7-25-11 What A Week!

Dear Family & Friends,

What a week!  I've now experienced what it feels like to come out of a pool in church clothes...when you haven't really been in a pool.  We were on exchanges for 3 days this week.  One of the exchanges I was on, I was with someone who can no longer drive as a missionary, and we didn't have 2 working bikes with us.  So we had the opportunity to walk, on the hottest day of the summer, with high humidity.  Needless to say, the schedule we received that day required us to walk to the other side of our area.  We decided to contact along the way, but there weren't too many people walkin in the heat that day.  By the time we reached our appointment (3 hours later) we were severly...moist.:)  What an experience!  I sure will never forget it.

The baptism we have scheduled for this week will probably be held off for hopefully just another week.  Our investigator has been in the hospital for a couple days and the doctors can't figure out exactly what's wrong.  We have visited her a couple times there and she is still strong with her faith and is looking forward to continuing learning the gospel.  We are praying for her and hoping she recovers quickly.

We also have found 4 new investigators this week.  They are Alexx, Ron, Mike, and Amy.  We started teaching Mike and Amy yesterday (our investigator Eugene's friends).  Alexx is someone that walked up to us and asked us what we do :) love when that happens.  We taught him this last week and he is willing to be baptized and is excited to learn more.  We are hoping the next time we visit we will be able to start teaching his wife as well.  Then Ron, who is open to hearing what we believe but isn't necessarily looking to change.  We're hoping that, that changes as he learns more about the Gospel.

One aspect that we have really been focusing on is our purpose as missionaries this week...it's something that is at the beginning of Preach My Gospel, but goes much deeper than the description there.  It's something that each individual missionary has to find for themselves, and it comes through studying, pondering, and praying. What I've also thought about is that each one of us as members has a purpose in the Lord's work as well.  If we can come to understand our purpose in the Lords work it will bless us and increase our desire to share the gospel.  Understanding our purpose causes us to become better in every aspect of our lives.  We realize we must change, and how we can change.  We realize how we can share the Gospel with others and how they can begin making the changes in their life to become followers of Christ.  Knowing purpose changes our outlook on missionary work, and defines the kind person we can and hopefully will become.  Once we strive to understand our purpose, live what we understand, and continue to further our understanding; we make the steps that will influence immeasurably our effectiveness as missionaries, as members, and as Followers of Christ.  The Lord expects this of us, and expects each of us to be actively engaged in his work.  If we aren't, we aren't keeping all of his commandments.  This is the greatest work we can and ever will be part of.  It's not just for 2 years or 18 months of a young persons life.  It is to be part of each of our lives, for all of our lives.  I invite each of you to live the Gospel.  And in living the Gospel; sharing the Gospel.  I know this to be true, and if we commit ourselves to finding our purpose, we will greatly bless our lives and the lives around us.  

I love each of you, and hope all is well with you.  I hope that each of you have a great week, stretch and grow, and come closer to your Savior.  Til next week!

Love,

Elder Weaver  

7-20-11 The World is Small When it Comes to the Church

This is from Heidi Peterson in the Ward and she is from the area where Elder Weaver is serving at and here is part of an email to pass along.


"I thought this would be fun to pass along. Lynne Massic is the sweetest little thing. She is in her mid sixties, about five feet tall, and all of 110 lbs. She was the Relief Society President when we lived there and you fall in love with her and her spunky/sweet personality instantly."


Lynne Massic Email:  Elder Weaver is such a JOY and a good missionary.  He and his companion are giviing the discussions to my neice here at my house.  So I feed them first and then they feed us spiritually.  It is good to hear from you.  I hope all is going well.  I do miss you terribly.  Please keep in touch and tell the Weaver's their son is the GREATEST.  He sang in church a couple of sundays ago and brough everyone to tears.  What a beautiful voice he has.

7-18-2011 It's Crazy How Fast Time Flies Here!

Dear Family and Friends,

It's crazy how fast time flies here!  I feel like I'm writing home every other day.  I'm loving every minute out here though, and look forward to each new day.

Sister Jean Cummings baptism was yesterday and it went great!  She loved it and even had her daughter who isn't a member attend.  Her daughter is coming over to a members house this next week with Jean and us to have dinner and hopefully she will want to hear more about the church...so we are excited about that as well. :)

Sister Kathy Bertoldi is coming right along as well.  She is getting ready to be baptized at the end of this month and had a great trip up to Kirtland with one of her fellowshippers.  She went through the sites and told us of several spiritual experiences she had while in these sacred places.  We wish we would've known they were going up so we could have gone with them!  Unfortunately we didn't know.  But we are glad she was able to go and feel of the spirit at these different sites.

We had another baptism set for the end of July with a golden investigator named Alex...unfortunately though after teaching him twice and setting the date we found out he lives in the other Elders area.  We were kinda bummed about that, but he is getting baptized so it really doesn't matter in the end. :)

We have another new investigator named Eugene that accepted baptism yesterday, and he is set for the beginning of August.  We hope he will keep his commitments and continue to grow his desire to follow Jesus Christ.  We also have several new people interested in the Gospel and are looking forward to meeting them again this next week and hopefully setting some more baptismal dates.  This week is looking like it's going to be a great week! 

Well it's time to go and do some laundry!  Til' next week!

Love,

Elder Weaver

7-18-2011 What A Call Out Of The Blue - Journal Entry

This is a journal entry from Aaron Weaver on Thursday, July 14, 2011 at around 5:00pm:

I received a call from a gentleman who said his name was Brother Wiemer from the Akron Stake and wanted to let me know how great of a missionary that Elder Weaver is.  He appreciates his willingness to serve.  He just helped someone move, he is a good singer, he is obedient, and he is a hard worker.  He then told me he is currently on splits with Elder Weaver right now.  (Splits: when two missionaries divide up and go with members in the Ward or Stake to go to appointments.)  I asked Brother Wiemer if Elder Weaver was right with you and he said yes but that Elder Weaver can hear you but cannot talk with you.  Wow, this was a call out of the blue.

I found out this week that Max and Heidi Peterson currently in my Ward lived in the same Ward that Elder Weaver is currently serving in.  The Peterson's want to email some friends they know there and have Elder Weaver and his companion get invited to dinner.  This would be a great opportunity for these two Elders to share there talents of music.

This is a response from Elder Weaver about this same event:

Hey there Daddy-O,

I have met many people who know the Peterson's!  It's been cool having connections in the Ward.

The Brother that called last week is named Brother Wiemer and he is a councilor in the Bishopric.  The Stake is the Akron Stake.  We had just got done helping someone move and we were driving back to our area and he asked what our home number was...I don't remember our home phone so I gave him your number.:)  So he called ya and he was trying to get me to say hi, but I can't break mission rules...and if i would have said hi I would have been disobedient and then I would miss out on blessings from the Lord. :)  Blessings of obedience.

Well, I'm glad you are doing well Dad and hope that work and all you are doing are going well and that you are finding Joy in the Journey. 

Love,

Elder Weaver

7-11-2011 What A Week This Has Been!

Dear Family & Friends,

What a week this has been!  It's been fast, but full of amazing opportunities and experiences.  We have found several new people this last week and hope that they will continue to be receptive to the Gospel.  

We also have a couple baptisms coming up; Jean Cummings this Sunday, and Kathy Bertoldi on the 30th of this month.  The other Elders in our district also have a baptism this Sunday as well!  We hope to set a few more dates for baptism this next week with some of our new investigators, and are looking forward to getting to know them more.  

Something that I have really come to learn this last week is how important members are in the conversion process of investigators.  Member referrals are always fantastic and so ready for the Gospel, and when a member bears testimony of something in an appointment it is always very powerful for the investigator.  Something that we can all do more of is pray for missionary experiences.  If we pray and keep our mind open to the promptings of the spirit, we will find that many people around us are in need of spiritual upliftment and need the teachings of the Gospel in their lives.  It can bring each of us and everyone around us more joy and happiness than anything else in this life.  Share it with non-members and members.  We all need it, and need it often.  Many times we get so busy and ignore our spiritual needs or the promptings to help fulfill other peoples spiritual needs.  Get to know more people, become friends with them.  Everyone really does need to be uplifted in this world of downs and sorrows.  

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints we each should seek to help and uplift each other and everyone we come in contact with.  Allow the spirit to direct you and give you an experience to grow through helping others grow.  

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

Love,

Elder Weaver

7-5-2011 Another Week in Ohio and Loving Every Second

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. 

I hope all is going well back home and hope that everyone is enjoying summer! 

Love,

Elder Weaver