The Time Is Far Spent, There Is Little Remaining!

The 3 Amigos!
Sister Woods, Osmond, & Weaver

July 26, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

What time are you flying in? President Cutler said you can arrive at 1:30 when I arrive at the mission home on Wednesday and I can pal around with you all to Waukesha before dinner at 6:30. Sadly, you won't be able to join the 20+ missionaries going home for dinner, but you can be back by 7:30 for testimony meeting all the missionaries will be participating in. What do you think? You can hash out the details via text with President Cutler, or I can just have a member call you...

"So, you Shawano hear the gospel?

Yeah I was pretty stressed out during final interviews about marriage and all that jazz, but President gave me some great counsel about that and future job opportunities and education. I also asked for a blessing from him, so all is well :) Just so you know, I am expected to keep the mission rules the whole time until I get home...SO no TV, worldly music, swimming, have to be within sight and sound of my companion (which won't be too much of a problem Mommy :), morning studies, etc. Just to prep ya!

Also...RIDICULOUS miracles happening this transfer: ALL my companions left in the field are training and 22 new missionaries, their eyes and spirits brightly shining, and entering the mission. I get to ride down with Sister Woods and Sister Osmond to Milwaukee because they are both training!! And I know they will do so epically!!

Studies this morning.

So...I may shed a tear or two, but you may already know that upon seeing your wonderful (and possibly tanner) faces as well. I perfectly understand sissy's position upon seeing me, for as EVERYONE knows, I know how debilitating stress can be.

In response to the musical number inquiry, how about "Homeward Bound?" Bro would love that too!!

This past year and a half has been so rewarding! This week has too! Latoya came to church and is continuing to progress, although she needs her baptismal date reset. We were FINALLY able to meet with Rachel Corrales! She was very thankful for our visit, hopefully the sisters can continue to see her on a regular basis. We met with Coley at Sister Allred's and it was very powerful to hear Sister and Brother Allred bear their testimony. I know it helped Coley strengthen hers. Shay wants to come with the sisters after showing her the "How Great Shall Be Your Joy" DVD and Roben our less active brought her landlady and friend with her to our lesson out of the blue! She wants to learn more :)

Nice lady who bought
us sodas at Culver's.

Our District

So many members are benefiting from the DVD and working with people! It will be great to follow up on all those people that have come to their minds. It has been great encouraging them!

Thanks for the quote, that is the one that has been hanging on my wall the last 18 months!! (But really, it has...)

See you later! (...But not too much!!!) 

Love you more than I love that I will see you soon (still pretty close!)

-Sister Weaver-

P.S. Yes, I still have the GPS you all gave me.

Sister Thurston...an EPIC RM in the Ward :)

Mad 4 District Meeting

July 20, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

WOW. That's a lot of love, dear mother Haha yeah I was the STL of Sister Cook who was two months older than me...WHAT NOW! And I think there's someone else, but I don't remember their name.

We had interviews with Prez and it turns out...WE ARE STILL TOGETHER FOR THE NEXT WEEK AND A 1/2!!! You know what that means...CAR STILL!!!!! Which has been great because the weather has been 100 degrees plus humidity the past couple days. Luckily today was better, but the Lord is so merciful!

Yay Brittany! I'm glad you saw her and can't wait to catch up with her! I just scheduled with President to have my departing interview on Sunday to discuss goals and I just KNOW that will talk to me about my plans for marriage...I should probably start making some in that department. Ugh. I just want to finish my mission focused! I'll also be speaking with the other two trio-mates in sacrament meeting so at least I'll have that focus :) YAY! Nothing like 2 talks to prepare for! It will be EPIC! Speaking of Epic, we totally have to visit Epic when you come...It's a place that EVERYONE in the ward and their brother works at and to be honest, I don't really know the point of it, but it is a geek's paradise! I would know...Each building has a theme like Indiana Jones or Star Wars and they have this huge slide people take to get to their meetings. It is tight! One of the Part member families in Mad 4 Ward took us on a tour of just a tiny corner of one of the buildings. Being me, I wanted to see the Lord of the Rings building and lo and behold, what do my wondering eyes should appear but...

One of the theaters at Epic...
it was modeled after the conference
center in SLC!!!

I met Gollum and offered him discussions...
he wan't interested.

At Epic...I've decided to continue my schooling at
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...

Dr. Who Police Call Box

I could have died out of sheer amazement.

Sadly, Lun Cheng sort of dropped us :( He is just getting frustrated and needs some time. He also doesn't like how our church claims to be the only true one. We think he might have been reading some anti.

Sunday was a day I will never forget! I knew it always gets darkest before the dawn, but I didn't know how bright the dawn could be! After visiting the Keyes family (whose father is not a member and the Gabriel the mother and her 5 boys are less active), she came to church!! She followed us because she wasn't sure where it was and sadly her husband couldn't go this time, but it was such a wonderful experience to see them stay for all three meetings. She knew Ishmael already, so it was so cool to see him be that good example and bless the sacrament. Sister Thurston fellowshipped her for the rest of church and the boys went to primary. We are meeting with the whole family later this week for a lesson!

It was funny, we didn't schedule lunch, because we just had too much stuff we needed to get done and we were like: THE LORD WILL PROVIDE! And lo and behold he did after sacrament Sister Feriante gave us a giant bowl of Welsh cakes and some other members fed us pizza...all unaware of our lack of lunch. The Lord truly does watch over His missionaries!

English Custard at Sister Feriante's!

Tim finally came to church as well!! Debra Hawkes and her family, Coley, Latoya, and Sarah also came! It was exciting to see so many people embrace the gospel and partake of the sacrament!

After showing this cool DVD of converts-turned-missionaries that the ZL's wanted us to show to members to a couple families in the ward, it was amazing to see how many names and revelation about missionary work came to their minds. I love the impact it is making on members. We've been thinking of bringing up our ward doing a "Visitor Sunday" like the 4th ward.

Also, I am worried about how best to help Sister Woods transition into buses, seeing as we have been so busy using a car and I think she is worried about it too. We were thinking of doing a dry run of all of the main places, but were wondering if you had any other advice?

Thanks for everything and always having confidence in me performing my duty of fulfilling what the Lord needs me to do, especially when my confidence seems to lack. I love you all more than I love geeking out over Doctor Who!

-Sister Weaver-

We didn't have cucumbers.

This is a cleansing mask, not my skin.
But I knew you would get a kick out
of it, Mom.  It was like peeling glue only better!

Eating a goose claw at a cool Chinese family's
house in Mad 4.  I think the webbing between the
toes was the best part :)  It got stuck in my teeth
so it was quite sufficient using the talons for toothpicks.

SO MANY MIRACLES!

July 13, 2015

HELLO My Hard-Working Amigos & Friends,

Brittany??? Pahaha Sure didn't waste any time. They will have epically cute children :) Can't wait to see her again! And I totally cannot wait to see all y'all and the beautiful campus of BYU-I once more: for it was the best of times, it was the worst of times :) Thank you for that quote, too...It is precisely what we all need! I wish I could print it...

Trying to be a cellist…also! 
My last Zone Training Meeting :( 

We decided the night before to 
do a musical number with the Cello...

I think it turned out pretty well. 
We just went for it :D

SO MANY MIRACLES! New ways of finding are popping up all over and so many people are willing to listen! We are going to try harder on following up this week, but guess what we discovered...?? Cello Contacting!!! Sister Woods has special permission to rent a cello on her mission and we found so many people we would have NOT found without it. We naturally went to the park and let her do her thing while Sister O and I talked to people who came up to us. We met a CELLO MAJOR, who played us a song, and a non-Christian who, because she loved the music, had her heart soften up enough to pray with us. Then we saw a man sitting by himself listening to the cello music at another park, so I went over and asked how he was doing, he said he'd been better. It turned out he was living in his car and the night before he had a dream about music playing so he felt he should stay and listen while he figured out what to do. We invited him over and taught the Restoration and invited him to church. He even sang with us ha-ha.

"Next time on 'The Trio'..."

We took Sister O contacting on the buses, which she really wanted to do and she did very well! Even when a crazy local Catholic black guy who was trying to force his gay-rights agenda on us verbally harassed her, we stayed pretty cool until he followed us off the bus and started lacing profanities about how men don't treat women right and how we should find men to treat us right and then I averted my gaze and was like "Yeah okay you have a good day sir." He left before I called Sister Thurston to come and save us and we ran for Walgreens...YAY South Transfer Point! I have to write Sister King about THAT one ha-ha, it was my fault for getting on the wrong bus, but in essence I think it was the right one. I sat by a girl who was Buddhist or something who actually was moving to Portland and after the coo-coo man started embarrassing himself, she said: "You know, people have very negative perceptions about Mormons, but after seeing who you really are today, mine has changed for sure." So, if anything, at least we could be examples of Christ for those silent and uncomfortable observers on the bus rather than the annoying hard-hearts who we are trying to bear testimony to :)

Don't worry...the Lord protects His missionaries :) That I have for SURE gained a testimony of on buses. But the car has been epic, not going to lie. I am sad to see it go within the next couple of days, but together our trio has taught 85 lessons to newbie’s this week and handed out 21 BOM's! Our District Leader was like "How??" We just said we don't know but we may need to be hospitalized once the transfer ends :) I actually had a dream recently that when you came to get me I was in a wheelchair because my body was so tired, so don't be surprised if it comes true ha-ha. The Lord does His work. We can't afford to let anyone pass by.

Latoya is doing very well! Some concern came from her fellow-shipper who had fellowshipped her when the sisters worked with her in the past, about her taking advantage of the missionaries and not being too genuine, but after class on Sunday, she said that her discussion was more genuine than she had ever seen in her before. We hope to reset her baptismal date for August 1 so we can teach her all the lessons before she moves.

Lun Cheng, Latoya, Nichole and a woman we met (stopped jogging actually) Saturday night named Clara all came to church in Sunday! It was a very powerful meeting as the Bishop talked about the importance of the Sacrament. She said she enjoyed it very much and wants to get back in touch with us after her trip. Lun Cheng is still having issues believing the church is Christ's only church in its fullness, so we committed him to read from the New Testament as well.

Sadly, Emily, a slowly returning less active, lost her baby, so a lot of hardship concerning her faith in God is being monumentally tested again. This is her 5th miscarriage and she does not want missionary visits for a while. We are struggling as to how we can help her, but will try to keep in touch from a distance. 

Another less active Deserae invited us over for dinner and accepted member lessons!

What A Week!

The Lord was merciful to me this week in more ways than I could have dreamed. We went to a game night at the 4th ward and I was EXHAUSTED. After we finished giving a church tour to some guests there, I suddenly felt my energy re-vitalize as I ran into 3 young men from the Sun Prairie Ward!!! Then Brother Davis and Brother Allen who helped fellowship Eric greeted me. They were all on an YM retreat, but I was so happy to catch-up with people and ask how the ward was. Their smiles and friendly greetings were like the Lord was saying: "You're doing great Sister Weaver! Keep going and making a difference in these people's lives!"

Thanks for all the updates and I love you all more than I love having a car!!!

-Sister Weaver-

Me saying adios to Sister Kunz! I was her STL in Wausau!

We Say Goodbye to Another Dear Apostle

July 6, 2015

Happy Fourth! We spent it mainly in the Mad 4 area.

Dear Momma, Dadda, and the Rest of All You Familyness of Life!

Thanks for the article. Bishop read it to us (in both wards) and it is so cool how whenever there is a major law passed by civil government, the saints immediately turn to the prophet: "What do we do?" It shows great faith.

Yay Donna and Tom! Please give them my best! Crazy about Ashley Alvarez it was like JUST yesterday we were spotting each other at the MTC!

Sisters Weaver, Osmond, Woods

The Lord does answer prayers. Sister Woods and I have been praying to stay diligent in this the last stretch of our missions and lo and behold, right after emails last week, President Cutler informed us of a situation where Sister Osmond (yes, Donny Osmond's niece ha-ha) had to send home her trainee, so we are in a trio for a couple of weeks taking over her area and ours in a trio! (Hence the pic :) We have become EXTREMELY busy with blessings and miracles pouring out upon us and those we teach left and right. Sister Osmond is a VERY hard worker, and has been a blessing to us and those we teach. My arms and legs burn with numbness from the constant work, but the miracles are overflowing. Today for example, a lady stopped us at Walmart: "STOP! Just stop!" We thought she was a crazy JW, but then she said her daughter just converted to Mormonism and gave us all a big hug. She started to tear up as she said that she is a hard core Roman Catholic, but her daughter is about to marry this amazing Mormon boy and gave him a call and took her pic with us to send to her daughter. It was very cute. She reminded me of you, Mom, a bit.

On the 4th of July, we contacted SO many people...I think we have about 35 lessons this week in EACH area and passed out about 25 Book of Mormons total. It is so cool to meet such prepared people. Talking to people has never been my strong suit, but SIster Osmond is RELENTLESS. It's amazing!

The fun Chinese Family, "You are so nice!"

We also met a cute Chinese family who wanted to take their pic with us too ha-ha. A woman parked in front of our church after the pancake social and was crying in her car, so we went up to her and shared a message from the Book of Mormon. I told her to read it while we went inside and got her some food. We came out with SIster Carlson from the ward and she bore strong testimony inviting her to sit with her at church. The woman was going through a lot of family things and Bishop said they have been helping them in the past. It was really cool.

A member had this painting of the
Seattle Temple because they
grew up there.  I thought it was cool!

Latoya, a former who recently contact us to learn once more, is progressing very well. She has come to church every week and Sister Nicole Dimond has been giving her rides and coming to lessons. She wants to be baptized before she moves in August, so we are on our toes trying to teach her all of the lessons again.

Debra met with us and we talked about scripture reading. She wants a blessing for her and Jaden, so she will contact her Home Teacher soon. It's nice to be on good terms with her again.

We met with Lun Cheng at the Delorey's and were able to answer more of his questions regarding the Law of Chastity and the concept of eternal life. The Delorey's talked with him long after we left and said they reviewed the Restoration when he asked about it so we will follow up with him on the next lesson about it.

Sister Cox, She just moved to Mad 4 from Wausau
with her husband (the weatherman) and we got
to see them on the fourth!!! She kept texting...
is Sister Weaver really with you?  When are you
coming over??  I felt so loved...And they are
expecting a baby!!! BAH!!!

We were so privileged to meet many people in the Madison 4^th Ward area and have high hopes for their part-member family investigator Brother Brown, who has committed to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. We found so many potential families as well. People are very open and eager to read and learn if we are open and eager to share.

Thanks for all you do! Keep up the great work on your side of the country and I'll continue to do it on mine!

Love you all!

-Sister Weaver-

We did nails at the nursing home in Mad 4.

We went on exchanges (my last one!)
It was so weird with a trio, so they
just spent the night...5 sisters and one
bathroom...one can only imagine ha-ha.

WE HAVE A CAR!!!
(Awkward I'm hugging it since it belonged
to the Sun Prairie Elders before...)

Milked cows!
(Mission Bucket-List, CHECK)

The farm we went to had a fox.
A Fox!!!
What does the fox really say?
He didn't say much, but had SHARP claws.
I won't tell you how I found that out.