Saturday, March 27, 2010

Praying in the Mosque

A Picnic in the Mountains(as Kenneth called it...)
He's obviously never been on a picnic!


Russian Hot Dog

Kazak concert

After a Baptism


MTC pictures



Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Subject: Hello Family :)

Every letter will probably start out the same but that is because it is true.. another amazing week on the mission! :)
Well this is my new e mail address Kennethwine@myldsmail.net
Anyways things have been great! The week started off great because in the local branch here we had to missionaries come home! that brought a lot of fire to the ward and to all of the missionaries. One of the missionaries who came home is amazing! His name is Max and right when he got home he called us and asked how he could help us... haha so we have been having him present in our lessons to have member support and he has really been helping because he has such an amazing ability to teach! His own conversion story along with his families is really interesting as well... Max and his family were all really strong Muslims and they spoke very little russian actually. They mostly speak Kazak. But, when they started meeting with the missionaries they had a different feeling about our church and they learned russian just so that they could read the BOM because it is now written in Kazak yet. So, he learned Russian to do that and then got baptized, went on a mission, and now knows perfect english too. He has only been a member for six years and is amazing! The funniest part is that he still considers himself Muslim... he says he is Muslims by culture lol he just believes in a little bit more... so I think that is really cool! He is an amazing person!
We had him on one particular lesson this week which was really amazing! We teach this 17 year old kid named Danyar and his is a really cool kid. We play sports with him and have a lot of fun teaching him english. We have started teaching him the gospel and he hasn't turned us away or anything so now we always teach him as much gospel as we have time for. But we invited Max on the lesson to show him that it wasn't just us and that there were young people who are really cool in our branch and church as well. Max totally opened him up and you could just see the excitement in Danyars eyes! It was so crazy! Max helped us out so much and now I am really excited to see how much progress he does!
Our family that we are teaching is doing really good too! I don't know if you could say that we had a ton of success with them this week but we did get the husband to say that if he received an answer in his question to God that this church has the fullness of the truth then he would of course act on that answer. Lol so that is always a good thing! They are an amazing family and are so spiritual!
Well this week has been yet another amazing week on the mission! Lol hopefully sometime I will have time to send some pictures and stuff lol I love you all! thank you for the love and support and I hope that you all have an amazing week!! Remember who you are!

ELDER WEIHING

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Hey! There is never enough time!

There are so many things to talk about and I am sorry but this week and day is just too busy so I wont be able to write very long or write everyone back! Sorry! But, basically everything is going great! :) the leg is pretty much all better :) it was quite an amazing week actually..

Last week sometime the Elders and Sisters planned on going to a Kazak concert. I wanted to go, but President Wooley wouldn't let me go because my leg was too bad. PS President Wooley got stuck in Kazakhstan for a couple of weeks. But, anyways so instead of going to the concert with everyone I had to stay at the Couples apartment all night with President Wooley because he had to figure out transfers. It was really an amazing experience because I got to spend a lot of one on one time with the President and we had a really long and serious conversation. It really was an answer to my prayers concerning the frustrations with my leg. Later that night Elder Moore and President Wooley gave me a blessing. The next day I woke up and the pain was gone! It was really a miracle! The redness was not completely gone, but almost all of the pain was gone. So ever since then I have been up working and my leg gets better everyday :) it was truly an answer to my prayers and thank you all for the prayers as well! I know that they helped and are still helping!

I just want to tell one more really quick experience about one meeting which Elder Nutt and I had this week. We found this family of six that we have started teaching. I guess the wife found interest in the church awhile ago but the husband wouldn't let her come. But, one day we ran into her on the street and she asked if we had English Practice because her husband wanted to learn English. So, we started meeting with them to teach them English. They came about 5 times for english and then Elder Nutt and I realized this past week that we need to start trying to move them over to the gospel. Well, recently at Zone Conference they had talked about how we can more effectively use the IPods that we have been blessed to be able to use. So, we decided this was a perfect time and we watched a short film called Reflections of Christ, it is my favorite movie about Christ! We didn't really know how it was going to go because we really hadn't talked about the church, but we just went for it and started our lesson with the movie. The whole rest of the lesson we ended up talking about Christ and religion. All we did is ask them about what they thought of the movie and they just talked to us the whole time.. It was amazing! The husband is an amazing person and very religious! He just doesn't have a specific religion.. he reads the Bible everyday and reads it out loud to his wife all of the time. He even writes down his thoughts that come to him as he reads the Bible. He brought his notebook with all of his notes and it is amazing how close his writing come to our beliefs! So, we ended up giving him a book of Mormon because he said he loves to read religious materials and now we are working really hard on converting their family! It was an amazing experience! ( PS their names are Sasha and Lela)

Well that was really my main experiences this week :) now I am just focusing and working harder and harder to make up the few weeks that I lost because of my stupid leg :) I just want to get lost in the work and service of the Lord! :) thank you all for the love and support I really appreciate the prayers and fasting for me! You are all amazing! Remember who you are! I love you all!

Elder Weihing

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Hello everyone once again :) what a week as always...

I guess I will just start with the update on my leg and health and everything.. at the first of the week it was really not looking very good and I was still laying in a bed almost all day with my foot up. It has kind of sucked :) but I am almost done with the Book of Mormon haha... we went to the doctor a lot and they just said to keep taking the antibiotics so that is what I did and nothing really seemed to change. We got in contact with a lot of different doctors and even like doctors in Russia and stuff who are from America and some of them said that they thought the doctors here prescribed me with the wrong antibiotic. Yesterday they were about the send me to Germany because their medical facilities are better so they would be able to take a biopsy and figure things out easier. But, they finally decided to go against that and instead try another doctor here in Almaty today. So, I got a blessing last night, I woke up today and almost all of the pain was gone. That is definitely a plus! Now I can walk on it and that makes things a lot easier! So we went to the doctor this morning and he looked at it and decided it has something to do with me being sick before my leg started hurting.. before my leg hurt I was sick and the glands in the my throat were huge! That went away and then he said they went around and started working on the veins in my legs. So, he has prescribed a new antibiotic and steroids for me to take :) haha it has been an interesting week! But, I gained a lot of new confidence when I woke up today and felt a lot better and didn't feel any pain! So. things are getting better and now I don't have to stay bed ridden all day too! This was quite an ordeal over some legs pains lol...

This past week we also had an activity at the church. They is a very popular holiday over here called Women's Day. It is really big! Basically it is just mothers day... so we put on an activity to celebrate it and it was a blast! They missionaries all got up (except for me because of my leg) and did a dance, there were jokes, music was played by a member who composes music on the piano, good food, we gave all the women presents.. it was just an amazing activity! There were more people there than there were at church! lol it was a good time.

Zone Conference was great! We talked about the importance of having the Spirit with us and it was truly inspiring. Haha I had to give a talk for it and it went well. I talked about Ammon and his amazing characteristics as a teacher and how we can gain the methods which he had through the Spirit. It was good. Interestingly enough I didn't know that the topic of Zone Conference was going to be the importance of the Spirit but it went along perfect with my talk. Well, President Wooley has been stuck in Kazakhstan for a week haha I think he is started to get really frustrated! For Russian missionaries, even Mission Presidents, you have to leave the country every 3 months and get your visa renewed to be in Russia. so, he usually just comes here and then goes back to Russia. But, this time they have had troubles with his visa renewal so he has been delayed a week! Haha so I have been hanging out quite a bit with him since I can't go anywhere and he came with me to the doctor today. I am pretty sure he is ready to get back to Russia though because he has a lot of work to do and transfers are coming up!!

There was also a baptism last Saturday and it was amazing! This guys name is Samat.. his whole family is a member except for him and he has had a really hard time quitting smoking and drinking.. the missionaries have really been working with him for about six or seven months I guess! It was really a blessing to see him get baptized! Before his baptism he was always so quite and seemed so scared to talk, but since the baptism I have seen a huge change in him and he has started opening up! There is no greater blessing to watch as someones life changes after baptism and receiving the gift of the holy ghost!

Well I know that today is my birthday but I really don't feel like it :) mission birthdays feel weird and actually I really like how it is no different than any other day haha but today is a p day so I think that they want to go play basketball so that I can go kick their trash even with a gimp leg :)

Well I hope everything at home is great! I love you all so much! thank you for the love and the support! :)

ELDER WEIHING

Monday, March 8, 2010

Letter from mission President's wife

Subject: Your son

Dear Brother and Sister Weihing,
President Woolley and I are in Kazakhstan and so we have been able to see your son. We were quite worried when we found out about his leg infection. Our U.S. doctor in Moscow has been in contact with him and he has been seen by the doctors at the International Clinic. When we first heard about his condition, we thought it might be a staph infection so President Woolley called to tell him to stay off his feet! That has been hard for a dedicated missionary like he is. During the days, he has mostly been staying with our wonderful senior couple here, the Moores. Right now for zone conference, another couple from Astana, the Shaws, have also been here, so he has spent time with them too. When Elder Weihing went to the International Clinic, it happened that an American doctor was here training. (All the medical people there are Western trained.) In any case, he said it probably was an infection of some kind and he changed the antibiotic. Both legs still have a rash, but it seems to be getting better because of the new antibiotic. Yesterday, he said his legs hurt a little when he stood up. Today he is feeling even better. The doctor told him to only work half a day for awhile. He plans on attending a baptism tonight at the branch. He lives quite near. I told him to take public transportation/taxi if he has to go any distance at least until he finishes the antibiotic.
You can be so proud of your son. He doesn't complain about his legs, even though he is impatient to get back to full time work. According to the Russian sister in this zone, he is speaking good Russian. Yesterday, at the zone conference, the zone leader selected him to give a talk on his Book of Mormon hero. He chose to talk about Ammon. I was really touched when he "likened" the scripture to his life and told of a time when he visited a sick friend and followed his prompting to take her to your home so his father could give her a priesthood blessing. How wonderful for him to recognize and follow that prompting. How wonderful for him to have a father who is worthy and willing to give that blessing.

We love Elder Weihing and are so happy he is in the Russia Moscow West Mission with us.

Sister Athelia Woolley
Russia Moscow West Mission

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Hey everyone! Another week flown by in Kazakhstan, I can't believe how fast time moves! This week has been crazy-like every week of course! No time to really stop and think and a lot of work and preparation coming up for the baptisms this Saturday!

This week Elder Nut and I saw a lot of blessings from the Lord. We went from two strong gospel investigators and no potential gospel investigators and now we are at three strong gospel investigators and five really strong potential gospel investigators! It has been a crazy week! This weekend is also Zone Conference in Kazakhstan and this past week the AP's have been down here helping us out with a few things. We have been really busy and I have had a lot of really spiritual experiences but I want to tell about two of them really quickly...

This first happened last friday- I think. With an investigator named Zershot... that is a woman ps... Well a few weeks ago we had an English lesson with her and we asked her a few questions and stuff and it led into her telling us about how whenever she is around us she can see some light in our eyes or somethings like that and has a really good and warm feeling when she is around us. So, of course that is always a good thing so this last lesson we invited Sister Moore, the Sister from the Elderly couple here, and she helped us to teach a really strong first lesson. Zershot speaks perfect english and Sister Moore only speaks English so we were able to have the whole lesson in English without a problem. It was such a strong a powerful lesson the Spirit was SOO strong! Basically everyone was bawling at the end of the lesson.. but unfortunately Zershot just kept talking about how she is muslim. Her whole family is Muslim and she feels like if she just instantly accepted and joined our church then she would be betraying her religion, family, and God. So, though I know she has had a powerful witness she still needs some time before she will have a personal prayer to see if what we teach her is true. She is amazing and she still wants to keep meeting with us she just needs a little bit more time...

The next thing happened two days ago. I was on splits with one of the APs and he was teaching me a lot. We were contacting and it was my turn to talk to someone so I stopped this guy and started talking to him. I realized he spoke English so I asked him about that and stuff. He said that he lived in California for six years with his wife and her family. Then he said, "You guys are Mormon missionaries aren't you?" And that's how we found out that this guy married his wife and went to live in California with her and her family and her whole family are members of the church and they even have missionaries out on missions right now. He even said that he has read the Book of Mormon. But, he is not a member. He seemed like a really spiritual and kind guy and just said that he is Russian so he is Russian Orthodox. But, he was really open to conversation and we were able to tell him how unique and what a blessing it was from God that we met him on the street and he agreed. So now we are going to meet with him and see what we can do to help him.. that was an amazing blessing from the Lord! Out of anyone to find on the street we run into a man who has a wife whose whole family are strong members of the church! AMAZING!

We have found a lot of really amazing people because we have worked hard! This week has been an amazing example of working hard! Well my leg got a lot worse this past week and the doctors and my Mission President have confined me to a couch with my leg elevated and heated all day long to try and control the swelling. But, it is getting smaller and I hope soon that I will be out working hard again! :) The doctors still don't know what is wrong with it.

This weekend is Zone Conference and so it is going to be an even more amazing weekend with baptisms and all that fun stuff. Unfortunately Elder Nutt and I still are not going to have a baptism because we could not teach the last to lessons to one of our investigators in time, but we will have one with him very soon! Oh and tonight President Wooley is going to be here and he is having dinner with members who don't speak English and since I will be bed ridden anyways so I have to translate for him... we will see how that goes....

Well I hope everything at home is going great! Iove you all very much and thank you for all of the love and support! REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!

ELDER WEIHING