This Last Week Has Been A Cold One

January 28, 2013

Dear Family & Friends,

This last week has been a cold one.  However, we have been working on so many things at the office and with training missionaries this past week that we have hardly been out in the cold weather.  It never ceases to amaze me how busy this office is constantly.  We have transfers, mostly finalized, travel arrangements made, training for the month scheduled, and Zone Conference will be in the works next week in preparation for the following week.  This next transfer will be 5 weeks as opposed to the normal 6 weeks since this is the transfer that the time missionaries spend in the MTC will be shortened by a third.  This transfer will be a blur. 

May 29th will be the day you will be able to pick me up.  I will not be released at this point so I will still need to dress in proselyte clothes, wear my name tag, and will probably not be able to go to certain places within our mission. (Entertainment places, amusement parks, etc.)  I am still unsure about my flight home if the mission will cover it for a different day or not.  I still need to find that out.  President has had a lot of things going on so I haven't asked some of the details yet.

Sister Rasmussen!  Yep, I know her.  She used to be one of the training sisters at Kirtland.  What a small, small world.  I just met a member’s daughter in this ward that just got home from SUU and she knows Ally Johnson (Best, Maiden Name), and a bunch of other friends of mine.  She has a picture with them.  She sent a picture of me to Ally eating dinner at their house the other day on her phone. 

This past week we made contact with some neat less-active families and other individuals who have desires to come back to church activity and to have the Spirit in their lives.  One man hasn't been in the church for over 20 years.  He has served many tours in Afghanistan and recently retired from the military.  He has experienced many heart hardening things, things that we cannot even imagine.  He expressed how he has recognized God's hand in his life recently since retiring and has seen Him reaching out to Him.  When talking with him he expressed how he felt when he was active and attending church with his first wife.  He talked about what he would feel each week with the feelings of the Holy Ghost.  He said he hasn't felt that since he left, and has never felt it when he has gone to his current wife’s church.  We asked if he would like to have that feeling in his life again and the way he responded I would never forget.  I have never seen someone want or need that more in his life at anytime than that night with him.  We gave him a blessing after reading and discussing the atonement.  During and following the blessing there was a feeling of complete peace.  This man recognized it and we identified that to him as the Spirit.  We let him know we would invite him to do things to increase his faith and that it would take change on his part.  We then invited him to simply start with prayer and to pray each day and speak with his Heavenly Father.  He has amazing potential to become a strong and stalwart disciple of Christ.  He has a family that he could lead to baptism and to the Temple as he begins and endures making these changes.  He very well could be a very strong leader of the Saints in this area if he comes unto Christ and applies the atonement.  It is amazing what we are capable of becoming through the atonement and grace of Jesus Christ.  My testimony of and desire to serve Jesus Christ and my Father in Heaven grew that night.  I know that the atonement is real and purifies, strengthens, comforts, and enables us to become all that our Heavenly Father wants us to be.  I love being able to share this message.  Everything we are called to do and caused to endure to take this message to the world is worth it, every bit of it.  I pray that all of us as fellow saints will never tire of well doing.  That we may draw upon the strength of the atonement to endure all things, to do all things and to aid in this great work. 

I love you all very much and pray that you have a great week.  I know I will be emailing you all again soon.

Love,

Elder Weaver 

Can't We Slow Time Down Just A Little?

January 21, 2013

Dear Family & Friends,

Can't we slow time down just a little?  Every week we have a Staff Meeting with the office staff and President.  Each week we get a list of arrivals and departing missionaries.  My transfer and the one after mine are both on that list now!  The time that I will have spent already, as an assistant is how much time I have left after next week.  Not cool.  

So we are still in the midst of arranging, scrunching, and planning for "The Flood", when all the missionaries are coming in.  We are having a great time, and you are definitely right Mom, it's giving me a lot of great skills for the future.  As I have been reflecting on my mission so far it has been interesting to see the things that I have gained a testimony or learned from each area and those I served or served with.  It is incredible to see how it has impacted and changed my life.  These experiences I truly could not have had any other way. These two years are of very, very great worth.  It is worth every sacrifice and minute of trials.  I would encourage any young man or woman to accept a call from God to serve a mission.  This service is the most unique and worthwhile effort I have ever experienced.  I am so happy to know that there are so many young men and women preparing to serve and answering the call of a Prophet of God.  He is hastening His work to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."  He leads this work.  He can lead each of us as we seek Him and accept opportunities to serve.  

I will say hello to Sister Gardner for President DeVisser when she arrives next week.  It has been fun to always have a connection with people out here.  Several members here in North Olmsted know and are related to friends from back home.  It's always fun to see how small this world really is.

Well I am sorry this letter is so short, kind of a quick Preparation Day today.  I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Weaver  

Burrrrrr, It's A Cold Cold Night!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well you sound so cold there!  You will love this, the beginning of this week we ranged from 45-63 degrees.  Yesterday it went to 40-45 and today it’s about 32.  No snow as of yet, we had some rain earlier this week but overall its been a beautiful week.  Apparently, it’s supposed to get colder this week but it's still been a very mild winter.  Two mild winters in Ohio, I sure lucked out.  Hopefully you don't all freeze solid out there.

Isn't it amazing what's happening with the missionary force?  This March we will have 29 new Elders and Sisters coming.  This is the most I have ever seen at once.  Not saying they won't keep adding however.  This past week President Vellinga, Elder Skalla, and myself with the help of Elder Metcalf, Elder Prince, and Elder Parkinson, (all former assistants still in the mission) all met together.  We went through the whole mission figuring out where we are going to stick 60 more Elders and Sisters, new areas, Zones, where we are taking cars/giving cars, new biking areas, etc.; and we still have tons of other things to figure out before then.  We have to think differently but it is going to really bless the work in this mission and around the world. It is an exciting time and we are eager to work hard and help this mission continue to grow and witness many mighty miracles.

I had a great exchange with Elder Ingersoll this past week.  We visited with a couple of their potential investigator families, a family of 8 and another family from Africa. Both of them are actually looking for a church and were intrigued by what we as missionaries said. While doing a little contacting we met a lady walking her dog. She explained that she had a lot of Mormon’s in her family and even a nephew in the area who no longer attends. We asked for his name and found out he was a less active man that Elder Ingersoll had never met before.  He's been there about 6 months. We looked him up and dropped by. This man works a lot of weird hours and we just happened to "catch him" as he said, at the right time. We got to meet with him and his son and offer a prayer in their home. Don't know what is going to come of it, but I know we would never have met with him and prayed with him had it not been for meeting his aunt on that street. I hope that it was a start to opening him up for future visits and to returning to activity in the Gospel and Church of Jesus Christ.  

Any new members/returning members in our ward back home?  How is the young man in Melissa's class that isn't a member doing?  I was thinking about Matt Roundy the other day too, any news on how he has been doing?

Hope you all have a great day and week!  

Love,

Elder Weaver

We Had Our Mission Council This Week

January 7, 2013

Dear Family & Friends,

What a fun week!  We had our Mission Council on Tuesday this week (where we and President and the Zone Leaders meet to go over our training plan for the next few months.)  After the mission council Elder Skalla and I traveled across the mission for 3 days visiting 3 different Zone Training Meetings (where the mission council training plan is taken to each zone.)  We assisted in helping to train the missionaries in these zones on all the different things we are doing right now to become better teachers, setting goals, and becoming unified in our faith in Jesus Christ.  We set a baptismal goal in mission council, and each missionary in the mission agreed to it.  We set a goal for 450 baptisms this next year, this year we had 226.  With what we have been taught from Salt Lake they promised we could double our baptisms as a mission if we applied these things.  I have faith we can do it.  What has been cool is to see how this goal is coming out to be just about the same as all of the Stake Presidencies goals in our mission.  Our goals are matching with that of those who hold the keys of missionary work in the mission.  This will be a great year.  I plan on calling President Vellinga on January 1st, 2014 to see how the year went.

We found someone who I feel is prepared this week.  Her name is Holly. She actually has had a lot of contact with members throughout her life and had missionaries over several years ago. We weren't able to find out why they stopped coming or if she stopped the visits, but she seemed more than happy to meet with us. We found her by going through our contacts on our phone. Both our phones are overloaded with numbers so we have been going through and cleaning them up. Holly was one that we called and she said she wouldn't mind a visit. We went by last Tuesday with Brother Brookes in the Ward. We got to know her and her background a little bit and really built a good relationship of trust with each other. After talking to her a bit we started with a prayer and shared the Restoration. It went great! She has a tough career; she's a teacher in inner city schools in Cleveland, which has caused her to be a little rough around the edges. However it was fun to see the spirit work in her as she re-visited the restoration. When we came to prayer it was neat to see her as she learned what she would feel when something was right. A calm peace came over her. When we explained the "how to pray" she exclaimed, "well that's helpful, why didn't anyone ever tell me to pray like this." She prayed to close our visit and said a wonderful heartfelt prayer for help to do what is right and thanking God for our visit that night. It's these moments that I just grow so much more in my love of being a missionary. 

We also had several of the member families we have been helping prepare for the temple-attended church this last week.  This last week was the fullest I think I have seen the Ward in my time being here.  I pray it keeps going that way.  There is always a good spirit with a full congregation. These families and individuals also stayed all three hours which has been a bit of a struggle the past couple weeks.  Elder Skalla and I are having a blast working here and are anxious for some more growth to occur as we continue working hard and going forth with faith.

Thank you for the update on the new Stake Presidency in the Manila Stake.  They will do great, and I will love being able to report to them.  

Tell Kevin and Valerie congratulations on their baby girl.  How exciting. Two great grand kids for Grandma and Grandpa Ballard now, how fun.

I sure love you all a ton, and pray for you each day.  I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Weaver

We Had A Very Enjoyable Rest Of Christmas Day

December 31, 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

It was great being able to see and talk to you this last week.  Highlight of Christmas for me for sure.  We had a very enjoyable rest of Christmas day with a couple member families who took very good care of us.  We had the opportunity to aide in giving a blessing to a member families little girl who is a couple months old.  They had us over for dinner and after we shared a message with them helped give this girl a blessing.  She was going in for a surgery the next day to re-direct fluid that has built up in her head.  I am always grateful for the times I am able to exercise the Priesthood and be able to help another through it.  On Christmas Eve we had fun going to a really nice Senior Living Center with 10 other missionaries, the Wrights here in the Ward, and the Wrights friend Liz.  We all had a great time as we sang just about every Christmas hymn in the hymnbook.  We took a bunch of hymnals with us for those in the Center to sing along with us.  We spent some time talking with them and wished them a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  It was a wonderful holiday.

Elder Skalla and I are on the hunt again.  We know that people are being prepared here.  It's only a matter of time and seeking by the Spirit till we find them.  Last week was kind of crazy with our schedule with the Holiday and everything.  We helped get a lot of office work done from transfers.  We also have some new office staff that is still learning how to do the work in the office. The President had all the missionaries stay in their apartments on Wednesday night because of a snowstorm that went through.  We only had a few incidences that we needed to take care of, BUT no car wrecks or injuries or anything, which we are very thankful for.  And Elder Skalla and I are trying to get a few things prepared on our reporting sheets for when we start getting a lot of new missionaries.  It's amazing how many things we are going to have to adjust and figure out, but it's very exciting at the same time and we are looking forward to the arrival of these fine new Elders and Sisters. 

  

Well I hope you are having a great week.  I sure love you all and am so grateful for your prayers, love, and encouragement.  You are truly strength to me.

Love,

Elder Weaver