Happy Thanksgiving!

November 24, 2014

DEAREST FAMILY!!

Whew! We are SO busy and President has given us a few new surveys to do with people...so...please pray that we will be able to get everything done. He is an inspired man of God and I know that it is possible what he requests of us. I feel like the man who came to Jesus with his crippled son: "Help Thou mine unbelief."

Any who, don't worry, we are getting fed by like three different families in the ward so, there is no doubt that we won't have anywhere to be on Thanksgiving. Thank you for all of your prayers and thanksgiving for this work, it is truly all of us members that help the work move forth, whether through prayer, their own efforts, or both!

Yes, I am still the driver even in the snow. And nope, I'm staying for another transfer! Woohoo!

This Sunday our investigator Toywania and her daughter Dalmanisha, Eric, and a young adult Chris, who we just set a baptismal date with on Saturday, all came to church. The members have been so wonderful in fellowshipping them into the fold! We were also able to meet with Chris in the Williams' home for the Plan of Salvation lesson. So far, he is progressing well, but we hope to ask more inspired questions to see where he really is in his understanding of doctrine.

We have been able to see more of Latrina and her family lately as well. She is SO busy, she is so happy when we come over and give her a break from everything she has to do. She asked us to also meet with her daughter Adriane (21) and Adrina (13), and share more of the gospel with them as well. We helped Adriane with cleaning her room and then taught her and Adrina the first half of the Restoration, which they grasped REALLY well! We also taught them more about Personal Progress and their divine role as daughters of God.

We were also able to visit Rena, the older woman with cancer who had a baptismal date a while back, and she was up and moving very well, so she is doing better :)

Sadly, we found out that one of our investigators has a stealing addiction. We conveyed the importance of Civil Law and the concept of agency and how there is consequences to every action in obedience to and/or disobedience to God's law. We promised her that obeying the law will grant her more freedom, while not obeying will limit it :(

Thank you for reminding me of my Patriarchal Blessing...I am grateful for the protection God gives me. When we went to Sister Gunderson's house for dinner last night, she related how grateful she is for the missionary program and how she can come out with us to meet more of His children. She said she is amazed how the Lord protects us in all types of situations or places where it seems that God is far away...I love her and her diligence in helping the work roll forth!

Love you all! (Sorry I don't have much time this time!)

-Sister Weaver-

Last District Meeting
before transfers
(it was a sad day, can't you tell?)    

Diane, one of our investigators
who let us do laundry at her house    

Me and our teddy bear Alma,
who we gave to Dalmanisha
(who came to church!!)    

We Do Need To Clear Our Vision And Remember Our True Path

November 10, 2014

Dear Family & Friends,

I love that pic too! How true I'm sure it is! I'm glad you were able to hear such inspired words from Stake Conference; we DO need to clear our vision and remember our true path. I love what Elder Holland said in his talk "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence," "If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now. Don’t give up when the pressure mounts." We need to always remember the good things that we have already received as truth, when we come down from our spiritual highs and enter the perils of the world, yet again. I HIGHLY encourage you to read that talk, it is one of my favorites that I always go to when discouraged.

For sure I will most definitely cut up my old card once I get the new one. The weather HAS been pretty cold here, too. It is ridiculous how fast the temperature drops, but I am most happy that the weather turned out better today where the sunshine is concerned  (sorry, that is the closest thing I could find to a sun :)

I have discovered how horrible I am at initial contacting, so this week Sister Rousseau has been helping me overcome my fears of talking to EVERYONE I see. So far, I am seeing the fruits of that endeavor :D. Earlier in the week we flagged down a man who was getting into his car and I was so impressed that Sister Rousseau did so, because he expressed how grateful he was that we stopped him, because he was on his way to do something he knew he was not supposed to. It goes to show that you never know WHAT people are going through...I thought we missed our moment and it was awkward and forward and creepy knocking on someone's window before they pull out, but after our experience, I am grateful we did, because I know that he needed it...and he did too.

After Zone Conference we found a man named Earl, who we have an appointment with tonight, through using the Book of Mormon Map Challenge that your wife encouraged us to use. He has a lot of questions and so does his roommate, but he said he would be baptized if he knew the doctrine was true!

It truly is a tender mercy that so many people are letting us into their homes. We met a retired Methodist minister named Gloria, who knew the sisters before and let us in to share with her more about the Plan of Salvation. We knocked on our former-investigator Patti's door and were thrilled when she invited us in for pizza. She was having a sign-making party for her run the next day and Sister Edgar was there! It was meant to be! We helped her out and met her friend Lisa, who we met street-contacting once but now is much more open to us coming to visit.

We saw Latrina as well! We were finally invited into her home and she and her daughter are very interested in Personal Progress, so we showed her how to access it online and also helped her download the BOM onto her phone. She expressed how excited she was to have us back, despite her having to cancel appointments so often.

Sadly, neither Claire nor Dominique came to church on Sunday :( despite their commitments to do so. However, Claire came to the Music Night we sang at last night and brought her sister! I was so happy to see Bill Stoll there as well! He has been asking more questions about temple ordinances and sealing’s.

Haha we wrapped the Elders into singing with it and us all eventually turned out...the poor dears. But the Spirit was there and I am happy we did it.

You are so wonderful; Momma and you continue to be every single day. I love you ALL so very much and hope and pray that everything will work out for your good!

With All the Love that My Heart Can Muster,

-Sister Weaver-

Our Zone Conference Sisters!
It was so funny;
each one of us had a camera
we needed to take a pic with
so all the Elders in the Zone
lined up and took a pic each
...it was hilarious.

Me holding a baby-like dog
at one of our Spanish
investigator's house, Martha

I Cried When I Read About Josh

September 29, 2014

I cried when I read about Josh, can you send me their mailing address? I cannot believe how fast it has spread! Yes, I will for sure keep sending prayers their way. I hope that the radiation will work. I can't imagine what Jessica must be feeling right now, but I know that the Lord will continue to help her in her work and provide a way for the Pukahi's to receive the comfort and counsel needed through this rough time. I know that the Lord has the power to bear our burdens and succor us according to our infirmities. The Lord is bearing this burden with Josh and he is not alone.

Yeah we had the primary program too and Bill Stoll came. We have been committing the heck out of people to go to conference with a question and bearing testimony of how, if they open their hearts and minds to the Spirit, they will receive their answers. So, I encourage all of you to do the same!

Tell Butter Happy Birthday!!

This week has been full of miracles as we sought for opportunities to invite people to baptism. Although we did not meet the goal to set 3 baptismal dates this week, we will most hopefully be able to meet with those this week we had planned to last week, but fell through :( We were able to FINALLY contact Latrina again and she was eager to meet with us, but we had to reschedule for this week instead. I hope that she will continue to progress as we teach her and we will be able to set a date with her. We also got back into contact with a less active that I never met, named Sharon Buelle. It was a very spiritual meeting and I am grateful that she is willing to meet with us.

Sally came to the General Women's Meeting Potluck and met many wonderful fellow shippers from our ward. She was adamant about not staying for the broadcast, but she was able to get a feel for some of the people in our church :)

We brought Ellie Davis with us to teach Alex and she invited her to come to the Davis' house to watch a session of General Conference with them! We invited her and her mother to the General Women's meeting, but they couldn't make it because her sister is getting induced. This week we will put the plan into motion of including her mother in her progress with the Young Women.

When we met with the Stoll’s this week we were going to re-commit them to a baptismal date, but we ended up being bold and straight-forward with them about whether or not they have prayed with real intent to know if this gospel is the one true gospel. Luella believes, but Bill couldn't even answer us. We watched Elder Holland's talk "Lord, I Believe" and re-committed them to pray about it and bring that and two other questions surrounding it with them to General Conference. We are working with the members on getting them to people's houses for it. The Miller’s said that they were going to the church building for conference, so I asked them if they would sit with the Stoll’s when they came to their session. Bill came to church and talked with the Miller’s, especially since Brother Miller just got the priesthood that day. He went to priesthood with him and was very vocal in class. We hope and pray that he will continue to try to receive a sure answer.

After getting chastised a bit by President Cutler for having to many service activities where finding people was limited, we limited our scheduled service opportunities this week to make more time for meetings and proselyting, but are open to any more beneficial ideas of where we could give service to places where we can find people (without proselyting).

My prayers are ever with you, my family! Keep the faith. And I echo broham's words when he said, "We are God's "Big Project", His Work and His Glory." We are not just building the kingdom the Lord is building us.

Love, so much that it's bursting the corners of this computer,

-Sister Weaver-

Pic: 

Me eating chocolate cheese!
Yeah, CHOCOLATE cheese.
Only in WI!

Click movie...

I Gave A Talk In Sacrament Meeting On Covenants

August 18, 2014

Dear The Cool-iest of All Epic Families in the World & Friends!

Weather here has been muggy as usual, but hear it's going to get hotter this week. Bah! Don't worry Mom, I think I act my shoe-size far more often than Sister Trent likes. I am a child. Forever. And there's no escaping it.

That is like a mega-miracle about the BOM's at the musical. I hope that Bruce keeps on reading it!! I love how the truth shines through no matter what...we just have to be...as Elder Martino said at Mission Tour...SMART about it.

Thank you for your kind words and faith in me. I need it, because sometimes it's just A LOT to handle. I'm still adjusting to how things work around Sun Prairie, and sometimes I feel the fellowship and support of the other missionaries in the area lacking...I truly did take getting along with the Milwaukee ones for granted. Oh well, Sis. Anderson is right: either the people you work with are awesome or you completely clash. Thanks for the videos too! I was able to watch them. I love that pioneer one! It is true!

So I gave a talk in sacrament meeting again and this time on covenants. I just related how much they intimidated me before coming out on the mission and how no matter what is keeping us from making eternal covenants with God, we can overcome our fears through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Sister Trent also spoke and played the piano (we may or may not have used that as leverage for our investigator Brother Stoll to come to Sacrament Meeting) ...Also! One of our less-actives Harriett Shroud and her family (except for her husband Jim) came to church for her grandbaby Isabelle's blessing! I was so happy that they were all in attendance and that her daughter Cheryl requested that her baby be blessed by the Bishop! Brother Stoll was also there at Sacrament Meeting to hear Sister Trent, myself, and a recent convert Brother Miller speak. He said he was moved by the testimonies and stayed for all three meetings. Yay!

Guess What??? I found a pic of a awesome great-great-great-Grandpa Henry Holmes on Family Search.org. The grandpa whose journal entries I brought with me I read like every day! He's attached. He's is so epic, I can't wait to meet him in the afterlife :) Read his journals if you haven't yet. Nani should have them.

Mission tour!!! Elder Martino of the Seventy came and threw down the phenomenal cosmic pluthera of spiritual euphoria that is his vision for this mission to see baptisms before the October General Conference. He hit on the importance of the Book of Mormon in bringing others into the gospel, and also the mega-oober-importance of finding the right "Amulek's" (or less-active members) who can astonish others into the gospel, strengthening their own testimonies in the process.

Elder Schvanny and Wiscombe
at Mission Tour.
The gang's together again!

Although our numbers do not show it this week, we made major progress with the members in our ward in regards to who they can visit and fellowship into the gospel. We visited Sister Pitman, and invited her to be our go-to fellowshipper for our investigator Latrina. Latrina's daughter is a friend with Sister Pitman's daughter so they plan to invite her over for dinner sometime next week when they all can be there.

Patti is an investigator with a lot of promise. The Edgar's are fellowshipping her. She recently has gone through a nasty divorce so she is opening up and trying to find meaning in her life. The Edgar's are wonderful friends to her and she has been much more receptive ever since Brother Edgar boldly told her "As a friend, I feel very strongly about this: you need to meet with the missionaries." We will follow up this week with them and their invite for bringing her into their home so we can finally teach her.

We are also keeping tabs on a referral we received from the SP Elders who flagged them down and set up a time to ask them questions. We met with her and although she appreciated us answering her questions and testifying of the Book of Mormon, she declined our invitation to read and come on a church tour. Do you have any advice of how I can extend more bold invitations...but not too bold that I scare people away?

I have high hopes for the fellowshipping efforts in this ward and the members involved. I am so thankful for how missionary-oriented this ward is and I pray that we may continue to see growth and receptiveness from their friends and family so that this week we can reach the bounds that Elder Martino set for bringing others into the gospel.

Here's an excerpt from my talk:

"How often do you reflect that your covenants reach beyond mortality and connect you to the Divine? Making covenants is the expression of a willing heart; keeping covenants, the expression of a faithful heart.

Sounds so simple on paper, doesn’t it? Of course, the doing is where we prove who we really are. Thus, every time we reach out with love, patience, kindness, generosity, we honor our covenants by saying, “Here am I; send me.”

-Sister Bonnie D. Parkin, RS General President

I love you all and thank you for your continued service in the gospel and in our whole family unit in bringing our brothers and sisters into the gospel. It's a work far greater than who we are, and the more we realize this and continue only for the glory of God, the greater we can become.

-Sister Weaver-