Thank You All For The Pics!!!

July 28, 2014

Weirdos
Sister Trent & Sister Weaver

Dearest Family,

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE PICS!!! It makes me so happy (and shocked) to see all the changes going on at home. Tell cuz Chris hello from the happy land of WI! He is so cool and facial-hairy! I hope that everything works out wonderfully between him and his (would-be? or already?) girlfriend. That's so great that Karissa graduated!! Is she still pursuing Criminology?

As for the iPads, instruction for the President concerning them comes in September, but until then, nada. Don't worry, this week I made up for lack of appetite by eating the million cinnamon rolls we baked (YES, I actually played a hand in BAKING) at a less active's house, Harriett who is almost as sarcastic as I am (almost). Mommy, I am so happy that you are being such an amazing missionary. And it didn't shock me as much as you think…you all don't know how wonderful you are as missionaries. A lot of people in the wards I've been to don't take nearly as much initiative as you do.

Yeah! Georgia O'Keefe! The museum we work at has pics and artifacts about her for DAYS! Oooooh!! And tell Allison this: we went to the warehouse where all of the cool antiques are kept that aren't in the museum and they have old 1800s-1900's clothing galore! I will take a pic for her. ...Elder Stephens likes to try them on.

Actual size of Goliath

As a goal for our district, we all committed to have 4 baptisms by the end of the transfer. I hope and pray that God will grant us this petition and we may all continue boldly, nobly, and independently on the quest to find the one! This week we got 5 new investigators. I am so looking forward to meeting with them this week. We also got a couple of solid potentials tracting so I'm hoping for the best with them, too. We showed the Stoll's the Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration movie and they loved it. Bill didn't seem like he did at first, but then started to cry as he talked about how well it was done. Luella liked it very much as well, so we hope that it will help answer some of the questions they have about the church.

Yesterday we visited with a less active woman named Lori who was kind of shut-offish at first but then opened up once Sister Trent asked her about a painting on her wall. She is such a gifted artist and we encouraged her to keep up this beautiful talent. She then asked us about patriarchal blessings and what they are. I told her how powerful they were, and when she asked about why women do not hold the priesthood, I bore testimony about how we all act under that authority, which is not men's but God's and about an experience I had being healed by God through it. I hope she continues to open up to and trust us so that she will feel comfortable at church once more.

Painting by Lori of the Holy Spirit
descending among a grove of trees.
She is amazing!

Also, we are in the process of teaching a woman named Amina who believes in Greek mythology (a.k.a Greek gods). I am wondering if you have any advice on how to approach that.

That is crazy the speakers were coming loose. No bueno. We had an interesting Sunday, too...the sewage overflowed in the bathroom :) So...we got to skip last hour. But as missionaries who have every single thing planned, we had no idea what we were going to do...we never prepare back-ups for church. But it all worked out and we visited with some people. (Our church is at 10:00 BTW)

Today we played sports and I didn't stink too bad, making 3 baskets. (Dunno where THAT came from...people must have felt sorry for me so they let me shoot). We are going to Brother Fulmer's tonight (who conducted mission-prep yesterday and asked us missionaries to participate) for dinner and we get to see his studio!!!! I have heard SO much about him from Sister Silcox: he wrote and illustrated a book about all of the once-mentioned obscure characters in the BOM and shared their stories. He thinks about the BOM in such a way that I never thought possible, but it makes so much sense. I'll send you pictures.

This flower is called
a King Lomoni...
go figure :)

I'm sorry Da was so sick. But glad he's feeling better. Tell him that his pictures are so beautiful of everyone, I can't stand it.

I am sorry I sent back my snow boots :( I didn't wear them at all this winter and stuck with my other two pairs. You do not have to send anything back...I have all that I used this last winter. I am sorry I sent so much back...I accumulated ALOT more than I thought from the free rummage sale a few months ago (and it was all FREE). I'm glad sissy now has school clothes. Thank you for everything you have sent me these past months, but I did not end up using all of it :(

Me and Scotch-a-roos we made
(the peanut-butter, rice crispy,
butterscotch, chocochip bars)
mommy makes, yum!

To keep the getting in trouble merriment going, I kind of sort of almost maybe got a text telling me to slow down around the corners while driving last week. We rarely used the GPS, so Sister Trent was pointing out where to go and TIWI, the automated missionary-control-your-driving-thing, yelled at me too much. Well, now I know. I've never had a TIWI before.

I knew the modern-day prophets were boss, but no idea HOW boss. We stole (borrowed) the presidents of the church DVD from the church library and have been watching them at lunch. WOW!!! All of them pretty much saw God and had crazy divine help from the other side all the time like the prophet Joseph and his dad were petitioning for George Albert Smith (or Heber J. Grant) to become the next prophet and all kinds of coolness. I wonder if President Monson has talked with God face to face or not? If he has, I'm sure he wouldn't go telling everyone unless it was truly necessary. I have a testimony that modern-day prophets are ordained of God, despite the objections of those who oppose the church and its order.

Bless YOU!  I love you most!

-Sister Weaver-

P.S. And yes, the 'squatters’ are not cool. Our legs look like they have chicken pox :)