Gringo in Nashville

January 13, 2019

Sunday: Farewell

We were all a bunch of emotions. Drew was as ready as he'd ever be. The weather was perfect. Beautiful sunny day with a high close to 60. Sacrament meeting started at noon. He did a great job sharing his conversion to Christ. A talk we'll remember for sure. After the meeting family and friends came over to our house for lunch. It was so great to be surrounded by so many that had made an impact on his life.

Jorgensen cousins:
Braeden, Drew, Christian

Second dad and mom:
Uncle Joe and Aunt Denise

Drew and mom

Chic Friends:
Tess, Drew, Delaney, Meg

Dude friends:
Tanner H., Drew, Tanner B.,Ethan

Cousins and almost Drew:
Ty, Braeden, Christian

Scott, Kammi, and Kal

Petersen side Family

Friends

Wiser side family

Friends and family

Grandma and Grandpa Petersen and family

Jorgensen kids and Emma:
Christian, Braeden, Mccall, Emma

January 16, 2019

Wednesday: MTC Drop off

Because of a family funeral things went down a little differently for Drew. He got set apart Sunday night so we could start our way up north for grandma Billie's funeral on Tuesday, the day before he reported to the MTC. We woke up to a snow storm Wednesday morning and knew we needed to get on the road. He said his goodbyes to the Wiser family and we were off. We got to Provo around 11:30 and decided to eat lunch at Outback, a favorite of Drew's. After which we made our way to the Provo temple grounds to take pictures and say our goodbyes. He was excited and a little nervous. It was super surreal for me. This day that most parents of our faith hope for was here. We didn't have a lot of time before he had to report at 1:00 so it was fairly fast. After pictures we drove to the MTC, went down the tunnel, and pretty much did a curbside drop off. I remember being so overwhelmed at all the other families that were there doing the same thing. It really is quite a miralcle families are willing to just send off their kids for 2 years with limited communication. And on the other end, kids that are willing to put their lives on hold to go do probably one of the hardest things they will ever do in their lives. I remember my mom telling me the saddest thing about sending them away is knowing your family will never be the same. But this is life. There is no other place we would rather have him be. So why was it so hard to say goodbye? Bitter sweet is what it is most referred to....and it couldn't have been more. To say the least, our drive home was long, quiet, and emotional. But we are so excited for Drew's new adventure.

Family send off

We were so excited to hear from him that following Saturday...his Pday. We emailed back and forth throughout the day and found out that his companions dad dated my oldest sister, Marci, back in the day. In fact both of Elder Israelsen's parents are from Cache Valley and big Aggie fans as well. We are excited to share his journey and encourage all to email him. He would love to hear about what is going on in your lives. His email is drew.wiser@myldsmail.net The following information will mainly be his emails and pictures that he has shared.

Que tal amigos!

Today is my first P-Day at the MTC! My first couple of days have been a whirlwind

MIERCOLES - got dropped off and had so many emotions but they rushed us to drop off our crap in our rooms then all the new missionaries got rounded up in the main meeting room and sang called to serve and were addressed by the mtc presidency after we went to class and were introduced to our companion and district. Mi companeros nombre es Elder Israelsen! Hes 20 years old from north salt lake. He is going to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Our whole district is new to the MTC and we are all fairly new to spanish other than my companion, he is like a master already he is so smart and good at memorizing, which is good cuz I'm kinda competitive so I try to keep up with him hahah! Our teachers names are Hermana Chupitaz y Hermano Bates, they are awesome. Wednesday, we were introduced to our purpose as missionary and also began to learn spanish! At the end of the day we met our zone leaders elder olsen and silva they are really cook they report out to their missions next monday to tomorrow we will find who our new zone leaders are! We met them and introduced ourselves to our district.

My District

Hermana McCormick UT ---> Nashville, Tennessee

Hermana Freeman FL ---> Orem, Utah

Hermana Poynter UT ---> Pheonix, Arizona

Hermano Fanua Samoa ---> Somewhere in Texas

Elder Williams UT ---> Santa Rosa, California

Elder Ruesch CAL ---> Toronto, Canada

JUEVES - woke up at 6 am which was super fun.... then went throughout our scheduled day which consists of spanish and gospel class also personal and companion study at this point I feel like me and my district were still in shock of finally being in the MTC hahhaha everyone was super awkward at first. the classes are long but they are good. all the teachers are good at keeping us involved and stopping us from falling asleep. At the end of the end of the day we got to meet our Branch Presidency and introduce ourselves to them and the president also interviewed us and Elder Williams was made our district leader!

VIERNES - i feel like by this time i started to get used to the mtc and starting to realize spanish is super hard hahha but it chill cuz they gift of tongues is real and if i am humble and diligent then god will help me with everything i need help with :) (Ether 12:27) Friday was class and study but we also got EXERCISE TIME which I enjoyed cause i like sports and it's not class hahaha we had some gnarly games of volleyball and basketball then after it was back to studying and class until 9 then we go back to our rooms which is small and we have the four elders in two bunk beds.

SABADO - Pday!! Its weird to have a break from all day clase but we still kinda have a schedule so its hard to email everyone individually so i hope i can answer all questions in the group email. But if you do have question or just wanna tell me whats goin on in your life please email me, i can read emails whenever but i can only respond to questions pday! i fogot to mention our classroom for spanish is on the top floor of one of the new buildings and there are lots of windows and the views are really nice! The weather has been cold and has kinda rained and snowed but i packed good clothes so its fun to be around snow again! Im going to the temple right now but please email anything and ill try my best to respond before today ends!

Ill try to figure out how to send pictures through email hahhaah

Love and miss you all! :)

Love, Elder Wiser