down a little.

We started the week with a ward Conference in Linz and ended it with ward conference in Haag. Absolute fire. The theme, "mach es einfach". This sentence has two different meaning depending on how its used. When looked at one way, it means "just do it" like the Nike saying. The other way to look at it is the meaning, "make it simple". It all tied into following the Spirit. We call all be a little bit better at that. My challenge to you guys is to work on that this week. Learn to recognize the Spirit and learn to follow him. It will help you in all that you do, I promise.

The rest of our week was spent almost all in finding. We have been working the street a lot lately and the good news is we have some new appointments set up for this week! We're pretty excited to get to know some new people!

We also had a couple killer member appointments again. We are really trying to work more on member missionary work! It is pretty awesome. It's still early in the game, but I hope I have more stories to share on that soon!

Tomorrow we are getting smart phones! It should be fun.

That about sums up the week. Sometimes the weeks are crazy and sometimes they're quiet. But I love being a missionary and I love being out here. It has been the greatest experience of my life so far!

Spiritual thought of the week!
" It is often in the trial of adversity that we learn those most critical lessons that form our character and shape our destiny. " Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Just remember, no matter what is happening, what will happen, or what has happened, Heavenly Father loves you and wants to help you. He allows us to have trials to learn and in many cases, they are our greatest blessings.

I love you all!

Elder Wiser