Mission

I'm leaving today for the MTC which i'll enter tomorrow. I'm going off on my mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to Russsia, St. Petersburg.

You can write me on dearelder.com or send me a letter at the MTC until mid November when i'll be in Russia.

Sister Elizabeth Anne Wise
Russia St. Petersburg Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center box # [i dont know yet]
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604

I am sad to be leaving my family for so long but am so excited for the adventure that is ahead.

love beth

summer so far

Being home is nice, I spend my days doing errands with mom and John comes along sometimes too. I don't feel like I have downtime like I was hoping for but we get stuff done and I have read two books for fun already and thats nice.

John and I hiked the Billy Goat Trail last week...

and it was Mary Kates birthday...

and Daves is today. Yesterday we picked him up from scout camp where he's been working for a couple months...

and we went on a hike...

I got some new skirts and my favorite one is the only one i can't take on my mission with me. lame. but its ok, emma will take care of it.

I had raspberries on my cereal this morning mmmm.

I've been very emotional lately.

18 months is a long time. thats like going through the whole baby thing twice, not that I know what that feels like but timewise it works.

stressing stressing stressing out. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

HARRY POTTER HARRY POTTER HARRY POTTER

HARRY POTTER VI COMES OUT TONIGHT!!!!! [the half blood prince]

and in honor, please watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4

SISTER WISE!

I got my call on Thursday this past week, the 11th. What is awesome is that when I wrote the previous entry about being anxiously waiting...that was the day they did it all! how awesome?!

So, I'm headed to the Russia St. Petersburg mission! and am soooo excited!!!

"Have you heard? Theres a rumor in St. Petersburg! Have you heard? Sister Wise is preaching through the streets!"

I report to the MTC on August 26th [which is the same day I left for Ukraine last summer] Ukraine has prepared me a lot for this call, I wont have culture shock, I know I love Borsch and some foood, I love tea. haha its great! and I know a little russian, I can read and write in it, i just dont understand much. But thats what the MTC is for.

When I got my call I was sooo excited and freaking out and just shaking. The spirit was so strong. It was a beautiful moment to have so many people who care about me there, even my family through skype :)

So now afterwards I have this awesome little speech I wish I'd said but at the time I was just too excited and anxious and only said like three things. BUT it goes like this: On Tuesday we had a devo with Pres. Eyring and he talked about how the climbs that God gives us aren't meant for us to climb alone. [And then I'd add] that all you have been with me on this climb and I am so grateful for the help and company because you were needed. And now its time to move on to another climb. I love you all.

something like that. oh well. whoever goes on here will get to hear it now.

I am so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but now I have to study for my Physiology Exam on Respiration and Digestion. ahhhhhh

waiting

I'm really anxious and just waiting to hear about my call... If it comes this week I doubt I'll be able to get any homework done so im trying to do some ahead of time but I really cant concentrate. I need to just put it out of my mind and not concentrate on it when I dont have any control over it. but i cant help it ahhhh. my stomach is constantly jumpy and floping around. oy oy oy. I dont like the unknown. Im a planner, i like to be on top of things and see them out how theyre going to go. ive gone over the moment of it coming a thousand and two times in my head. always slightly different, tweeking it here and there. but it wont go that way. it will come completely unexpected and throw me out of thought. I dont know if i'll be able to open the envelope ill be so shakey with excitement and anxiety and ahhh. this week is sooo long. and it might not even get here till next week, or the next one. i have no idea.

Exhausted!

I just had my first mountain biking class -yes I get credit for going mountain biking. It was awesome, yes very hard and a lot of uphill, I even had to get off and walk up once BUT I made it on most parts. Wow, and the place we went had a gorgeous view. And Im making a really good friend in the class, she is just purely wonderful, we get along really well. I got all nice and sweaty and muddy and there were COWS! ahh they frightened me so much, I was just zipping down this one hill and there it was right around the corner. It was def scared but I think me moreso haha. And now im home and showered and clean and the soreness is just begining to set in... my butt hurts, I'm going to have to get some of those fancy padded butt biking shorts. Oh and gloves cause my hands are getting raw. I really look forward to every friday now. Supreme!

Also, I LOVE MARY KATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She made a giant map and put it up on the wall labeling all the places that everyone is guessing I will serve for my mission. She is the BEST. I am so happy, I can't stop grinning.

AND i've had two midterms this week, and was first completed with BOTH of them [in class] and they both seemed oddly easy. I guess Im improving on my study skills, sweet.

Neko Case was FANTASTIC! I loved it. She has a great stage presence and was hilarious. And shes beautiful and her voice, wow, very powerful. She played most of my favorite songs and
emmas favorite, star witness, was in the encore.

yesterday I shot hoops for an hour and half so that was really relaxing and haha I can feel slight arm muscles starting to form.

I got out of class at 10 and now its a super long weekend until wednesday! crazy. hopefully I'll find other people who stayed up here in the nothingness of Rexburg and make friends. I do have a TON of homework to do so thatll consume a lot of time. And its gorgeous out so ill cruise around on my bike some. Too bad dads not going to be in utah anymore or id have caught a ride down and seen him, oh well. I'll be down there next weekend for Neko Case- im sooooo excited!

So in my leadership class our homework assignment is to run the bleechers twice, ahhhh. and he said each set should take 4 minutes. oy!

Oh, i bet ill have time to play bananagrams this weekend! hooray. and set and all sorts of games. thats exciting. So i've been flying kites with Kelli everynight when the sun goes down. We lay in the grassy field and just fly them for an hour or so as a wind down for the day. It was fun because we would swoop down and try to cut each others string with our kite and actually succeeded twice, mad skills.

In meditation we learnt about this concept of SHENPA and its really neat. shenpa is when something consumes you and you obsess and freak and the natural human instinct is angst and be nervous and fearful and upset. Instead we should just step back and breathe and even meditate a minute to calm down and look at the situation and instead of jumping right to angst about the situation to realize there isnt much of anything we can do and to let the light of christ work in us and overcome the urge to panic and worry and have shenpa.

My plan for the weekend is to find a barbque to attend on monday.

I am jealous of all you back home who get to see all the motorcycles everywhere for Rolling Thunder. And of everyone who's going to the free wolf trap memorial day concert.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend Everybody!

Well its been a stress filled week but i'm holding on. I was informed today that there is a tunnel system under the sidewalks and you can get into it through a room in the basement of one of the buildings. I cant wait to explore!

And something else cool, I was walking through the parking lot after checking on my mission papers from the health center and this guy was walking too and holding a box of pizza and gave me a slice of his pepperoni pizza! it was awesome and inspired.

Oh! and in my D+C class I did a little powerpoint presentation on the phrase 'song of the righteous' and talked about music and worshiping through music. So the exciting part is, I played my harmonica in front of the class. I played sweet hour of prayer and it was pretty cool. I know because people told me, haha.

AND i had a study session for my program mgmt class and the only other person who showed up was this cute witty guy. It was fun.

I took my first physiology exam and got a B! an 86, solid.

Asside from massive wind storms, up to 60 mph and our power getting knocked out, nothing much is happening. and haha obviously its back on now...

and we've been having a desperate housewives marathon -my roommate has all 4 seasons!

I am going to help start Rexburgs first official series of Farmers Markets. Awesome huh?

It rained, snowed, hailed, fogged, and was sunny today. ahhhhhh. At least I have an umbrella ella ella a a a

So the first week is finished already! And the weather hasnt been terrible, maybe it'll really be summer term... who knows. I really enjoy all of my classes, they're fun and my teachers are great but I still feel overwhelmed by so much work. Hopefully I can stay on top of it all. I really like my apartment and having my own room is helping me get more work done. And my roommates are great as well. Kara from Idaho falls, Kristie from CA, Megan from WA and Kelli from TX. We went and saw Obsessed last night, it was intense and we were freaked out for a bit. Beyonce was in it and kicked butt!
Today I'm filling out parts of my mission papers!!! and then am going to do a ton of hw and go for a bike ride. yup, thats my whole plan. Hopefully it follows suit and any other activity is welcome.
AND i love the Neko Case cd I got last week, its fabulous. Hopefully I'll make it down to the concert in May, that would be awesome.
I need new brown sandals for church or just to go with my brown dresses.

For mom: the picture I put up in my mission papers.

Happy Earth Day

Today is Earth Day AND Dereks birthday so i'm going to celebrate both by eating ice cream and by the train tracks. AND i can play happy birthday day on the harmoncia...

easter time is the time for the eggs and the time for the eggs is the easter time

Easter was yesterday and it was lovely. It was great to be reunited with everyone. And the food was delicious and emma and dad made this pie that was to die for: raspberry and pear, HEAVENLY. and we had chocolate galore of course. I love easter.

Today I'm down visiting emma in Fredericksburg. We sat on a dock by the river for a while which was nice and peaceful. I love how well we can read each other, interperate actions and know how we'd respond to certain things. Its reassuring to have a deep connection with another person and to know itll always be there no matter how long we're apart. Sitting on the dock was so pleasant and dangling our legs was a rhythmic peacefulness. AND down the river in the distance there was a bridge and a couple of trains went by when we were sitting there. It was very nice.

We're going to get ice cream right now because Emma just found out that the project she was working on isnt actually due until thursday, hooray! what a great way to announce the fleeing of stress.

I woke up this morning and as I lay in my bed slowly registering the day, I heard a sound I almost couldnt recognize, this melodic yet strangely obnoxious sound. As I came to I realized it was birds chirping -the sign of a beautiful spring day! Then coming home from church there was a nice white surprise flying through the air. of course we got a crazy blizzard of snow. I cant believe it snowed today, it started off so nice. well at least its still march so that counts as wintertime.

Lets see...not too much is going on, im just super busy with school work. We went up to my fhe brothers cabin a couple weekends ago so that was pretty. I love being in the middle of nowhere seeing the stars so distinctly. I swear there were even more than they have in the planitarium!

My roommates made a little under one thousand cup cakes today and beautifuly frosted each one individually like MK always does. oh, my nail just broke -thats pretty lame. I've been practicing my harmonica a lot so when I get home you'll be blown away by my newly acquired musical abilities.

oh and I appreciate everyone for letting me interview them, it was great to catch up and I can't wait to see you all at eastertime!

karalee teaching for ex/ed

I've been working on setting up my schedule for this next semester and have it figured out so hopefully I will only have 2 semesters left once I get home from my mission, as long as class times dont overlap.

I'll be taking D+C, Anatomy PhysiologyII, Recreational Leadership, Program MGMT, Therapeutic Recreation, and Mountain Biking. I'm pretty excited, i'll be busy but thats a good thing. My classes start at 745 and 8 again everyday but at least next semester will be warm and light out.

My favorite place to go out to eat, Backyard BBQ has started having free bottomless french fries on mondays with any purchase so I have a new monday activity to add to watching 24.

I miss my boy...

i thought this was cute and funny, its dereks dad Bruce, and his youngest brother Caleb.

its play gun obviously but i just thought it was funny cause they're all hunter boys.

The whole family. i took these when i was at their house a couple weeks ago...

ahh im so bored, its saturday and I spent the day in the library and now am doing more hw... well i guess im taking a break.

I love easter season because they have Cadbury mini eggs and they are hands down the best holiday candy.

Last weekend I went down to my favorite spot in rexburg: the train tracks. It was so cold so I didnt stay as long as usual but it was very pretty out...

physiology stuff

you dont have to continue reading, its nothing really of interest about my life...

I just got out of an anat/phys study thing and its boggling my mind, so I figured I would stop by the library and jot what I remember down so I can think about it again sometime once I more fully own the concepts. WARNING: this might not make sense the way I am writing it because I am not using proper terms and just getting thoughts out. and i am strange sometimes. I mean come on, i am a wise :)

We have action potentials occuring constantly through our body. [depolarization from gradients changing and reaching threshold to release different elements] These trigger voltage gated channels oppening and continuing down reaction style through muscles and nerves [mostly] These lead down cell membranes and continue with lots of different channels and nerotransmitters going through and they eventually go out of the nerve and with new parts added go down into t-tuberals and hit sarcolemas which release calcium to move our sacromeres closer together and our muscle contracts because of other details like a meyosin head being attracted to the active sites and then ATP cocking the head back down to be released again. And to the interesting part...haha ok well
our brain controls how many muscle fibers our motor units [a motor neruron and all the muscle cells it connects to] need to connect to which says how much strenght is used for an event. [example picking up a bowling ball] now our muscles exert to their full potential each time they are used but there are just different amounts and sizes of the fibers connected that are told to perform each task. Now applying this: we see a bowling ball and go to pick it up. our mind sends action potentials down our motor units telling certain fibers to fire in order to contract our muscles and pick up the ball. Knowing bowling balls to be on the heavy side we will be using more fibers connected to our motor neruons than if we pick up a sheet of paper. Now as we pick up this bowling ball, it is a trick one [extremely light] and because we already exherted so much strenght to the event our arm shoots up and the ball gets thrown up in the air. So I started thinking, can we trick our brains by telling them to use certain size or amounts of muscle fibers or are they learned already from experience, since we are little. Try to apply too much force to picking up the mouse, you catch yourself and stop it. so that wont work unless you fully devote yourself to it somehow without hesitation, but it would be cool to try and be able to control them. You kind of do that with like hitting a baseball you use as many as you can, but you already know to because of hitting one before.
Now even our thoughts are moved by action potentials, they are shooting through our brains to create the possibility of the thought we hadnt even thought yet. Then I realize that by exersizing we are expanding our motor neurons and fibers right? and keeping small ones too. BUT that means when we are working out to build our muscles we are actually also building our brains by controling the muscle possibilities. Do we use all possible fibers when we try our harderst? do we have to consiously think about it to do so?

OK now that most things are out of my head and I have not come full circle I'm going home....haha maybe one day ill look at this again and try to make sense of it all. Until then, I'll stick to what will be on the exam.

who knew? nothings new.

so not much has been going on lately... I went sledding in the mountains last week with our home teachers. umm I've just been busy with school a lot. I really like what I learn in anatomy but it is totally kicking my butt. I have decided today that I am going to use our free service at the university and get a tutor. Mission prep is fun, I cant wait till I get to put my papers in. Experimental Ed Adv Challenge is still my favorite class. I havent heard from Badger yet but should this week. I'm anxious about that. We went bowling for FHE today. Oh my gums and mouth in general are doing a LOT better. Emma and I bought matching twin shoes for each other for our half birthday, hers came last week and mine arent due here until wednesday which is extremely lame because I have had an outfit planned out to wear them with all week long. Tomorrow I'm going to lunch with Natalie from home and on friday Beth Hansen is doing a photo shoot thing with me for her senior project. she is taking pictures of people looking how their major stereotypes them and as themselves normaly. pretty cool idea. I miss ukraine a lot lately. I wrote a letter to mikki [my freshman year roommate on her mission in arizona] like 2 full pages about ukraine and my experience. I really liked being there. Im sort of just procrastinating my homework right now... I should get on that. It hasnt snowed in Rexburg for almost a week and in fact it rained a little today it was so warm! thats all for now. I cant really think of anything else...

Today is the day Derek is going into the MTC. I am so sad but excited, he already has his first letter written to me and most likely has sent it out by now. I cant wait to read it and finally get his address, haha what a guy. These past two weeks have been amazing. We've hung out almost everyday and have had so much fun. The next two years should fly by 'hopefully'. it makes it easier to know that i'm only waiting for about 6 months and the last 18 ill be active instead. We connect so well and writing each other is going to be so powerful for our relationship. I spent the past weekend down at his house in IF. His family is so much fun. Oldest of 5 boys so theres never a dull moment. And his mom is amazing, we are very similar. im not saying im amazing i didnt mean for it to sound like that but we had a blast together.

School is difficult but now i'm less distracted so that might help me out... go figure.
oh yeah and i got the most beautiful necklace from Derek for a pre-valentine's day gift. it has 6 perodots [sp?] increasing in size in a wave down on a gold chain. Its perfect.
i'm off to mission prep class, its snowing like crazy out today!

...mom requested pictures...

We have a new president!

This weekend has been so much fun! I have a lot of pictures to catch up on as Alexis has so kindly reminded me...

my roommates are awesome, we all get along really well and have a blast together, and the other one in the picture is our pet cat who appeared outside our door one day. honestly it scared the crap out of me, like it was going to suck my soul at night or something... we got rid of it though, traded for some yummy pumpkin cookies to these boys who have disposed of it properly [shooting it of course]

ok so we have Jessie- el salvador, Cheri- CA, Chari-CA, Alexis-CA, Emma-CA, and me-east coast represent!

ok my friend Alyson who I met in ukraine and is at school at UVU came up for the long weekend and we had tons of fun. We went snowmobiling with Derek and Kelly and some relatives... it was amazing. We went to the Palacades (sp?) and they were gorgeous! the actual riding is fun but having to steer and turn on those things i did not really enjoy, my muscles ached like crazy for the next couple of days.

oh and our machine overheated and wasn't running correctly but since Derek is a mechanic, he figured out what was wrong and was able to after a little while of fidgeting, figure out the problem and fix it. I learnt to drive and I did a good job until this one turn i didnt slow down enough and well despite dereks attempt to stablize the machine, we fell off got ran over and it ran off into the deep powder hit a tree and got stuck. It really was fun though. oh yeah and bri came too.

AND as a goodbye for now since I am on a roll, here is a lovely picture of Dad from christmas time... credit to leslie.

queen of the mountain

Well today up at Targhee it was GORGEOUS, the sun was shinning, and it wasnt too hot nor cold with a slight wind. Our teacher said its the best day all season. We could see out for miles of the mountains around and the flat valley below, amazing.

I signed up for level 4 and my one hour class has 7 of us. Two girls five guys. the other girl has only been up on the mnt four times ever. and she could keep up with us! mostly. The guys seem like fun, 4 of us stayed together for the rest of the day and hit everything, jumps, powder, tree paths, it was great. I am so worn out though, ill sleep so soundly tonight!

when I got home chari's friend was up here from utah so a bunch of her friends were all invited to craigos so i tagged along. There ended up being like 4 girls from Stafford VA, and they know oliver/ the johnston family. that was pretty exciting.

School has been good so far, lots of studying but fun. Alyson my buddy from ukraine is coming up this weekend so that should be tons of fun. We're going to go snowmachining on saturday which is going to be a blast. I cant wait!

school

I've only been out here for 3 days and I feel quite at home. Everything is going well, my classes are challengingly interesting and I enjoy all the hard work i've already put into them. I've been mainly focusing on my anat/phys class, i really hope i can keep up so it doesnt kick my butt- theres a lot of studying and memorization required.

My Exp Ed/Adv challenge class is going to be so much fun, we meet in a dance room so we have no chairs, a giant mirror and get to take off our shoes and socks each time. I already know a bunch of the other students from previous rec classes too... AND this one girl named Melissa that i know served her mission in Oaklahoma and totally knows cousin Caitlin! She was like you know sister wise? i said, I am sister wise, and yes that one is my cousin! haha it was great.

Mission prep is fun, the guy has a whole lot of energy and is funny but kind of insane at times, im used to that though ;) the class has way more girls than guys which is really funny AND a lot of them are just in it for an easy grade and not actually planning on serving, its not my business though so i wont complain. I like the class because we get to sing 2 hymns at the beginning of every class 1 is always called to serve but the other gets changed up.

Im not sure how developmental psych is going to be, it seems cool well at least the topic does... but we havent done much yet so i bet itll get better.

I am so excited for snowboarding! sara cabrera and i went to the meeting today and i ran into my old roommates from colonial house, Tosha and Rachel who are both snowboarding and are level 4 so we are taking the class together! cool.

at our apartment we dont have wireless :( and our plug in box thing is missing from our room so thats lame... but its ok too because i study a lot better in the library.

today Emma is moving into Mary Washington, i hope it goes well. I'm rooting for you em! actually im about to call you back on my way down to my place for a quick snack before more studying, LAME.

oh nine!

Well new years was pretty great, Emma and I went down to richmond and got to celebrate with basically all my virginia friends that i never get to see so that was nice. I made my resolutions back in ukraine durring october, posture and patience so i've been working on those for a while. It was nice to see so many people Ive hung out with over the years all together in the same general spot. its weird to think that its 09 alreayd, i mean i was supposed to be graduating college by 10 but according to my plans itll still be at leats 3 more years to get my bs degree but its all good, they will be very effective and benificial years. ive thought it was saturday all day today but soon it actually will be so i wont be thrown off anymore. oh! my friend travis wears suspenders just like me, we were sooo happy to both be wearing them. AND my friend daniel has picked up the harmonica too so we jammed some. I really like them all and am sad i rarely have time to see people since im always gone but im glad i enjoy the time i do get.
i feel i have completely adjusted to life here and that ukraine really is just a memory but now i will be leaving again in a couple days to head back out to school which will take another whole reality switch on me and i have to change to student mode again. it wont take much time at all though, i am generally good at adapting.