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!!!