Hello Family & Friends!
Another week has flown by here in Ohio! I am loving every second out here, and love being a missionary. The weather has been fine, I haven't really minded the heat or humidity. You are pretty much just always sweating, and so is everyone else. Especially when you are helping people move large pieces of furniture. It hasn't rained too hard yet. Haven't really had to break out the rain coat or anything yet, but I'm sure it will be brought out soon enough.
So I have truly gained a love for contacting this last week. Just sharing the Gospel with everyone you meet and trying to find those interested in hearing the Gospel is just so much fun. We want to try and get at least 10 more baptismal dates this month so we are going to be doing a lot of finding this next month. I started liking finding after we had several appointments fall through and we just started going out to find people for a couple hours. We found about 5 people and basically shared a condensed 1st lesson with each of them. You could just see their desire to learn more and really feel the spirit with the message. The trouble is people forget that feeling kinda quickly and lose interest. It's interesting how the adversary works and puts fear into people about learning more after you first meet them.
We have one official new investigator out of those original 5 and he knows a ton about the bible so it's been really easy to cover material fairly quickly. Most of his beliefs go right along with ours, and his questions and concerns fit perfectly in with the lessons. We are going to extend the baptismal commitment tomorrow to him.
The next experience was when we had a training meeting up in Cleveland last Thursday and Friday with all the new missionaries, their trainers, the AP's, and the President and his wife. After one of our meetings one day we all just went out to different parts of Cleveland on splits with other missionaries to go contacting. I was with a missionary named Elder Anderson and we got 12 people's contact information and handed out several Book of Mormons, Pamphlets, and tons of cards. However, the one that really stuck out to me was a guy named Austin Sleva. He's 18 years old, longer hair, scragly beard, loud music, smoking, and just walking down the street in Cleveland. I said hi and shook his hand and just told him who I was and that I was a missionary. I started asking him some questions, and then we got talking and I just basically taught him the restoration. Several times he just said this is what he has been looking for in his life and was just needing to hear more and more. He just recently started smoking to get away from the trials in his life and has just been kinda lost as to where he was going to go with his life. This is what he's been looking for, and the Lord put him and I exactly where we needed to be that afternoon. Once we started talking about the Gospel he quickly put out the cigarette and turned off his music. The spirit was telling him to listen and he knew it. He knew the message he heard that day was true. I told the missionaries in his area to call him that day and set something up. I hope to hear that he gets baptized! The Lord truly puts people in each of our paths and it's up to us to listen to the spirit and act when it prompts us.
We have one official new investigator out of those original 5 and he knows a ton about the bible so it's been really easy to cover material fairly quickly. Most of his beliefs go right along with ours, and his questions and concerns fit perfectly in with the lessons. We are going to extend the baptismal commitment tomorrow to him.
The next experience was when we had a training meeting up in Cleveland last Thursday and Friday with all the new missionaries, their trainers, the AP's, and the President and his wife. After one of our meetings one day we all just went out to different parts of Cleveland on splits with other missionaries to go contacting. I was with a missionary named Elder Anderson and we got 12 people's contact information and handed out several Book of Mormons, Pamphlets, and tons of cards. However, the one that really stuck out to me was a guy named Austin Sleva. He's 18 years old, longer hair, scragly beard, loud music, smoking, and just walking down the street in Cleveland. I said hi and shook his hand and just told him who I was and that I was a missionary. I started asking him some questions, and then we got talking and I just basically taught him the restoration. Several times he just said this is what he has been looking for in his life and was just needing to hear more and more. He just recently started smoking to get away from the trials in his life and has just been kinda lost as to where he was going to go with his life. This is what he's been looking for, and the Lord put him and I exactly where we needed to be that afternoon. Once we started talking about the Gospel he quickly put out the cigarette and turned off his music. The spirit was telling him to listen and he knew it. He knew the message he heard that day was true. I told the missionaries in his area to call him that day and set something up. I hope to hear that he gets baptized! The Lord truly puts people in each of our paths and it's up to us to listen to the spirit and act when it prompts us.
I hope all is going well back home and hope that everyone is enjoying summer!
Love,
Elder Weaver
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