One year mark tradition of burning a shirt

One year mark tradition of burning a shirt

Father's Day Dinner

Father's Day in Brazil

1 Year Mark!!!

Week 53 August 14, 2010

Hello family! How is everyone doing on this wonderful Saturday! I hope that everything is doing just great, thanks to everyone for all the emails!!

So first of all can your believe that I am on the down slope of my mission. I can’t believe it. My comp, elder Felipe and I were thinking about it the other night because we leave the same day together. That we aren’t going to ever say again! So this week has been a little crazy again… we had the counsel of the leaders here and we also had a huge “emergency transfer” that is what they are called now because we don’t have an established date for transfers… so our house was a huge party house again for some days but now it’s a little bit more calm and president and sister have been traveling again. They are going around training all the leaders of the districts here in the mission field and also the stake presidents. So the office has been filled with work but everything is going pretty smooth a little crazy but smooth at the same time…

This week, as for the work in the field, was a little crazy, well more like weird. To be honest, we were able to find all of these new investigators, but because of our work in the office something this week always came up at the last second, and we had to leave the office a little bit later, and a long story short, we haven’t been able to get that second visit with anyone… it’s so frustrating. We think that we have found a great family and we mark the time for 6, and for example we end up getting there at 6:35 and they are not there. Who knows maybe they never were going to be there or maybe they were there waiting for us at 6 and they thought that we weren’t going to come so they left… I hate being late to appointments… absolutely hate it, and it happened almost every day this week… ahhh…

And besides that, we had to take one day out of the week to do an emergency division because my comp had to go to the hospital with another missionary to pay the fee to do a little mini surgery. So, I went and worked with our assistant Elder Reis for a night. Ya it was awesome and we marked a date in there area but we lost an entire night of working in our area… ya maybe that doesn’t sound like that much, just one night… but its one night in our area that we lost with our investigators… one night really hurts the results of the week. Its super sad. But I have faith that the Lord will help us out with our weekly goals so that we can fulfill them and get some people to the sacrament meeting and on the road to becoming baptized and becoming part of the only true Church of Christ here on Earth.

Other than that, last Sunday here in Brazil was fathers day. It was pretty cool to go to church and to see the little ones come into priesthood meeting and sing to their fathers and stuff it was super cute. And also we got treated to dinner at President and Sister Ribeiros house. It was a blast to sit there and cook with Sister Ribeiro. She is awesome and to talk with president, it was great. What a great treat and I hope that you guys won’t get mad at me… but President and Sister Ribeiro decided to let my comp call his father for fathers day ha-ha which was followed by invitation for me to call you guys. I sat down for a second to think this over for a bit…. as much as a wanted to (oh and I really wanted to ha-ha) I thought that would be way unfair for me to be able to call you guys on just a normal day in the United States when literally no one else in the entire mission was getting that opportunity… so I declined the offer... I also figured that Christmas will come soon enough, which is crazy.

Family! This work, this gospel is sooo important! It’s the only way that we can have the chance to return and live with our Heavenly Father’s kingdom! I have learned this week that we can sit in the front of people and show doctrine to them, the exact doctrine in the Bible that was written by the prophets of old. We can show them the knowledge that we have gained about the true church of Christ, about Christ’s examples and how they were perfect, and should be followed and not changed. We could argue with the people. We could sit there and get mad at them when they try and throw their beliefs at us, but to be honest none of this is the best way to teach… you have to be in tune with the spirit and let Him work through you. Of course, you have to teach the doctrine but it has to be simple and clear… and then after, the only thing left is to share how you know it is true… bearing testimony is the most important part of everything. It’s the time that you give to the spirit to work through you, on the investigators. I am so grateful for the testimony that I have gained here on the mission. Something that I feel can’t ever be challenged won’t ever be changed! It’s something that has created who I am and I'm so grateful for my Heavenly Father who had made these things clear to me and He will make His gospel clear to everyone and anyone who asks!! That is the big part just to ask!

Ah, I have so much I want to say but my time is up!

Family I love you guys all so much thanks for your influence in my life! You are all so special to me I can’t believe that I will never be able to say I will have another August 14th on the mission again… it’s so sad!!! I am so excited for this next year! Ya it’s going by too fast but I just think about it this way!! 364 more days to work with the spirit to changes lives forever!! I’m not going to let one-day slip!!! Love you all sooo much!!! Big hug and kiss to all!

Ecclesiastes 3:14

Love your son, brother, grandson, and missionary

Elder Wiscomb

sippin terdêdê

Week 52 August 7, 2010

Hey family!!! Thanks soo much for all of your emails!! Ah I love them so much but I don’t have much time so I'm gong to get right down to it.

So this week has been a little more calm which has been nice. Once again we have had some people that were transferred because of the coming of the 3 new Americans that arrived here last night. So this week really just consisted of preparing for them…and talking to the AP and SECS in the Porto Alegre north mission. But other than that just getting things organized to take those three to get registered here in Brazil but that’s all about it here in the office.

We have had some fun things actually, we got a chance to leave and lunch with President Ribiero and stuff, and we got to have a special training from him too, yesterday, which was pretty cool. He sat us down and showed us how to do it, and practically said that we need to start teaching and following from preach my gospel. We have always followed it, but we just add some things here and there and also take some things out just to make it more full of doctrine and stuff. But now it’s more simple and more direct, the way it should be. And more focused on the restoration which is something that I agree with!

Other than that, something really funny happened too that made me feel super weird hahaha. Sister Ribeiro has now made a facebook account, hahaha but she has all these moms trying to talk to her in English and me being one of the only Americans in the office she wanted me to translate for her and also to write the people back when she talked… so ya I have know been playing around on facebook on my mission... I'm not going to lie it was super, super weird ha.

So new stuff. The work here in the field is going pretty well. We are finding more people every day, which is nice. We are really enthusiastic about how the work’s going and I hope that things keep on increasing in all aspects.

Something also really, really cool happened this week. Our branch turned into a ward! How cool is that! If feels really cool to have helped this branch finally reach their goal to turn into ward. This has had some affects though. A switch from a branch to a ward means a switch in the leadership and this has hurt some hearts of some recent converts. Our old president of the branch, President Marcos, he is one of the most amazing men that you would ever meet and him not being the leader of this branch has hurt some people but the new bishop, Bishop Marcos is amazing too!

So right now, in our house we have 5 elders… ya its pretty freaking crazy! We have a new elder that got here yesterday elder Jones, and elder Muller, elder Felipe, and elder Foster who has a problem with his knee… so us five in the house… ya its pretty crazy. This should only be for a couple weeks maybe one more month, then they will leave. But I think there will always stay 4 people in the house now and in our area…

One more week in the mission I can’t believe it. By this time next week I will be writing exactly one year in the mission oh man… I am going to be on the down slope… I can’t believe how fast it has gone by.

But anyway I love you all so much!! I hope that everyone is happy and safe!! Love you all with all my heart and you guys have a great week

Love your son, brother, grandson, and missionary

Elder Wiscomb

Baptism of Beatris and Luzia

Week 51, July 31, 2010

Hello family!! How is everyone doing? Before anything, I would like to wish a happy birthday to the big birthday girl that is turning 15 today!!! Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to Molly, happy birthday to you!

I hope that you have great day and have a great party tonight. Also thanks you all for your email and your photos and everything! I am so happy to hear that all is just great and that you guys had a great trip and that Katie and Elissa took advantage of the house when you guys were gone, ha-ha and that everything is just great! So thanks again! I have so much to talk about so I will just start strait away!

So this week has been such a crazy week. To be honest I don’t even know where to start. So this was the first week in the office with Elder Filipe and it’s been so much fun. I love my new comp he is from São Paulo and he is super, super intelligent and fun, you can just tell. We are going to have a great time together. And do some great work in this area

So this week was also transfer week. What a transfer, oh man hahaha. There were sooo many things that went, not wrong but not according to our plans…. So with the visa of Elder Abrham I had to do so many different things that I haven’t ever done before with the government and I was a little lost, but we figured it all out and now I feel pretty good about registering the new ones coming this next week so that’s nice… we have been running around just because of transfers and this whole visa confusion was one of the last things that I needed but it all turned out ok and he wasn’t imported hahahahaha just messing. But it went well, so that’s nice.

And if I didn’t already have enough on my plate for this week I had a situations with the people who were leaving… the sisters forgot their passports here in Santa Maria…. HOW DO YOU DO THAT?…. Oh man… so they missed their flight in Porto Alegre and I had to figure out to reschedule their planes and find a place for them to stay and stuff and call the airlines and their families oh man it was a big confusion so I was running around doing that too for the entire day on Tuesday.

I’ll just say this, I am sooo happy that this transfer week is over!! Whoop, whoop!!

Besides that, this was also a week that was pretty sad too. Elder Burnham, our AP and my best friend here on the mission, finished his mission. It was probably one of the hardest “goodbyes” I have ever done in my life! I have been fortunate enough to be with him my entire mission. I started with him in Livramento and stayed with him for 5 months there. Then I had a month and a little away from him and then we were here in the office together until the end of the mission. This kid is amazing. I hope that you guys are going to get a chance to meet him. Before he left he said he wanted to pass by and say what up because he is going to Salt Lake I think in two weeks or something. So if you get a call from a Zach Burnham its him ok.

Other than that we had those 3 baptisms. What a great day the 24th was. It was a day that I will never forget. The baptisms were just great but I think that the best part was at the end. After everything seeing Sabrina and Beatris and Luzia those three all hugging in a threesome and crying it was truly something that will never forget!! What a memorable day!

We had elder Abrahm stay will us for a week and then we left, another good friend on the mission and we are going to get 3 more Americans this next Friday so that will be fun but which means a lot more work for me. Which is good I guess ha-ha.

About the area… I don’t know what happened but we had a huge cut in our investigators this last couple weeks and we haven’t had much time to work because of transfers… so when Elder Felipe got here it was practically like starting all over again hahaha. We started with a couple investigators but we had to get out and find more! Which was exactly what we did. We are working really hard and finding good people! So the only thing that we need to do is to continue working and we are going to have some really good success here in this area! I’m super excited!

The mission; what a great opportunity to learn and to grow. Every house we stop by or we clap at is a new memory that I hold onto for the rest of my life… getting shut down or rejected was, and still is one of the hardest things that I have to deal with here on the mission… but ever time this happens, I become more grateful for the knowledge of the gospel and the blessings that I have obtained through the gospel of Christ! Sure, it’s one of the hardest things that I have ever done but you just need to laugh, and know that everything you do is for the benefit of others… this time in our life, ya is ours… but with the service of our fellow men, this is how I gain the force and the happiness to be far from house and from the ones I love…

People always ask me, “wow your from the United States, you’re far away from home. And you are doing this as a volunteer. I bet you are so homesick.” Yes all is true, long away from home that is true. A volunteer, ya that’s true too. But homesick, not really, actually not at all… I love to explain what is our “payment” or “salary” for doing this work. I always say that what we receive is so amazing that it doesn’t have value, in other words it’s priceless, the joy and the happiness that an individual or a family gains through our lesson and coming to know the true church is what makes us missionaries happier than ever. It’s what makes us put on this name tag, that has the name of Christ on it and it what makes us work harder then ever for just two years of my life!! Giving my testimony about this work is one of my most favorite things to do and I’m so grateful for the time that I have to be a missionary and pass through these difficult times, that if looked at in the right way its way more rewarding.

I love you all so much! Thanks for everything! Molly have a great birthday! And you all have a great week and a great day! Until next week!

Love you all!

Your son, brother, grandson and missionary

Elder Wiscomb

"Our trip to get our baptisms!!! read the weekly letter

the most amazing present in the world!"

Week 50, July 24, 2010

Hello everyone!! How is the fam doing today on this big 24 of July! It sounds like you guys are all having a blast up in Sun Valley and Katie is throwing a big party at the Wiscomb residents hahaha so that’s great! Everything here is just amazing! Today isn’t that cold, but I think it’s the warm before the storms… so that should be interesting… but other than that, we have had some fun things happened this week and some great experience that I will always remember.

So first of all last Saturday night I received a call from an Elder Zukini, who left the mission about 4 months ago, that lives in São Paulo… one of my great friends… and he said that he had someone that wanted to talk to me. You guys will never guess who it was. The famous BJ Little! Oh man, what a surprise… it was awesome to talk to him for a little bit and to be notified that he was leaving in 10 days… I can’t believe it. So that was the start to a great week. And it just kept getting better. So this week is transfer week and we are almost done with it, thank goodness. But let’s start talking about what is going on in the office.

So what is going on here in the office? This week has been super crazy. It has been the first transfer for president Ribeiro and everyone thought that we weren’t going to mess with the mission that much, but our entire mission is changing so much. It’s been great to see him receive this inspiration about the mission and him act upon this inspiration. I have had some great opportunities this last week too. During this last week I have had the chance to sit down with president on numerous occasions, in front of the mission photo board to talk about the mission in general, how it functions, companionships, and individuals. In the past, pres. Myrrha closed the door and did this himself, but getting a chance to sit in on the changes was something really cool. It was inspiring to see how much president took into consideration when he thought about an individual and where he should go, or what he should do with him, and it was cool to give a little bit of my insight. It was a really cool opportunity, something that I will never forget.

But as great as that was, working in the field this past week has been something amazing as well. I have had the most amazing experiences with this family of Sabrina. Today we are going to have the baptism of her mom, Beatriz and her little sister Luiza, and also a baptism of another young man who we have been teaching Giovanni. I would like to tell you a story of my mission. Something that touched my heart so strong, and it all started with a little travel.

So ya you heard right, we traveled a little bit this week. That’s another blessing about working with president, you hopefully gain a little bit more confidence so he allows you to do some “different” things. Beatriz and Luiza, they live in a little town that doesn’t have the church there. Like I said they are trying to move here to Santa Maria but right now they live about 2 hours out of Santa Maria. We got permission to go there, travel for two hours to teach them a lesson and to bring them here for their baptisms. Ah man it was such an experience. When they saw us arriving they were jumping up and down sooo excited and happy that we were there. So excited that they run up forgetting about the rules hahaha, and almost gave us huge hugs with kisses on the cheeks, but don’t worry I quickly extended my hand and then it was fallowed but a lot of laughs hahahaha.

So we got in this little town called Julia de Castigues, and we taught them such an amazing lesson about the commandments of God, then the most amazing thing happened to me. Luiza she is the 12-year-old girl that reminds me so much of Molly, called me over and said that she had a present for me. She drew me a picture, I sent it in the email. It’s a picture of Sabrina, Luiza, Elder Muller, Beatris, and me in a green field with flowers surrounding us and she looked at me and said, “I have chosen you to baptize me Elder Smiley (that’s what they call me) and I drew you this picture. It’s a picture of us five all holding hands together in the Celestial Kingdom. That is how I imagine its going to be, all of as together” when she said that I sat there just thinking filled with joy. So much joy that I will be honest with all of you, I didn’t cry hahaha but my eyes just filled with a little water. She is so sweet and ya only 12 but she understands how important this gospel is. It’s quite incredible.

I’m so grateful for the chance and the opportunity that I have had to teach this amazing family, and for the testimony that they have gained through the Holy Ghost about Gods true church here on Earth. That promise that I made them about 3 weeks ago, that they would be ready and feel that they are ready for themselves about their baptism if they did everything that we said, came true. Now it is time for them to take this all so crucial and important step in life and enter the waters of baptism to take upon themselves the name of Christ and become members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

All of this is going to happen tonight in about 7 hours! A 24^th of July that I will never forget!

And the next time I write I am going to have a new comp. Elder Felipe, he is going to be the next financial secretary. And today we are going to do something really different too. We are going to pick up an American that was sent in directly from Provo at the bus station. At 5:00 so that should be fun. He will get here and see his first baptism how great is that.

There is now doubt in my mind that this is the most important work on the face of this Earth and I'm so happy for my time that I have to serve God and be His representative acting in His name here on Earth. Ya in this moment I am a missionary but I and whoever is a member of the true church of Christ are his disciples. Think about that word for a second, always be the example and do the things that Christ and our Heavenly Father would want you to do. This world is so dirty, and in simple words “earthly.” I believe that God understands that the temptations and the trials that we go through are difficult and sometimes we are going to end up doing things that are shameful in His eyes. But how many times to we read in the scriptures that he is a merciful God? Many. DON’T be deceived by that word though. He might be merciful, but the scriptures also say that nothing impure and inherit the Kingdom Of Heaven. I believe that God doesn’t look at us as Earthly beings, or in other words temporal beings... I believe that God looks at us as the eternal resurrected and glorified beings that we are capable of being. For this we need to strive everyday to be His Disciples and to follow the footsteps of Lord and Savior Jesus Cristo.

I love you all so much. I hope that you all have a fabulous 24 of July and a great week! Hugs and kisses to all.

Your Son, Brother, Grandson, and Missionary

Elder Wiscomb

Jacob 3:1




"my comp took a picture of me laughing because he said that my family should see what I am always doing... ya who would have ever thought... reading..

yes now it is soooo cold so I spent some money finally and bought one of those hot pad things hahaha like the one you have mom and its one of the most amazing purchases I have made on the mission hahaha."

Week 49, July 17, 2010

Hello family! How is everyone doing on this fabulous day and on this July 24 week, and Donnie’s birthday wow full of great stuff? First of all thanks so much for all the letters and it’s always such a relief to hear that you guys are all great and everything is just going splendidly at home!! Although I heard some things that I didn’t want to here about Molly hahahaha gosh Mol you are just growing up all too fast... what is this about a senior in high school saying that you have good eyes.... just remember that you are only 14 ok!!! haha.. but thanks so much for everything.

So this week has been a great week. Other than it being absolutely freezing!! and raining, we have had so much to do in the office but we have been able to leave every day at 5 and we have been working really well in the field with the help of the Lord. So first in the office

this week, president and sister Ribeiro are finishing their traveling they have done zone conferences in almost every place. They only have Livramento, which they will finish on Monday, so this week we had to prepare some stuff here in the office for them to leave. I have had a lot of time to just sit and talk with sister Riberio and she is awesome oh man I love this lady. She is so sweet, I think I like her so much because she reminds me sooooooo much of mom ahh it almost kills me! She is just so lost here in the mission but the way she deals with it is that she tries to find things that are nice to do for everything that is around her! She literally was just a mother of 4 children (3 daughters and 1 son) that was thrown into a mission field, a situation that brought her 150 sons. Just imagine it ha.. “bless her heart haha” but she is amazing and I'm so lucky that have gotten to know her pretty well.

Also president Ribeiro! I haven’t ever seen someone so determined.. He has his goals and he is ready to go get them. It’s like a ‘novinho’ arriving in the field with that fire and the huge vision. Something that is difficult but necessary to sustain throughout a mission. You really see the excitement through the Elders and Sisters with the new things that president is applying here in our mission and it’s going to bring big results for sure. Our mission is all too lucky to have him here with us! Dad or mom if you would like to write an email to him it would be good just saying thanks! I’m sure that he would like that. His email is presidenteribeiro@gmail.com I’m sure that he would love it. He is trying to learn English too... I think he reads to be honest, but I’m not sure, because sometimes he asks for me to translate stuff but I think it’s just because he wants to make sure that he interpreted correctly. So try it and see what happens.

But other then the office stuff, the field is going great, we have 3 dates marked now for the 24 of July and we are we are starting the processes of the marriage for Silvio and Neusa. This will be 2 more families that will be entering the Church of Christ. What a blessing to do this work, this will be two more families that through the testimony given to them by the Holy Ghost, they have found the purpose of life and the light of God in their lives. Our branch is soon going to be turning to a ward because of the progress it’s been having these past couple months, another blessing. Gosh the blessing and the miracles seen here on the mission are unbelievable..

I am just praying that everything will go according to plan! although they (Beatriz and Luiza) they have gained testimonies and done everything we have said, they are having a little problem financially and were saying that maybe it is going to be difficult for them to come here on he 24!! I know that if we do everything we can through are prays and talking with the members in our ward.. God will make a way for this huge step in their lives to happen! I have faith that $ isn’t going to get in the way of their progress of applying baptism, which as the scriptures says, essential for the returning and living with Him (our heavenly father) one more time in His glorified kingdom! So for right now my hopes are up!

Ahh I have so much more I want to say but I’m out of time...

I hope that you guys have a great day today... boating and then a pool party probably with burgers and chips and all that good stuff... Oh man. hahhaaha. but I hope that you guys have a great week with Donnie’s birthday and a great 24 of July! I love you guys so much always know that! Know that you guys are always in my prayers.. and thanks again for everything!! Have a great day and week!! Big hug and kiss for all!

Love

Elder Wisomb

John 14:16

The clothes dryer, the best gift of the mission, and living in the office!

The missionary board

Elder Brunham's Birthday

Week 48 July 10, 2010

Hello family!

How is everyone doing on this Saturday! It sounds like everyone is doing your own little things and that everyone is good. I'm so happy to hear that all is well with everything back in Utah!!

So this week has been full of some amazing stuff. We had the first training/conference of president Ribeiro. And wow it was amazing!!! We first started talking about our desire as missionaries and how we all have to have a desire to serve and he tied that in with John the beloved and his desire to follow Christ! I never ever though about John the beloved in that way. How he was the youngest disciple of Christ and arguably the most knowledgeable... how he "stayed on the side of Christ" all the way until Golgotha... and then Christ had so much trust in him that He trusted him, with the life of His mom! That shows a lot... wow my mind went crazy on learning that about him!! It was amazing! And then we talked about the gospel of Christ and how it never changed, and then we talked about the Holy Ghost!!!

This conference was by far the one that I have enjoyed the most! It was literally 9 hours of just learning and scripture studying it was more of a seminary or institute setting and ahh it was just amazing!!! But other than that we have had some great success with the work too!

So to start, Saturday night we had that lesson with Beatriz and Luisa, the mom and sister of Sabrina and once again it was one of the most amazing lessons we have had. It's been a good 2 weeks since we saw her and we challenged her to read every day the Book of Mormon and to write down all of the doubts or questions that she had and she did. So the lesson started out with answering the questions. We have to take advantage of the time we have with her because it’s not a lot of time. So guess how long the lesson was… ya 3 hours it was a lesson really, really deep about the eternal plan of our Heavenly Father. Something that is not usually done, but this was an exception, an experience that I will never forget…

We started to teach and everything went amazing! Every question either me or my comp were able to answer using the scriptures and a big part was our testimony and just letting the holy ghost work though us. And at the end of the message we challenged her to get baptized on the 24 of July! She hesitated for a minute, just thinking that she wasn’t ready, that she needed a little more time but we knew and felt that she was ready BY THAT DATE. What happened next was something that was amazing. We knew that there would exist a process (a preparing) for her baptism that is why we set the 24 because she has to come in town to be taught. I think that is why she was feeling that she wasn’t prepared because now she isn’t, right when she told us that she wanted to put it off a little bit the instinct struck in… I asked her if returning to live again with our Heavenly Father was the deepest desire of her heart, when she responded “yes.” I further explained that inheriting the kingdom of God was only possible through following the examples and the things required, all starting with baptism. After I did that, bore my testimony as a representative of Christ, that if she would continue to read and do everything in her power to do all we say, she will receive an answer and this is the true church of God and she WILL be ready for her baptism on the 24 of July!

It was so amazing to be able to bare your testimony as a representative of Christ and feel that power of the Holy Ghost work through you. When I said my testimony she looked at me and started to cry with a big old smile and said, “ok, I accept your help to prepare me for my baptism”

Some days later, 3 days to be exact we called her, (that is the plus of be secretary we can call anyone and everyone we want ha, the most desired phone in he mission haha) and she told me that she did pray and asked, and received the answer from God that what we had taught was the truth! And now went out and bought her a skirt so should would look "Beautiful" on her baptism day haha.

The solution is so simple…. Ask with a sincere heart and it should be revealed unto you. If you have any doubt or any question, just ask and the answer will be given unto you. Just imagine, God obviously wants us all to return to him, but there is no way that He can't force us, but He wants so very much to show us!

My testimony these past days has grown so much. Watching the hand of the Lord in our work and trying so very hard to search for His guidance... I am so very grateful for the Gospel in my life. For this time to be a representative of Christ and wear his name on my chest 24 hours a day for 2 years! Well now almost only 1 year. That’s crazy and sad to think... I love you guys so much always know that. Take advantage of every minute you have on this Earth. It all passes to fast, and every second that passes, we aren’t able to get them back.

This is short and I'm sorry, I don’t have much time to write today but thanks again, for your emails, for your love and for the pictures. (Which are mostly of little Donnie that I love to see oh man he is getting huge). I'm so lucky to have you guys for eternity!

I wish you all a great day and a wonderful week!! Love you all, until soon.

Your son, brother, grandson and missionary

Elder Wiscomb

Matthew 5:16

PS. I fixed my myldsmail. I don’t know why it wasn’t working but please if you guys could send emails to cwiscomb@myldsmail.net I would really like to keep the rule of the Internet now that I am able to... love you all!

Week 47 July 3, 2010

Family! How are you guys all doing! I just want to say thanks so much for all of your letters. Like I say ever week, I love hearing from you all and to hear that everything is just great with all of you.

But where do I start. This week has been just full of so many things. The switch in presidents, saying bye to president and sister Myrrha and the receiving of our new president and sister Ribeiro. But first let’s talk about saying bye.

So saying bye was such a hard thing to do… we helped them down to the very last minute they were here in Santa Maria… whether it was getting things here in the office ready for them to leave, or in their own house packing up boxes and stuff… we had a chance to eat their last lunch in their house, were we talked about some experiences that they have had while they have been here on the mission, which was soon followed by them running around making sure that they have everything. I get all flustered making sure that I have everything on transfers when I get transferred, I can't even imagine moving practically an entire house… ya a little difficult…

Just to give you guys a little bit of an idea of our week this week, before president left we didn’t leave the office again until about 9, trying to get things ready, but its been a long and rewarding road to see everything go…

So the “bye” itself was quite sad… president and sister Myrrha have been like a mom and dad to me for the past year and it was sad to be them leave…. To be honest I don’t think that it has really hit me yet… I think I'm thinking that next week I'm going to just see president Myrrha walk though the doors in the office saying “ bom dia poderoso Elder Wiscomb” 'good moring powerful Elder Wiscomb…' which is what he said every day to me… but changes are good, it's something that happens in life... right.

And now we have a new president of our mission, President Ribeiro, who is awesome as well, different, but a good different. We got him on Thursday and we had the 2 zones here in the mission, come to the office and await his arrival…. We had me and my comp and the assistant get the door while the others hid and then we said "welcome to our mission" everyone left singing the mission hymn. It was quite cool. And then the day was followed with a meeting with him for about an hour… a little bit about him. He seems super intelligent, and he came to our mission with a vision of course, of how he is going to want to run it. (Which I like). He got here and immediately changed some things… he wants to get rid of all the houses that have 4 missionaries living in them, and switch to just 2, so we can stay focused! He his going to be a little bit more strict than president Myrrha, I think which will be good. He has decided to make every missionary leave the houses and work at 10:30, which I thought that was good! Usually they just leave after lunch so work doesn’t start until like 2. But nope now it starts at 10:30. How awesome is that! This is what I have thought about the whole change…

He has been called by God to this mission, which means he is going to be exactly what the mission needs, and it's our time to support him and to help him and everything he says…

The switch seemed all to fast, just like another transfer with a new companion here in the mission… but it will all workout.

This next week on Monday, we have conference and he has changed all conference too, it's going to be strait doctrine teaching and also practices… usually we had a part with sister Myrhaa, where she took us and did some activities, but now its going to be from 6 to 12 then lunch then 1-6 just practices so that should be different but I'm really excited… I think we will get to know him a little better after he settle downs a little bit and relaxes. You can tell he is a little overwhelmed and he should be haha. It’s a lot to take in…

Sister Ribeiro, oh man momma, she reminds me of how you would be on the mission!!! She is the exact opposite of sister Myrrah, she is so calm and just has the act of a mother!! Sister Myrahh had that, but she was known as the "enforcer" hahahah but just the way sister Ribeiro talks it’s just with love!!! I think she is the one that feels the most lost in all of this... leaving her home and her family. It’s going to take her some time to get everything under her belt but it will be great! It is going to be a great working process for her and after this month of traveling I think it will be me working with her so that should be fun!! When she got here (just for you guys to see how she us) I said "well I'm going to be the one that will be working with you so anything you need anything you want done you can talk to me." And she just looks at me with a smile and she’s like, "well I appreciate it, but I don’t have assistants, or secretaries, I just have 150 missionaries" haha. I thought that was pretty cute! But she is super nice and tender.

But some things got to me this week. Mom thanks so much for sending the ring and stuff. Well Emmy haha, it was a team work but thanks so much he absolutely loved it. So thanks so much!

And Jake I got your card and your wedding announcement and also the tie and letter. Dude thanks so much! Man your wedding announcement turned out amazing. This is going to sound to gay but it's beautiful, seriously! And the picture of you two is amazing too. And the tie, oh man its pretty too! Dude there is going to be no doubt in my mind that this wedding is going to be one in a million! Dude I love you so much and I hope that you guys have an amazing wedding!! I hear that it was one gorgeous night!!

One last thing, oh man I almost forgot. The mother and little sister of Sabrina came into town this week again!!!! Ahh I'm so happy to talk to them again! We taught her two lessens when she was here last time (2 weeks) ago and we taught her last night and we are going to their house tonight too, to teach them the plan of salvation! And I'm super excited!! This family its amazing how prepared and ready they are for the truth! They were saying that they are planning to move here, to Santa Maria, because where they were living, doesn’t have the church! They are in the process of finding someone to sell their house! I will have to tell you how tonight goes but last night was just amazing! She said everything that I hoped she would say! She has been reading the Book of Mormon and using the guide in the back and she was wondering what the D and C was so she got online and bought herself a triples. The work here in our area has been a little difficult so this is a huge relief! Kind of like an "awwwwww" if that makes sense"

This Church is true! It's something that I think I have always believed but now I testify to all who read that I have witnessed the miracles that come through the gospel! It is the most important thing here on the face of this Earth! It's the reason why we're are here. The Holy Ghost works in ways that are soft and gentle but are penetrating to the souls that are willing to accept. Its the only way that we will be able to understand, to search with an open heart, and willing to accept the reasons. If we will find our purpose of life. God will not lie. He will not lead us astray!

I love you all so very much. Thanks for everything for the letters and your words! I hope that you all have a great Saturday and a great week! Stay safe and pray always!

Love you,

Your son, brother, and missionary

Elder Wiscomb

Jake's Package

New Mission President

Last lunch with president