Sister Rausseau Informed Me Of Something Miraculous!

January 26, 2015

HOWDY Y'ALL!!

Haha yeah in our mission there is slang (which we are supposed to abstain from) like I was "born" in Waukesha and I will probably end up "dying" here in Wausau. One sister I know has already "killed off" (or her companions finished their mission with her) three of her companions; stuff like that...

Yes I did get those CD's and don't worry, I will :) In my neck of the woods, I have one word: snow.

I love what you said about the importance of keeping in touch with your converts. Sister Rousseau informed me of something miraculous that happened with Chris (the one who just got baptized before I left):

"...he helped out with The Book of Mormon obstacle course this past Wednesday night for the youth activity. This obstacle course was one at which we had some people in the classrooms, with closed doors, of a hallway at the church. The youth then had about 8 minutes to give away as many copies of the Book of Mormon as they could. They got a point for doing things such as testifying of The Book of Mormon, sharing a scripture, leaving a commitment, praying, getting contact information, and getting a return appointment. The 'district' that got the most points would then earn a topping for their ice cream sundae later that night. The youth had a blast! It was a tender mercy to me to be able to be there, feel of the spirit that the youth have and to feel their enthusiasm in testifying of the Book of Mormon and of Christ. Youth from all different backgrounds had powerful spiritual experiences that night. One specifically, that impacted me was of a young woman and her friend she brought with her who is not yet a member of the church. They were companions for this activity. They went and they knocked on the door that Chris was behind. Chris invites them in, they teach him, they testify, the nonmember friend kneels with Chris and her friend and they pray. They came out of that room with joy penetrating their faces. They had felt the spirit! They recognized that! They told us that it was an incredible experience. The young woman who was a member had helped her not yet member friend have an experience during which she felt the spirit!"

She also says that so many people we taught have been progressing! I am so happy for the opportunity to assist in this work!!

On a more pathetic note, opposition kicked my butt the last few days in the form of the nasty stomach-flu fever. Yes, I did throw up. Yes, the other too. All-in-all it was a lovely date with the toilet. But luckily Sister Jardine and the Vesley's took care of me bringing me pop and saltines so I am doing better for this new week dedicated to finding and baptismal date-setting! I experienced some amazing miracles on exchanges with Sister Roper! She has that quiet, but strong attitude that helps people open up and trust her. She also gave me the opportunity to really take initiative, which I am so grateful for. We brought a recent return-missionary from the ward with us to a few lessons and she helped us introduce so many more people to the gospel as well!

Our investigator Thim came to church and she brought her daughter, who is going through a lot of hardship right now :( But they really enjoyed the YSA Sacrament meeting and I hope that her daughter will open up to us more now.

Alex, our less-active Heather's boyfriend, allowed us to teach him the first discussion again and asked some very good questions about prophets, after which he agreed to read and pray to know the church is true. We hope to be setting a baptimal date with him hopefully soon, but things will be tricky with their living situation...We will be seeing them again for dinner this week :)

Poor Sister Jardine is so nervous about going home in 2 weeks! ...so am I haha How strange to be in this position where I will have to take over an area I have only been in for a transfer. Oh well, I'm sure the Lord knows what he's doing. We shared testimonies about trials and fear on Sunday and I was again reminded of how the Lord gives us opportunities in which our fear can be turned into strength. Sadly, we can't control when scary situations happen. They just do. But we can control what we do with them. When we become fearful, we have to ask ourselves, "Okay, I'm scared, now what am I going to do about it?" We can either fight or flight. Every time I stress out or wonder how I'm going to get out of an anxious situation I always think of your voice, Mommy, yelling at my brain: "You're FINE! Quit worrying about it!" It always calms me down so much I am so grateful :)

You all are such amazing people, how was I blessed to be given such a phenomenal familia?

Love you all as much as I hate throwing up!

-Sister Weaver-

1) Oh yeah we had a lovely Hmong feast 

at one of our member's homes. 

It was their birthday! 

The Hmong Elders Dobyns and Vang

2) At the feast there were 12ish courses

 of MEAT and like 4 desserts.

 They just kept giving us food!

 Sadly, this was all BEFORE I lost

 the contents in my stomach haha

3) Exchanges! Sister Roper is a writer too!

 She wanted to hear all about my stories.

 It was grand!

HaHa I Love How We Totally Aren't Into Football!

January 19, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

BAH! Her ring is GORGEOUS! I can't believe these little girls are growing up so fast! How I wish I could come to her wedding. Oh well, if the impossible dream ever happens of me being sealed in holy matrimony, she better come! Hopefully Karissa's isn't till I get home! Could you send me their emails? I have been horrible at writing people who I count as friends. I hope the world may forgive my ridiculousness.

Haha I love how we totally aren't into football, but it takes coming here to totally turn the tables. I could get killed if I let a packer-fan know I was a Seahawks fan here...so I've been keeping it on the DL...except for taunting the Elders. Babies.

Yeah poor Elder Larsen in probably in a manic depression because the Ducks lost (his own college team), and everyone I meet who finds out I'm from Oregon is like: "Aw, how do you feel about the Ducks losing?" And I'm like: "I could really care less to be honest." And then I'm shunned. So I've decided to put my acting skills to use and play the heart-broken. Sometimes, I'll admit, it is rather hard to introduce another religion to a population who is "religiously" entangled with the football world :) But miracles happen!

Yesterday was miraculous! Kelly, Gloria, Spencer, and Kathy (three of whom have baptismal dates) all came to church and they loved it! All of the meetings were very spiritual and gave them the opportunity to bear their own personal testimonies of Jesus Christ.

The boyfriend of one of our investigators, Heather, wants to learn more so we will start discussions this week with them. We also set three more baptismal dates with a family: Tamika, Brittany, and Brenda! I look forward to seeing their progress. We are also helping our ward work on a new Ward Mission Plan that helps families create their own, providing more opportunities to invite missionaries into their home to teach their friends (also opening their home to new investigators the missionaries may be working with).

On Thursday we held a meeting with the leaders in our zone in which we can set new goals to set baptismal dates and build up everyone's enthusiasm for the work once the investigators we have are baptized. I am so excited for the inspired counsel everyone was able to give and for this plan to build up our teaching pools once more to go forth!

Exchanges went great! After going to Steven's Point with Sister Kunz, my testimony of the importance of bearing personal testimony increased. Sister Kunz is a very dedicated and hard-working missionary who has developed strong bonds with the members and non-members there. I was so excited to meet a Native American woman and her daughter that the sisters were working with and teach them about Christ! It was so weird trying to primary-down the lesson so a 9 year-old who doesn't know about Christ can understand :)

This work is real. The church is true. People can change.

Love you all! This week offer to go out with or open our home to someone the missionaries are teaching if you can...they will love that!

-Sister Weaver-

P.S. I found my cord!! The Lord is merciful to his un-focused daughter.

Sister J and I
Sorry it's Fuzzy
And she never smiles,
so don't judge :)

For my ONE-YEAR
Brother Thomas (our Ward Mission Leader)
gave me a candle in the brownies he offered
all us missionaries during correlation at his
house.  Then they sang.  It was both sweet
and embarrassing :)

It's a sign of the Millennium!
Gas is under two bucks!!!!!!

I Am Psyched For The "Elijah Project"!

January 12, 2015

Hey Hey Hey Dearest Familia & Friends!

I am psyched for the "Elijah Project" I still; have to get some names to prepare for the temple, but July is still far away. I am so impressed with how big everyone is into family history here. We've been helping some Recent Converts get into it and Brother Sell in the ward is SO boss about it.

This week we continued to re-establish contact with a lot of recent converts who need new member discussions and we've been striving to build up our teaching pool. We found a couple of new investigators, one named Josie, who we gave a run-down of the Restoration and is eager to learn more! We will hopefully be setting a baptismal date with her this week.

We met with Stephanie, her son Spencer, and Kathy (Stephanie's soon-to-be daughter-in-law)...who I have been so eager to meet with who have had baptismal dates in the past, but they don't believe they are ready yet. We, however, will still be helping them work towards baptism because they still want to get baptized. We are beginning the lessons with Kathy, who wants to learn about the church, but does not think she can give up coffee. She said that in would not make sense if the Lord did not accept her into His kingdom because she drank it. We explained the importance of commandments and reassured her that the Lord will not hold someone accountable who does not understand the commandments, but it is conditional on whether or not we strive to learn if that it His will or not. Then we strongly invited her to pray and read to know if this is Christ's true doctrine or not.

We also began teaching a few former investigators again. One of them, Lisa, a Catholic, but still open to learning, I am really excited about teaching. They all have such a beautiful family!

I have the best hopes for this New Year and hope that all of you will as well!

Keep working hard and remember that (now I'm really going to quote High School Musical) we're all in this together!

-Sister Weaver-

Sister Training Leader - Letter From Mission President

January 9, 2014

Mission Leadership Council

Sisters Jardine, Weaver, Ostler, Christiansen

Sisters Jardine & Weaver

A New Transfer Day - New Mailing Address

January 5, 2015

A New Transfer Day For Sister Weaver

My New Address is:

1202 Monroe St., Wausau, WI 54403

:)

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!

December 29, 2014

Chris's Baptism

HAPPY NEW YEAR FAMILY & Friends!! (almost)

Sorry I had to cut our chat! :( But I loved seeing your beeeutiful faces!! That is so cool that you all get to go to the lovely lands of western 'Merica! And please take ridiculous amounts of pictures please :)

I'm not sure about what we are doing for New Year's because I am getting transferred to Wausau New Year's Eve!.........As a Sister Training Leader! BAH! I don't know how I will do it, but I know the Lord has called me to it for a reason. I'm so excited to help and learn from my fellow missionaries in the Wausau Zone and strive to continue in the missionary spirit that Sister Rousseau has helped me develop while here.

CHRIS GOT BAPTIZED YESTERDAY!!! It was so neat to see all of the support from the ward in attendance as he made this important first step in his journey of enduring to the end and returning to his Heavenly Father's presence. Sister Milhone from the YSA ward contacted us that very day and said she had informed the YSA Ward Mission Leader about him and getting him involved in the YSA activities. We are planning to teach the first new member lesson this week. He is on his way!

We finally were able to set a date with Eric! It will be a while, but he agreed to work towards receiving his answer by May. We also set a date with Kim, who is so excited to learn about the gospel and read from the Book of Mormon and receive a witness of the truth for herself. We met with a woman named Cassandra also, who began to cry when she expressed how grateful she is for people who want to share more of the word of God.

We met Clint, Dominique's fiancé, who just got out of jail and he absorbed the story of the Book of Mormon and where it came from very well. 

Love you all and never ever forget who you are or why you are where you are all at this present time! Thank you for the inspired words of encouragement Momasita! I love you all so much and will see your shining faces again in 4ish months :)

-Sister Weaver-

Me and the Williams family 

(our Ward Mission Leader)

Teaching at a Single’s thing

Me getting presents    

Us photo-opping after Mass

Me at the Capital

Our Christmas hats

Opening Dominique’s presents

Allison and B’u’erscotchy 

during Skpe call to home.

The Whole Family Together Again

Merry Christmas 2014