We Are Still Having P-day on Friday!

June 23, 2014

Hey Famlay!

Guess what, we are still having P-day on Friday, but Elder Kimzey said that we could email today. So...hi :)

Yes we have been getting scary storms, I thought I liked them, but then I came here. The storm we had on Tuesday shook our whole apartment and the both of us awake. It was a good night for earplugs.

In answer to your 50th birthday question: England. Of course. No wait...only if I can go with you so...Italy :) That is so cool about Elder McGlothlin!! Way to be AP!! To be honest, I'm not surprised, he is an awesome missionary :) Do you guys have his email? I want to get back into contact with those guys.

This week mainly consisted of trying to find people to teach. On Tuesday we tracted for a few hours, handed out 4 Book of Mormon's and met a really nice car salesman named Josh and a YSA aged guy named Kyle who are interested in learning more! We set a goal for 12 other lessons and got 21, so we are pretty tracted out :)

Yesterday we knocked on Spring and her girls' door at 10 in the morning...just to make sure they were coming to church. And they did! For the first time in 3 months! It was great that Amber, her oldest went to Girls' Camp, she met a lot of fun people there. Sister Cutler, President Cutler's daughter-in-law, has to be my missionary rolemodel. She is so wonderful when we bring her to member-present lessons with Angela and she has that calm yet powerful demeanor that draw so many people to her. Her girls are the cutest and always run up to us to give us a hug :) She served in Belgium and then worked at the MTC! ...Which is what I really want to do after the mish. And...prepare for the big one...she is an AUTHOR! Their family is definitely one I want to keep in contact with. They give me strength to be a better missionary. Come to think of it...I think ALL the members in our ward do in some way.

Yes! I would love to keep getting the newspapers! Any new reading material (approved) is always fine with me :) That is so great that you are still teaching your eternigator Paula. We stopped by our eternigator Dee's house today and she went off on the 1 Timothy 1 scripture where it says that in the last days there will be many evil hypocrites who will say that you are not allowed to eat meat...thinking that it's us with the Word of Wisdom...and that God gave us meat to eat. I didn't know what to say when she challenged us to decide who is right: Timothy or Joseph Smith, so I calmly said--with that frustrated grin that has probably been permanently etched into my countenance by now :)--that we would study and ponder and get back with her. When I got home, I was rather frustrated seeing as how I had no idea how to respond. But when I read the footnotes, it cross-referenced D&C 49 where Joseph Smith is given the revelation concerning one of his friends who had gone apostate because of his dealings with the Shakers...who believe that Jesus already came and that meat should be refrained from...and the revelation is exactly what Timothy says regarding such. It is so interesting how people take SO many things out of context in order to fit things to what they want to believe. I am SO thankful for modern day revelation which confirms what every Christian heart longs to know: that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. She thought I was being "apolegetic" for the Word of Wisdom, because I was trying to state how coffee and smoking has addictive properties, but the fact is that I was being merely "consequential." I hope that God will reveal to us what to do with her, because as fun as it is going around and around with her regarding doctrine, where does the line have to be drawn if they are not willing to do what God asks of them to find these truths out for certain?

Kay, sorry for that tangent. I hope that we are able to find new ways to find people soon. Do any of you have any ideas? We were thinking of doing sidewalk chalk, but if you think of anything creative let me know please! :)

It is amazing how often the saying "We can do hard things" pops up from someone in a conversation or a talk and gives me a strong reminder of my motto while here, striving to do what I and everyone whom I serve with have covenanted to do.

Love you all!

-Sister Weaver-

Here is us on Saturday.
We were making candy
at Sister Black's house.

Yeah, we ar spazzes

I'm Happy The Daddio Had A Good Father's Day!

June 16, 2014

Dear Familia of Mine!

I'm happy that Daddio had a good Father's Day and that you were able to go to good ol' Warshington. I know how you all feel about leaving somewhere and then going back to where you used to live. Many missionaries, whose time is up here, feel like they are LEAVING home. I'm sure I will as well. You grow to love the people you visit and see mature spiritually...even some of them ARE cracked off their rockers or hopped up on goofballs. I hear fun stories from Elder Larsen about crazy Eugene, OR...since he goes to school at U of O (or whichever one is in Eugene). I find it amusing that we haven't even been to Granola Ville yet, us Oregonians :)

The G's are working out, thank you ever so much for getting them to me. The clothes and junk that I sent you I thought Allison might like (I got them at a free rummage) because I can't wear some of them with my g's. But if not, I guess you can just donate them. The tin was for Nani if she wanted it...Normal Rockwell! And whatever else, I guess you can stick in my cluttered room. All was a ploy to get rid of some of my stuff I didn't wear and don't want stuffed in my suitcase. Thank you for all that you do to help me out here :)

We were challenged to give out a Book of Mormon a day at Zone Conference and so far, we have been doing pretty well. The Book of Mormon is the key for inviting people to come unto Christ. When you think about it, the BOM is our missionary purpose!

This week when we visited Angela, we helped her focus on receiving answers to her prayers in relation to reading and PONDERING the Book of Mormon. We also focused on how prayer strengthens our relationship with our Father in Heaven. She told us that she knows that she needs to be patient and ponder more frequently after she reads. But she has been praying before reading!

We met a lovely little 9-year-old girl named Emily while tracting, and her mother Kari, who is also SO nice, said that she has college work to study, but she said that since Emily is interested we are more than welcome to teach her!

We have seen miracles being wrought with our less-actives we have been seeing as well. This week, after helping Spring Gaffke and her girls clean her backyard, we read from the Book of Mormon and they asked inspired questions about the book and how they can better understand what is going on. I am so grateful for the illustrated Book of Mormon to help keep things in perspective for the recent converts of our Ward. When we visited Candy and her boys, we were able to read the Book of Mormon with them too, and were so happy that Joey read with us, who is not yet a member, and Tyler, her other son read with us and said that he liked how Alma instructed his son not to boast of himself, but in the Lord. It is so sad that her son, Kody, who just turned 18 and was the one who baptized Spring and her family, is losing faith. He came home yesterday not wanting to read with us and I'm pretty sure that he was high :( I don't know what more we can do for him or many of the others who are falling. Sometimes I feel so helpless; I'm not a counselor (although many people think we are) but where does the line draw between preaching the gospel and trying to help people with personal issues?

Our Mission Prez is strict when it comes to media, attitude, and boundaries, but he is a little more lax on music...hallelujah! Luckily Elder Wise loves the same Christian music I do, so I have been able to listen to my favorite artists from our Christian radio station back home :) My Companion is hysterical. She thinks so deeply about things, my mind feels like its imploding (in a good way) during studies. She and I have so much spazziness in common it's a wonder we ever get anything done. But our unity is so strong when we teach and whenever we recognize how we can improve our teaching techniques. I love her so much and she counts me one of her besties :) She always acknowledges my strengths and I am truly grateful for her. I am working on letting her know how grateful I am, but you know me and how well I express that :P

Yes, it is sad how much people are trying to twist gospel truths to fit their own desires and circumstance. Someone at St. Vinny's (where we volunteer) said that she saw someone from our church on the news. Great, it was probably bad. She said that some woman is threatened with excommunication because of her trying to get women to have the priesthood. Don't know if you heard about that, but I guess it made national news :(

Today, my comp and I were talking about how it may have been a little hard for Heavenly Father to oppose a plan where it was guaranteed that all of His children would return to live with Him again...but at what cost? I think the fact that Heavenly Father wanted us to be free to choose Him and work out our own salvation by coming unto His Only Begotten shows just how true and selfless He is and how much He does love His children...It is sad hearing how many people see God as brutal in the Old Testament, and how He changes to a merciful God in the New. The fact of the matter is that it is not God who changes, but man. God did not close the heavens during the apostasy...man did, and now it seems that many are following that same pattern in this day and age. All we can do is hold steadfast to the truth that we DO know, and let God take care of the rest. He has fought our battles for us; we just have to trust Him. We can do it, for...in the words of Roku from Avatar, we have done it before :)

ALSO: I won't be able to email next Monday because Sister Silcox is going to the temple, and since I have already gone, we are going on exchanges and I am going to have my P-day on Thursday. I may or may not be able to write since I will be in another area for a day, but I will try so you can always check just incase :)

I love you all more than you can possibly comprehend!

Sister Weaver :)

Oh Family! You Are Such A Strength To Me!

June 9, 2014

Dear Family & Friends,

Oh family! You are such strength to me. I'm not going to mince words about how a mission is HARD, but with each passing day, we try to manipulate our weaknesses into strengths through recognition and then application. It's all we can do. We can complain, and moan, and murmur about how life stinks and people will never change, and how the MTC didn't prepare us for the dramas of people still living in a high-school mindset, but all-in-all, if we don't act on the truths we have learned, and apply them ourselves, before we even think about inviting others to do what we are preaching, all of the work we have covenanted to do is set at naught.

I don't know if you saw on the news about the two 12 year-old girls who assisted in the premeditated attempted murder of their friend, but it happened last Saturday and many in the ward are discouraged...because one of the girls' family is in our ward. I never met her, because she is sort of inactive seeing as how her mom isn't a member, but a couple of the girls in our ward know her. Brother Tateoka is their home teacher and he told us...before we even knew...not to stop by their home if we had been visiting them. He then told us at YW that if anyone questioned us about anything, to keep it on the DL, since we in reality didn't know the basics, just that it all tied back to an online gothic "game" of sorts where they were doing it in honor of one of the characters in some horror story someone had written. The girl who was stabbed 19 times is okay, but in the hospital still. They left her in the woods and she crawled to a bike path where a biker found her. The sad part is that they admitted it and because it was premeditated they will be tried as adults.

Satan is truly targeting children younger and younger, because it is this generation that has to be the strongest. We have been teaching the importance of instilling the values of the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the upbringing of our children in recent lessons we have been teaching, including the importance of family prayer as an invite. I agree with Brother Tateoka that the two things that the news will most target and glean from this tragedy is the website and the dangers of children accessing the Internet unsupervised and the age of the girls.

Please keep all families involved in your prayers.

That is so weird!!! YOU HAVE A DEE TOO!! ...She was the one that made me cry, sort of. She is an "eternal investigator" too and keeps learning things from outside sources about the history of the church and deep doctrine and everything EXCEPT the core truth that the gospel provides!! She doesn't want to keep the cycle of missionaries going either because she doesn't want to get attached so she's in a limbo right now where we are trying to limit seeing her because she doesn't want us to proselyte at her. Which kind of defeats our purpose, but she still wants us to help out with stuff, which we do want to do still. She wants us to help prep her patio this week for a housewarming party and said she would invite us, but only if we could remove our badges, because some of her religious friends would be there...BAHHHH!!! To remove our tag is to remove God. Anyway, sorry, it just ticks me off sometimes when people's soil (I am using my parable) is so hard and stony that no seed can take root, even when they have received certain things pertaining to the gospel to be true. This is a gospel of complete authority, and whatever you received as truth in the beginning, is just as true now as it was then. All that you have to do is hold on to it and remain true to it.

I think my parable went ok...I hope it did. Even if it didn't, I had fun doing it :)

Just dip a chip in THAT cheese pahaha

Love,

Your Dear Missionary, Sista Weava

P.S. Our district decided to go mini-golfing today instead of sports. Here's a pic.

Elders: Larsen, Kimzey, Wise and Hubert

No My Companion Didn't Get Sick...But EVERYONE Else Did

June 2, 2014

Dear Family & Friends,

No, my comp. didn't get sick...but EVERYONE else in our District did...not gonna lie. We were dropping like flies, so Sister Silcox went sanitize-happy...I don't blame her :)

This week is transfers and guess what?? We are all staying together again!!! That means I'll have been 6 months with Elder Kimzey and Hubert! (whoa...I'm coming up on 6 months in July...AHHHHH!!!) Since we are all staying together we have District Meeting on Tuesday and we all are giving lessons on parables. I chose to do the parable of the sower (about the testimony of people's hearts) in Matt. 13. I'm hoping to find some talks about it.

Sad about the Johnson's!! I hope that you guys will be able to still keep in contact with them. That's nice of Bro. Johnson to ask about Austin and I :)

Yay! Keep building those relationships with people outside of the church because missionaries' relationships are sometimes a transfer short, but it is those members' relationships that will last. As far as your investigator principal lady goes, I'm reminded of a quote from miss Marjorie Pay Hinckley: "First I obey, then I understand." Just some food for thought.

C.S. Lewis is so boss! I have "Mere Christianity" and 3 or four of his other books under my bed in my bin of books if you want to read it all. Also, check out the book of his called "The Screwtape Letters" at the library. I'm so sad I didn't keep that one. It is narrated by the devil and as creepy as THAT sounds, it is still a really good insight into how Satan works for our destruction and how God works for our good.

People are so sweet! After we got creeped out by some druggie on the street, we headed to Culver's and got dinner. Then, out of the blue comes some man I never met (who I thought was another creeper) but turned out to be the brother of someone in our ward, Brother Ducharme! He and his wife gave us a gift card for next time we come to Culver's, since they couldn't buy us dinner this time. And I thought people buying you stuff on the mish was just a myth! Anyway it was cool. It's interesting how the Lord puts all kinds of people in our path in the same hour, some who bring us discomfort and some who bring us joy :) Don't judge anyone too quickly.

We were blessed with the opportunity to attend a couple of BBQ's this week were a lot of less-actives in attendance. We met a man from Milwaukee who said he would be interested in learning more so we will refer him to the missionaries by him. Candy attended Church and we were able to watch Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration with her and Spring's girls. We also answered some questions they had about the restoration.

We taught Angela about modern-day prophets and read an excerpt from Thomas S. Monson's talk he gave in General Conference about loving one another. After we asked her if she had received an answer about whether Joseph Smith was a prophet she said, "It's fathomable."

The Blacks sat in when we taught Brandon and helped answer a lot of his questions about the Holy Ghost and Priesthood Authority.

When we met with Renee, and taught her The Plan of Salvation she said that she was really interested in the Book of Mormon and likened what she had recently read to herself! She also bore testimony of the Holy Ghost and how she feels it every time we meet. We taught her more about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how she can feel that same happiness constantly. Rosa sat in with us and bore powerful testimony of her conversion and how she feels as a new member of the church. She wants to come to at least one lesson with us a week.

Jesus read Alma 7 with us and Gao, when we went over last night, to discuss how the Atonement has blessed him. He and Gao have an understanding where he will be in attendance with her every time she goes to church. I truly hope that some day his going to church and reading the Book of Mormon will help strengthen his testimony to the witness he has already received about the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I love you all! Know that all is well here and with each step I see the people around me taking toward the Savior, the wider the window of my understanding opens toward His eternal promises.

...And remember the truth that once was spoken: to love another person is to see the face of God! :)

-Sista Weava!-

P.S. Someone's phone went off with mama’s ringtone just a sec ago and I thought it may have been you, pah!