I Can Definitely Testify To Obedience

October 13, 2014

Dear Family & Friends,

RE: OH FAMILY, MY FAMILY,

Here's me, Sister Trent, and Maggie
(one of the epic youth missionaries)
at mutual :)

I know it is so crazy she just emailed me and I said those exact words, no joke! And let her know what to bring.

Yeah the song David Archuletta sings is a popular one on the mission. I was so happy to hear he did a rendition right after his mish :) We get to see it this Thursday woohoo!!!!

Don't worry Mom, that's Sister Trent in the baby pic. Yeah, after eating cheese for every meal this week (we are getting groceries today so no worries), I AM getting a bit burned out.

Yes, I love President and Sister Cutler! They want us to be all that we can be. The only people who stop us from doing so is ourselves.

I can definitely testify to obedience too! I never realized how slacky I was until Sister Rousseau got here. She talks with everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) and we have found and taught SO many people in the last few days. Every minute truly is precious, and I think as I have gotten comfortable here it has been harder for me to become fully consecrated, but she has definitely helped me rekindle that fire for missionary work that I left the MTC with. She is getting the members excited too and we are seeing them work so well with our investigators. Our numbers went from 12 other lessons to 26 a week! She is amazing! She is VERY determined, but not overboard and she has genuine love for all the people who we are teaching. I don't think she has a comfort zone, actually. I hope that I may continue to share in her enthusiasm for the work as we continue to teach so many new people!

We met so many new investigators this week! Ryan and Diandre (who's Moms had died a year ago), Scott (who has three kids and he lost his wife to cancer a year ago), Ken (a young adult), Kat and Abby (who we found on accident, were hesitant at first, but then invited us in to see a cool lesson with a friction pen and had lots of questions). We encountered a miracle meeting when trying to contact someone who wanted a flier for the Music Night at church: we could have both sworn she said Apartment 7...but when we got there we didn't find her, but Rita, a woman who said that her daughter was looking for a church! We eventually tracked down the woman to give the invitation to, but she said she told us Apartment 4...I guess the Spirit was talking!

I love how wonderful our ward is in coming to lessons and sacrificing their time to teach the gospel with us.  On Saturday we scheduled a church tour with Nick (the brother of Jessica, a PI we met last week) and President Alsop and Sister Couch both came, but Nick didn't show up :( So we tracked him down and ended up teaching the intro to the Plan of Salvation with Jessica and her mom :) They are such a sweet family!

When we visited Bro. Emery at the Colonial Club, three other women ended up joining us for a lesson on the Restoration. Two of them wanted BOM's! The Archer's in our ward had a referral who they invited to Time Out for Women come to church! And we just finished teaching her the Restoration at their home. She is Lutheran, and not ready for baptism, but is willing to learn more and read from the BOM.

We sorta almost stole the Elder's investigator who came to church during RS meeting when she went out to smoke. We ran into her in the bathroom and then ended up teaching her the whole Restoration outside. (She had ?'s, what were we supposed to do?) But she sorta then spilled out all her emotions, which she couldn't really do with the Elders we testified that as she continued to meet with the Elders, she would feel the comfort and hope that she is so yearning for that only the Savior can provide.

We were FINALLY able to get in with Regus (who has been flaking on appointments) and teach him the Restoration, which he enjoyed and committed to baptism on November 15th. We hope that he will continue to read from the BOM and pray to know of the truth of this gospel.

I love you all and know that our Savior lives! Thank you for setting standards of obedience and faith to continue developing as you all too hasten the work!

-Sister Weaver-

Transfers Are Upon Us, Yet Again!!

October 7, 2014

Dear Family & Friends,

The Cheese House in De Forest. 

Yeah that's the name of the town.

Yeah, chocolate cheese (once you forget that it is actually CHEESE) tastes like fudge :) It's a miracle!

Transfers are upon us, yet again!! How rich is this: my last two companions are BOTH Sister Training Leaders bah!!! They are probably freaking out right now, but they will do so great. I am Senior Comp again with Sister Roussau. She is just coming out again after having some struggles with anxiety, President informed me. I reassured him that I can definitely relate so all will be well in Sun Prairie :)

Yes!!! Bring the Remington's! Have you seen David Archeletta sings in Meet the Mormons?? It's an epic song that has been going around our mission for a while and when we heard him sing it, we were like...oh yeah he heard that on his mish :) SO awesome, missionary work! Watch the music video. It is tear jerking of the most spiritual of natures.

We were able to have breakfast and watch conference at the Schroeders in our ward. Sister Schroeder is like Chelsey...knows lots of stuff and is hysterical. She served in Italy and her husband is like three times taller than me and is in the military. They are both like little kids, so hilariously in love. We also watched it at Harriet Shroud's, a less active who always feeds us, and I was able to have a good talk with her daughter this week about anxiety, since she struggles with it too. But we carved pumpkins and had breakfast there on Sunday! (They are so sweet!)

Elder Bednar was so epic I was SO glad that he directed his talk to nonmembers. I was so happy he used Enos, because that's the book we've been sharing with people ALOT this week. When Elder Scott started talking about FHE, I had a flashback of when he put me on the spot all those years ago. Good times.

This week we found 4 new investigators! They are all promising individuals who are interested in the Book of Mormon and the message it contains. General Conference was such a miraculous time to spend with investigators and less actives. We watched a session with Harriet Shroud and her husband Jim (non-member) came in and out, but she stayed and listened with us. We had planned for the Stucki's to watch General Conference with the Stoll's, but Luella has been very ill these past few days, so we set it up where they could watch it later. They did watch the final session together, however, and Bill liked it, but wanted us to listen to his prophet speak :( We hope to be able to set ground again with them this week about having a desire to know, just like Elder Bednar talked about.

We met with Marge, a service referral from Sally Black, who accepted a Book of Mormon and we were able to go over the first half of the Plan of Salvation with her, since she expressed desire to know more about why God let her son die.

We invited Marie, a service referral who we haven't been able to break much ground with lately, to baptism as she continues to study and learn from us. She said not yet, but she recognizes how important it is and we were able to definitely establish expectations with her that we are here to teach the gospel.

General Conference at the Davis' with Alex fell through this week :( But we are setting the goal to meet with Alex again this week with Ellie Davis (show her a talk) before mutual so that we can have her mingle with more girls her age in the ward. We are also hoping to establish baptismal goals and ask her to discuss it with her parents. Her testimony is strong and she has read so much of the Book of Mormon. It has been a year since first meeting with the missionaries, so we definitely think it's time to bring up baptism once more.

Thank you for the scripture, it is beautiful!

"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named...that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Eph. 3:14-19) (or just the whole chapter is awesome :)

Thank you for all that you do for the cause of Christ our Lord. The best way to strengthen a testimony is to live it! Hope on, journey on, and keep your foundation built on our Redeemer!

Love you all!

-Sister Weaver-

Me and Sister Doob (the pumpkin)
Did you know that putting
Vaseline on the cut edges makes it
last longer and putting pumpkin
spice inside makes it not smell pumpkinny?     

Us at Harriet's

Us playing with little Isabelle at Harriet's    

District 2

District 2 - cookoos

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 LOVE That Video!

September 22, 2014

Momma and Family,

I LOVE that video! It's probably one of the ones I've seen more often in our Mormon Messages DVD. They do such a good job! Have you been keeping up to date with the Bible Videos...they are PHENOMENAL! Guess what?? You know the new movie coming out in theaters "Meet the Mormon's"? Well it turns out that they will be showing every missionary in our mission it so we can use it as a proselyting tool! Pretty cool if you ask me!

That's a cool idea using a basket. Technology is a power and with great power comes great responsibility (name that movie); unfortunately, power has the potential to be abused...All in the church know this. We SEE this every day. So who better than a Latter-day Saint to set the example :) Elder Bednar said that the the church will be a media flood upon the earth...let's not make it a flash flood, but one that will cleanse the earth and promote righteousness everywhere.

For Sissy, I would suggest talking to an admissions adviser like I did. It really helped me know what to expect. Also, tell her to meet with an adviser for what major she wants (like the English Adviser). For fun, she should talk to someone in every building she goes to. It may sound cliche' but every person has a different view on things based off of what their major is. For example, someone from the Snow Building will give a totally different low-down than someone from the Romney Building. Take pics so she can get oriented to campus...even though when she gets there it will be all under a blanket of white. Eat in the cafeteria (if she can, I don't THINK she needs her ID card yet for that). It is bomb-diggity. And when she goes, make sure that she doesn't bring stuff she doesn't need until she gets there (like multiples of everything). We need less than we think sometimes. Tell her if she has any specific questions to email me (even though I probably won't get back to her till Monday :)

Last night we had dinner at the Osterhause's who just moved here and are SO sweet! Their son Sam, who is like 12 taught me a couple cords on their guitar and then was oober talented as he played for us and his sister sang, Maggie, who is in her teens and is so down to earth she is the ultra member-missionary who has a friend taking the discussions. We then fed their horses and it reminded me of home!  Their mom called us today and thanked us for coming over. It sounded like she was crying as she mentioned how things are tough right now and she appreciated us being a good example to her kids. It warmed my heart to see a mother want the best for her children and appreciate the service God renders for them.

This week we are hoping to meet with a couple of new investigators we met with this week we have appointments with Franklin, who self-referred himself (to me...kind of sketch--but we're giving him a chance and will see what happens), and are hoping to contact Derek, who we met tracting, once more.

We also finally got back in touch with Alex and are meeting with her on Wednesday and she said that she definitely wants to come to mutual.

I was able to learn a lot about opening my mouth and teaching by the Spirit when I went on exchanges. It's been a while so I was so happy to actually help teach a sit-down lesson!! Sister Bennett is a wonderful teacher who gives back plenty of useful feedback that has helped me have more confidence in my abilities as a teacher and a servant of the Lord. She also helped me to understand how I can more fully take initiative and compromise on things that I may feel prompted to do or regarding specific plans for specific people, which is one thing I really needed help with.

We also contacted Cynthia, or investigator Sally Black's friend who she referred to us a while ago. Sister Trent said they have been trying to get to her for a long time and the time was finally right! We brought her cookies and simply offered our service to her (since she is very into her congregational beliefs) and we saw the miracle of her heart being softened. She put her trust in us and we are going to help wash her windows this week. She offered her thanks to us for helping Sally get back into church and hopefully she will continue to soften her heart towards us and our message. We plan to read from the bible with her this week and hopefully the Book of Mormon, soon!

We hope and pray that this week we may set baptismal dates with three different people on three different occasions just as the Zone Leaders committed us to do. As we work until we have nothing left, I know this can happen!

Thank you so much for your uplifting and inspired words. I think that Austinio will side with me when I declare that YOU are our hero. All of you!

I IMPLORE each of you to read your scriptures this week, at least 10 minutes a day, for in them are the words of eternal life and as we read we will be guarded each day with the Spirit of the Lord. In his talk "Seeking the Spirit of God," Douglass L. Callister talks of the importance of scripture reading when seeking for the Spirit to teach us. He references one of my favorite quotes from Elizabeth Barrett Browning in one of her poems: "Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; and only he who sees takes off his shoes."

I know that heaven is alive and well in the hearts of all of us, some holding it in a more dormant state than others, and the scriptures are one way that we can awaken what we have already known to be true in a lifetime before. This gospel is just as true now as it was then, we just have to seek it.

I love you more than I can type (which is ALOT as you can see pahaha)!

-Sister Weaver-

It's Been Rainy And Cold...

September 15, 2014

Dear Family & Friends,

Hahaha yes I saw the classy video of you all rollin down the hill! Pahahaha and your cool iphone case :) I love seeing how sunny it is there..here it's been cold and rainy...much like home! Thank you for your words on personal revelation, I need that. I am so happy to see the Chavez's in white! I love the beautious temple, it is sad that we can't go to the temple in Sun Prairie because it is 15 minutes over the limit to travel there (2 hours and 15 min), but I am happy I got to go with Sister Anderson, nonetheless :) Yes, those videos are the ones I was hoping for, thank you! The cheese of the 80's makes me smile!! Still, Sister Trent and I have been watching those at lunch and learning quite a bit. It's funny how certain things you've seen before make more sense later in life, whether you are on a mission or on a different spiritual journey of sorts.

Here's one I watched in seminary all those years ago that I have been searching and searching for for years and FINALLY found at the church library: 

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-03-101-gathering-of-israel?category=old-testament/isaiah-malachi&lang=eng

LOVE IT!!

This week has seen both blessing and heartache as we met with Patti and shared with her the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She had some questions about the justification of Nephi chopping off Laban's head and we told her that what it all boiled down to was that Nephi was just trying to obey the Lord and the future commandments that He would reveal to them if at first they had the records to obtain them. She then committed to continue reading and come to church, but when Sunday finally came around, she left us with an excuse not to come and a different one with the Edgar's. Brother Edgar knows that she is scared to death to investigate this gospel just as he was and I am thankful that someone is fellowshipping her who can relate to her circumstance. When we tried to reschedule with her, she said that now is not the right time for her to be doing this. But we will continue to send her scripture texts and try to help her from a distance until she is ready once more.

We also lost Gina this week who showed so much promise, but all of a sudden we lost all contact with. When we went to visit her, her mom shooed us away :( I hope that that seed will stay planted in her heart so that she may receive missionaries at a later time.

We took Sally on a church tour on Wednesday and she had a lot of questions about the church and how it runs. When we took her to the chapel and Sister Trent played hymn and I sang, she said that she felt very peaceful...like she does when we go to her house.

We finally visited Sister Pink and I was finally able to meet her husband Laverne! They are going through some rough adjustments, but they are still trying to cope. They let us share a message and invited us back this week.

The SP Elders referred us to Cynthia Revels, a LA member who they accidentally tracted into. They said that she broke down in tears when they talked to her and she told them how she really wants to come back to church and her daughter baptized, who turns 8 in November. We tried to contact her yesterday, with the Stucki's (who are her Home Teachers), but it fell through. We couldn't reschedule because someone else answered the door, but we will most definitely try again this week!

I feel like I could easily complain and gripe about the circumstances this week, but I feel like there is always room for improvement, especially when coming to the attitude of a FULL TIME missionary. I can honestly say that there have been times when I have not thrusted in my sickle as much as I could have with harvest time being so readily upon us, but it does not diminish my testimony of consecration as the key to the success of any missionary. We must place EVERYTHING that keeps us from conforming our will to our Father's on the sacrificial altar and only then will we experience that full change of heart that will make us new people when we return home and face the world.

I love you all and my prayers are with each and every single one of you! I hope that your missionary zeal continues to strengthen and that the grace of the Lord will keep you in the happiness that is yours to be found in the grand blessing that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

-Sister Weaver-

We bought superman companion shirts
at Walmart. With capes. Hence, the picture.

My Birthday Was Awesome!

September 8, 2014

Hola Family & Friends,

Thank you for my b-day package!!! Just got it Saturday and we had another party! And the DVDS???? WOOHOO!!!!!!! Y'all are da best.

My birthday was awesome! I did however get a present I didn't want...a nasty cold that STILL will not depart from my esophagus...but t'sall good! Sister Trent threw me a morning b-day wake-up surprise (as attached) and made me breakfast :) 

They sang to me at District Meeting and I'm pretty sure my face turned a new shade of red that hasn't been discovered yet. The STL's called and left me a singing voicemail too. Everyone is so sweet in the ward too, 

Sister Couch made me a cake when we went for supper and made me a table runner (she's mucho into quilting). And then when we made music videos at mutual, they announced it was my birthday...All this while I had a fever made for a great, delirious day! I was given many a meds and Essential Oils (which is really big out here for some reason) from people, so I'm on the mend!

We also went over to Sally, a semi-almost-progressing investigator's, who is like 80 and we see all the time, and she made me a birthday lunch. She said that she loves taking care of us because she knows that she would want her kids to be taken care of while in a strange land away from home. So don't worry, Ma and Da, there are many people who are willing to care for me here and I am so grateful to the Lord for putting such wonderful caring people in my path.

BTW, Mom how is Spanish going? Are you still learning it?

Paul Hathaway?? WHA???? That is so awesome for him!!!! To whom? Tell them congrats from mwa. I wish I could go :( Send pics!

Weather here has been fine, supposed to be like 50 this next week! Crazy!

Dad MCing a Young Women's Fashion Show...I'm not sure how I feel about all those words together in a sentence...This should be interesting.

How awesome is it that the Chavez family is going to the temple!!!! It is so remarkable when you get to continue to see your friends making those steps back to Heavenly Father. I love what Elder Martino said at Mission Tour: imagine seeing those you teach three times in white, 1) At baptism, 2) In the temple, and 3) In the Celestial Kingdom!

This week I have seen the miraculous missionary spirit in our ward more than ever! On Saturday practically the WHOLE ward came to do yard work (HEFTY yard work) for a family who just lost their father, the Round's. They were very grateful.

We received two referrals from the Allen's and a couple more from people who are wanting their friends introduced to the gospel. We FINALLY met with Patti! Her lesson went so well, the Edgar's bore powerful testimony about the Plan of Salvation and how this knowledge has blessed them and their family and how they know that it will bless hers as well. We read with her from the scriptures and re-committed her to read 10 minutes a day. We are also keeping daily contact with her by sending her scriptures. We are meeting once more with her tonight at the Edgar's home and reviewing the Restoration.

We are also striving to keep daily contact with our investigator Gina, who has not been able to read much because she is ALWAYS on call for her nursing and security jobs.

We are finally making some progress with our less active Harriet Shroud! She is allowing us to share messages with her and her husband Jim is being very receptive to us as well. We hope to be able to invite him to read with us soon...but don't know how to go about doing it because he is the one who didn't want us pushing anything on their family.

Every single one of you are MY heroes and don't worry, Ma, in the words of another one of my heroes, Nicholas Nickleby: "Weakness is tiring, but strength? ...Is exhausting." But I know that as you continue in that same diligence and do as the Lord did--long before any of us knew the extent or the depth of anything we would face, saying "Here am I, send me" --He will continue to lift you up in times of adversity as well as in times of great joy.

Sister Trent and I were talking the other day about our pre-mortal life and how the Savior had to have personally spent time with each and every one of Heavenly Father's children before He volunteered Himself as an offering for us. Because how could He truly love us and know how to succor us, if He did NOT first know who we were? Anyway, I thought it was a cool thought.

-3 hand squeezes back!-

SiStEr wEaVeR

August 29, 2014 General Authority Mission Tour 

August 29, 2014 Sisters Hunter, Brewster, Askerlund, Arnold, Weaver, Trent