Summer Just Keeps Moving Right Along!

June 25, 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

Summer just keeps moving right along.  You are all going to have such a fun week this next week at Young Women Camp.  I pray all goes well and everyone is safe.

So Dallyn Bayles (singer/actor in Church), I have his rendition of "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul."  That's how I first came to know who he was.  I bet it was a great concert.  I will have to talk with the Vellingas about him.  That is awesome that they both know each other.

By the way I need to find out what our mission blog website is...I will ask and get it to you next week.  There should be a lot of videos and pics of our mission on there.  You can then add the link from my blog.

I will need to look up that Mormon Channel talk.  I didn't meet with Mariah this last week because I was back in Tiffin on exchange so Elder Stone met with her.  We have found out a few challenges to overcome with her and pray that she will have a humble heart and be willing to accept the fullness of the Gospel.  She knows its all true...some of her views of what she believes we believe in are a little slanted.  I will look up that Mormon Channel video because that sounds like it could really help her out. 

We contacted into a few potential investigators this last week and will hopefully meet with two of them and their families tonight.  We just desperately need people to teach.  Things are moving, but we are mostly building a foundation right now here and we have to be patient as the wheels are turning.  Things are just so different on this Western side of the mission.  Lima will be doing amazing here in the future though.  Great changes are being made here and it's exciting to see the fire of the Spirit coming back into the lives of the members. 

Here is some information about the Sorensen’s and when their homecoming talk will be if you are interested in going.  They will be speaking in Sacrament Meeting July 15th @ 9:00 am. Crescent Ridge 7th Ward at 11000 So. 1300 East Sandy, Utah 84094.  President and Sister Sorensen Future contact information when they get home is:  

Darwin and LeeAnn Sorensen

1290 E. Bell View Circle

Sandy, Utah  84094

Home 801-572-1981

Cell 801-598-9444

sorensen@xmission.com 

ddsorensen@holidayoil.com

I love you all and hope you have a great week.  Excited to hear a report about Girls Camp next week in your email.

Love,

Elder Weaver

The Weeks Are All Blurring Together

June 18, 2012

June 15, 2012 Getting Lost in Ohio

June 15, 2012 Oh I See Where To Go

Dear Family & Friends,

What a week.  First of all, Happy Fathers Day to my Dad!  Sounds like it was a good day, hope all of you Dad’s got to relax a little bit, take a nap, or something. 

This past week President and Sister Sorensen did their mission tour.  It's the same as what President and Sister Vellinga will do when they get here.  They came and met with our Zone and the Toledo Zone at the same time.  They gave us their last words; kind of similar to a King Benjamin kind of thing.  They both have truly magnified their call and have touched every missionary who has had the opportunity to serve with them.  We had the opportunity to share a video where we all put a picture of us and a statement of something we have learned from them along with music.  Then at the end all of our pictures start popping up on the screen and we stood as our picture came up.  After we were all standing, the music for the Ohio Cleveland Mission song started up and we sang it with them for the last time.  It was a great meeting.

The weeks are all blurring together.  I can't believe its already been over 3 weeks since transfers.  Also, I was just thinking that there should be a bunch of my friends coming home over the next year.  Jordan Saltmarsh should be home this month and I think actually Corey Wardell will be home in August with a couple others too. 

With Mariah we were able to find out her hold up with being baptized this last week.  Should be an easy concern to solve, we will see tomorrow.  She knows its all true; it’s just a matter if it is "the season" for her to make the covenant.  With her church she allows missionaries to come in and preach.  Elder Stone went there on splits this last week and said its pretty crazy.  A little Pentecostal, Baptist, and non-denominational all wrapped into one it kind of sounded like.  It's weird because we are always on exchange when we meet with her.  So Elder Stone and I haven't met with her together.  So were both on different pages with her it feels like.  She can only meet Tuesdays and that’s the exchange day...so hopefully we can work something out with her soon.

We are working hard and striving to help Bishop Talbot change the culture of the Ward here.  Things are starting to roll and we are doing our best to help it along. 

Well I sure love you all and pray you have a great week this week.  Good luck with Girls Camp the next coming week.

Love,

Elder Weaver

This Week A Good And Crazy Week

June 11, 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

I am so glad to hear that Mom and the girls are going to the temple every Tuesday.  These experiences you will have together will affect their lives forever.  What a wonderful opportunity to all have to go there together.  And good job Jamie on your talk.  That takes a lot of courage.  Wish I could have been there to hear it.  Also I wish I could have heard Melissa's song. 

This week has been a pretty good and crazy week.  We drive a lot ha ha.  Our zone is huge but we only have 6 areas in it.  Smallest zone area wise but geographically it is the largest.  We also were assigned to move some furniture up to an area in the Toledo zone this last week so that was another 3 hour road trip on Saturday.  I have been learning many things with these new responsibilities and am enjoying this time that I have to serve the missionaries, members, and investigators in this zone. 

Our teaching pool in Lima is small right now, however the changes occurring here are incredible.  We are helping lay a solid foundation for this area to really grow over the next several years.  The Bishop here was called a couple months ago and has the vision of what needs to happen here.  He is leading by example and the members are beginning to follow.  We have enjoyed working with him and are looking forward to continuing serving with him here in Lima.  One of our most prominent investigators right now is a lady named Mariah.  She is a Pastor at a church she runs and has investigated for many years.  She has read the quad 4 times and preaches from all the books at her church!  She invites the missionaries to come and preach to her congregation as well.  We invited her to be baptized this last week and she said, "I've never been invited to do that.  I think I will."  Oh my...never invited?  Are you kidding me?  If missionaries haven't then they need to stop fearing the invitation!  However, maybe this time it just really hit her and she actually listened and accepted what we were inviting her to do.  Either way it has strengthened my testimony of our need to constantly invite our brothers and sisters to partake of this Gospel and feel of the blessings that our Father desires to give us.

Well I love you all very much and hope you have a great week!  

Love,

Elder Weaver

Busy Week With Training Meetings

June 4, 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

So...This week has been a bunch of meetings...but really great, spiritual, edifying meetings.  We had Leadership Training Meeting in Kirtland on Thursday.  All of the District Leaders and Zone Leaders met in the Joseph Smith Jr. home just north of the Kirtland Temple.  The Church recently purchased the home, and as far as we can tell it was the first meeting held by the Church in the home since Joseph Smith was run out of the home.  Then we went to a river...don't remember the name right now...but it was a place where Sidney Rigdon and Oliver Cowdery baptized a man that they taught.  Many people from the town came to watch the baptism and after seeing this man be baptized they asked who were the converts in the crowd.  An additional 30 people stepped forward and were baptized immediately.  The power of Godliness was made manifest.  (D&C 84:19-21)  We then had the second part of our meeting in the trees along the bank.  It was a great meeting.  We are ready to work and do all we can to help this mission grow.  The Zone Leaders then stayed the night in the mission home for mission council the next day.  That's where I had the opportunity to perform "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul" by Rob Gardner with Elder Ingersoll on violin and Elder Romerail on Piano. 

I'll include more next week...tight on time today sorry!  I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Weaver