Yessirie Easter Is Upon The Horizon!

March 30, 2015

The Mission

Dear Family & Friends,

Thank you so much for your email! That women's meeting really made me think about you all and the different things you all are pursuing in life. Although I felt a lot like the woman who said that she has no patience for kids and was glad that I was not alone in that respect :) I was very pleased to hear the women be so bold about defending the doctrine of the family. I'm ashamed to sound like a feminist but I sometimes dread going to the women's meeting because some of the speakers fall into the habit of sugar-coating things, but they certainly didn't this time. I went with the question of how we as women can better defend the priesthood and our brethren in it and obtain power to do so; I absolutely loved that story of the girl who fought off an angry mob with the word of God. Yay women!

Yessirie Easter is upon the horizon! I hope that it is a spiritually uplifting and beautiful one for you all. I hear that the church is taking over Youtube homepage again for the whole day of Easter. Nothing but LDS links and no stupid/sleezy ones! What a cool break THAT will be! And soon we'll celebrate Mommy's Day! How weird will it be when I skype home and bro will be there?? BAH!! I may or may not already feeling a bit trunkified, but I will not allow myself to become the full aspect of the word "trunky"! I can't afford it! Too many things are happening! However, if I was truly trunky I would not even stress about about setting some goals upon coming home (i.e. go out with the missionaries; working a couple of jobs, hopefully one at a school; applying for college (again) maybe at UVU (open enrollment!); transferring my records to the Single's Ward ; etc.).

I am so PSYCHED for General Conference! So many cool things will be revealed, I can't stand it! It's like Christmas! (Christmas and Easter all rolled into one? BAH!!)

Our car is back safe and sound (or as safe as can be expected except for an annoying rumbling noise when it doesn't have time to warm up). Luckily the weather is a-warmin! Slowly but surely!

Everyone in our Zone is working so hard it is truly miraculous! We have 40 bap dates after we set the goal for 30, woohoo!!

Thim, Brother Lefferts, and Brad all came to church! I was so amazed at the wonderful reception the members gave to Brad. It was his first time at church and he stayed for all three meetings, plus the potluck afterwards. Since it was the fifth Sunday, he truly enjoyed the third hour all about missionary work and he gave a referral to the Elders saying that he wanted to bring his friend to church with him next time. We look forward to seeing him progress in the gospel and work toward May 9th, but will be giving him over to the Elders to teach :) Thim enjoyed the testimonies, but her daughter and niece were desperate to get home, so she didn't stay for the rest :( But I was so happy to see them there.

The "Because He Lives" initiative has been a wonderful finding tool, although not many people were interested in inviting us back to hear more. Still, we were able to get the word out there in a way that would not have been as heart-softening if we hadn't. We shared the card with Alina, who we met a while ago, and she is open to meeting with us this week! And she has a family!

We set a date with Andrea and she is excited to watch General Conference; she asked us also if we could meet with her more than once a week which was incredible!

I loved that quote you concluded you email with: we ARE standing in the the place of the Savior for we are representing Him. If I can help but one more person this week understand more about the Atonement, it will verify this truth. I love Elder Wirthlin's message he gave about the Savior's Atonement and how each child of God's "Sunday Will Come" for our Lord and Savior is the one with whom we can overcome all of the frailities of life...even death. I love when Elder Christiansen also lighted upon this eternal fact when he stated: "You can't do this. If you rely solely upon your own strength, then there is no way that your mission can be fulfilled. Only with the Lord can this work be done." Use His Atonement, and you never need fear that the burden is too heavy.

Love you all more than I love boxes of cereal for $1.00!

-Sister Weaver-

P.S. We passed a store today called "Cartridge World" and I had to quote: "Do you sell cartridges here?" ..."Here? At Cartridge World? Gee, I dunno..."

The cute Lefferts took us out
to lunch for her birthday
at this swanky restaurant!
It was so nice!    

At the restaurant,
there was this
bathroom stall for
"Special Little People".
Sister King said it
was just for me...
it was like a nursery potty!
 And yes, I used it.    

Happy Spring(?)

March 23, 2015

Happy Spring(?) Family & Friends,

Yeah we were shown the "Because He Lives" video a couple of months ago and it is so wonderful to see people open up more when we try sharing a "card" about a video about Jesus for Easter, rather than charging in with first impressions of the fact we are missionaries and yes, we do want to baptize you, haha.

That's good that you are on break! You sure do deserve it Momasita!

Sad day that bro is getting transferred, but good, too! Transfers are upon us as well! Luckily our whole district is staying the same, but SO many other changes are happening!! WAUKESHA CLOSED as a sister's area :( ! Just the Spanish and English Elders are left! But we are over one more area of sisters as STL's! Woohoo!

I am truly grateful for the inspired missionaries in this mission. This last week we set the goal to set 30 baptismal dates and so far our zone has exceeded the goal by 6. We know what we are capable of and we seek to maintain these dates in which we can help our investigators more effectively progress towards baptism.

I am so grateful for the counsel given at Mission Conference as well. It truly was inspired :) No Elder L. Tom Perry though :( I guess that he was needed elsewhere to prepare for General Conference, because Thomas S. Monson and Elder Packer's health is not doing well, so he is next in command. It was okay though because Elder Christiansen from the Seventy said the words I think we all needed to hear. It will greatly help the mission become a more Christ like and focused people :) ...And I have a feeling that General Conference will yield many changes as well, concerning revelation and leadership. And it was so great to see everyone (still here) from the mission and hear about what's happening in our old areas. I guess that Eric in Sun Prairie is set for April 11th and the Elders are teaching him now! And Candy and Kathy from Waukesha are going to the temple! After the meeting, we were all so emotionally and spiritually drained like WE had just gone to the temple...I have no doubts that the Celestial Kingdom will feel any less like that experience did (except for the draining part :) I look forward to having that kind of reunion with my brothers and sisters I have served with and among once more when we reach the presence of our Lord and Savior. We got to take a whole mission picture, which was very claustrophobic, but it should be on the mission blog.

We saw Brad again and invited him to baptism, where he said that he would if he knew the gospel was true. Lorena, our new investigator with a lot of promise, said she wanted to talk to her husband to see if he would like to learn with her! And Andrea, our referral from the elders who is striving for her May 9th baptism, has been reading the Book of Mormon with her boyfriend Andres, who is continuing to sit in for discussions. Mai Lee, a recent convert, will be a wonderful fellowshipper for them. Kelly, who is set for April 25th, is only down to half a pack a day! We hope she will continue to work towards quitting her smoking habit.

On Sunday we were so pleased to see the Lissner's stay for all three meetings and we will be continuing new member lessons this week. They are both striving to get their patriarchal blessings. Amy also came! Sister Harris, who just got home from her mission, wants to help fellowship her during the new member lessons instead of JUST the Chadderdon’s. Amy is doing very well being a good example of living the commandments to her family...it's just getting her to church that's been the issue. Brother Mar also came to church (all by himself!), and Kelly stayed for all three meetings.

I echo the words of our inspired leaders from Mission Conference, when they stated during the Q&A when asked about how we can stay focused on our missions and our purpose as the Lord's anointed proclaimers of truth: Look to the examples of Christ-like love: Your Mission President and his wife, your parents, your family members your true friends and those who are praying for you and setting the best examples of Christ in your life. Look to them and act in accordance with their examples, and you will never lose sight of your purpose. Thanks for being such wonderful examples of Christlike love to me :) Love you as much as I love this work!

-Sister Weaver-

P.S. Please let me know if there is anything you need or I can help with :)

Our ride to Milwaukee! We stayed in Waukesha
over night with the Blacks!!! My favorite theatrical
family of craziness! I was so happy to catch up
with them and the happenings in the ward!
They made us breakfast and their sons put girly
sheets on their beds (since we were staying the
night in their rooms) while everyone camped out
downstairs. It was the sweetest thing I've ever seen!     

I saw Sister Rousseau at Conference!    

Gabby's one-year mark for being
baptized was yesterday!    

Saints Prasarve Us!

March 16, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

My trainer Sister Anderson is
now officially engaged!!
Check out her hunk of bumin’ love!
  Yay, for the RM’s who get married!!!!

Saints Prasarve Us! (You like my attempt? ...And yet all I hear is Da's "...It gives me da winds somethin' fierce!")

That is so cool to hear about Nicole and Damon! Send them my congrats! I will also for sure wish the peeps a happy birthday!

That is hilarious about the power-outage. And I'm not surprised about Da rushing to the rescue.

Yeah, Sister King and I had a panic attack when we saw that by the time bro comes home we will have like 3 months left. AHHHHH!!!!!!!! There's so much more I still have to do! I am so excited that bro is going to have that time to y'all by himself. Yay family-time!

Yes this week is going to be amazing driving up to Milwaukee to hear Elder Perry! Did you know he served in Wisconsin??

Exchanges with the Wisconsin Rapids Sisters went great! Sister Elkington is a very strong missionary in the aspect that she is always willing to do the work, even if it is tracting for an hour. In the attached pic we decided to get a pic at the cemetery since it was all melty! Sister Hoehn bought us ice cream and drove us around before we went and got our car!!!! Woohoo!!!

Our Cemetery Adventure

Exchanges with the Gresham sisters was an adventure as well. My main goal, on that exchange, was to help Sister Cook re-establish the missionary purpose with those who the old sisters had been teaching/spending time with for a long while. We did so with Steve, who we invited to baptism and he said he would! Sister Cook is excited to help him stay on target for his baptism in May. We stayed with Grandma Rico, who is the perfect epitome of a "humble" servant of the Lord and has been housing missionaries for 10 years! She has an old wood-burning stove and makes the craziest concoctions anywhere from road-kill to carrot and beet-juice...I had four oatmeal and carrot pancakes for breakfast, but had to stay away from her homemade yoghurt. I'm sure it was delicious.

Grandma Rico herself!!

This week we met so many new and prepared people ready to receive the gospel. The Lord gives us power when we open our mouths, and my testimony was strengthened in that aspect of the F.A.S.T. this week. I am grateful for the goals we have set as a Zone to prepare for the coming of an apostle by establishing expectations with our investigators and setting baptismal dates, and also building our teaching pool once more. We discussed how we as leaders will set a bap date by the end of last week to set the example and be held accountable before our zone, and with much pleading to the Lord, He granted us the opportunity to set one with one of the elder's referrals, Sandra. She got more excited learning about the Book of Mormon, after she tried to give back her copy last week, as we taught the restoration while drawing her the BOM map, and committed to work toward baptism on May 2nd. I look forward to see her progress!

We also met Brad, who opened up to us about how the Lord has blessed him and is currently trying to find a place to live and get on his feet. The Spirit was so strong! He agreed to check out church, so we hope to see him there soon!

Thim finally came to church! And she brought her daughter (who wasn't too happy to be there, but after talking with Elders Vang about church, she softened up a bit). We met with her on Friday on a whim catching her right as she was getting home, and encouraged her to talk to her boyfriend about her desires for baptism. We agreed to review the lessons with her, since it's been a while and she is shaky on understanding the doctrine, as she helps him see how much it will bless their family's lives. Luckily, the elders have been teaching her nieces, so they are willing to help work with her husband.

CATHY: Hope your birthday was amazing and you all ate a lot of cake for me! Hope you have a wonderful week and I love you so much! Thank you for all of your support and beautiful example you are! MUAH!!

"...And may the road rise up ta meet ya!"

Love you all more than Patrick loves being a saint! Have the happiest St. Patty's Day and yup, we all need to be united in green!

-Sister Weaver-

FHE with the Hmong peeps!!!

Mommyoyupya! (Imagine that in my squeaky voice)

Us on da bus!    

March 9, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

That's awesome that President sent you a letter, he is so amazing...even though I fell oober intimidated by him sometimes when I feel I am not meeting the expectations as an STL, (baptizing frequently, getting people to church, etc.). But he truly is inspired and this is the call he must fulfill! MLC was amazing and "priesthood" based, talking about the POWER of the priesthood versus the AUTHORITY of the priesthood. I love when Sister Cutler said, "priesthood power does not come with a calling, it comes with personal worthiness..." How true that is!  We will be giving a training on that tomorrow so I'm excited!  Then the Assistants gave a training on asking for and following up with referrals, doing a role-play that was HILARIOUS! There is only one Elder Stephens...all I can say is that costumes were involved.

We haven't gotten to see L. Tom Perry yet, that will be on the 21st, but it will be so great to see ALL the missionaries too, literally united in the cause of Christ!

So, we may or may not have been without a car this whole week. We were leaking oil, so we went to Sears to get it checked. After thinking it was just a small leak, since it was a new car they said that there was split in our crankshaft and oil was getting EVERYWHERE! So they sent us over to Subaru and after a lot of car-language talk that I don't understand they said that we could come get our car the next day after they fixed it. We come the next day (sweet amazing members who give us rides!) then amidst even more car talk they say that one of the chains snapped and combusted the engine...So just a few more days. Then, we get a call that our parts got lost in Georgia, so...yeah. If there is one thing I have learned from this experience NEVER EVER BUY A SUBARU! But, the people have been very gracious about it, offering us a rental to drive, even though we sadly, cannot drive non-mission-owned vehicles :) So happy day all is well!

This experience has also taught me how wonderful people are. MLC was in Oshkosh (about 1 1/2 hours away), so the Hmong Elders, without hesitation, offered us their car to drive, we were so thankful! (Even when the key stayed jammed in the ignition and we had to call them to come and fix THAT! I have about had it with cars...just sayin.) Then yesterday when we all went to dinner, they passed us walking then stopped their car told us to drive it and then waited for the other Elders to come and give them a ride to the appointment.... They are so sweet, I could cry!!!

All I can say is...Thank you President for allowing us to get bus passes! We got them just in time! I think one reason that Sister King is here is because of her vast knowledge/experience of taking the bus! While figuring out how to adjust to life without a vehicle (we pray our parts will be coming today, we have a training to give tomorrow), we found ourselves prioritizing who should be visited and who could be visited. A lot of phone calls were made. Members were gracious in giving us rides when buses were unavailable, but we found ourselves knocking many new doors.

Stake Conference rocked! They are implementing a new 30-day media challenge, so that will be fun to follow up with.

Before Saturday's Stake Conference, we were privileged to meet a member from Rhinelander named Alyssa (who contacted us beforehand) and her two non-member friends who we had the opportunity to share the Book of Mormon with and refer to the Rhinelander Elders, who know the member really well and her enthusiasm for this work. They had a lot of questions about the church, so we helped them understand a little more about it and Alyssa and them gave us a ride to Stake Conference! They stayed for most of the meeting and we hope to hear more about their experience.

Brother Leffert also came! Even though he is not a member, he truly does respect and honor the priesthood, asking for a blessing for his wife. We look forward to continue to teach him about the gospel. I have seen the power of the priesthood so much this week. Another one of our investigators is in the hospital and wanted a blessing. That truly was an inspired training Prez and Sister Cutler gave!

It truly was miraculous to see all those LARC's come to Stake Conference! The Mars came, who have been very less active due to some judgment issues about Brother Mar not receiving the priesthood...But after meeting with them, we had a very good lesson and he agrees to meet with the Elders to learn what he has to do to receive the Aaronic Priesthood.

Yay family I cannot wait to see y'all's smiling faces in person! The church is true! The priesthood is real! There's nothing more humbling than WALKING to our various destinations in life!

Love you more than I love the sound of ice melting!

-Sister Weaver-

Allison would be sooooooo psyched
to eat lunch at this cute tea place
we went with one of our investigators!    

Elder Hubert (from my first area!)
is a Zone Leader now! *sniff*
they just grow up so fast! He reminds
me so much of bro it ain't even funny    

March 6, 2015 Leadership Council

Sister Weaver and Sister King, Wausau

A Miracle Occurred On An Exchange!

March 2, 2015

Sister Weaver & Sister King
Us at Zone Conference after our
stressful 20 min. training.

Happy March!

YES, Mother, that was pretty darn stern...but it gets dark early here so...it'll be fine once daylight saving comes around :)

As far as layers go...yeah I just wear sweaters and wool socks and my puffy coat and I'm fine. Maybe I'm FINALLY getting acclimated! (It only took 13 months :)

Sad day about Sissy... :( It's okay though, because she is stronger now: for what does not kill us makes us stronger, right?

Yeah don't despise me greatly, but I still have to call Sister Carter...but I will this week! Promise! We talked to Sister Baeten yesterday...(she gave us a ride because we have to EPICALLY cut down on miles this month, which I'm stressing about, but it'll be great because it's all so we can see and listen to a training given by an APOSTLE!! Don't know who yet :) She said that the performances last a week, but there is no way we have to stay for all of it...maybe like 1-2 days? I just want to see the amazing examples of everyone participating--people of all ages who are literally set apart as performing missionaries for this time. It is such a miraculous thing! Also, how far is Carthage from here?

Thanks for prepping for this amazing time where people from ALL over will see and witness the story of the Restoration and get the word out there in this wonderful way that the true church of Jesus Christ is again established! If sissy can't come, I can always fly home. The Nauvoo Pageant will always be around :) Whatever everyone wants to do is peaches and cream with muah.

It is so wonderful seeing you all participate in your callings with FULL purpose of heart. It completely breaks mine when I see people from the church fall away into inactivity, especially so soon after their baptism :( We covenant to "bear one another's burdens that they may be light" and serving in the church is how we do that...along with missionary work. In essence, we covenant to be missionaries, following the example of Jesus Christ, exercising His priesthood and power to bind up the broken hearted.

On Sunday it was very wonderful to see two of our investigators come and participate in fast and testimony meeting. Brother Leffert, a non-member who we have been teaching for a little bit, bore his testimony after his wife, who is a member got up and bore hers...it was very spiritual and uplifting to see him bear what he knows to be true! Kelly also came, who is still working on overcoming her smoking habit.

On exchanges I went with Sister Blood to see Thim, who has been investigating a while. We brought Sister Mielke, who has fellowshipped her in the past and a miracle occurred! Thim shared with us a dream she had a couple days prior about "the building" Sister Mielke showed her long ago...which was the Salt Lake Temple. She was driving with her two daughters in the back seat and saw the temple standing amidst a giant wave of water that was flooding the whole valley. She grabbed her daughters' hands and said that she would see them again. Right when the water reached her, she said she felt a wonderful warmth and joy coming from the sun, more than she ever had. When she asked us about what the dream meant, we thought it was meant to be because we had prepared to teach her about temples and eternal family! When I showed her a drawing that shows how baptism is the gate that leads us to the straight path through the temple and onto God, she thought it wonderful how the picture showed the sun representing God's presence...just like in her dream...THEN she said the amazing part: "Maybe the water in my dream represents baptism..." It was amazing she came to that personal revelation! She discussed how she needs to tell her boyfriend about her desires to be baptized but she is afraid :( We promised her that the blessing of an eternal family could be hers if she follows the Spirit and God's will for her to be baptized and be that example for her children and boyfriend.

Thank you for those remarks from President Samuel. I have so loved learning more about the New Testament, especially the example of Peter, on my mission.

Love you all more than a missionary loves getting mail!

-Sister Weaver-

Just LOOK at what the Elders did to our car!!!
 In the words of Sister Bennett:
Do we really have to marry these species????